'Bout Time...

You ever find yourself sitting up at 5:00 in the morning, having stayed up almost the whole night working on stuff you should have done weeks ago but didn't, wondering whether it's worth going to bed for a few short hours (at which point you have to get up for another day of classes), then realizing that you haven't posted on your blog for years (or maybe a month) and deciding you need to post, which you use as an excuse for coming up with a sickeningly-long and probably-grammatically-incorrect sentence just because you can?

Ah, the joys of college life.

Seriously though, my lack of posts can be attributed to my lack of (1) suitable material and (2) sleep. When I wasn't working, I was generally lost in introspective thoughts that nobody would care to read.

Spring Break was fun, but I didn't get nearly enough work done.

So, here's what I accommplished tonight:

(1)Drafted about 4.5 pages of my 15-page paper for my independent-study philosophy class. The subject is "the ethics of Christian apologetics." The paper is shaping up to be more of a "me thinking out loud" paper than an actual research paper; I've found surprisingly little material dealing with the ethical aspect of apologetics.

Here's an excerpt from my work, in case you care (this particular bit is regarding the purpose of "doing apologetics"):
"In a world in which the cultural zeitgeist denies the very existence of objective truth, work must be done to lay the groundwork for ministry. Our world is such a world and apologetics is such work. Contemporary society is hostile to the very idea of religious truth, and to Christianity in particular. That is why we must have rational argument on our side; beginning a discussion by saying, “Have you ever thought about where you’ll go when you die?” might be self-defeating if the audience is anti-religion."

I got to use the word "zeitgeist" in a paper. *happy dance*

(2) Worked on a draft of the script for my group presentation about World Wars I and II (which takes place this Friday). I didn't manage to finish the script, but I made some progress...I think. But I'm with a great group, and I'm expecting the presentation to go quite well.

(3) Optics homework. Optics is still an interesting course, but the homework (this latest one in particular) is a little math-heavy for my taste. Of course, the main problem is that it's been too long since I actually had to use the math that the problems involve, which means I find myself getting lost more easily than I would like. *shrugs* Oh well; that's why professors have office hours.

The next few weeks will be crazy busy, but hopefully I won't have to do this (stay up almost all night) too many more times. And hopefully I'll come up with some worthwhile post material, as well.

Dies Cinerum

"Remember: you are dust, and to dust you shall return." --traditional expression for Ash Wednesday services

"When the perishable puts on the imperishable and the mortal puts on immortality, then shall come to pass the saying that is written: 'Death is swallowed up in victory. O death, where is your victory? O death, where is your sting?' The sting of death is sin, and the power of sin is the law. But thanks be to God, who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ." --1 Corinthians 15:54-57