Friday Five

Five Books I Have Read Multiple Times

1. Mister God, This Is Anna
2. The Blue Castle
3. The Movies, Mr. Griffith, and Me
4. A Child's History of the World
   
5. The Bible
   

Dear beloved people,

I miss you! I'm so tired and I know I'm boring. I'm just trying to keep my head above water. Tomorrow is Friday. Till then, let's get some rest.

Love and hugs,
Me

Friday Five

A new feature in which I publish random lists of things for no particular reason, other than alliteration, really.

Friday Five: Five Reasons Why I'm Slightly Odd and Occasionally Socially Awkward

In no particular order:

1. I make inappropriate jokes inside my head. For example, there is a billboard on a road where I drive often, with a picture of a little girl and a caption, "Every 20 minutes, a child is diagnosed with autism." And every time I see it, I mentally complete the sentence, "...and boy, is she getting tired of it!"
   
2. I say unwittingly inappropriate things out loud. When my verbal filter fails to catch the output from #1 above, as well as other faux pas. Like this one time, years ago, I asked a pregnant woman, "Is it like having a parasite?" and she didn't take to the question very nicely. [Note: This woman's lack of understanding aside, I can assure you that being pregnant IS like having a parasite. So the query was valid, but not appreciated.]
   
3. I will tell you when you're wrong about something. And then provide you with all the pertinent facts so that you can change your views and become right. I consider this a public service. You're welcome.
4. I know a lot of dry facts and don't mind trotting them out on seemingly random occasions. Part of the reason for this is that I see connections between ideas that a lot of people don't, and so a conversation about, say, color blindness, is (to me) an obvious precursor to in-depth discussion and analysis of the Russian revolution.
5. I subconsciously check and correct the grammar, spelling, and punctuation of EVERYTHING I read. I can't help myself.

Weekend to-do

I know this is boring, but as Mia has noted, sometimes it helps to post to-do lists online, to provide an imaginary sense of accountability.

• Go to bank - Done!
  
• Sort mail
• Check e-mail
• Take N to park
• Grocery shopping
• Heath city forms
• County forms
• ADP dependent care
• Advertise Acura
• Post on blogs
• Make phone calls
• Send e-mails
• Send in support donations
• Post pictures on Picasa and Facebook
• Clean fridge
• Do dishes
• Clean cat box - Done!
  
• Clean bathroom - Done!
  
• Hand-washed laundry
• Fold and put away all other laundry
• Clean and organize bedroom closet
• Go through one box
• File N's daycare papers
• Make dr appts (do on Monday)
• Pediatrician - bill and insurance (do on Monday)
• Passport paperwork (do next week - finally)
• Send in for diploma (finally)

Buckeyes!!

See how far I've come! Or, how far I've fallen...

But I decided that Baby Bug and I are real Ohians (Ohio-ans?) and Buckeyes now. If I'm going to move most of the way across the country and totally change my life around, I'm not going to be half-hearted about it. Maybe together, the two of us can enjoy being part of a larger community here.

And let me tell you, the Buckeyes are a HUGE part of the community here. People are CRAZY about Ohio State, especially now that football season has arrived. People are rabid OSU fans, even if they've never been to college (heck, they probably can't even spell it!). So it's sort of self-preservation to start showing a little spirit right about now; I'm beginning to fear that if I don't put an Ohio State pennant in my window, my neighbors will slash my tires.

Oh, I kid, I kid! [But only a little.]

Vera Lynn Has Not Yet Grown Too Old to Dream

Vera Lynn, the legendary singer, has set a record for being the oldest living person ever to have a number one album.

Pithy title reference: Vera Lynn singing Noel Coward.

Busy

Busy is when you have to eat lunch at your desk at work.

By contrast, ridiculous is when you pause to catch your breath and realize that you've eaten all three of your meals today at your desk at work.

I'm willowy

Stop with the "skinny" already. Seriously.

Experiencing technical difficulties

My home internet is not working, and though I am trouble-shooting, it is still down for the count. I have oodles of post ideas, as well as dozens of photos to put on Picasa and share, and it just might not happen this weekend.

On the plus side, my beloved Elizabeth is visiting for several days, so we're having girl time and I'm looking forward to a great weekend with her.

My new friend from work, Spencer, is getting married on Sunday. He and his fiancee Amy deserve great happiness, so send up a prayer for them, if you think of it. I'll be enjoying their wedding myself, going out for fun with my sister Elizabeth while Naters is with a babysitter; sometimes it's important to get out and about without the baby, you know.

Have a restful and blessed holiday weekend.

Busy

I have been keeping busy, and God is blessing Nathan and me.

I'm excited to be permanent and get even more deeply into work at the Medium Anonymous Technical Company (MATC). My problem is that I just do not have enough hours in the day, and thanks to Nathan, I can't stay at work at all hours anymore, so my workaholic tendencies are tempered.

On a less happy note, my boss is losing heart points, as he told me that now that I'm a permanent employee, I have to get my own cookies. He will rue this day. Rue it, I say!

Jodi's Meme: My Life According to Judy Garland (via Heather's Eden)

I have no idea who Jodi is, but I got this meme from Heather's Eden. I picked Judy Garland as my artist of choice. She is my favorite singer and actress, plus she's recorded so many songs, and such a variety of them, that I thought she would provide some good answer choices. [Fun Judy Garland factoid: My brother-in-law Tim is related to her--his grandma was her first cousin. Thus, I am related to Judy Garland by marriage!]

Using only song names from ONE ARTIST, cleverly answer these questions. Try not to repeat a song title. It's a lot harder than you think! Post as "Jodi's Meme: My Life According to (BAND/ARTIST NAME)"

-Are you a male or female? (Poor Little Rich Girl; A Pretty Girl Milking Her Cow)

-Describe yourself (I Got Rhythm; Little Girl Blue)

-How do you feel right now? (I Don't Care; I Feel a Song Coming On)

-If you could go anywhere, where would you go? (Somewhere Over the Rainbow; Fly Me to the Moon)

-Your favorite form of transportation (The Trolley Song; On the Atchison, Topeka, and the Santa Fe)

-Describe Your Morning Routine (Stompin' at the Savoy; Skip to My Lou)

-Your best friend is (The Boy Next Door; FDR Jones)

-What's the weather like (Stormy Weather; Come Rain or Come Shine)

-Pet Peeve? (It Never Rains But What It Pours; Ya-ta-ta Ya-ta-ta Talk Talk Talk)

-If your life was a TV show, what would it be called (That's Entertainment; There's No Business Like Show Business)

-Your relationship (I Wish I Were In Love Again; I'm Nobody's Baby)

-Your Fear (Blues in the Night; The Man that Got Away)

-What is the best advice you have to give? (Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas; Everybody Sing)

-If you could change your name, you would change it to (Liza; Mary's a Grand Old Name)

-What do you say when you are frustrated? (Who's Sorry Now?; What Now, My Love?)

-Thought for the day (It's a Great Day for the Irish; Lucky Day)

-How you would like to die (Jitterbug; When You're Smiling)

-Your soul's present condition (Zing! Went the Strings of My Heart; Lost in the Stars)

-Your motto (Get Happy; Look for the Silver Lining)

Okay, so I had enough options available to find at least TWO songs for each category. Yet another reason why Judy Garland is the most awesome entertainer ever.

Oh, hi, Ohio!

Well, it looks as though I will be living in rural central Ohio for the time being. I have received and accepted an offer of permanent employment with the company where I've been a contractor. God provides, and I know that He brought us here for His purposes, and so here we will remain until we have accomplished what He intends for us. Meanwhile, I'll work on putting down some roots and giving Nathan the best life possible. Also, I might have to get myself a Buckeyes t-shirt in self-defense. People around here are CRAZY.

The Great Cookie Thief

Or, I Heart My Boss, Part the Second

On Thursday last, there was some kind of meeting (hereafter referred to as "the meeting") at work, with attendant VIPs from the company's main facility in Connecticut. I was not invited to the meeting, which was fine with me, since I had no interest in sitting around in a freezing conference room listening to people yammer on about goodness knows what. I discovered that the VIPs warranted a catered lunch. Still no interest on my part, particularly as the catering was done by Quiznos (Note 1: Bleh. Note 2: Shouldn't there be an apostrophe in that name?), until I saw that they had brought along some very large COOKIES. I made up my mind, then and there, that even though I technically was not allowed to partake of the catered lunch, being not VIP enough to go to the meeting, I was going to get my hands on a cookie!

My boss, whom you have already met, so to speak, was in fact an invited attendee of the meeting, and so had the all-important right to at least one cookie. He happened to wander into the kitchen area while I was there. Aha! Target acquired. Scene set.

Me: [trying to look innocent] So, how many people are there in the meeting?
Him: [is no fool] Fewer people than there are cookies.
Drat! He must have noticed me eyeing them with ill-concealed lust.
Me: [giving up on the "innocent" ploy] You'll get me a cookie just in case, though, right?
Him: [smirks in amusement as he walks away]

Hmm. No good so far. Undeterred in my pursuit of cookies, I send him a quick e-mail: "You don't want your cookie, right?"
Several minutes later, he comes to my cubicle. "There are plenty of cookies. You should be fine."
"Should be isn't the same as absolutely will be." He sighs and shakes his head, and turns to go. "Oh, come on, please!" I beg. I have no shame when it comes to obtaining cookies, as you can see.
"Oh, I'll get you a cookie." He is either really irritated or just thinks the whole thing is funny.

True to his word, he comes back a bit later and presents me with a CHOCOLATE CHUNK COOKIE. I am transported to realms of bliss. A few minutes later, I send him another e-mail, vis: "It would be awesome if I could get TWO cookies. Can I make it my stretch goal?"

Then, a few minutes after that, the manager of the electrical group comes to my cubicle and hands me a CINNAMON SUGAR COOKIE. He had heard me asking for a cookie, and he has a medical reason why he couldn't eat his, so he brought it over for me. Sweetness!! In every sense of the word. When I next see my boss, I wear a smirk myself, and announce, "I achieved my stretch goal."

And then, and then, all the VIPs finished eating, and there were still cookies left, so all of us humble peons were given permission to glean from the corners of the fields, to make an entirely relevant biblical allusion. And so I got a THIRD cookie, this one a CHOCOLATE CHOCOLATE CHUNK COOKIE.

I send off yet another e-mail: "THREE cookies and counting!" Quick as a flash, he shoots back, "Now you're a collector!"

Yes, I collect cookies. In my mouth.

Night-time

So I fell asleep last night some time between 21:00 and 21:30 (9:00 and 9:30 pm, for those of us who don't use military, i.e. sensible, time), because I was putting the Bug down to bed and it was just sooooo nice to close my own eyes and drift away... This is great, especially as I needed the sleep. However, I was awakened a few hours later by the sound of my cell phone going off (even when set to vibrate, it makes a lot of noise), and while I missed the call, it jolted me out of a sound sleep and left me wide awake. I didn't much mind, as it gave me the opportunity to brush my teeth and shower and all those things I would have liked to do before falling asleep. But now I'm still awake, and facing the prospect of having to get up in less than three hours, whether I like it or not, and go to work groggy because of my crazy night-time schedule.

Hope the rest of you are sleeping better than I tonight.

I Heart My Boss

This is a tale of love. True love, in fact. The transcendent love between a girl and her tropical fruit. By my best estimation, fortunate readers, this is the first time such a love has been chronicled and revealed to the world at large.

A few weeks ago, my manager at work described to me his family's planned trip to a very large and awe-inspiring grocery store by the name of Jungle Jim’s. [He occasionally feels the need to tell me these kinds of things, for reasons known entirely to himself.] He mentioned that the store was known for its large selection of produce, including tropical fruit. Any Asian MK knows that the only proper response to such a revelation is: “OMG, DO THEY HAVE RAMBUTANS?!?!” Also acceptable: “OMG, DO THEY HAVE GUAVAS?!” Or “OMG, DO THEY HAVE JAMBU AIR?!” [“OMG, DO THEY HAVE DURIAN?!”, while not, strictly speaking, incorrect, is of a dubious nature. If that is your go-to reaction, you and I may be friends till death parts us, but we will never be roommates. I’m just sayin’.]

At any rate, my manager was unfamiliar with the rambutan, so I explained it to him, described it, and even drew one on my whiteboard. He is reasonably astute, and asked, "So, does the name mean something about it being all hairy?" Yes. Yes, it does. I also tried to explain durian, but he wasn't too sure about that one. As I said, he's astute.

Several days passed, and I actually completely forgot about the conversation. So imagine my surprise when he came into my cubicle this morning and, with a giant grin, dropped a bag containing five rambutans onto my desk! O frabjous day! Callooh! Callay! I was extremely happy and excited, to say the least. I made him try one, as he had claimed that he didn't eat any before because he didn't know how they were to be eaten (Seriously? It's not rocket science.). He also insisted that while he saw guavas there, he didn't dare get some, because he couldn't know to pick the appropriate level of ripeness (A valid point; I'm picky about my guavas.). No matter: I was duly impressed by his intrepidity in getting rambutans at all.

I love my tropical fruit, and I'm so grateful to my (nameless) boss for remembering me and braving the mysteries of the international produce section!

The immortal Bard relates to us this truism: "That which we call a rose, By any other name would smell as sweet". It is by no means clear to me, however, that a rambutan by any other name would be quite as wonderful.

Double Entendre

Ever have one of those occasions when you say or write something, quite innocently, and then come back some time later and realize that your choice of words had an unintended consequence of humorous and possibly even risque meaning? You know, one of THOSE occasions.

At work, we use an office messaging program (instant message, essentially) and while it can be very useful, it mostly serves as a venue for useless chatter. Today, I was having some chat with my friend Spencer, mixing useless and useful in varying proportions from time to time, and this ensued:

Spencer: Writes a lot of useful, important stuff about work.
Me: Writes a lot of useful, important stuff about work.
Spencer: Be right back. Going to go talk to Jon.*
Me: (remembering that I need to talk to this same Jon) Ok... hold him for me.
I get up and rush over to Spencer's cubicle, but Jon is already gone. No biggie, I run into him in the hall on my way back to my desk and get the answer I need. Having returned to my own cubicle, I look at my computer and read Spence's response.
Spencer: Oh yeah, he's real cuddly.

*Our program manager.

Grief

Received news that our dear brave friend Ojan has gone on to be with the Lord.

He was beating the cancer again, only to be taken in a freak accident. It's so tragic and far too soon. I am in shock now, but know that I will soon be experiencing anger and resentment, in addition to sorrow.

Here is Ojan with a bunch of friends: Philip Scharer, Roland Morgan, Dan Price, Ojan, me, Michael Nance.

The Prices loved you!!

Happy 18 Months, Nater-bug!

Naters is 18 months old today. He is a lovely, happy, healthy little boy. He is, as always, very smart. He hasn't been talking as much as some children his age do, and I was starting to get a bit worried. I knew he understood a lot of what I would say to him, because he would respond very intelligently. But why didn't he speak?! My conclusion is, he didn't bother to talk very much, because he didn't really need to; he could get what he wanted without it. He'll say some words if he wants to.

Now, he says "Mama", which he's said for a long time, actually. He also says, "Nah!", which means "nose": he will point to (or bite) your nose while saying it. I taught both of those to him. I nearly missed the first word that I didn't teach him that he said. At daycare one day, I had come to pick him up, and he was playing in the main room. I came over, and he said, "Bah!" He will produce a lot of syllables all the time, so I don't much pay attention to them, since most of them are unintelligible. This time, however, I noticed that while he said it, he was pointing to a round object a few meters away. "Bah!" Oh, yes yes yes!! I went over and rolled it back toward him. "Yes, sweetie, it's a BALL!!" I don't think I'll ever be prouder, even when he wins a Nobel Prize.

Furthermore, last weekend, we visited with my friend Spencer from work, and he has a little fluffy dog. Nathan likes cats and dogs, and he LOVES to shriek with laughter and chase them around. When he saw Spence's dog, he said, "Beppie, beppie!" Yes, PUPPY!!

He's learning more and more about everything in the world, every day.

I love you, Nater-bug!

Oh, yes, he's mine, all right!

Gryffindor!

We went to see Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince. Grandma Willow made Naters a Hogwarts scarf, and she is pretty certain he belongs in the Gryffindor House.


So, dear readers, please leave a comment and tell us to which Hogwarts House YOU belong, and why.

Tackle-it Tuesday

To Do:

Work on getting Ohio driver license and car registration.

Oh, joy.

The Problem of Evil? More Like the Problem of Theodicy!

I had an interesting discussion at work, prompted by someone else (You know who you are, if you bothered to find my blog. And if so, ha! I am onto you, and you definitely have better things to be doing with your time.) reading about the Old Testament law and wisdom literature and then coming to talk to me about (among other things) Job and Ecclesiastes. Yes, I sometimes talk about this stuff at work, and it prompts me to think about things.

The "problem of evil" has been a popular topic of discussion for centuries, or millenia, rather. As Christianity (and the Hebrew religion prior to it) professes a God Who is both all-powerful and completely good, philosophers and other people have been drawn to grapple with the question of how such a God could and would permit evil to exist. The idea of the "theodicy" developed as a means to vindicate God with respect to the existence of evil.

Now, why do we think God needs our help? While I grieve as deeply as anyone for the suffering of the innocent in the world (I would rescue and care for all babies and kittens, if I could... puppies, too, on a generous day.), I have never felt that I needed to defend God with respect to anything of this nature. He is more than capable of taking care of Himself, and my duty is rather to live as a redeemed person and spread His Good to a hurting world.

Interestingly, Herch put up a post about this very topic. His view of God is similar to mine, and I would add that while people like to whine about their suffering and pretend that they reject God's Lordship out of some sense of outraged justice (And how amusing is this, really?), in reality, the vast majority of unbelievers that I know refuse to turn to God out of pride and a desire to maintain lordship of their own lives. They have no desire to live in such a way as to open their lives up to God's blessings and allow themselves to be turned into blessings themselves, to mitigate the evil they pretend to be protesting. And so I challenge the whiney people: You don't do what GOD wants. So why all this fuss when God won't do what YOU want? I know, that seems a bit overly simple. There is more to it. And yet, when you get right down to it, the bottom line is just simple.

God is God. You are not. The evil that you see as a problem comes from YOU, from YOUR heart, spilling out through YOUR actions. God doesn't want evil to happen, but He has not yet crushed it out of existence because to do so would mean crushing you (and all of us human beings) out of existence, and He is giving you (and all of us) opportunity after opportunity to make things right with Him. Eventually, evil will stop existing (Rev 21-22).

Happy 17th!

Nathan is 17 months old TODAY.

He has been working on some more teeth, and is putting out some molars!

Happy Birthday! In the past week

Sara Brown
Christie Hallett
Laurel Yoshimoto

Past value

Now that I am looking to hire babysitters every so often, I realize how valuable a responsible, reliable babysitter is. I did a lot of babysitting in high school, and didn't charge a whole lot, and now, in retrospect, I think I undervalued myself. I could have charged twice as much! Ah, well.

Aw

I decided to delete my previous post, as it turned out to be more controversial than I'd expected. I have no fear of controversy, but this particular topic just didn't warrant that much attention. It seemed way funnier when I posted it late at night than it was in the morning. Lol.

Happy Birthday, Dad!

Remember, birthdays mark increases in wisdom, and nothing else.

Mortality

So it turns out that Michael Jackson, like Socrates, was mortal. But I don't know why his death should have taken anyone by surprise. Mr. Jackson himself obviously found it to be his teleological end, and prepared himself (and the world) by spending the past twenty years looking ever more like a corpse.



Joan Collins' corpse, to be exact.

Best. Video. Ever.

Truly, quite possibly the best video in the history of Youtube. It has stiff competition from "Timaeus: the Movie!" and "All Things Are Better in Koine", but "Buffy vs Edward" has one thing the others lack: BUFFY.

Happy Birthday, Jane Russell!!

Living legend Jane Russell is 88 today.

I was surprised to discover that despite Ms. Russell's sex symbol status as the femme fatale of many a film noir or as an alluring musical comedy star, she is openly and proudly a politically conservative Christian woman. She is, in particular, an outspoken advocate for life and for the rights of tiny unborn babies to not be horrifically tortured and murdered. In keeping with her concern for the welfare of children, Jane Russell also has supported and promoted adoption agencies for years and adopted three children of her own, none of whom has breathed any sort of "mommie dearest" rumors, so she is probably a pretty good mother to boot.

Jane shows her skills as a comedienne, holding her own with Bob Hope in The Paleface and helping to introduce the Oscar-winning song "Buttons and Bows"...
...And matches wits with frequent co-star Robert Mitchum in the atmospheric exotic drama Macao.
May the Lord continue to bless you and expand your territory, using you to bless others in turn. We'll meet in heaven some day!

Sirens

Great time-waster!

I found this linked from the LolCats.

Play to let the cat nom 4 fud! Addictive. Sometimes frustrating. Sort of like a bizarre concept for pool.

Seriously, people, you're killing me here.

So in church this morning, there was one song where the slides HAD NOT ONE SINGLE BIT OF PUNCTUATION. Not one. Except... EXCEPT apostrophes in all occurrences of the word "it's", which UNFORTUNATELY was TOTALLY WRONG, because it should have been "its", being used as a possessive pronoun, NOT a contraction of "it is".

It's just cruel. [See what I just did, right there? I used "it's" appropriately.]

How hard is it?

How hard is it to just PUT CORRECT PUNCTUATION IN THE "WORSHIP MUSIC" SLIDES THAT ARE GOING TO BE VIEWED BY HUNDREDS OF PEOPLE DURING YOUR CHURCH SERVICE?!

No, really, how hard IS it? Because apparently NOBODY involved in slide production in ANY of the churches that I have attended over the past DECADE has figured out how to do it. I am fed up enough that I might volunteer, even though nobody has figured out how to ask for help, either. Is grammar a spiritual gift?

I'm going over into the corner with the Panda, to sulk together and commiserate about apostrophes (soon to be the topic of another post, I'm sure).

Catching up

I have so many friends I need to call and email and send things to.

Meanwhile, I am all moved in, and mostly unpacked.

Orang Tua

Mums and Dad have come for a visit. They very kindly drove from SoCal with a moving truck, bringing me most of my stuff, and the kitty cats (who are VERY GLAD to be done with being trapped in a vehicle). Honestly, though, my parents did not come to see me very much. They came to see Nathan! I was afraid that he would not remember his grandparents, but he smiled and laughed and went to them immediately. And that was nothing compared to the transports of joy he experienced when seeing the cats. *chortle chortle chortle* He was pretty stoked about life last night, let me tell you.

Willow always has her camera, so I'm sure we'll have pictures shortly.

Blast from the Past

Okay, I can't believe that I have neglected to mention this for more than three months: Blink-182 has reunited and is going on tour this summer! This makes me happy. And, they will be touring with Weezer and Fall Out Boy! There is talk about All-American Rejects in there, too. A million fangirls went into overdrive.

One would probably have to sell one's soul AND one's firstborn to get tickets.

Me want! Me wish!

More Birthday

And a Happy Birthday (late) to Tim, my darling brother-in-law! I forgot this weekend, and I'm so sorry! I have had a lot on my mind lately...

Birthday

Happy Birthday to a few special people:

Bekah Farber - I've known Bekah since we were wee little children in Southeast Asia. She is a smart, creative, beautiful person who loves the Lord. Obviously, she's pretty special if she has found it in her to put up with me for more than 25 years.

Roland Morgan - I have no idea exactly when I met Roland, but we were both undergrads at Biola and encountered one another at some point between 1996 and 1999. If you had told me then that I would still be keeping in touch with Roland and value his friendship and advice, I would have thought you were nuts. It just goes to show that life never turns out as one might expect.

And now for something completely different

Check out this link of an optical illusion.

I see it spinning both ways, and can switch it back and forth at will. Sometimes it flips of its own accord, though. Oddly, it tries to go clockwise more than the other direction, indicating that I am more right-brained. Most people would probably peg me as a left-brained person, though.

Adventures

Well, I've been here for six weeks now, so I figure it's time to 'fess up to those who might read my blog but do not yet know: I am now living in central Ohio. Yes, despite being a dyed-in-the-wool California girl, I have moved to the Midwest, nearly to the East Coast. And yes, it is like being in a completely different country:
It is lush and green here.
There is no traffic.
People speak with a slight drawl, and are generally friendly and polite.
There is nothing, anywhere, written in Spanish.

I have gainful employment, and I love it. [Please pray that paperwork and logistics will work out so it can be permanent; I'm still a contractor right now.] It is related to the kind of work I did at the old Humongous Anonymous Technical Company, but it is for a different company. I already knew and even worked with some of the people here! I get to do a lot of math stuff, and physics.

I don't have any friends yet, and I will admit that I've been lonely a lot. However, I have found a church that has seemed to be a good fit for me, and have started meeting people there. Naters is doing so well! He has taken to daycare wonderfully, and of course, the daycare workers love him to pieces and wish all their charges were like him.

I believe I will continue to see God's goodness.

WoW Rap

My WoW video posts have gotten only one positive response (thanks, Bob!), but I like them, so I will continue to post them. So phooey on the rest of you!

I think this is hilarious. Most of you probably won't, because it's full of inside jokes. ...Enjoy it anyway.

River Tam FTW!!

It looks as though River Tam will win the vote (facing down, in her final round, Dr. House) for Most Badass (their word, not mine!) TV Character of All Time. Obviously, a tiny tail-kicking ESP-sporting genius girl should easily take out a mere human, even if he does wield both cane and sarcasm with deadly precision.

Memorial Day

Yesterday was Memorial Day, and Nathan and I were fortunate enough to be invited to a barbecue at the home of some friends. It was mostly people from their church family, plus a few assorted relatives, but everyone was so nice and made us feel welcome. By the end of the day, I was wearing Sweet Baby Ray's all the way down one pant leg. Nathan was soaking wet, covered in Dorito dust, with bbq sauce all over his face and even behind his ear, and whipped cream in his hair. In other words, it was a total success.

On a more serious note, Memorial Day is intended to memorialize people who died in service to the United States of America. I don't know anyone who died that way, but I do have family who lived that way.
World War II:
Thomas Price
Frank Trigg
Olaf Feely
Vietnam War:
John Price
Middle Eastern Conflict:
Daniel Price
Timothy Bicker

We also honor civilian contributors to the nation's service. Many civilian defense workers may not be facing down a rifle, but there is always the high risk of carpal tunnel distress, paper cuts, MISS (Mathematics-Induced Stress Syndrome), etc. But seriously, desk jockeys work hard and get little recognition!

WoW Dancing

There are countless videos about the WoW characters' various dances. Each race and sex has their own dances: most are based on real dance styles, many of them are immediately recognizable. This is a better-than-average vid showing toons dancing with footage of the dance source material. They are very well synched, and the vidder even took the effort to put the WoW animation in costumes to closely match the originals whenever possible.



Unfortunately, this does not include all the dances, but only the ones for which the vidder could find appropriate clips. For more information, see here.

That's the World of Warcraft That You Play

Yet another entry in my never-ending quest to cull through the Youtube dross and then bring you the very best in humorous, creative, or interesting World of Warcraft videos. This is a classic, and it's funny because it's (mostly) true!

"Hunter: You don't need anything but your pet--send him in, scattershot, and then feign death!"

Regrets

I spent most of the day yesterday bemoaning the fact that I failed to take either linear algebra or differential equations when I had the opportunities. Does anyone else have this problem?

The thing is, I neglected those classes because I didn't need them for my degree (in physical sciences, interdisciplinary), and had insufficient motivation to pursue them after I graduated from my undergrad. I was pretty done with math after third semester calculus. I did just fine in the course, but it just sort of lost me in the translation from classroom to life. Usually I'm pretty good at understanding that relationship, but multivariable vector calc just did not do it for me. I said to myself, "Self," I said, "when math stops having any ACTUAL NUMBERS and just has Greek letters and operators, that's where I stop, too."

So, naturally, 10 years after I've graduated with my bachelors degree, I am now working heavily with matrices and vectors, doing complicated calculations and translations among varying three-dimensional reference frames.

Who's the Tank

A classic reworking of a classic routine.



Honestly, I think this is funnier than the original. The set-up crayoned sketches, starting at 2:08, really do it for me.

I don't even play WoW anymore, but I find WoW videos so amusing!

All Things Are Better in Koine

You know it!

Switched at Birth!

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20090511/ap_on_re_us/us_switched_at_birth

Creepy! And but for the grace of God, there I might have been...

It's a little-known fact that I was SWITCHED AT BIRTH. Totally true!! They switched me with another baby at the hospital right after I was born. Fortunately, my mother was on top of things, and since the other baby was a Hispanic male, the error was not too hard to catch. But still... *shudder*

That's What I'm Talkin' About

see more Funny Graphs

DSFGE No More

Yes, I am now gainfully employed!

Kabaran

I might start blogging again.

And I have News.

Random Oscar Blither

For the first time in a long time, I haven't actually seen ANY of the movies [Well, I saw a snippet of WALL-E but not enough to think I've actually seen it.] up for awards this year. So my discussion of said movies is based on what I've read, combined with a whole lot of experience with reviews and award shows through the years.

Here are my predictions for some of the Oscar winners on Sunday.

Best Picture

My pick: Slumdog Millionaire

Oh, the prestige! Few awards are so hotly contested, and faddish wins may become reviled just a few short years after the fact. [See: Crash] Self-important Hollywood types like to stuff a lot of ideology into this category, as well, leading to further mis-steps by academy voters who are somehow impressed by shallow left-leaning rhetoric and attempts at moralizing (which never work if there is no solid objective basis for morality in the value system often presented by such films). [See: Crash] That being said, I'll put my hypothetical money on Slumdog Millionaire, which is a huge sleeper hit with heart appeal (which, unlike fads and politics, tends to age well), while also having indie cred and multicultural appeal ("This movie has dark-skinned people in it! Does that outrank all the gays in Milk? Oh no, I don't know how to cast my politically correct vote!").

The Curious Case of Benjamin Button - Too quirky and ponderous, I think, although this is the likeliest challenger for the Best Picture honor.

Frost/Nixon - YAWN. Enough with movies about Nixon and Watergate. Why are people obsessed with Watergate? BORING. I'd like to see, instead, a movie about all of Joe Kennedy's illegal and otherwise illicit activities. A blockbuster just waiting to happen.

Milk - Eh, overdone and too political for general appeal. Just by virtue of having Sean Penn.

The Reader - Sure, it's Holocaust Oscar-bait, but it had a lower profile than any other nominee except maybe Frost/Nixon. Dark horse.

Directing

My pick: Danny Boyle, Slumdog Millionaire. Though if Boyle has any sense at, he will invite his Indian co-director, Loveleen Tandan, up to the platform with him, even if the award is not officially shared with her. And not to open a debate about the issue (which stems from academy rules regarding nominations), but I suspect the film would not have the same impact without her work, so such an action would be appropriate and entirely deserved.

Best Actor

Mickey Rourke (The Wrestler) should be clearing space on his mantel. As many others have observed, not only are the role and performance just the sort of showy underdog/comeback story that Oscar loves [See: The Champ and so forth], but they reflect Rourke's own personal and professional return to grace, a circumstance that Oscar also loves.

Best Actress

Kate Winslet should finally bring home a statue, not only for her performance in The Reader, but as compensation for all the times she's been nominated and hasn't won in the past. Among her competition, Meryl Streep has won Oscars already and so is just the prestige nomination, Melissa Leo is the obligatory indie nod but won't pull enough votes, and Anne Hathaway and Angelina Jolie round out the category as the standard "well, attractive actresses are overwrought and glum-faced, so it must be great acting"entries (although, this ploy has worked for many Best Actress winners from Mary Pickford on down).

Best Supporting Actor

Matilda, come and get your (daddy's) Oscar! Heath Ledger has the scenery-chewing AND sympathy votes locked in this category, not to mention votes from any people who are still miffed that he didn't win for Brokeback Mountain a few years ago (get over it, people; his stiff non-emoting would have gained no attention if the movie hadn't been about homosexuality, which means that it wasn't very good acting) . All the other nominees might have given brilliant performances, but unless one of them manages to die tragically before Sunday night, I don't think enough people care about them.

Best Supporting Actress

Always the most varied and interesting of the acting categories, pulling in nominees and winners from cute little kids and ingenues to seasoned veterans, featuring character roles of all kinds. [See: Too many examples to list here.] In a way, it's nice, because it gives a chance for actresses to shine even when they aren't in "leading lady" mode. I admit, this is the most difficult call of this year's Oscars. Marisa Tomei is out, simply because she already got one of them sixteen years ago. Someone mentioned that Woody Allen movies often make a good showing for actresses at award time, which puts Vicky Cristina Barcelona's Penelope Cruz in a good place. However, other buzz has placed Taraji P. Henson as the front-runner here, particularly if Benjamin Button does not win many or any other awards (the supporting acting categories often being handed to representatives of Best Picture nominees). On the other hand, Viola Davis is getting some quiet but definitely gathering support for her distraught mother role [Always an Oscar favorite, of course; see: Holy cow, can't you just believe me?], while Amy Adams has a definite chance at the Oscar because she didn't get one for her standout performance in Junebug a few years ago. Both Davis and Adams are in Doubt, so unfortunately, there is a possibility of them splitting votes from voters who favor that movie, essentially cancelling each other out and leaving the category open for one of the others. So I'm going to say that with the exception of Tomei (sorry!), this Oscar is anybody's to grab, and I'm going to just wait and see.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY, NATHAN!!!

I can't believe it has been a year since you were born. But we've had a good time together, haven't we?

Even before you made your entrance into the outside world, there were things I already knew about you. I knew you were a little boy. I knew that you were very healthy. I knew that you were active and energetic (I should have known that you weren't much for sleeping), and you really liked caffeine (you'd jump around when I drank coffee or tea).

I also had some strong suspicions about how you'd turn out, and you rarely disappoint.

• I thought you'd be pretty smart, considering that statistics were in your favor. Nobody could doubt that you are an extremely bright little boy.
• I believed that if you were dark, you'd look like your daddy, and if fair, you'd take after your uncles. You have gone the blonde route, and you do indeed bear a great resemblance to the baby pictures of both your Uncle Mike and Uncle Robby.
• I am not surprised that you are strong-willed, and you want to do things your way. I am sure we will have battles as you grow older and your way begins to conflict with my way.
• It seemed likely that you would have at least some affinity for math and science. I had no idea you would display your gifts so early: You instinctively understood doors and hinges as soon as you were old enough to scoot around and examine them. You absolutely love anything electronic. You are already very spatial. You're obviously analytical; sometimes I can almost see the wheels turning in your tiny head, as you make connections and solve problems. I think you will turn out to be a mechanical engineer, but we'll see what the Lord has for you.

There are things about you that I never, ever thought would be true.

• I had no idea you'd turn out to be a shameless flirt. You are all about the ladies; you have an almost unerring instinct for selecting and focusing on those who will be susceptible to your charms, whenever we are out in public. It is comical to watch you after a rare misfire: You are so confused and indignant that you have not yet become the center of attention. But you have a charisma, and it is so evident, to the point of being recognized and commented on by professional actors. I have never seen a baby draw so much positive attention on a regular basis, and you already know how to work a crowd. Use your powers only for good, my son.
• I did not know how much you would adore the kitty cats and want to be friends with them.
• It never occurred to me that you'd love me so much, and actually want to be with me. We're going to be best buds (even though I know you won't admit it after age 12).

I always tell people how great you are, how happy and good-natured. You are Superbaby, a dream child if there ever was one. You became slightly less dreamy when you started teething (utterly normal and healthy, of course), but you are still hands-down the sunniest baby I've ever known. You make mamahood fun and comparatively easy.

I am excited to discover what adventures we'll have in your second year.

Love always,
Mama

Still More Status on To-Do

After dinner, I continued in the same productive vein:

• Watched part of NCIS.
• Spoke on the phone with the mother of one of the students I've helped in geometry.
• Continued running laundry through the dryer or hanging it to dry on a rack, and folding it when it was done drying.
• Changed Nathan's diaper and then put him in his pajamas.
• Read to Nathan and put him down to sleep for the night (always a major task, even when he's so exhausted he can't crawl straight).
• Checked the diaper bag to ensure it is adequately stocked for tomorrow.
• Got on WoW to check mail, do a fishing quest, chat with a friend, and take a boat over to Northrend. I am half of a bar into level 70. 80 is a long way away yet.
• Went through a stack of miscellaneous papers, put them into appropriate groupings, and filed them in labeled manila folders. [I actually did one of the tasks allotted for Tackle-It Tuesday!]
• Realized I didn't have the paperwork immediately available for the passport applications, so I'll do that another day.
• Put at least 20 items in the recycle or trash.
• Made my to-do list for tomorrow.

Summary for today's to-do list, as set forth at the bottom of this post:
The things I DIDN'T do were my homework for my career class, Facebook, and cleaning and organizing my bookshelf. And I didn't do my passport paperwork for my Tackle-It Tuesday project.

I'm pretty happy with all I managed to accomplish today. However, success and productivity should not be anomalies; they should be the hallmark of every day. I'd like to be this organized, disciplined, and motivated on a daily basis. At the same time, I must retain a realistic view of what I can and cannot do with the time I have at my disposal. One thing I need to incorporate into my schedule is regular exercise. I guess I'll work on it.

For tomorrow:

• Put together new car seat.
• Career class homework.
• Facebook.
• Get paperwork for passport applications.
• Post on blog.
• Phone calls and e-mails, as per usual.

Further Status on To-Do

I felt as if my afternoon was less productive than the morning. However, in retrospect, I really did accomplish a lot, including stuff both on and off my to-do list.

• Folded laundry from dryer.
• Ate lunch and fed Nathan.
• Engaged in a battle of wills with Nathan, regarding whether or not he was going to take a nap. This took a long time, but eventually, I won.
• Spent some quality time with Sara (though virtual, as she is in France).
• Unloaded clean dishes from the dishwasher, and loaded dirty dishes in after that.
• Made a few important phone calls.
• Went to AAA and got my membership (a Christmas gift from Debbie and Jerry).
• Hosted a little videoconference for Nathan and his daddy (who is doing work in Baltimore).
• Drove a small load of stuff over to the storage unit to keep until I am ready to deal with it.
• Took out the trash from my bathroom.
• Fed the cats and cleaned up their litter.

Now, I've eaten dinner, fed Nathan, and updated my blog. I'm off to do more.

Status on To-Do

It is noon, and so far, I have accomplished the following:

• Gotten Nathan and me ready for the day.
• Flossed my teeth. I don't do this often enough.
• Gotten at least a little food into Nathan and me.
• Run one load of laundry through washer and dryer, have one load in the dryer, and one in the washer.
• Called the engine service place about taking my car in. As it turns out, they are booked solid today and tomorrow, so I have an appointment on Thursday morning. Technically, I didn't actually complete that task on my to-do list, but I think I can cross it off anyway, as I addressed the issue and did as much as I can about it today.
• Restocked Nathan's diaper bag. I do that almost daily, of course, as I like to have it sitting ready to go at a moment's notice. In addition to plenty of diapers and wipes, I always pack a blanket, a burp cloth (which I actually seldom if ever use for burping, but they're great for so many things, such as an emergency changing pad), an extra onesie, and a pair of socks. In the winter, add sweater/jacket and booties for warmth. Then there are the consumables: snack-sized portions of applesauce and/or Cheerios, and the essential Orajel and teething tablets. Oh, and a toy or book.
• Washed Nathan's diaper bag's changing pad.
• Changed Nathan's diaper three times and his outfit once.
• Recycled two papers.

Tackle-It Tuesday

This Tuesday, I'll be tackling: Papers and paperwork!
In this society, one of the banes of existence is the preponderance of papers that threaten to overwhelm our homes and our lives. Even if we just get rid of it, as with junk mail, it still requires some of our resources to look at each piece of paper, evaluate it, and then put it in a recycling container. If the papers are worth keeping, we then expend even more energy deciding how to keep it, and where, and with what other papers. And with bills, bank statements, Christmas newsletters, information from businesses, and more, all building up, it seems as though even good papers become negative when they sap so many of our resources.
Anyway, I'll go through papers that have been in my room, some of them for weeks, some of them as recently arrived as today.
I will also apply for passports for Nathan and me.

My Day

In an effort to keep the blog posts coming and even increasing, I thought I'd start trying to write about minutiae such as what I did today or what I need to do tomorrow.

This was a very busy day, and I accomplished a lot. It made me wonder how anyone handles it when she is working fulltime in addition to being a mom. The errands and appointments must happen miraculously, or perhaps she borrows Hermione's time-turner. I'll find out soon enough, I guess.

After getting up and getting ready (not only myself, but Nathan too, of course), I was prepared to face my day. I went to:

• Doctor's office - Check-up appointments for Nathan and me. The doctor was very encouraging about Nathan's health and development; he is healthy, alert, intelligent, all those things a parent desires to hear. She was also encouraging about my continued breast-feeding. In fact, she is completely pro-lactation, and refuses to take as patients any infants who are not breast-fed. Now, there's someone who puts her money where her mouth is. I am also in decent health, thank you very much.
• Bank - Depositing some checks, and all that happy stuff. One of the checks I deposited was a rebate from State Farm.
• Gas station - Filled my tank for slightly over $30. The price of gas is creeping upward, unfortunately.
• State Farm office - I had to pay a premium for some insurance. I had a question about the bill, so I stopped in to see my friendly State Farm agent (or rather, to see his office manager), had my question answered, and then paid my bill. The premium I paid was actually about a dollar less than the rebate check I had just deposited. If only State Farm would sort out its Accounts Payable and Accounts Receivable, there would be much less juggling of paying this versus getting back a portion of that. But their left hand does not seem to know what their right hand is doing.
• Oxnard College Job and Career Center - I drove over to Oxnard to drop off some important paperwork for my county job search program eligibility worker. I'm telling you, the local government is probably single-handedly responsible for the razing of at least one third of the Amazonian rainforest. I don't mind shuffling papers and sending in all my info for them; the county programs are being helpful to me and I appreciate it. However, a lot of times, they get their signals crossed or get caught up in the proverbial red tape. For example, they asked me to send in my completed quarterly report by January 5. But... I didn't even receive the paperwork in the mail until January 5! The mail delivery was probably slowed up due to the holiday and weekend. Technically, the quarterly report was already late by the time I got my hands on the empty form. I've pretty much gotten that one sorted out now, but it's a regular pain.
• Trader Joe's - Grocery shopping! We patronize Trader Joe's because they have, overall, great prices, high quality merchandise, and a corporate philosophy that we can whole-heartedly support. [Speaking of their merchandise, I have stumbled upon a revelation that has transformed my life (being as how I own cats): Silica litter! None of the dust or smell of clay litter, and much less of a mess, as the silica gel crystals do not adhere as much to paws and get scattered around the litter pan. There is also a lot less waste than with regular clay litter. So far, I'm really liking it.] And yes, I brought my own reusable shopping bag in which I carried home my groceries.
• Starbucks - After several hours out and about, doing useful and important things, I decided I needed a little boost and treat as a reward, so I picked up a frappuccino on my home. By the way, Nathan behaved beautifully all day. He is such a darling little boy.

And for tomorrow, my to-do list includes:

• Take my car in to get the engine serviced.
• Go to AAA.
• Take a load of stuff to the storage unit.
• Sort, organize, and file papers.
• Recycle or throw away at least 10 items.
• Do my homework for my career class.
• Make several telephone calls.
• Send a few e-mails.
• Actually get onto Facebook and update and respond to people. I'm so bad about Facebook.
• Two loads of laundry.
• Clean and organize my bookshelf.

Sick little boy

Nathan is sick today. Poor little Nater-bug. His tummy is upset, and he hasn't been eating much. He didn't even keep milk down this morning. I'm hoping the sickness passes soon.

Seriously, folks

Mr. Obama isn't even inaugurated yet, and I'm already sick of him.

Vinni Pukh

As it turns out, the misdeeds of the former Soviet Union were not limited to violation of human rights (enforced political "education", imprisonment in gulags, limitation of free speech, to name a few) and maintenence of the constant (and terrifying) threat of nuclear war. They also engaged in shameless, large-scale copyright infringement. Tsk tsk, comrades! In the late 1960s, there was produced an adaptation of A.A. Milne's Winnie the Pooh; it has apparently become something of a cult classic.



See it here if it won't embed.

In spite of (or perhaps because of) the bargain-basement visuals (I'm cutting them some slack because they didn't have Disney's studio and artists) and the fact that I don't understand Russian, I found this cartoon utterly charming and amusing. True, this production jettisons Milne's overly precious Englishness (exemplified by here-absent Christopher Robin), but retains in spades his celebration of the universal quality of childlike wonderment and appreciation of the absurd. There is Vinni Pukh himself, looking like a slightly deranged Siberian bear cub and sounding like June Foray with laryngitis. There is Piglet, who lives in something of a slavic chalet, looks rather like an actual piglet (unlike whatever animal Disney's Piglet is supposed to be), and wears blue gingham high-waisted shorts. There are the bees, wild-eyed and menacing in their military-like organized defense of their honey hoard. All in all, strangely wonderful. If only I could understand the (martial-sounding) songs and the dialogue (which is reputedly very witty in Russian). I can't believe I haven't heard of this before!

File this under A, for Awesome!

11th Lunaversary

Nathan is 11 months old! I can't believe it!

Improvement, continued

Well, as it turned out, it was more efficacious to recycle eight items and throw away two, but the net result is still the same.

Improvement

I'm not making any big resolutions in this new year, but I plan to take little steps to improve little things.

For example, tomorrow, I will throw away five items and recycle five items.
Just that simple.

2009

Happy New Year!

Christmas

Luke 2:14
"Glory to God in the highest, and on earth, peace among those with whom He is pleased."

It seems as if nearly all people, beauty pageant contestants not least among them, have a desire for world peace. For many of us, the mention of peace on earth may conjure images of nuclear disarmament and perhaps the end of violent conflict in the Middle East. Peace on earth, certainly, is a big deal. And yet, the Bible's idea of peace does not start with just stopping a civil war, or diplomatic negotiation of cease-fire in Israel. Rather, it starts in the minds and hearts of the people of God, those who please Him with their willingness to obey, producing an attitude of desire for an end of conflict at a personal level. "Blessed are the peacemakers," Jesus says in Matthew 5, "for they will be called sons of God." Desiring peace, and acting on that desire, is a family trait, an attribute that marks a person as belonging to God and having Him as a Father. In Romans 12, Paul directs his readers, "In as much as it depends on you, live at peace with all people, especially those who are of the family of believers." We are responsible for promoting peace in every area under our influence. Peace on earth begins with you and me.

Let us ask ourselves, "What in my heart, in my life, is a hindrance to true peace, a barrier to gracious love of my fellow human beings? What do I need to do to follow the commandments to become a peacemaker?" If we all genuinely sought to live with gentleness, humility, and love toward those in our lives, and they in turn reflected those qualities to others in their lives, and so forth, the Lord would transform the world in a very short time. Maybe work to bring peace to just one of your relationships this week. Let us know what happens as a result.

Some time ago, I posted about how Touchy and Hobbes (primarily Hobbes) are able to open doors. I affirmed that they could open doors with handles, and sliding glass and screen doors. I mentioned that I thought it unlikely that they would be able to open doors with round knobs. Well, as it turns out, I was wrong. [Ha!! Take note. It's not often you'll hear those words from me.]

The kitties have been spending most of their time in one of the bathrooms here at Willow's Cottage, while we humans (1) work on constructing their outdoor enclosure and (2) wait for the end of inclement weather in order to construct the aforementioned enclosure. Aside from a tendency to scatter litter on the floor, they are doing just fine (there is no furniture in there for them to scratch, of course), but they hate being confined to one room. They meow and scratch at the door, especially at night, when the nocturnal creatures prefer to be roaming around.

Because the bathroom door closes with a knob, I assumed that they would just be stuck inside making noise, since they lack opposable thumbs and are too short to reach the knob anyway. But these resourceful creatures have somehow managed to get out of the bathroom, repeatedly. It's not a fluke, one-time occurence. Since we humans are always on the other side of the door when they perform their stunt, we can only make a guess as to their methods, but we think that they get up on the counter, and then reach their paws out several inches and wiggle the knob till it turns enough to unlatch the door, then pull the door open and stroll on out. It's crazy. These kitty cats KNOW what they are doing. They have a method and employ it on a regular basis.

The papa went to the hardware store and got some plastic kid-proof door knob covers. The cats have still managed to get the door open at least once. I am not making this up!

I keep telling my mom, it stands to reason that if there ever existed cats that could figure out how to turn door knobs with tiny paws and no opposable thumbs, it would be my cats.

SOS!

Or rather, SOC (Save Our Cats).

I need to move my beloved cats from the apartment where they are currently living, but they can't stay in Willow's cottage, where Nathan and I live. I need a temporary foster home for them until I can make permanent arrangements and/or get a place of my own (4-6 weeks). Touchy and Hobbes are sweet-natured, loving cats; they are great with people and love to play.

If you live in the Southern California area and have (or know of) a SAFE and KIND environment where I can keep my kitties, please let me know. I will pay for their room and board!!

Well

My attempt at NaBloPoMo was an epic fail. That's okay, though. I can transition to Holidailies, which posting is more fun and interesting, anyway.

The holidays are well and truly upon us. Thanksgiving came and went, and the Advent season begins tomorrow.

Thankfulness

Psalm 136
1 Give thanks to the LORD, for he is good. His love endures forever.
2 Give thanks to the God of gods. His love endures forever.
3 Give thanks to the Lord of lords: His love endures forever.
4 to him who alone does great wonders, His love endures forever.
5 who by his understanding made the heavens, His love endures forever.
6 who spread out the earth upon the waters, His love endures forever.
7 who made the great lights— His love endures forever.
8 the sun to govern the day, His love endures forever.
9 the moon and stars to govern the night; His love endures forever.
10 to him who struck down the firstborn of Egypt His love endures forever.
11 and brought Israel out from among them His love endures forever.
12 with a mighty hand and outstretched arm; His love endures forever.
13 to him who divided the Red Sea asunder His love endures forever.
14 and brought Israel through the midst of it, His love endures forever.
15 but swept Pharaoh and his army into the Red Sea; His love endures forever.
16 to him who led his people through the desert, His love endures forever.
17 who struck down great kings, His love endures forever.
18 and killed mighty kings— His love endures forever.
19 Sihon king of the Amorites His love endures forever.
20 and Og king of Bashan— His love endures forever.
21 and gave their land as an inheritance, His love endures forever.
22 an inheritance to his servant Israel; His love endures forever.
23 to the One who remembered us in our low estate His love endures forever.
24 and freed us from our enemies, His love endures forever.
25 and who gives food to every creature. His love endures forever.
26 Give thanks to the God of heaven. His love endures forever.

Disneyland picture!

A few weeks ago, Dan and Jennifer took Nathan and me to Disneyland for Nathan's first real trip there. Nathan appreciated a lot of it, but more than that, he enjoyed getting to know his Uncle Dan and spending time with his Aunt Jeffie. They really have a special relationship, because even while Uncle Dan was serving overseas, she was a big part of Nathan's life. She even came to visit him in the hospital when he was just a few hours old!

(Photo credit: Dan)

Nathan says it in his own words:

Deer ant Jeffy,
I luv yu. I miss livving neer yu. Tank yu for takeing me to vizzit diznylan. I reely liek yor nue hare kut. I wil sea yu sune.
Luv NATHAN yor nefew

Horror

I was watching TV earlier tonight, and was exposed to a truly horrific advertisement. And apparently, the horror is proliferating throughout the nation.

The drug company (Merck) is trying to market an anti-HPV vaccine with the slogan "One Less". What?! Where is the outrage? Obviously, this is a job for the panda (the one, of course, who eats, shoots, and leaves). The panda deals directly with punctuation, but I'm sure he's willing to branch out into other grammar issues, as well as the field of proper syntax.

[Next up: I address Starbucks' slogan for their new piadini (pricier breakfast sandwichy thing): "Wake up to a new toasty warm and savory delicious." Aaaaaaaaugh!!!]

Signing off, I remain ONE FEWER woman who will tolerate this sloppy slide into linguistic imprecision.

Tempus fugit

I can't believe that Thanksgiving is only a week and a half away.

I know I'm thankful for a roof over my head, and plenty of food to eat.

I'm thankful for baby teething aids like Orajel and Hyland's teething tablets.

I'm thankful for Starbucks java chip frappucinos. It remains to be seen whether or not Starbucks will keep the faith and remain true to our relationship, though.

Bummer

I already fell off the NaBloPoMo wagon. Oops.

Nothing really exciting going on. This weekend, I visited Redondo Beach with my parents, where they were cat-sitting. I went to Starbucks. I didn't sleep much, because Nathan is teething.

I've been tutoring an SAT prep class, and while I really enjoy doing it, and enjoy the students, I feel bad because my professional assessment is that for the most part, they are not ready for the SAT, and I'm afraid I won't be able to work miracles to get them ready in time. And if I can't, I feel badly about charging the parents money for the lessons. I'm doing my best, and I hope the students are doing their part (but I have no control over that). I guess I just want everyone to succeed.

I haven't read any good books lately.

Quick one-shot

Since I don't have anything of note to write for a post, here is a somewhat recent photo of Nathan and me to keep you coming back to my blog. Aw, he's so cute!

Strange Bedfellows

It's not as if I spend my time hiding from political bloggers, but here is a development I didn't see coming (or even see when it arrived): The Hillacrats hate Obama (and his followers, labeled Obamatons, heehee) and really really like Sarah Palin. Despite these people's devotion to liberal ideals, they admire Palin's ability and decry the "misogynist" treatment afforded her by the mainstream media (I do not know if it was inspired by misogyny, but the media coverage of Palin was definitely unfair, to say the least). I wonder if there will be a move, a few years down the road, to try to put together a Clinton-Palin ticket.

At any rate, some Hillacrat bloggers have a lot to say about Obama's lack of ability or experience, and furthermore, they firmly believe that Obama's African-American voter base in CA were responsible for pushing Measure 8 through, and boy are they POed. Much speculation on how BO positioned himself to manipulate people to help him to achieve his goals. Read about it here.

Tackle-It Tuesday

Sherida often posts about how she takes on difficult tasks on Tackle-It Tuesdays. I thought I'd try the same thing.

Today, I started moving my work on the Willow's Cottage website into high gear. I'm researching hosting companies, fiddling with html, and looking at options for working the business end of things. In the meantime, keep on reading at the current home of Willow's Cottage.

XOXO

My friends and family know that I spend a decent amout of time breastfeeding my hungry little Nater-bug. He is a healthy boy with a healthy appetite, and I am a passionate advocate of breastfeeding, so I'm more than happy to invest that time. I spend about 5 hours nursing Nathan every day (at least it's better now than when he was a tiny infant, when I actually clocked it and confirmed that he spent 8-10 hours/day just nursing: yes, being a new mom is more than a full-time job), and I'd get bored just sitting there, so I'm always trying to find things to do to fill my time. I can read, but it is difficult to handle a book or magazine one-handed. I occasionally watch TV, but there's usually nothing good being broadcast on most stations. I spend a lot of time on my laptop, since I can work it with just one hand, and I've been known to IM, browse online, post on my blog, and even play WoW that way. Sadly, I find it really hard to do anything serious (job-hunting, updating my resume, planning lessons) while nursing, because I don't have the necessary focus while doing two things at once. Frivolous pursuits are always best.

My lovely BFF Sara came to my rescue a few weeks ago when she introduced me to Surf the Channel. Awesome! Almost every TV show ever, just waiting to be watched! No commercials, no need to adhere to some stupid cable company's arbitrary programming decisions (no, no, I do not need to see endless re-runs of Will & Grace)!

Being me, I promptly began watching through the silliest and least appropriate thing available: Gossip Girl. I started because I saw it listed on the front page as one of their most popular shows, and I thought, "Oh, I've heard of that. I wonder what it's about." So I clicked on it and was swept up into a land far, far away. After viewing several episodes, I still wonder what it's about, although it seems to be roughly analagous to Veronica Mars, being a dramatic and extremely improbable chronicling of the lives of overly experienced teenagers, though Veronica Mars is salted with gritty SoCal attitude, while Gossip Girl is definitely flavored with the tony NY Upper East Side. In a lovely bit of symmetry, the title character of both shows is portrayed by the outstanding Kristen Bell! Anyway, if/when I actually figure out what GG is about, I'll let you know. Meanwhile, I mix it up with NCIS, and I've recently started adding Dark Angel for my sci fi fix.

And am I watching anything else of note? That's one secret I'll never tell. You know you love me!

My apologies

I forgot that November is NaBloPoMo* and requires** at least on post each day. Sorry! I'll work on this.

*National Blog Posting Month
**Although a month cannot actually require anything; it's a specified length of time, not a being with emotion, will, or intellect. I'm imposing the requirement upon myself.

Remember, remember

Oooh, I forgot to post on the fifth of November!

Guy Fawkes Day!

Happy Lunaversary!

Nathan is nine months old today!

Yay, democracy.

Yesterday was a historic day, indeed. A large number of the people in the United States seem to have decided that the best option for the head of federal government is a communist with little experience and lots of identity issues.

At least the next four years will not be boring.

Exit Poll

Thanks for all your votes in the "Nathan's Halloween Costume" Poll. Looks like Cute Little Bug won by an antenna! I'll take that into consideration.

Vote! Vote! Vote!

New poll! Vote for a potential costume for Nathan's first Halloween.

If you vote for "Other", please leave your suggestion in the comments.

Everybody needs to vote!

Of course, voting in political matters is important. But this is about something else, entirely.

My beautiful and wonderful friend Sherida entered a photo in a contest, and she is one of the finalists!

Please, please, please go HERE and vote for her (Name: Sherida; Blog: My Life).

[Willow sent me some adorable pictures of the New Boy that I was supposed to submit to this contest, but I got distracted with some life-related stuff, so I never sent them in. Oh, well, Willow's pictures will win next time.]

Confession

I HATE Lauren Conrad.

I know, I know. I shouldn't even mention her name, because just putting it on my blog raises her media profile. We should actually all stop talking about her, pretend she doesn't exist, and she'll just dry up and disappear.

I don't watch MTV, so I'd never even heard of her or The Hills until the Fug Girls (very correctly) panned her fashion show. [Pretty much everyone agrees that the Lauren Conrad Collection, the "line of clothing" that she "designs", is truly tacky, not to mention overpriced.] Since then, I have gradually become aware of how pervasive she is in media, apparently earning lots of money not only from her show, but from lucrative endorsement deals, and maybe even sales of her clothing, even though I don't know who would buy it except blind people and impressionable adolescent girls who idolize Lauren Conrad because they are too immature to realize that she is plastic, shallow, and talentless. Recently, Ms. Conrad even inked a deal to "write" some young adult "fiction" "books". And to think that while she cashes in on her fame-whore celebrity, there are legitimately gifted young designers and writers who are struggling and looking for their big breaks.

The silver lining on this pop culture cloud is the fact that, this world being what it is, Ms. Conrad's proverbial 15 minutes of fame are winding down, and our media will be largely free of her soon enough (within 2 years, is my guess). And after that, she can actually complete her supposed schooling at FIDM, and potentially find her niche as a lead designer for K-Mart, which is pretty much an appropriate aim for someone of her tastes and abilities.

2008 Ig Nobel Prizes Awarded

The Annals of Improbable Research proudly present the Ig Nobel Prizes, awarded for "Research that makes people LAUGH and then THINK."

The 2008 winners were announced last Thursday night, 2 October 2008, in a ceremony at Harvard University.

NUTRITION PRIZE. Massimiliano Zampini of the University of Trento, Italy and Charles Spence of Oxford University, UK, for electronically modifying the sound of a potato chip to make the person chewing the chip believe it to be crisper and fresher than it really is.
REFERENCE: "The Role of Auditory Cues in Modulating the Perceived Crispness and Staleness of Potato Chips," Massimiliano Zampini and Charles Spence, Journal of Sensory Studies, vol. 19, October 2004, pp. 347-63.
PEACE PRIZE. The Swiss Federal Ethics Committee on Non-Human Biotechnology (ECNH) and the citizens of Switzerland for adopting the legal principle that plants have dignity.
REFERENCE: "The Dignity of Living Beings With Regard to Plants. Moral Consideration of Plants for Their Own Sake"
WHO ATTENDED THE CEREMONY: Urs Thurnherr, member of the committee.
ARCHAEOLOGY PRIZE. Astolfo G. Mello Araujo and José Carlos Marcelino of Universidade de São Paulo, Brazil, for measuring how the course of history, or at least the contents of an archaeological dig site, can be scrambled by the actions of a live armadillo.
REFERENCE: "The Role of Armadillos in the Movement of Archaeological Materials: An Experimental Approach," Astolfo G. Mello Araujo and José Carlos Marcelino, Geoarchaeology, vol. 18, no. 4, April 2003, pp. 433-60.
BIOLOGY PRIZE. Marie-Christine Cadiergues, Christel Joubert,, and Michel Franc of Ecole Nationale Veterinaire de Toulouse, France for discovering that the fleas that live on a dog can jump higher than the fleas that live on a cat.
REFERENCE: "A Comparison of Jump Performances of the Dog Flea, Ctenocephalides canis (Curtis, 1826) and the Cat Flea, Ctenocephalides felis felis (Bouche, 1835)," M.C. Cadiergues, C. Joubert, and M. Franc, Veterinary Parasitology, vol. 92, no. 3, October 1, 2000, pp. 239-41.
MEDICINE PRIZE. Dan Ariely of Duke University, USA, for demonstrating that high-priced fake medicine is more effective than low-priced fake medicine.
REFERENCE: "Commercial Features of Placebo and Therapeutic Efficacy," Rebecca L. Waber; Baba Shiv; Ziv Carmon; Dan Ariely, Journal of the American Medical Association, March 5, 2008; 299: 1016-1017.
WHO ATTENDED THE CEREMONY: Dan Ariely
COGNITIVE SCIENCE PRIZE. Toshiyuki Nakagaki of Hokkaido University, Japan, Hiroyasu Yamada of Nagoya, Japan, Ryo Kobayashi of Hiroshima University, Atsushi Tero of Presto JST, Akio Ishiguro of Tohoku University, and Ágotá Tóth of the University of Szeged, Hungary, for discovering that slime molds can solve puzzles.
REFERENCE: "Intelligence: Maze-Solving by an Amoeboid Organism," Toshiyuki Nakagaki, Hiroyasu Yamada, and Ágota Tóth, Nature, vol. 407, September 2000, p. 470.
WHO ATTENDED THE CEREMONY: Toshiyuki Nakagaki, Ryo Kobayashi, Atsushi Tero
ECONOMICS PRIZE. Geoffrey Miller, Joshua Tybur and Brent Jordan of the University of New Mexico, USA, for discovering that a professional lap dancer's ovulatory cycle affects her tip earnings.
REFERENCE: "Ovulatory Cycle Effects on Tip Earnings by Lap Dancers: Economic Evidence for Human Estrus?" Geoffrey Miller, Joshua M. Tybur, Brent D. Jordan, Evolution and Human Behavior, vol. 28, 2007, pp. 375-81.
WHO ATTENDED THE CEREMONY: Geoffrey Miller and Brent Jordan
PHYSICS PRIZE. Dorian Raymer of the Ocean Observatories Initiative at Scripps Institution of Oceanography, USA, and Douglas Smith of the University of California, San Diego, USA, for proving mathematically that heaps of string or hair or almost anything else will inevitably tangle themselves up in knots.
REFERENCE: "Spontaneous Knotting of an Agitated String," Dorian M. Raymer and Douglas E. Smith, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, vol. 104, no. 42, October 16, 2007, pp. 16432-7.
WHO ATTENDED THE CEREMONY: Dorian Raymer
CHEMISTRY PRIZE. Sharee A. Umpierre of the University of Puerto Rico, Joseph A. Hill of The Fertility Centers of New England (USA), Deborah J. Anderson of Boston University School of Medicine and Harvard Medical School (USA), for discovering that Coca-Cola is an effective spermicide, and to Chuang-Ye Hong of Taipei Medical University (Taiwan), C.C. Shieh, P. Wu, and B.N. Chiang (all of Taiwan) for discovering that it is not.
REFERENCE: "Effect of 'Coke' on Sperm Motility," Sharee A. Umpierre, Joseph A. Hill, and Deborah J. Anderson, New England Journal of Medicine, 1985, vol. 313, no. 21, p. 1351.
REFERENCE: "The Spermicidal Potency of Coca-Cola and Pepsi-Cola," C.Y. Hong, C.C. Shieh, P. Wu, and B.N. Chiang, Human Toxicology, vol. 6, no. 5, September 1987, pp. 395-6. [NOTE: THE JOURNAL LATER CHANGED ITS NAME. NOW CALLED "Human & experimental toxicology"]
WHO ATTENDED THE CEREMONY: Deborah Anderson, and C.Y. Hong's daughter Wan Hong
LITERATURE PRIZE. David Sims of Cass Business School. London, UK, for his lovingly written study "You Bastard: A Narrative Exploration of the Experience of Indignation within Organizations."
REFERENCE: "You Bastard: A Narrative Exploration of the Experience of Indignation within Organizations," David Sims, Organization Studies, vol. 26, no. 11, 2005, pp. 1625-40.
WHO ATTENDED THE CEREMONY: David Sims

Fall Cleaning

I am working on cleaning and organizing stuff (and goodness knows, it's way beyond needed). Thus, I emptied EVERYTHING out of Nathan's diaper bag. This is what I found:

• Four diapers (no surprises there)
• Changing pad (came with the bag)
• Small container of Butt Paste diaper rash ointment (Despite the silly name, this is quite good stuff for diaper rash.)
• Small packet of Huggies Sensitive baby wipes
• Regular container of Huggies Cucumber and Green Tea baby wipes (I swear I am not getting a kickback from Huggies, but I've found that these wipes are the only ones that do not give Nathan a reaction.)
• One burp cloth
• Re-usable Target bag (www.greenbag.info)
• One packet of Sweet-n-Low
• One disposable changing pad
• A pacifier cover (But no pacifier; gotta find that.)
• A rubber-covered baby spoon
• Plastic bag, folded up
• Several napkins
• A tissue
• Packet of spearmint Trident that has seen better days
• Eye drops that expired 10/04 (Huh? Why didn't I throw that out 4 years ago?)
• Six ball-point pens
• One felt-tip pen
• Three Sharpie pens
• A bottle of homeopathic teething relief tablets (No matter what I think of homeopathic "medicine", these, at least, really work.)
• Small tube of Ora-jel (also really works)
• Small container of lotion, obtained from hotel room
• Business card for Kim Lentz, hair designer in Phoenix (Recommended by Bekah Farber, 602-363-1624-- There's some free advertising for ya, Kim!)
• Little brochure on the Five Love Languages
• Granola bar (which I don't really like, but keep in case I need emergency blood sugar boost)
• White onesie (I always keep a spare in the diaper bag, in case we need to change him.)
• Four pairs of baby socks (No wonder the supply in the baby drawer was dwindling...)
• Two small pads of scratch paper (likewise obtained from hotel rooms)
• Box of matches from the Vintage Press restaurant in Visalia
• Two moist towelettes
• Eight sterile alcohol towelettes
• One tube of lip gloss (pink)
• Two sets of keys (still current)
• One bag of sour candy (from Elizabeth)
• Two sets of Fry's VIP rewards cards
• One expired driver license
• One temporary driver license
• Two 3x5 cards
• Two checkbooks
• Paper copy of health insurance card
• Dell packing slip
• Receipt from ob/gyn appointment
• Insurance information sheet from pediatrician
• Tape measure
• Eight cards from friends and family, including three gift cards to various retailers
• $$ in cash
• Lovely blue set of regular polyhedra. (I just like to carry my Platonic solids with me wherever I go.)

Scary, no?