Fin

I feel a little bittersweet about this 239th post. Sad that this blog is over. Happy that I don't have to post 34 times a day.

I have created a new blog in order to satisfy my blogging needs. It already has a first post, and since I'm introducing it here, it's not the typical "first post" that usually says something about your experience with blogging, your intentions with the blog, and a "we'll see if I actually keep this up."

I just dove right into it. So here is some of what the typical first post might say, if I were to have one for my new blog. At first I just picked the first template that came up, with intentions to change it later, once I had some time/content, but now it's growing on me, and I might leave it the way it is. We'll see.

Anyway, here is what I plan on for this blog:
1. I won't post every day. I will try to post frequently, though.
2. In order to push myself creatively, I am going to try to have a picture accompanied by words in every post.
3. In another attempt to challenge myself creatively, I will keep to 4 categories (which I've had since before Target started putting them on everything): Live, Love, Laugh, Learn.
4. Who knows? The sky is the limit. It will in all actuality be a lot like this blog. Let's be honest.

What do I need from you?
1. If you follow this blog, or have it in your reader (look at me using words like, "in your reader"), or whatever you do in order to remind yourself to read this blog, please change over to the new address. Start following, reading, or whatever the new blog.
2. That's it. It would be nice to get some comments every once in a while, too. But not required.

Until we meet again.

CBS

Last year (2007-2008 school year) I had the privilege and joy to be a part of Community Bible Study. I loved it, and if you've done CBS, you can probably agree with me.

When I knew we were moving, I prayed that I would be able to find a great Bible study again. One semester passed, and no such Bible study.

Then by miracle, I've been able to connect with someone who lives close by and knows all about CBS. God has placed it on her heart to bring CBS to Lithuania. As in, bringing it to Lithuanians, in their language. But meanwhile, CBS International also makes Bible studies for multicultural folks. So now I can take part of a mini-CBS! Yay, prayers answered.

But this is only background to what I wanted to post on.

Something that has been brought to my mind prior to this study, and now during it, is the idea of our actions reflecting our beliefs. If we truly believe that God loves us, how then should we respond/act?

Or, if I truly believe that sitting in a draft causes one illness (I don't), but if I truly believed it, how would I act? I would try at all costs to avoid drafts. If I walked into a room where there was an open window, I would politely ask if we could close it, or, I would assume everyone else believed like I do, and go close it without asking.

The fruit of what we do is a result of what is within.

Matthew 12:33 "A tree is identified by its fruit. If a tree is good, its fruit will be good. If a tree is bad, its fruit will be bad."

So then, how should we respond if we truly believe what we say we believe about God?

Math

Ok. Well according to my dashboard, just moments ago I made my 238th post with "Laughs."

But according to the numbers on the left side of the blog, I had only 236.

I was confused.

After some research, I realized that the dashboard counts posts that you have saved as "Drafts."

The drafts were not worth posting. I deleted them.

So now I have to post a couple more times than I anticipated.

I wish I had something inspired to make this post better than the ones that I deleted from the drafts.

Sorry.

I do really like math though. A lot. I like reading, writing, and arithmetic.

I suck at history and government.

Laughs

We watch a lot of TV via DVD. Lately I've been amazed that Debra Jo Rupp's character on Friends and her character on That 70's Show have completely different laughs. I appreciate the fact that changes it up with each character.

And since this is the second to the last post (I think) and since I'm on a video posting kick, here you can hear each laugh.

As Kitty on That 70's Show


As Alice on Friends

Colorful while blurry

Ages ago, when the sun was setting at 3:30pm, I had plenty of opportunities to take pictures of sunsets. Now, a month or two later, and the sun is setting almost two hours later in the day. It can only get better!

Anyway, I am a fan of photography that uses natural light (I don't know, I've been calling it flash-free photography for so long I don't know what it's actually called). I'm not talking about the crappy out of focus pictures that people take at a concert from too far away. I'm talking about really good photography, just without the flash. Sometimes certain things are in focus, other times they aren't. And that's ok. I'm no expert by all means (not like am with football). But I'm hoping to become more learned via reading and practicing (one of the 9 goals for 2009).

To tie the two paragraphs together, here is a picture I took of the sunset sometime in December/beginning of January. I moved the camera on purpose, because the beauty as I saw it was in the colors of the sky, and the darkness of tree (not in the yard, or the fence, or the basketball court, or anything else that you might see, were this picture in focus).

Some thoughts on The Lovely Bones

It's been a few days, and here are some thoughts on The Lovely Bones. Had I posted the second after I finished reading, I might have more to say. I might have more to say in comments, later. Also, the thoughts aren't necessarily connected. I'm typing as I think.

Brief synopsis: The story is told from the point of view of a girl who was raped and murdered and is now in her own heaven looking down on her family/neighborhood. We the reader know who did it, and we learn more details as the book goes on, but to most of the people in the book, it is still an unsolved crime.

Throw away whatever you think is incorrect about a "personal heaven" and pretend you're reading Lord of the Rings or Harry Potter (you know the worlds in these books don't completely exist, but you forget about that for the sake of the story).

It's such a great point of view to read from, because it's in first person, but can be as knowledgeable as a book narrated from the third person, because she sees everything.

Upon hearing the synopsis before reading this, I was intrigued by the fact that it was told from the point of view of the girl who was murdered. I was leery about the fact that she was raped and cut to pieces. I don't like to read those kind of graphic details. I don't like to think about them, and I have a hard time looking past them (I can look past "personal heavens" but I can' look past graphic-ness). All that to say, while I wouldn't let someone with a child's mind read this, I myself with an adult mind thought that it wasn't too graphically described.

I thought the story was so intriguing that I read it over the course of two evenings. The first 3/4 of the book went really fast, and I was completely engrossed. The last quarter seemed to lose steam (much like me last week). Most of the chapters were not titled, but there was one about 3/4 through that was titled "snapshots." It seemed like an epilogue, and I would've been glad to set the book down and finish the story there.

But then it went on. More story. More things that seemed like the author wanted it to have a happy ending.

Two thoughts: perhaps everything that was after the "snapshots" chapter was her story as told from her personal heaven point of view.
or
perhaps the author wanted to show that life does go on, eventually, after death (for the people left behind).

I don't know.

Anyway, it is interesting and sad to read about the way her family and neighborhood mourn/deal with her loss.

Use(d) to

Never do you question grammar more than when you read something written by someone who doesn't take for granted the same grammar rules you take for granted (sorry if that sounded redundant).

I'm just going to get straight to the point (rather than ramble on and on, and give myself ample time to make a grammatical error while complaining about grammar). I have recently started second guessing the use of "use to" and "used to."

Not necessarily when spoken (they sound quite similar), but when written.

I couldn't make a decision about which was proper and which was improper...or if they both are proper/improper depending on the circumstance.

So I looked it up. Some sources gave a whole bunch of examples to show the meaning of use(d) to. This is not what I was looking for. I know when to use it in a sentence. I know what it means. The only thing the list of examples gave me was the answer to the question, "Are both proper sometimes?" The answer is yes.

Another source suggested that you use "used to" for something in the past, and you use "use to" after "did" or "didn't."

Examples: "I used to live in Minnesota."

"Did you use to live in Minnesota?" and "I didn't use to live in Canada."

Another source says that it is always "used to" because you are always talking about the past.

A great deal more sources thought I needed to know the difference between "I used to smoke" and "I am used to smoke." Thank you, but that's not my question. I know the different meanings.

This source gives probably more information than you want, but backs up the "did" and "didn't" rule. I tend to agree with this.

At any rate, you're probably questioning the whole thing. "Use(d) to" is such a weird pairing of words anyway.

Oh the things I will look up just to have another post.

Who am I kidding. I would look it up anyway.

Hawaii Chair

For those of us who can't currently be in Hawaii, we have to settle for the Hawaii Chair. Or even better, we get to watch someone else benefiting from the Hawaii Chair.

I always have a difficult time answering the age old question, "If you could pick anyone, living or dead, to sit and talk with over coffee, who would it be?"

I think it would be great to sit down for coffee and chat with Ellen. That, and everyone else is already in line to sit down and have coffee with President Obama.

Please enjoy this: