Feeling Dry

I've been doing a pretty good job of updating the family blog, but I realize that I've been kind of slack here. What's the problem? I'm feeling a bit dry.

I'm starting to feel a bit burnt-out with Setting Captives Free. I think it's just a matter of the time taking its toll. I seem to go through this near the last third of each semester, so I think it's just a cyclical thing. However, it's not a lot of fun. I want so much to revel in what Christ is doing in people's lives. To do any less is really to cheapen God's grace.

School is going well. We're off this week because my professor is in San Diego for a couple of conferences. We're off next week for Thanksgiving. It was hard, but I did manage to get through my Greek translation today. Normally I do this on Sunday or Monday and then review every day up until class, but I just couldn't get it going. Amanda called me one of the most disciplined students she knows, but stuff like this is hard for me.

Meanwhile, I've got my one page paper on Ruth only half-written. I need to get done with that so I can move on.

I think that it would be good for me just to relax a bit tonight. I haven't done much of that lately.

Not Too Devastated

My alma mater finally lost today. Illinois gave them all they could handle and they lost 28-21. I had just started to hope in them, so this wasn't too crushing. It certainly wasn't as bad as the championship game last year.

I'm beginning to think that Eomer should be my avatar along with the quote, "...do not trust to hope. It has forsaken these lands."

A Blast from the Past

We had a little conversation at work the other day regarding calculators. To the right you can see a photo of my baby. I didn't always use one of these. No, I cut my teeth on a Radio Shack scientific calculator that actually folded into a convenient pocket size. In fact, the doctor who first diagnoses autism in Rain Man used one as he was trying to stump Ray with tough math problems. Then I graduated to a Casio (I think FX-80) that I got from someone. I sold that and then acquired the FX-81 from my girlfriend in college. Finally, I upgraded to the HP.

The HP was not easy to use at first. The Reverse Polish notation was kind of tricky; however, as the linked article states once you get used to it you don't want to go back. I had a hard time ever using my friend's TI-85 after I got used to my calcuator.

I pulled it out of its case today, which was no small feat because the zipper is not in good shape. I think it may be corroding a bit here in my damp basement. At least I had the good sense not to have batteries in it since I had to scrape away a lot of corrosion the first time I used it post-college. I did my normal 1 1 + calculation and played with a few exponents. Then I put it away.

I realize that I likely won't ever have a use for this again. Maybe I can leave it to Noah or Lily. Then again, they might get beat up for having such a relic. Their professors may remember though.