studio

So after being homeless for a week, and mostly sleeping on couches, I finally moved into my studio (which wasn't what I planned on, but at least it's in a good location, close to people, etc). But the best part of living by yourself? Not having to close the door when you use the bathroom.

generosity

It's hard to be generous with other people if you're not generous with yourself.

weddings

"It's an honor to get invited to a wedding, because it shows that you were an important part of the bride/groom's life. But when you actually show up for the wedding, you realize how little a part of the bride/groom's life you were."
- John Lin (paraphrased)

desire

"If desire did not dim the brain, nobody would ever get married, drunk, or fat."

- Valentine Wiggin, from one of the best sci-fi novel series ever.

Reread this on my flight to new york. Okay, so my first reaction was: this is more clever than true. But 1 Corinthians 7 (among other passages) seems to corroborate it.

As a witty quote, this one is pretty awesome. But beyond that, it doesn't sit well with me. Maybe it's because in the very same series (albeit a different book), having and raising children is extolled as one of the most meaningful things you can do in your life. And you can't really do that without being married, huh? (or I suppose you can, ...)

government

The government is soooo inefficient, in so many ways. But so far, that's its worst flaw as far as I can tell. The way I see it, better widespread inefficiency than widespread corruption. On a sidenote, I've been in a corporate environment that was much worse (but the company I worked at almost went under, and eventually got bought out, so maybe not the best example, haha).

On the plus side, being in an imperfect environment means that there's a lot of room for improvement. I feel like I can make a difference here, whereas if I were in a more streamlined workplace I'd just be a cog in a well-oiled wheel? Or maybe that's just what I tell myself to make myself feel better :)

Was considering leaving the program, but after some thought, I think I'll stick with it.

deism

You know how some people say it's easy to be a practical atheist? I think the term practical deist is much more apt. I still go through the motions (something an atheist doesn't do), but do I really believe in God's power to affect my day to day life?

E.g. if I really believed in the power of prayer, not only would I pray (a lot) more, I'd ask people to pray for me more. A lot of times, I'm hesitant to ask people to pray for me because I feel like I'm being a burden by asking them to do so. But maybe 1) this is because I find praying for other people to be a burden sometimes and 2) it's okay that it's a burden, because we're called to bear other people's burdens?

p.s. I am totally guilty of saying I'll pray for someone, and then completely forgetting later on. More often, though, I'll make up a 5 second prayer in my head just so I can tell myself I didn't break any promises. I'm a horrible person, I know.

On a somewhat related note, someone mentioned how a lot of theologians will say that God can affect nature (storms, hurricanes, etc) but that he cannot affect anything related to human will. And if you believe that, you might as well be a deist, because 90+% of our lives are affected by our own decisions and the decisions of others (e.g. the placement of roads, choice of schools to attend, etc.). And I guess I never believed that on an intellectual level (don't we pray that his will will be ours? something we cannot accomplish on our own), but practically, I fall into that mentality a lot.

lost

There's a guy living in the hatch thing!

Man, I'm way behind, huh? It's like that xkcd about Portal. Oh well...