Merry Christmas
Hope you all are having a wonderful holiday!

My dad sent me this link today. Scroll down to near the bottom of the page and click the button to watch the presentation:
* Interview With God

Quotation from my Jeopardy Calendar...

The only history that is worth a tinker's damn is the history we make today.
~~ Henry Ford

Back from Pitt

Well, I went to the Pittsburgh Game with the MV's this weekend. It was a really fun trip... Robbie has a pretty good summation of the weekend on his blog so, I'll direct you there for the details... HokiePundit.

Anyway, on the bus ride home, I took the time to sit down and just write about stuff that's been on my mind... I'm not going to post the whole thing, but I'm gong to post a good bit of it so... here we go...


Sunday Afternoon Reflections

Recently, I've had a several things constantly on my mind, and as I'm on this bus riding back from an upset at Pittsburgh last night while the rest of my beloved horn section either sleeps, cuddles with their 'significant other' or quietly watches the horrible selection in cinematic entertainment, I decided to take the time to put some of these thoughts into words.

1. School - The end of the semester is fast approaching and the workload (for the most part) is definitely serving to prove this fact. This week its looking like I'll have three tests to take in addition to whatever homework I'm assigned. I'm to the point in many of my classes that the homework isn't so easy that I can just sit there and write down the answers (given the appropriate amount of time needed to scribe the solution) without having to really think about it. In fact, much of the time I just have to search the examples in my notes or the book to find something that bears some resemblance to what I'm trying to do... and then I have to play around with the given answers (that is if I'm given the answer to check my work with) to attempt to find the method that I originally needed to find the answers. But despite this, I'm doing quite respectably in all of my classes, though I am slightly disappointed with how my intro to aerospace engineering calss is going. As of the end of my freshman year, I'm actually ranked number 5 within the sophomore class in aerospace engineering. I'm enjoying my statics class a lot more than I ever expected I would, and I'm ever leaning more away from specializing in the 'space' side of aerospace engineering, though I still can't give up thinking that someday I'll get to be an astronaut. However, in the back of my mind, I don't see this very feasable since Mission Specialists and Payload Specialists on the shuttle almost always have some super-important experiment they're running and in order to be a shuttle commander or pilot you have to have 'x' (where x is rather large) number of pilot hours which is easiest to obtain through being a pilot for one of the military branches, and the more time that passes, the less I see myself ever joining the Air Force, like I was once so dead set on.

2. Religion - This week I received a delivery from UPS! It was a box of assorted home-baked cookies from my church back home. Though I don't think my moral values have changed ALL that much since I've been at college, over the past year (about), I've really gone on a downward sloping trip in terms of my relationship with Christ. I don't think I believe that you can actually lose your faith if you actually had it to begin with, but I've come extremely close to that this year. (Though I think things are getting better... see October 19, 2003 at Super Crazy Stefie Thinking Time) I've only been to church about 5 or 6 times over the past 12 months and I'm sure that has a lot to do with it. And also, though I don't know of any other 'denomination' that would better suit me, I'm fairly certain that my set of religious convictions conform to that of the Southern Baptist Convention. However, worrying about all these details is being legalistic and the main worry is that the church you attend professes the basic beliefs of Christianity.

3. Relationships - A topic that I've blogged a lot about... As I've said many times before, all my best friends throughout my life have been guys (and all really great ones at that). Sometimes I think I get too close to some of these guys and hope for more to come out of these relationships, but with the exception of this most recent one, nothing ever does. I mean its kinda like they see me as the "cute, fun little sister" figure more than a chick-friend. Until recently though, I really preferred it that way, but I'm beginning to kind of want that sort of companionship - something more than just another of 'the guys'. I want to have guy friends still, don't get me wrong... but I'd still like to date as well! ----- There's nothing I can do about it now, but... I picked the wrong person to let be my first kiss -- I'll be the first to admit that, but I still would've liked for that 'romance' to last more than a day....

Finally, next semester I'm working at GE Aircraft Engines in Cincinnati. And though I know I'm going to have an amazing time there and going to gain invaluable work experience. I still am going to miss it here at VT a lot. I mean the break from classes ig going to certainly be welcomed with open arms, but I'm going to miss all my friends, Southern Virginia, pep band, symphony band, and my other activities...

But, Anyway, I've written enough. Adieu!

Mmmhmmm...
Right so... I've just gotten back from a Hillcrest Community Dinner (can you sense the excitement??.... ...). Anyway, Jack Dudley, the community director made an 'interesting' statement during the course of the discussion (the topic of discussion was related to separation of church and state and its implications on statements made by political officials in response to events related to September 11 and the war on terrorism). Anyway, he posed a question: "Do you think that, in light of policy he has made in the recent days, President Bush should be impeached since policy should not be made on a religious stance?"

Yep, and Jack Dudley was the same person who explained my own political ideology to me...
What are you trying to conserve??
No, I'll tell you... You see, the difference between liberals and conservatives is how they view the future. Conservatives want America to be the best it can be, whereas liberals want America to be better than the best.

ummmm... yeah.

Swingin' and Campin'
That's right... last night was the Horn Camping Trip! But before I get to talking about that (which would be the main part of what I have to say in my blog today), I want to just talk about swing dancing first.

Friday night, I finally gave in and to the swing dance downtown for the first time ever. Robbie Bauer was teaching me and a friend of mine how to do a lot of the easier moves. It was a LOT of fun and I'm so glad I decided to go. Plus, swingin' is a good way to get 'physical' with a lot of guys... ;) hehe... j/k. Seriously though, I'm a pretty Independent Woman, so this was a change of pace for me. Robbie keeps saying that 'its always the guys fault', but the girl still has a lot of responsibility in the matter. The girl has to trust the guy and follow his lead. And unless the guy is sitting there verbally telling the girl what he wants her to do, you have to pay attention to the guy's lead. You have to pay attention to the movements in the his body (mainly his arms) and follow his lead. Even if it is 'always the guys' fault', you still have to go where he wants you to go or else you won't be able to do anything and you'll just make him look bad... and the guys certainly don't want that... cause we're there to make him look good! ;)

Anyway... camping... SUCH a good trip. I don't know what it is about the horn camping trips, but I feel like I've gone on these and 2 of the 3 times I've come back feeling more'spiritual' than I left... which is kinda odd if you take into account how much underage drinking, etc. that goes on at these types of things.

Anyway, by the time people were passing out for the night, there were only 3 of us left awake, Robbie Bauer, Brandon McKagen's step-dad (we were using their land out in Floyd County), and myself. Anyway, after a while, I crawled into my sleeping bag to keep warm (since the fire had been put out for the night) and to just lay there looking at the stars. The sky was so clear there... so beautiful. Robbie and I sat there talking until some point past 4am. Not about one single thing... but it was a nice conversation!

The past 6 months have kinda been a 'low point' (if you will) in my spiritual life, and ever since I decided not to go to the Air Force Academy, I've kinda lost touch with the 'passion' I once had for space and flying. But last night, I think the magnamity of the night sky reminded me of these things that had been so important to me but I had lost touch with... my love for going beyond the bounds of Earth and the magnificent power of God.

I don't think I've ever seen so many stars as I did last night... we were so far away from any populated areas, so human-generated lights weren't interfering with the stars; but also, the sky was just so clear that nothing was in the way... So many stars are there... and just think... maybe one day, we'll visit some of them... I want go there -- I always have... at least as far back as I can remember... to be able to pass through the confines of the earth's atmosphere and go out where so many of the physical laws of nature we're so used to just don't apply anymore.

It is humbling to know that there's so much out there that noone's been to... never been touched and never had the chance to be jaded by the human influence. And all of it, God created... its amazing... He knows everything about every one... there are so many we can't even count them. Not only does he know how many there are, but he knew every detail needed to create such a magnificent array of stars, of beings, of plants, of colors... I could go on forever I think.

"... He also made the stars. God set them in the expanse of the sky to give light on the earth, to govern the day and the night, and to separate light from darkness. And God saw that it was good." --Genesis 1:16-18

I don't think I believe that once you are truly a Christian you can loose your faith, but I feel like over the past 6 months, I've come pretty close. And I still can't say that I'm back to the 'strength' I was before... not after one 'spiritual' experience in the most unlikely of places (a horn camping trip...). But there was something about the night sky last night that brought me a lot closer to where I was when I left high school to become a Hokie.

"Is not God in the heights of heaven? And see how lofty are the highest stars!' Yet you say , 'What does God know? ... Thick clouds veil him, so he does not see us as he goes about in the vauleted heavens.' Will you keep to the old path that evil men have trod? They were carried off before their time, their foundations washed away by a flood. They said to God, 'Leave us alone! What can the Almighty do to us?' Yet it was he who filled their houses with good things, so I stand aloof from the counsel of the wicked. ... Submit to God and be at peace with him; in this way prosperity will come to you. Accept instruction from his mouth and lay his words in your heart. If you return to the Almighty, you will be restored: if you remove wickedness far from your tent and assign your nuggets to the dust, your gold of Ophir to the rocks in the ravines, then the Almighty will be your gold, the choicest silver for you. Surely then you will find delight in the Almighty and will lift up your face to God. You will pray to him, and he will hear you, and you will fulfill your vows." -- excerpts from Job 22

I'm including one more passage from Psalms at the end of this post. I found it relevant. I don't know that this post has had much organization to it, but there's just so much going through my head that its difficult to put it down in a sensical manner.

But, before I leave... I just want to say that talking with Robbie last night I was reminded of what a great guy he is. He's a completely GENUINE individual... He's an amazing guy and whoever he marries is going to be a incredibly lucky girl! I can only hope to find someone like him for myself!

O Lord, our Lord, how majestic is your name in all the earth!
You have set your glory above the heavens.
From the lips of children and infants you have ordained praise
because of your enemies, to silence the foe and the avenger.

When I consider your heavens, teh work of your fingers,
the moon and the stars, which you have set in place,
what is man that you are mindful of him, the son of man that you care for him?
You made him a little lower than the heavenly beings and crowned him with glory and honor.

You made him ruler over the works of your hands; you put everything under his feet:
all flocks and herds, and the beasts of the field,
the birds of the air, and the fish of the sea, all that swim the paths of the seas.

Oh Lord, our Lord, how majestic is your name in all the earth.

~~~~PSALM 8~~~~

Not sure what my Opinion of this is...

http://objective.jesussave.us/kidz.html

Scroll to the 'Spiritual Safety Tip'.

Two years ago...
Its hard to believe how much has happened in two years. In my life alone, so much has changed. Two years ago today, I was still going to go to the Air Force Academy, I still had braces, I still was in high school, etc., etc., etc. I could go on forever. But two years ago today, the calmness in America was shaken. I walked to Aerodynamics class as usual on a Tuesday passing a few rooms where each teacher stood in the center of his/her classroom glued to the tv. Once I reached, the aero room, I saw the same scene here. My first assumption when I saw that a plane had hit the WTC, I thought, "How stupid of that pilot... he should have seen that tower... it didn't just come there over night."

But how I was wrong! After govie, I drove to my orthodontist appointment where all the tv's were tuned to the coverage. All the radio stations had coverage.

September 11th Montage

Things I've 'discovered' so far this summer:
* I'm glad I'm not an electrical engineering major
* I'm glad I don't attend UMD
* I'm SUPER glad I go to VT
* Its fun to be a city girl for a while... but I do miss southern virginia... (what am I going to do when I graduate college and have to find a job??? there's just not much market for aerospace engineers in Southern VA)
* I have some really great guys in my life
* Not all female engineers are like those in SWE at VT that made me hate SWE...
* Sometimes, the best times can be had just sitting around somewhere talking... even when the DC bums criticize your friends for stuttering... ;)

A New Read
I just started reading Life of Pi by Yann Martel Sunday evening. I've not gotten very far, but it seems to be a good book. According to the back cover, "Pi Patel, a God-loving boy and the son of a zookeeper, has a fervent love of stories and practices not only his native Hinduism, but also Christianity and Islam. When Pi is sixteen, his family and their zoo animals emigrate from India to North America aboard a Japanese cargo ship. Alas, the ship sinks--and Pi finds himself in a lifeboat, his only companions a hyena, an orangutan, a wounded zebra, and a 450-pound Bengal tiger. Soon the tiger has dispatched all but Pi. Can Pi and the tiger find their way to land? Can Pi's fear, knowledge, and cunning keep him alive until they do?"

I've gotten through 50 pages... I just read something that amused me... "He treated me like a grown-up; and he told me a story. Or rather, since Christians are so fond of capital letters, a Story."

I also found a rather provacative statement: "The presence of God is the finest of rewards"

And I'm FINISHED! :)
I finished The Dream of Spaceflight just now after 2 solid days of reading. The last chapter was very short in comparison to the rest of the book so I only have one quotation to post from it... the closing to the entire book.

"Generations will come and go, civilizations will rise and fall, and long after Earth is vaporized by the sun and humanity is either extinct or evolved into other beings, Voyager will drift silently onward, carrying the message through countless eons: that there was, at our time and place in the cosmos, an awareness that knew something of its world and something of itself, an imperfect people of irrepressible spirit, of an imperfect people of irrepressible spirit, of mathematics and music, of love and wonder, who dared to dream of reaching the stars.

This was a decent book... not as good as I had expected, but it was kind of a 'motivational book' of sorts... that sought to place reasoning behind the space program... you know... why its good to have a space program!

So now that I've finished this book I should go to the bookstore again... It's been a long time since I've just read for pleasure! Its something I've kinda subconsciously missed... but I'm sure when I get back to Tech in late August, that I'm not going to be doing much reading again.

Hey Chapter 4... I'm almost done!
First quote of the chapter: "Where there is no vision, the people perish." ~ Proverbs 29:18. This means that without a source of meaning larger that of your own ego or beyond survival itself, you're left in a world full of void. How boring that must be!

Next, I found some interesting statistics that I could've used back in high school in junior english when we had to write our persuasive papers. I wrote mine, unsurprisingly, on why the space program was a good investment. Here's what The Dream of Spaceflight had to say about the topic:

"Even in the days of Apollo the public lost interest after the first lunar landing. Having beaten the Russians in the Super Bowl of space, we went back to business and Monday Night Football. After six walks on the moon, the last three were scrapped, saving seven-tenths of 1 percent of Apollo's total cost. Yet the $24 billion Apollo program cost each American only a dollar a month for nine years, and this ignores exponential returns to the economy. The $38 billion spent on space between 1961 and 1972 was barely 1 percent of the national budget, 3 percent of the amount allotted to social programs, and half the figure for detected welfare fraud. Had even this moderate commitment to space persisted, we would have walked on Mars a decade ago."

More quotations: "Wonder, in its larger sense, denotes the mysterium tremendum, the aura of unfathomable majesty, utterly humbling and wholly Other, surrounding the sublime and terrifying unknowns that border our models of reality.... Thus we gaze into the night sky and feel not diminishment but dilation. We sense the vastness and passion of creation and glimpse an equally vast interior - the 'enormous geography of the soul,'..."

"the less one explores, the less comfortable or compelling exploring becomes."

"The sense of wonder - the need to find our place in the whole - is not the only genesis of personal growth but the very mechanism of evolution, driving us to become more than we are. Exploration, evolution, and self-transcendence are but different perspectives on the same process."

"To believe less - or believe more - is to live in the shallows of what it means to be human."

"A young space enthusiast once asked von Braun what it takes to send a man to the moon. His answer is his epitaph: 'The will to do it.'"

The Dream of Spaceflight, vol. 3
Now for the highlights of Chapter 3: 'Seeking the Center at the Edge' By the way, this book is mostly a book who's purpose is to inspire you to say 'yay spaceflight' not really to provoke critical thought on controversial issues; therefore, most of my posts on this book have been and probably will continue to be quotations I think are spiffy.

"We shall not cease from exploration
And the end of all our exploring
Will be to arrive where we started
And know the place for the first time."
~T.S. Eliot, Little Gidding

"'Some Part of our being,' said Carl Sagan, 'knows this is from where we came. We long to return.'"

"Perhaps the disenchantment is that of a nation entering middle age. 'The youth,' wrote Thoreau in his journal, 'gets together his materials to build a bridge to the moon, or, perchance, a palace or temple on the earth, and, at length, the middle-aged man concludes to build a woodshed with them.'"

"Seeing our own essence in the floating Earth, we are finally more sacred than our works. 'No longer that preposterous figure at the center, no longer that degraded and degrading victim off at the margins of reality,' wrote MacLeish, 'man may at last become himself.'"

"A fragmented, depersonalized, demythologized society spawns cancerlike individuals who lack a sense of anything larger than themselves and who thus destroy the social organism that sustains them. Simultaneously alienated and inflated, the ego becomes obsessed with order and control, barricading itself into a tiny clearing in the dark forest of the soul. Cling to a false self, one loses receptivity to the symbolic unconscious, and with it the ability to experience wonder. "

The Dream of Spaceflight, cont.
So in between running tests here at work, I tend to have some time on my hands... at least today. So I've been reading that book some more. I'm on chapter two now, entitled: The Romance of Spaceflight: Nostalgia for a Bygone Future

It mentions an artist, Chesley Bonestell, who was famous for his works of a space nature. I checked out some of his stuff online... its quite impressive. http://www.bonestell.org/Page_30x.html

Also in this chapter it suggests that there are seven zones of human experience. The first five are the 'natural zones':
1) the area of sensation immediately touching the sking
2) the area within two or three meters in which most social interaction takes place
3) the maximum area of social interaction, reaching out a few hundred feet
4) the area that extends as far as one can see or otherwise gather information from any one location
5) an irregular and varying area made up of all the zone-four areas that a person experiences during a lifetime

Beyond the five natural zones are two conceptual constructs:
6) the surface or biosphere of the Earth
7) the universe as far out as one can conceive - the realm of transcendence, the literal locus of ultimate answers to all our "why" questions.

The book alludes to the fact that any 'god' that humans might refer to would be a part of the 7th zone of human experience. To quote the book (disclaimer... this is a quote, NOT my ideas): "To conceive of the transcendent requires a symbol. One cannot worship "God" - a word, a vague feeling, an intellectual abstraction; one needs an image: Jesus, Buddha, a bearded man in the sky, a painting, a statue. Yet the natural tendency is for the image to literally become God, and the larger, elusive feeling that empowered the symbol fades, eclipsed by a host of this-worldly connections. Finally demystified, the statue reverts to its status as mere artifact. Thus every symbol contains the seeds of its own desacralization. The millennial nature of Christian theology generated the idea of spiritual progress, which spawned the notion of salvation through success in this world, which led to the secular idea of material progress, which in turn began to desacralize Christian theology. The last stage of this process is fundamentalist dogma, in which symbols have lost their numinosity and have degenereated to mere signs"

I know that's a rather long quotation... It actually took up most of the page it was on in the book. I understand how the author intended for this long, drawn out description to emphasize a point he was making, however, what he said clearly demonstrates that he is most likely agnostic. Saying that Jesus is not one and the same with God. He says that Christianity is a desacralization. {sidenote: I'm not doing as good of a job today defending my views as normal... but I just wanted to state some of these... quite honestly all i've done really is list several points that I generally would be able to extend upon in at least a paragraph each. bear with me!}

More knowledge from another book
I was at the Air & Space Smithsonian shortly after having finished the book I had to read for my internship. I was roaming the book section of the gift shop and ran across a book that was on sale for just $5, called The Dream of Spaceflight: Essays on the near edge of infinity by Wyn Wachhorst. I haven't read much of it yet, but I've had a chance to get through the forward and preface, and begin on the 1st chapter (titled 'Kepler's Children'). SO i have a few quotations from this book that I thought I'd post.

"To gaze into the night sky and feel the vastness and passion of creation is to glimpse an equally vast interior. We are aware of the stars only because we have evolved a corresponding inner space."

"Beyond all the political and economic rationales, spaceflight is a spiritual quest in the broadest sense, one promising a revitalization of humanity and a rebirth of hope no less profound than the great opening out of mind and spirit at the dawn of the modern age."

"'Let us create vessels and sails adjusted to the heavenly ether,' Kepler wrote to Galileo, 'and there will be plenty of people unafraid of the empty wastes. In the meantime, we shall prepare for the brave sky-travelers maps of the celestial bodies.'"

"What motivates those who venture over the edge, who trek over barren plains, through tangled jungle, or across the Arctic waste?... [it] is a sometimes selfless obsession with reaching the pristine edges of reality...the attempt to complete the grand internal model of reality, to broaden the context of meaning, to find the center by completing the edge."

"'It is part of the nature of man,' he adds, 'to start with romance and build to reality. We need this thing which makes us sit bolt upright when we are nine or ten and say, 'I want to go out and devour the world.''" (Ray Bradbury)

"'There can be no thought of finishing, for 'aiming at the stars' is a problem to occupy generations.... No matter how much progress one makes, there is always the thrill of just beginning.'" (Robert Goddard)

[It was] "Ed White, floating over the milky blue vastness of teh Pacific with that flash of sunlight on his viosr, that best captured the exhilaration, the euphoric liberation of a species come of age....'I don't want to come back, but I'm comin,' he said. 'It's the saddest moment of my life.'"

And as a side note... Books that Kepler Wrote
* Somnium - Kepler's vision of life on the moon
* Harmony of the World - Even through all the hardships Kepler faced during his life, he was convinced that it was still beautiful.

From the Earth to the Moon - Jules Verne

and thus ends the first chapter.

Long Time, No Post

Well, its been well over a month since I posted up here. I suppose I just haven't been 'inspired' by anything recently to write about here. I've been in College Park, MD since May 31 at the University of Maryland for a program called RISE doing research in the electrical engineering department (I know its not my major). I've met some pretty cool people and had time to hang out with a few of my friends from VT. Two of the people in my group at RISE were born and lived a good portion of their lives in another country.

Maria grew up in Romania. When she was really young, her dad was on a business trip in the US and decided to never go back to Romania (Romania was having a rough time... corrupt gov't and the works..). Anyway, once word got around that he had never returned home the government began harassing her family. While they attmepted to get out of Romania to join her dad in the US, the government wasn't giving them permission to leave and kept trying to get them to fess up about the father's wherabouts. Anyway, by the time the family finally got permission to leave, the government had collapsed and was beginning to rebound, but they were sick of the way they had been treated so came on to the US anyway.

Aimi spent most of her life in Nigeria. Her mother had moved to the US when she was very very young. But Aimi stayed in her town in Nigeria. Her father had many wives and so she really didn't get a chance to get to know him. Other members of her family took care of her until she was about 17. Then she moved to join her mother and sister in NYC. She spent about a year there before her mother kicked her out. So at 18, Aimi had spent only a year in the states and was supporting herself.

I'm so impressed by these stories of their lives. Its very brave of them and I have so much respect for how far they've gotten.

Goals, Dreams, and Priorities... As well as a bit of Wisdom from Good Ol' C.S. Lewis

Well, I was going to have some literary commentary here to go along with this post, but nothing on the internet seems to be working right now (other than this). Anyway, this post is kinda inspired from two different sources: my Sunday School lesson today and the book I'm in the process of reading right now -- The Screwtape Letters by C.S. Lewis.

Let me start off with the Sunday School lesson. Chris, our teacher, came in and wrote 4 words on the chalkboard: goals, dreams, desires, priorities. Then he asked us to define these 4 terms. So here's what we, as a class, came up with...

• Goals = something realistic you plan to do


• Dreams = lofty, something you'd like to do... you don't put any (or much) effort into obtaining this, and thus expect little success from these actions.


• Desires = wants, feelings


• Priorities = hierarchy of dreams and goals

And Chris posed to us that Goals are dreams with deadlines. Also, all 4 of these are inter-related. We decided that the Flowchart would go something like this...
Desires --> Dreams --> Goals --> Priorities.
(Except sometimes the priorities have an overall effect on the desires and dreams and goals)

This lesson is something that hits home with someone like me... I'm generally a very organized, goal-oriented person and having a Sunday School lesson on these very things was something I could get into. The scripture that went along with this lesson came from several different places in the Bible... one of which was "Delight yourself in the Lord and he will give you the desires of your heart." (Psalm 37:4) Another was "Ask and it will be given unto you; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened unto you." (Matthew 7:7) 

This doesn't just mean that if you say that you delight in the Lord, then you can get that brand new car you've been wanting. Rather, if you TRULY are walking with the Lord and are striving to be like Christ, your 'priorities' will shift to be more like what Christ wants and less of those 'worldly', selfish ones. God isn't going to push himself on you to make a change; you have to make the decision for yourself. He's not going to give you the power to stop a bad habit even if you ask in prayer if you don't truly want to get rid of that habit. You have to want to accept God's will for your life. You have to want to make the change. And to grow in your walk, God's will must be the first priority in your life. You can't keep on doing the same ol' thing and expect to get closer to God.  

I think for me in my life, where I've always had this big plan in my life, that's the hardest thing for me. I work so hard on accomplishing my goals and preparing myself for those things I have planned out in my future that I often make that the first priority in my life, shrugging my relationship with God off to the side. And its hard for me to keep him in first place in my life because sometimes its hard to make that connection between my aerospace engineering and my religious convictions. Its easy to get in the routine of relying on yourself to accomplish your goals... and if you work hard enough at it (at least in my experience) you can reach those goals too... at least I have been able to, so far. That's when you slip out of things. 

A few weeks ago, in my religion class we were watching some video on the religious responses people had to the 9-11 attacks... they kept showing scenes of beaches with sunsets, and for some reason seeing the waves come in and out on that TV screen made me think of something. You know, when you were little and were at the beach. When the under toe comes, you can feel its impact. At first, its effect subtle, you can maintain your stance and keep your feet on the ground. But gradually the force of the current increases and eventually knocks you off your feet, pulling you under. This is like in your walk with God. At first impact, you can keep on going in your life the way things had always been and keep the guise that everything’s just fine, just the way it always had been... even fooling yourself. But eventually, it builds up and overcomes you... You loose control of your life because you've gone away from God's will for your life. 

By not putting him as the first priority in your life, you're putting yourself at high risk for going astray... errr, actually you are going astray. If you're not careful, you'll lose it... like when the force of the under toe gets too strong. 

Anyway, I just started reading The Screwtape Letters yesterday afternoon, and I've been surprised to find several passages within it so far that are somewhat related (or at least intriguing and applicable to life as I see it as a college student) to this same topic. Just as a little background, for those of you who are not familiar, Screwtape is a devil. The book is comprised of letters written by Screwtape to his nephew, Wormwood - a devil in training (to give it a form of quatification). Screwtape advises Wormwood in the ways of converting wavering humans away from Christianity (or 'the Enemy' = God). Any quotes I make are things that Screwtape is saying as he advises Wormwood as to how best get the person on the side of 'Our Father Below' (the Devil).  

"Finally, if all else fails, you can persuade him, in defiance of conscience, to continue the new acquaintance on the ground that he is, in some unspecified way, doing these people 'good' by the mere fact of drinking their cocktails and laughing at their jokes, and that to cease to do so would be 'priggish', 'intolerant', and (of course) 'Puritanical'." - Letter 10  

"The real use of Jokes or Humour is in quite a different direction, and it is specially promising among the English who take their 'sense of humour' so seriously that a deficiency in this sense is almost the only deficiency at which they feel shame. Humor is for them the all-consoling and (mark this) the all-excusing, grace of life. Hence it is invaluable as a means of destroying shame... A thousand bawdy, or even blasphemous, jokes do not help towards a man's damnation so much as his discovery that almost anything he wants to do can be done, not only without the disapproval but with the admiration of his fellows, if only it can get itself treated as a Joke." - Letter 11 

"The Christians describe the Enemy as one 'without whom Nothing is strong'. And Nothing is very strong: strong enough to steal away a man's best years not in sweet sins but in a dreary flickering of the mind over it knows not what and knows not why, in the gratification of curiosities so feeble that the man is only half aware of them, in drumming of fingers and kicking of heels, in whistling tunes that he does not like, or in the long, dim labyrinth of reveries that have not even lust or ambition to give them a relish, but which, once chance association has started them, the creature is too weak and fuddled to shake off... It does not matter how small the sins are provided that their cumulative effect is to edge the man away from the Light and out into the Nothing... Indeed the safest road to Hell is the gradual one -- the gentle slope, soft underfoot, without sudden turnings, without milestones, without signposts." - Letter 12  

"active habits are strengthened by repetition but passive ones are weakened. The more often he feels without acting, the less he will be able ever to act, and, in the long run, the less he will be able to feel." - Letter 13

A Brief Update
I haven't updated here in a while, so I thought I'd take a 'study break' from exams to just mention a few things...

Its exam time now... All I have left of my freshman year is 4 exams, one of which is at 3:30 pm today! :)

Anyway, this year has been incredible. I can't think of a dull moment... and its gone by SOOOO fast. I've learned a lot and have had a lot of new experiences since I got here to VT.

I've been consumed with coursework here at the end of the semester and that's been keeping me from doing a lot of the blogging stuff... well, as a matter of fact, I haven't been very regular on it this entire semester.

And before I close out this post, I want to say that I am lucky to have friends like HokiePundit. Thanks. :)

Happy Easter

Well, its the day to celebrate the resurrection of our Lord, Jesus Christ.
So go out and be glad for Christ is risen.

Today, I believe was the first Easter I spent away from my family and didn't go to church.

A verse of recognition
I know I've been gone from the blogging world for a while, but I just got back from Bible Study with the Nav's and this verse was mentioned and stood out to me... Philippians 2:14-16

Philippians 2
2:14
Do all things without complaining and disputing,
2:15
that you may become blameless and harmless, children of God without fault in the midst of a crooked and perverse generation, among whom you shine as lights in the world,
2:16
holding fast the word of life, so that I may rejoice in the day of Christ that I have not run in vain or labored in vain.

America Triumphant
A nifty little montage

Just something I ran across
I found this quote on a friend from high school's AIM Away Message today...
Best explanation of the world's problems that I have ever heard:
"Liberals are stupid.. Their parents smoked too much pot or something. Think about it. There was the 70's and then there was this surplus of liberals"

Controversy in Hokie-land
If ever there was an issue of the CT (Collegiate Times - the VT student produced newspaper), today would be the day! Just take a look at some of the headlines....

* BOV drops gays from policy

* Affirmative action dealt blow at Tech

* Federal bill would put cap on tuition

* Lesbian hire gets boards approval

* Changes to admission policy detrimental to Tech diversity

And yesterday wasn't much better...

* Tech may censor extremist speakers

* Diversity commission OK'd

* Smoking ban passed for campus residents

And that's not mentioning the SLEW of war-related articles (not that I find those to be controversial at this point...).

IMPORTANT:

Store Closing Notice:

ALL K-MART AND WALMART STORES WILL BE CLOSED IN IRAQ!!!

THEY WILL BE REPLACED WITH TARGETS.

Silly French
Found this link on a friend's AIM Profile:
Your French belters (from the Sun Feb. 15th)

Random Notice
Hey, I just realized that Robbie (HokiePundit) has placed me on his links list under Fightin' Gobblers! So I did the same..

Happy Valentines Day... err Singles Awareness Day
I found a link off of a friend's profile this morning as I checked everyone's away messages after I woke up (yeah.... i do that every morning as I wait for the water in my shower to warm up).

Singles Awareness Day

While I'm not so adamant about how horrible Valentine's Day is (I do love those conversation hearts), the author does have a point. People do get overly worried over this one day... and what does it teach us? not really much.... people rush out and buy their significant other stuff, but just because its some day.... The point the author makes is that love shouldn't just be something that is put on the front burner for this one celebrated day, but rather love should be celebrated all year round...

Anyway, Happy Valentine's Day just the same.

Valentine's Day.... err... Singles Awareness Day

A Link
http://www.talltexian.com/AmericaForever/id28.htm

The Day After Tragedy Hit
The post made yesterday was the news according to the post NASA made to their main webpage yesterday afternoon. It sums up basically everything that was known about the situation at the time and pretty much everything that is known now. I wanted to come back today and make some more comments about this horrible tragedy and expand upon the events of yesterday. (prepare yourself for a rather lengthy post)

But first, let me step back a bit. I would venture to say that President Bush has probably had the most "jam-packed" presidency with crucial, serious, and tragic events of any president in the history of the United States. It seems that just when the President and the US has dealt with one situation, another one just all of a sudden appears…. from the 9/11 attacks, to the dealings with Korea, and now the loss of 7 lives in the destruction of the Space Shuttle Columbia, and everything in between. But this in particular has struck a personal note (as did the 9/11 attacks… but this almost to a greater degree).

For my whole life, or at least what I can remember, I have wanted to become an astronaut. Not just any astronaut, but I wanted to be the Shuttle Commander. As a middle school and younger high school student, I paid my way to go to the Space Camp Programs in Florida and Alabama a total of 4 times and also won a scholarship to Advanced Space Academy an additional time. So in all, I've attended the programs a total of 5 times…. not quite the record, but not far off either. In fact by the 5th time I attended the camps, I was on a pretty much first name basis with much of the staff there in Huntsville, Alabama. Space Camp was the perfect excursion for someone like me. A week-long camp where I could meet other kids from around the country, and sometimes from other parts of the world as well, who were also interested in space. I could learn about the history of the space program, about astronomy, and about the mechanics of space travel; I got to experience simulators and get a taste of the types of training that real astronauts go through… even experience miniature shuttle missions. People at my high school definitely knew about my sort of 'obsession' with space travel… all knew that I wanted to be an astronaut… A lot of people just used that as a way to make fun of me, but I didn't care… I knew what I was passionate about and it didn't matter what other people thought. Other people, especially some of my teachers, still ask me to make sure that I 'get them tickets to see my first launch.' And for any of you who have made that request…. when the time comes, just let me know! J

But the point is, I think that was my motivation… maybe not my obvious motivation, but more subconscious…. all throughout my high school life…. its why I did so well. There's really no other explanation to it. I never saw myself as the 'smartest' kid at school…. not really close at all…. But the difference was that I worked my BUTT off so that I would have the best grades I could get….

Okay, back on the track I was taking…. I definitely was more knowledgable about space travel, the history of manned spaceflight, etc. than any other person I knew…. Gosh you probably could have asked me any silly trivia question about the space program back then, and I would've known the answer. (I'm a little rusty nowadays… so I wouldn't try asking me now… out of practice) But I knew then that space travel was still fragile, a risk…. something that became apparent again to the nation's public after yesterday's travel. Becoming an astronaut, you assume the dangers that come along with it…. Every time you go into space you're practically strapping yourself to a rocket-powered bomb of sorts…. And during reentry… if you don't come back into the atmosphere at just the right time, you'll be missing your "window" and it'd be like running into a brick wall. Also, coming back in at the correct angle affects things as well, because you must deflect the heat generated from friction as you reenter the earth's atmosphere. It's a risk that all astronauts are aware of and are willing to take to make that voyage into space…. not just for themselves (though that is part of it) but also to better the human race through the work they do while in space. That risk involved is also why astronauts spend over 3 years in training for their specific mission. They run through the procedures over and over until its almost second nature… but they don't ever let it become second nature… they don't let the little details by them… even the silly routine checks are done every time following a specific guide for how they should be done and reported… almost like a script for a play.

Anyway, throughout the 42 years of US manned spaceflight, only 3 incidents resulted in the loss of human life. The first of these was Apollo I [January 27, 1967], however it was never meant to launch. Rather Apollo I served as a launch pad test of the Apollo/Saturn launch vehicle being prepared for the first piloted flight. Three astronauts, nonetheless, were on board of the vehicle and were unable to escape the command module once failures began. These three men were: Lt. Col. Virgil I. Grissom (Gus - a veteran of Mercury and Gemini missions), Lt. Col. Edward H. White (the astronaut who performed the first US extravehicular activity during the Gemini program), and Lt. Col. Roger B. Chaffee (an astronaut preparing for his first mission). Adjustments to the command module were made to fix the anomalies so that something like this would not happen again, and provisions were placed in the lunar excusion module as well so that this could not occur there either.

Apollo 13 could have been a deadly catastrophe, but as I mentioned before NASA trains its astronauts, as well as mission control and ground support, so well that they know their mission flawlessly, but I failed to mention that these astronauts and other engineers know their equipment like the 'back of their hand'… and thus with some ingenuity, they were able to solve the problem and get back to earth safely.

Next, the US Space Program spawned into a new generation of spaceflight: the Space Shuttle. Beginning with the first Shuttle flight in 1981, the space program would become more and more a useful tool to learning more about space as well as our own planet. The Space Shuttle Program Began with launch of STS-1. Space Shuttle Columbia lifted off from Kennedy Space Center, Fla., on April 12, 1981, at 7 a.m. EST to begin the first shuttle mission, STS-1. The primary mission objectives for STS-1 were to accomplish a safe ascent into orbit, check out all the systems on the space shuttle and to return to Earth for a safe landing. All of these objectives were met successfully. The first crew for the Shuttle Program and for the Space Shuttle Columbia was John W. Young (commander) and Capt. Robert L. Crippen (pilot).

It wasn't until January 28, 1986 that tragedy struck the space program again. STS-51L, Challenger Orbiter… crew of 7: Francis R. Scobee (commander), Michael J. Smith (pilot), Judith A. Resnik, Ellison S. Onizuka, Ronald E. McNair, Gregory B. Jarvis, and Sharon Christa McAuliffe. After several delays and pushbacks of the flight, the Challenger finally was going to get off the launchpad on the chilly morning of January 28, 1986. Delays set in again with the onset of a hardware interface module in the launch processing system failure during liquid hydrogen testing procedures. After fixing this problem, the Shuttle finally was cleared for launch. And only 73 seconds after liftoff, as America looked on as the first teacher was to be sent to space, the Challenger exploded, claiming the crew and vehicle. Shuttle flights halted while investigations of the incident were undergone and while improvements to the systems could be made to prevent another tragedy from happening later on. It took nearly 3 years before another Shuttle would launch again.

Twenty years after Columbia's maiden flight, America's first space shuttle orbiter, Columbia, returned to service just after a year and a half of maintenance and upgrades that have made it better than ever. More than 100 modifications and improvements have been made to Columbia, highlighted by the installation of a new "glass cockpit" that replaced mechanical instruments with 11 full-color, flat-panel displays. The new cockpit is lighter, uses less electricity and sets the stage for the next generation of improvements, a "smart cockpit" under development that will make the cockpit even more user-friendly. Columbia is the second of NASA's four space shuttles to be fitted with the new "glass cockpit." Other improvements included weight reductions that have increased the amount of cargo Columbia can carry to orbit by hundreds of pounds. To save weight, almost 1,000 pounds of unused wire -- left over from equipment and sensors that were used on Columbia for only the first few space shuttle test flights - were removed. Comprehensive inspections of 95 percent of Columbia's more than 200 miles of wire were performed at Palmdale. To prevent such damage from recurring, technicians smoothed rough edges throughout the shuttle and encased wiring in high-traffic work areas in protective tubing. Such inspections and protective measures will be a regular feature of all future shuttle major maintenance. In addition, Columbia's crew cabin floor was strengthened, the heat protection on its wings was enhanced and protection space debris was added to its cooling system, making it a safer spacecraft. While Columbia was in California, technicians scoured the shuttle during months of intensive structural inspections, using the latest technology to check for even minute signs of fatigue, corrosion or broken rivets or welds. (resource for details on upgrades to the Columbia Orbiter was found at http://www.spaceflight.nasa.gov/spacenews/releases/2001/01-25.html).

This brings us about up to date…. (if you want to read more on US manned space history… check out http://www.spaceflight.nasa.gov/history/)

STS 107, what some people considered what had been the "most perfect mission" up until the last 20 minutes. Never has NASA had problems during reentry before yesterday. Here's a segment from the most recent NASA Shuttle Status Report (8 pm EST 2/1/03):

---

The Space Shuttle Columbia and its seven astronauts were lost today when the vehicle broke up over north central Texas during its reentry from orbit.

Communications were lost with Columbia and its crew at around 8:00 a.m. CST, while the shuttle was traveling about 18 times the speed of sound at an altitude of 207,000 feet. Columbia was 16 minutes from landing at the Kennedy Space Center when flight controllers at Mission Control lost contact with the vehicle. Columbia was returning from a 16-day scientific research mission, its 28th flight, which launched on January 16.

Aboard Columbia were Commander Rick Husband, completing his second flight, Pilot William McCool, wrapping up his first mission, Mission Specialists Dave Brown, also completing his first mission, Kalpana Chawla, on her second flight, Laurel Clark, a first-time space traveler, Payload Commander Mike Anderson, ending his second flight, and Payload Specialist Ilan Ramon of the Israel Space Agency, on his first flight.

Prior to the loss of communications with Columbia, the shuttle's return to Earth appeared perfectly normal. After assessing some wispy fog near the shuttle?s three-mile long landing strip at KSC before dawn, Entry Flight Director Leroy Cain gave approval for the firing of the shuttle's braking rockets to begin its descent from orbit.

Husband and McCool began the deorbit burn to allow Columbia to slip out of orbit at 7:15 a.m. CST. There was no indication of anything abnormal with Columbia's reentry until the last communications between Mission Control and the crew.

At Columbia's intended landing site, NASA Administrator Sean O'Keefe and Associate Administrator for Space Flight William Readdy met with the families of the astronauts to offer their condolences, vowed to uncover the cause of the accident and press ahead with the Shuttle program.

"This is indeed a tragic day for the NASA family, for the families of the astronauts who flew on STS-107, and likewise is tragic for the nation," said O'Keefe.

"We have no indication that the mishap was caused by anything or anyone on the ground," O'Keefe added.

In a briefing, Chief Flight Director Milt Heflin said that around 7:53 a.m. CST, just minutes before communications were lost with Columbia, flight controllers detected indications of a loss of hydraulic system temperature measurements associated with Columbia's left wing, followed three minutes later by an increase in temperatures on the left main gear tires and brakes. At 7:58 a.m., flight controllers noted a loss of bondline temperature sensor data in the area of the left wing followed a minute later by a loss of data on tire temperatures and pressures for the left inboard and outboard tires.

After several attempts to try to contact Columbia, Cain declared a contingency, whereby flight controllers began preserving documentation regarding the entry phase of the flight. Recovery forces fanned out from Texas to Louisiana to try to recover debris that will be pertinent to the mishap investigation.

Space Shuttle Program Manager Ron Dittemore said several teams have been organized to gather data for analysis and will report to an external investigation board that was appointed by Administrator O'Keefe. Dittemore added that no specific orbiter debris or crew remains have been positively identified at this time, and that there is no leading theory for the cause of the accident.

Dittemore said the processing of other shuttles at the Kennedy Space Center for future launches has been temporarily halted to enable engineers to review data regarding vehicle processing and to focus attention on capturing all pertinent information involving Columbia's prelaunch preparations.

NASA managers will be meeting on a regular basis to begin reviewing data associated with Columbia's investigation. The next status briefing from the Johnson Space Center is tentatively scheduled from the Johnson Space Center, Houston, TX at 12:00 p.m. CST Sunday. It will be seen on NASA Television with two-way question and answer capability for reporters from NASA centers. …

On the International Space Station, Expedition 6 Commander Ken Bowersox, Flight Engineer Nikolai Budarin and NASA ISS Science Officer Don Pettit were informed of the loss of Columbia and its crew shortly after a Russian Progress resupply vehicle undocked from the ISS. Filled with discarded items no longer needed on the ISS, the Progress was commanded to deorbit by Russian flight controllers and reentered the Earth's atmosphere.

A new Progress cargo ship will be launched Sunday from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan at 6:59 a.m. CST (1259 GMT) filled with supplies for the Expedition 6 crew. It is scheduled to dock to the ISS Tuesday morning. ISS program officials say, if necessary, the current resident crew could remain in orbit until late June with the supplies being ferried to the station on the new Progress.

---

President Bush's Response yesterday to this horrible tragedy, I think was very well put (maybe not so poetically as Reagan, the last president to offer condolences for an incident such as this… after the loss of lives in the Challenger incident)….

---

My fellow Americans, this day has brought terrible news and great sadness to our
country. At 9 o'clock this morning, Mission Control in Houston lost contact with our
space shuttle Columbia. A short time later, debris was seen falling from the skies above
Texas.

The Columbia's lost. There are no survivors.

Onboard was a crew of seven -- Colonel Rick Husband, Lieutenant Colonel Michael
Anderson, Commander Laurel Clark, Captain David Brown, Commander William McCool,
Dr. Kalpana Chawla, and Ilan Ramon a colonel in the Israeli air force.

These men and women assumed great risk in this service to all humanity. In an age when
space flight has come to seem almost routine, it is easy to overlook the dangers of travel
by rocket and the difficulties of navigating the fierce outer atmosphere of the earth.

These astronauts knew the dangers, and they faced them willingly, knowing they had a
high and noble purpose in life. Because of their courage and daring and idealism, we will
miss them all the more.

All Americans today are thinking, as well, of the families of these men and women who
have been given this sudden shock and grief. You're not alone. Our entire nation grieves
with you. And those you loved will always have the respect and gratitude of this country.

The cause in which they died will continue. Mankind is led into the darkness beyond our
world by the inspiration of discovery and the longing to understand. Our journey into
space will go on.

In the skies today, we saw destruction and tragedy. Yet farther than we can see, there is
comfort and hope.

In the words of the prophet Isaiah, "Lift your eyes and look to the heavens. Who created
all these? He who brings out the starry hosts one by one and calls them each by name.
Because of his great power and mighty strength, not one of them is missing."

The same creator who names the stars also knows the names of the seven souls we mourn
today. The crew of the shuttle Columbia did not return safely to Earth, yet we can pray
that all are safely home.

May God bless the grieving families, and may God continue to bless America.

---

Another good resource I've found on the Columbia incident is: http://www.cnn.com/SPECIALS/2003/shuttle/.

Well, I think I've about summed up everything for right now. So, to close, Rick Husband, William McCool, Dave Brown, Kalpana Chawla, Laurel Clark, Mike Anderson, and Ilan Ramon of the Israel Space Agency, as well as their families and friends are in our thoughts and prayers.

The US is a strong nation and so is NASA and the rest of the space program. We'll survive. It might be a break before the Space Program resumes to its normal pace, but it will return. And eventually, (hopefully), my name will be added to the list of those who've gone to space (I still need to be the first woman on the moon and one of the first people on Mars!). There's still SO much to be accomplished, it'd be a shame for it to die.

So, America… keep believing in the space program!

Disaster Strikes the Space Program again...
NASA STATEMENT ON LOSS OF COMMUNICATIONS WITH COLUMBIA
A Space Shuttle contingency has been declared in Mission Control, Houston, as a result of the loss of communication with the Space Shuttle Columbia at approximately 9 a.m. EST Saturday as it descended toward a landing at the Kennedy Space Center, Fla. It was scheduled to touchdown at 9:16 a.m. EST.

Communication and tracking of the shuttle was lost at 9 a.m. EST at an altitude of about 203,000 feet in the area above north central Texas. At the time communications were lost. The shuttle was traveling approximately 12,500 miles per hour (Mach 18). No communication and tracking information were received in Mission Control after that time.

Search and rescue teams in the Dallas-Fort Worth and in portions of East Texas have been alerted. Any debris that is located in the area that may be related to the Space Shuttle contingency should be avoided and may be hazardous as a result of toxic propellants used aboard the shuttle. The location of any possible debris should immediately be reported to local authorities.

Flight controllers in Mission Control have secured all information, notes and data pertinent to today's entry and landing by Space Shuttle Columbia and continue to methodically proceed through contingency plans.

Follow Up
In regards to Thursday's post, I wanted to add a few comments.
Before I went to class, the way I responded was soley.... "Of course they aren't letting homosexuals carry leadership positions!" I mean, why would they? IV is a Christian organization and having someone in a leadership position who clearly did not represent the standards that the group is professing would be counterproductive and would make people outside the organization question its merit (hypocritical).

The discussion in class, while it did not really change my stance on the issue made me think about it more in depth and realize more of the other side of the picture. Some of the points made against IV in this case were IV is carrying the school's name and logo along with the organization name. Also, they're using school facilities for their meetings (etc). In addition, some schools (mainly private schools) offer all campus organizations funding from the student activities fee. If the school professes to not discriminate (as VT does for example) against age, sex, race, or sexual orientation then campus organizations do not have the right to discriminate either as long as they're using the school name, logo, facilities, or funding.

This is all well and good, but I still don't agree. Here's an example.... Would the Black Student Alliance have a white person as president???/ I don't think so.... Would the Society of Women Engineers have a male in a leadership position??? No again.

On the other hand, why would a homosexual, or anyone for that matter, want to be a part of an organization that professes different values and morals that differ from those of themselves?? It just doesn't seem like someone would go through the trouble to be a part of a group that clearly condones some value they posses, like homosexuality for example.

I brought this point up in class and the teacher made the point that maybe a person wants to get in leadership to reform the group. Well... maybe they should make their OWN organization that professes that Homosexuality is not condoned within Christianity.

Anyway, that's just what I think!
Until next time...
~Stefie

An Article from my Religion Class
In my religion class, we're required to subscribe to a Daily Relgious News Email service, OnReligion.com. One article we were required to read spouted some interest in my mind... (from the Washington Times 1/18/03):

---

InterVarsity status shaken by bias accusations
Richard N. Ostling
ASSOCIATED PRESS

Published January 18, 2003


--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

After 65 years of work on American college campuses, the respected InterVarsity Christian Fellowship has been battling recently with administrators at several dozen schools.
At issue are university rules that forbid recognized on-campus student organizations to discriminate on the basis of religion or sexual orientation.
InterVarsity requires students who lead its chapters — though not the other participants — to adhere to its eight-point doctrinal platform, and the traditional Christian teaching against homosexuality.
"A person's religious convictions are a relevant factor when selecting him or her to lead a religious organization," undergraduate leaders of an independent but InterVarsity-related Christian fellowship at Harvard said in a recent statement. The issue is under discussion at Harvard.
InterVarsity seeks to settle such disputes privately, said the group's attorney, David French. It almost always wins, defending its policies on the basis of religious freedom, said Mr. French, whose efforts are supported by the Alliance Defense Fund of Scottsdale, Ariz.
But at Rutgers University, a local chapter was suspended in September, subsequent talks stalled and InterVarsity filed suit in federal court Dec. 30 for the first time anywhere.
The same day, news broke that Chancellor James Moeser of the University of North Carolina overruled the student activities director, who had told InterVarsity students to drop their leadership restrictions by Jan. 31 or be thrown off campus.
North Carolina's rules, similar to those elsewhere, require campus clubs to allow "full membership and participation" without regard to religion, sexual orientation or other factors.
Mr. Moeser decided InterVarsity could continue as a recognized campus club without changing its rule about leaders. Because it makes "valuable contributions to student life" and since membership is open to all, "on balance," Mr. Moeser explained, "preserving freedom of expression is the more crucial consideration."
Originating at England's University of Cambridge 126 years ago, InterVarsity reached the University of Michigan in 1938 and currently has chapters on 560 U.S. campuses.
Its missionary convention at the University of Illinois every three years is the biggest religious event in America for college students; it drew 18,730 in 2000.
Yet deeply religious students tend to find themselves marginalized on campus, said Alan Charles Kors, president of the Foundation for Individual Rights in Education.
They wind up as the only group expected to live with "a hostile environment," he said.
Mr. Kors, a University of Pennsylvania historian and nonreligious Jew, thinks such students should insist on their rights, as InterVarsity is doing.
"A large number don't fight back," he said.
Apparently, college religious organizations often avoid conflict by operating off-campus — or by simply winking at campus rules. But Mr. French said "integrity" requires InterVarsity chapters to state their leadership policies.
For many years, there seemed to be no problem. The pressures on InterVarsity first became public at Tufts University in 2000, when a member filed a complaint that student leaders of the local chapter barred her from holding office because she is a lesbian who disagreed with InterVarsity's view of homosexuality.
Eventually the campus judiciary decided the lesbian had been discriminated against, but InterVarsity's policy did not violate Tufts' rules so it could continue operating.
Mr. French said he believes public universities such as Rutgers are bound by U.S. Supreme Court decisions that guarantee religious clubs equal access to campus facilities and funding from mandatory student-activity fees. In addition, the court has backed the right of private associations — in a Boy Scouts case — to select leaders on the basis of moral tenets.
The Rutgers dispute pits adherence to InterVarsity's doctrinal requirements against the university rule that "membership, benefits and the election of officers" will not be made on the basis of "religious affiliation."
The InterVarsity chapter could operate off-campus like many religious ministries do, concedes InterVarsity staff adviser Laura Vellenga.
But she said that would relegate it to "second-class status," losing guaranteed access to campus facilities and a rightful share of student-activities fees.
Emmet A. Dennis, Rutgers' vice president for student affairs, said Monday that the school believes a group receiving student fees should open leadership posts to any active participant.
He sees InterVarsity as a national organization seeking to veto local leaders by insisting on its doctrinal standards, although Miss Vellenga said the Rutgers students themselves want to make sure like-minded Christians continue to lead the group.
The issue is simply the right of assembly and "whether groups can come together under particular beliefs," according to Jonathan Crowe, who was student co-leader of the InterVarsity chapter during the Tufts University dispute.
"If you take that away, forcing a Republican group to have a Democratic president or a Hillel group to have a Holocaust denier, you're undermining the integrity of the group."

A New Semester
It's Friday, finally! This first week of the spring semester has gone so SLOWLY. I'm taking 18 credit hours and working in an Aerospace Engineering Senior Design Team. I also made the Hokie Hoops Pep Band and the University Symphony Band (one of my credit classes). Here's my class schedule...
Monday
* 10:10 am - Engineering Fundamentals
* 11:15 am - Religion: Judaism, Christianity and Islam

Tuesday
* 9:30 am - Intro to Programming in C++
* 11:00 am - Calculus II
* 12:30 pm - Vector Geometry
* 2:00 pm - Physics I
* 3:30 pm - (Aero Design Team)
* 5:00 pm - Symphony Band

Wednesday
* 9:05 - Physics Recitation
* 10:10 am - Engineering Fundamentals
* 11:15 am - Religion: Judaism, Christianity and Islam
* 2:00 pm - Physics Lab (every other week)

Thursday
* 9:30 am - Intro to Programming in C++
* 11:00 am - Calculus II
* 2:00 pm - Physics I
* 3:30 pm - Aero Design Team
* 5:00 pm - Symphony Band

Friday
* 11:15 am - Religion: Judaism, Christianity, and Islam

They're heavy Tuesdays and Thursdays, but that's okay. I should have some good posts deriving from my religion class.... Like on Wednesday, the whole class was devoted to a class discussion on what we think the definition of religion is. There were some pretty off the wall ideas. For example, one person was saying that quantum physics could be a religion because it defines the history and mechanics of the universe.

Anyway, it should be a good semester. I'll return eventually to post once again.

A New Year
So, I'm a little late, but I want to wish ya'll a happy new year! May it be a fun and productive year.

I don't have many wise words to start the year off... I don't really do the whole 'New Year's Resolution' thing... I don't see a point, because if there's something in your life that needs to be changed waiting for a new year to begin is just going to get you in the habit of putting off making that change, and thus make it harder to actually do.

I'm rambling... so I'm going to stop. Maybe I'll have some good post with deep thought put into it sometime in the near future.