Update

Christmas was grand! It is good to be home and see friends and family...and to get some REAL winter weather. But most importantly, let us praise our Lord for His incarnation, purposed in eternity for the salvation of His people! "Wherefore in all things it behoved him to be made like unto his brethren, that he might be a merciful and faithful high priest in things pertaining to God, to make reconciliation for the sins of the people." ~Hebrews 2:17

During the study break during finals, a few of my wingmates and I played "Carol of the Bells" on electric guitars and bass for all of those who came to the dining hall (which was pretty much everybody). It was definitely a rocked-out version, but we added some harmonizations for the two lead guitars; it was fun to put together and play. Unfortunately, we didn't get any videos of playing in the dining hall, but one of our wingmates got a few videos of us practicing. Here is the best one:
The silences are caused by the zooming in and out of the camera. Sorry 'bout that.

Also, a new poem is up on the poetry blog, and part of my Drama paper is up on the Lit Crit blog. It was 14 pages, so I'm going to put it up in sections. I'll be posting the rest of it over the next week, and I'll also put up my creative writing project for English Literature Seminar I sometime this week. If you're interested, check it out, and please let me know what you think. Thanks!

Have a happy New Year!

Colin

Jolly Saint Nick the Nicaean

Read both this article and the Veith article at WorldMag to which it links.

I think I want to be Santa Claus when I grow up. :-)

God Moves in a Mysterious Way

~William Cowper

God moves in a mysterious way
His wonders to perform;
He plants His footsteps in the sea
And rides upon the storm.

Deep in unfathomable mines
Of never failing skill
He treasures up His bright designs
And works His sovereign will.

Ye fearful saints, fresh courage take;
The clouds ye so much dread
Are big with mercy and shall break
In blessings on your head.

Judge not the Lord by feeble sense,
But trust Him for His grace;
Behind a frowning providence
He hides a smiling face.

His purposes will ripen fast,
Unfolding every hour;
The bud may have a bitter taste,
But sweet will be the flower.

Blind unbelief is sure to err
And scan His work in vain;
God is His own interpreter,
And He will make it plain.

Six things I value

1- The gracious providence of God and His eternal covenant of grace
2 - God's objective revelation in Scripture
3- Fellowship with godly friends and family
4 - Good literature of both the fiction and non-fiction types
5 - Those who serve to keep us free (like my dad, mom, brother, uncles, grandpas, great uncle, great-great uncle, cousin....)
6 - Good music

Six things I don't support

1. Philosophical "neutrality"
2. Subjective interpretation of Scripture and extrabiblical "revelation."
3. Guinea pigs and mistletoe
4. Poor literature (including but not limited to most 20th century American Lit, free verse, Chaucer's couplets--which weren't poor, but highly irritating--Margery Kempe, Frank Peretti, Ted Dekker, etc.)
5. Flag-burning
6. Music with vacuous lyrics or oversimplistic musical arrangements

If anyone wishes to follow this up, they may. Have a ball. :-)

Three finals down, 3 to go.

Metaphysics paper up on theology/philosophy blog, others will follow on Lit Crit and Fiction/poetry blogs.

Will be home 5 days. (sun)

When Worlds Collide....

This whole warrior-poet thing might be getting out hand...

Last night I was studying with our COIC/PHC/GMU/PBN for the ROTC final which I had this morning.... I was memorizing the objectives of a recon mission, which follow:

Get information
Employ Security measures
Avoid detection
Task organize

Of course, everything in the Army runs by acronyms for easy memorization (usually), so this was easily converted into "GEAT." HEY!!!! That's the tribe Beowulf belonged to! I can remember that!

Upon my announcing this, Evans promptly pronounced me a nerd for relating ROTC stuff to my Literature major...but, hey, this whole classical liberal arts thing is about interdisciplinary study and compilation, right?

And that did come up on the exam, and I did remember it. Poetic justice, baby. ;-)


The first page of the Beowulf manuscript. "Geat" can be found at the beginning of the 14th line.

Ummmm....

So some wag put mistletoe up all over the Red Hill lobby (and elsewhere).

Charitably interpreting the perpetrator's intention, I can only imagine that their argument went something like this:

The telos of mistletoe is kissing and romance.

The telos of a PHC romance is lots of little conservatives.

The telos of a PHC mistletoe is lots of kissing and romance, which leads to lots of little conservatives.

Ergo, this must be a good idea.

Something about mistletoe being good for the soul was probably thrown in for good measure.

Now, don't get me wrong, like any good PHC student I'm all for the idea of lots of conservative little kids and the edification of the soul....but mistletoe? This smacks a little of desperation.

In the meantime, I'm taking comfort in the fact that it's plastic, therefore non-binding for us traditionalists.

But just to be safe, I will vacate my usual study spot in the lobby until after Christmas....