a journal of my adventure back to college to finish my degree

 
Philosopher-King

Check out Kingdomality.
Yikes! This standardized test knows me too well.
It's like a career-personality quiz, but for the Middle Ages. It's what you "would have been" suited for.

I am "...The Benevolent Ruler might be found in most of the thriving kingdoms of the time. You are the idealistic social dreamer. Your overriding goal is to solve the people problems of your world. You are a social reformer who wants everyone to be happy in a world that you can visualize. You are exceptionally perceptive about the woes and needs of humankind. You often have the understanding and skill to readily conceive and implement the solutions to your perceptions. On the positive side, you are creatively persuasive, charismatic and ideologically concerned. On the negative side, you may be unrealistically sentimental, scattered and impulsive, as well as deviously manipulative. Interestingly, your preference is just as applicable in today's corporate kingdoms."
posted by Baus at 5:35 PM

 
Busman's Holiday

The semester ended, I took my exams, and I booked a room at Chez DeWaard in Hamilton. My friend, Ian, is a fellow CLACer and I thoroughly enjoyed his hospitality and learning about his vocation and recent projects.

On December 25th [articles and a sermon for your edification] I went to a friend's house and ate delicious food and drank her father's homemade wine. On New Year's Eve I went to another friend's house and met the extended family and helped make gravy.
I saw The Two Towers twice. I can't get over how excellent the Gollum scenes were. But the Gimli comic-relief bothered the tar out of me.

But I spent most of the break reading the following books:
Steinbeck's The Grapes of Wrath
Bouwsma's John Calvin: A Sixteenth-Century Portrait
Peck and Strohmer's Uncommon Sense
(re-read) Dooyeweerd's In The Twilight Of Western Thought

I intended on really getting into Steinbeck, but it was hard to concentrate with Ian's Calvin book sitting there on the coffee table. Eventually I dropped Grapes and gave in. Because I believe in the beauty/truth of literature, and because I don't want to become an ivory tower Philistine of a "specialized" scholar, I occasionally force myself to read novels (classics, of course). So, I'll continue with Grapes this semester. But the Calvin book was tremendous. This is no hagiography!
The author's postmodern religious orientation was horribly obvious in certain historical-psychological evaluations such as "Calvin was obsessed with order. He had a crazy tendency to impose structure on his environment and tried to make sense out of the world." Oh-no! Calvin committed a pomo-transgression! He tried to make sense of things! Anyway, you'd think the book would be horribly lame, given such ideological commitments of the author, but happily and paradoxically, since postmodern scholars believe consistency is a hobgoblin, they can frequently be insightful.

When I got back to school this past Monday, I went to the Registrar's office to confirm that all my ducks were in a row and I would be graduating. Alas, the silly child in charge of my file last semester had apparently lied to me, saying it was all good, but had sat on my transcripts and done nothing. The main official, Richard Wikkerink, however made up for months of slack in a few days and I am now approved for a Bachelor of Arts degree in Philosophy with a double minor in History and Religion.

Sadly, I did not do well in French. But I will (D.V.) complete my modern foreign language requirement this summer in a 5 week program in Quebec. Soon I'll be able to converse with my brother in his native tongue and read the French Confession in the origninal (maybe).
The courses I'm taking this term are Biology, Asian Philosophy, Intro to Theater, Aestheics, and Academic Study of Scripture. I'm also sitting in on Ideologies.

It occurred to me that with all the bitter cold and snow up here, my 2-year southern California summer is being balanced out.
Thankfully, I now have a space-heater in my dorm room.
posted by Baus at 4:56 PM