Humor hiding truth

There is a quote, "If you find something funny, look it over carefully for a hidden truth." I find that to be true very, very often. For example, I get a daily newsletter called "Just for Grins" which gives some jokes and a few quotes to brighten my day. Well, today, it told this anecdote:

A Sunday school teacher was discussing the Ten Commandments with her five and six year olds.

After explaining the commandment to "honor" thy Father and thy Mother, she asked, "Is there a commandment that teaches us how to treat our brothers and sisters?"

Without missing a beat one little boy (the oldest of a family) answered, "Thou shall not kill."

If you are the oldest, as I am, I think you will quickly relate to this, as I was. I always love it when the truth is hidden in humor, because that's when it can be most effective.

Hurricanes!

Well, my experience with Hurricanes Katrina and Rita have been quite, well, let's just say they were overrated for the Longview area. For Hurricane Katrina, we had some awesome thunderstorms, and a bit of rain, not so much wind, but clouds. Our dorm (Davis Hall) also hosted about 20-50 evacuees/refugees for a night or two. Then came Rita, which was a lot windier, and a lot rainier (go figure, it was a LOT closer too, like right on top of us). We had a lot more evacuees come this time, the school opened up our small gymnasium (Belcher Gym) to hold up to a hundred, plus the empty floor in our dorm, which can hold around sixty people, I think. So we're sheltering all these people, and LeTourneau's asked students to volunteer to help staff the gym, or to donate matresses and sleeping bags and blankets and toiletries and stuff like that. People who donate matresses, sleeping bags, and blankets and stuff put their name and other info, like their room or CPO number, or their phone extension. I gave them my sleeping bag, because I figured they could put it to better use than just having it up in my closet. It's been a good week though, and I've enjoyed myself, but I guess I should finish my homework now, it's getting late.

Comments good, spam bad

OK, I've had this blog up for a year or so, maybe more, and have gotten a grand total of three, count em, one, two, three! (or maybe, 1, 10, 11, if you know your computer science...) OK, now I like comments, but they seem to be from random people, and possibly even spam, which I do not appreciate. This blog is mainly for my friends and family, and the occasional REAL stranger who stumbles upon my blog, but not for spam. I noticed that Blogger now has word verification for comments, so I think I'll activate it, sorry for the inconvenience, I just want comments from real people, not advertisements or other stuff.

College, ugh

So I've been here three weeks, and research shows that Freshmen get really tired of school around three weeks, so sending them on a required "retreat", where they can hear some motivational messages and get some sleep (yeah, right!) will revitalize them so that they can do well in the following school year. So, I just finished that, got back yesterday, and haven't done any homework, thanks to the retreat, i was so tired, I couldn't do anything Saturday afternoon/evening but watch movies, which lasted far too late (I didn't go to bed until around 1 or 2 AM, not smart), and then I had to get up for church this morning. The van left at nine, but the paper said it left at 8:30, darn.
Now I'm stuck with a bunch of homework to do, and two packages that are at the CPO, but I can't pick up till tomorrow. It's really distracting. That's it for now...
Gilligan.

Foreign aid for the US? Heck yeah!

US accepts nearly $1b in foreign aid - The Boston Globe:

Donations:

Kuwait: $400 million in oil and $100 million cash

United Arab Emirates: $100 million cash

Qatar: $100 million cash

Republic of Korea: $30 million cash and in-kind donations

Australia: $7.6 million

China: $5.1 million cash and

relief supplies

India: $5 million cash

Ireland: $1 million to Red Cross

Iraq: $1 million cash

Bangladesh: $1 million cash

Azerbaijan: $500,000 cash

Gabon: $500,000 cash

Afghanistan: $100,000 cash

Armenia: $100,000 cash

Bahamas: $50,000 cash

Maldives: $25,000 cash

Sri Lanka: $25,000 cash

Bosnia: $6,414 cash

SOURCE: US State Department

This is interesting. Up until now, I had heard that no other country had offered aid to the U.S. for the Hurricane relief efforts. Now I have been proved wrong. The process for accepting donations makes sense, going with the easier to process ones first. And I can understand the wariness of accepting Cuban doctors, regardless of their skill, who knows if Castro really has our health in mind. I'm probably being paranoid, but how easy would it be to slip 10, 20, 50 "doctors" in who will enforce the idea of euthanasia, or spread diseases that we don't have vaccines for, etc, the possibilities are numerous, and I won't go into, nor support many, if any, of them. The point is, we are recieving aid, and Bush is accepting it. just not all at once, but in a certain order. This shows wisdom, and prudence. I support Bush, he doesn't do everything right, and I think we should critique the points of our government we don't like, excercising our Right to Petition, as in the First ammendment to our Constitution.
I've said enough now, go make your own opinions, but base them on fact, not rumors or other opinions.

OK, now what?

So I'm here, at LeTourneau, Univ., and it's been two weeks or so (counting or not counting orientation) I haven't blogged for awhile... no reason I guess, just ever forgetful. I'm not sure how many people actually read my blog, since I haven't really posted much, and I've told few people. Oh well, I'm being pessimistic, and I really should work on my homework. Argh, dreaded College! I love it, and I hate it, and I'm rambling.