church #3

as i was googling churches i found one that sounded familiar. couldn't remember where i'd heard about it, but i was thinking i had heard good things about it. i was going to go last week, but missed it because i was running late, so i decided i'd try it this week. late last night i was checking the website for place and time, my mom came home from wherever she was. 'mom, what do we know about this church?' 'i don't know.' 'cuz i think i've heard good things about it.' 'i don't know. where is it?' i told her. 'would cousin johan's bff and cousin johan know about it?' 'i don't know.' and so i went today not knowing anything about it.
yeah, it's cousin johan's bff and cousin johan's church. :)

maintenance

just like i'm concerned that my back is going to get out of whack because insurance won't pay for chiropractic maintenance which means it will get really bad before i go again and then i'll need more appointments anyway, i'm noticing that skipping small group because i think i'm fine and don't need my twelve-step isn't the best idea. yes, i'm fine for now, but i've skipped group for a month, and someone told me the other day that i sound unhappy (even though things are really good and i'm not unhappy, i apparently am sounding that way). i'm winning my battles in other areas, but i'm noticing that there are more of them and the assaults are stronger. yes, i'm fine for now, but do i really want to let it get to the point where i'm not? i know i won't deal with depression again, but do i want to let it perhaps get to the point where i doubt that? do i want to give in in other areas? i need to go to group this week. some maintenance needs to start happening again.

my poor left side

i managed to slip in the tub and bam my upper thigh on the thing where the soap is. kind of feels reminiscent of when i fell off the counter at work a few years ago and couldn't sit for three weeks. hopefully this will not be as evil as that one was as my insurance no longer covers my chiropractorness and last time my failure to be able to sit on the left side got my lower back out of whack. good grief.

honest to goodness thought whilst reading 'rotk'

good thing it was merry who ended up with the riders of rohan. he was the one interested in languages, so he noticed the similarities between the speech of the shire and the speech of rohan and was able to write that book about how the two languages were related. pippin's heart wouldn't have swelled the way merry's did when he heard their words, and that all would have been lost.

um...yeah. kind of forgot it was fiction.

go me :)

apparently my comment on a youtube clip of javert's song from the end of 'les mis' helped a girl with the wording in her paper on 'les mis' and the sacrament of baptism. :D

church hunting week #2

this one was nice, too, though, again, lacking in young people. i have a feeling this will continue to be a problem as i look at smaller, quieter, city-er (as opposed to suburban) churches. they do have two services, though, and i went to the traditional one, so perhaps they do have younger people at the contemporary one. the two services thing doesn't bother me so much here, as the sanctuary is small, so room-wise it might warrant two. i'm thinking i might try the other service sometime, though i currently have two other churches to try (one of which i was actually going to go to today but was running late, so i ended up at this one cuz it started a half hour later).  we shall see.

why voicing is important

as my co-worker and i headed to the bank today, she said quietly and disappointedly, 'i didn't crap my pants.' either that or, 'i didn't grab my pen.' something like that.

here we go

first official day of church-hunting tomorrow.

"Good and evil both increase at compound interest. That is why the little decisions you and I make every day are of such infinite importance." - C.S. Lewis

i found a new somebody to follow on twitter

for someone who still can't bear to get rid of the pictures she tore out of national geographics in high school, @peopleofearth is so wonderful:

Couple in Russia who have been married 65 years

Little dude taking his drumming quite seriously

 

 Woman in Nepal

 Soldier attempting to cheat off little girl

 Baby in Afghanistan on his way to get vaccines

 And this one that breaks my heart:

North Korean waves at his South Korean brother after inter-Korean temporary family reunions in 2010

people are beautiful 

Happy Birthday, Did!

dear all people who i tell i want to find someone to set me up with (and those i don't ask but find someone anyway - all 2 or 3 of them),

please understand, that while i'm a geek, that doesn't necessarily mean i want a geek. especially because the geeks that get found are generally considerably geekier than i am. do i want someone intelligent? yes. do i want someone with Biblical knowledge and wisdom? yes. do i want someone who likes 'lotr'? it would be nice, but i honestly don't care. i'm used to being on my own in the 'lotr' world. would i like someone who reads? yes. but if i had to choose one or the other, i'd choose a guy who likes sports. while my sister may have said she didn't want to be a sports widow because she was a sports orphan, which i understand, sports are the way i know how to relate to guys, which is also understandable. no, i don't want a dumb jock. but plenty of guys are intelligent, don't read, and like sports. let's broaden our spectrum of prospects and start looking there for me. k?

my friend and i were caught in a stand-off tonight

she walked me to my car, so i waited for her to safely get back into the house, while she waited on the step for me to pull away to see that my car and i were safely on our way

this makes me sad

someone just posted this on fb:
http://www.beliefnet.com/Love-Family/Relationships/10-Things-to-do-Before-You-Have-Kids.aspx?utm_source=JesusChristPageDesktopBeforeKidsPromoJune&utm_medium=paid_distribution&utm_campaign=GlobalScope

now, on a secular website, sure, there are some fun ideas, and no, i don't believe that Christians can't write articles about ways to have fun. but if you're talking to Christian newlyweds and telling them things they should do before they have kids, why is there nothing in this list about establishing a devotional time together? why is there nothing about praying together? why is there nothing about finding a time and place to serve others? in addition to the fun things the list has 'save money' and 'find your dream job.' and yet there was no room on this list for things of the Kingdom. instead, you should 'spend a good chunk of change on yourself.' it makes me sad.

Movie Review: "The Artist"

When this won the Oscar a few years ago, I remember being curious as to the fact that it's a silent movie. A silent movie? When was the last time one of those was made? I've never seen one. And now it's been sitting on the shelf at the library for quite some time, and my thought has been, a silent movie? Why would I want to watch one of those? Especially when I wouldn't be getting credit for watching some old old Hollywood?
But I finally gave in.

It was good. The plot was basic, nothing special - sound comes to movies, silent movie star's career is thus over, up-and-coming starlet gets in at just the right time. I'm guessing it won for Best Picture mostly because it was something different and because Hollywood likes to pay tribute to itself. The Oscars it won for Best Score and Best Costume Design were earned, though. The score was very silent movie-y and of course who wouldn't have fun doing costumes for the 20's/30's. The costume designer said, too, that it was an extra (but fun) challenge because he had no idea how to do costumes for black and white. They were beautiful, though.
One problem I had with the movie was that sometimes it felt 20's/30's-y and sometimes it did not. It felt a bit incongruent. Part of that could be that Jean Dujardin was so perfect (Oscar), whereas Bérénice Bejo was not (no Oscar). There were certain shots where maybe she could be from the 20's, but mostly she looked like a modern actress in 20's clothing. Dujardin on the other hand looked the part (the costume designer said he had fun doing his costumes because he wore the period clothing so well), eyebrowed the part (this is a silent movie after all - eyebrow movements are important), and acted it in such a way that he felt right for the time period. I think this contrast between the two leads is a big part of why I say it's a good movie, not a really good movie.
As for the silence, it was fine. It makes you realize again how much of communication is non-verbal. It was interesting. Though I must admit, I did take a short break about 2/3 of the way through, as that much silence was getting to me a bit, mostly just because it's not what we're used to.

Oh, and of course one more thing to mention. I was watching it thinking, "Good grief, it's amazing how much Jean Dujardin looks like an old-time actor. And somehow, even though he's not Clark Gable, there's just something about him. Maybe it's because that's just such a romantic time-period for movies. He's not necessarily woo-woo, but I can totally understand those 20's girls swooning over him. There's just something about him."
Um...yeah. 38.