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.