So I like starting a lot of my sentences with "So...," which has really begun to irritate me. Not only is it stale, I'm pretty sure it isn't grammatically correct. Speaking of grammar, my music theory professor said something awesome.
"Something awesome."
Okay, just kidding. I wouldn't do that to you.
"Up from what [note] did you come from to get to C? Oh, wow. That's some crazy Yoda syntax there." --Professor Rasmussen
Besides music theory being AWESOME (more on that in the Circle of Fifths, below), Greek is coming along quite quickly. The past week and next week are throwing my teacher off, because of the two Fridays she'll miss, but we've just covered personal pronouns, contracting omega-verbs, and now we learned the third declension nouns today. I think my brain is going to explode.
In other news, there was guy playing the bagpipes in the parking lot a couple weeks ago! Well, I suppose it could have been a girl, but bagpipes are such masculine instruments. Assumptions, Joseph. Bad.
On the topic of the parking lot, I get to school a few minutes before 9 A.M. three days a week, and my spot is always available--the closest one to the crosswalk. Today it wasn't. Grrr. It's not that I have any sort of attachment to this spot, you see, but it's just that it gives me some excellent practice at parking straight, since this particular spot is pretty uneven, since it conjoins the sidewalk with the rest of the parking lot. Weird. Also, it doesn't have a, uh... What are those things called? The things on the ground that prevent you from pulling forward into the wall (or down the grassy hill, in my case)? Parking curbs? Yeah, well, this spot is not only crooked, but it lacks that curb thing! It always freaks me out when I park there. What if my car rolls down the hill? What if the parking break doesn't work?
My library card has something going on. I apparently have a $0.45 fine, but I don't think that's what's allotted me a library hold. Maybe it's because I'm an "adult" now, though I was pretty certain that I already had an adult card... not that it's much different. I think the fines just increase, since maturity and responsibility come with age, RIGHT?
I completely understand why some women enjoy wearing pantyhose. Now, just give me another sentence to explain myself, reader, and don't you go drawing any conclusions here! I accidentally put on a pair of dress socks (you see, going to my great-uncle's funeral on Saturday and church on Sunday makes for a different set of clothes I wear), and they made me feel classy. In my tennis shoes. Black socks, blue tennis shoes... I can pull it off.
Something I'll probably tell you if we ever talk for a while is that I'm weird. Eccentric, if I were rich.
If I were a rich man I'd have the time that I lack
to sit in the synagogue [church!] and pray
and maybe have a seat by the Eastern wall!
And I'd discuss the holy books with the learned men,
several hours every day--
that would be the sweetest thing of all!
I do this weird thing where I optimize my walking efficiency. Whether that's employing different tactics I'd picked up from cross country about navigating hills, or being quick to sidestep through crowds, or simply to pick the most efficient route through a room, I've always been able to navigate well on my feet. (Why has this same trait not characterized the way I am productive in my daily worship??) I count stairs, since I dislike taking stairs uphill one at a time, and I've gotten fairly good at predicting whether an architect chose an odd or an even number of stairs to number the first flight, since they often switch off-- odd-even-odd-even. It's fascinating. Trust me--go try it.
Word of advice: Don't go down staircases two steps at a time.
You understand, reader, how we as humans enjoy our beautiful faces so much that we build and incorporate them into pretty much everything. Cars... yeah. I can't think of anything else right now. Anyways, my car does not smile. In fact, it looks almost like a flat-mouthed scowl, with its headlights drawn low with the hood furrowing its brow...but she's my darling.
I really DISLIKE the way the cursive capital "P" looks. It's really hard to sign my name without making my last name look really odd.
The Circle of Fifths! Now, this thing is truly amazing. I know, I know. It's a man-made instrument, tailored to Western music. But that doesn't take away from its awesomeness! The deal with the circle of fifths is that it helps you understand and predict how many (and even where, maybe) sharps/flats a key will have. I'm not sure if it only works for the major scales, or if it works for the minor scales too, but nonetheless, I'm very impressed. Good job, humanity. And God, music is lovely, as always, and I'm still practicing the hymns I know!
Speaking of praising men and God. I'm having serious problems coming to grips with free-will, culpability, determinism, and God's sovereignty. Obviously God is the ultimate and prime mover behind all things, which as a Christian, I know to be for His own glory and for the good of His children. And I can understand that all of our actions, good and evil, are only secondary causes for the things we affect. This leaves culpability in the hands of the condemned, who, with our sinless forefather Adam, fell from perfection. Original sin thus brings ultimate condemnation, but what of immediate retribution and justice? Thus, God ordains the civil magistrate to enact and enforce laws (which must abide by the standard of God's law and holiness to be just laws), for the protection and justice of the people. If a man rapes a woman, he is doubtless condemned to hell by the primary cause (the Creator and Judge of all), as is the default setting for all fallen men, but he (the secondary cause and secondary mover) is also liable to immediate punishment by the secondary judge based on his physical crimes.
After all, we don't feel like puppets. And the "devil/God made me do it" line surely won't work in an American court of law to ease culpability. This is the way things are, but God is in control. The contrary is impossible, and so is the thought that God could be anything but all-good, all-powerful, all-knowing, all-present.
I'm going to die. That much is certain. I can only pray and hope and strive to worship God as earnestly and as all-fully as I can. I don't think that's a word, but that's about what "[love the LORD your God] with all your might" (Deuteronomy 6:5) means. With EVERYTHING. After doing ten reps of the incline press, it's doing those extra sets. After a day of work, it's going the extra mile to make friends out of enemies. After running ten miles, it's going back and running alongside your staggering friends, encouraging them with the few gasps of air that you can manage through a dry tongue and a pair of sore lungs. After being stoned and left to die, it is standing up and waltzing back into Jerusalem. After dying, it is the resurrection.
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