First Week Back At School

     This week has been my first week back here at Liberty. I have enjoyed my classes so far, and especially enjoying my Intro to Cinematography class, and New Testament Survey. I am also taking Western Civilization, Biblical Worldview II, English (British Literature), University 101, and Information Technology.
     The textbook, The Visual Story by Bruce Block has been very fun to read. So far we have been talking about contrast and affinity in class, so it feels almost like the art classes I took in high school. I met a girl named Elizabeth in this class, and she has been really fun to get to know. She wants to be a film critic, so she is minoring in Cinematic Arts. Also, in our last class meeting we watched The 5th and 7th by Alex Roman. Here is a link to it on YouTube so you can check it out! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PSGx4bBU9Qc
     I have New Testament with my roommate, Ashley, which is fun because last semester we had the same Old Testament class. Our NT teacher is a northerner who prides himself in talking very fast, but he seems like he is going to lead a very interesting class. I already like that part of our class assignments will be to read through the NT for ourselves. I wish my OT teacher had required reading through the text itself as well. I got myself a new Bible, and ESV study Bible, by suggestion of my professor, for the class. I can't wait to get started pouring over its pages. Our first readthrough assignments are Matthew chapter questions, and Mark penta-reflections questions. For the chapter questions we are to write one thing we would like to know the answer to for each chapter and for the reflections, every five chapters we reflect on how the chapters affect our personal lives.
     Western Civilization looks like it could be a lot of work, but I like the teacher's thoughts on how to teach the class the meaning of history, rather than focusing simply on what happened. It should be nice to dig deeper and reflect on how history has affected our present world.
     Biblical Worldview II is my only 7:40 class. I don't really like having to wake up so early, but it is worth it for the professor. Professor Matthews is Australian and very fun and energetic which makes the class more interesting.
     My English teacher is great, she has a very sarcastic sense of humor. The readings look like they might be a little tough, especially since I am a slow reader, but the way the class is organized it shouldn't be too bad. The readings are homework, and she goes over what the piece means the next class before we have to take our quiz. Another exciting thing about that class is you can get 50 extra credit points for reading Pride and Prejudice, writing a paper on the character of Mr. Darcy, and taking a test on the book!
     University will be an easy class, but at least my friend Ashleigh is in the class with me. She was in my screenwriting class last semester and we have a lot in common. Information technology should be easy too. All the assignments are online, so it will be easy to get ahead on things for that class when needed. Also the great thing about UNIV and INFT is that they are both only one day a week, so I get out really early on Friday, the day that I don't have either of those classes.
     On Wednesday morning we had our first official snow here! Our morning classes were canceled and everything. There was so little snow actually on the ground that it seems rather silly that things shut down until 10:00, but I enjoyed sleeping in a little bit. The only class I missed as Cinematography, which as disappointing because it is my favorite class, but at the same time, as I said before, the extra sleep was nice.
     Besides school starting this week, we also had Campus Church start back up on Wednesday. Our pastor is making a lot of changes. Even the name has changed to Campus Community. I do like that we will be going through Galations together as a campus now, but it will take some getting used to having our hall meetings and prayer groups on Wednesday night. It is a lot to have church, hall meeting and prayer groups all on the same night.
    This week I also got to go see the Alluvian production of Peter and the Starcatchers here in Lynchburg. My roommate, Ashley, and I went together last night. It was hilarious! All the actors did a wonderful job, and the minimal sets worked really well. The most unique thing about the production was during intermission, they asked the audience to vacate the auditorium for a "major set change", and instead of changing scenery as you might imagine, they rearranged all the audience seats!
     I haven't had too much time for reading and watching movies with the new school semester starting, but I did finish rereading Surviving the Applewhites, which was one of my favorite books growing up. Also tonight our RA's have invited us to watch The Maze Runner with them, so that shall be exciting to watch again now that I have read the first two books in the series.
      Overall it has been a good week, I can't wait to see what next week brings.

A New Year to Live

     With 2014 over the time to welcome 2015 has arrived. Two things I regretted not doing much of last year include reading and writing. As a cinematic arts major in college watching movies has become a big part of my life, so I plan to continue my new habit of movie watching. This year as I endeavor to read more, explore more creative writing, and educate myself with good movies I have chosen to start a blog to chronicle what I learn this year, and hopefully for years to come.
     Today I got two exciting packages, my textbooks for classes next semester, and Alan Turing: The Enigma by Andrew Hodges. I am still waiting on a one textbook, a couple of pleasure reading books, and some movies to show up, but am excited about the two shipments that came today.
     I admit that I went to see the movie The Imitation Game before even ordering the book it is based on. I usually don't read biographies, but the film sparked my interest. When I got the package I excitedly opened it up, and to my surprise the book is much bigger than I thought. Even though I am slightly overwhelmed by its size, I am excited to read about Alan Turing.
    The most exciting of my textbooks, The Visual Story by Bruce Block for Intro to Cinematography class, and The Essence of the New Testament: A Survey by Elmer L. Towns and Ben Gutierrez are just the tip of the iceberg when it comes to the workload I have scheduled for this upcoming spring semester. I also have The Norton Anthology English Literature, Western Civilization, How to Read the Bible for All It's Worth, Go! with Microsoft Office 2013, and my Biblical Worldview II book that hasn't come in yet. The English book scared me a little bit when I first opened it because of its size. By the looks of things that will probably end up proving itself to be my hardest class. The history book actually looks really fun, which was a surprise to me, I was not expecting to like that one. I am dreading the Microsoft class. Computers and I never seem to get along very well, though I suppose that will be a problem worth solving considering my degree path.
     To start off the new year right, I have already started reading quite a few books. Most of them are devotionals, but there is a novel in there too. My morning devotionals include, My Utmost for His Highest Grad Edition by Oswald Chambers, I Fall to My Knees by Laura Freudig, and Breaking Free Day by Day by Beth Moore. Chamber's book was a graduation present from a dear friend last year, but since it was a full year devotional, I decided to wait and start it with the new year. I have read the Beth Moore one before, but love it, so I wanted to read it again since it has been years since my last perusal of its pages. Lastly I Fall to My Knees is a little book I found on sale at Lifeway last year when I was Christmas shopping, so my step-mom and I are going through it at the same time.
     My nighttime devotionals include A Jane Austen Devotional by Steffany Woolsey, and the Blackaby Encounters with God Matthew  Small Group Study. Lastly, the novel I am delving into currently, James Dashner's The Scorch Trials. I read The Maze Runner during my exam week and the beginning of my Christmas break, and fell in love with Dashner's suspenseful writing style so much that I went and bought a second copy of the book to give to my brother for Christmas. I honestly can't believe it took me so long to pick up book two, but now that I have, it proves a struggle to put down.
     Besides all this reading, I have also been watching a lot of movies. Today, my dad, step-mom and I went to the theatre to see Into the Woods, as my first official movie of the year. I did a big movie marathon on new year's eve with my mom, as a new tradition we have been starting, but our last movie that night ended before midnight, so tonight's movie was the first of the new year. I actually already saw this film with my mom last week, but since it is my favorite stage production I didn't pass up the opportunity to see it again with my dad. I liked the movie a lot, however, as such an enthusiastic admirer of the stage musical, I was highly disappointed at the omissions made in the film version, particularly the reprise of "Agony" and the death of the narrator. My favorite performance in the movie was Emily Blunt as the baker's wife. Ever since I first saw Into the Woods, I fell in love with the story and the music, so I am very happy to see a film version of it that explores the visuals of the story in such a new and unique way!
     With the new year there comes a long reading list, a never-ending list of movies to see,  a new semester of schoolwork and classes, an opportunity to grow closer to God, and lost of ideas filling my head begging to be written into stories! I can't wait to see what this new year brings!