forgedsilver's Xanga

Forging Ahead

Thu, 16 Aug 2007 20:40:19 GMT

A post on Xanga has been much overdue, and much has happened since my last post.

Before I post an update, I should mention that I'm working on setting up two new blogs. My new personal blog is going to be andysurface.com/blog. On there I will be writing the philosophical/theological/thinking stuff that I like to write about. Vanderwaal.net/blog will be my computer-related blog. Posts are lined up for both of these blogs and will be added within the next week. My goal is to make these two blogs my main means of communicating my thoughts over the web. My website too has been completely redesigned. I've been working on updating content which will be released soon. It will include pictures, essays, articles, and lots more links. At the moment I'm expecting to upload over 2000 photos from my high school and college years, as well as every essay and article I've written in the past five years. Also, I've been at work on a new music CD. And, additionally, I learned how to ice skate this summer as well as ride a unicycle. So, altogether its been a busy summer, with its ups-and-downs, its trials, its errors, its successes.

As many of you know, this past year at H-SC was extremely busy for me. Last semester I had 19 credit hours and two jobs (so no spare time). With God's help only, I made it through the semester. In the end of the year, I had applied to a research program at VCU, in the Medicinal Chemistry Department. I heard back that I had gotten it, and that's where I've been all summer. I lived in an apartment downtown in Richmond (provided by VCU) from where I commuted to my lab in BioTechI, in BioTech Park. There I worked in Protein Molecular Modeling. With the help of a graduate student from Italy, I managed to create a mathematical system that predicts water behavior in protein binding sites (really important in drug design) with about 90% accuracy (previous attempts by others were only in the high 70's). The research has now been sent to be published.

Additionally, I got to take a trip to New England this summer and visit a good friend of mine, as well as get to meet his family. I spent 5 days in Massachusetts, and visited Boston, Quincy, NYC, and several other places including Sagamore Hill, N.C. Wyeth's art studio, etc. The trip up there was amazing . . . I got to drive through New York's Bronx at 3:30 AM . . . it was truly the most frightening driving experience I've ever had.

So there's a short update of what's been going on with me in the past year in a nutshell. I now head back to HSC for my Junior year of college in four days. Time flies---- it feels just like yesterday I came to HSC.

So I turn 20 next month . . . I will be so old. I can't believe how short life is. I remember thinking that 20 was so old when I was like 8, and how long it would be until I turned 20. Now I'm here, now I'm an adult. Not that age ever is a predictive analysis of adulthood . . . but I think that life experiences can be, and considering all that has happened already in my life, I begin to wonder what lies ahead, what God has in store for the rest of my life. That's been the biggest lesson I've had to learn this summer, far and above a bigger thing than any of the other events combined: that is trusting in God's timing and plans for one's life. I had a lot of curve-balls thrown at me this summer, and I think that the biggest struggle was grappling with these, trying to understand what God was trying to teach me through them. I don't profess to have all the answers, but I'm still working toward to the goal, working as hard as I can and as fast as I can. I am not there yet, but I am closer than I was yesterday . . . more later on my other blogs. Keep in touch.

-Andy

The Long Journey

Fri, 01 Dec 2006 03:29:47 GMT

I haven't posted in a while . .. a long reason for that. But today the band I'm part of here at Sydney performed our first public musical piece. Kit Moore, the dude on the banjo, wrote the melody, and I wrote the harmony. We had just finished writing the song yesterday, and today we performed it in front of 100+ people. It was an instant hit, and people were shaking our hands afterwards, wanting us to to a CD, to do more performances, etc, etc. I've no idea where this band will go, but we shall see . . .

Kit was the man who came up with the name of the group: The Itching and Burning Sensations. It consists of Kit Moore (electric banjo), me (piano), Stuart Tinsley (guitar), Chris Beaver (mandolin), and David Vandeveer (string bass). Let me know what you think . . .

Oh, btw, it's also been launched on Google Video: http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-428417524100214028&pr=goog-sl&hl=en

Last Minute Reflections . . .

Mon, 28 Aug 2006 03:42:52 GMT

So, tomorrow morning bright and early, I leave for college yet again, to begin my Sophmore year at Hampden-Sydney College. I'm still trying to decide if I"m excited or just ready to complete my second year of college education. College, you know, is a thing I've always had mixed emotions about. While I love the stimulating environment it provides, the knowledge it offers, and the degrees and opportunities it gives, the experience it provides is often more one of temptations and fights than anything else. It offers such an unreal environment to "grow up" in, an environment that encourages individualism, selfishness, and even worse: ungodliness.

Of course, this is looking at it in a negative light: College also affords life-changing opportunities, and offers so much more than I've eluded to. Particularly, though, I need prayer as I begin this second year. Looking over my schedule I have left little time for myself to even think this semester, and I'm more involved in the student body than ever . . .

I"m looking forward to the late evenings of work again, the long and desperate challenges of wrestling with mathematical and chemical problems, studying for tests, and, of course, the charge one gets from the academic stresses and challenges tough professors afford--but I"m not looking forward to being weeks away from home, the constant exposure to drinking (etc), and the constant fight with myself to stay grounded and humble. It's part of growing up you know, and that's what I keep reminding myself of.

Actually, though, I am writing too reflectively. More accurately, I'm very excited about the opportunities that this semester will afford me: because it is going to be so challenging it means my weaknesses will be all the more exposed, which means God will have all the more opportunity to work through me and in me. I know how much I changed last year . .. the question for me this year, is will I change that much again?

Timothy's Birthday

Sun, 27 Aug 2006 00:50:50 GMT

So I was fooling around with Timothy after his party . . . and this is what we were doing:

What's the world look like from my perspective?
I leave for school in two days . . . my this summer has gone by fast. More to come . . . stay tuned

An explanation . ..

Thu, 24 Aug 2006 00:42:15 GMT

I think I mis-wrote the first part of my last post, where I said I shall go "nobly, dutifully, and honorably." I was trying to be sarcastic, adding levity to a sad topic and I think it flew over like a lead balloon (it failed).

It's dangerous to mix light things with serious things; and I do it way to often . . . and when written in words, it becomes even harder

So yes, I was joking.

Now, to make this post a bit more interesting, I'm going to leave you with a quote from Areopagitica, a writing by John Milton on the importance of having free speech and free, unlicensed printing. This is a sample of the stuff that we read in Oxford, and this was one of the more interesting books . . .

I promise something more interesting, perhaps, later

"What advantage is it to be a man, over it is to be a boy at school, if we have only escaped the ferula to come under the fescue of an Imprimatur; if serious and elaborate writings, as if they were no more than the theme of a grammar-lad under his pedagogue, must not be uttered without the cursory eyes of a temporizing and extemporizing licenser? He who is not trusted with his own actions, his drift not being known to be evil, and standing to the hazard of law and penalty, has no great argument to think himself reputed in the Commonwealth wherein he was born for other than a fool or a foreigner. When a man writes to the world, he summons up all his reason and deliberation to assist him; he searches, meditates, is industrious, and likely consults and confers with his judicious friends; after all which done he takes himself to be informed in what he writes, as well as any that writ before him. If, in this the most consummate act of his fidelity and ripeness, no years, no industry, no former proof of his abilities can bring him to that state of maturity, as not to be still mistrusted and suspected, unless he carry all his considerate diligence, all his midnight watchings and expense of Palladian oil, to the hasty view of an unleisured licenser, perhaps much his younger, perhaps his inferior in judgment, perhaps one who never knew the labour of bookwriting, and if he be not repulsed or slighted, must appear in print like a puny with his guardian, and his censor's hand on the back of his title to be his bail and surety that he is no idiot or seducer, it cannot be but a dishonour and derogation to the author, to the book, to the privilege and dignity of learning. "

I saw the Matrix the other day with Emily-- I'm sure I have some interesting things to share about it shortly . . .

Just Some Thoughts

Wed, 23 Aug 2006 02:18:47 GMT

Two items that are rather sad to many of my friends, as well as myself:

1) I leave for college early, which means that I have to pack early. My last full day at home will be this Sunday.
and
2) I was just informed of a meeting I have to attend at school on Sep. 1st, which means I will be unable to attend the country dance that has been planned in Amelia. I would skip the meeting if it weren't for the fact that I'm leadership in it, and must be there. Words cannot express how heartbroken I am about it-- and I can assure you that there is no person more upset about it than me . . . but, duty calls, and I must answer, nobly, dutifully, and honorably.

So . . . now that the sad news is over . . .

I saw World Trade Center tonight with Dad at Commonwealth 20. I left speechless . . . I knew the stories of the two policemen, and of course I lived through the World Trade Center catastrophe, but, there's something about actually seeing the story played out that forces acceptance or denial in our hearts of what truly happened.

It was an emotional film . . . full of the rigors of nearly losing a loved one in two families. You see men and women killed, you see blood, you see hearts break with sorrow, but the film essentially shows no more than is necessary to portray the gravity of such a catastrophic event. Really, its the story of two families and how they suffer during the World Trade Center collapse, two families who's fathers are police officers who are pinned in the rubble beneath the tower.

So, seeing such a film makes me think about my life. As a younger man I always dreamed of dying heroically, doing something honorable, saving another person's life. I wanted to be a Knight, I wanted to be a soldier, I wanted to be a police officer: I wanted to be daring. What little boy doesn't have this experience in his life at one point or another? Watching the film, of course, made me see the other side, how a man's bravery can mean a family's suffering, and even though I know the man mustn't consider too much the suffering of another on account of his loss in a greater cause, the instrinsic emotional link between the two, the hero and the hero's loved ones, was nonetheless striking. Why? Is it love? Is it God? What is it?

At the end I was left searching for it. Although I've never been in a World Trade Center catastrophe, I've been in life-risking situations. I have laughed when my Mom worried over me, or people tried to stop me. Of course, I wasn't being stupid in whatever risks I took: my risks were calculated; but does that change or even justify my actions? This is what makes being a man very hard, I think, and it's what makes a man's position less than enviable. There is, I believe, a fine line between being honorable and being foolhardy, and getting this line right is what true manhood is about. Young men like explosive things, daring things, showing off their strength, their intelligence, their abilities. Male peacocks are the colorful ones, remember? And it's natural . . . but it can go wrong.

World Trade Center didn't show a situation where men got it wrong, but it did show how strong love can be, and how taking away life's deepest joys causes the deepest pains. And what are life's joys? The priceless gifts that God has given us: namely our families, our loved ones, our children, our wives, and the people we work with. These are the people we love, we treasure, and we glorify God by doing loving and treasuring them, because it's what we're made to do. But one thing we must never do is take this for granted. The gifts we have are, after all, just gifts. And even more complicated: forgetting why we love is forgetting to love. Life's levity must never rob us of the seriousness of love nor rob us of the duty that true love actually is to us. Love is not fluffy and it's not always happy; but it is constant, it is sure, it is beautiful in a deeper sort of way, and only because it reflects unconditional love from Above.

This was what I was thinking of as I left the theatre tonight. Yes, I was a little quiet in the car on the way home. Of course, I'm turning into a more quiet person . . . more reflective, I suppose.

Wimbledon . . .

Sun, 20 Aug 2006 00:41:18 GMT

I need to stop adding videos and get back to my old-fashioned blogging . . . I promise I shall, as my computer is now fixed (hooray for that!)

In the mean time, here's some Wimbledon Finals action I filmed with my photocamera while I was there for the finals . . .

EDIT: I forgot to mention that these girls can serve at like three times the speed I can-- their serves in this film were at 97mph!!!)

To Celebrate . . .

Fri, 11 Aug 2006 14:06:35 GMT

To celebrate Xanga releasing Video support, I figured I should start posting some videos from England. Here's one in the London Eye (there are more to come!):

Friday, August 04, 2006

Fri, 04 Aug 2006 22:51:37 GMT

You know how it goes . . . good intentions, that is

I meant to blog on here a lot more. I failed to do so, and now I leave for home tomorrow (yay for home!). Anyways, quick summary of my trip to Oxford (not in order of importance, and not exhaustive):

-Met tons of amazing professors
-Saw the Magna Carta (1215 version)
-Visited Salisbury Cathedral
-Stood in the room Winston Churchill was born in
-Saw the stone every Scottish king has been crowned on since 900AD.
-Saw the Duke of Marlborough
-Saw Ben Kingsley
-Studied in the rooms where every great Oxford man has studied for the last 300 years.
-Explored the attic of the Sheldonian Theatre
-Stood in the room James I was born in (son of Mary Queen of Scots)
-Met and had tea with an amazing woman who is the widow of an amazing RAF WWII pilot.
-Climbed a mountain (Arthur's Peak)
-Ate in the same room where the Inklings met--on two occasions, once with Ashley and Joelle and Anna, and the second time with a bunch of people from Wheaton College.
-Found an El Greco painting
-Got an amazing surprise for my sister (it is amazing)
-Wrote 6 essays that were scrutenized by some of the best professors in Oxford--they really tore them to shreds, but it was awesome getting to talk to them about it.
-Met and learned under a man taught by C.S. Lewis
-Got my hair cut
-Found out that getting the Rhodes Scholarship is not impossible . . .
-Visited the tomb of Henry VIII
-Went punting
-Visited Jane Austen's home and ancient Roman baths
-Went to Wimbledon during the finals
-Explored Stonehenge
-Stood on Stirling Bridge where one of the greatest military battles in the world's history was fought (William Wallace)
-Saw William Wallace's sword
-Got to see Powhatan's garment given to the King of England
-Visited the Cotswalds, and watched an old fashioned English circus perform
-Saw three Shakespeare plays, one of which starred Patrick Stewart.
-Read over 100 books
-Got to do a piano performance for my professors here at Oxford tonight along with a Trombone player . . .
-Learned how to do Sudoku puzzles
-Learned Cricket
-Walked through an Iron Age ditch, visited the ruins of an ancient Roman villa, and walked down an ancient Roman road
-Saw Linear A and Linear B
-Saw Van Gogh's Sunflowers and Suerat, Monet, and Manet paintings
-Stood in Windsor palace,
-Stood in Winston Churchill's wartime offices
-Met a knight
-Met the author of my history book at school
-Got to review a preview of a professors not-yet-printed book
-Went to the same school that the man who invented the internet went to
-Made about 45 new friends
-Visited Buckingham Palace
-Went on the London Eye
-Visited Harrods
-Visited John Knox's house
-Went to a service in the church where John Knox gave his first sermon
-Visited two of the most amazing bridges in the world: the Firth of Forth
-Visited the Wallace Memorial
-Toured Shakespeare's home
-Met a genuine Shakespearian actor
-Visited the Globe
-Had Ice Cream on the Thames
-Walked the walk where C.S. Lewis was walking when he "wrestled with God"
-Visited the school where C.S. Lewis taught
-Visited Hampton Court Palace, toured the gardens, and finally visited the maze
-Got lost in London
-Visited several of the most amazing books stores and perused the shelves of one of the largest libraries in the largest libraries in the world.
-The list goes on and on . . . I am one fortunate young man to have seen and experienced so much.

Am I grateful? Beyond words . . . for I cannot begin to fathom all that I've learned and all that I've been able to do--I'm left speechless.

Have I changed? Yes, I have, in many ways . . . but all in good ways I think. I'm so humbled by the opportunities, the experience, and the massive amount of learning. . . The world, I think, will never be the same.

g'night for now . . . see you all soon

Keep me in your prayers as I'm travelling back. I return Sunday night.

Cricket

Tue, 25 Jul 2006 21:45:02 GMT

I think I finally found my sport . . . Cricket.

I scored 15pts my first time up to bat . . . and I LOVED it. It's quite an elegant sport . . . and I don't know why we don't play it in America.

I've been really physically active since I've come to England. Tonight I played an hour long game of ultimate football and then a game of soccer. The other night we played a game of ultimate frisbee, and I've been running everyday. I think that's why I've lost some weight . .. but I've been building up my metabolism so I think I'm gaining it back

Classes are getting harder, but everything is going well!

Thank you all for your prayers . . . I have so much to share when I get home. There have been some truly amazing things that have happened while I've been over here. Thank you for all of your encouraging emails and letters! Keep me in your prayers this next two weeks, that I will maximize my time productively, do well in my final tutorials, and have safe travels this coming weekend. I'll be going all over England this coming weekend. Friday I'll be in Bath in the afternoon, and Saturday I'm planning on heading to London and then later in the afternoon come back to Oxford to go to Blenheim palace. Sunday will be Stonehenge and a few other small English towns. Next week, I'll be heading to the Kilns, C.S. Lewis' home and the Ashmolean (a museum here in Oxford). We're also performing at the final party . . . I think I'm putting together a ballroom dancing sequence or something for the final party, and we could also be performing a play w/ some music that we may be performing. We shall see what happens exactly . . . who knows with the professors here! They can be very spontaneous . . .

I promise that there are more photos coming. I have about 200 more to put online of the circus, the Cotswalds, Windsor Castle, Cricket, etc. I also have plans to add captions.

Below are some action photos taken by my camera (I zoomed in so that you could see me), courtesy of Dr. Cole who was courteous enough to oblige my request for pictures of me while I was playing cricket . . .

btw, I got my haircut. I timed the fellow who cut it, and he did it in 6 1/2 min (!) I think he did a pretty good job, and I now have it spiked in the front, the way my Mom and Sister like it I look totally different now . . . no more goatee, and no more really long hair

Also, we met a bunch of Wheaton students here at Oxford who are also studying here for the summer, and we're meeting them for dessert at the Eagle and Child for a theological discussion. It should be a lot of fun I think These people are pretty sharp on their theology and their philosophy. I can't wait to hear what they have to say . . . besides the apple pie there is amazing!

Miss you all terribly! I'm going to be so ready to play tennis when I get back . . . along with many other things . . . 12 days!