My quest for the perfect college began when I was 14 and college was an idealistic place I would accumulate the knowledge necessary to rule the world, regardless of cost, location, or anything else except pure “goodness.” Now, 5 years later, my quest has finally ended and I’m unwillingly packing up and leaving.

Fairy Tale College

But before I set out I’m going to share some of the extensive knowledge I’ve gained on colleges over the last 5 years (including TWO years of college applications…ugh…yes).  These ten colleges below are my top favorites in the country (and one outside the country). I either applied or seriously considered applying at some point to all these schools. So here goes in no particular order (as Mr Larimer would say)…

Oxford (Yes, because it’s epic)

Any college at Oxford is awesome because….its at Oxford.

Looks like a fairy tale college...

Hillsdale College

My original choice… I missed going there last year by the hair on my chinny-chin-chin (which I’m glad for, because UD is just as or more awesome and is in Texas). It’s not religiously affiliated but is generally conservative Christian. Most debaters probably know someone or several someones going here.

Grove City College

This is probably the hardest school in this blogpost, but also one of my favorites. It’s Christian, socially conservative (but not legalistically so like Bob Jones), politically conservative, and on par with the best schools in the US. (Also along with Hillsdale and PHC it is he only school to reject government money). GC  has an awesome price advantage being one of the cheapest private schools, by far, and having a financial aid program at least as good as the government’s if not better.

Hampton Sydney

Hampton Sydney has both a huge negative and a huge positive aspect. The Negative: It’s an all men’s college. The Positive: They ship in hundreds of girls from neighboring colleges for social events. HS is also ranked the 2nd most Politically-Conservative school in the US by Princeton Review. Also, while being an all men’s college, it is also ranked the top anti-gay school in the US by Princeton.

Patrick Henry College

PHC is amazing if you’re an NCFCAer. You can just hop straight from your little NCFCA world right into NCFCA college, while at the same time getting a decent college education… The only problem is when you get out you realize that the world is slightly larger than the debate room.

Hanover College

I love it for its super Medieval Studies program…yep! Also it one of the more socially conservative colleges in the US (though not necessarily religious conservative…its Presbyterian I think).

Baylor

The Profs are becoming more liberal, but apparently the student body is still pretty conservative. Its a good school by all accounts and has an awesome history course selection (which is why I considered applying ).

College of the Ozarks

Nothing is free….Except College of the Ozarks. Well…sorta. You don’t pay anything, but they put you to work. Besides being $less, CO is pretty good academically and a top ranked conservative school.

Texas A&M University

In football I’ve always been a Longhorn, but A&M is a much more awesome school than UT (sorry Brian). Every Aggie knows why: it’s full of tradition, it’s very conservative, and it gives you a lifelong network of support and solidarity. It also has the distinction of being the only state school I even considered going to….because state schools are generally the worst in every aspect….often even cost (ask me sometime).

University of Dallas

Soon to be my home! For four years… But it’s my favorite college on the list, which is not just because I’m going (it was when I was going to Hillsdale too), even over Oxford (because its raving liberal despite its awesomeness).  UD is on so many Princeton (and other) rankings I’m not gonna even try listing them. It’s a fairly conservative Catholic school (75% are Catholic), one of the most challenging colleges in Texas (probably the most after Rice and maaaayyyybe Baylor), a ton of really great top-notch professors, and a really awesome school all around. Plus all sophmores get to spend a semester at UD’s Rome campus and travel Europe (covered by all scholarships and financial aid unlike most travel abroad programs)!

My home for the next four years...

I just finished reading C. S. Lewis’ An Experiment in Criticism, which is probably uninteresting as a whole to most people (it’s all about literary criticism); but I enjoyed it a lot, and since I need to revive my blog anyway, I’m going to share a few of my favorite things from it.

(Important Note: Any similarity or connection between this post and the discussion going on JibeNow is wholly coincidental since I planned to write this weeks before that started. Also Lewis is talking about the the supposed threat of “escapism” that is assumed to come with fantasy, not Nathan’s problems with Narnia which are much more reasonable).

So, realistic fiction is much more beneficial and less likely to fill is with escapist lies, right? Wrong, here’s why….

“Those who wish to be deceived always demand in what they read at least a superficial or apparent realism of content…But without some degree of realism in content…no deception will occur at all. No one can deceive you unless he makes you think he is telling the truth. The unblushingly romantic has far less power to deceive than the apparently realistic. Admitted fantasy is precisely the kind of literature which never deceives at all. Children are not deceived by fairy-tales; they are often and gravely deceived by school-stories. Adults are not deceived by science fiction; they can be deceived by the stories in women’s magazines…The real danger lurks in sober-face novels where all appears to be very probable but all is in fact contrived to put across some social or ethical or religious or anti-religious ‘comment on life.’”

Escapism isn’t a problem….period. Realist stories are more often lies at heart than tales of princesses and dragons. “Escapist” stories are the least likely form of story to deceive you.

So… haters be gone!!!

Now that debate is over and life has dropped down a couple notches in craziness, it’s time to revive my blog. I’m still pretty busy, so I’ll just start by posting some pictures from my graduation and Nationals.

Graduation

Me talking

Josh and I

Phillip, Jonathon, Ben, and I

Angle Ball

Paul and I

Blaaahhh....

Nationals

Regent University

Maisano-Morgan

Anna and Avery

Anna in Quarterfinals

Anna, Avery, Esther, Toni, Kathryn

Hitching a ride to the hotel with the Harrises

ARC is in bold because we rock!
Apol
1. Ben Snodgrass
2. Beth Maisano
3. Avery Lill
4. Caroline Thompson
5. Kathryn Clarkson
6. John Ryan Mack
7. Patience Larimer
8. Marshall Yaklin

Semis
Anna Macdonald
Josh Upham
David Huber
Renee Sprinkle
Caleb Smith
C J Ruiz
Jacob Phillip
Jenna Jaax

DI
1. Jenna Jaax
2. Nathan Exley
3. Jonathan Monk
4. Chris Hanson

Semis
Jonathan Morgan
Kathryn Clarkson
Jaqueline Clark
Carys Aschmutat
Aaron Macias

Extemp
1. Adam Davis
2. Truet Whitt
3. McKenzie Cromer
4. Jacob Philip
5. Faith Larimer
6. John Ryan Mack

Semis

Grace Sivells
Garret Larimer
Christina Davis
Michael Burchfiel
Justin Burchfiel
Ben Billups

Persuasive
1. Beth Maisano
2. Grace Larimer
3. Zerah Sather
4. Patience Larimer

Semis

Chad Franz
Melody Fausett
Marissa Fausett
Marcus Corley

OO
1. Nathan Exley
2. Marshall Yaklin
3. Leah Macias
4. Michael Breuer
5. Jenna Jaax
6. Ben Billups

Semis

Jacob Philip
Jonathan Morgan
Beth Maisano
John Ryan Mack
Grace Macias
Grace Larimer
Kelsey Crockett
Jaqueline Clark

Impromptu

1. Grace Larimer
2. Adam Davis
3. Jenna Jaax
4. Christina Davis
5. John Ryan Mack
6. Renee sprinkle
7. Michael Burchfiel
8. Evan Jaax

Semis
Ben Snodgrass
Avery Lill
Kathryn Clarkson
Faith Larimer
Patience Larimer
Caleb Smith
Melody Fausett
Rachel Baer

HI
1. Grace Macias
2. Kelsey Crockett
3. Justin Burchfiel
4. Nathan Exley

Semis

Marshall Yaklin
Paul Exley
Kathryn Clarkson
Aaron Macias
Grace Sivells
Aaron Macias
John Wilson

IO
1. Leah Macias
2. Megan Sivells
3. Christina Davis
4. Grace Larimer
5. Patience Larimer

Duo
1. Macias/Mack
2. Davis/Davis
3. Macias/Macias
4. Exley/Exley
5. Morgan/Morgan
6. Philip/Rosenburger (He’s so awesome he does duo by himself! )

Semis
Huber/Huber
Macdonald/Macdonald
Grace Larimer/ Patience Larimer
Garret Larimer/ Faith Larimer
Dana/Dana
Clark/Jaax

Thematic
1. Kelsey Crockett
2. Paul Exley
3. Katie Morgan
4. Adam Davis

IE Sweepstakes
1. Grace Larimer
2. John Ryan Mack
3. Jenna Jaax
4. Nathan Exley
5. Christina Davis
6. Adam Davis
7. Patience Larimer
8. Beth Maisano
9. Leah Macias
10. Grace Macias

TP
1. Exley/Yaklin (5-1)
2. Noman/Rodgers (6-0)
3. Snodgrass/Strack (5-1)
4. Mulder/Ruiz (4-2)
5 Strack/Whitt (5-1)
6. Cromer/Patel (4-2)
7. Hanson/Ray (4-2?)
8. Maisano/Morgan (3-3)

Octofinalists
Bhene/Sivells (5-1?)
Franz/Montoya (4-2?)
Larimer/Larimer (4-2?)
Burchfiel/Severin (4-2?)
Billups/Billups (4-2)
Clarkson/Exley (3-3)
Lill/Upham (3-3)
Dana/Dana (3-3)

TP Speaks
1. Amber Sivells
2. Jacob Rodgers
3. Kevin Bhene
4. Laura Strack
5. Samir Patel
6. Marshall Yaklin
7. Truett Whitt
8. Grace Larimer
9. McKenzie Cromer
10. Ben Snodgrass
11. Jasmine Noman
12. Chris Hanson
13. Nathan Exley
14. Chad Franz
15. Patience Larimer
16. Adam Davis

LD
1. John Ryan Mack
2. Kelsey Crockett
3. Pete Ehrett
4. Avery Lill
5. Jeniffer Bryan
6. Carys Aschmutat
7. Aaron Macias
8. Peter Fearing

Octafinalists
Caroline Thompson
Grace Sivells
Jacob Philip
Katy Maisano
Evan Jaax
David Huber
Justin Burchfiel
Mary Kate Crockett

LD Speaks
1. Avery Lill
2. Pete Ehrett
3. Kelsey Crockett
4. Jacob Philip
5. Justin Burchfiel
6. Katy Maisano
7. Bronte Smith
8. Kathryn Clarkson
9. Caroline Thompson
10. John Ryan Mack
11. Evan Jaax
12. Carys Aschmutat
13. Grace Sivells
14. Aaron Macias
15. Jennifer Bryan
16. Peter Fearing

This is awesome!!! Thanks for transfering all my old blog posts, Paul! I have now officially abandoned Homeschoolblogger!

Note: This video under-represents a lot of my best friends, because I’m too busy having fun with you guys to take pictures.

Edit: THe music won’t work, so play your own.

Welcome to JibeNow. This is your first post. Edit or delete it, then start blogging!

If you would like to import posts from a previous blog of yours click here.

Over the last century, and especially recently, countless people have predicted that the world is going to end due to some catastrophe.  Some predicted aliens; some prophesied that overpopulation would lead to massive incurable famines; still others proclaimed that the end would come by disease, permenant submersion of all habitable land, a super volcano, an experimental accident, global warming, a nearby supernova, superintelligent computers, or grey goo nano-technology that would dominate the universe. All these scenarios have been seriously put forward, but few as much as one: that earth will be hit and destroyed by a giant asteroid.

Now serious people usually brush off all these scenarios off, calling them “alarmist” and “apocolyptic.” Those who trust in science say that man could ward off any of these threats that might actually be possible. For example they say: ‘We can detect astroids years before they come near earth and a well guided missle sent from earth could end an asteroid’s life far out in space.’

Well, theses people sound much more credible and believable. And they are, but neither side has things completely right as was proved this past week.

Science was proved faulty last Friday when an asteroid nearly struck earth and was not detected until 15 hours before it made its closest approach. (Click here for article). Fortunately, the asteroid was only 23 feet in diameter, and would have been much reduced in size by the time it hit earth. Still, it could have exploded in the atmosphere and caused severe damage.

Several historical events show the damage that can be done even by small asteroids or meteors:

1. In prehistoric times a 54 yard long meteor hit in what’s now Arizona. It caused a 4,000 ft long crater that is 570 ft deep. See the picture below.

2. In 1490, in China, historical documents tell of 10,000 people being slain by “falling stones.” Astronomers believe these “stones” to have been the result of an asteroid that exploded in the atmosphere.

3. The most recent impact catastrophe was the Tunguska Event in Russia in 1908, when a 4-6 mile wide meteor blew up in the atmosphere directly impacting 830 sq miles.

 Fortunately it happened above an empty part of Siberia populated only by extensive evergreen forests. The damage was still tremendous. The explosion was 1000 times more powerful than the Hiroshima bomb, and produced the effect of a level 5 earthquake.

There are many eyewitness accounts from Tungus villagers and Russian settlers living many hundreds of miles away on the shores of Lake Baikal. They report seeing a massive blue column, as bright as the sun, descend from the sky and immediately after, a massive explosion that knocked people off their feet, broke all the windows, and severely damaged crops.

This was all hundreds and hundreds of miles away. The influence of the explosion was felt even in Europe. There was no night in either Europe or Asia for several days afterward due to the explosion. People in London could read their newspapers at night in its light. It was generally assumed to be the beginning of the end of the world.

In Siberia itself, where the explosion actually happened, a new lake was created 80 million trees were felled as seen in the picture below.

If that asteroid on Friday had hit earth and if it had been as big as the Tunguska asteroid, our world would be drastically changed. And scientists didn’t even see it coming until hours before the event. If an asteroid like Tunguska hit the US, China, or Europe, the world as we know it would truly have been at an end.

This Saterday our church’s youth got together with those from several other churches and played an awesome game called Angle-Ball. It’s basically a mix between ultimate frisbee and basketball. Each side is defending a ball on top of a pole. You pass around a third ball and try to knock the other teams ball off the pole. Here are some pics.

Here’s the group.

Here’s some of us playing

Going for the Goal.

Me eating…

BP and I.