Relief in sight!
Comments (1)I am about to go submit my final paper of the year; my history research paper on slavery and the church during the 1800s. I think it turned out pretty well, and I definitely enjoyed writing it more than most papers. If you’d like to read it, I can send it to you. It’s 14 pages double-spaced.
French Revolution History class final this afternoon, and then Greek on Monday. Then I’m all done and can begin focusing on preparing for my new job, and packing. Nicole and I are leaving on May 30th, so if you’re gonna be around we’d love to hang out with you before we, or you, head out.
Congratulations!
I just want to post quickly to say how proud I am of my wife, Nicole. Last night at the Hearne ISD end of the year banquet, she received the Outstanding Teacher Award for 2006-2007. This award rotates between the four campuses in HISD each year, and is voted on by all of the teachers/faculty at each campus. This year it was at Eastside Elementary, and Nicole won! I think this is great, because I know she’s a wonderful teacher, but it’s great to see other people recognize that as well.
“Musicovery”
This is probably one of the coolest web-sites I’ve found in a long time! Musicovery lets you set a time period, genre, and then it randomly grabs songs that fit your criteria. You can listen to the songs in sequence, in their entirety. Unfortunately you have to sign-up if you want hi-fi sound quality. But man – essentially this is a free “pick your time period/genre/artist” radio player on the internet with no commercials!
P.S. I “stumbled” upon this website while using Stumbleupon – which is also pretty cool.
Research Paper Update
I’ve been hard at work on my Senior History Seminar paper; with the working title: “An Analysis of the Christian Defense of Slavery in America from 1776 to 1875.” Here’s a smattering of what I’ve been reading for the paper thus far:
Birthday Wrap-up
I turned 22 on March 19th. It was probably one of the more celebrated birthdays I’ve had in recent years. Nicole baked me a delicious strawberry pie, of which I likely enjoyed close to 3/4. I then had another cake at Community Group on Monday night, had “Happy Birthday” sung to me and got to blow out candles. And as if all that wasn’t enough, Nicole and I had lots of people over at our place on Friday night for quesadillas, margaritas, and tres leche cake. More singing, more cake, more great birthday fun. I felt very loved by my wife and my friends the week of my birthday, so thanks everybody who was part of it all!
Birthday gifts included: cash (always welcome and appreciated!), some hiking socks, a nice shirt and necktie, a guitar capo, and “A House For My Name” by Peter J. Leithart (which I’ve been enjoying so far).
Spring Break Wrap-Up
Nicole and I have had a busy spring break week. On Saturday morning, we left for Greenville, AL and drove with Ryan and Ashlee most of the way. They were going to Ryan’s house in Pensacola, FL for an engagement shower and to spend time with Ryan’s family, so we were able to drive together up until close to Mobile. We had lunch at Wendy’s and did some passenger swapping for half the drive (Ashlee went with Nicole and I went with Ryan). After parting ways, Nicole and I headed north from Mobile to Greenville, where we got in around 9 PM.
Most of the week was spent in fellowship with members of the congregation (many of them families with youth I’ll be working with), hunting for a place to live, and some last-minute attempts to get an RYM trip together for the youth this summer. RYM is like RUF Summer Conference, only for Jr. High and Sr. High kids (it’s even at the same resort, with RUF pastors teaching “elective” classes). Anyway, RYM fills up really fast apparently, so we’re now on the waiting list to get in. If not, then we’ll do something else fun that week with the kids (the beach is only like 2-3 hours away).
We did find a house we’re going to rent that we really loved. It’s “cute”, 2/2, and conveniently located to the Elementary school in town and the church where I’ll be working. Our options were pretty limited but we are very happy with what God provided us.
Unfortunately, Nicole never did have her interview with the school district. We’re hoping that this can get taken care of soon, and would appreciate your prayers in this matter.
We left Greenville on Wednesday around noon, and traveled down to Pensacola for more fun with Ryan and Ashlee. We played on the beach, had dinner at a groovy pizza-place, and then spent all day Thursday traveling home.
Today has been a day full of cleaning, running errands, and my struggling to get our internet working.
Up next: Eric’s big two-two birthday bash!
Bad Dairy
This week, Nicole made tacos for dinner. Usually we’ll make enough for 2 meals, so we have to cook less. On the second night of having tacos I prepared my taco first because Nicole was waiting on a phone call. I got out my tortilla, re-heated the meat, grated some cheese, and got out the sour cream. Strange…when I peered into the fridge to grab the sour cream I noticed that we had two Kroger-brand sour creams sitting in our refrigerator. Undaunted, I grabbed the nearest sour cream, and applied it liberally to my soft taco.
A short while later Nicole began preparing her taco, and questioned me as to which sour cream I had used. Well, turned out I had used the over 1 month old (as in, one month past the expiration date) sour cream (which was sitting in our refrigerator in anticipation of being thrown out, so as to not stink up our trash can) on my taco!
So, later that evening I did get quite a nasty stomach ache for a couple of hours, and I had some pretty foul gas, if I do say so myself, but other than that — I’m still alive and well. Thankfully there was no vomiting involved…
Always check expiration dates, my friends!
Late night academic woes, or… In Which I Become Caleb Bell
So, I have a big ol’ research paper due tomorrow evening in my Chinese Philosophy/Religion class, and I’m having a hard time finishing it out. I think this is because I haven’t found a thesis I’m super excited about writing. My topic is a comparison of the moral systems of Confucianism and Confucian Legalism, specifically examining their views on human nature. The paper is coming along, but it’s definitely one of the most difficult I’ve done in some time.
Back in the glory days of the Commune, Caleb was infamous for his late-night cram sessions, punctuated by the occasional 15-minute catnap, or if that failed, terminated by the hilarious (but “oh my, I feel sorry for Caleb”) patented “Caleb Bell fall asleep in any position” move, only to awake at 3:34 a.m. and crawl slowly to his bed, emerging at 6:00 a.m. sharp to finish his homework… 
p.s. In another academic-related note, I will be writing my senior history paper on how certain portions of the Christian church have historically defended slavery, racism, and segregation over the years; specifically examining the intellectual defense they offered from the Bible and their theological position. This is a paper I am looking forward to researching and writing!
My Guitar
Recently, I’ve begun picking up my guitar more. This is in anticipation of beginning my job as a youth minister this summer, and the opportunity to lead worship this will bring with it.
I bought my first (and only) guitar I’ve owned the summer between my 9th and 10th grade years. For around $250-$300 I picked up a Takamine G-332S from Guitar Center and worked the rest of the summer at Arby’s (my first “real” job) to pay my dad back for it.
I took about 6 months worth of lessons from a very talented teacher, and was able to play at church for youth group worship and on a couple of retreats. Eventually, some friends and I formed a band during high school (although I was relegated to bass guitar because I was the worst of the three guitar players in the group). For a piece of history which you may or may not want to subject yourself to, check out:
http://www.geocities.com/flyingelbows/
These days, my guitar is looking better than it has in many years. I picked up some cleaning supplies, got all the finger build-up off the fretboard, polished the body, and replaced the strings. I’ve really been enjoying playing and I can finally feel my calluses coming back!
My Vagrant Blog
I’ve relocated…again. Hopefully, this will be the last time for at least a little while. If you want to read previous posts, you can look at www.xanga.com/erja
I gave up on Xanga for two reasons.
1) The inability for anybody to post comments without having a Xanga account. As I understand it, you can post comments on WordPress by simply leaving your name and e-mail address (which isn’t shown). I might have to moderate comment spam, but for now, at least, that’s a risk I’m willing to take.
2) WordPress doesn’t have big annoying flash ads all over their site…
