Eagle River Part 2

All right. It's Wednesday, just about the midpoint of this Eagle River vacation. Let's see, the rest of Tuesday I pretty much hung out, finishing up my audiobook and reading more of History of American Political Theory. I've finished up my 60 hours of Summer reading for the Wheaton Public Library which will net me a free taco at Chipotle. There are other rewards for 20 and 40 and I still have a couple gift cards that I've saved. ::Cough cough:: Anyway, part of the reason for this was that it was either raining or threatening rain the entire day and evening. As a matter of fact, that evening, there was a gigantic thunderstorm all that late evening and night. That has actually happened all three times we've been up here. I must say, Eagle River has provided me with a fantastic opportunity to catch up on a lot of college lectures. Right now I'm going through some of Wheaton College's speaking sessions. This one Indian speaker D'Souza Dinesh or something like that. Anyway, he was talking a lot about combating the New Atheism and made some very excellent points that I added to my intellectual arsenal. He brought up some things that I had never heard about from anyone else before, like the fact that every single physical law of the universe (speed of light, gravity, rate of expansion of the universe, etc) has to be absolutely exact or else the universe as we know it would simply not exist. There were other cool facts to. He was saying that his talks are aimed differently for different audiences. He said that for Christians, he wants to encourage them in their faith, to agnostics or seekers he wants to show them that there is evidence and maybe think twice about disbelief in God, and for often arrogant undergraduate atheists, he wants to give them an "intellectual horsewhipping" which I thought was beautifully hilarious. As much as I really liked the guy, he also held a position in strong support of God-directed evolution and how the earth was 5.5 billion and change years old. I guess that shows how sheltered I've been because I thought a belief in a literal 6 day creation was much more ubiquitous among strong" Christians that it actually seems to be. I'll delve into my beliefs on that in more detail at some point in the near future. Maybe I'll type a draft of it on my laptop and post in when I get home...hmm. Now there's an idea...Anyway, today I listened and read more, kayaked a bit more (and got really sunburned on my lower arms and curiously right above my knees too) and...went tubing. This time however, they went too fast and crazy and really ticked me off because I was telling them to slow down. It was less fear of my life and health and more an anger at a blatant disregard of my requests and a feeling of broken trust. So that sort of left me sullen at the world (except my iPod and Palm of course) for a while. Just a few hours ago, we went to a choir concert at a nearby church that was singing old revival songs of the Great Awakening (I believe it was the second). Some of the songs like "Leaning on the Everlasting Arms" were familiar and nice, but a lot of the other ones I didn't know and so I sort of felt a disconnect. It was really cool to hear deep men's voices and the ladies sing really high, especially considering the church I've attended all my life doesn't have one. So that brings us up to the present. I'm writing this and will start getting ready for bed soon. Tomorrow will be our last day of water activities as it has been confirmed that we'll be going to Black River Falls in the UP on Friday. So I'm really looking forward to going and getting pictures, especially considering there actually hasn't been much to photograph (maybe I'll explain later in a more all-encompassing post). Well, it's time to scram!

Who I is?

Yes, the inevitable post of selfishness where I talk all about me. As much as I like myself, the post is somewhat obligatory. I’d rather talk about what I think. However, it is important to understand where I’m coming from and what I believe because all these things with certainly color my writing and be quite evident in it.
So first and foremost, I am a Christian. I have been one since I was 4 years old and it is the most central aspect of my life. This of course is easy to say, but hard to live out. It’s a constant struggle for me to put Christ and what He wants to do with me before myself and my desires. My favorite verse sums up myself quite nicely. 1 Corinthians 15:10 says: But by the grace of God I am what I am, and his grace toward me was not in vain. On the contrary, I worked harder than any of them, though it was not I, but the grace of God that is with me. This verse really means a lot to me because I have been given much. I can easily credit my accomplishments to myself, but it is God and His grace working through me that has enabled me to be who I am. I want to be the person who in this life, works their tail off serving Christ and doing my best, all through the power of God.
I also have very strong political views. I will not hesitate to say that I’m a conservative Republican and I actually am interning for my Congressman, Rep. Peter Roskam of the 6th IL Congressional District. So some of my posts now and in the future might involve interesting things that have happened while volunteering there.
My laptop (An IBM ThinkPad T40) is one of my most treasured electronic companions. I use it all the time and have really poured quite a bit of my life on it, considering all the Documents, pictures, and other things loaded on it. However, it is getting old and worn, so I’m hoping to get one in the next few years, depending on how much money I can acquire.
I also love photography. My Panasonic Lumix DMC-TZ1 point and shoot has served me well for over two years and I’ve taken thousands of pictures with it. If you ask my friends, they’d say I’m obsessed with taking pictures and it occasionally annoys them when I shoot them relentlessly at camp and pretty much everywhere.
I also love to read. I’ve always been a reader, whether of books or online articles. I’m hoping that I can find a widget or some custom thing to have a “Currently reading” section somewhere on this blog. My reading style can be quite odd though, as I read extremely fast, so my comprehension isn’t all that fantastic. At least with novels and exciting books, I want to read to know what happens, so I try to find out as fast as possible. I also like academic reading of AP textbooks and other things that will help me for the classes and tests and make me feel smart too.
My favorite music is another odd thing. I really don’t have too many favorites. I am not that loyal to artists and usually only like 1 or a few songs of theirs. I do like Taylor Swift a lot though. Her songs are really well done and her voice is fantastic. I like all sorts of Christian music, but Hillsong’s worship music is just phenomenal. Also, some Christian rap songs are really cool too, but more on that later.
Well, that should be all. I’m done. There are better and more exciting things to write about and I’m sure you’ll see further aspects of my  life and personality come out as this blog continues.