Random ramblings on Christianity

Hey people.

This is going to be one of those reallyyyy late-night postings that I will probably go back and read in a few hours and wish I hadn’t posted, but I’m going to throw it up here anyway. Don’t take it too seriously or as me trying to change the world or your thinking or anything like that. It’s basically just a journal entry, except I put it up here because it’s worth mentioning.

Kutless

Christian rock band Kutless released their new album today, To Know That You’re Alive.

I recommend it.

Barton dollars 1 – Meal Plans

Ever wonder where all of your money you spend on Barton stuff goes?

The college not only offers, but REQUIRES, students to purchase a $3,600 meal plan if they are living on campus. The plans come in semester packages requiring you to spend $1,800 on one of the three options:

1. 19 meals per week and $85 Bully Bucks.
2. 14 meals per week and $115 Bully Bucks.
3. 10 meals per week and $218 Bully Bucks. (Only available to East Campus Suites residents.)

That is a crapload of money for meals that are not all that stellar. Let’s break it down, just for fun.

There are 14 weeks in a semester.

For Option 1, we subtract the $85 worth of Bully Bucks from the overall $1,802 meal plan cost, leaving us with $1,717 worth of food left. At 19 meals per week for 14 weeks, that comes to 266 meals (19×14=266). Find the cost per meal by dividing $1,717 by 266, and you find that each meal costs $6.45.

Not shabby.

Option 2 is a little more expensive. $1,802-$115=$1,687. $1,687 divided by 196 (14 meals x 14 weeks) equals $8.61.

Option 3 gets almost obscene. $1,802-$218=$1,584. $1,584 div. by 140 (10 meals x 14 weeks) equals $11.31.

What college kid pays $11 for one meal? Seriously?

Where does that money go?

Why do they charge us so much?

Why requires us to get on the meal plan?

the Learning

You know what sucks about caring so much about Christianity you post things on blogs for all to read, thinking you may help out?

Well, having discussions with people smarter than yourself who make you remember the basics of truth.

Cryptic I know. More on that tonight sometime.

No comprende (?)

God showed me last night the importance of understanding people’s language — not in the literal sense, as in Spanish or French or Zimbabwean. But in the spiritual sense.

In order to truly make an impact through writing, I have to be able to communicate to given audiences. My thoughts and writing style might have a zing right now — see All the Gayness 2.0. And that zing is not a bad thing. But not knowing how to use it can be.

the Baseball

Ever since baseball season ended, I have thoroughly enjoyed having zero obligation to anything related to baseball. In my mind, I was geared entirely toward my work as a writer — for Kenly News and for myself.

Kramer (my 19-year-old brother, a rising sophomore playing baseball in college with me) is spending about five days at my apartment since he is working the Barton baseball camp here in Wilson. Tonight we threw (first time I’ve thrown in three weeks) then went to a Tobs game. First time I’ve seen some of the guys on the team in even longer, feels like.

Reminded me why I am playing college baseball.

Novelization

One of the monumental drawbacks to being 21 years old at a small college is the lack of experience interacting with those in your field of choice.

Which, for me, is writing.

Not newspaper writing. I work full-time at a newspaper. But novel writing.

31,536,000 seconds

One year.

Three-hundred sixty-five days.

8,760 hours.

525,600 minutes.

31,536,000 seconds.

the Transition

I have given the blog site an overhaul.

I wanted something simple and cleaner than what I had, that wasn’t black. I like black and all, but it began to feel kind of overwhelming.

All the gayness 2.0

I was offered the chance to write a religion column for The Kenly News for next week’s paper, and I wound up building off this blog from earlier this week. In doing so I discovered a few more thoughts and realized more accurate ways to word some sentences. This is the revamped version of the week’s earlier blog. Enjoy!

Adam

My latest work of fiction [reading] from one of my favorite authors, Ted Dekker, Adam is one of those spiritual thrillers that dives into the occult in a way that twists your stomach and essentially disassembles your faith while, if read to completion, reaffirms exactly what you long to believe about God’s power.

Dekker has been getting deeper and deeper into the dark side of spirituality, largely in the vein of Frank Peretti. This book is, in my opinion, his darkest yet. The man is incredible at dissecting the good vs. evil battle in fiction form.

the Proposal

So for those of you who haven’t seen the announcement on facebook or received a text message or my mom’s mass email … Katie Holloman, my best friend, girlfriend of one year (come June 20), and lifelong friend since 10 years old, agreed to marry me last night.

Yeah, I’m pretty excited.

I’ve been getting a lot of requests for the play-by-play of the evening, so here it is.

Why I suck at blogging now

When was I ever that great, right?

Lately I have been putting all of my writing efforts, outside of work, into books I plan to have published down the road.  Taking a book from idea to finished product is a far more arduous task than I anticipated.  Fun and totally worthwhile, but definitely arduous.