Wake Up
Sunday's service at First Pres was another wake up call for me. I feel like God is knocking on my door. I still haven't figured out what I'm going to do with my life after college. You'd think someone doing engineering would have it all together. I have all these different wishes and desires for life after college, all competing and vying for attention. I want to travel, I want to buy cool stuff, I want to hang out with friends. One thing I know I don't want to do is sit behind a desk for eight hours. That's been my greatest fear since high school, but I feel like my life is just barreling inexorably towards that cubicle. Do I have the courage to reject such a life? Should I reject it? Part of me wants to run to some foreign country and set up bridges and infrastructure for poor people. And then part of me knows that's a hopeless dream. What is God calling me to do? Is my love of travel meant to be an asset for using my gifts for the good of people abroad? Engineers are needed in this country, and I know I could probably succeed here. I'm just afraid I'd get into a rut and my life would have no particular direction and no particular goal, except to acquire more stuff.
I've deliberately put off thoughts like these for as long as I could. I did it in high school because I knew I had college to sort it out. Now it's here and I don't feel much closer to an answer.
posted by Alex Densmore at 7:39 PM

I'm testing out updating my blog from AIM. This is a pretty nifty feature. But how useful is it? For all those people on the run I guess? Oh well, new technology is always fun to play with. Do smiley faces show up? :-)
posted by Alex Densmore at 4:21 PM

Baseball!
I went to the batting cages on Saturday for like the first time in 2 years. Me, James and Osamu went to a place down in Emeryville and slugged it out for about an hour and a half. There's just something so great about swinging a bat and cracking a few balls away. But I don't know how those major leaguer's do it. I tried hitting a few in the 80 mph cage, and it was rough. I totally have a lot more respect for their abilities now.
posted by Alex Densmore at 11:48 AM

Breaking the Silence
It's been a long time since I've written. There are a few reasons why, but I guess it's mainly just because I've been lazy. But I've finally decided to take a little time tonight and jot down some stuff. I'm going to put a new section on my website devoted to my trip to Germany. I hope it turns out well, because there won't be a lot of pictures, and all the comments will be from memory. This is due to the fact that I left one of my bags of luggage on a Schnellbahn! Of all the things I could lose...... it makes me sad to think of all the precious things in that bag. Even after 2 months I feel the loss.

Well, let's get to current events. Friday night ASME put on a capture the flag event, and praise the Lord it was a success! I was so stressed about people showing up and organizing it all. But more than 80 people came out, and everyone had a good time. We started the event on Bechtel Terrace with music and food. After assembling people into 3 teams, the game began! Most people had a good time, but of course lots of people were trying to cheat. So the second game a few ASME officers had to be referees instead of playing. But that solved most of the problems. It was really encouraging to see people have so much fun at an event that a lot of work went into. EJC gave us very little support, so we had to put the entire thing together ourselves. But we did fine that way, and it was successful enough that we will probably do another in the Spring. Now all I have to worry about is the General Meeting, the SP Dinner, tours.........

I noticed a funny thing when I went to study at Royal Grounds today. In the past, their java jackets were decorated with clever slogans and the promise of many wonderful free goodies from useless web companies. Online job sites seemed to be the most common. Now, the emblem of the Cal Safety Shuttle graces the jackets. A little sign of the times. I couldn't help but laugh a little at the fortune of all those crazy internet companies, but the back of my mind was telling me of hard times ahead for myself. Of course, I'm never going to get a job like that. I'm going to be a photojournalist, and I'm going to scour the world in search of scoops. Riiiight.........
posted by Alex Densmore at 1:11 AM