Posthumously (Part 2)

post•hu•mous•ly (adverb)

[from early 17th cent.: from Latin postumus ‘last’ (superlative from post ‘after’ ), in late Latin spelled posth- by association with humus ‘ground.’]

occurring, awarded, or appearing after the death of death of the originator

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Before I begin my continued rant of epiphanies, I must address a number of issues regarding your last post.

1) Tim, your angst in not "teenage" seeing as a) you're not one (I'm not basing this on age, but solely on maturity), b) teenagers don't rant in such an intellectual manner c) teenagers don't admit they don't know everything and c) you didn't use "like" and "so" every two words. You're not even close to acting like a teenager, not by a long shot. Your concerns are legitimate and I'd love to hear more about what conclusions you come to!

2) I totally said in my last post I was gonna post on Thursday. You didn't need to post today, although your patronage is amazingly admirable.

3) I so totally did use ploidy in my last post, check again! So yeah, like OK, so like, yeah. OK?

OK, on with the conclusion!

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This is James Joyce. He is one of my favorite authors on account of him being all that and a bag of Irish potato chips.


Just look at him! He's got an eyepatch and he's Irish! So awesome!

James Joyce loved epiphanies. He basically is the reason for the modern day definition of epiphanies that I used on Tuesday.

In his posthumously-published novel, Stephen Hero, Joyce states:

"By epiphany -- a sudden spiritual manifestation, whether in the vulgarity of speech or gesture, or in a memorable phrase of the mind itself. He believed that it was for the man of letters to record these epiphanies with extreme care, seeing that the themselves are the most delicate and evanescent of moments"

In almost all of his novels and short stories, the characters come to sudden recognitions or deep realizations about their view of themselves or of society. However, by his definition, the character must then have a change of heart and then act upon their new perspectives. So, for a true epiphany to occur, someone must have a revelation and react upon it. Their mind and actions must be in a plasmogamy together, wholly united towards action.

I recently had a dramatic change of heart just last week, but I have to break away from Joyce's definition at this point. It wasn't a sudden moment of clarity that manifested itself in a single occurrence, but it took a long time for me to come to this.



When I was away at a leadership retreat at camp Qwanoes on the island this past weekend, I was challenged spiritually in so many ways. I realize now that God has been urging me with the same challenge for a while now, since I got back to Trinity, all through the summer and quite possibly through my entire life up to this point.

I was challenged to give my life totally to Him.

I realize this is nothing profound to say at first seeing as this is what every Christian is called to do when they ask Christ into their lives. But I've finally come to a revelation about what that means, at least in my own life.

It means God needs to be in every aspect of my life. Every single thing I do from when I wake up to when I plop back onto my pillow. Again, this isn't anything super mind-blowing to read, but for me, I've finally decided to stop running from this reality, to stop trying to negotiate bargains, to finally surrender myself wholly. This especially relates to my youth group, but it also applies to my academics and to all of my social interactions I have on a daily basis.

I also realized just how difficult it's going to be keep focused on Him. I need to daily recommit myself back to God. In the same way, God has given me epiphanies daily. Every day I learn something new about the world around me. Sometimes it's mundane, sometimes it's profound, sometimes it's really difficult to hear. But I wouldn't give up that knowledge or what it causes for anything in the world.

So that's what I believe the second part of the definition of epiphanies is about. I believe that every revelation, no matter how much of an effect it has, comes from Him. We are given these moments of divine realization, enlightenment and revelation for specific reasons, so we need to keep our eyes open for them and pay attention to what we learn and then change our actions based on that new knowledge.

Anyway, that's my rant on epiphanies. If you anything you want to add or refute, I'd love to hear it.

And thanks for your thoughts today as well. They were challenging as well as carefully constructed. I also loved your pictures too! So cool!

I hope you have a great weekend Tim. Know that I love you as my brother in Christ as well as the amazing friend that you are.

Cheers!

PS I'm still updating next Tuesday as well. It'll be a lot shorter and probably less serious. So don't update that day, I call dibs.

Plasmogamy

plaz•mog•amy (noun)
in biology, the process where the cytoplasm of two cells fuse.
Origin: Greek (plasma = liquid, gamy = fusion; plasmogamy = fusion of the cell's liquids)

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So, I'm thinking about this word today for several reasons. Plasmogamy occurs in fungi when two individuals who are sexually compatible meet and undergo plasmogamy, so two organisms are now one, but in many cases, karyogamy does not occur until spore formation, which means each new fungus cell that grows will now have two nuclei; two brains living within the same body, if you will.

The reason that this has been on my mind is because I've been contemplating relationships, specifically when two people become so close that they act like the fungus with two nuclei - they are so in-sync that they act as if one organism, one whole with two brains. How do these sort of relationships arise? How long do they take to form? If a relationship reaches this point, is it guaranteed to last forever? Is this something that is possible between any two people, or do they have to have some degree of compatibility in the first place? Does it matter with whom such a relationship is formed, or does the fact that such a relationship exists between two people outweigh everything else?

Naturally, you may be thinking that this is a relationship that a marriage should have, but could it happen outside of marriage? Is it possible to have more than one sort of this relationship, and if yes, is it RIGHT to have more than one?

These thought have sort of been floating around in my mind for a while now, and its something that is important to me.

Going back to UBC, I was expecting it to be lonely, but even still, it's difficult, and so I've had plenty of time to think, and because my life is deficient of meaningful human interaction, that's one of the reasons why its been the thing I've been thinking about it the most.

There's no doubt that one's relationship with others will impact their lives, be it positive or negative, but when something does happen, to what degree are you responsible for the outcome? To what degree are you responsible for the person they have become? To what degree are you responsible for how their life is unfolding? These are very difficult questions that I've been struggling with a lot for a while, especially for the past three weeks. When something terrible happens between two people, it is undeniable that it will drastically change their lives, but to what extent are they responsible for the misfortunes that occur in the others' life? When can you say "I'm no longer responsible for what's happening to you"?

I remember that someone once told me that it is useless to attempt to address "what if"s because it is not humanly possible to imagine all of the outcomes. To me, this makes sense: there are infinitely many factors in life and a greater order of infinitely many more outcomes. I believe that part of the human condition is being able to only consider one angle, one factor of a situation at a time, whereas it is divine to be able to consider all of them at once.

However, its easy for me to forget this, and I still ask myself: Would it have been any different? Would the future have been better, or worse? What kind of people would we be had this not occurred?

Moorhead once told me that someone can never be the same person twice; people are always changing: they read books, they interact with other people, they hear things, see things, and experience things that change them, whether the change is minuscule or humongous it matters not, only that there has been a change, and that therefore signifies that they are not the same. Change can be good, or it can be bad, but it happens. There's no guaranty that a certain change would not have happened, but there's also no guaranty that a certain change would have happened regardless of what/who/how it was triggered.

Admittedly, it's difficult to come up with subjects to discuss with you here because so many of the things I'm thinking about right now are themes that are presented in the book that I mentioned last week, and I don't want to spoil it by talking about them before you get a chance to read it, Clay. I don't mean to bog you down with my teen angst; I know its depressing; I promise to talk about something less morbid next week =P

I really liked the word you chose last week; epiphanies have an especially important role in my life, I completely believe that they can happen, whether it be small or life changing. I love your personal definition of an epiphany; it is a good description of the experience.

I'm glad that you're enjoying your classes! I wish I could take history and literature courses with having the stress of needing to keep up my average; I love learning things like that! LOL your dorm sounds like a really great place to be.

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SO YESTURDAY I GOT MY MATH MIDTERM BACK! This is what my prof said to the class: "So, the midterm's average was 55%, a little bit lower than I like it; I usually write my midterms so that the class average is about 60%, which means your average on the final will be about 65%."

LOL. UBC MATH LOGIC = WIN /not/

BUT GUESS WHAT.

I GOT 88%. WIN.

Oh yea, and your blog posts are so much more colourful than mine! I must retaliate by adding photos as well!

Asci and Ascospores of reproducing fungi

Here is a photo I took in my NVP Bio Lab! I've mastered the art of taking photos of slides under a microscope, and I've got tonnes of cool science-y pics now =D

Here's another cool photo of a sporangiophore under a compound microscope using phase contrast light microscopy that I took just this morning!

Anyways, I hope you are doing well and that you are having fun! You'll be in my prayers =)

Chat soon,
~Tim~

PS - You have been violating one of the cardinal rules of the Vonerculary! YOU MUST USE THE PREVIOUS VENERDWORD IN YOUR CURRENT BLOGS.

Epiphany (Part 1)

e•piph•a•ny (noun)

[Middle English : from Greek epiphainein ‘reveal.’ The sense relating to the Christian festival is via Old French epiphanie and ecclesiastical Latin epiphania.]

1) a moment of sudden revelation or insight brought about a usually ordinary circumstances warranting a dramatic change in an individual's behaviour

2) a manifestation of a divine or supernatural being

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

This is one of my favorite words, but it is difficult to explain why (which is one of the reasons I love it).

Epiphanies can be amazing, elating experiences or harsh, terrible moments causing immense despair. An epiphany is that moment when you realize that something important was not as you once thought it was. 

It's when life pops out from a broom closet like Ashton Kutcher, exclaiming, "You've been Punk'd! Life's not what you thought it was and now all your perceptions are in question!"

I actually really don't like this guy.

But I believe that epiphanies are tremendous experiences that open our eyes to things we had never seen or realities that we had never thought about before.

One example is how the other day I was watching a movie with some guys in the dorm. It was really well done and very trippy, but for all intents and purposes, I will call this movie The Prestige so I won't ruin the ending for you.

 

                                Such a good movie!

So after we had finished watching the movie, we were very confused and disoriented by the last scene. 

Later on, I started talking to a guy about it and he was all like, "Man I love Inception! Especially the ending!" And I was like "What? Why would you like an ending that was so ambiguous and confusing?"

He responded by explaining how the first time he saw it, he viewed it from a postmodernist standpoint, so the ambiguity only asserted the ideals of rejecting absolute or capital T truth.

This blew my mind more than the movie did. This was my epiphany, not only to understanding whatever movie it was we watched, but having a much better understanding of postmodernism as well. Suddenly I had a much clearer view of how postmodernism has shaped so much of fiction, art, and even the way we think in today's world. I could go on and on about po-mo, but then I would never get off my computer.

Because of this realization, I am now enjoying my 20th century poetry class so much more! I've rekindled my love of Eliot and Frost and have grown back in love with fragmentation and stream-of-consciousness. 

All that aside, this didn't fulfill the true definition of an epiphany because it changed very little in the way I act and behave. It was a relatively small realization, but this is why I love epiphanies so much, because there are so many different ways in which they can occur. Once we acknowledge their importance, we start to notice just how often they can occur. If we allow our minds to be opened, we can experience enough epiphanies that, if all epiphanies were chromosomes, we would have a ploidy in no time!

The other day I did have a real life-changing epiphany, but I will save that for the next post which, to make up for my missing last week, will be posted on Thursday. I still want to talk about James Joyce and the second part of the definition above. But I will still have another word for Thursday too, Tim!

One last thing,

I'm so glad to hear you're exam went well and I'm even more stoked to hear how awesome your classes are! I'll keep praying for you and your semester though! 

I'm finally getting into the groove out here; I finished a group project, 5 page paper, and am currently pretending to work on another group paper. Shhhh, I'm sneaking!

I love my Political Science Class, my Classical Literature class and mi profesora de la clase de español es muy adorable. I've also started running my Youth program and have a great team of people with me! The building we're using is being renovated right now, so we won't be able to actually start until next week. 

My dorm is full of some of the most amazing guys ever! Some of the guys started receiving mysterious messages from a secret admirer posted on their door, so I've been following their back-and-forth letters daily. Seeing as I don't have the means and time to spare to watch a lot of TV, this has been my daily entertainment (aside from The Thread of course!)

OK, have a great Wednesday and I'll post real soon!

Clayton™

Ploidy

ploy•dee (noun)
the number of copies of chromosomes contained in the nucleus of eukaryotic cells.
Origin: Greek (ploos = fold; pliody = # of folds => # of copies)

Humans are diploid (di = 2, ploid = copies of chromosomes; diploid = has two copies have 2 copies of each chromosome), meaning in that 98% of human cells there exist two copies of each of the 23 chromosomes, totalling 46. However, gametes are haploid (hap = half, ploid = copies of chromosomes; haploid = one copy of each chromosome), and so each sperm and egg cell only has 23 chromosomes. When a sperm cell and egg cell meet, they undergo plasmogamy followed by karyogamy, which fuses the two haploid nuclei to produce the diploid nucleus of the embryo.

Organisms are usually sensitive to ploidy; an incorrect ploidy usually results in the death of the individual. However, plants have strange tolerances to ploidy, and in fact some species flourish well with abnormal ploidy. For example, strawberries are commonly octoploid (each strawberry cell has eight copies of each chromosome in its nucleus).

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BONUS POST!

Yay! Bonus post! I wanted to update you on my midterm from this morning, so here it is!

IT WENT SURPRISINGLY WELL! For none of the questions did I go WHHHHHHHAAAAAAATTTTTTT????????!?!?!?!?!!!!!!? It was rather straightforwards and I managed to complete it with 5 mins to look it over, so it was not too bad. I felt good about the midterm, but this fact worries me because whenever I feel that I did well on a test/found it easy, I always fail miserably, so we'll see how I did when I get it back..... I was slightly frustrated because I found a mistake that threw off two of my answers (multiple part questions, ARG!) but didn't have time to fix it before he announced "put down your writing utensils" =S Oh well, as long as I get ~75% I'll be content.

Anyways, have a good weekend Clay!
Chat soon,
~Tim~

PS - This means you no longer have to find a use for the word karyogamy! (although this also means that you need to find a use for the word ploidy, so I'm not sure if it helped or not....) I know it is difficult to find uses for scientific terms in everyday vernacular, so I will also accept the use of haploid or diploid instead of ploidy if you can't seems to make it work...

Karyogamy

ka•ree•o•gam•ee (noun)
the process in biology where two nuclei fuse to form a single nuclei.
Origin: Greek (karyo = nut, gamy = fusion; karyogamy = fusion of "nuts" => fusion of nuclei - if you can consider the nucleus the "nut" of the cell)

Karyogamy functions to unite the nuclei of two gametes, which naturally results in the doubling of ploidy.

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So, in early August, when I was at the UBC bookstore looking at textbook prices (OMG SO EXPENSIVE!) I saw that they were having a sale on some of their books, and, being a huge nerd, I decided to look at their collection and I found a book that looked interesting called The Shark God. The cover art and format of the book jacket made it look like a work of fiction, like Stephen King novels or something. Anyways, I've been reading it on the bus to/from school (when I'm not sleeping, lol I LOVE sleeping on busses XD) and it turns out that it was a non-fiction novel.

It's written by a Canadian from Vancouver Island, which is awesome in and of itself, but it also turns out that this book won several prestigious non-fiction awards. It's not about religion in the way St. Augustine's Confessions is about God and the attempt to define God, but it is a narrative that nonetheless very much revolves around religion; it brings up many, many, many interesting ideas and themes and it really got me to think about different aspects of religion and Christianity from both the viewpoint of atheists as well as people who are religious. Literally every few pages I had to stop reading and think about the ideas that author had invoked.

Needless to say: You should read this book! And then we can go over it chapter by chapter and discuss the things in it because these ideas are very significant (to me, at least) and I would like to hear what you have to say about these topics.

~~~~~~~~~~

AHHHHHH! TOMORROW MORNING I HAVE MY FIRST MIDTERM! Can I never do calculus ever again? >_> TT_TT We have a midterm on one Vector and One Dimensional Calculus. Ultimate sad face. I did some practice midterms and questions and everything, but I'm still really freaked out (esp. b/c the prof said that the midterm will be much harder than the practice). We'll see how it goes...

This week has been pretty okay for me other than that... working through course work and life-stuff is going well; at least I'm not depressed to point of despair. I was very happy to discover that I remember more Chemistry than I thought I would remember, so OChem is going well at the moment. My cell biology teacher is a useless waste of space and should not be qualified to teach, but that can't be helped.

I'm also slightly in love with my NVP Bio (Non-Vascular Plant Biology) teacher; she's this short, skinny, almost shriveled old Caucasian lady but she's so adorable! She's funny and witty and modern yet old-fashioned and her lectures are so engaging it's fantastic! I'm lovin my NVP Bio right now =P

Anyways, I know that you were too busy to post this week; I know campus life is very taxing, so don't worry about it =) I hope that everything sorts itself out and settles down for you soon.

Chat soon,
~Tim~

PS - I'm not sure that karyogamy would usually be in one's vernacular unless one was discussing the life cycle of a sexually reproducing organism, but that's my science-y word for this week =) hopefully you don't have too much trouble using it in your next post =P

Vernacular

ver•na•ku•ler (noun)
the way one uses language; the manner with which one speaks
Origin: Latin - vernacula

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I am in complete agreement with your sentiments, Clay. With the Vonerdculary we strive to improve the vernacular of modern language, for (as we learned in Othello) the deterioration of language signifies the deterioration of thought, and the deterioration of thought leads to people who do not actively pursue improvement in their lives, people who do not ask the important questions and do not seek meaningful answers.

It is acceptable to make grammatical mistakes as long as one strives to vociferate their thoughts to the best of their abilities. With time and practice, good grammar is inevitable. I wish to vociferate today my desire for the important ideas, values, and lessons humankind has learned over the centuries to not be forgotten; that the world, what has passed, what has been thought, and what may be to come be the subject of our thought and discussion.

Now, I rant.

OMG CLAY FRENCH IS KILLING ME. I just spent the past 2 hours writing a 200 word essay for French 122, and I must say that practically all of my french has effectively fled my face. *dead* I hope I get a good mark; I spent AGES flipping through my french 12 binder trying to make sure my grammar was correct @_@ It's been a year and a half since I had to think in proper, complex french, and I'm very worried I won't do well, but I am determined to continue; the language is so beautiful, and I've come thus far already!

On a separate note, today was the first time in 2nd year that I passed out on the bus. Just a little bit. I've been working really hard on my french this week, and yesterday I worked a shift that made it so I arrived home at 8, had dinner, and then spent the next two hours on my french essay, so on the bus from UBC to the Canada line, I just fell asleep and woke up two stops before I needed to get off XD You know when school's really getting started when..... lol soon I'll be back to passing out on the morning commute to school as well XD

I hope Trinity isn't too taxing on you yet.

Chat soon,
Tim

PS - I know I'm the science one, and vernacular isn't really a science-y word, but I felt that our first words should be similar in expressing our hopes for the coming term for this blog. I'm taking a non-vascular plant biology course this term that includes fungi, algae, and mosses, so expect a lot of non-vascular plant vocabulary =P

Vociferate

vo•cif•er•ate (verb)
to shout, complain or argue loudly or vehemently
Origin: late 16th century, taken from the latin vociferat, "exclaimed".

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The reason I chose to start with this particular word is that its definition relates to the purposes of this blog. That isn't to say that we are going to be arguing passionately, disrupting the serenity of someone's morning coffee with our loud lexicon and pushy parlance.

What we aim to do is to argue against one of the greatest evils of our day: the diminishing and decaying of vocabulary in modern society.
Human language is always suffering because of ignorance and lethargy. I, as the aforementioned "English one", am not exempt from the horde of villagers chasing the remnants of language through the city streets, hoping to brutalize and beat it until it has bled out the last of its precious phraseology.

I love words. I like to play with them and create all types of sentences, from the seriously sublime to the outright ridiculous. Words are very powerful things, useful in both creation and destruction. Words can build a city and conquer a nation.

We forget words, we ignore words, and we abuse words every day. I will admit right off the bat that I am guilty of every grammatical error and usage sin under the vernacular sun. I will also admit to my waning tolerance of this issue and that my fervour to right this wrong has reached its apex.
I don't want to just sit here at my computer, chatting with friends and family without challenging myself to use the language at my disposal to its fullest potential to convey love, hate, admiration, adjuring and sometimes just silliness.

Language is the only way in which we can communicate other human beings outside the walls of our minds and the shells of our bodies. If we can't communicate properly with other people, we lose all that makes us human. We lose language and we lose all everything that we are.

So we need to be proactive in preserving the English language, all that it contains, and all that it represents. So then, we will vociferate against anything that deprives us of discourse and all that it means to  us as human beings.






"But regardless of what weapons they try to use to effect silence, words will always retain their power. Words are the means to meaning, and for some, the annunciation of truth." 
-V (V for Vendetta)


Anyway, that's my rant. Hope it didn't scare you off. As seriously as I take words, I can't enjoy language without being able to joke around with words and play with them like a child and his best friend on a teeter-totter. We like to be serious, but also spend time together vociferating at the top of our lungs:


"WEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!!!!!!!!!"





Talk to you later,


Clay

Vonerdculary

Vonerdculary (vo•nerd•cu•lar•y) - noun; portmanteau formed from the word "vocabulary" (a collection of words or phrases) and the word "nerd" (an intelligent person who always strives to better themselves and the people around them).


1) the vocabulary of a nerd

2) the name of the blog between two high school friends who wish to keep in touch with each other whilst attending geographically separated universities. The posts on this blog will consist of two sections: first, the Vonerdculary entry, followed by the blog entry. In the Vonerdculary entry, the Vonerdword will be given, followed by its meaning, usage, and discipline/language from which it hails. In the blog section, the author  may write whatever he wishes, however it must include (a) the use of the Vonerdword as well as (b) the use of the previous Vonerdword complete with a link to the original post where the definition can be found. Posts will be made a minimum of twice a week: once by the English one on Tuesdays and once by the Science one on Thursdays.

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Clay "the English one"
Currently 2nd year at Trinity Western University.
Haldo. Words to me are like popcorn: I must have them on a regular basis—mainly in large quantities—and they are better smothered in butter. My pastimes include reading, dancing terribly, and making appalling puns. My family was originally from Turkey and moved to the Caribbean, so at every family reunion there are always All Turk-Hatians.

Tim "the Science one"
Currently 2nd year Faculty of Science at UBC
Hey there! So, a bit of info about me, eh? I have a passion for learning and teaching as well as making music; I play the piano and the French Horn (lol what a nerd, no?) and I'm a 3rd generation overseas-Chinese, but I am first generation Chinese-Canadian. I love reading and science and being generally abnormal. Oh yea, and I do not come with subtitles; sorry for the inconvenience.
So, thing is something new for me, and hopefully it will get me to be a little bit more adventurous with my social life... I tend to be quite shy when around people I've never met before, and I'm used to being very protective about my internet and personal life, so this should be interesting =) I'm interested to see what becomes of the Vonerdculary as we progress through this school year...