Category: Education

Why I Read

Apparently I’m on this quest to analyze everything I do.  The next post will be titled “Why I Breathe.” Won’t that be profound? But I got to thinking about the different reasons for reading. I see two extremes in the approach to reading. The first extreme is to read for purely intellectual reasons. Enter Eustace Scrubb who read books with “pictures of grain elevators or fat foreign children doing exercises in model schools,” as C.S. Lewis said. Eustace was the kind of kid who made himself so dreadfully snobbish everyone who met him had a longing to punch him, or…

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Why I Write

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I’ve started on my next novel. I’ve thought about several different ideas over the past year or two, but none of them seemed to work quite right. So I finally came back to the idea that I’ve had for years now but never felt ready to tackle. Being a writer, I want to write about everything that I’m experiencing. As soon as I have an idea, I want to pour it out into a story. But I’ve learned that it is better to go at it slowly. Because memories become riper and deeper and richer with time. As I grow…

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Randomness

Well, I wanted to make this a more coherent post, but I couldn’t think of how to make it that way. I haven’t finished any books recently, so I can’t do a book review. And I can’t think of some controversial subject I need to argue about, haha. So instead I’ll just talk about some of the things I’ve been doing and learning recently… I was a little shocked to discover that in my Khan Geometry course I was expected to do algebra! I thought I had left x far behind, but sadly, not. So…I had to do a ton of…

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Strangely Silent

So I haven’t been posting much on here for the last few days. That is not because I can’t think of anything to say, I actually have a list of about 6 topics I want to blog about. The problem is that I simply don’t have the time. Why? You’re probably thinking “yeah right, she’s just lazy and doesn’t feel like doing anything.” Actually… I’ve watched about 6 chemistry videos from Khan Academy. Any videos I watch take a long time because I keep pausing the video to take notes. I also really like the format of the Khan videos,…

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Distracting Ourselves to Death

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I recently listened to a podcast from The White Horse Inn titled “Scatterbrained.” As a side note, I have found The White Horse Inn to be an excellent source for thought-provoking podcasts, interviews, and commentary on American culture. So  I’d highly recommend checking their website out. Anyways…the podcast was inspired by a new book by Nicolas Carr called “The Shallows: What the Internet is Doing to Our Brains.” I see this whole topic as a sequel to Postman’s Amusing Ourselves to Death which dealt with the Age of Television. Now we’re post-TV and living in a society shaped by the…

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Why Bother Learning?

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I haven’t been very active on here this week, but my school schedule has been pretty hectic. Yeah. I know. You don’t believe me. Fine. Let me delineate… – I read two chapters of The Consequences of Ideas, on Rene Descartes and John Locke. – I finished reading Oliver Twist, about 225 pages. – I read the preface and first two chapters of The Industrial Revolution by T.S. Ashton. – I’m reading The Mortification of Sin by John Owen, am currently on Chapter 7 of 14. – I started Insanely Simple by Ken Segall, a book on Apple and their…

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Agenda for the Week

So after living somewhat in denial for a couple days, I’m facing up to all the work I need to do this week. I go through the “there’s so much I don’t even want to think about it…hey, why don’t I watch a movie!” phase but eventually will come out of it with this determination that I absolutely must conquer all my tasks. The plan for the week is to: – Read 3 chapters of J.C. Ryle’s Holiness per day, which means I’ll finish it on Sunday. – Read Ron Paul’s Liberty Defined. Hoping to do that today so I…

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Wandering — But Not Lost

So in case you were concerned that I had dropped off the face of the earth…I have not. I have felt that way on occasion, but it was only a temporary sensation. In trying to describe my life for the last few months, I am reminded of Tolkien’s famous quote, “All those who wander are not lost.” To sum it up briefly, I’ve had some interesting ramblings across this earth, both physically and metaphorically. But the main lesson I’ve learned, or relearned recently is 1) God is in control of all things and 2) God is a good God. We…

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A Tale of One Procrastinator

This is rather ludicrous. I have A Tale of Two Cities on my desk, right next to my computer, with my bookmark inserted at the end of Chapter 1, and although January 31st is looming ever closer, instead of picking it up and plodding through Dickens, I’m blogging. Like, I never blog unless I have absolutely nothing else to do or unless there is some earth-shattering thing to say. But suddenly this evening it is of immense importance that I blog, even to the point of abandoning Dickens for the sake of blogging. So instead of reading a book, I’ll write…

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Report on First Mises Academy Class

If you know me on Facebook then perhaps you were following my saga last night which went like this: 12 hours before class: “Bad news: FB finally forced me to get the new profile. Dislike. 🙁 GOOD news: Mises Academy class starts TONIGHT!!! YAY!!!!!!!!!!!! :-)” 3 hours before class: “Class starts in 3 hours. I’ve got about 18 more pages to finish reading. This is really, really great though. I’m uber-excited!!! :-)” 10 minutes before class started: “This is great! I’m attending the first session of the Intro to Logic course!! It is AMAZING!! If you haven’t taken a Mises…

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