2011 goals recap

If you're a frequent reader of my blog, you know about my letters to myself in the future, my new years goals, etc. I like to reflect on the past and make detailed plans for the future. Last year I met 6/10 new years goals (see the post in Jan. 2011). This year I only made 5 goals, but they were big ones...and I didn't actually meet any of them. But here's what they were, and how I am modifying them for 2012.

1. Floss every day
Ok, this did not happen - but I did take much better care of my teeth - wire my retainer at nights, bought fluoride rinse, and did floss every once in a while. To meet this in 2012, I'm buying special threader floss for my bonded retainer

2. Do a manuscript study of my own (on a book I have not studied before, like Ezra)
Didn't do this either - but I learned a
LOT about manuscript study through camp and SGL team. Same resolution for 2012!

3. Spend at least 1 week of every month unplugged from internet time wasters.
Well, I stopped using Netflix and Hulu, but I did still spend time on my computer. FB use decreased for G+ use... This one is kind of a failure. And I could make a lot of generational excuses, but really, I just didn't try

4. Lose (blank) amount of weight
This one is a truly traditional resolution that also didn't happen - I didn't gain or lose this year (well, I started good on this one but ended up the same)

5. Learn to quilt
Nope. But I increased my origami skills and have decided not to have any more 'housewify' goals - origami is a great, inexpensive crafting skill, and I'm happy with that. My mom bought me a lovely set of origami paper for christmas, so I'll continue my paper folding/tissue paper flower making and leave needle work to my sisters

The bonus goal was to finish my 2010 resolutions, and I finished one of those: I finally completed the Lord of the Rings trilogy of books. :)

All the thoughts for December

Dear blog-o-sphere -
December has been a crazy month, and I have a long list of things that I had wished to blog about but have not written. They may or may not be interesting, or useful, or anything, but I have the time now to put them down and put them out there. They could have all been full posts, but instead I'll make them short bits.

1. When did playing at being a grownup become reality? When I was a little girl, I'd play at packing all of my stuff up into my dollhouse (which had a lock and handle) and carry it around the house. Now I'm in college and I actually do pack all my stuff into a suitcase, to go home for the holidays. But even closer to now then when I played with my doll house, a few weeks ago I was on a student panel for high school students potentially interested in my school, and I was shocked to realize that I was the student sharing my experiences, and that I was sharing similar thoughts to those that had been shared with me. When did I get out of high school and get so comfortable with UMBC?

2. Remember when you used to gain knowledge by planning to read EVERY book in the library? Now I feel like you get knowledge by going online. I recently discovered TED talks online, and I was amazed by the content. Then there's minutephysics on YouTube - he just posted an hour long lecture he gave ALL about how to do YouTube education. It was really interesting. I'd recommend watching it. Here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_Cv5ldhxpLA

3. While we're talking about what's available online, let's talk about things that should not be online. Facebook PDA. I'm willing to handle somethings, like profile pictures together, but I think the flirty wall-to-walls are making something that should be private public. Just my thoughts. Also the "Oh I miss him/her" status posts.

Links to Think About

http://www.danoah.com/2011/11/im-christian-unless-youre-gay.html
The title of this article is off-putting, but it's interesting to read. Be sure to read the second post with some of the more powerful responses he received. "hate the sin, not the sinner"

http://www.rightnow.org/
The video on the homepage, and then click on the "Are you a trader" tab and watch the video on work as worship.

http://vodpod.com/watch/2946993-promo-video-for-dug-down-deep-by-joshua-harris
This video is really old, but I love it, and it's done in a similar artistic style to the above.

My thanksgiving list

Things I am thankful for:
-DMC's (deep meaningful conversations) about God and the ways to worship him and thank him for his grace towards us with good friends
- my adorable college roommate
- energetic little sisters (and brother) who love me very much and are happy to see me home from school
- the word of God translated into my own language and being able to read it myself, take a class on it, and grow from my knowledge of it.
- clean hot water, since it's been pointed out to me that there are many people who don't (my friends have done campaigns at mycharitywater.org)

lots more things, but those are from the past week. I've got five different detailed things...I should think about this more during the regular year :)

Greek Life

Hi there everyone - I wrote a post for this blog last Saturday, but instead of posting it here I guest posted for my friend Kati. I attached the post here, so go check it out, and while you're there, subscribe to her blog regularly!
http://www.katiworonka.com/culturtwined/a-great-tour-guide-to-greek-culture/

I'll probably see you all again around Thanksgiving - I have a big exam this week.

the 'R' words

Yesterday, in my physics discussion, one of my classmates said this:
"yeah, everyone got totally raped by that exam."
Uh...What? Excuse me? The students in your class got sexually abused by an exam? I don't think so.
Don't use the word rape lightly - it trivializes the act and the suffering of women who actually have been raped. (And it's not something I thought about until I took women's studies, but it is something that I think is important.) How about this instead: "yeah, everyone flunked that exam".

Here's an article from someone more articulate than I about the same subject:
http://feministing.com/2011/10/05/dear-johnny-depp-no-photoshoots-arent-like-rape/

There's another 'R' word that my same classmate uses all the time:
"Man, this whole seating chart thing is so retarded."
Again...What? Hold up now, sitting in assigned seats is like having a cognitive disorder? Now that's not true.
As someone who babysat for a little guy with autism, it's super annoying to hear that used out of proper context. How about this instead: "Man, this whole seating chart thing is super annoying."

The president of my university, Dr. Freeman Hrabowski, likes to repeat this quote:
"Watch your thoughts, they become your words.
Watch your words, they become your actions
Watch your actions, they become your habits.
Watch your habits, they become your character.
Watch your character - it becomes your destiny."

'it takes a village'

That's a very popular phrase - it takes a village to raise a child. And I've been thinking about it for a while now. I'm on the Homecoming spirit street team at school, and as a member I've been given the opportunity to deliver spirit packs to various different offices around campus.

Have you ever thought about how a university is basically a teeny tiny nation? There is the president, who makes all the grand decisions. There's the provost and deans of all the different colleges, they serve as the rest of the government. There's the students. We serve as the civilians. There's the faculty that we interact with - they are half teachers (like they really are), half newscasters, telling us what the university expects of it's citizens. Then there are tons and tons of service people.

Here's another example: In my senior year of high school, I was involved with painting the set for the school play.  My name was no where on the program, no one really knew about my involvement - but the set was BEAUTIFUL, and everyone benefited. Think of the university as a theater or movie - there are the faculty that we interact with (the ones who teach classes), but there are tons of people that we don't interface with, who do all the backstage work. There are tons of people who we interface with, but don't acknowledge, like extras in a movie - or the woman who serves you at Chik-Fil-A.

I'll bet, for every ten students who live on campus, there's at least 2 employees who serve them (this includes the professors). It's probably more but that's my made up statistic and you get the idea.

This post has been kind of disjointed and rant-style, but you see my point, don't you? Look for the people that make your school a school, that serve you everyday so you can have a better education, and thank them. (This doesn't just apply to universities - high schools are operated in a same serve-the-students way).

RETRIEVER FEVER

Do you have the Fever!?
It's Homecoming time at UMBC!
Please go here: http://alumni.umbc.edu/spiritvote to vote for the CWIT office in the homecoming decoration contest - we worked very hard on Thursday to decorate! Thanks y'all!

Praying for the Unplanned

I am a planner. I like to organize and schedule everything. However, some of my best experiences have happened when things were unplanned - surprise late night chats with people, etc. So, I am asking a quick question: should we be praying for the things that are unplanned? There's only so far you can go with preparation - and in fact, you can get so caught up in preparation that you forget the actual purpose (see Luke 10:38-42).

I feel like sometimes God meets me with unexpected, unplanned situations to remind me he is sovereign and has everything under control. And I feel like this is a motivator to pray for things that are unplanned. What do you think?

Little acts of Service

I have a really hard time letting other people serve me. Holding the door open for me, clearing my dishes in the dining hall, etc. The feminist in me sets too much value on her independence to be served.

At the same time, I often want to give people similar services. Offering to sit on the floor so that they can have a chair, etc. And when other people don't accept my service, I don't always handle it with grace. I usually continue to offer, or just do it anyways (like, I ask someone if i can take their dishes, they say, "no, I've got it" and I take them anyways).

Is service really service if one forces people to take it? Or is it fair to serve others and not let them serve me?

I definitely need an attitude check on the little things.

Guest Blogging

I had the opportunity to guest write for another blog!

I'm really excited to get the opportunity to share my thoughts elsewhere, and I'd highly encourage you to follow the writings of the other blog's author - I've known her since I was a very young child and I've read her blog almost as long! You can find my post here:

http://www.katiworonka.com/culturtwined/can-you-tell-the-difference-between-filipino-and-chinese/

On that note, I'd also encourage all of you to think about sharing some thoughts for CultureTwined. I think the theme is an awesome idea and I'd love to hear some of the experiences you all have had (and don't say you haven't had any, I know they exist). 

How do you illustrate God?

Think of illustrations in a children's book when I say the word illustrate. When you have to picture God in your head, what does it look like?

I know, for me at least, it often looks different every time, but a recent picture I had looked like this:
Imagine a car. Mine was a red corolla. Now, imagine you are in the passenger seat in the front. Imagine that God is driving. I didn't visualize what he looked like so much, it was more the idea of him in the drivers seat. Now, imagine your life on the road (like, we were driving around the loop in my visual and there were big green highways signs that said "CWIT" and "IV" and "STAT CLASS" etc.) Now imagine a tape playing in the car, with the voices of the people you interact with everyday (so, my roommate, my professors, etc.)

And then, in the midst of all that noise and signs pointing you different directions all around, imagine God slowing down, turning down the tape, and teaching you, slowly and carefully, how to drive. Talking to you about some of the bigger potholes in the road.

Isn't that a nice image? It came from a variety of things:
1. the idea of constant conversation with God. At first I thought this might be distracting, but then I realized he could sort of turn down the rest of the world, so instead of adding to the cacophony, he controlled it, like a conductor.
2. remembering college visit rides/driving to work with my dad. We would talk about all sorts of things. and he'd direct me on the road as I learned to drive. and occasionally we'd listen to Tim Keller sermons and discuss them (or skit guy podcasts). And I loved those drives.
3. trying to micro-manage my schedule. That's where the street signs come in - I have a ton on my plate and it reminds me of trying to change lanes on a highway - everything is zipping by and EVERYONE wants my full attendance, full attention, full participation. It's just not possible. So if I miss one exit, it's OK - God's driving.

What ways have you illustrated him recently?

Some things you only get in College

OK, really short post here, but I absolutely love how today worked out. Even though the power was out, students all over campus got together and hung out - be it frisbee games, card games, or dorm worship services, everywhere on campus was a huge feeling of community. And that would never have happened in my little suburban neighborhood. Which makes me really sad, but also lets me realize the totally awesome opportunities as a 'young person'. =)

All things must end...

Today was my last day at my summer internship. I was working with 11 other interns, and yesterday was the first round of farewells. It's so difficult to say goodbye to them - how do you, how can you say goodbye forever to someone who has been a part of your life all day, everyday, for two months?

I remember the first day that I met them, the day we enjoyed a trip to the Cryptography museum and really got to know one another. I remember our first week, learning a new programming language and working through the exercises set by our team leader. I remember the first day we moved to our permanent office, the day that we first saw what we were to work with. I remember the first day of our certification training, the day we went to Starbucks together to study. I remember the day that three new (cleared!) interns joined our team. I remember the day that I first started working with Joe on Cucumber. I remember the day that Dustin brought Jessica a slim Jim as an apology gift. I remember the many Red Bull cans that Oliver drank.

I learned so much this summer. I learned about the workplace, about teamwork, about automated testing.

All things must end...

Catching Up

I was talking to my friend Alec last night and he mentioned that he was "catching up with the internet".

I really think that's the perfect phrase. When ever I sit down with a computer, I always feel like I'm behind. I have to check my multiple emails, scan my blog feed for new posts, check out the photos I've been tagged in on Facebook, cover my NYT headline feed, feed my virtual pets that I've had since I was in 5th grade(if I remember, which I most often don't), check my online Scrabble games, etc.

My cousin holds all this information in his pocket, because he has a ipod touch. Most people in this day and age pay to have smart phones constantly on the alert. However, even those people are not ever 'caught up'.

I downloaded the information from my Facebook account last night in an attempt to get copies of the photos I'd been tagged in (there are over 400). Although the photos didn't work the way I would have liked, I did get a very interesting print out of ALL the wall posts/status updates that have ever been on my Facebook. Four years worth. And I was struck by how much is out there.

It is often chilling to consider the information on the internet, and easy to vow that you will be more careful, etc, but I think that we all will continue to fall into the trap of trying to catch up. When life seems to occur on the internet, you want to be there too, and so we are all constantly "catching up".

Christian-ese that I wonder about

I am sure all of you know that there are TONS of different labels for Christians. Recently there are some terms that I've been wondering about - things like 'evangelical', 'emergent', 'missional', 'righteous', etc.

How did these terms become common? What do they mean, exactly (I vaguely know)?

What words mean the same thing - like 'calvinist' and 'reformed'. Are they the same ideas? Because if yes, I  think 'reformed' is a better name because it takes away the focus on John Calvin, which is good cause we shouldn't focus on him. And if they're different, then how? If they're different, then I need to wonder about another label in my life.

lots of labels, lots of terms, lots of things you could focus on that make you different.

One Jesus.

Gnomeo and Juliet - Movie Review

Gnomeo and Juliet is absolutely amazing. It is fairly faithful to the Bard's plot, with the exception of a positive, chipper, happy ending. At which point, if you are like me, you start scratching your head and thinking "now how does that work?".

I won't spoil the plot, but I can tell you that it is a really clever little interpretation of the play. It's simple enough for children to understand, with the pure, sweet kind of animation they enjoy, with some sly jokes slipped in for the adults to enjoy (for example, Rosencratz and Guildenstern movers? Hilarious!).

Yes, the die hard Bard fans are probably a bit upset by the film...but if you can enjoy things like "The Complete Works of Shakespeare Abridged" you can enjoy Gnomeo and Juliet. Re-imagining fair Verona in terms of garden gnomes is extremely amusing.

"Love and Debate" - Movie Review

Dear Blogosphere -
Because I am not that interesting, you may not have noticed that I went an entire month without blogging. That was entirely intentional, as I had just forced you to listen to a month's worth of my random thoughts and figured you deserved a break.

But now it is June and honestly my fingers have been itching to get back to rambling here. So, I thought I'd treat you to a movie review. Love and Debate is a 2006 independent film that addresses exactly what it's titled to address - Love and Debate.

Jordan, the protagonist, is a skilled high school debater in her senior year. Given the opportunity to go to Harvard for debate, she must learn how to share her life between her parents desires, her own passions, and her skills.

The reasons I would recommend this film:
- great depiction of competitive debate.
- also great Latin music/dancing
- also Sean Austin
- believable (albeit stereotypical) characters

The reasons I did not like this film:
- washed-out colors of Miami are not my favorite
- predictable plot, and it's a narrative movie (when the character starts and ends by narrating)
- the middle part, when there's no debate, is kind of boring

Basically, I watched it for the debate. They really hit it spot on, the evidence, the prep, the fast reading, the judges and the tiny classrooms where it's only you, the other team, the judge, and maybe your coach. I really enjoyed the flood of memories that the film provided. Sometimes I forget the part of me that is designed for competitive debate. The part of me that loves the thrill of arguing and fallacies and thinking on my feet, the part of me that wanted to be caught up on foreign policy in order to find good evidence cards. (I know, all of you who know me are thinking, 'that argumentative girl didn't go that far away').

A few of my favorite things...

"raindrops on roses and whiskers on kittens..." In the lighthearted spirit of that song, here's some of my favorite, trivial things:
~the popping sound when you open a glass bottle of tea
~blankets/carpets/couches that change color depending on how you stroke them
~facebook profile picture albums (because you can seriously tell a lot about a person by what picture they choose to represent themselves.)
~swishy skirts
~Kate and Pippa Middleton's Dresses!!
~homemade science (like making cheese with lemons and cream)
~other people braiding my hair
~scarves
~guys playing the piano
~Composition Books
~new paintbrushes
~potpourri sachets
~postcards
~towns that still have Main Street
~awesome choir songs
~green tea
~cards!

Et Cetera.

Questions

how do youtubers and flikerers get to know each other - all the talented people in the world seem to collaborate on cool things. How do they meet?

why are some words so fun to say (vouvrays, for example)?

What defines a generation? Yesterday was IV alum night and they kept referring to us as generations of college students, which I thought was unusual...

Who watched Will and Kate this morning? I did.

And...that's it.

Castles in the Air

Since I wrote the post some weeks ago about starting a book club I've been skimming through Louisa May Alcott's books (all available online), because I hadn't thought about her novels in a while. I came to the conclusion that they would be great novels for a book club, not of girls my age, but of those around 15 or 16 years old. The books are not hard to read, and most of the characters start out right around that age (and then they grow up in the sequels). I have a friend who told me she had never read the last few Anne of Green Gables books because she hadn't yet reached the point where her life paralleled Anne's experiences and so she didn't feel as if she'd truly enjoy them. So perhaps they should only read the books that are about girls at their age. Regardless, the books are full of wholesome old fashioned values, but are not without their spark of feminism (because Louisa May was never married, remember! She had her own thoughts on women's rights).

One of my favorite phrases from the Alcott books is "building castles in the air". I'm not sure if it's a term she originated, so in case you haven't heard of it, it essentially means making plans and dreams for the future, however improbable, for anyone you want. Something I personally love to do - I love building little dreams, dreams that don't span very far, sometimes dreams that are just snippets (for example, imagining a friend's wedding, but not the rest of her life, or imagining getting a really awesome job, but not how it would actually be to work there, or imagining myself being a teacher/professor maybe, but not thinking about the steps in between then and now). What kind of castles do you build?

The Things they say...

You know how on tests people are like "oh, that's not what they're looking for"

Or when people say "I can't believe they let that happen"

Who are these anonymous "they"s?

Debugging

I love debugging. I love thinking about the intricacies of the logic of my program, I love seeing how many alternate solutions there are to one CS problem, I love the feeling of control I get when the computer does exactly what I tell it to do. As frustrating as I may find the assignments, I love creating the sometimes cool, sometimes silly projects I'm assigned. I want to learn how to think outside the box, and how to recognize efficiency. I'm in a little bit of a mental high because I just finished commenting my code for a project, and I also really enjoy commenting, now that I think about it, because it helps me to debug by drawing my attention to the errors in my code. If you don't understand the draw of debugging, then this is a boring post, but in short I love the classes I'm in so I think I'm doing the right major - because it had seriously crossed my mind that I might not be since I don't know what I want to do with it when I graduate - but I'm pretty sure the satisfaction I get from programming answered my question. Sorry this is so scatterbrained, I'm counting down the days till I don't feel the obligation to bore you with whatever thought crosses my mind.

Smoking

Weekend home + Nice Weather + exam = terrible motivation to do any other homework, or to blog for BEDA.

Anyways. Thought for today is about smoking. I find it annoying and amusing to walk outside Sondheim where there are two clearly marked signs that say "this is a non-smoking zone" and then find smokers there. Who gave them permission to disregard the rules? Does smoking affect your ability to read the clearly labeled signs?

Also, hookahs - better for your health, worse for your health? They don't smell as bad, and you can't trail smoke behind you when you are walking, so my general opinion is that they are less gross than cigarettes.

Resurrection Sunday

.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yzqTFNfeDnE

Arthur

Raise your hand if you watched Arthur as a child! I absolutely love this show, and I know the names of all the characters, and I try to stay caught up on new episodes. It's been running for 14 seasons, since 1996. There are 334 episodes. I'm fairly sure I've seen all of them. Arthur deals with some pretty intense issues in a light, easy to understand way.

A lot of the episodes are about good lifestyle principles, like recycling. Some are about things like cancer.

My favorite characters are Bailey, Muffy's driver, and then Mr. Ratburn and Dr. Fugue, Arthur's teachers. However, there's also Paige Turner, the librarian. Since her name is a pun I can't help but enjoy her. The contrast between the adults and the kids on the show is great. There's also a large number of famous people who have made an appearance (Yo-Yo Ma, Fred Rogers, Andy Warhol, etc.)

Breakfast

You know that Friday feeling when you're absolutely burnt out? That's how I feel. I went to bed at 11 last night, unprecedentedly early for a college student, and I still feel drained today.

I'm enjoying my usual breakfast hour with my newspaper (in the admin building today, too cold to be outside Chik-Fil-A) and I think the weather is affecting my mood. However, the chipper breakfast club that I see every morning is sitting in their normal corner, being all happy as usual, and I can't help but smile. I know some of them, but for the most part, yes, I'm being a stalker girl.

Moral of the story: you have no idea how your life might affect someone you don't know! A smile on your face means a lot to people! :) 

Phobias

Why are so many people afraid of needles?
Don't look, then you get pinched, and it's all over.
I'll admit, it's a little unnerving, but I'm surprised by how many people are outright terrified, and consequently don't give blood when there are drives (like today, in the Commons).

Of course, that's not fair, and slightly hypocritical, because I've been trained into shrieking when I see a live mouse. I can handle a dead one, although a dead one is gross, just like any dead thing. But a live mouse, even in a cage in a pet store, gives me the heebie jeebies.

I also don't like small spaces, or large crowds. I generally try to avoid lines, or ordering food in lines. So I have my own unreasonable phobias. I love snakes. I can tolerate bugs, even though I don't find them especially attractive. Where do these phobias or lack-there-of come from? I have a friend who tells me "you should at least try it once and I will never make you do it again if you don't like it." Should we approach all our phobias this way?

No Fear

Sparrows are really fearless little creatures.
It's a lovely day today, so I am again perched outside Chik-Fil-A, and there are sparrows and robins literally everywhere. I don't think I've ever been as close to a bird as I was just now. I've been luring them closer by dropping tiny pieces of biscuit from my breakfast onto the ground and watching in delight as they come snap it up. I'm also sitting right next to a wall, so some of them have come and sat very close to my head, which gave me a chance to observe how dirty the feathers are, but also to note how tiny their bodies are and how they quiver when they breathe. It was lots of fun to feed them. One smaller bird (probably a female?) kept chirping at the larger one to go pick up the bits I'd dropped but never got the courage to do so herself. I think that there are baby birdies somewhere, based on all the twittering. Which makes me wonder if these birds have been parents together for many seasons or not, and if birds are faithful to one mate forever or not, and how the birds and the squirrels share the food that gets dropped around campus.

Speaking of sharing, one of my favorite books as a child was "Tucker's Countryside", which is about a mouse from Times Square who saves a Connecticut meadow for his cricket friend. It's the sequel to "The Cricket in Times Square", which my Dad read to me in first grade. Part of the reason it was my favorite book was because it was one of the first "long" books that I read to myself. When I first read it, I didn't realize it was the sequel, so it was really fun and exciting to read the second book, especially 3 or 4 years later. Anyways, the point of bringing up Tucker's Countryside is that in that book, the creek floods and a robin shares his nest with a mouse and a cricket. I know that in real life the bird would eat the cricket, but I wonder if that kind of unspoken collaboration happens between mice and birds in real life. Or any animals. Does the mothering instinct that we portray so much in films, the friendly inter-species interaction, actually occur?

Music

YouTube. Musical Geniuses. Mind Blown.

So, last night, my roommate and I and our RA and some other friends went a little geek out and started sharing some of our favorite musical YouTube stars. If you don't know, you have to understand that my roommate is amazingly talented when it comes to music. She has a violin, a ukulele, and a keyboard in our room. Also, she's got pictures of herself playing all kinds of other instruments. So, you get the idea, she's fairly musically cultured.

Now, most of my musical experience comes from Classical Kids (Mr. Bach comes to Call, Mr. Beethoven lives upstairs...you get the idea). I love music. I can't play, and I have no desire to, but I do love to listen and I have more of a taste for classical music than the average non-musician. I'm also slowly getting more acclimated to music with lyrics (something I didn't really do as a child). Even so, next to Katrina I am woefully deficient. I simply absorbed.

In spite of a slight feeling of inadequacy, I did really enjoy last night's musical exploration. If you have time, go find these youtube channels:
KurtHugoSchneider
kemlye1
kolusola

Or these videos:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h-XqoNSyFGs
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LFybwg4wadI

Good Morning

"Laura had never noticed before that saying 'Good morning' made the morning good."

So true. My day is so totally different when I exchange a good morning with my suite mates. I have a friend who says "good morning" when she greets me regardless of what time of day it is. A good morning always seems to get me started on the right foot.

Actually, the same thing is true of a goodnight. Saying good night gives closure to the time you've spent with other people throughout the day, but isn't as final as good-bye. Good night has the feeling of "I'll see you in the morning to wish you good morning". 

This morning as I was leaving for class, one of my floor mates stuck his head out of his door and said good morning to me. When I leave my roommate in the room every morning (or when she leaves me), we say "I'll see you later."

Conclusion: Good Morning and Good Night build a feeling of community and that's why they make the day better.

Alternate note: I do not enjoy when people just say "Morning". That takes the friendly "I wish you joy today" and turns  it into a frank statement of fact about what time it is. Very few people can get away with it. Some people, yes. And I'm certainly guilty of dropping the "good" from my morning greetings. But I don't really like it.

Interesting to note that as I've been writing this (I'm outside Chik-Fil-A) three people have wished me good morning. Hooray for college community! and for it being warm enough to sit outside! 

Palm Sunday

When I was a little girl, they gave out big palm leaves and the tiny little crosses folded out of palm leaves to all the kids on Palm Sunday. It's been a very long time since I've seen one of those palm crosses. I should learn how to make them. As little children, we'd run around outside shouting "Hosannah! He is risen!", just like we'd seen and heard on the Donut Man videos and tapes that my grandparents had given us. Today, I realized I don't really know what Hosanna means. "Hosanna" is, according to Wikipedia, an exclamation of praise that means "save us, we pray".

So. It's Palm Sunday. Rejoice and be glad for this is the day that the Lord has made, the anniversary of the day he rode into Jerusalem, rode towards his death, and resurrection, rode towards salvation. Matthew 21:1-11

Reflection

Have you ever noticed how you reflect the people you're with? I have. There are two friends in particular that I am thinking of. One is a senior history major with bright red hair, who speaks unusually fast. So when I'm with her, I have a tendency to talk really really fast. Another is a photography major with the best facial expressions and most adorable tendency towards laughter in all situations. When I'm with these two girls, I start talking like them, laughing like them, being them. My own thoughts and person stay the same underneath, but I change my style of talking to match the speed or style of the person I'm talking with.

Disney's Children

http://www.deadline.com/2010/03/ashley-tisdale-broadway-bound-as-sharpay-in-high-school-musical-spinoff/

I saw an add for this film the other day. It made me wonder how hard it is for a Disney child to grow up and out of the roles that they play. Wizards of Waverly Place is one of my personal favorite Disney shows - is there any chance I'll get to see David Henrie in some real roles once his character graduates Disney? or Bridget Mendler, from Good Luck Charlie - she's been in almost every Disney Channel show there is, and they finally just gave her the show "Good Luck Charlie" as her own - is she tied to it forever?

It's obviously possible for a Disney star to go elsewhere - Selena Gomez in Ramona and Beezus, Zac Efron in all his post HSM films, Dylan and Cole Sprouse as Danimals spokespeople. But how hard is it to get there? Is it just who has a better agent? Or are those who stay with Disney content with what they've got?

girl v woman

Monday night I had the opportunity, along with some other scholars in my program, to speak with the University president, Dr. Freeman Hrabowski. He has a very commanding presence and a deep oratory voice, but one of the things that he kept pressing on us was the fact that he too was a person. I quite like him, and highly recommend that students applying to our university make an effort to hear him speak. Anyways, he made a point of telling us that we were NOT boys and girls, that we were men and women. I don’t feel like a woman, but I guess, legally and physically, I am.

One short day in the Emerald City...

I've been listening to the soundtrack for "Wicked" as I study. Some of the lyrics are really striking, can I just say. Anyways, the song that caught my attention the most was "One Short Day". It's all about the Emerald City. So  I started to think about cities. In the Emerald City, I imagine the touristy place to be was the Wizard's palace, just like the touristy place in Baltimore is the Inner Harbor. However, Baltimore has homeless, and it's crowded, and all the other stigmas of a city. Did the Emerald City have those as well? Was the traffic in the Emerald City terrible around Rush Hour? Are there suburbs to the Emerald City? (maybe the peridot suburbs? just kidding.)

The Emerald City has always been one of my personal favorite fantasy ideas (my birthstone is emerald). But, like all other dreams, the Emerald City, without the green lenses, is just a simple city, filled with the flaws and imperfections that all cities have.

PS - if you've only ever seen Judy Garland or Idina Menzel's view of OZ, I highly recommend reading all 14 of Baum's novels. They're mildly entertaining, and the country is much larger than you might imagine.

"Wearing my hat"

Yesterday, it seemed like everyone was using the phrase, "wearing my ____  hat".
Where did that phrase come from? I really don't understand it. Actually, it reminds me of P.D. Eastman's book Go Dog Go. My favorite parts of that book are the exchanges between the yellow dog and the pink poodle, like this one: http://www.colliersinjapan.com/page32/files/first-hat-exchange.jpg (largely because my dad would read it to me in a hilarious way, expressing the pink dog's indignation perfectly.)

Anyways. What 'hats' do I wear? I prefer to think that I'm the same person, regardless of what activity I'm participating in, that the hat I'm wearing does not change the girl underneath. I don't know if that's true, but I hope it can be! The pink dog has some insecurity issues, going through all these hats to gain the attention of the yellow dog! (yes, I know I am over analyzing a children's book, but just look at her final hat! http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3231/2442393679_0898e1822e.jpg)

Also, point of interest - when I Googled for these pictures, I found that MOST people are under the misconception that Theodor Giesel (also known at Dr. Seuss or Theo LeSieg) wrote Go Dog Go. That is incorrect, it was written by P. D. Eastman, who also wrote Are You My Mother? another excellent book that was read to me as a child (for that book I remember my mother reading the line "you are not my mother. you are a SNORT." and the picture of the crane was absolutely terrifying because it looked like it had teeth! http://free.bridal-shower-themes.com/img/are-you-my-mother-snort_1.jpg)

So, in this conglomeration of metaphors and children's books, my question for you (because I always try to engage readers with a question) what 'hats' do you wear, and if you were to draw them, what might they look like? I always imagine the hat of a student looking something like the Sorting Hat from Harry Potter...the hat of a sister is a sunbonnet (like Laura and Mary Ingalls) and...what do you think? Maybe some of the pink dog's hats fit some of the roles you fill?

When to Borrow and When to Buy

After writing my post yesterday I went to Gutenberg press to see if I could find some of the old Alcott books that I'd enjoyed for their old fashioned charm. Looking over some of her non-Little Women novels, I remembered how often I used to check those books out of the library. I distinctly remember the green cover of "Jack and Jill", a lovely novel coined from the nursery rhyme. I must have read that books at least six times (and I'm sure my library record shows me having checked it out even more times that that!).

Which leads to my thoughtful question for today - when should you buy a book, and when should you borrow one? Mystery novels have been in fashion since Agatha Christie (and even before), but after you read those once, the fun of it is gone as you've already learned who the culprit is.

Sometimes when I've done research papers I've borrowed books that are scholarly articles and only used one of the articles in my paper, but wanted to read the rest. Should you buy books like that? Is there a use for them once you've read them? My father has a whole shelf full of highlighted books that he's read. In fact, I think I can safely say that every room in our house has a shelf full of books. In my dorm room, I have a desk drawer filled with the books I've brought with me from home.

Of course, this entire thought will be obsolete in a few years, as the Kindle and other e-readers take over the world. I've always said that I'd miss the actual action of turning pages, but part of me no longer feels that way as I've been using online versions of textbooks and checking project Gutenberg for some of my favorite old novels. My only question - can you read a Kindle (Ipad, etc) before falling asleep and safely drop it from your bed when your eyes do close? can you read a kindle while floating at the side of a swimming pool? Until they engineer that, I think books are safe.

The Jane Austen Book Club

OK, I have got to admit, I really like this movie. I love the small parallels to the Austen novels and the insights that the characters have on Austen's novels. I love the idea of having a book club that focuses only on Austen, for six months.

If you were to host a book club, what novels would you read? The idea behind the Austen book club was "let's pick books we've all already read". That premise does make a certain amount of sense. What books have all young people today read? Perhaps Harry Potter, although a book club on that might be unproductive as I feel like all it's secrets have been delved.

Going off the idea of Jane, Louisa May Alcott wrote several little pieces and eight (I think) main novels, all of which are fairly predictable but filled with old- fashioned goodness.Then, of course, there's Lucy Maud Montgomery. She, according to Wikipedia, wrote 20 novels. I think you'd have to choose which of her 20 to read, in order to keep any kind of book club short, but most of them come in sets of twos or threes (except the incorrigible Anne).

And speaking of Lucy Maud, if anyone wanted to get me a present (I don't see why you would, but just to make conversation), I would LOVE this book:
http://roomofbensown.net/the-blythes-are-quoted/

According to Wikipedia, LMM wrote this book just before her death to include snippets of the Blythe's lives after the devastating war in Rilla of Ingleside. This book was shortened and edited and published in 1974 as "The Road to Yesterday" (which I actually have, I bought it for myself around 4 years ago). However, a newly released "unabridged" version is now available in paperback, and it allegedly includes some poems that Walter Blythe wrote to Una Meredith (any non-Anne fans will be confused at that point).

While we're on the subjects of unknown novels, Austen herself wrote an unpublished novel that I would consider adding to the mix if I were to host an Austen book club. It's called "Lady Susan" and can be found in most complete collections of Austen novels but is not published alone (at least, I can't find it). Also, Louisa May wrote three novels under a pseudonym. I think those would be fascinating to read - they must not have been her normal style if she felt the need to write them as someone else.

And now, a question - do all writers leave work behind? It seems to me that every writer has something that was published posthumously. Why is that? Part of me thinks that we shouldn't publish works posthumously, because what if those works were not meant to be published? But then the selfish side of me, the side that wants to see more into the lives of the characters, decides that it's alright.

Newspaper columns

I wonder what it would be like to have a daily column. Wouldn't it be hard to find something to write about? Then I started thinking about some columnists.
1. John Grogan - who's really nice and writes some really neat stuff
2. James Marsden's wedding columnist character in 27 dresses
3. Candace Bushwell, of Sex and the City fame
4. The Minimalist from the New York Times (unfortunately just ended his streak)
 http://topics.nytimes.com/top/features/diningandwine/columns/the_minimalist/index.html
5. Corey's Corner from The Retriever Weekly (a sports column that I don't really read)

This is greatly a result of the fact that I have 21 days left of BEDA. I've done less than a week. And it's getting difficult for me to come up with things to write about. Hope you've been enjoying my less than profound thoughts about newspapers.

Newspapers cont'd

In the same vein as yesterday's BEDA post, when thinking about newspapers, is there a value in saving certain articles?

I have a tendency to clip out and save articles that I really liked from newspapers and magazines. Now that I have free access to three different papers and a subscription to a magazine, the stack of articles I've saved has gotten pretty large. Which of them should I save? They come from all different sections of the paper - some are cooking or health tips that will never get old, some are articles about the Orioles that are very time sensitive, some are news articles about things that will someday possibly be true (scientific speculation). Then there's the comics that everyone seems to save.

I remember when I first read "The Peterkin Papers" and I read about how Elizabeth Eliza kept a common place book (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Commonplace_book). I think that's where my idea of saving newspaper articles came from - keeping track of the little common bits of knowledge. Now I just need a book to paste them into!

(just barely made BEDA today)

Newspapers - Can we share them?

As I mentioned yesterday, my school graciously provides free newspapers (the New York Times, the Baltimore Sun, and USA Today. Each one comes with at least two subsections. I tend to pick up the New York Times for news, the Baltimore Sun for sports (I love my Orioles' news), and USA today for arts/entertainment.

Each paper also runs special sections on special days. For example, today the New York Times has the extra home section and the extra styles section. The Baltimore Sun is running it's Thursday only Health section. Yesterday, NYT ran a dining section that was absolutely FASCINATING (good article on Harry and David, you can read it here: http://www.nytimes.com/2011/04/06/dining/06fancy.html).

But those are the sections I read yesterday/plan on reading today. If you take the sections that I do read from all three papers out, you're still left with a large stack of newsprint that I hardly touched, except to pull them away from my sections. These sections (NYT Buisness Day daily section, NYT sports section, USA today's news section, etc) are still perfectly good sections of the paper. And I'll be the first to admit that I'm probably the one losing by simply throwing them out, but I just don't have time to read them (I read the other sections of the paper while I'm walking too and from class and there's only so much walking one woman does in a day!)

So, my 'super-duper-uper-shmoper big idea' for today is a section recycle. Pull the paper apart not in the comfort of your dorm room, but right there at the stand. Then, neatly refold the sections you didn't want and place them in the section recycle location. Other people can then look through your recycled sections to only pick out the sections that THEY want to read. What do you think - can we share the sections of our newspapers?

thoughts on dates...(BEDA)

Yesterday I was reading the Baltimore Sun, which is graciously provided for free by my school. In the arts and entertainment section (the only part I read cover to cover everyday) there was an article about Mount Vernon, George Washington's estate and childhood home. The article discussed the new features of the house, announcing the springtime opening of the side garden that has been closed to the public for 3 years for excavation. The Mount Vernon staff announced that the garden is now "a much closer replica to what it was in 1799".

OK, so now if you're silly, like me, you think "1799? that's way to late in history! Washington was 1776." Well, that's a little over 20 years difference. So before you freak out, let's think about why some dates seem "closer" to us than others.

I think part of it is due to schooling. Example "In 1492, Columbus sailed the ocean blue". After learning that jingle, you will associate Columbus with the year 1492. However, he died in 1506. His life was much more than the one year. But, 1506? That seems so much closer than 1492! Have you noticed how the century breaks seem to be so much bigger than they really are?

Or how about this - I forget that people who are only a year or two older than me were born in the end of the 1980's and not the 1990's. Decades, Centuries, Millenniums - how far apart does your mind perceive them to be?

Jung, Gregorc, and VAK, oh my!

As part of a program that I'm in here at school, we were asked to take the Jung personality test (also known as the Meyers-Briggs). If you don't know your type, take it here:
http://www.humanmetrics.com/cgi-win/jtypes1.htm

Anyways. I find this test fascinating. I tend to score E_ _J. The blanks signify the general shift when I take this test. I've taken it five times now. Here's a profile of each of the times I've taken it:
1. Facebook app, ENFJ
2. HCC Engineering Pathways, ENTJ
3. AP Spanish, ENTJ
4. NASA Goddard Intern Lecture, ESTJ
5. CWIT, ESFJ

So a question - how do our scores on these tests change based on our mood at the time? Do they really change based on maturity, like so many people tell me when I ask for an explanation of the changes? How do the questions change your scores (because each test I've taken has had slightly different questions).

Another fun test is the Gregorc Style Delineator. On this test (which I've taken twice) I score Concrete Sequential (both times). It's a little more effort to take because you have to write things out on a piece of paper and do a lot of math, but I'd recommend it if you have the time.
http://www.thelearningweb.net/personalthink.html

Finally, there's the VAK learning styles test. VAK stands for visual, audio, kinetic. I'd highly recommend taking that one as well, but can't find a good internet link for it. Let me know what your scores are, and if you think they accurately represent you.

(obviously, this post is for BEDA)

A Question of Health

College Students -remember how people always told you it was healthy to eat breakfast before high school? And how you never did because school started to early?

Well, for me at least, being in college provides me the opportunity to eat breakfast everyday. Using my meal plan, I have access to breakfast sandwiches from Chik-Fil-A and the Admin building cafe. Or, if eggs aren't what you fancy, you can get a muffin, danish, or other breakfast sweet from the library cafe or Starbucks or the Commons.

So now the question: is it more healthy to eat a breakfast that is high in sugar/cholesterol, or to not eat breakfast at all? With a campus so focused on trying to eat well, with articles in the newspaper everyday about cutting down on our intake of fast food, when faced with the choice - fatty or starve - what will you choose?

(this post is for BEDA, aka Blog Every Day in April)

What's in a Name?

Friday night I had the great pleasure of seeing Romeo and Juliet as produced by Granite Classical. It was a lovely performance, with all the magic of Shakespeare and all the innocence of a high school play. Anyways, of course the famous title of my post comes from Juliet's monologue. However, I would tend to disagree with Juliet.

Think about the names that you've been called in your life. Think about the names of your friends. There are definitely certain social stigmas associated with each name. My best example is from camp - at Wildflowers I'm called Lotus (inspiration for the title of this blog). I will always identify with the name Lotus. There are many people in my life who know me by that name alone, and no other. Think about the nicknames and pet names you've been given. Each of those has a special stigmata. Think about your last name - it's your family name. If you like it or not, it's an important part of identifying who you are. Names ARE significant.

So I think there's a inerrant flaw in Juliet's speech. In fact, I think their entire romance was flawed. I think that when I read the play. However, as with most plays, they are far better when performed. Tom and Grace has a flawless performance, convincing me of their undying affection, and other members of the cast were also marvelous.

(PS - this is the first post for BEDA, aka Blog Every Day in April)

"Shalom, Esperanza, and Love"

Each day my group serves at "My Sister's Place" in the morning and the "Esperanza Center" in the afternoon. My Sister's Place is a Women's Center close to the Basilica, and our team serves breakfast to any women who came in to the center. It is interesting serving there because I dinn't realized the intimacy of touching someone's food. The people there were all so polite and at the same time I feel so awkward about food service. I probably shouldn't be a waitress! However, I love doing dishes and working with the kitchen staff there.

The afternoon (well, not really afternoon, 9:30 am is still morning, just not as early and 5:45) is so cool. I took something like 6 years of Spanish, and I was always annoyed by the time it took to learn and how very little I use it. Visiting the Esperanza Center made my Spanish skills useful as  I connected with Hispanic immigrants learning English. One of my team members pointed out the similarities in her own frustration with learning a new language and the frustrations of these students learning English and trying to understand the idiosyncrasies of our language. Even though I'm a native English speaker and I would certainly consider myself fluent, I only scored Intermediate on the fluency test that I took (the one that is given to students when they "graduate" from the center). That was eye-opening, to say the least. I am starting to think that every US born citizen should have to take the citizenship test. Not to revoke their native born citizenship or anything, but just to realize what it's like.

I've decided that my theme for the week is "Shalom, Esperanza, and Love". Translated, loosely that would mean Peace, Hope and Love. Which I know is cheesy and cliched, but let me explain it. Shalom in the City is, of course, the title of our program. Shalom applies to the stress free feeling that this week is giving me. I'm not thinking about school, I'm thinking about other people, and I'm connected to God through my journal. Esperanza is not only the name of the center where I'm working, bu also the feeling I get when I work there. I love watching light bulbs go off, watching how hard the students work and the other teachers, who have been doing this much longer than I, patiently explaining English to them so that they have a mre hopeful future. And then, of course, Love, which applies to all three,but especially for the feeling I get in the evenings, when all of us come back from our site and the giggles and games and group discussions are rampant. It's so hard to believe that I haven't known all the other students for my whole life, because they are all so social and we automatically formed a community. If we stretch the meaning of Shalom a tiny bit (and my application of it works better for this anyway), you could say that my theme verse for the week is 1st Corinthians 13:13.

"Urban Monopoly"

If you read my blog a lot, you'll remember last spring I wrote a post about Monopoly in AP Econ. I talked about supply and demand, and "house rules' of the game. I thought that was going to be the most interesting game of Monopoly I'd ever played, and the first I'd ever play to completion. Well, I was wrong. The game we played last night was definitely more interesting than the game I played last spring in AP Econ. Since most of my blogging audience will not have heard, let me explain a little bit about where I am - I'm in Baltimore City on the Intervarsity urban plunge "Shalom in the City" trip. 16 college students are here, working with different service ministries in the city for a week, to experience the atomosphere.

Last night we played Monopoly. But not a normal game of Monopoly. The game was rigged from the beginning, giving some teams advantages and some teams next to nothing. As a member of the "favored" team, I took the various offers that the bankers gave me, but got very frustrated because I felt the unfairness towards the other teams and their anger at the unfair treatment. But at the same time, I didn't want to take too much from my own winnings to help them. And they, in turn, were so frustrated that they didn't really know what to do with our "assistance". In short (because I don't want to give you all the hours of details) the wealthy team won and all of the students ended the game frustrated. We spent nearly as long venting about the experience as we had spent playing the game. But, as we discussed, we learned some really neat things about the parallels between our game and the city. And although I had ended the game frustrated and even ended up in tears during our discussion, at the suggestion of another team member, we ended the night in a prayer circle, which calmed me down and I think brought us together as a team.

This morning I has the opportunity to return to New Song Community Church, the church I generally attend while I'm in college. The sermon this morning was exactly in line with our Monopoly game last night. It was the last part of an eight part sermon series about the eight principles of Christian Community Development. Today was about "Empowerment". And the idea of Empowerment is the idea that "the goal of christian community development is the empowerment of the individuals in the community and the community itself." The three points from this morning's sermon were "1. Empowered people Need a mission greater than themselves", "Empowered People need Power Greater than themselves" and "Empowered People need hope greater than their suffering". Based in the passage of Acts 1:6-11, each point showed how Christ was the answer to empowerment. After my eye-opening Monopoly experience, it was wonderful to be pointed back into the arms of Christ. And I can't wait to see where he takes us the rest of the week.

Religious vs. Christian

Brief post on a thought that I've been having for a while - Often people will assume that I will like something "because it is religious". According to dictionary.com, "A religion is a set of beliefs concerning the cause, nature, and purpose of the universe, especially when considered as the creation of a supernatural agency or agencies, usually involving devotional and ritual observances, and often containing a moral code governing the conduct of human affairs."  While this certainly is true of Christianity, using the term religious is so ambiguous. I would think that everyone is religious, based on the definition. Everyone I know has a belief about the creation and nature of the universe. Everyone I know has a moral code that they believes should be used to create laws and govern human affairs. I will agree that not everyone believes in a 'supernatural agent', or has 'ritual observances', but, according to the definition, those are "especially" and "usually", but not required. In short, someone who is religious is someone who holds a belief about the world. Which is everyone.


Someone who is Christian, on the other hand, is defined as "a person who believes in Jesus Christ, a person who exemplifies in his or her life the teachings of Christ" (still from dictionary.com). This definition is quite simple. She (or he) who believes in Jesus Christ and follows his teaching is a Christian. This is far more specific than "religious". So, yes, I am religious. But more importantly and more specifically, I am a Christian. And there is a difference.

Revine Blog Mooch - political stati follow-up post

After I wrote my post on political stati, a fellow rebelutionary over at "Revine" wrote a post about profanity in the kind of arguments that I wrote about. I really enjoyed his thoughts and wanted to share them with those of you who read my thoughts. http://revine.wordpress.com/2011/02/15/walk-the-talk-and-talk-the-walk-too/

Do political stati have a place on Facebook?

Something I have had issue with for a long time are people posting highly opinionated political statements on Facebook. In fact, I have de-friended people based on their left-wing or right-wing stati and/or comments. However, I am not entirely satisfied with my own thoughts on the subject, and I would warily like to open a discussion on the question, realizing that this could lead to some of the things that bother me most about political stati.

Reasons I do not like political stati:
1. the nature of Facebook means that any comment I make on your political stati will be seen by all of your other friends. This often leads to misinterpretations and debates with complete strangers, which are rarely enlightening because they are backed by emotion and misinterpretation of text. Nuances of a relationship between me and you are lost when I comment on your Facebook status because your other friends do not know me and they therefore assume the worst about me and my comment.

2. the nature of the internet (and this is expanded) means that the person I am arguing with, be it you or a Facebook friend of yours, can go on and on and on writing a block of text about a subject that I find unrelated, or that has misinterpreted my thought, etc. In an actual discussion, I'd have the opportunity to raise my hand/interrupt and change the course of discussion (either by asking how it's related, pointing out their error in interpreting my thought, etc). On Facebook, I cannot do that AND I am required to explain my objection AFTER they've made their entire thought. This leads to a lot of unnecessary thought and frustration.

3. Political Facebook stati seem highly out of place and lead to a lot of misdirected passion. Facebook's newsfeed design allows me to scroll along, happily reading posts like "got an A on my test", "going to a party tonight" from people or "how to fix your computer", "want to win a free towel? like this!" from pages, etc. and then, all of a sudden, there's something that scratches me the wrong way politically. The way we've been programmed is to immediately comment on this with our own political response. The social rules like "never talk about politics or religion" that required us to remember how to be civil when we talk and think about what is coming out of our mouths, those rules are gone. We spew whatever comes into our head, consequently ticking off an infinite number of other internet users, because I heatedly comment on your status and your friend reads it and posts a status about how he hates people like me and his friend posts an agreement comment, etc. In real conversation, you may hate what I say, but you are polite enough to not say it to my face. On the computer, we all get as nasty as we want.

There are probably more, but you get the idea, and they all end up at similar conclusions - the impersonal nature of the internet, the lack of nuance.

Song of Solomon

This morning, I read the Song of Solomon. It's only 8 chapters, and it's got a lot of content that is specific to marriage. But it's also a love story, a beautiful poem about sexual purity and ultimate fulfillment. Sort of like chick lit, but far better than any of the fluff that is written today.

I once read (in Eric Ludy's companion study to his wife's book Authentic Beauty, if anyone cares where), that girls should read Song of Solomon and Revelation at the same time, to see the side of Christ that is loving and sees her as his precious bride, but also the side that is powerful and victorious. I have yet to read Revelation, but I greatly enjoyed the bride of Christ aspect of SoS this morning.

"You have captured my heart, my sister, my bride. You have captured my heart with one glance of your eyes, with one jewel of your necklace." SoS 4:9

February 1st

Back online - actually, I have been for a while but school started and I was moving back into the dorms. A few quick thoughts about the experiment, now that it's over:
- people had a hard time getting in touch with me
- most people thought I was crazy
- I realized what FB friends I didn't need anymore
- I spent more time reading (Sherlock and Shakespeare)
- I need a better phone plan :^P

just to catch you up, blogging audience.

Going Off-line, Week 1

One of my New Year's Resolutions in 2011 is to go one week of every month "off-line".
By this I mean no Facebook, no Hulu, no Netflix, no online games, no online blog reading, no online comics. (note that this excludes email, based on the fact that it is not possible in this day and age to go completely without internet and still complete tasks like work and school).

This is sort of a social experiment and sort of a personal growth.
It's a social experiment to see if someone CAN actually accomplish this. To prove that the idea of books ever becoming outdated is ridiculous. To see who stays in contact with me without the aid of Facebook.
It's personal growth because I did my forty day fast in the days leading up to Christmas (if you follow my blog, you'll remember), and it was really helpful for me. I know there are things that I should be doing that I do not do because I'm spending time on the internet. So it's a chance for me to do those things.

I'll update you in a week how it went - in addition to the above, it's a guarantee that I'll get on my blog at least once a month, and have something semi-consistent to blog about. My blogging goal has generally been to write once a week on average, and this will help. (although, that often ends up being two posts at the end of the month to get my monthly count up to 4 so that the average comes out right!)

Shakespeare Class

For my winter course that I'm taking on Shakespeare we were asked to write a sonnet that responded to a sonnet written by Shakespeare. I wrote a response to sonnet 3:
http://www.shakespeare-online.com/sonnets/3.html

Friend, you think too much of unborn children,

But think, good sir, I am ready for none.
My home is but a small and tiny den
My income not yet prepared for a son.
My face, though a glass for my dear mother
Needs not a glass till it be old and aged.
And if this son should desire a brother,
My mistress would, I fear, become enraged.
Spare me thy thoughts on life, thy ill advice.
I need not counsel but your art alone.
Keep your wisdom out, or keep it concise.
Let this sonnet to you be surely shown,

So everyone may know my strong intent
­to avoid your thought, though it was well meant.