touching story

http://www.cnn.com/2008/US/12/09/military.jet.crash/

Someone's comment:
"It's simply amazing that this man has more respect for a country that is not his native birth place, it's military and their sacrifice than many Americans who have never suffered a day in their lives living in America. I'd trade all of the backstabbing self-righteous vermin in America for this one guy to have his family back, he's worth more than them all."

I'm mostly inclined to agree with the comment above, although I might have left out the vermin part. Needless to say, I'm really really touched by this guy's heart of forgiveness, and his faith.

ender

If you liked Ender's Game and Speaker for the Dead, you'll be happy to know that Orson Scott Card just wrote another book in the series.

http://www.amazon.com/Ender-Exile-Orson-Scott-Card/dp/0765304961

Might want to wait until it comes out in paperback, or until your library has it.

on the presidential election

I've met my fair share of McCain and Obama supporters. I'm most skeptical of the ones who find absolutely no fault in the candidate they support.

life a miracle

I'll be the first to admit that this essay may be a bit disorganized. But hey, there's a reason why I'm an engineering major.

http://leaderu.com/theology/irrational_faith.html

peter singer

This past Sunday, I had a pretty long conversation with Pastor Matt at one of the tables outside Panera. Towards the end of our conversation, a girl sitting at the next table leaned over, looked at Pastor Matt, and asked "are you Peter Singer by any chance?"

Haha, freshmen are so funny. Anyway, Pastor Matt had to explain to her that no, he was quite the opposite. I'm sure he was flattered, regardless.

income

Here's an interesting picture (taken from http://rodrik.typepad.com/dani_rodriks_weblog/2008/03/american-politi.html). Basically, under Republican presidents income disparity has a tendency to increase, and vice versa for Democratic presidents. And income increases more overall under Democratic presidents.

The book which the article references apparently goes to great lengths to demonstrate why this difference isn't a fluke. Pretty interesting (written by a Princeton professor, too).

words

It's amazing the words you learn while studying for standardized tests.

first comes love...
then comes marriage...
then comes the baby in the perambulator!

I'm so going to teach my kids that.

translation error

From /.

"Preparing for English-speaking visitors, a restaurant in China recently ran its name through an online translator, took the result, then purchased and mounted a large sign displaying the English version of their name: Translate Server Error."

:P

circumstance

You never realize how much your parents take care of you until you start living on your own, huh? Well, this summer I feel like I must have missed at least a couple meals every week (either out of laziness or forgetfulness). And I realized, that after you eat, you can be a completely different person than who you were when you were hungry.

Being hungry (or tired) puts you in such a different mood. It's so much easier to be nice, happy, and generally good-natured after you eat. Isn't it interesting that so much of who we are depends on our physical circumstances (and others besides)? Then how can we boast in our own virtue when it is so often circumstantial? And how can we judge others without knowing their circumstance?

Anyway (no s this time :P), tomorrow I move. Moving is so much easier when you hardly own anything. My roommmate had to buy another suitcase for all the stuff he bought in NY :(

p.s. I sat next to Larry Summers at lunch about a week ago! You can find his signature on some of the dollar bills in circulation :)

borrowed thought

So, the pastor at the church I go to in NJ has the same name as me. We started a sort of chain email with a few other people, and one email was set to "reply-all" but directed specifically at Pastor Matt.

A person happened to be reading the email over my shoulder (that's not allowed!), and exclaimed, "Whoa, you're a pastor now??" Hahaha, little kids are so funny.

Well nope, I'm not nearly as wise as Pastor Matt, but here's something he said that I thought was really interesting, not something we think about every day:

"How radical is this:

"If in Christ we have hope in this life only, we are of all people most to be pitied."

A lot of Christian leaders have said the opposite over the years--that if it turns out there is no God and no resurrection, that living the Christian life still brings great fulfillment, etc. But the Bible says, no, it brings pain and suffering, and we are most to be pitied if we're deluded."

beef imports

http://www.nytimes.com/reuters/world/international-korea-protest.html

Hrmmm... I eat American beef, and I haven't gotten mad cow disease (I hope I didn't just jinx myself haha). But seriously, Americans find it safe to eat U.S. beef. I feel like the protests are almost a slap in the face.

I think it's more a matter of Korean farmers wanting to keep competition out. Or maybe it's just a front for Koreans to air other grievances. And I guess these are legitimate concerns that the government should consider.

But 50,000 protesters holding signs with references to mad cow disease? Protest against human trafficking, protest against world hunger... but protest against something worth protesting about?

my sister is a weirdo :)

So, my little sister scored a 5 on her AP Bio, Chem, and English Language tests her soph year in HS.

And she thinks I have no life... puh-lease :P

rain, books

This morning as I was walking back to my room, it started to rain. So I ran to a covered walkway in order to stay dry. A few hours later, after the sun had come up, I went outside and noticed that almost all the water on the ground had evaporated. You couldn't even tell that it had just rained... until you looked under the covered walkway, under which was a whole bunch of puddles.

Isn't it interesting that what makes a place the most dry can also make it the most wet?

Anyways, I was actually on my way to the bookstore. I bought two books with an unused gift card that I got in high school. It's been a while since I've read for fun. I can't believe books cost $7.99 now.

Hmm... and I've always wondered this, but why is the sci-fi & fantasy section always next to the romance section?

new york, new york

So I'm in NY. It's nice here.

There are a lot of people here, and it's unbelievable how many people you can fit in a subway.

Internships are a lot more fun when there are other interns; there are 41 interns here this year, last year I was one of two.

Working at a hedge fund (they prefer to call themselves a finance/tech company, but hedge fund is so much easier to say) has half convinced me that finance is actually cool. In fact, I think I'm going to modify my schedule next semester to include a class on financial investments... don't worry, I'm still very much aspiring to be an engineer :)

My roommate is really nice, and so are my suitemates. Oh and so are all the other interns :)

hey jude

:)

narrow path

ouch

prince caspian

was better than Iron Man, and Iron Man was pretty good.

"Have you forgotten who really defeated the White Witch, Peter?"
-Lucy

"Unless the LORD builds the house,
its builders labor in vain.
Unless the LORD watches over the city,
the watchmen stand guard in vain."
Psalm 127:1

so much for self-esteem

http://nymag.com/news/features/27840/

Don't tell your kids that they're smart. Although for some people, having smart kids might not be an issue :P

senior banquet

Senior banquet was last night.

What argument do we have in defense of our faith, when faced with this world's suffering? Christ's pure, unconditional, and unrequited love. No other argument comes close.
- Joung (liberally paraphrased)

No one will remember what you say at senior banquet, only how you looked.
- Dennis

Okay, so the second statement is only partially true. I really only remembered two things. Ephraim remembered more, I'm sure, he was taking notes.

As for the first, there was a quote Joung used from Brothers Karamazov, by Dostoevsky. I will have to read that book someday, along with The Idiot, which Bonnie mentioned once a few months back. I believe God's relationship with us was compared to a rich man's proposal to a prostitute. God's goodness is greater than our unworthiness.

good thing no one reads this

So a few weeks ago, a Chinese student at Duke tried to mediate between a group of pro-Tibet protesters and a group of very nationalistic Chinese students. Within a few days, she received death threats, and her parents' address in China was posted online along with other personal information (forcing her parents' to move out of fear for their safety).

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/04/17/us/17student.html?scp=1&sq=duke%20chinese&st=cse

Recently, if anyone writes anything condemning the human rights record of China, he (or she) can probably expect to receive rather hateful comments along with death threats. I think that this article sums it up pretty nicely:

http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,1734821,00.html

I guess this ultra-nationalistic tendency of the Chinese is something like the little man syndrome, but on a larger scale. Except, it's not so amusing when it leads to hate, and people getting hurt.

christian girls

Soooo, apparently girls who go to church work harder.

http://time-blog.com/work_in_progress/2008/04/girls_who_go_to_church_work_ha.html

Haha maybe this is just another reason to find a nice Christian girl to marry. Peter, however, disagrees:

Peter: well they lose

like at least

104 hours

in church

2 hours / week

But... those hours aren't spent at work either? No one works on Sunday... to which peter responds:

Peter: but they could be better spent!

cleaning

cooking

ironing

pleasing her man

duh

Sorry, just had to post this :) Besides, my blog is "in the most obscure part of blogosphere" hahaha.

dune movie

So it was confirmed a few days ago that "Peter Berg will be directing a new big-budget Dune movie from Paramount."

Anyways, if you haven't read the books, you should (even if you're not into sci-fi).

Here's a quote that has nothing to do with anything, but it used to be one of my favorites:

"What do you despise? By this you are truly known."
- from "Manual of Muad'Dib" by the Princess Irulan

community vs. networked individuals

I heard those two phrases contrasted today.

Basically, we were having a discussion about the merits of confession. Everyone was basically saying the same thing, but everyone was also trying to assert his individuality. Everyone was saying, "no, I think...". But if anyone had stopped to listen, he would have realized that there was much more agreement than anything else.

Why are we so quick to assert our own ideas? I guess it's the natural thing to do. We communicate with other people, but come to a conversation being very much an individual. We really should try to be more community-minded.

what to be

So a few weeks ago, I heard this guy talk about his life in the financial world... and it made me want to go into finance. I know, right? Thankfully, that thought only lasted for a total of half a day.

This past weekend, at Spring Retreat, I heard an awesome message by a Baptist minister. He gave a very casual set of three sermons. More like, a discussion, where he'd just spew out some very interesting thoughts. Maybe it was because he didn't prepare a sermon. But they were very good thoughts. Hrm... nope I don't necessarily want to be Baptist, but I feel that going to seminary is a must sometime later in life. Of course not now, because, I want to make lots of money first... :P

Now that I'm back home, my mom half-convinces me to take the LSATs in June. Or October. Or maybe half-convinces isn't the right term, more like... I'm convinced. I think I'm going to take it.

I wish I could be a professional student. But then, I wouldn't be of much benefit to the world, would I?

One step at a time, I guess. Chances are, I'll fail all my standardized tests. Then I would know that I wasn't called to be a lawyer or a mathematician :)

math

If I could redo college, I'd be a math major....
Well I guess I'll have to settle with attempting a graduate degree in mathematics. GRE subject test on April 12. Yay for last minute decisions :)

how we change

Read the letter I wrote last year at winter retreat. And God really does answer prayers. Especially with regards to three people. It's so easy to forget what we pray for, and forget that God is there for us. Too busy charging through life to notice, I guess. Here's to some notice.