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April 27, 2003
Motivation Problems
At the moment, I'm feeling a little unmotivated. I have a lot of things that should be motivating me, but there are some other things that are getting the better of me. Two of the things I should be taking care of are job-hunting steps (I'm waiting to hear word from one particular possibility, but it doesn't mean that I couldn't be looking in other places), and I have e-mails to write... One that I consider very important but I haven't found the nice solid block of time that I need to give it proper attention, I hope that the person that it's for will forgive the lateness. But aside from that one, there are gobs of other e-mails that are stacking up again... earlier this week I actually got by inbox down to about 50 messages which is really low for me, but it's back up around 100 again already.
This past Thursday night was a really special night, though... at the Campus Crusade meeting we showed a movie known as "The Jesus Film" and afterwards we had several people who attended indicate that they had prayed to receive Christ into their lives for the first time. You know, it's not about numbers, and we don't measure our success or failure on how many people are "saved"... But it does make it worthwhile to us to know that people's lives are being effect in a positive way by our efforts. We're looking forward to being in contact with these new believers and getting to know them and help them along their path.
Yesterday (Friday night, I mean), I went out to dinner with my housemates for the FIRST time. Amazing, really... for the almost 8 months now that we've been sharing the same apartment... this is the first time we actually went out and did something together... just the three of us. It was nice. Dinner at Tully's and then to Tops to do some shopping...
Today I went to go see Anger Management and then play some boardgames and have some pizza. The movie was pretty funny. A little foul here and there but it had it's laugh-out-loud moments. I wouldn't recommend it for everyone, but if you're an Adam Sandler fan, it's probably right on target. Afterwards we played San Marco (first time ever for all of us... I had an early lead and it looked like I was on my way toward winning but then my competitors (Noah & Jeff) came back and destroyed me)... and we also played Traders of Genoa and Tiff joined us (for her first time ever) and killed us with a huge score from her prestige cards (for some foolish reason we thought it would be okay to let her get them ALL!... doy.)..
Tomorrow, Sunday, for me is mostly laundry, Capax Dei, and preparation for class on Monday morning.
Posted by Andrew at 02:55 AM | Comments (1)
April 24, 2003
I didn't fake this...
Here is the real result that I got from this quiz:
Which OS are You?
Posted by Andrew at 12:19 AM | Comments (0)
April 20, 2003
Happy Easter
Hello. Sorry the delay has been so long since my last few posts. I guess I've been distracting myself and spending some of my writing energy elsewhere. All for very good and important reasons, of course. :)
As far as what's new with me, I guess not so much. I am pretty much caught up with grading for the courses that I'm teaching this quarter. I'm starting to make a little progress toward seeking out a new plan for the Fall. I have some contacts in another college here at RIT who are doing some scouting for me. I haven't yet started to seek out staff positions, but I'm not entirely sure that I want one.
Yesterday, one of my housemates (Jeff) and I took all of our empty soda cans to several different Wegmans redemption counters and re-stocked our soda supply... We had about 1200 cans and bottles which enabled us to buy about 20 new 12-packs which should last us through until June sometime.
We also went to go see Phone Booth... which I really liked... but I can't recommend it to everyone... the language was pretty rough... But the acting and the feeling of the movie was strong.
It is becoming movie season again: Here are my picks for the upcoming movie season. (what I'd like to see each weekend):
April 25 - Bulletproof Monk (actually released this weekend)
May 2 - X2: X-Men United
May 9 - Daddy Day Care
May 16 - The Matrix: Reloaded
May 23 - Bruce Almighty
May 30 - Finding Nemo
June 6 - 2 Fast 2 Furious
June 13 - Dumb and Dumberer: When Harry Met Lloyd
June 20 - The Hulk
June 27 - Charlie's Angels: Full Throttle
July 4 - Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines (or Legally Blonde 2: Red, White, & Blonde)
July 11 - The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen
July 18 - hmmm... Bad Boys II? dunno... never saw the first one.
July 25 - Lara Croft: Tomb Raider: The Cradle of Life
August, I don't know about yet... looks like it's mostly junk.
Today, though, is Easter... I'm not doing anything particularly special except heading to the Easter service at my church Capax Dei and I'm hopeful that one of my friends might be able to come out and join us.
That's about it for this entry... your prayers regarding my career path are still greatly appreciated... I do need to start kicking things into higher gear now and so prayers of motivation would be helpful... Thanks!
Posted by Andrew at 03:01 PM | Comments (1)
April 13, 2003
What now? Sleep, I guess.
Hey... I just spent an e-mail writing a message to someone that I'm never going to send. What good does that do? I think it may have actually helped me out quite a bit. I wonder if that's an introverted or extroverted kind of thing to do...
I started initially thinking that I'd send it, but then realized that I already knew with 100% certainty what the result of sending it would be... and it's not a result that I want... so why bother. I should just go on with life. I'm thinking I will...
I have more pressing needs right now, anyway. Like finding a new career path...
And thank you very much to the mystery student who responded to my previous blog entry... I appreciate the support and kind words. I guess that confirms my suspicions that there are people reading this blog that I don't actually know... Well... I guess I should say "know of"... I am, of course, curious about your identity... I wonder if you're a past student or a current student or what not... male or female, etc. But I'd also rather you not reveal yourself... There might actually be a greater, more profound meaning with it being anonymous.
Well, so, now I should go to bed. I have to do grading tomorrow... I wonder if those two students that need to take make up exams are going to plan to come into my office when I suggested they do... Hmmm...
What a worthless post... I'm not even going to send out a notification on this one... (BTW, although it reveals your identity to me -- or at least your e-mail address, you can sign up for the notification list in the box on the left column... It's not an automatic notification, but I will semi-regularly send out a notifications when I feel like I make a moderately worthy post). (unlike this one)...
God Bless...
Posted by Andrew at 02:25 AM | Comments (1)
April 10, 2003
Trusting God
Tonight, I am one of three speakers at the RIT Campus Crusade for Christ meeting. We determined recently that the "speaker" for our group this week would be a three-person -- short devotional/testimony from each -- and discussion kind of meeting.
My particular topic is "why" God can be trusted. And I am the perfect object lesson right now. I just found out about a half-hour ago that in all likelihood I will not be employed next year in the same way that I am right now. My Visiting Professor line can not be continued into this next academic year. There exist possibilities of working for other departments/colleges here at RIT, but at the moment, there is no clear open path... Just a bunch of ideas and possibilities and a strong sense that God is about to something new and different in my life.
By all accounts I should be probably pretty freaked out right now. But I'm not. And just in case anyone should worry that I'm going to get lazy and "let God do all the work"... well... don't worry. I'm going to do the necessary work to start seeking a new opportunity... I'm already thinking about who I'll need to talk to and network with to uncover some more options... Right now, my options are WIIIDE open. I'll try to share some of my possibilities in the future here on the blog. But my prayer is that God will slam doors and fling others wide as I start my search... That'd He'd throw a spotlight onto the paths that I should travel down.
I'm going to blog it all (or, at least, most of it) too.
So, hopefully, tonight, I'll be able to share the 'why' of trusting God with the students at the CCC meeting. There are some good reasons... Maybe I'll share those here, too... but at the moment... I need to get some other things done. Your prayers, of course, are appreciated. What to pray for? Just that God would guide me through it all, and would continue to give me this same sense of peace.
Thanks!
Posted by Andrew at 03:41 PM | Comments (1)
D'oh!
Today, I wore my shirt inside out. This could be the beginning of the end.
It's also a classic Description Error (This is for the benefit of my Human Factors students). I was running late this morning, and in an effort to get ready as quickly as possible and get to class on time, I brilliantly put my shirt on inside out... I wrongfully assumed that I had stored my shirt right-side out and in my haste, did the right action (put the shirt on "correctly") to the wrong object (the inside-out version of the object). Genius! (well, that's sarcasm... but it's also "self-blame")
So, because this slip was made... (If an error is possible, assume that someone can make it)... how might have the design of the shirt been improved to prevent this error? Well, we can't really constrain the shirt to only being worn right-side out... Not this shirt anyway... .... whoops... change of subject... see next post.
Posted by Andrew at 03:02 PM | Comments (0)
April 06, 2003
Sunday Night ponderings.
Here I am at the beginning of another week... It's the beginning of the 5th week of RIT's Spring Quarter... Aside from an Ice Storm (see Mike Axelrod's coverage) that came at the end of last week knocking out power & traffic lights, etc. to thousands of area homes, it seems like the summer is pretty near.
I don't know right now if I'll be teaching full time in the Fall Quarter yet. I continue to await word. But I am more and more willing to accept a change if one must occur. I like RIT, and I'll likely continue to work here for another year or two even if I don't have a full time job... but there is a certain draw that I've been developing recently to the "outside" world.
It has always been said that RIT is not "the real world"... And the fact that I've been here on campus now for 13+ years (started as a Freshman here in 1989) has been eating away at me a bit. Am I missing out on the real world somehow? I have really enjoyed being on this campus, making the friends that I have, working with the people I've worked with, helping to start and build some student groups... I don't regret staying as connected to this campus as I have.
But what is to happen next? I don't know. With all of the turmoil in the world that has come out since September 11, '01... I'm feeling uneasy about making choices... And this doesn't make a lot of sense. Especially since about a year ago, I felt like I was completely over it... Maybe it's the war in Iraq that has me feeling a little more uncertain or contemplative or whatever it is. But at the same time, I do feel like God is in charge and he'll put me wherever he wants me to be.
Well... I feel a little less like procrastinating now... so, back to work. Thanks to several other folks for the IM chats that have occured in the middle of the writing of this message... :)
Posted by Andrew at 11:36 PM | Comments (0)
April 01, 2003
Mystery people.
So, I have this office on a fairly high-traffic hallway and I leave my office door open now and then... So I get a lot of stop-ins... But I also have my computer(s) set up so that when I'm working at them, I face toward the door... (which I prefer... I don't like having people hang out behind me watching over my shoulder)... The annoying part comes in when I'm typing away and someone walks past my door... someone who knows me, apparently, and raises a hand to kinda wave as they go by... but by the time I look up to see who's motioning to me... they're already past my doorway and all I see is a hand and an arm. Perhaps I'll eventually learn to recognize people by their arms, but for now, I'm stuck wondering who that was? :)
Posted by Andrew at 04:03 PM | Comments (0)