Thursday, April 07, 2005

A Gorgeous April Day on Planet Earth!

Spring has certainly arrived here in Pohang!
The sun feels so good, the flowers are full in bloom, the students seem cheerful and GOD IS GOOD! (But the same would be true even if the sun were cut off, the flowers gone and the students were gloomy!)
Sitting here at almost 2pm in my office during an office hour. We are to schedule 4 hours during the week during which students can have a chance to come and talk with us or ask any questions they might have. I enjoy Thursdays very much as I have 2 office hours in a row. (from 3rd period, 11:30-12:45 to 4th period, 13:30-14:45) Students almost never come to see professors during their office hours so they are generally quite relaxing periods.
I just had lunch with Mr. Lee, the security guard of dormitory #4. He is an elder Catholic man that I have become good friends with during our daily interactions. We have talked a lot about the passing away of the Pope quite a bit in the last few days. (Or "Church King" as he basically translates from Korean.) Even now, my officemate has left his Christian internet radio station on and there are a number of gentlemen calling themselves evangelical Christians and they are almost putting the deceased pope up on a pedestal! Coming from a Roman Catholic background, I really think the catholic church ("universal" with a small "c"....) is much too lenient on the Catholic Church ("non universal" invention of men). Anyway, I told Mr. Lee to look up the words "cyanide" and "pope" in any internet search and check out the results.....Quite shocking.

Anyway, I really enjoy my composition classes. I have 2 "English Grammar and Compostion" courses during the 1st two periods on Monday and Thursday. Today, we were looking at the use of "hooks" at the beginning of essays to draw the reader's attention rather than just write, "I am going to write about....." Specifically, we were looking at the use of quotations to lead the reader into a specific topic and thesis statement. As a person who loves quotations, I took down a few of the ones that I really enjoyed.
"In the end, everything is a gag." (Charlie Chaplin)
"There are more pleasant things to do than beat up people." (Mohammed Ali)
"Years wrinkle the skin but to give up enthusiasm wrinkles the soul." (Samuel Ullman)
"Misfortune shows those who are not really friends." (Aristotle)
"Success is not the result of spontaneous combustion. You must set yourself on fire." (Reggie Leach)
"God bless America" does not necessarily mean "Damn the rest of the world to hell".
"Don't look at only the bark of something. See what is in the bark." (Talmud)
"Friendship is a single soul dwelling in 2 bodies." (Aristotle)
"Things are only impossible until they're not."
"Be like a postage stamp. Stick to one thing until you get there."
"Your neighbor's apples are the sweetest."
"A false friend is worse than an open enemy."
"Offense gets the audiences. Defense gets the game." (Michael Jordan)
"You can't fly without wings."
"Carpe Diem!" "Seize the Day!" (from "Dead Poet's Society" starring Robin Williams)
"Character is like a tree and reputation like a shadow. The shadow is what we think of it; the tree is the real thing."
"If A equals success, then the formula is A=X+Y+Z. X is "work", Y is "play", Z is "keep your mouth shut". (Albert Einstein)
"Change your thoughts and you change the world." (Mark Twain)

I REALLY like the last one as the motto of Handong University is "Why Not Change the World?! (Even written on a rock at the entrance.) Well, how DOES one change the world?! I believe that Mark Twain is closer to the truth than he could ever imagine. (As he was not a known believer...) The bible says that we are transformed by the renewing of the mind through God's word. (Romans 12:2, Colossians 2:8) If this university truly wishes to change the world, it must encourage students to get into the Word of God much more.....

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