Below are the 12 most recent journal entries recorded in tuphlouandros' LiveJournal:

Friday, January 9th, 2009
4:02 pm	2009 This will be an exciting year for Nora and me. We will find out about Teach for America on January 20, then about the Gates Cambridge before Valentine's Day. Then over the course of the following month or two, I will hear back from the six schools I applied to: MIT, Stanford, Berkeley, Columbia, Duke, and Penn. I'm nervous about leaving Mississippi, but I am hopeful that we will feel at home in Boston, California, or North Carolina. (1 Comment |Comment on this)
Thursday, July 20th, 2006
12:10 pm	Revivals What is the point of a revival? If last year's revival has worn off, then why try again? Aren't we admitting that our fuel is hype and not the spirit of God? If it works, it must change who you are, not just get you excited about something. (2 Comments |Comment on this)
Wednesday, December 21st, 2005
10:25 am	Calculus You might be a mathematician if you ever wake up in extreme gratitude that you live in an age after the development of calculus. (3 Comments |Comment on this)
Monday, December 12th, 2005
3:08 pm	AGU Fall Meeting 2005 The University of Mississippi paid for me to go present my summer research at the 2005 fall meeting of the American Geophysical Union. My poster was entitled, "Current Propagation in Narrow Bipolar Pulses." (NBPs are lightning-like flashes in the sky except without the flash part because their emission is higher in the E.M. spectrum than visible light.) My work was basically to produce a working current model for one of these things that produces the sort of electric field readings we measure on the ground from them. I went over Tuesday evening (Northwest), stayed in the Clift hotel in the biggest suite I've ever seen in my life (The Pan Pacific had booked my room). I did meeting stuff on Wednesday, including a talk session and a poster session in which I met a UGA mathematics professor who had done what was basically a math project. Thursday morning I presented my poster, which was a difficult on-my-feet defense of my paper for anyone who might walk up. And some of the top people in the (small) field of atmospheric electricity were there. It was pretty intimidating. One guy who spends a lot of time working on NBPs, Xuan-Min Shao from I think New Mexico Tech, spent a considerable amount of time hearing me out and making suggestions and criticisms. Vlad Rakov, who wrote the textbook on lightning, brushed by rather quickly. I ate at a sushi boat place, where the sushi floats past you and you snatch what you like. I ate tapas at a Spanish restaurant and curries at an Indian restaurant. I took advantage of the only fast food place that exists everywhere but where I live, Jack in the Box, where I had a pumpkin pie shake. Who'd have guessed. I read The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe, and a book by a J. William Shopf on Precambrian paleobiology that I picked up at the Conference. Good times. (2 Comments |Comment on this)
Friday, November 11th, 2005
7:04 am	Quote So this one's original: Idleness is the devil's workshop, but busyness is his playground. (1 Comment |Comment on this)
Monday, October 17th, 2005
9:47 pm	Nora Hughes So it happens again that the thing determined certainly implausible becomes a reality. "Girlfriend" and "boyfriend" are words that neither of us actively uses, nor have we at any point declared ourselves a couple, but our behaviour has become increasingly such that these words are entirely applicable. She is a wonderful friend, and we have maintained at least the feeling of lack of need; that is to say we are together when we want to be together not because we can't do without each other. What do I make of being in a relationship so quickly after the breakup of an engagement? I haven't a real answer. I feel quite sure in light of all the warnings I had concerning rebounds and the nature thereof that this is not such, but rather I view it as the snapping together of two magnets always attracted (which of course is true) but separated for a time by an inviolable barrier. The snapping was something each of us opposed to some degree because of the brief period of time. But clearly not enough. (3 Comments |Comment on this)
Sunday, September 4th, 2005
8:54 pm	Forgetting My evidently nostalgic tendencies are rooted in a reverence for the sacredness of the past. The permanent nature of the past and the detached and heedless manner in which time pushes forward toward the end leaves me grasping to retain the past and (not errantly) to savour the day. I am learning, however, to recognize the tragedy in holding onto what has passed. Forgetting on the one hand is the permanent loss of the only thing on earth that is permanent. On the other hand, however, it is an immeasurable blessing. Forgetting is the graveyard of human experience. Though the loss of a beloved friend is difficult, it is necessary for people after playing important roles in painting the backdrop in which we live and think to depart and make room for their descendants. Likewise, our past experiences form a sort of jumping pad for our future, but leaving the past behind is for negative things the essence of grace and for positive things the exercise of faith. (1 Comment |Comment on this)
Wednesday, August 24th, 2005
9:40 pm	Break So it happens that the thing which is not considered in one's mind as a possibility is the very thing that has become has reality. You ask the reason? Problems with communication. The truth is that we have always had great trouble talking about meaningful things, because I intimidate her to the point that she is afraid to express her opinion to me. The moments when I try to delve into the meaningful are like those moments when you ask a stranger a too-personal question and the awkward silence that follows indicates resoundingly the inappropriateness of the question. When a problem arises, I bring it up and try to discuss it in (I ascertain) such a manner as to make her feel like it is her fault and that she is awful. This offends her greatly (as one might expect), and she utterly refuses to talk about it. And, as one might expect, not talking or solving problems takes its toll. She loves me, and she wonders still what has happened or if she has made a mistake. But I am sure she will find in the ensuing weeks that life with people who make her feel like a person is superior to this bond we have been commited to. Commitment is an excellent basis for a marriage relationship, but, experience argues, not for a dating relationship. For greener grass beckons, and premarital commitment is not strong enough to resist it. But this is not all bad, for before marriage an evaluation may be made as to whether the grass of the other side is indeed greener. In some cases, it is. Such a pasture is to be considered a blessing for its revelation. Maybe one day we will get back together. But only a new Sam and a new Michelle in new relationship, separated from the old in nature and in time. Deep down I hope so. I still love her. But God does his work in his time. Today the light is cast upon one day's steps. (2 Comments |Comment on this)
Monday, August 15th, 2005
10:48 am	Kids Say Funny Things On my student information questionnaire: How do you feel about mathematics? Fourth grader's response: I like them. (Comment on this)
Monday, August 8th, 2005
6:20 pm	Evangelism Why can I not evangelize? When people do not see the single most important thing in their existence (which we must believe the gospel is), why do I not share it with them? Now, I do not believe that we should evangelize every possible hour, for extreme application of general principles quickly reduces to legalism, which contrary to obedience is utter disobedience and is like its opposite. Though the Bible makes no clear references (as far as I can discern) that all Christians are to evangelize, one gets that impression from the New Testament. Could it be possible that nothing is wrong? How do I fix it? I don't want a formula, there are no formulae in the Bible. I have prayed for God to fix in my heart whatever is the root of this, but I don't even know what it is. I'm tired of the divide between two sets of language that accompany acknowledgement of God and his omission. On the other hand, one's relationship to God is deeply a personal issue, and it is erroneous for me to insist that one's personal experience agree with mine. I just hope that we are honest with ourselves about what we believe and if we believe. For if we do, I submit that it should consume our lives, and thus it should, though not constantly mentioned, be as ever-available in our communication as the morning news. (1 Comment |Comment on this)
Monday, July 25th, 2005
5:07 pm	Regents School of Oxford I have signed a one-year contract to teach two mathematics classes to fourth through sixth grade students at Regents School of Oxford. I know it will be a learning experience in many ways, the chief of which will be to discern whether this is in fact God's calling for my life. Teaching a real class in which I am not free to conduct matters as I choose and having parent-teacher conferences with parents who may have kids older than I am is new and somewhat intimidating. But I anticipate that I will love my job. (2 Comments |Comment on this)
Monday, June 27th, 2005
3:01 pm	Engaged On Tuesday I took off work and went to Batesville and had Michelle's ring sized down to a 4 1/4, and I got a haircut. I went in the afternoon with Mom to Nielson's on the square in Oxford, and I purchased a suit (olive and dark navy weave, almost black in appearance). After a few reservations and some phone conversations with Mrs. Brown I found myself on a Memphis to Austin plane Friday morning around 9:15. The Browns picked me up at the airport, and I spent the afternoon running errands with them and talking. (They are about seventy and have many stories to tell). They cooked for me in the evening, and I made further preparations and and went over to their next-door-neighboors' house. Mr. Johnson is a homely, down-to-earth, insurance salesman with a penchant for traveling and the history of the West. His wife Gundi is from Germany, and their house is full of beautiful European memorabilia. Michelle called crying just to tell me she missed me, which made me glad. I talked to the Johnsons until around 22:30, at which point I told Michelle goodnight from a few meters away and slept until 6:00. I read some of Mr. Brown's Greek grammar text until Michelle was long gone. I read and talked with Mrs. Brown until about noon, and we had lunch and went to Wal-Mart to pick up some odds and ends for the night. I talked to Michelle while we were at the gas pump, and the dinging noise nearly tipped her off, as I was ostensibly at a flea market with my dad. She told me that she was excited about an appointment for selling books at 18:00, which made me glad. I talked theology with the Browns and showered and got dressed, and I made it over to Tanya's house across the street by twenty till. I set up the two digital camcorders so that one faced the door directly and one was angled to the right. When she rang the doorbell, I started the cameras and realized that I had forgotten to reset the Swiss music box (which plays All I Ask of You from the Phantom of the Opera). I did so, which made her wait very long, and I took my position just around the corner past the corrider that the front door opens into. She entered, very excited about the book presentation, and stopped and stared at me, mouth open, face void. She put her hand over her face, nodded her head, said ok, and finally said yes. I put the ring on her finger and turned the cameras off. We greeted everyone: Don, Mary, Tanya and her three children, and I took her shaking arm and walked her back to her room, where I showed her the dress which Brandi gave her and the shoes I had found for the evening. She got ready by 7:00, and was surprised by a white stretch limousine in front of the house. We made it in about 35 minutes to the Clay Pit, a reputable Indian restaurant in downtown Austin. They took us to the romantic cellar, and we had interesting appetizers and very good entrees (Khuroos-E-Tursh and Goat Curry). We caught up on all the things that had happened this week that I previously couldn't share with her, and talked some of the wedding. When we went outside, she was surprised by the horse-drawn carriage and more by the driver greeting me by name. We rode for an hour down by Town Lake, and the Browns picked us up and took us home. I called and got my flight put off till Monday and slept in the guest room at the Browns'. Michelle got to see her flowers and her bride books (from Brandi and me). The next morning we went in Jenny's car to San Antonio for the organization meeting with all her book friends. They shared funny stories and had execs, which are basically like a football team's pep rally, where they see who did the best in a number of categories and do a lot of hollering. They then have what amounts to a sermon by a motivational guy who tells you to expect a lot and get off your fanny. When went to downtown San Antonio and saw the Alamo and went down to Riverwalk and ate at an Italian resaurant. Three Spanish guitar-playing singers serenaded Michelle, and we shared ice cream. We saw the Alamo and I listened to a street preacher while she talked with her group people. We went home, and that night I went out with Michelle to play putt-putt golf and visit a bookstore. We talked that night and she made her snug with a ring snuggler, and I scratched her back while she fell asleep on the sofa. We ate breakfast the following morning with all the girls, and Judith Ann took us back home. She stayed with me and played thumb war and the hand-slapping game until I left at 9:30. We cried a little and hugged and said goodbye. The plane ride home and drive back to Oxford were smooth. I cried. But we're happy. Glossary Rock Rock, TX: suburb of Austin Southwestern: the book company Michelle works with selling books door-to-door in Round Rock HQ - Headquarters, the place where the girls stay over the summer. Don and Mary Brown - HQ mom and dad. The own the house where the girls rent. Travis and Gundi Johnson - the next-door-neighbors who kept me on Friday night. Tanya - the person across the street who had the appointment with Michelle Judith Ann and Jenny - other salespeople in Michelle's HQ. (Megan is also, but is currently gone home). (1 Comment |Comment on this)