Grad IV year end video

Click here to see Graduate Intervarsity's year end video. Let me qualify 'beverage' category photos by saying that most of them were taken on a scavenger hunt, atleast the those that make us look like pagans. There is a personal photo of me from the trip to St. Louis for the Jars of Clay concert. My favorite ale is only sold west of the Mississippi, so I stocked up for the rest of the semester.

Casting Crowns concert photos soon to come! I've been busy and haven't yet had the chance to post them.

Proposal is back

My advisor and I went through my proposal yesterday. Since then I've been reading more research articles and have decided to change up some of the methods I thought I would use. Overall, the content was well received, but my writing does need to improve. I'll repost the next rough draft when upon completion.

It's been pretty busy the last two weeks - this shouldn't be any surprise to my faithful readers. Many of you have kept up with pressure and stress filled semester thus far, so join me in praising God that it's almost over! I have one paper yet to finish and three finals. Please be in prayer for me: that I would have a keen mind, capacity to remember, skill in learning, subtlety to interpret and eloquence in speech and writing. Please pray that God would guide me through the research process to enjoy and excell at it.

I'm planning on returning to Kansas sometime in mid-May. I've registered for an organized bicycle ride along the Wisconsin/Illinois border for May 27th, thus I'll be back in IL by then. Another option is to travel to Kansas after that weekend.

I'm also in the process of planning to attend another organized ride in Missouri toward the end of June. It's called Tour de Corn - a 60 mile ride through small town-Missouri. There's the massive street party the night before tons, leterally, of sweet corn. Check out their website:



Dan, my roommate for next year, and I have put a security deposit down on a nice apartment about a 3/4 of a mile from campus. I'm pretty excited about this place because of all the windows, natural light, space and cleanliness. It's a first floor unit, has a high number of closets, central air and heat, a relatively spacious kitchen and good size bedrooms. Dan and I should have enough room for the ping-pong table we've been dreaming about.

We'll, that's about all I have to say about that.

Proposal is in

The rough draft of my proposal is in. I've uploaded the file to some web space I have on the university's server, so you can read my proposal online! Here's the link: MS_Proposal_RD_1

Favorite song

A friend shared this with me:

Superficiality is the curse of our age. The doctrine of instant satisfaction is a primary spiritual problem. The desperate need today is not for a greater number of intelligent people, or gifted people, but for deep people. (Richard Foster)

It has been an extrodinarily busy week: I've started writing my research proposal and continually realize how much more I have yet to learn. This next section of material in physical inorganic chemistry (group theory and vibration spectroscopy) is amazingly difficult for me. Hour after hour has flown by as I focus to comprehend this stuff. It's worth it. Why? Because God's kingdom is here! No time to explain.

Thank you for your prayers. Please do not stop, I'm needy.

Anistropy - deviation from spherical distribution

I’ve been in a time-warp lately, losing complete track of weeks, days, hours and femtoseconds. The last couple of weeks have been marked by 25 hours spent learning electron paramagnetic resonance, losing myself in an alternate 3-d universe and making it through a tornado! Read on, I dare you!

Yes, I spent a horrible amount of time studying for a really hard test last week (physical inorganic chemistry). The test went much, much better than the first. Nonetheless, I have no idea how to judge my grade, seeing as how the class average on the first test was 50%! Coffee was not too friendly during those countless hours – the effects wore off way too soon! So you say that too much coffee is bad for me and that what I have is actual chemical dependence? Read on…

Monday my advisor asked about my research proposal. Where am I at with it with only 5 weeks left before summer? I hadn’t started yet! The Spirit of Genius has led me to some great articles the past few days and helped me right along with this process. Hopefully I’ll have a rough draft ready in two weeks. Feel free to ask about where I’m at with it and how I’m using my time.

The Friday of spring break Nina and I visit the Krannert Art Museu (KAM) at the U of I. You know, I really enjoy viewing classical paintings – I can relax my mind, bringing it into the painting’s story. The museum also had this 3d exhibit (Calcuart, more pics) that was way, way cool. One stands in the center of three panels with projections of these different 3d images. You don't even need drugs to take part in this psychedelic experience, it's awesome!


At Grad IV on Friday the speaker described a proper theology of the soul and body. While it wasn't too applicable, it did give a great basis for the spiritual disciplines of fasting and meditation. I would really encourage you to listen to Todd Daly's talk. Daly is the new systematic theology and ethics prof at Urbana Theological Seminary and did his PhD in 'bodily ethics'.

Oh, and without my knowing, I made it through a tornado tonight! While I was typing away on the pc the wind and rain was pounding against my office building. So much so that I didn't want to leave my desk for fear of the windows breaking. It was at this point that a tornado hit downtown Champaign (3 miles away) and proceeded to travel north to our "Wanamaker corridor". Well, praise God for the mercy of keeping me far from it.

Finally, over spring break a friend of mine had me as a guest on his radio show, Dual Exhaust: No Muffler. The show airs at 12 - 2 am Thursday mornings. You can hear the show by clicking here.