As I stated yesterday, I thought that I might just throw together a few of the cd's that I thought turned out to be quite decent offerings. Now, these aren't necessarily the ones that only came out this year, but they are the ones that I found this year and have come to appreciate. They are not in any particular order, although if I do have a strong preference for a particular one, I will star it. So here we go:
Album /Artist /Genre / Favorite Track Title
1) Beauty in the Broken / Starfield / Contemporary Christian / Shipwreck
2) Beyond Measure* / Jeremy Camp / Contemporary Christian / When You Are Near
3) Love, Pain & The Whole Crazy Thing / Keith Urban / Country / Stupid Boy
4) The Chronicles of Narnia: LWW / Harry Gregson-Williams /Film Score / The Battle
5) Comatose* / Skillet / Hard Rock, Christian / Better Than Drugs
6) End of Grey* / Decyfer Down / Hard Rock, Christian / Here To You
7) Hearts of the Innocent* / Kutless / Hard Rock, Christian / Winds of Change
8) Learning To Lose* / The Turning / Contemporary Christian / Escape
9) Music Inspired by Narnia /Various /Contemporary Christian /Turkish Delight
10) The Open Door* / Evanescence / Rock / Good Enough
11) Scars Remain / Disciple / Hard Rock, Christian / Dive
12) Well Meaning Fiction* / Mainstay / Contemporary Christian /Yesterday
13) Move Along / The All-American Rejects / Rock / Move Along
14) Phobia / Breaking Benjamin / Hard Rock / You
15) Over The Rooftops / Sevenglory / Contemporary Christian / Waiting For You
16) Exit Lights / Falling Up / Christian Rock / Fearless
17) End of the Spear / Ronald Owen / Film Score / River Requiem
18) The Da Vinci Code / Hanz Zimmer / Film Score / Chevaliers de Sangreal
19) Me And My Gang / Rascal Flatts / Country / Backwards
20) Good Monsters / Jars of Clay / Christian Rock / Surprise
There we have it. Some of my personal choices for some of the better albums that I have listened to during the course of this year. Check some of them out if you feel like you're in the need for some new music.
And in continuing yesterday's newly started game that will last for the next several posts (and depending how often I get around to it during the Christmas holiday, possibly next month), here are a few more of those mind-benders to get your brains thinking. I think they'll pose a little more of a challenge today...they certainly did for me. Except maybe the first one. As a note, the letters in parenthesis are designed to assist you in figuring out the meaning of the letters. For instance, should I put 65 is the S L (in A), you would write 65 is the Speed Limit ( in Arkansas). I know, bad example, but it gets the point across.
6) 39 B of the O T
7) 5 T on a F
8) 52 C in a P (W J)
9) 3 B M (S H T R)
10) 32 is the T in D F at which W F
Good luck!
Tuesday, December 12, 2006
Monday, December 11, 2006
2 To Go
There are 2 days left in the semester. I have my final at 5 on Wednesday, and then there is no more class or testing for me. Sadly, it will be an awful exam which I will fail horribly. But that's alright, because I frankly don't really care that much since I don't feel like I learned a thing this semester, and certainly not through lack of effort throughout the semester on my part. Oh well.
I was at our small group meeting yesterday, and got these cool little mind teaser things. They work like this. There is a number, followed by a series of letters interspersed with little filler words, kinda like this:
24 H in a D:
Clearly, this is translated as 24 Hours in a Day. Now, I have about 75 of these, so I figured I'd throw a few of them on here each day. Some of them are fairly easy. Some of them are quite difficult. But they are fun, nonetheless, and get you to think for a little bit. I apparently am a genius based on the first one since I got 19+ of the 33 on the list. So I don't care what anyone else says, I'm a genius. Haha. So here you go. Try 5 to warm up on. I'll put up answers after a while if one of them seems abnormally difficult.
1) 26 L of the A
2) 7 D of the W
3) 7 W of the W
4) 12 S of the Z
5) 66 B of the B
The pig challenge continued today as I made my purchase to supply a pig and other supplies to a family. Reference one of Paul's posts from about 2 months ago if you have no idea what that is referencing. Also, in a similar vein to Paul's list, I'll put up some of the top music albums that I picked up this year on a later date. For those of you interested in music it might prove interesting. For now, though, I'm going to attempt to stave off my addiction to my newly acquired Tiger Woods '06. I've just moved up in to the amateur level where I won my first tournament. Now it's on to bigger and better things. If only I was really making $2000 per tournament that I win in the computer world.
I was at our small group meeting yesterday, and got these cool little mind teaser things. They work like this. There is a number, followed by a series of letters interspersed with little filler words, kinda like this:
24 H in a D:
Clearly, this is translated as 24 Hours in a Day. Now, I have about 75 of these, so I figured I'd throw a few of them on here each day. Some of them are fairly easy. Some of them are quite difficult. But they are fun, nonetheless, and get you to think for a little bit. I apparently am a genius based on the first one since I got 19+ of the 33 on the list. So I don't care what anyone else says, I'm a genius. Haha. So here you go. Try 5 to warm up on. I'll put up answers after a while if one of them seems abnormally difficult.
1) 26 L of the A
2) 7 D of the W
3) 7 W of the W
4) 12 S of the Z
5) 66 B of the B
The pig challenge continued today as I made my purchase to supply a pig and other supplies to a family. Reference one of Paul's posts from about 2 months ago if you have no idea what that is referencing. Also, in a similar vein to Paul's list, I'll put up some of the top music albums that I picked up this year on a later date. For those of you interested in music it might prove interesting. For now, though, I'm going to attempt to stave off my addiction to my newly acquired Tiger Woods '06. I've just moved up in to the amateur level where I won my first tournament. Now it's on to bigger and better things. If only I was really making $2000 per tournament that I win in the computer world.
Thursday, December 07, 2006
Frustration
So we're in to the final week. Classes ended Tuesday, and my final for stat mech is on this coming Wednesday. I spent about an hour and a half in the car today driving back and forth between ORNL and my apartment. While at the lab, I realized that I had a flat tire. Just my luck. Plus, today it's reaching record cold temperatures (I think that tonight's low is supposed to be around 15 degrees with wind chill close to 0).
I came back to campus in the hope of gaining some insight for our final next week at a class meeting where a teacher was supposed to try and help us out. The teacher ended up coming late and not doing anything more than sort-of reading through some homework solutions that he had already given us. Not exactly the most beneficial hour and a half of my life.
I guess that for some reason I've just been in a bad mood today. I don't exactly know why. Little things that normally wouldn't bother me have gotten me all out of whack. I don't even know what would bring that type of attitude around. I went hunting later because if there is anything that I have a hard time dealing with it is getting angry and being quick to take it out on others. I found Psalm 37:8 which says "Refrain from anger and turn from wrath- it leads only to evil." I can attest to that statement. It never does any good being angry about something and proceeding to take it out on the person that you perceived to have wronged you. God works in the complete opposite way: referencing Nahum 1:3a (when was the last time you read that book? It's been a while for me) which says, "The Lord is slow to anger and great in power..." It's impressive the number of times that God's anger is referenced in the OT.
At church last night we had a real interesting talk regarding a little referenced section of scripture from 1 Chronicles 11:22-25. The title of the talk was "How To Kill A Lion On A Snowy Day". If you read the passage, you will understand where this comes from. The enemies in this passage (The Moabite men, the lion, and the Egyptian giant) were compared to three enemies that we commonly struggle with (the flesh, the devil, and the world respectively). These distinctions were made based on the following:
The Moabites: These are the descendants of Lot that came about because his daughters made him drunk and slept with him and conceived a child. See Gen 19:30-38. The sinful nature of how these people came in to being is what referenced this group as being a sin of the flesh, or inner struggle.
The Egyptian Giant: Egypt, at the time, represented the world. You can remember how often the people complained of having left Egypt even with all the suffering they had to endure while there. They wanted the earthly pleasures (good food, homes, relative safety, etc.) instead of taking what God wanted them to in the Promised Land. The world is often easier, possibly even more exciting, and definitely the way everyone feels compelled to go at one point or another.
The Lion: The devil himself is represented as a Lion. Simply read 1 Peter 5:8 which says that "Your enemy the devil prowls around like a roaring lion looking for someone to devour.
It really is intriguing to apply those schools of thought to the passage and then see how this man was able to defeat these enemies, but how it can be used to encompass something much more meaningful than simply an animal, 2 mighty men, and a giant.
I'm going through this in a very round-a-bout manner, but during the course of this talk, he mentioned a name that I have heard many, many times; and I'm sure that you all have as well. That name is Methuselah. He was the son of Enoch. Now, our speaker put an interesting spin on this, as well as addressing the naming (which has always been important) of the son. He inferred that due to the passage in Gen 5:22 that Enoch had not walked with God until he was 65 years old. Everyone can remember how Enoch is one of 2 men to not experience death since God simply took him away (Elijah being the other one if I remember correctly). However, he had a life changing event that occurred when he was 65, and that was the birth of his son, Methuselah. Methuselah in turn became the grandfather of Noah.
Now, if you read in Gen 7:11, you will find that Noah was 600 years old when the rains began. Adding up the years before, you will see that at this point Methuselah would have been (you guessed it) 969 years old. The exact age the Bible says that he died at (Gen 5:27). Now, you may wonder why the speaker, and now myself, are making a big deal of all this age stuff. Do you know the meaning of the name Methuselah? I sure didn't, at least until last night. The name means "His death shall bring". What shall his death bring? The flood of course.
I use this as an insight to my own extremely visible, painfully obvious shortcomings. I have no patience with people when I feel that I am in the right and they are in the wrong. I have no sympathy for those that I feel have no reason to deserve it. I certainly don't give any benefit of the doubt to people that I think have obviously gone in other directions and show no signs of ever wanting to change their school of thinking. I can't give someone a couple hours. God gave the whole of the earth 969 years. It's strange, how sometimes a lesson or a talk with someone can really hit home to an area that you are personally going through.
In one funny (and yet terribly sad) news story that I saw the other day...I have to say just go read it for yourself. And get them out of the SC...it's too good a state for her. Send her to Texas or something. Maybe the part of southern California that will break off and become it's own island. Who knows. Go here to get the story.
I came back to campus in the hope of gaining some insight for our final next week at a class meeting where a teacher was supposed to try and help us out. The teacher ended up coming late and not doing anything more than sort-of reading through some homework solutions that he had already given us. Not exactly the most beneficial hour and a half of my life.
I guess that for some reason I've just been in a bad mood today. I don't exactly know why. Little things that normally wouldn't bother me have gotten me all out of whack. I don't even know what would bring that type of attitude around. I went hunting later because if there is anything that I have a hard time dealing with it is getting angry and being quick to take it out on others. I found Psalm 37:8 which says "Refrain from anger and turn from wrath- it leads only to evil." I can attest to that statement. It never does any good being angry about something and proceeding to take it out on the person that you perceived to have wronged you. God works in the complete opposite way: referencing Nahum 1:3a (when was the last time you read that book? It's been a while for me) which says, "The Lord is slow to anger and great in power..." It's impressive the number of times that God's anger is referenced in the OT.
At church last night we had a real interesting talk regarding a little referenced section of scripture from 1 Chronicles 11:22-25. The title of the talk was "How To Kill A Lion On A Snowy Day". If you read the passage, you will understand where this comes from. The enemies in this passage (The Moabite men, the lion, and the Egyptian giant) were compared to three enemies that we commonly struggle with (the flesh, the devil, and the world respectively). These distinctions were made based on the following:
The Moabites: These are the descendants of Lot that came about because his daughters made him drunk and slept with him and conceived a child. See Gen 19:30-38. The sinful nature of how these people came in to being is what referenced this group as being a sin of the flesh, or inner struggle.
The Egyptian Giant: Egypt, at the time, represented the world. You can remember how often the people complained of having left Egypt even with all the suffering they had to endure while there. They wanted the earthly pleasures (good food, homes, relative safety, etc.) instead of taking what God wanted them to in the Promised Land. The world is often easier, possibly even more exciting, and definitely the way everyone feels compelled to go at one point or another.
The Lion: The devil himself is represented as a Lion. Simply read 1 Peter 5:8 which says that "Your enemy the devil prowls around like a roaring lion looking for someone to devour.
It really is intriguing to apply those schools of thought to the passage and then see how this man was able to defeat these enemies, but how it can be used to encompass something much more meaningful than simply an animal, 2 mighty men, and a giant.
I'm going through this in a very round-a-bout manner, but during the course of this talk, he mentioned a name that I have heard many, many times; and I'm sure that you all have as well. That name is Methuselah. He was the son of Enoch. Now, our speaker put an interesting spin on this, as well as addressing the naming (which has always been important) of the son. He inferred that due to the passage in Gen 5:22 that Enoch had not walked with God until he was 65 years old. Everyone can remember how Enoch is one of 2 men to not experience death since God simply took him away (Elijah being the other one if I remember correctly). However, he had a life changing event that occurred when he was 65, and that was the birth of his son, Methuselah. Methuselah in turn became the grandfather of Noah.
Now, if you read in Gen 7:11, you will find that Noah was 600 years old when the rains began. Adding up the years before, you will see that at this point Methuselah would have been (you guessed it) 969 years old. The exact age the Bible says that he died at (Gen 5:27). Now, you may wonder why the speaker, and now myself, are making a big deal of all this age stuff. Do you know the meaning of the name Methuselah? I sure didn't, at least until last night. The name means "His death shall bring". What shall his death bring? The flood of course.
I use this as an insight to my own extremely visible, painfully obvious shortcomings. I have no patience with people when I feel that I am in the right and they are in the wrong. I have no sympathy for those that I feel have no reason to deserve it. I certainly don't give any benefit of the doubt to people that I think have obviously gone in other directions and show no signs of ever wanting to change their school of thinking. I can't give someone a couple hours. God gave the whole of the earth 969 years. It's strange, how sometimes a lesson or a talk with someone can really hit home to an area that you are personally going through.
In one funny (and yet terribly sad) news story that I saw the other day...I have to say just go read it for yourself. And get them out of the SC...it's too good a state for her. Send her to Texas or something. Maybe the part of southern California that will break off and become it's own island. Who knows. Go here to get the story.
Monday, December 04, 2006
Exhaustion
It was a fun weekend out in Searcy. The tournament consisted of 7 teams, 3 of which were comprised of Harding people. There was also a girls round-robin tournament played on Saturday. The team that I played on along with Whit came in second to the Harding A team on Sunday, which isn't too bad considering that most of them don't play together more than maybe once a week for a few hours. It turned out to be pretty fun, although I only subbed for about 4 points all day Sunday, and I'm completely sore and tired today. I wouldn't have it any other way though. It was also cool playing with some fellow "Fighting Crackers" in Luke and Will Dockery, even though Will is my well-known arch-nemesis. Still, it was good times.
Tomorrow is the last day of class here at UT. 9:45 tomorrow morning I will be turning in my last homework assignment for a good long while. I'm looking forward to it, although I've only answered maybe 1/4 of the questions on it since we never talked about any of it in class and it's not anywhere in the text that I can find.
I got my first experience in setting up a sample and preparing the machine to take a reading today at the lab. It's kinda hard and tedious, because everything is so incredibly small. I don't think that it helped me any that I was running on caffeine from the Mountain Dew's I have been drinking. The superconductor samples are about 4000 microns by 200 microns in terms of dimensions (I think those are the numbers). You then have to cut a piece of Indium metal and place it on to the two sides of the superconductor. Once those are attached (done simply by pressure since the metal sticks to the silver surface on the superconductor), you then place it on the plate that is put inside the machine. This alone took me about 3 tries to get it to not flip over on me. Once it's on the plate, you have two silver dots on this tiny piece of metal that you must line up with two equally small metal connectors that carry current. If those do not line up correctly, you will have problems in the measurements and possibly destroy the sample since there will be a large resistance building up. All in all, it took about 30 minutes to put a piece of superconducting metal onto a plate to be measured. That doesn't include any of the stuff for playing with the helium gas, air pumps, and always fun liquid nitrogen. I'll just have to get my hands to be a little steadier in the future.
At any rate, I'm off to collapse in a heap in the hopes of being able to make it through tomorrow morning without needing a sugar injection directly in to my blood stream.
Tomorrow is the last day of class here at UT. 9:45 tomorrow morning I will be turning in my last homework assignment for a good long while. I'm looking forward to it, although I've only answered maybe 1/4 of the questions on it since we never talked about any of it in class and it's not anywhere in the text that I can find.
I got my first experience in setting up a sample and preparing the machine to take a reading today at the lab. It's kinda hard and tedious, because everything is so incredibly small. I don't think that it helped me any that I was running on caffeine from the Mountain Dew's I have been drinking. The superconductor samples are about 4000 microns by 200 microns in terms of dimensions (I think those are the numbers). You then have to cut a piece of Indium metal and place it on to the two sides of the superconductor. Once those are attached (done simply by pressure since the metal sticks to the silver surface on the superconductor), you then place it on the plate that is put inside the machine. This alone took me about 3 tries to get it to not flip over on me. Once it's on the plate, you have two silver dots on this tiny piece of metal that you must line up with two equally small metal connectors that carry current. If those do not line up correctly, you will have problems in the measurements and possibly destroy the sample since there will be a large resistance building up. All in all, it took about 30 minutes to put a piece of superconducting metal onto a plate to be measured. That doesn't include any of the stuff for playing with the helium gas, air pumps, and always fun liquid nitrogen. I'll just have to get my hands to be a little steadier in the future.
At any rate, I'm off to collapse in a heap in the hopes of being able to make it through tomorrow morning without needing a sugar injection directly in to my blood stream.
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