Day 115

Got my excersize today with two hours of skating. I'm very tired. Exhausted. I've kicked my butt the last few days. I think that's all I really have to say. Tomorrow's the big 2-1. It's also the longest day of the week. We'll see what happens.

113

Last night, having snowboarded yesterday and after two movies and four cups of coffee, it was decided that sleeping was just not going to happen for a few more hours. So, four of us who deemed it necessary to expel a certain amount of energy decided upon a hike up Sehome Hill, about a 3/4 mile each way. Departing the dorm at about 1:30 AM, we arrived back at about 3:30, at which point I promptly fell asleep. My comrades, I'm told, stayed up until 7:45. AM. That's past late. That's early.

So I woke up at about ten, noticed it was sunny, and immediately began formulating a plan to get outside for a few hours of outdoor recreation, despite the copious amounts of reading that I've been assigned, and still have yet to complete. Upon our leaving church, I decided a hike would be a good idea, and called a friend to make it happen. It turned out that four of us ended up hiking to Fragrance Lake (which in reality is anything but,) as well as catching an amazing view of the San Juans with the dark, craggy outline of Olympic Mountains visible in the distance. In addition, three of us have an interest in geology and knew enough to tell sort of what was going on, which made the whole thing more interesting. All in all, it was a joy to break in the hiking boots I acquired over a year ago, treking through inches of muddy-muck and jumping off of a sweet moss-covered log almost ten feet up. Hikers, I had an awesome time.

Now I'm exhausted and have the bulk of my reading done, but I must now attend to the rest.

Day 112- Tired Already

Went snowboarding today up at Mt Baker for the first time. I was eager to see how it compared to Mt Hood, and the answer is that it just doesn't. Chutes, cliffs, deep snow, it's got it all, and you don't have to look very far to find all of it. The first run of the day was AMAZING, riding in fresh powder up to mid-thigh. It was a little heavy, but that's the Northwest for you. At first, this was tolerable. But later on as the snow continued to fall and turned to rain the runs got more choppy, the snow got heavier, my pants soaked through for the first time since I bought them 2 years ago, my legs are simply not in snowboard shape yet, and riding a true-twin tip park board with edges that haven't been tuned in 4 years doesn't help either. In short, while I was certainly impressed with the rugged experts-only terrain, the snow was less than stellar, so the day was somewhat short. It'll be sick in the spring when it's sunny.

I returned to the dorms to discover the Seahawks game on, and I fell asleep to the 'Hawks getting whomped on by the Packers. Went to dinner, and (Western students will know what I'm talking about) as I went to swing over the stairs on the pizza side of the dining hall, I lost my grip, stretched out and landed at the bottom of the stairs flat on my back, laughing SO hard. Everyone (lucky there were no girls I was attempting to impress) gazed down at me, all with that "Oh Junk, I want to laugh but I want to make sure he's ok" look. I swore I must have seemed drunk.

And now I'm here, and if people are around, it'll be a late night again. Get up, go to church in the morning since I didn't go to CCF.

My shoulder hurts. And my knee.

Day 110

My hands are crusty and hurt from climbing the rock wall for the first time in three months.

Having gone to all my classes so far, I can safely say that this quarter is going to be a lot of really hard work. I have lots of books to read, lots to write, and lots to do outside of class.

I again regret to inform you that I really don't have anything to write about even remotely interesting. Oh. Here's something...

Here's a list of things I didn't need to see yesterday, but did, and in an educational setting, nonetheless.

*Little boys digging holes in the ground and humping them. No worries on this one, they had clothes on.
*Little boys comparing..."part".. characteristics
*A naked woman having a seizure
*A 10 year old girl reaching into an old man's pants and saying "You can't milk a bull, Uncle Octavio."
*A cat being tethered to a coat hanger and being smashed by a guy's head. The guy looked up with gunk all over him... smiling.

Among other things.

Yeah. You didn't need to know that...

But I just told you

HAHA!

I still don't know what I learned from said film.

Day 108, I think

First day of class. Walked in two minutes late (oops) and found out that it's going to kick butt.

Not much else to report upon. Hung out all afternoon, mostly did nothing. Read the intro to one of my 19 books in order to get a head start on the reading. Yeah.

I had forgotten exactly how much fun I have up here. I missed being around people all the time, which I think is why I had such a mediocre break, seeing as I only was hanging out with people during the last week I was in town.

Um. I think that's it...Sorry so boring.

Day 107-Bellingham is Sunny..For the Moment

Yesterday was highly interesting. Setting out for Bellingham with two friends and a completely full pickup bed, at about 10 AM, it didn't take long for crazy stuff to start happening. I received a phone call from my current roommate wanting to know where the keys were. I helped him as best I could without being there. Not a half hour later, he called again. Oh Junk, I thought, what now.

It seems as though John, when he had left up and left for another dorm, had failed to actually pack anything. According to Robbie, his stuff was strewn about without rhyme or reason. His key had been left on his former desk. UM.

"You know Charb, the Resident Director?"
"Yeah?"
"Go find him."

I felt bad, because I was going to help John move his stuff, but I had to leave for Vancouver before he thought to call me. When he did call, I apologized for the misunderstanding, and asked John two questions :

"John, do you have another way to get your stuff out by 4:00 tomorrow?"
"Yes."
*I cringe, knowing it's probably not true*
"John, does your family know about this?"
*pause* "Yes"
*CRINGE* There was no way that one was true.

Robbie (new roomie) found a place to stay for a few days until the situation could be evaluated. However, as I pulled in and began to unload, I saw John moving his stuff into his brother's car.

Problem solved. Robbie moved in within a few hours. He seems like a cool guy. We're both history majors and even in one of the same classes, our earliest one, so it'll be easier to get up in the morning.

John stopped by a little bit later to say hi. Which was sort of awkward, but it's always awkward talking to him. He had to get his bike, which he left over here, but the fact that he stopped by meant he appreciated me in some way, so that was cool.

Finished the day by talking with the suite/stackmates and watching a movie, Hot Rod, which I am certain my brother would love, but my friend Simon would likely abhor. Some language stuff was in it, but it was mostly just really bad acting-on purpose. It was funny. I laughed.

That's mostly it. Today it's sunny, so it may dry up enough for me to go play outside.

Cheers.

Day 100- A New Year

I've had such a good time the last few days. Hangin' out with good buddies until the morning's wee-hours playing cards, goofing off, and playing in the snow. Yesterday, we all went up to a friend's house up in the mountains outside Washougal, WA. They had about three feet of snow, and we had a really good time in it, wrestling, throwing snow around, jumping off stuff, and just hanging out. There was a fair amount of hiking involved, so that was a lot of fun, and I felt it when I woke up this morning.

After our mountain adventure, we went back to my friend's apartment in Vancouver and hung out until about midnight at which point I realized that I had slept almost entirely through a movie and had woken to my brother screaming about something Halo-related. So I went home, exhausted. This year's first song played was "It's All About Soul" by Billy Joel.

I really don't have much else to say. I've got great friends, and I've had a lot of fun in the last few days. Not working really makes things a lot more fun around here.

I do have a topic which I would like to explore which is very relavent in politics in this day and age, and a topic of great..shall we say...contention amongst those who don't quite understand it. I was approached by a very opinionated person the other day, who knew my background and brought up "revisionist history" and somewhat of what I viewed as a criticism of the intillectual leanings of the institution which I attend. While I avoided an argument (much to my mother's dismay, because she had been bragging about me to this particular individual, I found out today,) the topic of historical revisionism stuck with me, because I have had the conversation before. These are my thoughts, and you can do with them what you like. For those of you who don't know, I am a history major, so I'd like to think I have some sort of experience in the area.

The example used of "historical revisionism" was the United States Constitution and how it's being bent to fit the needs of special interest groups and whatnot. Here's my thought: If anyone wonders why people interpret the Constitution so loosely, they obviously haven't read it. Because it is one of the most vague documents I've ever read. And if criticizers want it to be interpretted literally, as first written, neither women, nor blacks, nor land-owning males under the age of 21 would be able to vote, and I'm not even certain if the Constitution specifically mentions the voting age. We would not have a system for the electoral college, nor a system for determining who becomes president in the case of a tie. SO. MANY. THINGS aren't even mentioned. A lot had to be added on; 17 Ammendments worth, in order to specify anything what-so-ever. The Constitution didn't even specify how to ammend the Constitution.

Do you know why this is?

Because the founding fathers and the Congress were a heckuva lot smarter than we are. They recognized that times change, and as times change things get defined and interpreted differently, and wanted to leave room for things to be defined at a later date.

As for revisionism. Does it occur to anyone that new documents can be found? That those documents actually DO have historical significance? That just because they challenge an existing idea doesn't make them a farse, like some random digger just pulled it out of their butt to fit their own agenda?

Example: the Nostic gospel of Judas. Yes. It does have historical significance, it's a document that's hundreds, if not thousands of years old. Just because it challenges the Bible and the Gospels doesn't take away that significance.

People interpret things differently because we're different people and have different perspectives. Um...go back to...like...mid-late 1500's. I regret to inform you that I fail to remember the date for Luther's 95 Theses. West of Constantinople/ Istanbul (this proves my point even more) Christianity WAS Catholicism for 1500 years. That was the prevailing thought at the time. Why did Luther think otherwise? Because he read the Bible differently than priests who wanted nothing more than power that came with being able to send someone to hell. Perspective. And Luther read it differently than we do now. Perspective. Ever witnessed an accident? Or a crime? Get a few people who saw the same thing happen, maybe a few who were actually involved and ask them to tell it to you exactly how it happened. More likely than not, you'll get conflicting reports. They might convey the same ideas, but specifics will likely be different, if they're provided at all.

One last thought. Just because some guy wrote it down 600 years ago doesn't make it true. It provides insight into how people lived, sure. But not everything in it is fact. Only they people who were there know for sure, piecing together an explanation of an event. If we're lucky, they wrote it down. Even more lucky if more than one of them did. That's what history is. Looking at different perpectives, trying to think like each person in an event and, using that, try to determine what really happened.

I'll close with this. It sums up all I just said. "History is written by the victors."

If you've got questions, facebook me. I'll do my best to answer them.