AHQ's Schedule

AHQ's going to sing a little bit this Christmas season. TT's coming out, along with his girl, and we will probably sing at least twice. Maybe TT'll update AHQ's appearances page so you can be privy to the details.

Grandpa's Passing

My grandpa slipped into eternity yesterday around noon. It was surprising that he went so quickly, but not shocking at all because I knew he wasn't doing well. Just Sunday we had an anointing service for him and he was talkative, going on about how some preachers can say what others can say in ten minutes less. And he was talking about specific preachers who were in the room! Classic grandpa.

But Monday they got really bad news from the Doctor, but still with a prognosis of 3 months. But by Tuesday he was really doing poorly, and a hospice nurse said maybe a week. And Wednesday he was gone.

My grandpa is dying.

I've never had a relative this close to me die. In a way, I feel disconnected from the situation because I go about my business almost like normal. But then I think about him dying ... that gets a little intense.

Pray for him and my grandma.

Operations Research

A couple of websites. My friend JB has a website, and she clued me into photographer Peter Lik's website, which is absolutely stunning. It may seem dangerous to link to a photog's website, but, this one, as far as I can tell, is safe.

Me: Wouldn't it be cool to do this for a living, to gather data and make models for a company?
KE: Yeah, it would be sort of fun.
Me: So why don't you go to grad school for O.R.?
KE: Well, not that fun.

For my senior project we're using a mathematical optimization technique called Linear Programming to solve a crop mix problem for a local grass seed farmer. It's been fun, but it's blowing up on us a little bit. There are a lot of things to take into consideration, and the model is getting very complicated, perhaps too complicated to be solved in Excel like we'd hoped.

One of the programs I'm going to apply to--Penn State--has a dual degree in Statistics and Operations Research, which is something I'll be looking into and a factor that will weigh in the Nittany Lions' favor when I make my decision. Because it would be fun to do O.R. for a living. In some ways it seems more attractive to practice than Statistics, though I am more attracted to the academic (the theoretical) in Statistics.

One of the members e-mailed a guy at the Ag department here at OSU and he told us that our idea was, essentially, old and probably impractical. But we will not be repressed! We will continue valiantly on! There are some issues with our approach, i.e. how to make it accessible to be easily used by a farmer that it wasn't specifically designed for. We'll see.

I just got back from an audit with the IAC and I ... am ... tired.

We had a good trip. I feel like I'm expanding my base of capability.

I don't know about our senior project though. More to come.

So there were three statisticians out hunting and they saw a real nice one. The first one shot and missed ten yards in front. The second shot and missed ten yards behind. So the third one says, "Yeah! We got 'im!"

Evidence

The current question that's troubling me: have I completely considered the fact that I could be wrong, that there is no God, and that Christianity is a farce?

I asked someone to give Christianity honest consideration and he turned it around on me. I told him, after thinking about it for a little, that I had considered that Christianity could be wrong.

But it bothered me, because while I have considered alternate paradigms to some degree, I think it's pretty much impossible for me to completely objectively evaluate because of where I've come from. I'm sure some would say "Why would you even want to?"

Well, what more can you ask from a person than an honest pursuit of the truth? If I don't think my religion is strong enough to stand up to honest scrutiny then it's not worth believing anyway. So if we invite someone to entertain our perspective, it's only fair that we've entertained their's.

You know, I'm leaning toward "nurture" right now in the "nature vs. nurture" debate. This would explain why there are Baptists and Mennonites and Charismatics and Catholics. By and large, people grow up to be what they were taught. You grow up believing in evolution, you'll find it difficult to let go, especially with all the evidence and peer pressure and all the smart people that believe like you do. You grow up believing in God, in creation, and you find it difficult to let go because of all the evidence and ramifications and peer pressure and smart people...

All this to say, there better be good evidence for what you believe!

Well, there is good evidence for what I believe.