Wednesday, December 12, 2007
Discerning AIM
just thought it would be fun to show you my IM list of calvin friends and how their away messages reflect their perspective on exams. as you can see, some of them are pretty gung-ho about the whole deal, such as lexie4425 and Ms. Klamer. others are not so gung-ho. just see Jessica Pyper’s and David Wolfe’s away messages. we can also discern a trend that many believe the library to be a conducive place for studying. ironically, if everyone thought that way and went to the library, the library would just become a hangout spot where everyone would be too busy greeting friends and asking about other’s exam loads that nobody would get anything done.
George: “So how’re your exams going? You look stressed.”
Sally: “No duh. I’ll be less stressed if you let me study!”
Bob: “Hey Sally! Haven’t seen you in a while. How’s your exam load?”
Sally: “I must study… stop talking to me…”
Katie: “Sally! I love you! How many exams do you have left?”
Sally: “. . .”
just a possible scenario. now i must return to studying since i’m at the library. and don’t even try adding my friends to your AIM list. that’s called stalking, you creeper!
Two Down, One To Go!
i just finished my first of two in-class final exams, and i handed in my take-home exam for my world religions class earlier today. the last and final hurdle is my biblical theology class (REL309), which will probably take all of 3 hours (if not more) and many many blue books. i just spoke with my REL309 prof, and as i suspected, his best advice was to “just know everything.” that might seem ridiculous, but i’ve had him before, and he had the same philosophy. i guess i can stress out about it if i’m trying to shoot for an A+ (pretty much impossible), but if i’m looking at it as a learning experience, everything seems much more manageable. it’s been a fantastic class, and i’ve enjoyed learning from professor crump. maybe as you’re reading this, you’re thinking, “oh, nehemiah’s just trying to comfort himself.” you might be right, but don’t tell me.
Tuesday, December 11, 2007
Study Journal
maybe some of you wonder what academics is like at calvin. so i tracked my studies during the pre-final crunch, which can be the toughest two weeks of the semester. it’s a crunch because a lot of final essays and projects are due within the same week, and final exams are just around the corner. so here goes!
November 18
it’s 9:20pm on Sunday night, and I’m feeling the temptation to slack off. I just spent some time getting Leopard up to speed, and the new features are awesome. Preview now incorporates features previously available exclusively on Acrobat Professional, such as Notes, so I can download full-text articles from JSTOR, which already have OCR, and I can highlight text and add notes. I can also pull out snippets for quotes or anything along those lines. Leopard’s streamlined features are useful for research. I also have my study schedule mapped out on iCal until the end of Thanksgiving, and I’ll eventually have everything mapped out until the end of the semester. That way, I’ll plan out my free time so I don’t just burn out, and I won’t always feel like I need to do something. Mapping out free time is important!
Monday, November 19, 2007
Pizza & Curry
I’m pointing at Jill, who made us curry for dinner
i was assaulted at mars hill. some stranger with a shaved head threw pennies at me before the service as i tried to hold a conversation with michelle, who joined us as a guest that sunday. turns out this violent stranger was caleb rottman, my floormate from last year and ping pong buddy. i’ll probably be spending thanksgiving dinner with his family again, just like last year. can’t wait!
one of my favorite things about mars hill is the people i see. i sit in the section directly behind the drumkit (gotta show support for fellow drummers, u know what i’m sayin?) and that section happens to be the calvin hangout. i see a lotta calvin students there every sunday, and this sunday i sylvie and her friend macy sat directly behind me. a row back was maribeth, fellow calvin student and young life leader. further back was a violent penny-throwing stranger and his sister, cari.
Saturday, November 17, 2007
Raising the Bar on Sundays
(L-R) jill, kathryn, caitlin, matt, ian, nate, josh, mary-margaret, me, mike, zach, sunny, daniela
i think our house is beginning to develop a pattern for sundays. again, we had a house lunch, and again, we also had a house dinner. but for dinner this time, my housemates stepped everything up a notch. we had a total of 12 people at dinner (ian and matt invited 8 guests), so many that our dinner table couldn’t hold everyone. we found our makeshift solution in the garage. it took the combined strength of my 3 housemates to haul our ping pong table downstairs into our empty basement room.
Friday, November 16, 2007
Reading Blue Like Jazz at a Jazz Gig
i didn’t have any plans for friday night until brent - fellow californian, drummer, and calvin student - invited me to see his drum teacher play at schuler’s books & music. his drum teacher, fred knapp, is part of a jazz trio, and the show was celebrating the release of their new CD. so i got ready for the concert, and brought a suitable textbook to read. since my capstone communications class (CAS399) is reading blue like jazz, i thought it’d be a fitting book for a jazz concert.
Thursday, November 08, 2007
HardTimes Cafe
hardtimes cafe + heartside neighborhood + ourplace + calvin college
looks like a lot of people were involved in this event! hardtimes cafe goes down every wednesday evening at downtown’s westminster presbyterian church, and the general idea is to celebrate community by having dinner with heartside neighborhood homeless folks. because this was my first time attending this sort of event, i didn’t know too much about the organizations involved. all i know is that i’ve lived in grand rapids for 2+ years now, and i don’t even know where the homeless are.
Monday, October 29, 2007
I Heart Sundays
(L-R) ian, matt, kendra, jill, me, josh
we had our first house dinner (with the two lady guests), and we didn’t even know it. in fact, we had two meals in a row, lunch and dinner. maybe we were trying to make up for the previous months where we never had a house dinner. all of this was part of an amazing sunday, a sunday that was even better than most other sundays (and sundays are always a great time for me).
Wednesday, October 24, 2007
Settling Into a House
before i dive right into this blog entry, i want to say one thing: it’s late october, and i still haven’t seen any snow. wow! we’ve actually had some warm spells too, so i’m hoping that we’ll have a warm halloween. freezing cold takes the fun out of trick or treating, you know what i mean?
after returning from work and advising on the first day of academic advising, i spent the afternoon installing spotlights on the ceiling above our basement bar. we’ve got this sweet room in our basement with a working fireplace and bar, complete with a record player (records included) and surround sound. it’s our lounge and entertainment space, and its usually where we host guests. there’s nothing like roasting marshmallows over a roaring fire during a cold evening, with mozart (or elton john) playing in the background.
Friday, October 12, 2007
A Late Fall
as of october 10, the weather got cold. although the cold dashes all warm-halloween-aspirations to the ground, itwas unavoidable, and i’m just grateful for the warmth while we had it. so now i’m shopping for some warm winter clothes and bundling up for the winter. i’m so glad we have a fireplace at our house. last night, matt (one of my housemates) started up the fire in the basement fireplace, and we studied by the fireplace all evening. some friends came over to study, and we just had a relaxing time. i actually had a fun time studying hinduism on wikipedia, which is my topic for world religions class at the moment. compared to reading ernst troelstch for my biblical theology class, hinduism is a breeze. i can’t believe i’m almost at the halfway point for this semester!
Sunday, October 07, 2007
Open For Business!
click on the image to visit the new website!
Wednesday, September 19, 2007
Ada Vision Center
i had a dilemma: the plastic frame of my eyeglasses broke around the lens, so the frame would no longer hold the lens in. i tried superglue, but to no avail. i tried searching for the frames online, but the only store selling them was located in germany, and they didn’t reply to my emails. i was told by a local optometrist that the frames were no longer being sold, and that the American Esprit warehouse was out of stock. so i was at a dead end.
Sunday, September 16, 2007
Breton Village Neighborhood Association
i’m currently sitting on my front lawn with my housemates, enjoying the sunshine and feeding off the wireless internet connection from my house. ian’s lying on the lawn next to me, and josh is juggling a soccer ball (or rather, football). ah, the pleasures of working at home on a sunday afternoon.
yesterday afternoon, we pretty much met all our neighbors at once. we’d been wondering how we could our neighbors, and this was the perfect opportunity. the neighborhood association was having a potluck at the nearby elementary school, so we headed over there with our dish of thai friend shrimp (it was good stuff, one of the first dishes to be finished off), armed with smiles and conversation. when we got there, i was surprised at how many people showed up. i was told that our neighborhood has over 550 households, and more than 80 are in the neighborhood association. i saw more than a few professors there, including the director of my honors program and my english 101 professor, and i also met a calvin community relations representative and some students. it was fun getting to know the other calvin people in the neighborhood, but i was really more interested in meeting non-calvin people. i see enough calvin people during the weekdays with classes and work, and i just need to meet some families in the area.
Wednesday, September 12, 2007
Another Crazy Start to the Semester
you’d think that with the entire summer, i’d have enough time to get all my textbooks. nope. every year, books arrive late, or i order duplicates, or i leave some out. then i’ve gotta figure out my books as homework, classes, and work vie for my time. throw in the time spent cooking meals, doing house chores, and organizing house church activities and i barely have enough time to buy books. so i don’t, and i repeatedly buy and return books to the campus store. better yet, i borrow them from the library, and i renew them until the end of the semester. just a few tips i learned from my sophomore friends when i was a freshman.
Thursday, August 23, 2007
Record Pause Play
one of my friends, ryan nault, is in a synth duo. last week, i went to their concert at the DAAC (division ave arts cooperative), which is one of the smaller venues in the city. i’d never heard them before, nor had i seen them in concert, so i thought i’d bring along a video camera and film the experience. click “read more” to watch the video. for you readers on facebook, click on the link “view original post” above, then click “read more.”
About Me
My life at Calvin College
Name:
Nehemiah Chu
Class of 2009
Hometown:
Hong Kong
Major: Rhetoric
Communications & Religion
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