Stir Crazy

I've been home alone house-sitting for about 3 days now, and I've already gotten restless. Really, really restless. I can't focus on anything - not even mindless vegging in front of the TV, which I have had more than enough of in the past few days. I can't bring myself to read one of the many books I have sitting in front of me for more than 20 minutes, I don't want to go anywhere and yet I do, I'm going nuts being alone and yet it's peaceful, and over it all hang the twin specters of my thesis topic (which needs refining) and the upcoming interviews. It's a very odd feeling when you've got everything to do yet can't think of anything to do.

It's gotten so bad that I actually went to the mall today for refuge. Refuge. At the mall.

There's only one solution to restlessness this bad, and it is a well-planned and very full day. Tonight: bed very early at 10. Early morning tomorrow, with a rare but very real sit-down breakfast that will include breads and coffee of some sort. Followed by another trip back to the mall to exchange the jeans I bought today. Followed by....

oh, crap.

Sea Scrolls and Sunsets

Saw the Dead Sea Scrolls today at the Seattle Science Center. That was pretty cool. I was amazed at how small the pieces of parchment actually are and how hard they are to read - they're tiny. It was pretty weird to lean over the case and think about the fact that the piece of parchment I was staring at was thousands of years old. One cool tidbit: in many translations of the Bible we have today, you'll notice that the word "Lord" is always written in small caps, like LORD. Looks awkward, no? Well, my stepmom noticed that on the original copy of the manuscript we were looking at, you could see how the word "Lord" was actually written in a different style and size than the rest of the text - the Hebrew equivalent of what we do with the typeface today like we have it today. That was pretty cool.

The Dead Sea Scrolls are important both for Judiasm and Christianity. For Jews, they are the oldest existing versions of many of the prominent Old Testament books, such as Genesis and Isaiah, as well as a fascinating look into the life of the Qumran Jewish sect that is thought to have planted the scrolls in the clay jars and hidden them in the Qumran caves. For Christians, they are also definitive proof of the accuracy of our current translations of the Bible - the versions of the books contained in the Dead Sea Scrolls are exact, word-for-word copies of what we have (in Hebrew, of course). So the next time someone tells you that the accuracy of the Bible can't be certain because of how many times it's been copied or translated, you can tell 'em to do their research.

It snowed last night about 3 inches up on our mountain. That was surprising and also pretty cool.

Also, the sunset today was fantastic. Nothing like driving by downtown Seattle on I-90 during twilight when all the city lights are just coming on. The Olympics were out in all their glory and made for the perfect backdrop.

Welcome to Our World

Tears are falling
Hearts are breaking
How we need to hear from God
You've been promised
We've been waiting
Welcome, Holy Child
Welcome, Holy Child

Hope that You don't mind our manger
How I wish we would have known;
But long-awaited, Holy Stranger,
Make Yourself at home
Make Yourself at home

Bring Your peace into our violence
Bid our hungry souls be filled
Word now breaking Heaven's silence
Welcome to our world
Welcome to our world

Fragile fingers sent to heal us
Tender brow prepared for thorns;
Tiny heart whose blood will save us
Unto us is born
Unto us is born

So wrap our injured flesh around You
Breathe our air and walk our sod
Rob our sin and make us holy
Perfect Son of God
Perfect Son of God

Welcome to our world

-Chris Rice

Round 1

Interview Round 1 is over. Went okay. We ended up doing things in English instead of German, which, considering the subject matter, was a huge relief for me. I'm going to withhold any specific details about how things went just because it's probably protected information in some way or form and I have a feeling I shouldn't be publishing it all over the internet.

Coming up will be 2-3 hour-long phone conference interviews with the rest of the team. Not sure when exactly.

Again, terrified and excited. Hopefully my restless brain will let me get more sleep these next few days than it did last night (2 hours).

Drumroll...

Fairly slow but nonetheless productive day today. Up at 9, showered, dressed, off to the mall to nail some Christmas shopping. Got maybe half of that done. Off again to pick up sister from school and visit with former German teacher. Back home, time to lay around, play some good ol' fashioned Nintendo 64 (you know, the system that doesn't cause physical injury) and eat dinner.

And now 7pm, with only a couple hours to go before I decide to go to bed in order to be at least somewhat rested in time for my 5am interview. True to form, I'm wound up tight and my heart is beating like a mentally deranged jackrabbit. More irritating than the constant sensation of a caffeine overdose is the equally constant sensation that I am about to toss my cookies. It's unlikely I'll be getting much sleep tonight before the interview.

I need a drink.

*Gasp*

The company in Germany got in touch with me regarding one of the positions I applied for.

They want to do a telephone interview.

::deep breath::

Terrified and excited!

The Perfect Storm

For those of you keeping up with national news over the past week, we've had a horrendous windstorm in Seattle on Thursday night, and since then my mom's house has been without power or heat. It's been miserable, and all I can say is thank God for down comforters and gas burners on the stove. Power is supposed to come back on sometime Sunday night at the latest. Some estimates were running that up to a million people in the Seattle area have been without power over the past few days. It was worse than the storm we had back in the 90s that knocked out power for about 3 days.

I'm now down in Tacoma for the next 5 days or so at my dad's house, so I probably won't be posting much. Got a lot of Christmas shopping and work to do, meaning reading lots of books and white papers for my thesis research.

Lotta Work in Seattle?

Finally waiting at the gate in the Phoenix airport. Phoenix is the first airport I have been in that offers free wireless internet, which gives it a pretty high rating in my book.

They pulled aside and frisked my guitar after I put it thorugh the x-ray machine.

Also, when I got the gate a man who was flying to Oklahoma was sitting next to me. He looked at the guitar and asked,

Man: "You play that thing in Tulsa?"
Me: "The guitar? No, I can barely play it. I'm going to Seattle anyway."
Man: "My nephew, he got hisself a geetar, n' he plays that thing with his buddies in them little clubs and places all over Tulsa. I didn' e'en know he could play."
*short pause*
Man: "There a lotta work in Seattle?"
Me: "What?"
Man: "Work. Lotta work in Seattle? They still buildin' them planes up there?"
Me: "ummm...I think they might have moved some of that to Chicago. Boeing moved to Chicago, anyway. I think they still build there, though."
Man: "Always movin' stuff these days.....movin'...movin'..."
Me: "Yup."
Man: "'spensive, movin all that stuff."
Me: "Yeah." (inner monologue: It's a lot more 'spensive' to leave it where it is.)

In Threes

......And yet another application sent off to Germany for an internship. No word on the other one still outstanding.

Don't You Just Love Procrastination?

So here I am at my desk attempting to study for my supply chain final tomorrow. It's actually pretty pathetic that I'm not already done with it because this is the kind of material that you brain just soaks up really quick. I could be done in like an hour, but do I study? Nope.

On Wednesday I finally get to high-tail it out of Arizona and go back to Seattle. I am so glad that I booked the night flight for Wednesday because it is going to feel soooooo good to just get on the plane, sit back, listen to my iPod, and doze as we fly through the night. I always really, really look forward to that Christmas break flight back to Seattle. I'm hoping that since I'm flying out on the last day of finals and fairly late at night that the plane will be half empty. Night flights are even more awesome when it feels like you're the only one on the plane.

Having completely botched my finance final on Saturday, I only have 3 minor ones left over the next 3 days. I have just enough time in between each of them to cram for the next one. By Wednesday night I should be pretty exhausted. Going home for a whole month without school is going to feel so good - I haven't had a break from school in almost a year. I had Christmas break in Germany and went straight from spring semester there right back to fall semester here. So this month-long respite is much-needed.

I plan to spend the break narrowing down my thesis topic and searching for a director. There will also be countless hours spent by the fire reading books, which I am really really really really looking forward to. Oh and of course visiting downtown Seattle to soak up all the Christmasness. Christmas in Seattle is just awesome, it really is. There's just something really great about it, and I can't put my finger on it. Maybe because downtown Seattle is such a great "walkable" city and it's fun to see all the decorations and of course drink lots of coffee while you do it. I am so looking forward to 30/40-degree weather.

I am also going to be switching over all my bank accounts to Bank of America and *drumroll* getting me first credit card. Me is very excited about finally having a credit score. I figure it makes sense to go to BofA since they have the partnership with Deutsche Bank that lets you draw money out of their ATMS without a transaction fee - which is going to be a huge plus for me next time I go back to Germany.

Still haven't heard from the German company I applied with. They asked me to email them my resume and transcript the other day (HR lost them) so I guess that's a good sign which indicates I'm at least still in the running. Other than that, it's all quiet on the summer internship front and I'm going to be getting antsy if I don't hear anything from anyone by January.

I can't believe fall semester is already over. It's crazy. Just one more semester and then it's summer again...one more semester after that and I will be gradumatated. I'll have two Bachelor's degrees. Insanity! Can't wait to get those sheepskins in my hands. College is great and all, but I am definitely ready to be done and get on with life.

Alright, enough rambling. Business Process Improvement, Metrics, and Performance Appraisal await.

Wal-Mart: Bringing Christmas Back

Wal-Mart has officially earned its way into my good graces. It began when we learned in supply chain management that Wal-Mart's prices, contrary to popular opinion, are not low because they use sweat shop labor; they're low because they are masters of the supply chain. After learning that, my opinion of the retail giant went from negative to neutral.

But Wal-Mart has officially and firmly won its way onto my list of favorite companies with its latest decision to instruct its employees that it's okay to greet customers with "Merry Christmas." The retailer is also explictly using the phrase in its advertising and on its in-store displays.

I applaud the leadership of Wal-Mart and plan to reward them with my business. It is refreshing to see such a major corporate giant throwing political correctness out the window and giving its customers what they really want. If the news report I saw this evening is accurate, over 69% of Americans prefer to hear the term "Merry Christmas" rather than the bland and insulting "Happy Holidays."

And in a country the majority of which is decidedly Christian, why shouldn't they?

Muffins.

Holy. Crap.

December 7, 1941

We're Richie Rich!

Do you guys remember that movie with Mukulay Caulkin (sp?) when we were kids called Richie Rich? For those of you who can't remember, it was about a kid who was basically the son of the richest man in the world and had everything. This movie came out in 1994. There's a scene in the movie where Richie and his friends are at school. "School" consists of each kid sitting behind this huge mahogany desk with a big fancy-looking computer, fax machine, and telephone while being taught by the teacher as he walks around the room. They did all their work, of course, using their computers, which in 1994 was cool enough in and of itself. But the thing that we kids thought was awesome (hey, we were in 4th grade at the time) was that they could pass "notes" to each other using their fax machines. We thought that was the awesomest thing since sliced bread. We NEVER in a million years thought school could possibly be as awesome as it was for Richie Rich. "Wouldn't it be awesome if the real world were that way?" we sighed.

Now, 12 years later, computers in classrooms are the norm. It's odd NOT to see people with them. And we students, even in high school, do most if not ALL of our work on computers - anything written, anyway. Moreover, the advent and popularity of instant messaging and email means that we literally can - and, let's face it, usually are - passing "notes" in class to each other (paperlessly, I might add) without the teacher ever knowing. Just like Richie Rich.

Technology is so flippin' cool. I wanna know how our parents did college without computers.

FINALLY - Sanity Triumphs in the Cell Phone Cancer Debate

Finally, a study that shows at least some people in this world have brains in their heads.

Your cell phone is not going to give you cancer any more than your radio is. Most people believe this nonsense about cell phones causing tumors because they assume that cell phones operate on some high-tech frequency that's bad for your brain. This is absurd. Do you know how your cell phone works? It's a two-way radio. That's it. A radio. Do you have ANY IDEA how many radio waves you're exposed to every day? If radio waves caused cancer, we'd all be dead by now, I assure you.

Man It's a Freakin Good Day

So last month I wrote and submitted an essay on my study abroad experience for an international education organization/magazine. They emailed me today to tell me that I won 2nd prize and that as runner-up I am invited to come to Washington DC with them (all expenses paid) in late March for an advocacy day. We're going to get to meet with members of Congress on Capitol Hill and talk about international education issues. I am so wicked stoked.

And I'm getting published.

Sweeeeeet.

Good Day

It's been a good day, or a good evening anyway. I have been praying for months now to find a church and body of believers here in Tempe that I could get involved with that's close enough to campus so I don't need a car to get there. And tonight my friend Rachel invited me out to a small, still-growing church that she's been to a couple times. I almost didn't go, because I wanted to get some homework and studying done and was honestly just in one of those "I really don't want to talk to God right now" moods. But I went anyway.

Oh man, good thing I did.

I am in love with this church already and I don't even know five people in it. I would never have found it in a million years - it's in the middle of a neighborhood, just a block from Casey Moore's, which is a pub that I've heard a lot about but never been to. Anyway it's this one-building church, and the only room in it is the sanctuary, which holds maybe 60 people. There are two services on Sunday, one in the morning and one in the evening. I ended up at the evening service, of course, and it's almost all ASU students. The teaching was great, the worship was great, and everyone was friendly. The songs were all original and many were written by the church worship leader himself especially for that body...it was just such a breath of fresh air. And it's barely a mile from the apartment. I am so thankful! Praise God for answered prayers!

If you wanna listen to the sermon we heard tonight (or any other night, for that matter) you can find 'em here. Tonight we heard 77.9

Also on the Cool List tonight, a nostalgic picture:

Kopf Hoch!

Hausaufgaben machen, lernen, mit Professoren treffen....hört es denn JE auf? Egal, ich schaff's irgendwie! Nur noch 10 Tage bis Weihnachtsferien (und ich meine Weihnachtsferien, nicht Winterferien!) Nächster Halt: Finanz!

Hau rein!

Richard's Steamer

I found this absolutely hilarious. Be sure to watch till the end.