bubble wrap

If you appreciate bubble wrap, you'll enjoy this video.



----------------
Listening to: Bob Seger - Turn The Page

just call me disaster

I ran into a desk in class last week (an armrest to be exact). What are those things made out of these days? Steel? The armrest went into my thigh but I could have sworn I was punched in the stomach simultaneously, as I was doubled over and gasped for breath immediately following. The bruise has made a transition from black and blue to yellow and green. I'm counting it as a blessing that it's winter though and not summer right now.

In other news, the lack of an eighth of my bumper is a constant reminder of a failed attempt at a U-turn the other day. For the record, this is the only time I've ever been hit/hit something in 5 years of driving. Cheers to five years of skillful driving! Let's just say, this pole came out of no where. Unlike the armrest, this pole actually was made out of steel when it should have been made out of... Nerf.

Got out the door right on time this morning to start up my car, turn on the defrost, and begin to shovel the 8 inches of snow off my car with my baby car scraper. Fifteen minutes later, I declared my car drivable but forgot something in mi casa. Went back in, came back out, yanked on my door handle. Locked.

Unfortunately, I don't have any spares on me. Fortunately, I have an amazing mother that cancels meetings to drive her spare out to me. I missed class, but I'm okay with that today.

----------------
Listening to: Flogging Molly - If I Ever Leave This World Alive

mammon

(Taken from the Interview with God poem.)

"A rich person is not the one who has the most, but the one who needs the least."

----------------
Listening to: Plain White T's - Shine

iwanttogonowiwanttogonowiwanttogonow

----------------
Listening to: Chopin - Largetto from Piano Concerto No. 1

carnival

Michigan Tech's winter carnival isn't for another two weeks and they have already began construction! I won't be able to make it up there this year though.

Here's a picture I took of the Babylon snow sculpture at last year's carnival. Ice links? Yes.

PS: If there are any waterproof Bibles in print, one should be sent my way. Maybe some coloring pages between books would be good too. I'm not responsible enough for real ones.

----------------
Listening to: Dashboard Confessional - Shirts And Gloves

geo

well, this was slightly more challenging than i thought it would be... can you believe there are 270??

59

msu 2010

Check this out. Michigan State's art museum officially has plans for its new design by architect Zaha Hadid and is due to open in 2010.


Go here for more renderings of the new museum and other Hadid designed buildings.

BAM! questions

I had this master plan that i would come up with 926124891 scriptural questions and then post them all at once. So far, I only have three. Sorry :(

Genesis 11:6-7...

The Lord said, "If as one people speaking the same language they have begun to do this, then nothing they plan to do will be impossible for them. Come, let us go down and confuse their language so they will not understand each other."

Not that I claim to understand God's reasoning on things normally, but I really don't understand why the Tower of Babel incident was necessary. Did God realize that he made things too easy? Was there greater potential harm if everyone understood each other? I know that I want to use my life to better others' lives and when I read that passage, I have to admit, I feel frustrated at "nothing they plan to do will be impossible for them." That was a problem?


Acts 3:21

[Jesus] must remain in heaven until the time comes for God to restore everything as he promised long ago through his holy prophets.

I guess I don't really have a question here. False alarm. It just stuck out to me reading Acts this time through that God doesn't plan on scooping us all up and taking us into the clouds with Him. He plans on restoring everything. In Rev, John talks about the old heaven and old earth being destroyed and a new heaven and new earth being in its place. Rob Bell (everybody's favorite person) talked about how it just doesn't make sense that God wouldn't end up deleting everything that he called "good," but restoring it. I never really wondered what to think about heaven. Hmm...


Genesis 15:16

In the fourth generation your descendants will come back here, for the sin of the Amorites has not yet reached its full measure.

What is that passage prophesying?


Thanks for reading my thoughts even if you can't help, I appreciate it. Lately, I've been pretty busy trying to meet various deadlines and establish closure on past relationships. I just don't think I can fully start a new chapter in my life until I feel at peace with everyone of my past.

Also, reading for school has taken up a larger portion of my life than expected. I tried to be cheap at first and buy one or two books... not happening. I unwillingly had to drop another $150 on a few more books for school today. The local library needs to grow... :)

ora

my 2nd time getting pulled over occurred tonite. i've never been a fan of the usual open-ended question: "do you know why i pulled you over?" you know, you want to be truthful and all about what you were doing wrong... but at the same time you don't want to necessarily bring up a new violation that the officer was unaware of prior to the pop quiz.

fortunately, my answer matched his prenotion. while he took my license and registration to his car (probably facebooking or myspacing me), i was surprised at my lack of concern for potentially getting a ticket. kinda just turned my music back up and slouched in my seat to avoid future eye floaters from those numbingly bright spotlights they shine on you. not that i ever would, but all i could think about was how far i could actually get if i bolted out of my seat at that very second and started sprinting. i had a small wagering party going on in my head as i kept upping how far i could get before being tackled... or tasered. i'm glad he came back when he did, or i may have gone Stanford prison and taken off.

he just told me to have a good night; which i did.

kiwi

----------------
Listening to: Jonezetta - Communicate

mayim

i was fortunate enough to witness three baptisms today! baptisms are so encouraging and just a beautiful picture of obedience to Jesus' commands. our relationships with Jesus could be such a private thing that no one knows about, but those baptisms... such a cool, outward symbol of being made new in Christ. i get silly-excited for what they're capable of doing for His glory. i love that Free related how a parent feels proud of their child after asking them to do something and that child obeying... to our call to baptize and be baptized.

this stuck out to me today in Velvet Elvis:

When God looks at me, God sees Christ because I'm "in" him.

God's view of me is Christ.

And Christ is perfect.

This is why Paul goes on to say, "Therefore, as God's chosen people, holy and dearly loved..."

Did you catch that word in the middle?

Holy.

Not "going to be holy someday". Not "wouldn't it be nice if you were holy, but instead you're a mess". But "holy".

Holy means pure, without blemish, unstained.

In these passages we're being told who we are, now.

as a child, i thought that everyone knew that God loves them. i heard a testimony from a new friend today; i was shocked to hear some of the substitutes she'd had tried to use to fill that void to be unconditionally loved. it breaks my heart to know that people will go their whole lives without knowing that Jesus' arms are wide open and always will be.

----------------
Listening to: Jars of Clay - Sunny Days

shut your mouth when you're talking to me

i only took this because i thought it would tell me i was "Northern".

What American accent do you have? Western Western is kind of neutral, but not quite since it's still possible to tell where you're from. So you might not actually be from the West (but you probably are). If you really want to sound "neutral," learn how to say "stock" and "stalk" differently.

Click Here to Take This Quiz Brought to you by YouThink.com quizzes and personality tests.

----------------
Listening to: Lost Ocean - Trust

ohhh EIGHT

a big part of my past year was realizing that I can trust God with everything. oh my goodness, i am so fortunate/lucky/blessed to have such an amazing friend. to see her trust God with her heart over the years has been so encouraging for me to witness. if everyone around her was in complete opposition, her beliefs are so constant and unwaivering because her Foundation is constant and unwaivering.

i'm not a fan of deeming these "New Year's resolutions," resolutions possess the tendency to break. rather, my timeless hopes are that i will never stop learning, always embrace epiphanies, and remain in the Word.

and darn it, that's my wish for you as well.

sorry for being short and sweet with this... confession: i backspaced 75% of this entry. can't be too transparent now, where would the fun in that be? :)

----------------
Listening to: Death Cab for Cutie - Transatlanticism

a cheaper alternative

is it weird that i'm really excited for microecon this semester? i'm pumped to learn about social security reform, welfare reform, income tax reform, health care reform... ah, the list goes on! the idea of knowing all of that confusing stuff makes me feel so much more independent and confident. in high school and early college thinking, i felt, eh my husband will figure all of that complicated stuff out, i really don't want to bother knowing. i think i'm on an independence spree or something, because now... i'm honestly okay with not depending on someone else.

i just reread that last written phrase a few times over to make sure i meant that. yep.

----------------
Listening to: The Killers - Believe Me Natalie

marianne w.

"The secret of success is to realize that the crisis on our planet is much larger than just deciding what to do with your own life, and if the system under which we live the structure of western civilization begins to collapse because of our selfishness and greed, then it will make no difference whether you have $1 million dollars when the crash comes or just $1.00. The only work that will ultimately bring any good to any of us is the work of contributing to the healing of the world."

i cannot wait until mid-May or so... too many good things all rolled into one package labeled "summer." :)

Merry Christmas! this Christmas i'm thinking a lot about the people i haven't been able to see in the past year. my mind is telling me it's too trite to call them up just because it's Christmas, but my heart may outweigh that.

----------------
Listening to: Frou Frou - Let Go

a good email forward... oxymoron?

right now i'm in the process of training my mom to not pass along forwards or waste minutes of her life reading them.

most of them have pictures of little kids hugging, animated smiley faces, a kitten sleeping curled up with a dog, and an assortment of other cliche' images strung along with a cheerful little poem about spreading smiles. (all of this in a 12-pt Comic Sans MS.) "pass along to 20 people or else you will die... today... in 17 seconds."

despite my email forward bias, i was pleasantly surprised with a forward my mom recently shared with me. i have been fortunate enough to not have to deal with any devastating losses but i think it's a good reminder for when we do hit those inevitable times.

the following clip is a conversation between a boy and a Christian radio station from his small town in Nebraska.



...and i wanna hug this little tyke.

okay

recently, i've been lost in my own thoughts. just wondering why my God that loves me so much and wants prosperity for me would refuse me certain good-intentioned desires. and i hate using the word "desire" because, in my mind, that word can have a sinful connotation to it... as in something that i shouldn't be wanting--but i feel like they're things i should be wanting.

so i dusted off the journal, grabbed a pen, and just let my journal have it. i started grilling God. rattling off every question i could think of. i pressed hard, really hard, with my ballpoint as i got to my more frustrating questions, almost tearing through the paper as i underlined key words and phrases.

i finished with one question left in my head that i was too afraid to write down. too afraid to ask because i already knew the answer.

my hand was hurting so i thought i'd take a break from my verbose cagematch and check out this week's postsecret. i began reading through the weekly dosage of heartbreak and then came across this secret.

the author of this secret most likely didn't mean for me to interpret it this way, but i did. but here's my last couple journaling sentences: I plan on telling people about Jesus and what he did for us, but right now they're just plans. But about why I'm here... it's not to plan on telling people, but to tell people. I think I'm going to start now; I'm done planning. Mark 16:15.



----------------
Listening to: Elton John - Philadelphia Freedom

back to reality

Christmastime in Chicago is beautiful! Did a lotta shopping, saw gorgeous things, visited friends, and ate ridiculously well. If you have not yet been to Chicago in the past year... definitely visit McDonald's on your next trip. I'm serious. The new McDonald's in Chicago puts the adjacent Hard Rock and Rainforest Cafe's to shame. But the Italian Village on Monroe St. must have been one of the best dining experiences I've had in awhile. Perfect atmosphere and delicious Italian eats!

oops

last nite, i read the entire book that i had to read for today's exam--i had the entire semester to read it! anyway, even though i procrastinated, i was feeling pretty confident that my cramming abilities last nite and this morning had paid off. halfway into my exam i remembered that it was an accumulative exam as opposed to only covering the last section of the semester. whoops, missed a mere 50% of studying material. not so confident anymore :\

on a happier note, i broke away from my job that i so rarely attend. i felt like it was dishonest on my part to have that job keep me on the schedule because i "could come in from time-to-time" when in reality i NEVER came in. so on Saturday i asked if they could permanently take me off the schedule... sad. i didn't really tell anyone about that and was concerned that my dad would be disappointed that i let a job go.

when i came into my other job on Sunday to study, my boss asked me if i'd like to be promoted. so i start training for that next week. i just thought the timing on those two things were pretty interesting. God is always keeping me guessing.

----------------
Listening to: Lovedrug - Salt Of The Earth

moonlight and magnolias

if you haven't ever made it out to one of the plays at the BoarsHead in Downtown Lansing, I strongly recommend checking out Moonlight and Magnolias. i saw a dress rehearsal tonight and it is a hilarious show about the last-minute screenplay writing of Gone with the Wind. the trio in the play work so well together and you would swear the main character is played by Danny DeVito.

it's not too long of a show, but I would recommend re-watching the movie Gone with the Wind beforehand. that is, if you haven't seen it in the last five years just for a better understanding of what's going on.

anyway, it's showing from December 5 thru December 30 but you can check out the BoarsHead website for more information. just a different thing to do over the mundane movie outing. :)