Redeeming creation one byte at a time
Archive for April, 2007
It’s that time of the year again.
0Posting, time, and sleep all start getting thin.
Right now, I’ve got two talks for Chapter Focus Week, grading, two side projects, and a whole ton of stuff going on.
Wake me up…no, nudge me because I’ll be sleeping on my feet…when June comes.
*sigh*
Thoughts on VT
0I’m breaking a bit from blogger eddicit and talking about where I work and sharing some thoughts about the horrible events of today that occurred at Virginia Tech.
As I type this, I can hear the news reports going on in the other room and discussion of how horrible the day was. I just got done checking e-mail and being intimately involved with a campus ministry, we have connections to friends and staff with the ministry at VT. As a worker in Academica, there’s a connection to a University that is similar in size to mine. Wrapped up in all of this is sympathy and concern for brothers and sisters who suffered dearly today in what was a normal day for me; sincerely, my prayer is for healing and God’s spirit to work in the hearts to bring peace and comfort to families tonight but there also some thoughts running through my head.
There have been a number discussions revolving around the ‘slowness’ of the response of the University and just how to make the University more secure. What escapes me is how educated people, most likely from similar Universities can question the lack of ability for a University to go in ‘lock down’ with an immediacy that rivals any high school given the size of such a place is roughly equivalant to a small city. Such statements fundamentally show a mis-understanding for just how a University works. Given our University of 20,000 students, several dozen buildings spread over hundreds of acres, and thousands of commuter students flowing in and out of campus during a typical day, ‘lock down’ is really no trivial task; in fact I would say it’s impossible. It’s possible to lock down a building, an area, but expecting that of a campus of that size is somewhat similar to telling a subdivision of people that they need to be inside with their doors closed and expect that of them within 30 minutes; it’s unrealistic. Especially given a mere fire alarm’s inability to even get a normal building evacuated.
Here’s a link to the timeline that the University is stating they followed over the course of the morning. Thinking over past situations that I’ve experienced, it’s not uncommon to see that sort of plan followed (we have similar systems in place such as a hunt group on the phone system, mass e-mail, etc.). Considering the size of the University, there needed to be several methods of communication and alot of reliance on many people to become aware of the situation really quickly and as it stands, given the logistics, that takes time.
Regardless, there’s still alot of bickering and name calling amongst the media tonight. I really wonder how well dialogue such as that contributes to the situation or brings healing to those affected. As I heard Keith Oberman talk on about how it was all horrible and how he wants the ability to have any University locked down immediately, I realized there were a couple of truths about our culture. We have a tremendous ability to grieve and to share sorrow with others who are hurt, but we also desire to blame someone, and we also have a tremendous capacity to fear and if you mix those last two, it’s really hard to put anything past us; when evil manifests itself that is out of our control, we long to control it and we simply can’t. In reacting out of fear, I wonder if the next steps will be to put unmanageable expectations and control on an uncontrollable situation.
We face fear in a variety of situations; fear of death, fear of old age, fear of the ‘them’ and it seems that many people attempt to manipulate that fear for their own benefit. In this situation, we fear for our safety and many people are currently discussing what we can do to change the situation, to make a University ‘safe’. Anyone who’s spent more than a weekend at a University knows that it’s anything but that. But in reacting out of fear, we do far more damage to ourselves than any one attack can.
As an aside, here’s an article on student soul about the shooting. Also, they’ve identified the student and have further information up on the vt site.
Adoption Update
1I’m almost tempted to start making a weekly post entitled Adoption Update.
I’ve noticed that I’m alot more involved in the narrative of ‘how things are going’ than I was even with Aidan and there’s a sense of excitement amongst a number of our friends when we talk about the updates to getting our new daughter. People have mentioned that it’s a substitute for the whole progression of a pregnancy, but I never really quite realized.
Anyway, here’s where we’re at. We had our initial meeting with our homestudy agency (who gave us a bit of homework that I’ve yet to start on, but MJ is finished with…) and they did a walkthrough of our house and the statement was made that since we already had a three year old we’re fairly familiar with how to make a house baby proof.
We also have our caseworker for our adoption agency and she’s sending us the initial packet of what needs to be included in our dossier, a file which ultimately clues the adoption judge in on whether or not we’d make ‘fit’ parents.
Stay tuned for more news! 
Tenn0 – a song that’s been rolling around in my head.
0It’s a song that’s been creeping into my head lately. For the uninitiated, tenno is Japanese for ‘Lord’: perhaps the most harsh, but beautiful worship song out there is a song entitled ‘tenn0′ by Mortal. The lyrics have been rolling around in my head the past couple of weeks and it’s a song that speaks to me and my personality in my profession; I especially love the PoMo allusions such as ‘You are the Construct, You are One, You are tenno!’ It’s a beautiful song.
Enjoy, if you want it, seek it on iTunes
gathered in, clenched, I’m a handful of dust borne of now, silence, changing the sound of futures, im stepping out into fearless traverse, not without menace, across a furious planet, deftly maneuvering the steep climbs of reason, armed only by fate like phantom skin braving wars without and within, sun shocked, awkward and thirsty, and no oasis in Eternity Sands, courage is destination and and nightfall, is lunar avarice, now drenched in rain and dread, and encircled by shadow warriors, venomous, storm-size and mercenary, then at the threshold, cool distance, You stood illuminated by terrifying bursts!
You ride the brilliance, You are light, You are the construct
You defy dimension, tenno!!, You are One, You are eternal, absolute, You are imperial, sovereign, yeah, tenn0 tenn0!
flash of white, You ripped the fabric of the real, shrieks of anguish the sting of ozone, before the atom crush, my sight distorted, my view Copernican, but what I witnessed that night spared my life, and has haunted me since, yes, we are, handfuls of dust, yet, made of stars, you have fastened, across the walls, of this room without ceiling, but our aimless exisistance is given meaning, when at the threshold, without distance, you stand in Your meridian!
You breathe redemption, motive, power, You’re elemental, super-collider yeah tenn0!, you are air and earth, fire and ocean, You are Word, you are tenn0 tenn0!