this is how i’m doing: in case you were wondering…

So, I was filling out the Texas common app to apply for grad school at UT Tyler and at the end I get to this question:

“If you are a U.S. citizen and were born outside of the U.S., explain how you became a citizen. If this does not apply to you please note as NA.”

Okay, I’ve filled out the common app a few times and have never had to answer this.  To be honest, it kind of ticked me off.  I already told them I was a U.S. citizen, why the flip does it matter HOW I became a citizen?  If you don’t know, I tend to be a bit of a smart-ass when I get frustrated (I get that, and my citizenship, from my father), so my response:

“Jus Sanguinis.”

If they don’t know Latin (like I don’t) they can google it (like I did).  Jus Sanguinis means “right of blood” which sounds much better than “my dad is a citizen” and is certainly much easier than saying:

“Birth Abroad to One Citizen and One Alien Parent in Wedlock: A child born abroad to one U.S. citizen parent and one alien parent acquires U.S. citizenship at birth under Section 301(g) INA provided the citizen parent was physically present in the U.S. for the time period required by the law applicable at the time of the child’s birth. (For birth on or after November 14, 1986, a period of five years physical presence, two after the age of fourteen is required. For birth between December 24, 1952 and November 13, 1986, a period of ten years, five after the age of fourteen are required for physical presence in the U.S. to transmit U.S. citizenship to the child.”

Consequently the same policy is what kept me from being able to claim dual-citizenship.  Italy is one of those countries that does not grant citizenship by jus solis (right of the soil), only by blood.

That’s it for today’s citizenship lesson.

“But our citizenship is in heaven, and from it we await a Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ, who will transform our lowly body to be like his glorious body, by the power that enables him even to subject all things to himself.” –  Phillippians 3:20-21

After today’s run, I have run for over 24 hours since I started back in April.

Now to reward myself with food

The e-mail “interface” that is.  Back when I was a freshman, using your student e-mail account was a bit of a chore.  For some reason I decided to see if I could still log in through the terminal and it still works!  This was PINE:

I have 184 messages to read…

This is why nobody used their student e-mail account.  Well, that and the ridiculous e-mail addresses they gave us: z_jamespj@titan.sfasu.edu.  Apparently in 2000 we weren’t worried about identity theft — my student ID was my SSN.

Can I just say, I absolutely LOVE working from home and working for myself.  I’m finding out that I’m not much of an 8-5 kind of guy.

Yesterday I decided to spend the day in Jacksonville being a photographer’s assistant for my buddy Jinx.  He had a gig shooting school photo’s for the pre-school at Central Baptist.  From this experience I confirmed two things:

1 - I really want to have kids some day.

2 - I don’t have the patience to be a pre-school teacher.

Honestly, it was like herding cats at times.  It takes a very special kind of person to deal with OTHER peoples kids all day.

I had a pretty good run earlier today — great weather for running!  Now I’ll proceed to spend the rest of the day buried in HTML and PHP and other acronyms that will hopefully keep me self-employed (while watching Discovery Channel).

So, since when was McCain God’s candidate?

I love reading the facebook statuses that now read something like “trying to remember that God is still in control.”  If you, Believer, are now deflated by the nation’s choice for president, then you have bigger problems.

God never promised that our government would save us, or was even for us.  In fact, scripture tells us the opposite.  I really did struggle with my decision to not vote but found peace about my decision a few months ago in 1 Samuel 8.  Israel decides they would rather have a king to put their trust in instead of their God; and He allows it, but not without warning Israel what they were choosing.

I accept that by most people’s standards, I have “no right to complain” because I didn’t vote.  I have no need to complain.  I have no faith in government regardless of race, gender or political party.  This election is in no way a “loss” for Christianity or the Church, nor would it have been a “win” had it gone the other way.  My faith is in Christ and his bride, the Church.