The Comet’s Flame

This is the first blog post I have written in a very long time.  Wow, what a long strange trip it has been… I don’t really even know where to start.  Thus, I think I will start at the beginning.  I want to start posting as if this were a new blog.  I will leave previous entries here for nostalgia’s sake, but please realize that this blog will be moving in a new (and hopefully better) direction.

Family pictures are usually pretty traumatic for the McClurgs, but this year things went smoothly, and the pictures turned out pretty well.

My sister Moriah picked out the outfits, and I think she did a great job.

As you may know, I am a teaching assistant for this semester’s Digital Design class at the U of I.  This is the third time I have helped teach this class.  It is an introduction to digital electronics (binary numbers, boolean logic, logic gates, sequential circuits, etc.), and it’s really fun.

I thought you might like to see what my lab looks like.  I have about 4 office hours, and about 12 lab hours each week, so I spend quite a bit of time here.  It contains all kinds of cool equipment… digital oscilloscopes, function generators, logic analyzers, FPGA development kits, and a huge supply of various IC chips.

If you’re ever in the Iowa City area, stop by and say hi!  We can hang out and do some electronics stuff!

Wow. All I can say is wow.  This performance by Bon Iver is simply amazing.

Unfortunately, they only sing about half of the lyrics here for some reason. You can hear the whole song with less instrumentation if you wish.

I spent most of the afternoon today in Iowa City.  I had a few things that I needed to check/setup in my lab.  After that, I spent some time walking around downtown.  The weather was absolutely beautiful, and the city was surprisingly peaceful.  A few random people smiled at me.

I like being outdoors.

I like seeing nice/happy people.

It was a good day.

As some of you may know, I enjoy searching for interesting and unique indie music, and I feel that it is my duty to share some of my discoveries with you.

Put on your favourite hi-fi headphones and enjoy the ambient bliss of this song by English trip-hop band Massive Attack (with vocals by none other than Liz Fraser of Cocteau Twins fame):

In the depth of winter, I finally learned that within me there lay an invincible summer.

-Albert Camus

While I don’t necessarily agree with that quote (there doesn’t seem to be an overabundance of warmth in my heart these days), I do believe that God has the power to control the seasons.  I am tired of winter, and I am praying that He will bring a summer to my soul.

It seems like this is about the billionth time I have written this type of entry.  I think that perhaps choices I am making (or choices I have made) are preventing God from thawing the ice.  I am going to try to locate those problem areas and make some changes.  Stay tuned…

Check out this adorable and quirky short film which I happened across while perusing music videos on YouTube.

A friend recently asked me what I looked like when I was a kid.  Well, thanks to my dad’s photography skills and my mom’s archiving/organizational skills, I was able to obtain some photographs which I believe will answer that question.

There are some things that I want to try to commit to in the new year:

• Listen to the advice of those older and wiser than I (this, I think, deserves an entire blog entry, so I will try to write one at a later date).
• Live more healthy (I have wanted to be a vegetarian for a long time, so I’m going to actually try to do that. Also, I want to try to exercise consistently).
• Practice piano regularly (my current practicing routine consists of learning a random song by ear every other month or so, which is not so good… I want to start developing a repertoire of actual written piano pieces).
• Study the Bible regularly (I am reading through Wayne Grudem’s Systematic Theology as a part of my daily devotions, and it is just great. It is a theology textbook that is exciting and fun to read, and it makes me want to be a better student of the Bible).
• Read more books (I have an ever-present list of books I want to read, but I need to actually do it… to help me accomplish this, I want to watch less TV and fewer movies).
• Stop being a jerk (at times I feel like I’m displaying an arrogant and condescending persona, and that’s not a godly way to live).

Do you have any New Year’s resolutions?