Finals are OVER

Yes!
Praise the Lord - Finals are over. I am now officially 3/8's of the way through college. THat is a scary thought. I give all of the glory and all of the praise to God, for there is no way that I could be doing as well as I am on my own, without him.

Praise God! Praise the Lamb!

Jeremy

Class Registration

We knew it was going to be bad. Last week, when the juniors registered for classes, the web server hosting the ASP.NET campus web site completely died. It couldn't handle the volume of requests that it was getting. I actually could discern quite abit about the configuration of the web site from the numerous error messages I would recieve. Jenzabar, the programming company that produceed the software for the my.gcc website, has done its best to hide the platform that thier product runs on by changing the file name extention on the pages to .jnz and not using many built-in server control type items, that I can tell. (But, the big yellow error screens just SCREAM ASP.net. So much for hiding the server type) Then, also, they don't use page redirects to get to different parts of the site - all of the information is passed through postbacks, so to go back, you have to find the link somewhere on the page that works, because the back button doesn't work. Very annoying Oh Well. Good example of how not to program a large data-driven web application that lots of people will use.

Well, they did manage to fix some of the bugs from last week and get the software working, sort of. It at least did not crash. It was just slow. Praise the Lord, I got into the classes that I needed to. The schedule is not as nice as this semester's, but it will work. My classes are kind of spread out all over on MWF, and I have a 1:00 and a 2:30 on TR. It'll work, but I would have preferred some other setup. The only things I didn't get into were the preferred sections for my two civ classes (Civ Lit and Modern Civ). I wanted to get a 9:00 -> that was full, so the 8:00 will have to do. That just gives me an hour that I will no doubt waste every morning, but oh well. Then, I would have preferred an earlier class than the 2:45, but its just as well. I have a long morning on TR to get stuff accomplished (Ha Ha - waste time I mean - at least that is what it will come to.)
I am also taking Spec Mind (another civ) over intersession. This means that, with the three civs I will have already taken, I will be done with all of the required Civilization series of courses by the end of Sophomore year. Yay! Usually, you take one per semester until the end of junior year. More room for engineering classes! Yippee!

Well, I have a linear circuits exam in the morning, a Numerical methods exam on tuesday, and a discrete mathematics exam on next friday. Then Thanksgiving Break! It is almost here - the break will be here, over, and done with before I know it. Luckily, though, after break I only have one more exam until finals. That's at least two weeks in a row without an exam! How did I ever get so lucky?

Sorry for this post that is full of infomration that is of no consequence to any save myself at the present time. Well, good evening, and good night, dear readers, and have yourself a wonderful thurday evening.

Jeremy

Mr. Engineering

They had the 2nd Annual Mr. Engineering pageant at school tonight. And I won third place out of 11! That was fun! The Society of Women Engineers put it on. There were 5 parts to it. The first was the Nerd Wear competition. This, I did pretty well in, I suppose. I went to the Salvation Army in town (Those places are great) to get clothes for this part. John and I found a green T-shirt with goofy on it two sizes too small, a bright yellow hawaiian shirt with pineapples on it, and a pair of brown pants that were actually my size, but were very stretchy. I took these, pulled the pants up to about 6 inches above my belly button, put on a huge belt buckle, the green T-shirt, and the hawaiian shirt, only tucked in on one side and unbuttoned. It looked pretty geeky. (also, all of the competitors corraborated so that we all had our zippers down with our shirts sticking through. That was pretty funny as well) Then I took an old pair of glasses and covered them in masking tape, manufactured a pocket protector out of cardstock, and wore my backpack with all of the pockets unzipped, books, paper, and computer wiring hanging out. They were calling each of our names, and we would walk across the stage and back the other way. I had a big armload of books and papers, and as I stumbled out, muttering numbers, I 'tripped' over the top stair leading to the stage and 'dropped' my armload of homework all over the stage. Then, gotta pick it all up and run away, because a -gasp- girl is talking to me and trying to help me pick it up!

Anyway, that was fun. THe engineering trivia was also fun. We were asked simple questions and given a, b, or c choices. Then we messed around, trying to create a good show for the audience, primarily, without caring about right or wrong.

For the talent portion, I did something called meteors, which is two small buckets on a rope, the buckets are filled with water, and then you spin the ropes and buckets around, keeping the water in the buckets. That was fun. A friend taught me how to do that a month ago specifically for this purpose. I'm going to post a video on youtube for you to see - its hard to explain.

Salvation Army is great. Where else could you pick up a pretty decent business suit for a Business wear competition for under $10? A couple of people were surprised that it came from Salvo, so I guess I looked pretty good.

Well, After all of the above, I ended up receiving third place. First place went to a friend who did some amazing juggling for his talent - he deserved first. The second place went to a guy who played the piano really well, so he probably also deserved second. Praise the Lord - I didn't know I had so many friends who would vote for me! I ended up winning some free mcDonalds food, a free video rental, and 15 dollar gift card to a restaurant.

Two videos are going to be posted on youtube -
Nerd Wear Clip




Meteor talent Clip

Thanks Matthew...

Fall Break

Fall Break!
The time when all of the local people go home and the international and western students and football players stay here. Its cool - I'm about the only person left on my hall. I've been able to get a lot of programming work done, and studying stuff for a civ arts exam on thursday. Oh Joy. I did pretty good on the last one though, so, Lord willing and help me, I should do decently well on this one.
Our last rugby game on homecoming weekend, we lost 40-something to 0. Oh well. The opponents were a good team, and they were larger on average than us, and they knew their size advantage, and they used it by piledrivering themselves through our bodies. That was a painful game. And it was snowing for part of the game.
And of course, after that completely painful game ( in which we had a handful of injuries), the rest of the surviving players had to play another game vs. the alumni rugby players. These guys were generally very large, and hurt very much to tackle. Our team was better in the past, and for some reason our current good players dissapeared immediately after our first game.
Other than that, Homecoming was rather boring. I did go to the homecoming dance on friday night, and that was interesting, and almost fun. As always, I tended to observe the people there for my entertainment. The dance was held inside the atrium of HAL (our main classroom building) which was packed full to bursting. In the beginning of the dance, the region could be classified by chaotic turbulence ( to the extent that walking people can be characterized as fluids), which would at times coalesce to steady-state flow before becoming chaotic again. Over time, the friction of movement tended to decrease the desire to move in the crowd (or people left - I couldn't tell) , and as a result, groups of stationary (or dancing, which is pseudo-stationary. The dance floor was so small, that I don't think anyone could actually be dancing - jsut vibrating. In that case, it could be said that the dancers were 'frozen' from a moving fluid into a high-energy solid. ) people emerged, leaving more substantial walkways for me to wander on. Then a friend of mine convinced me to learn how to swing dance, which I surprisingly enjoyed. I may be tring the swing dancing again and learning more.

Jonathan, my roommate, knows of a church in New Jersey called Liquid. They have a podcast, and thier pastor is not afraid to tackle some very interesting and rather controversial topics! For example, we have been listening to a 9-part sermon on Song of Solomon. Thier pastor is very good, and that series is very thought provoking - and (warning and, yet, a good thing) holds nothing back.
Here is what their web site says about their current sermon series ( the song of solomon was done a while ago).
'Join us at Liquid Church this Fall as we explore God's design for marriage, sex, and relationships that go the distance. Whether you're single, married, or single again, you won't want to miss this practical and provocative message series.' I will say that, they are not afraid to tackle these tough and taboo'ed ideas!
I would recommend listening to it. The web site is www.liquidchurch.org. Look under the free podcasts section.

Well, there are my musings for the week. That is about all of the time for musing that I have - back to sleep, work, eating, studying, and testing. Oh Joy! Praise the Lord that we live in a nation where people have the ability pay to work and slog, committing four years of thier lives, merely to improve the ability of our minds.

Praise the Lord for his blessings on us all -

Jeremy Turpin

Its winter already

It snowed today. During rugby practice. On a muddy field. With strong, cold wind. It was an interesting practice.

It could have been worse - the wind had mostly dried out the field. Yesterday, it was more like a marsh.

Right now, its about 32 degrees out. I sorta wish that it wouldn't get cold so soon, because the autumn weather is really nice. All of the trees are (were - the leaves are mostly on the ground now) turning into really pretty colors. We don't get that kind of variety up near home.
Last weekend, on the 2 and a half hours on the bus, some of the hills looked like patchwork quilts with patches of vivid orange and yellow trees, intersperced with the green of the more hardy trees.

We did have a rugby game last weekend - that I neglected to post about. We played Juniata, and lost 5 to 22. The ref was horrible, and we didn't play all that bad, but even though we lost, it was still a good game.

This weekend is homecoming - and like last year, I will be spending saturday on the Rugby field. We will be expected to be there at 11 for the women's game, our game is at 1, and the alumni game is at 3. Its a good thing I don't have anything that I want to do with regard to any of the homecoming events anyway.

Praise the Lord for me - I have had two tests in the last two days, and I believe did reletively well. I hardly bothered to study for the Linear Circuits engineering test, but most of the last couple of days has been spend in rote memorization of large quantities of information for the science, Faith, and Technology course. I like the class, which is interesting, but the exam wasn't fun. My hand just about got a cramp writing so much so fast. Pretty much, 3 pages of small handwriting of stuff - a bunch of definitions, two paragraph-type essays, and one big essays. I still don't like essays on exams - I don't feel confident about them when I have time to revise them - I especially don't like them when I don't even get to read them over and fix mistakes.

I read the xanga sites of a handful of people, like eric, and see that they are posting thoughts, philopizing ideas, etc - then I look at mine, and see a description of current events for a student at a small college. It seems like this information about my life must be pretty boring. Oh well.

JT

For whoever reads this....

Praise the Lord for his goodness and actions this day! His hand was on the rugby game today, preventing any major injuries (I think one guy on our side had his nose smashed up pretty good, but nothing major on either side.), and incidentally, God has given us victory! He made our legs strong and swift, and our minds quick.

We played Geneva again today, at home. It followed the ladies game (which they also won, something to nothing). We actually had a pretty big cheering section today as well - another praise! It is nice to be able to win and have friends watching. Well, they were much better than they were at the Scottish festival. They had a bunch of better and bigger players than last time (when we beat them 45 to nothing), and were out for blood to get us back for the last game.

Well, they kicked to us, our outside wing (a back at the far left of the field) caught it from behind the half-line, and ran it all the way for a try. About 30 seconds into the game, we had a try.
About 2 minutes after that, we had another.

The grand total was 75 to nothing. On our big field (Geneva has a tiny field) we had an enormous advantage, because we run so much for conditioning. So, one of our backs, or at times, even a slower forward, would get the ball and run all the way down the field for a try. One of our backs scored 5 tries, all by outrunning anyone chasing him.
Just because we crushed them points-wise, does not mean that we are a really good team or Geneva is a really bad team. God was with us - that is the primary explanation. Also, we have been working really hard over the past two weeks, and have gotten better as well.

I didn't get to score any tries, but I played the whole game, and was told that I was playing well and agressively. Praise the Lord for his protection and his blessings!!

Jeremy Turpin