Merry Christmas everybody!!!!

So traveling home yesterday was ok for the most part. I think I accidentally was a bit of a jerk to some people on the Silver Line shuttle to the airport. I didn't mean to be, was just in a rush to get my suitcase and get off before I missed my stop, but in cramped spaces it kinda resulted in me being inadvertently pushy or whatever. Felt bad about that.

Flying was cool, if tiring. The longer flight (Boston to Atlanta) showed the Polar Express. I watched but didn't listen to it (i had my headphones on listening to Phrenology by the Roots. You know how there's a weird correlation between Dark Side of the Moon and the Wizard of Oz? Well, with Phrenology and the Polar Express, the matchup is so...what's the word?...non-existent). Both were cool though. Polar's plot was pretty easy to follow w/o the dialogue, and I do admit it is a beautiful movie. And I think Phrenology has cemented it's place as my favorite Roots album (though i haven't listened to Do You Want More all the way through and don't have Illadelph Halflife yet), even if You Got Me is still my favorite song of theirs.

The Atlanta airport is kinda long, but it has a shuttle between terminals. Also a lot more black people than Logan :) (Go black people!)

**note-I am black**

At my cousin's house now, who picked me up from the airport. His place is really cool, if a bit warm. Hope you all have a very great Christmas. Jesus deserves a good birthday party :)

BTW, anyone in Boston/Cambridge/Somerville for New Year's Eve or Day? I'm coming back on the 31st and was wondering if I'd have company.

On my way to SC today-sorry, that might mean less posts for a few days (but check back anyway just in case).

OK, so not to harp too much on the same point, but it would really help settle my mind if I could tell if people (people=girls) liked me instead of having to guess. If you've been following the old blog, you know that there's a girl that, in addition to really valuing as a friend, I also like in that other way as well. But I can't tell if she likes me (or might like me) back, and I'm hesitant to tell her how I feel bc I worry about it hurting our friendship.

So I guess I kinda wish that, if she does know or suspect that I do like her, that she would have the courage I lack and be able to bring it up. Hopefully, of course, she would respond positively, but even if she didn't feel the same way, it would be nice to have some resolution.

Also, I would hope that anyone who was in the same situation with me (not that I expect anyone to have a thing for me, but crazier things have happened) would be able to come to me anad talk to me about it if it was weighing on them the same way that these things weigh on me. I know the fear of it making things awkward and hurting our friendship, but I think that, at best, it might turn out that I would feel similarly towards them and, at worst, it would help our friendship in the long run to clear the air. Especially since I know what its like to be on the crush-having side of this type of thing, I wouldn't be weirded out or anything if someone I knew was in a similar situation with me, and it would help me know how to proceed with our friendship in a way to not cause them any heartache. Of course, it is probably a longshot that anyone would be in such a situation concerning me, but it could happen one day.

So I guess in writing this, its implicit that I kinda want anyone who knows me and might be one of the people described above to respond. I guess I'm a lot bolder online than I am in person.

Great almost-Christmas everyone!!!

Schoooool's out for Christmas!
More substantive blog posts soon (maybe even tomorrow)

Hmm, I'm not sure I remember exactly the question I was going to ask yesterday, but I'll lay out the situation a little. So there's a girl (of course) that I like, but the problem is that the more I get to know her the more I like her in the unqualified sense (i.e. as a friend) and I want to develop a closer/deeper friendship with her if I can. But I also "like" her in the other way too, but I'm increasingly hesitant about jeopardizing our friendship by pursuing something more. On the other hand, it could be really great to be together as more than friends, and I at times get kind of impatient about that and want to try to start something up. I also can't tell if she is at all interested (and I don't know for sure that she might not be involved with/interested in anyone else, though she isn't as far as I can tell). And I can't figure out how to bring up the question with her-our conversations never go in that direction.

So I guess the first question is how do I even bring up the topic with her? Any insight on the other stuff would be appreciated as well.

I have 2 questions. I'll leave the second one to a later post.

1. Is it good or bad to do the right thing for the wrong reasons? I'm not talking about reasons that are bad but rather reasons that might be kind of petty compared to the more compelling reasons for doing something. Since this is all very vague, here are some examples:

When I started volunteering at a homeless shelter my freshman year, I did it in large part because my friends were doing it, rahter than just out of concern for the people being provided for by the shelter, etc. I have heard others argue, however, that this isn't such a bad thing, that people often get involved in service and whatnot bc of others. While I see that this is useful from a practical standpoint, it feels wrong that the important reasons arent enough to compel me to do more.

Similarly, why is it that we give to charities when we see images of people suffering more so than when we don't see these images but know that the suffering is going on?

So, this is kinda my dilemma (the actual situation that is behind this questioning is slightly different from the examples above, but I think these are good analogies-more discussion of what is actually on my mind at the moment available upon request). Any thoughts?

Yay-there was no wind chill this morning! It was 11 degrees and it Felt like 11 degrees! Woo-hoo!

The Holiday party was fun yesterday. And the afterparty at Grafton Street bar was also fun and...interesting.

Wind chill minus 10 this morning :(
Syriana :)
Gov Christmas party this evening :)
thought I lost my ID card :(
Didn't lose it after all :)
Saturday brunch :)
Icy ground :(

Ok, that's enough for now-I count four smiles vs. three frowns (Though i did rig the data so that it would come out that way-such a good political scientist) so I win.

Alcohol is flammable. And people drink it. Just a thought

Go me, it's my birthday!
My mom called me and warned me not to binge drink.
I am having my 1st milkshake in a long time. So far no one has been brought to the yard.

:)
So a friend from undergrad came up to visit us (she was in Kuumba with all of my roommates and I knew her from SoulFood Bible Study and whatnot) and that was awesome.

Also got my room a little organized (my computer is actually at my desk now)
And my mom loves me-she sent me a birthday package with several items, most notably a box of Honey Buns.

Kuumba rocks! Snow-less so. It does look nice from the window though. And small round cars covered with untouched snow are cute-like igloos with wheels (and an antennae).

I wore three jackets/coats yesterday-I'm worried I' m already approaching the practical limit of bundling and its likely to get colder-what am I to do?

Sweet-just got reminded of a relevant Bible passage, Matthew 6:31.

Ok, if you don't want to look it up, here it is:

'Therefore take no thought, saying,What shall we eat? or, What shall we drink, or, Wherewithal shall we be clothed? (For after all theses things do the Gentiles seek:) for your heavenly Father knoweth that ye have need of all these things. But seek ye first the kingdom of God, and his righteousness; and all these things shall be added unto you.'

Groovy.

Nice little blizzard going on outside-perfect weather for the Kuumba Concert tonight!!

How is it that I have no motivation or attention span anymore. I mean really, I'm supposed to be an adult now, shouldn't I be able to sit down and do a problem set and not just procrastinate and check email every minute (almost literally) and everything else but what's productive. I mean really.

So the condom I inadvertently picked up (see several posts ago) made me think this morning about what I might teach my children about (safe) sex. I don't want to encourage my kids (boys or girls) to have sex outside of marriage, but I also don't agree with the idea that teaching them about safe sex and giving them straight facts (for instance, by not overemphasizing the failure rate of condoms, like some conservatives and/or Christian groups and parents tend to do in order to discourage premarital sex) will just encourage them to have sex, especially if the context in which you discuss these things is right. So I guess my stance is somewhere along the lines of "sex before marriage is bad bc of x,y, and z, but having that sex be unsafe is even worse." Hopefully that will work (or I'll find an approach that does). Given my own principle about not having sex outside of marriage though, I'm unlikely to have to deal much with this issue for some time.

So I'm growing a beard now. For the first 2 weeks or so it was just laziness/time constraints. then i got curious about how full it can get and how i will look with it. I've gotten mostly (though not all) positive comments. And honestly I prefer myself without it, but I figure if I'm gonna try it out why not now. Of course this is how i grew my afro in college, but i doubt the beard will go on for 2 1/2 years. We ll see.

I've heard rumors of people who practice something called time management. If you have information on these people or their methods, please inform me. It would be very helpful. Thank you.

Feeling better about the stuff involving the people.
Feeling amused that the above was so vague-at least one person should get it though.
Not feeling overwhelmed by work, despite it being a bit overwhelming.
Not feeling disappointed by the snow, even though I'm not really a fan of it.
Feeling grateful to God for everything.
Feeling that I don't feel grateful enough in general.

Cautiously optimistic that things will work out.

Above comment can be interpreted in several correct ways.

Went to a concert last night at the Middle East (not to be confused with the similarly named geographical region)-my roommate's band and a couple of hip hop acts. Good stuff.

So the other day I was in the subway station and a guy came and asked me how long I had been waiting. After answering him, he kinda continued talking to me, which was a little unusual as subway folk are usually pretty antisocial. In the midst of the conversation he casually pulled out an ID tag-thing that was clipped to his collar (not obviously in a way that suggested that he was trying to show it to me) that identified that he was a Mormon. So from chatting with him I found out that he was indeed a missionary who had been in Boston for almost a year. At the end of our conversation he gave me a card with a painting of Jesus and a number or website where I could order a video about Him. Hopefully anyone who knows me well wil see how this was kind of an interesting experience for me. I do admire the young man though-I wish we, and I, were that bold (about Jesus and in general).