Beth Spera in Domino

The Language of Apology

2011-02-08T19:35:00.000-08:00

Many people know about the 5 Love Languages. If you don't, take the time to learn about it as it will change your relationships with others. Like a foreign tongue, you may be speaking German to your French spouse and both of you feel like the other isn't getting it.

You can go here for a quick test:
http://www.5lovelanguages.com/assessments/love/
If you are married, get the book from the library and read it. Learn how to love your spouse (and children) so they know how much you truly love them.

This week our family took the Language of Apology test which is also at the link above. OH MY. I scored 18 out of 20 for one type, my hubby 17 out of 20 for a different type, our oldest child was 17 out of 20 for a completely different type! The conversation we had afterward was hilarious!

"I would read the questions and think, 'These are all so stupid, who would want to hear that!'"
"I was answering the same for each question and after awhile I thought something must be wrong."
"Me, too."
"I was thinking, 'You're sorry...yeah...but what are you going to do about it!"
"I don't want you to DO anything...I just want to know that you really are sorry about it."
"Well, it doesn't matter if you're sorry if you don't make it right."
"Or ask forgiveness."
"I have always thought, 'Will you forgive me' sounded so lame. I wouldn't want to hear that. I want to hear how sorry you are."
"And I want you to fix it."

And round and round we went, each thinking what the other person wanted to hear was not AT ALL what we wanted to hear! It was quite funny...except for the fact that for over 20 years we have been apologizing to each other in a way that the other person didn't really understand or appreciate. It was eye-opening to say the least.

The Power of Our Words

2010-12-02T15:32:00.000-08:00

I followed a link...don't we all...and came across a gem of an article about proper etiquette when someone has cancer or another serious illness. I was overwhelmed with emotion when I read this paragraph:

"One day when I was in the middle of chemo, my daughter’s nursery school teacher said to me: “Aren’t you supposed to be looking worse during chemo? How do you get more beautiful every day?” I swear I wanted to leave my husband right then and there, and marry this woman. I will adore her for life, not because of some compliment that more than likely wasn’t true, but because of her generosity of spirit and the gift of hope that she gave me through a few simple words uttered with pure intentions."

I forget the power of my words. God forgive me. I pray that God will give me more wisdom on how to use my speech to edify those around me. May I be more generous with my praise and encouragement.

Colorado Trip - day 2

2010-07-01T18:56:00.000-07:00

So after our exciting airplane ride, we slept for a few hours and rose the next morning to head to northern Colorado where Clankeeper's family lives. The family scheduled a family reunion/picnic but since the weather was not ideal, they moved it inside a community center. Good idea, since they got about 2 inches of rain the day before and it did rain while we were reunioning!

The family provided a wonderful potluck and we were able to sit and chat with Clankeeper's mom, brother, sister and brother in law, nieces, a nephew, an aunt, cousins and 2nd cousins. We weren't the only "strangers" since some of the relatives introduced themselves to each other. They all live within an hour of each other but it was Clankeeper's grandma who used to have everyone over to her house for holidays and after she died I guess they don't gather all together very often.

After lunch and chatting, we went to Fort Collins and checked into our hotel and settled the children, who were thrilled to watch cable TV, which we don't have at home. Clankeeper and I went back to met with his siblings and cousins at their grandmother's house, which contained misc. items that we were invited to go through and remove items to remember her by. It is so sad to see the treasures of someone who has died...things that were special to them but now you have no idea why. What was the story behind that figurine? Why did they keep the butter churn? So many stories and no one to tell them. The whole experience was uncomfortable and sad to me.

There were some wonderful photos that brought tears to my eyes, even though I did not know Clankeeper's family well. We are hoping those will be scanned and shared with us. I was drawn to the old books. They are planning on selling the valuable ones, which saddened me. I realized that I did not see those books as dollar bills but as stories my children could read and enjoy. We love to go to book sales, yard sales and thrift stores in search of those wonderful old stories that have old fashioned values, a rich vocabulary and wholesome storylines. Our eyes light up at finding those treasures...not for their resale value (since we never sell our books anyway) but because of their value in instilling imagination and wonder in our children.

I found an old Princess of Oz by Baum that had black line drawings inside. If you have seen them you know they look perfect for coloring, which is what some young child had done. I didn't know who until later when Clankeeper's mom confessed it was her. That is a memory I would like to give my children...a book their grandma colored when she was a little girl. I am hoping that one doesn't make the cut and they will send it to us after the appraisers look at it.

After the walk through of the house, we went back to the hotel and had pizza with our children and watched TV together. We had two rooms - A king bed and fold out couch in our room, which we shared with the little girls, and 2 queen beds and a fold out couch in the other room that the 4 boys shared with Merry getting the couch. We all headed to bed early, since we were bushed.

Colorado Trip - Day 1

2010-06-14T13:06:00.000-07:00

Our entire family flew to Colorado on Friday to visit Clankeeper's family last week. We had planned to visit this fall but Clankeeper's mom was diagnosed with lung cancer so we moved the trip up a bit.

The week before the trip Merry was overcome by spring fever and made an exuberant leap on a flight of stairs and hurt her leg. Yes, the one that was shattered in her car accident. She couldn't walk on it for 5 days, using crutches to get around, but X-rays showed nothing was broken and by the time our trip began, she had just a milk limp.

The day we were leaving for the airport, we were all in the van ready to go when Aragorn remembered something and flew into the house to get it. He severely sprained his ankle going down the stairs but being the strong and silent type, he didn't mention it to us when he came back out. We left for the airport and it wasn't until we were about to go through security that we noticed he was feeling faint from walking on his hurt ankle. He had to sit and rest it for a bit but we all made it to the gate ready to leave with plenty of time to spare.

There were severe thunderstorms and tornado warnings in Colorado on Friday and so our plane was late arriving to pick us up. We ended up leaving the airport over an hour and a half late. The crew was quite funny and gave us the most hilarious safety speech we have ever experience on a plane. "If the cabin looses pressure, oxygen masks will come down. Stop screaming and put on your mask and then help those next to you who are children or are acting like children." All of their funny comments really made the beginning of the flight nice. Little did we know what we were in for later...

The trip was going well until we got near Denver where there was quite a bit of turbulence and we all were tired and not feeling too well. The pilot told us that in his 30 years of flying, he had never seen thunderstorms quite like these storms. Usually thunderstorms come and go in Denver, but these ones were stubborn and stuck around and stayed. They put us in a holding pattern and told us that we had plenty of gas and they would let us know if we had to divert to somewhere else. I had the feeling that some Frontier Airline pencil pushers were debating the risk of our plane landing versus the cost of housing and feeding 150 people who would be diverted to another city if they didn't land in Denver. Ultimately they decided to let us land in Denver. That last 30 minutes were pretty rough, especially since it was almost 1 am and we were all stressed to the max. Martin, The Queen, and Emma Darcy were all feeling sick but thankfully no one threw up. Even after the plane landed it was tossed back and forth on the runway! It was something we have never experienced before and quite scary. We could hear hail hitting the outside of the plane while we taxied to the gate. What a flight!

We got our luggage and tried to locate someone to help us with our rental cars. I had called to ask what procedure we should follow but obviously the directions given to me applied during normal working hours, not at 1:30 in the morning when no employees were to be seen. It was pouring rain but the cool fresh air revived us all, despite the stress the parents were feeling. We finally found a very helpful employee and we ended up being given mini-vans, even though we only reserved full-sized cars (they were parked a lot closer to the covered sidewalk and we think the employee didn't want to go out in the rain any further than he had to!). The parking lot was flooding from the downpour and we all had to walk through about 4 inches of water to get into the cars. We drove down the road to our very nice hotel room where we all fit into a 2 bedroom suite and fell exhausted into bed, thankful to be safe and in a warm, dry bed.

End of day 1

Blog update

2010-06-14T12:59:00.000-07:00

So, I doubt too many folks actually read our blog, especially after such long absences. Our dear Merry is so busy and does not post here much, and I am not much of a writer, so we haven't posted recently.

I LOVE to read about my friends and am so thankful when they make time to write on their blogs about what is going on in their lives. Of course, when I sit down to write something it seems terribly mundane, self-centered and generally lame, so I don't write anything. I decided recently that I would at least try to write a little for those who might care and mostly as a record of our lives and all those little things that get forgotten over time. So...here we go!

About Health Care...

2010-01-06T14:18:00.000-08:00

So we went to the Driver's Licensing Dept to get my son a driver's permit. We checked the websites before we left, since we live about the same distance from two different offices. One had an average wait time of 45 minutes and one was 2 hours. This is to get your license renewed or take a simple computerized test. Who in their right mind wants the government to be in control of our health care? Can you imagine the lines and the waiting? It is frustrating enough to be shuffled from line to line; wait to get a number, wait to turn in paperwork, wait to turn in test results, wait to have your picture taken, wait to get your permit. Crazy. What will it be like when your health or your LIFE are in the balance?!

Those who didn't get the Nobel prize...

2009-10-09T15:06:00.000-07:00

Here are a few worthy people. And here are some more.
I have a hard time understanding how Obama won. His nomination was submitted after he was in office only 12 days.
Oh, and in 2007, when Al Gore won the Nobel Peace Prize, this woman did not. This sickens me.

The Newest Addition to our Fleet

2009-10-09T15:03:00.000-07:00

Merry and Aragorn bought a used Ford Focus last week. It needed some work but Aragorn negotiated a lower price and then had the repairs done. Clankeeper is very happy to have his van back so he doesn't have to drive the behemoth 15 passenger van to work anymore!

Big Government Health Care PSA

2009-10-03T17:27:00.000-07:00

Hat tip to Headmistress, Zookeeper (TheCommonRoom)

Listen to Overpaid Celebrities

2009-09-30T21:07:00.000-07:00

Funny and poignant!

What more needs to be said?

2009-08-29T12:54:00.000-07:00

Hat tip to Ace Of Spades HQ & Charlie Foxtrot

When You Wish Upon a Star...

2009-08-25T21:03:00.000-07:00

Hat tip to PatriotPost.us

Ronald Reagan Speaks Out Against Socialized Medicine

2009-08-15T14:04:00.000-07:00

As this 1961 audio clip shows, the Gipper was more on-the-ball than any politician since and lightyears better than any we have now!

I sure do miss having him as president! I don't foresee another one like him in my lifetime. So sad :(

Apparently, they were able to keep socialized medicine from passing back in 1961, but they're still trying to push it through. Let's hope that we can keep it from happening again!

European travelers coming home

2009-07-28T22:27:00.001-07:00

Please keep the European travelers in your prayers. They are leaving London at 6pm London time (which is 1 PM Eastern/ 10 AM Pacific) and will arrive home almost 10 hours later. It will certainly take them some time to adjust. Please pray for their safety.

European update 7/28

2009-07-28T22:25:00.000-07:00

Hello everyone,

This will be my last update from Europe. Sad yes, but we are all ready to go home. :)

Yesterday we went to tour inside Westminster Abbey. We saw the tombs of Elizabeth I, Mary I, Mary Queen of Scots, Geoffrey Chaucer, Jane Austen, Charles Dickens, Rudyard Kipling, Isaac Newton, Charles Darwin, and Handel. There were also many memorials including one for Shakespeare. Yes, dad did go over and stand on Darwin's grave too. Haha.

One more cool fact is that they have Britain's oldest door there too. That was neat too see.

We also walked around on. The HMS Bellfast. The boys really enjoyed this one.

Our next stop was the British Library. To be honest, this was the place I was waiting to visit during the whole trip. We saw the Magna Carta, works by Jane Austen and Charlotte Bronte. Alice In Wonderland, Sir Gawain and the Green Knight, Arnstein Bible, and Codex Sinaiticus.

I took my time looking at what I came for. Music written in some great composer's own hand. The Messiah by Handel and pieces by Mozart, Beethoven, and Hayden.

They also had some pages from Da Vinci's notebook. It was amazing!!
Sadly, we had to miss out on the Gutenberg Bible because of the way the trains worked out. We had to leave right away to catch our train to get to the movie theatre on time to see Star Trek. Sigh. Oh well.

Today:

We were extremely lazy today. We slept in really late and then headed out to Greenwich to see the prime meridian. It was lots of fun to stand in two time zones at the same time, jump back and forth between the two AND stand on the line in between time. Haha. To much fun.

Sidenote: About the Gutenberg Bible...just kidding! We would never skip out on that just for a movie. Not even Star Trek. We saw it and it was amazing! (Did we give you a heart attack?)

Ok, so after the prime meridian us girls headed back to the hotel while the boys went to the Army Museum. Everyone had a good time doing their separate activities.

We are now mostly all packed up and waiting to watch Chuck in an hour.

Hopefully we will have a good trip back home and we cannot wait until we get there.

Sending lots of love,

Ladybug

European update 7/24

2009-07-24T22:17:00.001-07:00

Hello everyone,

It looks like I am the only one sending back updates. Mitchell does not want
to, dad probably thinks the same, Doodle not sure why and MerryK is just too
tired of it. I am getting a little tired of it too, but I can type it over
the whole day so it is not that bad. One good thing about having a phone
that can send emails.

Anyways, I will give you a quick summary of our day and then get on to some
funny random facts from the trip.

We went to Buckingham Palace to watch the changing of the guards. It started
to rain, everyone put up their umbrellas and we couldn't see a thing. We
decided to ditch that and go on a double decker bus tour. It rained there
too and we got soaked up on top of the bus. At the St. Paul's stop we saw
the church and then headed back to the hotel. In the evening we watched the
show Wicked and it was fabulous!!!!! Perfect seats, awesome show and....wow.

Odd facts that we have discovered over the last few weeks:

Europe is famous for stairs. They are everywhere and we have probably walked
up and down a million or so. Not kidding about the number.

Us girls have had a contagious hiccup problem between the three of us. One
person will have them and then a day later someone else gets them. Somehow
the boys are immune to this odd infection. I have had them at least five
times, but I believe Doodle was the last to have them. Who is next?!

Doodle has another weird quirk that MerryK noticed. Each morning after
breakfast when we are about ready to go she burps. MerryK will often respond
with a simple, "Well, good morning to you too." Yet, today we were joking
about someone should burp her before we leave. We are weird as a whole I
guess.

I haven't heard much complaint on this from other people, but I am
personally ready for the money belt to die. Doodle agrees. Whenever I can
take it off it goes flying down on top of my bag. I am waiting anxiously to
remove it when we get back home. Maybe even burn it.

Dad mentioned that we are having too much fun with the "theatre" side of
London. We have seen Harry Potter and Wicked. We will be seeing The
Mousetrap play by Agatha Christie tomorrow. But wait...there's more. All of
us are also going to try and see Star Trek again on Monday. Yes, we do love
the theatre...both kinds.

Tah tah.

Ladybug

European update 7/23

2009-07-23T22:19:00.001-07:00

Hello all!

We left Paris around 1pm and took a 2.5 hour train to London. As soon as we
started out to find our hotel we got lost. Yep, we were not even a minute
out and we were lost. Luckily we found our hotel, though, and we all have
our own beds! Since we had nothing planned we decided to go down to
Leicester Square to see Harry Potter.

The underground (the tube) was packed. Imagine the greater Seattle area
stuck in the tube. That is what it felt like. Never have I been in such a
place so packed. Yuck!

We arrived safely to the square and it took us a few trips back and forth on
a street to find the cinema. Sigh. We had to ask where it was, but we found
it in the end! This was the first time that I have ever watched a movie in a
huge theatre that looks like a Broadway theatre. It was enormous! You will
see when I post the pictures when we get back home. No way to post pictures
now. :(

Harry Potter was amazing!! I think that was the best one so far. What was
even cooler was the fact that we arrived in St. Pancras station which is
connected to King's Cross station. Yep, we saw platform 9 3/4 the same day
we saw the new movie. They have a little sign setup between the platforms.
Pretty neat.

At the hotel all us girls were happy to have a TV with English speaking
people and some American shows.

23rd:

We went to the Tower of London to see the Crown Jewels. Those were beautiful
and all the fancy tableware was made of gold. Wow, there were some big
jewels there on those crowns.

At one point they had this interactive portion where some people in costume
showed us how a small trebuchet and a ballista (shot arrows at 2000 pound
force) worked. That was really cool. The trebuchet threw some pretty awesome
water balloons. Haha

Next we headed over to Starbucks and Subway for lunch. Yes, we wanted a
taste of home. I am now feeling a little homesick. Mostly I just want my own
bed!

In the afternoon we took a river cruise down the Thames river and ended up
down by Parliament, Big Ben, London Eye, and Westminster Abbey. We looked
around for a while and then went to the Aquarium for something a little
different than a museum. :) We also took a ride on the London Eye. Way cool!

Something that we were not planning on doing here in London was going to a
Broadway show. Last night we saw Harry Potter and on Saturday we will see
The Mousetrap play. Yet, we saw that the show Wicked was here and got
tickets to see it tomorrow night. After discussing it we decided to splurge
and get really good seats. We will be up on the balcony about six rows back.
Sweet! All of us are really excited and can't wait.

This evening we have been having fun watching some Star Trek: Next
Generation, Rush Hour, and bizarre British shows. We also found out that
surfing the channels can be dangerous. You really never know what you will
find. Yuck and a little disturbing. : (

Cheers,

Ladybug

European update 7/21

2009-07-22T07:45:00.001-07:00

Hello everyone,

Today was an extremely lazy one. We were given the privilege to sleep in.
Most of us got up around 10am and the rest closer to 11am (Cough....can you
guess who was last? Yep, Doodle).

Dad had to go get more food supplies for breakfast when everyone finally got
up. He brought back some nice yummy cereal. :)

It wasn't until around 1:30pm when we all went out to the post office and
the grocery store for lunch. We have saved a lot of money by eating at the
apartment. Tons of money!

It is now 6:30pm and we are sitting on top of the Arc de Triomphe. We never
left our place until 5pm. Like I said: a lazy day!

We will be having dinner soon and then attempt to head on up to the Eiffel
Tower when it gets dark.

11:51pm

Paris is absolutely gorgeous in the evening! The Eiffel Tower was all lit up
and even had some white lights that made it sparkle. Beautiful!

Unfortunately, the line was still huge so we decided not to go up to the
top. Everyone except MerryK was disappointed. :( she was not feeling up to
it today. Mitchell was very upset and says he will come back again just to
go up to the top.

Tomorrow we are heading off to London and will hopefully see the new Harry
Potter movie if time permits.

Hugs to all!

Ladybug

European update 7/20

2009-07-20T19:58:00.001-07:00

Hey All,

Today we got up really early at 6am to be able leave at 7am to catch the
metro by 8am and hop on our train at 9am. Of course we got to the train
station at 7:30am and had to wait around until 8:45am. Sigh. Dad always
likes to have LOTS of spare time.

We had lots of fun during the tour of Normandy Beach. We saw the Pointe du
Hoc Monument and bunkers, Omaha Beach, US cemetery, and a little fishing
town near there. All of us also touched water from the Atlantic Ocean. So we
have now touched the Atlantic Ocean and the Mediterranean Sea. Sweet!

I wish I could say that my knee is doing better today, but alas no. It was
fine this morning, but NOT now. It is stiff, a little swollen and somewhat
sore. That fact that there are stairs everywhere (monuments, museums, train
station, metro station, and of course the apartment) does not help. We are
taking it easy tomorrow so that should be nice. :)

We will attempt to go up on top the Arc de Triomphe and then go on a short
night walk near the Eiffel Tower. Then we will see how long the line FOR THE
ELEVATOR is to go up. We really want to see Paris at night with all the
lights. We shall see.

A funny fact: we spend our first half of the day busily touring the cities
and then come back to the hotel or apartment and fight over who gets to read
what book next. Haha. MerryK and Dad were both wanting to read my book that
I just finished ( Angels and Demons) and Mitchell and I were fighting over
who got to read Doodle's book when she was done ( Ender's Game). Ah, too
much fun. FYI: Dad and Mitchell won the first round. Boys: 1, Girls: 0

Tah tah.

Ladybug

European update 7/19

2009-07-19T22:16:00.001-07:00

Hello all,

Today we ventured off to the Eiffel Tower to look out at Paris. When we got
there we saw an enormous line that was not moving and only a few elevators
going up and down. The top was also temporarily closed. Sigh. Not what we
wanted to see.

We decided to bite the bullet and walk up to the 1st and 2nd levels since
there was practically no line for those. We walked up 650 (approx) stairs.
Way too many for me because we had to walk back down too. So it ended up
being around 1300. Yuck.

Some of you know this already, but I have a bad knee from an injury several
years back. Man, did it come back to haunt me. My knee is killing me now.
MerryK's knee is acting up too. I will most definitely be taking some Advil
tonight to help with the aching pain.

While we were getting hot dogs for lunch, we saw one of the street vendors
get arrested for apparently not having a license. Whenever you see a cop
walking around those vendors run and hide. After a minute or two they come
back out with their rings of Eiffel Tower key chains and little gadgets.
Today dad got hit in the head with one of their flying bird toys. That was
pretty funny. Dad got a kick out of it, too.

In the afternoon we headed over to the Army Museum and Napoleon's tomb. It
was okay. Dad and Mitchell seemed to have the most fun. Towards the end, us
girls were walking fast through the exhibits to find a seat. We would then
sit down and read our books until dad and Mitchell caught up. :)

The last thing we did museum wise was the Rodin Museum. We just popped in to
see the Thinker statue and also The Kiss statue and then left. The nice
thing is that we have Paris museum passes. With these we paid a one time fee
and now we get in to almost all the major sights for free AND we get to skip
the lines. So just going in the Rodin Museum for two things was no problem.
Yay!

Now we are back at the apartment reading our books, emailing, or checking
the blogs that we follow (MerryK).

Tomorrow is Normandy Beach. Sweet!

TTFN! Tah tah for now!

Ladybug

______________________________________

Mitchell lay dead on the floor, with what looked like a stab wound in his
chest. We have a motive, we have a weapon, but can we be sure? Ahem, so
maybe Ladybug's murder mystery that she's reading affected us all a little
too much... ( Mitchell's fine, see later for the explanation of the joke)

Today we finally made it to the Eiffel Tower. Not the highlight of our trip,
given that the top level was closed, and we decided to skip the 3 hour lines
and walk up the 650 steps to the next-to-top level. *wheeze wheeze* Ladybug
and I both have iffy knees, and they were trembling by the time we got down.
That being said, it's an amazing structure and the view was worth it. Though
the elevator mechanism sounds exactly like the TARDIS powering up, which was
rather disconcerting.

We then went to Napoleon's tomb, and after that, the Army Museum nearby.
That was a bit of a boy's museum. ;) Though, I did purchase a very cool
pistol replica, and Doodle got a dagger letter opener. While walking out,
though, we commented on how our weapons couldn't go in our carry-on baggage
at the airport, and someone made a joking comment about having weapons and
"knowing who to blame if we find Mitchell dead. Doodle, in the apartment,
with the letter opener." This joke makes more sense if you know that those
two have been getting on each others' nerves, but especially the last few
days. It's fun to laugh it off in good humor, though.

After that, we made a quick stop at the Rodin Museum to see "The Thinker"
and "The Kiss", but then skipped the rest. By this time, we've figured out
that all European museums and famous buildings have 1 exit and 1 entrance.
To get to that 1 exit, the only way is by walking through every single room
and corridor in the maze they've set up to make security details easy.
Sadly, there are never any maps of how far you've gone, so you never have a
clue when you'll find the end and the exit, especially since there are
dozens of exit signs along the way. We went into the Louvre, for example,
wanting to see two things...we ended up having to go through two whole
floors to reach the exit after we saw what we wanted. Not because we got
lost, but because there was only 1 exit and no shortcuts, and all we could
do was follow the exit signs through room after room. We will certainly
enjoy getting back to America and "You are here" type building maps when
this trip is done.

Now we are back at our apartment, reading before it's dinner time.

MerryK

European update 7/18

2009-07-18T21:56:00.001-07:00

Hello everyone,

Sorry I have been out of touch. We only have Merry K's IPOD to write emails, but I just remembered that I have my phone, too. I can write a lot faster on my phone. More practice I guess. ;)

Anyways, yesterday we all headed out to the Arc de Triomphe and waited in line for an hour. We finally realized that it was closed that day due to a celebration. Sigh. Oh, well we at least got to see the outside.

Next we headed on down to the Louvre. Wow, what a huge building!! At least four floors of great things to look at. Of course we only ended up looking at two floors, but still walked about 3 1/2 miles in the building. We decided to see two things: the Egyptian exhibits and the Mona Lisa. It took us at least three hours to see just that. :) Yes, we only spent three hours at the Louvre, looked at two floors and then left. I know some of you would spend days in there, but not me.

On the way back to the metro I decided to play Marilyn Monroe on the sidewalk. Actually I was minding my own business and just happened to walk over a pretty strong gust of wind coming from the vent on the ground. Up went my skirt...oh dear. At least I was wearing a pair of shorts underneath and was still decent. All of us girls were laughing quite hard after this. Yet, the boys missed the whole thing. Not that I am complaining. Haha

Today we took a day trip to Versailles to see a beautiful palace. The weather here has been wonderful. It reminds me of home. :) Today was cool and a little windy. We enjoyed looking in all the colorful rooms and walking along the green gardens. We had lunch that we had packed in the gardens while listening to some classical music being played on some speakers for all to enjoy.

Later for dinner we went to the Hard Rock Cafe. This is number three on our list. The first HRC was in Rome, second in Venice, third just now in Paris and the fourth will be in London.

One thing that has been annoying here are all the posters for the new Harry Potter movie. They are everywhere, especially in the subway. We have to wait till next week to see it. Only a week away!

My fingers are getting tired from typing this all on a Blackberry, so goodnight all!

Ladybug

________________________

Today we took the train up to Versailles and spent a few hours there. You can definitely tell what kind of group we are when we're all sitting on the train with our nose in a fat book. The palace itself was certainly lovely, especially the Hall of Mirrors, but it was Marie Antoinette's chateau that made the biggest impression. Unlike the palace, it was light and big without being overwhelming, and the pink and green marble and white stone was much nicer than the dark fold and heavy fabrics of Versailles. The gardens were huge but not noteworthy.

That was all we did today. As the trip goes on, we're taking our days more and more easily.

It's quite a challenge to cook in this apartment. We did finally find a grocery store with food other than rice and beans and milk and canned veggies, but our supplies are a bit limited. No sugar or honey for the tea, but teacups, and I had to use the bottom of one to crush the egg salad. We also can't have pancakes because none of us can figure out what "baking soda" is in French. Oh, the things they don't mention in guidebooks.

For a couple days now, there have been an extraordinary amount of street musicians...but in the subways. They are surprisingly talented, though, even if it's not the most fun for one's ears when they're performing in your subway car. We've also noticed that almost all the beggars here are handicapped, instead of just poor. We'll definitely enjoy being able to walk down most streets unsolicited when we get home.

(Oh, and last note: we did end up watching Twilight in French on TV. It's at least a little less cheesy when dubbed, but we were laughing at it anyway, for some of the intonation of the dubbing, but mostly the translation. Edward calling Bella "parfait" was cute enough, but at one point it sounded like he called her his "croissant" and we were chortling madly over that.)

Love to all,
Merry K

European update 7/17

2009-07-17T22:21:00.001-07:00

Life in Paris is pretty good. Despite the thunderstorm last night, which
counteracted the nice quiet homemade dinner at our apartment. We had
breakfast here this morning, and may learn more French from early morning
cartoons than the actual French populace. After that, we went and waited
outside the Arc di Triomphe, only to be told 45 minutes later that it was
closed for holiday. So instead we went down the Rue de Champs Elysses, which
was almost like an outdoor mall.

The other big thing today was the Louvre, but I don't have actual gushing
over it. ;) I'm not an art person, so even seeing Mona Lisa and Venus de
Milo and Victoire de Samothrace didn't have me in awe. The Egyptian exhibit
had some remarkable things, and I got shivers looking at the Code of
Hammurabi, but I enjoyed the outside gardens most.

We bought more groceries in the afternoon, and Ladybug was Marilyn Monroed
by a street vent, which was rather funny. Tonight we're going to make a nice
homemade dinner (baked fish and grilled vegetables) and hopefully watch
Twilight in French. The weather has been exactly like weather at home:
partly cloudy and windy. Not bad, though I kind of wanted to escape home on
my vacation. ;)

Love to all,
Merry K

________________________________

Hey y'all

Well, it is our second full day in Paris. Yesterday, we had to figure out
the metro system, but today we mastered it. Mostly. <_< >_> (shifty look).
And trying to figure out how to use the washing machine here...what fun. Arc
di Troimphe was a hoot. We wait in line for an hour just to find out it was
closed for a celebration. Hehe. From someone who had translated what another
guy said. See what I mean by "a hoot". The Louvre was another story. We
spent 3 hours in there most of the time looking for the exit. Though I could
have spent all of today there and most of the trip for that matter, if it
wasn't for my feet hurting. We also lost Mitchell there. Or rather he lost
us. ^_^. And Ladybug, so inspired by the French, decided to have a Marilyn
Monroe moment. Well, that is all for now.

Hugs to all,
Doodle

We the People Stimulus Package

2009-07-17T14:10:00.000-07:00

While I don't agree with everything in this video, he definitely has some good ideas and I thought that it was good enough to pass on to others. H/T to Ace of Spades HQ.

If you give a man time to post to his blog, you never know what you're going to get ;)

Health Rations and You

2009-07-17T13:57:00.000-07:00

I saw this funny video on Ace of Spades HQ. Preview of things to come via Obamacare?

European update 7/16

2009-07-16T20:11:00.000-07:00

Hey all,

We're now in Paris and finally able to write again. Or, sadly, only me so far. The Wi-Fi is nice, though.

Let's see, our last day in Venice was lovely, and we walked all over St. Marks Square at a slow pace, ending our day with sitting on the edge of the pier and dipping our feet in the Mediterranean. The breeze was warm, and so was the water, and we didn't want to leave.

But travel called, and so at 5:45am next day, we trudged with our huge backpacks down to the Venice train station. One odd thing about this one was that every time a train came in, it sounded exactly like a Wraith attack. But that wasn't the most interesting piece of travel...let me give you the brief summary of the next two days:

We caught a water taxi from our hotel to Venezia S.L. Station, a short train to Venezia Mestre Station, a long train to Interlocken (Switzerland), a short train to Lauterbrunnen, a bus up to Stechelberg, and then a cable car up to Gimmelwald.

Second day was: a cable car up to Murren, a cable car up and then back down from Schilthorn, back down to Gimmelwald, another cable car to Stechelberg, a bus to Lauterbrunnen, a train to Interlocken, a train to Bern, and then a train to Paris.

Needless to say, we know Swiss transit really well now. But as for what that transit meant...

Switzerland was a bit uncomfortable after getting used to Italy. I hadn't realized until then how much I'd absorbed Italian culture and didn't like it being wrenched from me. But it was neater and more organized, and the landscape was a different kind of gorgeous. Need I say the Alps are magnificent? You ride the train up and up, and they're still taller than the Rockies. And then you go up even further on cable cars (which didn't feel secure for the first couple times) and they're still huge, even at 4700 feet.

And there's nothing like looking out your hotel window and seeing nothing but ginormous mountains. Except in the morning, when you can see only white and the ground under your window. Our hotel people were extremely helpful and nice, and the food was delicious. (Oh, and for the record: I've had two sips of wine in Italy, the red tasted awful, but the white was not bad. And I had a sip of light beer in Switzerland and actually enjoyed that taste straight off.)

The Schilthorn was beyond words, just as amazing as all the pictures, though we had no time to eat in the restaurant. It was about 45 degrees F, though, which was not pleasant.

I was surprisingly not tired of train trips when we got to the 5 1/2 hour one to get to Paris. I finished my second book (First, Speaker For the Dead, a reread that was just as powerful as the first read-through, and then Dune, where the writing was not too fantastic but the story became fascinating by the end.) and slept a little and wrote a little and the time seemed to fly past.

And then we were in Paris, and I was so glad to see euros being used again; trying to calculate Swiss Franks and their conversion was a problem, and I liked going back to a familiar currency. Someone picked us up in a taxi from the Paris train station and took us to our apartment. The owner was wonderful; nice, and also hilarious. The place has three levels, and it's nice to have all the space. Not sure what Paris itself will be like, but we're looking at maps now and about ready to start they day.

Love to all,
Merry K

____________________________________

Switzerland was amazing! The Alps were so beautiful and the air was clean and fresh. The best part was going up to Schilthourn which is sitting right up in the Alps. I have never been so scared in my life while riding up in the cable car. Haha.

We are now all in Paris in our nice little apartment. (It suddenly just started to pour down rain and hail. I am now back from running around to shut all the windows.) when the owner said that they had unpredictable weather....who knew?!

Today we went to the Notre Dame church, Sainte Chapelle, little shops, and a water cruise. It was nice and hot out (unlike the rain now), but it is not muggy here. Yay!!!

Back in Venice we did send off a package back home. I believe we sent it to the Nowlin's house. We stuck the cd of pictures in there, too. Of course we did not think about how long it would take it to get there. We might beat it back home. Let us know when it arrives. Also let us know if you get postcards, we are curious to know how many are actually getting to their destinations.

Tomorrow we will be going to the Arc de Triomphe, shopping and the Louvre.

Miss you all,

Ladybug

__________________________________

Our first day in Paris was not bad at all. The atmosphere here is very different. Italy was relaxed, even while moving fast, and there was a sense of history in a nonchalant manner. Switzerland was very exact and serious, but didn't go for more than simplicity. France on the other hand...I get the distinct impression that they think very highly of their history and accomplishments, and think that everyone else should, too.

However, Paris is a very beautiful city. The weather is unsurprisingly more like Seattle when hot--I really do miss the mugginess. We visited Notre Dame today, but the outside was more grand than the inside. The winner of the interior award would definitely be the Sainte Chapelle church with nearly all the walls being stained glass. I may get tired of seeing gorgeous churches eventually, but these ones are still amazing. We even heard part of a French mass at Notre Dame.

Our feet are still not recovered, so the boat tour on the Seine with its seats was a nice break from all the walking. You can see almost all the landmarks from the river, and it was here that we learned that the Louvre has 13 kilometers of exhibits. Ack! We'll be limiting our visit to a few choice items, we think.

Ordering food in Paris is much more difficult; Italian cuisine all had familiar words, but we needed several translations of the French menu. So it was nice that we could buy groceries and use the kitchen in our apartment for dinner. After all the traveling, quiet homely evenings are to be cherished.

Random note: Apparently the French think Americans are loud and obnoxious, so we were all trying to be quiet. So it was quite funny when the apartment owner said on giving us the tour last night that we were "silent--like ninjas"

The last little cultural thing we picked up was from watching early morning French cartoons and commercials. Words cannot describe how familiar, and yet how alien, that experience was. We laughed until tears came.

It'll be easier to like Paris than Rome, I think. Once we get a grip on the atmosphere and a little of the language barrier. Still, I think Italy will be my favorite.

Love to all,
Merry K

European update 7/15

2009-07-15T20:19:00.000-07:00

Just wanted to let everyone know that there haven't been any emails yet.
They left Italy, stayed in Switzerland and should have arrived in Paris
today. We are hoping that they will have internet access now. I'll post
updates when they are available! Please keep everyone in your prayers.

European update 7/13

2009-07-13T09:42:00.001-07:00

I'm currently at an internet cafe in Venice, but this will probably be the last email before Thursday, since internet is sketchy.

First, our last day in Rome. We were all tired, but it was quite nice. We visited the Castel San Angelo, and then vegged out at the apartment to rest our feet, which were still not recovered from the previous days of walking. A couple more notes about Rome in general: it's very odd to hear American music on the radio stations here. So far, we've recognized Coldplay, P!nk, Dido, Avril Lavigne, and lots and lots of Michael Jackson. Also, Rome will be remembered by me as the place I learned to appreciate mushrooms. I've never really liked either their flavor or texture, but I had linguine with mushrooms here and they were absolutely delicious. Flavorful, and the texture didn't bother me; I'm not sure if it was the type (small, buttony, but not like American button mushrooms) or the cooking method, but I loved them. Now I want to try more mushrooms back home.

The train ride up to Venice wasn't anything special. Venice, on the other hand...wow. This is one of the most perfect places on Earth, I'm certain. You just want to walk around forever just looking at things. Beautiful! The atmosphere is not as hectic as in Rome, since all the non-foot traffic is on the water. We don't really have any sightseeing to do today, but we're all fine with that, since it's amazing just to walk around and wander for hours. Knowing what I do now, I'd love to come back to Rome and Venice for a couple days of relaxation.

Our hotel here is nice, and we'll go in a gondola tonight before leaving really early tomorrow for Switzerland. I'll probably email next from Paris.

Love,
Merry K

_________________________________

Hello everyone,

We were able to find an internet cafe in Venice. Yippee! Yesterday we traveled on the train for the first time and it went pretty smoothly. A few glitches here and there because we have never experienced it before. 1. Our train number on the first train was correct, but the location was not. That is because the train makes multiple stops and it only lists the last stop. We were getting off on the first one so it did not list our city.

We arrived in Florence and found the museum where the statue of David is very easily. Once we arrived we saw the huge line coming from the building. Thank goodness my dad thought ahead and bought reservations because we got to skip the entire line and go right on in. The statue was amazing and way bigger than I thought it was. I was at least 8 times as tall as me. Wow! I even got to see about 4 cellos, 4 violins, 4 violas, and 2 double bass string instruments from the 1600's. How cool is that?!

We had fun walking through the market area and buying a few things. I bought a nice wallet and a bracelet and then we had lunch. The food here is amazing! Everything that we try is delicious. :)

We hopped back on another train up to Venice. One odd thing about the train is that when you go through the tunnels (and there are quite a few) the air pressure changes. Ugh, it was awful on my ears and everyone else's from what I heard. In about three hours we arrived in Venice. It took us a while to figure some things out at the station, but soon we were off to our hotel.

In order to get to our hotel we had to take a water taxi. It is a big boat that about 100+ people can get on and off of around Venice. There are absolutely no cars here. Just boats and streets for people to walk on. This is definitely my favorite place thus far. I love the buildings, the environment, people, water, everything.

Last night Doodle tried an interesting dish of food that was quite good. Spaghetti with Cuttlefish sauce. The sauce was black and looked odd, but it tasted really good. :)

Today we have been walking around down by the water (which is the Mediterranean Sea, how cool is that?!) shopping and just enjoying the walk. We just went to see the Rialto bridge and will probably go see Dodge's Palace and some other Basilica that is really cool looking.

Tomorrow we are off to Switzerland and we have no idea whether we will have internet there or not. We hope we will. Us girls feel lost without it! Haha.

We found out that we can burn a CD of our pictures, so we are doing that and sending it back to our families back home. Be looking for that little package. :)

Lots of love,

Ladybug

________________________

Hey Y'all

Well now we're in Venice and we will be leaving tomorrow. We lucked out on the fact that we managed to find an internet cafe. It's pretty cool here with water ways and old buildings around every corner.

Masquerade masks are everywhere we go; they are in shop, around shops, and not even in shops. The walk ways are small and it's fun just to walk around and just hope you can find you way back. And it smells like home. We'll see if we have internet later.

Doodle

European update 7/12

2009-07-12T21:28:00.001-07:00

No emails today. We don't know how much internet they will have over the
next few days. Don't forget to check out Ladybug's blog to see some of the
pictures of the places they have been going to. Here is the site:
http://christianlifeinthe21century.blogspot.com/

Here is her last post:

Rome is over and off we go to another place

Well, yesterday was the last day in Rome. We are now heading off to a few
hours in Florence to see the statue of David and then onto Venice for a day
and a half. We have no idea how the internet will be, but we can hope for
the best. :)

After Venice we will head up to Gimmelwald/Schlithourn Switzerland for a day
to see the Alps. I cannot wait for that day!!

Then it will be a nice ride on a bullet train up to Paris. We will be
staying in another apartment there for a week.

Ciao!

European update 7/11

2009-07-11T18:15:00.001-07:00

Didn't have time to write last night, so this is technically Saturday
morning. A few notes I forgot to mention before-did I mention the water
system here? It's been a little difficult to use the faucets and showers,
because the hot is really hot and the cold is cool, and there's hardly a way
to get in between. The water itself, I'm not sure about; it's not
chlorinated, which was odd at first but I now like, but it may be doing
strange things to my hair. Or it may be the climate itself. Either way, my
hair's getting rather dry and brittle. Which reminds me, I remember reading
about culture shock a while back, and about how the first stage is the most
violent and tends to manifest in "well, at least in my home country we ____"
to everything new. I think we had that the first couple days. Now we're in
the "everything's different, but we'll survive" stage.

We had gelato a couple days ago, which was not as different as it's
sometimes made out to be, but definitely an improvement over American ice
cream. Despite that, it's struck me as humorous how our vacation is making
us all lead healthier lifestyles; we're eating good Mediterranean food and
no junk, drinking water all day long, walking many miles a day including
stairs (cardio), and getting mostly good nights of sleep. Europe is not only
amazing, it's also good for us. ;-) Also, a note from yesterday, all three
girls purchased rosaries at the Vatican...it just seemed like a souvenir one
should get, you know?

Now on to yesterday (Friday). That was quite a packed day, though it didn't
seem like it would be at the start. We found out that not only is Michelle
Obama in Rome (and visiting landmarks right after we do), but apparently
Barack Obama met the Pope. Which means that this whole time, we've been
within a few miles of both of them. Yesterday morning, our first stop was
the National Museum of Rome. I wasn't the most fond of this; the marble
statues and mosaics got repetitive after the first two floors, though some
were gorgeous, and the giant Roman coin collection was not as interesting as
the stained glass in the same area. After this, we only had two more things
in our day, and both were in the same area and a long way off, so we took
the short walk back to our apartment to wait an hour.

After that hour, we took the subway a few stops, and then walked up to the
Roman Hard Rock Cafe. Since there are branches of those also in Venice,
Paris, and London, we're going to make a stop there at each point along the
trip just to have a neat little theme. We were supposed to catch a bus for
the last couple miles up to the Pantheon, but buses here are not as obvious
as the trains and subways, so we missed ours twice and got frustrated and
decided to just walk it. That was a good decision in hindsight, though, as
we discovered the wonders of walking through Rome. The area near the
Pantheon/Trevi Fountain/Spanish Steps is the Rome you think about when you
think of Rome, not the gritty utilitarian slummy side that we've been in for
the past few days. It's neat and well designed, and everywhere you look
there are "old rocks", as Doodle coined them-a building with columns and
amazing architecture that's at least a few hundred years old. We took a few
detours on this walk, and discovered some ruins that now serve as a cat
hospice (we counted twelve), and also Il Vittoriani. The latter is a massive
palace with amazing statues. It also holds the Italian Tomb of the Unknown
Soldier, a spectacularly carved sarcophagus surrounded by eternal flames and
guards. Definitely a good random find, since Rick Steves didn't mention it
anywhere.

But finally we made it to the Pantheon itself and...wow. We were all awed
for a few minutes just coming up to the rear of it, because there's no way
pictures could ever capture the size and grandeur of it. The back looks like
it's from the first century or so; very old brick, not so much design. But
it is probably large enough to hold the DC Capitol dome inside it. Then we
walked around to the front, and again, stood in awe of it. The columns are
simply massive, more so than any others we've seen, and then you walk past
into the interior, and it's almost as good as the Sistine Chapel in both
size and decoration. We saw the tomb of Raphael, and also the one of the
first king of Italy.

After the Pantheon, which was at about 5:30pm, the only thing we had left in
the day was Rick Steves self-guided nightwalk. Since it started around the
Pantheon, though, we couldn't go anywhere until 8:30pm. So we just sat
around the fountain for a couple hours, mostly bored, though I brought a
book. We did hear some lovely street music, though. Then we ate at the
nearby McDonalds, partly for fun and partly (at least for me) to eat
something that wasn't Italian food for the first time in four days. Finally,
finally, we started walking towards the beginning of the nightwalk. We made
a slight detour at an internet cafe (very cool idea, very cool in reality)
and then started on the nightwalk itself.

Rome is a great place at night. We paused to watch a magician, some mimes,
an artist, all in one of the piazzas. There were some monuments, and some
fountains that don't look very large on postcards but are incredibly large
in person. Trevi Fountain, especially. The whole place must be the size of
the Capitol Building in Olympia...and it's just a fountain! This is the part
of Rome that says "I'm old, I'm bold, I'm beautiful, and I'm huge: stand in
wonder." And we did. Only in Europe. (On a minor note, it's also only in
Europe that you can see a sign that points to a McDonalds...and then in
smaller print below mentions that, oh yeah, there's also this Pantheon thing
thataway.)

By the end of that, though, we were glad to find a subway stop and take a
ride back to our apartment's area instead of having to walk it. These first
days haven't necessarily had lots of activities per day, but each one has
been wearing on us. Especially on the feet. By the end of the day, we can
all barely walk. We've been trying to spread out our breaks more, but even
so, we've decided that our last day before the train to Venice (Saturday)
will only have one activity and then we'll probably just relax for a while.

Love to all,
Merry K

__________________________________

Hello all,

Wow, what a day. I think this was the best day yet. Here are the highlights:

We visited the National Museum of Rome and had a relaxing morning. There
were lots of cool old statues, mosaics, sarcophagus' and a great coin
collection.

We headed on over to the Hard Rock Cafe for lunch. It was odd to have a menu
in English. :) All of us agreed to try and go to all the Hard Rock Cafes in
each place we go to. There are ones in Venice, Paris, and London. We will
have more meals cooked by our dear MerryK with supplies that we can buy at
the market for dirt cheap. Yum yum.

After lunch we missed our bus...twice. I know, but it worked out for the
better. We decided to give up on the bus and walk down to the Pantheon
instead. Out of nowhere we see all these cool buildings and take little
detours. It was amazing. We were in a completely different part of town.
Where our apartment is seems to be the slum area, but this place was where
you would want to go on your honeymoon. Some of the buildings were HUGE!

During our long and enjoyable walk, us girls realized that we were finally
getting over our culture shock. I really have never understood culture shock
until now. Frankly, I believe you must experience it before you can fully
understand what it is like. The first day when we got here I did NOT like it
at all. I had no idea it was going to be this different. But then I slowly
got used to it as time went by. Yesterday was the first day that I actually
LOVED this area and we all believed that the culture shock time was over.

The Pantheon was a great place! That building is huge! They don't build
things like that anymore. It fit the phrase, "Do not judge a book by its
cover" perfectly. Outside the building was all run down and the inside was
spectacular to see. Huge and decorated with the most beautiful marble walls
and columns. We sat out in the square for a long time, ate at McDonald's
(saving money since we went to the Hard Rock), attempted to upload pictures
at the Internet cafe....ugh, still no luck, and then headed out for our
night tour.

Man, does the city come to life when it is dark out! There were clowns,
sword eaters, singers, accordion players, beautifully lit fountains, and
many more wonderful sites.

We were all extremely exhausted when we got back to the apartment. So much
so that today all we are doing is going to the train station to validate our
tickets and go see the castle.

What a day!

Hugs to all,

Ladybug

European Update 7/10

2009-07-10T23:01:00.001-07:00

Hey y'all,

We are now on day three of our trip. And we still haven't killed each
other...{shifty look} Yet.

Getting use to the culture here has been the most interesting experience
thus far. Talk about culture shock. Today we visited Vatican City and all
the wonder that lay inside. Saint Peter's Basilica was really cool and big.
I mean really big. Really, really big. Breath-takingly big. Quite literally.
It seemed we were climbing steps all day, Oh.. wait we where. ^_^ there
where 551 steps up to the cupola (dome) and 551 down, a few hundred steps
that seemed unneeded in the Vatican itself and probable another 300 in
various other places.

Underneath Saint Peter's Basilica there are some catacombs. Not the skulls
lined up against the wall kind of catacombs, but the kind where there are
popes buried in their coffins. No skulls involved at all. The coffins
themselves were decorated usually having a depiction of the pope inside. The
only exceptions to this was the two most recent, which look just like big
grave stones.

The Vatican was filled with paintings on the ceiling, the walls, everywhere.
There was no escape. It was so cooooooool. You were allowed to take pictures
everywhere but the Sistine Chapel. But that did not stop a single soul from
taking at least one. People were quickly pulling out their cameras, snapping
the shot, then putting it back in just as fast. And listen to this. There
was NO LAYING ON THE GROUND!!!! To my disappointment. But the rule breaker I
am, I did it anyway. ;) Though only for a split second. Oh good times.

Hugs to all,
Doodle

European update 7/9

2009-07-09T17:41:00.001-07:00

This one is coming to you a little early, since we're already done for the
day. ;-)

Today we spent all our time in Vatican City, and once again I was stunned by
how much more there was than I expected. St. Peter's Basilica was vast
beyond anything I had guessed, even given the size of the courtyard that
appears so often in films. We didn't have to wait the 2 hours in line like
we were "supposed" to; it only took an hour to get in. Everywhere were
statues and paintings and ornate carvings that were very large compared to
what you see in fancy buildings like the Capitol over in the U.S. They
definitely went for grandeur, but when you were in the building it didn't
feel overlarge.

What did feel overlarge, in a sense, was the trek up to the top of the
cupola (dome). Supposedly it was only 550 steps, but I'm not so sure about
that. Regardless, they were intensely dangerous steps. The first half was
decent, if steep, but the second half was set after set of increasingly more
difficult steps (as we got more and more tired). They started spiraling,
with no handrail, which was bad enough, but the spiral grew tighter and the
steps grew shorter the higher you went. At one point the steps were only
about 15 inches wide, and the spiral about 3 feet across altogether. But
making it to the top was worth it. The view was magnificent, and that part
of Italy (a half hour's travel from our apartment) looked much more upscale
and "traditionally European". Getting down however...the tight, steep
spirals, all without handrails, made descending a nightmare. I'm surprised
no one fell, especially given how we were all slightly dizzy from our trip
up.

After that, we went to the Sistine Chapel and Vatican Museum. The signage
there was deceitful, IMO. (for reference, the museum is a large square
building with a courtyard hollowing out the middle; it's extremely large
though) A few feet after we entered the building, there were two signs: one
pointing towards Etruscan and Roman art, and the other pointing towards the
Sistine Chapel and religious art. Naturally we went to the latter first. So
we walked, and we walked, and there was some amazing art. I'm not fond of
art at the museums we've been to before, but everything here was worth it.
The sculptures of various Roman mythological figures and emperors were
stunning in person, and almost every wall and ceiling was painted and
engraved in complex and ornate paintings. But we were walking, and walking,
and walking, and no Sistine Chapel. Every few hundred yards there'd be a
sign indicating the direction we should go to reach it, but we never did. We
must have walked two or three miles in that museum, at least, and up and
down more flights of stairs (by this time we were sick of them), before
finally getting to it. It was more amazing added on top of what we'd already
seen; the biggest surprise was how small a part the most famous piece of it
is, and how it almost fades into the magnificence of the whole.

We decided to leave after this, but here is another point where signage in
the Vatican Museum was deceitful. Every so often was a sign pointing to
"exit" ("uscita", actually), but we had to walk around the entire rest of
the building (the Sistine Chapel was about halfway around the courtyard from
where we started) to find just a door to get out. *sigh* And we were already
pretty worn by that time, so we were exhausted by the time we got back to
the subway (more stairs, ugh) to get to our station and a place to eat. One
of the really nice things about Rome is their outdoor shady seating in most
restaurants; very refreshing after a long day's walk.

We didn't get back here until 5:30, and we're probably going to crash here
until dinner, and then go to bed. So far, it seems like everyone is getting
tired and worn out (and hungry, for that matter) at about the same time. Not
much debate about anything else, either, but I'm glad I don't have worry
about wearing myself out before everyone else. We were all discussing
things, and we think that by tomorrow we'll be fully used to the climate and
time schedule. It's almost feeling normal, although most of the culture
shock stuff is still confusing.

Oh, did I ever mention that our apartment is four floors up? Most of the
time we've taken the stairs (I'm not sure I'll ever want to see stairs again
after the thousands we must have walked on today), but there's also this
itty bitty elevator that barely holds 3 people, and even then it has to be 3
people who are comfortable in each others' space. It looks a bit unstable,
since the motor is very simple, but seems to work just fine and is quite
cute. And better than using the stairs.

Love to all,
MerryK

_______________________________________________________

Hello everyone,

Day 2 in Rome is almost over and we are all exhausted. We went over to the
Vatican City to see the Sistine Chapel, St. Peter's Basilica, and the
Vatican Museum. It was quite a trip. Here is how it went:

1. Find breakfast. This was our first time ever ordering from someone who
only spoke Italian. It was difficult, but we got things done. (Dad did most
of the talking...ok..all of the talking.)

2. Hopped on the metro (subway) and took a nice short ride over to the city.
When we got off there were tons of English speaking people trying to
persuade all the tourists to buy tours of the Vatican in English. That was
too funny because they would follow you around and continue to talk to you
even though you already said no.

3. Vatican City: waited in line for an hour to enter the Basilica and all I
can say is, "wow." That place is huge and beautifully made. Our group did
decide to venture on up the stairs to the top of the dome to get the great
view. Yep, all 551 steps. Let me say that again. 551 STEPS. We were huffing
and puffing by the time we got to the top. To be honest, I even felt sick
and had to sit down and eat a little bit of a power bar and drink some
water. Doing all that in the heat was not my cup of tea. But the view made
up for all of it and we can now say we have been to the top.

SIDENOTE: Let me give you an estimate on how many stairs we walked today.
Approx. 80 steps in the morning, 551 going up to the dome, 551 coming down,
and another 200 or so at the Sistine Chapel and on the way back. No more
steps today please.

4. Sistine Chapel: Next we headed over to the Vatican Museum. There are so
many neat statues and paintings. Almost every wall in that place is covered
in a painting. Everywhere you looked had something that was an amazing
creation. There were some beautiful statues of the Roman God's. Then of
course was the Sistine Chapel. No picture that I have ever seen in a book
could explain that painting. That room is covered from ceiling to floor. It
was breath taking. Of course, you are not allowed to take any pictures in
there. sigh. Yet, like I said just being able to see it in person was
wonderful.

5. We finished off the day with some gelato and then lunch near the train
station. We did our usual ceremony of the switching of the foods while
everyone tried the different meals. That way we each order something
different, but get to taste 5 foods. Delicious!

Now we are hanging around the apartment either: taking naps, reading,
laundry, writing stories, or on the computer. This has been the perfect
vacation thus far. :)

Lots of love,

Ladybug

European update 7/8

2009-07-08T19:05:00.001-07:00

Hello everyone!

Well, I will admit that I am a little tired from the trip, but all in all I
am glad to be here. Yesterday's flights were a little long and tiring, but
from my experience they were not bad at all. I thought the little TV's were
great to get your mind off of the time.

I will say the best thing was the homeopathic "jetlag" stuff that we took
every two hours. It is supposed to help you get over the jetlag quickly so
you can move on with your life or vacation. For me, it definitely worked,
although my clock is still a little off. And I am not the only one. All use
girls woke up around 6am when we were suppose to sleep until 8am. Maybe
being excited has something to do with that too. :)

Today's plan is to take it easy and walk around Rome and see the Colosseum,
the Forum other ruins. Our roommates have been sightseeing for the last 2
days and gave us some good tips. They said. "Take your time! Rome is a lot
smaller than you think. They did almost all the sightseeing in one day and
are now going back for more in depth looks at things."

It is about 7:30am now and all of us girls are now ready to go. MerryK is
reading some papers, Doodle is looking at herself in the mirror, I am on the
computer and they boys are still in bed.

That is all for now.

Chow!

Ladybug

NOTE: Ladybug has uploaded some pictures to her blog, so you can go there
and see some of the places they have been here:
http://christianlifeinthe21century.blogspot.com/
______________________________________________________________

Hello,

All is well here in Rome. We went to the Colosseum today and it was amazing.
To see such old buildings with so much history behind them was great. It
was also hot and muggy. This made it very tiring and we were dead by lunch.
We ended up coming back to the apartment once we had finished lunch by way
of a market close to us. They had some of the weirdest fish in the market.
There was definitely squid and something else that looked like a crayfish
but was big like a lobster, yuck. I figured out how to keep children from
being so wild. Take them on a long exhausting hike in hot, muggy weather
and they are sleeping by 6 pm. I shouldn't say too much; I died at 3 pm and
took an hour nap! We think we are still getting over some of the jet lag.

Rome is an interesting place. It is definitely expanding everyone's view of
the world and how it is different from home. Most of the streets are small
and everything is packed together. It reminds me of New York city also.
The graffiti and how everything just seems to be dirty even though there is
not much trash laying around. Mitchell got a big kick out of the sirens.
They sound different from the ones at home and they sound just like the ones
in the movies (like in the Pink Panther). Getting around by walking and the
metro (subway) is not too bad. We have not gotten lost, yet! It is so
funny to try counting out money. It is very similar to American money, but
just because they say euros your mind goes all a flutter and gets it mixed
up.

No one is getting on anyone's nerves yet. We still seem to be one, big
happy family. The language barrier over here is not too bad. Most people
speak English, especially those dealing with tourists. Although, it is
still uncomfortable trying to talk to someone. I get very self conscious
when they are having trouble understanding me. But, you just keep going and
eventually they figure out what you are trying to pantomime. Time to go
check on the sleeping children. Ciao!

Waldo Pepper

_______________________________________________________________

Mom, Dad, and all,

Jet lag hit everyone today. We were all up at around 6/7, even after going
to bed at around midnight, and so we got an early start on the day. We
walked to the Colloseum, but ended up going to the Roman Forum first. The
reason for this? Michelle Obama is in Rome and was touring the Roman Forum
at 11am, so we had to be out of there by then. She wouldn't be at the
Colloseum until 3pm. Even in Rome you can't escape Obamamania. ;-) However,
the Roman Forum was far more amazing than I thought it would be. It's not
something someone can describe to you and make sound cool, I think; there's
just a feel about it that's old and majestic, and you can walk right up to
it and through it. And up on one of the hills, you could look out over many
of the older buildings in that part of Rome, domes and columns and statues
everywhere. That was worth even the long hike up the steep stairs.

By the time we got to the Colloseum, though, I at least was starting to feel
a little worn, both from jet lag and from not having a large breakfast (it
being about 11:30 by then, too). It was a lot how I had pictured it, though
not the museum section. We were all worn by then, and needing lunch, and
after that we didn't want to walk anywhere else so we went back to our
apartment. However, we made a stop at the market a couple blocks away, and
found that the produce here is amazingly inexpensive. We bought a lot of
fruit and a few vegetables to take as snacks for the next couple days. Once
we got back to the apartment, though, we all crashed for a couple hour nap.
By the time everyone was up, it was after 7pm and time for dinner and now
we're back and it's almost 11pm. We'll go to the Vatican tomorrow.

Apart from the jet lag, today was a really great day. And in fact, getting a
few hours of 'siesta' was nice too, despite the reason for it; the pace is
really easygoing and we're enjoying ourselves. The food here is excellent,
especially any dishes with cheese. Everything here has a rich, fresh flavor.
Though it's strange to walk down the streets and see as many pizzerias and
gelatterias as the teriyaki/Chinese/Pho noodle restaurants in the Seattle
area combined. Almost no ethnic variety in restaurants at all, and for that
matter, not so much among the people either.

That's not the only thing that's markedly different. Culture shock has also
hit; it's impossible to feel at home here. People aren't rude or anything,
but everything is different everywhere you go. I think the best word to
describe Rome is chaos. We have to jaywalk for 95% of the time, the cars and
motorbikes go every which way they want to (I'm not sure they have traffic
laws other than don't crash and don't hit pedestrians), the streets are not
in a neat grid-like shape, and the roads and sidewalks themselves require
all your attention not to trip. Almost nothing is labeled; hardly any signs,
and what ones there are aren't easy to find or read (stone engraving, not
letters on a background). No billboards either, for the most part. Also,
we've seen some pretty scandalous commercials on the public TVs in the
Metro. And speaking of that, the subway is one of the best things about
Rome&lsqauo;I really enjoy it as a way to travel, simple and fast. It's not bad,
just disconcerting; I'm glad that we're finishing up our trip in England,
which should be much less a culture shock (and minus the language barrier)

The weather was the same as yesterday, hot and muggy. Most of the time I
enjoyed it, actually, but when I was really worn and had low blood sugar,
the shade was most welcome. The worst thing about it was that your water
bottle only stayed cool for about an hour. There are public water fountains
everywhere, so we could refill often, but even after an hour it was more
warm than lukewarm.

It's only our second day but we get along really nicely as a group.
Especially at meals, where we ended up rotating our plates pretty frequently
so we all got to eat a little off many plates. I'm finally starting to get a
handle on the conversion of euros and kilograms, I think, and it's hard to
think in Washington time at all.

Love to all,
MerryK

_____________________________________________________

Hello,

It looks like we all love to write emails. So, here is another. :P

Today we went to the Forum and say tons of ancient ruins. It was a huge
place! I had no idea it was going to be so big. It was pretty hot today, but
I didn't start feeling it until around 11am. One thing I have to say is
those powder Gatorade packs that you can pour into your water bottles are
life savers!! We need to find more of those and stock up on them.

One odd thing about today was the fact that the Forum and Colosseum were
closing early for the afternoon. After a few helicopters flying around and
some chatter, we found out that the First Lady (yes, Michelle Obama) was
planning to visit those locations. Ha, so we go half way around the world
and our President's wife follows us.

Us girls and my brother also had some fun with the ancient rocks. Doodle has
been upset about not being able to touch the Stonehenge when we go there. So
we all decided to get a picture with us all touching some ancient rocks that
we COULD touch. Fun. :)

The second place we went to was the Colosseum. That was really neat and big.
The best part about our Roma Pass was we got to skip the ticket line and go
straight to the entrance. Sweet.

Later in the day we all got hit with nap attacks and realized that we had
not avoided jetlag completely. Some of us slept for an hour and others slept
for a couple more. I will not name who (cough...Doodle)

The day was then finished off by having dinner at an outdoor cafe near a
neat old looking church.

All in all it was a great day.

Ladybug

European update 7/7 PM

2009-07-07T19:09:00.001-07:00

Here is the first update we received from the travelers! I will send all updates, no matter who wrote them, so it may not be MerryK each day, but you should be getting info about the trip regardless of who typed it in. Hope you enjoy them!

This one is from MerryK:

We finally got to our hotel, 10pm Rome time. Not only was our first flight
delayed an hour, but so was the second. And there's a story to go with that.
747s suck. They're huge, sure, but their seats are the most terrible ever.
Technically they're wide enough for people with broad hips/shoulders, but
the pattern of the curve and cushioning makes it almost impossible to fit
comfortably. Despite the individual television screens, which granted
distracted us quite a bit, that part of the trip was awful. I stayed awake
to watch a movie and a half, then dozed a couple hours and watched another
movie before we landed in Heathrow. Sadly, there was a thunderstorm over
Heathrow (rain? over England? how strange!) which caused horrific
turbulence. Our landing felt like riding a wooden rollercoaster that was a
little too old, except you couldn't see the tracks to know what was coming.
Definitely kept us awake. It was about at that point that I started to feel
the jet lag.

Then the weather delayed our flight to Rome an hour, but only after we were
loaded on the plane. This plane, though smaller, had very comfortable seats.
And oh, British Airlines serves great food, and *lots* of it. Arriving in
Rome, it was pretty hot and muggy, though I think it's about perfect
weather. The toilets here have no toilet seats, and two flush handles,
though we couldn't figure out the difference between the two. Downtown Rome
is rather frightening. Drivers behave like pedestrians here; vaguely staying
on one side of the road, but dodging in and out of lanes as they choose.
There are technically sidewalks, but a lot of time there's just jaywalking.
Graffiti is everywhere, but I'm not sure how culturally significant that is
here. Everything is old and worn down too, and all the streets are an
ankle-twisting mixture of cobblestones and asphalt at varying heights. And
people here hug and kiss *everyone*, though not us thankfully.

It's night here now, and given all the jet lag and the varying small naps I
took on our flights, I'm ready for it. I think my internal clock is entirely
messed up and grasping on to this time as just something steady. But I'm
definitely feeling drained.

Love from everyone,
MerryK

P.S. British bathrooms have portion controlled toilet paper, basically
folded like individual napkins. Odd, but not too odd.

European update - July 7th

2009-07-07T09:50:00.001-07:00

For those who do not know, our MerryK left for a European holiday yesterday along with some dear friends. We are hoping to post updates from the group, as they become available.

Our cast of travelers are:

Waldo Pepper - Loving father and mastermind of the trip. You should see the amazingly organized binders he left us with all the trip info, schedules, contacts, and itineraries. Amazing!

Ladybug - 21, daughter of Waldo Pepper and co-organizer of the trip

Mitchell - 12, son of Waldo Pepper

Doodle - 17, daughter from another family

MerryK - 20, our dear daughter

The group left last night on British Airways around 8pm. The flight was delayed 1 hour. They made a connection in London and are now in Rome! Please keep them all in your daily prayers for the next 3 weeks.

Star Trek and Optimism

2009-05-27T09:00:00.000-07:00

Currently, one of the biggest movies at the box office is the new Star Trek movie. This is a surprise to many, given that mentioning the TV show usually results in eye-rolling from people, or at least conjures up pictures of uncomfortably overgeeky fans. The original show, or rather franchise, was the cheesy idealistic product of its time—something that needed to be 'rebooted' to be tolerable in our times.

That was what this movie was supposed to be, as evidenced by the tagline for trailers: "This is not your father's Star Trek"

But I don't think that that is the reason why this Star Trek movie is a hit among vast numbers of both fans and non-fans. Drama is king today. Dark, gritty realism is in fashion. As audiences, we're supposed to have moved on from that childish view of a universe where all alien races could live in harmony in a lovely socialistic society.

Yet...for all that I didn't vote for him, look who the vast majority in this country just elected president. An idealistic dreamer, someone who (whether it's true or not) is supposed to symbolize hope. We pretend that we know that the world is tough and dark, especially post 9/11. But as a society, we secretly long for something happier.

That's what Star Trek brings to today's audiences. The 'reboot' to the franchise is not to make the tone darker, more gritty. Instead, it's only slightly adjusted for today's times. There's a major event in the movie, clearly meant to symbolize what happened on 9/11, but it doesn't cloud over the rest of the story. The characters mourn and grieve, and then they move on and make things better, not forgetting the brightness and goodness that can be found in humanity even after crises.

It's this that appeals to audiences, I believe. Sure, the visual effects are stunning, the action breathtaking and the soundtrack stunning—but plenty of movies have offered that in recent years. What Star Trek has that they didn't, though, is that sense of hope and triumph. Optimism. It's almost completely lacking in "grown-up" movies these days outside dumb comedies and "based on a true story" films, and it's what's so utterly refreshing about Star Trek as an epic good vs. evil film. Star Trek has trials, but Star Trek has characters who love and tease and make friends during them. And in the end, it tells us that good people who work together will overcome even the darkest of odds.

Star Trek doesn't forget that there will be evil and terrible things in the future—but it doesn't forget either that people rise to the challenge, and optimism and humor are not out of place even when the world may be at stake.

2009-05-22T11:54:00.000-07:00

Our family is walking in the Walk 4 Water in Tacoma, WA this weekend. This organization works to raise funds to provide clean water for millions through building wells.
18% of the world gets their water from rivers, ponds and puddles. Can you imagine what that would like?

Watch the videos HERE and you will see for yourself.

Here are some stats:
* Gathering water takes on average 3 hours a day.
* The average distance to get water is 4 miles.
* Women and children are responsible to gather water.
* Children often forgo schooling due to the time spent getting water.
* 4 people die EVERY MINUTE from water related diseases.
* 3,300 people are served with just 1 well.

I often feel helpless to make a difference. What can my few dollars do to save these people? Together, my few dollars, plus your few dollars, plus your friends few dollars all add up to enough to make a difference. Please consider supporting this great cause today. Go HERE to donate. Thank you!

UPDATE: The group in Tacoma raised enough to build 1 entire well! Thank you to all who donated!

50 Year-Old Cartoon Eerily Predicts The Future

2009-05-14T11:52:00.001-07:00

H/T Ace of Spades HQ

The good parts begin at 2:00.

It's about a shady huckster selling an "Ism" formula to labor, farmers, industrialists, and politicians. The Ism will take care of you forever. You just have to sign over your freedom.

Heavy handed and corny -- it's an instructional cartoon, after all -- but pretty good.

This cartoon was created at Harding University.

Harry Truman was a war criminal?

2009-05-14T10:56:00.000-07:00

Jon Stewart, a sometimes funny TV comedian, said during a discussion about torture that Harry Truman was a war criminal for dropping the atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki 64 years ago. I'm sure that some others today believe, like Jon Stewart, that those attacks were unwarranted. This may be due to their political bent and/or due to their incorrect education about World War II and what led up to those bombings.

If you are one of those people, or if you want to know more about it,
here is a link to a PajamasTV video that proves that Jon Stewart and his ilk are oh-so-wrong about Hiroshima and Nagasaki. This is the BEST presentation about the need for the atomic bomb attacks I have EVER seen! It is a little long (~17 minutes), but it is worth every second, IMNSHO!

Listening adventures

2009-05-09T10:49:00.000-07:00

I get to use my iPod at work. It's one of the biggest perks of my job, not just because it gives me an excuse to listen to so many things, but also because the organization leads to interesting finds. Half of what I listen to are podcasts—some just for entertainment, others for information (at least one right in between: NPR's hilarious newscast "Wait Wait, Don't Tell Me")—but there are only so many of those, usually released on a weekly basis, and I need at least 6 hours of listening material a day.

There are also audiobooks, and one resource I've heavily mined is Podiobooks.com. These are all released under Creative Commons' licenses, so they aren't works most people are familiar with. But they're free, easily downloadable, and some are quite good and enjoyable ("The Rookie" by Scott Sigler, for instance, despite the atrocious foul language). Eventually I'll run out of those, and have to resort to getting books on CD from the library, but until then these will do.

But some days I have no podcasts, and I'm not in the mood for audiobooks. My brain's worn out, and I won't do the story justice by trying to listen to it when I can't fully focus. So, when it comes to that, I have actual music to listen to. I have various playlists of my favorite songs, sometimes sorted by genre, sometimes just by how much I like them. But, given that they're my favorite songs, they get played a lot at home as well—and I don't want to get tired of them by playing them overmuch at work.

So sometimes I make playlists music that, while it isn't something I'm excited about at the moment, used to be well-loved or favorited. And a couple days ago, I put together a playlist of a few of the whole albums I own. Mostly I buy songs on an individual basis, but I decided to go "traditional" with some albums that I hadn't listened to in a while. Oddly enough, given its eclectic nature, it was the perfect combination of music for how I was feeling that day; it's nice when that works out.

First was the Redding Brothers' album "Physics of Immortality". I only got this because I know the band personally, but it was nice soft rock that was perfect for background music. Next was The Chieftains' album "Further Down the Old Plank Road". More soft music, but a little spunkier, and the homegrown feeling made the rainy day seem brighter. Third was Selah's album "Hiding Place", which had similar qualities to the Redding Brothers in how it made good soothing background music. Last was the perfect kickstart to the end of the day: Within Temptation's album "The Silent Force". This is pure epic music, and after hours of school and work, it pumped me up for the evening. I've forgotten how much I love this style of music, though I never thought I'd say that about Eastern European "gothic rock".

Despite the oddness, I'm probably keeping that playlist. I don't want to listen to it too much and tire it out, though, which means that I probably need to look over next week's playlists...

2009-05-05T08:53:00.000-07:00

Overheard at college: "It was a really good book, just not my thing; it didn't have the intensity of 'Pride and Prejudice'."

Considering that my college doesn't offer an English Lit class, I'm really curious about what they were talking about.

(Also, being able to use an iPod Touch to write a couple hundred words while waiting for the bus, or on short bus rides, is really satisying my must-make-the-most-of-every-moment personality side. Sadly, I still don't have much personal to blog about...but I'm not giving up on it just yet.)

In which I descend to low-brow levels of humor...

2009-04-28T18:53:00.000-07:00

Coworker: So, what exactly is martial law?
Me: It's when the military takes over from the normal government during some kind of crisis—you know, like a military coup.
Other coworker: Wait, I thought a coup was poetry?
Me: No, that's a haiku. (sudden impulse to speak that I should have denied) And a haiku-coup is when you take over a government using poetry...

Rant about Pachelbel's Canon

2009-04-21T19:36:00.000-07:00

I found this hilarious...

Reminds me of this: http://www.todaysbigthing.com/2009/01/20

Political empathy

2009-04-15T10:58:00.000-07:00

I remember seeing the results of a study a while back, about empathy and understanding between the two major political parties. The study involved taking conservatives and liberals, and getting each of them to attempt to get in the other's shoes, mentally imagine themselves on the other side of the spectrum.

The results proved something that I'd picked up through casual observation of the debates: essentially, conservatives could understand why liberals choose their opinions, for the most part, just didn't agree with that line of thought. Most liberals, on the other hand, couldn't comprehend the motivations for conservatives. They simply couldn't understand why anyone would think conservatively.

Aside from giving scientific proof to a previously subjective opinion, the study was food for my thought, because though it gave the facts it did not give a reason why. It's mulled around in the back of my head for months, with my opinion varying slightly as time went by. Until I remembered this quote, and it made it all make much more sense:

"One's mind, once stretched by a new idea, never regains its original dimensions." --Oliver Wendell Holmes

Liberals are open-minded, by their very definition. They accept almost everyone and everything, not just tolerating but usually condoning and welcoming too. There are few things that are off-limits to liberals; everything else is fair game, and they have a myriad of options.

Conservatives, on the other hand, exercise strict self-control. They have a set of beliefs, self-imposed, that govern and limit their choices, and also the choices they accept from others. They are aware of other choices, but choose not to allow them in their morality.

This leads to a simple proof of the above quote. Once a liberal opens his or her mind to all the possibilities of a liberal morality, they can't imagine what it's like to not think that way. They can't put their mind back into the box, no matter how good conservatives say that box is for the mind. It just won't fit, in most circumstances.

Conservatives, on the other hand, can see what it would be like to have a broader morality. It's not as hard to imagine what more moral freedom would be like, because the only reason they don't have it is a personal choice. To exercise self-control, you must know what you are controlling yourself from, and so visualizing the outcome if you didn't is not such a big step.

Which makes the term "open-minded" a little misleading. Many liberals can accept a thousand different beliefs different from theirs as being equally valid, but cannot understand the people who aren't accepting in such a manner. Whereas many conservatives, though much less condoning of other beliefs, can at least understand those who hold them. It's a broad brush, and could easily turn into a stereotype, and the original study recognized that. But it's interesting no less, and the Oliver Wendell Holmes means much more to me now.

The world vs. my happiness

2009-04-09T07:37:00.001-07:00

Sometimes I just look around and hate the world. Not a unique reaction, I know, but the usual reasons don't bother me. The selfishness, the immaturity, the ignorance, the intolerance—I can deal with those. But when the entire world seems to be united in a plot to make me go against my own happiness, well, it makes it a bit unbearable.

I've struggled with the idea of my future for as long as I can remember. There have been moments when I grasped onto professions that seemed interesting, and for a time considered pursuing them further. But as the choice grew nearer, they all faded from my interest quickly. I liked the ideas, but not nearly enough to spend years of time and money on them. There was no choice that I could see offered, from anyone, that seemed like it would make me happier than I was and am now.

And the world won't accept that. I'm a poor student, not even moved out yet, and I don't even have a basic college education. According to the world, I don't deserve to be happy yet. I haven't put down the money and achieved the American Dream. I'm just another apathetic young adult who needs a push in the right direction until this stage passes. Never mind that this stage has lasted for years, never mind that I wouldn't be disappointed if I never got past it. Because my happiness doesn't matter to the world unless it fits into the institutionalized mold.

I'm happy with the mundane in life, the ordinary everyday kind of living. My dream life would be a non-descript day job, and an evening and weekend life of reading, writing, cooking, and just living life. Nothing else. As long as I could live on the wage, I wouldn't even care what job it was; I think I could handle boring, and I know I could handle frugal. Most of all, I just want to live, and I can do that just fine the way I am now.

Maybe there would be logistic issues I can't see from where I am right now. I'm willing to deal with those as they come up. But no matter what the world says, I know that I don't need a lot to be happy. And instead of doing what everyone else does, I'm not going to work for a better future. Because I honestly can't see a road to a future better than the life I'm living now.

And I hate the world telling me, through every teacher and media outlet, that I shouldn't exist.

Thank God it's not Monday... (bit of a rant)

2009-04-02T18:46:00.000-07:00

Today was one of those days that I hope never to have deja vu about...

After missing both work Monday and school and work Tuesday (due to an illness I couldn't classify), I thought that I was back to normal on Wednesday. Missing the second day of class was nerve-wracking, but I managed to make it through. I had a bit of a cough, but felt generally healthy, and work that afternoon went exuberantly well.

Aglow with the special vigor that I only feel after recovering from sickness, I had a productive evening, and got to bed right on time. Tomorrow's forecast looked to be spiffily normal. Sadly, it was not to be. I struggled through school this morning, only to finally realize as I was walking to work that my problem was—I couldn't seem to breathe very well. Figuring it to be a result of my cough, I paid it no mind, and planned to work through it anyways. The fact that my sinuses were stabbing pain straight into my eyes and through to my brain...did affect my mood, but it wasn't so bad.

I started work a little early, trying to make up whatever I could of the hours I'd missed, and started to feel even more off-kilter as I was loading book boxes onto the hand truck. For some reason, I couldn't seem to get in a deep breath. I brought over the books a little slower than usual, but again paid it no mind. It wasn't until about an hour in that I realized just how tight my chest was getting, and just how difficult it was getting to breathe (all the while as my sinuses kept a rhythmic pattern of pain).

As long as I didn't move faster than a leisurely walk, and didn't lift more than two boxes within a couple minutes or list the books at my usual speed, I was fine. Which meant, that I really wasn't. I called Purring Piggy to ask for her advice, since I haven't suffered from asthma at all since I was very small. All I really wanted to do was quit early and take it easy, but I couldn't justify losing even more hours of work. So, Purring Piggy brought an inhaler. Which didn't help. Even worse, by this point, my headphones were half-dead.

(Let me pause to explain why this was no coincidence, but the universe deciding to pile yet another mess on top of my current life. Because I wear headphones around boxes and corners, they have a fairly limited lifespan because eventually they get caught on something and are damaged. I did find a pair of nice headphones on the side of the road, in a shallow puddle, back in the winter—and surprisingly, these lasted about 5 months before buzzing and dying a rather foretold death. In the meantime, I had purchased a replacement pair of headphones, expecting the road-side-rescue ones to be near death's door. These headphones? That I actually purchased? Lasted about a month, deciding to die today, when everything else was pretty much shot in my life. I don't think this is random circumstance.)

(Oh, another bit of proof that the universe decided to hate me? My Netflix disc went missing in the mail, and it happened to be the one that we really wanted to watch tonight. And it's the first time this has ever happened. I'm not making this up as some weird martyr delusion, I swear...)

So at the end of the day... I was still catching up from my missed day of school. I still needed to make up some hours of work. I had an intense sinus headache. I had a bout of asthma that was painful, unnerving, and slowing my work. And I couldn't even listen to anything soothing. There hasn't been a day that I can recall, in the near past, where I felt so utterly miserable; nothing even remotely cheery happened, and the best thing I can say is that at least Netflix has excellent customer service.

And now, after baring my (admittedly a bit whinging) soul to the five people who read this blog, which doesn't feel as cathartic as I hoped, I'm just going to go off to curl up. And not die.

Latest favorite music

2009-03-26T16:00:00.000-07:00

"Bliss (I Don't Wanna Know)" by Hinder

"Numb" by Linkin Park

"Holiday" and "She's a Rebel" by Green Day

"Black Horse and the Cherry Tree" by K.T. Tunstall. One of the most fun new-folk songs I've heard.

"Metamorphosis" by Philip Glass. Hauntingly dark and beautiful piano music.

"The Great Escape" by Boys Like Girls

"Auld Lang Syne" by The Real McKenzies. Bagpipes, plus a fun version of a classic song...what's not to love?

"You've Got a Friend" by Me First and the Gimme Gimmes. Yet another cover that I prefer to the original.

"Clumsy" by Fergie

"Long Way to Happy" by P!nk

"My Wish" by Rascal Flatts

"This One's for the Girls" by Martina McBride

"Try Not To Remember by Sheryl Crow

"You Found Me" by Kelly Clarkson

"Stay Strong" by Newsboys

AGW Hysteria?

2009-03-23T10:39:00.000-07:00

After having a discussion last night with MerryK and PurringPiggy about AGW (anthropogenic, or man-caused, global warming) by lantern (our power went out for about 8 hours), I was read this article this morning, that was originally from the The Times (of London), about "Scientists Drill Into Greenland Ice for Climate-Change Clues". The last paragraph referenced made me wonder about their thought process:

The Eemian began 130,000 years ago, ending 15,000 years later, and is the most recent time in the Earth's past when temperatures resembled those that can be expected if greenhouse gas emissions are not brought under control. [emphasis mine]

What I would like to know is this - if men could not have "caused" the end of the last ice age due to their excessive CO2 emissions, how can these scientists be so certain that man is the cause now? Our climate has fluctuated wildly in the past (tropical plant fossils have been found in the Arctic!) and the warming in the last century is more likely to be a normal climate cycle than one caused by man through greenhouse gases that must "be brought under control"!

Ironically, the warming stopped in 2000 and the earth has been cooling slightly ever since. I guess the fact that the SUN is in a protracted low sun spot cycle is just a coincidence to these people? What has the potential to affect our climate more? Man or the Sun? Obviously, it is the Sun.

Therefore, since the earth has been proven to be much warmer, and much colder, in the past than it is now, how arrogant do you have to be to claim that it is now man's fault that the climate is changing?

You know what this means?...

2009-03-23T10:11:00.000-07:00

...with this iPod Touch, I will be able to post updates on my Europe trip. And this is certainly faster than me trying to text. Yes, this was not written on my computer...I feel like I've crossed to the dark side of social networking.

Out of the mouths of babes

2009-03-21T19:16:00.000-07:00

I read this article on Right Wing News about a discussion between a father and son. The conclusion that the son comes to is very prescient for a youngster:

"Maybe he was like Obama. He gave really good speeches, and the people who listened to him stopped thinking."

So true!

I almost wish I couldn't hear this...

2009-03-19T20:18:00.000-07:00

Created by Train Horns

Homemade barley tea

2009-03-15T13:22:00.000-07:00

I was first exposed to barley tea through a Korean friend at work. I liked what she let me try, but she said it was nearly impossible to find, even in Asian markets. So I pretty much gave up on it. However, while following recipe links I came across this.

This is definitely one of my keepers! I used about a cup of barley for half a gallon of water, honey to taste, and just a splash of lemon. I also dry roasted the barley until just aromatic, not too long. But I followed the steeping directions exactly. It's a very light tea flavor, and I might try steeping for 45 minutes next time, but it was very good nonetheless.

If you're skeptical about barley tea, it doesn't taste like how you'd think it would. Just like green tea has a slight grassy quality to it, barley tea has a similar quality, only browner, if that makes any sense. It's nicely herbal but has a slightly meatier flavor than most herbal teas, just not so far as to be like black tea or coffee.

Perception Personality Image Test

2009-03-10T06:04:00.000-07:00

Your result for The Perception Personality Image Test...

NBPC - The Daydreamer

Nature, Background, Big Picture, and Color

You perceive the world with particular attention to nature. You focus on the hidden treasures of life (the background) and how that fits into the larger picture. You are also particularly drawn towards the colors around you. Because of the value you place on nature, you tend to find comfort in more subdued settings and find energy in solitude. You like to ponder ideas and imagine the many possibilities of your life without worrying about the details or specifics. You are in tune with all that is around you and understand your life as part of a larger whole. You are a down-to-earth person who enjoys going with the flow.

The Perception Personality Types:

Take The Perception Personality Image Test at HelloQuizzy

Scifi sounds quiz

2009-03-04T05:30:00.000-08:00

I received 77 credits on
The Sci Fi Sounds Quiz
How much of a Sci-Fi geek are you?

Marriage is Unjust Suffering

2009-03-03T18:19:00.000-08:00

We came across a wonderful article about marriage. Here is a quote, but the whole thing is very challenging.

"Today, when injustice occurs, our first instinct is often to demand our rights. And when there is injustice in marriage, often the first instinct is to demand justice or seek divorce (something God hates! Mal. 2:16) if that justice doesn’t come. Scripture doesn’t tell us to ignore injustice — in marriage or anywhere else. But we are not to battle injustice with the weapons of the world. A gentle spirit, a godly example, patient reasoning from the word of God, a sincere effort to love and understand your spouse: these things do more to ensure justice than any demand, demonstration or divorce, even when God’s methods may mean we have to endure suffering longer than we might like. "

"When we follow the steps of Jesus in this way, a marriage can be something glorious. "

Slightly disturbing realization

2009-02-27T07:05:00.000-08:00

It almost disturbed me the other day to realize that I am Harold Crick in real life. Perhaps you remember the character, from the movie Stranger Than Fiction? He saw things in the world arranged by time, percentage, number, instead of just experiencing life, and didn't even try at it; he just noticed those sorts of things.

I've noticed before that I unconsciously keep track of the count and placement of random things, but it was yesterday that what that meant hit me, as I realized that I knew exactly when to pull the cord on the bus so that I would be able to walk up to the door right as the bus slowed and stopped. That realization came simultaneously with the one that I also knew how many ads were being displayed above my head, whether there were more people on the right or left side of the bus, how many route maps were in the little drawer (and how apparently more people needed the 150 route than the 154), and how much time was left on the song on my iPod.

This strange acknowledgment of a strange neuroses followed me as I went to work, where I realized that I was always keeping track of exactly how many boxes of books were waiting at my station, the approximate amount of books in each one, how long that would take me to process, and therefore when I would need to get more (taking breaks into account). And this while listening to an audiobook, where I mentally calculate with the start of each track when I should probably stop the book to finish up the workday at the end of a track. When I open a bag of fruit snacks, the first thing I do is mentally if not physically sort them by color, and then eat the right ones so that each color has the same number, and then I eat them in order after that. I don't even think about this, not consciously. It just happens. And this doesn't even go into the way that I know every inch of space, wherever I'm at, and exactly how I need everything arranged at any given moment to take the most advantage of it—even if that means adjusting things in half-inches.

It's a really, really good thing, I realize now, that God gave me an easy-going temperament along with these neuroses. Through no real effort of my own, I'm able to brush off most irritations in life, partly because they're rarely strong to begin with. I like and love things far more often than I am annoyed, and thinking of something enjoyable will easily wipe away the memory of an annoyance. Which is good for my sanity, and for the sanity of others, when those little irritations can be as simple as noticing that the soap dispensers in the public restroom aren't equally full...

I am Harold Crick.

What poetry form am I?

2009-02-22T19:56:00.001-08:00

I'm terza rima, and I talk and smile.
Where others lock their rhymes and thoughts away
I let mine out, and chatter all the while.

I'm rarely on my own - a wasted day
Is any day that's spent without a friend,
With nothing much to do or hear or say.

I like to be with people, and depend
On company for being entertained;
Which seems a good solution, in the end.

What Poetry Form Are You?

"We are all Socialists now"

2009-02-14T11:15:00.001-08:00

In case it wasn't clear enough for you...Newsweek had this on the cover of their magazine this week. They aren't hiding it, they aren't ashamed, they just boldly proclaim it from the hilltops. And the American public smiles and cheers as we enter this age of hope. It makes me weep.

Spring is coming!

2009-02-07T12:23:00.001-08:00

Spring used to be my second-favorite season, after autumn because I loved the crispness and lingering warmth that mingled in the air, and the unique smell of dry leaves. But in the past couple years, I've found myself more and more affected by SAD (seasonal affective disorder), and this year has been the worst.

I have an early schedule pretty much all year round, and by the time November swung around it was dark in the morning, and it only got worse. I hate the dark. I hate the clouds. I hate the rain, and the drizzle, and the snow worst of all. I hate the cold. Winter makes me want to curl up in my bed, turn the heater up high, and write like there's nothing else to do in the world. I'm not a people person even in the warm season, but winter makes me about twice as uncomfortable around others.

I was almost getting used to this feeling of disinterest and detachment from the world, when two days ago as I waited for the bus to arrive...sun! Real sun, warm sun, gloriously golden sun. I closed my eyes and sat in its glow for about ten minutes until the bus pulled up. And suddenly, where my spirits had been about a 5 on a ten point scale, they were now easily an 8.

Life's not so bad. Spring is coming.

Once upon a time (music meme)

2009-01-24T11:59:00.000-08:00

1. Put your music player of choice on shuffle.
2. For each question, press the next button to get your answer.
3. Write the song name down.
4. Tag 5 friends. (everyone who wants to do it is tagged)
5. Voila! Enjoy.

Some of these are just "uh...okay?", but some turned out quite interesting.

IF SOMEONE SAYS "IS THIS OKAY" YOU SAY?
Exclamations by The Brobdingnagian Bards. (LOL!)

WHAT WOULD BEST DESCRIBE YOUR PERSONALITY?
Happy Working Song from Enchanted. (Funny, but not really?)

WHAT IS YOUR LIFE'S PURPOSE?
Leave Out All the Rest by Linkin Park (No...)

WHAT IS YOUR MOTTO?
The Happy Happy Birthday Song by The Arrogant Worms (Intriguing, but no)

WHAT DO YOUR FRIENDS THINK OF YOU?
Backwards by Rascal Flatts (Does this mean something?)

WHAT DO YOU THINK ABOUT VERY OFTEN?
With Cat-Like Tread by Gilbert and Sullivan (LOL...no)

WHAT DO YOU THINK OF YOUR BEST FRIENDS
Happy Together by The Turtles (Eek...no)

WHAT IS YOUR LIFE STORY?
Hand of Sorrow by Within Temptation (I really, really hope not)

WHAT DO YOU WANT TO BE WHEN YOU GROW UP?
Wake Up by The Living End (Not really)

WHAT DO YOUR PARENTS THINK OF YOU?
The River by Good Charlotte (I don't think that makes any sense)

WHAT IS YOUR HOBBY/INTEREST?
Meant to Live by Switchfoot (Not much sense here either)

WHAT DO YOU THINK OF YOUR FRIENDS?
In the Light by Story Side B (Ditto)

WHAT'S THE WORST THING THAT COULD HAPPEN?
Wondrous Love by Jadon Lavik (LOL...oh, the irony...the opposite would be true in this case)

HOW WILL YOU DIE?
All the Words by Kutless (No sense here)

WHAT IS THE ONE THING YOU REGRET?
All Along the Watchtower by Bob Dylan (This song doesn't even make sense on its own, let alone for this category)

WHAT MAKES YOU LAUGH?
The Yodeling Veterinarian of the Alps by Veggie Tales (Well, yes)

WHAT MAKES YOU CRY?
So Insane by Smash Mouth (Well, no)

WILL YOU EVER GET MARRIED?
The Kingdom by Caedmon's Call (I don't think that tells me anything)

WHAT SCARES YOU THE MOST?
Wander My Friends by Bear McCreary (Oh no, not this, the opposite rather...this is a song of harmony and triumph)

DOES ANYONE LIKE YOU?
Spanish Ladies by Dr Faustus (Um, doesn't really make sense)

IF YOU COULD GO BACK IN TIME, WHAT WOULD YOU CHANGE?
Doctor Who Theme by Murray Gold (LOL! The chances that a theme song to a time travel show would come up for this...)

WHAT WILL YOU POST THIS AS?
Once Upon a Time: The Battle of Life and Death by Good Charlotte (Not bad, really)

Your body's MPG

2009-01-18T15:51:00.000-08:00

33.5 miles per gallon

Created by The Car Connection

Inspiration speeches from movies

2009-01-13T19:08:00.000-08:00

This is an example of a great editing job...I was surprised to see how many I recognized, although I agree with the person who originally posted the link in that the one line missing was "Have fun storming the castle!"

Plato and a Platypus Walk into a Bar

2009-01-08T23:44:00.000-08:00

...no really, that's the title. Or, Plato and a Platypus Walk into a Bar...: Understanding Philosophy Through Jokes by Thomas Cathcart and Daniel Klein, to be exact. And the book's as delightfully off-kilter as it sounds.

If there's one thing this book told me, it's that life is too important to take too seriously. Life, death, worldviews...all so essential to who we are, and yet we weigh down these fundamental questions with so much drama that they seem like burdens. And to escape these burdens we turn to humor and to cheesy jokes, only adding the burden of life that we can only laugh about it if we call that "irreverent" and tsk-tsk it into a tidy corner after our little fun.

In this book, however, our escapist jokes are taken and fondly deconstructed, leaving a study of philosophy both serious and with a touch of self-deprecation. The authors plainly know that it's easy to get bogged down by such things and so they make it light, keeping the realization that these are the most important questions to ask in overtones masquerading as undertones. It's a delightful read; informative if you take it seriously, freeing if you take it as permission for a breath of fresh air.

Need a smile?

2009-01-03T23:43:00.000-08:00

Gah! I am utterly slain by cuteness...

Don't understand the INTJ?

2008-12-28T18:28:00.000-08:00

I found and fell in love with the Myers Briggs personality test a while ago, and indeed our whole family seemed to find it useful when it came to understanding each other. However, for Aragorn and I, as we entered late-teen/early-adult years, our personalities shifted from being fairly identified with Purring Piggy's and Clankeeper's to being strongly identified with an entirely different one. We are, unlike our parents, INTJs. Unfortunately, not only are INTJs rare in any given population, they are odd, quirky, and even cryptic to others. So I have learned from experience. To fit in with normal society, we usually have to play some kind of role.

But if you're at all curious about what really goes on behind how we appear in public, or just want to understand why weird things happen sometimes, this is the place to find it. Be warned: it's bitingly sarcastic and tongue-in-cheek, also brutally honest, and has a few swear words sprinkled in. That being said, take away some of the sarcasm and brutal honesty, and it's so so true. (At least for me; I'm not sure how strongly INTJ Aragorn is.)

Interesting

2008-12-23T19:14:00.000-08:00

From here: "We guess http://bethsperaindomino.blogspot.com is written by a man (60%), however it's quite gender neutral."

Michael Crichton speech

2008-12-17T20:14:00.000-08:00

I've admired the books of his I've read, but this speech gave me a lot more respect for the man himself.

Strange song juxtaposition

2008-12-11T23:34:00.000-08:00

I often play my iPod on shuffle, with very random playlists, so pretty much anything can come up. Occasionally, though, the choice seems fortuitous. Just the other day, I was tickled when the song "My Eyes" came up right before the song "Give Me Your Eyes". Even stranger, though, is how eerily well those songs fit thematically in that order when you look at their lyrics.

Hundreds of unique accents

2008-12-06T16:35:00.000-08:00

When I first found this site, I didn't think much of it. I love learning about accents and what makes them what they are, and especially just hearing and being able to recognize them, but I'm not a big expert on them. This site, though, is for people like me—it has all the expert information, but if you're just curious about accents, it works like that too.

One thing that this site was very helpful for was distinguishing the various British accents. It's so common for Americans to just go "Oh, he has a British accent", and not realize that the Brits have more distinct accents than even we do in one country. Unconsciously I picked up on that from watching so many British-produced things, but it was nice to put my finger down on what the differences were.

The Evolution of Wedding Dance

2008-11-30T16:29:00.000-08:00

I saw the popular online video called "Evolution of Dance" a while ago, and even though I got a lot of the references, I didn't find it too entertaining. This, however, which probably won't make sense unless you've seen the original, I loved. Maybe its the more "everyman" feel to it, or the quirky humor of where it was done and who did it (I could actually see some of my friends doing something like this). But whatever the reason I liked it, it's worth a watch: The Evolution of Wedding Dance

A few of my favorite things...

2008-11-29T21:33:00.000-08:00

I have found a few new things this week!

Pepperidge Farm makes Chocolate Mint cookies that taste just like the Thin Mint cookies that Girl Scouts sell! I dip them in milk and they bring back all those warm fuzzy memories of my childhood. Mmmmmm.

I love Cook's Illustrated magazine! I tried their new pumpkin pie recipe, the pumpkin cheesecake recipe and their slow roasted turkey recipe this year for Thanksgiving. All were awesome! The turkey was SO moist! The pie was incredibly smooth and silky...I have never had anything like it. A lot of work, though, but worth it I think. I also tried their pie crust recipe that uses vodka with the cold water and it makes a wonderfully moist and supple dough that is easy to work with. I even liked the taste of the crust, which has never happened before...normally I consider pie crust a necessary evil and I don't eat it. The only draw back was having to enter a liquor store to buy the vodka.

Krispy Kreme is making a new doughnut that is actually worth eating in my opinion. I am not a big doughnut eater, but I did stop recently to treat the children. While there they had a mocha cream filled doughnut that I tried...oh, my, that was good! Thankfully, the closest Krispy Kreme is too far for regular visits. And that is a good thing!

Latest favorite music

2008-11-24T19:21:00.000-08:00

"What Life Would Be Like" by Big Daddy Weave

"Companion" and "Mal's Song" by Vixy & Tony. These are what is colloquially called "filk" or songs inspired by books/movies—in these cases, Doctor Who for one and Firefly for the other.

"The Ultimate Showdown of Ultimate Destiny" by Lemon Demon. A really fun, silly, geeky song that I downloaded from the official website (caution, a couple bad words).

"Give Me Your Eyes" by Brandon Heath

"Good Riddance" by Green Day

"Home" by Daughtry

"Suerte" by Shakira. The song that made me realize I liked Latino music.

"My Eyes" and "My Freeze Ray" by Felicia Day & Neil Patrick Harris. These are two really lovely songs from a little independent internet musical called Doctor Horrible's Singalong Blog.

"How Far We've Come" by Matchbox Twenty

"I'm Letting Go" by Francesca Battistelli

"Love's Lookin' Good On You" by Lady Antebellum

"Have You Ever Seen the Rain" by Creedence Clearwater Revival.

"One of These Days" by FFH

"Carry On Wayward Son" by Pickin' On Series. I enjoyed the original of this song, but I prefer this bluegrass cover.

"Wondrous Love" by Jadon Lavik. Possibly one of the happiest songs I've heard in a long while, and the original was written in the 1800s.

"Jesus Freak" by 4th Avenue Jones

"Wherever We Go" by Newsboys

Twilight the movie

2008-11-21T22:25:00.000-08:00

Aragorn and I went out tonight to see Twilight for opening night. In some ways it was a disappointment, and it others it surpassed my expectation.

There was a very large crowd—the theater was sold out—but this made it very enjoyable as an experience. The many teenage fangirls were pretty vocal about gasps and squeals at certain scenes/characters/lines, but not to the point where they were louder than the movie. And it was almost more fun to giggle at their excitement with the moms in the theater, than to actually watch the scenes they were getting excited about.

The scenes that were awkward or forced in the book, were unfortunately translated perfectly to screen. Edward and Bella played off pretty flat and/or victims of multiple personality disorder, depending on the scene—so it was accurate there. However, the scene near the end when Bella is attacked by James was very moving and suspenseful, despite the fact that I hadn't cared for her before. As a side note, Bella was too pretty and Edward not handsome enough.

The minor characters, however, were very well cast, especially the Cullens and Bella's school friends. Sometimes their lines were cheesy or just plain bad, but they pulled off what material they had very well. The storyline, also, was pulled straight from the book. I was hoping that they'd tighten up the dragging will-he-won't-he romance part of the book and make the movie faster paced when it came to the action, but they didn't. So the first half of the movie was slow and awkward in places, and the latter third was intense and very well done.

This movie is overflowing in cheese and eye-rolling, but I did enjoy myself in a good deal of it. Though it occasionally got too artsy, the filming style was absolutely gorgeous and perfect at some key moments, and the soundtrack was superb. There were a few genuinely laugh-out-loud moments, and a good amount of giggles (more of them at the silly girls in the audience, but by no means all).

I would definitely watch this movie again, but I would also be fast-forwarding through about two thirds of it. What they got right, they got perfect, but the rest was soundly so-so. I liked the way they ended it, too, and wouldn't be surprised or disappointed to hear that a sequel was being made.

Orson Scott Card's Ender series

2008-11-18T19:58:00.000-08:00

Have you ever had that feeling after you finish a book when you're not sure how to qualify what you've just experienced? Sometimes I finish books and go "Meh, that wasn't bad"; other times it's "That was fun, but nothing great"; and othertimes it was "I loved that!". I didn't feel any of those after finishing "Ender's Game" by Orson Scott Card. Instead, I had this vague feeling that this wasn't a book that you could make a quick judgment about, that I wouldn't understand exactly what I'd read for a while. Maybe a long while. Maybe not until I'd read the book again. It was a strange feeling, and one I hadn't remembered feeling before, unless back when I finished some of my forever-favorite books like "The Lord of the Rings" or "Pride and Prejudice".

Whatever I was feeling, I had really enjoyed the book, so I carried on to the next book in the series, "Speaker for the Dead". And about halfway through that I then realized, my feeling had been right. I didn't just love these books, they had deeply touched me. I had almost forgotten how that felt after reading so many books that I lived in for a few hours and then left to sit on the shelf ever after. These weren't like those books; these were books that didn't let go, that followed me around and whispered their words to me long after I had finished the last page. And when I realized this, I felt a bit of a shiver down my spine.

It wasn't like I wasn't prepared to love these books; they'd been recommended by several people whose opinions I trusted as some of their all-time favorite books, even above such classics that people normally name. I was a bit skeptical, not being a big science fiction fan, but I wasn't going to toss their opinions out just on that. And I'm glad I did, because "Ender's Game" and "Speaker for the Dead" aren't just fluffy fun adventure stories like the stereotype of science fiction says they should be.

Orson Scott Card doesn't make it easy to get into his books—he just thrusts you into his universe with no explanation, and hopes you'll be intrigued enough to continue on until the plot and characters grip you. Maybe it's his test for his readers, to see if they're willing to think and not just be mindlessly entertained. Maybe I just forgot how good writing is not straightforward. But once you've read a few chapters, you're not thinking about the writing style anymore, you're caught up in the lives and adventures of the people he writes about.

One thing that science fiction has going for it as a genre is that its authors are full of imagination without escapism. Fantasy is full of wonder, but sometimes it seems to be an ideal world that the author wishes was our own, with nothing to offer those of us who are stuck on this one. Normal fiction, on the other hand, is often full of crippling realism—flawed people, tragic events, gritty and tough situations—even to the point of being depressing or at least without any hope for anything better. Science fiction can also fall into these categories, but the best of it has a little of both. There's the wonder of discovering new forms of science, with all the hopes it provides for the human race, but mixed with the day-to-day reality of things like human nature and the basic laws of science that rule our lives.

And that's what Orson Scott Card gives. His world isn't any better than ours, his heroes no mythological figures, but he also doesn't say that that's all there is. Even when they make terrible mistakes, his characters long for the ideal, for the good, for the truth, for a better world. And they don't just idly long their days away, they actively strive for it. Sometimes they fail, and sometimes the result are brutal and painful, but sometimes they succeed and it's beautiful, and Card seems to be saying to us the reader that we can too. All we need to do is keep trying.

I thought about giving a summary of these two books, but decided against it. Words don't do plots like these justice, especially because these books are so definitely not plot driven. They're theme driven and character driven, and even the elaborate nature of the plot doesn't overshadow that. I can't describe what I loved about these books by giving my favorite scenes, but more how the whole thing made me feel. And sometimes, these books had me hurt, made my heart feel sore because of the painful truth being expressed. But other times, there was piercing beauty and quiet inspiration, and my heart swelled, and these books fulfilled some need that I couldn't quite express with words.

I don't know if my experience was personal, but I hope it wasn't. These books reminded me why reading is not just for entertainment, and I strongly recommend them to others.

(Edit: Since writing this review I also finished the third book in the series, Xenocide, and I have to say: I'm still thoroughly hooked to this series. I just started rereading Ender's Game, and I'm finding that it's better than I gave it credit for the first time around.)

My life was actually interesting today...

2008-11-13T19:51:00.000-08:00

Four intriguing things from school today:

1. In my history class, I received 100 out of 100 points on a paper that I only thought was pretty good. One thing I've learned from writing college papers is that there is no objective view; it's all about learning what each individual professor is looking for.

2. Also in history class, we will be putting Caesar Augustus on trial tomorrow for the destruction of the Republic, as a whole class. We divided into three groups: defense, prosecution, and judges. Both defense and prosecution may call up witnesses, but they can only be students taking on the role of a historical figure, and those witnesses may only speak the arguments of their historical figures. The lawyer for each side may cross-examine both sides’ witnesses, though, and the judges/jury will decide in the end—so all fairly normal court procedure. I will be taking the part of the defense attorney, and so far all the groups seem to be getting really into the project. So much so, that we all volunteered to come in sheet-togas. Sometimes I just love this class.

3. In Spanish, we learned the concept of “conocer” versus “saber”. Consider this conversation:
Persona Uno: Sabes la poema “The Raven”?
Persona Dos: No, no la conozco.

Basically translated, this conversation is:
Person 1: Do you know the poem “The Raven”?
Person 2: No, I know it.

Strange? In Spanish, though, they have two different words for different *types* of knowing. Better translated, the conversation is:
Person 1: Do you know the poem “The Raven” by heart?
Person 2: No, I only know of it.

4. Likewise, in Spanish, they have two forms of the verb that means “to be”. Like so:
Seattle es nublado. Phoenix está nublado. (Basically translated: Seattle is cloudy. Phoenix is cloudy.)

“Es” means that something is habitually or characteristically so. “Está” means that something is like this right now, but it is probably just a stage. When you use “Es”/”Está” in terms of people, it is helpful in distinguishing whether they are usually like this, or it’s just these circumstances. If someone “es” shy, that means they are always pretty reserved. If they “está” shy, they’re normally just fine in social situations, but this particular one is making them with draw.

(And for anyone who's fluent in Spanish, yes, I simplified things a little—it's the concept that I wanted to share, that's all.)

Album review: Roots Run Deep

2008-11-09T19:35:00.000-08:00

Sometimes I'm a bit new-fangled for the older adults in my life. I like remixes of old songs which seem to be blasphemous to them, ruining what was perfectly good in the first place. I can't help it—I like things that are new and different. But there's always something special about the traditional, the original. Especially when it comes to hymns. Oftentimes there's nothing so beautiful as an a capella church singing classic hymns, even if not all four parts are equal and not everyone's perfectly on time. I love that, and I don't think I'll ever lose that appreciation. New is good, and old is good too, and I can be happy with both in my life.

But sometimes a song will shake up my complacency and have me wondering for a second. Recently, it was actually an album that did it. I rarely pay attention to albums, since I don't normally like more than a couple songs on them, but when it came to Jadon Lavik's Roots Run Deep, I was pleasantly surprised and felt a review was in order.

Strictly conservative listeners will not go for this album. It's not a capella, and he does bump up the rhythm of these hymns, but there was something different here than in most albums of covers of hymns. Often, it seems like modern Christian artists' renditions of church songs are what they consider the "new and improved" version, because the original just wasn't jazzy or rock'n'roll enough. Maybe it's just my impression, maybe they don't even realize that's how it comes across, but I can understand why some Christians could protest.

Jadon Lavik's music didn't give me that impression at all, though, which was a surprise to be honest. When I first heard his music, falling deeply in love with his renditions of "Come Thou Fount" and "Wondrous Love", instead of hearing the modern remake of old hymns, I heard a respectful tribute to the good old classics. My first indication might have been when he used the original lyrics—"flaming tongues", "dreadful curse", and all. Not even most hymnals are that faithful, and I appreciated it in Roots Run Deep.

The other thing I grabbed on was the lack of "fun" in the songs. There's no irreverence in his treatment of these old hymns, even if he adds some backbeat and speeds up the tempo just a bit, no implication of "the old way was boring". Instead, what he adds to the hymns is a wonderful and deep sense of joy. Especially in "Tis So Sweet" and "Wondrous Love", you can hear how much he loves these songs and how joyful they make him feel. Not just happy, but that Biblical idea of joy that only Christian music seems to have. You want to dance to some of his music, but not because it's light and fun, but because his joy in these classic hymns of praise and worship is too infectious to ignore.

Perhaps I'm still a little heretical in thinking that sometimes, as a church, we make Christianity a little too stiff. Some songs are sung slow and steadily because they are solemn and grave, but so many others whose words are full of nothing more than contentment, peace, and joy are given the same treatment. Jadon Lavik's album reminded me that God always intended us to rejoice in the Lord always, and to live with a joy-filled heart.

Kids are awesome

2008-11-04T20:13:00.001-08:00

I've been sick of all the political talk since it started, what, 3 years ago? But this video totally made my day.

Where I've Been...

2008-11-04T18:59:00.000-08:00

After reading a post by Joyful Student about how many states she had visited in her lifetime, I decided to see where I have been. This is what I found:

visited 26 states (52%)
Create your own visited map of The United States or determine the next president

WPM

2008-11-02T20:08:00.000-08:00

84 words

Typingtest

Homemade pretzels

2008-10-26T15:14:00.000-07:00

I'm often a little hesitant about making certain things from scratch, not because I don't think they'll taste amazing, but because they just taste different. Clam chowder, for instance, and cheesy biscuits—I've never gotten them to taste like they do in restaurants. However, sometimes a perfect recipe will come across my path, and I came across one yesterday.

This pretzel recipe turns out flawless pretzels with a minimal amount of work. I was astonished to have them come out of the oven looking gorgeous, and tasting exactly like the best pretzel you could get at any pretzel stand. The crust was perfectly chewy-soft and a dark golden brown that only egg-wash will make it, and the dough inside was moist and soft.

This was just the first try, so I'm not sure how far this recipe will go, but we're already thinking about trying to replicate pizza pretzels we have by replacing the egg wash with tomato sauce and covering them with cheese. Even if that doesn't work, I'm positive that we'll be making these again...and will never have to feel compelled to buy them for $3 a piece elsewhere.

Sand improv art

2008-10-21T19:10:00.000-07:00

These are amazing...I wish I had even this artistic talent for simple pictures.

Pie recipe

2008-10-14T19:15:00.000-07:00

I was so happy to find time to make this... It was one of the best apple pies I've had.

Gotcha

2008-10-11T17:52:00.000-07:00

With the recent fairly regular appearance of new posts, did anyone get their hopes up for this to be continual? Well, sorry, then school started. I had forgotten that while I'm technically only in school and work for a total of eight hours a day, exactly like when I was working full time, all the time needed for study makes my schedule much tighter now.

And unfortunately, blogging isn't going to be my biggest priority. Other than studying and a little reading/music/other forms of entertainment, my main task that fills those few hours of "free time" is writing. Not the blogging kind of writing, though. I'll try to something for the blog every week or so, but if it goes a couple weeks, it's not because I've forgotten but because I've used up all my inspiration for that week already.

So, sorry to my readers (all three of you ;), and I wish I could say this was just a short phase.

Sanctuary review

2008-10-07T10:13:00.000-07:00

While I was bedridden earlier this year I couldn't make it upstairs to the family dinner table, so they joined me down in our family room. Before the accident, we had been watching through the TV show Stargate Atlantis, and with all the down time the accident gave me, we started through the ten seasons of Stargate SG-1. It was great to watch it all as a family together, and we grew pretty attached to it. Unfortunately, the show was canceled, but the actors moved on to new projects. And one of them is now a new TV show partially written and produced by one of the main Stargate actors, Amanda Tapping.

Sanctuary started off as a pet project of Tapping's, and she got together some of the friends she had made in the media business over ten years to help her create a show that would air only on the internet. I caught the "webisodes" when they first aired a while back, and thoroughly enjoyed them, so I was thrilled to hear that they had become a big enough phenomenon that a TV network picked up the idea for an actual TV show. Well, the pilot of Sanctuary just premiered on the Sci-Fi Channel this Friday, and here are my thoughts.

To be honest, I missed the short and fast-paced storytelling style of the webisodes—they were short and snappy, and sure, there wasn't much depth then, but I was hooked by the characters and the story. The pilot makes up for this lack, but it goes a little too far in the opposite direction. There is a lot of backstory and information for this show, and they decided to cram most of it into the first episode; many plot twists and revelations abound, some of which probably should have been saved for later episodes. Most shows start of with something interesting and full of action to get you hooked, and then viewers are willing to delve into deep character issues later. Purring Piggy, who watched it with me, said it wasn't too bad, but I wonder if I would have been bored if I wasn't already familiar with the characters.

The basic story is this: there are monsters and mythical creatures living in our world, but because we would be frightened of them and seek to kill them, a Dr. Helen Magnus operates a secret facility called the Sanctuary to either keep them safe, or keep us safe from them. Along with her Sasquatch bodyguard/butler and her gun-toting daughter, she also recruits forensic psychiatrist Will Zimmerman to help her with the various creatures. She has dual goals of scientific study and offering understanding or protection.

Though I said the pilot was a little boring, I greatly enjoy the characters and hope that I get to see more of them. Amanda Tapping played a serious, conscientious military scientist called Sam Carter on Stargate, but her character here, Helen Magnus, is miles apart. Apart from the visual change, with Helen having long dark hair and dressing in an almost-period and very feminine style (the opposite of Carter's camo and jeans), the characters' personalities are very separate. Sam started Stargate quite young and enthusiastic, a little inexperienced in personal matters, and though she grew over the ten years her character never lost all of that. Helen, on the other hand, is 157 years old, head of a secret facility and a mother of a young adult, and Amanda Tapping brings a sense of class and maturity to her that Sam never had. Tapping herself is a new parent, and it's obvious in her portrayal—the emotion in her face when her daughter is threatened went straight to my heart, and was totally believable.

Another brilliant character is Helen's nemesis, John Druitt. People who have seen Stargate Atlantis should recognize the voice if not the face of Todd the Wraith. It's really nice to see Christopher Heyerdahl not under prosthetics, and his voice is amazing, like a cross between Christopher Lee and Alan Rickman. As a character on Sanctuary says, "He had an accent like [Helen's], only more evil." The character moves with a quiet, smooth grace, and he's the sort of evil that charms you before he kills you. We find out that he was engaged to Helen in the past, and it's not surprising given the chemistry between Heyerdahl and Tapping. There's this dance between them of still wanting to get closer and then backing away because of the conflict.

The other characters have a lot of potential, but nothing outstanding in this episode. Setting and plot are nice, especially the visuals for Helen's sanctuary—I love how they blend the old with the new in her dress and style, living as a modern woman but literally remembering the past. The visual effects are outstanding much of the time, but there's no overworking when it would be obvious no matter how good they were. All the actors do well against the green screen, and since acting covers a multitude of effects sins, the show looks very sharp.

All in all, the pilot wasn't as great as the webisodes, but I have great hope for the series when it continues in a shorter timeslot which will make them amp up the pace. We don't have cable, but the Sci-Fi Channel is offering the episodes streaming on www.hulu.com for a limited time—you can still watch the pilot for Sanctuary there, but it will be gone in a couple days.

Dalek Invaders 2008

2008-10-03T12:22:00.000-07:00

Too cute! A family's homemade Doctor Who video starring their kids:

Fantasy writers changing lightbulbs

2008-09-28T12:15:00.000-07:00

If you've read any variety of fantasy books, these should make sense and be funny:

Q. How many fantasy authors does it take to change a light bulb?

A1. Only one. But it'll take a long time. They have to prepare an obsessively and redundantly detailed map of the whole room first.

A2. Fantasy authors can't change light bulbs. Only orphaned farmboys, destined from birth to change the light bulb in accordance with ancient prophecy can do it.

A3. Dozens. JRR Tolkien has to go first, to show everyone how to do it right, and then all the rest take turns removing and replacing the light bulb, in very slightly different and generally inferior ways.

TV vs. books

2008-09-22T21:17:00.000-07:00

The more I write and read, I realize that I have been fully disillusioned when it comes to adaptation for screen. As a former member of the pure bibliophile club, I scorned at television and movie adaptations of books, bemoaning how the adaptors felt this need to "translate" the story into a "different medium". The book was perfect how it was, there's no need to change it!

Alas, no more. I've watched more movies and television. I've partially written screenplays based on books. I've written novels. I've tried writing original screenplays. And unfortunately—they were all right. All those writers and directors? They were right, I'm telling you.

What do you get in the novels and oral tales, in the good ones? You get narrative description, character thoughts and introspection, and opportunity for stylistic turns of phrase in other places than the dialogue. You don't get chapters and chapters of pure dialogue, but you learn more about the characters through what they say and do than how they move or look.

What do you get in television or movies or theatre, the good ones? You get dialogue, action, subtle visual clues, and opportunity for stylistic tricks with camera movement and other audio-visual gags. You don't get the characters' thoughts or a narrator to explain the history of everything, but even the smallest second of emotion on a person's face and the lighting or sweeping move of camera will tell you more than a thousand words could.

You can't take a verbal and mental medium like literature and translate it word for word into film—it's like trying to translate an idiom literally. Take a book like The Lord of the Rings: the story revolves around using words in poetic and beautiful fashion to set mood and atmosphere, using the thoughts of the characters and the point of view of the narrator to explain the story, with dialogue only when really necessary. Can you take that and turn it to film? Yes. Will it be good? No.

How do you take the Battle of Pelennor Fields and turn it into film? If you take the written words and the dialogue and translate them directly, you'd end up with a play-by-play battle with confusing character interaction. Can we understand simply from actions and words what motivates Merry, Eowyn, Eomer, and Theoden? Not really—the text relies on the narrator and the God's-eye perspective into their minds. In film world, we have to see what they're thinking on their faces—the dialogue could stay the same, but the narrator has to come in the form of acting, camera work, editing, and music. It can be surprisingly effective, but takes just as much work as trying to convey the same messages with words without it appearing forced.

And unfortunately, you don't understand how this works until you've tried to analyze why exactly you were crying at a certain scene in a movie (when you had no previous attachment to the story or characters), and even then, until you've tried to faithfully adapt one of your favorite books to screenplay form. Even if you aren't good at either, the simple act of trying opens your mind to how complex an art film is, separate and apart from writing.

"The movie's not as good as the book." What is that supposed to mean? If it means you liked the book better—sure, that's a valid criticism. If it means that the movie is different than the book, though, then that is not the way to say it. Different does not mean better or worse. There are good books that have made terrible movies, and there are terrible books that made good movies. (And some stories were just meant to be told in one form: not every great movie would have made a better book and not every book would make a good movie.) When one is adapted to be another, they may have the same story and characters, but storytellers for millennia have been borrowing from each other and weaving new stories from old ingredients. The separate stories can and often should stand on their own, and while comparisons are sometimes useful, often they are harmful.

As much as you scoffed when they said it, film and literature are two different mediums that serve two different purposes. Paintings are not the same as songs; books are not the same as movies. They shouldn't be compared as if they were apples and apples. So the next time someone makes a movie out of your favorite book—remember that it will be different. It has to be. When someone translates a German piece to English, no matter how faithful the translation, something will be lost and perhaps something will be gained. It's inevitable, and it serves no purpose to worry and complain about it.

Slippery slopes

2008-09-16T21:13:00.000-07:00

The more I drink, the more I feel thirsty.

The more I write, the more I want to write.

The more I exercise, the more I want to be physically active.

The more I blog, the more blog posts ideas come into my head.

The more I read, the more books get added to my to-be-read pile

The more I practice patience and self-control, the more I truly want to be patient and controlled.

The more I sleep, the less sleep I feel like I should be getting. Sigh. Patterns were meant to be broken.

My favorite new music

2008-09-11T21:36:00.000-07:00

"It's Dead, Jim" by Warp 11. I'm not a Star Trek fan, but for some reason I really like this song.

"Dark Waltz" by Hayley Westenra. Hauntingly gorgeous.

"Battlefield" and "Storm" by Cirque du Soleil

"End of the World" by Great Big Sea

"Hands of the Potter" and "Wings of the Morning" by Caedmon's Call. Lovely folk Christian band.

"Take Me In" by Kutless. I love this group's worship songs.

"Re: Your Brains" by Jonathan Coulton. Who would'a' thought that a zombie song could be so plaintive? Also his song "Ikea" is great.

"So Insane" and "Everyday Superhero" by Smash Mouth. Just plain fun music.

"Within" by William Joseph. Gorgeous piano music.

"Coultergeist" by Phil Coulter. Ditto.

"Sport Utility Vehicle" by Veggie Tales. My favorite of the recent Silly Songs, but I have no idea why.

"Wizards in Winter" by Trans-Siberian Orchestra

"Forgiven" by Relient k

"Take My Life" by Jeremy Camp

"This is Home" by Switchfoot

Chuck Norris facts...Stargate style

2008-09-05T18:36:00.000-07:00

I'm pretty sure everyone knows about the Chuck Norris facts: the usually cute, often cheesy, sometimes LOL exaggerations about the power of Chuck Norris. Even if you (like me) don't really know who Chuck Norris is, the format is witty enough to pull most of them off. And then I found the Stargate version...not only are these more specific to certain character traits (whereas the Chuck Norris ones encompass everything), they make more sense to me because I know what they're referring to, all the inside jokes (plus some more general ones). Again, some are just plain cheesy, but if you know the show and characters, I found a lot of these very funny.

We all know the answer, 42. Daniel Jackson knows the question!

Daniel Jackson is so bad*** that even the afterlife is scared of him.

Teal'c can kill two stones with one bird

Samantha Carter knows the exact location of Carmen SanDiego

God originally wanted 5 horsemen for the apocalypse, but Teal'C refused to ride a horse.

Teal'C and O'Neill played rock, paper, scissors. Teal'C shot rock, and O'Neill shot paper. Teal'C refused to lose. When O'Neill protested, Teal'C punched him in the face saying "I thought your paper would protect you, Colonel O'Neill."

The Dinosaurs laughed at Teal'c, and look at them now...

After the nuclear apocalypse, all that will be left is five cockroaches and Daniel Jackson.

Samantha Carter understands the teacher in Charlie Brown.

Lemmings think Teal'c is behind them.

Someone once told Ba'al that "gullible" was written on the ceiling. Ba'al then wrote the man's name in blood on the floor.

Anubis let the dogs out.

Daniel Jackson doesn't cheat death. He wins fair and square.

If it looks like chicken, tastes like chicken, and feels like chicken but Teal'c says its macaroni and cheese, then it's macaroni and cheese.

Claudia Black would never win an Oscar for her performance as Vala- because let's face it, who'd trust her with a blunt metal object?

If Daniel Jackson sets foot on a planet, whole civilizations perish just to be studied by him.

When Teal´c uses a sarcophagus , the sarcophagus gets healthier

When Vala goes swimming in the sea the concentration of gold in the ocean drops by 74%.

If Carter says something works, the laws of physics consider twice.

Vala actually stopped talking once.......no wait, just kidding.

Sam can build a working Naquada Generator out of Legos.

Jack may play with a yo-yo but Daniel is a yo-yo. (ascend, descend. ascend, descend...)

Ba´al is so difficult to kill..the other Goa´ulds nicknamed him "Daniel".

How evil is Anubis? Every night, he counts his collection of unpaired socks that people around the galaxy still think they "lost".

Despite the popular misconception, Chuck Norris is merely the distortion of the space-time continuum created by Sg1's overwhelming and unmitigated coolness

Everyone in the universe speaks English because Chuck Norris once said, "Everyone will speak the same language as me." 1 planet raised an objection. It is known as Proclarush Taonas.

We only ever see SG-1 and SG-3 team members because all the other 23 teams consist of Chuck Norris.

If you rearrange the letters in "Daniel Jackson", you get "Cloaked Ninjas". No wonder he can't be killed. If you rearrange the letters in "Vala Mal Doran", you get "Amoral Vandal". And if you rearrange the letters in "Teal'C" you get "Chuck Norris"... 'Nuff said.

There is no 'crtl' button on Carter's computer... she is always in control.

Chuck Norris does not ascend. He pulls the Plane of Existence down to his level.

King Midas touched objects to turn them into gold. Vala Mal Doran touches a gold object and it probably is never seen again.

The Ori never invaded Earth because they were afraid to be on the same planet as Chuck Norris.

Teal'C calls his Jaffa Staff Weapon "Chuck" and his Zat-nik-tel "Norris"... which is why he is the most feared Jaffa warrior...

Music videos

2008-09-01T21:35:00.000-07:00

I don't normally watch music videos for songs I like, because often they're just artsy shots of the singers intermixed with props and settings of the song, which I find dreadfully dull. Occasionally, there's one that tells the story of the song, and they're worth it. But recently I found two that actually enhanced the song, while being worthwhile on their own. Both of them are songs by Nickelback:

At work yesterday...

2008-08-30T07:46:00.000-07:00

We were all having our weekly meeting in the break room, and while some other discussion was going around, one of my coworkers asked our manager:

"So what happens to the books that we throw away? Do they get recycled into paper?"

"No, they're too high a grade for paper," he said, "they get turned into cardboard."

There was a pause as everyone just shrugged and took in the information.

Then Aragorn leaned lazily over the table to look closely at the box of donuts on the table. "Maybe this is one of our books," he said.

There was another pause, and then everyone giggled at once.

"Okay, meeting just went off the track! Dismissed!"

Looking back on Twilight

2008-08-26T21:24:00.000-07:00

You might remember that I reviewed Stephenie Meyer's Twilight series not too long ago. Well, I thought I was well and done with it, until our church went camping this last weekend in Olympic Rainforest National Park. We'd been there before, on the eastern side of the penninsula, but this time we were on the western side...right outside La Push and only 12 miles from Forks.

Yes, Forks. Forks, the tiny town of 3175 people that was unheard of until Stephenie Meyer set her books there. Thousands of preteen and teenage girls want to move there now. So, even though I didn't care too much for the books, how could I resist seeing the real setting?

The first thing I noticed about the town was that they were banking on the popularity of the books. Everywhere you looked there were signs with cute Twilight puns or directions to where you could get Twilight merchandise or tours of landmarks from the book.

Secondly, it's obvious that Meyer didn't live in Forks for very long and not right before writing the book. In fact, you can also tell she didn't grow up in the Pacific Northwest. I could sort of tell this before going to Forks, but definitely now. The books make Forks seem both quite a bit larger and quite a bit closer to "real" civilisation such as Port Angeles and Seattle. All those teens who wanted to move to Forks would very quickly change their mind when they realized that it's 5 hours from SeaTac airport and a good hour drive from any store/restaurant they might recognize.

Thirdly, there were no vampires! And I don't think it was just that I missed them, because no one that distinctive could remain inconspicuous in the real Forks. Now maybe Meyer based the Cullens off of the mosquitoes, who certainly had a great hunger for human blood, but other than that—no vampires. I feel cheated.

And that's about it. I'm not a big fan of the Twilight books, but there was something thrilling about seeing signs with names from a book you've read, and getting your picture taken outside of a contemporary literary landmark. You don't get to do that everyday, that's for sure!

Really...how interesting

2008-08-22T00:05:00.000-07:00

Created by OnePlusYou - Online Dating

Work and my job

2008-08-17T17:51:00.000-07:00

I love my job. I have probably one of the lamest college-kid type jobs in the world, but I love it.

What do I do exactly? I work in a bookstore. But no, not a cool bookstore, where you get to put pretty new books on the shelf and help people find great things to read—no, I work in an online bookstore warehouse. Basically, we take the rejects of libraries of all sorts and put them up on Amazon to sell. And my job? I sort through the boxes of books, trying to find each one’s entry on Amazon, and comparing condition and price to see if it's worth selling. If it is, it gets a code and I put it out on the shelves in the warehouse. If not, it gets recycled. And since I get paid more the faster (i.e. more productive) I am and really only need to care about the physical appearance of the book, it’s not like I get to look through books for a living.

And then there’s all the physical labor. Half my day is spent putting books into boxes, shuffling them from one box to another, or carrying around the boxes. Really, this type of job completely objectifies books until the title, condition, and ISBN are all you see in books even outside of work. And when many of those books are moldy, dusty (= my allergies), falling apart, or "bad content rejects"—well, they're not very attractive objects at that.

But I love my job. I shouldn’t—it is a recipe for destroying everyone’s love of books. Even though I can keep books that we can’t sell and look interesting to me, with so many other things in my life, bringing home every book that looks remotely interesting is a formula for disaster. I do bring home about one or two a day of the thousands that I go through, but almost all of them get returned to the recycling bin after I skim through and realize that they weren’t that interesting after all.

Apart from that, it’s a data entry job—a mundane day of dealing with routines, numbers, and other very dull ideas. I should be bored out of my mind sitting at a desk scanning book after book and carrying around boxes. So why aren't I? Why do I look forward to working full time instead of part time when school starts again.

Well, like so many things in life, I’ve figured out that it’s not the facts of something that predicts your experience with it, it’s what you do with it. I don’t yawn my way through the day for a paycheck, but instead pack my iPod full of music and podcasts. Have I ever mentioned that I love podcasts? I’m subscribed to so many of these wonderful downloadable radio shows that can be geeky, informational, free-books-ala-Librivox, funny, or all of the above, and I’m hopelessly addicted to some of them. Those, along with music, are enough to keep my mind occupied while my hands do the mindless routine work of my job. And I’m not the only one—this workplace certainly attracted the sort of people who don’t mind spending most of the day at a desk with headphones on.

And that’s the other thing that I love about the job—the coworkers. It really has nothing to do with the job itself, as it’s not like I’d recommend anyone else to look for a job like this, because unless it’s my coworkers and my personality to deal with them, I have no idea how anyone else would fare here. But I work with a great group of people. Yes, they can be annoying, and there’s one in particular who I really have to try hard to love because she’s just so annoying, but I do love them all. It helps that they’re all Christians of one type or another, and that we’re all in the same general age group—well, mostly. And even more, as I said, this job by definition would attract a certain kind of person. The sort of person who says “Do you have designs against my water vessel?” and “I am not worthy to sit on that couch” and any other of the quietly dry comments that speckle our shared breaks. We’re all pretty reserved, all freely humorous, and all willing to share, eat, and spend time with each other.

How am I ever going to have another job after this one as my first? Like my first course of college, where all my teachers were outstanding, I’m thinking this job has spoiled me. Because of the routine of the job, I get to have intellectual stimulation through books, music and articles/discussion all day, peppered with much-appreciated physical activity. The coworkers and managers/bosses are wonderful to work with. I’m supporting small independent business and capitalism. The pay is good. I can’t think of another place I’d rather work at, honestly.

Someday, I know, I’m going to move on. This is an entry level job, and unless something remarkable happens, I’m going to outgrow it. But if by some chance that remarkable thing happens and I stay at this job for a long time, I’m not going to be disappointed. One of the most difficult things as a new Christian for me to learn was that God wanted us to work—he didn’t intend us for a life of ease and “free time” and entertainment, as worthy as those things are in moderation. We’re supposed to work hard and with joy for the Lord, and now I understand why. As much as weekends come with some relief, I’m always ready for Monday, and it feels wrong when a sickday or vacation gives me gobs of free time. This is how it’s supposed to be, and it feels that way.

I love my job. And I don’t feel at all guilty saying that.

Gotta love those laws named after people...

2008-08-11T20:56:00.000-07:00

# Watt-Evans' Law of Literary Creation: There is no idea so stupid or hackneyed that a sufficiently-talented writer can't get a good story out of it.

# Feist's Corollary: There is no idea so brilliant or original that a sufficiently-untalented writer can't screw it up.

# Morrison's Corollary: There is no idea that a sufficiently-talented writer has made into a good story that can't become annoying in the sequels.

# Holliday's Corollary: There is no plot so stunningly original that a journalist can't make it sound hackneyed.

# Debra Doyle's Rule: If it has horses and swords in it, it's a fantasy, unless it also has a rocketship in it, in which case it becomes science fiction. The only thing that'll turn a story with a rocketship in it back into fantasy is the Holy Grail.

Breaking Dawn by Stephanie Meyer

2008-08-06T20:12:00.000-07:00

Recently, I posted a review of the Twilight series by Stephanie Meyer, when only three of the books were out. Since then, the fourth book in the series has come out, and I and millions of others have read it. This won’t be a formal review—there’s nothing particularly greater or worse about this book when it comes to the points I addressed in the previous books. Also, the story follows a similar path. This then, that follows, is a rant/rave stream-of-consciousness style review. And I’ll be spoiling everything so, you have been warned!

SPOILERS!

+ Bella and Edward are married in the first few pages, finally ending that area of tension.
- She shortly becomes pregnant with that awful cliche of science fiction and fantasy, the superbaby who grows supernaturally fast so that the author doesn’t have to deal with a real nine-month pregnancy.
+ A good portion of the book is from Jacob’s point of view, which is much less irritating than Bella’s.
- Bella’s the center of attention anyway.
- Her pregnancy is creepy and gruesome, out of tone for this (mostly neat and tidy) series, even with the vampires.
- Bella’s just as ga-ga about demon spawn baby as she was about Edward, beyond just plain blindness and into madness (though this isn’t out of character, really).
+ Rosalie and Bella bond.
+ Bella is finally vampirized, thus ending the other area of tension.
- Demon spawn baby is born, only to have everyone suddenly fall in love with her (and she gets an awful name!)...is this the same baby that broke Bella’s pelvis with a kick and needs to drink human blood?
- Bella is just as perfect and sickening as a vampire then as she was as a human, and has super special self-control so she doesn’t even need to try to not eat humans. Blegh.
+ Jacob imprints and is happy!
- Unfortunately, it isn’t on some nice girl who deserves him, but on Bella and Edward’s demon spawn Renesme. Argh...
- Bella has even more superpowers that make her the most important vampire ever. Sigh...
+ The ending of the book managed to be page-turning despite all the flaws, and the series is finally over. Finally.

Cure for Diabetes???

2008-08-04T19:18:00.001-07:00

http://tinyurl.com/5w8ra8

This is awesome! A possible cure for diabetes!

BTW, the HowToLearn folks have some great stuff on visual therapy, reading and other learning issues.

Donna

Large Hadron Rap

2008-08-04T11:05:00.000-07:00

I love science, and I don't love rap, but when the two become one?

I love it!

Two Things Meme (Clankeeper)

2008-08-02T15:27:00.000-07:00

Two names I go by:

1. Clankeeper
2. Dude

Two things I’m wearing right now:

1. A red t-shirt
2. Jeans

Two of my favorite things today:

1. Not having to go to work (Saturday!)
2. Putting together the bulletin for our church

Two things I want at the moment:

1. A new computer
2. A faster internet connection

Two favorite pets I have had:

1. Snowball (dog)
2. Mabel (cat)

Two people I hope will fill this out:

1. Purring Piggy
2. Aragorn

Two things I did last night:

1. Got caught up with the blogs I follow
2. Surfed YouTube for old and/or annoying music videos with PurringPiggy

Two things I ate last night:

1. Pizza
2. Smokehouse almonds

Two people I last talked to:

1. MerryK (about backing up her computer)
2. PurringPiggy (about whether to reply to an email message)

Two things I will do tomorrow:

1. Go to church
2. Do bills

Farthest trips I have taken in the last 5 years:

1. St. Louis (multiple times in the last two years for work)
2. Yellowstone

Two favorite holidays:

1. Thanksgiving
2. Independence Day

Two favorite beverages:

1. Dr. Pepper
2. ZipFizz

Two Things Meme

2008-08-02T11:01:00.000-07:00

Two names I go by:

1. Merry
2. My real name

Two things I’m wearing right now:

1. A mexican style t-shirt
2. Long denim skirt

Two of my favorite things today:

1. Apologetix
2. Breaking Dawn

Two things I want at the moment:

1. More time
2. Less things on my to-do list

Two favorite pets I have had:

1. Constance, my first guinea pig
2. Abby, my third

Two people I hope will fill this out:

1. Purring Piggy
2. Clankeeper

Two things I did last night:

1. Finished writing a story
2. Watched the latest episode of Stargate Atlantis

Two things I ate last night:

1. Alfredo pizza
2. Cherry-berry Koolaid

Two people I last talked to:

1. Aragorn, about something insignificant enough to forget quickly
2. The Queen, in answer to her question about some character in something
(I don't talk much... ;)

Two things I will do tomorrow:

1. Write!
2. Go to church

Farthest trips I have taken in the last 5 years:

1. We all went to Yellowstone
2. And we went camping on the Olympic Coast

Two favorite holidays:

1. None
2. None - I don't like holidays

Two favorite beverages:

1. Ice water
2. Chai tea