Normally, I really dis-like being awakened, especially early in the morning. But this morning I was awakened.
Early.
Early as in, say, 6:00 am. But this time I was happy to have been awakened because what awakened me was an announcement – an announcement that actually afforded me the opportunity to sleep longer than I would have been able to otherwise. Aren’t snow days great?
All right!!! Let’s have a cook-out!!! 
The following has been copied and pasted from Facebook. I actually get a new post on my blog and I satisfy the Facebook community with 25 things that have absolutely no relevance to a more fulfilled and productive life.
So I’ve been tagged twice – first in “25 Things” and then in “25 Things About Me.” To save space (and because I don’t want to try to think of 50 things to write ) I’m going to combine them and write 25 things. Some will be random and some will be about me.
Works for me.
So here goes:
1. I hope I can think of 25 things that won’t be to completely mindless.
2. I love music. (I’m listening to it right now. Well maybe not right now…. I was when I wrote this.)
3. I’ve never gone bungee-jumping. I want to though – I think.
4. I love snow skiing.
5. I play the bass guitar.
6. I’ve been to Paris and Rome.
7. I want to visit London.
8. I’ve never wished I had a pet hamster so I could name him Hammie. No, really.
9. I’m not very good at math.
10. I like writing, spelling, grammar, and all that other stuff that a lot of people dislike so much.
11. I hope I don’t go and misspell something in the post. That wouldn’t look verry good.
12. Ha, you thought you caught me! Yes, I know I misspelled “goode.”
13. I almost got my legs cut off by a train.
14. Not everyone knows how to pronounce my last name correctly – even though it’s only 4 letters long. Kinda funny actually.
15. The Cleveland Indians are my favorite sports team.
16. Most (OK, maybe make that all) of my family are Pittsburgh Steelers fans. I’m a Cleveland Browns fan. Yeah, fun.
17. I promise # 13 is true.
18. I’ve never been pulled over by a cop – not at the time of writing this anyway.
19. I can read (some) Koine Greek. (Pronounced coy’-nay)
20. I have a bad reaction to Novocaine. (Yes, it stinks. Especially when you have to get work done on your teeth.)
21. June 17, 1789 – In France, the Third Estate declares itself the national assembly. (OK, that’s from Wikipedia.)
22. I promise #18 is true too.
23. I hope someone out there in the world of Facebook enjoys this post of 25 things.
24. The spell checker just flagged “Facebook” in #23. Something’s wrong here don’t you think?
25. All those people who find the genie who gives them three wishes need to get smart. If a genie offered me three wishes, the first thing I’d do is ask for unlimited wishes. (Maybe that’s why a genie hasn’t offered me three wishes – he’s no dummy.)
26. I don’t need a genie to give me number 26 in a 25 point list. 
So about this Greek thing…. The text book is named Greek Grammar Beyond the Basics: An exegetical syntax of the New Testament. And I can think of only a few things that could make me laugh less. But laugh I did.
In a most ironic twist the author included a quote from Douglas Adams. What do New Testament Greek and Douglas Adams have in common you ask?
Absolutely nothing.
But he included the quote to make a point about the complexities of verb tenses and the struggles that grammar students face. It was a point well made I must say.
“In Douglas Adams’ delightfully insane The Restaurant at the End of the Universe is a brief chapter describing the major problem in time travel:
‘The major problem is quite simply one of grammar, and the main work to consult in this matter is Dr. Dan Streetmentioner’s Time Traveler’s Handbook of 1001 Tense Formations. It will tell you, for instance, how to describe something that was about to happen to you in the past before you avoided it by time-jumping forward two days in order to avoid it. The event will be described differently according to whether you are talking about it from the standpoint of your own natural time, from a time in the further future, or a time in the further past and is further complicated by the possibility of conducting conversations while you are actually traveling from one time to another with the intention of becoming your own mother or father.
‘Most readers get as far as the Future Semiconditionally Modified Subinverted Plagal Past Subjunctive Intentional before giving up; and in fact in later editions of the book all the pages beyond this point have been left blank to save on printing costs.’”
You know, I couldn’t have said it better myself.
In adherance to the advice of the people at ikevision, I shall not be like everyone else and shall make no mention of the fact that’s it’s a new semester – not to mention a new year – and that the coming 360 days hold new opportunities, new challenges, and new horizons. So, in an effor to be different….
Wait, was the point to be different? or just be myself?….
No matter. In an effort to be different, I shall begin (what’s left of the beginning of) this post with a quote from Oscar Wilde: “Most people are other people. Their thoughts are someone elses opinions, their lives a mimicry, their passions a quotation.”
Nope. I shall not be like anyone else.
Come to think of it, I could talk about how dim my outlook of this new semester and year is, how my life is going down the drain, and how, if the sky really were falling, it might actually be an improvement. That wouldn’t be like everyone else.
Actually, I could talk about my New Years resolution – a subject everyone is talking about this time of year – in an effor to show that I’m not like everyone else. My New Years resolution: to not make any New Years resolutions. So far I’m holding up just fine.
I think….
So I’m back. And so is school. And may we get along just fine.
I’ve never really seen a wombat… at least, not in real life. And no, wombats don’t read Methodist journals that I know of. But aparently wombats are divine. Or so I heard at an “imprompto game night” at the Profitt’s last night. Ok, so I didn’t really play games at the game night (funny). But the conversation was entertaining *Aaaaahhh!!* – not to mention a welcome diversion from my Greek final. (A few of you will appreciate that scream there).
Anyway, during the course of the evening it came to my attention that there exists a book under the title Wombat Divine. It’s apparently a kids Christmas story. Never read it myself but the title is interesting.
I was joined at the “imprompto game night” by my fellow co-sufferer Ryan. I think we were much less interested in the games than in the escape from our Greek translation homework. Don’t get me wrong, game nights at the Profitts’ are wonderful things. But who are we kidding? Game time or Greek homework?… Game time or Greek homework?… You tell me.
So after staying nearly an hour and a half longer than I originally told myself I was going to stay, Ryan and I both left to do our homework. (Misery loves company). We (or I) nearly got sidetracked with a game (go figure) in the Dean of Men’s office, but I prevailed and I joined Ryan in the Schmul Library to work on translation.
After finishing one particular verse and feeling like I desperately wanted a break, I leaned back and looked at the clock, commenting that we had been working for a half-an-hour or forty-five minutes. I was then informed that we had been working for two hours. (Oh where does time go when you’re having fun?)
“Are you done?” Ryan asked.
“At least for the next two minutes” I said.
I promptly stood up and randomly grabbed a book off the shelf behind me. I began reading aloud from somewhere in the middle of the book and, I must say, what I was reading was interesting indeed. This eventually lead to both of us pulling books off the shelves and scanning through them, periodically reading aloud.
One of the interesting things about the Schmul Library is it’s collection of very old books. I love old books and the Schmul Library has quite a number of them, some dating back to the late 1700’s I believe. In this collection are several volumes of the Methodist journal, most from the 1800’s. Ryan and I were both wonderfully entertained when Ryan happened upon the journals from some year which I cannot name, but which was a very good year indeed. It was great; Ryan read of witch hunts, love letters (some more like epistles), and the account of one wit-less chap who was persuaded to marry a widow after she threatened to kill herself and her child if he did not. She claimed to have already measured out the poison and he could see no alternative but to marry her to keep her from committing the act. We laughed.
My account for this week shall leave out the story about me staying up unitl 5:30 am to do reading apparently for naught.
And be it forthwith noted: I used The Dash.
So this moring I got to vote at an actual polling place. Last time there was a presidential election I had to vote absentee.
Ok, that’s all. Return to whatever you were doing.
See, I’m not really sure why I must blog. I mean, my friends post about all the interesting things that happen in my life on their blogs (e.g. here and here). And besides, who has time to sit in front of a computer talking to a faceless cyber-world (who may never read anything I write anyway) about what’s going on in my life….
Um, self-incrimination? I don’t know what you mean!
Anyways, it’s cold. And I’m trying to stay warm. And I’m only being partially successful. But it’s cool. (No pun intended).
And now I have blogged. And no, for anyone who reads this, I was not calling you “faceless.” But then, by the time you read this I’ll be long gone and you can’t hurt me anyways since you’re quite used to the lack of posting and it will be December (of 2012) before anyone figures out that there was an update.
Farewell.
I suppose I should stand trial since it’s been nearly a month since I returned from Ukraine and I haven’t uploaded any pictures from there. But I’m here to redeem myself…. I have several hundred pictures from my trip (300+ just from Rome – no, I’m not kidding) so I’ll only upload a few.
This picture is of the Roman Forum:
The Colosseum:
This is of some guy I saw on one of the side streets in Rome:
Now on to Ukraine…
I took this while we were driving through a village after our first interview:
This is the first guy we interviewed – a former KGB agent:
Of all the people we interviewed, this guy was probably my favorite. And as you can see, he wasn’t exactly small…
Oh, and one last picture. Someone in blogdom asked for a picture of Roman dirt. So here it is, blurry and all :
Well now that my trip is almost over, I guess I’ll update things here. Yes, my trip really is almost over. I originally thought that I was going to be over here until Aug. 19, but about two weeks or so into the trip, plans changed and Mr. Glick and I are coming home this Thursday (July 10). We’re not really losing anything though; we still accomplished what we set out to do. We just accomplished it a little differently than we planned. Our plan was to interview 15-25 people and write their stories. Right now it looks like we’ll have 15 stories and good ones too.
We’ve been amazed at some of the stories we’ve come across. I’ve gained a new perspective on the grace of God and what He can do in people who are far beyond hope from our point of view. One man we interviewed drank so much that by the time he was 29 he couldn’t even get drunk on vodka. Whenever he drank he was just poisoning himself. Six years later he is a pastor and to look at him you would never know he lived the kind of life that he did. Another man we interviewed served in the Russian navy on a submarine and in 1975, while going through an underwater cave in the Mediterranean, the submarine he was on collided head-on with an American sub coming the opposite direction. The accident caused a power outage on the Russian sub and the 80+ men aboard were trapped in complete darkness for 5 1/2 months. Only about half of the men survived. Today that man is starting churches in southern Ukraine.
I would upload pictures from my trip but I don’t have an internet connection fast enough for that. Maybe once I get back to the states I can upload some shots. Of course I’ll have to be somewhat selective in what I upload. I mean I only have 300+ from Rome alone….
Due to the lack of updates on this blog, the baboons deported me – to the ancient capital of the once-thriving Roman empire.
So far, my summer-long Ukraine trip is going well. Of course, I haven’t even made it to Ukraine yet. But hey, who’s going to get picky about particulars I’m writing from an internet cafe so I can’t upload any pictures to prove that I’m actually in Rome. But it’s pretty awesome here. (And this keyboard I’m using is somewhat problematic. The alphabet is the only thing that is in the right place.) If anything (or most everything) I’m saying is sounding a bit incoherent, it’s called jet-lag. I haven’t tried to figure up how many hours I’ve been able to sleep since I left, but it’s not enough. But things are going well so far.
We were told by some website that our hotel was within sight of the Coloseum. Well obviously they meant it would be if there weren’t about 50 buildings between us and it But we are very much in the heart of Rome. Last night we did a lot of sight-seeing, and we’re going to do a bit more today. Our list for today includes the Vatican. We didn’t know until a few minutes ago, but President Bush is supposed to be there to meet the Pope or something. So maybe we will get in, maybe we won’t. We’ll see.
I’ll try to post some pictures sometime soon. I got some pretty cool ones yesterday and we plan to visit the Coloseum and the Roman Forum today, so I hope to get some more good ones. Please continue to pray for us. It looks like we’re going to be running from the start once we land in Ukraine. But we expect things to be good.
Until then…
