awesome

An e-mail I received:

(This e-mail is the text of a letter sent to your permanent address on May
19, 2006.)

This letter is to notify you of your placement on Chapel attendance
probation. The paragraphs below will provide you with additional
information about your status at ACU.

Chapel Attendance Probation
Your Chapel record for the spring 2006 semester indicates you did not attain
the required number of attendance credits. Therefore, you have been placed
on Chapel attendance probation for the fall 2006 semester.

If you attain the required number of attendance credits in the fall
semester, your Chapel attendance probation will be completed. However, if
your required Chapel attendance for the fall semester is not met, you will
be placed on Chapel suspension and you will not be allowed to enroll for the
spring 2007 semester.

It is policy that students may only be placed on Chapel attendance probation
twice during their career at ACU. The third failure to attain sufficient
Chapel credits may result in immediate suspension.

Probation Contracts
Since ACU is dedicated to helping students achieve success, we encourage you
to draw up a probation contract with Mike Spell in the Office of Judicial
Affairs for the fall semester. Contact his office at (325) 674-6818 to
schedule an appointment with Mike during the first two weeks of class.

If you do not agree to a probation contract for the fall semester and you
are suspended, it is very unlikely that an appeal for your suspension will
be considered.

Contact Us
For questions regarding the Chapel probation process, please call the Campus
Life office at 325-674-2631 or email shane.hughes@acu.edu.

Sincerely,

Wayne Barnard Ph.D.

Assistant Provost for Student Development
Dean of Campus Life

So Dark the Con of...oh whatever

Without risking any spoilers, I can tell you this much: An underground gnostic sect has spent the last 2,000 years guarding an unspeakable secret, a secret with the power to shake civilization in its very boots. And that secret, against all reason, involves the messiah and Audrey Tautou. ...

But despite its purported iconoclasm, The Da Vinci Code is at heart deeply religious, and monotheistic at that: It wants us to believe that there is one secret truth that can change history, that that truth is knowable, and that only through Tom Hanks can we know it. Our salvation depends on Forrest Gump. Read the rest of the review here.

It's been highly entertaining ready all the scorching reviews of Ron Howard's The Da Vinci Code, which seems to suck because it stays too true to the book. I'm reminded of a post I made almost a year ago when I attempted to read the book (it didn't last long). Dan Brown's writing = bad. Maybe I'll rent this flick one day when I'm bored. Then again, maybe not.

But I’m still having fun and I guess that's the key, I'm a twentysomething and I'll keep being me.

My family always teases me at my uncanny ability to remember what I and others were wearing on almost any given day, any year ago. Well, really only on days when something important happened, or days when pictures were taken. Sifting through my wardrobe, deciding what to donate and what to take with me into my new life of pseudo-adulthood, I keep stumbling across articles of clothing that take me back years in time. I've found shirts I wore in my high school senior pictures, during Welcome Week and the outfit I wore on my first day of college.

I remember that day because I kept debating whether to wear sunglasses across campus or not. I mean, it was hot and sunny, and it was hard to see things as I made the walk from Nelson Hall to Gibson Health Center for my Personal Wellness or Fitness or whatever those intro classes are called.

The campus had been filled with eager-eyed fish like myself during Welcome Week, along with the occasional upperclassman with a different colored T-shirt telling me where to go. But now - oh man. The campus was a sea of older college kids who looked so much smarter, mature and ready for the world than I did. As I walked past the Bible building and the creepy statue in my pink Old Navy tee, I was freakishly self-conscious about whether I should keep my sunglasses on or not, not to mention doubting my entire identity in general.

I've collected about 50 ACU-related shirts over the past four years. I bought most of them (sorry, Dad), but a few were given to me or were picked up along the way. I don't really need these shirts, 10 of which are purple, so I guess I'll donate them along to someone who does. Maybe some kid will wear an ACU shirt and be motivated to attend the school, thus going on to earn an education and, in turn, change the world. It could happen.

It's weird to think that it was less than four years ago that I looked at people my age with such a sense of awe. Now, I've been spit out of the system that I had once been so excited to enter in to. The whirlwind of finals and all-nighters only led to a lame Graduation Celebration, complete with a laser show, and then Graduation. Now, my roommate is gone and I'm left trying to comprehend the past four years and the notion that I can never have them again. I'm folding up my T-shirts and giving them away.

My current state of confusion is only fitting considering my complete lack of motivation this past semester. Thank God for being able to take classes credit/non-credit, meaning I was aiming for 60s in three of my classes. My other two I actually had to take for a grade, and earned one A and one B (Whatever, Dr. Ash. Whatever.). Oh well. That's over with. Now for the real world?

I'm still packing. Maybe moving out will bring some closure. Probably not, though. Here's to the next years of being a twentysomething with no clue who they are or what they want to do. At least I had a great four years to help delay the inevitable: growing up.

Oh Holy God No

No no no no no no no not another one no no no no no.

Jeb Would Make a 'Great President,' Bush Says

By Bill Brubaker
Washington Post Staff Writer
Thursday, May 11, 2006; Page A06

Coming soon: President Bush III?

The second -- and current -- President Bush suggested yesterday that his younger brother, Florida Gov. Jeb Bush, would make a "great president."

"I would like to see Jeb run at some point in time, but I have no idea if that's his intention or not," Bush said in an interview with Florida reporters, according to a story on the St. Petersburg Times Web site.

If that sounds familiar, the Bush brothers' father, former president George H.W. Bush, made a similar statement last year, telling CNN's Larry King that Jeb Bush would be "awfully good" as president.

"This guy's smart, big and strong. Makes the decisions," the first President Bush said then.

Two brothers have never been elected to serve as U.S. president.

Jeb Bush, 53, who cannot seek reelection after his second term as governor ends in January, has repeatedly said that he will not run for president in 2008, just before his brother leaves the White House.

But that has not stopped at least two fellow Republicans -- his father and his older brother -- from planting the idea.

President Bush said in the interview that he has "pushed" his brother "fairly hard about what he intends to do."

The president said: "I have no idea what he's going to do. I've asked him that question myself. I truly don't think he knows."

In May 2005, King asked the senior Bush if he wanted Jeb Bush to run for president.

"Someday I would, yes," George H.W. Bush said.

"Is the timing wrong now, though?" King asked.

"Yes. The timing's wrong," Bush said. "The main thing is, he doesn't want to do it. Nobody believes that, but . . ."

In yesterday's interview, President Bush said his brother could have a "very bright" political future.