A Truly Scattered Post

Well, given that this blog only shows a small part of my life (though sometimes a larger part than is probably wise), it might be nice to know what this particular blogger is up to when he is not ranting about something or commenting on bizarre events in the world. This post is meant to give a look into the scattered and very random life that is my own. Consider it three very odd posts in one with very little connection, except that they have to do with my life and what I am up to currently. So, here goes.

Nathan's Passive Investment Portfolio

I decided to begin with the weirdest and most ephemeral of the three mini-posts. Last year I started a Roth IRA, because I am rather skeptical about the solvency of Social Security for my generation (thanks to overly greedy Baby Boomers, but that is a rant and I'd like to avoid that if possible during this entry). Deciding it was better to take personal responsibility for my retirement, should I ever want to rest, or ever live that long, I opened a Roth IRA with my tax refund last year, shortly before I turned 25. Since my employer had no retirement plan, I made my own. So far it is doing pretty well, and had over 10% gains for last year. I calculated the amount of money the account would have if the amount in it right now were compounded at 10% until I was 65, and the amount was around $170,000, so I was pretty pleased with that. Of course, now my employer is starting a 401(k) plan, so my financial planning gets a little more complicated now that I have my own Roth plan as well as the deferred plan from my employer. Since my employer will match 50% of the first 4% of my income that is contributed into the 401(k) plan, I figured it would be good to just put 4% into that and continue my regular contributions into my Roth IRA. Between the two, I should have a decent amount set for my passive portfolio income. Now I can look for more active investments to add to the list. I'm not one to put all my eggs into one basket. Rather, I am a person who likes to diversify to reduce risk rather than put all my eggs into one basket (real estate, tech stocks, krugerands, etc.).

White And Nerdy

Okay, Weird Al Yankovic made a song in "White And Nerdy" that suits me a little too well, I suppose. I think I just may be a little bit too nerdy for my own good. How so, you ask? Well, if all goes as planned (and that is never a given in my world), I just may be adding another major to my graduate studies. I suppose I can never leave well enough alone. Right now I am already an MSEM (Master's of Science in Engineering Management) student also going for two graduate certificate programs at the University of South Florida (Technology Management and Total Quality Management). Well, being the uber-nerdy person that I am, I am seeking to add another program with a thesis option, because I suppose I am a glutton for punishment (and, to be honest, a chance to write about third parties in modular engineering and their role in increasing efficiency in building approvals is too good to pass up). Remember that I am a person whose undergraduate major at USC was civil (structural) engineering and whose minor was history. My interests are wide and finding ways to keep myself sufficiently involved in all (or most) of my interests while fulfilling key personal ambitions on my personal five/ten year plan is a difficult task. I do seem to like it that way, though, so there's no reason to complain. It just makes my life rather complicated.

Some Theological Comments (But No Rants About Dead People, I Promise)

Ever since the C.S. Lewis Society Annual Banquet I went to on Thursday night, I have been doing some C.S. Lewis reading (finishing "The Great Divorce" and "Mere Christianity" since then). There are a few things about C.S. Lewis' writing, particularly in "Mere Christianity" that I found quite fascinating and worthy of discussion. First, the concept of Sehnsucht (German for some mystical longing for a place one has never been but knows one belongs, such as the Kingdom of God) inspired me to write a sonnet. Within us all is a God-shaped hole, a longing that can only be fulfilled by our Creator, and when we try to fill it by other means, we commit idolatry by keeping ourself from the one being who can fulfill our needs. It is sad that so many of us try to fill our longings with sex, drugs, alcohol, money, and the like. The second part about C.S. Lewis' writing in both "The Great Divorce" and "Mere Christianity" that deeply moved me was his writing about how God judges the behavior of believers. A quote that made me cry from "Mere Christianity" (page 215) follows:

"There is either a warning or an encouragement here for every one of us. If you are a nice person--if virtue comes easily to you--beware! Much is expected from those to whom much is given. If you mistake for your own merits what are really God's gifts to you through nature, and if you are contented with simply being nice, you are still a rebel: and all those gifts will only make your fall more terrible, your corruption more complicated, your bad example more disastrous. The Devil was an archangel once; his natural gifts were as far above yours as yours are above those of a chimpanzee.

But if you are some poor creature--poisoned by a wretched upbringing in some house full of vulgar jealousies and senseless quarrels--saddled, by no choice of your own, with some loathsome sexual perversion--nagged day in and day out by an inferiority complex that makes you snap at your best friends--do not despair. He knows all about it. You are one of the poor whom He blessed. He knows what a wretched machine you are trying to drive. Keep on. Do what you can. One day (perhaps in another world, but perhaps far sooner than that) He will fling it on the scrap-heap and give you a new one. And then you may astonish us all--not least yourself: for you have learned your driving in a hard school. (Some of the last will be first and some of the first will be last)."

I could not read those paragraphs without thinking both of them applied to me--both as greatly gifted and greatly cursed. Perhaps we are all a bit that way. The third aspect of C.S. Lewis' writings that I found most interesting was his conception of the Trinity. He compared it to the bond between God the Father and Jesus Christ, and said that it was sort of a "group identity" much as is found in a family or corporation. In the chemical sense, that would be the same as a bond between two or more atoms (whether an ionic bond or a covalent one). That bond is what God offers to us (and that we can in no way deserve). While I disagree that this bond is itself a person, except in that fictitious sort of personhood that corporations have, the conception I have of the Holy Spirit is not really different from his. If C.S. Lewis captured what Trinitarians believe when they refer to the Holy Spirit, as that spiritual bond that joins us together with God in His family, then the disagreement becomes one of semantics rather than a different conception of the nature of God. I found that to be most interesting, and enlightening. As such, I thought it worthy of comment.