My eye is itchy, I hope it's not infected.

Strange day, thought I had a lot to do but didn’t get much done. And my car’s having problems.

I forget, Ellen, was it something clever I was going to say?

Maybe I’m more tired than I think. I was messing up trying to explain stuff in my Math 20 class, couldn’t figure out there was a difference between perimeter and area. And I kept calling Jason Jordan. And there was something else too, I know it, but I guess I’m too tired to remember. I’ve got to get some good sleep or I’m going to get killed next week.

Conservatives think the media's incredibly biased to the left. Liberals think conservatives are more worried about big business staying fat and happy than about helping the little guy. I tend to be on the conservative side on most things, but I try my best to be objective.

I was thinking today that one of the things I remember back in my schooldays was my (Social Studies?) PACE glorifying Ronald Reagan and decrying the graduated tax system. They, of course, were proponents of a constant tax rate, because graduating it penalizes hard work and saving money wisely.

I would just point out that this reminds me of Terry Gross (of NPR’s Fresh Air) or liberal professors whose views tend to come out (both intentionally and unintentionally) as they go about their “objective duties.” These two situations just seem a lot the same to me.

Harmony Rule #3: the common tone in two successive chords should be kept in the same voice as much as possible.

This is a great rule, and one that I had completely forgotten about. The classic example which illustrates this is the transition from a I (tonic) to a V (dominant). The tonic is made up of 1-3-5 (do-mi-so), and the dominant 5-7-2 (so-ti-re). The common tone is the fifth, and this rule simply declares that if the tonic’s fifth was in the alto, you should keep the fifth in the alto when you go to the dominant.

It would be interesting to go back and look at some of my arrangements and see how I did on that. If I did it right it was totally due to luck, intuition, or subconsciously remembering. But that one definitely needs to be closer to the front of my mind.

One of the groups for my Production Planning and Control class turned in a term project that had 75 pages. That astounds me. To be fair, 70 or 71 were Appendices that included all of their data. But still…

A class is in session. The professor’s good—really good—but as in the case of most explanations there are times when all is not clear. This was one of those times. A hand goes up about midway back on the right. Oh, the prof sees it, he points, the student asks, the question is answered to his satisfaction. However, this leads to another question by another student, but the original inquisitor soon realizes that this is just a rehashment of his original question. So he tunes out. The instructor continues for a time and then turns back to the original questioner and asks if he has answered his question further. Uh, well, if he says no he risks an uncomfortable moment and a large misunderstanding. If he says yes…well you had him tuned out for minutes.

David seems obsessed with his enemies in the Psalms, and I struggle to apply this to my life. He’s always talking about how they’re doing stuff bad to him, how God’s going to judge them, how he’s basically wishing that they would die and leave him alone. Wha…? I don’t really have enemies. Generally, everybody’s nice to me. But then, wait a second. Could it be that my enemies are of a different kind? I know I have an ultimate enemy in Satan, and could he be manifested in my weaknesses? Could my struggles and failings—misplaced identity for instance—be my enemies that I should be praying and struggling against?

I didn’t know the Bible had humorous one-liners. Psalm 29:9a says, The voice of the Lord makes the deer give birth. That’s funny to me.

Overrated: dead week. This is only if you aren’t in college or don’t remember what it’s like. Dead week is a total misnomer, unless you mean “dead” students. What, you’re not supposed to have any homework that week? No new material? Right. Sure. I even was told tonight of a situation in which a teacher gave a take-home midterm on Monday that was due Wednesday (this is against school policy).

Underrated: quality Southern Gospel music.

Oh, let me linger in the presence of the Word.

Harmony Rule #2: two chords in a row should not be in the same position.

Let position be driven by the note in the bass. For instance, if the root of the chord is in the bass, it is a first position chord. If the third of the chord is in the bass, it is a second position chord. And if the fifth is in the bass, it’s third position.

I cannot guarantee that the following views and attitudes expressed are godly, wise, or ultimately beneficial to me, but they are true.

I desire to be a geek. I desire to accumulate technical knowledge that most people wouldn’t even want to know. I think it is similar to the “teacher phenomenon” where the fun is in knowing what other people don’t. It makes you feel like somebody, you know?

This is very iffy to say the least. Validation, identity. I’ve never conquered this totally, I’ve never got to the place where I continually and unequivocally put my worth solely in the hands of my Saviour. I don’t really know how to do it, because it’s a lot harder than just saying you will. But the desire for knowledge to feel good about myself in relation to other people—that’s a horrid reason to want knowledge. A good reason to want knowledge is to affect others either directly or indirectly influencing them through your work.

Beauty is under-appreciated. Anything that awakens a wistfulness and longing in your heart for something beyond yourself, for something better, for something perfect, anything that does this should be cherished as a gift from God, a glimpse into the Christian’s future.

I grew up thinking blank verse and abstract art were stupid. Poetry had to rhyme and art had to be a nice picture. I’m anything but a connoisseur of poetry or fine art at this point, but I think they should be given an honest chance, because that’s really the purpose of poetry and art—beauty. And beauty’s a good thing.

I really like where our church is headed right now. We had a really emotional service Sunday morning. To express the weight and impact of the situation, two words should suffice: no sermon. But people were honest, and I think that where honesty happens, closeness and growth follow. At least that’s my hope and prayer.

Overrated: snow.

Underrated: the intelligence of a farmer.

I think Wal-Mart is going through what Nike went through some time ago. They’re getting blasted for their manufacturing tactics. Basically, they attempt to find where in the world they can make their products the very cheapest. What’s more, though, they are reported as pressuring their suppliers to continually cut costs which pits suppliers against each other. This ends up not being good for the factory worker. The thing about Wal-Mart is, they’re so incredibly powerful, that they literally hold the fiscal fate of entire countries in their hands. Without Wal-Mart and the manufacturing jobs they provide, Honduras and Bangledesh would be economicdevastated. One thing you can’t say about Wal-Mart is that they allow inhumane working conditions. Their factories are clean and they pay well. But that doesn't stop some nasty things from happening. Like working hours from 8 a.m. to 3 a.m.

Boy, there’s such a huge difference between going to school and working for dad in the mill. Today I went over there and worked and realized there’s so much time to sit and think and read and pray. Such a stark contrast to the busyness and thinking of school. I mean, in school you think too, but it’s a very structured kind of thinking, I don’t think I like it quite as well. That’s one thing about college, you can study yourself out of being creative.

If you’re honest, teachers, don’t you think a little, tiny bit of the reason you’re teaching is ego-driven? Maybe not, maybe you have absolutely pure motives. Great. I was thinking about it today, part of the fun and joy of teaching is imparting knowledge to your students that they don’t have. You know it, and they don’t. That’s always fun.

We say we are to love the sinner and hate the sin. I wonder if I really love the sinner. I wonder how I show it. What’s our reaction when we hear that someone is gay? I’m afraid it’s rather condemning, rather than loving. It’s “oh my goodness I can’t believe it” instead of “how can I be Jesus to this person.” What’s So Amazing About Grace by Philip Yancey is getting me to thinking.