asteroid B612

Every year, all musicologists look foward to the annual meeting of the American Musicological Society. (See the movie "What's up, Doc?" with Barbara Streisand, and you're not too far off...minus the car chase at the end.) This year the meeting is in Houston. Though they make it very feasible for students, it still costs a bit to go. Well, it was brought to the attention of me and the other grad students planning to go (three of us) that the school of music may be able to help with the expenses. So we wrote a nice letter of request, and we each were awarded complete expenses to cover the hotel and a hefty meal stipend. Wooohoooo!!! We are all thrilled. God continues to provide for undeserving me.

I'm really publicizing my bro's blog. The first pic he's posted is really cool. I can't believe my little brother can take such a cool picture.

I introduced my brother to the world of blog the other day, as if you couldn't tell with his inundation of comments on mine. ;-) Since he's in Germany and enjoying traveling around in his spare time, I'm glad that he's pumped about starting a blog, too. Josiah, in an effort to fill his blogging portals, put him on sandiegoblogs. I present to you my brother Nick's blog: theories of deboism.

Eb major - you are warm and kind, always there for
your friends, who are in turn there for you.
You are content with your confortable life and
what you are currently achieving; if you keep
in this state you will go far.


what key signature are you?
brought to you by Quizilla

My brother Nick is in the Air Force stationed in Germany for three years. So he's using this time to be a tourist, and, oh yea, go to that job at that base down the road.

He's also a bit of an amatuer photographer.

Here are some nice pics he took at the WWII graveyard in Luxembourg.

I now have two cousins in the Covblogosphere. Welcome to the fold is John-David (is your name hyphenated, JD?) over at Needy of Grace. My coz is a really teerrif guy. A freshman at Covenant this year and reportedly a computer genius.

My other cousin, just in case you forgot she was my coz, is the Linnea of the wittical duo over on Academic Prostitution.

John-David is actually the son of my dad's first cousin, and Linnea is the daughter of my mother's sister. See, Covenant is all one big happy family. :-)

Today is deliciously cold. It's not only under 80 degrees, but it's also under 70 degrees, and today in Baton Rouge (not NOLA) it actually got under 60. It's due back into the 80's by the end of the week, but I'm so loving this now!!!

Okay. Gotta hunker back down into my paper.

Howard Dean has got a blog!

Political campaigning is wired, man! This should be exciting.

Update: It looks like most entries are by campaign committee people rather than HD himself. I hope he puts in an appearance now and then.

It's kind of interesting. I get all my news from the radio and from the internet. Mostly from the radio. I never watch TV. And I mean, never. I'm not the kind of person who says they never watch the TV and really mean they watch less than 6 hours a week. It's impossible for me to the watch the ol' tube, because we don't get TV channels. We don't have an antennae. We keep the darling screen for our extended movie/seasons of great shows like the Simpsons and Dr. Who watching. So i miss all the debates. I don't know what any of hte candidates look like. I never saw any images of stuff in Iraq except for once when I was flying to Philly in April and saw it on the TVs in the airport. I really solely on what words and sounds can convey to me over the radio waves, wh. is a very cool way to get your news.

Today is the birthday party for my little friend Abby. She will be 3, and she wants books for her birthday. Her parents asked her "Abby, what do you want for your birthday?" and she said, "ummmm...a book." So they said "what else do you want for you birthday?" and she said, "ummmm....a purple book." So they said "when we go to the toy store what do want to pick out for your birthday?" and she said, "ummmm...a toy and a book."

So I trekked on down to my local children's bookstore and got her A is for Abigail by Lynne Cheney, illustrated by Robin Preise Glasser. It is fabulous!! It is basically American history through pictures and highlighting women. Flipping through the dynamic illustrations, I even learned a lot. The approach was very balanced and informative, full of little tidbits that we just don't think about from our traditional history classes. Like who is the first woman to speak on the floor of congress? or who is the first woman to win the Nobel Prize for medicine? I hope Abby likes it as much as I did.

I received this email from the Alumni Office at Covenant:

You are cordially invited to attend the dedication of Covenant's College's new flag station and the raising of the flag of the United States of America on Veterans' Day, Tuesday, November 11, 2003, at 11:30am in the Carter Hall front circle (in case of rain, in the Chapel).

All alumni who are veterans or who are currently serving in one of the four branches of the military are invited to come in dress uniform, if appropriate, and to have lunch with current students serving inactive and active in the military following the ceremony. Alumnus 2nd Lieutenant Stephen Gienapp ('94) and Alumnus Corporal Kal Dawson ('94), USMC retired, will be participating in the ceremony and current students in the military will be presenting colors.

This event will provide a wonderful opportunity for our military alumni to meet current students who are serving and to share thoughts on being called to a life of service in the armed forces with students and alumni alike.

If I remember correctly, when my class was deciding what we should give the college for our senior gift, the idea of a flag pole and American flag was raised. We decided against in favor of benches at the Overlook, wh. is what Dottie Brock wanted anyway. Some of the objections I raised to having a flag on campus are as follows: what kind of institution is Covenant? private. With a student body that is predominantly American, though, there are a few international students and several students who grew up overseas. One of Covenant's themes is to emphasis a broad-minded view of cultures in our country and around the world. Another theme is to stress the lack of cultural and geographical boundaries of The Church. I'm hesitant about endorsing the waving of an American flag on the campus of Covenant. To me it symbolizes a tangible connectedness to a civic loyalty that too often gets conflated with religious duty. Covenant's identity is closely related with religious institutions. To wave a flag adds a shade of politics that should not be associated with the religious institutions. It states that the particular institution is giving homage to a particular country rather than the city of God.

But saying all this puts me in awkward situation. Because waving the flag is billed as "supporting the troops." So when I am hesitant about waving a flag because of ideological grounds, I'm automatically not supporting the troops according to the way waving the flag is stated. The email from Covenant inextricably combines the two. I'm all for supporting the troops. My brother is in the Air Force, for crying out loud! And many of them are performing an onerous task in the Middle East (something I also have words about but won't say here and now). It is wretchedly manipulative of the school to combine flying the flag with supporting the troops.

The Bush administration and the response of the Christian community has caused me to become very on edge. Whatever happened to the separation of church and state? Whatever happened to the Reformed, historically-informed response of The Search for Christian American? Whatever happened to "I believe in one holy catholic and apostolic church"? Because if we keep going like this the Church will be distant memory.