It's Christmas Time!

It's Christmas time at Bob Jones!

Classes have finished. Finals are done. And all the students have scattered in their different directions.

It is December 17th, and earlier this morning at 10:40 a.m. chapel at BJU dismissed and several thousand students threw their bags in a vehicle and drove away.

I was excited to finish the semester, but somehow not quite as excited as I was when we were approaching Thanksgiving break. And I think that that is because I was so burned out before Thanksgiving break. But still, I'm pretty excited to be done with this semester. :)

I was a really good semester, I had some easier classes that allowed me to focus better on some of my harder classes, like Greek and English. Photography and Logic were probably my two easiest classes. I think that it's pretty obvious why Photography was easy, I had already previously learned most of what they were teaching on my own, so that wasn't much of a challenge. Logic though, is a bit puzzling why it would be an easy class. Well it was easy because if you didn't get anything lower than a "B" on a test then you didn't have to turn in the homework, and that was a huge blessing, because I could understand how to do the problems when he explained it in class, so I didn't have to spend any time outside of class doing homework for that class. I could have gotten a better grade in the class if I had actually studied for it, but I chose to rather spend time studying for other
classes, and considering I already had 97% in the class, without studying, I didn't really see much need to improve on that. Amazing class though, it makes me want to switch to a Math or Physics major, because I just love how math works together and how things fit, if done correctly. (Logic has a lot of math involved in it.)

Greek and English on the other hand were quite a bit more of a challenge than Logic or Photography. I managed to do pretty well, but I'm glad that I had enough time to devote to them. I ended with a solid "A" in Greek, and then a decent "B" in English.

English was an interesting class. I was in 103 this semester, Composition and Literature. Ah, literature…. I really came into the class with a positive outlook. I wanted to like this class, I really did. But it was hard to do that. I don't really enjoy reading fiction to begin with, but I read the assignments and most of them were fine. Although I can't say that I particularly enjoyed the really weird ones, or as my teacher called them, "memorable" ones. "Miss Brill," "Paul's Case," "Araby," and "The Destructors" are a few that come to mind. "The Destructors" took the cake as far as pointlessness goes. (Look it up and read it if you want.)

But anyway, the part that really made it hard for me to enjoy was when we would read into the poems or short stories further than the author even intended. Like for example in "We Real Cool." by Gwendolyn Brooks.


We real cool. We
Left school. We

Lurk late. We
Strike straight. We

Sing sin. We
Thin gin. We

Jazz June. We
Die soon.


Nice poem. But why is the "We" on the line above, and not on the line that it's supposed to be on? Well according to the teacher that is so that the very last line "Die soon." doesn't have a "We" which signified the aloneness in death. When we die it doesn't matter what we did, or what friends that we had. It doesn't matter that we were "real cool" we are still going to die alone. So, it's a warning against the gang mentality because they thrive on their friends.

Now, I can see why you might say that, it even makes sense (which is a whole lot better than some times).
But….
That's not what the Author said that it means. According to the author the reason that she designed it that way was so that you would have to stop after the "We." The purpose wasn't to remove the "We" from the last line, that was just a side effect of the main purpose. "The 'We'—you're supposed to stop after the 'We' and think about their validity." (Taken from "An Interview with Gwendolyn Brooks" in Contemporary Literature")

So, that kind of thing bugged me some, but I got over it. :)

I'm still glad that I had to take the class and I still managed to learn from it. If nothing else it taught me that as a left-brained individual living in a right-brain dominated world, I'm going to have to realize that most people's minds don't work the same way that mine works. :) And that's the way God designed the world, so I'm not going to complain about it, I’m going to praise Him for it.

Anyway, I really enjoyed all of my classes, even English (though a few things bothered me, it was very good overall). And it was an excellent semester with much profit.

I'm glad that I can be in Florida now though getting to do some of the things that I don't have time for at school. :)

Z Bogiem!
Tim

Record Breaking Week

I'm a guy who likes to keep records. I like to keep track of things and see when I can break them. Like keep track of how many dates I can go on in a semester, or how few hours of sleep I can run on without crashing, or how many hours I can clock in at work in a week, stuff like that.
Well, Sunday, Nov. 8th began a week in which I would break 3 personal records. (And some how manage to survive the week relatively unscathed.)

All of the records had to do with work, I would set a new record for the most hours clocked in during a school week, the fewest hours of sleep required to function for a full day, and the most nights worked in a row.

Previous records

Most hours worked during a school week: 24:58 hours

Fewest hours of sleep yet still able to function for the whole day: 3:05 hours

Most night shifts in a row worked: 3 nights

New records

Most hours worked during a school week: 37:01 hours

Fewest hours of sleep yet still able to function for the whole day: 2:40 hours

Most night shifts in a row worked: 5 nights

Now, you might ask, "How did that happen?" It wasn't too difficult actually. Going into the week I knew that it was going to be a busy with work, but that just seemed to be the way that everything fell in place.

I normally have 20 hours, but this week I had to fill in for traffic for people who were training for intersection traffic, so that's 4 extra hours. Then I did night watch one day which is another 4 hours. Then two people specifically asked me if I could sub for them on Saturday, so that's two more 4 hour shifts. (Actually the one guy had an 8 hour shift that he wanted to give me, but I said that I could only do half of it. Otherwise I would have had 12 hours on that Saturday. :\ He found a sub for the other 4 hours though. )

So, if you've done the math, you'd see that that is 16 more hours that I normally don't have. So, that makes 20+16 which equals 36, and then an extra hour is time added up from the beginning of shifts, because the four hour shifts are really more like 4 hours and ten minutes, because I get there a little early to set up and get into position. But anyway, that is how I managed to get 37 hours in a single week.

How did I end up only getting 2 hours and 40 minutes of sleep though? Well on Tuesday night I was working night watch and that goes from 11 p.m. to 3 a.m. Then I went to night watch breakfast which adds another half hour or so to that. Then also, Tuesday night was a mess as far as weather goes, it was cold, raining, and windy, because of the nearby tropical storm, so I got drenched, from both the rain and my sweat because I was wearing a raincoat which doesn't breath.

So, yeah I was sweaty, nasty and cold, not a good combination. Since I wasn't really super excited about going to bed like that I decided to get a shower after I got back from nightwatch breakfast. I got back from nightwatch breakfast at 3:35 a.m. and then hopped in the shower to get clean. After my very hot, refreshing shower I snuggled in bed and set my alarms for 6:30.

Right after setting my alarm I noticed the time, 3:50 a.m. Then I thought to myself, "So, you basically have two and a half hours to sleep before you have to get up again to go to breakfast then traffic, then classes." "Also, you have classes until 1, and then work from 1 until 4. So, if you do get a nap it won't be until later in the afternoon. And even then, you have to study for your big Pentateuch test tomorrow, and then your Greek test the day after. So, you probably won't get a nap at all."

I wasn't able to get a nap, but by God's grace he allowed me to stay awake for all my classes and chapel, and even that afternoon when I was studying for my tests. It took some doing, but God did it. By 9 that night I looked pretty rough. I was so looking forward to going to bed that night it wasn't even funny. (Even though it was only going to be for 3 and a half hours because I worked that night too.) I went to bed that night right after prayer group at 10:45 and by the time the 11 o'clock bell rang I was already deep in slumber. And when I woke up at 2:30 to go to work again, I actually felt refreshed and ready to go. I think that somehow the Lord compacted 7 hours of sleep into those 3 and a half. :)

Then I was tried, but still fine for that whole day until I was able to get a glorious, full 7 and a half hours of sleep that night. It was amazing!

Then, finally working the night shift for 5 days in a row. This isn't nearly as intricate as the previous paragraph, but that's good. Anyway, I normally work Sunday night, Monday night, and Wednesday night. But I subbed for a guy for the previous Saturday night, which gave me Sat, Sun, and Mon nights in a row. Then I worked night watch on Tuesday night, so that connected Sat, Sun, and Mon nights with Wednesday night, making Sat, Sun, Mon, Tues, and Wednesday nights all in a row. I figured it out, and I got about 18 hours of sleep in those 5 nights put together, averaging out to be about 3:36 hours of sleep a night. A bit rough, but doable.

Well... All in all, a very memorable week. Busy, but good. (And to tell you the truth, I've been busier with school work some weeks.) And don't feel sorry for me, I bring this upon myself. If I didn't want to work 5 nights in a row, I'm quite sure that I probably could have gotten a sub, but I didn't because I wanted to see what working 5 nights in a row feels like. But yeah, don't feel sorry for me, I love my job. I wouldn't give up this job for any other job on campus.

This is Tim. I hope that you enjoy your night's sleep.

Thanksgiving Break!

I am so glad that it is Thanksgiving break.

At the time of this writing, I am in a vehicle packed with 8 college students on the freeway heading south. Heading down to Woodardsville where we will stay for the 6 days that comprise the Thanksgiving break.

For the past two weeks I've really been struggling to keep my head above the school work waters. By God's wonderful grace I have been able to hol

d things together until now, but I'm not sure how much longer I could have lasted. I know that God planed for this break and He's going to use this time to allow me to recharge and refresh.

There are several factors that have made these past two weeks quite stretching. First, Greek really seemed to pick up the pace and it's been taxing to devote the time to understand the lessons and learn the vocab. Not to mention the fact that we meet 4 times a week, so basically, I am having to spend probably about an hour of my study time every evening working on Greek homework alone. At least I am also taking Logic, which takes almost no time to study for. Logic has a really nice setup because if you have an "A" in the class, then you don't have to turn in the homework, which is super nice because, I can understand the concepts when he gives the lectures in class, so I don't need to spend any time outside of class doing Logic problems.

The other thing that has been taxing on my time has been work. I'm not really sure quite how it happened, but for the past 4 weeks I've had consistently more than 20 hours. This past week I had 31, and the week before that I had a record breaking 37 hours. (I have a different blog post dedicated to that week.) But the point is, I've had a lot of work recently, which has been taking away from my time and my sleep.

Last week was one of the hardest week that I've been through in a very long time. I honestly never even considered suicide, but I did think about how easy it would be to just go down to west gate--that's where public safety keeps all their equipment and stuff--and taking one of the guns and just simplifying my life by a great deal. And I think about how wonderful it would be to be in heaven, and not have to worry about school, or relationships, or anything anymore. I would be in heaven, and I would see Jesus, and I would be able to sing wonderful praises to his name. I would be able to sing with a voice far more beautiful that I could even imagine. It would be amazing.

But then I stop myself, and get back to work. Knowing that if God wanted me to take the easy way out then he would allow me to somehow die in a tragic accident or something. I definitely would not take my own life.

But, to the point. I was feeling really tired, frustrated, and just plain feeling down one evening when I was coming back from studying at the library. And on my way in I checked the night mail pile like I always do, not that I expect anything, but just incase. And to my surprise I had a small note. So, I opened it and it was a note from Sarah, just telling me that she was praying for me, and that she knew that I had been having a hard time with work and people and other stuff. I seriously almost cried when I read that note. I plopped down in my chair at my desk and prayed to God and thanked Him for the amazing friends that He has blessed me with.

That one short note brightened my whole week. Just to know that I'm not going it alone.

So yeah, I've been burned out, and this break is going to be an amazing time to recharge.

Looking forward to it!

School update

 Well, this is my first time posting a real post via the E-mail feature, so we'll see how it goes.

 

I haven't written anything on here since school started so I'll start all the way from the beginning when I came up to BJ for IST (In Service Training). All public safety workers have to come back to school early for training, 1 week for freshmen, and 2 weeks for returning students. So, as a returning student I came up to school in the middle of August to beginning my training. Even though I worked over 120 hours in that 2 week period before school, I wasn't nearly as busy as I am when school is in session. I checked out a few books from the Library to read in my spare time. All of the books that I read were beneficial in at least some respect (non-fiction books). My favorite though, was The Five Love Languages which was recommenced to me by a friend during the summer.

 

Although I was greatly enjoying absence of school work, I was still excited for school to start up. Classes started well, albeit extremely fast. I can remember that every semester it seems that after only one week of classes, and I get down in the routine, it feels as though I've been at school for ages already.  Now, half way through, I'm still doing well in classes, could be doing better in English, but that should change soon. :) Photography, Logic, and Greek are all going extremely well.

 

I am in Photography Fundamentals, (Pho 100) which is my easiest class by far. I am miles ahead of anyone else in that class. Since, as an entry level class, most of the students have had little to no experience with DSRLs, whereas I have had my own since May 2008 and have been researching photography since February earlier that year. Our teacher, Mr. Block, has called me the "assistant teacher" on several occasions, and I have had a couple different people from my class stop me on the sidewalk and ask me a question about an assignment. :P It's fun. It is very fun, and even though the book work is stuff that I've known for a long time, I am still learning in the class, through the various assignments that we have. When I get off campus, I plan on uploading my pictures that I have been taking for the assignments.

 

I have been staying very busy so far this year, but God has been gracious, and has allowed me to keep things under control.

 

Work has been interesting. I have been working a lot at the welcome center so far this semester. I have 20 hours a week scheduled normally, but for the past 3 weeks I have subbed into an extra 4 hour shift, so it's been keeping me busy. Last week I got 30 minutes short of 25 hours, half of that time was between 11 at night and 7 in the morning. But I'm enjoying it. I love my job! I am so glad that I chose Public Safety over say the dinning common, or custodial, or any other on-campus job. The job itself isn't necessarily "fun," because of the pressure and the stress. There is quite a looming responsibility when working as a Public Safety Dispatcher. But I enjoy the job so greatly because I know that I am learning so much from this job. Not only am I learning problem solving techniques, and other valuable life skills, I am also being trained as a 911 dispatcher. If I were to work for the police department, or EMS as a 911 dispatcher, I would already have an excellent head start on training over someone else who had never worked as a dispatcher of any kind.

 

Well I guess girls is the next topic at hand since I've touched on everything else that I can think of. No girlfriend yet. *parents breathe a sigh of relief* And none on the near horizon either. I suppose that could change quickly, but several things would have to happen before that. One being a phone call with my parents getting their advice.

But anyway, even though I am very busy with school and work, I have been able to find time to have a social life. On Oct. 3rd, I went on my first dating outing which was not my own society's outing. Charity Taft was the girl who asked me to accompany her on the Ambassador's dating outing. The main attraction was horse back riding, but since everyone couldn't go at once, they had games organized to keep everyone who wasn't riding busy. The games were quite enjoyable. I had heard about the legendary "hand-holding games" that people play on dating outings. I must say though, it did feel weird when we joined hands to participate in the first hand holding event. Having never held a girl's hand before (aside from my sister's) it was a new and enjoyable experience to me. Charity's hand was a great deal softer than I was expecting, but I'm sure that was due to my inexperience in this area. Although holding Charity's hand felt weird at first, after a while I got over that, and I realized that hand holding is quite enjoyable, and something which I wish to pursue sometime. Like, when I'm married. ;) The rest of the day was enjoyable as well, especially the horse back riding. We were able to ride the horses on a train in the woods for about 20 minutes. I hadn't ridden a horse since I was probably 7 years old or so, and even then I can barely remember it, so this was basically the first time that I've really ridden a horse, so it was a lot of fun.

 

I'm going on another dating outing here soon. (Oct. 17th) Jessica set me up with one of the girls in her society, so that should be fun. :) Other than that I've had several other dating opportunities, such as artist series, a performance hall play, and a couple vespers. But I shan't bore you with details, so I'l simply say that they all went quite well, and leave it at that.

 

Well then, let me try this E-mail update thing, hopefully with success. :)

 

Tim Petersen

Life at 100 mph

Life at the Woodard's house is never quiet.

Let me recap what has happened since I got back from Alaska a little over a week ago.

I landed in Tampa international airport at 2:13 p.m. Friday, July 31st. Traffic was creeping along so it was 4:00 p.m. before I got to the Woodard's house. I took my stuff in and said "Hi" to everyone, then pretty much went straight to work jogging coupons. Unpacking and stuff like that had to wait until later that night. I finished working around 10 p.m. and got my clothes out that I was going to sleep in. Checked e-mail, and Facebook, then uploaded some pictures and went to bed. Having traveled all day, then working for several hours on top of that, meant that I was feeling very tired. Not to mention the fact that I only slept for 2 hours during the night before. Tired I was.

Saturday was pretty much filled with coupons. I filled out orders for almost 10 hours. Gaaaaaa… Mind numbing. But anyway.
I ate meals and caught up with friend on Facebook in my spare time.

Sunday wasn't much of a day of "rest." After church I worked another 6 ½ hours on filling orders and jogging. Before I was able to unpack from my Alaska trip, so that I could pack for camp, because I honestly hadn't had time to do it before. I was up till 2:45 a.m. working on coupons and getting things ready for camp.

Monday, we got up at 5:30 a.m. so that we could leave by 6. It was a long, 9 hours and 43 minutes later before we arrived at camp.

Camp was fun. I was working the week as a volunteer op-staff guy, so I got to wash lots of dishes, and do some yard work, and cleaning, and setting up, and tearing down. Fun stuff. It wasn't all work though, I did get to do fun things too. I got to climb the rock wall, I didn't make it to the top, but it was fun none the less. I played in some of the games, I unicycle around the rollerblading area, and I went tubing in the lake. I'll put pictures of facebook sometime, they'll be able to better show what I did.

Overall, it was a very good week, the messages were excellent, the work wasn't miserable, and the company was quite pleasant. I've been pretty much planning on working there next summer for a long time now, but I officially picked up an application while I was there, so that I may officially apply, so that I might be officially accepted. So, unless something drastic happens, that's where I'll be working next summer.

We got back from camp yesterday (Saturday) at around 7:15 p.m. then we went back out to eat and then got home about 8:00 p.m. I started work, sorting coupons and jogging until a quarter past midnight, after which I checked my e-mails that accumulated over the past week. Yey.



Started tomorrow, (Monday) I'm going to work over at the Coupon Clipper's office, filling orders and stuff. It'll be intense. Hopefully I'll be able to get everything done that I need to before Friday when I leave for college. :O

Life at Woodardsville never slows down, so you've got to learn to run faster, or go mad trying. ;)

Tim

My first experience with amnesia

The stage opens with me getting up and out of bed at 7:30 on Monday, the 20th of July. I am at my aunt and uncle's house in Wasilla, Alaska. Uncle Mark left for Anchorage for business earlier that morning, Aunt Cindy and cousin Stephanie just left for the gym, so I'm home alone with the dogs and cat.

I get up and have a bowl of cereal for breakfast, then Facebook. I hadn't had time to go through my pictures yet, so I spent some time looking at them and choosing all the ones that I wanted to upload. I was going through my pictures and catching up with all my friends on Facebook until Steph and I went over to Grandpa Pete's house and talked with him for a while and then played some pool. It was a fun game, neither Stephanie or I are very good, but we had a fun time anyway. On the way to Grandpa Pete's Stephanie bought me a Latte. I had told her that I didn't care for coffee, but she said that I had to try a Latte, because it's mostly milk anyway, and doesn't have a strong coffee flavor. So anyway, we're at Grandpa Pete's playing pool and sipping our Lattes, which are not that bad by the way, definitely better than any other coffee product that I've had. After our round of pool Grandpa Pete showed us his workshop that he's been working on. Then we departed for the ice rink.

Stephanie is an excellent skater. She has won trophies and tournaments and stuff. Whereas, I can just skate, forwards, and that's about it. So, Steph and I were at the skating rink, and we met up with two of Stephanie's cousins. (My cousin's cousin, but not my second cousin.) We all had a fun time skating around and playing tag and just having a great time. There weren't very many people at the rink at all, 4 people other than our group, so we pretty much could do anything that we wanted. Tag was fun, I never was able to catch Stephanie, she can skate circles around me any day of the week. :P

We finished playing tag and I was just skating around, and I must have fallen. I don't remember falling, but I must have. I remember sitting on the bench… with an icepack…. I couldn't remember what the time or date were. I looked at my watch: Monday, 20th of July. I remember thinking, "Monday, the 20th. So, I'm done with fishing. I'm staying with Uncle Mark and Aunt Cindy… Monday… I've only stayed with them one night then…. Wait. 20th? Yeah, ok. So, I'm still in Alaska, I haven't gone up to Grandpa Art's farm. Monday… yeah, Steph and I played pool this morning…, and I had a Latte? Wait, no. That was a dream, I didn't have a Latte. No, wait, I did. I remember Stephanie getting a picture of me with my Latte. Yeah. That was this morning. When is it? Oh, it's the 20th. That's right, it's Monday. 20th of July. I'm done with fishing. I'm leaving on the 30th? Yeah, that's right. I drove up from Ninilchick yesterday. That's right. I kept looking at my watch, and at the pictures on my camera. I also kept reaching for the candy bar in my pocket which I picked up at Grandpa Pete's. I was checking to make sure that it wasn't a dream.
That sort of thought process kept going on for a while, I'm not sure how long. I must have fallen at around 1:15 because I have a picture of me with an icepack to my head taken at 1:21.

I don't remember returning my skates, I don't remember driving back, I don't remember coming back in the house. I do remember that on the way home Stephanie kept asking me if I needed to see a doctor. I kept saying that I was fine, I think. I remember looking at my watch, 2:00. I remember Aunt Cindy asking me what I wanted for lunch, I remember sitting down at the table, but I can't remember what I had to eat. I went downstairs and showed my cousin's cousins my juggling and rubik's cubing. I juggled 3 ball mills mess, Rubenstein's revenge, Factory, Chops. Then I picked up two more balls and juggled 5 ball cascade. I can't remember if I did well, but I remember that it was fun to juggle again. Then I solved the rubik's cube. 1:16 min:sec the first solve, 48 seconds the second solve. Then we came upstairs and Jayden (one of Stephanie's cousins) showed us her violin playing skills, she was pretty good for a 7 year old.

At 3:00 p.m. the whole morning seemed like a dream, I knew that it really happened because I kept looking at the pictures that I took on my camera. But it was weird, it really just seemed like a dream. I'm pretty sure that I was acting rational and reasonable, but I don't really remember what I was doing. A little before 4 o'clock, I went out on the porch and Stephanie was in one of the chairs relaxing, I asked her what she was doing, and she said that she was just relaxing until Dad (Uncle Mark) came out and told her to paint something. I kept talking to her, and sure enough, 5 minutes later Uncle Mark came out and asked her to paint some round wood things for the yard. I went out and helped her paint the "stepping stones." And then from then on I can remember things like normal. I can remember painting the wooden boards, and everything after that. But the whole morning is kind of fuzzy, but I think that I remember it pretty well now though. I can remember playing pool, but from the time we left for the ice rink, to the time we got home is a little fuzzy. And I don't remember falling at all.

It was weird. I feel fine now. I've been fine from about 4:00 p.m. yesterday. Other than some pain on the left side of my head, I feel perfectly normal. I had a headache yesterday, but it wasn't a bad one. Several people told me to take pain medication, but I generally try to stay away from Ibuprofen, or Tylenol, or stuff like that unless it really, really hurts, and there's no other option.


So, I'm fine now, it still hurts a little to chew, because my jaw hurts on the left side. Other than that, I feel great. I want to go skating again though, because I can't remember what skating feels like. :P

Well that's all for now, I'm having a great time chilling with Stephanie. :P

Tim

It's all over

When the fish are gone, it's all over.

Well, my fishing season is done, finish, skoińczony.
As far as fishing goes it was a terrible season, the fish just didn't show up. I don't really know what else to say. No one is really sure why there weren't very many fish, it's just a cyclical thing that happens sometimes.

It's not like there aren't any fish, just not very many where we were. Over at Bristol Bay, where I fished last year, they had an excellent season. And there is supposed to be a strong pink salmon run starting in a couple weeks. So, there are fish, but just not where we were fishing.

We fished in Prince William Sound. At first we did a couple weeks of gill netting and caught very little, then we switched to seining (different type of fishing) and did that for about a week and a half, and caught even less. But that's just the way it is. The Lord gave, and the Lord hath taken away; blessed be the name of the Lord. (Job 1:21)

I don't know how much money I made yet, but it's not going to be very much. After paying for my plane ticket and other expenses, I'll still come out in the positives, but probably not as high as I would have if I had just had a regular 40 hour a week job. So, I'm feeling a little disappointed. Disappointed that I won't be able to buy some of the stuff that I was really hoping that I would be able to buy. But when I look back and think of the spiritual victories that God has given me this summer, then I know that it was God's will for me to come here and work. I may have earned less money than I would have earned working at Burger King, and I may have had less fun than I would have had if I worked at The Anchorage, but God taught me some things that I wouldn't have learned anywhere else. He needed to take me away from the internet, from electricity, from people, from the civilized world, so that He could have my full attention.

Why didn't God teach me the lessons I needed to learn, and still give me a profitable fishing season? To be honest, I don't really know. I don't know why He allowed this year and last year both to be poor seasons for me. I don't know, but I know He has a reason. And I also know that according to God's promise in Romans 8:28 it's going to work out for good. My job isn't to know "why" but to simply trust that God's knows "why."
At any rate, this is my last fishing season, my last year of torture. :P
It's funny, about a week ago, Rick was telling us about one of his friends that he brought fishing with him years ago. And Rick said to him, "If you get excited when you see a fish jump, and if you get excited when you see the fish come aboard, then you'll enjoy it. But if the fish jumping doesn't really do anything for you, then it's going to be a long season." After two days Rick's friend said to him, "Rick, I think that it's going to be a very long season." I find that very funny because that is exactly what I figured out a couple weeks earlier. Fishing seems to be a long harder for me than the other guys, they seem to actually enjoy it, whereas, well. . . if you've read my blog much recently, you know how I feel about it. They get a rush when they see a fish jump out of the water, whereas I really don't think that I could care less. But, anyway, praise God that's it's over. :D
It's not that I don't like work, I love my job on Public Safety at school. And I am really looking forward to hopefully working at The Anchorage camp, I just don't think that I was cut out for fishing and the boat life. I am, however, very thankful that I had this job for two years, I learned a whole lot, saw things here in Alaska that I wouldn't have been able to see, and experienced some many different things that I never would have experienced anywhere else. So, praise God that I had this job, but praise Him even more than I'm done with this job. :P

So what now? Well, I'm leaving on the 30th, so until then I'm planning on visiting my relatives up here in Alaska. All my family on my dad's side is up here in Alaska, so I'm hoping to visit some of them. Probably spend the majority of the time with my grandfather on his farm. :)

The tentative plan right now is, first, hitchhike down to Ninilchik to get one of my bags and some camera equipment that I left there. Spend the weekend down there and say goodbye to the people at the church. Then on Monday I'll hitchhike up to Anchorage, then get a ride from my uncle Mark and aunt Cindy and stay with them for a couple days before heading up to my grandfather's farm.

That's kind of the plan, like I said it's a tentative plan so it's not set in stone, I still have to make quite a few phone calls.

I'm just so glad I'm done. I've been looking forward to this day for a very long time. I'm so thankful that it's finally here. God kept me by his grace. Thank you dear Lord, my strength and my redeemer.

Tim

College life: Second Semester

About two weeks ago I was thinking about college and my most resent semester. Then I realized that I never wrote about my second semester on my blog. I wrote about my first semester, but I neglected to write a review of my second semester, so I'll write one now.

My second semester started off very well. I can remember stepping out of the van and feeling great to be back on Bob Jones soil.

The second semester started up much faster than the first. I felt sorry for all the new freshmen who were starting on the off-semester. Classes started up pretty quickly, but it wasn't nearly as daunting, having gone through it already before.

Let me tell you a little about my classes, most of them were continuations from the previous semester, but I had a few new ones.

English 102, Composition and Grammar:
This was a pretty heavy class, with the big research paper, and all of the other various writing that we had to do. Some of my most frantic memories were made while writing my research paper.

History of Civilization, 2nd semester:
Most people dread this class, but I actually kind of liked it. It's not that hard of a class if you put the time in. But most often that is the challenging part.

Fundamentals of Performance Studies:
Very fun class, Similar to Freshman Speech, but more focused on the performing aspects. You get to know and become friends with the people in your speech classes better than you do in most of your other classes.

Computer Applications, 2nd semester:
Ah, the only class that I didn't have to work extremely hard to got a good grade. Most people find this class either very easy, or extremely challenging, depending on if they "get it" or not. I "got it" so I was able to do well and even help some of the others who were having a hard time with it. I helped a total of 10 of my friends on different occasions, and I helped a couple people in the computer lab, just as I was passing, and I saw that they were having a problem with some of the homework. Believe it or not, I actually really enjoyed helping everyone with the projects in this class. It is such a good feeling when you are able to help someone understand a concept or process. I especially enjoyed helping those who tried to work it out on their own, but got stuck, and were always very grateful to receive help. :D

Preacher Boy's class:
I found this class to be a great source of information and practical knowledge that I know that I will continue to draw from for the rest of my life.

New Testament Messages:
Loved this class. Mr. Crockett is an exceptional teacher. He really did a lot to reach out to his students and teach them.

Rapid Reading:
That's right, a class designated solely to learning how to read faster and more efficiently. It is a zero credit course, just taken as an elective. It was a very beneficial class for me. I learned how to read much better than before.

Basic Aural Skills:
This is the only class that I dreaded. It is a class that teaches you to sight sing and sight read music. I took it as an elective because I wanted to learn how to sing parts better. Of the 30 people in the class, three of them were not either music majors or music minors. I was one of those three. I loved the class and learned a great deal from it, but I struggled to stay on top of it. Most of the material was beyond my abilities. But that's fine, I passed and I benefited greatly from the class.

Voice Class:
A small class of 5 young, ambitious students. A very good class, I wish that I could have spend more time practicing my voice though, because I would have benefited even more if I had. I'm going to be taking private voice lessons next year, and I am greatly looking forward to that.

So, those were my classes, all had their own unique joys and challenges. It sounds like a lot because it was. Balancing this class schedule with 18 hours of work a week didn't leave much time for hanging out with friends, or extra curricular activities. I was a little too consumed with my studies. About a third of the way into the semester I started skipping lunch and eating dinner alone, so that I could wolf down my food in 15 minutes or less, then leave to go back to studying. After a month or two I decided that I was being a little extreme, and that I could afford to spend either lunch or dinner eating with friends. And then I'd skip the other meal. It seemed like a good compromise. So that's what I did. Usually I ate lunch with friends and then skipped dinner, for more study time.

I'm afraid that in my desperation to find more time to study I also cut God's time down to a minimum. An act that I greatly regret now. I would just rush through my "God and I time" and get by with the bare minimum. It was getting better as the semester progressed, but even by the end I wasn't where I should be. Which is not something that I can be proud of. But, since summer started God has really been at work in my life, and He's been drawing me closer to Him. And it is very exciting.

Work:
I have a job at college. I work for the Department of Public Safety as a Dispatcher. That means, I am the person in the welcome center, answering the phone calls and monitoring the radios to make sure the people running around in the patrol vans are doing what they are supposed to be doing. I enjoy my job tremendously. I have many excellent co-workers and supervisors, who love God and show it.
By nature the job has to run around the clock, 24/7. So that means somebody has to work the night shifts, and two nights a week I was that somebody. Tuesday nights and Saturday nights I would work from 11 p.m. until 3 a.m. which would be fine, except on Wednesdays (the next day) I would have work again at 7:30 a.m., traffic. And I since I always get breakfast every morning (except for Sunday mornings) I would have to be at breakfast at 7 o'clock sharp if I wanted to eat and then get to my traffic position in time. Which meant that I would have to get up at 6:30 in the morning. (22 minutes to get ready, and 8 minutes for the hike over to the dinning common.) Now, if you do the math, I get off work at 3 a.m. Wednesday morning (Tuesday night) and then get up at 6:30 a.m., that only leaves three and a half hours of sleep. Yep. So, every Wednesday I would run off of 3.5 hours of sleep, but I didn't mind, it was actually kind of cool to know that my body would still function under such circumstances. :P

Friends:
One of the main things that I love about college is the people there. As a missionary kid, growing up I didn't have many friends, and none that were nearby that I could talk to. I found ways to entertain myself though, juggling, Rubik's cubing, etc., but I always had that desire to be around people my age. At college there are over five thousand people my age. It is amazing! I have been blessed with so many Godly friends that it seems every time I pray, I have to thank God for all the friends that He has given me. I have friends from work, from classes, from my room, from extension, from other friends, friends come from everywhere. And I am so very, very thankful for the friends that God has blessed me with.

Sports:
Well, I didn't play any sports for my society, but I did go to most of the games and get pictures. Then another guy in our society took some of those pictures and put them on the society website. So, in that way I participated, even though I didn't play.
At the beginning on the semester I went out to the track 3 times a week and ran 3-4 miles each time. Although, as the semester progressed and I started to get swamped, that too fell away. About 2/3 of the way through the semester I started running again, but it would be short, a quick 1 or 2 miles. Just long enough to clear my head from all the dates and facts that I was trying to pack in there. There were consistently more people on the track at the beginning of the semester than there were later on, which makes sense, but I thought that it was interesting to observe.

Girls:
Still no girlfriend, don't worry Mom. ;)
I went on a good number of dates with girls, but just as friends. Of course, Jeremiah and Sarah (among others) give me a hard time about all the dates I go on with different girls, but that's their job as older siblings (Sarah is practically a sibling). :P
Two of the musical recitals were spectacular. The first, was an orchestra (directed my Michael's, my roommate's, uncle.) performing Dvorak's 9th symphony. I love that piece, and to see and hear it performed live, was simply amazing. The other was a Japanese hand bell group. The hand bell ensemble was astonishing. I liked it so much because it was superbly performed, and I hadn't seen anything quite like it before.
My society's dating outing was pretty memorable as well. I almost didn't go on my own society's outing because there was a scheduling conflict with a Living Gallery rehearsal. The rehearsal and the outing were going to overlap, so I wouldn't be able to make it, but I ended up going anyway. I was going to be late for the outing so I wouldn't be able to leave on the bus with everyone else. And since I don't have a car I had no way to get there, but I got a ride from my campus Dad, Dr. Boyd, and made it to the outing about halfway through the round of mini golf. I joined my date who was hanging out with Jeremiah and Jessica, and played out the rest of the round and then continued on with everyone else. Anyway, that turned out quite well, and we both had a very good time.
When I counted it up I figured out that in my Freshman year (first and second semesters combined), I took out 12 different girls, on 21 different dating events. That number can be as high as 15 girls depending on how you define it. An observant reader will recognize that there are more events than girls, so that means I've taken out some of the same girls multiple times. I've taken some girls out twice, some three times, with four times being the highest.

Well, that's about everything. I started out the year strong, and I think that I was able to end strong too. It got very busy there in the middle, but God provided. I didn't do everything correctly, but thankfully God forgives and lets us go on. I'm looking forward to next year, because I really like my class schedule. I think that I'll have some really nice classes. Plus I might have a very interesting job opportunity, we'll see about that though. :D

This is Timmy, signing off.

We've been fishing

We've been fishing, too bad we haven't been catching.

The fishing has been quite poor, and we are never in the right place at the right time. When we try to move to see if it's any better some other place, the place where we just left always seems to get a big run. *sigh* Oh, well… It's hard to believe that I only have 3 more weeks of fishing. We better catch some more fishing soon, if I going to make some money, hopefully seining will be profitable.

The weather has been beautiful! Sunshine and in the low 60's, high 50's. I've been skipping the sweatshirts while fishing normally. I've been just wearing a T-shirt and my rain gear, when I take off my rain gear then I have to put on a sweatshirt or something, because it's too cold for just a T-shirt, even for me. :P Last year I usually wore a lot more clothes: a T-shirt, a long sleeved shirt, a sweat shirt, and a hooded sweat shirt.
So, I've been enjoying the nice weather while we have it.

We went seining a couple days ago. It was only a 24 hour opening, from 8 p.m. July 3rd, to 8 p.m. July 4th. There weren't many fish, but we knew that there wouldn't be very many. We had a lot of learning to do, because this is the first year Rick has had his seiner. So, he's never been the captain of a seiner before, and none of his crew had ever seined before. So, we're all rather new to this.
Seining is quite a bit more complicated than the gill netting that we've been doing. There are more lines, and more shackles and releases, it's a lot to grasp. It's also exhausting. And we need all 4 of us to run the boat, so every man has to be working at the same time, so we can't take shifts. My job is stacking the lead line. (That's my main job, I do other things to like run around hooking up lines and hooks here and there and attaching other things and such.) Rick told me (the day after we did our seining) that stacking leads is the hardest job one the boat. Maybe not the most difficult, but it is the most physically demanding. Anyway, we fishing from 8 p.m. until 1 a.m. then, we got 3 hours of sleep and were back at it at 4 a.m. and we didn't stop until 7:50 p.m. that night, with breakfast and lunch thrown in there in the little bits of time we could spare. By the time we finished I was fully, totally, completely, and utterly exhausted. It was in the 50's and I was only wearing a T-shirt and my rain gear, and I was completely soaked with sweat, head to toe. Often, while working, my glasses would fog up from the sweat evaporating off my face. After a huge dinner, (I was starving too) I took a lukewarm shower, (I'm so thankful that we have a shower on this boat, even though the thermostat is broken and it only gets slightly warm.) and then rolled into bed, and thought about how good of shape I'll be in by the end of the season. :P
By noon I was so tired, that as I was pulling in the lead line I was praying, asking God for strength and endurance. Just praying and stacking as fast as I could. And the Lord gave me the strength to keep up until the very end. It was one of the longest 24 hours in my life. 24 hours, that I don't think I will ever forget. Next week we are supposed to start seining all the time, no more gill netting for the rest of the season. I know that it's going to be hard, but I'm looking forward to it. :) God will provide, like He always does, because He is faithful.

I've been doing pretty well, I don't feel discouraged or lonely like I did about a month ago. The Lord has definitely been at work. Thank you all for your prayers.


Anchor Man Tim

Resting in Whittier

Well, here I am again, updating my blog.

Well, fishing has been pretty slow. :(
Quite a bit slower that it was supposed to be, I'm not really sure why. Last year and this year both look like they are turning out to be pretty bad years.
But there is nothing that I can do to control that, it is all in God's hand, He controls the fish population. And His perfect plan will be accomplished.

Rick headed out earlier today (Saturday) with Dave and probably won't be back until Sunday evening. On the little boat there isn't much room for more than two people. And with the fishing so poor, there really isn't any reason to have more than two people on board anyway, two can handle it fine.

So, what that means is, I was left here at Whittier for a day and a half without much to do. Rick gave me a few tasks to accomplish, and I finished those up in a couple hours. So, I started on some other projects that I've been wanting to do: writing post cards, writing my sermon outline, and memorizing some verses.

I found some internet here in this little, one-horse town. They have two computers that are open for people to use over at the Anchor Inn. So, I've gone over there and checked E-mailed and such, but it's so slow that it took me literally 15 minutes to get to my E-mail so that I could start reading them. But, today while I was walking around town I saw someone with his laptop out, sitting over somewhere, so I wondered if there was internet there, so I popped out good ol' Christina (my laptop), and sure enough there was internet. Much faster than the Anchor Inn. And I can connect with my own computer, so that means I can write up stuff (like this post) offline, and then go over and connect and then copy + paste, and I have a post. :D

So, anyway. Yeah, I have internet again. Yey! :D

Well, I don't have much planned for tomorrow. I scouted out where they have a church here. So I'll go there tomorrow and see what kind of church it is. :)


My phone doesn't have reception out here, but I got a hold of a phone the other day and called home. That was very good, because I probably haven't called home in a month or so.

Anyway, that's about it for right now. I've been enjoying the time off work, I read all of Romans this morning, that is one of my favorite books in the New Testament. It's packed with so much information and knowledge.

I've been doing well, like I said, enjoying the time off. But even more than that I've been able to really find peace when fishing. I still don't "enjoy" it, but I doubt that I ever will. These other guys talk about how they can't wait to head out fishing again, and I don't really share those feelings. I see fishing as "a necessary task" that I must complete in order to make money and stay in school and all that. I know that most people up here don't agree with me. They talk about the excitement and rush they get when they see the fish hitting then net. And I don't really feel any of that. But we're all made differently, and I thank God for that. :)

I think that I'm backwards from most people. (Doesn't surprise me) Most people see school as "a necessary task" that they must compete in order to go on with life. Whereas, I love school. There is so much knowledge, wisdom, and instruction to be gained there, and not only from the classes. You can learn so much from the people and the experiences there. Everything from Artist Series to Extension is a learning and growing experience. The classes are hard, but that's good. It makes you grow.

But yeah... Most people don't really care for school. But my point is: most people see school like I see fishing, something that in necessary but not enjoyable.

Even though I don't really care for fishing, God has been doing a mighty work in me. I've been able to be content with my situation, and I've been able to be genuinely thankful for this job that God has provided.

I'm am very grateful for your prayers. I can definitely tell that God has heard them and is stretching out his hand of comfort to me. Thank you.

Tim