February

This has been a long time coming, seeing as I haven't written anything in a month! What all has even happened since I wrote last?

First, early in February, there was the Madrigal Dinner at Minnehaha. This annual fine arts fundraiser finds us transforming the gym into a medieval English castle, building a stage upon which the Madrigal singers perform, and creating a kingdom of tables to which choir students dressed as servants flock to serve a four course meal to patrons. Minnehaha hires me back each year to help on it (this is my fourth or fifth, depending how one counts), and, though the week-long adventure was very grueling, tiring, and frankly, draining, the production went quite well. Even those who came on Saturday (the first of the two performance nights, and therefore the most error prone), proclaimed that this year's Dinner was the best ever! This is quite a feat, given that last year was unquestionably the best up to its time, so to think we beat out even that level of perfection is no small task, and thus, somewhat rewarding.

The downside of Madrigals for me is that it comes during the first week of second semester, which means I missed classes Wednesday through Friday of that week, and obviously also didn't have any chance to attempt homework until I got back to school Monday. Almost a month later, I'm still playing catchup in one of my classes. Well, all my assignments have been turned in, it's just a matter now of finishing the assigned readings from this one class from the beginning of the semester. I'm hopeful this or next weekend will see that burden lifted away.

I brought my guitar in to have surgery mid February. Never fear, it wasn't broken, I just decided the time was right for me to finally have a pickup installed. Not that I'll actually be playing into a system anytime soon, but when I finally do get good enough to play for Selah, or church, or whatever, it's nice to know I can just go and do it without having to worry about new installations then. I also bought a strap (so I can play standing up) and finally invested in a hard shell case to protect the guitar better than the wimpy cloth bag it came in–this in itself made me just feel more professional, like I finally had a right to have this instrument.

I've been playing a lot better, and even more important, I'm truly enjoying the time I get to spend "bonding" with my instrument. I truly feel like this is part of God's calling for my life–I'm not sure exactly where it will lead, but I know this will be part of my ministry, and my practice times have sort of taken on the feel like an extra prayer time: a very calming time spent with God in the midst of a far too busy day.

That same Wednesday that I picked up my guitar was Ash Wednesday, and though I didn't realize it at the time, I do think it marked a certain change in my overall attitude. For any number of reasons, I'd been feeling very down since Madrigals, but that day (and since) everything started to really, truly look up again. I had an absolutely wonderful dinner with a new friend from my interim class, followed by two very different, yet very similar Ash Wednesday church services (first at Emmaus, then at Boe), and went to bed feeling as though all would finally be right in the world.

The weekend following saw me spending some number of hours working with Ryan on the Student Congregation website, a site I'd designed for them two years ago but that they never used. Even now, I'm not sure that anything more will be done with it beyond this one update, but thanks to Ryan's motivation and that time we got to spend working together, the site looks better than it ever did, and they'll be promoting it in the Boe services, which means my work will, at least for now, not have been in vain.

The weekend also brought a somewhat scary but most-needed Selah get-together and team-building time. Did I mention before I joined Selah? I'll be helping with slides (not PowerPoint–Microsoft is evil and should disappear; I'm using a different software program). Despite my worries, it was actually a fun time. Scary, yes, since I didn't know a lot of the members, and even though I'm a 'high and mighty junior' myself, I'm still innately shy and easily intimidated by groups of unknown people, even if a lot of them are freshmen. Plus consider that, the way my mind operates, slides has to be about at the bottom of the importance list–Selah worship can easily continue without any electronic media, whereas it can't as easily go on without instrumentalists and vocalists. Thus, intimidation: all these other people are so much more important to the group than little old me. Regardless of the potential lack of real-world logic behind that statement, such is the way my brain functions. In any case, the team building games were actually fun, and it was great to finally meet so many of the people I'll be working with over the next semester.

Later that night Kurt drove up to campus and we went over to Ytterboe to play guitar in the practice rooms–what an amazing night: we spent almost two hours there, and Kurt taught me several new songs and strumming patterns that I'd been anxious to learn, as well as a bit of this foreign idea they call "music theory". It was just plain cool, though, to get to spend time with one of my guitar heros and get to know him even more as a real person.

That Sunday night was my big night, my 'premiere' at Selah: EasyWorship, motion backgrounds, text dissolves, a brave new world of slide presentation. And it went really well. Because of the Oscars party in the Pause we set up everything in the Black and Gold Ballroom instead, which, in my opinion, is a nicer venue, anyway. Having my computer up and running in Windows (blech!), I went through each of the songs' slides with the band as they practiced, fixed typos, and generally prepared to impress the coming crowd. The consensus is that it looked nice and wasn't distracting. Yay! I won't get to run slides every week for Selah, since there are 5 people to rotate through, but I'm glad they were willing to give me this chance to bring something that, in my opinion, is new and really exciting.

One successful production under my belt (well, okay, I counted 12 mistakes, but I'm highly, highly critical and most people noticed only a few, if any), I volunteered to run the lyrics for Thursday Night Bible Study, and since they don't have anyone really in charge of that, it's looking like I'll have the opportunity to do that each week if I want. We went ahead with it last night, and, again, though I counted 5 mistakes, even Adam only caught 2, and he reassured me that, from a worshiper perspective, it looked great.

God gave me my skills, my computer, my past experiences in tech at MA, and access to evertything I needed to pull this together for a reason; now it's time for me to start giving back in the ways that I'm able, and I'm glad to mostly be over that hump of inhibiting worry that always kept me from stepping forward before.

Beginning of the new Semester

You know you're going to have a lot of reading when you sign up for three religion classes, all on Tuesday-Thursdays, but I wasn't expecting one of them to take up an entire shelf's worth of books at the bookstore. Reading aside, though, I carefully chose each of these classes, so I am looking forward to all this reading, despite its sanity-taxing quantity.

Perhaps more importantly, I'm looking forward to these classes themselves. In all of them I have a vested personal interest in the subject material for my own growth as a person and as a Christian, and it will also help having a minimum of two friends in each class (completely unplanned, but a nice bonus). Two of the three professors, from their first day introduction lectures, seem like they'll be of the "great" variety, which will be especially critical for the class that meets at 8:00 am (oh, the pain!). The third teacher will probably be of the "average to good" variety, it's too early to judge. And of course it's worth mentioning the names of the courses: Jesus in Scripture and Tradition, Theology of Creation, Christian Theology and the Moral Life.

And then there's my Math/CS course: Theory of Computation. We started out nice and simple with stuff I knew, or at least sort of understood after taking Linear two years ago, but then we quickly moved to some more complicated things, things I didn't understand. I felt oh-so-much better after the teacher finished some lengthy mathematical statement with funny symbols and words on the board and proceeded to exclaim (in all sincerity) "that's just about as simple as it gets"...

One nice thing about that course is that I know the entire class (sans only one person), and I like the teacher (he's also my advisor, and the one with whom I traveled to India two summers ago). So, people-wise, it's going to be a good class, it's just the subject matter that will be dropping my GPA.

Lastly, I have a phy ed course, which, for as much as I was dreading it, is looking like it will go very well. I don't know anyone else in the class, but the teacher seems like he'll also be of the "really great" calibre; he is clearly very in-tune with what it means to be a student at St Olaf, and it was just amazing for me to hear someone so clear headed and "real" speaking from professor's shoes. It doesn't happen often, at least not to the degree he demonstrated.

Most importantly, more important than any classes, the start of the new semester means my best friends are back from their Global semester abroad! Last semester was a bit of a rough time without them around, so I'm absolutely ecstatic to see them again!

My Lenten Devotion

I wrote this as a contribution for the Lenten Devotion booklet that is put out by the St Olaf Student Congregation:


In the busy-ness of school and work, I too often find myself at a loss for time to spend with just me and Jesus. I'm worrying about earning high marks on homework when I should maybe be focusing a little more on my spiritual life. I'm so busy fussing over how I look to the outside world, how people see me, what they think about me, that I forget to spend time remembering that God loves me just the way I am. I'm so insecure in my daily living, wondering if my friends truly like me or if they're just putting up with me until I go away, that I neglect to pay attention to the voice of the One who never tires of my company, the One who so eagerly longs for the time when I'll return back in prayer.

I go to Church on Sunday, Bible study on Thursday, and I even work part-time at a Christian high school, but still the world has made me feel so far away. And so I pray...

Lord, I ask that You would move in my life again, that You would speak to my heart, my soul
In these days of longing, Lord, I pray to feel Your close presence, to hear Your voice clearly again
I pray, Lord, that You would help me tune out this noisy, distracting world
That You would refocus my energy, my life, into Your service once more
That You might fade away the intrusive pains from my past
And that You would give me the strength to change these mere words into a new day, a renewed life
Amen.

Giving as Jesus Gave

I am now over halfway to being a gallon blood donor, but for the first time yesterday morning after donating, something really amazing finally sunk in with me, something I'd thought about before but not really grasped: I realised just how Biblical it is for us as Christians to donate blood. Human blood is a life-giving substance, and human bodies are the only ones able to make it - for as much else as they might be able to do, we don't have machines that can take the place of a human in blood manufacturing. What makes the donation so Biblical is the amazing parallel between Jesus allowing His blood to be shed in order to save us, and now we, too, are able to bleed to help save the lives of others. I might even argue we are called to do so. What better way to truly be Christ to the world? What an awesome way of serving God and caring for others!

The Year in Review: What 2006 has meant in my life

It's quite odd how life can fluctuate, one day is among the most joyous, and a week later among the most painful. Looking back on the past year I can truly say I've seen the best of times and the worst of times in my life thus far, both on a personal level and in my family as a whole. Rather than try to explain it all in narrative form, I decided it's easier for me as writer to simply write out a list of a portion of what 2006 has meant to me:

- Both Grandma Sue and Grandma Ruth went to live in their eternal Home with Jesus
- Grandpa Ray moved into assisted living
- I worked as Assistant Technical Director for Minnehaha Academy's Madrigal Dinner (www.MinnehahaAcademy.net)
- I finished my second year of college
- Harry Putter auditions began in April, shooting began in June, and we wrapped at the end of August (www.harryputtermovie.com)
- I was an executive producer on the local independent film IceBreaker (www.icebreakermovie.com)
- I wrote a new Technology Request System at Minnehaha from scratch with my newfound skills in PHP and MySQL
- Minnehaha embarked on the voyage of creating a new website... committees happened... we're still working on it as of this writing
- I went on my first ever cruise (it was to the Bahamas)
- I started my third year of college
- Two of my best friends left on a jet plane as part of St Olaf's Global semester abroad (and another went to live in Japan for a year)
- We bought a new used car after my old one died on a freeway entrance ramp (it had been in our family for 13 years, and served us well)
- I was hired to create a website for a local jewelry business (www.mayfairjewel.com)
- God called me to buy a guitar and start learning how to play it
- I moved into my own house a mile away from my parents' (it's a long story to type, but a happy one, so feel free to ask me about it)
- My roommate, Ben, convinced me to buy a new MacBook Pro to replace my PowerBook after he did the same
- I made a number of new friends this year, and greatly strengthened some of my friendships from last year
- I have now finished my foreign language requirement at St Olaf, meaning semester 2, starting in 2007, will be the first time in one and a half years that I won't have a Norwegian class
- I have finished my Computer Science major (except for Senior Capstone next year), and semester 2 will be the first time since I started college that I won't have a Computer Science class (though I guess it could be argued that my Theory of Computation class may be a CS course...)


2006 holds both my fondest memories of my life, and also my darkest and saddest. It's an odd combination, really, but I will always remember this year as a shining highlight in my life; the good has far outweighed the bad.

Groundbreaking

There are a few events each year that seem to exemplify the spirit of what St Olaf is, and I think last Friday's groundbreaking ceremony for St Olaf's new Science Center was certainly one. From the Christ-filled words of the speakers, to the Fram Fram song, to the view of the distant windmill spinning over the science center, the crowd of hundreds of students, adults, alumni, parents, Americans, Norwegians, and more, standing faithfully in the cold to show their support, and the seven symbolic shovels manned by leaders of our community: this is St Olaf.

Happy Thanksgiving!

There's so much to be said, I'm at a loss of where to start. It's really a day that can fit the opening of A Tale of Two Cities well:

It is the best of times: life is really good for most of us, and I'll admit I feel this especially so right now - God has seen me through from my absolute worst low of lows just two months ago and brought me to being "pretty darn good" now. It's also my first Thanksgiving "living on my own" (and trying to deal with the clutter of boxes that contains my life right now).

And yet it is the worst of times: we are a nation at war, and many families are celebrating Thanksgiving while a loved one fights for our nation half a world away. Many other families are celebrating Thanksgiving for the first time without a beloved relative. This will be my family's first Thanksgiving without my two Grandmothers. For the family of one of my friends, this will be their first Thanksgiving without his mother, and for another friend, their first without her uncle.


The Macy's Thanksgiving Day parade just ended with Santa going by on his float (preceded immediately, I'll add, by Christian singer Natalie Grant!), and in my family, that means the official start of the Christmas season. More specifically, it means we are now "allowed" to play Christmas music. The required first song of the season: Mannheim Steamroller's "Deck the Halls". My parents, I'm sure, had the real CD at the ready at their house, and I had my iTunes cued up and standing by, plugged into the speakers on my desk ready to blast out the notes and thus complete the morning.

The one unfortunate part of the opening of the Christmas music season is that KTIS will start playing lots of songs that I like less well. I'm not a fan of most traditional Christmas music, favoring instead some of the more contemporary rock-ish renditions. This is not to say all of the 'old' Christmas songs are bad, I'm just jaded and tired of hearing the same ones over and over year after year, which is why it will be exciting to start branching out to newer recordings by Steven Curtis Chapman, MercyMe, Avalon, Big Daddy Weave, Barlow Girl, the Trans-Siberian Orchestra, et al.

But I digress.

For today, like most other days, I take a moment to pause and remember to live a life of "Thanksliving", rather than one day of "Thanksgiving". Here are just a few of the things I am thankful for each morning when I wake up:

My Mom and Dad and the rest of my loving family
My wonderful friends
My education
My car
My guitar
My nation
My Awesome God

I Voted

Homework done, my studying began late last night, or rather, early this morning, for what ranks among the most important tests I have taken this semester: my vote. Okay, before today, I was passingly familiar with the candidates and issues, but not well enough to consider myself well-informed enough to vote. Huge thanks to my roommate Ben for walking through the important races' candidates and issues with me.

There are so many amazing things about the test I took this morning. For one, it's not graded! I can put whatever answer fits me and know that I'll still get 100%, and if I don't know the answers to some of the questions, I can leave them blank and not be penalized. All tests should be this way.

I woke up early this morning, prayed for friends in need and the election day on the whole, and soon made my way over to Buntrock to get my second-ever little red circle sticker. After re-registering so that I can vote in Northfield instead of having to drive home, I received my ballot and started filling in ovals. Governor, senate, house, and amendments, those were the most important ones, and honestly, I skipped the rest. To me, it doesn't really matter who the new Northfield sheriff is - I don't know anything about the candidates, so it just seems right that I leave that decision to better informed voters. Don't misinterpret what I'm saying here: I do not take voting lightly at all–it's one of the most important rights and duties that we have in this country–, but for me it's only critical that I am able to cast my vote for the races that really matter to me, in other words, the big, non-local races.

The machine scanned my ballot and told me I was voter number 124. Not terrible for 9:30 in the morning. Most importantly, though, I'd made my voice heard, and I got my wonderful sticker to wear proudly all day long. And now, with the polls closed, I pray May God Bless America, no matter what the outcomes are from today's vote.

Good Pain?

It's seemingly an oxymoron, I know, to say there is such a thing as a "good pain", but the slight tingly pain I feel in my fingers is exactly that. Why? Because it comes as a result of learning how to play my beautiful new guitar. It's a very satisfying, moreso than truly painful, feeling, knowing that my fingers worked hard to press down in these newfound contortions that musicians call chords.

I bought my shiny new toy about two weeks ago, and I did a very little bit of independent learning by way of the Internet, but nothing much. And then, yesterday, I had my first real lesson! I owe a huge thank you to Adam for being willing to tutor me, or, more accurately, put up with me :) Mini-lessons included just getting acquainted with the instrument, then tuning (being a non-music major, this gave me challenges), and finally some basic chords, enough to very slowly strum out Amazing Grace. Okay, so I wasn't good at it, but I'll get there eventually. I am bound and determined to make this pretty instrument make equally pretty noises someday.

My First Scripture Reading in Chapel

Last Friday morning was slightly traumatic and yet, in another, more important sense, fulfilling. Last Friday was the first day I've ever read a scripture passage in Chapel. Remembering only my short chapel presentation a year ago as one of five speakers, I came fully expecting to have shaky legs with a moderately shaky voice to match, and of course, since the reading was rather lengthy, I knew my mouth would dry out quickly. Discreetly gulping down as much water as I could, I sat waiting quietly at the front of the make-shift Urness Chapel.

I had no real reason to be nervous, of course. I'd printed out my own 'large print edition' of the reading (which was now waiting patiently for me within the Bible on the podium), and I'd rehearsed several times - mostly silent lip synching, but once out loud, too. And I'd already done a sound check with the microphone, so I knew what to expect when I started reading out loud again.

Now, I really do like speaking in front of people, but this was a brand new crowd of mostly unfamiliar faces to me. In all honesty, the previous Wednesday had been the first day this year I'd gone to chapel, and I only went because my former psychology prof was speaking. Why had I now been asked to accept this privilege of reading in front of everyone? I knew I couldn't screw up; I did not want to make a fool of myself, not here, not in front of these people. Today I needed to make a good impression, today I needed to try my best to offer some semblance of actually appearing intelligent.

All told, the reading went just fine. My over-the-top nervousness ahead of time disappeared once I was at the microphone - at that point the previously almost overwhelmingly worrisome task became almost routine; "you've read out loud before, and you're a good sight reader, and for goodness sake, you've practised this text, to boot!" is what I told myself. My mouth did run quite dry (I'm sure it didn't help that I had not fully re-hydrated from giving blood several days before), but somehow I made it through, and in the aftermath actually received several compliments from friends saying I'd done just fine. In short, all my worries had been for naught. Thank you, God.