WoW: 1/31/05

Wow. It's already week 4. Before we know it, the semester will be over. Wild.
I've added a few more handy links to the sidebar.

January is almost over, but the WoW program moves on:

Word of the Week for 1/31/05:
extirpate, transitive verb /EHK-ster-pat/
1) to pull up by the root
2) to destroy completely
3) to remove by surgery

Of Solitude and Silence

As unpromised, something "vaguely insightful/entertaining/fun". The events written in black are truthful, factual accounts. The verses in blue were inspired by those events. A little bit of whimsical writing, courtesy of some real-life experiences of mine. As always, feedback is welcome.

Sing a song of silence,
Solitude, and sleep;
Simple silv'ry sentiments,
Solemn, soft, and sweet.

******
It is Friday, January 21, 2005. It is 9:58pm. I gather my things for Bible Study and head out the side door of Quad 1. The night is dark, lit only by the electric glow of street lamps and the paler, eerier glow of the moon. The stars glimmer in the night sky like flakes of cosmic glitter. The harsh, bone-chilling wind blows across campus, carrying leaves and dust and small twigs with it. As I walk toward Speer Chapel, glad that I wore my jacket, the only sounds are the howling wind and the rustling leaves and my soft footfalls on the sidewalk. I can see lights in some of the dorm-room windows, but there are no other people around. I arrive at Speer to find the door locked. There is a light on in an office, but the front door is locked. I wander around to the back door, but it, too, is locked. I continue my circuit around the chapel, and as I come back to the front, I see Wilson walking toward me. The solitude is ended.

**

It is Sunday, January 23, 2005. It is 11:50am. I decide to head for Saga to eat lunch. As I walk through the Quad to the front door, I see no one and hear nothing. I step outside into the cold, clear day. The sun is yellow and bright, the sky is blue and cloudless, the air is still and crisp. As I walk toward Saga, I find it odd that I see no other people at lunch time on a Sunday afternoon. For that matter, I see no animals, either. No wind rustles the leaves, no birdsong breaks the quiet calm. The campus is cold and still; it brings to my mind thoughts of abandoned cities and ancient castles. I draw closer to Saga, but the sun shines down and glares off the windows; all I can see through them are the electric lights, floating like will-o'-the-wisps near the ceiling. As I walk down the hill toward the door, a man comes out of the parking lot toward the dining hall. The solitude is ended.

**

It is Monday, January 24, 2005. It is 7:50am. I have eaten breakfast at Saga and now make my way to Heath-Hardwick Hall, where I will have my first class of the day. I open the southernmost door and walk into the hallway that fronts the Liberal Arts offices. The only light comes from the door behind me and the offices ahead of me. There is nobody about. I walk down the hall and peer into the office area. There is a light on over the secretary's desk, but I see no one inside. I turn north down a second hall and come to my classroom. The door is closed. When I open it the handle is cold to my touch. The room is unlocked, but there are no lights on. I enter the room and find the light switches, bathing the room in soft, fluorescent white light. I leave my backpack and go down the hall to the bathroom. It, too, is unlocked but unlit. I turn on the lights, do what I came to do, and return to the classroom. I sit in the room, reviewing the material for the day, alone. Around 8:05, another student enters the room. The solitude is ended.

**

It could be any night. It is probably around 1:37am. I lie in bed, trying to fall asleep. It is dark, but not pitch-black; faint light from a street lamp outside shines in through my window. Sometimes it is quiet. Sometimes a shower of rain beats a steady, gentle cadence on the roof and sidewalk. Sometimes the wind wails outside the window, moaning like a man in agony. Often the air conditioning unit is running, despite my efforts to keep it off. I lie under my blankets, warm but not content. I long for sleep, for rest from the day's labors. I pray for healing for my friends, whom I love. I pray for strength in fighting my inner demons, the ones I try to hide from the world for shame: Sloth, Pride, Heartlessness, Anger, and all their vile kin. I pray for guidance in my important decisions, I wrestle with doubt and uncertainty about my plans, my future, my life. Oh, God, where am I going? What is Your purpose for me? Who am I? Who should I be?
Sometimes I weep. Sometimes there are even tears. And as I weep, as I pray, there are no answers. No direct answers, but I feel calmed. I seem to hear a voice saying, "Wait but a little longer." I close my eyes, and sleep finds me. The solitude is complete, and yet it is ended.

******

When darkness comes to meet you;
When day gives way to night;
When none are there to greet you;
When daybreak brings no light;
When solitude is reigning;
When loneliness is king;
When demons all are gaining;
When you've got no voice to sing;
Remember that you're not alone,
Be the day ever so dire;
The blade cannot endure the hone
'Til it has met the fire.
Your friends are there to help you through
The trials that you face,
And God can give you comfort, too,
With His amazing Grace.


Requiem aeternam dona eis, Domine, et lux perpetua luceat eis.
(Grant them eternal rest, O Lord, and let perpetual light shine upon them.)
--Requiem Mass

WoW: 1/24/05

Wow, I've been really horrible about posting lately. I have no real excuse other than that not much of bloggable significance has happened and I've been to lazy to record the few bloggable thoughts I've had. I'll try to come up with something vaguely insightful/entertaining/fun this week, but I make no promises.

In the meantime, on with the routine:

Word of the Week for 1/24/05:
autochthonus, adjective (ah-TAHK-thuh-nuhs)
indigenous, aboriginal

WoW: 1/17/05

This word seemed somehow appropriate for a feature based on introducing "new" words.


Word of the Week for 1/17/05:
neologism, noun (nee-AHL-uh-jihz-uhm)
1. A new word or expression.
2. A new use of a word or expression.
3. The use or creation of new words or expressions.
adj: neologistic

Grains of Sand

(Wow, two posts at one time: it's kinda scary.)

Many years ago, a Greek philosopher named Eubulides of Miletus posed what has since come to be known as the Sorites (or Heap) Paradox. It goes something like this:

"One grain of sand is not a heap. So if you have one grain of sand, you do not have a heap. Now, if you add one grain of sand (which is not a heap) to something that is not a heap (your original one grain), it is still not a heap. You now have two grains of sand, which is not a heap. Add one more grain of sand (3 total), and it is still not a heap. Add another grain of sand. And another. And another. Even when you have 10,000 grains of sand, you do not have a heap. It follows that there are no heaps."

It can work in reverse, too:

"Suppose you have a heap of sand [assume 10,000 grains]. If you remove one grain of sand, you still have a heap. If you remove one more grain, you still have a heap. So one grain of sand is not a heap and does not affect whether something is or is not a heap. Continue removing grains, and you eventually have a heap of sand made up of zero (0) grains."

A modern version might look like this:

"(1) If a person has only $1, quem is not rich.
(2) One dollar less or more does not affect whether or not a person is rich.
(3) Thus, a person with $100 is not rich, nor is a person with $100,000, nor a person with $100,000,000,000,000,000, nor anyone else, for that matter: no one is rich."

And the paradox can apply to other things, as well: baldness, fullness, tallness, knowledge, etc.

There are several resolutions of the paradox:
(1) The "ideal language" proposition, which asserts that terms like "heap" and "rich" are too vague to be valid objects for logical reasoning.
(2) The "epistemic" theory, which says that terms like "heap" and "rich" contain specific "cut-off lines" that govern when the terms apply. The problem is that we can never know exactly where those cut-off lines are.
(3) The "many-valued" or "fuzzy" logic standard, which dictates that a statement can have more than two truth values (classical logic says that a statement is either "true" or "false"); thus, there are degrees of baldness, heapness, knowledge, etc.

It's interesting to think about the places you see this puzzle in life, used both ways. "Why should I vote; my one little vote won't make any difference." "Why should I help with Project X? One more person won't make any difference." "Donate money, even if it's only $1. Every little bit counts."

It's scary to think that every action we take, no matter how small, could have dire consequences somewhere down the line. At least, it's scary until we remember Romans 8:28 and other hope-giving passages. Then it's just creepy.

One Down, Fourteen to Go

Well, the first week of classes is over, and I've survived. It looks like it'll be a full semester for me, but an interesting one, as well.

Course Lineup:
*Tuesday, 8:25-9:20am: Intro to Research (Dr. R. Johnson)
Basically, this course involves learning about the process of conducting research and getting the results published. Other than the two papers and one presentation involved, it doesn't look like it'll involve much work.

*Tuesday/Thursday, 9:30-10:50am: American Literature 2 (Dr. Coppinger)
With Wheeler, Gallagher, and Randy in the course, this promises to be an interesting one, indeed. Major work prospect is a group presentation for later on.

*Thursday, 6:00-9:00pm: The Amusing Use and Abuse of Comedy (Dr. Solganick)
Aah, another Solganick class. When the first night sees you watching clips from The History of the World, Part I, The Quest for the Holy Grail, and Life of Brian, what else can you say but YES! Aside from the weekly journal/papers, I will have to do a presentation about some work of comedy. Oh, darn.

*Monday/Wednesday/Friday, 8:15-9:10am: British Literature 1 (Dr. Watson)
From the little bit of reading I've done in this class and American Lit 2, it looks like I'll enjoy the reading in this course more. Major assignment: group presentation.

*Monday/Wednesday/Friday, 11:20-12:15am: Elementary Spanish 2 (Prof. Morales)
Prof. Morales is a pretty cool professor, and I'm looking forward to my second semester of Spanish. No major assignments (that I know of at this point...).

*Monday/Wednesday/Friday, 1:30-2:25pm: Atoms, Nuclei, Particles (Dr. Ball)
Nicknamed by me "Modern Physics 2," this course is a continuation of Modern Physics 1. Perhaps the most interesting thing about this course is that there will be no exams, but there will be one research paper to do.

*Wednesday, 4:00-4:55pm: Organizational Culture (Mrs. Mays)
I think this class will be fun. There is a major paper assignment, but in general it looks to be a time of reading and learning about how people think and act in organizational settings.

Well, there it is: my schedule. Good luck to all in this new year.

WoW: 1/10/05

conflate, trans. verb (kuhn-FLAT)
to fuse, join, or meld together
n: conflation

The Further Adventures of Me

Since my last post, wherein I listed the things I had done up to the time at which I wrote it, I have:

1) Come down with a cold.
2) Recovered from said cold.
3) Watched The Secret of NIMH
4) Attended a New Year's party
5) Learned to play Cranium
6) Given up on reading The Interpretation of Dreams, at least for now. It was a little too technical, a little too dry, and there were several other books I wanted to start reading.
7) Other things which I don't have time to write about right now.

If all goes as planned, I shall be back in Longview tomorrow afternoon. I look forward to seeing you all there.

WoW: 1/3/05

The first Word of the Week of the New Year! In honor of 2005, I am...

...doing absolutely nothing special. :-p

Oh, well. Enjoy the normal "WoW" anyway.

Word of the Week for 1/3/05:

skookum, adjective /SKOO-kuhm/
powerful; first-rate; impressive

*special*Etymology:
from Chinook jargon, from a Chehalis word meaning "spirits or ghosts"