Profound Questions of the Week

OK, so a couple questions have come up in the last 2 days that I think are thought provoking. I want to know what you think too.
First, the question posed at church was Who do you think you are?
It sounds like a presumptious question, but really- who would you say you are? besides what you do or what your major is, or what you're good at, or what you're not, or who you hang out with. Those things don't define you, they come and go. Who are You-the real You with a capital Y?
Secondly, I ran across an article today about a man who was wrongfully diagnosed with HIV and lived the last 8 years thinking he was about to die.
How would this affect your life? How would you go about your days, knowing they may be your last, for days and weeks and years on end?
And, then, how would you deal with the news that your death sentence has been lifted? That you AREN'T about to die, but instead can live free of the fear over your head?
I've obviously been thinking way too much. In other news, I finished my 8-10-page paper yesterday, and still have to start and finish my 4-to-6-page paper for tomorrow, but I'm not worried. School starts tomorrow, and I don't know how I feel about that just yet. I'm spending all day today setting up computers in Olson- mad excitement, let me tell you :)

Dining Commons problems?

Today an email was sent to the whole campus explaining that, because of the construction in the front of the DC, the main entrance is closed and students are to primarily enter through the side entrance. The email concluded with:

We are sorry for the incontinence,

Jerry Nelson
Senior Director of Food Services

I was amused.
Beware of incontinence at the Dining Commons.

Modern Abbott & Costello

This sketch was performed at ICCM earlier this summer, and I finally found the script for it:

ABBOTT: Super Duper computer store. Can I help you?
COSTELLO: Thanks. I'm setting up an office in my den and I'm thinking about buying a computer.
ABBOTT: Mac?
COSTELLO: No, the name's Lou.
ABBOTT: Your computer?
COSTELLO: I don't own a computer. I want to buy one.
ABBOTT: Mac?
COSTELLO: I told you, my name's Lou.
ABBOTT: What about Windows?
COSTELLO: Why? Will it get stuffy in here?
ABBOTT: Do you want a computer with Windows?
COSTELLO: I don't know. What will I see when I look in the windows?
ABBOTT: Wallpaper.
COSTELLO: Never mind the windows. I need a computer and software.
ABBOTT: Software for Windows?
COSTELLO: No. On the computer! I need something I can use to write proposals, track expenses and run my business. What have you got?
ABBOTT: Office.
COSTELLO: Yeah, for my office. Can you recommend anything?
ABBOTT: I just did.
COSTELLO: You just did what?
ABBOTT: Recommend something.
COSTELLO: You recommended something?
ABBOTT: Yes.
COSTELLO: For my office?
ABBOTT: Yes.
COSTELLO: OK, what did you recommend for my office?
ABBOTT: Office.
COSTELLO: Yes, for my office!
ABBOTT: I recommend Office with Windows.
COSTELLO: I already have an office with windows OK, lets just say I'm sitting at my computer and I want to type a proposal. What do I need?
ABBOTT: Word.
COSTELLO: What word?
ABBOTT: Word in Office.
COSTELLO: The only word in office is office.
ABBOTT: The Word in Office for Windows.
COSTELLO: Which word in office for windows?
ABBOTT: The Word you get when you click the blue "W".
COSTELLO: I'm going to click your blue "w" if you don't start with some straight answers. OK, forget that. Can I watch movies on the Internet?
ABBOTT: Yes, you want Real One.
COSTELLO: Maybe a real one, maybe a cartoon. What I watch is none of your business. Just tell me what I need!
ABBOTT: Real One.
COSTELLO: If it's a long movie I also want to see reel 2, 3 & 4. Can I watch them?
ABBOTT: Of course.
COSTELLO: Great! With what?
ABBOTT: Real One.
COSTELLO: OK, I'm at my computer and I want to watch a movie. What do I do?
ABBOTT: You click the blue "1".
COSTELLO: I click the blue one what?
ABBOTT: The blue "1".
COSTELLO: Is that different from the blue w?
ABBOTT: The blue "1" is Real One and the blue "W" is Word.
COSTELLO: What word?
ABBOTT: The Word in Office for Windows.
COSTELLO: But there's three words in "office for windows"!
ABBOTT: No, just one. But it's the most popular Word in the world.
COSTELLO: It is?
ABBOTT: Yes, but to be fair, there aren't many other Words left. It pretty much wiped out all the other Words out there.
COSTELLO: And that word is real one?
ABBOTT: Real One has nothing to do with Word. Real One isn't even part of Office.
COSTELLO: STOP! Don't start that again. What about financial bookkeeping? You have anything I can track my money with?
ABBOTT: Money.
COSTELLO: That's right. What do you have?
ABBOTT: Money.
COSTELLO: I need money to track my money?
ABBOTT: It comes bundled with your computer
COSTELLO: What's bundled with my computer?
ABBOTT: Money.
COSTELLO: Money comes with my computer?
ABBOTT: Yes. No extra charge.
COSTELLO: I get a bundle of money with my computer? How much?
ABBOTT: One copy.
COSTELLO: Isn't it illegal to copy money?
ABBOTT: Microsoft gave us a license to copy money.
COSTELLO: They can give you a license to copy money?
ABBOTT: Why not? THEY OWN IT!

A FEW DAYS LATER....

ABBOTT: Super Duper computer store. Can I help you?
COSTELLO: How do I turn this @#%*^@! computer off?
ABBOTT: Click on........."START"..........

And so it begins...

I am sitting in my dorm room. My things are mostly unpacked, a few things are still in bags strewn across the room. Girls from my floor are slowly showing up, and a murmur can be heard across campus for the excitement of everyone being here, of the new year.
However, I think I am too exhausted to be as excited as the rest. Most people here are freshman orientation group leaders- wonderful people with WAY more energy than I ever have. Working 40 hours a week all summer- until Tuesday, when classes start- has been very tiring, especially now, as students arrive and all my work is beginning to show its colors.
Where most people's internships wind down at the end, then end early enough so they can get their 16 pages of final reports written, not I. My summer project is accerlating at a rate at which I can barely keep up, and it will climax on the last day- Monday, the day before classes start, when all the students are here and will be trying to get onto the network and I will work 8 hours helping them. And yet, unless I get an extension, I have to start and finish 2 hefty papers before Tuesday about my experience working this summer. Alas.
In other news, according to David, I'm a goddess. Matt's Linux box somehow manages to bypass the system I worked so hard on this summer. My roommate Kristen is here, among other people, and I am very happy about that. I got to hang out with Katelynn Monday, and that was delightful. Josh came Tuesday while we were moving in and helped. Again, I was delighted. There surely is more, but I'm a bit to frazzled to think of it right now.

I had to share

When I was little, my favorite superhero was Superman. I didn't care for Batman, he was just a rich guy with a lot of toys and gadgets. I could go on, but I've already posted about that here. Anyway, point of the story is, what if we could fly?
I just had to share the fun link.

Template tweaking

I've entertained myself on my downtime in the last day to play with the look of my blog a little (as you can tell). I need my design-saavy friends tot help me out. Or my not-so-dsign-saavy friends to tell me to put it back the way it was.
Changes of note, besides the picture: The ad bar is gone from the top, and there is now a Blogger search bar which, convienently, matches the color of my site :). I've been entertaining myself clicking "Next Blog" which seems to take me to a random blog. That's always fun, to stumble upon someone else's thoughts. You can entertain yourself too! Oh, and I got rid of the dictionary doohickey. It was beginning to bother me.
Let me know what you think. This is audience participation time.

Why I don't question gravity

Something I wrote in an earlier post has been bothering me. I said "I also question alot more than [my mom] does- in my faith and in politics and the world in general." After I wrote that, I started thinking about what I do question, or more, about what I don't.
There are things I don't seek to fully understand. For example, gravity. Gravity is something I don't question. I've seen evidence of it, even before I had a name for it. I've seen its effects my whole life, so why argue with it? It is a truth I am comfortable enough with not to question.
OK, so, gravity was a stupid example. It was an illustration. There are other things I believe in, besides gravity, that I don't question because, in a similar way, my whole life, I've seen evidence supporting the truth I believe. My belief in God is this way, I think. I've seen His effects my whole life. Evidence of Him has always been around, even before I knew Him. The existence of God is a truth I'm comfortable with enough not to question. Other truths like that, for me, include aspects of God's character like love, goodness, faithfulness, and omniscience. Lots of physical properties, like whether gravity will make things fall, or whether water will be wet, I don't question.
Just now, I've been trying to think of truths about people- not about God or about the physical world- that I don't ever question, and I can't. People are the most unpredictable. It's the whole Free Will thing, I suppose. Nature is governed by laws we can trust, and God has an unchanging nature we can trust, but people are a totally different story.
So, end-of-story, when I do question things- spiritual, relational, political, physical, anything- I go back to the foundational truths I DON'T question to try to get my mind around the question at hand by using those as premises. Yay for Discrete Structures, I suppose-logical proofs and the like.

In other news, Campus Manager is causing a ruckus on campus, working smoothly for some, causing frustration for others. Only one student so far has been quarantined, but that means my scans are working, which is exciting for me. We've managed to register Linux, Windows 98, ME, 2000 and XP boxes, as well as a PDA! It's been an exciting time, and, thankfully, things are slowly quieting down. We'll see if that continues.