What a week!

Wow!

This past week has been one the hardest weeks in my collegiate career.  It ranks #2 and the first is when I was thinking about changing my major.  This is the first one where everything was perfectly fine with school, although school did indeed contribute greatly.

Basically, my mental tank was depleted by the three exams I had to study for.  My physical tank was depleted for staying awake to study for such exams as well as go to various work / school / BSU events.  My emotional tank was shot.  And my spiritual tank was dropping like a rock during Paradigm on Thursday.  Not that I was not walking how I should, but that my other tanks were so empty along with the large crowd combination and the last exam looming on the horizon that I was going to break.

And so I went home.  I had to.  And it was the best decision and the right one.

And thru it all, God held me together.  And what has come from it has probably been one of the best weekends in a long while, even with several things that really have not gone my way.  I got to spend a lot of time praying, walking outside in the beautiful weather, and spending time with some friends that I hope will become better ones.  It was a good weekend with no burden of school on my back.

Some hard decisions will be ahead next week. But from this weekend, I know that God will guide me.  His plan for me will not change as I walk the direction He has paved for me.  Whatever the circumstances, whatever the outcome, whatever the future may hold, He is faithful.  God's character will not be altered or changed.  He is not tricked by the curve balls that are thrown at us like we are tricked.  God is sovereign, good, loving, and faithful.

I shall embrace what is thrown at me and run with it.  How can it not be exactly what I need to grow further in my relationship with Christ.

Cryptic

Hey fellow bloggers!  I am back for a day, and may return after Exam Week #1, and need to clear my head before a short study session begins.

Basically, I am in strife in attempting to figure out if what God wants for me lines up with what I want.  Let me clarify that I want to do what God wants, but I think sometimes it is easy to see if God doesn't want you to do something (sometimes it isnt), but it is harder (at least for me) to determine if He really wants me to do something, especially if it is something i desire.

That is specifically tough for me.  I really do not know why it is so.  I guess in certain areas of my life I have just come to accept that God wants me to hold tight for a bit.  And that may not be true but that is how I feel.

I feel like what I wish to do is lining up with what God wants me to do, but I am not sure if what I am hearing is myself or God.

I think i have now said the same thing three different ways now.  I just wish it were clearer right now.

Should I wait?  Should I act?  I really wish I knew.

Craziness That is School

So if any of you were outside today, it was windy.  Some of you may have even been tricked by the nice 50 degree weather at 8 am and then turning to 36 by 10 am.  Needless to say this was one of the windiest days that i can remember in a long while.  We had gusts around 55 mph.

Also, there were more watches and warnings than i can remember seeing.  Like the whole east coast was a high wind watch.  Also, a place in illinois had a tornado warning with a temperature of 68 and their high tomorrow is 28 with forecasted 4 inches of snow.

But, I digress.  I always wanted to say that.  Anyways, the real reason for this post is an apology for the lack of posting.  I try to get one out once a week (a 9 day separation from this post to the last), but school seems to have taken over.   And not only school, but the semester and all that it filled with, whether it is work or BSU stuff or school.  I am not complaining because it looks to be full of fun as long as i stay ahead of the game, which I currently am.  Needless to say, time for blog topics / posts will be at a minimal as other things come before blogging.  So, as I attempt to not let this die, this is my post for the week.  

All you can do now is hope for another that is interesting in approximately 7 days.

Polk is out.

Prince Caspian

As you all know, or are soon about to discover, there is another Narnia movie coming out this spring, Prince Caspian.  I was really hoping for A Horse and His Boy to be the next movie, as it is one of my favorites of the series, but I see the logic in them choosing Prince Caspian with the returning actors and all.  I decided to go ahead and read Prince Caspian again as I could not remember exactly what happens in the book. 

Anyways, this post is really about the parts of the book which I am hoping are in the movie.  Here are the two parts in the book that I found interesting to the point that I remembered where they were in the book.

Lucy talking: "Wouldn't it be dreadful if some day, in our own world, at home, en started going wild inside, like the animals here, and still looked like men, so that you'd never know which were which?"

Aslan said nothing. "You mean," said Lucy rather faintly, "that it would have turned out all right - somehow? But how? Please, Aslan! Am I not to know?"  "To know what would have happened, child?" said Aslan. "No. Nobody is ever told that."  "Oh dead," said Lucy.  "But anyone can find otu what will happen," said Aslan. "If you go back to the other now, and wake them ..."

In conclusion, What are some of your favorite quotes from The Chronicles of Narnia?

Social Games

I have recently heard this phrase used about a certain type of game that one does during a party or just when you have a group of friends over. What I define as a social game is a game that includes more than 6 people to play and does not include card games, although some social games include cards, and often involve interaction between people which has little to do with the actual game. A few examples of social games, by my definition, are games such as Mafia, that survey game where you have to find people who were born in the same month as you etc., or Mauh (I don’t know how to spell it for reasons listed below). Other games that are similar to social games but are not pure social games, in fact they are the “Hybrids” with more social mileage if you will, are games such as Catch Phrase or Taboo.

From my experience with purely 100% social games is that I rarely enjoy and in fact hate playing social games. If the game is like 75% social then I might enjoy it but odds are it just isn’t fun to me. The games that I like the most that has the highest percentage of “social gaming” in them would be Cranium and Catch Phrase. Those games aren’t bad and are pretty fun with the right people. But, they are not pure social games.

Mafia I really dislike. Basically, the game consists of three people trying to kill you and you have little offensive power to kill back. And the game is only “good” (there is not a single round of mafia that I consider good, hence the quotes) if the mayor of the town happens to be a good and creative story teller. This game has no point. I don’t see how it is fun. Someone please explain to me this concept.

The question game is a game I also dislike greatly. Basically the winner is the most outgoing person in the room or the person who cheats by getting names from the most outgoing person in the room. And playing it with people you don’t know is the worst. I understand the concept that it is suppose to help you “get to know” people, but in my experience, if you don’t know the person, they go to you last and just are looking to fill their page and most of the time you don’t even exchange names. Yes, your name is on their paper but they had you write it there.

The most aggravating and annoying social game that ever existed is the game of Mao or Maw or Mau or whatever. The game is awful. And this may rub some people the wrong way as they absolutely love this game. I really don’t know how this game is played but I did here a few of the rules from some people and it turned me off even more. Basically, it is a group of people who get together with a deck of cards and do random stuff that changes all the time and it is “really fun” and such. When first introduced to the game, as in I saw people playing it, I went to see what was going on. I asked a few people plaing how it was played and there was no response. Apparently, from what I heard from a friend, that one of the rules is you can’t tell anyone the rules or talk to people not in the game. The person has to figure it out and then “get in” somehow. Again, another game I don’t understand so if you do, then pass this along. What grates me the most about this game then all others is it is a “fun social game” but to the people on the outside looking in, like myself, it is very exclusionist and anti-social. The perception I have gotten from people who have played this game is once the game starts you, as the non-player, can’t join in as this is our group. That is just how I saw it so don’t kill me. That particular attitude is an attitude that I really really dislike, which is probably why I have such a low opinion of this game.

Those are just some examples of what I consider to be 100% a “social game”. If you post a game I can give you a percentage of how “social” it is by my definition.

To conclude, I don’t like games with a Polk-Social-Gaming Rating of 95% and above.

Crazy Weather 2008

Seeing that I am a weather enthusiast, I believe it is time for my first posting about the weather. And what is better than to talk about Tornadoes in January. So it is January 7th and to see tornadoes this time of year is pretty ridiculous. Basically, today we had approximately 30 tornado reports. That is CRAZY! Not to mention that these tornadoes were near pretty significant areas of population. Springfield, Missouri got hit and a few tornadoes (at one point two on the ground at once) went south of Milwaukee, Wisconsin. Yeah, Wisconsin.

I also just found out that an F1 went really close to my dad's land out in eastern OK.  That is pretty cool.  Well, there you have it.  Expect some rain for your Monday night.

Check out some of the pictures below if you want to learn a little bit about storm report information. Or check out the radar image where I highlighted some "hook echos" with verified tornadoes.

The Storm Reports

Regional Radar

And finally the Springfield Radar with "Hook Echo" Regions. Look for this radar pattern for radar-indicated tornadoes.

Math Jokes

Everyone knows that if you don't have a good blog topic for the day, you can just go to facebook with your creative hat on and something will hit you.  So, in response to Casey Well's profile picture, today will be a post consisting of math jokes I found on the internet.  Hopefully, I will throw some pictures in there.  So, here we go.

The ark lands after The Flood. Noah lets all the animals out. Says, "Go and multiply." Several months pass. Noah decides to check up on the animals. All are doing fine except a pair of snakes. "What's the problem?" says Noah. "Cut down some trees and let us live there", say the snakes. Noah follows their advice. Several more weeks pass. Noah checks on the snakes again. Lots of little snakes, everybody is happy. Noah asks, "Want to tell me how the trees helped?" "Certainly", say the snakes. "We're adders, and we need logs to multiply."

Two mathematicians went out to lunch. Over lunch, one complained that most people don't understand even basic math. The other took a more optimistic view. A short time later, while the pessimist was in the bathroom, the other called the waitress over. "I am going to call you over in a few minutes," he explained, "and I am going to ask you a question. I want you to answer X³ divided by 3, OK?"....When the pessimist came back, he called the waitress over. "Look, I'll prove people understand math better than you think. OK, young lady, what is the integral of X²?"... "X³divided by 3" she slowly repeated and walked away. Then she turned around and said, "Plus a constant."

If it's zero degrees outside today and it's supposed to be twice as cold tomorrow, how cold is it going to be?

Three statisticians went rabbit hunting one day. While walking along, they scared a rabbit out of the brush and send him running. The first statistician shot and there was a puff of dust 1 yard behind the rabbit. The second shot next and there was a puff of dust one yard in front of the rabbit. The third one yelled, "We got it!!"

The functions are sitting in a bar.  Suddenly, one cries "Beware! A differential is coming!"  Everyone scatters except for e to the x.  The differential comes into the bar and asks, "Why didnt you run like everyone else?"  Confidently, e to the x exclaims, "Dude, I'm e to the x"  The differential replied, "but who said I differentiate along x"