So if any of you were wondering what happened to me... well. It's been interesting working here in IBLP's web development ^_^. I really like the coding and such. Computers are the easy ones to deal with, of course. The guys who are training me and stuff are serious and intelligent which is so much better than flippant and ignorant so yeah. And they are very patient with my noobishness; 'tis nice of them.

I get to live in a house here for half of every week (I'm home friday through monday and wednesday nights). It's a very nice house. It has a PIANO :D. I walk into my new room and there are, spread across a chair, "Victoria" magazines. I have 4 really great house-mates who are sincere and kind. We went to Chipotle last night-- the design in that place is amazing. The food, on the other hand... haha. Oh and the scenery here is beautiful, with silver pools of water that have melted and collected here and there throughout the property, and plenty of trees. Plenty of geese-poop as well, in case you were wondering. Shiopei came around to say hi a couple times! And I get to see Anna everytime I go to and from my comp! It's great to already know some people. I mean I sometimes inevitably feel a little weird... and I feel sort of alone in this department... but it's coo'.

What I really like is that Mr. Gothard is here! And he talks to us during the morning meetings and during lunch. I think I really do like the things he says. You can always tell a good preacher by his "fruit." Thus I appreciate when speakers have lots of personal stories. Like Pastor Hugo! It's interesting though, because while you might feel that Mr. Gothard knows it all by now (compared to yourself), you can tell that God is continuously working on him as he is always learning new stuff and sharing it with us all. He was giving a plug to literal interpretation of the Bible which is interesting. He has seen people who like... decided to seriously believe they were going to be healed from some illness, basing their beliefs on the Bible-- and they were thus healed! "If two people on earth believe and agree, it will happen. If you agree with Satan, it will happen. If you agree with God, it will happen." Which is why, I now realize, I should never focus on negative feelings. What one thinks and believes are so very powerful! They can kill you or give you life!

Another thing that was very meaningful is that one of the adults here apologized in front of everyone today, for somehow cheating the Institute. He had been talking to a staff girl who was caught misusing the internet-- and he started by saying, "I am a sinner just like you." Very powerful. It is a terrible thing to have sin on you, but it must be a terribly good thing to be forgiven in front of everyone like he was.

Rumination:

The 100 People Theory
"One hundred intelligent, good people will bet their lives on a certain idea and 100 of the same will bet their lives against it. If over the course of hundreds of years, neither stand has vanished, then either they are both (truly or in a psuedo-like manner) right, both wrong, OR one argument is right and the other is just accepted by people who have lost the ability to believe anything else besides what they think they already know (due to pride, comfort, etc. Many people who were already born into, or converted into a certain religion probably wouldn't even consider the claims of other religions.)."

This was developed because of my debating touchy subjects with people who violently disagree with me-- I feel that debate should always revolve around logic rather than evidence, because you can't really trust all that evidence, especially if you're more on the philosophical side like I am. What will (HAVE to) follow is the Theory of Good Results (related to my pursuit of happiness idea in proving God). I get this feeling that the pursuit of happiness is holier and better than the pursuit of knowledge. Take that, Aristotle. Much of the time, knowledge just brings you down. As is commonly known.

Woah, I have so much email to get to... gotta write a piece for PS by march 6! Must not forget!! And gotta tend to quartet musics and bsong! So many weddings! Math competition tomorrow! I can't believe it. It's like I have two lives now. But I'll never be bored, ahaha! Not that I am ever bored... but anyway. It's good to stretch. Definately good, though one may have to admit it through tears! Definately good.

I just spent $200 on a piece of software (Finale 2004) that I could have acquired for free from illegal p2p. I feel WONDERFUL. Because... what good is it if you PWN the whole world but lose your own soul? RESPECT THE HARD WORK OF ARTISTS AND TECHIES! JOIN THE WAR AGAINST PIRACY!!!

Yes... that is primarily what I had to say :D. Well, I had a good convo with my mom about the different denominations, and I feel better now. I'm not going to think too much about those separations of doctrine for now... -.- "If it's not a matter of life and death, tend first to the matters of life and death!" [Note that "life" and "death" may not be that easy to define, but anyway.] I wrote a piece on something that I have realized and have yet to refine:

"Someone who is truly going to live only for his own long-term happiness and nothing else will surely become a great follower of God. For just as healthy foods and practices (as designed by God) keep the body at its peak, one's soul cannot be at its peak without the practice of healthy thoughts, actions, and purpose. And there has been no greater doctrine and power in keeping oneself at one's peak than what is taught in the Bible and what is given by the Holy Spirit in a right relationship with God."

Set up the new o-board which can be found at violasong.com/oek. And there you will find the first oekaki I've drawn in months xD. Ahhh, I love it though; good memories.

Well it's final, I'm doing the web devel volunteer job and I start tuesday... so I have a question... what's the fastest way to learn PHP within 5 days?
Andy: holy cow
Andy: um
Andy: download other peoples stuff from hotscripts.com
Andy: and look around in the manual at php.net
VI0LIST: ah, already've done both xD
Andy: doh

I end with a quote: "By considering the opposite of our natural inclinations, we prepare to hear the voice of God."

Happy V-day. One thing I have in my mind today is a story someone sent me about a theology class. One time the teacher instructed each person to draw someone they hated-- each person got very involved in this and put lots of effort into their pictures. The pictures were mounted upon a giant dart board as each student rose and violently threw darts at their respective pictures. At the end of all this... the teacher pulled off the pictures and to everyone's surprise, he revealed a mutilated and ripped-up portrait of Jesus underneath it all. And isn't it true?! As we hate people, it is like we are hating Jesus Himself. Every one of these people were crafted by and are loved dearly by God. Every one of us nailed Christ to the cross-- and are given life eternal if we could just accept Him. Hate is such a sin! And I am so guilty of it! Anyways I just wanted to encourage you guys this week to "make love your aim..." (1 Cor 14:1)

Well I told Tara that I'd upload my sketches, so here are some of them :D math doodles actually. (my boyos) (a study on "innocence")

4H yesterday... I made up the ultimate setup for graphics presentation! Hehe the trick is in maxing your picture viewer on the secondary monitor so you can operate like powerpoint (without the drudgery of powerpointing). It meant a lot to me when Kyle told me he liked the effect of anime in my drawings--I'm get somewhat nervous about showing my art to conservative, Christian, homeschooled, caucasian, American people because, well, o_O I get the impression that anime makes them twitchy. :P. I'll probably set up my leeter oekaki board soon.

Catholicism. What a faith! Everything I have found to be legalistic in Protestantism, I find fully accepted in Catholicism! And yet there is a certain beauty in their practices. I had the chance to have an hour long AIM conversation (or you could say debate) with a catholic person the other night; it was interesting and I learned a lot; though I so abhor the separation between the faiths and doctrines! (Even within Protestantism.) Why did it happen? I am convinced (mostly through logic) that Truth is the same for all, or different for each person! And above all God is absolute-- we'll all live and die our subjective ways but only ONE is absolute! I'll be thinking more about this.

And... after a while of thinking about it, I decided to get a domain :D. Made a new layout and rewrote all my pages as well. I switched to greymatter for blogging, which was a bloody pain to config but look who won. I still need to make a viola page, a God page and something for my quotes but that will have to wait.

So I was washing the dishes yesterday, and this is what I thought up... yes... I think it'll be the overall theme for this site :D;; if anyone sees a flaw in the reasoning, let me know.

News: Friday night, I went to see Return of the King again, but this time with Tara which was cool! Techies and otakus are the coolest people yo ^^. Best parts of the movie: beacons lighting up, Gandalf/Pippen's discussion of the next life, first sight of the shire, the harbor *_*. Worst parts: corny brass music, overdone drama ("This is the greatest war of our time!" duh -.-), unexplained bits of plot thrown in just to please the book-people (e.g. Faramir and Eowen smiling at each other, "the eagles"). But overall it was a good movie both times.

Saturday: My quintet played for the valentine's tea at my church (during 1st half of below-mentioned party); I think it went rather well. 'Tis always good to play up that music again! We should get more! Yah!

Saturday LAN party: Eight gamers including Weien and I in our living room, cables everywhere and kind of crazy but it was good stuff. Of course, only one game of AOE2 and like 3 games of MechWarrior4 were played--LAN parties were designed to last all week long man! I mean the LANing problems become half the party if there's not enough time ;D. Here's a phot of 5 of the comps and their users.

UM I GOT MY SAT SCORES! w00t!!! Never takin those again ^^. And I cut my finger with the cleaver while chopping mushrooms! Evil mushrooms! Good experience though-- I think it's 'healthy' to get injured every once in a while; it shakes you up. And I made some GIF garlic bulbs; go adopt one :D! Because t3h garlic 0wns j00.

And... o_o I'm probably going to start working in web development at IBLP--gonna have to consult with "php code monkey" :D? All these websites; they're all for myself! So I'm going to acquire some web languages and learn how to manage sites which will benefit a great and God-fearing ministry... and I think that would be the next good work I need to do--for my life calling. Besides doing more for my church creative ministry, which I'm also excited about. The time to have fun will come but there's so much to work for right now!

Let me know of any broken links, as I figured out the most haphazard way to upload possible-- also keep in mind that I've been staring at this page for several hours while coding and tweaking it, and may have totally missed some huge problem. Let me know if you've gotten here! And pray for me?