What was 2010

For me, 2010 was (all positives here - not that there were no negatives, but I'd rather focus on the positive):
1. the year of high school graduation
2. the year of my first job
3. the year I read the Lord of the Rings for the first time (well, OK, I'm not quite finished - Return of the King is still left)
4. the year I scored the CWIT scholarship
AND...
5. The year I met six of ten new years goals (goals 1,4,5,6,7, and 10)

My goals for 2010 were:
1. exercise and eat less
2. finish reading through the Bible
3. Serve More
4. Learn how to study
5. Learn to control my tongue and temper
6. Learn to budget and SAVE money (tentative goal, 1000 dollars in addition to what I already had)
7. practice art
8. read all of the Lord of the Rings
9. Learn to knit
10. Blog more consistently

and here's how I think I did:
1 - too vague a goal. But for the most part, yes, because of school food
2 -  Not even close. But I've been working on it since May 2009 and I'll keep going
3 - also vague. I'm not sure now if the things I did this year were what I meant a year ago.
4 - Kinda? being in College made me study more, and I learned where I can study and started making my own cards and stuff, so yes, I guess.
5 - someone who's not me but has known me for a while should tell me if I did this one - I think and hope so!
6 - Done, since this was the most numeric, mathematical goal. Done much better than I expected
7 - I didn't make art, but I gained appreciation for music, and met artists, and learned ballroom dance. which is a kind of art, just not the painting kind I was thinking of. So I suppose yes, but not how I'd expected.
8 - no! I came a LITTLE short. Give me a month's grace and I'll have this one. :D
9 - No. didn't even try. But, I met someone who does knit. maybe I'll get her to teach me. We'll see. this one maybe one of the goals that will fall through the cracks, but if so, no big deal - that happens! and I've been making new years goals since I was 13. some are bound to end up dead.
10 - Well. I have written more posts in 2010 than in 2009 or 2008. So we'll call it a success, even though I don't write as often as I'd like. Mostly, I'm happy it's been running 3 years and is still pretty strong - blogs from people my age tend to die quickly. As always, it's a way to keep writing, keep thinking, keep improving.

Happy New Year Y'all!

Counting my Blessings...

It is often easy to take the life you have for granted, and I've been realizing how I fall into that trap all to often. Based on the Christmas season and approaching New Year, I've been considering the life of my Savior and the things that I've taken for granted about his life, and about how I'm reflecting him, and a lot of stuff that would take a while to go into.

But, in the midst of that, I've also been counting my blessings of family, education, a home, friends, church, and so, so much more.

Going away, meeting new people, and basically starting my adult life at college has been making me see new things. 2011 should bring some actions on those new revalations - at least, my resolutions will tilt that way!

(sorry if this is confusing - I don't want to go into endless detail, but I also wanted to share this thought while I had it. I can give detail if you really want it)

Comfort Foods

Tonight for dinner I had:
Instant Mac and Cheese
Egg Salad Sandwich
Grapefruit Cup

(FYI - I'm eating in my dorm with foods from OutTakes because it's finals week and we're all studying)

Each of those foods serves as a reminder of a loving person.
Mac and Cheese = Uncle Mike
Egg Salad = my sister Abigail
Grapefruit = Bestemor (my grandma)

Why are some foods comfort foods? Because of the thoughts they trigger.
What foods start your memory floods?

Forty Days - Updated

Hi There!
About halfway through my forty day fast from online media! 18 days to go, which gets me right up to Dec. 17th (which is my last final exam for my first semester of college).

Reasons I started this fast and how it's going:
1. Bejewled - I don't miss online gaming at all. For the first couple of days, I'd automatically go for the "Bejeweled" button on Facebook, but I trained myself out of that quickly. I think I may have even deleted the application, as it no longer displays on my homepage and I clicked the remove X, but I'm not sure.

2. Netflix - don't miss it. I still watch movies with friends on the weekends, so it's not like I've gone high and dry from cinema, I just don't watch it by myself on the "Watch Instantly" anymore.

3. Hulu - It's been REALLY hard for me to go without Hulu because that means I don't get to watch 30 Rock.

That was what I was fasting from. However, I discovered PhD comics during my fast and read through an entire 10+ years worth of online comics. I feel like that was cheating. I didn't break the rules of my fast, because that was no games or TV via the internet, but I defeated the purpose of trying to get me to be on the internet less. However, I am benefiting from my withdrawal from movies and games and I have been staying on top of homework and studying much better than before the fast. It hasn't been a total loss.

And there are still 18 more days of fasting - just enough time for final exams to whirl past.

In my Lifetime...

Things that have been done/made in my lifetime that I use:
1. Google(1998)
2. Facebook (2004)
3. Skype (2003)
5. Youtube (2005)
6, Wikipedia (2001)
7. Blogger (1999)
8. Ipods (2001)
9. DVDs (1995)
10. Neopets (1999) / Webkinz (2005) if you do that

Forty Days

Last fall, Nov. 13-15th, I was on a retreat about the Holy Spirit with NavYouth. (http://navyouth.org/)
While there, the speaker challenged us to follow Jesus example and fast from something for forty days, something that was distracting us from the Lord and hearing the voice of the Holy Spirit. I chose to fast from reading fiction, some of my friends said good-bye to Facebook.

I was listening to Adventures in Odyssey about a week ago (yes, I am in college and I listen to a program designed for eight-year-olds.) I've learned a lot from Adventures in Odyssey and they recently ran an episode on fasting.  (http://www.whitsend.org/vault/A000001185.cfm)

This episode reminded me about the retreat, and I decided to test myself again. However, my time-waster has changed from silly little novels to online games and online television. As of Sunday (11/7), I am trying to go forty days without Bejewled Blitz, Neopets, Hulu, or Netflix. I also decided not to check out any movies from the college library, which I have been doing the past few weeks.

Maybe there's something you should give up too? Or, if not, just keep my fast in mind!
I'll try to let you know how it's going every so often, in another attempt to force myself to blog more often!

The Greatest Magic

"The greatest magic is transmuting of passions." - fortune cookie
definition of "transmuting":
transmutation - an act that changes the form or character or substance of something
transmuter - One who, or that which, transmutes


Who are the people who transmuted passions to you?
Are the thoughts you have really something new?
Thinking about my teachers and tutors, my family.
Where my passions and skills were born.
Have you ever heard the phrase "It takes a village to raise a child"?
Think about the "village" that raised you.
Who gave you your first taste of magic?
What got you really excited about life?


I've always been passionate about knowledge. I've always loved the people who poured time into feeding that passion. 


(Sorry that this is so disjointed, it's basically just whatever my brain sent to my hands.)

NaNoWriMo

A lot of my friends do national novel writing month. Last year were were discussing the possibility of simply writing out numbers (eg: one, two, three, etc) as a NaNo project. I decided to figure out the logic to determine what number you'd have to type to in order to get fifty thousand words. The answer is not fifty thousand, because you have to account for the fact that "one hundred" is two words, even thought it is only one number. Here's the result of my figuring:

1-19 one word per number = 19

20, 30, 40, 50, 60, 70, 80, 90 are each 1 = 8

21-29 = 18, also 31-39, 41-49, 51-59, 61-69, 71-79, 81-89, 91-99, so 9*18 = 162

Total words for 1-100: 189

101-120 – 3 each, 60 words

121-129 – 4 each, 36 words, also 131-139, etc., 9*36, 324 words

130,140,150,160,170,180,190 – 3 each, 8*3 = 24 words

200 – one word

Total words for 100-200:409

every group of 100 is the same up to 1000, so 9*409 = 3681

TOTAL WORDS FOR numbers up to 1000: 3870

For 1000-2000: one thousand is two more words, 2000 plus the original 3870 is 5870

Repeat 9 times to get to ten thousand (first time prefix number is 2 words) -52,830

That's over the NaNo requirement of 50 thousand words.

To get exactly fifty thousand: not quite possible, but going up to 9748 will get you to 49999 words, so if you start with zero, 9748 gets you to 50, 000 words.

That's my NaNo algorithm for mathematically minded novelists. If you're interested in learning more about NaNo for normal people, the website is www.nanowrimo.org, and the challenge is a fifty thousand word novel in one month.

Love Languages Series Introduction

The idea behind this series is to talk about how I respond to the "Five Love Languages" as spelled out by Gary Chapman. They are as follows:
1. Physical Touch
2. Words of Affirmation
3. Quality Time
4. Acts of Service
5. Gifts

This stems from my intention to write a blog post about the safe ways to show affection in college, which then changed to thinking about the love languages. It may take me a while to ever finish this series as there is perpetual homework or studying to do, but I decided to try, hoping it will help give me some blogging discipline and force me to practice writing here.

Nerds v. Geeks

I've been discussing what defines someone as a nerd. I'm a girl in Computer Science, I study all the time, read like crazy, know random facts that normal people don't know, and wear glasses. For some people, that makes me automatically a nerd. For others, to be a nerd, you have to be into video games. For others, it's different.

So, I figured that maybe I wasn't a nerd. Maybe they were right. So I started looking into the word geek. But  I learned that "geek" is also defined differently. For example, the Geek Squad from Best Buy is considered to be a sort of "elite" retail job. There are also "Harry Potter geeks" "Pokemon geeks" and other type specific geeks who are not necessarily into math or computers or science.

So, where does that leave me? The nerds don't want me - I'm not techy enough for them. But the geeks don't want me either-I'm too broad a category for them, not being obsessive over something specific.

How do you define "geek" and/or "nerd"? (Please don't be derogatory. That's rude.)

Raoul v. the Phantom

I have gone on a kick of listening to musicals while I work on my homework. Without it, it's far to quite in my dorm while I study. So, I've been listen to 1776 and The Phantom of the Opera via YouTube.

If you don't know the story of The Phantom of the Opera, here's a synopsis from Wikipedia (of the musical):
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Phantom_of_the_Opera_(1986_musical)#Synopsis
and of the book:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Phantom_of_the_Opera#Plot
(They are slightly different).

I was surprised by the way people responded to the Phantom. The majority of the YouTube population was pitted against Raoul, Christine's childhood sweetheart, as her lifelong companion, and in favor of the Phantom.

I understand what people say about Raoul (from the musical) being a selfish, pampered man who has no respect for Christine's career. However, people often overlook the fact that he was behaving the way society dictated in asking Christine to give up her singing when she married him, as well as the fact that Christine happily agreed.

I also understand why people pity the Phantom. The musical is written in such a way as to make you see him as a sad boy who was never loved and denied his musical talents because of his face. However, people don't consider how scary he really is. This is a man who has lived underground for many years, who has secret passageways into a young girl's dressing room, hangs stagehands to make points, and is generally insane. You cannot justify the fact that he is crazy and kidnapped Christine. I don't care how much she appears to love him at the end of the musical. A) It's not really love, just her compassion and B)he's a total creeper!

I'm not saying Raoul is the right choice either. However, in the novel, he seems to truly love her and suffers quite a lot to be with her. According to the novel, they elope and the Phantom dies. I highly suggest that fans of the musical read the novel - it's got more of a horror aspect, but is also extremely interesting and provides some background to the characters (like, the Phantom's first name).

On the second musical I've been listening too, 1776, I want to encourage everyone to see it - it is silly, yes, but is quite fun and very true to John and Abigail Adams' real relationship (which was far better than either of the relationships Christine Daae had!). If you do watch it, read this note on historical accuracy, just so you don't fail your APUSH exam! (AP US History)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1776_(musical)#Historical_accuracy

Future Archaeology

Like so many of my posts, this started as an idea for a Facebook status.

I had been looking through my facebook history for a status that I'd posted a week or so ago. In the process, I discovered pictures I'd been tagged in, videos I'd linked too, conversations I'd had, and status postings that I had forgotten I had written. Facebook is such a day by day (for some hour by hour) event. We forget what we posted on Facebook the same way we forget what we had for dinner yesterday.

But, unlike our dinner, our Facebook history never goes away.

I think that in the future, archaeologists will have to be computer scientists who dig through years worth of old facebook posts and pictures to discover the lives of people of the past.

Won't that be interesting? Imagine what they'll think, reading your comments on people's various walls, your inside jokes that you post via facebook, wondering what on earth a "poke" is, contemplating the different significances of "liking" someones status and generally trying to understand the part of our culture that is Facebook.

I wonder if they'll see the millions of groups protesting the changes Facebook made over the years. I wonder if they'll be able to dig deep enough to find old Facebook somewhere. How many of you remember the days before Facebook? your first status? your first wall post? the names of ALL your facebook friends?

The things we do on the internet we do without thinking. I think it would be fun to see people of the future trying to figure it out. It even goes beyond facebook to your email inbox, your blog, your class websites, EVERYTHING.

Two Men - Real or Fiction?

Sunday Night I was all alone in my dorm room and had done most of my homework. So I watched the Young Victoria and then I was enjoying netflix so much I watched Julie and Julia.

I recommend watching both of those movies, they are fun. But I found something really interesting while watching them. In each of the movies there was the female protagonist (Victoria and Julia) and each one had a husband (Albert and Paul). In both movies, the wife was generally more important and more successful than her husband. But, in spite of that, the husband is clearly the 'head' of the marriage because the wife looks up to him.

Example: Albert was far inferior to Victoria. He would never be a majesty, while she was one. However, he found ways to be useful in the palace, to protect her and, in one scene, chooses not to argue with her but instead leave the room. He wanted to be her hero instead of Lord Melbourne - and in the end, he was.

Example 2: At the beginning, Paul has a good job, but at the end of the movie he's lost it because of government problems. Julia's cookbook is far more successful than his job, but he still keeps her going and supports her through it all. He lets her go crazy with her book and helps her when it doesn't succeed.

Disclaimer: I realize that these were movies and not the real men. But I'd like to hope the movie men were based on the real men. And, real or fiction, both those husbands exhibited greatness, I think. They were the head, yes, but supporting, gracious heads who respected their wives and were in turn respected and loved. I think that's what people mean when they say a man should be the head of a marriage, and with that I wholeheartedly agree. What do you think?

Will you marry me (on Facebook)?

How many of your Facebook friends are listed as married?

Now, if you're in your teens, how many of them are ACTUALLY married?

That's what I thought.

Recently, I've been seeing a lot of "Facebook marriages" pop up. So-and-so is my wife on Facebook. After said relationship is made "Facebook official", a set of comments follow that include virtual marital fights, virtual pregnancies, virtual divorces, you name it. In fact, often times other sorts of relationships get involved as well, as the "couple" invites children into their family, setting up a whole web that covers all their friends.

I realize these marriages are meant to be harmless little games, just having fun and laughing together, or maybe making an artificial commitment to a real dating relationship. Regardless of what these marriages are meant to be, I think the subtle effect is making real marriage less powerful.

If you look at the things that generally occur in Facebook marriages, you see a pattern of fights and eventually, they change back to being single. Outside of Facebook, the two friends will probably be just fine. Even on Facebook, after their virtual divorce has gotten off the news feed, their relationship will go back to normal. However, I think treating online marriages like a joke will result in treating actual marriage like a joke. Which will result in a lot of the fake things happening on Facebook - marriage, adoption, divorce - happening in real life.

Am I right? (I could just be ranting about a personal pet peeve - but I think I'm right)

Some Nature Facts...

I'm sorry for ignoring my blog recently. I will attempt to post more often and about more relevant stuff, I'm just trying to figure out a blog theme of some sort for the summer. (Suggestions welcome)

For today, some fun nature facts that I was sent in relation to camp wildflowers (but since I'm not going to make it there this year I'm posting them here now).

~ A sliced carrot looks like a human eye - and carrots enhance blood flow to the eyes
~ Tomatoes have four chambers and are red - your heart also has these characteristics and tomatoes are pure heart & blood food.
~ Walnuts look like little brains - and develop neuron-transimitters for brain functions
~ onions look like cells - and help clear waste from cells

There were tons more - I just didn't fee like typing them all. Anyways, awesome little helath reminders!

Moral Dilemma?

I read this story in Willow Temple my new book from HoCoPoLitSo, and found it fascinating, so I thought I'd post it on for you all.

"A husband and wife named Raoul and Marie lived in a house beside a river next to a forest. One afternoon, Raoul...had to travel to Paris overnight on business. As soon as he left, Marie paid the Ferryman one franc to row across the river to the house of her lover, Pierre....Just before dawn, Marie dressed to go home to be sure that she'd arrive before Raoul....When she reached the Ferryman, she discovered that she had neglected to bring a second franc...She asked the Ferryman to trust her, she would pay him back. He refused "a rule is a rule" he said.

If she walked north by the river she could cross it on a bridge, but between the bridge and her house a Murderer lived in a forest and killed anyone who entered....Marie returned to Pierre's house...to borrow a franc....Pierre awoke hearing her but he was tired and...went back to sleep. Marie returned to the Ferryman. She would give him ten francs by mid morning. He refused to break the rules of his job; they told him cash only; he did what they told him. Marie returned to Pierre's with the same lack of result, as the sun started to rise.

Desperate, she ran north along the riverbank, crossed the bridge, and entered the Murderer's forest."
(credit to Donald Hall)

Later in the story it asks, Which of the characters in the story is morally most responsible for Marie's death?"

The options are: Raoul, Marie, Pierre, Ferryman, Murderer.
There is no "right" answer - actually, in the story, it offers justification and arguments for all characters. Who do you think? Defend your choice to me (but don't pick on other people's defenses!)

EIGHTEEN

Today, I am Eighteen years old.
I have a custom of writing letters to myself on my birthday to myself in a year (I know, I know, it's weird.) So, today I read a letter from a year ago and I thought it would be fun to share bits of it with you. Here goes!

Dear Eighteen,
Wow. Right about now you'll be graduating high school. Are you scared? Because I am. I don't feel ready to face college and leave an environment that I only just feel comfortable with. I don't want to face the crisis that I expect will come soon. I'm scared, and you probably are too.

That explains pretty well how I STARTED this year, but fortunately, I don't feel that way anymore! I'm more self confident, and although I'm sad to be leaving high school, but I'm looking around the bend with excitement and not fear.

Give my love to Julie, She's been such an encouragement, an inspiration and reminder to pursue holiness. I hope you have had a wonderful year with her. Also, to Lindsey, who counts you as one of her best friends. Remember that, because I know sometimes you doubt it.

Despite the gagging at my overly sappiness, that is still true - Julie, you're still, if not more, awesome, and Lindsey, you are just as energetic, and I no longer doubt how much you love me (even though I still make you mad - now I just know you love me in spite of the mad-ness).

I've got to know, did you finish the Bible reading program? If not, try again, please.

Umm...I'm in the process of finishing. I'm about halfway through and hope to be finished at nineteen.

Eighteen, I don't know what the world has in store for you, but I promise you, God loves you and you are a confident, talented young lady. Go tell Ms. M I love her, and have a marvelous year, discovering the person we're about to become. Love, Seventeen

The sappiness of this letter aside, I did really enjoy considering how I've grown in the past year based on this letter and the thoughts it evoked. If I could go back it time, this is what I'd write in response.

Dear Seventeen,
Your senior year was a blast, as is should be, but not without it's pitfalls. I can't tell you how much you changed, but our confidence level from you to me is, like, tenfold. This past year, you learned a lot about studying the Bible - which really helped. This past year, you continued to strengthen your relationships with all of your friends.

Seventeen, I am so different from what you thought I'd be. Neither of us can imagine who Nineteen will be, but I'll bet she's taking the best of both of us forward with her into college and the rest of her life, and I'll bet she's thankful for the people who helped her along the way, just like I'm thankful for the people who transformed you into me. Love, Eighteen.

Monopoly, etc.

"never make a promise you can't keep". Guess I shouldn't have promised to blog when I wasn't going to. Oh well.

Today we finished playing Monopoly in my AP economics class. I learned that not everyone plays the same way - kind of like Settlers of Catan or Ninja or other popular games that evolve different rules over time.

Some of the rules I learned this week:
1. when you land exactly on GO, you get 400 instead of 200.
2. When you run out of hotels at the end of a game, five houses can be used as an equivalent (I've never played this way because I was told the scarcity of buildings was a planned strategic part of the game)
3. If you don't collect your cash for passing GO before the end of your turn, you lose it.
4. You may not buy two monopolies that come in a row (AKA you may not own an entire side of the board)
5. Get out a jail free cards are worth $50 when returned to the bank unused.
6. Free parking money has a 200 dollar minimum - the bank refills it every time.
7. properties that are not bought when landed on are put up for auction.
8. It is a legal trade to agree to "not pay rent" on certian locations
9. There is a speed version of monopoly - divy up properties right away and roll 3 die(not sure how it really works, cause it changes the chance of landing on squares)


I wonder if the game inventors intended for all these "house rules". Do they make the game better or worse? Do they change chance of winning? Are they "fair"? What do you think?

(side note - if you read my blog posts on Facebook, please go to my actual blog and sign yourself up as a "follower", it ups my standings and gives me more layout options - www.inmyfathershands.blogspot.com)

borrowing a song...

So, I'm sorry for my long absense - two weeks of AP tests swept me away from all kinds of life and into a whirlwind of testing.

Today I was thinking about writing something about how useless school has become for me, akin to SparkNotes SparkLife posts, but I went on Facebook before blogging and saw Josh's video link to this song and thought it was awesome and so I "borrowed" it from him to let you all experience it too, cause it's a cool song! (and I promise I will write the funny one tomorrow.)


Safe Lyrics
Verse:
To the one who's dreams are falling all apart
And all you're left with is a tired and broken heart
I can tell by your eyes you think your on your own
but you're not all alone

Have you heard of the One who can calm the raging seas
Give sight to the blind, pull the lame up to their feet
With a love so strong and never let you go
oh you're not alone

Chorus:
You will be safe in His arms
You will be safe in His arms
'Cause the hands that hold the world are holding your heart
This is the promise He made
He will be with You always
When everything is falling apart
You will be safe in His arms

Verse 2:
Did you know that the voice that brings the dead to life
Is the very same voice that calls you to rise
So hear Him now He's calling you home
You will never be alone

Bridge:
These are the hands that built the mountains
the hands that calm the seas
These are the arms that hold the heavens
they are holding you and me

These are hands that healed the leper
Pulled the lame up to their feet
These are the arms that were nailed to a cross
to break our chains and set us free

http://www.elyricsworld.com/safe_lyrics_phil_wickham.html
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EDk7zoCJfFk

The Pursuit of Knowledge

Yesterday I went to the library (which is AWESOME). So, anyways, I was looking for books on Queen Victoria to do some reading up on her after having seen the young Victoria from Redbox. I went to the library and found the Dewey number that referenced Queen Victoria. There were TONS of books about English history, and I realized just how much I haven't learned, how much stuf there is in the world to research. Last year I did a project on William Willberforce for World History and I realized just how many legislations that man influenced in Parliament.

Well, back to my story. I picked out a book from the Victorian history section and went to get some books for my younger siblings from the kids section, feeling woefully unread. But, in the kids section, I was looking through the Berinstein Bear books and I had read almost EVERY single one as a kid. I remembered the different plots and thought about the different life lessons I learned from the books. In fact, most of the books I looked at in the kids section I remembered reading.

This thought has been a recurring feeling. This year I've been learning how to study the Bible from two Bible college graduates. The more they teach, the more I lean, but also, the more I realize I don't know. I've taken 27 classes at the end of this year, but there's SO many I didn't take that would have been SO much fun and interesting.

The more I learn, the stronger my desire to learn more. I will ALWAYS be in the Pursuit of Knowledge. (and, having "recently" read The pursuit of holiness, maybe I need to consider how I can be honoring ald glorifying God in this pursuit!)

Class of Twenty-Ten (for your amusement)

It seems to me that people who are not part of the class of "twenty-ten" have some problems figuring out what to call us. Here's an easy guide to what we're NOT, and then you'll clearly see why we are "twenty-ten-ers".

Things we are not:
1. "class of oh-ten"
because eventually it will be 2020, and NO one would say "oh twenty". In fact, the juniors don't even say "oh-eleven", they say "one-one" (but don't call us the class of "one-oh" either!! That only worked for the oh-number classes...)

2. "class of two thousand and ten"
*yawn* far too long, too likely to write an extra zero...and people didn't say "nineteen hundred and ten" they said "nineteen-ten"

3. "class of Two Thousand Ten"
this is better than the previous one, but, think about 1999. Were they the class of "nineteen thousand, nine hundred and nine"? No. In general, saying the "two thousand" bit is just so...last year. Literally. ;)

More Reasons we are the class of "twenty-ten"

1. Alliteration is AWESOME and totally our thing (Flannel Fridays, anyone?!?)

2. being the class of "twenty-ten" highlights the fact that we've lived in THREE decades, 2 centuries and 2 millenia. Regardless of what those 1989 kids say.

3. being the class of "twenty-ten" shows that, inspite of senior-itis, we are still capable of counting by tens, backwards.

So, as a PROUD "twenty-ten-er", I hope this cleared up your confusion, if you happen to be one of the sad members of the "twenty eleven" class, or of the "oh-nine" class, or of any other not as awesome year. ;-)

This is it...

Imagine a movie sequence. This movie is probably R rated. Two lovers are passionately caught up in one another, involved in an affair that they think is private and making love. Suddenly, the door is flung open, the sheet is pulled back and they are lying there, exposed to the world. The police and government officials are there. Somehow, the man disappears, and the woman is dragged through the streets, taken to be judged.

Sound intense? exciting? familiar (anyone)?

This is it. This is the Bible. The Bible deals with real life, with sex, with mess.

For the rest of the story, you can go to John 8. My point is, this is it, this is the Bible. Intense.

Oh Canada...

In case you didn't know, yours truly is currently in Toronto for an engineering convention. Here's some fun notes about Canada to keep you all updated on my trip:

~ The bathrooms are "wash rooms" NOT "rest rooms" (when we asked for the rest room our poor tour guide was very confused)

~ EVERYTHING is bilingual. Example: one side of the water bottle is in English, turn it around and you see the exact same thing in French. I wonder if the US is headed there with Spanish and English?

~ You are NOT an "American", you are "from the States". I'm only starting to realize how snobby we must sound by implying we are the ONLY americans on north america.

~ There's a lot of british spelling. Ex: I'm staying in the Sheraton "Centre" and not the Sheraton "Center".

~DO NOT JAYWALK. unlike the US, the crosswalks are fast in responding, and there are monorail cars that CANNOT stop if you jaywalk. (fortunatly, none of us have experienced this, we were just told by our tour guide)

~ Toronto is home to the 2nd tallest building and the longest street in the world, according to Guiness Book of World Records.

~ Today I got told I had a Baltimore accent by a Canadian. I found it hilarious because I really don't, my chaperone does and I've just been picking some of it up from her.

That's what SHE said

This post has been a LONG time in coming.
In case you aren't caught up on your teenager slang, "That's what she said" is something said to indicate sexual innuendo in a conversation. (Sometimes the innuendo is a bit of a stretch).

I absolutely CANNOT stand "That's what she said" jokes. They can take the most serious of conversations and turn them into inappropriate giggle fests. They are generally misplaced and completely unnecessary.

Not surprisingly, "That's what she said" jokes are generally made by guys. Honestly, guys, I don't understand why you have to snicker at them all the time, can you PLEASE act your age and NOT turn everything into a sexual joke? It's awkward and annoying. I lose respect for you every time you make one. I want you all to be the gentlemen I know you are capable of being, but when you make that's what she said jokes, you are the furthest thing from a gentleman on the face of this earth.

Now, before I get accused of being sexist, I KNOW that girls make "That's what she said" jokes also. They have no excuse, it is just as bad in them.

I spend a lot of time with guys (as the career path I've chosen is male dominated, I'll continue to do so) and I would LOVE if the next time I spend time with them I'm not banging my head against the wall because all they can say is "That's what she said"

Scripture Saturday

Ephesians 4:29
"Let no corrupting talk come out of your mouths, but only that which is good for building up, as fits the occasion, that will give grace to those who hear."

I've chosen to memorize this verse this week. It seems to fit so well with this day and society, when putting other people down is so easy and when slander and swearing is becoming increasingly common.

I also think it applies to regular conversation - often I feel that I have spoken to soon or to quickly or at the wrong time and that I should have just kept my mouth shut, and if I had stopped to think for just a few seconds I would have realized this. The second half of the verse applies to the bromide "Think before you speak."

I, being someone who loves to write and make herself heard and gets love from words, often forget that sometimes my words may not be appropriate.

Cross-References with more thoughts about speech, if you are interested:
Ephesians 5:4; Col 3:8; Matt 12:34, Col 4:6; Eccles 10:12

It's the little things that matter

Today, I walked out of school later than usual because I stayed after for MESA.
Today, as I walked out of school, three different teachers took notice of me.
Today, three different teachers showed me that they cared about me, just by saying,
"Have a great evening, Emily!"(Knox) "Hola Emilia!" (Ferrell) and "Take Care, Emily" (Ditman)

Have you ever noticed how important little things are? Not one of those teachers probably really thought extra hard about saying good-bye to me - it's just what they do everyday. Every single day they invest in my life as a high school student and many many others.

This extends beyond teachers as well, to the people I work with in the church nursery and my neighbors and the ladies I baby-sit for and on and on - little things they say to show they're interested in my life and care about me make such a difference.

Now, how can I resolve to make differences to other people in the same way?

Musicals

So, for a long, long time I have had a love/hate relationship with musicals. I really enjoy the productions, but I also find theatre people to be very clique-like.

First of all, that way of thinking is very self centered. (I enjoy them, I find theatre people clique-y)

Second, I learned that theatre people don't mean to be clique-y, they just spend a LOT of time together. like, way more than is probably necessary.

Third, today I painted sets for the Howard musical, and I am going to do one of the things that I have always seen as annoying - shamelessly advertise.

Thursday, Friday and Saturday of this week, starting at seven PM, Howard High School, Once Upon a Mattress. Come see 'my' set, and watch some of my friends perform. From the costumes I saw today (and the set I'm painting) it will be a really pretty, colorful, exciting show.

Are you addicted?

Yesterday I was journaling a prayer and I realized something. I am addicted. I am a hopeless case - I've been feeding my addiction for years and haven't ever realized it, but now, as I've matured, my addiction has matured. I have continued to feed the beast, and now I'm not sure if I can return tolife without filling up with my 'drug'.

Want to know what I'm addicted to?

I'm a hopeless romantic. There, I've told you. I am addicted to chivalry, love stories, happy endings, and, if you really want to get to the guts of it, cute boys.

You probably laughed a little when you read that. You're probably saying, "What's wrong with chivalry?" or "So what, every girl is attracted to cute boys. That doesn't make it an addiction." or "YOU? No way, you're not nearly as flirty and out there as SOME people I could name."

Despite the things you are thinking (or not thinking) to justify me, I am in a deep hole of addiction. I try to hide it from myself by holding my lines of purity at an incredibly high standard (I almost NEVER hug guys). I try to hide it by telling myself that I am not one of those girls who makes marriage an idol, I have a career plan and a way to support myself and I don't care about boys. To some extent, those things are true and good - there's nothing wrong with high purity lines and it's good to have career plans.

However, I think part of the reason I do those things is to keep myself from totally giving in to my addiction. In reality, I gobble up romantic books, watch perfect (and handsome) men on TV, and generally engage in unrealistic dreams and expectations.

I'm not saying that reading love stories or watching those TV shows are bad - but I think I need to cut back on it some, and be careful.

What about you? What are your addictions? How do you feed them?

If you're a girl, maybe you're addicted to boys too. Think about it.

PB&J - not for my campers

There's a certain pride among the J.C's at Camp Wildflowers. All of us like the food at camp and eat copious amounts of it in order to keep our strength up.

There is ALWAYS peanut butter and jelly on the table for the girls to eat when they don't like the food (perish the thought). This tends to become a competition among the J.C's. At the beginning of the week, each of us tells our campers that our cabin is going to be the ones who won't eat any PB&J. Sometimes the girls get involved in it, sometimes they refuse and eat a peanut butter sandwich just to spite us. Regardless, I take personal pride in making the claim that PB&J will NOT be for my campers.

The kind of things I find to take pride in is ridiculous. :)

The joy of programming

(If you are not a computer geeky person, PLEASE still read the entire note - hopefully it will enlighten you, and you can also vote for new posts at the bottom.)

All programming languages have similar construction. There's always a way to state variables, initialize variables (aka give them something to store), loop, create a method/subroutine (aka a mini program to run inside multiple other larger programs), use 'if, else if, else' statements, print your results, etc.

However, not all programming languages take these commands in the same way. Java is different from Visual Basic is different from Python is different from C++ is different from Basic is different from...well, you get the picture.
(for non-programmers, you can always say the word 'tree' in any language, but in Spanish you say 'arbol' and in English you say 'tree', but you mean the same object.)

OK. now that those facts are established for non-programmers. I have created a program for Euler's method (calculus AB) on my TI-84. It uses variables, solves the 4 steps of Euler's, and prints the result. However, I have NO idea how to make the calculator loop through the program multiple times. As a result, I have to retype my results in as new variables EVERY time, instead of just taking the results in some kind of while loop*.

*PROGRAMMERS SKIP THIS(a while loop keeps doing the same thing over and over until something is not true. example: while (you are reading my blog), move your eyes across screen. If that program was in your brain, your eyes would move across the screen until the condition of you reading my blog becomes false. see, very simple.)

OK. So, the part about the 'joy' of programming is that I COULD have left this alone and stopped fiddling with it a LONG time ago, because the person I am sharing the program with will be perfectly happy with the way it is now. BUT, I can't. my problem solving mind is LOVING the challenge and I've been toying with it instead of doing my other homework. It's SO much fun.

So, that was the post for today. If it bored you, my apologies, I was very excited about my program. For the rest of the week I have several ideas, tell me which you want to hear most based on potential titles:
~"tell him one thing" questionnaire (from a contest)
~That's what she said jokes
~PB & J - not for my campers!
~sexist? why and why not
~old arguments/redefined stereotypes
~my writer's notebook
~Due South TV show
~the four year old girlfriend
~seniorits-my symptoms
~college search comments

are we 'family'?

I was planning to write about this before and then a conversation at lunch today sealed the deal.

Saturday I was interviewed at a college. They asked me to give them one word that defined me (I hate those questions, don't you? They box you in so much.) I said 'sister'. I was mostly thinking about my own big family and how they would probably like that definition since the program I was interviewed for calls themselves a family, but now that I think about it, I like it better and better. In church, people always refer to other Christians and 'Brothers and Sisters'. So, that definition also expands to the idea that I am a sister in Christ to so many special, wonderful people. I love that way of thinking about it as well.

My friends often call us a "Tim Team family" (ask me later if you need an explanation of Tim Team). While I would agree that we certainly are very close to one another and share lots of fun moments, I shrinking from calling us a 'family', because in my mind a family means a married couple and their children, if they have any. However, I feel free to call them my Tim Team 'sisters'(or 'siblings', if Dave wishes to be included in the bunch) because they are not only my sisters in Christ but sisters in my heart.

I don't wish to seem legalistic or limiting, but my family is very precious to me, and so I don't use the word lightly. The relationships in a family cannot come close to anything outside of that actual blood relationship(and I don't mean just my immediate family, I have a link to my extended family that is ALSO different but can still claim the name).

So, if you don't mind, I prefer to be your sister rather than your family. I see a connotative distinction between the two. It's a personal preference, but my relationship with my immediate and extended family is special to me in a different way than any friendships could be.

Scripture Saturday

Recently I've been reading the book of Psalms.
I've picked out some of the phrases that stood out particularly to me and then combined them into a 'found' poem. I'd like to have these turned into music, if any of you have any ideas for that.

"All my longing is before you, my sighing is not hidden from you."
"it is you, oh Lord my God, who will answer"
"hold not your peace at my tears"
"For God alone my soul waits in silence; from him comes my salvation"
"Say to my soul, 'I am your salvation!'"
"My soul thirsts for God, for the living God!"
"By day the Lord commands his steadfast love, at night is song is with me"
"How precious is your steadfast love O Lord!"
"Hope in God, for I shall again praise him, my salvation & God!"
"My soul will be satisfied when I remember you"

Remington Steele ('Film' Friday)

If you are my facebook friend, then you have most likely seen my new profile picture, showing Stephanie Zimbalist and Pierce Brosnan in the NBC show Remington Steele. The reason that is my current profile is because I am regretting the fact that I have now watched every Steele episode available on Hulu. There is a fourth season and 2 wrap-up movie style episodes, but they are currently not avaliable on Hulu (I'd love to see them though, I'm trying an inter-library loan search).

First, what started me on my Steele addiction - I was looking for a gift for my dad for his birthday. My dad really likes the Rockford Files. (another fun show, stars James Garner) I was looking for something similar to that. My mom suggested Remington Steele, and all of a sudden I had a new obsession!

The Remington Steele opening sequence for the first season sums up the show fairly well - it goes like this, narrated by Laura Holt, one of the main characters:

"How's this for a deep dark secret? The great detective Remington Steele? He doesn't exist. I invented him. Follow - I always loved adventure, so I studied and worked and apprenticed, and put my name on a office, but absolutely no one knocked down my door. A female private investigator seemed so 'feminine'. So, I invented a superior. A decidedly masculine superior. Suddenly there were cases around the block! Until the day that he walked in, with his big blue eyes and mysterious past, and before I knew it, he'd assumed Remington Steele's identity. Now I do the work and he takes the bows. It's a dangerous way to live, but as long as people buy it. We never mix business with pleasure - well, ALMOST never. I don't even know his real name!"

So, that sums up the plot! The series advances along with their relationship. Laura's two friends who helped her start the business leave after the second season, and then they have to keep up their facade for the new secretary. In the third season, Remington has become more of an equal partner, but they can only solve mysteries together if they put their personal lives aside (meaning they cannot date one another). In the fourth season, the couple starts discovering more about his mysterious past as Remington opens up to Laura.

Thoughtful Thursday

So. It is Thursday, my day for being thoughtful. I started my Internet time for this afternoon with NO good thoughtful things in my head. I went to my blog's sidebar for inspiration for good, deep, thoughtful posts. Bad Idea. My search led my to some great stuff(my favorites being patrianoceu's* little princess post, Caleb's** thoughts on C.S. Lewis, Josh Harris's blurb about Gina Welch, and John Grogan's*** article "Bringing home Marley").

Anyways, after I had read those post I felt LESS inspired, not MORE inspired. I felt like, these people have so much more interesting thoughts than I do, they actually have faithful blog readers who are NOT just their friends, and generally take more time and consideration in their writing than I do.

So, to remind me, and to let you know if you don't already, the reasons I am still blogging even though I do not have a huge following or even very interesting things to say:
~keeps my writing in practice
~keeps me disciplined (when I remember to blog, I also remember to do other things that I try to do daily)
~it's relaxing.
~it gives me a place to say things that I'm thinking about.

Of course, now that I've been writing a post about how I have no ideas, I have lots of ideas! so I'll write them down and hopefully keep my juices flowing for my thoughtful thursdays!




*to encourage thoughtful ways (she's renamed it, I need to rename it on my blog, now it's "a thousand words")
**my married-into-the-role cousin (grace notes)
***HIGHLY recommend reading both his books. He's a very considerate man - took time to email me back with some writing tips when I asked him, encouraged me to keep this blog running!

Well-Read Wednsday

"Someday, Angeline..."

This line, repeated oh so often in the children's novel, Someday Angeline by Louis Sacher, is the definition of the relationship between Angeline and her father. Startled by his daughter's almost supper natural intelligence, Angeline's dad constantly feels that it will be impossible to live up to his daughter. Because of this, he hardly ever speaks to her, and their relationship suffers. Angeline, an intelligent but lonely eight year old, has only one dream in life - to be just like her dad. This admiration goes all the way to the point where she volunteers to be her classrooms "Secretary of Trash" so that she can collect garbage, just like her father does. One day, this rocky relationship changes when Angeline meets Gary Boone (Goon) and his teacher, Miss. Turbone (called Mr. Bone accidentally). As Angeline loses her loneliness, she branches out to turn "Someday" into "Today". Tihs novel has an excellent handle on childhood emotions and leads to some interesting ideas about human nature, but at the same time is written in a simple, easy to read language.

(That was very much the style of a book review - my apologies if it does not seem all that interesting, I was trying to write like an official book reviewer. What do you think? did I succeed in the style? In my real voice, Someday Angeline was a really cute book that was a fun read for half an hour-ish.)

Tiny Talk Tuesday

From ten years old on down, little kids say the oddest things!

S(holding an icicle): I'm Zeus with a thunder bolt! you're dead!

N: The other side of the earth stole all the warm sun - that's why it's so cold!
& Oh, Mulan. That's a GIRL movie.

R: "I don't say funny things, only babies say funny things"

C: "I want to show you something really, really funny." (she plays a clip of a scream from the PBSKIDS website) "wasn't that really, sooo funny?!?"

Moniker Monday

So - I had a post for Scripture Saturday, but my blog oddly malfunctioned and you will just have to wait until next Saturday for it.

Moniker Monday - I have been reading a lot of things on Facebook from Urban Dictionary, and out of curiosity looked some names - this is what it came up with, funny and sweet (the definitions I chose, not the top).

EMILY
1.) An Emily is a female with big aspirations in life. She's likely to go far.
Emilys don't care what others think. However, they care about themselves. They don't dress up for OTHERS, they dress up because they WANT to look good. Emilys are very open and gentle. These girls are creative to the max and tend to have artistic abilities. Emilys are fantastic friends and are absolutely adorable. If you find an Emily, hold onto her. She's a keeper.

2.)An Emily, is one who rides unicorns. All Emily's have the magic talent to ride a unicorn anywhere they want. Normally the unicorn is pink, but sometimes can be other colors, like dark pink. If you see an Emily, make sure you bring up the topic about unicorns, and watch as she she goes on and on about them. Unicorns are very special to Emily's and it's easy to know what to get an Emily for her birthday!

3.)A being of mystical proportion. She is quite possibly the greatest karaoke singer of all time, though she hides these talents behind her ninja mask. It is said that her stubborn demeanor has caused many to simply give up in trying to defeat her. She is the only known being to be capable of smiling and then doing an impression of a smile, whilst smiling.

LOTUS
1.) A popular british sports car manufacturer founded by Colin Chapman with the ambition to build the best sportscars in the world using his philosphy of performance through lightweight. The current line of cars are the elise and the exige including many other version of these including the exige cup 240. They all hav a fibreglass body. Despite their low horsepower (189 in the exige) they are comparable in speed with cars twice as expensive including various Porches and BMW's.

2.)A flower that represents purity,
beauty, strength, and divine nature in Buddhist culture. Specific meanings depend on the color of the petals, and whether the bud is closed or blooming.

3.)In Pokemon, A highly defensively-oriented stat booster who walls on one side by boosting its attacking and defensive stats in its walling side and healing off damage, then sweeps when it gets to max boosts. Lotuses use the moves Curse or Calm Mind as their boost moves

Film (and Forgive me) Friday

So, to my oh-so-faithful-readers (also known as my bestest friends who creep on me), my sincere apologies for breaking my daily blogging discipline - I took an impromptu day off from the internet yesterday because I had a splitting headache and took a nap to feel better rather than making myself feel worse by looking at a LCD screen. Plus, in my tired state of mind, I had no good things to say on "Thoughtful Thursday".

OK. so much for the "Forgive me" part of Friday - now for the film. Today's comes from a fellow blogger and the father of two of the sweetest little girls in existence. I really encourage you to check out his blog, http://blog.hopeforemily.com/

If you do that you will find my video of the week. I found it really easy to understand and extremely eye-opening to what SMA means for kids.

Witty Wendsday

Have you noticed teacher's propensity to assign vocab stories? Did you notice how I used the word propensity in a sentence? Here's 2 of my vocab assignments, one from this year, one from tenth grade. You can see how I have fun with these - enjoy!

English 10 GT
November 27, 2007
A Succinct Statement
Some students do not enjoy writing short stories, which lack rhetoric (Adjective Clause), because when they do all creativity seems to be defunct. There are many dogmatic opinions on this point. Writing short stories (Gerund Phrase) is an abstract assignment that does not requires students to be adroit, and instead forces their originality to be pliable and dictated. Assigning students to write (infinitive phrase) a short story is a cryptic way of telling them that their teacher is bored. Since Mrs. Lawrence, an idyllic English teacher, (Absolute Phrase) has not yet seemed to be bored with her classes, (Adverb Clause) her assigning short stories is ostensibly seen as a peccadillo for which she will not be held accountable. It can be emphatically assured that her logistics for future lessons will circumspect any more short stories, especially since that could cause a pandemic of choleric students rioting against being forced to write baubles of fiction instead of good, factual essays. (Adverb clause) It is expected that palpable results of change will be shown in order to wipe out all memory of this mistake.

Although some students may be against short stories, the philippic statement above is not what I think about writing short stories. I’m actually ebullient about them. I enjoy trying to fit all the vocabulary words into a humorous hodgepodge of sentences!


English 12 AP
Vocab unit 3 - December 2009
Writer’s Block
“This is the story about a girl who…,” I stared at the page blankly. There was a plethora of words to choose from, but an annoying lack of creative topics in my head. The persiflage of my classmates buzzed around my head as I looked at the vocabulary. I knew we were going to be asked to write a story, and generally creative writing was one of my fortes, but I could not write a whole story in just one page. A story needed to have a beginning, middle, and an end, but there was more to well written fiction than only these pragmatic concerns. Good fiction needed plot, character development, dialogue! These factors were not simply ancillary, they were vital to good stories!
As I scribbled down these frustrated thoughts, other students looked at me quizzically. They didn’t recognize that writing, for me, has many therapeutic benefits. I erased the beginning of my story from the top of my page and began again. “This is the tale of Marvin the mountebank, a man who liked to cozen children and rodents with his pipe.” “Well”, I thought, “at least I have a beginning. However, it sounds unusually like The Pied Piper of Hamlin.” Frustrated again, I erased my second attempt.
Resting my chin in my hands, I stared off into the distance as I began to imagine a religious icon who would cause a schism by creating paeans about himself and calling it the Word of God. Now there was a story you could really enjoy. But unfortunately I had run out of time – the bell was ringing and my page was only filled with the restless scribbling of my random mind. Then, when I looked more closely, I realized that I had used several vocabulary words. Quickly, I highlighted them in pink and scrawled my name and a title at the top. “It may not be a story”, I thought, “but at least it is interesting!” That, my friend, is the story of the term, “writer’s block”.

Tiny Talk Tuesday

Yesterday I was doing my physics homework and there was a picture of a ballerina leaping into the air to illustrate center of mass changing. My four year old sister came in and was looking over my shoulder, and she asked me, "Where's the nutcracker?"

I was confused at first, but then when she turned the page to see if he was on the next page I figured out that she was talking about the ballet she'd seen with my dad this Christmas. So I had to explain to her that this was my science book, not a ballet story. She said, "Oh. Well, science is pretty!"

I hope she keeps thinking that!

Memory Monday

When I was a little girl, we would go to my grandma's house to meet with my cousins for holidays (like Chinese New Year). One of those times, when I only had four sisters (so at least 10 years ago), my uncle told us a story about five wild girls (me, my two sisters and our two cousins) and how they lived in the woods and how they swung on vines and were, generally, wild. Apparently one day they meet a prince (aka him) who was lost.

At this point the story had several different endings. He started by telling us that the wild girls helped the prince and made him their king, but we protested at this ending and so he started retelling it, having the prince riding through the forest, lost and alone and eventally falling down a waterfall to wait for the wild girls to show pity on him and take him as thier servant. I never heard if they did or not, because at that point my uncle feel of the couch to illustrate his story and it got a little to realistic for my little cousin. She went over and started pulling on his arm and saying, 'Daddy, get up!'

For years after that, when we would get together as a family we'd play "Wild Girls" and plan ways to attack "the prince" (who probably regretted his story after the first telling)

The "Wild Girls" team has been disbanded for six years, but I can still see the first wild girls day very clearly in my head and hear the first time Uncle Dan told us the "Tale of the Wild Girls". I was once of a group of Amazonian women - can you believe it?

1 John 3:18

"Let us not love with words or tongue but with action and in truth"

This links to a previous post (about saying I love you).
There are lots of different ways to show you love someone (like giving them a blood orange *grin*).
There's also all that literature about the 5 love languages or the eight ways to show love and all that other stuff.
Valentine's day is all about loving with action (gifts mainly, but other stuff as well).

The harder, and therefore more interesting part, is loving in truth. On the memory card that came from my brother's Sunday School, there's a picture of the Bible to represent truth. I've read the whole chapter, and while I'm not totally sure the verse is pointing to that, it's an interesting thought - love someone in truth. Does that mean give them the truth? Tell them the truth? love them like Christ (example from truth)? I have to think about it and read some more before I can truly say! What do you think it means?

First Film Friday

So, I was reading over my last post and I am going to add that if I so choose, I can change Wednesday to Witty Wednesday and/or Friday to Fun Friday or Thursday to Thrilling Thursday in order to get some more amusing things in.

Anyways, today's blurb is on the Brady Girls Getting Married Movie, also known as the Brady Brides. I watched it over the long snow week off with my sisters. It was cute,(I liked Jan's fiancee Philip - he was so nerdy! ^_^) and it's the only Brady Movie that can claim to have all the original cast, which I think is a feat! The movie inspired a short spin-off sitcom that only lasted 10 shows, one of which (the Brady Brides: Newlywed Game) can be found on YouTube, along with the pilot (part 7-9 of the movie on YouTube). The show is kind of funny - I'd like to see the other eight shows just to see how they managed to make so many stories about it. As I was goggle-ing these facts I came across an interesting tidbit - there's a book by Maureen McCormick (aka Marcia Brady). It's called Here's the Story: Surviving Marcia Brady and Finding My True Voice

Turns out that most of the "Brady Family" got tired of doing the show after the first season, and there was a lot of back stage drama about that 'classic American Family'. Several of the kids have revealed these 'secrets' now that they are older in biographies and interviews. Eve Plumb (Jan Brady) says that she and the other cast members have an unwritten pact to be polite to fans but also to never encourage any other forms of revival. With all the spin-offs and popularity, the Brady Bunch has become one of the icons of the seventies that every kid has seen at least once in their life. As with most actors, if you want to enjoy their work, you should NOT investigate their private lives.

However, if you like the Brady Bunch, the Brady Brides movie, in my mid, was a fitting end to the series (Although, apprently in a later film Jan and Philip adopt a Chinese baby to be multi-cultural, which I think is a cool touch, and I know Ginkgo would love it)

Inspiration

Tuday I was chatting with a friend and she mentioned that it might be hard to keep coming up with ideas for what to say. I don't really think that's the case - my blog is fairly regular and active and I rarely run out of ideas for what to say. This is mostly because I play off of my reading, experience and knowledge and take a brief thought and spin it out for far longer than it needs to be talked about! I also get ideas from other bloggers (like Tiny Talk Tuesday came from a mom blogger I know).

However, if you were trying to start a blog and didn't have any idea, make a pattern for yourself! You might notice the "Quote discipline days" from the link to other blogs on the side of mine - that's a pattern that's been set by that author (who is far more skilled with her pen than I) to blog about quotes when she's reached a lag in her blogging. (to encorage thoughtful ways - that's the link I'm talking about)

Now, having given this advice, I'm going to try to follow it! Here are my plans for next week's blogging (that might extend longer if I can):

Memory Monday -
I'll share a memory, either a funny story from last week or a tale from childhood

Tiny Talk Tuesday -
well, I've already done several of these, basically you post some of the cute/funny things the little ones in your life say to you or things you overhear from kids.

Well-Read Wendsday -
I'll post about something I read, be it book, magazine, blog, whatever.

Thoughtful Thursday -
This will be the day I write those posts about 'deep' things (you know what I mean)

Film Friday -
Julian Smith posts new videos on Fridays, so I will also! YouTube clips or Movies I see will arrive here, along with a commentary about them!

Scripture Saturday -
This is to keep me accountable, because if I am posting about my QT's then I will be sure to do them! Also, this gives me time to memorise and think about the verses.

Slow Down Sunday -
I won't post on Sundays. Let's it be the day I slow down before school on Monday.

That's All! Thanks for Reading!

PS - if you read my blog from Facebook, please check out the real page, that will link you to some of my other favorite bloggers, and if you follow me there it increases my standings on blogspot. The link is:
www.inmyfathershands.blogspot.com

Puppets and Detectives

So, I have always admired puppeteers, and thought puppets were the coolest thing ever! (Sound of Music helped with this.)
For the next few weeks I'm in charge of teaching first and second grade girls about puppets (it's what I do to fufill my NHS hours)
Because of this I was looking up shadow puppets on the Internet to teach some simple ones to the girls and I found this awesome website, so I wanted to share it with you.
http://www.shadow-puppets.com/

Second, I'm writing a research paper on Detective novels and I wanted to jot down some of my more interesting thoughts about Hercule Poirot (character of Agatha Christie) So, from my notes:

Thinks he is far smarter than the rest of human kind, and therefore tends to come off a little stuck up and cocky. This may also be because he is always portrayed through the eyes of his friend, Captain Hastings (his equivalent to Watson, but unlike Watson, Hastings often gets frustrated with his detective friend). Poirot tends to discover information, but you, the reader, do not know about it until Hastings, the narrator, knows. This causes me to be just as frustrated with Poirot as Hastings and in this Christie is breaking one of the rules of detective fiction - That the reader must have equal chance to solve the mystery as the detective. However, at the end Poirot generally points out a way that Hastings (ans therefore the reader) could have solved the mystery WITHOUT these clues (quite annoying). Poirot is different from Miss Marple in that he is an official detective, Miss Marple is just an old lady with a habit of studying human nature based on her neighbors, which she then applies to crime (it is much less annoying to be told by a sweet old lady that you are being dumb than by a private investigator). Both detectives believe that human nature is inherently flawed and therefore they trust no one, often being the key to the novel. I, like Hastings, have what Poirot calls a "too beautiful, too trusting" nature, or, as Miss Marple says, "I believe what people tell me" and if I had lived through as many stories as she has I would know not to trust anyone.

I might post more about Peter Whimsey - but, being written by a different woman, he needs to be taken with an entirely different approach.

Tiny Talk Tuesday

So, once again on the bandwagon of some mom bloggers, I'm doing Tiny Talk Tuesday.



Last night my sibs and I were watching the Olympics and I was making hot chocolate. My four year old sis comes in and says "I want some hot chocolate please?" and I said I was making it for everyone. She says "Oh phew...you are just the bestest sister ever aren't you?"



I am not making this up, I promise. Made my day.



Oh, and my six year old sister has started to ask what different words mean, so I've had to be careful with what I say because I might have to explain it!

Valentine's Day

So, I honestly didn't really think about it being Valentine's Day yesterday until I logged into Facebook, and then I saw a lot of comments by various friends of mine about how they were, esentially, 'dealing with it', or how they thought Valentine's Day was just a 'commercialized day invented by coorperations attempting to steal money' or people calling it 'single's awareness day' etc.

So I googled Valentine's Day and St. Valentine to get some information (and there was a cool adventures in Odyssey episode about it - whitsend.org can get you to that if you're interested)

Anyways, St. Valentine is sort of a mystery, but what is known about him is that he helped couples secretly get married during a time that the Roman Empire was making marriages difficult and was martyred for refusing to renounce his faith. Pretty awsome dude. There's also a story about him and his jailor's daughter and how he restored her sight through faith, and how they were in love, which is why it's a love holiday, but that is even more hazy than the other stuff known about him.

Then, yesterday night I was watching NBC with the pairs figure skating, and no one could find a cuter love story than Shen and Zhou, the Chinese figure skaters who are trying for gold in the pairs skating competition. Google that - I promise you won't be disappointed.

Don't bemoan about how you're single, or berate the coorperations, or behave in a manner that will ruin the day for others - Valentine's Day is not designed to hurt singles anymore than the 4th of July is designed to hurt non-US citizens.

Crouse's mantra: a 'potpourri' of ideas

So, my thoughts during snowpocalypse weekend:

- what is honor? how does it differ from respect? who do we honor, who do we respect? who do we not honor or respect that perhaps we should?

- I carry an emergency kit in my purse. Band aids, neosphorine, lotion, purell, chap stick, rubber bands, pens, paper, deck of cards, ipod nano, money, generally a book, a new testament, peppermint, ID cards, eyeglass wipes, eyeglass case, earrings, you name it, I probably have it in one of the pockets in my purse.

- there is a lot of information on the Internet! While your snowed it, why not learn something new? Things I've looked up on wikipedia based on what I've done this weekend:
multiplexor, Hercule Poirot, u-substitution, Emma, cloud computing, Deathly Hallows, wii games, Skit Guys, Julian Smith, MD storm records

Recipe for disaster

So, as requested I am going to attempt to write another witty, funny post. But that kind of thought doesn't just drop on the ground, you have to wait for it to come (sort of like what Pamela Travers said about Mary Poppins "I didn't think her up, she came knocking".) However, I hope this suffices!

Recipe for boredom buster

Ingredients:

1 sleepy student

45 multiple choice questions

1 watchful teacher

2/3 of a handwritten written essay

about a teaspoon of eraser shavings

Instructions:

1. Take sleepy student and mix with multiple choice questions on a large desk.

2. Place watchful teacher far away from sleepy student.

3. pour eraser shavings in to sleepy student's hand and allow to sit for about ten seconds.

4. Watch as sleepy student quietly rises.

5. using sleepy student, sprinkle eraser shavings on neighboring student.

7. neighboring student responds.

6. quickly turn watchful teacher towards sleepy student.

7. add 2/3 of handwritten essay to sleepy student to create a busy look.

8. Repeat, but watch out in case sleepy student is caught & given a zero on their midterm exam.

CONGRATULATIONS!

You have just succeeded in creating a boredom buster - gaurenteed to entiertain all students in a class for hours. However, be warned - if you use this recipe to often, you could get a disaster (zero on exam, denention, etc.) use with caution.

Senior-itis Tips

Tip #1:
offer to vaccum for your mom. It's a relativly easy chore, just pushing a machine around, and it gets you out of doing any studying.
Tip #2:
Read an interesting book with a smart looking cover and claim it's for your english class
Tip #3:
Go to you room, shut the door, and clean. Generally saying "I'm cleaning my room" sends other more annoying people away (and you don't actually have to make it look any different, just say that you tried)
Tip #4:
Only go on facebook in 5 minute increments. If you're not seen staring at the computer for long periods of time, it is less likely you'll get told to go study.
Tip#5:
Play with a younger sibling (assuming you have one). It's family bonding time - time that's not spent in front of a text book.
Tip #6:
Run a load of your own laundry. If you don't already know how, hey, you need to learn someday, and if you already do it yourself, it's another chore you're doing that mom doesn't have to remind you about! Sitting next to the dryer is a warm place to read!
Tip #7:
carry old test papers around with you. When asked if your studying, wave them vaugly and walk away.
Tip #8:
While sitting at the computer, have a scholarship search window open so you can claim to be looking for college money.
Tip #9:
Show your parents a review sheet that you already made. If you look prepared, you don't have to study any more.
Tip #10:
Read this list and come up with your own creative ideas.

OK, so enjoy that tidbit, it's not often I say things like this. I am quickly losing my motivation to study for physics and therefore am entertaining myself accordingly by making up tips.

Which is better - motivational blog posts or funny ones or journal style ones? Vote, and whichever type has the most votes is the type I'll write tomorrow. If no one has voted...well, I don't know what I'll do then. But I except other seniors will vote for me. d^_^b

Saying "I love you"

Just a thought:
How much does it COUNT when you say "I love you"?
Everytime you say it, you're sincere, sure, but do you say it so much that it becomes flippant?
I don't say that I love people. I do, and I tell them how they're important to me with examples and details and handwritten notes (I'm a words of affirmation person) but it's sort of rare that I actually say "I love you". So when I do, you know I mean it.

But there are the people who are more verbally loving than I, more outgoing, etc. They say "I love you" a lot. That doesn't make them any less sincere, they're just more open about it. They don't value words the same way I do, but that doesn't make their "I love you"s cheap, it means they're friendly.

So who is right? Should you hold your "I love you"s close, or give them freely in friendship?

Not sure that I know the answer - I'd love to hear what you are, what you think, and how you tell someone you love them. I'll see if I can post more about this (one of my new year's resolutions - Blog more often, make an effort to share thoughts)