Thursday, October 30, 2008

C'est moi!

You know those dorky but cool get-to-know-your-friends emails? Well...

Q. What are three things that have changed about you in the last six months?
A. I'm a lot skinnier, my hair is a lot shorter, and blonder. I'm no taller, unfortunately... :-P


Q. What is something God has been revealing to you lately?
A. That if I seek FIRST His Kingdom, ALL these things (and I mean ALL) will be added to me.

Q. What is something you've always wondered?
A. How it feels to like someone and have them like you back. Oh, AND how to make perfect guacamole--I can never get it right!

Q. What is your goal for today?
A. To survive work.

Q. What is something you are greatly anticipating?
A. Worship night at church on Friday--no Halloween for me! And the releases of the third Batman Movie, Tim Burton's Alice in Wonderland, and the Farenheit 451 movie--they'd BETTER do it justice, or they will be hearing from me personally!

Q. What is the most boring book you've read in recent history (your recent history)?
A. Murder in the Cathedral, T.S. Eliot. Can't stand him, he thought he was all that. (The only things I like by him are The Lovesong of J. Alfred Prufrock, and The Hollow Men--I actually adore those poems, they were the only ones where he wasn't full of himself...)


Well, what else can I say? ...C'est moi! ;0)

Wednesday, October 29, 2008

I'll go as Frosty...

What did I tell you? It's snowing.

In October.

Snow on Halloween?

Weird.

Wet. And soon to be cold.


Alice, myself, Kenny and Sean went to Six Flags on Saturday. It was drizzling, so there were NO lines. But, by the end of the day, after the skies opened up and rained down bucketsful, we were SOAKED (notice the rain on the Dunkin' Donuts window behind us...). As you can see, we were quite upset about the whole matter (well, maybe not Kenny...), but after we wrung out our sweatshirts, we were okay... :0)
My shoes are still wet, three days later and after being blasted with the hair dryer and spending hours in the dryer....
So now they're predicting snow in NJ.
I can't wait; Bring it on, I have a blanket, hot chocolate, and a stack of good books [and weeks of lesson plans that need to be written up].
Oh, and I just found out I can't go to college in January, because my mother can't figure out how to fill out my FAFSA online. Yahoo.
Looks like I'll be making more hot chocolate and getting more books out during those winter months............................

Thursday, October 16, 2008

My life right now

I now am *officially* the owner of my own car! I proved it yesterday by putting my In-N-Out Burger bumper sticker on the back and hanging my graduation tassle from the rear-view mirror. Ahhh, the sweetness of it all...

But I miss my best friend like nothing else. Sara love, if I had enough money for gas, I'd drive down to Liberty just to see you RIGHT NOW...

Wednesday, October 8, 2008

John McCain...?

So I don't generally get involved in political discussion, because, well, to put it bluntly, I, a.) Am very opinionated (which tends to piss people off), and, b.) Have a big mouth (which tends to piss people off). So whenever I get into politics with someone, I generally wind up pissing them off or getting PO'd. But if there is one think I can't stand, it's when people don't research, are uninformed, and vote for a candidate just because he's in their party. And don't even get me started about that whole "lesser-of-two-evils" thing...three words: It's Not Biblical. (Told you I was opinionated; my sincerest apologies. I'm sure I've offended someone, as usual.)

Alas. I have fallen prey to that which I hate...

I had decided way back when that, this being the first presidential election I'm old enough to vote in, I'd make my decision wisely. Of course Obama and Hillary were straight out--that's a given. For me, the deciding factor is always a candidate's stand on abortion. So, at the beginning, it was easy--I was Huckabee all the way!!! But...then, Mike dropped out... So I thought I'd do a write-in... Then I just thought I'd sit out the whole election all together (I thought about how I'd have to explain to my kids some day that the first election I'd voted in was 2012, not 08--wait, forget about my theoretical kids, it's a pain in the everywhere explaining to people NOW why I don't want to vote.) So, up until fifteen minutes ago, I wasn't rooting for anyone. (The way I see it, God is on the throne if Obama gets in (though I'd prefer if that didn't happen), and God's on the throne if McCain gets in (though I'd prefer if that didn't happen either...).) Even choosing Palin as a running-mate didn't sway me, though I must admit I do like her politics.

So. I'd always assumed McCain was pro-abortion, because...well, everyone had said he was pro-abortion... (*blush*). Well, it turns out, in checking everything (this is where that 15 minutes ago comes in), his track record is...well...clean. He's voted for the partial-birth-abortion ban every time, and is against government funding for abortions.

Good so far. However, I took a closer look... McCain says he's okay with abortion in cases of rape and incest, but, get this...does not require a rape test. I thought about that for fifteen seconds...and, he might as well be pro-abortion. Case in point: A girl walks into a Planned Parenthood (even from when I was five and I first heard of Planned Parenthood, it always struck me as so stupid that they called it that, but told you that your baby wasn't a human, but a "blob of tissue". Hmmm...), says, "I was raped, I need an abortion!" You actually think they're going to go, "Okay, sweetie, but let's examine you and see if it really was rape, and if not, well, sorry, you're on your own!" Uh, lemme think...no. They're going to say, "Don't worry, it's gonna be alright, step right this way."

Oh. And McCain says he will overturn Roe v. Wade...eventually. He's just scared that if he does it right away, all the poor little teenagers out there who got pregnant yesterday will go to back-alley coathanger abortionists, who will botch them up and kill them all! (Chelsey's paraphrase.) Yeah, what he doesn't realize is that, where there's a will, there's a way, and all those abortionists who found themselves out of a job because RvW got overturned aren't going to sit on their butts while Jane Doe goes to a backalley abortionist--they will become the backalley abortionists! (Oh, and for those of you who haven't figured it out, they were the backalley abortionists--they all just put on white coats and gloves and became legit when RvW was passed.)

So John McCain says it has to happen gradually... Which means not at all. Please, the man only has four years. It takes that long for a bill about stop signs to get passed.

Does John McCain have my vote? No. I still don't know who I'm going to punch on that November day. He might have had it for five minutes...but that was five minutes ago, before I really thought about it.

Did I hypocritically fall prey to what I always speak out against, not checking the facts? Yes. But even after I've considered all the true facts, I still don't feel comfortable voting for McCain.

(P.S. If you've actually read this far, I'm impressed; I thought you'd have stopped reading my political rigmarole four or five paragraphs ago--I would have...) :-P

Sunday, October 5, 2008

(addendum)

I must add to the list of books that changed my life Mere Christianity by C.S. Lewis (how could I forget that one?!), and Corrie Ten Boom's The Hiding Place. I would be remiss if I did not...

Billy Joel was right, unfortunately...

Shades of grey are all that I know
The more I find out, the less that I know
Black and white is how it should be
But shades of grey are the colors I see...

Shades of grey are all that I find
When I look to the enemy's lines
Black and white was so easy for me
But shades of grey are all that I see...

Shades of grey wherever I go
The more I find out, the less that I know
There ain't no rainbows shinin' on me
Shades of grey are the colors I see...

~Billy Joel, Shades of Grey

FIREPROOF!!!

At the last moment last night, I decided to go see Fireproof. I don't generally see movies in the theatre, so it was kind of a freak whim thing that I went. I must admit that I wasn't happy to find that the price at the Commons had gone up a dollar--it hurt my pride a bit to pay ten-fifty for a two hour movie (one reason that I don't go to movies), but after I walked out of the theatre, I was convinced that every penny was well-spent.

I was impressed with Facing The Giants, but Fireproof was amAzing. I was so pleased to see the theatre packed--the show sold out! It's #4 on the movie charts, I understand. It's so great that a movie with a 500k budget made 6 mil. in a few weeks!

There were so many great things about the movie, especially its bravery in not shying away from touchy subjects, like addictions to pornography, "emotional" affairs, and, most importantly, the full Gospel--which by the way, was presented unashamedly, and, in...well, full!

Ok, so the acting was a bit stiff at times, and it wasn't helped much by the sometimes-corny script, but on the whole, Fireproof is an impressive achievement from a secular or Christian standpoint. All I know is that, the second it hits shelves, I'm buying it.

Go see it. That is a command.

Friday, October 3, 2008

On the two loves of my life (music and books)

So I missed the veep debates last night...because I was out singing Vivaldi. I've decided that he (Vivaldi) doesn't much like contraltos... But whatever. I still love him anyways. I'd much rather sing than watch TV...

Right now, I'm reading a book about revolution (the Spiritual kind, of course!) in Asia--they were giving it out free at my church last week, and anyone who knows me knows that I will NEVER turn down a free book! So I took it, and it's been amazing, especially after just reading The Heavenly Man by Brother Yun... that book literally changed my life.

Hmmm... Which brings me to a thought... There are only a few books out there that I've read that I can honestly say changed my life--I encourage anyone reading this to pick up one of these books, and dig in: I promise it'll be a painless experience, and, hey...it might even... change your life... ;0)

Here they are (in the order that I read them):
The Bible
She Said Yes; The Unlikely Martyrdom of Cassie Bernall~Misty Bernall
I Kissed Dating Goodbye~Josh Harris
In His Steps~Charles Sheldon
My Utmost for His Highest~Oswald Chambers
No Compromise~Melody Green
The Heavenly Man~Brother Yun
Do Hard Things~Alex & Brett Harris

I'm sure there will be more to come... So consider this list "to be continued".