Sooo.... When it is dark and rainy out, and you need to turn around because you missed your turn... never assume that store driveways/parking lots have an entrance and an exit. Because if you do, you'll find yourself stuck in the mud in need of a tow.
Let me elaborate.
All of the Christian groups on campus are doing outreach this week. We all got together to kick it off on Sunday night. The group I'm a part of drove the church vans, but I drove myself. Some of my friends wanted to stay a little later than the rest of the group, so they were going to ride with me. When we left, I missed the road I was supposed to turn on. So I turned into the driveway of some flooring store, thinking the driveway would circle around back to the road. It was dark and raining and I was flustered because everyone was saying I missed the road. Alright! I admit, I may have been a tad distracted by the person sitting in the front seat. Anyway, I drove on the grass for a good twenty feet before said person asked me, "You know this is grass right?" At which point I tried to back up. The end of my car was literally even with the pavement when I got stuck. He couldn't push me out; not even with the help of another person in the car. I would have called a tow then (I get free towing) but my roommate wanted to see if some of our friends could come and help. No, you need a tow. It took the guy about twenty minutes to get there. Oh, well. I'm blaming my contacts. That d--- grass honestly looked like cement to me. And no, I was completely and utterly sober. When I called the store the next morning, they seemed glad that I called and told them what happened; they didn't want me to do anything. At least I have a hilarious story to tell future friends and generations.
In other news, after at least five months and countless applications, I finally have some jobs leads. Yesterday, a company I sent my resume to called and asked me to officially apply online. And later that same day a bookstore called and asked if I was still interested in coming in for an interview. Wow. Sort of flabbergasted. Nothing for so long and then two things in one day. I guess when God wants (or doesn't want) something in your life, He makes it pretty darn clear.
Tuesday, March 22, 2011
Saturday, March 19, 2011
Shameless book promoting and such
Just a quick side note-- don't assume the food in the fridge is yours. Otherwise you might find yourself cracking an egg while your roommate yells down the hall that s/he bought those last week.
One of my favorite (I'm not sure what label to place it under) nonfiction book is C. S. Lewis's Mere Christianity. He builds such a strong case for Christianity and the existence of a Creator God. I'm really not sure how one could refute it, but there are probably philosophy professors out there who do. Regardless, I'm even more convinced than I already was. He starts out by simply establishing that there is a moral code in the world. And if there is moral code in the world that every man adheres to and knows about, then there must be something or someone behind that moral code. After that he gets into more of the nitty gritty aspects of Christianity. Definitely worth at least glancing through. Would you like a taste?
"But the most remarkable thing is this. Whenever you find a man who says he does not believe in a real Right and Wrong, you will find the same man going back on this a moment later. He may break his promise to you, but if you try breaking one to him he will be complaining 'It's not fair' before you can say Jack Robinson."
"The truth is, we believe in decency so much--we feel the Rule of Law pressing on us so-- that we cannot bear to face the fact that we are breaking it, and consequently we try to shift the responsibility. For you notice that it is only for our bad behaviour that we find all these explanations. It is only our bad temper that we put down to being tired or worried or hungry; we put our good temper down to ourselves."
"God cannot give us a happiness and a peace apart from Himself, because it is not there. There is no such thing.
'That is the key to history. Terrific energy is expended--civilisations are built up--excellent institutions devised; but each time something goes wrong. Some fatal flaw always brings the selfish and cruel people to the top and it all slides back into misery and ruin. In fact, the machine conks. It seems to start up all right and runs a few yards, and then it breaks down. They are trying to run it on the wrong juice. That is what Satan has done to us humans."
Anyway. How about some more shameless book promoting? Hehe.... Remember that hat I finished over break? Well, even though I'm in the midst of crocheting a blanket, I felt a new knitting project was in order. I own several knitting and crochet project books, but I especially like this one. The projects seem easy and they are so useful. I'm currently working on one of the dishcloths.
One of my favorite (I'm not sure what label to place it under) nonfiction book is C. S. Lewis's Mere Christianity. He builds such a strong case for Christianity and the existence of a Creator God. I'm really not sure how one could refute it, but there are probably philosophy professors out there who do. Regardless, I'm even more convinced than I already was. He starts out by simply establishing that there is a moral code in the world. And if there is moral code in the world that every man adheres to and knows about, then there must be something or someone behind that moral code. After that he gets into more of the nitty gritty aspects of Christianity. Definitely worth at least glancing through. Would you like a taste?
"But the most remarkable thing is this. Whenever you find a man who says he does not believe in a real Right and Wrong, you will find the same man going back on this a moment later. He may break his promise to you, but if you try breaking one to him he will be complaining 'It's not fair' before you can say Jack Robinson."
"The truth is, we believe in decency so much--we feel the Rule of Law pressing on us so-- that we cannot bear to face the fact that we are breaking it, and consequently we try to shift the responsibility. For you notice that it is only for our bad behaviour that we find all these explanations. It is only our bad temper that we put down to being tired or worried or hungry; we put our good temper down to ourselves."
"God cannot give us a happiness and a peace apart from Himself, because it is not there. There is no such thing.
'That is the key to history. Terrific energy is expended--civilisations are built up--excellent institutions devised; but each time something goes wrong. Some fatal flaw always brings the selfish and cruel people to the top and it all slides back into misery and ruin. In fact, the machine conks. It seems to start up all right and runs a few yards, and then it breaks down. They are trying to run it on the wrong juice. That is what Satan has done to us humans."
Anyway. How about some more shameless book promoting? Hehe.... Remember that hat I finished over break? Well, even though I'm in the midst of crocheting a blanket, I felt a new knitting project was in order. I own several knitting and crochet project books, but I especially like this one. The projects seem easy and they are so useful. I'm currently working on one of the dishcloths.
Monday, March 14, 2011
A few thoughts
Oh my word! Posts two days in a row... completely out of character.
Apartments are wonderful places to live in. The snow is plowed, the lawn is mowed, the only bills you have to worry about is rent, electric, phone; depending on where you live, of course. Don't get me wrong. I love it. Having my own space, not living at home anymore. But I want a house. Why? So I can a have a garden with an outrageous amount of flowers. Roses, cyclamen, lavender, delphiniums, peonies, lilacs, hyacinths, grape hyacinths..... The list goes on. And a vegetable, fruit, and herb garden. Peppers, potatoes, corn, carrots, basil, rosemary, lettuce, berries, tomatoes.... Ah, me. It would also be amazing to have a (sunny) room just for my books. Shelves and shelves of books with a couple of overstuffed chairs and maybe a painting or two. I have a list of the books I own and currently the number is around 280. Somehow, though, I don't think that is a lot. Especially as a fair number of them are less than mediocre. There are so many more to obtain too! Madame Bovary, more Agatha Christie, Dorothy Sayer, Margaret Atwood, E.M. Forster, C.S. Lewis, Eudora Welty. Again, an endless list. Oh, that there were more time in a day to read all the amazing books in the world.
Speaking of which... I have been buying books lately. Lots of books. Okay, really lately only means within the past week. But I find the best deals, I promise! A thrift store in my hometown sells used paperback books for fifty cents each! I got nine. Nine books for less than five dollars. If any one of you passed that opportunity by, I would slap you right in the face. A few of the titles? The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, The Friday Night Knitting Club, Heidi, Miss Julia Speaks Her Mind, The Fires of Heaven. I got a coupon in my email for fifteen percent off one item at a bookstore so I used it. And today, I went to one of the bookstores in town. They have a rather large used section. Four books for eleven dollars. Not bad. Total? Fourteen books, twenty four dollars.
Now a couple more serious topics.
Just a thought. Never tell a person who is depressed they should wake up and tell themselves to be happy, it will be okay, etc. A depressed someone cannot do this. At least, not unless they have a really... nope. I've been there before, many times. The reason I bring it up is because someone once told me I needed to wake up and decide to be happy. (Incidentally, the same person said a couple of months later: when on her cycle and depressed, not something she can snap out of.) This statement is no doubt meant to be kind and helpful, but it isn't. It is instead slightly hurtful, and may make the depressed person feel like they aren't doing enough/ what they should be to get back to normal.
A couple of months ago, one of the girls in my Bible study said that it annoys her when people say Satan is tempting them. She believes people give too much credit to the devil. In her eyes, it is the culture we live in that is telling us lies and tempting us, etc. Apparently there are only so many demons and they can't be everywhere at once. While I agree with her about the so many demons aspect, the rest, I question. (Clarifying statement- I think there are only so many demons, but since it is impossible to know exactly how many, it's probably best to err on the side of wrong and assume they are everywhere.) It scares me, because I don't think she is giving the devil enough credit if that is possible. After all, isn't Satan the one behind the destruction of all morals, and therefore a skewed culture? In the NIV, Matthew 6:13 says "And lead us not into temptation but deliver us from the evil one." Thus equating temptation with Satan. And in Ephesians 6, when Paul is talking about the armor of God, he says, "In addition to all this, take up the shield of faith,with which you can extinguish all the flaming arrows of the evil one." To me, that seems pretty clear cut. The culture is not an entity out to grab your soul. It can be used as a means to hurt it, but ultimately, Satan is the one trying to get you to stray.
I had a thought last night. What if people I know read this chatter? The dashboard of this blog hosting site has two little boxes: one that tells you how many people have visited your blog and another that tells you if anyone subscribes to your blog. The site stats box, as it is called, also shows what websites referred the viewer to your page, if any. Currently no one subscribes to my blog, but every once in a while someone will visit it that isn't referred by some random website. (If this is you, please don't be totally creeped out, these are just some random musings.) The reason I wonder if I know said person(s?) is because once in awhile I'll follow those links and they lead to weird websites. (So really, a computer is probably just looking at these words.) And sometimes the viewer goes straight to the homepage. But in order to do that don't they need to know the url? And I've told no one in my life the name of this blog. Also I used to subscribe to a couple of people's blogs that I knew. And I'm not sure exactly when wordpress put that little box down in the corner telling you who is stalking your writing. Wow. Did not think this would turn into such a long paragraph....
Apartments are wonderful places to live in. The snow is plowed, the lawn is mowed, the only bills you have to worry about is rent, electric, phone; depending on where you live, of course. Don't get me wrong. I love it. Having my own space, not living at home anymore. But I want a house. Why? So I can a have a garden with an outrageous amount of flowers. Roses, cyclamen, lavender, delphiniums, peonies, lilacs, hyacinths, grape hyacinths..... The list goes on. And a vegetable, fruit, and herb garden. Peppers, potatoes, corn, carrots, basil, rosemary, lettuce, berries, tomatoes.... Ah, me. It would also be amazing to have a (sunny) room just for my books. Shelves and shelves of books with a couple of overstuffed chairs and maybe a painting or two. I have a list of the books I own and currently the number is around 280. Somehow, though, I don't think that is a lot. Especially as a fair number of them are less than mediocre. There are so many more to obtain too! Madame Bovary, more Agatha Christie, Dorothy Sayer, Margaret Atwood, E.M. Forster, C.S. Lewis, Eudora Welty. Again, an endless list. Oh, that there were more time in a day to read all the amazing books in the world.
Speaking of which... I have been buying books lately. Lots of books. Okay, really lately only means within the past week. But I find the best deals, I promise! A thrift store in my hometown sells used paperback books for fifty cents each! I got nine. Nine books for less than five dollars. If any one of you passed that opportunity by, I would slap you right in the face. A few of the titles? The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, The Friday Night Knitting Club, Heidi, Miss Julia Speaks Her Mind, The Fires of Heaven. I got a coupon in my email for fifteen percent off one item at a bookstore so I used it. And today, I went to one of the bookstores in town. They have a rather large used section. Four books for eleven dollars. Not bad. Total? Fourteen books, twenty four dollars.
Now a couple more serious topics.
Just a thought. Never tell a person who is depressed they should wake up and tell themselves to be happy, it will be okay, etc. A depressed someone cannot do this. At least, not unless they have a really... nope. I've been there before, many times. The reason I bring it up is because someone once told me I needed to wake up and decide to be happy. (Incidentally, the same person said a couple of months later: when on her cycle and depressed, not something she can snap out of.) This statement is no doubt meant to be kind and helpful, but it isn't. It is instead slightly hurtful, and may make the depressed person feel like they aren't doing enough/ what they should be to get back to normal.
A couple of months ago, one of the girls in my Bible study said that it annoys her when people say Satan is tempting them. She believes people give too much credit to the devil. In her eyes, it is the culture we live in that is telling us lies and tempting us, etc. Apparently there are only so many demons and they can't be everywhere at once. While I agree with her about the so many demons aspect, the rest, I question. (Clarifying statement- I think there are only so many demons, but since it is impossible to know exactly how many, it's probably best to err on the side of wrong and assume they are everywhere.) It scares me, because I don't think she is giving the devil enough credit if that is possible. After all, isn't Satan the one behind the destruction of all morals, and therefore a skewed culture? In the NIV, Matthew 6:13 says "And lead us not into temptation but deliver us from the evil one." Thus equating temptation with Satan. And in Ephesians 6, when Paul is talking about the armor of God, he says, "In addition to all this, take up the shield of faith,with which you can extinguish all the flaming arrows of the evil one." To me, that seems pretty clear cut. The culture is not an entity out to grab your soul. It can be used as a means to hurt it, but ultimately, Satan is the one trying to get you to stray.
I had a thought last night. What if people I know read this chatter? The dashboard of this blog hosting site has two little boxes: one that tells you how many people have visited your blog and another that tells you if anyone subscribes to your blog. The site stats box, as it is called, also shows what websites referred the viewer to your page, if any. Currently no one subscribes to my blog, but every once in a while someone will visit it that isn't referred by some random website. (If this is you, please don't be totally creeped out, these are just some random musings.) The reason I wonder if I know said person(s?) is because once in awhile I'll follow those links and they lead to weird websites. (So really, a computer is probably just looking at these words.) And sometimes the viewer goes straight to the homepage. But in order to do that don't they need to know the url? And I've told no one in my life the name of this blog. Also I used to subscribe to a couple of people's blogs that I knew. And I'm not sure exactly when wordpress put that little box down in the corner telling you who is stalking your writing. Wow. Did not think this would turn into such a long paragraph....
Sunday, March 13, 2011
This instead of That
A paper should be blissfully flowing from my brain onto a piece of paper and then to the computer screen. Instead, here I sit. (Does this ring any bells?)
Break went swimmingly. I went to a seminar at which the speaker expounded the similarities between Jewish weddings and Christ. I got all of my homework done (if you believe that, you really can't read). The knitted winter hat that has been in progress for nearly two years was finally completed-- so excited! I wore it around the house that day, I'm such a geek. Saw a movie with my mother and sister. Went shopping with said sister. Hung out with one of my favorite cousins and her kids. And watched at least ten classic animated disney movies. But, it was bound to happen, all of my fresh food was spoiled when I got back.
My Aunt has this pumpkin muffin/ bread recipe which, of course, she shared with my mom. Recipes get shared in families right? So now I have it and it's fantastic. One of my roommates and I have dinner once a week with some of our guy friends at their Christian frat, and I bring the bread every now and then. They love it. I made too much once, and the next day one of the guys told me they "destroyed it". It may seem rather silly, but I like knowing that at least I can bake.
Random, silly little worry. My roommate went on a missions trip this past week. I'm glad she went, I love going on them. It's just... will she think the conversations we used to have are meaningless babble? Not that they were much anyway. They mostly consisted of her talking about whatever and me giving the appropriate responses. But still....
You might also like to know that I got contacts! So excited. It takes forever to get them and two minutes to remove them. Go figure.
Okay. Really. How does one reduce the use of first person in a blog entry? Said usage is becoming extremely annoying.
Break went swimmingly. I went to a seminar at which the speaker expounded the similarities between Jewish weddings and Christ. I got all of my homework done (if you believe that, you really can't read). The knitted winter hat that has been in progress for nearly two years was finally completed-- so excited! I wore it around the house that day, I'm such a geek. Saw a movie with my mother and sister. Went shopping with said sister. Hung out with one of my favorite cousins and her kids. And watched at least ten classic animated disney movies. But, it was bound to happen, all of my fresh food was spoiled when I got back.
My Aunt has this pumpkin muffin/ bread recipe which, of course, she shared with my mom. Recipes get shared in families right? So now I have it and it's fantastic. One of my roommates and I have dinner once a week with some of our guy friends at their Christian frat, and I bring the bread every now and then. They love it. I made too much once, and the next day one of the guys told me they "destroyed it". It may seem rather silly, but I like knowing that at least I can bake.
Random, silly little worry. My roommate went on a missions trip this past week. I'm glad she went, I love going on them. It's just... will she think the conversations we used to have are meaningless babble? Not that they were much anyway. They mostly consisted of her talking about whatever and me giving the appropriate responses. But still....
You might also like to know that I got contacts! So excited. It takes forever to get them and two minutes to remove them. Go figure.
Okay. Really. How does one reduce the use of first person in a blog entry? Said usage is becoming extremely annoying.
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