So, the semester is finally over! Last night (15 December 2011), I spent a goodly portion of the evening watching episodes from the fourth season of The Big Bang Theory with the guys out in one of the dorm lounges. That no doubt sounds like slacking off, but actually I brought a notebook with me so that I could socialize while still organizing the outline for my paper. Then, after a while, we all went to Applebee's for some relaxation, and to celebrate my one friend's birthday earlier in the week. Had some delicious boneless wings and a couple glasses of Blue Moon; good, soothing, refreshing stuff, that is. After we returned back to the dorm, I and some of the guys stayed up late counseling a friend about women. (I didn't really have much to say, save general encouragement.) I believe I stayed up a bit after that to finish organizing my notes and outline for the paper.
This morning (16 December 2011) after getting up, I spent about an hour writing the first 2.5 pages of the paper before going to lunch. (Before that, I also read Quodvultdeus of Carthage's first homily on the creed. Superb!) Then I returned and, over the next few hours I slowly, steadily churned out the next four pages of the paper. After that, it was off to the library to return a few more books and to utilize a work by Saint Augustine to flesh out the last half-page or so, and at last I could call it quits. After printing out my paper (along with a form I'll need to get filled out this weekend), I stapled it, took it to the administration building, and sent it through the seminary mail system to the professor as he'd requested. (This is after having scared my friend Meghan a few times, since she listens to music through headphones while working on homework on the library computers, making it laughably easy to sneak up on her.)
Returning to the dorm, I chatted with friends on Skype for a bit while also reading the edited transcript of a 2006 interview with D. Michael Quinn, formerly a history professor at Brigham Young University who was driven out of his established position there because the honesty of his work made the powers-that-be a bit too uncomfortable. Then I took a nap for about 3-4 hours. I think I've earned it. After waking up, I grabbed a six-inch meatball sub from Subway (for less than two dollars!), then returned to the dorm to again talk to some friends via Skype and listen to music and a few podcasts: a couple episodes on the issue of paid clergy from Mormonism Research Ministry's Viewpoint on Mormonism podcast; then an episode of Polygamy: What Love is This? wherein host Doris Hanson, a Christian woman who'd been raised a member of the Latter Day Church of Christ (a Mormon Fundamentalist group led by the Kingston family), interviewed Baptist pastor and author Brian Mackert, who was raised in one Mormon Fundamentalist group (the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, recently led by Warren Jeffs) and whose relatives founded and led another (the Apostolic United Brethren). Oh, also listened to the episode of the H. P. Lovecraft Literary Podcast wherein they discussed Lovecraft's story "The White Ship".
I've also continued to take notes on Michael F. Hull's Baptism on Account of the Dead (1 Cor 15:29): An Act of Faith in the Resurrection. Tonight I managed to get through the third of the four chapters, and I believe before bed I intend to commit myself to finishing the project. That way tomorrow I can move on to taking notes on a couple of the other remaining books I really ought to get to before I return them to the library.
It's hard to think that now I have just a couple days separating me from my flight back home! It's a massively imposing thought. I suspect most of Sunday will be occupied with cleaning and a smidgen of packing....
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EDIT: And now, at 3:24 AM on 17 December 2011, I have at last finished taking notes on Hull's Baptism on Account of the Dead. The notes weigh in at a slight bit over 27 pages. Oy... Well, I suppose that's hardly a great surprise. The largest of the portions assuredly comes from the first chapter, where I simply needed to have Hull's description of each interpreter's view, as well as Hull's evaluations. (Needless to say, I'm naturally most interested in both Hull's own interpretation of the verse and also his critiques of any vicarious baptism reading of the verse, since such an understanding is essential to the Mormon use of the passage. Noteworthy is that, even among the interpreters reviewed by Hull who did take some sort of vicarious baptism reading, none of those readings - or, at most, one or two - seemed remotely consistent with the Mormon perspective.) But I got more notes that I ever expected to from the other three chapters as well.
So now I get to go to bed...
This morning (16 December 2011) after getting up, I spent about an hour writing the first 2.5 pages of the paper before going to lunch. (Before that, I also read Quodvultdeus of Carthage's first homily on the creed. Superb!) Then I returned and, over the next few hours I slowly, steadily churned out the next four pages of the paper. After that, it was off to the library to return a few more books and to utilize a work by Saint Augustine to flesh out the last half-page or so, and at last I could call it quits. After printing out my paper (along with a form I'll need to get filled out this weekend), I stapled it, took it to the administration building, and sent it through the seminary mail system to the professor as he'd requested. (This is after having scared my friend Meghan a few times, since she listens to music through headphones while working on homework on the library computers, making it laughably easy to sneak up on her.)
Returning to the dorm, I chatted with friends on Skype for a bit while also reading the edited transcript of a 2006 interview with D. Michael Quinn, formerly a history professor at Brigham Young University who was driven out of his established position there because the honesty of his work made the powers-that-be a bit too uncomfortable. Then I took a nap for about 3-4 hours. I think I've earned it. After waking up, I grabbed a six-inch meatball sub from Subway (for less than two dollars!), then returned to the dorm to again talk to some friends via Skype and listen to music and a few podcasts: a couple episodes on the issue of paid clergy from Mormonism Research Ministry's Viewpoint on Mormonism podcast; then an episode of Polygamy: What Love is This? wherein host Doris Hanson, a Christian woman who'd been raised a member of the Latter Day Church of Christ (a Mormon Fundamentalist group led by the Kingston family), interviewed Baptist pastor and author Brian Mackert, who was raised in one Mormon Fundamentalist group (the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, recently led by Warren Jeffs) and whose relatives founded and led another (the Apostolic United Brethren). Oh, also listened to the episode of the H. P. Lovecraft Literary Podcast wherein they discussed Lovecraft's story "The White Ship".
I've also continued to take notes on Michael F. Hull's Baptism on Account of the Dead (1 Cor 15:29): An Act of Faith in the Resurrection. Tonight I managed to get through the third of the four chapters, and I believe before bed I intend to commit myself to finishing the project. That way tomorrow I can move on to taking notes on a couple of the other remaining books I really ought to get to before I return them to the library.
It's hard to think that now I have just a couple days separating me from my flight back home! It's a massively imposing thought. I suspect most of Sunday will be occupied with cleaning and a smidgen of packing....
---------------------------------------
EDIT: And now, at 3:24 AM on 17 December 2011, I have at last finished taking notes on Hull's Baptism on Account of the Dead. The notes weigh in at a slight bit over 27 pages. Oy... Well, I suppose that's hardly a great surprise. The largest of the portions assuredly comes from the first chapter, where I simply needed to have Hull's description of each interpreter's view, as well as Hull's evaluations. (Needless to say, I'm naturally most interested in both Hull's own interpretation of the verse and also his critiques of any vicarious baptism reading of the verse, since such an understanding is essential to the Mormon use of the passage. Noteworthy is that, even among the interpreters reviewed by Hull who did take some sort of vicarious baptism reading, none of those readings - or, at most, one or two - seemed remotely consistent with the Mormon perspective.) But I got more notes that I ever expected to from the other three chapters as well.
So now I get to go to bed...
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