I'm not really sure how to handle my emotions in a situation like this. It isn't often that I deal with emotions, or even get myself into situations where I'm prone to be emotional. I'm just not used to it. But I'd better learn quickly.

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I think this will be a side of me that you haven't seen before. I went on date that I'm pretty happy about. I'm going to write it out here for the sake of posterity, and in case any of you are interested in what it looks like for me to have a fun date.

Actually, I have this mindset that says that most of my friends don't really see me as the kind of guy who goes on dates ever, much less as often as I have lately. And when I talk about it, they're surprised to learn that about me. But you guys don't know me that well so maybe you don't even think that. Interesting how that works out. Anyway...

I was worried when I was planning the date that there wasn't enough going on, that it would seem like a half-hearted effort. We (the guy I was doubling with, and I) planned to start directly after a big fundraising event at Georgia Tech's campus. My date and the other couple are all from a nearby school (about 40 minutes driving) so having them nearby was really helpful. For this post, my date will be referred to as Homegirl. The other couple is Dude and Chick. So this is what happened:

We left the event at 11:30 to go to the Physics building nearby because my car was parked there and people wanted to change. I showed them around my lab and up to the fifth floor (unfortunately, roof access was locked so I couldn't show them the observatory.) We drove to some campus restaurants nearby and ate gyros outside, which was delicious. This was a good time for everyone to sort of settle in (the other couple has never been on a date before, and I've never doubled with either of them). The conversation moved in a few directions that I wasn't expecting, including some interesting poop stories from Homegirl.

From there, we drove back to campus and walked to a nice climbing tree. Chick wasn't very excited about the prospect of climbing a tree (she's never done it before) but she wanted to try so we went through with it. I personally helped her and Homegirl onto a low branch by letting them climb on me, and from there we all had to coach Chick to move to the trunk and find a nice fork to sit in. She was terrified but she really acted like a trooper. Apparently she's afraid of heights...I don't think she was more than 8 feet up. Meanwhile, Homegirl and I went almost the whole way up and stayed there for a few minutes to enjoy the view and chat a little.

Next, we walked to the learning center to play Quelf. Quelf is a board game that involves drawing cards that have instructions for random acts, quizzes, that sort of thing. It quickly turns into a mess. At one point, I got up, and with no warning started jumping around, flapping my arms and saying, "Chicken!" The whole group was trying to figure out how they're supposed to react (Do they get up and join me? Laugh or not laugh?) Then I asked how many times I said "Chicken." Anyone who gets it right moves forward a space. That's Quelf. I suggest it for small parties. We played that for a while.

The Learning Center has a rooftop garden, so we went there with pieces of blank paper, and split into couples to make airplanes. We ended up borrowing some markers from another student and we spent our time drawing and talking instead. Eventually, we folded up a bunch of planes and threw them off the roof, one by one. Then we went to go collect them (no littering!)

I wanted to stop by the Starbucks on campus because Homegirl really loves coffee, but they had just closed. A sharp blow.

Then we walked around campus for a bit longer. The other three really liked Georgia Tech campus. Chick recognized the learning center from scenes in The Internship, so I showed her where they shot the Quidditch match and then we went our separate ways. All in all, I was with Homegirl from about 11:30 til almost 6. A lot longer than I planned the date to last but definitely a blast.

Some anecdotes:
Everyone loves science. I might have been showing off a little when we went through the lab I work in.
I got a parking ticket while we were eating because I'm foolish and didn't double check to make sure the meters were open on Saturdays. They aren't.
The poop conversation and references followed through the rest of the date, culminating in one of the girls (I won't specify) audibly farting next to my head when I was helping her with the tree. It doesn't really bother me but as much as amuse me. Did not see that one coming.
Because of Quelf, Dude had to get down on one knee and perform one of Shakespeare's love poems for Chick.
Airplanes make good date souvenirs, if you're into that kind of thing. Unfortunately Homegirl kept all of ours.

:3

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I wish I had a little haiku or something for you guys, after not being around for so long.

I'm currently frustrated because I had this really beautiful thought about grace n' stuff, but I can't remember what verses it was actually based on so. I think I wrote it down somewhere, but I can't find it anywhere. guh

I'm quite peachy. I have...plans for the future. Neat plans. :D

...I think it's in Hebrews...

I'm just going to leave this here.

Wait. No.

I was thinking about words. And the brain. Honestly this isn't my forte so this might not seem very profound to you...but the brain is friggin' cool. So much of what we do is just done automatically by little parts of your brain without you needing to worry about it. Like words. We have a thought we want to express, and some part of your brain internally translates that into bite-sized chunks, and then into the actual words. And then some other part automatically translates that into the muscle movements that form the sounds that other brains will translate back into raw thought and emotion.

But what if we didn't have those embedded functions? I'm not talking about neglecting to learn language. I'm saying, what if your brain didn't translate your thoughts into words? What would you have left? If we can't order our thoughts into words, even internally, how much room for thoughts do we even have? Assuming we have souls that "live" outside of our brains, how much of that capacity is included in our souls? Speaking of which, if memories are chemically etched into our brains, and a soul is somehow non-chemical in nature, do our souls have memories? How does that work?

mmmm

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It's a fantastic word.

Biblical usage: (Taken from blueletterbible.org)
of speech
> a word, uttered by a living voice, embodies a conception or idea
> what someone has said
> > a word
> > the sayings of God
> > decree, mandate or order
> > of the moral precepts given by God
> > Old Testament prophecy given by the prophets
> > what is declared, a thought, declaration, aphorism, a weighty saying, a dictum, a maxim
> discourse
> > the act of speaking, speech
> > the faculty of speech, skill and practice in speaking
> > a kind or style of speaking
> > a continuous speaking discourse - instruction
> doctrine, teaching
> anything reported in speech; a narration, narrative
> matter under discussion, thing spoken of, affair, a matter in dispute, case, suit at law
> the thing spoken of or talked about; event, deed
its use as respect to the MIND alone:
> reason, the mental faculty of thinking, meditating, reasoning, calculating
> account, i.e. regard, consideration
> account, i.e. reckoning, score
> account, i.e. answer or explanation in reference to judgment
> relation, i.e. with whom as judge we stand in relation
> > reason would
> reason, cause, ground
In John, denotes the essential Word of God, Jesus Christ, the personal wisdom and power in union with God, his minister in creation and government of the universe, the cause of all the world's life both physical and ethical, which for the procurement of man's salvation put on human nature in the person of Jesus the Messiah, the second person in the Godhead, and shone forth conspicuously from His words and deeds.

That's just its usage in the Bible. Before being pulled into Judaism and Christianity, where it tends to refer to the principals of will, order and reason that the universe is founded upon, (And, in John 1, it refers to Jesus!) λόγος was already a nifty word referring to discourse and logic. Logos (the English spelling) has a long history in Greek philosophy. It was nefariously hard to translate into Latin and still doesn't really have a solid English translation. Aristotle grouped it with πάθος and ἦθος, pathos and ethos, as means of communication and persuasion. Quoting Paul Rahe (Thanks, Wikipedia!): "For Aristotle, logos is something more refined than the capacity to make private feelings public: it enables the human being to perform as no other animal can; it makes it possible for him to perceive and make clear to others through reasoned discourse the difference between what is advantageous and what is harmful, between what is just and what is unjust, and between what is good and what is evil."

All in all, it's a wonderful word, and certainly one of my favorites. Especially because I have a hard time understanding and identifying my emotions, I tend to fall back to a logical way of thinking (which isn't always a good thing). I'm a thinker, and the idea that the universe was created with specific characteristics of order, and further that this founding order comes from and IS God is just a beautiful idea to me. That God would start the creation with his words, and that the Greeks would consider words to be the close to the heart of existence itself is beyond my ken.

So, naturally, this was the logical conclusion:



If I can get a better picture (it's healed up really well so far) I'll put it up.

Hope you're well.

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