Consider it pure joy, my brothers, when you face trials of many kinds, because you know that the testing of your faith develops perseverance.  Perseverance must finish its work, so that you may be mature and complete, not lacking anything.

Orientation is going along.  Lots of sessions and meetings.  Like Gauntlet, but less exciting.  Well, I suppose the more universally applicable way to describe it is that Gauntlet is like college orientation, but more exciting.

I'm finally starting to realize how the people here are very smart.  it's not like high school or Teen Mania where the distribution of intelligence was pretty even.  I wouldn't be surprised if everyone here was in the top 10% of their graduating class.  I feel kind of intimidated, to be honest.  No more Mr. Easy A.  I'm going to really have to work at this place.  Which is a good thing, mind you, but still rather daunting.  They say Wheaton is the Harvard of Christianity (or, as we see it, Harvard is the Wheaton of Postmodern Secular Humanism).  It's going to be a challenge for me not to compare myself to others academically.  Academics has been a source of pride for me in the past, and now's not really a good time to reactivate that.

Another thing that's got me worried is that I haven't been to school in almost 2-1/2 years.  We have a math competency test tomorrow.  Math is my #1 subject, and the test is on basic algebra and some statistics, so I figured I had it covered.  But I was taking the practice test today, and I kept on making tons of really stupid mistakes.  I'm really, really rusty.  So not only do I realize that I'm surrounded by intelligent people, but I feel really stupid because I can't get basic math right.  Freakin' dangit.

Otherwise, things are chugging along.  Sophs and upperclassmen arrive tonight and tomorrow, and classes start on Wednesday.

I went to downtown Chicago this afternoon for the first time.  I like it a whole lot more than Atlanta.  Maybe I was just bored of Atlanta.  Anyway, we rode the Metra in and walked around doing a picture scavenger hunt and ate Chicago-style pizza and played mafia in Millennium Park.  It was a lot of fun.

Cool story: one of the things that we had to do for the scavenger hunt was find a security guard or a police man and have him give one of us a piggy-back ride.  We were walking along, and we looked down a street to our right, and we saw group of 10 or so people in policeman garb.  So we went over to them, found a couple guys who weren't doing anything, and asked them for the picture.  They said no (they were acting pretty crass towards the ladies in our group anyway - jerks).  However, that group of police officers struck me as odd.  They weren't dressed like normal police officers.  They had badges, but they were dressed up really nice, almost like military formal wear.  They even had white gloves.  The strangest thing I noticed, though, is that I saw out of the corner of my eye that their badges didn't say "Chicago Police" but "Gotham City Police."  I don't know why that didn't register with me - I guess I was focused on getting the picture.

Anyway, fast forward to a few hours later, when we were on the way back to the Metra to go back to campus.  While we were walking, we were about to cross a street, when heard sirens and looked to the left.  There was a train of vehicles: 2 police cars, a truck pulling a flatbed trailer with a black SUV on the back (with the trunk open), and 2 more police cars following it.  In the back of the truck was a crew of people with TV equipment and cameras.  And 2 of the police cars said "Gotham City Police" on the side.  However, it still hadn't hit me, until one of the guys in the group said, "Hey, look, they're filming for The Dark Knight, the new Batman movie!"

So there you go.  I met some extras and watched a scene being shot from the new Batman movie.  Pretty cool, if I don't say so myself.

So a quick update for those of you just tuning in: my phone went through the wash.  Yeah, I know - stupid.  The phone almost recovered.  Everything works, except for the microphone (a rather important part of a phone).  Thus, I am between phones at the moment.  I was able to copy my numbers to my SIM, so I have everything I need.

Thankfully, I was eligible for a phone upgrade because I was up for contract renewal, so I will be getting a Samsung SYNC from AT&T.



Anyway, I'm sitting here in a cafe in quaint downtown Wheaton, IL.  I arrived early to start my job.  Freshmen arrive Thursday, and everyone else comes on Monday.  I started the job today, which was a bit weird.  It's doing some IT stuff that is a little bit different from my style (which is web programming, whereas this job is IT help desk type work).  But it will be good - I worked 7.5 hours today - the first time I've worked to make money in over 2 years.  It feels good.

I would be writing this in my room, but I don't have internet access yet.  I won't have it until as early as Wednesday, or as late as Sunday.  So in the meantime, I have to walk 1/2 a mile to this cafe.  Oh well - it's a nice walk.  Wheaton is a really pretty town.  You should come visit.

Anyway, the place is closing down.  I gots to go.  Keep in touch!

So I've been on vacation the las few days.  Ironic that I now refer to my home as "vacation."  I guess I really am out of the house.  After all, it's been nearly two years...

I was browsing through my Facebook friends earlier, and I was hit by a sudden longing to see some old friends, namely those from my undergrad year.  I'm lucky to have a few friends from last year around - Jake, Jebba, Will Klotz, Donte, Titus, and Liz Ring (who's a volunteer right now).  But dang...what ever happened to people?  My roommates - Austin Smith, Victor Fermin, and yes, even Moises (on a limited basis - I hear he's engaged...?).  Also, for some reason, I had an extra-special longing for at least some contact from my sister core - Emmie, Suzie, Katie, Laurie, etc.  I think that's partially why I'm so excited to see Marisa when she comes for her China trip (Dominic, one of my IT interns, will be on that trip!!).

Those sister cores are some of the best female friends I have (partially due to the fact that I was almost incapable of forming non-awkward female friendships until then).  Some of them really were like sisters to me.  I tried calling some of them a little while ago, but only Katie picked up (though that was a heartwarming conversation )

So here's to you, HA ladies, past, present, and future.  Thanks for being such stellar women, amazing examples, and great friends.  Thanks for not snubbing me or thinking I'm a dweeb.  It's happened before.  Or maybe chicks dig dweebs...

I think I'm all emo and incoherent 'cause it's late.  Who knows what happens at 12:45 am??  It's not a safe time to go to Wal-Mart, that's for sure.




P.S. I just ordered a schweeeght laptop.  I'll get it after I graduate.  I won't bore you with tech specs though.  I'm too tired to geek out.  Though, if you want, you can decipher this:

dell 15.4" hi-res glossy/2.2ghz 64bit core 2 duo/2gb RAM/160gb 7200rpm HDD/256mb nVidia GPU/CD-DVD+RW/webcam

OK, that was a little geek-out.

A real blog entry is in the works. I promise. But it's not done. I have a lot to write about. In the meantime, read this incredible, life-changing quotation:

"If there lurks in most modern minds the notion that to desire our own good and earnestly to hope for the enjoyment of it is a bad thing, I submit that this notion has crept in from Kant and the Stoics and is no part of the Christian faith. Indeed, if we consider the unblushing promises of reward and the staggering nature of the rewards promised in the Gospels, it would seem that Our Lord finds our desires not too strong, but too weak. We are half-hearted creatures, fooling about with drink and sex and ambition when infinite joy is offered us, like an ignorant child who wants to go on making mud pies in a slum because he cannot imagine what is meant by the offer of a holiday at the sea. We are far too easily pleased."

- C. S. Lewis, "The Weight of Glory"