MY PLEDGE

Today I begin a new life by replacing my bad habbits with the good ones, for I now know I can do all things through Jesus Christ who strengthens me. I have begun my new life by greeting each day with love in my heart, because I am now transforomed by the renewing of my mind. I will persist until I succeed at my new life’s growth, for I know that if I ask often enough it will be given me, if I seek diligently, I will find, if I knock with the persistence, all doors will be opened unto me. I will reach my goals in life because I am God’s greatest miracle and greater is Jesus Christ that is in me than the evil that is in the world. Therefore boldly I will live this day as if it were the last with the confidence that all things will work together for my God because I love God and I’m called according to his purpose. I will stay mindful that the success requires that I must be the master of my emotions and this will be accomplished through my remembering that I am more tah a conqueror through Jesus Christ who loves me. Armed with my new life in Christ, the eapon of love, the force of persistence, the confidence of being God’s miracle, the freedom of living each day as if it were my last, and the discipline of being the master of my emotion. I will laugh at the world for I now know that if I submit myself unto God and resist the devil he will flee fromo me. No longer will I be a slave to fear, pride and doubt, but I will multiply my value one hundredfold and be a leader of men. I will stay mindful to acknowledge God and He will direct my path. Acknowledging Gods put my faith into action and I will act now for I know that faith without works is dead. To be a true success is a gift from God, therefore I will remember to seek His guidance and I will trust in the lord with all my heart and learn not unto my own understsanding.

The Cold Irish

Neil was a bright student. Once he graduated, he got a job in Russian Embassy as he had been an apprentice there a year before he finished his study and he spoke Russian well. Yet, even though he was a smart man and he had many friends, he surprisingly had never been had a girlfriend. In fact, not many girls liked him too. So, he preferred to focus on his career and future plan to study abroad. During his first 2 years, everything was smooth and steady as he dreamt of. He even got promoted as the diplomat. It made him able to work in Russia. However, things went sideway while he was there. After working in Moscow for 6 months, he fell in love with a lovely Russian girl named Natalya, the sister of his friend, Nikolai. They met each other when Neil visited his house on weekend. He never felt so attracted to any woman in his life like that before. So, as both shared the same feeling and he believed that she was the one for him, he decided to introduce her to his parent in Ireland before marrying her. Unfortunately, Neil’s parent was an old-fashioned religious Catholic. They didn’t like Russian because of their belief in Orthodox Catholic, the opponent of Roman Catholic. They threatened Neil that if he still married her, then he wouldn’t be apart of the family anymore. However, Neil took that risk. He was certain their love wasn’t a sin. So, they settled down in Russia after their marriage. After a year of living in peace, something terrible happened to them. Some terrorists attacked Pushkin Elementary School, where Natalya worked, to show their protest against the Russian Federation. They took some staffs, including Neil’s wife, and students as their hostage. They warned the government if they didn’t fulfill their wish to have an independent nation, they would kill the hostage one by one. In the end, Russian soldier could conquer them; yet, some hostages were badly injured and then died. Sadly, one of them was Natalya.

Summer Ends

In summer, Betty was doing her research for her thesis in Barcelona, Spain. She went there with her best friend, Clarice. Unlike Betty, Clarice didn’t go there for her study. It was more of a vacation. She wanted to have some fun after a long and tiring semester in university. Both went to University of Boston, but they had different major, Betty was in History of Art, while Clarice was majoring English Literature. After a long flight, they finally arrived in the capital of Catalan region. They stayed in Betty’s aunt’s house for 2 weeks. At first, everything was going fine. Betty was busy going to several museums and exhibitions, while Clarice just accompanied her. But things changed when they met a good-looking Spanish painter, Juan Pedro. Betty wasn’t fond of his bohemian life style with his never-ending smoking, wine and woman, yet, Clarice was attracted to him. In fact, she agreed to come to his house in San Sebastian. This, of course, made Betty furious since Clarice was notorious for her bad choice of man. And that would disturb Betty’s focus in study because she would ask for her help if she were in trouble. So, Betty decided to go with her to San Sebastian. However, it wasn’t an easy trip because they had to go by plane and took a long time to get there. So, they didn’t have any choice but stayed at Juan Pedro’s house. Clarice was having a good time with him, she even slept with him, yet Betty felt uncomfortable and disgusted. She told her friend to be careful with him, but her friend didn’t even listen to her advice. Clarice was even offended by her friend’s act of interfering her privacy. Thus, on the next day, they had a row and Betty chose to go back to Barcelona than to stay in between the lover, while Clarice enjoyed it there. Finally, after 2 weeks, Betty finished her research and flew home alone without even saying good bye to her friend. That was the end of their long friendship.

The Big Bang Theory

The big bang theory is the theory that the universe started from a single point, and has been expanding ever since.

This has been well-established by observations, such as the apparent movement of galaxies away from us, and the cosmic microwave background radiation believed to be the leftover light from the big bang.

The evidence for a big bang having taken place about 15 to 20 billion years ago is overwhelming, so I naturally believe that it is the case.

However, if your real question is "why did the big bang happen in the first place?" then that ceases to be an astronomical question, but a religious one.

Some astronomers, who are religious, argue that the big bang theory confirms the existence of God and the basic elements of the creation story as told in the Bible. First came light, then the heavens, then the Earth ...

However, many other scientists do not. Scientists, like people in most any profession, have a vast diversity of religious beliefs. Some of us attend houses of worship, others do not. Some of us consider ourselves very religious, others consider ourselves staunch atheists. Just because we study astronomy does not mean we have any more agreement as to the ``why'' questions than anyone else.

On the other hand, it is safe to say that as scientists we can agree on an approach to learning about nature and the universe. This approach is one of using observations to test theories. And when a theory has been tested as much as the big bang theory, with each test reconfirming its validity, then we believe that it likely true -- at least more true than those theories which have failed the observational tests.