The Good Life... a weblog about life, technology, and the Opera web browser

What is wrong with people? It's so horribly sad to walk through the halls of my dorm and around my campus listening to the dreams and aspirations of my fellow students. Any one want to guess what the top ambitions of most students are? To drink and to have sex. I wonder if they don't know that there is so much more to life than these two things. I wonder if they really understand true joy and fulfillment. I wonder if they'll make it out of college and through their 20's alive....

For Creative Writing today, he read Ann Beattie's short story, A Vintage Thunderbird. While I enjoyed her writing style, the story was very sad and disturbing. It seemed full of shallow and hollow individuals who participated in casual sex and longed for more out of life, but seemed oblivious as to how to obtain it. At one point, a pregnant, married woman offers sex to a friend who had a bad phone conversation with a woman he barely knew. Is this really how people live?

I'm very sorry if this offends someone, but I just don't understand that type of lifestyle. It seems so empty. I wish these people could see what they're missing: being able to count your lovers on one hand and looking forward to something else besides getting wasted. It just seems like a lousy way to go through life.

This year is looking pretty good. I'm pulling 18 credit hours, but only 15 of them should be real work. My classes this semester are:

• Technical Writing (minor elective)
• Introduction to Creative Writing (minor requirement)
• Programming Languages (major requirement)
• OpenGL Game Programming (major elective)
• Intermediate Spanish (gen. ed. requirement)
• Health / Gym (gen. ed. requirement)
• Handbell choir (half a credit, for fun)
• Voice Lessons (half a credit, also for fun)

On top of all that, I'll be involved in several extra-curricular activities: InterVarsity Christian Fellowship (I co-lead a Small Group), Movie Club, Hall Council, and Web Site Design (work study position). I'm currently considering a position with SGA Senate, as well. It should be a full fun year.

This past couple of days have been pretty crazy. I've been helping a lot of new students to setup their computers on the network here at school, so I've barely had time to do the stuff that I've wanted to do. Sometimes it's really frustrating doing this, especially when I get incredibly stressed out, like I did yesterday.

There was just so much going on yesterday, it was simply overwhelming. One of my friends got a virus, so I spent a good amount of my afternoon trying to help her clean it off. The network at school wasn't running at all, so I had all kinds of people calling me about that. I've sort of become the student representative of ITR: when someone has a problem, they contact me first.

Today was much better, though. I spent a couple of hours working on computer issues (including some I'm having with my system) and got a lot of stuff worked out. Of course, I haven't done any homework for my classes tomorrow, but that is beside the point. My friend whom I helped with the virus yesterday was extremely thankful--I don't know how many times she thanked me.

Some people always ask why I don't want money for the service I do. It occurs to me to charge money only because other people mention it. I enjoy helping others; I like to see people smile. When I help someone with computer problems, they're so happy that it works, it just really makes my day (not to mention theirs!). It's also a really cool way of meeting people. I'm also serving others, which is a great thing for my faith. In other words, it's an all-around cool experience for everyone involved.

I'm mad at the Swiss. They put holes in my cheese. -- Dave, LC Alumnus

Moo.

I'm so utterly exhausted. Today was one of the freshmen move-in days at school. A lot of the groups around campus are volunteering, including IV. So, from 1 to 5pm today, those of us on IV leadership helped lots and lots of freshmen move all their stuff from their cars to their rooms. It was a lot of fun, but also a lot of hard work.

More of my friends are coming down tomorrow, so it'll be good to see them again. I'm so at home, I really am. I just feel completely comfortable at school; it's wonderful. I have a ton of stuff to do before school starts, including buying books (I should be doing that now, of course), but I'm sure I'll make it. Things will be busy for the next couple of days, so take care while I'm out of touch.

Woohoo! I got the permissions junk worked out, so now you don't get a password prompt when coming to my site. I've got various other tweaks to work on, though I should get that stuff worked out by the end of the week.

The other day, I saw Erin Brockovich (yes, the real Erin Brockovich) on C-SPAN. I was very impressed at how well Julia Roberts portrayed her in the movie. Erin Brockovich was speaking at the National Press Club regarding environmental issues and Pacific Gas & Electric. She's a very strong speaker and I'm now even more impressed by the things she accomplished in Hinkley, CA. She really did some wonderful things for those people.

I wish I could find a transcript of her speech. It looks like you can watch the video at C-SPAN's site, or at least you'll be able to for a couple of days. If you do choose to watch it, fast forward the video to 6 minutes to avoid all the junk that comes before she's even introduced.

If you have an hour to spare, check out the video. It's entertaining, informing, and thought provoking.

I've spent a lot of time alone in the car recently. During this time, I often listen to music (I sing in my car!) and spend time thinking random thoughts. For whatever reason, on one of these trips, it occurred to me that I might be a controlling person--the type of controlling person that turns into a controlling boyfriend and you hear Ann Landers telling women to stay away from. Ick.

So, I thought that I couldn't possibly be a controlling person. And then I thought about it some more. And some more. And some more yet. And I came to the conclusion that I am a controlling person. It's part of what ruined my last relationship and it's probably ruined bunches upon bunches of friendships. And it took me this long to figure it out.

There were signs, I'll admit that. I've been told that I jump in with both feet or that I consume a situation. It never really occurred to me what that all meant in the grand scheme of things. I've always noticed how I tend to takeover meetings and such. I always thought that it was just an aspect of leadership. I never knew it for what it really was.

How does one become an uncontrolling person? What's the difference between being a good leader and being controlling? How am I going to find all these friends that I've lost contact with and try to explain to them that I'm sorry. How do I apologize to people that don't want to have anything to do with me because I was that overpowering (and nearly completely unaware of it!)? How could I have done this?

I might be over-reacting some, but I just keep thinking of the far-reaching consequences of this realization. I can't help but wonder how things would have been different in my life. But I have to pull myself back to the present and put everything into perspective.

This was supposed to happen. I can fight this and I can win. I can salvage friendships. I have support and love from many wonderful people that have overlooked this fault thus far. I have a wonderful Father that is looking out for me and will help me work through this. This too shall pass--this too shall pass.

When Jeremy and I came down for Camp Jeep a couple of weeks ago, we stayed here in Lynchburg the first night. Actually, we stayed on top of Baldspot, a hill on the south-side of town. We drove his Jeep up the hill in the dark and just pitched a tent up there. That's the second time I've been up there; it's great. On one side of the hill, all you can see are hills and valleys. On the other side, you can see the lights of Lynchburg. It's really quite gorgeous.

When we woke up the next morning, I gave Jeremy a quick tour of my school before hitting the road. I realized then that I feel more at home at my school than I do at my house. I'm surrounded by great people and great minds. I'm free to make mistakes. I don't have to do dishes! All these feelings have been confirmed now that I'm down here, working on getting moved in. It's good to be home.