Merry Christmas!

Merry Christmas, everyone!

I've been at home for a little over a week, I got a haircut, and I've been eating real food. Life is good.

A Bittersweet Night

Yeah, I've lost it. Oh, wait, that happened a long time ago. Well, anyway, I was gonna go to bed at 9:00 or so, right? WRONG. I was too restless. Something had to be done, but I had no idea what. I found it. I went and helped clean up after the HSLDA Christmas party. Yes, I know that sounds like I was being nice and helpful, but it was really selfish. See, by helping, I got some of their leftovers. Things like strawberries and cream-filled pastries that could be held under the chocolate fountain (yes, they had a chocolate fountain. Beautiful. Whoever invented that was a genius). Anyway, one of the decorations for the party was this ice-sculpture angel. John and I volunteered to carry it out, but we couldn't just throw the poor thing out in the snow. So, we set it up on top of one of the mounds of snow that was formed by the snowplows. A few minutes later, someone had knocked it down! Not only that, but they had also decapitated it! And as it turns out, it was Corey (not that that surprises me all that much)! He then proceeded to bust its head on the ground, and smash various other pieces of it into bits. Well, John, Peter Schellhase and I took its remains and committed them to the icy depths of Lake Bob. We had a short burial service, including the lines "Ice to ice, and water to water. For water you are, and to water you shall return." I recited the Orata Domini, and Peter and John "laid to rest our fallen comrade." Very sad.

Two Down, Two to Go

Glory be! I made it! History final and Latin final are both behind me, and I think that they went pretty well. And now I have two days to, er, study before my Logic final. Praise the Lord! I can actually work ahead for the first time in at least a month! But for now, I'm going to relax. I need sleep.

Movie Quote of the Day:
"I'm still alive!!!"
--Dash, in The Incredibles, and me, after finishing my Latin final

Snow...

...swirling around a lamp post is a lovely sight.

Hot chocolate is good. Coffee is better. Coffee with egg nog is unsurpassable.

Christmas music is beautiful. Jazz renditions of Christmas classics are fantastic. Christmas songs in four-part harmony, whether sung by Glad or by the PHC chorale, are...are...gorgeous beyond description.

All these things together make for an unbelievable happiness. God is good.

But why did they have to put "Baby it's Cold Outside" and "Santa Claus is Coming to Town" on the James Taylor Christmas album? It really interrupts the beautiful flow of "Go Tell it on the Mountain," "In the Bleak Midwinter," "Some Children See Him," and "Who Comes This Night." Oh, well. Thank the Lord for the "skip" feature.

"I'll be home for Christmas," and not just in my dreams. Hallelujah!

Ditto

I reiterate my previous post. Doubly and triply.

And the same to John, with a few obvious adjustments:

1. "John" rather than "Hannah"
2. "Roommate" rather than "big sister"
3. I am not John's minion. A man cannot serve two masters, you know.

:-D

Thank you, Hannah!

What would I do without my big sister?

Loyally yours,

Darth Nater/Mussolini

Thanks to God

Happy Thanksgiving! OK, I know it's late, but, oh well. I'm spending the break at John's house, and we're having a great time. He's got three younger brothers and one younger sister at home, and they are absolutely great. I've been eating real home-cooked meals, including a wonderful Thanksgiving dinner, and of course leftovers (But Hannah, I still want some Nutty Yam Bake, Cranberry Salad, and Pecan Pie when I get back to campus). I can't wait to get home! Just a few more weeks of school. Oh, but they're going to be the longest weeks of my life.

Thank you, God, for being my strength, 'cause I ran out a loooong time ago.

A few more pics

These pictures were taken during the photo shoot Fri. night after the performance. We had a lot of fun staging some deleted scenes, alternate endings, and such. Good times...

"Behold, where stands the usurper's cursed head..." (the pumpkin one we used for the play). Yes, I'm bleeding a bit from the left temple. No big deal.

Yes, that's really Jonathan's head. No, I didn't cut it off. If I had, I wouldn't have had anyone with whom to make really bad puns about "heads of state" etc.

One of our alternate endings: Macduff surprises the murderers by being at home when they show up. Lady Macduff is holding the baby, christened Mitchell Sillars Noe Snyder Libby Macduff (Mitch for short) in honor of all my professors. Anne thought that was a lousy name, and called it Baby Duffy. Unfortunately, Jim had to leave early, so Macduff Junior isn't in this picture.

And one last bit of random insanity:

"We're singin' with the Thanes/Just singin' with the Thanes/What a glorious feelin'/I'm happy again/I'm walkin' down the lane/To great Dunsinane/We're singin'/Just singin' with the Thanes"

It's over?

I can't believe it. After months of work, it's over. It's a relief in some ways, but it's also kinda sad. I have a lot of great memories, and I got to know a lot of people a lot better than I would have without having done the play. Overall, it was an amazing experience. Here are a few pics (courtesy of the amazing Aaron Gray). Hopefully there will be a lot more later.

Macbeth staring at his bloody hands after the murder of King Duncan

Jim Wilson as Macduff's son

Malcolm, son of Duncan and rightful heir to the throne, speaks with Macduff

Well, there are a lot more I could post, but some of them will have to wait. I just have to mention one thing before I go, though. This wouldn't have been possible at all without God's grace. It was so evident in everything, including just making it through each night. Tonight, seconds before I was supposed to be on stage for a scene, I was coughing ridiculously, and I was just sure I wasn't going to make it through my lines. I asked God just to let me make it through that scene, and immediately, and I mean immediately, my throat cleared up entirely. I didn't have any more problems with it until about ten minutes after the play was over, when I started hacking my lungs out. It was incredible. God, please do not let me take the credit for any of this, may I rather direct all praise to You.

Non nobis, Domine, Domine, non nobis, Domine, sed nomini, sed nomini, tuo da gloriam.

Not to us, O Lord, O Lord, not to us, O Lord, but to your name, but to your name give the glory.

Macbeth!!!

Wow. I really can't write a proper post right now, but suffice it to say that the first two nights of Macbeth went amazingly well. Thank you, God! And thanks of course also to Carolyn and Maggie, the rest of the cast, the stage crew, the costume mistresses, the blood technician, and yes, even the makeup people. I've had quite a week, what with late papers, overdue library books, and every single day feeling like Friday. And yet, the payoff is tremendous. I honestly think it's all been worth it for the play. I'll post more thoroughly when I can get a couple of pics up.

A Few of the Things I Wish I Had Learned When I Was Younger

Subtitle: Pay Careful Attention, Levi and Caleb (And Charissa too, for that matter, but I happen to know that L&C will almost certainly face a close replication of my own challenges)

• Learn self-discipline. When you're older, no one is going to force you to do the things you have to do when you have to do them. You must learn to do this for yourself.
• Learn to know the appropriate times for leisure activities. If you have an hour's worth of work to do, and an hour and a half to do it in, do not tell yourself you can play a video game for half an hour and then do the work. Two hours later, you will have gotten nothing done, missed half an hour's worth of sleeping time, and not have even had much social time with other people, even if you were playing multi-player. Instead, do the hour of work first, and if you end up with any of the hour and a half left over, spend it in good conversation with other people or get an extra half an hour of sleep. You won't regret it.
• Don't EVER give up spending a real amount of time for Bible study and prayer. Not for ANYTHING. And don't give it a half-hearted five minutes. This is the most important thing I can say to me, you, or anyone else. I was about to go to bed without having done it, but I'm going to go right now. Because I haven't payed as much attention as I should have to the above points, I'm going to have to miss some sleeping time for that. But even though sleep is important, Bible study and prayer time will do you more good.

That said, I'm off to--how shall I say it? Meet with God, spend time with God, grow closer to God; they're all true, but they're rather clichéd. Moreover, they are things that I should be doing not once, or twice, or three times a day, but every moment of every day. Rather, I'll say I'm going to rest and refresh my soul. It still sounds awfully clichéd, but I can't do much better right now. Goodnight.

I'm tired...

...and I have a lot of work to do. Today I worked from 8:30 until chapel and then after chapel until noon. Had a kinda crazy day at work (for those of you who don't know, I work at the reception desk). I answered a bunch of calls requesting a free CD that had been offered on the radio. I knew nothing about it, and they seemed to think the phone number was for someplace other than PHC. Turned out this guy had been on a radio show and accidentally given out the PHC number instead of the one he meant to. Crazy.

So then right after work, I grabbed a sandwich and left for DC with six other students. There was supposed to be something going down in the senate today about Social Security reform. Senators Santorum and DeMint were going to present two bills on the floor. The group Students for Saving Social Security had made kind of a big deal out of it, and I thought it would probably make a good news story for next week's assignment. Well, to make a long story short, it didn't happen because they took too long debating the bill that came before it. So while we were all disappointed, we at least got to have a tour of the Capitol building and sit in the gallery for a little while.

We were supposed to leave about 5, because I had to get back by 7 for play rehearsal. Well, we were about ready to leave, but we hadn't eaten (we had been told that a group was going to provide pizza, but oops, no go), so we stopped at the Metro station and sat down to eat. That took a while. We finally got back about 8:30. Fortunately I had warned Carolyn I would be a little late, and she was very nice about it.

The day was a lot of fun, I got to ride the metro for the first time, go inside the Capitol, and have a good time with the other people that went. Still, it was long, I missed Logic, and I didn't get any work done on the two papers that are due early next week, one of which I've barely started and the other of which I haven't.

Anyway, I have lots of homework to do, and I need to get a good amount of sleep tonight.

Oh, and I didn't even mention some of the more serious things from today. Please pray for a friend who's facing some disciplinary measures. After all that talk about needing to pray for people more, this happens, and I realize that even though this is one guy I had no excuse not to be praying for, I fell down on the job. God's still teaching me. Pray that I won't be too stubborn to learn. Thanks.

Boomer Sooner Addendum

Speaking of Oklahoma, The New Orleans/Oklahoma City Hornets won their first game in the Ford Center, 93-67! And after beating Nebraska, OU is at 5-3 (4-1), so the season isn't yet a complete loss.

Boomer Sooner

This is the most accurate online personality test I've seen. It did give me this answer the first time. Of course, it was kind of obvious where it was going (e.g. the last question was "when?" and the two options were "sooner" and "later").

You're Oklahoma!

After overcoming a terrible tragedy in recent years, you have shown the
ability to really shine through adversity. You've renovated your home, picked up the
pieces, and built things all over again. Meanwhile, you seem uncannily drawn to the
classic board game Twister, though it doesn't always lighten your mood. Despite all
the hardships, you're one of those quirky folks who simply breaks out into song at
random times in life. Ultimately, you just want people to know that you're
O.K.


Take the State Quiz
at the Blue Pyramid.

The bloody dagger

Yup, that's my blood on the tip of the dagger. It extends about an inch onto the blade.

Articles, Football, and Curfew Passes

Unbelievable. Today was one of the longest days I can remember, but it was also one of the best.

Last night, I didn't have my article for journalism class done. By 12:30, I was pretty much stuck, and decided just to sit on my bed for a minute and think.

When I woke up, it was 7:10. The article was due at 9, I had to be at work by 8:30, and I couldn't see much structure at all in the way I had the article written so far. Somehow, by the grace of God, I managed to get what I think was a half-decent story finished and sent in at 8:25. I threw on some clothes, and ran to get to work on time. I made it, but didn't have time for even a bite of breakfast.

So then, after a day filled with professors saying crazy things (not to mention a few weird things I said in class), I finally reached the moment I had been waiting for for so long.

John, Hannah, Jessica Runk and I went to John's home, hung around for a little while, and then went to see John's alma mater, Robinson High School (which I have now officially adopted), play a football game. It was a great game, with the RHS Rams coming out on top, 37-21. Then we went back to John's house and, among other things, watched The Court Jester, which I hadn't seen in way too long. We had a great time (have I mentioned that John's got some great brothers?), and ended up staying late enough that John and I had to use curfew passes for the first time to get back in. We had so much fun that (as Daniel H. said earlier) it should be illegal (but I'm glad it's not).

Coming soon: A picture of the blood-stained dagger that did open my flesh. Stay tuned to DNN (DarthNaterNews), we'll keep you advised.

Friday Night Lights

Carolyn and Maggie are pretty much the awesomest directresses ever. As evidence of that fact:

Even though we weren't able to have rehearsal last night (because we had a town hall with Sen. Rick Santorum) and we can't have one tonight (because we're having a town hall with Scott Somerville about chaos theory) Carolyn agreed to let me skip rehearsal tomorrow night so that I can go home with John to watch his high school's football game! Carolyn, I don't know how to thank you!

HUZZAH!!! Friday night football, here I come, baby!

Random(ish) Musings

Just a "trainwreck stew" of leftover thoughts from the weekend:

• Got a lot of exercise this Saturday, and it felt very good. Bike ride with Hannah in the morning (gorgeous weather!), contra dance in the evening (and I even managed to have some fun! My feet however...). Oh, and I went to the LVHS homecoming game. Man, it had been way too long since I had been to a high school football game!

• I think God's trying to tell me I need to be praying for people a lot more than I am. That was (roughly) the topic of Pastor Van's sermon yesterday, then in the afternoon I talked with a friend on IM who is needing a lot of prayer, and then last night after the student worship session I stuck around for the prayer groups, and guess what message came through to me loud and clear? So please, drop me a line and let me know how to pray for you.

• I thank God for friends who are willing to "speak the truth in love," and for the gracious forgiveness of friends who have been offended.

Thank You

I am remiss. There are a few things which I neglected to mention in my most recent post, and I have been reminded of them several times since then.

First of all, thanks to everyone who helped out last night. I would like to especially thank John (aka SuperRoomate), Caleb, Jonathan (both of you), Tobin, Philip, Paul, and of course all the security guys, particularly John Crutcher. I'm sorry if I seemed kind of annoyed with the whole process, I know you guys were doing what was best.

Second, thanks to everybody for your concern. I'm sorry if I seem to tire of telling people I'm fine. I would be asking too, if somebody else was stabbed.

And most importantly, I thank God that this happened to wake us up before Tobin got stuck through the gut or some other awful thing occurred.

"My soul is too much charged with blood of thine already"

Talk about realism in a play. Maybe we've solved our stage-blood problem. Just use real blood!

See, we were practicing the fight scene between Macbeth and Macduff (myself), and, well, let's just say I don't know why we didn't realize earlier that we shouldn't be grappling with a real dagger. Yeah.

I got stabbed in the thigh, and the knife went in about 3/4 of an inch. I'ts really not that bad, but I ended up going to the ER and getting four stitches. But really, I'm fine, so don't worry. Now if I can just keep Hannah from doing anything to Bales...

Aaaah...

I made it! Praise the Lord! Not only did I live through this week, but so far the news about grades is good. Of course, I've only gotten one grade for this week, but it was my latin midterm, and it was really good! I didn't get enough sleep all week, and so this morning I was feeling dead tired. But in chapel this morning, something providential happened.

A group of high school kids was here, doing one of those things where they play a song over the speakers and kind of mime-act it out. It wasn't bad, but I didn't really get into it that much. But then they got ready to do their last song, and the guy in charge said something about the "be still and know" verse. That was just what I needed to hear. Then they did their finale, and they used two songs: "The Journey" and "Be Still and Know", two of my favorite SCC songs for when I'm tired and down.


Be Still and Know

by Steven Curtis Chapman

Be still and know that He is God
Be still and know that He is holy
Be still oh restless soul of mine
Bow before the Prince of Peace
Let the noise and clamor cease

Be still and know that He is God
Be still and know that He is faithful
Consider all that He has done
Stand in awe and be amazed
And know that He will never change
Be still

Be still and know that He is God
Be still and know that He is God
Be still and know that He is God
Be still
Be speechless

Be still and know that He is God
Be still and know He is our Father
Come rest your head upon His breast
Listen to the rythm of
His unfailing heart of love
Beating for His little ones
Calling each of us to come
Be still
Be still

Help, I'm drowning!

Wow, this has been some week. The kind of week that makes me thank God that I'm here, and at the same time, wonder WHY ON EARTH AM I HERE!?!?!?! I'll tell you about each in succession:

Tuesday, our reading for logic class was an essay by Ken Myers, Christianity, Culture, and Common Grace. I believe he's Reformed, but you don't have to agree with Reformed theology to agree with the point of this essay. I didn't read the whole thing (we were only assigned a couple of sections, which I did read [mostly]) but I don't think he actually gets much into theology. The question he's trying to answer is how we as Christians should relate to culture. I think he does a very good job. This essay goes along nicely with the "Faith and Reason" lecture that Dr. Bates gave here a couple of weeks ago. Anyway, all this has me thinking, where else could I be where I would get to learn this kind of stuff? I am very thankful to be here.

But, of course, it's not all so exciting. Thanks in no small part to doing way more goofing off than I should have, I've fallen behind in my classes. And Friday I realized that this week I have two exams (one on an entire book for History, and a Latin midterm!) and a logic paper. Oh, and I didn't quit chorale, and this week play rehearsals start in earnest. HELP, I'M DROWNING!!!

"Who has weighed the mountains on the scales and the hills in a balance?"

Ah, today was good. Our topic in sunday school this morning was Job, and of course it got me thinking once again about God's awesome sovereignty. Then this afternoon I went on a hike with Judah, Daniel H, Jacob Hall, and Scott. We went to Raven Rocks (about 15 min. away on the Appalachian Trail) and had a really good, relaxing walk. There were some gorgeous views, and we read a little bit of scripture (mainly on God's power as displayed in creation) and had some really good conversation.

Well, I need to go study, but I'll leave you with one of my favorite verses, which was brought to my mind again today:

"Now to Him who is able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine, according to His power that is at work within us, to Him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations, for ever and ever! Amen." Ephesians 3:20-21

One Week in the Life of Nathan Curbisovich

Well, let me see what highlights I can remember from this week.

Tuesday (Yeah, Monday was just...Monday)

• Had a very cool extra session for the journalism majors today, which I was able to attend most of. A guy from American Family Radio came and taught us about radio journalism. Very interesting and lots of fun.
• Today was my first rehearsal for Eden Troupe's fall production of "Macbeth." I'm playing Macduff, which means I get some really cool lines and I get to kill Macbeth(!!!). Only problem is I probably am not going to have time to keep doing chorale. I also found out that the rehearsal schedule changed, so instead of next Tuesday, the second rehearsal I had to be at was, well, Wednesday. And another one Thursday. And then next Monday. Yeah. Oh, well, it's a lot of fun.
• There was a Bobtism for Daniel Archer.
• A couch that showed up in our dorm lounge a couple of weeks ago went missing. Turned out the guys from Dorm 4 had taken it. So, about 11:00 or so, a bunch of D5 guys raided D4. Didn't get the couch, but had a great melee.

Wednesday

• My first exam (mild scream of terror). And it was LATIN. But I'm still alive. As a matter of fact, I think I did pretty well.
• At the play rehearsal, we went over the climactic scene when Macbeth and Macduff have their final showdown. We went over it several times until Jonathan (Macbeth) and I had our lines somewhat memorized. Then we borrowed some light swords from the fencing club and actually worked through the fight scene. WOW!!! This is going to be a BLAST!
• Oh, and the Dorm War continued when, at about 5:15 this am, a bunch of our D5 guys raided D4 and got the couch.

Thursday

• The Battle of the Couch is over. Apparently the couch had originally come from D4, and some third party had moved it over here. Anyway, it officially must remain in D4 now.
• I am really stupid. After the play rehearsal, I kinda wandered around for a while, thinking I didn't really have anything else to do. Around 11:15, I realized I hadn't written my journalism assignment that was due 9:00 Friday am. So I stayed up till about 2:30, and managed to get about 5 hours of sleep before I had to get up for work. Man.

Friday

• I looked at my article before I sent it in, and I honestly couldn't tell if it was any good at all. Got it back in the afternoon, it was my best grade yet. Wow.
• I am really stupid (whoa, deja vu). After getting through Friday (thanks in large part to a cup of mocha before my last class), I decided to go to bed about 9. HA! One thing after the other, and it was like, um, (1:30) before I went to bed. Oh, and did I mention that I knew all along I had to get up at 7:30 Saturday? Like I said, stupid.

Saturday

• Wow, today was fun. John and I went to watch his brother Joe compete in a cross country meet about 20 min. from here. It was a blast.
• Bobtism for Izzy.
• The Dorm War rages on! At about 10:00, a bunch of us from D5 raided D4, pillows in hand. It was the biggest pillow fight I have ever seen. Amazing.

Hello, world of Blogging!

Well, I have now joined the hordes of Bloggers. I'm starting this mostly because it's a good way to organize my out-of-control thoughts, and maybe let y'all know a little of what is going on in my life.

Coming soon: A summary of the last week! (no, it won't be very exciting, but hey, I haven't even told anyone about this blog yet!)