And since I’m now a senior, I’ve got to start sharing useless advice. Well, hopefully not entirely useless. Here are 10 things that I wish I’d known as an incoming freshmen.

1. Buy Early – Start buying supplies, like pencils, paper, bedsheets, as soon as your highschool graduation balloons are tucked into the closet. These items are usually cheaper at the beginning of summer than at the end.
2. Don’t Buy (text)Books Early – Unless you are certain what textbooks to buy, don’t purchase them until commanded by the school. Teachers are apt to change their minds about textbooks, even up until the day school starts. The last thing you want is to be stuck with “167 Arcane Chemicals, A Philosophical Muse” and not be able to sell it! Exception: Buy the following books whenever; just find the cheapest price:
   • Dictionary – Even though there are many free dictionaries online, you will want a hardcopy just in case the campus network goes down. This happens more often than you think. Trust me.
   • Thesaurus – Don’t buy a Thesaurus. I know they want you to, but the online ones are more than sufficient.
3. Read Your Textbooks - Many freshmen, myself included, assume that textbooks are sort of like reference works — useful only at sundry times. Or, you think that the teacher will just give you all you need to know in class. Hint: not true. Read your assigned textbook readings. If you must, get a friend to keep you accountable. You will be thankful when Finals Week rolls around!
4. Quality Time ≠ Quantity Time – Three hours of studying in a noisy room is not as productive as a half-hour of studying in a quiet library. Find a friend-free spot on campus that is within a few minutes of your dorm-room (or somewhere away from your family if you commute). The time you will save is worth the few minutes of travelling. Tip: Don’t bring your laptop along unless you must have it. This will keep you from being distracted by email.
5. Curb Your Email – Set two or three appointed times during the day to check and respond to email. Any more than that is simply a waste of time.
6. Get A Social Life (or restrict your social life) - You must find a happy medium between being with friends and getting to know your textbooks. Don’t be a closet-nerd (like I was), and don’t be a pack leader with a .78 GPA.
7. Early to Bed, Early to Rise – Ben Franklin had it right. Resist the temptation to stay up late studying. Instead, go to bed at a decent hour and study during the morning and afternoon.
8. Remember Your Family – Call home every once in a while (at least once a week). You don’t have to gab for an hour – twenty minutes a week will keep them informed. Make sure you listen as well as talk about yourself.
9. Get A Job – Even if you don’t need to work to pay for tuition, get a job with at least a few hours a week. This will provide for small cash, and it will force you to discipline yourself.
10. Pack Light*** - The *** means that this is incredibly important. When packing for your first year, the tendency is to overpack. Don’t ask, “Will I need this at school?” Ask, “Can I live without this?” Your roommates will thank you, and you’ll have less to sort out and clean up after three months of school.

Well, that’s it. If any of these have helped you in the past, or if you have any to add to this list, please say it in the comments below!

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My four most significant events of 2008 follow. While a good blog post will not be written quickly, this one is, purposefully. This way, the four most readily available, or the most impactful, events of 2008 should come to my mind.

1. Africa! Aballah, Cameroon! Only 13 days, but my life will never be the same. The wealthy, the poor, the crowded, the spacious, the Christian and the heathen all together, this first time of leaving the country will be forever cemented in my brain.
2. Pulpit Speech. For this one, I only have three main points and then I’ll be done. 1) We notice the Training of this class. When I finish it in May, hopefully my sermons will be more able to reach God’s people. 2) We notice the Timelessness of this class. The things I learn now will still be in use when I preach as an older man. 3) We notice finally the Teacher of this class. Mr. McGonigal is an amazing man.
3. The blooding. This year, I got my sword. Shortly thereafter, I christnened the blade unplanned when I sliced three fingers, one to the bone. The nerves have not yet grown back, and my piano playing is not where it was. Perhaps not a repeatable experience, but a very memorable one as my roommates helped me do even basic events like getting dressed.
4. I kissed the teen years goodbye. Note that this is logical reckoning. Imaginative reckoning still plants me solidly in the teen league, though I sometimes lapse into fits of adulthood.

As I wipe away a tear for 2008, I look forward to a frabjous 2009. What were some of your most memorable experiences of the past year?

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This is possibly the most enjoyable Christmas I have ever personally experienced. I cannot say it is the best Christmas ever, because that is far too cliche, and also, the best Christmas was the first Christmas, when Christ came to earth to redeem men from their sin. Apart from that Christmas, though, this was the best.

The following items were bestowed upon me:

• The first season of Hogan’s Heroes
• All 17 episodes of the ooold George of the Jungle series (with SuperChicken!)
• Four Don Knotts movies
• A solid pound of gaming dice — see below for explanation
• A happy red shirt (as opposed to the sad red shirt that is pining away in my closet)
• Two ties to complement said shirt
• A pair of jeans

All in all, I got all that I wanted and nothing that I didn’t want.

A note must be inserted concerning the gaming dice. I do not gamble. They are role-playing dice. Some may have trouble rectifying a conservative, Bible-believing pastor-in-training being a Dungeon Master, but I can promise you that one can morally be both. I could even prove it from Scripture. If you cannot role-play in good conscience, though, don’t start doing it for my sake. One of my next posts will present my view of RPGs.

I hope you had a merry Christmas!

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It sure seems as if this semester has flown. At a slow rate, of course. Thinking back over everything that has been accomplished, however, it definitely looks full and long. And next semester looms ahead-aaah. Mustn’t think about that now.

Fourteen more days to go until Christmas vacation begins, and much must occur ere the sun sets on this semester. Tests to take, presents to purchase, various graduating friends to bid farewell. And a classical guitar concert… more on that later.

Next up… Movie Review: Enchanted. I pity you guys with no sisters!

Name this dog for: 2,000 cool points

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However, it is not complete. If you have any suggestions, please note them now. Or, forever hold your peace.

Finally, I beg forgiveness for not posting much. Personal blogs are a pain, really — not for the writer, but for the reader. Who really cares about my life, anyway? But, for posterity, I shall continue posting. And, I will try to be more frequent about it.

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Track #1 – Nasal Decongestant (if buffering is slow, try right clicking and saving to your computer) (or, you could buy me a faster server).

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Here I Am Again

Hello all! I’m here at school again getting ready for classes. I wonder if I will be busy at all this week?

That would have been grotesque.

During the past few weeks, God has been teaching me some amazing things. My ministerial teachers have told me for two years now to put God first, to do my devotions even if it means taking time away from studying. That sounds good, but it certainly would never do for me… or so I thought. This semester has perhaps been the busiest experience in my entire existance. I get up at 5:30 AM, dodge between classes and my two jobs until 5:00 PM, swallow a dinner whole, study until my brain hurts, and cast my poor exhausted body onto my bed around midnight. Do not take me wrong: I am not bragging about anything I do. If I were responsible for the above mess of activities, several computer science teachers, a human resources manager, the ministerial enclave, and a slew of other people would be rather upset with me, because I would be home, preferably in the vicinity of a corner of dark bliss under my bed.

In fact, it is not me who is accomplishing anything. My teachers were correct. God is more than able to provide strength. Although there are some days when I look forward to life beyond the end of retirement, God gives me comfort, ability, peace, joy… and the list goes on. Without Him, it wouldn’t be worth doing anything. Without Him, my life would have no purpose.

So, I have taken up much more of your time than is meet. Forget the rest of this post, but remember: God is strong enough to handle any struggle you are going through. Trust Him–it is far better than floundering around by yourself.

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First, we did games. Children of all ages love active games (duh!); with such a large group of varied ages, I could pick three or four games a night and target them to either the younger or older kids. The little kids loved simple racing games. The older kids loved games that required either brains or brawn… or both. Game-time lasted about a half-hour, after which we all went to get a well-deserved drink.

Second, we had a prayer time. This, while not being as exciting, is essential; it lets the kids know I care about them, and it brings them closer to God. Hopefully, they are more comfortable telling God about their troubles (and thanking Him for all the good things He gives them).

Third, we sang songs. While I think children should know the longer, older hymns, I think fun teaching songs are also essential. We want them to think well of singing. “Father Abraham” was a favorite, as was “I’ve Got Good News,” “I’m in the Lord’s Army,” “I’m Inright, Outright, Upright, Downright Happy All the Time,” and “Read Your Bible, Pray Every Day.” We are usually pretty tired after singing…

…so, Fourth, we had a little puppet skit. My puppet, Jerry, is rather obnoxious, and he claims to never listen to the teacher or hear any of the Bible lesson. Furthermore, he is rude, illogical, and wild. The kids love him. Since Jerry never listened to the previous week’s lesson (getting him a stern reprimand from the teacher), we always had to review it for him. What a sneaky head-fake, but it worked!

Fifth, after more singing and teaching a Bible verse, I would teach. At my school, Bob Jones University, the ministerial teachers have a saying that goes something like “It is a sin for a teacher or preacher to be boring.” This is said tongue-in-cheek, of course, since the Bible doesn’t condemn any particular style of teaching (but rather the message itself), but I think a good principle of politeness does come into play. It is very unloving to be a boring teacher, not to mention selfish and rude, since the children are forced to not only come and listen but also sit still!

I don’t know whether I way boring or not, but the kids seemed to love the lessons. The reason? I dressed up each night, role-playing a different character. On the different nights, I was a brash buccaneer (Captain Wetworth), a super spy (Dr. Marlow), an adventurous Australian (Dr. Downunder), a clichéd cosmonaut (Captain Nebulae), and a dashing swordsman (Señor Cutter). Each character had his own accent, accessories, and personality; some of the kids seemed to not even know it was me!

All in all, the Thursday-night teaching was a success, though not by my own doing. God has a wonderful way of taking my poor efforts and making them brilliant. I will miss my kids and try to take the lessons I’ve learned from teaching them to school with me… to begin teaching the other group of children at school.

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Do you remember, way back in grade-school, when you were taught how to find the prime factors of a number? It was the biggest pain… especially since you knew that your teacher already knew the factors of that number, and that any work you did was not for anyone’s benefit. Let us face the cold, hard facts: factoring 27 into 1, 3, 3, 3 did not put food on anyone’s table, did not help a soldier compute the trajectory of a mortar rocket, and it certainly did not make your day any better (if, on the other hand, it did brighten your day, please email me; I am also a counselor. :P )

Perhaps now, so many years later, you have been demanded to program an algorithm to factor a number. I can hear your groans; once again, accomplishing this will not save the world. However, writing such an algorithm is not beyond the astute programmer. Actually, it can be quite fun. Let us walk step-by-step through this such daunting task.

(SIDE NOTE: All code on this page is in pseudo-code. Therefore, most schools will allow you to read this article without infringing on cheating policies.)

A Brute-Force Factoring Method

First, let us look at the most basic of factoring methods. We will start with a number–say, 6:

let rawNumber = 6

We all know (from grade-school) that the factors of 6 are 1, 2, 3 (1 x 6 = 6, 2 x 3 = 6, right?). We also know that 2 and 3 are the only numbers that will divide equally into 6. So, all we have to do for the simple method is to start at 1 and see if it divides equally into 6 (it does).

let 'currentFactor' = 1
let 'test' = 'rawNumber' / 'currentFactor'
is 'test' an integer (with no decimal part to it)? -- Yes

So, we store ’currentFactor’ in the list of factors we have found:

foundFactors.add('currentFactor')

Then, we test the numbers 2 and 3. They give us the same result, so we store them like before. Number 4, however, does not evenly divide into 6:

let 'currentFactor' = 4
let 'test' = 'rawNumber' / 'currentFactor'
is 'test' an integer (with no decimal part to it)? -- No

So, we do not add 4 to the list of factors found. Neither do we add 5 to that list. Finally, we arrive at 6, which is the number tested so we do not have to bother dividing it. The complete pseudocode listing:

let rawNumber = 6
let 'currentFactor' = 1
let 'test' = 'rawNumber' / 'currentFactor'
is 'test' an integer (with no decimal part to it)? -- Yes
foundFactors.add('currentFactor')
let 'currentFactor' = 2
let 'test' = 'rawNumber' / 'currentFactor'
is 'test' an integer (with no decimal part to it)? -- Yes
foundFactors.add('currentFactor')
let 'currentFactor' = 3
let 'test' = 'rawNumber' / 'currentFactor'
is 'test' an integer (with no decimal part to it)? -- Yes
foundFactors.add('currentFactor')
let 'currentFactor' = 4
let 'test' = 'rawNumber' / 'currentFactor'
is 'test' an integer (with no decimal part to it)? -- No
let 'currentFactor' = 5
let 'test' = 'rawNumber' / 'currentFactor'
is 'test' an integer (with no decimal part to it)? -- No

This listing works… but only for the number 6. It is not scalable to any other number, not even 5 or 7. What we need is a loop. Explaining programmatic loops is beyond (or, rather, below) the scope of this article, but you may explore the MSDN reference page for C#’s for loops. Inserting a loop is easy, and it makes managing even this small code-base much easier:

let 'rawNumber' = 6
for 'currentFactor' = 1 to 'rawNumber' - 1
   let 'test' = 'rawNumber' / 'currentFactor'
   is 'test' an integer (with no decimal part to it)? --
      if so, foundFactors.add('currentFactor')
continue for loop

Now, we can test any number by simply changing the first line, setting ‘rawNumber’ to, say, 7, or 3, or 188! This basic method works perfectly. However, any professor worth his salt will fail you if you turn in such a method. Why? It takes so very long! In factoring, we humans have certain intuitions that computers do not have. For instance, we know automatically that 5 will never, ever divide evenly into 6. I know what you may be thinking: that does not take much time for my blazing-fast gaming machine to compute! What if the computer were trying to factor 144? 1444? 14444444444444? What if it had to factor a million such numbers? Do you want to wait while it loops through values that are so clearly impossible that even a blind mole could figure them out? I didn’t think so. So, clear the stands (but not your memory of our previous algorithm… you’ll need that) and usher in…

The Factoring Algorithm, Optimization Level 1

…coming soon…

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