Re:Creation

i am alive! (all appearances to the contrary notwithstanding…) and i am back from japan.

it was a great trip, and i have great stories and great pictures to share. unfortunately, i took the latter half of last week to do just about everything except blog, and now i have started working full-time.

still, with japan and other recent events, so many exciting things are happening in my world at this time that i can’t afford to leave you out of the loop. look for some real posts soon, in which i will document all said awesomeness.

ps blogger has changed its look, and i’m not sure i like it. i may have to change to movable type…

goodbye for 7 days! i will write after i return from japan.

today i finished my last final paper for spring 2003. i’m free! until september.

thus, i will now present to you my somewhat-ambitious reading list for the summer 2003, in no particular order:

1. the chronicles of narnia, c.s. lewis. it’s been awhile since i’ve read these, and i picked up a beautifully illustrated hardback version.

2. christianity and the nature of science, j.p. moreland. pretty decent phlosophy. i started this one last year sometime and it’s been collecting dust. time to put it to rest for good.

3. the silmarillion, j.r.r. tolkien. i’ve read it 4 or 5 times, but just ordered a nice illustrated hardback version (i’m into those i guess) from bn.com. so i look forward to savoring it.

4. no free lunch, william dembski. the follow-up to the design inference. an argument against certain forms of evolution, from information theory. pretty interesting.

5. signs of intelligence, dembski et al. an easier-reading survey of the current trends in the intelligent design community. i’m a bit skeptical of this one but it’s short, so why not.

6. god and other minds, alvin plantinga. top-notch philosophy from my current hero. plantinga is the man.

7. the structure and interpretation of quantum mechanics, r.i. hughes. yep, it’s what it sounds like: a [hard] book on the philosophy of quantum mechanics. i couldn’t get enough in class, i guess.

8. an introduction to mathematical logic, herbert enderton. this was my phil 160a textbook. i thought i’d pick it up again for a bit of light reading.

9. ultimate japanese. we’ll see if i continue to study after my tokyo trip. japanese is fun.

10. harry potter: the order of the phoenix, j.k. rowling. she is also the man (“the man”, you know, like…authoritarian society…or something). harry potter is cool.

11. the spanish new testament, mostly paul. i’ve been reading this semi-consistently for about a year now. i want to finish it this summer. and move on to portuguese. or japanese if i can find a bible there, and get decent readability.

12. how people grow, cloud & townsend. a christian book. it might be good, or it might not. i have heard good things about it. i will decide when i read it.

13. the emergent church, some guy. about the postmodern church or something. which is so…90s. haven’t you heard? post-modernism is out, man! the book is “required reading” for the leadership team of ccc. who knows, it might also be good!

i’ll check in at the end of the summer and let you know how many of the books i actually read.

i’m also planning, of course, on finally beating warcraft iii, a jewel of contemporary computer gaming, and enter the matrix, which, if you haven’t played it, makes you feel damn cool, like a jedi. or neo.

lastly, i bought the new canon s400 digital elph. it is like a beautiful woman. i will call her arwen, since she is an “elph”. arwen just took a picture of me, which is weird because the light in my room is weird. but here it is! it’s a hello from me picture.

i lied. this entry will not be stunning prose either.

i just had to say goodbye to stanford 2002-2003. it was a fun year. it saw a lot of changes in my life. a lot of changes in who i am. i’m not sure if i like all of them yet, so i may not be keeping them. although the ridding of them may be more difficult than i might think.

still, so many obviously good things happened it would seem strange to say that god was not likewise obviously at work in this year. though i may not be able to admit it to myself yet i think i have actually grown! and so it is appropriate to thank god and all those, my friends, my acquaintances, or people i have randomly happened upon, for making this year what it was. it has been a wonderful 21 months of living in california, and i look forward to september, for what may be my last 9.

now, as i shut down my computer in griffin 302 for good, i can’t help but feel that standard twinge of nostalgia. unfortunately there is no time to reminisce about the year, because packing, studying, and sleep are all vying for my undivided attention.

when next you hear from me i will most likely be safely ensconced in the floridian resort castle that is my home. and i will most likely be procrastinating on writing the final paper which is due this friday (i just had to bring work home with me). until then–adieu!

since gems of pure literary genius do not seem to be forthcoming any time soon, why don’t i take this time and give a few highlights of what’s been going on?

1. school – today was my last day of classes. before i am officially done with the quarter, however, i must successfully complete one logic final (all questions of which having to do with godel’s incompleteness theorems), and write two papers, one for philosophy of quantum mechanics (this paper will be on whether or not the quantum logic interpretation of quantum theory has a solution to the measurement problem), and one for my seminar on intentionality (this paper will be on whether or not there is a plausible way to naturalize the semantics of words referring to uninstantiated properties, like that of being a unicorn). assuming i can get all these done by next week, i will officially be a 4th-year undergraduate student and a 2nd-year graduate student!

2. japan – for the not-too-bright among you, my last (albeit lacking somewhat in the html arena) post was meant to say that i will be going to a japan for a week, starting june 17th. in preparation for that trip, on which my dad is also going, and in which we plan to visit much of tokyo, as well as climb mt. fuji, i have been learning japanese. the going is slow, but i’ve got about half of the hiragana (one writing system) memorized, and am working on some basic vocabulary as well.

3. music – in the last few weeks i have seen pedro the lion, starflyer 59, ester drang, pete yorn, and coldplay. all the shows were absolutely wonderful, and i think last week marked my 8th time seeing pedro the lion live. wonderful.

4. summer is here! i’ve been doing plenty of outdoors things instead of working on the aforementioned school items (it sucks to get out of school in the middle of june). for instance, on sunday, my intramural soccer team (the chicken nuggets) played 3 playoff games to come in second place overall in the coed division. it was a good run, and for my first involvement in intramural sports, a job well done in my opinion. needless to say, i was in pain after playing 3 whole games within a few hours (we had no subs, so constant running). unfortunately, not a lot of climbing has been going on, for whatever reason.

5. home – i go home to orlando next tuesday. i’ll be spending the summer working for a company there called excelsis. i’m not exactly sure, but my guess is i will be doing web programming/design, and maybe database programming/administration. i will spend the summer working, playing music with my brother, hopefully writing and recording new splendour hyaline songs, hopefully playing shows at lots of clubs around the area, running and climbing on a daily basis between the two, traveling to gainesville frequently to hang out with nyffy and jason before he leaves, and of course, sitting in my hot tub.

next time: stunning prose the likes of which you’ve never before seen!