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| Today is a perfect fall day - windy, sunny, and 70 degrees. Unlike yesterday where it was upper-80's with 95% humidity. Unfortunately in Texas you cannot expect to have any two consecutive days with similar weather, unless of course it is summer. Texas can do hot and humid for months.
What is it about fall that feels like it should be romantic? And by romantic, I of course mean I ease up on my condescending attitude toward all things "lovey-dovey" and "mushy-gushy". Now I don't have visions of skipping hand-in-hand down a wooded residential street jumping in piles of leaves along the way and suddenly have that "moment" where you're laying side by side in a leaf pile and you hear the orchestra begin to swell (or some similar scenario one would find in a romantic comedy). But you know, stuff like picnicing (yes that's how you spell it) in the park and having a heart-to-heart on the swings, laying there stargazing, sitting close in a warm coffee shop. Perhaps it's just wanting what I can't have, or maybe looking forward to what could be in the future. Or maybe this season simply distorts my psychological mindset and forces me to admit that closing the majority of my emotions off from people is not necessarily the best way to live my life. But I am what I am, and unless God wants me to change that area of my life for some reason, I probably won't. Not while I'm single.
At Disciple Now this past weekend, JR Vassar spoke about "Living a Life of Consequence" based off the book of Nehemiah. It really hit on some topics that I had already been thinking about, and some that flipped a switch and the lightbulb came on. The main issue I have with moving to Dallas and starting a job in January is the fact that I will be immersed in the white middle-class suburban Christian subculture. It bothers me to no end, and almost feels like being physically suffocated. Christianity is a culture here in the Bible Belt, and cultural Protestantism is at least as prevelant as cultural Catholicism. You know what I'm talking about - I was raised Catholic, therefore I am Catholic, no matter my current beliefs/indifference/apathy/lifestyle of sin. Of course by no means am I implying that I am the perfect Christian, far from it, but there is a difference in following Christ and being involved in the Christian culture. Another thing he brought up is the importance of the Holy Spirit in our daily life. As Baptists (I suppose I have to associate myself with them after being in a Baptist church for 4 1/2 years now), who emphasize Jesus at the expense of the Holy Spirit, if the Spirit suddenly left us one day, would we notice a difference? That statement really hit me and made me think. How much power do I strip from the Holy Spirit by not acknowledging it? How often do I ignore Him and go about my daily business? People talk about putting God in a box, and Baptists, at least in my opinion, put the Holy Spirit in a box. Once you are saved (justified), your purification (sanctification) consists of how much you read your Bible, go to church, etc. How bad do you want holiness and what can you do to get it? And let me stop there before I go another 20 paragraphs about free will and God's sovereignty. Here's a hint - humanity's free will is a myth. | | |
| Interviews so far: 9
Boston, MA; Dallas, TX (2); on-campus (6)
Upcoming Interviews: 2
Dallas, TX; Orlando, FL
Interviews Declined: 6
China Lake, CA; El Segundo, CA; Seattle, WA; Middle of Nowhere, NM; on-campus (2)
Job Offers so far: 3
Boston, MA; Dallas, TX (2)
Per the above, school is a mere sidenote.
PS: Disciple Now was awesome. God is awesome. Senior Design is not awesome. | | |
| Since I haven't given up on this thing entirely, I figured I'd better post a little something in case anyone still reads it. This is my last semester of school (finally)! I'm only taking 10 hours, but so far it has stayed busy, mostly with paperwork for interviewing and grad school applications. I ended up getting put in an interdisciplinary senior design project, which means there are two electrical and two mechanical engineers on our team. We're doing a project for 3M having to do with DSL-service - can't really go into much detail. Before this semester, I would have said that all 3M did was make tape, but then again I would have been wrong.
I just got back from Boston today, I had an interview with Raytheon IDS (Integrated Defense Systems). It's a pretty nice area, a lot different from Texas. As much as Texas is pro-urban sprawl and pro-development, Massachusetts is anti-development and everything is fairly compact. I actually interviewed in a suburb called Sudbury, which everyone says is rather wealthy. Which is bad for cost of living I suppose, a $150k house here is probably around $400-500k there. The closer you get to Boston the more expensive it gets. It's a nice area, though the architecture style would take awhile to get used to. As you might expect, the whole suburban area has a colonial feel to it. Anyway, here are a few pictures, there are more on facebook.
Bahston Hahbah
Quincy Market Area
Church Tower at Harvard (my night pictures didn't come out very well)
Crazy Computer Science Building at MIT
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| Tonight the Raytheon co-ops were taken to Main Event. It's amazing how much money is spent on us, but hey, I'm not complaining. Main Event is a great place to go so long as you're not spending your own cash, otherwise it's prohibitively expensive. My bowling scores were 101, 121, and 137 which was pretty decent considering the black lights/spotlights/dance music prevented me from having any brain function whatsoever. We also played laser tag, of which I was on the smaller team (4 vs. 5). We were beaten, but we put up a good fight for being undermanned. There were also prizes (movie tickets) for being the best or worst at almost everything that could have been imagined. Unfortunately I was thoroughly mediocre, but someone gave me a pair of pity tickets. So if you're in Dallas, we should go to a movie. Going to two movies by myself is a little depressing.
Last week I took the GRE after work one day. That wasn't exactly what I wanted to do with my free time after work, but I'm pushing the deadline on grad school applications. If you haven't taken it before it's basically like SAT Part 2, except there's writing. And the verbal section is a lot harder. Either that or engineering trained all the language skills right out of me. Needless to say, my math score went way up and my verbal score took a dive. Which is just fine with me. | | |
| Taking a page from other's Xanga format (particularly Katie I think), I present my current state of being, conveniently listed in +/- format for your viewing pleasure. As you can see, the highlights of my life are decidely unexciting.
+ Work is busy so far, and I got in about 20 hours of overtime this week.
- I had to work today and missed out on Six Flags.
+ The Mavs took a commanding 2-0 series lead at home.
- The Mavs discovered the ball no longer fits inside the rim and the series is tied 2-2.
+ Only one more semester until I graduate.
- I have to apply to take the GRE and apply to grad school by August 1st, as well as finish up that darn ethics class.
- It's kind of lonely with nobody around this summer.
+ I don't really have much free time anyway.
+ The laptop I ordered shipped today.
- I ordered it back in May.
- I am a miserable sinner, screwing up time and time again, weary in body and soul.
+ God still offers forgiveness, grace, rest, and peace. | | |
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