Friday, December 26, 2008

a word from Jamie Lee


She's enjoyable on screen.

I'm finding that alongside her sex symbolness, she has a consistently heart-warming common sense take on life.

First, how great was it when she posed for a magazine shoot w/o make-up and touch ups?

Then, she got a big "YES!" from me when I read that she only has a few sets of clothes; that she wanted to share the goodness that she found in living a more simple life.

You don't have to look perfect and you don't need to be rich.

I guess she would know.

And now, this.

Wednesday, December 24, 2008

we brake for Classical Music




thanks Ben!

Moon Car


My family has a proud history of driving Honda Civics into the rust.

Saturday, as Dad drove home with the Family Christmas Tree, the Maroon Civic clicked over it's 300,000th mile. At that historic moment, it became a "Moon Car"- logged enough miles to get to the moon.

...in other news, so much for the American Auto Industry... afraid we haven't been much help!

Friday, December 19, 2008

Showing?


Sometimes, you get a peek into a whole nother world...

I've been wandering around the internet this evening... bloghopping... total stream of consciousness meandering... when I found myself on a message board staring at this startling declaration:



***PLEASE READ BEFORE ASKING, IT WILL SAVE US BOTH TIME AND FRUSTRATION***

I specialize in Syrian hamsters, like black bears, goldens, teddies, and more. I'm an experienced breeder and raised hamsters for the past 10 years. I can help with how to buy your first, how to house and care for your hamster, nutrition, showing, and other general questions. I can help with most behavioral problems too. I am the longest running hamster expert on this page, since 2001.

***I will NOT answer questions regarding: Gerbils, Dwarf hamsters(Robo is a dwarf!!), Illness, or Cause Of Death. If your hamster has a broken leg TAKE IT TO A VET don't bother asking a question because there is nothing I can do for you. If you can't take the time to read this then I don't take the time to read your question!***

If your question is about TAMING please do a Google search instead as there are many excellent sites up about the process. ________________________________________________________________________________ Experience I have worked with hamsters all my life.


... "showing?"



Note: I've found the above statement to be even funnier when read aloud, like so:

"asterisk asterisk asterisk asterisk All Capital Letters 'Please read...'" ...blah blah blah "All UNDERLINED 'longest running expert' blah blah, Capital, Asterisk in BOLD...."

Thursday, December 18, 2008

Why?


Sometimes, I get REALLY FRUSTRATED at church. And, i wonder why I go.

I think, "Gee, I have A LOT of questions about a lot of what's going on here."

But, if I ask them, will I get labeled and dismissed, or will my questions just get shrugged off?

Sometimes I think I'm just a trouble maker.

Last Sunday, I asked a pal "why do you go to church?"

It felt like raining on the parade... like, gee, duh, we all go to church... what's the problem?

I hate that vibe. I don't wanna be a downer and Take. Things. SO. Seriously. Butttt, I just have to bring it up. ..to process.

I told her that, "well, i guess I just question EVERYthing."

Then, I ran across this snippet on Speaking of Faith.

I'm at #2, and hoping to work my way into #3.

So, read that if you like.

And, if you go to church, maybe you could tell me WHY.

And, if you DON'T go to church, tell me about that.... and maybe your thoughts on church...



Ms. Tippett: You often mention a Dutch philosopher.

Mr. Marty: Oh, yes.

Ms. Tippett: How do you say his name?

Mr. Marty: Eugen Rosenstock-Huessy, who was a Swiss-German Jew and Christian. He's one of those geniuses that you can quote 20 pages of and then the 21st page is so nutty you're not sure you can use it. But I'll give a quick illustration of what I get from him. For example, he says — and this is extremely important in my life. He says you can write the history of learning in the western world in three Latin phrases.

The first is, in Latin, Credo ut intelligum — "I believe in order that I may understand." It's the birth of the universities in Europe, Bologna, Paris, Oxford. You believe to apprehend the universe; truth is divinely revealed and can be appropriated. And that's the charter that believers should never be afraid of learning.

Secondly, modern learning, without which we couldn't do, is Descartes. RenĂ© Descartes. Cogito ergo sum — "I think, therefore I am." Modern university is born on skepticism and doubt and inquiry and criticism, and you want that. I don't want a med school in which they're just taking things on faith. I want them to be extremely critical. But he said, 'That, too, gets sterile.' And so he says, in the 20th century, that we also have to learn that truth has a social character. I'm learning from this conversation with you. We learn from conversing with someone else, we learn from the meaning of "I" and "thou."

And his third motto was Respondeo etsi mutabor — "I respond although I will be changed." I'm not changed when I argue with somebody because I know an answer and I got to defeat them. I'm always changed in a conversation because they're going to surprise me. It's kind of a game, it's kind of play. And I think that that's the kind of learning we need more in the churches, in theology, in politics, and in personal life.

Friday, December 12, 2008

poem of the day

The Buck in Snow
Edna St. Vincent Millay

White sky, over the hemlocks bowed with snow,
Saw you not at the beginning of evening the antlered buck and his doe
Standing in the apple orchard? I saw them. I saw them suddenly go,
Tails up, with long leaps lovely and slow,
Over the stone wall into the wood of hemlocks bowed with snow.

Now lies he here, his wild blood scalding the snow.

How strange a thing is death, bringing to his knees, bringing to his antlers
The buck in the snow.
How strange a thing, a mile away by now, it may be,
Under the heavy hemlocks, that as the moments pass,
Shift their loads a little, letting fall a feather of snow –
Life, looking out attentive from the eyes of the doe.