Upgrade Update I almost forgot the update on the changes going on around here. I'm playing with a little code now that'll convert all my posts from 43 Things (and 43 Places, whenever I join there) into a different format, similar to the comments boxes. Those are the second change. It's just a little bit of javascript so you don't have to wait on all the big blogger graphics to load. Of course, I think you still go through the blogger site if you want to make a comment, but if you're just skulking around then it makes it easier to read. Lastly, I joined Flickr and will be uploading pictures there this weekend or early next week. That'll add another box to float around somewhere, but you'll have easy access to all my pictures.
I may shrink the header graphics too, I haven't decided yet.
Other suggestions are always welcome!  ¶   2 comments

  Looking toward the fall semester For no apparent reason I've had a 3 week old conversation running through my head all day today. Tara (her blog's over there on the sidebar) mentioned how after Star Wars: Episode III she went back to watch 4-6. Vader's walk seemed more arrogant, his motions more tense, and his character more human. Opening weekend I was in Murray (and no, I did not see it opening night, breaking my streak after 1-2) and several friends were also huddled around their TV, rewatching all 3 of the "later" movies. I haven't seen them since I saw Episode III, but I'm hoping to get to, just to see if this trick-of-the-mind affects me.

So I'm going to the last Summer O this weekend. I've enjoyed them, as I've probably made rather apparent here. We have a lot of promise for this fall, and I'll be happy if even the smallest bits of it come to fruitation.
I have a lot to do this fall, too. I have to watch my pride. I tend to live by the motto "If you want it done right, do it yourself," and I know I'm not the best person for many of the jobs that need done. The RCA sxec's good, though, and there's quite a few members with long-time experience in there with me. As long as I trust them, I should be fine.
Or at least not mess things up too badly.
I hope this fall with give me oppurtunity to keep working on my story as well. There's a lot I still want to do with it, I just have to be sure to devote time to it.
Time.
bah. There's never enough of it, is there?
Well, at least I know I'm squeezing out every minute of it I'm getting.  ¶   0 comments

  Emailing Blogger now... may not be a good habit to start... I wrote these yesterday and emailed them to blogger, but they bounced back with the same title I'm using for this post (wasn't that cute of blogger?). So here they are.

German Studies Rant
I finally thought to try out this feature. I'm fairly busy at work,
but it just thrills me to think that I can drop a quick email then go
on with my day. And reading my email was what prompted this anyway.
This years German students won't have a workbook or a listening CD to
go through. Now, while I loathed listening to the mish-mash of
accents and poorly scripted dialogue, I can't argue against that
loathesome set of voices. It certainly helped me once I was over
there trying to figure out what equally confusing people were saying
to my face. Now this years students won't have that.
Also, the workbook's been moved to an online .pdf. Ok, we're saving
trees, great. We're also going to be cheating like mad. At least
when it was handwritten you had to copy the answers and might absorb
some of it. Cut, paste, and forget will be the way of it now.
I sound 50, don't I?
It just annoys me to see people who don't really want to learn a
language so much as they want to earn an easy "A." I hate seeing
people take most any class for that reason, even though I've done it
myself (GUI credits...heh.). It's that dusty academic trying to grow
inside of me. I want to honestly learn whatever I'm going to devote
3-6 hours a week to. And I'm sure some German students are going in
with that in mind, but it seems like it makes it easier for those that
aren't and more difficult for those that are.
Then again, it is just a CD and a workbook.
The ones that want to learn, will.

Race
apparently the email-to-blogger feature is even slower than I thought.
I'm going to timestamp this one for my own curiousity. I sent it to
blogger at 10:54 CST.
Race, my little emails, Race!

Well... that was worthwhile, wasn't it? I'll make a new post for today's babbling.  ¶   0 comments

  Rap for English Geeks I listen to NPR at work. I sit here with my little headphones on ignoring the more annoying sounds of the office. After going to get a document from the printer I sat back down to hear rather poorly written rap describing a disturbing scene between a man and his new wife. NPR just ran a story on Baba Brinkman'sCanterbury Tales rap. That's right. The Canterbury tales as Eminem might have spouted them.
I am so disturbed right now.  ¶   0 comments

  Flickr This is a test post from , a fancy photo sharing thing.  ¶   0 comments

  This is just a really cute cat story. It was apready posted on Nashville is talking, but I thought I'd share here too.  ¶   0 comments

  43 things floating over Ok, things off my 43 things site are officially floating over now (refer to the previous 2 posts), but they're not marked in any way! I'm going to see if I can bring them over into a sidebar RSS feed instead, or just mark them with a graphic as they come in. I can associate a graphic with each goal, but if I make all my graphics a "43 Things" link than ya'll know and they get free advertising. I'll play with that later.  ¶   0 comments

  Half-Blood Prince   ¶   1 comments

  Balancing Pros and Cons Things are getting strange, again.
One of the reasons I haven't been interested in Vanderbilt for Graduate School is because of the staggeringly painful lack of Creative Writing classes and, in my opinion, outdated approach to English in general. Enter Nancy Reisman, new author-in-residence for Vanderbilt's equally new MFA in creative writing.
Well, there went 2 more reasons.
Of course, their tuition is still $38,000 per year. And they're still in Nashville, somewhere Tiff definitely doesn't want to do her MA (not many dolphins around for her to study). And they still don't have a true Tech Writing MA. And I still have a little leftover distaste for the typical Vandy student. No, Vandy's cons still outweigh the pro's, but they're balancing it out enough for me to take a second look. Somehow they always manage to do that right when I'm ready to say "no way."
Sometimes I wish there weren't so many options. Then again, my job probably wouldn't exist if there weren't.
I need to swing by 43 things and update. They ought to show up on here now, the site admins were having some trouble with Blogger last week. Work's also catching up with me. It's hard to believe it's only 2 and a half weeks until I get back to Murray. There's a half dozen people I owe lunches (or at least evening coffee) before then. I hope I get to see them all. If half didn't hate the other half, it'd be easier. So it goes.  ¶   0 comments

  Happy Anniversary! Yesterday Tiff and I celebrated the 5 year mark that our relationship actually reached last week while we were sick. Dinner at Caesar's was great as always. We celebrated our first anniversary there, and just like then I brought her roses from Emma's. Tiff had the stuffed shells and I had Veal Parmiago (forgive my spelling). Our waitress was a ball of energy in black-rimmed librarian glasses. She kept the glasses full and conversation going, hopefully not to the point of getting on Tiff's nerves.
Tiff and I were total geeks. We spent most of the evening discussing why the "literary" world overlooks the merits of children's fiction. I held my ground, stating that the Newberry's and all the other gobs of awards granted every year to such authors was merit enough. Tiff wants more of a focus on them in College. She sees certain pieces as better developed than most of the books we rave over in lit. classes at Murray. With some of them (Beloved) she may have a point. I think she has in mind to discuss it with certain faculty in the fall. Considering we have a children's author or two in residence at Murray, not to mention a couple of others with a good appreciation, I don't think it'll be too difficult to get a special topics class together. Or at least give Tiff an independant study (which she, no doubt, won't be able to fit into her schedule).
Uncle Al told granddad once that my interpretation of the rules of the English language was somewhat liberal. I think there's a good bit of proof of that this morning.
After dinner we went to Baskin Robbins. It was quiet and empty until I was halfway through my honey-and-chocolate sunday, when a pack of Hillwood students flooded the building. I didn't shout at them to go to Green Hills and leave my tiny, quiet place alone, but my immediate glare made one of them jump. I'm turning into a kermudgin early. They weren't that bad once the girls got done sampling every ice cream flavor. Tiff and I were able to converse again once they retreated to the other corner of the small room.
So it was a good evening. It's been 5 great years, which is still so hard to believe. Of course, it's equally heard to look at my upcoming graduation and a future which becomes more concrete with every day.  ¶   0 comments

  Site update First off, here's a cool little bit off slashdot.com:
Nasa's posted eerie sounds from saturn recently recorded by cassini. They are apparently created by a phenomenon similar to Earth's Northern lights.

Now on to more personal ramblings.
It looks like all my typing may be paying off. My typing speed has gone from an average of 60wpm at the beginning of the summer to (roughly) 75wpm. Back in high school typing classes I got up to 100, but I'm beginning to think those may have been rigged. Maybe it was just easier words. The fastest I reached on a single test this summer was 88. I've been taking one about every week or two, though, just to see. I'm running out of original tests though.
I can't post a dynamic list of my 43 things, but I think I may just post a plain-text list on the sidebar. Whenever I comment on my goals it should post here, but that hasn't worked for me yet.
By the way, there might be a second sidebar or a hozional toolbar on the way. Haven't decided yet. It's starting to look crowded over there.--->
What does everyone (Tiff, my dog, my mom, whoever still reads this) think of the new layout? I'm still trying to make up my mind on it. I feel like I finally have space for some of the things I've wanted to share, but I'm also noticing that it's getting busier quickly. The Manga/comic look is fun, and I think I might play it up a little more, but the graphics can be cumbersome. I'd like to make my headers less tall, and I'm sure firefox users have noticed that my sidebar overlaps rather than playing nice. In my defense, blogger's base code did that.
There's currently 2 javascript functions on my site, niether of which are essential to viewing it. The first randomizes my header graphic because I like seeing something new occasionally. The second runs my chatterbox, which is just a chatterbox, you won't really miss anything by it not being there. So, for those of you with Javascript phobias, don't worry, you're not missing much.
Oh yeah, and Kakashi, the guy on the bottom of the sidebar, is a .bmp. I'll fix that tonight.
So, there's my self-induced website lesson for the week. Keep coming back, I'll probably keep playing with it over the next few days. Maybe my content will improve too.  ¶   1 comments

  Which Naruto Character am I? I took this Naruto quiz out of curiousity. #1 was...

You are Inuduka Kiba
Ya'll gather round, and listen up! You can't beat me! AHAHAHAH!
I got the super senses and my buddy Akamaru is my TOTALLY COOOOL DOG!
I CAN BEAT YOU IN ANYTHING!! .....stop calling me a loudmouth!! Woof!


Which NARUTO Character Are You?

This test created by Cadet

and #2...

You are Uzumaki Naruto
You're a funny kid who strives to be the best!..even though you're the worst.
Psh, like that ever got you down. Lets go spit on some important ancient statues,
AAHAHHAHAHAH! THAT'LL SHOW THEM! AAHAHHAHA--Oh! Iruka
Sensei coming! Run!


Which NARUTO Character Are You?

This test created by Cadet

and, I'm not telling you 3-5.
Because it was the female cast.
You'd think in a 20 question test they'd ask you that...

Past that it was Iruka, Rock Lee (?!), Kakashi, Gai, and Sasuke.

The guy I think I'm the most like isn't even on this quiz.
pffft.  ¶   0 comments

  Renovating, again My last attempt at customization fell apart on me, so I'm trying out a simpler one. All the art's from the Naruto manga, which you can read at NarutoChuusin.com or just about any other anime site.
Sorry to everyone whose links I'm supposed to be showing off. They'll be up soon. Also, I've added 43 Things and All Consuming accounts. My consumed media will be in the sidebar, hosted links are getting a header, a footer, or a left sidebar. Maybe a mouseover in the right sidebar. I don't really know yet. All the font's shrinking too, and a few more graphics are popping up.
Maybe I'll do something about my content next.

Enjoy!
-Chris  ¶   0 comments

  Extreme Geek. Poor Tiffany's dating a 60.94675% Geek.
I spent my lunch break on InnerGeek.us, which, yes, earned me extra points.  ¶   0 comments

  VBS recap Ladies and Gentlemen, Under the Bigtop VBS is finally over!
That's right, I have a life again. Well, at least as much of one as I had before.
VBS was great. Pictures should be up at Jamesave.org soon. I was told our average of 165 was a record, and I'm certain that the 50+ teens that crammed in every night was something we haven't seen at JA in a very long time. Playing Napoleon the clown has been great fun, but a break from him will be nice. Rumor is we'll return to the bigtop again next year, but of course that's not official yet. It'd be our first VBS sequel ever.
Here's some fun highlights:

The kids across the street from the church saw us all lined up for the car wash and yelled until we brought them candy and came to play with them in their cul-de-sac. I bloodied my elbow on the pavement when I learned I can't cartwheel.

Later in the week I also tore out the clown costume in embarrasing places. Luckily I was wearing pants underneath. I don't think anyone noticed, until now.

Our trapize artists were an old Alf puppet and a Trapize possum (your church is so southern when...)

On Monday I knocked over the trapize possum while riding on John's shoulders. He couldn't see for his wig and I couldn't talk to tell him, so I had to kick, wave, and bonk his head until he turned around and started heading back toward the possum, then had to right it before he carried me past it. Darlene yelling was the only reason I noticed it. The kids loved it. They had no idea...

All 4 puppet scripts were written in less than 4 hours.

All 3 puppets were older than their puppeteers.

The Devil puppet used to wear a black-floral-print cape. He "lost" it last year and nobody's searched very diligently for it.

The United Methodist Publishing House donated the 150 boxes that were used to create the Temple for Samson's skit, the wall for Balaam, and the Tomb for Christ (Thanks Jeff!).

The original Monday Puppet script called for the Devil puppet to lift his own set of miniature barbells. When I forgot to make them, we opted for the huge ones instead.

The altar for tuesday's skit was actually our second attempt. The first took place in my backyard with me running around in the background.

The Stone for Christ's tomb was roughly actual size, based on historical record / speculation.

That same stone is made of melted together pipes covered in sheets and paper. We're not sure what we're going to do with it now, but it won't disassemble! (Suggestions have included hamster wheel for exercise and alternative power or base for gigantic coffee table)

The tomb's side wall fell an hour before the skit.

The donkey costume for Wednesday was made by Shannon and featured slip-on-hooves and a paper-mache mouthpiece that looked just like the one from Shrek. Tonya's still being called "Donkey."

All our sets were made by two real engineers, Heather and Bryan.

Over 4 rolls of duct tape were completely used up this week.

The youth (Ohio and JA) hand-delivered flyers to every house from 64th (James) to 51st, Charlotte to Centennial.

I was been sick the whole week. I got strep on top of allergies, and really did lose my voice. Starting Wednesday I tried every trick in the book to get my voice back. It finally worked! I think drinking 20 ounces of pickle juice with a twist of lemon was what finally did the trick.

On Tuesday I had to re-write my memory verse sign on the spot.

On Wednesday I actually had a pre-made sock puppet. When I couldn't find it, I improvized by pulling off my shoe and making one on the spot.

India really was a clown before Anna was born.

Steven really owns his costume.

So does Eddie. He had to hunt the rare pink alligator of southern florida to make the shoes.

John rented his, and accidentally painted a black stripe across the back of it. Lots of prayer and scrubbing cleaned it off.

The purple silk and Silver silk ties Eddie wore? Both Mine. The blue bowtie and crumb-catcher were Tonya's.

Thursday Night Eddie the Ringmaster and I (Napoleon the Clown) had no idea what our lines were. We made up the entire ending, bit by bit, very loosely based on what we were supposed to say.

The Devil puppet made up most of his lines Thursday, too.

Thursday I wasn't supposed to throw confetti everywhere either, but I did, and it was worth having to stay late to vacuum it up.

The black spraypaint shrunk the styrofoam on the barbells by about an inch.

Marks created a "James Ave as the cast of the Simpsons" list at work. I can't tell you all of them, but I heard Larry was Flanders.

I made 3 kids cry, one of which overheard me jokingly telling India "Can't sleep, clown will eat me" (another Simpsons reference, d'oh).

Over the course of the week I spotted at least 7 members of the cast read Harry Potter book 6, despite the fact that there were only 2 copies at the church.

The clown routine tonight is actually a Barnum and Bailey routine India picked up from a retired clown.

This same VBS is being performed at Alum Creek Church of Christ in Ohio next week. David Estes will be playing the part of Napoleon the Clown.



So, while there were no grape incidents this year, VBS was definitely full of its usual fun follies. Never a dull moment under the JA bigtop, is there?  ¶   2 comments

  One for the rest of you Fair is fair.



Any conservative readers feel free to post your photoshop favs.  ¶   3 comments

  Political Target Practice for the Day I just felt like picking on someone, and Ruport Murdoch's as good a target as any. Here's a couple of my fav images:







Har.  ¶   0 comments

  Summer O 4 Allow a little self indulgence today. I have some relevant, literary posts to post later. Right now I'm catching up with my personal account.
The fourth Murray Summer Orientation is actually proving to be a relaxing moment in my otherwise hectic week. Sure, I had to stand in front of pushy parents wanting to know why their kid should be in SGA, but at least I had the answers. At work and VBS I feel like I don't even get the questions right.
The SGA office is home, no doubt about it. I'm kicked back in my corner, nice flat-screen monitor tilted so the sun from the gigantic windows doesn't glare off it too much. Jeannie's watching golf, apparently an important tourney's in Scotland today. I have violet-eyed Johhny Depp inviting me to come see Charlie and the chocolate factory from the nearby pile of magazine's. I read the article, it sounds better than the commercials made it look.
Vacation Bible School is chaotic, disorganized, and an all around headache that I don't think any of us would trade for the world. And while I'm not as starry-eyed about it as I may have been 8 years ago (oh how it hurt to discover that number!), I'm still finding more smiles than I've had in my all-too-grown-up job.
After all, I'm a clown.
Napoleon (so named specifically for me, I sometimes suspect) is a delight to play. I'm mute and expressive. Panomime's always been fun. In a noisy world sometimes it takes silence to get people's attention.
But Thursday night I have to panomime the death of Christ in a clown suit. If I don't get struck dead by lightning for that, then I'll call it a successful VBS!  ¶   0 comments

  Karate or sleep? Here's the question: Karate or no Karate?

Situation: I'm signed up for 16 hours / week of classes plus 12 hours/week doing SGA stuff (that's a very round-about estimate). Now the old rule of thumb is to budget the same amount of study time per day as you're in classes per day (about 4 hour studying every day, since I split mine evenly across the week). So my days end up looking something like this:

Morning stuff (whatever I put off the night before): 7-9AM
Class: 9 - 1
Lunch: 1 - 2
Study: 2 - 5
Nightly routine: 5 - ?? (meetings, homework, games, whatever else)
I generally only take 15 hours max because I'm notoriously focused on everything but schoolwork.
Karate isn't in that yet. It'd take up my Mornings (Monday/Wednesday/Friday 8-9:30, I think). It's only a 1 hour class, and I don't know how the grade is generated. It's taught by the l33t ninja Master Dinh. It's mostly free, I only pay the $30 course fee so I can get my bathrobe to fight in and dinky white belt to mark me as a wuss. Question is, can the boy who has done nothing but sit in front of a computer since May and gained 15 pounds doing it survive the course? I'm pounded with images of a friend of mine who took the course 2 years ago. He came to class every day dripping sweat. He was always full of energy, too.
My energy comes from a Starbucks doubleshot. Or two.
If any MSU students actually read this, have any of ya'll had Master Dinh's beginner's Karate? Is it worth it? I mean, really, how hard can beginner's Karate be, right? Or am I going to spend the first 2 months of school too sore to walk to my next class?

Just weighing on my mind. If I do go through with it, I'll let you know how bad it hurts. I'm rooming with a Taekwondo black belt who's been into Jujitsu lately, so I may just let him beat me into shape for free.

Ahh, college.  ¶   0 comments

  E-thuggin Lately I've just been sucked into the conservative vs liberal war going on across NashvilleisTalking.com. On MSUR I eventually just quit going to the politics forum because I spent so much time there that I never got around to anywhere else. That, and some of my views killed otherwise peaceful relations.
This is turning about the same. I'm trying to keep quiet (Don't feed the trolls), but sometimes it's difficult.
Still, it's interesting to see both sides go at it. I'll try and keep a safe distance.
VBS is still running my life. I put on the clown suit (yes...nose and paint and all) for the first time yesterday. It's amazing how much more kids like you once you act like an idiot. Still, I'm afraid I'm going to scar one for life ("can't sleep, clown will get me").
Maybe seeing IT at age 6 has something to do with that.
Not much else new. I'll try and create some quality posts this weekend. I'll be at Murray State's Summer O pitching the SGA, so I should have plenty of time between sessions to type a little bit.

By the way, Sarah Water's Affinity is a great read. I'll give you a full review when I finish.  ¶   0 comments

  Drainbread

[after dumping water on the idols, the prophets of Baal take all this years puppet skits and lay them neatly in a circle. A column of fire consumes it]
Eddie: I guess that's what happens when you hire the wrong writers.

Puppet scripts not going so well. seriously overdue. Just spent lunchbreak on them. Wonder if kids would notice 10 year old ones on rerun.  ¶   0 comments

  Work Nightmares I'm officially stressing too much.
I dreamt last night that I was at some kind of conference and my resume had slipped in amid the papers for the meeting. The clients were all getting a huge laugh over my lack of qualifications and the fact that a technical writer's resume had been laid out so badly.
My boss just patted me on the shoulder and fussed about how inappropriate they were behaving.
I think I'm going to quit the job / grad school search for a little while and focus on VBS. I'm used to the nightmares it gives me.
(Cheap plug again: James Avenue's VBS July 18-22, see JA's Website for more!)  ¶   0 comments

  Experiencing God One more from TiffSniff, then I swear I'm going back to work.

My faith seems to be based largely on experience. Not miracles per se, although I did see my sister survive her infancy and become the cute little pre-med she is today. But moments of absolute certainty that I was not alone, times when the joy or peace or comfort I felt had no explanation. I have been completely alone, and never felt so loved. I have been in the middle of a crowd of worshipping people and felt and seen nothing but Him. I can't tell you exactly why; if we could quantify our faith, and put it into exact terms, I think it would no longer be faith, just facts.

I just got done reading The Light of Other Days by Arthur C. Clarke and Stephen Baxter. In it, mankind uses wormholes to create a "Wormcam" that can see everything, everywhere. Soon they realize they can see any time as well, and pry back into all the mysteries of man. I can't destroy the entire book for you, but one quote that I'm going to have to paraphrase hit me so hard.
Toward the end of the book, after a series of attacks on religion unfortunately typical of Clarke's writing, one of the characters comes to the realization that "all of history is nothing but mankind's struggle against the crushing forces dealt to him not only by his peers, but by the very planet he calls home." The fragility of man's life, doubled by the pending doom of the earth, ultimately unites people. As they realize that there isn't enough time on this earth to quarrel, many of them band together.
Of course, this is an idealist's interpretation of a novel that actually turns out rather disutopian, but seeing the new generation that emerges at the end of the novel, a generation united in knowledge, mind, and spirit, makes me think of what could be possible now. Clarke and Baxter unite the human race through technology. Christians unite it through faith. Just imagine millions, even billions, of Christians praising God at the same time.
Tiff's experiences bring to mind several of my own. Winterfest, camp, retreats, all things now years past. But they're big events where everyone does nothing but focus on praise. Smaller moments of certainty come as well, moments when a light turns on and we realize God is still watching over us. All of us.
Like Liz's email.
Like hearing from a professor who had to lead a bunch of scared students from the airport without access to the metro they needed.
Like so many other instances in life. I could spend all day listing them.
Miracle is just a word. Experience is life. And experiencing God is truly living.
Woe to the man who doesn't think God's watching out for him. He might just prove himself right.
But praise God for his mercy, that often it's when we're not looking toward him that he pays the most attention to us.  ¶   0 comments

  Connecting dots I just discovered that Tiffany from "The World According to Tiff Sniff" is none other than Tara's big sister! I realize many people who keep up with that family better than me probably just said (or at least thought) "duh," but it was a startling connection for my mind. Mostly because of this post, describing how she was in London on Sept 11. Very moving post. It made me think back on watching the news all through my senior english class. I've never seen Mr. Atkins (a great guy with a love of Tolkien and enough Star Wars ties to never wear the same one twice a year) so quiet.
I think perpetually looking back on that day gives terrorism more power over us than it's due, but I don't think there's a single American that doesn't reflect on it from time to time.
What I got on here to post about wasn't that, though. It's a friend of mine who's in London now. Tiff-Sniff (I'm going to call her that b/c I date a girl named Tiffany) posted this letter from her today:

Hey Friends,

It has been a day of distress for many people in Central London. I am so grateful for God's grace and mercy. His hand was guiding me. This morning for some reason I left my flat thirty minutes early to go to work at Age Concern on Edgware Road. I left the Earl's Court tube station for the Edgware Road tube station at a little past 8:15 am. I arrived at Edgware Road shortly past 8:30am. I usually leave Earl's Court at 8:30 am and arrive at Edgware Road between 8:50am and 9:00am. If I had left at my usual time today, then I would have been using the underground when the bomb exploded at Edgware Road.

When I finally got in touch with my family at 2:30 pm, my Mom said that sometimes God puts little thoughts of directions into our heads sometimes. He definitely put a thought in my head this morning to leave earlier than usual. There was no need for me to because I could have chosen to wait, but I went. God protected me all day. I am so blessed and grateful. But my heart goes out for the 33+ who unexpectedly lost there lives today. It just seems so ironic that yesterday I was in Trafalgar's Square during the joyous announcement that London won the bid for the 2012 Olympic games, and today I was a two minute walk from the Edgware Road stop where seven people lost their lives. I missed that tube by thirty minutes. I get chills just thinking about it. I cannot answer all of the why questions, but I do know that I grateful serve a loving God who protects his children. When I was watching the reports in the Leonora Centre, I asked God a question. (The Leonora Centre is a ten minute walk going north away from Edgware Road. This is where we went when we were evacuated today shortly after the explosion at 8:50 this morning.) I want to know this God, "How am I to be a vessel of your peace in a series of crisis such as these?" Pain and heartache have flooded the lives of many families today. Jesus is the truth. He gives life in his water and healing in his touch. These are things that I do know in a moment of peace or chaos. Please pray for the people who are hurting and those who do not yet know that they have lost loved ones. And the perpetrators, too.

I do hope that each one of you who read this e-mail are doing well. God's blessings.
Consecrated to God,
Elizabeth

I've read that letter 4 times now and gotten a different chill from it each time. Liz is an amazing girl. Take her prayer to heart.  ¶   0 comments

  Smooth "Smooth Criminal." It had the same ironic taste as the 7 foot "Little John" from Robin Hood. He commands a legion not of thieves, but of Clerics, warriors, mages, and paladins. He oversees Indonesian boys who are paid to play Worlds of Warcraft (WoW). Each week they earn as much gold, the in-game currency of WoW as your average WoW player would be lucky to see over the course of 2 years. With his earnings from Star Wars Galaxies he built a house.

Check it out on http://www.1up.com/do/feature?cId=3141815  ¶   1 comments

  oops Apparently whatever I did over the weekend messed up the blogger code enough to where it wouldn't display new posts. I've pulled that out to try and fix it, so enjoy this template in the meantime.
I have really, really got to get ready for work.  ¶   0 comments

  VBS excuse Sorry, I've been out of the loop a bit lately. It's something that, unfortunately, probably isn't going to change over the course of the next three weeks. James Avenue's VBS is coming up, and I'm both a main character and puppet show writer / director. So I'll be writing those little shows once a night for the next week, then I'll be practicing up at the church once a night, then it'll be VBS (19th-22nd). If you're in the neighborhood come see me dressed up as a clown named Napoleon.
Oh, and my laptop's been out of commission since I misplaced the power cord last week. That's back in my hands now, so hopefully I'll find some time to clean up that template. It looks so terrible right now :(.  ¶   0 comments

  I forgot everything already I've been messing with my site for too long and have gotten too little accomplished. Apparently all the HTML, XML, CSS, etc etc that I learned 2 years ago has left me since then. I'll try and rediscover it later, but this weekend the family has to spend time together whether we want to or not.
There's just something about the 4th that always seems to put me in a bad mood. And no, I'm not anti-american. I generally enjoy blowing things up. It's just too... much. I realize all holidays are "contrived," but the 4th is really one that really feels empty. It's a fanfare of rockets and "oh, yeah, thanks for all those who got blown up by stuff like this so we could do stuff like this."
I don't know. Maybe I'm just a young codger. More like I'm just overstressed and don't really want to do anything this weekend.
But hey, it's the holiday, so lets go blow something up.
I'll just print off the html for this page and wrap it around the next rocket.
That should help.  ¶   0 comments

  Voices Today, all day long, I've had snippets of dialogue that's just been
trying to claw it's way out. High tension stuff, quippy little
one-liners, sweet things for those really hard-to-verbalize feelings.
All of it mixed in like someone decided to open my book randomly and
read whatever first caught thier eye. Of course, like I listed
earlier, I'm supposed to be doing writing of a very different kind
right now, so the conversations are left to repeat themselves a couple
of times through or be forgotten. Most suffered the latter fate by
the time I got to somewhere I could jot them all down.
I think it's the NPR. There's something about instrumental music
that's always evoked emotions in me like little else can. Today those emotions, left stored inside, decided to apply themselves to the scenes that have been stored away For Future Reference and give them a jump-start.

In other news, I had to turn off the little visualization window
attached to my windows media player because I find myself mezmorized
by it for extraordinary lengths of time, which wouldn't be bad except I'm supposed to be working. One minute I'm pondering a way to make 4 pages fit onto 1 without losing any of the information, another I'm lost in the pretty pattterns. It's hard to believe all those patterns are mathmatic formuli programmed to react to changes in
pitch and volume.
Then again, I have trouble attributing anything to math.  ¶   0 comments