What Matters?

Find Your Inner Human Rights Defender!

You are Eleanor Roosevelt!
Like Eleanor you are a firm believer in the full scope of human rights. You tend to be concerned with global issues more than local and domestic ones. You are very confident and independent and don't allow what others say to impact your judgment. Gender equality is very important to you.

Eleanor Roosevelt was the first lady of President Franklin D. Roosevelt. She was an outspoken supporter of the Civil Rights movement, and advocated equal opportunity for African-Americans. She helped draft the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, one of the documents that defines Amnesty's policies.

Take it and let me know what you got, guys!

Clams and Mussels Opened Up

So this is from Facebook, but I didn't want to add the application, so I'm putting my result here.


Elena is a Wolf
You're independent, strong-willed & often misunderstood. Very few people truly understand you. You're extremely attached to the significant few you love and respect. You often find yourself as a loner, but you eagerly seek the comfort of your pack mates.

- - -

From this NYTimes article: "Senator Barack Obama wrote about his absent father in “Dreams From My Father” and about quarreling with his wife in “The Audacity of Hope.”

John Edwards, the former senator from North Carolina, is the star of a long-running, heart-rending family drama: he lost a son in a car accident and has a wife with incurable cancer and he discusses all of it with seeming ease.

In contrast, Mrs. Clinton has meted out her inner life one teaspoon at a time: a suggestive line in an interview here, a hearty laugh there."

That last sentence is beautiful. Simply beautiful.

- - -

Anyhow, all the above was from the last few days; I was feeling halfhearted, kinda lukewarm (dangerous!), glum, in general. Things were different from winter break at Oak Glen. It's harder to hear God's voice when so many others are around me, saying this and that and who knows what. It's a struggle. And I felt the worst the day I didn't connect with God before school as I had regularly been doing since Monday. I guess I shut myself in and tried to internalize things, but that wasn't the best choice. Life works out best when you have a two-way dialogue with God. It just.. does.

Somewhat better now, I think. Optimistic. I know there's several matters I need to take care of and changes to make, but we're ready. Super-excited about going through this bunch of physics material this weekend. Honestly. I've lots to learn and review, to wrap my brain around. Need to soak in the concepts and truly grasp them. Yay and thanks to Jed for giving me the website. I've talked with Jeff about those lectures before, but I'd forgotten about them. Didn't long consider asking him and David how to learn physics when I remembered that the two picked things up quick as that *snaps*. Hah. Considering probing through the AP Calculus material on that website, too. =)

Actually, to be perfectly honest, part of what draws me to the MIT professor's physics lecture is the board the guy's using and the set-up of the room. It looks very similar to Princeton's lecture halls that we'd convene in every Sunday to share about our classes and their latest developments. Good times, good times. I'm reminded of the intellectual energy and passion that steadily diffused throughout the room, that which seeped into each and every one of us and awakened our minds and opened our souls. It takes a special kind of environment to do that, it really does.

Epidemiology love! Teacher John and Peter the Piper and rats and dead townsmen.

<3

Ajax.

I just found out that I was so close, it could have been mine. But it's not. Instead, it's yours.

I was bitter for a few minutes. Why did I give up? Couldn't I have held out for just a little longer, ignored the pressures? But, no, to do so would have meant continuing to impose on several people who care for me very much, and I couldn't let that happen.

Truth be told, I'd almost forgotten about you, and I think I had wanted it that way, that I had purposely blocked you from my mind. So, seeing your request, I was momentarily stunned. I wasn't sure whether or not to accede. You're the one who now has what I could have had but do not. It's not really your fault, but I couldn't help feeling resentful. And so, I prayed.

After a few minutes, and in the end, I decided to go with my gut and my God. We'd take it. I mean, cleansing of the heart has to start somewhere, right? Gotta scrub out all that bitterness before starting anew.

P.S. Thanks, Jason.

"Search me, O God,
and know my heart;
Try me, and know my
anxieties;
And see if there is any
wicked way in me.
And lead me in the way
everlasting."
-Psalm 139: 23-24 NKJV