Conservatives think the media's biased, liberals think the media's biased. For instance, conservative people think an obvious hotbed of liberal drivel is the NY Times. But I read some liberal commentator who pointed to an example of blatant conservative bias in the very same newspaper. So what's the deal?

Well, I was listening to NPR the other day--which purportedly is a bastion of liberalism--and they were talking about the furious debate that was going on in Massachusetts regarding gay marriage. A reporter was reporting/commentating and he made a comment regarding the "other side" and since I agree with the liberal bias idea to some extent, I assumed that he was talking about those taking the anti-gay marriage stance. But he wasn't. I would have found it easy to chalk that comment up as liberal bias had it been referring to "fundamentalists" but when I found out he was talking about the pro-gay marriage crowd I found it very difficult to think of that as conservative bias--because of my own bias.

Here's what I think. If you are predisposed toward a certain direction, you're going to pick up lots of so-called biases against your viewpoint, whether they are real or imagined.

Feelings. They're good, they're bad. They're up, they're down. What do you do?

Experiences with God are great. There've been several times in my life where God has seemed very close. But of course, that feeling has gone away. There's got to be a commitment to Him that doesn't depend on whether He feels like He's right beside you. Because He won't, often.

But He's there. I know He is. It doesn't matter if I'm crying because of His nearness or if I'm crying because I feel all alone, He's there. He'll stay.

So...

I've been dominating Tom's computer for the last 35 minutes. I'm at his house in Indiana.

Boy, it was nice to sing again. The wedding was very nice, the vows were cool (sappy, to Tom). I think they made them up themselves. That may be an idea to tuck away in the ol' brain.

They had two preachers, so it went a little longer than what I'd characterize as my "optimal wedding length."

And last night I got a great night's sleep.

And Kon's happily married.

And I got some (a little) homework done.

And I didn't know very many people at the wedding at all, which was a little awkward.

And (surprise!) Jewel still giggles.

And (double surprise!) Tom still likes to eat.

And (get ready to be dumbfounded), David still likes cars.

And it's really, really cold around here.

But it's the Midwest and February. What do you expect?

This is the level of programming that I enjoy. We're doing pretty easy stuff now, very logic-based. I say logic-based as opposed to programming stuff that requires you to know nasty syntax about how to write strings to files and retrieve strings from files and create new data types and data structures and such craziness.

Visual Basic spoils a person like crazy.

I'm getting to be a regular computer geek/nerd. I've now been exposed to three languages, am or have taking/taken classes in two, and to top it all off I typed some stuff up in the Unix operating system today.

Lemme preface this by saying I less than six hours of sleep last night.

My weekend:

Leave at 11:15 p.m. from PDX, arrive at O'Hare at 4-something a.m. Sleep on the plane?

Drive hours from Chicago to Southern Michigan. Sleep in the car? But Barry's gonna be driving us and he's bound to have interesting conversation pieces (i.e. brain puzzlers).

Last I heard, they were shooting for the wedding rehearsal to be at noon. Sleep for a few hours beforehand?

Since AHQ hasn't sung together for months, and we don't know for sure all the songs we'll be singing at the matrimony ceremony, we'll have to do some hard rehearsing Friday evening. We may even go to Goshen which is an hour+ away.

Ahhhh, sleep Friday night!

Saturday afternoon is the wedding. Then we've got to rehearse hard again because we give a program on Sunday morning. We'll have to get up earlyish to go find the church and be all warmed up (can I still sing tenor?). Then we're whisked away to the airport to return home Sunday evening.

Get home Sunday night, sleep, and then go to school where lots of work awaits.

Doesn't it make you tired just reading this? Me too.

But of course, I was tired before I wrote it.

Don't feel sorry for me. This is not me complaining. Or wishing I wasn't doing this. It's going to be great.

One of my responsibilities with IIE is keeping up their promo board. Can you imagine, I have to do crafts as part of my job. Hopefully a minimal part.

I'm leaving in about 12 hours to fly to Michigan for Nadine's wedding. It's pretty sweet, AHQ's gonna have a reunion and sing at the wedding and sing at a church service Sunday morning. Not sure when I'm going to sleep.

All I know is that I don't miss a single class.

Oh yeah, another midterm today. This is a very unorganized class from most of the student's perspective. We were actually presented with material on the Study Guide for the exam that prior to which we hadn't covered in class.

What's more, I don't know what the grading will be like because he told us there were five problems on the test and there turned out to be six.

I felt ok coming out of it, and it's hardly fair making a prediction because I just looked at most of the answers that he just e-mailed me.

So there were 120 points. Prediction: 105/120. I know I messed some stuff up.

I'm the new Vice-President of the Oregon State University chapter of the Institute for Industrial Engineers.

It was quite a rigorous campaign.

I, like, came to the meeting and began showing the rest of the IIE student consituency just how incredibly dedicated I was to their group and how having me as their vice-president would be incredibly beneficial to them. I did this mostly by grabbing three pieces of pizza (and later a fourth) and a pop. When it came time to nominate for this prestigious office, my stellar record of hard work over the past few minutes was more than enough to ensure a landslide victory.

And here I am, Officer for Student Development for the Insititute of Industrial Engineers here at OSU.

Really, I see this as an opportunity on a couple of fronts. It's great experience in leadership, administration, project management. Good for my resume. But there's another really important aspect to it, and that is the position it will put me in with some of my fellow officers. It will allow me to develop relationships and "be salt" to this small part of my world. And it will challenge me to be real and strong and up-front in my faith.

There are going to be challenges. Obviously, most--if not all--of these officers aren't Christians, so their priorities and ideals and values will be different than mine. IIE is a very social organization, and you know what kind of things college students often do in the course of their socializing.

It will be a very stretching time.

Subject 2. Sometime, if AHQ ever is all in Oregon at the same time, I want to take them to Covell Hall to sing in the stairwell.

Subject 3. One of the guys in the Bible Study today went off about how he is pro-welfare! His point was, there are needs in our country that aren't being taken care of, so the government, which has more resources than anybody else, should be supported in taking on this responsibility.

Well...

The question is, if there are physical needs in our country that aren't being met, who should take care of them?

Christians should.

Before you go off on the "welfare people are lazy and just abuse the system" tangent, think about this. Does the Bible, in all its instructions to Christians about giving to the poor, ever put a stipulation on it? Does it ever say, "give to them if they aren't lazy" or "give to them if they don't abuse your gifts"?

No. Correct me if I'm wrong.

I think there are instructions to Christians about working ("if someone does not work he should not eat"), but the needy must be ministered to by the Christian.

Now, what if we're not doing enough? We obviously aren't.

Is it so bad that the government (as inefficient and imperfect as it may be) is picking up the slack?

La la la.

Can't believe how accurate my predictions have been. I predicted 93/115 on my Manu Processes test and guess what? I got a 93. In a way I'm satisfied with it, all things considered. Obviously not as high as I would have liked, but he's going to give us a chance to make up some points with some sort of pop quiz.

And the other news is that after the VB.net class was adjusted, I got well over 100% on the midterm. Wild.

I hate loose ends.

It is so hard to say it. But so rewarding after you do. It excites me and scares me at the same time.

I've already had two tests returned.

I was right on on my d.o.e. test. I predicted 97% and got a 98%. Happy about that, even though the two points that were taken off were...well, like the prof said, he was looking for perfection.

Same with my VB test, my prediction was very, very close. I predicted 116, got a 117. The good news on that is that he's going to curve it, so I'll end up with a better score than 117/136.

Got nothing to say.

Oh yeah, I talked to some people on the phone! I'm not usually much of a phone person, but I had exactly five phone conversations today.

Oh, it works now. Never mind.

Sweet.

Sorry, folks. That crazy Santa link is acting up again. I thought I fixed it, but it's still not working. And I'm getting ready to sleep.

So you'll just have to copy and paste this, and please do, 'cause you really got to see this.

http://av1611.org/othpubls/santa.html

Sometimes I don’t feel spiritual because of where my life is going. I observe others who are excitedly pursuing and training for mission opportunities or other direct ministry prospects. I’m into data analysis and algorithm development! Not particularly righteous-sounding.

That’s what I think sometimes.

Spiritual pride. It’s all about me and how spiritual I appear, isn’t it? I’ve got a reputation to uphold. And I’m going to Grad School for some secular pursuit, one that’s not even directly helping people. That, when I could be going on mission trips and to Bible School!

But see, if I really believe that God is leading me in the direction that I’m heading (I do) then I’ve got to believe that it’s worlds better that I be a numbers geek than a missionary.

And that’s where the thinking gets a little dangerous. Am I just going to be an Operations Researcher/Statistician/Industrial Engineer for my whole life? Is that all my existence will consist of? I certainly hope not. I hope to be enthralled with my job, but as soon as the job becomes the focal point, as soon as it becomes the end instead of a means to the end of glorifying my Saviour, then I’ve got a big problem.

MECOP placement interviews happened for quite a few of my IME classmates on Friday. One of the questions one guy said he was asked was “What is your greatest value?”

I’m sure many of them said something like “my job,” “hard work,” or “problem-solving.”

I hope I’m asked that question in a job interview someday. My greatest value, by far, is Jesus Christ, my personal relationship with God. Of course, I would rush to point out that that value is not a hindrance to doing quality work for a company. Quite to the contrary, it’s because of that value that I will do the very best I can.

God has a plan for my life. And I think I know what that plan is for the immediate future. I think it is to minister right where I am, right now, while I’m in school. I don’t do a very good job at that. But I’m committed to improving, with God’s help, with others’ help.

And right now, February 7, 2004, I see that style of ministry continuing into the foreseeable future as well..

Because you know, OR/Statisticians/IE’s, those fields need Christians in them just like farmers and general contractors and business managers and basketball players and taxi cab drivers and accountants and masons and newspaper reporters and…continue in finitum, ad nauseum.

Did I just use those two wonderful Latin terms correctly? I sure hope so.

Ha ha.

I like ending posts with “ha ha.”