It’s been just over a week now since we began P90X together, and I find it quite fun. Sure some exercises are absolutely miserable and exhausting, but others might even be called playful. All of them improve the strength of my body, help me find personal confidence, and give me beautiful sleep at night.

Thankfully I don’t tend to be one to give up on things, especially if someone encourages me to continue, and so I eagerly await wherever I may be in the weeks to come!

It is absolutely wonderful to be able to express ourselves in written word, an odd way of solidifying thoughts, thoughts that will last indefinitely in whatever format we lay them down. Writing enables us to take on different personae, fictional or factual, to wither pretend to be what we are not, or what we wish we were, or to describe ourselves for others to understand. The practice of writing makes it easier to communicate with the world around us, to express feelings, desires, demands, cares, needs, wants, goals, and dreams. It helps us to build friendships with those far and near, to sustain relationships through time and space. I am truly thankful for this wonderfully good thing God has given me: the opportunity to write.

Once upon a time, I woke up. I took a shower with soap. I ate breakfast and didn’t read the paper. And I walked to work. The beautiful balmy breeze brushed against me. I arrived early, no coworkers, no stress, morning sun streaming through the windows. It is was good morning.

Where else can one find complete and total salvation within an instant, even in the act of sin?

Our God is so loving, so gracious, so approachable that wherever we are, in the midst of the greatest trials and the act of our darkest sins, we are plucked out; He assures our escape from inescapable damnation. Is there any doubt that our God is the ruler of the world, the epitome of goodness, the essence of love?

Our God lives! Our God died! Our God is alive!

Monday’s (Sep 29, 2008) 777.68 point drop was the biggest numeric drop in the history, but it isn’t anywhere near the biggest single-day percentage drop, which is much more significant and investment is made by percentage instead of plain numeric value. This drop was 6.98%, 18th on the list of highest percentage drops.

Historical Losses:

The number one drop was 24.39% on December 12, 1914, the first day the market was open after the start of World War I. On October 12, 1987, the market declined by 22.61%, and the two-day stock market crash of 1929 saw consecutive 12.82% and 11.73% declines, ushering in the Great Depression. September 11, 2001 is far down at number 15, with only a 7.13% loss.

Due to the effects of percentage changes in general upward trends, the DJIA increased from 54 points after the 1914 crash, to 230 in 1929 and 1,739 in 1987, to today’s 10,850. In essence, the 777.68-point drop was only 7%, but the number was far bigger than the entire DJIA total of 1914 or 1929. Had those years lost 100% of financial value, it wouldn’t have come close to the recent numeric total, but it would have been far more serious (and was, at 20+%), destroying the financial circumstances of most people invested in the stock market.

Also take note: the DJIA increased by nearly 500 points the next day (Sep 30), salvaging much of the losses.

Also note that if the stock market drops more than 10%, trading is halted automatically (due to the 1987 crash), and this did not nearly come to pass in the recent drop. Our country is really relatively financially sound relative to past national crises.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_largest_daily_changes_in_the_Dow_Jones_Industrial_Average
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trading_curb

Now, as everybody knows, curiosity killed the cat. If this were true, it would imply that cats have a level of curiosity that is more lethal than that in other animals. After all, we don’t say “curiosity killed the dog/penguin/caterpillar”, so evidently curiosity must not be so dangerous to other creatures, or other creatures simply aren’t as curious. Given, the convenient alliteration with (c)uriosity, (k)illed, and (c)at, the ease of monosyllabic names, and the general popularity of cats might lend them a proverbial advantage over the non-alliterative, but more popular, dog and the less popular, alliterative, polysyllabic caterpillar, but I digress.

Why, then, do modern-day cats seem often to lack even the slightest forms of curiosity, despite the apparent past prevalence that resulted in the coining of such a phrase? If the proverb were true, there should be less cats in the world (which those misailurists and ailurophobes among you would applaud), due to a feline tendency towards fatal curiosity.

In the end it seems the proverb, as Miss Mable Godfrey’s unfortunate Blackie can attest, has runs its course. Curious cats find themselves killed, leaving their less curious brethren to sustain the species, resulting in progressively less curious generations of cats. And so we are stuck with two seemingly contradictory things: the proverb “curiosity killed the cat” and cats that are not in the least bit curious.

Standard Myers-Briggs (ignore the “programmers” label; it’s irrelevant)
http://www.eggheadcafe.com/articles/mb/default.asp

Functions Test (especially for people with close numbers on the first test)
http://www.cognitiveprocesses.com/assessment/develop_old.html

It’ll take time to think, but it’s highly recommended. Both websites (and the cognitiveprocesses.com website) provide lots of detailed information to help understand your results. You should also post your results here, if possible, to share with the rest of us! Andrew and I can also help interpret results.

Many of them were fishermen by trade, and an afternoon sail could be very therapeutic. After all, they loved the sea: no more smelly, sweaty crowds, the freedom to cruise on the wind, to be in touch with nature, relaxing in peace and quiet. Sure there was some work involved, and one had to keep track of the weather, but the job was so contrary in nature to the constant interpersonal dealings of late – a welcome change.

So they set out. It didn’t take long for the crowds to dwindle from view. The landscape was spread out behind them, the water inviting them ahead. Noses filled with a watery breeze, and minds relaxed. Jesus soon fell asleep on a cushion in the stern. And who could blame him? There was clearly no bigger celebrity at the time, and even when he wished for a break he had to go out of his way to find a forgotten garden or the like in which to pray.

“It looks like we’re in for some rougher weather,” noted Andrew, glancing north at a quickly forming collection of dark clouds. “Might as well be prepared for the worst. You know how temperamental this lake can be.”

Sure enough, in only a manner of minutes, the sky grew dark, and rain began to fall. The fishermen set about their business, keeping their craft cruising along as if nothing was happening. The wind kicked up and the water became choppy. Waves began to grow, thrashing the boat from side to side.

“It’s getting rough!” called a fellow sailor from a nearby boat. A wave crashed over the side, soaking him through. “Hold on tight!”

They were hit by a squall. Sails were slackened, oars lengthened. Waves tossed the boats, nearly flipping them. Veteran sailors as they were, it was all they could do to keep from capsizing. Every moment the storm grew worse and worse; the boats began to fill with water. Andrew glanced back, amazed that Jesus could possibly still be sleeping.

“Help!” yelled John, a wave trying to pull him overboard. James grabbed his arm to hold him in, clinging to the bench with his legs.

“We can’t hold out much longer!”

They all knew it. Many of the best fishermen had been lost in the sea in storms calmer than this. Frantically they clung on for dear life, fighting the tossing of the boat. Miraculously, Jesus was still sleeping. There was no time for that now! They needed his help to try to keep the boat upright. Peter crawled back, clutching the sides of the boat as he went.
“Jesus! You’ve got to wake up! Teacher! Don’t you care if we drown?” he yelled into the wind.

Jesus stood up, looked around him, raised his arms, and commanded the wind and the waves in a stern voice. “Peace! Be still!”

It stopped.

The wind stopped blowing; not even a breeze remained. Andrew, who had been clinging for his life in the face of a wave about to crash over him, found the wave flattened, still – it completely ceased to exist. James, having been keeping John attached to the boat with his fist, was so astonished that he forgot what he was doing and dropped John into the suddenly glassy water, and John, too, was so surprised that when James dropped him, he forgot to grab on to the boat’s now-stationary side.

Jesus looked at them and shook his head in disappointment. “Why are you so afraid? Where is your faith?” he said, returning to his cushion in the stern.

The disciples marveled. “Who is this? He commands even the winds and the water, and they obey him!”

(This story is courtesy of Mark 4:35-41, Luke 8:22-25, and Matthew 8:23-27.)

I have never drunk a drop of alcohol in my life. My parents don’t drink (as neither of them like the taste or cost of alcohol), and so that rubs off on me. To put it simply, I have no desire to drink.

I’m not morally opposed to it. I’ve never tried it. There just isn’t any desire at all. It’s entirely possible that I will drink at some point in my life, though I see no reason for it.

Incidentally, there have been a few alcoholics in my family, including one of my mom’s brothers and her uncle. For that reason, another of her brothers does not drink. Though I could use that as an excuse, I don’t; it means very little to me, and doesn’t influence my decision, as far as I can tell.

Since I have neither desire nor aversion to alcohol, I also look at it from a rather intellectual standpoint, e.g. evaluating pros and cons of drinking:

Cons:

1. Drinking alcohol is illegal when under the age of 21; hence, that was my primary reason until about a year ago when I turned said age.
2. Alcohol often tends to have odd effects on people, commonly enhancing negative attributes. Influenced individuals say things they normally wouldn’t say, do things they normally wouldn’t do, etc.
3. I have been told that alcohol clouds your thinking and messes with your senses. Since I am quite fond of both my thinking and my senses, I prefer to keep them as they are.
4. Though drinking is not wrong, getting drunk clearly is.
5. People who get drunk tend to have rather severely consequences the morning after.
6. I don’t like the smell of alcohol. It makes me queasy. (I didn’t notice any such smell at the cocktail party.)

Pros:

1. It’s a social thing. Lots of people do it. Of course, I can be quite happy hanging out with people who are drinking while myself not partaking, as at the aforementioned cocktail party with that ridiculously strong non-alcoholic fruity drink Keith mixed for me.
2. I have heard that there are some health benefits to drinking a limited amount of alcohol (wine, at least).
3. Apparently the process of sobering up feels good. If you can explain this, please do.
4. Based on the funny bartending book Lauren was reading and conversations I’ve overheard, it sounds like mixing drinks would be quite a lot of fun.

Now that I’ve said all that, feel free to try to persuade me in any direction you may like. Why do you, or don’t you, drink?

PS: Feel free to invite me out with you for a drink. I won’t have any alcohol, but I’ll gladly spend time with you. I think water is my favorite liquid, though apple juice is up there.

PPS: If you think I’m weird for not drinking alcohol: I don’t drink soda either.

PPPS: For those who were curious, I did weigh myself, at your request, on that bathroom scale. I was just under 125.