My J-term

J-term: during the month of January, you can take up to 4 credit hours. They squash a semester's worth of class into one month. You have the same class everyday for about 3 hours and the rest of the day is yours. Generally this is a time of relaxation, movies, and hanging out with friends. With the weather normally cold and the wind blowing like crazy, students venture outside only if needed. Well, here is my story of j-term.

I took historic Christian belief and weight training. The latter had no homework, though I did get to be sore everyday. The former only had reading to do; no papers or projects. So, I didn't have much work to do for j-term, as usual. But I was more lazy than normal. I didn't take classes in the fall, so I am still not used to the whole study, busy aspect of school. J-term didn't help at all. We'll see how second semester goes.

I am also haven't had much peer interaction this past fall and have been used to entertaining myself with movies and such. I continued to do this over j-term, which I regret. There are freshmen on the floor that I have barely talked to and there are still some girls on the other floor that I don't know. I love my small dorm because you can know everyone, but I have not taken the time this j-term.

One very positive aspect of j-term is the weather. It has been warm (30's and 40's) all month with only 24 hours of snow on the ground. I love the cold weather with sunny days, which has been what the month has generally been.

So, that is my past month. Some things I would like to change and some things that I hope don't change. It has been an in-between period after my internship with no classes and before a semester of a lot of work. Let's hope it has been helpful to me.

What makes a guy attractive?

Here are three things that I find attractive in guys. These are by no means a complete list and these are not things that mean I'm interested in a guy. They are simple things that are attracting about a guy or group of guys.

• Playing/ caring for little kids. Just a personal thing that shows they know how to imagine and have fun.
• A group of guys, from a club, sport team or wing of a dorm, getting together and having clean, honest fun. Playing baseball on the front lawn of the dorm while having a cookout. No beer, no girls; just guys having fun in a good way.
• A praying man (or men). A guy who knows that God is real and answers prayer and is worthy of praise. A guy who will take time out of his day to focus on God, His will and His plan. Trusting on God for his life and the lives of others.

Ha!

My high school, the biggest in the state, had this brief article on the Indy Star site today.
It read:

8:44 AM January 19, 2006

Power problems shut Carmel H.S.

Star report
Carmel High School is closed today due to an electrical problem, according to a note on the school's Web site.

All classes, meetings and evening events are canceled.

From the school system website:

January 19, 2006
Carmel High School will dismiss at 8:30 A.M. due to a power outage. All athletic events and meetings for today are cancelled.

Something BIG must've happened to shut down power in the middle of the city. Perhaps they were putting in another $200,000 Carmel Arts and Design District sign and cut something. Who knows. I think it's funny. 4,000 high school students are probably pretty excited too.

A few of my favorite things

I've got to make this quick. Here are a few of my favorite things from today:

• sunny, warm weather
• breakfast with a wonderful roommate
• the wind through my hair
• a shower after lifting weights and looking nice
• bridal shower for a good friend
• laughs with girls from the floor
• a nice talk with a great friend/ former roommate/ fellow blogger
• walking barefoot- in January
• talking to my mom online
• quirky friends in the dorm
• a much needed talk with my Father and Friend

Tidbits for today

It's Thursday. I was up till 1:30 last night. This senior capstone project is intense- on top of working on it, I have a romanitic relationship to keep up AND jobs to apply for. Juggling's going OK, so far. Only a few more days.

In the news today:

• Right to Life better not argue this one. - I'm against abortion and all for recognizing an unborn child as a person, but being pregnant does not allow a woman to drive in the carpool lane without at least two seats in the car being taken up, whether she thinks there are two people in the car or not. THe story was funny. My favorite quote: "Norton [the officer] said Dickinson [the woman]'s theory "would require officers to carry guns, radios and pregnancy testers, and I don't think we want to go there."


• Ants can teach each other - This story did a couple things for me. First, it pointed out the amazing complexity of Creation, and the wonderful things God built in. It's cool. Second, the article points out a way ants are smarter than many professors:
  "Teaching isn't merely mimicry. It involves the teacher modifying its behavior in the presence of a naive observer at some initial cost to itself," said Franks, who reported the findings in the journal Nature."
  Just kidding, mostly. I appreciate my professors.