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June 30, 2008
Mission's Flame
Prior to this weekend, I'd only led worship at church once before. That time it was Labor Day weekend, and I found out just three or four days in advance that I was gonna be the only one able to play, and thus was the coordinator by default. I wound up finding someone else to sing at the last minute (Suzanne), but I just picked all hymns that wouldn't have needed someone to lead in singing, in case I couldn't find anyone. So I was glad this time to have plenty of notice and be scheduled to be the coordinator well in advance.
I knew that the sermon text was going to be Psalm 4, and I wanted to pick some songs that would fit with it, but Psalm 4 proved to be a tough customer as far as that was concerned. (As it turned out, the songs I picked happened to fit with the sermon better than I could've ever planned!) So I just tried to go with a couple self-contained themes within the worship set, and here are the songs that I picked out for this week:
Your Grace Is Enough
Wonderful Grace of Jesus (an AWESOME hymn for piano)
Mission's Flame
Shine, Jesus, Shine
The Love of God (a great old hymn that I was only recently introduced to)
Trust and Obey
Both Mission's Flame and The Love of God were new to just about everyone, so I was hoping that wouldn't be too many new songs to introduce at once. I've really been hoping to introduce Mission's Flame at church for some time now, so I took advantage once I had control over what songs got picked. :-)
I especially wanted to do this song after last week, when Pastor Tober's old roommate from Bob Jones gave a message at church. He's been a missionary to the Tatar people in Kazakhstan since 1997, and he and his wife decided to go there because the Gospel really hadn't ever reached the Tatar people before. As a gifted musician, he learned all about traditional Tatar instruments and music (he's working on his PhD at a conservatory there, and his dissertation will be the first one ever written about Tatar instruments), and began to compose Christian songs using those instruments and melodies. He even shared some of those songs at church, playing on violin and on the squeezebox (kind of like an accordion, except with old typewriter-style keys instead of piano-style keys). It was really cool. In any case, he also told stories of all the people who've come to know Christ as a result of those songs, and people realizing that they actually can worship God in their own language. That's a sharp contrast to the Islamic culture of the Tatar people, in which true "worship" can only be conducted in Arabic, and the Koran is only in Arabic. As part of their ministry though, the Psalms, the New Testament, and the Pentateuch are now published in the Tatar language, with the rest of the Old Testament currently being translated. But everything about what that missionary has done really fits the words of Mission's Flame by Matt Redman:
Let worship be the fuel for mission's flame
We're going with a passion for Your name
We're going for we care about Your praise
Send us out!
Let worship be the heart of mission's aim
To see the nations recognize Your fame
Till every tribe and tongue voices Your praise
Send us out!
You should be the praise of every tongue
You should be the joy of every heart
But until the fullness of Your Kingdom comes
Until that final revelation dawns
Send us out!
Let worship be the fuel for mission's flame
We're going with a passion for Your name
We're going for we care about Your praise
Send us out!
Let worship be the heart of mission's aim
To see the nations recognize Your fame
Till every tribe and tongue voices Your praise
Send us out!
You should be the praise of every tongue
You should be the joy of every heart
But until the fullness of Your Kingdom comes
Until that final revelation dawns
Send us out!
Every tribe, every tongue
Every creature in the heavens and the earth
Every heart, every soul
Will sing Your praise, will sing Your praise!
Every note, every strain
Every melody will be for You alone!
Every harmony that flows from every tongue
Will sing Your praise, will sing your praise!
We'll sing Your praise, we'll sing your praise!
You should be the praise of every tongue
You should be the joy of every heart
You should be the praise of every tongue
You should be the joy of every heart
But until the fullness of Your Kingdom comes
Until that final revelation dawns
Send us out!
Send us out!
Send us out!
Send us out!
Let worship be the fuel for mission's flame
We're going with a passion for Your name
We're going for we care about Your praise
Send us out!
Send us out!
Send us out!
Earlier this week when Lance, our drummer, found out he had to work, it didn't look like we'd be able to play it, though (if you play the video above, you'll hear how critical drums are to it). Fortunately Blair was able to step in, and he did a wonderful job (as always, he's a very talented musician), and made it possible for us to pull it off (he even sang while playing drums!). After about an hour of practicing it on Saturday evening, we finally got it to sound good. Then it went really well on Sunday too, and it seemed like it was well received by the congregation, even though it was a totally new song to them. I've been so pumped about this song, and it's definitely become one of my favorite songs, period. It moves me every time I hear it, and I'm looking forward to playing and singing it again at church in the future.
But when we sing "Send us out!" that isn't limited to asking to be sent out to some faraway land where the Gospel hasn't ever been preached. There are plenty of places for us to be sent out that are closer to home, including our neighborhoods, our workplaces, our communities. We always need to be mindful of opportunities to share the Gospel with our friends and other people we meet in our daily lives. In that sense, all Christians should be missionaries and evangelists, spreading the Gospel wherever we live. Send us out!
Posted by Jared at 12:42 AM | Comments (0)
June 24, 2008
Spikes, Skating, Strikes & Softball
It's been a busy past few days, with a bunch of stuff going on, particularly with PSCG. Back on Thursday evening, a group of us went out to the State College Spikes (the Class A short-season minor league baseball affiliate of the Pittsburgh Pirates) home opener to celebrate Daniel van N. passing his PhD dissertation defense! 
It was fun to be out enjoying a fine spring evening, though the game did drag for a bit in the early-mid innings (the Spikes lost to the Jamestown Jammers 6-3). But then again, it's Class A minor league baseball, and even I'm not going just to watch the baseball, but more to hang out with friends. Minor league baseball is still fun though, with all the zany promotions and contests that happen. And it's especially awesome when postgame fireworks are involved!
On Friday evening we celebrated Ruth H.'s 27th birthday, and for that she wanted to go rollerskating, so we went to Penn Skates. Now, I had no idea where this place was or that it even existed prior to last week, but I wasn't exactly impressed when I heard that it was in a warehouse across the road from the airport. Didn't exactly sound high-class, but then again, it's a rollerskating rink, what should I expect? :-) To be completely honest, I wasn't totally sold on the idea of rollerskating because, well, it seemed like a very middle school-type activity, and the last time I'd skated was, well, in middle school. Over a decade ago. [Wow, I guess it has been that long!] But I went, and rented some rollerblades. Now this was the first time I'd ever put on a pair of rollerblades, so needless to say I was pretty awkward for the first, oh, at least 30 minutes or so before I finally started getting a little bit of a feel for it, and began finally to be gliding and pushing off a bit like you're supposed to. But I only fell once on the evening, so I consider that a minor victory! I rollerbladed for about an hour and a half before I decided to call it quits, because my feet and legs were hurting me (the skates were cutting into my legs too, pretty uncomfortable -- next time I'll wear taller socks). At least I didn't completely suck at it by the time I quit though, and that was one of my goals, just not to suck by the end. I set high goals for myself, what can I say? The whole experience was still kinda weird though. First off, the rink totally smelled like middle school when we first got there, before they opened up the doors at the ends of the rink to let in a bit of a breeze. They had black lights on in the place, there was an arcade and a pool table, and pretty much all the things you'd expect at a middle school hangout (including a bunch of middle schoolers, who were probably wondering what all of us basically-adults were doing there taking over their hangout). Including flat, round pod-like tables scattered amongst the arcade games, on which middle schoolers were frequently making out, haha. Did they think they were being discreet?? But all in all, I'd say I had more fun than I was expecting. I guess I should maybe be willing to be a bit more open to new things in the future, even if I don't *think* I'll enjoy them beforehand.
Saturday was moving day for the Hollemans, the advisors for PSCG. Something like 15 of us showed up in the morning to help them load all their stuff from their old house near Suburban Park into the U-Haul (two trips), and then unload it into their new house in the Park Forest neighborhood. Helping with a full house move made me glad that I currently have just books, clothing, a TV, 
a small bookcase and a bed (plus some odds and ends) that I'll have to pack up and move in August to my new apartment. If it weren't for the bed, I could probably squeeze everything into my car still, haha. But anyway, after helping Ash & Heather get everything into their awesome new house, in the evening we helped get their big projection screen and sound system hooked up in the basement, and then had a Wii party down there, rocking out to plenty of Guitar Hero.
The insulation in their house is pretty amazing, in that even when we have Guitar Hero cranked up pretty good, you can't hear a thing on the main floor. So when we heard some claps of thunder over Guitar Hero after awhile, we knew those had to be some pretty close lightning strikes. I went upstairs to check it out, and was treated to the most spectacular lightning show I've seen in my time in State College, and maybe the most spectacular show I've ever seen in my life. There was barely a second that went without some flash of lightning in the sky, and the rain was coming down in torrents to boot. There were several strikes that were within half a mile, it was awesome. After a bit, Ash realized that his garage door was still open, and that rain was blowing inside. I helped him to close it, by holding the door up while he undid the ropes and bungee cords that were holding the door open (the spring on the garage door had broken). While I was grabbing the metal part of the door, lightning struck maybe 1,000 feet in front of me, and at that moment I felt a little shock in my hands, and Ash smelled ozone (which lightning produces). A second later came the big boom. Now that was close! I figure what must've happened is that the lightning stroke probably induced a current in all metal in at least a 1,000-foot radius, to give me the shock. That's pretty impressive in and of itself, if you ask me, and I never knew lightning could do that. But then again, you know you're dealing with something pretty powerful electricity when it can travel several kilometers through *air*, which isn't exactly a good conductor. That's really all the closer I ever care to get to being struck by lightning, though I will admit it's pretty cool to say that I was almost struck by lightning. :-) It felt a lot like I had just grabbed an electric fence; it wasn't a big shock, but it was definitely enough to get my attention!
Oddly enough, lightning's been on my mind more than that lately. A couple weeks ago my mom called me on her cell phone to say that our house had just been struck by lightning. Everything wound up being okay (after getting some circuits back online and having the phone company repair the phone line), and what probably happened there is that the garage likely got struck, and that the current followed the phone line to the house, where it blew the cover off the phone box on the exterior of the house several feet away. Close call!
And then tonight in church softball, we called the game after 3 innings due to approaching lightning. With the approaching storm, I just didn't feel comfortable saying that I thought it was okay to have everyone go back out in the field to try to get in another inning. That turned out to be the right decision, because 5 minutes later there was a rumble of thunder that would've made me tell everyone to vacate the field right away anyway. Even though this game didn't officially count, we "lost" 12-3. But if you discount the 1st inning, we were winning 3-0. :-) Faith Baptist scored 12 in the 1st inning, 10 of which came before we could record an out (ugh). Ben had me playing 3rd base, and I at least didn't commit an error while getting two putouts. I was 1-for-2 batting, with a single down the 3rd base line (and a run scored), and a fielder's choice to the shortstop.
Last week I played probably my best game ever in church softball. We lost to Penns Valley Community Church 18-10 after 7 innings (technically it was 13-1 after 5), but I was 4-for-5 on fielding chances in left-center and left field, including a couple "go-go gadget arm!" running catches, haha. I was 3-for-4 at the plate too, with a single past the shortstop up the middle and another single into short center. Then in the 6th inning I got to bat twice, I don't know if that's ever happened to me in church league before. And they were my two best swings I've had! My first at-bat that inning was a towering fly ball to deep right-center -- if I'd hit it just a little more square, it would've been way gone, sigh. But then I made up for it later in the inning, with a 2-out 3-RBI double off the top of the wall in left-center. That one really felt good, although I was very glad to see it hit the fence. I was worried about it clearing the fence and hitting a house at first, but on second thought if it would've cleared the fence it probably would've gone bounding down the street between the houses and been okay. Better safe than sorry though.
One last item for this evening: it's going to get harder to fly into and out of State College soon. Starting on 1 Sep 2008, Delta Airlines is discontinuing its Cincinnati-State College flights, meaning that Delta will no longer be servicing State College (the Atlanta-State College flights were already discontinued by Delta back on 1 May 2008). Argh. Now that means there are only three ways in or out of SCE: on US Airways through Philadelphia, on United Airlines through Washington Dulles, and on Northwest Airlines through Detroit. Further limiting our flying options will definitely hurt consumers even more here in central PA, as it was already hard enough to fly in and out of here. This will probably make trips to Harrisburg, Pittsburgh or Baltimore a bit more common when I need to fly somewhere. The State College airport doesn't seem to have any choice in the matter though, and this'll be devastating for them too. Hopefully they'll be able to arrange some flights to other cities at some point to make up for it. Makes me all the more glad that Minneapolis is still going to be a Northwest hub (even after the Delta merger), so if I need to fly home I can do it with just one layover. If Northwest kills the flight from Detroit-State College though, that'll really be annoying.
Posted by Jared at 12:38 AM | Comments (3)
June 20, 2008
Tickets!
Woohoo! About an hour ago I bought my student season tickets for 2008 Penn State football!! And my roommate Jon got his as well, and I've already written him a check for them. He agreed to sell his set to me, so now I have a guaranteed second ticket available for when my cousin Jonathan comes out for the Michigan game and when my buddy Mike (hopefully, assuming he can get off work) comes out for the Oregon State game. Jon will get first crack at whichever couple games he wants to go to, since he was so kind to let me buy his season ticket set, which would leave three other games for me to sell the tickets to other friends.
The ticket sale as a whole has gone much more smoothly this year than last year's total free-for-all. How they did it this year was allot a certain number of tickets to each class, thus divvying up the 21,500 student tickets, and having each class buy their tickets online on a different day. They also had everyone who wanted to get tickets pre-register back at the end of May. For grad students, they allotted however many tickets that grad students bought last year (around a thousand?). Then the remaining tickets were allocated according to what percentage of the Penn State-University Park undergraduate enrollment is in what class. As a result, the juniors got the biggest allotment (28%, or 5,880 tickets) since they're the biggest class (the biggest in Penn State history, too), then came the seniors, and so on. I haven't heard how the freshman and sophomore ticket sales went the last two days, but the senior ticket sale on Monday took about nine hours to sell out. In contrast, the junior ticket sale on Tuesday sold out their entire allotment in a mere 90 seconds!! So I definitely wasn't gonna take any chances, and made sure I was ready to go with all the stuff I needed right at 7:00:00am this morning! I didn't wanna risk getting shut out, that's for sure!
So far I haven't heard of any grad student not being able to get tickets who tried to get them. I haven't bothered to check yet if they've sold out by now either. But I know for sure, in addition to me and Petters, that Jeff [Frame], Kent, Walter & Ethan all got tickets in meteo, and Dan, Tracy & Amanda in PSCG got them too. Post a comment here if you got them too, so we can keep a tally!
Alright, time to head in to campus. Advisor meeting at 9 to talk more about my paper. I'm really looking forward to getting this pushed out the door finally. Maybe next week??
Posted by Jared at 08:15 AM | Comments (0)
June 17, 2008
Overcommittal
I think I thrive off being busy. For the last several years, I've almost always managed to fill my time with all sorts of activities. In high school, I was in two sports (Cross Country and Track), Quiz Bowl, Forensics (speech), Drama (school plays and community theatre), Jazz Band, Knowledge Master Open, National Honor Society, Student Council, and maybe a couple other things. In college I wasn't in quite so many things, but they still filled up all my time with being a Physics major in Curriculum II, plus Society of Physics Students, Gustavus Gaming Society, Proclaim, Prepare Ministries (those two only starting in junior year), IM sports, working in the Admissions Office, the Observatory and as a TA, and then running the Gustavus Pep Band. And now in grad school I have all the Meteorology stuff of course, plus being a leader in Penn State Christian Grads, playing piano on the worship team every 2-3 weeks or so and serving on the worship committee at State College Evangelical Free Church, in addition to being in a life group (small group Bible study) at church for the last six months, and then playing in several IM sports.
I've been going on like this for a long time, quite happily usually. Last week I began to feel like I was stretched a bit too thinly though, that I was maybe a bit overcommitted. I enjoy everything I do and all the people I hang out with, but trying to juggle all these things has been running me down a bit. I guess I started to notice it at the PSCG leadership meeting last Tuesday night, since I hosted it, made dinner for everyone, and then was amazed (and really excited!) during the 3-4 hour meeting at just how much stuff we're planning for the coming year (and we still didn't get around to talking about everything we'd planned to). Thoughts started to percolate that if I maintained the status quo in everything else, that I'd be hard-pressed to devote as much time to PSCG as I felt I should. The feeling of being overwhelmed really started becoming acute on Thursday and Friday, and I knew that I had to make a decision to pull back from some area. I eventually decided that I probably had to pull back from my life group at church, to make that more of an occasional than a regular thing. It was a tough decision and one I didn't want to make, and I really didn't want to give up anything. But I'm obligated to PSCG since I'm the president again (and I love that group, it's not just an obligation), I don't want to give up spending time with my friends in my department, and playing piano at church is a really fun outlet, and something completely different from all the analytical stuff I do. I'm grateful to God for the wonderful situation He's placed me in and all the opportunities that I've been given, and I just want to make wise use of my time. I can't do everything. I need to be shown that every now and then, I guess.
All that being said, I've been really encouraged by making a couple new friends in the department, David & Alex. When a group of us were going out to lunch a couple Fridays ago, I went down and invited them along (and then introduced myself, haha). David's a new grad student just starting out here, and Alex is an undergrad at Valpo (originally from the Twin Cities too) doing research here for the summer, and hoping to come here for grad school in another year. Anyway, in the course of conversation I found out that they're both Christians too, and since they came to lunch with us they've both gotten involved in PSCG, coming to Bible study and other stuff. Alex even wants to get involved with the worship team at my church later this summer as well (he plays piano and a couple other instruments), even though he's just gonna be here for a month after he gets back from his month-long research field campaign up in Yellowknife, Northwest Territories, Canada! So I've been hanging out with them a fair bit in the last week-plus (including driving Alex to the airport at 4:30am this morning so he could catch his three-stopover flight to Yellowknife!), and it's been fun to get to know them. It's exciting to find new friends, and a huge encouragement to meet new Christians in my department. So I've been grateful to God for that too.
This evening we had a couple storms coming through, and it was enough to rain out our church softball game tonight. It's the third rainout so far this year, compared to no rainouts all of last year. Bummer. But the rainout has had a couple plus sides, including a down evening where 
I've had a chance to work on some entries for the new wiki we're developing for Christian Grads, to blog (of course, haha), and to enjoy listening to the thunder as the storms rolled through. I even got a treat of seeing some mammatus clouds (thanks for the heads-up, Frame!). They're not quite as cool as mammatus I've seen at other times, but hey, it's central PA, so I don't think we can be too choosy. It's been good to be not busy for an evening.
Posted by Jared at 12:19 AM | Comments (0)
June 11, 2008
"Elijah" Is Coming Soon!
Some of you may already know this, but I have some pretty exciting news to report. Back in late November my good friend Rob down in Australia told me that the theatre group he's involved with, The Backyard Bard, was considering bringing their hit show, Elijah, on a US tour. I posted about this way back then, but to refresh people's memories, Elijah is a dramatic storytelling of 1 Kings 17 - 2 Kings 2, and received great reviews when the show was on its Australian tour back in September-November. So for the past six months, I've been working very hard to see if there was a way to bring Elijah to State College, including trying to contact every Christian student organization on campus and many local churches. Here is the official promo by The Backyard Bard for the US tour of Elijah:
To make a long story short, Penn State Christian Grads and State College Evangelical Free Church have agreed to co-host Elijah here in September. Due to travel expenses and a need for Rob to stay behind in Melbourne to work on The Backyard Bard's new show for the coming season Down Under, Elisha, Elijah is now a one-man show, performed by renowned Australian Biblical storyteller Simon Camilleri. Simon wasn't able to obtain a tourist visa, but got a business travel visa, so he's unable to charge a fee for his shows. Last week PSCG and SCEFC agreed to pay for a portion of Simon's airfare as a gift to him, so that he can get to such an out of the way place as State College. So now it's a done deal, and he's coming to central PA!
We've scheduled two performances for Elijah:
Worship Hall, Pasquerilla Spiritual Center
Penn State University
University Park, PA
Sunday 14 September 2008 at 7:30pm
State College Evangelical Free Church
1243 Blue Course Drive
State College, PA
We're still planning out some details, but tickets will likely cost $5 (solely to cover our costs) and be available at the door. Simon will probably be here for a few days, so we may be planning other activities as well, such as a storytelling workshop. Those extra details are all still TBD, but we're really excited for the awesome opportunity to host this unique event! We really hope and pray that God will use it to edify current believers, and to bring new people to Christ.
There's a lot more work to be done, especially when it comes time to go into full-gear advertising the show, but I can hardly wait! If any of you would like to consider inviting Simon to perform in your community, click here to download his invitation to host. For another sample of Simon's work from Elijah, here is a video of him storytelling 1 Kings 18, the story of Elijah and the Prophets of Baal:
If you're interested in seeing other video clips from The Backyard Bard, either click here or search for "The Backyard Bard" on YouTube. There are also groups set up on Facebook if you'd like to follow the progress of the US tour; just do a search for "Follow the Elijah USA Tour" and "Friends of the Backyard Bard."
Elijah is coming! Praise God!
Posted by Jared at 10:58 PM | Comments (0)
June 10, 2008
Saturday in the Steel City
The softball gods have not been kind to us the last couple Mondays, and we have yet to have a game in which the mercy rule did not take effect. One of these days we'll be in a competitive game, I can feel it. Last Monday we hosted Grace Lutheran at our "home" field, and they sure took full advantage of the ground rule triple rule for balls rolling beyond center and right fields (to compensate for the stiff disincentive against hitting the house beyond left field, of forfeiting the inning). I played the whole game in right-center, and my arm got quite the workout in the 32-6 loss. I had a couple catches, including one right before I would've run into a young pine tree, plus a couple more that were just out of my reach (one because of another tree), and one error. I was hitting the ball on the nose at the plate, but was only 1-for-3 to show for it, with a fielder's choice grounder to short, a lineout to left, and then finally a single to short center.
Tonight was a bit more pathetic. We only got maybe three balls out of the infield on offense, just about everything was a grounder right at a fielder. Consequently, we didn't get a runner as far as 2nd base until the 7th inning, when we managed to score a couple runs and avoid the shutout against Oakwood Presbyterian, 27-2. Our defense also gave up a lot of outs, which is tough to come back from. I played the second half of the game in left field, going 1-for-1 on catch opportunities. I hit two groundouts to the pitcher though, so that was frustrating. Now I'm just a meager 2-for-9 on the season. Ugh. Maybe things will pick up next week.
We've been embroiled in a real humdinger of a heat wave here in central PA the last few days. I broke down on Thursday evening and turned on the air conditioner in my apartment for the first time in 2008, and it's been on quite a bit since, as each of the past four days has hit 90 or higher. And it's not like it's been cooling off at night either, as it's only been getting down to 72 or so typically. And for the most part it's been miserably muggy too (85 over 72 on the walk to lunch on Friday, ugh). It's almost enough to make me wish for winter again. But then cooler heads prevail, and what I'm really wishing for are dewpoints that are 20-30 degrees cooler. Judging from how much I dislike disgustingly high dewpoints, I don't know how well I could ever tolerate living in the Southeast or on the Eastern Seaboard. Or amongst the cornfields of Iowa, for that matter, where it gets the muggiest of all.
On Saturday nine of us from my life group at church took a couple cars over to Pittsburgh, to enjoy some fine yinzer cuisine and some Pirates baseball. After enduring some PennDOT-inflicted wandering through Pitt suburbia, we finally made it to Primanti Brothers for a late lunch/early supper. And we mostly went for the famously amazing sandwiches. 
I mean, where else can you get a sandwich with provolone, a half-inch stack of pastrami, a tomato, french fries, copious amounts of vinegar coleslaw, and a fried egg? And yes, it was absolutely delicious! I think I might've shaved a week off my life though. :-) After that we took a walk along the Allegheny River down to Point State Park, 
which is at the confluence of the Three Rivers that make Pittsburgh famous: the Allegheny & the Monongahela, which flow together to form the Ohio. Even though the weather was pretty disgusting in State College, it really wasn't too bad in Pittsburgh, especially along the rivers. 
I mean, it was still hot, but there was a pretty good breeze to help things out. Heinz Field, where the Steelers play football, has its open end to the confluence, and I can definitely see now why the winds swirl around in there and make it such a tough place to play! All in all it was a really nice summer day in Pittsburgh to walk around and hang out with the guys.
Then came the baseball game between the Pirates and the Diamondbacks. We got seats in the upper deck behind home plate, so that we could enjoy the spectacular view of the Allegheny River, Roberto Clemente Bridge, and the Pittsburgh skyline. 
There's definitely not a more scenic ballpark in America (and maybe the world) than PNC Park in Pittsburgh. I've been to games there twice before, but both times in the right field bleachers, which doesn't afford one the awesome views that you get when behind home plate. As for the game itself, the D-Backs jumped out to a 3-0 lead in the top of the 1st, 
but then the Pirates clawed their way back to a 3-3 tie, with solo home runs by Jason Bay and Nate McClouth. I even happened to get McClouth's entire home run at bat on video with my camera, complete with the fireworks as he rounded the bases! I've embedded the video below (my first-ever video posted to YouTube), and I was really happy with how my first-ever video on my new camera turned out. Arizona homered in the top of the 9th, 
and the Pittsburgh couldn't work any magic in the bottom half, so the Pirates lost 4-3. At least it was an entertaining game, because it certainly didn't look like it'd be one at first. It was a long day, but a fun day in the Steel City. And PennDOT construction in downtown Pittsburgh (surprise, surprise) made for an interesting time and some interesting adventures trying to get out of the city on our way back to State College. Maybe that's how they boost tourism in Pittsburgh, because you see a lot more of the city when you're forced to wander the city streets looking for a way out!
I'm finally starting on my actual PhD research now. Well, more like laying the groundwork for the research to happen, I guess. Last week I started the process of trying to get the WRF (Weather Research & Forecasting) model to work over at ARL. It's a long process, because they don't have all the necessary libraries to allow WRF to compile, and I'm not allowed to install them myself. Sigh. So I've had to wait for some of that to be taken care of, but in the mean time I've been editing my journal article, which is coming along quite nicely. Anyway, because now I'm starting to split my time between Walker & the Water Tunnel (ARL), my advisors are starting the process for me to get a clearance, so that I can be in the building more than just regular office hours if I so choose. That means that sometime soon I need to sit down and fill out this thick SF-86 form, where they pretty much want every detail of my life for the past seven years, and list all sorts of family members and friends for various things. So if the FBI happens to knock on your door to ask you about me, don't panic, it's just routine. :-)
Can't wait for the cold front and storms to roll through in the afternoon, I'm ready for this heat wave to be broken!
Posted by Jared at 12:36 AM | Comments (2)
June 08, 2008
Stuff People Like
I apologize for being derelict in my blogging duties lately, but the last week or so has been surprisingly busy. More on that another day this week (tomorrow??), after I get a chance to download the photos from my camera from my Saturday trip to Pittsburgh. I hope yinz can just be patient for a mean while then.
Anyway, I've recently discovered two great websites. The first is a blog called Stuff White People Like, and is a satirical look at a whole bunch of things that "white people" (read: upper-middle to upper-class, educated yuppies) enjoy. It's pretty hilarious, and I recommend reading back through the archives if you ever get a chance. I haven't yet read through all of them, but here are some of my favorites so far, mostly because to varying degrees they apply to me or to my friends. :-) In no particular order:
#81: Graduate School (for obvious reasons!)
#95: Rugby (the last half is definitely applicable to me, ha)
#72: Study Abroad (I miss the ready availability of TimTams!)
#99: Grammar ('nuff said)
#100: Bumper Stickers (my bumper stickers are definitely not allowed)
#40: Apple Products (I'll betcha that if I put one of my Apple stickers on my car alongside my bumper stickers, that'd really confuse people!)
#67: Standing Still at Concerts (white boy right here!)
#44: Public Radio (isn't academia the primary NPR constituency?)
For the full list of stuff that white people like, click here. Do it. If you don't, how will you know how to relate to all the white people you know?
So anyway, this site has really become quite the internet phenomenon, and is so wildly popular that other people have started several other blogs based on the same theme, such as Stuff White Trash People Like, Stuff Asian People Like, Stuff Jewish People Like, and Stuff Educated Black People Like. If you wanna find even more blogs of a similar vein, just google "stuff people like" and see what comes up!
But the other spinoff website that I've really gotten into is Stuff Christians Like. This one isn't always intended to be funny like Stuff White People Like is, but contains a mix of humorous items (especially for people like me who grew up in the church) and candid reflections on the interaction between the church and the author's past addictions to pornography and ecstasy, in addition to critiques of how the church does things nowadays. Now there are quite a few more items that are on Stuff Christians Like, but here's a smattering of some of the more interesting items, whether they're humorous or serious (in my estimation, anyway!):
#138: Saying "I grew up in the church"
#34: Subtly finding out if you drink beer too
#157: Testamints - Sending bad breath to Hell
#228: NIV vs KJV vs ESV (Bible wars told via GI Joe)
#169: Clapping our hands (a step by step guide to the death of rhythm)
#222: The "first time visitors" message
#277: Crazy rapture products
#269: Understanding how metrosexual your worship leader is
#258: Taking a date to church (6 fun tips!)
#208: Christianizing your Facebook profile, a how-to guide
#205: Frisbee - God's favorite sport
#254: Secretly wanting to name your son "Aragorn" or your daughter "Arwen"
#243: Going through "seasons"
#240: Kirk Cameron
#274: Not knowing how to do a proper standing ovation
I'd just like to give a hat tip to Ben for pointing me to the Stuff Christians Like website, and for the final nudge to go check out Stuff White People Like. I know I've been rather amused, and I hope you are too!
Posted by Jared at 11:39 PM | Comments (0)