School has been keeping me from blogging, but thought that I'd pop in just to say how much I want the T-shirt that says this:
"There are only 10 types of people in the world: those who understand binary, and those who don't."
I love it, love it, love it.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w_oc1j5NakY
You MUST go hear this! This woman took everything a mom says in a day and condensed it into 3 minutes and sings it to the William Tell Overture! This is SO funny!!!!
While finishing up the dishes in the kitchen, I was surprised by a sudden noise behind me.
Aragorn: (hissing Gollum-like) I found it, I did...the way through the Marshes. (normal voice) Actually, I just found a weird beeping in my room. *holds up carbon monoxide detector* Identified it. *long pause* I have no idea why I just said that.
And with that thought (which was mutual, I assure you), he then left.
Purring Piggy saying matter of factly to The Queen: "Well, just be boneless out of Daddy's way."
(loud splash of water in kitchen)
Purring Piggy: What happened?
Martin the Warrior: (flustered) I was trying to empty the giant cauldron thingy!
Emma Darcy: (who just turned four) Dear God, thank you for this food, and please help Aragorn to share his mangoes, in Jesus' name, amen.
(the end of a longer conversation that started out perfectly seriously)
Purring Piggy: ...that means Martin the Warrior can see people who aren't there.
The Queen: Yeah. He's magic.
Purring Piggy: What? When did this happen? Why didn't you tell me? I could make lots of money with a boy with those powers.
The Queen: (duh) That's why we didn't tell you.
While on the camping trip, I finally got down to reading the last Harry Potter book. I was not a fan of these books in particular, but neither had I been downright against them, and decided to give the series a fair shot by reading them all through in order before starting the last book. Since I was late to this book, I came across many reviews of it first, and often was surprised by them. The general view among Christian reviewers seemed to be that Book 7 made it clear that this series was good literature, and that there was little doubt that JK Rowling had written wholesome and Christian books.
I won’t say anything on the plot of the book itself, because I’m sure most of the people who will read it have already read it, but these comments almost disturbed me. To be sure, there are many wholesome points in the last Harry Potter book, but those were there in the other books as well, and wholesome points alone do not good literature make. One common point was that because JK Rowling had placed a Christ figure and scriptural references pretty explicitly, those who still considered her books un-Christian would have to make silly points to still oppose them. But I do not believe that you can say that simply because a book has a Christ figure, or even that an author professes to be a Christian, automatically makes the books have a Christian worldview.
In fact, even if the last book had a Christian worldview, which I do not hold, I fail to see how that would make up for the previous six books, which so many agreed did not have a good worldview. As much as JK Rowling may think of herself as a Christian, her books do not hold up in honor what is good and right and true. Yes, Harry may sometimes be selfless and put himself in danger to save the lives of people, but that does not outweigh the fact that he curses and is cruel to those who he dislikes.
We are invited to applaud Harry when he curses the nasty characters, because they “deserved” it, and yet we are also invited to be upset when those same characters give Harry back the same treatment. Now, as the main characters are children, it would be unreasonable to expect mature behavior from them at all times, and yet the teachers and authority figures (many of whom we are called to admire and look up to) hardly chastise Harry for this. And then there is, of course, Harry’s frequent rule-breaking, which scarcely goes punished or even treated as something undesirable. When Hermione, once a character who sought always to follow the rules, joins Harry and Ron in their disobedience, the tone is one of relief, as if she was wrong to do otherwise.
When it comes down to it, Harry is only noble when it comes to earthshaking events, when the world is at stake and he is facing the ultimate evil. And here, it is true, he performs bravely and selflessly, and gives a good example. But in most other circumstances, he is self-centered and a hearty adopter of the philosophy that says “the ends justify the means”. Indeed, even in the last book, when Harry is at his most mature and most admirable state, that philosophy still lurks in the corner.
JK Rowling tries to portray good and evil as distinct, as black and white, but her good characters do most of the same things that her evil characters do, even use Dark Magic, and only the intentions are different (and occasionally not even those). Despite the presence of many good messages, the Harry Potter series ending does not make all criticism of the series “slander” or “outrageous”, as has been said by some.
Did I enjoy the last book? I did, as I enjoyed books 5 and 6, as her writing and stories definitely matured. There is in the final few chapters of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows an incredibly powerful story, and had it been part of something more wholesome it would have been an asset to literature. But as the situation stands, I must still hold that the books are not the safest fare, and should be read by a mind already founded in truth.
This last week we went camping with some friends and had a wonderful time. I thought I'd share some lessons I learned this trip.
If you pass a medium sized grocery store about an hour from your campground, don't assume there will be a bigger one later on.
Check the web to see where the nearest KFC (or any fast food chain) is relative to your chosen campground since small local drive-in restaurants can charge as much as they like to tourists who didn't know the nearest fast food place is an hour away.
Small communities who test their alarm system once a day at noon may also sound that alarm for a minute or two to call ambulances in case of emergencies. It doesn't mean the dam broke and you are about to be swept away in a flood. That sound is an on and off siren, not one long blast.
Bring your own hand soap dispenser for the bathroom at the campground, since they don't always have soap.
If someone steals your soap dispenser, leave a polite post-it asking for it back. (It worked)
A whole box of matches does not explode if you throw it in the campfire. (Actually, I already knew that but it was fun watching the children learn this!)
Teens will have a lot more fun playing when the dad takes them upstream away from the overprotective moms who envision their death by drowning at every turn.
Don't give your only house key to your neighbor so she can take care of your pets. Or if you do, make arrangements to get it back so you don't have to sit in your driveway with no way to get into your own house.
Leave yourself a note to turn the water heater back on when you get home. BTW, 4 people can shower on a week-old water heater full of warm water.
Leave a note to turn the washing machine hoses back on, too. We assumed our washer was on the fritz again giving us the same computer code it gave several months back when we had the repair man here 3 times.
Thank God over and over again for your wonderful friends who are willing to go camping with you when your husband is out of town!
I have a love/hate relationship with adaptations of any sort, because while I can detach and ignore inacuracies most of the time, it is difficult to do in most cases, and not something I enjoy. Thankfully for this movie, the story was so far from truth that it was not at all difficult to appreciate it as itself and not a portrayal of Jane Austen's life.
First of all, I was disappointed by the objectionable content of this movie...there were several unnecessary parts, and I was surprised that it only got a PG rating. That being said, however, I did find this an enjoyable and interesting movie.
Unlike many period movies it does not have any overlong dull shots, while also not being too quickly paced or with many quick cuts. The music was good, nice and pretty when it needed to be, and it never was overwhelming. The dancing and other period elements were kept where they belonged, in the background, letting the characters and story take over. I went to see the movie with several friends who had taken English Country Dancing with me, and we recognized two of the dances they performed and had to resist the urge to stand up and dance along. The tone of the movie was well-handled, with neither drama nor humor taking over, and quite a few good scenes and lines. The acting also was good, with the only weak link being (unsurpisingly) Anne Hathaway. An interesting note: she was her best when most Austen-like, and her worst in the scenes that I could not see Austen ending up in. James McAvoy was very good at his role and you could see why Jane liked him, but he and Jane had little chemistry in my opinion...they did not fit as a couple.
Storywise, much of the movie felt like a ripoff of Pride and Prejudice, but there were many unique bits as well. From what I have read, I think they did justice to Tom Lefroy, and I could see Jane liking him even as he is a rake. You can see the bitterness that she feels when she realizes that their relationship cannot succeed, and how she looks to the steady true man in her life with appreciation after her relationship with Tom Lefroy, and so the movie seems to make a case that it was her own unhappy experience with that sort of man that made her write all her heroes the quiet good sort of men, with all the villains the entertaining rakes (except for Henry Tilney, who was written earliest).
Due to content issues, and the liberties taken with Austen's life, I'd not recommend this to be seen in theatres, however, it was not the horrible thing that Austen fans expected either. In the end, though, driving to the theatre with several good friends and lip-syncing and acting ridiculously along to the Phantom of the Opera soundtrack was the best part of the experience.
If you were wondering about the absence of posts last week (or perhaps you weren't because I haven't always been consistent), we were on another week-long camping trip. Just before and just after the trip, though, some very bloggable things happened, so I'll most likely be able to make up for that absence soon.
It was early one morning, and I had just reminded Purring Piggy that I had a fasting blood draw that morning, when The Queen came over and started asking questions. "They're taking your blood? Why? Does it hurt?...." After a while, I thought I had satisfied her curiosity, and though to her the situation appeared grave and even disgusting, she left. A couple minutes later, though, she came back with her huge eyes wide, and asked solemnly: "Will they take all your blood?" And at that, Purring Piggy and I could not help but burst into laughter.
The TV show Firefly is unique: whatever you can say about it, and why it was canceled halfway through its first season, you certainly cannot deny that fact. Unlike other science fiction shows, Firefly has no aliens, no worm holes, no black holes, no time travel, and no light speed travel. In fact, despite the oddness of the match, Firefly is a marriage of two genres: science fiction and western. From the twangy guitar theme song to the vast plains of certain planets, to the horses and guns that still exist 500 years in the future, the western influence is not something easily missed. And yet, it is well integrated, with the plot line being that when humans “outgrew” Earth, they formed other planets, but did not provide the settlers with much more than the bare necessities to start life with, giving the “Core” planets a more futuristic and modern look, while leaving the “Outer Rim” planets with a more historical Western feel.
Another area where Firefly is different from other shows is its focus. Though the plot seems fairly simple and action-centered, a crew of mercenaries dealing with various jobs that always seem to go wrong in some way, action is not the point of each episode. Instead, the focus of Firefly is love. The love of spouses towards each other, the love of a captain for his crew, the love of a crew for their ship, the love of siblings for each other, and even the love of one man for his collection of guns. Character and relationships are key, and though each of the various elements may or may not be unique by itself, when put together they make Firefly very special indeed.
The first of these elements is one of the main characters, a man of God, a “Shepherd”. Religious characters are not new to media, of course, but rarely are they so palatable to a Christian as is Shepherd Book. Here is a man who is a strong believer in the Lord and his Word, who is always the voice of peace-making and love, and yet who is neither weak nor with religious doubts. He can fight when lives must be saved, but does not wish for the death of any, even those who seek to kill him. Not only this, but his character is treated with respect by the others, even though none of them seem to be anything but atheists (and one is bitterly against religion), and he is beloved by all. Perhaps he does not bring a true influence of religion to the whole show, but for a piece of modern media, made by non-believers, the positive portrayal of Shepherd Book is a deep breath of fresh air.
Another element rarely seen, a healthy happy marriage that stays together through the whole show. As is shown many times throughout the show, Wash and Zoe are bound to each other by more than affection, though that isn’t lacking, but a commitment to each other that is able to stand all disagreements and spats. There is no talk of divorce between them; this marriage is firm and solid, something that would be nice to see more often.
And lastly of the elements that I will mention, one of the main focuses of Firefly is on the loving relationship between a brother and sister. Loving siblings have been portrayed in books and movies before, though certainly less than siblings who irritate each other, several examples being Sense and Sensibility, Little Women, and, more recently, The Series of Unfortunate Events. However, these stories almost always focus on the effects of outside events on the relationships, not on the relationships themselves alone. In Firefly, however, we are given a rare treat.
Simon and River Tam have always been close to each other, as is shown in flashbacks, but the test of their relationship comes when River begins sending her brother coded letters from the special government school where she is at, letters that say “they are hurting me". On his way to the medical elite, Simon drops everything and spends years and his entire fortune to rescue his sister, to find only after he has done so that scientists have been playing with her unique brain for reasons unknown to him. Apparently their reasons were important, though, because now both brother and sister are on the “most wanted” list, and Simon must take River, who is left with extensive mental damage from their experiments, with him on the run. And so we meet them in Firefly: River, a genius who is mentally ill, and her brother Simon who, it seems, will do anything to keep her safe from those who tortured her. Throughout the series Simon shows an incredible selflessness in his relationship with his sister, who is left so unstable that she needs constant attention and care, and though things are hardly perfect for them, their relationship (to someone who has a deep bond with her siblings) feels more "normal" than the easier but more dysfunctional relationships usually shown among siblings. This is love as the gospels show it, the truest form that moves a person to give up all selfish desires, all personal goals, simply to serve and even lay down a life for another. We see this love sometimes between friends or lovers, but Firefly shows us that media has forgotten that siblings can show it as well. And for those who don’t fall into the sibling rivalry that is portrayed as normal, Simon and River Tam will warm your heart and maybe move you to tears.
Moving from the more meaningful to the merely entertaining elements, there is more to Firefly than the characters. The show abounds in witty writing—even the most dramatic episodes have more than a few quotable lines, and a listing of all our favorites would take several pages, and many of them would not be half as good out of context or I would offer some choice gems here. Another interesting aspect, though small, is the fact that Firefly seems to be the only science fiction show or movie that recognizes that there is no sound in space.
But as much as there are positive elements to this show (and its sequel movie, Serenity), it is unfortunately the product of popular culture, and is not without unnecessary parts. There is a great deal of bad language (though thankfully due to the show’s nature much of it is in untranslated Chinese) and fairly often innuendos or uncomfortable scenes of a steamy or violent nature, though nothing that is very difficult to edit. On the broader scheme, there is an element of law-breaking on a similar scale to the piracy in the Pirates of the Caribbean movies. For our family, though, the editing was a price we were willing to pay, and we very much enjoyed this series, and are quite astounded that it was canceled.
I'd post about the fact that I am legally able to vote today, but I do not really know what there is to say about it, so instead I'll post this completely non-relevant thing. I've never read the source of it, but was intensely tickled:
"Sir, I would like to gingerly point out that it's hard for someone to be gently reassuring when they're holding three and a half feet of sharpened steel." -Queen of Wands webcomic
Though I am a writer, I spend most of my time in the fan-fiction community, writing continuations, prequels, gapfillers, etceteras, to works that I enjoy. Though in a way this is taking an easy way out, using a prepackaged world and characters, it is also more difficult as you are directly following in the footsteps of a "great" author. Yes, all original writers are following some genius in whatever genre they choose, but the connection is more vague and the pressure to equal greatness less prevalent. However, when writing a sequel to Pride and Prejudice, though Jane Austen may have given you the characters, you have to work hard to keep them within her world and vision to some extent so that your readers do not feel cheated and protest. Keeping characters "in character", following "canon", and catching a certain "tone" are of grave importance to most fan-fiction writers. Because there is that burden, then, fan-fiction communities overflow in advice and tutorials for writers. There are essays ad infinitum ad nauseam on how to keep your characters from becoming too perfect, how to avoid deus ex machina, and other such helpful advice. Any mistake that any writer could ever make will be warned against there.
However, after spending a good deal of time almost solely in that community, reading, writing, and editing fan-fiction, I started reading published original fiction again. And then I noticed something ironic: some amateur fan-fiction writers seemed to care more about writing well in their non-profit stories than published authors did in theirs. One writing aspect that is very often commented upon in fan-fiction is the art of showing, not telling, and it is a mistake that will be very quickly caught by good reviewers and editors (yes, they even exist for fan-fiction). And yet, I read two different best-selling published works where almost all character information was told to you by the narrator. In fact, in the case of one book, some of the fan-fiction based upon it was better at showing than the original work.
Though this situation at first seems counter-intuitive, it is not impossible to make sense out of it. What it comes down to, I suppose, is who is reading. Someone who reads fan-fiction reads it because they want to know more. They finished the book (or movie) and their imagination saw possibilities and options beyond the end, and they wanted to explore them, whether through their own writing or some other author's. Often, they will have their own ideas of what happened before or after, and most who read fan-fiction will eventually write it as well. How is this different from most people who read original fiction? Though I hesitate to make generalities, I think fan-fiction draws writers almost exclusively, because writers must first and foremost have very active imaginations, and that is what makes fan-fiction what it is.
However, there are plenty of people, the majority I would say, who read original fiction only to be entertained or instructed, and either like what an author said or do not but take their involvement no further. They may or may not understand why they like a story, because much of understanding how fiction works comes through seeing how it is created. The author of original fiction has more control, then, knowing that much of the audience will not know where to look for the wires, and knowing that if the writing is good enough the wires will not be obvious. But when a writer reads something, he or she knows all about wires, because he or she has laid them, and knows more readily when they are poorly or masterfully hidden. With that in mind, it makes sense that an audience composed mostly of writers (like the fan-fiction community) would be more critical, because they are more aware of the process involved. Likewise, an author writing for that audience must be more careful if he or she wishes to please that audience, because the readers are not there simply for entertainment, to soak up what an author has to say, but instead want something very specific: writing that adds favorably (in their often exact specifications) to a work they enjoyed.
Though of course this observation is full of generalities—writers can be poor at judging writing, likewise non-writers can be excellent, and not all fan-fiction communities strive for excellence—it is not without intrigue, to me at least, especially when paired with the fact that writing fan-fiction is most often looked down upon as immature and easy. I won't discuss the former point, but the latter—well, those of us who have done it are disinclined to share that opinion.
I am in a state of shock...how did I get so high? I'm guessing it was because I stuck through to the end, and that our house has over 3 computers, because I was certainly guessing on a good deal of the questions. Still, I do wish I was computer savvy enough to warrant the term "computer geek", so the score is quite accurate.
Please excuse me
For this blog post
I wanted to write something serious
Speculative and introspective
Something intelligent, so to say
But then our neighbor
Described our family
As quiet
And now you must excuse me
As I roll around the floor
Laughing my head off
(Please excuse the half poetic tone as well)
The Sacred Rules of Quoting Movies:
I. Thou shalt not quote from a movie thou hast not seen.
II. Thou shalt not quote the same quote that thy brother or sister has just used.
III. Thou shalt not quote to the extent that thy other brothers and sisters feel nauseated.
We're back, safely returned from our first camping trip without Clankeeper. For this trip we went back to a site we had visited before, a place so wooded that you could wander around through brush for hours without seeing a campsite, yet the campsites themselves were close enough that we could all cook and eat and worship together. Unlike most people, our family camps, not to see sites, nor to hike, nor to tour, but to—well, camp. As city folks who love nature, we find it vacation enough to be away from the airport noise, and as we almost always go with our church family to some place where the boys can run through the woods playing army, who needs site-seeing to enjoy camping? Though I enjoyed myself, I was glad of course to be back home, but not entirely. Being away from the hustle and bustle of life, even the mostly home-bound life we live, was a large part of the joy of camping. It seems a shame still to me that we cannot always live like that, filling our days with simple pleasures instead of running around frantically.
