Churches of Savannah

So, I didn't blog last Thursday. Sorry. To make up for it, I'll post lots of cool pictures this week.
Last Wednesday, Josh & I toured Savannah, GA, the oldest city in Georgia, full of history and really cool architecture.
There were lots of pretty churches, among other things. Here's some of the pictures I took:

End of summer

I can’t believe the summer is almost over. I now have only one day of my summer internship left and it feels like I just started. But I can tell that Ontario Systems is ready for me to leave- too ready.

When I came in this morning, I could not login to my computer. I got a message that said my account had been disabled. After a phone call to our IT guys, I was able to long into my computer, but I couldn't get into my e-mail, my home directory on the server or into a program we use off the server. It looked like someone had gotten ahead of the game and taken me out of the system two days early.

After about an hour, I was able to work normally, but I still couldn't get into my e-mail. That came at around 9:30. I think things are good now and hopefully they stay that way for tomorrow.

I have enjoyed my time here but am looking forward to going home, hanging out with my sister, seeing my brother before he heads off to college and starting my co-op for the fall at Marathon Petroleum Company.

It's Thursday again. This has been a somewhat stressful week. I think I want to go and curl up and sleep and read for a few days. Unfortunately, it doesn't look like that will happen until over a week from now. So be it.
Busy-ness this week:

• Last weekend was Josh's famiy reunion. It was delightful. There were 55-60 people there, and, this being my 3rd reunion, I knew much of his family, and familiar faces are always fun. A thought while I was there: next time I go to this Burress reunion, I'll be a Burress. :-) The day in the sun and the pool and chasing around kids was exhausting, however, and I slept well Sunday night.


• When we got back, Josh picked his car up at my apartment and when he went to leave, it didn't start... didn't start... started, but white smoke spewed out the exhaust. Neither of us were very happy. I have a lot of sentimental value attached to his car! He called to have it towed Monday to the mechanic's, not wanting to try to start it again. Of course, when it gets to the mechanic's, it starts and runs beautifully. The mechanic couldn't believe that smoke came out of that car, that looked to be in such good shape. He said there must have some sort of blockage in the fuel injector, from bad gas or something, and it was cleared when the car finally started. Anyway, while it was at the mechanic's, Josh had him make the muffler stop rattling and check the break pads. Now the car is happy and all is well. Josh got it back after work yesterday.


• On top of the two of us being down one car and being tired from the weekend, this is moving week for me. My lease in Muncie runs out next Monday, so I'm moving into the apartment in Upland that I will live in for the next 9 months. We spent Tuesday night packing boxes, getting ready to move and went to pick up keys for it and move a carload into the new apartment last night. Friday Josh & I are heading to his brother's house to pick up a truck to move things that won't fit in my Civic, and Saturday is Moving Day for everything. My parents are coming up to help move and clean.


• Friday afternoon before picking up the truck, we're meeting with a florist. I hope that goes well. I don't know a thing about flowers.


• Sunday through Friday next week, Josh and I are taking a trip to Georgia. First, we'll be in Atlanta visiting my aunt & Georgia State University, then we'll hopefully go to Columbus, GA to visit another aunt & my grandmother, who is currently in the hospital. The end of the week will be spent with my mom's parents, then we'll head back to Indiana for a couple days' rest before Josh starts school Monday.

And that's the summer, essentially. Blogging might not happen next week, as I'll be in Portal, GA with grandparents.
until then, as Garrison Keillor says,
Be well, do good work, and keep in touch

Packing

I don't like moving, especially the packing. I have moved from house to house 4 times, home to dorm twice, dorm to home twice and now this weekend I get to move from one summer apartment to another (for a week) and then home. Right now, I am having to decide what I will need/want for this coming week and what can just go home. Being me, I am saying about many things "Oh, I might use this", or "I may want to do this". I seem to be taking most of my stuff with me and I have to keep reminding myself I will only be there a week, I have 40 hours of work, and 2 total hours of drive each day. Will I even have time to do what I say I will?

To make matters worse, I don't know when I will have time to pack. I am off work at 4 today and will go home to pack for a bit, then I am going to Indy to hang out with friends all evening. Tomorrow I have to take a friend to Taylor in the morning, work for about 5-7 hours and then when I get home, my mom will be there to help move and take some stuff home.

Right now, I have two boxes going home. The stuff I am planning on keeping is not packed, along with few of my clothes. I hope I find time somewhere to get it all ready. It really is a drag...packing.

Art or Science?

No, this is not about academics. It's about the play I saw last night during the Yankees / Indians game. It's a ground ball to short- he fires to first and the call is safe. Well, from the moment I saw it, I didn't think that was right. After about 5-8 replays (thanks to the wonder of TV), I saw that the call was incorrect: the ball was in the glove and the foot on the bag before the runner reached first. I don't think there was much uproar about the play and the game continued. Now what if the ump could have made the right call? Or reviewed the play and corrected his first call on the play?

I have never really questioned the idea of using technology to make the right call. It took reading an article about the idea of my long-time favorite sport- soccer - being changed with the aid of technology. The hope: offsides will now be called correctly. I was outraged! The game does not need to be changed. The game is played by humans and officiated by humans- it will not be perfect- but that's what makes it good! It's those moments that you can get involved with the game by yelling at the official along with the times you celebrate with your team that make sports worth watching.

Sports are not based on rules. The rules should be used to keep the game clean or interesting (ie. 24 second shoot clock), not to control the flow and purpose of the game. Sports are art and art is not contained by strict rules!

Notes of interest today

• In this story on NPR, a mother describes the difficulties of preparing her two boys for the world fo girls, saying her boys have 4 emotions- happy, sad, mad, and hungry- and have a lot to learn to get along in the emotion-filled-adolescent-girl world. It's amusing.


• Sojourners leader Jim Wallis has an op-ed piece in the New York Times today. Read it. Think about it.


• Speaking of Sojourners, they were mentioned in a book I picked up earlier this week, Understanding Power: The Indispensable Chomsky, a book of lectures of Noam Chomsky, a professor of linguistics and political activist (I first learned a little about him in my Natural Language Processing class, and wanted to know more, because I'm such a word geek.). Noam Chomsky said religion is like technology- not inherently good or bad, just used in different ways. He gave the example of the Sojourners compared to Jerry Falwell as two that use religion differently.
  
  The more interesting bit in the book, however, was Chomsky's discussion of whether he believed morality was innate or not. CS Lewis gives a very convincing argument for humans having an innate sense of morality, and this pointing to the existence of God. From the little Chomsky I've read, he doesn't seem to look favorably on religion in general, but he agreed with Lewis, that the moral sense existis in a person without being taught. He likened it to the innate sense of language we as humans have, explaining that, with very little learning, we pick up complex language concepts, and the same seems to be true of morality. I thought it was an interesting idea. I also think that Lewis' second point still holds- that this consistent sense of what is right and good people have points to a greater good being, God, who created these absolutes.