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