solvedMaze

As of 5:01 this afternoon, I have finished the last of the homework for the Michaelmas Term. It's been hard, especially getting that last problem sheet (mostly) done, and it's been a long ride, and I know I'll have a mountain of work over the vac (Britspeak for "vacation"), but I decided to spend the afternoon doing a small amount of relaxation. I spent like an hour playing Doctor Who: Legacy, about half an hour playing Bloons Tower Defense 5, an hour hanging with some folks until one of them accused me of having derivative comic work (ooh!), and half an hour with some buds before they went out to Parkend. I had previously indicated that I would come tell tonight after finishing all my work, but I want to go to Meat tomorrow morning, so I have to go to bed early.

Sunday was the big college chapel choir event of the year, the Carol Service. We got to sing traditional carols, as well as some that I, being American, have never heard of, including "Torches," "Ding Dong Merrily on High," "Past Three O'Clock," and "Gabriel's Message," which are really amazing carols which I loved doing. Then we sang carols from the balcony at various points during the black tie formal dinner that followed.

There's a tradition called the "Five Gold Rings Challenge" in which the point is that every time we sing "Fiiiiiiive Gooooooold Riiiiiiings" (apparently the English all sing it wrongly), everyone in the choir participating drinks a glass of champagne/wine. I feel really sorry for one of the organ scholars, though, who got the blame when a couple of drunken choristers began randomly singing the First Noel (Brits spell it Nowell. What?). We apparently came very close to losing the tradition forever, which in terms of Oxford and how old it is and how old the tradition undoubtedly is, would be quite a shakeup. Overall, though, the choir was a massive hit with the classy Oriel diners.

Yesterday, at the last FISH of the year (although apparently it's been renamed "COD," whatever that stands for), we wrapped up everything neatly, then played a game of "pass the parcel." Interesting game. Don't think it exists in America. Afterwards, I finally got to be narrator for a game of Mafia. As it's (almost/sort of/kinda) Christmas, I made everything Christmassy, and that meant death by candy cane stabbing! Execution by electric Christmas tree! Murder by evil charity Santa in an alley! Execution by mistletoe noose! Reindeer stampede! Death by rigged snowmobile factory accident narrowly averted by the intervention of a mysterious figure dressed in a tacky Christmas sweater and a reindeer hat! Ah, what a game. It ended in a Mexican standoff on Christmas morning over a present. Everyone died.

I very nearly failed my four-week-long Functional Programming practical today. It turned out my fastSolveMazeIter function only solved mazes as long as none of the potential paths intersected on the same extension, which probably means nothing to you, even if you did it yourself, so I won't bother elaborating (although my function would keep doing so until it had either reached the target position or determined that the maze was impossible :D).

Since it didn't solve ALL mazes, even though it solved the ones given as examples, I had just over an hour to apply a massive change to my program. Thank the Lord, I suddenly got it working about a minute before this final session ended, getting the function to solve the "dalek" maze I created myself and got my "S" on the assignment! I think that means "Satisfactory," but at Oxford, it could just as easily mean "Slytherin" (not Slytherin...not Slytherin), even though I think the lecturer knows I'm not from Christ Church.

This evening I spent chilling in the JCR and in other peoples' suites, mostly. There were "Christmas Cocktails" tonight, apparently one of the biggest events of the year, but, not being a drinker, I didn't sign up.

Tomorrow I've got to pack up most of my room in preparation for leaving this Saturday (!), which I'm fine with doing. I mean, it's not as if it's going to take anywhere near as much time as any of the problem sheets I've done in the past two months. Piece of cake. Unfortunately, it seems like I really can't stretch clean laundry until the end of term, so it looks like I'll end up having to do laundry one last time tomorrow as well. Then I really want to look for gifts in the Covered Market. So many cool things in there.

I've passed the first challenge, navigated the first mazes, guys. And very soon, I'll be coming home!

Fare ye all well!

    John Khouri, Maze-Making Mastermind

Last Lap

Last night was Choriel's first choir concert. Now for the win! As seventh week draws to an end and I begin the eighth and final week of the Michaelmas term, I've been finding it harder and harder to do work. They time it so perfectly in that you're given so much work that you literally couldn't keep going another week. This means by eighth week, you're almost out of your depth. Then you go home and teach yourself everything you'd derived yourself beforehand in the homework or been showed by a tutor. As far as I'm aware, most students learn little during the actual lectures. Still, this probably isn't the best use of my time during lectures:

This morning, I woke up and found myself tired despite my good night's sleep, and found myself feeling so lazy that I just couldn't get myself to do any work. What's more, I had no other food in the room, so I began snacking terribly on the dessert components to the candy turkeys my loving mom brought me. It was terrible.

Then 12:45 came, and I had what the English refer to as "macaroni and cheese" today at our weekly "everything left over from the week" Saturday lunch, which is almost as tasty as Friday lunch, but for all you American readership, you agree with me wholeheartedly when I proclaim this phony to be "not macaroni and cheese." Macaroni and cheese shouldn't have character!!

God gave us a beautiful morning, though, which I enjoyed profusely. It was nice not to have to wear a jacket all the time, and you could see the sun. I decided to go jogging to get out of my funk, but some friends of mine were headed to Christ Church's meadows, and as I hadn't yet been, I accompanied them on a walk.

Christ Church, despite being the Slytherin House of the University of Oxford, really does have a gorgeous meadow (again, for England). It's got a river and all. The whole thing was so picturesque, in fact, that the entire walk was spent with me hopping around taking pictures from every imaginable position and having my buddies pose in strategically gorgeous locations. They humored me, bless them. I got some truly amazing shots, and felt really fired up for the first time in awhile. I took over 200 shots, but here are a few of my favorite things:

Profile picture? I think yes.

We found the most perfect bit of land jutting out
into the river in just the right spot.

I assure you, Oxford's not usually this picturesque
this time of the year.  Only in pictures.

I saw the tree and was like, "Ooh!! You're perfect, Tree!"

The ducks started coming toward me SECONDS
before I took the picture. Fantastic! 

Future wife, I'm adding this to the list of romantic spots
for future reference. And yes, of course it's an actual list.

That was the first tree I'd seen in Oxford that
looked really Autumn-y.

When I got back to my suite, I was finally energized and motivated, and did some Probability (wow, I won't have probability ever again...). Then I had "High Tea" with my mom, sisters, uncle, and one of my sister's old friends, who is currently doing a semester abroad in Scotland and came down to visit her this weekend. 

For those of you who still don't know, I don't use names in my blog, as I illustrated before famously in the post that described Awesome Belch's visit, so I won't use my sister's friend's name here. However, I feel comfortable using the pseudonym "Foreign Tea." Ms. Tea got a picture in the exact same spot as Mr. Belch did in front of Oriel Hall, decorated for Chrstmas:

I said good-bye to my family members, but it wasn't that tearful with the knowledge that we'll all be back home together in just two weeks time now. I then showed Foreign to her guest room at Oriel College, gave her a tour of Oriel, attempted (unsuccessfully) to give her a tour of the nearby Christ Church college, where they filmed some of the Harry Potter films and where Lewis Carol taught (that porter was MEAN; I walked up, about to ask if we could get in at that hour since I was a student, and before I even came close, he pointed a figure at us and motioned for us to BEGONE!), returned her to her room and bid her farewell and good haggis-eating, and worked on Probability for several hours. 

I feel confident now, despite the persistence of hard work over time, knowing that God will always strengthen me when I need His strength. Thanks to Him, I'm back on track and ready for Functional Programming, then Analysis, then Linear Algebra, then cleaning out my room (ugh), then the plane flight back home.

This post is brought to you by

  John Khouri, Doodler Dude

Thanksgivakkuh

Happy Thanksgivakkuh!!!

For those of you who don't know, "Thanksgivakkuh" is a portmanteau of the words "Thanksgiving" and "Hannukah." For the first time in a long, long time, Thanksgiving falls on the same day as the start of Hannukah this year. Because of the way the two calendars differ, though, we won't have another TRUE Thanksgivakkuh for another five thousand years or so. However, in around sixty years, I believe, we'll have a PARTIAL Thanksgivakkuh. So see you then!

Today, I had the great pleasure of seeing my family again after eight weeks! It was great catching up after all this time. After a special chapel hosted by Oriel Christian Union (which was incredible), we all went to formal hall together. Then I showed off the library, the JCR (Brawl anyone?), and my room. I even demonstrated my newfound Dark Knight voice for them.

And what a meal! I was so stuffed after spiced pumpkin stew, turkey roast, potatoes, veg, chocolate cake and ice cream. And THEN my mom gave me some chocolate chip cookie cake and the raw materials to make the Khouri family traditional turkey desserts! I feel kind of awful, especially considering how healthy I've been getting. Honestly I feel kind of sick now. 

Still, one HAS to make the turkeys. It's tradition!

Last night I got the pleasure of hearing a friend of mine play in one of Oxford's great orchestras. I thoroughly enjoyed the hour-long show. I felt kind of like Inspector Morse, for some reason, and thought about going to see operas and orchestras a lot when I'm older. Then the orchestra came back and I realized it was a two-hour show. I didn't realize how long it was, and I honestly got a little bored during the second half. Still, I got to see my first performance in the Sheldonian Theater, and that's a huge plus. I hope one day I'll be able to sing there, most likely in a choir, because that's an incredible venue. It's like Great Britain's equivalent Radio City Music Hall.

 I was very impressed with the orchestra and even more so by the fact that my friend is good enough to play in the orchestra as a result.

I have been so blessed today, and I hope that tomorrow I can maybe share the blessing around with friends before I explode. Ugh. Anyhow, I'm thankful today for America, Britain, God, family, Oxford, Christopher Wren (architect who designed the Sheldonian and a few other amazing places here), great television, friends, love, mercy, Brawl, food (although I'm beginning to question that one), and Liechtenstein. Because really, who isn't thankful about Liechtenstein?

Stuffedly yours,

    John Khouri, the Stuffed

Endeavors

"Success is not final, failure is not fatal; it is the courage to continue that counts." - John Khouri

Actually, it was Winston Churchill, but hey, let's not quibble.

Before I begin, I wanted to include these hilarious Who-themed memes:

Ah, Grumpy Cat. I want you to be the next companion. :D

Since the Day of the Doctor aired, I've been working almost nonstop. Sunday I had church followed by choir, and I got to meet with my dad, who has been in Ireland and London on a business trip. It was great having breakfast with him and discussing things after having not seen my family for ages. I think I might miss my family and friends more if I had any time at all to think about things outside of what's going on RIGHT NOW and what I have to accomplish IMMEDIATELY. Not that I don't miss them, just not as much as I feel I should. But my mom emails me every other day or so giving updates about what's going on at home, and I Skype home weekly, so I still keep fairly up to date about goings-on at home. It's my friends I don't see much of, which is sad. Facebook me, friends!!! I'm waiting on you!!

I spent Sunday evening trying to bang out as much Probability work as I could before falling over the "homework cliff." Yesterday, on Monday, I ended up spending about fourteen hours on work. I spent the first five hours on Probability and Functional Programming, then around nine hours on Analysis. The Analysis problem sheet was, I think, the hardest sheet we've gotten yet. I spent nine hours on it and got two out of six/seven questions done. That's just insane. I ended up falling asleep late and waking up late, just waking up momentarily to disable my two systems of alarms before going back to sleep. I woke up to realize I'd slept through my Analysis lecture. Go figure. I worked for about one and a half hours on the Analysis this morning, and I ended up finishing three problems in that space of time. Go figure.

The past two days, I've noticed some "Endeavour" filming near me walking around campus. For those of you not in the know, "Endeavour" is an Inspector Morse prequel. For those of you still not in the know, Inspector Morse was a popular crime series of mini-movies about a brilliant detective who worked in Oxford. They were quite brilliant, actually, but if you left the room, even for a minute, or watch the installment in two nights, as I did, you'll find yourself completely lost. That's how clever they were. I've never seen "Endeavour" myself, but I need to. (25 JP to you if you've heard of Inspector Morse and you're not English, 75 if you've heard of Endeavour and you're not English)

On the way back from a Functional Programming lecture, I saw the Endeavour crew filming near the Sheldonian Theater/Bodelean Library/Bridge of Sighs/Radcliffe Camera sort of area. People like to film there because those four places are so iconically Oxfordian (apart from the Bridge of Sighs, because that resembles the Rialto Bridge in Venice) that when people see them, they understand, "Oh! Not Cambridge, then. Oxford. Right! Okay, then! You may proceed." They say all of that out loud, of course. Don't question it. Anyhow, I think I walked right past one of the main actors, like, shoulder-to-shoulder, because after I passed him, I heard the director or someone giving him cues and stuff. I don't know. I'm still waiting for the Doctor Who Oxford episode.

I guess if there's one thing I've learned from this is that the American Dream, that if you work hard enough at something you can achieve anything by your own strength, is kind of a bogus myth. We achieve nothing more or less than that which is God wills. It doesn't mean we can't make endeavors, as I certain will continue to do, but if those endeavors come crashing down, there's little reason to be disappointed. As I once said, "Success is not final, failure is not fatal; it is the courage to continue that counts." I should really write that one down before some English prime minister steals it...

Best wishes,

    John Khouri, Endeavourer 

P.S. I wanted to let everyone know that I've received five votes for hairstyle so far. I've gotten one vote for day 2, one vote for day 3, one vote for day 4, one vote for day 5, and one vote for day 6. Lol. I need a tie-breaker! Check my previous blog and send me a message!!

Day of the Doctor (and the Homework Cliff)

It finally came!! The Doctor Who 50th Anniversary special, for which we've all been waiting for over a year now (or more, depending on what kind of fan you are). I won't offer any spoilers, but I'm delighted to say it was absolutely wonderful. It completely blew the audience away in a way that I've never seen any other movie/episode do. Mr. Steven Moffat got it all so perfectly right.

...Now to finish my Probability homework.

Remember all that talk of the "financial cliff" in American politics? Well, I'm approaching what I've dubbed the "homework cliff" in my studies at Oxford. It usually takes me around the better part of a day to do a single problem sheet in any given class. I get four problem sheets every week. I have one problem sheet due Monday, two problem sheets due early in the day on Tuesday, and as of now, I only have about 2/3 of a problem sheet done. And tomorrow, I only have approximately a two-hour gap of time to work on homework in the afternoon between seeing my dad again (yay!!), church, and singing for the Sunday chapel service. You see the problem? So as soon as I finish this blog post (hopefully soon), I'll be desperately trying to finish up as much of the Probability homework I can do.

In other news, I've been trying out different hairstyles over the past week. I decided that I didn't like my homemade haircut that I'd done before leaving for England now my hair had grown out some, so I used some leftover Wolverine hair gel to make it "dance" a bit. I've used a little almost every day since then, but in different ways. The first time was last Saturday. So I'd like to ask: which style looks the best? Or should I just stick with my haircut? Let me know, either by FB message or by commenting below - 200 JP for responding (but just the first time)!

Day 1:

Day 2:

Day 3:

Day 4:

Day 5:

Day 6:

Day 7:

And yeah, I missed a day there sometime. I wasn't feeling very well on Wednesday. Anyhow, back to work!!

From,

    John Khouri, Lord of Out-of-Time

Dark and Nolan-y

Today was a promising day with a promising start. I woke up and went to Meat, where I did some reading of the Bible, did some praying for others, and had some bacon and toast. That's how I wish I could start every day. Considering I'd never really had bacon until three weeks ago or so, it's amazing how much I crave it in the mornings now. Mmm.

Had Eucharist service today, where I sang in the choir. It was pretty alright. I've been so happy the past two days because yesterday, I realized that although I'm still recovering somewhat from my cold, my voice has returned 100%. I'd never realized how much I'd missed it. I'm glad I had a chance to be without it for a change, though. Kind of like a singing fast, like the one I did for a friend a long time ago (it was pretty hard).

Tonight was Open Mic Night, the second and final one of the Michaelmas term. I regret to say that, though I spent maybe two or three hours preparing my material and went in feeling confident, the initial lack of laughter led to me getting nervous and fumbling lines and not being nearly as funny as I'd hoped. I wasn't doing it for my own glory, but considering how much I'd prepared, the failure of the routine kind of hurt. I did the routine on some dogs in Peru (those gags fell flat so I moved quickly on to the next one), original Batman vs. Christopher Nolan's Dark Knight (Have you ever noticed how 60's Batman fought a lot of hyenas?), and what Scooby Doo would be like as a live-action movie directed by Christopher Nolan (a brilliant gag which I'm really sad didn't work because of reasons). The funniest bit that I didn't forget to tell or forget how to tell was my (scarily accurate) Dark Knight impression ("I'm the hero that Gotham deserves...but not the one it needs...because I'm Batman!!"). If you laughed at any part genuinely, then good on you, you get 100 JP.

Also, someone pointed out to me that apparently my ears go red when I'm really nervous. I don't think that's something that happens very often, so I've never noticed before. I guess that's one thing I've got in common with Ron Weasley.

'Cause I'm a Weasley at heart :D 

Ever ya'lls,

    John Khouri, the comedian that Oxford deserves...but not the one it needs.

Juggling as a Metaphor for Stuff

Today I've been juggling a lot of things. Literally. Not metaphorically. In fact, I only had one problem sheet to do today, for Functional Programming, so in terms of having to balance a bunch of different things at once, that was not a problem for me today. I mean, it was a HUGE problem, and I spent almost the entire day working on it, but I didn't mean juggling in the metaphorical sense.

I meant juggling in this sense:

That's right, I've taken up juggling.

Why, you may ask? Because I've been so sick the past two weeks that I've been unable to sing. I've already mastered Spanish and it would be too time-consuming to learn Russian. I need new shoes, someone able and available to play with me, and foreplanning before I can play squash. And I get way too engrossed nowadays when I read, so reading's reserved only for days when I have nothing to do (which, at Oxford, is never). So I've needed a new hobby.

I came up with the idea when I saw some oranges in hall. We're allowed two pieces of fruit or one dessert every meal, so the past few days I'd been getting a banana and orange with every meal. Finally, three days ago I had three oranges, so I started to teach myself how to juggle.

And it's been great. I can literally spend as much or as little time as I want doing it, and it's just fantabulous. Two of them have cracked their peels slightly so far, and I've opened those up and eaten them. It's definitely easier than trying to open them with my fingernails (which never works)! I also lost one. I don't know where it is, but I do know that I need to find it some point before I leave for Christmas break, because otherwise I'll come back to a room that smells of rotten mandarin. And I ain't talkin' Iron Man 3.

I'm at the point where I can juggle three oranges, but I need to get into the right rhythm so that I don't end up throwing them too far forward or too close to me and end up dropping them all. Which is a great metaphor for life, isn't it?

Nope.

Well...sometimes.

Just not for me, not right now. I'm very, very focused. Perhaps to my detriment. I'm more like that guy from that joke I heard from a friend of mine last year. I call it "The Makeshift Weaponry." The man is charging into No Man's Land unarmed, with nothing more than hope, determination, and focus on his side. He's like a tank, barreling forward, but without the safety net of actually being in a tank. I like this metaphor better, because with this metaphor, I'm alluding to my own book, which would drive up demand if the book didn't exist entirely within my head, and because when you juggle something, you always drop it, but the focused guy in my joke won the battle. Plus, a battle's much more meaningful than some pieces of fruit flying through the air.

Hopefully yours,

    John Khouri, unlicensed tank driver (shhh!)


P.S. As correction to an earlier blog post, the word "bop" (a dance shindig at the college bar with costumes) is not an "English" term, as a friend of mine informed me this evening. It is actually specific to Oxford, possibly Cambridge as well (although what do they know about having fun).

Sickness and Amazingness

(I promise, the story gets more fun after the second picture.)

I've been sick for the past two weeks or so. Initially I had a cold, and my voice went out, and so I had to sing base for choir Thursday and Sunday. Then it finally came back Sunday, and I was able to sing Tuesday, but the next morning I woke up sick AGAIN. Ugh.

Now I'm suffering from something unknown I've been referring to as "Dumbledore's hand." I call it that because for whatever reason, my hands have been getting progressively drier and drier over the course of this week, and today they were so dry they were starting to bleed a bit, and it was kind of unbearable. It might just be the extreme wind that goes on at Oxford, or maybe the brand of soap I've been using. Or the cold tap water. I got some treatment from a pharmacist, and it's definitely helped a lot. I took a picture of my hands before the treatment, but I decided to spare you, since you were kind enough to take the time to read my blog.

I'd like to take this moment to rant about English healthcare. Today I mentioned to a good friend of mine my situation and she told me that she had signed up for an appointment last week, but that she was going to London this weekend and couldn't make it, so she give me her appointment slip so I could go instead. I trekked all the way to Jericho's health clinic, my hands in mild pain. Then the receptionist told me I couldn't do that. I asked her to schedule (pronounced "shed-yule") an appointment as early as possible, so she booked me for Wednesday. That's five days, people. I was so irritated that got myself a trumpet and then marched around the building a few times until it fell down (25 JPs if you got the reference the first time).

And that's not just because I'm a student; apparently, that's the way it is all around the country. I seriously hope that America's not going to follow suit under the new Obamacare system, because that's just seriously annoying always having to wait that long, considering that you only actually book an appointment if you're already suffering from something. Fortunately, the pharmacist had a home-brewn remedy (no, not really home-brewn), so at least I won't have to suffer.

With that said, here's a photo of some kittens.

I love Friday lunches, because it's the one time of the week when they serve us junk food. I mean, it's Englandy junk food, but it still tastes delicious. Mmm. Friday lunches. And the chocolate cake they serve is the closest thing we have on earth to the food served in heaven.

I also had chocolate cake later in the day when a friend of mine had some free time and decided to bake. It was scrummy. But not quite as literally perfect as the chocolate cake served at hall. Then we played a bit of Brawl, since we haven't played for ages, even though I should've worked a little more on Functional Programming homework.

This week has been hard. I've kind of had what they refer to as "fifth week blues." Some say it's some myth, others say otherwise, but for me, it became real. I found myself partway through the week realizing that even though I was caught up with the homework, I was behind in the understanding of the material. But I spent two essentially "free" days catching up, and now I'm more-or-less caught up. Although I'm not sure about this weekend, considering I've been resting a bit the past two days...

...In other news, I've discovered that the shiny new Mathematical Institute at Oxford has SUPER posh bathrooms. Last night, after realizing that I'm officially fluent in Spanish, I started to learn Russian.

And then this morning, I stopped.

The educators here say some funny things sometimes. I can't tell if they're just English idioms and I'm being a complete American idiot or what. But they amuse me. Here are a few:

- Our Linear Algebra I lecturer, referring to the Algebra of Limits, said about a problem "Let's play AOL games on it." I don't think the AOL that I was thinking of is well-known here in England.
- Our Analysis lecturer told us, "Now, this problem is very fiddly. We want a way to reduce the fiddliness of this expression." I'm guessing "fiddly" is pretty common in England, but to an American idiot like me, it sounds hilarious.
- Finally, the choir director told the alto section, "If you can't hit that top note, just open your mouths suggestively." Lol :D

Finally, I wanted to express how useless I've been feeling. I haven't been doing much in the way of helping others this week, mostly because I've been so sick. I hate that I can't do anything to help others. I feel like that's letting down those I care about, but there's so much work to be done and I'm so sick and all that it's hard enough to take care of myself.

I also haven't been keeping up-to-date very much with others and how they're doing, I feel. Most of the conversations I've been having recently have been either selfish ones or discussions about homework sheets or concepts. I had not one, but two long conversations this week where I posited that you could make a standard basis of the "weather set" if you made a set that contained a drop of water, a slight gust of wind, a wisp of cloud, 1 Joule of heat, 1 Joule of energy, and 1 lightbulb. That was probably the best conversation I've had this week, although to be fair, it was a pretty fascinating topic. Depending on your point of view, I suppose.

It's also been far too long since I've made someone laugh "big ba-ha laughter," as I call it. That's not fun.

Still, I trust in God and have hope for future.

Illy,

    John Khouri, Sick as a Dog if the Dog Were Wearing Sweet Rockstar Shades

Pounding Out a Routine

After four weeks of classes at Oxford, I've started getting into some good routines. The only time I actually like spending alone is Saturday morning. I wake up whenever I want (although not so late as to mess up my Circadian Rhythm), I put on some warm clothes, and I watch some Rhett and Link (a pair of Internetainers who always have something worth watching).

Then I go out to my favorite cafe and buy a mozzarella, tomato, and basil panini and a muffin, bring them back to my room, enjoy the warm panini, and rediscover the fact that I don't like their muffins. That last one's a tradition I should really stop now before it gets too ingrained into my mind.

I spent most of the afternoon working on Probability homework, which is due Monday. This Saturday, I went to the second "bop" of the Michaelmas term. For those of you not yet in the know, a "bop" is a British thing where everyone dresses according to theme in "fancy dress" (the British word for "costume") and goes to the college bar, where there is much drinking and loud music. 

The theme for the first was high school stereotypes, and I went as a loser, and it was magnificent. I didn't know about this one, though, and didn't really enjoy the bop that much last time, so I didn't really work hard at my costume. The theme of this bop was "favorite song." I went as "American Idiot" by Green Day. Not that it's my favorite song. Or a song that I like. Or even a song that I've heard. Or even a song I'd heard of. I went to the bop as "American Idiot"because it was SO easy. I didn't really need to dress up, but I wore a sideways baseball hat, carried an American flag, and wore my 3D shades to highlight it. I think it turned out pretty well, considering my ambivalence.

I was about to leave the bar after dancing like crazy for half an hour, before people started getting drunk and unpleasant, when I heard them playing "The Fox." For those of you who still don't know, "The Fox" is a viral song by a Norwegian comedy band with such perfect accents it's impossible to tell that they're Norwegian apart from the name of their band, Ylvis. It's the way-less-popular Gangnam Style of 2013, so I guess it's actually more like the Harlem Shake. I remember watching it towards the end of summer after so many of my friends had left and laughing harder than I had in months. It was just so ridiculous :D Here's a link: 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jofNR_WkoCE

I've also been very excited about the Doctor Who 50th anniversary special, coming November 23rd. It's been this gigantic event Whovians have been anticipating for over a year now, and the trailer only FINALLY came out this weekend. It looks amazing. It does bring me some sadness, though, remembering how excited Walker was about it. It made me wonder what he'd think of it if he came back down to earth just to watch it, and it occurred to me that he'd probably be a lot less impressed now he's seen something much greater. That's kind of sad to think about, but on the other hand, it's a happy thought as well, because it gives one something better to look forward to than Doctor Who, whoever good it is (I think I meant "however," but I can't be sure).

Sundays I don't have any time for work at all. I wake up somewhat lazily, then go to church at St. Ebb's for 11:45. Then I have about two hours before I have to be dressed in formals for choir rehearsal at 3:45 for Evensong, which happens at 6:00 and goes to 7:00. At 7:00, I have to get my robe and suit jacket for formal dinner at 7:30, which lasts another hour. I don't mind all that much, though, because I'm able to get done all my work, and because it's the Sabbath. I don't know; back when I went to the King's Academy, I'd on occasion comment how odd it was that a private Christian high school would assign so much work that it would be nigh impossible to do it all without working just as hard on Sunday as on Saturday. As a result, I'm used to working on Sundays, but I'm still glad to have a more flexible schedule that allows me to honor God better than before. Of course, I know God forgives working on the Sabbath as easily as more serious things (like murder, for example), but it's nice to spend a day with less work, especially at such a busy place as Oxford where it's easy to get distracted.

The sermon at St Ebb's was on Genesis 1, about how some parts of the Bible are meant to be taken literally and others metaphorically, and on how we talk like that all the time in normal conversation as well. At least, it started like that, then it somehow evolved into a talk about how faith and science are by their definitions complementary as opposed to contradictory, and how even people who don't believe in religions put their faith in other things. Then it launched an argument that since God created everything, He intended for it to be used, appreciated, and enjoyed, though not worshipped as an idol, because He created it all and saw it was good, so we have no reason to feel bad about enjoying the things of this world, because that's it's purpose. Food was created to be eaten, or, as the English apparently sometimes say, "et." It was an excellent sermon that I'd hate to forget.

I also watched a video Saturday night of a skit the tenors in my old show choir Knightshine did at one of our Advances (we were Knightshine, we didn't retreat; we advanced!). I found myself cracking up so loudly that I was relieved that my neighbors were still at the bop. I found myself seriously missing my friends from high school. They always were there for me, whether I needed a laugh, or just a hug (oh, the hugs), or felt lonely, or nervous about a big exam. They were there when I needed to talk to someone or share a secret, and I reciprocated. They were and are the funniest people I know, and I would rather spend a day with them than spend a day with every comedian on the planet (sorry, Tim). I'm so far away from them now, though admittedly not as far as I would have been fifty years ago before the Internet or other speedy means of Transatlantic communication. I can't wait to see you guys again :)

...Ah, the spirit of Thanksgiving :D

I've still got four more weeks to go, though. I'm halfway there! Today, I spent about seven hours working on the Analysis problem sheet from start to finish. Ugh. It shouldn't have taken longer than five hours, but I got stuck on one of four parts of the first problem, and I foolishly spent an hour and a half on that same part. Yikes. Then I designed a volleyball map for Brawl (which did not work) and visited a friend and watched some Rowan Atkinson and Fry and Laurie videos together, because here in Britain, they're funny to other people as well.

I'm wrapping up, I'm wrapping up. I hate to assign homework, but I saw this article, and while I don't really know enough to make a firm case or even a statement, considering this is published on the website of an organization dedicated to helping the helpless, I think it's pretty important to read. Go ahead and give yourself 400 JP if you read the whole article top to bottom, but 100 JP if you at least read a bit of it. Thanks.

http://www.thamesreach.org.uk/news-and-views/campaigns/giving-to-beggars/faq/

With love,

   John Khouri, Panini Snob

Getting Ahead

I tried setting my alarm last night for 6:30 in order to get up in time for Meat and going to bed at 1:30. Nearly needless to say, I woke up at nine, too late to go to my first lecture. I could've made it in time for my second lecture today, but I would've had to skip breakfast, showers, and changing clothes, and then sprinted to the Maths building. Since the lecturer in question does the lecture pretty much exactly from the lecture notes posted online, I sided with breakfast and worked ahead on homework in my room instead.

I found my hat the other day! Woohoo! I'd left it in the Maths building on accident during a lecture the previous morning. When the receptionist pulled it out from under the counter, I was like "YEAH!!!!"

So I was headed to formal today, and I inadvertently heard these two guys walking by carrying some large blocks of cheese chatting in Spanish. Not only Spanish, but proper Spanish. Latin American Spanish, the understandable type. I didn't even realize I was doing it, but I somehow ended up turning around and heading in the complete opposite direction as soon as I heard them speaking Spanish. I offered to open the gate for them in Spanish, and they were like, "?Su mama es un martillo?" ("Do you speak Spanish?") and I was like, "!Claro que si!" Of course I speak Spanish! This is Oxford!

To understand why it was so exciting to have the opportunity to speak to someone who comes from a Spanish-speaking country, I speak fluent Spanish, but you need to practice a language in order to stay fluent, and there's no one in England who speaks fluent Spanish. The few people who do speak Spanish speak Spain Spanish, which ith thpoken with a lithp and an extra verb form. These guys were speaking my language, so I just had to go introduce myself.

Then we got into a massive discussion in Spanish. One of them was a fresher from Colombia. I told him his Spanish was excellent (no, of course I didn't). The other guy was from America, but had lived in South America for four years for some reason. I told them I was a fresher and we were walking together, and I suddenly found myself with them in the MCR, the Middle Common Room, for the postgraduates. Apparently I look several years older than I am, and so when I said I was fresher, they assumed post-graduate fresher. Still, they let me stay with them for like ten minutes. Gotta say, the MCR doesn't have a Wii, but otherwise, it's pretty awesome.

Fortunately they let me into formal hall half an hour late.

Before formal hall, I sang bass today in the chapel choir. Normally I sing tenor, but my voice hasn't been up to full working capacity for almost a week now, starting when I got sick. It was fun singing without the fear that you won't be able to hit notes or that you're not singing them with the proper technique. I used to be a bass, when I first started singing a little over three years ago, and then I worked my way up from there. Smiley face.

By strange coincidence / gift of God, just before performing my voice finally cleared up completely and I got my upper register back. God is good.

Speaking of whom, a buddy of mine kept asking me questions about God and telling me that God doesn't exist and how it's stupid to believe He exists. One thing I would like to point out, though, is that if you believe that there is no truth, that everything is relative, that there are no absolutes, then that's fine, believe that. But if you actually believe that there is no right and wrong, then proving to others that they're wrong should be meaningless. Just saying.

I thought I'd include this picture in blog today as my customary second picture (don't know WHAT happened last post) because it's awesome.

Anyhow, I'm going to bed on time tonight!

Good night, stay safe,

    John Khouri, Newly-Rehatted Mathematican and Computer Scientist

Merry Guy Fawkes Day!

This morning I woke up for my early-morning lectures to find that it had rained overnight. I love Oxford when it rains. I love everywhere when it rains. I love the smells, especially that crisp pre-storm smell. And then the wetness of the water. And then the post-rain smells of life and everything. Ahhhh.

Then I got to the Maths Building and took notes for Analysis and Functional Programming. Fun.

Normally, Tuesdays are sprint days for me, but I have the very great blessing of not having Dr. Spivey this week. I only have seven tutorials with him this term, but there are eight weeks in the term, so this week is my week off from Functional Programming homework! Woohoo! Of course, there's always Analysis, Linear Algebra, and Probability homework. 

I was coming back from the Computer Science Building when a woman asked me for money. For once, I happened to have some money on me, so I gave her a little. Then she begged me to go to a shop with her and buy her a sandwich or something. I was in a rush to get back to do homework, so I sort of shrugged her off. 

Going back to college, I felt really guilty. And I wondered why I felt guilty. How was it different from the times I didn't give to other people in the streets who asked for money? The answer, of course, was that for once, I had actually stopped to talk to the woman, and it made her real. And because I knew that, for once, I didn't actually have anything to do at the moment and I had an opportunity to actually help someone. In light of a recent decision I made to help a friend, I remembered the verse in the Bible about how "whatever you did not do for one of the least of these, you did not do for me." Well, those words were basically a departmental memo from my boss, so I followed through. I went out to a nearby cafe and bought the woman a panini and a blueberry muffin. By the time I got back to where she'd been a few minutes previously, though, she had left. I ate the food so it didn't go to waste. I'm not entirely sure what to make of the whole experience, but I'll see what I'll do going forward.

Oxford's just got so many homeless people. Apparently, there's always been a huge gap between the people who go to school here and the people who actually live here in terms of social and economic levels. It's said to be the third-poorest city of Britain. Which, actually, doesn't seem to come anywhere near to the levels described by Charles Dickens, but that was, in fairness, a hundred years ago. And I'm sure Oliver Twist would've gotten adopted if he'd lived nowadays. I mean, c'mon; the kid was pretty cute. He's got a wee hat. I just wish there was something we could do. A friend of mine told me about a project to help the homeless that she's participating in; I think I might come with her. 

In other news, it's Guy Fawkes Night tonight. For those of you who don't know, there were some people who committed treason against the British Empire a century or two ago by trying to blow up the British Parliament with a load of gunpowder they stashed beneath the Parliament building (around where Big Ben and Westminster Bridge are, across the Thames from the London Eye). Every year, the British celebrate how the gunpowder plot was foiled. I thought there was an effigy involved, convinced even, but a fellow tenor from the Oriel Chapel Choir told me that "that's an American thing," burning effigies of people. I don't think so. I don't think we invented it. And I definitely know there are some Latin American traditions that involve burning effigies, because I have a distinct memory of seeing a Michael Jackson effigy being burned onscreen in a video describing some Latin American holiday in Señor Tompkins's class during sophomore year. Good times, man. Good times...

By the way, I may  have lost my hat somewhere. I don't know where, because I know I had it last night, and I can't see where I would have left it, but either I put it somewhere really random in my room or I just left it somewhere and it's not coming back. If I can't find it soon, I'm going to send it off with dignity.

For the first time ever, I won a game of Mafia for the first time ever during "Mandatory Fun" time, as we're calling it now, after OCU. It's nothing like Cutthroat Mafia, but nothing is. Wouldn't Cutthroat Mafia be just AMAZING at Oxford, though? [If you've played Cutthroat Mafia before, you get 20 JP; if you've won, you get 30 JP] Oriel Christian Union is as fun, engaging, informative, and thought-provoking as it's always been for me. If you don't already go, I recommend it. If you're also a Christian of any associated denomination, then I triply recommend it. Awesome community. We're going through the Book of John at the moment, looking at it passage by passage. There's so much more there than I'd ever thought.

Michael, one of the two leaders of OCU, keeps telling me I should do my blog as a narrated audio track, recording the words I write with my voice, and posting the audio file on SoundCloud, so that he can simply listen to my blog while he's brushing his teeth or making waffles or something. Here's the deal: if I get ten people tell me they'd listen to my blog if I made it available like that, then I'll do it. It can't be that much work. I'll just write every blog and then record me saying the words, basically. You know what, if I get five people say they'd listen to my blog as an audio file, I'll do it. Message me and let me know, please.

Thanks for being such great sports and reading my blog! If you've read every other blog post before I made this post, go ahead and give yourself a slap on the back and 80 JP! Well done, indeed! I feel very supported by all the feedback I've received; thank you so much, it truly means a lot!!

Merry Guy Fawkes Day,

    John Khouri, Quite-a-Guy

Dark World

As some of you have heard, in England, Thor: Dark World came out October 30, a week earlier than its release in America. I had a couple of hours to spare that day, so I went to see it.

IT WAS *AWESOME*.

Without giving any spoilers, here are some things for you people back at home to look forward to in the movie:

1. The movie is ridiculously funny.
2. Chris Hemsworth has been working out since the first movie.
3. Loki doesn't have a ridiculous amount of screen time, but he steals every scene he's in, and pretty much the entire movie.
4. Anthony Hopkins is Anthony Hopkins.
5. Someone makes the most hysterically unexpected cameo ever mid-movie.
6. The actor who played the charismatic, lady's man-type warrior friend of Thor's from the first movie has been replaced by Zachary Levi. He played Chuck in the TV show of the same name, as well as Flynn Rider in Tangled. The role is basically live-action Flynn Rider, and he's very funny.

I hope you enjoy it as much as I did!

Speaking of movies, I saw this DVD at Tesco's and I thought I'd share:

Isn't that just the most beautiful idea you've ever seen?! Just think; the greatest crime-fighter in the history of mankind, fighting crime side by side with Batman, who lives in a cave or something. I kind of wanted to buy it, since it's only three pounds at it promised infinite cheese, but I knew I'd get fed up with the extreme cheese twenty minutes into the movie.

These past few days have been absolutely terrible. I'd finally caught the Fresher's Flu, and I think I have the stronger one. I've been super tired all the time and coughing all the time. Today I didn't have much of a cough, but all the coughing I'd done previously has inflamed my throat so much that it's been very difficult to even talk and it hurts basically any time I swallow. I missed a tutorial yesterday and two lectures this morning due to being too sick and tired to make them (although with the lectures, it was more about not feeling up to a two-mile round trip in the middle of the morning). I also had to miss choir because I seriously could barely speak, let alone sing the (extremely high) songs given to us. I've got everything sorted out now, though, and I've been getting better. A friend recommended some medicine for my throat two hours ago, and less than ten minutes after taking it, I felt like a human being again. Woohoo! I feel so much better.

I dressed up as the Wolverine for Hallowe'en. I spent probably around five hours spread out over the course of a week on the claw, but they worked out terrifically. I didn't expect the hair to be so hard, though! I just did my best with the hair. I decided to do Wolverine because people have told me that I look like Hugh Jackman.

It's been a rough week, but I'll manage. Especially now my throat feels much better.

Glory to God,

    John Khouri, the Wolverine