Work on the Mural Continues

I was trying to get as much of the mural done as possible before summer ends, but I did not nearly get as much done as I was hoping. I calculated that I need to work on it an average of 12 hours a week until I graduate in order to finish, so understandably, I've started to get a little nervous about it. But, I think I should be able to do it. Here are some progress pictures on how the work has been going:


                                          The  Nativity

Exodus

Creation and the Flood

Night & Day

Fish of the Sea

Jenna decided to help me by tiling the dove

Jenna breaking some tile for the dove

The finished dove!

Separating the Waters

Waves almost done!

Starting the rainbow

Rainbow and waves without grout

Grouted!

I'll keep you all updated as I go!

Gay Guy in Seminary: Day 064 (Breaking the Seal)

San Anselmo at night is a creepy place. I've just gotten back from walking Terra home. It is now 11:45 pm, and after walking back to the student lounge by myself, I have to ask the question, "Why hasn't anyone used this place to film a horror movie yet?" This town is basically situated in a forest, and the school itself, which is a castle if anyone has forgotten, is on a wooded hill. CREEPY!!!!! There's these little winding barely lit paths going up and down the hill through the moss and lichen covered trees so people can go to and from their apartments, not to mention those strange sounds that are always there at night when you're walking through the woods by yourself...

It is nearing midnight now, and as I sit here alone (mostly alone anyway, there's a cricket in here somewhere adding to the ambiance) in this 100 year-old castle typing this in the student lounge where the TV likes to turn on by itself, I continue to remind myself that I should not be scared because I am at a seminary and I highly doubt that God would allow some malevolent spirit to take up residence here. But, if I am going to be honest, this place still gives me the creeps, and I still have to walk back to my apartment, by myself. I've actually done it quite a few times when it's been this late, but we have the lovely addition of cloud cover from the rain earlier today, so it is much darker and cooler than normal. A castle in the woods. Are there any filmmakers out there???? (Note: I am not authorized to offer the school as a location for a motion picture. Please contact the school business office with inquiries regarding use of the school grounds for filming purposes.)

On a lighter note, I broke the seal on ditching classes today. I'm not really a "class ditcher" so I hope this doesn't start some kind of trend for me. I set my alarm to wake up for church history, hit the snooze a couple times, then just decided I was too tired to go. We were just doing a review today for the mid-term on Thursday, and I figured I could better use the time to do homework or something. But instead, I just laid in bed until it was time to get up for chapel. Leslie extended a personal invitation for me to attend because she was going to deliver the sermon today, so I felt obligated to go. I thought her use of a hymn throughout her sermon was an interesting and unique approach.

If any of the faculty or administration are reading this, I do have a slight tickle in my throat which could have easily developed into something much worse if I did not take that hour and a half to rest. Everyone is always telling me how important "self-care" is, and I was just trying to follow their advice.

The only real schoolwork I got done today was studying for the Old Testament quiz tomorrow, but I guess that's better than nothing. This is procrastination at it's finest, folks! I still have homework for Drugs and Jesus tomorrow night, which I will have to get done some time tomorrow, as well as homework for Lectio Divina, which I will probably be doing tomorrow night after I get back from Drugs and Jesus. In case anyone has forgotten, Drugs and Jesus is in Berkley, so we should be getting back from that around 10:30 tomorrow night. I also had to sign up to be a driver because our regular driver is out of town, so that will add an interesting element to my day. Hopefully it won't rain tomorrow, and hopefully I won't get us lost. Please keep your fingers crossed for me everyone.

Last, but not least, is the Old Testament paper due on Friday that I have yet to start. When will I have time to do it, you ask? I'm thinking Wednesday and Thursday. Study for the Hebrew quiz will just have to wait until the hour before the class. XD

Gay Guy in Seminary: Day 057 (Peanut Butter and Hot Wings)

After 3 hours of Old Testament drills for the quiz tomorrow, Tom and I decided we were starving, so we went to my apartment to scrounge up some food. I did have an entire pot of chicken noodle soup on the stove that I cooked earlier today, but that was my homework assignment for Drugs and Jesus tomorrow. While I briefly contemplated the humor of having to tell my teacher, "Tom ate my homework," I didn't go through all that trouble today to not have anything to show for it. I thought the only quick food I was going to be able to offer was peanut butter and jelly sandwiches, but as I was going through my fridge, I found 8 hot wings from Friday's get together at Holy Grounds! So, we had a first course of hot wings and rice, and followed that with a lovely dessert of peanut butter and jelly. We were laughing at our sad little meal, but we did realize how blessed we were because it was probably more food than what many people in the world would have had to eat today. We Americans are really spoiled!

My original plan after blogging was to continue studying for the Old Testament quiz, trying to remember convoluted things like the number 1350. It's a number, obviously, and it's not hard to remember because it's the odd numbers 1 thru 5 plus 0. It stands for the book of numbers. 1,000 stands for the Roman numeral M, which stands for "miraculous manna" or God's providence that the Israelites were ungrateful for. 300 stands for the 3 C's of conflict, conflict and census. The Israelites had a conflict with the Moabites. Miriam, Aaron and the priests were rebellious (conflict) against Moses, which God punished them for, and the Israelites had to do a census according to their ancestral houses. 50 stands for the Roman numeral L, which stands for all of the laws in the book of numbers. I know it's crazy, but it helps me remember all the things I need to know.

So anyway, I was going to study more, but I'm going to go to bed instead. It's funny how most of these blog entries seem to be ending the same way...

Gay Guy in Seminary: Day 45 (Papers Papers Papers)

I basically spent the entire day (5 hours) writing a 3 page summary. Five hours!!! That is unacceptable! I can't believe it took me that long! It was kind of weird though because I don't think I've had to summarize anything since I was like in high school. My brain kept wanting to write and essay, it was really hard actually to just summarize the reading. I think I was making it harder than it had to be.

Just watched Glee. I'm not sure about that show. It started out really strong, but it seems to be losing steam. They just need to get those kids to a competition!

Back at the student lounge to write a paper for Old Testament. Not sure how to classify this one, research paper maybe? 1,500 words this time, I definitely like the word requirement much better than a page number requirement. Number of pages is too vague; with word count, there's no messing around. Gotta get to it! Pretty sure I'm not gonna finish tonight, but I need to get as much done as possible.

Gay Guy in Seminary: Day 44 (Study High)

If anyone was paying super close attention to the SFTS facebook updates yesterday evening, one would have noticed a preponderance of "bunnies." This is because we were studying for the Old Testament quiz today and Ryan and Terra got really tired and started relating everything in Genesis to bunnies. 3-fold promise of land, descendants and blessing? Bunnies. Be fruitful and multiply? Bunnies. Leaving alters everywhere? Bunnies. Human sacrifice? Bunnies. Circumcision? Bunnies.

BTW, the "bunny" in the picture is a Flemish Giant, which can weigh up to 28 lbs. I am determined to own one some day. I'm hoping they can be house trained.

So, I joined in on the flash card session and pretty soon we were all laughing about the stupidest things! I'm sure anyone that has had a super long study session can relate. You study for 5 hours, you wait too long to eat, you start feeling delirious and all of a sudden God's covenant with Abraham is the funniest thing you've ever heard of in your entire life. I learn from Terra, the former med student of the class, that this is because after a long session of studying, your brain runs out of the normal sugars that it's supposed to use as fuel and starts burning ketones, which are alcohols. We had literally gotten drunk off of studying and started laughing like idiots because of it. This would explain why I enjoyed studying so much the other day. In hindsight, studying for 10 hours straight actually does feel a little bit like drinking a glass of wine. Of course it takes much, much, much longer to get the same effect, but you do slip into a semi-coma relaxed state after a while. Which leads to the question that my "Drugs and Jesus" professor would hate, "Can studying be addictive?"

Gay Guy in Seminary: Day 43 (Brain Fried)

Brain fried.

Studying since 5:00.

Old Testament quiz tomorrow.

Going to sleep now.

Bunnies.

Gay Guy in Seminary: Day 33 (Balcony Conversations)

Friday's post comes to you an hour and a half late courtesy of Ryan, Gavin & Sam. We had some really good conversations out on the balcony tonight as the air cooled around us. Some of things we discussed: Gavin and Sam are a lot older than they look, conservative vs liberal theology, worship and politics, gay ordination and school politics. I didn't want to stop the conversation to blog; the conversations were just too important.

Today was the last day of the second week of the first semester of the year. We had quizzes on the Old Testament and Hebrew today, and I was not the only one that needed a nap afterwards. My study habits went totally out the window today. I don't know if it was the heat or that I've just been studying too much or the simple fact that it was Friday and I wouldn't have classes for the rest of the weekend, but after lunch, I got out my paints, painted for about an hour and then took a nap. After that, I went grocery shopping and we had the second night of our Firefly marathon. Then, it was back home for the balcony conversations.

That's all for now. I was feeling more ambitious when I started this post, but my bed would really like me to lie in it. More tomorrow, I promise.

Gay Guy in Seminary: Day 31 (Flash Cards)

I spent 3 hours today making flash cards. 2 1/2 for Old Testament, 1/2 for Hebrew. Flash Cards. Do you know what happens to your brain after you spend 3 hours making flash cards. Things start to get really weird. I felt like I had been on a boat for a week and had just stepped onto land when I decided it was time to stop making flash cards so I could do the reading for Church History. Which I am in the middle of doing now. I feel like this is a test. To see if we have what it takes to be seminarians. I feel like I'm whining all the time, but seriously, I have time for nothing else except to read and study and survive.

Any time I do something recreational, I feel like I'm being bad. Like today, I stopped for 15 minutes to look at a new book I had gotten about spices. It had cool pictures of the plants and told about the history of the spices and the weird things that people used to, and sometimes still do, with them. I decided to do this after the flash cards before reading for Church History. I kept looking up at the clock and saying to myself, "Just 5 more minutes. I'll let myself look at this book for just 5 more minutes." Originally, I was going to allow myself a 10 minute break before going back to studying. 10 became 15. 15 became 20. I put the book down and then started to read. It started getting late, so I decided to blog.

I can't give up blogging. It's the only thing I have left. I've given up writing. I've given up recreational reading. I've given up painting. To be fair, I think I have allowed myself to watch 4 to 6 hours of TV/Movies per week; I can't be completely ascetic. I'm sure things will get more manageable in a few weeks once I get settled in, but I haven't even had any papers or serious exams come up yet, and that's going to start in a few weeks, so maybe everything will be a wash. Keep praying for me and all of my classmates all of you out there who are inclined to do so. We can really use it!

Gay Guy in Seminary: Day 23 (Star King School for the Ministry)

I took my very first classes today as a seminary student, and I'm hoping I'm not going to be overwhelmed by it all. Four classes today: Old Testament, Hebrew, Improv and The Sacred and the Substance, otherwise known as "Drugs & Jesus."

I think the class that scares me most is Hebrew, the one that will challenge me the most is Drugs & Jesus and the one I'm looking forward to the most is Improv.

Hebrew is scary because they don't use the Roman alphabet, like we do in English or like in Spanish, French or German. On top of that, words are written from right to left and there are no vowels. I've never been good with languages, so this doesn't bode well. However, this is the first time I will be trying to learn a language with a study group, so you never know...

Drugs & Jesus is scary in its own way. I think while it challenges me, it's going to be a lot of fun and will definitely help me to grow in my faith, even if it's only from having to defend my position all of the time. The class is at Star King School for the Ministry, which is the Unitarian Universalist Seminary. The above picture is of the school; it's always reminded me of a barrel of wine. Luckily, I'm taking the class with 7 other SFTS students (the class only has a total of eighteen students) so I'm hoping I'll have at least a little support for my viewpoints. The instructor was quite tickled to discover how many of us there were. Being raised in a conservative Presbyterian environment has done little to prepare me for this course. I'm just hoping I can figure out rather quickly how to confidently share my beliefs with people who are so theologically liberal.

Improv was just a lot of fun. I can't wait to go again! We played a couple of fun games in order to get a feel for the class and see a little bit of what Improv is like. I've never done anything like this before, but I'm hoping we get to put on some kind of show once we're more comfortable with it.

Old Testament is going to be a bear with all of the reading and tests we have to do, but that's why I'm here.

Spirituality is tomorrow and Church History is on Thursday. I get my first taste of Intro to Ministry on Monday. Kind of a crazy load, but I'm pretty sure with no work to get in the way, I can totally pull this off! XD