It's time for another Edgar Guest poem. This one I found late last night/early this morning on page 389 of The Book of Virtues, in the chapter on Work.
"The man who wants a garden fair,
Or small or very big,
With flowers growing here and there,
Must bend his back and dig.
"The things are mighty few on earth
That wishes can attain,
Whate'er we want of any worth
We've got to work to gain.
"It matters not what goal you seek
Its secret here reposes:
You've got to dig from week to week
To get Results or Roses."
Friday, April 11, 2014
Tuesday, April 8, 2014
Pressing On
"Keep one foot in front of the other..." This tune could work well for this time of semester.
"Just keep swimming, just keep swimming..." - Dory, Finding Nemo.
And Keep a-Goin', like the poem says.
It's that time of the semester when there is quite a bit to do and not much energy to complete it. So you just do what you can, complain more often than normal, and snap sarcastic replies to anyone willing to engage you in conversation. On the other hand, it's that time of semester for everyone else, too, so that's something.
"Do not worry about anything, but in everything, with prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, let your requests be made known to God. And the peace of God, which is beyond all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus." (Philippians 4:6-7)
That verse was part of the message from Monday night's meeting, I know I needed to hear it. I worry a lot, and stress is as natural to my life as caffeine.
A giant leak developed in the roof of the BCM's living room during the big storm on Thursday night, that was a little intense, trying to contain the newfound faucet. Once that was taken care of, Bob and Deb led a lesson on marriage that was the first of a two-part series. The power also went out completely in Ross on Thursday.
Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.... it's driving me UP THE WALL, but I'm loving it. Although it probably wasn't the best idea to watch the new episode several hours after watching Jurassic Park. There's only so much intensity and surprises that can be handled in one day. (And now part of the reason I'm writing this post is cause I'm a little afraid to go to sleep. Remind me NEVER TO WATCH THAT MOVIE EVER AGAIN.)
Sunday was busy, as the SWAT crew first went down to the Cookson area for a rare morning show, then that night we headed into Muskogee to a rather creepy church older than the state. (Seriously, it began in 1904.) We were missing about a third of our team, so there was a lot of filling in different roles than usual. (I need to get to work on editing those videos....)
The Cookson people seemed to really enjoy our being there, it was probably my second-favorite church to visit that we went to this year. (First would be Park Hill.)
After the Muskogee one, the friendly elderly preacher was giving unasked-for marriage advice to Becca, Elizabeth, Jacob, Justin and me. It was really cool, though slightly awkward, felt like I was in a Brad Paisley song(sort of like this one). His Rule #1 - "Learn to say, 'Yes, dear', and you'll live to learn everything else you'll need to know."
Dylan and the Coxes are in Louisville for the Together for the Gospel conference, wish I was able to be there, too. But there's Secret Church next Friday, maybe I can get to that.
Went for a coffee run with Drew, Elizabeth and Susan to McDonald's last night, which was a good trip. Lots of talk about books, cats and puns. (Example: "I'm like, two pages away from finishing the introduction right now(of The Princess Bride). You were right, it is kinda long and hard to get through, but it adds so much to the authenticity! I haven't even started the real book yet and I'm loving it." "Knew you would. But get this; even that prologue is fictionalized. Is that genius or what?!" "Susan's eyes pop out of her head in astonishment") And from there it was on to comparing "Have you read...?" and making book-swapping lists and planning movies that need to be seen.
There's tons of homework to do and that still needs to be completed....and I'm out of toothpaste.
Enjoyed getting to catch up with Ash on Saturday.
Pandora has been playing GREAT songs all the last week on most of my channels, that's always helpful. (At the moment, Sonicflood's "In The Secret")
There's a Latin test in the morning, and I need to finish enrolling for fall classes because of a system glitch that needs to be ironed out. So I should probably try to get to sleep.
Keep Calm and Carry On, right?
"Not that I have already obtained all this, or have already been made perfect, but I press on to take hold of that for which Christ Jesus took hold of me. Brothers, I do not consider myself yet to have taken hold of it. But one thing I do: Forgetting what is behind and straining toward what is ahead, I press on toward the goal to win the prize for which God has called me heavenward in Christ Jesus." (Philippians 3:12-14)
"Just keep swimming, just keep swimming..." - Dory, Finding Nemo.
And Keep a-Goin', like the poem says.
It's that time of the semester when there is quite a bit to do and not much energy to complete it. So you just do what you can, complain more often than normal, and snap sarcastic replies to anyone willing to engage you in conversation. On the other hand, it's that time of semester for everyone else, too, so that's something.
"Do not worry about anything, but in everything, with prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, let your requests be made known to God. And the peace of God, which is beyond all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus." (Philippians 4:6-7)
That verse was part of the message from Monday night's meeting, I know I needed to hear it. I worry a lot, and stress is as natural to my life as caffeine.
A giant leak developed in the roof of the BCM's living room during the big storm on Thursday night, that was a little intense, trying to contain the newfound faucet. Once that was taken care of, Bob and Deb led a lesson on marriage that was the first of a two-part series. The power also went out completely in Ross on Thursday.
Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.... it's driving me UP THE WALL, but I'm loving it. Although it probably wasn't the best idea to watch the new episode several hours after watching Jurassic Park. There's only so much intensity and surprises that can be handled in one day. (And now part of the reason I'm writing this post is cause I'm a little afraid to go to sleep. Remind me NEVER TO WATCH THAT MOVIE EVER AGAIN.)
Sunday was busy, as the SWAT crew first went down to the Cookson area for a rare morning show, then that night we headed into Muskogee to a rather creepy church older than the state. (Seriously, it began in 1904.) We were missing about a third of our team, so there was a lot of filling in different roles than usual. (I need to get to work on editing those videos....)
The Cookson people seemed to really enjoy our being there, it was probably my second-favorite church to visit that we went to this year. (First would be Park Hill.)
After the Muskogee one, the friendly elderly preacher was giving unasked-for marriage advice to Becca, Elizabeth, Jacob, Justin and me. It was really cool, though slightly awkward, felt like I was in a Brad Paisley song(sort of like this one). His Rule #1 - "Learn to say, 'Yes, dear', and you'll live to learn everything else you'll need to know."
Dylan and the Coxes are in Louisville for the Together for the Gospel conference, wish I was able to be there, too. But there's Secret Church next Friday, maybe I can get to that.
Went for a coffee run with Drew, Elizabeth and Susan to McDonald's last night, which was a good trip. Lots of talk about books, cats and puns. (Example: "I'm like, two pages away from finishing the introduction right now(of The Princess Bride). You were right, it is kinda long and hard to get through, but it adds so much to the authenticity! I haven't even started the real book yet and I'm loving it." "Knew you would. But get this; even that prologue is fictionalized. Is that genius or what?!" "Susan's eyes pop out of her head in astonishment") And from there it was on to comparing "Have you read...?" and making book-swapping lists and planning movies that need to be seen.
There's tons of homework to do and that still needs to be completed....and I'm out of toothpaste.
Enjoyed getting to catch up with Ash on Saturday.
Pandora has been playing GREAT songs all the last week on most of my channels, that's always helpful. (At the moment, Sonicflood's "In The Secret")
There's a Latin test in the morning, and I need to finish enrolling for fall classes because of a system glitch that needs to be ironed out. So I should probably try to get to sleep.
Keep Calm and Carry On, right?
"Not that I have already obtained all this, or have already been made perfect, but I press on to take hold of that for which Christ Jesus took hold of me. Brothers, I do not consider myself yet to have taken hold of it. But one thing I do: Forgetting what is behind and straining toward what is ahead, I press on toward the goal to win the prize for which God has called me heavenward in Christ Jesus." (Philippians 3:12-14)
SWAT-2
So I wrote up a post last fall about Students With a Testimony, (SWAT), a drama ministry that I've been able to get involved with this year. It was started in fall 2012 as an outreach of the Baptist Collegiate Ministries on-campus, and the group was almost completely rebooted membership-wise in fall 2013 due to graduations and stuff.
In fall, we were mostly trying to get the program down and learn to work together. This semester, we've been able to strengthen connections within the BCM's structure and other ministries, and connect more with the churches we've visited. That's been one of the big differences spring vs. fall.
Spring is a busy time; with a weird course schedule. There's only really one stoplight the whole semester, and it's usually yellow while on spring break due to the amount of homework and projects to be done when we get back. And there's work schedules to plan and major commitments and other stuff going on, so it can get a little crazy. That's not even counting the weather, which in this case featured lots of ice storms and blizzards. There haven't been as many performances because of all those factors as would be ideal, but you do what you can, right?
What shows we have done, though, the execution has improved greatly, due to some shuffling of roles after people dropped and in large part to the additions of Drew and Ashleigh as tech crew; handling sound effects, mike levels and shooting video.
Most of the time we've been somewhat shorthanded, learning to cover for others when necessary, what parts can be skipped if they have to be. Once we were missing a third of our people and it still turned out pretty well.
We've been able to spread out from Cherokee County to the surrounding areas somewhat; that was something several of us were praying about over the break. And hopefully the audiences have been encouraged by what we've done, seeking to glorify God above everything else, trying to encourage other believers.
There's been game nights with INTENSELY COMPETITIVE games of Catchphrase and Apples To Apples. There's been much-needed and encouraging coffee runs often at McDonald's late at night to ease stress and chill out. Some examples of branching out with other projects includes more crossovers as members of both SWAT and the worship team; same deal with the tech team; disaster-relief groups are being trained and a Greek-focused deal was started, as well as a women's ministry. The Thursday night meetings have been important, as have the newly-popularized Lunch Bunch meetings on Fridays.
Stress and anxiety have been huge issues throughout the group this whole semester, and that's been something to pray with and for each other about. And it's been neat to work more closely with Bob and Deb as the SWAT-related or individual projects intertwine into the larger fabric of BCM activities.
We're still kind of figuring out exactly what it will look like next semester/year, who will step up to the plate and take over leadership duties from Samantha, what the program will look like, who will be back and involved, and other potential opportunities of ways to serve. But it's really been great to be a part of, and I'm thankful for that.
In fall, we were mostly trying to get the program down and learn to work together. This semester, we've been able to strengthen connections within the BCM's structure and other ministries, and connect more with the churches we've visited. That's been one of the big differences spring vs. fall.
Spring is a busy time; with a weird course schedule. There's only really one stoplight the whole semester, and it's usually yellow while on spring break due to the amount of homework and projects to be done when we get back. And there's work schedules to plan and major commitments and other stuff going on, so it can get a little crazy. That's not even counting the weather, which in this case featured lots of ice storms and blizzards. There haven't been as many performances because of all those factors as would be ideal, but you do what you can, right?
What shows we have done, though, the execution has improved greatly, due to some shuffling of roles after people dropped and in large part to the additions of Drew and Ashleigh as tech crew; handling sound effects, mike levels and shooting video.
Most of the time we've been somewhat shorthanded, learning to cover for others when necessary, what parts can be skipped if they have to be. Once we were missing a third of our people and it still turned out pretty well.
We've been able to spread out from Cherokee County to the surrounding areas somewhat; that was something several of us were praying about over the break. And hopefully the audiences have been encouraged by what we've done, seeking to glorify God above everything else, trying to encourage other believers.
There's been game nights with INTENSELY COMPETITIVE games of Catchphrase and Apples To Apples. There's been much-needed and encouraging coffee runs often at McDonald's late at night to ease stress and chill out. Some examples of branching out with other projects includes more crossovers as members of both SWAT and the worship team; same deal with the tech team; disaster-relief groups are being trained and a Greek-focused deal was started, as well as a women's ministry. The Thursday night meetings have been important, as have the newly-popularized Lunch Bunch meetings on Fridays.
Stress and anxiety have been huge issues throughout the group this whole semester, and that's been something to pray with and for each other about. And it's been neat to work more closely with Bob and Deb as the SWAT-related or individual projects intertwine into the larger fabric of BCM activities.
We're still kind of figuring out exactly what it will look like next semester/year, who will step up to the plate and take over leadership duties from Samantha, what the program will look like, who will be back and involved, and other potential opportunities of ways to serve. But it's really been great to be a part of, and I'm thankful for that.
Thursday, April 3, 2014
Hello April
It's another verse of the same familiar story: I can't sleep, the temperature is off-target and my mind won't shut up. So naturally I start typing out a new blog post.
Went home for a visit last weekend, which was very good. Saw a musical of "Fiddler on the Roof" that Courtney's old drama group put on; it was really, really good. Her friend Callie was in it, and a bunch of Fergusons. It was very well-done(but now I really need to see the movie.) Not knowing anything about the storyline kinda took away from some of the enjoyment factor. There were probably over thirty people from GBC in the audience; almost the entire Ferguson clan, most of the Steeleys, the Muellers, the Wilsons, the Mixes, most of the McNeils, us, and Bennett.
Rags HAD KITTENS Tuesday night! (Can't wait to meet them.) That's a happy thing.
Spent some time after classes were over tonight watching Full House, which was enjoyable. The video production courses are going a little better than I expected, started filming one of the two pilot news programs in Advanced tonight. That was a really cool experience; seeing the beginnings of what it will look like, knowing how thrown-together and low-budget it is. (We're mostly using personal equipment, as there isn't very much school equipment.) And most of the shows will be edited together in post-production, much like a movie's individual scenes are spliced together into one larger story after the shooting is done.
Not used to writing in broadcast style yet, it's a little challenging. And so is stitching together video and audio and illustrational B-roll footage with the editing software of Final Cut Pro X(which is Apple, which I'm not generally familiar with). But hopefully by the end of this semester I'll have at least a working knowledge of how it works.
Only a little over a month left to this semester - and so much to get done. Mostly for Media Management and Planning, but also Oral Communication. And Basic and Advanced Video as well. Okay, I guess I just have a lot of difficult courses this semester. (Guess that''s what happens when you take three high-level major courses as a sophomore? Could be worse, though; I could be trying to get a Bachelor's in science or business or accounting, or a Master's of any type.)
Thinking I'll finally take Government in fall, and maybe Physical Science too, not sure what else to schedule.
In a couple hours this year's Media Day will be held, it was two years ago that I first heard about it. (See this post.) That seems like a long time ago. Another T4G conference is either happening now or next week. I found this post I wrote about twelve months ago; most of it is still pretty applicable.
Stupid Profile Picture Week is in full swing, and the special "Campfire" themed all-music Monday night meeting at the BCM went pretty well. Among the sixteen people on the worship team, there were eight guitars, two basses and two drum sets, with a keyboard, mandolin and tambourine as well. Oh, and about three videocameras the tech team was using to film a recap of the event. I mostly played mandolin, with a bit of guitar and singing.
With the semester winding down, we only have four SWAT shows left, two of which are this coming Sunday. Over Christmas break I(and others) was praying that we would be able to expand the range of area covered outside of Cherokee County, and also that we would be bold in sharing the Gospel and encouraging people, etc. And so where are we going Sunday night? Muskogee... Hmm. (We were supposed to go there in late February or early March, but then one of the blizzards hit.)
Amanda got engaged last week, I've lost count of how many people I know around my age (whether from the homeschool group, camp, YT or college) who've gotten engaged or married now. And I just realized that the counselors my first year at SGYC were probably about the age then that I am now. Anyway, found that out Monday morning while chatting before classes, I'm glad for her.
Jon's moved to Maryland to seriously pursue a career in music, here's a link to his official YouTube and Facebook pages. (Check 'em out!)
Anyway, talking about this upcoming time of camp, Courtney is going crazy counting down the days. Well, most of the youth group is, actually. And Caleb is eagerly awaiting his first camp experience. If counselors are needed I'd be happy to help, but I think they'll probably have more than enough volunteers.
For the THIRD YEAR IN A ROW I failed to play any pranks on anybody on April Fool's Day...sigh. Just couldn't come up with anything plausible that was realistic I guess there's always next year, though, right?
It's been extremely hot and HUMID the past couple days, and the heater's still on inside the buildings....cue lots of general complaints about weather conditions taking up a measurable portion of class times. (It's actually been a touch cooler inside than out, I think.) But there haven't been very many bug-infestations recently, so that's a plus.
Really hoping to find some folks nearby to go see Captain America: The Winter Soldier with this weekend.
Went home for a visit last weekend, which was very good. Saw a musical of "Fiddler on the Roof" that Courtney's old drama group put on; it was really, really good. Her friend Callie was in it, and a bunch of Fergusons. It was very well-done(but now I really need to see the movie.) Not knowing anything about the storyline kinda took away from some of the enjoyment factor. There were probably over thirty people from GBC in the audience; almost the entire Ferguson clan, most of the Steeleys, the Muellers, the Wilsons, the Mixes, most of the McNeils, us, and Bennett.
Rags HAD KITTENS Tuesday night! (Can't wait to meet them.) That's a happy thing.
Spent some time after classes were over tonight watching Full House, which was enjoyable. The video production courses are going a little better than I expected, started filming one of the two pilot news programs in Advanced tonight. That was a really cool experience; seeing the beginnings of what it will look like, knowing how thrown-together and low-budget it is. (We're mostly using personal equipment, as there isn't very much school equipment.) And most of the shows will be edited together in post-production, much like a movie's individual scenes are spliced together into one larger story after the shooting is done.
Not used to writing in broadcast style yet, it's a little challenging. And so is stitching together video and audio and illustrational B-roll footage with the editing software of Final Cut Pro X(which is Apple, which I'm not generally familiar with). But hopefully by the end of this semester I'll have at least a working knowledge of how it works.
Only a little over a month left to this semester - and so much to get done. Mostly for Media Management and Planning, but also Oral Communication. And Basic and Advanced Video as well. Okay, I guess I just have a lot of difficult courses this semester. (Guess that''s what happens when you take three high-level major courses as a sophomore? Could be worse, though; I could be trying to get a Bachelor's in science or business or accounting, or a Master's of any type.)
Thinking I'll finally take Government in fall, and maybe Physical Science too, not sure what else to schedule.
In a couple hours this year's Media Day will be held, it was two years ago that I first heard about it. (See this post.) That seems like a long time ago. Another T4G conference is either happening now or next week. I found this post I wrote about twelve months ago; most of it is still pretty applicable.
Stupid Profile Picture Week is in full swing, and the special "Campfire" themed all-music Monday night meeting at the BCM went pretty well. Among the sixteen people on the worship team, there were eight guitars, two basses and two drum sets, with a keyboard, mandolin and tambourine as well. Oh, and about three videocameras the tech team was using to film a recap of the event. I mostly played mandolin, with a bit of guitar and singing.
With the semester winding down, we only have four SWAT shows left, two of which are this coming Sunday. Over Christmas break I(and others) was praying that we would be able to expand the range of area covered outside of Cherokee County, and also that we would be bold in sharing the Gospel and encouraging people, etc. And so where are we going Sunday night? Muskogee... Hmm. (We were supposed to go there in late February or early March, but then one of the blizzards hit.)
Amanda got engaged last week, I've lost count of how many people I know around my age (whether from the homeschool group, camp, YT or college) who've gotten engaged or married now. And I just realized that the counselors my first year at SGYC were probably about the age then that I am now. Anyway, found that out Monday morning while chatting before classes, I'm glad for her.
Jon's moved to Maryland to seriously pursue a career in music, here's a link to his official YouTube and Facebook pages. (Check 'em out!)
Anyway, talking about this upcoming time of camp, Courtney is going crazy counting down the days. Well, most of the youth group is, actually. And Caleb is eagerly awaiting his first camp experience. If counselors are needed I'd be happy to help, but I think they'll probably have more than enough volunteers.
For the THIRD YEAR IN A ROW I failed to play any pranks on anybody on April Fool's Day...sigh. Just couldn't come up with anything plausible that was realistic I guess there's always next year, though, right?
It's been extremely hot and HUMID the past couple days, and the heater's still on inside the buildings....cue lots of general complaints about weather conditions taking up a measurable portion of class times. (It's actually been a touch cooler inside than out, I think.) But there haven't been very many bug-infestations recently, so that's a plus.
Really hoping to find some folks nearby to go see Captain America: The Winter Soldier with this weekend.
Monday, March 31, 2014
Stupid Profile Picture Week
Stupid Profile Picture Week is an elaborate, yet low-key, satirization of duck faces, bathroom-mirror selfies, and other irritating and over-used profile picture types.
The rules are simple: For the first week in April, you find a really bad photo of yourself(for example, making a stupid face or wearing a ridiculous outfit) and use that as your Facebook/Twitter/whatever profile picture. And you leave it there for a week. (Though, technically, you could use multiple pictures, as long as the total combined time was seven full days.)
The rules are simple: For the first week in April, you find a really bad photo of yourself(for example, making a stupid face or wearing a ridiculous outfit) and use that as your Facebook/Twitter/whatever profile picture. And you leave it there for a week. (Though, technically, you could use multiple pictures, as long as the total combined time was seven full days.)
 |
| This is an example from the first Stupid Profile Picture Week. |
It began, as far as I can remember, about five years ago with a terrible photo of Amanda that somebody tagged her in. Like, so awful that it was hilariously good. And so we were talking about it, and it was decided that it was so awful it needed to be her profile pic for a bit, so people would be freaked out and get a laugh. And from there it was kept alive year-by-year, gradually gaining new participants, including Ash, Courtney and Jessica.
It's just kind of a lighthearted way to get started on a new month.
Tuesday, March 25, 2014
Tiredness
I'm cold, but that's nothing new.
I'm frustrated with school.
I'm worried.
I'm tired.
It's good to know there's plenty of groceries in various drawers, though. And it was nice to spend time with family over spring break. Read through three Agatha Christies, the latest Flavia de Luce mystery, Stuart Little, a book on adoption called The Family Nobody Wanted, and another book that I'd meant to read at some point. And talked about Seabiscuit, Unbroken, and a lot of other books. Found an awesome little bookstore in Sand Springs, and played a good amount of ping pong. Spent time with Rags and Banjo, and got to go to church two weeks straight, which was really great.
Getting the flu really threw things off-kilter this spring; still haven't quite gotten settled back yet. I've got a Latin test tomorrow, which I still need to study for. Lot of homework in speech, advertising, and basic and advanced video production.
Need to think of a really good April Fool's prank...
Missing Sunny and Copper a lot. And Mimi, too.
Tired of having no idea what's expected in most of my classes(and nobody else really does, either). And only myself to compete against when I do know what to do. And tired of aimlessly walking around for lack of anything else interesting to do. Tired of spending time staring at the walls. Most of all, tired of this repeat of fall freshman year.
Have to figure out what classes to take in fall, whether to take a summer class, where to live next year and what to do over the summer.
SWAT practice went well last night, we have about three more shows left, and then one or two extra things that might come up.
I'm frustrated with school.
I'm worried.
I'm tired.
It's good to know there's plenty of groceries in various drawers, though. And it was nice to spend time with family over spring break. Read through three Agatha Christies, the latest Flavia de Luce mystery, Stuart Little, a book on adoption called The Family Nobody Wanted, and another book that I'd meant to read at some point. And talked about Seabiscuit, Unbroken, and a lot of other books. Found an awesome little bookstore in Sand Springs, and played a good amount of ping pong. Spent time with Rags and Banjo, and got to go to church two weeks straight, which was really great.
Getting the flu really threw things off-kilter this spring; still haven't quite gotten settled back yet. I've got a Latin test tomorrow, which I still need to study for. Lot of homework in speech, advertising, and basic and advanced video production.
Need to think of a really good April Fool's prank...
Missing Sunny and Copper a lot. And Mimi, too.
Tired of having no idea what's expected in most of my classes(and nobody else really does, either). And only myself to compete against when I do know what to do. And tired of aimlessly walking around for lack of anything else interesting to do. Tired of spending time staring at the walls. Most of all, tired of this repeat of fall freshman year.
Have to figure out what classes to take in fall, whether to take a summer class, where to live next year and what to do over the summer.
SWAT practice went well last night, we have about three more shows left, and then one or two extra things that might come up.
Sunday, March 9, 2014
BCM State Basketball Tournament
I really should probably take a nap instead of writing this post. And I need to do homework. But the reason I can't take a nap is cause that would mess up my sleeping even worse than it already has been the last couple weeks. (Not very restful, stressful mundane dreams, weird hours and flipping around more than usual.)
Anyway, the BCM basketball state tournament was held this weekend in Shawnee at OBU, and it went better than expected for both of our teams, though not quite the results that were hoped for. One of the guys that was supposed to play for us broke his finger, and another had to attend a funeral, so there were six players: James, Mark, Sean, Tyler, Wes and Zach. The girls had nine on their squad: Carra, Caitlyn, Ja Li Si, Jayne, Jocelyn, Jordan, Mallory, Mariah and Tarah.
We left from the BCM about 4:30 Friday afternoon, getting to Shawnee about 6:30, dropping our stuff off at the church we were spending the night at and then to OBU's gym(Not the "real" gym, but the everyday one) at 7...where there were two hours to kill before the girls' first game. And four hours to go before our first game.
So I spent the time figuring out how the brackets worked out, watching three games at one time and admiring the beautiful interior of the building of the Raley Wellness Center. There were three basketball/volleyball courts set up, complete with glass backboards and working scoreboards. A rock-climbing area built along one wall, walking-track set up along a wraparound balcony, many workout machines and a lobby so nice it looked to be swiped from a hotel. (But then, it IS OBU, so that explains it...) Anyway, it was very nice. One quirk that was unusual: There were these massive floor-to-ceiling windows just behind the baskets on one end, and they were installed on the side of the balcony. So with nothing but sky below and people running/walking by above, the goals themselves looked like they were hanging in mid-air with no definite place in space. Strange optical effect that made shooting a bit difficult.
Anyway, Mallory had asked me to keep stats for the their games, so I flipped completely into sportswriter mode at 9 p.m. while watching the NSU-Cameron game. There was a minor scare before the game started that had a bunch of folks slightly worried, as one of Ja Li Si's earrings wouldn't come out. Finally, James' fiancee Chelsea was able to unstick the earring, allowing her to play. ("No jewelry of any type allowed", is what the rules said, why this was important.)
Turnovers plagued NSU's first half, trying to do too much led to Cameron holding a 17-8 lead after the first fifteen minutes. Things started clicking in the second half for NSU, as the Cameron lead was trimmed down to 24-12 with 11:33 left and then 27-21 at the 7:09 mark. Rebounds were coming, ball-swiping was practiced often, and the assist-count began to rise. Unfortunately, so did the fouls. Even more unfortunately, Cameron made three of four free throws, which proved to be the difference as the NSU girls lost by a 30-27 final score. Carra led the scoring column with 10 points, Jocelyn had team-high 5 rebounds and 4 steals, and Mariah had 4 assists.
We played Redlands Community College in our game(tipoff was near 11 p.m., it was weird scheduling and an even stranger bracket setup), they'd already beaten OSU-OKC and ECU. The opening seven minutes were much the same as the girls' first half, but then Sean and James both started hitting on 3-pointers, and the 2-3 zone defense began to frustrate Redlands' two best shooters. Second-chance points and hustle led to a 19-all tie at halftime, thanks to Zach's last-second basket. In the second half NSU took a decent-sized lead, much to spectator amazement, as Redlands was about ten players deep of mostly tall black guys, but time ticked away with the running clock being used, and NSU advanced to the second round with the 51-43 win. (I really should have kept stats for us, too; but forgot about it.)
We spent the night at a church near the OBU campus, sleeping on the floor and rows of chairs. A bunch of guys from NEO kept talking. And Talking. And TALKING. to each other, couldn't fall asleep until about three, then woke up somewhere in at seven because of the chilly temperature, and then everybody fell back asleep only to get woken up by one of the girls poking her head in the doorway and saying loudly, "Aren't you guys ready?! It's 8:20, Bob's gonna pick us up in like, five minutes!" We were packed and ready in five minutes, but it took fifteen to rearrange the chairs into the proper order(the NEO guys had moved everything all around). We ate breakfast at IHOP, which I found wasn't really my thing.
We had Southeastern at 11 a.m. in the second round, and if we lost, we were done. They were the favorites coming into the tournament, lots of tall, strong athletic black guys. The NEO guys, who were destroyed by Southeastern in the first round, and some guys from Murray State College in Tishomingo, were jumping on the NSU bandwagon and cheering for us along with the girls team and several relatives of various people. It was a back-and-forth affair the entire game, we led at halftime 22-18, but they came back in the second half despite strong defensive play, and in the end it came down to free throws, NSU with the upset 37-30.
The girls' game was at 1 p.m. against USAO, halfway through the first half NSU led 7-2. Baskets, rebounds and steals were all distributed pretty evenly, and at halftime the scoreboard read 12-6, NSU. USAO had trouble finding the basket the entire game, it made for lots of rebound opportunities and fast-break scores. NSU won easily by a 26-14 final score. Carra led the scoring with 8 points, Mariah led the rebound and steals categories with 5 and 3, respectively. They each had 2 assists.
In the 2 .p.m. semifinal game, we were set to face OU. Turns out, they had three guys who were the state's top 3-point shooters in high school, and our guys were exhausted. The game itself was a set of sniper missions from behind the three-point line; we missed the target while their shots were accurate and basically we were run over by a herd of Triceratops. The final score was OU 59, NSU 39. It wasn't pretty.
But there was still the 3 p.m. girls' third-place game against UCO to watch before heading out. Both sides were evenly matched, scoring was slow most of the first half, as evidenced by a 4-4 tie with 6:33 until halftime. It picked up after that point, NSU led by five at the break, 16-11. That edge mushroomed to 25-13 with 10:23 to play, but fouls played a large role in UCO's rallying down to a tense 28-27 ballgame with two minutes to play. It came down to the final play...and the buzzer sounded just before Mariah's shot left her hands. We were going to an extra 120 seconds of overtime, with the score tied at 29-all. The momentum UCO built up late in the second half carried over, and they took third place with the 34-29 OT victory. Jocelyn had 13 points and pulled down 9 rebounds, Tarah had 6 rebounds, Mariah four assists and four players had steals.
So the guys made it to the semifinals in a 21-team field, and the girls were fourth out of nine teams. We got back to Tahlequah just before 8 p.m., only to lose another hour of would-be sleep-time by the time change. Probably everyone immediately collapsed as soon as they could, Jayne said she was still sore. Elizabeth was wishing she could've came to watch, and planning a tour of all the things we should have seen. I was late to church this morning, but at least I got there. One week until spring break, my 8-week classes start Wednesday.
Anyway, the BCM basketball state tournament was held this weekend in Shawnee at OBU, and it went better than expected for both of our teams, though not quite the results that were hoped for. One of the guys that was supposed to play for us broke his finger, and another had to attend a funeral, so there were six players: James, Mark, Sean, Tyler, Wes and Zach. The girls had nine on their squad: Carra, Caitlyn, Ja Li Si, Jayne, Jocelyn, Jordan, Mallory, Mariah and Tarah.
We left from the BCM about 4:30 Friday afternoon, getting to Shawnee about 6:30, dropping our stuff off at the church we were spending the night at and then to OBU's gym(Not the "real" gym, but the everyday one) at 7...where there were two hours to kill before the girls' first game. And four hours to go before our first game.
So I spent the time figuring out how the brackets worked out, watching three games at one time and admiring the beautiful interior of the building of the Raley Wellness Center. There were three basketball/volleyball courts set up, complete with glass backboards and working scoreboards. A rock-climbing area built along one wall, walking-track set up along a wraparound balcony, many workout machines and a lobby so nice it looked to be swiped from a hotel. (But then, it IS OBU, so that explains it...) Anyway, it was very nice. One quirk that was unusual: There were these massive floor-to-ceiling windows just behind the baskets on one end, and they were installed on the side of the balcony. So with nothing but sky below and people running/walking by above, the goals themselves looked like they were hanging in mid-air with no definite place in space. Strange optical effect that made shooting a bit difficult.
Anyway, Mallory had asked me to keep stats for the their games, so I flipped completely into sportswriter mode at 9 p.m. while watching the NSU-Cameron game. There was a minor scare before the game started that had a bunch of folks slightly worried, as one of Ja Li Si's earrings wouldn't come out. Finally, James' fiancee Chelsea was able to unstick the earring, allowing her to play. ("No jewelry of any type allowed", is what the rules said, why this was important.)
Turnovers plagued NSU's first half, trying to do too much led to Cameron holding a 17-8 lead after the first fifteen minutes. Things started clicking in the second half for NSU, as the Cameron lead was trimmed down to 24-12 with 11:33 left and then 27-21 at the 7:09 mark. Rebounds were coming, ball-swiping was practiced often, and the assist-count began to rise. Unfortunately, so did the fouls. Even more unfortunately, Cameron made three of four free throws, which proved to be the difference as the NSU girls lost by a 30-27 final score. Carra led the scoring column with 10 points, Jocelyn had team-high 5 rebounds and 4 steals, and Mariah had 4 assists.
We played Redlands Community College in our game(tipoff was near 11 p.m., it was weird scheduling and an even stranger bracket setup), they'd already beaten OSU-OKC and ECU. The opening seven minutes were much the same as the girls' first half, but then Sean and James both started hitting on 3-pointers, and the 2-3 zone defense began to frustrate Redlands' two best shooters. Second-chance points and hustle led to a 19-all tie at halftime, thanks to Zach's last-second basket. In the second half NSU took a decent-sized lead, much to spectator amazement, as Redlands was about ten players deep of mostly tall black guys, but time ticked away with the running clock being used, and NSU advanced to the second round with the 51-43 win. (I really should have kept stats for us, too; but forgot about it.)
We spent the night at a church near the OBU campus, sleeping on the floor and rows of chairs. A bunch of guys from NEO kept talking. And Talking. And TALKING. to each other, couldn't fall asleep until about three, then woke up somewhere in at seven because of the chilly temperature, and then everybody fell back asleep only to get woken up by one of the girls poking her head in the doorway and saying loudly, "Aren't you guys ready?! It's 8:20, Bob's gonna pick us up in like, five minutes!" We were packed and ready in five minutes, but it took fifteen to rearrange the chairs into the proper order(the NEO guys had moved everything all around). We ate breakfast at IHOP, which I found wasn't really my thing.
We had Southeastern at 11 a.m. in the second round, and if we lost, we were done. They were the favorites coming into the tournament, lots of tall, strong athletic black guys. The NEO guys, who were destroyed by Southeastern in the first round, and some guys from Murray State College in Tishomingo, were jumping on the NSU bandwagon and cheering for us along with the girls team and several relatives of various people. It was a back-and-forth affair the entire game, we led at halftime 22-18, but they came back in the second half despite strong defensive play, and in the end it came down to free throws, NSU with the upset 37-30.
The girls' game was at 1 p.m. against USAO, halfway through the first half NSU led 7-2. Baskets, rebounds and steals were all distributed pretty evenly, and at halftime the scoreboard read 12-6, NSU. USAO had trouble finding the basket the entire game, it made for lots of rebound opportunities and fast-break scores. NSU won easily by a 26-14 final score. Carra led the scoring with 8 points, Mariah led the rebound and steals categories with 5 and 3, respectively. They each had 2 assists.
In the 2 .p.m. semifinal game, we were set to face OU. Turns out, they had three guys who were the state's top 3-point shooters in high school, and our guys were exhausted. The game itself was a set of sniper missions from behind the three-point line; we missed the target while their shots were accurate and basically we were run over by a herd of Triceratops. The final score was OU 59, NSU 39. It wasn't pretty.
But there was still the 3 p.m. girls' third-place game against UCO to watch before heading out. Both sides were evenly matched, scoring was slow most of the first half, as evidenced by a 4-4 tie with 6:33 until halftime. It picked up after that point, NSU led by five at the break, 16-11. That edge mushroomed to 25-13 with 10:23 to play, but fouls played a large role in UCO's rallying down to a tense 28-27 ballgame with two minutes to play. It came down to the final play...and the buzzer sounded just before Mariah's shot left her hands. We were going to an extra 120 seconds of overtime, with the score tied at 29-all. The momentum UCO built up late in the second half carried over, and they took third place with the 34-29 OT victory. Jocelyn had 13 points and pulled down 9 rebounds, Tarah had 6 rebounds, Mariah four assists and four players had steals.
So the guys made it to the semifinals in a 21-team field, and the girls were fourth out of nine teams. We got back to Tahlequah just before 8 p.m., only to lose another hour of would-be sleep-time by the time change. Probably everyone immediately collapsed as soon as they could, Jayne said she was still sore. Elizabeth was wishing she could've came to watch, and planning a tour of all the things we should have seen. I was late to church this morning, but at least I got there. One week until spring break, my 8-week classes start Wednesday.
Tuesday, March 4, 2014
Snowy Memories and Untold Stories
The snow is coating the ground softly, hard-packed so footprints won't spoil the beauty of it. I'm sitting here alone in my dorm in the fluorescent light above my desk typing this out, with the warm glow of my Christmas tree shining on the other side of the room. I'm completely out of groceries again, and I need to shave. I'm wearing the plaid pajama pants we got at Wal-Mart the day after the fire and the orange OSU hoodie I was wearing that day, now looking rather worn-out and ratty from long use. You can't do homework all that well at night, and there's only so much Netflixing possible over one weekend. And then when you're snowed in(for the most part) on top of all that and haven't really had much human interaction over the past couple days...there's just your thoughts to go chasing each other around and around through your head.
While I was taking a shower I just got to thinking about the past ten years or so, what all's happened; "Down By the Creek Bank", "The American Ideal" and all those other musicals and stuff with the Okmulgee homeschool group; playing two-touch football with little siblings or basketball games before drama each week. The archery shoots and field trips and birthday parties. Snide comments hissed to each other and improv comedy occurring completely naturally out of thin air. Kind of made me think of Trace Adkins' "You're Gonna Miss This" Not sure exactly why, but it did.
I managed to fit some of those lyrics into a article on the closing of the high school football stadium about five years ago, it was by far my favorite newspaper story I've written. Got to thinking of those times standing on the sidelines and sitting/standing in the bleachers and crammed into press boxes while covering games. And the sacrifices of time and gas Mom and Dad took to get me to and from those games. Really amazing when you stop and think about it.
Dealing with moving from Morris to Beggs, or Tahlequah back to Beggs, or when Meowie's first kittens were born, or Sunny's first puppies. The failed experiment of Dixie the horse. Jumping into the caprine world after getting Stormy at a garage sale. Taking care of Mimi as she got sicker, or Dado as he started to fade. Cleaning out the little house on the farm in Westville, taking care of Nano as best we can. Amy's birth; rebuilding after the fire. Remodeling the family room; destroying the bar, ripping up the awful striped carpet and the slow, methodical process of stripping the carpet-padding from the concrete.
A guy in my speech class just gave a presentation over the history of Sony's PlayStation, which made me think of all the hours racing the Soukups on various video games, or the horseshoe tournament we held at our house when their parents went on vacation, pickup baseball and Refrigerator Tag in their backyard, getting our feet taken out repeatedly by running dogs wanting to join in on the fun.
Holding church in first a warehouse and then a library while remodeling, two months after the church was finally ready again the house burned. In some ways still haven't gotten used to some things architecturally yet. Game nights with the youth group, movie-worldview-discussion sessions, skating trips. Sometimes really miss leading worship with Josh or Laura's piano-playing. Things like shopping trips with Sam and Dylan, getting lost that first time at camp with Josh, or when we got lost again in Louisville during T4G. The wild Facecbook-based hijinks through high school with Jon, Jed, Sam and Amanda, which led to parodies like this.
Giving my graduation speech with my tassel flopping constantly into my face, or going on Youth Tour.
The quotes that stick, for some unsure reason, in your mind and jump out at unexpected times, such as Grandma Joy's final words to me: "I'm very proud of you." Why does that mean so much, when I didn't even really know her that well?
Some of this is probably from watching two seasons' worth of The Wonder Years over the last three weeks, combined with re-reading The Princess Bride and thinking over The Big Green, Wishbone, Charlotte's Web and other tales, but it makes me wonder what exactly my letter to me would be like, and how exactly I'll tell these and other stories of my growing-up whenever my kids or nieces or nephews or whoever ask for trips down my highway of memories. (Next blog post project: story songs in general. When will I have time to wrestle that into something of the right shape, I have no idea.)
Sometimes I'm still kind of looking for what exactly my place in this world. is, anyway. College can kind of be a confusing time. You don't exactly belong firmly anywhere, kind of jumping on a trampoline and coming down occasionally in several target areas. College is our job, an insulated workplace/alien world/many other things. We adopt a local church close to campus, but it's not really the same. And we can't go back and visit our home church that often, and when we do, we don't exactly fit in as neatly as we once did. Home is good to stop in and visit when you can, good to check in with family and get caught up on the latest news. And there's some way we can be serving the Lord, surely; just....well, what is it?
this Steven Curtis Chapman song kind of fits my mood, I guess. And this one, too. And this one. (I've always really loved his "Declaration" CD, okay?) This, too... Sorry for all the song links, but sometimes it's easier to re-post what somebody else has written before you than try to think of a fresh angle to say exactly what you mean.
My advertising class in the morning was canceled because the instructor is sick, so Tuesday will probably be much like Monday, and Sunday, and Saturday have been. Except with a lot of homework to try to get done.
Sunday, March 2, 2014
Little-Noticed Details in "The Princess Bride"
Okay, quick question: What is one characteristic of a really gripping, extremely well-crafted story? Details. Would we believe that Star Wars took place in a galaxy far, far away if Tatooine didn't have two suns? Would we appreciate the tale of David and Goliath as much if we didn't know that David gathered five stones from the riverbed or tried to wear King Saul's hopelessly-too-large armor? We wouldn't understand Maycomb County as well without knowing the little things Scout Finch takes for granted. The Arables' kitchen smells of "coffee, bacon, damp plaster and wood smoke from the stove", providing us an idea of exactly what Fern's family's house is like. That we learn J.C. Hogan's wife left him in 1978, because it's referenced by him and Mule Skinner as "the year the Chicago Daily News went belly-up" and "the year the Cowboys beat the Broncos in the Super Bowl 27 to 10." (Further wonderful detail is that neither of these tidbits help Father Tim understand what year his friends are talking about in the least.)
Well, that's just barely scratching the surface of what I mean here, only covering George Lucas, the Bible, Harper Lee and Jan Karon. This post is concerned with the brilliant detailing of the satirical abridgment of S. Morgenstern's satirical history of the Florinese royalty known as The Princess Bride, written by William Goldman. First off, as the narrator highlights, the full title is The Princess Bride: S. Morgenstern's Classic Tale of True Love and High Adventure, he points out that you've got to love somebody who calls his own book a classic before it's been published or anybody else has had a chance to read it. And you do, just for the audacity of the deed. Furthermore, the extensive, extremely dry and entirely fictitious prologue explaining how the book came to be abridged is a masterstroke of Sicilian-level genius. Anyway, there's so many wonderful little details hidden all throughout the prologue and the book itself; creating an entirely plausible world that a lot of people would love to visit. I mean, the very first sentence has a hook that fuels a ferocious desire to find out what happens next: "This is my favorite book in all the world; though I have never read it." (Jaw drops in admiration for his writing skill. Isn't that just a wonderful beginning?) I named this blog after a passage from the sword-fight scene. So, much like the one about the little-noticed details of "The Big Green", this post takes a look at the terrific details from The Princess Bride(the book version.)
This sentence - the writer casting himself as the narrator describing his childhood - could have totally been written about my growing-up: "Basketball, baseball, marbles - I could never get enough. I wasn't even very good at them, but give me a football and an empty playground and I could invent last-second comebacks that would bring tears to your eyes." And he continues in the next paragraph with this: "I seemed busy, busy, busy, but I suppose, if pressed I would have admitted that, for all my frenzy, I was very much alone." And that's just on the first page!
That the narrator's radio is a Zenith; and it was a fall Friday in 1941 when he caught pneumonia, trying to catch the Northwestern-Notre Dame football game over the airwaves. And that his father was a Florinese immigrant whose English always stayed ridiculously immigranty; he worked all his life as the number-two-chair barber at the least popular barber shop in Highland Park, Illinois. His father died in that barber chair, and it took an hour for the number-one-chair barber to realize this because he thought the corpse was taking a nap.
S. Morgenstern had a head shaped like a giant balloon.
"Does it have any sports in it?" "Fencing. Fighting. Torture. Poison. True love. Hate. Revenge. Giants. Hunters. Bad men. Good men. Beautifulest ladies. Snakes. Spiders. Beasts of all natures and pain and descriptions. Pain. Death. Brave men. Coward men. Strongest men. Chases. Escapes. Lies. Truth. Passion. Miracles." "Sounds okay."
I've always read the prologue in the voice of The Wonder Years's narrator. Only recently I just realized that's probably because Fred Savage plays the Grandson in the movie.
THE BOOK -
All these side notes about who the most beautiful woman in the world was and why she yielded that position...the first sentence of the actual book begins: "The year Buttercup was born, the most beautiful woman in the world was a French scullery maid named Annette." Can you get a much more fairy-tale opening than that, not using the whole "Once upon a time..." cliche?
Anyway, Annette worked in Paris for the Duke and Duchess de Guiche, and it's not long before the Duke discovers that someone extraordinary is polishing the pewter. The Duchess notices this, and begins studying Annette for some flaw in her character(or appearance would be close enough). Annette's Achilles heel is chocolate, which the Duchess plants in strategic places all throughout the castle, and Annette grows from delicate to whopping inside a season. That takes care of the whole "most beautiful woman in the world" thing. She marries the pastry chef afterwards and they both ate a lot until old age claimed them.
And when Buttercup was ten, the most beautiful woman was an Indian woman, the daughter of a Bengali tea merchant, with skin of such dusky perfection unseen for eighty years. Then smallpox came, and that took care of that.
And when Buttercup was fifteen, the most beautiful woman was Adela of Sussex-on-the-Thames, who had 104 suitors, and one night worried her perfect complexion away over the fact that she would not always be young and beautiful.
All these wonderful asides to the audience(but of course, this was before audiencial asides.) It confuses you so much as to when this story takes place, but at the same time adds to the heightened realism. (This was before ulcers. And before Voltaire. After mirrors, obviously. They had acres then, and arguments too. It was before Europe, but after Paris. And after taste, too, but only just. This was before glamour. It came after stew, but so does everything else; and long after spats. This was after taxes, but they were here even before stew. This was after blue jeans, which were invented considerably earlier than most people suppose. It was just after America, but long after fortunes. It was long, long after hairdressers. This was before trains, but well after carpenters. It was before emergency wards, but not before doctors, although in Turkey doctors hadn't started setting bones yet - that was the domain of the milkmen. Golf balls were around already, but this was before "The Lady or the Tiger", remember.) And the game of golf, as everyone knows, was invented by Brandobras Took, the only hobbit ever big enough to ride a horse, slicing off a goblin's head, which sailed through the air for a hundred yards before dropping into a rabbit hole. The game spread at some unknown time from the Shire to Scotland, and then to the rest of the world. (Okay, I went off-topic there and brought in some Lord of the Rings elements....back to Goldman now.)
The parenthetical statistics given at every available opportunity: (There have only been eleven perfect complexions in India since accurate recording began; Adela Terrell had 104 suitors; Buttercup's parents were having their 33rd spat of the day when the Count and Countess drive up. Originally "jealousy" was a term solely relating to plants, which is how the term "green with jealousy" came to be, and Buttercup's current case was a close fourth on the all-time list. There have been five great kisses since its accidental invention in 1642 B.C., and while no one completely agrees on the exact formula, they all agreed that those five deserved perfect marks.) There are far more parenthetical statistics given throughout the rest of the novel, but as it's taken me a couple months to re-read it again for the sixth(ish? Possibly more) time, I forgot to keep a lookout for stats past this point.
The Countess settled permanently in Paris at some point to indulge her passion for fabrics and ran the only salon of international consequence, naturally.
Buttercup's parents did not exactly have what could be called a happy marriage; as all they ever dreamed about was leaving each other, but they died within a week apart. Her father is described as "a tiny mutt of a man, a terrible farmer, and not much of a husband either." Her mother was "a gnarled shrimp of a woman, a terrible cook and an even more limited housekeeper."
After the wonderfully odd cow-feeding scene, Buttercup spends almost three full pages thinking about the Countess and Westley and how people don't look at each other that way because of their teeth. And then at dawn the next morning she tells him that she loves him, in one page-long paragraph, words rushing out incoherently in an onslaught of emotion, and then does the bravest thing she'd ever done; looking him straight into his eyes. And what is his response? "He closed the door in her face. Without a word. Without a word."
Buttercup's hair is the "color of autumn", which is a great way of expressing it - but I'm still having trouble seeing her as a redhead.
Another great hallmark of William Goldman's writing, specifically this book, but also in a couple of his others, is the use of repetition, and then snapping into an analogy that makes you pause and think a minute before going on to the next sentence. Prince Humperdinck was shaped like a barrel, with a big barrel chest and big barrel thighs, and he walked like a crab sideways so that if he'd wished to be a ballet dancer he would have been doomed to an endless life of miserable frustration.
Sixty-six pages have been edited out of Chapter Two, The Groom, because they were irrelevant history of the Florinese monarchy. The resulting chapter is about three and a half pages long.
Queen Bella was shaped like a gumdrop, colored like a raspberry and was easily the most beloved person in the kingdom; but as the only stepmothers Humperdinck had ever heard of were evil, he always called her "Evil Stepmother", or "E.S." for short.
The chapter names and lengths, all choppy and mixed up from the typical formula. Prologue: 26 pages, Chapter One, The Bride: 23 pages. Chapter Two, The Groom: Three pages. Chapter Four, The Courtship: Seven pages. Chapter Four, Preparations: Zero pages, as it was entirely deleted. Okay, well, technically it's one page long, because the narrator has to explain why he took it out. Chapter Five, The Announcement: 92 pages long. Chapter Six, The Festivities: 52 pages long. Chapter Seven, The Wedding: 33 pages. Chapter Eight, Honeymoon: 16 pages.
Florin and Guilder have mainly stayed alive by warring near-constantly on each other. There's been the Olive War, the Tuna Fish Discrepancy(which nearly sent both nations into bankruptcy), the Roman Rift(which did send them into insolvency) and the Discord of the Emeralds, where they both got rich again by banding together and robbing everyone else within sailing distance.
Chapter Three, The Courtship, is possibly one of the best places in the book. The abridger slashed out 56 1/2 pages of packing, and leaves in these brilliant two paragraphs: "At 8:23 there seemed to be every chance of a lasting alliance forming between Florin and Guilder. At 8:24 the two countries were very close to war." Which is followed by three pages describing exactly what happened in those sixty seconds and the aftermath, and then by far the best courtship passage ever written in all literature.
From a narrative point of view, in all 105 pages of Chapter Four, Preparations, nothing happens. So it can basically be summed up by the sentence, "What with one thing and another, three years passed." (Buttercup is made Princess of Hammersmith, since Humperdinck can't possibly marry a commoner, and is trained in the art of being a princess. Also, both her parents die during this time.)
Vizzini is described as "dark". Sorry, but that just doesn't work....not complexion-wise, at least. Maybe he meant that as far as character goes? Also, he has the gentlest face, almost angelic.
The Cliffs of Insanity were not actually impossible to scale; two men had been known to climb them in the last century alone.
Inigo was raised by his father Domingo in the small village of Arabella in the mountains of Central Spain high above the city of Toledo, and he learned to cook from the age of six.
Yeste the swordmaker's fame grows so great that though he raises his price by twelve times there's still a line of royalty waiting for three years to obtain one of his weapons. He is very heavy; he has the only fat thumbs in Madrid.
Inigo searches for the six-fingered man all over Spain and Portugal; France, Italy, Germany, the whole of Switzerland, all of the Balkans, most of Scandinavia, he'd visited the Florinese and the natives of Guilder, gone into Russia and down step by step throughout the entire Mediterranean.
Perhaps thirty men in all the world were the equal of Inigo when he fought left-handed; perhaps as many as fifty, perhaps as few as ten.
Turkish hospital records list a total of eleven children who weighed over twenty pounds at birth, and ninety-five more between fifteen and twenty.
In the book, the Battle of Wits takes place at night. Vizzini always carries a knapsack around with him, and out of this he takes out a small handkerchief on which he then places two goblets of wine, along with some cheese and some apples.
And this exchange: "I cannot compete with you physically, and you are no match for my brains." "You are that smart?" "There are no words to contain all my wisdom. I am so cunning, so crafty and clever, so filled with deceit, guile and chicanery, such a knave, so shrewd, cagey as well as calculating, as diabolical as I am vulpine, as tricky as I am untrustworthy....well, I have told you that there have not been words invented yet to explain how great my brain is, but let me put it this way: the world is several million years old and several billion people have at one point or another trod upon it, but I, Vizzini the Sicilian, am, speaking with pure candor and modesty, the slickest, sleekest, sliest and wiliest man who has yet come down the pike."
Humperdinck's four whites were snowy, tireless giants, twenty hands high. He rode them all four at a time, bareback, leading the other three at full gallop, leaping from one to another at mid-stride so that none of them would have to bear his great bulk past the tiring point. Very clever, really.
"You think this is a trap, then?" the Count asked. "I always think everything is a trap until proven otherwise," the Prince answered. "Which is why I'm still alive."
The way the narrator slices into Morgenstern's criticism of his wife's criticism about deleting the reunion scene.
The largest known fire swamp in the world is, of course, a day's drive from Perth. It's over twenty-five miles square and completely impenetrable. The Florin-Guilder Fire Swamp is barely a third of that size, and nobody knows whether it's impenetrable or not.
Buttercup is 18 when this story begins, when the Count and Countess visit and she realizes she loves Westley and he sails for America, etc. What with one thing and another, three years pass, so she's 21 now. Based on their conversation about nightmares heading into the Fire Swamp, Westley is somewhere between 21 and 23 years old.
Nobody had ever explained to the cook of the Revenge the difference between table salt and cayenne pepper until Westley took the trouble, much to the Dread Pirate Roberts' relief.
Of course, he wasn't really the Dread Pirate Roberts; no, his full name was Felix Raymond Ryan, who inherited the ship from Cummerbund, who inherited it from Clooney, who was first mate to the original Dread Pirate Roberts, who had been retired somewhere between fifteen and twenty years by then and was living like a king in Patagonia.
It took them seven hours to walk through and get out of the Fire Swamp, and that first hour was by far the easiest. However, those following six hours are irrelevant to this story, so they're passed over in a sentence. WHAT. A. DAY. Whew....
Chapter Six, The Festivities is pretty much about just that; going on for 44 (deleted) pages as Humperdinck grows more interested and mannerly towards Buttercup. Then in a handful of quick flashbacks Morgenstern gets back to the real story. Inigo hates the Thieves Quarter; everyone is so big and dangerous and muscular; and he looked like a skinny Spanish guy it might be fun to rob. We also miss a six-page soliloquy from Inigo about fleeting glory.
A full page of elaboration on a three-word sentence(those seem to be the most mysterious and powerful of all sentence structures, don't they?) Anyway, the three-word sentence is this: Life isn't fair.
Buttercup's nightmares in Chapter Six are horrifying. Just....terrifying and awful.
Count Rugen has spent eleven years constructing The Machine, which appears to be an great conglomeration of soft-rimmed cups of infinitely varied sizes, together with some glue and a dial and a lever.
The average Florinese male lives to about 65, and the Count sucked away ten years of Westley's life during the week that Yellin was assembling his Brute Squad.
The narrator's retelling of the moment he learned that Westley died while Humperdinck lived. "I buried my head into the pillow and never cried like that again, not once to this day. I could almost feel my heart emptying onto my pillow. I guess the most amazing thing about crying is that when you're in it, you think it'll go on forever, but it never really lasts as long as you think. Not in terms of real time. In terms of real emotions, it's worse than you think, but not by the clock."
Max had married Valerie eighty years ago when they were both at Miracle School, she was a potion ladler, not a witch; but at that time every miracle man had to have a witch, so he called her one in public since she didn't mind, and she had learned enough of the witch trade over the years to pass herself off as authentic under pressure. In the old days, before Max was fired, the hut was where they tried experiments...and now it was their home. When Inigo and Fezzik bring Westley in, it's almost midnight, and Max was in the middle of reading a very-well-written article on eagle's claws. Valerie is described in the "Humperdinck! Humperdinck! Humperdinck!" speech as "an ancient tiny fury". (Isn't that just a wonderful description?)
The narrator clips about twenty pages and thirteen hours' worth of unnecessary action while Max and Valerie are concocting the miracle pill, as it was all too "Wizard of Oz"-like, apparently.
Switching swiftly back and forth minute-by-minute describing what action is taking place simultaneously all throughout the castle in Chapter Eight, The Honeymoon.
In the book, the wedding is performed by the Archdean(as opposed to the movie's Impressive Clergyman). His full amount of speaking lines: "Mawidge. Mawidge-" (Interrupted by Humperdinck) "Mawidge is a dweam wiffin a dweam...the dweam of wuv wapped wiffin the gweater dweam of everwasting west. Eternity is our fwiend, wemember that, and wuv wiw fowwow you fowever. (Interrupted again) I'm not there yet. (Interrupted by a now-furious Prince) Man and wife. You're man and wife."
This is the narrator's ending: "That's Morgenstern's ending, a "Lady or the Tiger" type of effect(this was before "The Lady or the Tiger", remember). Now, he was a satirist, so he left it that way, and my father, I guess I realized too late, was a romantic, so he ended it another way. Well, I'm an abridger, so I'm entitled to a couple ideas of my own. Did they make it? Was the pirate ship there? You can answer it for yourself, but for me, I say yes it was. And yes, they got away. And they got their strength back and had their share of adventures and more than their share of laughs. But that doesn't mean I think they had a happy ending, either. Because, in my opinion anyway, they squabbled a lot, and Buttercup lost her looks eventually, and one day Fezzik lost a fight and some hot-shot kid whipped Inigo with a sword and Westley was never able to really sleep sound because of Humperdinck maybe being on the trail. I'm not trying to make this a downer, understand. I really do believe that true love is the greatest thing in the world, except for cough drops. But I also have to say, for the umpy-umpth time, that life isn't fair. It's just fairer than death, that's all."
This is how I spend my weekends when snowbound by sleet, snow and negative wind chill. It was a fun project that took quite a while, recording all these little bits....I wonder if I could make an essay or speech based off it somehow? It worked for fairy tales...
If you've never READ the book before...well, hopefully this didn't spoil it too much. But you really should, you'd enjoy it. But as LaVar Burton always used to say, "Hey, don't take my word for it..."
Well, that's just barely scratching the surface of what I mean here, only covering George Lucas, the Bible, Harper Lee and Jan Karon. This post is concerned with the brilliant detailing of the satirical abridgment of S. Morgenstern's satirical history of the Florinese royalty known as The Princess Bride, written by William Goldman. First off, as the narrator highlights, the full title is The Princess Bride: S. Morgenstern's Classic Tale of True Love and High Adventure, he points out that you've got to love somebody who calls his own book a classic before it's been published or anybody else has had a chance to read it. And you do, just for the audacity of the deed. Furthermore, the extensive, extremely dry and entirely fictitious prologue explaining how the book came to be abridged is a masterstroke of Sicilian-level genius. Anyway, there's so many wonderful little details hidden all throughout the prologue and the book itself; creating an entirely plausible world that a lot of people would love to visit. I mean, the very first sentence has a hook that fuels a ferocious desire to find out what happens next: "This is my favorite book in all the world; though I have never read it." (Jaw drops in admiration for his writing skill. Isn't that just a wonderful beginning?) I named this blog after a passage from the sword-fight scene. So, much like the one about the little-noticed details of "The Big Green", this post takes a look at the terrific details from The Princess Bride(the book version.)
This sentence - the writer casting himself as the narrator describing his childhood - could have totally been written about my growing-up: "Basketball, baseball, marbles - I could never get enough. I wasn't even very good at them, but give me a football and an empty playground and I could invent last-second comebacks that would bring tears to your eyes." And he continues in the next paragraph with this: "I seemed busy, busy, busy, but I suppose, if pressed I would have admitted that, for all my frenzy, I was very much alone." And that's just on the first page!
That the narrator's radio is a Zenith; and it was a fall Friday in 1941 when he caught pneumonia, trying to catch the Northwestern-Notre Dame football game over the airwaves. And that his father was a Florinese immigrant whose English always stayed ridiculously immigranty; he worked all his life as the number-two-chair barber at the least popular barber shop in Highland Park, Illinois. His father died in that barber chair, and it took an hour for the number-one-chair barber to realize this because he thought the corpse was taking a nap.
S. Morgenstern had a head shaped like a giant balloon.
"Does it have any sports in it?" "Fencing. Fighting. Torture. Poison. True love. Hate. Revenge. Giants. Hunters. Bad men. Good men. Beautifulest ladies. Snakes. Spiders. Beasts of all natures and pain and descriptions. Pain. Death. Brave men. Coward men. Strongest men. Chases. Escapes. Lies. Truth. Passion. Miracles." "Sounds okay."
I've always read the prologue in the voice of The Wonder Years's narrator. Only recently I just realized that's probably because Fred Savage plays the Grandson in the movie.
THE BOOK -
All these side notes about who the most beautiful woman in the world was and why she yielded that position...the first sentence of the actual book begins: "The year Buttercup was born, the most beautiful woman in the world was a French scullery maid named Annette." Can you get a much more fairy-tale opening than that, not using the whole "Once upon a time..." cliche?
Anyway, Annette worked in Paris for the Duke and Duchess de Guiche, and it's not long before the Duke discovers that someone extraordinary is polishing the pewter. The Duchess notices this, and begins studying Annette for some flaw in her character(or appearance would be close enough). Annette's Achilles heel is chocolate, which the Duchess plants in strategic places all throughout the castle, and Annette grows from delicate to whopping inside a season. That takes care of the whole "most beautiful woman in the world" thing. She marries the pastry chef afterwards and they both ate a lot until old age claimed them.
And when Buttercup was ten, the most beautiful woman was an Indian woman, the daughter of a Bengali tea merchant, with skin of such dusky perfection unseen for eighty years. Then smallpox came, and that took care of that.
And when Buttercup was fifteen, the most beautiful woman was Adela of Sussex-on-the-Thames, who had 104 suitors, and one night worried her perfect complexion away over the fact that she would not always be young and beautiful.
All these wonderful asides to the audience(but of course, this was before audiencial asides.) It confuses you so much as to when this story takes place, but at the same time adds to the heightened realism. (This was before ulcers. And before Voltaire. After mirrors, obviously. They had acres then, and arguments too. It was before Europe, but after Paris. And after taste, too, but only just. This was before glamour. It came after stew, but so does everything else; and long after spats. This was after taxes, but they were here even before stew. This was after blue jeans, which were invented considerably earlier than most people suppose. It was just after America, but long after fortunes. It was long, long after hairdressers. This was before trains, but well after carpenters. It was before emergency wards, but not before doctors, although in Turkey doctors hadn't started setting bones yet - that was the domain of the milkmen. Golf balls were around already, but this was before "The Lady or the Tiger", remember.) And the game of golf, as everyone knows, was invented by Brandobras Took, the only hobbit ever big enough to ride a horse, slicing off a goblin's head, which sailed through the air for a hundred yards before dropping into a rabbit hole. The game spread at some unknown time from the Shire to Scotland, and then to the rest of the world. (Okay, I went off-topic there and brought in some Lord of the Rings elements....back to Goldman now.)
The parenthetical statistics given at every available opportunity: (There have only been eleven perfect complexions in India since accurate recording began; Adela Terrell had 104 suitors; Buttercup's parents were having their 33rd spat of the day when the Count and Countess drive up. Originally "jealousy" was a term solely relating to plants, which is how the term "green with jealousy" came to be, and Buttercup's current case was a close fourth on the all-time list. There have been five great kisses since its accidental invention in 1642 B.C., and while no one completely agrees on the exact formula, they all agreed that those five deserved perfect marks.) There are far more parenthetical statistics given throughout the rest of the novel, but as it's taken me a couple months to re-read it again for the sixth(ish? Possibly more) time, I forgot to keep a lookout for stats past this point.
The Countess settled permanently in Paris at some point to indulge her passion for fabrics and ran the only salon of international consequence, naturally.
After the wonderfully odd cow-feeding scene, Buttercup spends almost three full pages thinking about the Countess and Westley and how people don't look at each other that way because of their teeth. And then at dawn the next morning she tells him that she loves him, in one page-long paragraph, words rushing out incoherently in an onslaught of emotion, and then does the bravest thing she'd ever done; looking him straight into his eyes. And what is his response? "He closed the door in her face. Without a word. Without a word."
Buttercup's hair is the "color of autumn", which is a great way of expressing it - but I'm still having trouble seeing her as a redhead.
Another great hallmark of William Goldman's writing, specifically this book, but also in a couple of his others, is the use of repetition, and then snapping into an analogy that makes you pause and think a minute before going on to the next sentence. Prince Humperdinck was shaped like a barrel, with a big barrel chest and big barrel thighs, and he walked like a crab sideways so that if he'd wished to be a ballet dancer he would have been doomed to an endless life of miserable frustration.
Sixty-six pages have been edited out of Chapter Two, The Groom, because they were irrelevant history of the Florinese monarchy. The resulting chapter is about three and a half pages long.
Queen Bella was shaped like a gumdrop, colored like a raspberry and was easily the most beloved person in the kingdom; but as the only stepmothers Humperdinck had ever heard of were evil, he always called her "Evil Stepmother", or "E.S." for short.
The chapter names and lengths, all choppy and mixed up from the typical formula. Prologue: 26 pages, Chapter One, The Bride: 23 pages. Chapter Two, The Groom: Three pages. Chapter Four, The Courtship: Seven pages. Chapter Four, Preparations: Zero pages, as it was entirely deleted. Okay, well, technically it's one page long, because the narrator has to explain why he took it out. Chapter Five, The Announcement: 92 pages long. Chapter Six, The Festivities: 52 pages long. Chapter Seven, The Wedding: 33 pages. Chapter Eight, Honeymoon: 16 pages.
Florin and Guilder have mainly stayed alive by warring near-constantly on each other. There's been the Olive War, the Tuna Fish Discrepancy(which nearly sent both nations into bankruptcy), the Roman Rift(which did send them into insolvency) and the Discord of the Emeralds, where they both got rich again by banding together and robbing everyone else within sailing distance.
Chapter Three, The Courtship, is possibly one of the best places in the book. The abridger slashed out 56 1/2 pages of packing, and leaves in these brilliant two paragraphs: "At 8:23 there seemed to be every chance of a lasting alliance forming between Florin and Guilder. At 8:24 the two countries were very close to war." Which is followed by three pages describing exactly what happened in those sixty seconds and the aftermath, and then by far the best courtship passage ever written in all literature.
From a narrative point of view, in all 105 pages of Chapter Four, Preparations, nothing happens. So it can basically be summed up by the sentence, "What with one thing and another, three years passed." (Buttercup is made Princess of Hammersmith, since Humperdinck can't possibly marry a commoner, and is trained in the art of being a princess. Also, both her parents die during this time.)
Vizzini is described as "dark". Sorry, but that just doesn't work....not complexion-wise, at least. Maybe he meant that as far as character goes? Also, he has the gentlest face, almost angelic.
The Cliffs of Insanity were not actually impossible to scale; two men had been known to climb them in the last century alone.
Inigo was raised by his father Domingo in the small village of Arabella in the mountains of Central Spain high above the city of Toledo, and he learned to cook from the age of six.
Yeste the swordmaker's fame grows so great that though he raises his price by twelve times there's still a line of royalty waiting for three years to obtain one of his weapons. He is very heavy; he has the only fat thumbs in Madrid.
Inigo searches for the six-fingered man all over Spain and Portugal; France, Italy, Germany, the whole of Switzerland, all of the Balkans, most of Scandinavia, he'd visited the Florinese and the natives of Guilder, gone into Russia and down step by step throughout the entire Mediterranean.
Perhaps thirty men in all the world were the equal of Inigo when he fought left-handed; perhaps as many as fifty, perhaps as few as ten.
Turkish hospital records list a total of eleven children who weighed over twenty pounds at birth, and ninety-five more between fifteen and twenty.
In the book, the Battle of Wits takes place at night. Vizzini always carries a knapsack around with him, and out of this he takes out a small handkerchief on which he then places two goblets of wine, along with some cheese and some apples.
And this exchange: "I cannot compete with you physically, and you are no match for my brains." "You are that smart?" "There are no words to contain all my wisdom. I am so cunning, so crafty and clever, so filled with deceit, guile and chicanery, such a knave, so shrewd, cagey as well as calculating, as diabolical as I am vulpine, as tricky as I am untrustworthy....well, I have told you that there have not been words invented yet to explain how great my brain is, but let me put it this way: the world is several million years old and several billion people have at one point or another trod upon it, but I, Vizzini the Sicilian, am, speaking with pure candor and modesty, the slickest, sleekest, sliest and wiliest man who has yet come down the pike."
Humperdinck's four whites were snowy, tireless giants, twenty hands high. He rode them all four at a time, bareback, leading the other three at full gallop, leaping from one to another at mid-stride so that none of them would have to bear his great bulk past the tiring point. Very clever, really.
"You think this is a trap, then?" the Count asked. "I always think everything is a trap until proven otherwise," the Prince answered. "Which is why I'm still alive."
The way the narrator slices into Morgenstern's criticism of his wife's criticism about deleting the reunion scene.
The largest known fire swamp in the world is, of course, a day's drive from Perth. It's over twenty-five miles square and completely impenetrable. The Florin-Guilder Fire Swamp is barely a third of that size, and nobody knows whether it's impenetrable or not.
Buttercup is 18 when this story begins, when the Count and Countess visit and she realizes she loves Westley and he sails for America, etc. What with one thing and another, three years pass, so she's 21 now. Based on their conversation about nightmares heading into the Fire Swamp, Westley is somewhere between 21 and 23 years old.
Nobody had ever explained to the cook of the Revenge the difference between table salt and cayenne pepper until Westley took the trouble, much to the Dread Pirate Roberts' relief.
Of course, he wasn't really the Dread Pirate Roberts; no, his full name was Felix Raymond Ryan, who inherited the ship from Cummerbund, who inherited it from Clooney, who was first mate to the original Dread Pirate Roberts, who had been retired somewhere between fifteen and twenty years by then and was living like a king in Patagonia.
It took them seven hours to walk through and get out of the Fire Swamp, and that first hour was by far the easiest. However, those following six hours are irrelevant to this story, so they're passed over in a sentence. WHAT. A. DAY. Whew....
Chapter Six, The Festivities is pretty much about just that; going on for 44 (deleted) pages as Humperdinck grows more interested and mannerly towards Buttercup. Then in a handful of quick flashbacks Morgenstern gets back to the real story. Inigo hates the Thieves Quarter; everyone is so big and dangerous and muscular; and he looked like a skinny Spanish guy it might be fun to rob. We also miss a six-page soliloquy from Inigo about fleeting glory.
A full page of elaboration on a three-word sentence(those seem to be the most mysterious and powerful of all sentence structures, don't they?) Anyway, the three-word sentence is this: Life isn't fair.
Buttercup's nightmares in Chapter Six are horrifying. Just....terrifying and awful.
Count Rugen has spent eleven years constructing The Machine, which appears to be an great conglomeration of soft-rimmed cups of infinitely varied sizes, together with some glue and a dial and a lever.
The average Florinese male lives to about 65, and the Count sucked away ten years of Westley's life during the week that Yellin was assembling his Brute Squad.
The narrator's retelling of the moment he learned that Westley died while Humperdinck lived. "I buried my head into the pillow and never cried like that again, not once to this day. I could almost feel my heart emptying onto my pillow. I guess the most amazing thing about crying is that when you're in it, you think it'll go on forever, but it never really lasts as long as you think. Not in terms of real time. In terms of real emotions, it's worse than you think, but not by the clock."
Max had married Valerie eighty years ago when they were both at Miracle School, she was a potion ladler, not a witch; but at that time every miracle man had to have a witch, so he called her one in public since she didn't mind, and she had learned enough of the witch trade over the years to pass herself off as authentic under pressure. In the old days, before Max was fired, the hut was where they tried experiments...and now it was their home. When Inigo and Fezzik bring Westley in, it's almost midnight, and Max was in the middle of reading a very-well-written article on eagle's claws. Valerie is described in the "Humperdinck! Humperdinck! Humperdinck!" speech as "an ancient tiny fury". (Isn't that just a wonderful description?)
The narrator clips about twenty pages and thirteen hours' worth of unnecessary action while Max and Valerie are concocting the miracle pill, as it was all too "Wizard of Oz"-like, apparently.
Switching swiftly back and forth minute-by-minute describing what action is taking place simultaneously all throughout the castle in Chapter Eight, The Honeymoon.
In the book, the wedding is performed by the Archdean(as opposed to the movie's Impressive Clergyman). His full amount of speaking lines: "Mawidge. Mawidge-" (Interrupted by Humperdinck) "Mawidge is a dweam wiffin a dweam...the dweam of wuv wapped wiffin the gweater dweam of everwasting west. Eternity is our fwiend, wemember that, and wuv wiw fowwow you fowever. (Interrupted again) I'm not there yet. (Interrupted by a now-furious Prince) Man and wife. You're man and wife."
This is the narrator's ending: "That's Morgenstern's ending, a "Lady or the Tiger" type of effect(this was before "The Lady or the Tiger", remember). Now, he was a satirist, so he left it that way, and my father, I guess I realized too late, was a romantic, so he ended it another way. Well, I'm an abridger, so I'm entitled to a couple ideas of my own. Did they make it? Was the pirate ship there? You can answer it for yourself, but for me, I say yes it was. And yes, they got away. And they got their strength back and had their share of adventures and more than their share of laughs. But that doesn't mean I think they had a happy ending, either. Because, in my opinion anyway, they squabbled a lot, and Buttercup lost her looks eventually, and one day Fezzik lost a fight and some hot-shot kid whipped Inigo with a sword and Westley was never able to really sleep sound because of Humperdinck maybe being on the trail. I'm not trying to make this a downer, understand. I really do believe that true love is the greatest thing in the world, except for cough drops. But I also have to say, for the umpy-umpth time, that life isn't fair. It's just fairer than death, that's all."
This is how I spend my weekends when snowbound by sleet, snow and negative wind chill. It was a fun project that took quite a while, recording all these little bits....I wonder if I could make an essay or speech based off it somehow? It worked for fairy tales...
If you've never READ the book before...well, hopefully this didn't spoil it too much. But you really should, you'd enjoy it. But as LaVar Burton always used to say, "Hey, don't take my word for it..."
Saturday, March 1, 2014
Mo.re Hymns, Please
Not sure why, but it seems like every weekend around here my mind takes off for Missouri. Just anywhere, really, doesn't have to be any particular spot. Kansas City, Columbia, Joplin, Branson. Usually, though, it ends up in a little town about 45 minutes east of Springfield in the summertime, and then roams around the site of Camp Beth-Eden.
Why does it matter so much? Why do I care so deeply about these people, the teaching, the stories and memories, about the whole experience? I don't know these answers, exactly. And I unfortunately can't quite capture how much a blessing it is to be involved with SGYC, whether as a camper, counselor, or interested observer. The Lord is working, and there's just something so unbelievably amazing about how folks from all over the country can be brought together for a week of learning and fellowship.
Spent part of this morning playing hymns, which was good. So much rich truth contained in those lyrics, good to meditate on. Some of my all-time favorites, though, would probably include "Come Thou Fount of Every Blessing", "How Firm a Foundation", "Be Thou My Vision" and "God Moves in a Mysterious Way".
"Come thou fount of every blessing/Tune my heart to sing Thy grace/Streams of mercy, never ceasing/Call for songs of loudest praise/Teach me some melodious sonnet/Sung by flaming tongues above/Praise the mount! I'm fixed upon it/Mount of Thy redeeming love
"Here I raise my Ebenezer/Hither by Thy help I've come/And I hope, by Thy good pleasure/Safely to arrive at home/Jesus sought me when a stranger/Wandering from the fold of God/He, to rescue me from danger/Interposed His precious blood
"Oh, to grace how great a debtor/Daily I'm constrained to be!/Let thy goodness, like a fetter/Bind my wand'ring heart to Thee/Prone to wander, Lord, I feel it/Prone to leave the God I love/Here's my heart, Lord, take and seal it/Seal it for Thy courts above.."
"How firm a foundation, ye saints of the Lord/Is laid for your faith in His excellent Word?/What more can we say than to you He hath said/To you who for refuge in Jesus hath fled?
"'Fear not, I am with thee, oh be not dismayed/For I am your God, and will still give thee aid/I'll strengthen thee, help thee and cause thee to stand/Upheld by my righteous, omnipotent hand"
"'When through the deep waters I call you to go/The rivers of sorrow shall not overflow/For I will be with thee, thy troubles to bless/And sanctify to thee thy deepest distress"
"When through fiery trials thy pathway shall lie/My grace, all sufficient, shall be your supply/The falme shall not hurt you, I only design/Thy dross to consume and thy gold to refine"
"The soul that on Jesus hath leaned for repose/I will not, I will not desert to His foes/That soul, though all hell should endeavor to shake/I'll never, no never, no never forsake..."
"Be Thou my vision, oh Lord of my heart/Naught be all else to me, save that Thou art/Thou my best thought, by day or by night/Waking or sleeping, Thy presence my light
"Be Thou my wisdom, and Thou my true word/I ever with Thee, and Thou with me, Lord/Thou my great Father and I thy true son/Thou in me dwelling and I with Thee one
"Be Thou my battle-shield, sword for the fight/Be Thou my dignity, Thou my delight/Thou my soul's shelter, Thou my high tower/Raise Thou me heavenward, oh Power of my power
"Riches I heed not, nor man's empty praise/Thou mine inheritance now and always/Thou and Thou only, first in my heart/High King of Heaven, my treasure Thou art
"High King of heaven, after victory won/May I reach heaven's joys, Oh bright heaven's Son?/Heart of my own heart, whatever befall/Still be my vision, O Ruler of all..."
"Come thou fount of every blessing/Tune my heart to sing Thy grace/Streams of mercy, never ceasing/Call for songs of loudest praise/Teach me some melodious sonnet/Sung by flaming tongues above/Praise the mount! I'm fixed upon it/Mount of Thy redeeming love
"Here I raise my Ebenezer/Hither by Thy help I've come/And I hope, by Thy good pleasure/Safely to arrive at home/Jesus sought me when a stranger/Wandering from the fold of God/He, to rescue me from danger/Interposed His precious blood
"Oh, to grace how great a debtor/Daily I'm constrained to be!/Let thy goodness, like a fetter/Bind my wand'ring heart to Thee/Prone to wander, Lord, I feel it/Prone to leave the God I love/Here's my heart, Lord, take and seal it/Seal it for Thy courts above.."
"How firm a foundation, ye saints of the Lord/Is laid for your faith in His excellent Word?/What more can we say than to you He hath said/To you who for refuge in Jesus hath fled?
"'Fear not, I am with thee, oh be not dismayed/For I am your God, and will still give thee aid/I'll strengthen thee, help thee and cause thee to stand/Upheld by my righteous, omnipotent hand"
"'When through the deep waters I call you to go/The rivers of sorrow shall not overflow/For I will be with thee, thy troubles to bless/And sanctify to thee thy deepest distress"
"When through fiery trials thy pathway shall lie/My grace, all sufficient, shall be your supply/The falme shall not hurt you, I only design/Thy dross to consume and thy gold to refine"
"The soul that on Jesus hath leaned for repose/I will not, I will not desert to His foes/That soul, though all hell should endeavor to shake/I'll never, no never, no never forsake..."
"Be Thou my vision, oh Lord of my heart/Naught be all else to me, save that Thou art/Thou my best thought, by day or by night/Waking or sleeping, Thy presence my light
"Be Thou my wisdom, and Thou my true word/I ever with Thee, and Thou with me, Lord/Thou my great Father and I thy true son/Thou in me dwelling and I with Thee one
"Be Thou my battle-shield, sword for the fight/Be Thou my dignity, Thou my delight/Thou my soul's shelter, Thou my high tower/Raise Thou me heavenward, oh Power of my power
"Riches I heed not, nor man's empty praise/Thou mine inheritance now and always/Thou and Thou only, first in my heart/High King of Heaven, my treasure Thou art
"High King of heaven, after victory won/May I reach heaven's joys, Oh bright heaven's Son?/Heart of my own heart, whatever befall/Still be my vision, O Ruler of all..."
"God moves in a mysterious way/His wonders to perform/He plants his footsteps in the sea/And rides upon the storm/Deep in his dark and hidden mines/With never-failing skill/He fashions all his bright designs/And works his sovereign will
"Ye fearful saints, new courage take/These clouds that you now dread/Are big with mercy and will break/In blessings on your head/Judge not the Lord by feeble sense/But trust him for his grace/Behind a frowning providence/He hides a smiling face
"His purposes will ripen fast/Unfolding every hour/The bud may have a bitter taste/But sweet will be the flower/Blind unbelief is sure to err/And scan his work in vain/God is his own interpreter/And he will make it plain..."
UPDATE - I began writing this post about three weeks ago, it wasn't quite done yet. Analyzing the lyrics of "Be Thou My Vision", it kinda seems like an olden version of today's Christian-radio songs or man-centered worship music...Hmm.
Hopefully I'll be able to go to church in the morning, but we'll have to see what the weather does. Student ministries are great at times and have their place, and so do conferences, but it's not the same. Spending the night working on this post, trying to get some stories written a bit farther and listening to some Eli music, his "Second Hand Clothing" CD. Might play guitar for a bit.
"Ye fearful saints, new courage take/These clouds that you now dread/Are big with mercy and will break/In blessings on your head/Judge not the Lord by feeble sense/But trust him for his grace/Behind a frowning providence/He hides a smiling face
"His purposes will ripen fast/Unfolding every hour/The bud may have a bitter taste/But sweet will be the flower/Blind unbelief is sure to err/And scan his work in vain/God is his own interpreter/And he will make it plain..."
UPDATE - I began writing this post about three weeks ago, it wasn't quite done yet. Analyzing the lyrics of "Be Thou My Vision", it kinda seems like an olden version of today's Christian-radio songs or man-centered worship music...Hmm.
Hopefully I'll be able to go to church in the morning, but we'll have to see what the weather does. Student ministries are great at times and have their place, and so do conferences, but it's not the same. Spending the night working on this post, trying to get some stories written a bit farther and listening to some Eli music, his "Second Hand Clothing" CD. Might play guitar for a bit.
Wednesday, February 19, 2014
Mid-Week Update
This has been a really busy last couple of days. Which is a good thing. And a large pizza can be stretched into food for five meals.
Stayed in my dorm and did homework all weekend, which though productive was a little frustrating. Missed church Sunday morning; while frustrating, I didn't quite feel up to walking down there just yet. Researched my informative speech on the history of the Winter Olympics all day instead; then went to church that night with Louise and Harry.
Pentecostal services are...interesting. It was at this little mountain church way back off several dirt roads, very pretty building, though. Nice green carpet, light finish on the wood of the pews and prayer altars, five identical ceiling fans down the middle of the room. About twenty to thirty people in the congregation; and I was the youngest attendee by about thirty years. Louise had me bring my guitar along, so I was volunteered into helping with the music(which is a bit hard when you don't know the hymns). It was a little off-key, but joyful. Overall the service seemed very simple and down-to-earth; friendly and sincere, though off theologically at times. Shouting was heard often, and one guy marched around the room during the music. The sermon, something about the need of prayer, from what I could figure out, involved a lot more shouting and arm-pumping, with the congregation interjecting their thoughts after almost every sentence, and such a barrage of rather-unrelated Old Testament passages were referenced I couldn't tell if there was a main text it started from or not.
There was also a lot of stories of times-gone-by and news-of-the-grandkids wrapped into a bunch of testimonies, which was interesting to watch. Though I did feel a little unsure of what the proper customs were in reacting to everything...
It was good to spend some time with Louise and Harry.
When I got back it was straight to BCM worship music practice, James Hoover, Mark, Daniel P. and Ricardo helped a lot with getting re-acquainted with playing with other people. Good way to spend two hours, playing music with a bunch of other guys.
Then off to the library to print out a rough draft of my speech outline, then back to the dorm for some sleep. (after about two hours of lying there staring at the ceiling)
Monday started off with Latin, which was good, as usual. Rushed over to the UC to get some food, scarfed that down and hurried back to speech. While waiting, worked on some flashcards I'd been needing to make and read G.K. Chesterton.
Speech was all right. Homework for my Media Management and Planning class the next morning occupied my afternoon, there was a great game of Jeopardy on; going into the final all three players were separated by about $1,600.
Almost no one was eating in The Underground, which was really strange, since typically at 5 p.m. on Monday nights it's packed. Shot pool with Elizabeth before SWAT practice started; I lost both games, 8-ball scratches each time. Practice went pretty well; getting ready for shows to start this weekend. Afterwards we had a meeting in the living room to discuss the direction we're headed, how we can improve things and serve more effectively.
The speaker at the meeting was talking about genetics, euthanasia, cloning, etc. and how we ought to react as Christians, it was horrifying and sickening; the knowledge of the perversity of the world and just...the darkness of it all. And science isn't really my strong point at all in the first place, and then when you start talking about eugenics and abortion and those subjects - I slipped out halfway through, just needed to be alone for a while to pray hard.
Basketball practice went pretty well, it went a little late, got back at midnight, so I missed Jimmy Fallon's first night as Tonight Show host. Fell asleep sometime past one.
Nobody exactly understood the assignment we were supposed to work on over the week in MMP, so we kinda got chewed out for that. That wasn't that great.
Met up with Zach for our weekly Bible study, then went to Westvillle with Mom, Caleb and Amy to go see Nano. Sort of one of those "helping the widows" type thing.
Jessica had an essay she wanted me to edit, so I tried to help with that, did a bit more homework, took a shower, watched a little bit of the Olympics and went to sleep.
I can't remember what was happening, but there was some really interesting dream taking place when I woke up. Those are annoying when that happens. Woke up with DC Talk and Brad Paisley tunes running through my head, which is always a good way to start the day. (That's happened a lot lately. I like it.) Latin went well, more Chesterton reading in the break between classes, found out I missed an assignment while out with the flu, but the rough draft scored pretty well. After speech I had to practice my speech, work on fixing errors and weak spots, at this place in the old Journalism building. Conner was working that shift, it's helpful to have a former classmate edit your work. Reworking that outline and trimming unnecessary details is what I've been focused on most of this afternoon, smacked myself upside the head with the microwave door while cooking dinner. Need to create a PowerPoint tomorrow and meet with my group for this week's advertising project.
SWAT shows on Sunday night at the church where Dad first started youth pastoring and then Monday night at the BCM, the basketball tournament is two weeks away, my speech is Monday afternoon, Latin test on Wednesday morning, and those two 8-week video production classes start in early March. So things have been pretty crazy and busy, but that's a good thing, mostly. And they'll continue to be like that for about as far as can be seen. Of course, that's not very long, this being college and all. But, anyway, right now it's that pre-spring break sense of panic and overstimulation from the project-and test-waves gathering steam.
Stayed in my dorm and did homework all weekend, which though productive was a little frustrating. Missed church Sunday morning; while frustrating, I didn't quite feel up to walking down there just yet. Researched my informative speech on the history of the Winter Olympics all day instead; then went to church that night with Louise and Harry.
Pentecostal services are...interesting. It was at this little mountain church way back off several dirt roads, very pretty building, though. Nice green carpet, light finish on the wood of the pews and prayer altars, five identical ceiling fans down the middle of the room. About twenty to thirty people in the congregation; and I was the youngest attendee by about thirty years. Louise had me bring my guitar along, so I was volunteered into helping with the music(which is a bit hard when you don't know the hymns). It was a little off-key, but joyful. Overall the service seemed very simple and down-to-earth; friendly and sincere, though off theologically at times. Shouting was heard often, and one guy marched around the room during the music. The sermon, something about the need of prayer, from what I could figure out, involved a lot more shouting and arm-pumping, with the congregation interjecting their thoughts after almost every sentence, and such a barrage of rather-unrelated Old Testament passages were referenced I couldn't tell if there was a main text it started from or not.
There was also a lot of stories of times-gone-by and news-of-the-grandkids wrapped into a bunch of testimonies, which was interesting to watch. Though I did feel a little unsure of what the proper customs were in reacting to everything...
It was good to spend some time with Louise and Harry.
When I got back it was straight to BCM worship music practice, James Hoover, Mark, Daniel P. and Ricardo helped a lot with getting re-acquainted with playing with other people. Good way to spend two hours, playing music with a bunch of other guys.
Then off to the library to print out a rough draft of my speech outline, then back to the dorm for some sleep. (after about two hours of lying there staring at the ceiling)
Monday started off with Latin, which was good, as usual. Rushed over to the UC to get some food, scarfed that down and hurried back to speech. While waiting, worked on some flashcards I'd been needing to make and read G.K. Chesterton.
Speech was all right. Homework for my Media Management and Planning class the next morning occupied my afternoon, there was a great game of Jeopardy on; going into the final all three players were separated by about $1,600.
Almost no one was eating in The Underground, which was really strange, since typically at 5 p.m. on Monday nights it's packed. Shot pool with Elizabeth before SWAT practice started; I lost both games, 8-ball scratches each time. Practice went pretty well; getting ready for shows to start this weekend. Afterwards we had a meeting in the living room to discuss the direction we're headed, how we can improve things and serve more effectively.
The speaker at the meeting was talking about genetics, euthanasia, cloning, etc. and how we ought to react as Christians, it was horrifying and sickening; the knowledge of the perversity of the world and just...the darkness of it all. And science isn't really my strong point at all in the first place, and then when you start talking about eugenics and abortion and those subjects - I slipped out halfway through, just needed to be alone for a while to pray hard.
Basketball practice went pretty well, it went a little late, got back at midnight, so I missed Jimmy Fallon's first night as Tonight Show host. Fell asleep sometime past one.
Nobody exactly understood the assignment we were supposed to work on over the week in MMP, so we kinda got chewed out for that. That wasn't that great.
Met up with Zach for our weekly Bible study, then went to Westvillle with Mom, Caleb and Amy to go see Nano. Sort of one of those "helping the widows" type thing.
Jessica had an essay she wanted me to edit, so I tried to help with that, did a bit more homework, took a shower, watched a little bit of the Olympics and went to sleep.
I can't remember what was happening, but there was some really interesting dream taking place when I woke up. Those are annoying when that happens. Woke up with DC Talk and Brad Paisley tunes running through my head, which is always a good way to start the day. (That's happened a lot lately. I like it.) Latin went well, more Chesterton reading in the break between classes, found out I missed an assignment while out with the flu, but the rough draft scored pretty well. After speech I had to practice my speech, work on fixing errors and weak spots, at this place in the old Journalism building. Conner was working that shift, it's helpful to have a former classmate edit your work. Reworking that outline and trimming unnecessary details is what I've been focused on most of this afternoon, smacked myself upside the head with the microwave door while cooking dinner. Need to create a PowerPoint tomorrow and meet with my group for this week's advertising project.
SWAT shows on Sunday night at the church where Dad first started youth pastoring and then Monday night at the BCM, the basketball tournament is two weeks away, my speech is Monday afternoon, Latin test on Wednesday morning, and those two 8-week video production classes start in early March. So things have been pretty crazy and busy, but that's a good thing, mostly. And they'll continue to be like that for about as far as can be seen. Of course, that's not very long, this being college and all. But, anyway, right now it's that pre-spring break sense of panic and overstimulation from the project-and test-waves gathering steam.
Friday, February 14, 2014
The Flu is Stupid
I'm really getting sick and tired of being sick and tired.
This is basically a recap of what I've done this week: "Stayed in the dorm at all non-class times and rather ineffectually did homework."
I've even taken several naps. Went to Grandpa and Robbie's Friday night, spent the night there, took a nap once I got back and then headed right back over there, to get dragged along to the doctor by Robbie(who kind of loved being able to take of a sick young person again), go back home and laid around the house for about three days, I was probably kind of a grouch. Rags didn't really mind, though. It was strange missing class Monday and Tuesday, and trying to not frantically panic over that.
It's been a long week.
This is basically a recap of what I've done this week: "Stayed in the dorm at all non-class times and rather ineffectually did homework."
I've even taken several naps. Went to Grandpa and Robbie's Friday night, spent the night there, took a nap once I got back and then headed right back over there, to get dragged along to the doctor by Robbie(who kind of loved being able to take of a sick young person again), go back home and laid around the house for about three days, I was probably kind of a grouch. Rags didn't really mind, though. It was strange missing class Monday and Tuesday, and trying to not frantically panic over that.
It's been a long week.
Thursday, February 6, 2014
Sleep-Deprived Useless Information
THE OLYMPICS ARE HERE. So the TV is on here in my dorm room. Unfortunately, the event currently being televised is something called "team figure skating", which involves a lot of male skaters. Which is why I'm typing up this post at the moment instead of watching.
My braces came off today. So my mouth feels unnaturally large. And retainers apparently take a while to get used to. Lispsth are annoying. (But it'll disappear in a couple days, probably.)
Also, I got a haircut this afternoon.
Tests in Latin and speech tomorrow, gonna need to do a bit of last-second preparing for those.
Dad had a dentist appointment this morning, in the waiting room I overheard this conversation:
Receptionist #1, to Nurse: "Oh, Roger called and said he will be here today."
Nurse, surprised: "Really? Wasn't expecting that, but okay..."
Receptionist #1: "I know, I didn't think he'd be here, either - driving again so soon, and in this weather!"
Receptionist #2: "What happened?"
Receptionist #1: "Didn't you hear? You know he drives a Pepsi truck, the other day he ran head-on into a car. It was on the news. He thought he killed the other guy."
Receptionist #2: "Oh...wow. Did he?"
Receptionist #1: "Nope, just shook up pretty bad."
Receptionist #2: "Huh. So....who is Roger, again?"
Receptionist #1: "You remember, he's the one who was going to church to find a woman."
Receptionist #2: "Oh! Yeah, I remember him."
Tonight will be Jay Leno's last night as host of The Tonight Show. ...Huh? It's possible for someone else to be the host?
Jeopardy is having a "Battle of the Decades" tournament going on right now, past champs from the 80's, 90's and 2000s.
The snow could disappear now, that'd be fine. About three more inches today, I think that's the fifth time since New Year's, the sixth or seventh snow of the winter.
This BuzzFeed post by A British guy trying to analyze the Super Bowl is kinda funny.
There is almost nothing of value in this post....that's what happens when you're a college student on a Thursday night and it's too early to go to sleep.
And here's a Weird Al video for no reason.
My braces came off today. So my mouth feels unnaturally large. And retainers apparently take a while to get used to. Lispsth are annoying. (But it'll disappear in a couple days, probably.)
Also, I got a haircut this afternoon.
Tests in Latin and speech tomorrow, gonna need to do a bit of last-second preparing for those.
Dad had a dentist appointment this morning, in the waiting room I overheard this conversation:
Receptionist #1, to Nurse: "Oh, Roger called and said he will be here today."
Nurse, surprised: "Really? Wasn't expecting that, but okay..."
Receptionist #1: "I know, I didn't think he'd be here, either - driving again so soon, and in this weather!"
Receptionist #2: "What happened?"
Receptionist #1: "Didn't you hear? You know he drives a Pepsi truck, the other day he ran head-on into a car. It was on the news. He thought he killed the other guy."
Receptionist #2: "Oh...wow. Did he?"
Receptionist #1: "Nope, just shook up pretty bad."
Receptionist #2: "Huh. So....who is Roger, again?"
Receptionist #1: "You remember, he's the one who was going to church to find a woman."
Receptionist #2: "Oh! Yeah, I remember him."
Tonight will be Jay Leno's last night as host of The Tonight Show. ...Huh? It's possible for someone else to be the host?
Jeopardy is having a "Battle of the Decades" tournament going on right now, past champs from the 80's, 90's and 2000s.
The snow could disappear now, that'd be fine. About three more inches today, I think that's the fifth time since New Year's, the sixth or seventh snow of the winter.
This BuzzFeed post by A British guy trying to analyze the Super Bowl is kinda funny.
There is almost nothing of value in this post....that's what happens when you're a college student on a Thursday night and it's too early to go to sleep.
And here's a Weird Al video for no reason.
Seasonal Cliche Material
Can't believe I'm writing this...
February is here, and that horrible holiday most people try to forget called "Valentine's Day" will be just a few days away. Seriously, how did that ever get to be a holiday in the first place? According to the legend(so says Wikipedia, which although not considered "credible" for school purposes has been shown to have less mistakes than the Encyclopedia Britannia), St. Valentine was imprisoned for officiating marriages of soldiers and aiding persecuted Christians, and was interrogated personally by the Emperor Claudius; who stated that if Valentine relapsed back into Roman pagan beliefs he would be saved. Valentine refused, and so was sentenced to execution. Sometime during his imprisonment, he supposedly restored the sight of his jailer's blind daughter Julia, after which she, her father and all his household converted to Christianity. The night before he was to executed, Valentine directed a note to be sent to Julia, ending it "your Valentine".
We then fast-forward most of the way through the Dark Ages, coming to the somewhat-recognizable medieval English of Geoffrey Chaucer. Apparently a satirist, in creating an elaborate history of a tradition which never existed in the first place for a poem(kinda like S. Morgenstern...), he ascribed the practice of birds choosing their mates on the day of St. Valentine, which is how everyone first associated the day with romantic love. This spread throughout the courts of France and England, gradually becoming a significant enough part of the year that Shakespeare has Ophelia mention it during Hamlet. They really caught on during the early 1800s in England, influenced by the invention of the postage stamp, and we stole the idea from them about fifty years later.
Many single people try to cover up their annoyance by calling it "Singles Awareness Day", both as a mockery of the extremely-hard-driven fact that they're single and also since there's an "Awareness Day" for seemingly every other condition under the sun. (Much like the plethora of college scholarships available to left-handed blue-eyed biotechnology-major students who grew up the youngest of eight or more children, or other such specialized nonsense.)
Whatever you want to call it, the main focus is about mushy, disgustingly PDA affection called "love" or variants thereof, which is a frequent topic of music, from Keith Urban's "Making Memories of Us" to Bon Jovi's "You Give Love a Bad Name ", from Garth Brooks' "Unanswered Prayers" to Randy Travis' "Forever and Ever, Amen"; as well as many wonderful spins on the subject from Brad Paisley and basically anything Taylor Swift has or will have written.
This leads to the great heartbreak songs of country music, but also could lead to a wedding. There's plenty of songs about that aspect, from Phil Vassar's "Love is a Beautiful Thing" to Billy Ray Cyrus' "Could've Been Me". (The best-ever wedding-related back-to-back songs played on Pandora would be once when "Stealin' Cinderella" was followed by "I Loved Her First", the order of which seemed extremely fitting.)
Weddings, in general, are kind of depressing. Mainly because you have to get dressed up in a suit and stay that way for several hours, as well as being complicated, expensive, they're held in strange churches are easy to get lost in, there's a TON of people around, and generally the stress level is near the steeple. (Or maybe that's my view because I was the ring-bearer THREE TIMES in ONE SUMMER when I was seven....)
Or maybe it's that 94% of the audience stands there awkwardly as two people are blissfully happy and everyone else isn't sure what to do or think. Or that you suddenly see people you used to know and haven't talked to in ages. Or that all these older adults and relatives and everyone smile and say, "It's your turn next!" or "So...isn't it about time this happened to you?" or "He/She sure is a lucky guy/gal." To all of which you grin weakly and say something original like, "Yup...guess so."
We don't really have any way to answer those types of statements....those saying them usually have only gentle teasing in mind, but the words kind of come out as accusing. Because as single people at a wedding, everything screams this fact out loud as clamorously as possible.
Or it could be just because we're in our early twenties and unattached that this message is put on the loudspeakers of our attention. Everywhere we look, we're seeing folks we grew up with break up painfully, move in together, get engaged, get married and have kids. You sort of wonder, "Is this a problem? Is something wrong about me that I'm not doing these things yet?" So we act like it doesn't bother us at all, like we're fine with the way things are and throw up a little at every couple selfie with the following caption:
"(Name redacted) is the best (spouse/significant other/fiance(e)/whatever) in the world and I love her/him more than anyone else can ever love anything because my capacity to love her/him is greater than anyone else's! I'm SO glad that our relationship is PERFECT!!! (Sixteen heart symbols)" (I totally swiped that entire line from the Newlywed in this skit from BYU's comedy group Studio C, Publicly Emotional steals the show and MAKES this video.)
Also, we're like the third wheel on dates, and that's really just.....really awkward. (Strange pause.) Just...yeah. REALLY UNCOMFORTABLE. Because tricycles are lousy and don't work well.
Oh, sure, we could ask somebody for a date....I guess. But that would involve...(shriek of horror) flirting. Now, talk about awkward....that can't be self-taught, and no one in their right minds would teach a class on it. And even if they did, nobody would show up. So, we just think, "Somebody oughta do that..." and of course nobody ever does. (YouTube the BYU Studio C video "Flirting Academy")
Besides....if we're talking about something serious, by whichever name you want it to go by - Time-out. You could just call it "dating" if you wanted(Easy to understand that way). Or you could say you were "going steady"(Wonderfully simple and yet so descriptive. As Cynthia Coppersmith explained to Father Tim in At Home in Mitford, "...Well, it's exactly what it sounds like. You go with someone, steadily, and only with them.") Some people prefer the term "courting"(Ugh. I've always really disliked this term. It sounds so old-fashioned and wooden.)
Whatever the terminology is, it's obvious you're with someone. But it just seems like to me, if you're going to do that, shouldn't you have the intention of possibly marrying that person? That narrows the list of possibilities quite a bit, obviously, but just think about it a minute. Number one, if a Christian, you ought not to marry someone who isn't(2 Corinthians 6:14-17). Number two, you should be faithful.
And in his earlier letter to the Corinthians, Paul devoted a whole chapter to the subject, which is a little hard to figure out. Basically his attitude seems to be, "If you aren't married, that's great. Not everyone is supposed to be. I'm not, and it's what God planned for me in order to better serve Him and bring Him glory. Other people can, and they should, because that also brings Him glory. It really just depends."
What he actually wrote was this: "Because of the present crisis, I think it is good for you to remain as you are. Are you married? Do not seek a divorce. Are you unmarried? Do not look for a wife. But if you do marry, you have not sinned; and if a virgin marries, she has not sinned. But those who marry will be faced with many troubles in this life, and I want to spare you this." (1 Corinthians 7:26-28) Well, that's understandable. And it makes sense that by melding two lives together, that would naturally bring about twice as much trouble and trials into life.
And Paul continues a few sentences later, "I would like you to be free from concern. An unmarried man is concerned about the Lord's affairs - how he can please the Lord. But a married man is concerned about the affairs of this world - how he can please his wife - and his interests are divided. An unmarried woman or virgin is concerned about the Lord's affairs. Her aim is to be devoted to the Lord in both body and spirit. But a married woman is concerned about the affairs of this world - how she can please her husband. I am saying this for your own good, not to restrict you, but that you may live in a right way in undivided devotion to the Lord." (1 Corinthians 7:32-35) This is really complicated....everything sounds right. And it is. Just hard sometimes to know which stage of life he's talking about in each part.
So....yeah, it's confusing sometimes. And frustrating, waiting for what seems like forever. So we just act like we couldn't care less, exaggerating our disgust at "those couples" and basically living as though we'd forgotten things like relationships exist. Because it's safer that way. And so we just dial our sarcasm blasters up a couple notches to "extremely scathing" level and snap them out whenever we get a chance. (Talking about young twentysomethings in general here, both guys and girls do it.) We'd never admit that it might be troubling, at least not directly, but occasionally indirectly mention the subject.
After Sunny died, a lot of people offered sympathy and were praying for me. GBC is truly a place where we have a church family, it's such an incredible blessing. It's good to have people watching you, checking on you, praying for you, sort of an extended family with lots of extra grandparent-type people and a variety of friendly older-cousins-whose-relation-to-you-can-never-quite-be-traced. Anyway, the sun is shining, it's a pleasant-though-slightly-hot July morning, and everyone is filing out of the building onto the porch. Mrs. Pickard, one of those grandma/aunt types, and a fellow dog-lover, she knew Sunny well, she gives me a hug as soon as she sees me. "I'm so sorry, Wes. It won't be okay, but you can get through this. Pets are such a huge part of our lives....it's so hard." "Yeah....thanks," I mumble, trying to smile as much as I can(which wasn't much). She sighs. "We really need to find you a wife." Maybe it's cause I was so ripped apart emotionally or something, or maybe because God likes to answer the prayers of older people, but I kind of nod. "That might be a good idea, maybe." Mr. Gundersen is standing there listening, he asks if there's anybody maybe on the radar. "Ah....no, not really. Geography's kind of working against me there. Maybe if it wasn't, possibly, but....nah, not right now." Mrs. Guenther jumps into the conversation here. "Well, ya know, I met Allan in Brazil, so....ya never know what might happen." The other three of us look at her. "Brazil?" "Yeah, it was on a mission trip."
Steve Rogers pretty much summed up my attitude on this topic on the way to the experiment with Agent Carter in Captain America. Amused by his awkwardness, she says, "You really have no idea how to talk to a woman, do you?" "Not really. I think this is the longest conversation I've had with one," He turns serious now. "Women aren't exactly lining up to dance with a guy they might step on." "You must have danced." He looks out the window at the Brooklyn scenery before replying. "Well...askin' a woman to dance just always seemed so terrifying. And then the past few years....it just didn't seem to matter all that much. Figured I'd wait." "For what?" "...The right partner."
One of these days, I'll come across the right partner. Maybe I already have, and am just too stupid to see it. Or maybe it just isn't time yet. Perhaps she's around some curve some miles off along the highway through the mountains of the future. We'll find out, in time. I mean, the Lord knows, even though I don't.
(Another Captain America reference) Bucky Barnes was teasing Steve before he left as they were on their way to the Stark Expo, saying, "There's three and a half million women in New York, and you'll be the only eligible bachelor left. What're you complaining about?" Steve rolls his eyes. "Yeah, well, I'd settle for just one." I don't really mind, I guess, waitin' on a woman...long as she's that kinda girl. But at the same time, I'm still waitin' for you....
February is here, and that horrible holiday most people try to forget called "Valentine's Day" will be just a few days away. Seriously, how did that ever get to be a holiday in the first place? According to the legend(so says Wikipedia, which although not considered "credible" for school purposes has been shown to have less mistakes than the Encyclopedia Britannia), St. Valentine was imprisoned for officiating marriages of soldiers and aiding persecuted Christians, and was interrogated personally by the Emperor Claudius; who stated that if Valentine relapsed back into Roman pagan beliefs he would be saved. Valentine refused, and so was sentenced to execution. Sometime during his imprisonment, he supposedly restored the sight of his jailer's blind daughter Julia, after which she, her father and all his household converted to Christianity. The night before he was to executed, Valentine directed a note to be sent to Julia, ending it "your Valentine".
We then fast-forward most of the way through the Dark Ages, coming to the somewhat-recognizable medieval English of Geoffrey Chaucer. Apparently a satirist, in creating an elaborate history of a tradition which never existed in the first place for a poem(kinda like S. Morgenstern...), he ascribed the practice of birds choosing their mates on the day of St. Valentine, which is how everyone first associated the day with romantic love. This spread throughout the courts of France and England, gradually becoming a significant enough part of the year that Shakespeare has Ophelia mention it during Hamlet. They really caught on during the early 1800s in England, influenced by the invention of the postage stamp, and we stole the idea from them about fifty years later.
Many single people try to cover up their annoyance by calling it "Singles Awareness Day", both as a mockery of the extremely-hard-driven fact that they're single and also since there's an "Awareness Day" for seemingly every other condition under the sun. (Much like the plethora of college scholarships available to left-handed blue-eyed biotechnology-major students who grew up the youngest of eight or more children, or other such specialized nonsense.)
Whatever you want to call it, the main focus is about mushy, disgustingly PDA affection called "love" or variants thereof, which is a frequent topic of music, from Keith Urban's "Making Memories of Us" to Bon Jovi's "You Give Love a Bad Name ", from Garth Brooks' "Unanswered Prayers" to Randy Travis' "Forever and Ever, Amen"; as well as many wonderful spins on the subject from Brad Paisley and basically anything Taylor Swift has or will have written.
This leads to the great heartbreak songs of country music, but also could lead to a wedding. There's plenty of songs about that aspect, from Phil Vassar's "Love is a Beautiful Thing" to Billy Ray Cyrus' "Could've Been Me". (The best-ever wedding-related back-to-back songs played on Pandora would be once when "Stealin' Cinderella" was followed by "I Loved Her First", the order of which seemed extremely fitting.)
Weddings, in general, are kind of depressing. Mainly because you have to get dressed up in a suit and stay that way for several hours, as well as being complicated, expensive, they're held in strange churches are easy to get lost in, there's a TON of people around, and generally the stress level is near the steeple. (Or maybe that's my view because I was the ring-bearer THREE TIMES in ONE SUMMER when I was seven....)
Or maybe it's that 94% of the audience stands there awkwardly as two people are blissfully happy and everyone else isn't sure what to do or think. Or that you suddenly see people you used to know and haven't talked to in ages. Or that all these older adults and relatives and everyone smile and say, "It's your turn next!" or "So...isn't it about time this happened to you?" or "He/She sure is a lucky guy/gal." To all of which you grin weakly and say something original like, "Yup...guess so."
We don't really have any way to answer those types of statements....those saying them usually have only gentle teasing in mind, but the words kind of come out as accusing. Because as single people at a wedding, everything screams this fact out loud as clamorously as possible.
Or it could be just because we're in our early twenties and unattached that this message is put on the loudspeakers of our attention. Everywhere we look, we're seeing folks we grew up with break up painfully, move in together, get engaged, get married and have kids. You sort of wonder, "Is this a problem? Is something wrong about me that I'm not doing these things yet?" So we act like it doesn't bother us at all, like we're fine with the way things are and throw up a little at every couple selfie with the following caption:
"(Name redacted) is the best (spouse/significant other/fiance(e)/whatever) in the world and I love her/him more than anyone else can ever love anything because my capacity to love her/him is greater than anyone else's! I'm SO glad that our relationship is PERFECT!!! (Sixteen heart symbols)" (I totally swiped that entire line from the Newlywed in this skit from BYU's comedy group Studio C, Publicly Emotional steals the show and MAKES this video.)
Also, we're like the third wheel on dates, and that's really just.....really awkward. (Strange pause.) Just...yeah. REALLY UNCOMFORTABLE. Because tricycles are lousy and don't work well.
Oh, sure, we could ask somebody for a date....I guess. But that would involve...(shriek of horror) flirting. Now, talk about awkward....that can't be self-taught, and no one in their right minds would teach a class on it. And even if they did, nobody would show up. So, we just think, "Somebody oughta do that..." and of course nobody ever does. (YouTube the BYU Studio C video "Flirting Academy")
Besides....if we're talking about something serious, by whichever name you want it to go by - Time-out. You could just call it "dating" if you wanted(Easy to understand that way). Or you could say you were "going steady"(Wonderfully simple and yet so descriptive. As Cynthia Coppersmith explained to Father Tim in At Home in Mitford, "...Well, it's exactly what it sounds like. You go with someone, steadily, and only with them.") Some people prefer the term "courting"(Ugh. I've always really disliked this term. It sounds so old-fashioned and wooden.)
Whatever the terminology is, it's obvious you're with someone. But it just seems like to me, if you're going to do that, shouldn't you have the intention of possibly marrying that person? That narrows the list of possibilities quite a bit, obviously, but just think about it a minute. Number one, if a Christian, you ought not to marry someone who isn't(2 Corinthians 6:14-17). Number two, you should be faithful.
And in his earlier letter to the Corinthians, Paul devoted a whole chapter to the subject, which is a little hard to figure out. Basically his attitude seems to be, "If you aren't married, that's great. Not everyone is supposed to be. I'm not, and it's what God planned for me in order to better serve Him and bring Him glory. Other people can, and they should, because that also brings Him glory. It really just depends."
What he actually wrote was this: "Because of the present crisis, I think it is good for you to remain as you are. Are you married? Do not seek a divorce. Are you unmarried? Do not look for a wife. But if you do marry, you have not sinned; and if a virgin marries, she has not sinned. But those who marry will be faced with many troubles in this life, and I want to spare you this." (1 Corinthians 7:26-28) Well, that's understandable. And it makes sense that by melding two lives together, that would naturally bring about twice as much trouble and trials into life.
And Paul continues a few sentences later, "I would like you to be free from concern. An unmarried man is concerned about the Lord's affairs - how he can please the Lord. But a married man is concerned about the affairs of this world - how he can please his wife - and his interests are divided. An unmarried woman or virgin is concerned about the Lord's affairs. Her aim is to be devoted to the Lord in both body and spirit. But a married woman is concerned about the affairs of this world - how she can please her husband. I am saying this for your own good, not to restrict you, but that you may live in a right way in undivided devotion to the Lord." (1 Corinthians 7:32-35) This is really complicated....everything sounds right. And it is. Just hard sometimes to know which stage of life he's talking about in each part.
So....yeah, it's confusing sometimes. And frustrating, waiting for what seems like forever. So we just act like we couldn't care less, exaggerating our disgust at "those couples" and basically living as though we'd forgotten things like relationships exist. Because it's safer that way. And so we just dial our sarcasm blasters up a couple notches to "extremely scathing" level and snap them out whenever we get a chance. (Talking about young twentysomethings in general here, both guys and girls do it.) We'd never admit that it might be troubling, at least not directly, but occasionally indirectly mention the subject.
After Sunny died, a lot of people offered sympathy and were praying for me. GBC is truly a place where we have a church family, it's such an incredible blessing. It's good to have people watching you, checking on you, praying for you, sort of an extended family with lots of extra grandparent-type people and a variety of friendly older-cousins-whose-relation-to-you-can-never-quite-be-traced. Anyway, the sun is shining, it's a pleasant-though-slightly-hot July morning, and everyone is filing out of the building onto the porch. Mrs. Pickard, one of those grandma/aunt types, and a fellow dog-lover, she knew Sunny well, she gives me a hug as soon as she sees me. "I'm so sorry, Wes. It won't be okay, but you can get through this. Pets are such a huge part of our lives....it's so hard." "Yeah....thanks," I mumble, trying to smile as much as I can(which wasn't much). She sighs. "We really need to find you a wife." Maybe it's cause I was so ripped apart emotionally or something, or maybe because God likes to answer the prayers of older people, but I kind of nod. "That might be a good idea, maybe." Mr. Gundersen is standing there listening, he asks if there's anybody maybe on the radar. "Ah....no, not really. Geography's kind of working against me there. Maybe if it wasn't, possibly, but....nah, not right now." Mrs. Guenther jumps into the conversation here. "Well, ya know, I met Allan in Brazil, so....ya never know what might happen." The other three of us look at her. "Brazil?" "Yeah, it was on a mission trip."
Steve Rogers pretty much summed up my attitude on this topic on the way to the experiment with Agent Carter in Captain America. Amused by his awkwardness, she says, "You really have no idea how to talk to a woman, do you?" "Not really. I think this is the longest conversation I've had with one," He turns serious now. "Women aren't exactly lining up to dance with a guy they might step on." "You must have danced." He looks out the window at the Brooklyn scenery before replying. "Well...askin' a woman to dance just always seemed so terrifying. And then the past few years....it just didn't seem to matter all that much. Figured I'd wait." "For what?" "...The right partner."
One of these days, I'll come across the right partner. Maybe I already have, and am just too stupid to see it. Or maybe it just isn't time yet. Perhaps she's around some curve some miles off along the highway through the mountains of the future. We'll find out, in time. I mean, the Lord knows, even though I don't.
(Another Captain America reference) Bucky Barnes was teasing Steve before he left as they were on their way to the Stark Expo, saying, "There's three and a half million women in New York, and you'll be the only eligible bachelor left. What're you complaining about?" Steve rolls his eyes. "Yeah, well, I'd settle for just one." I don't really mind, I guess, waitin' on a woman...long as she's that kinda girl. But at the same time, I'm still waitin' for you....
Tuesday, February 4, 2014
Winter Weather, Sports and the Creation of the Universe
Snow. Sleet. Ice. Weather. Classes. Basketball. Studying. Jeopardy. Super Bowl XLVIII. Bible study. The Olympics. Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. Creation debate.
That's pretty much every single topic that's been/is being discussed on campus and on social media sites over the last couple days.
The Super Bowl...uh, wasn't. It was, actually, pretty much like most of the high school football games I covered for the paper. And it didn't even snow! I didn't really care, but I was leaning slightly towards Seattle. But that much was....well, at 43-8, it tied the largest margin of victory ever. (The Cowboys beat the Bills 52-17 in Super Bowl XXVII.) There weren't any good commercials, and the only one that stands out was the TurboTax Prom ad because it was so creepy. And I watched it alone in my dorm room, eating dry Cinnamon Toast Crunch, Rice Krispy treats and peanut butter from the jar, because that's all the food I had. Animal Planet's Puppy Bowl X was lots better; adorable puppies and kittens playing and napping and looking cute while editing splices together all the best shots and writing turns it into a brilliant mockumentary of a football broadcast. The snow(we got between 3-5 inches) kept me indoors all day; as that was way too cold to walk to church, and the roads were horrendous, so I didn't want to risk Grandpa or Robbie getting in trouble because of the ice while driving across town to watch the game with them.
So I watched most of the first quarter, then practiced my lines for the SWAT skits with Bubba Jacob, came back just as the third quarter was starting and semi-watched the rest of the way. After that it was time to run over Justin and Ja Li Si's one-shot skit for the Monday night meeting, and then it was time to try to get to sleep.
Five of the eleven students in Latin II showed up, so it was a light day; we discussed such important topics as the Super Bowl and Finding Nemo. Speech was canceled because of the awful road and sidewalk conditions, so that was kind of good. Studying in the afternoon, then an early dinner before going over to the BCM. Daniel P., Ricardo and James Hoover have all been wanting me to start helping out the worship team from time to time, so I missed SWAT practice last night because of running over the music. Elizabeth said it went pretty well, though. After worship practice was over me and TJ galloped downstairs to greet our SWAT teammates.
Then it was back upstairs for a few more takes of Justin's skit before the meeting started. The skit went well, and the music went all right, I guess. Never had played with a full band before, that took a bit to get used to.
Off to the dorm to drop off Abby Lee and change into basketball-playing clothes, then Zach and I headed to First Baptist's gym in his orange Camaro for basketball practice. We had eight guys show up this time, so that went pretty well, just enough to be able to sub when needed and tentatively get used to playing with each other. And the recruiting effort to CCF helped, as Connor, Greg, Steven F. and a couple other guys came out to help us practice.
I wake up panicked today just after 8, having a class at 9:30, check my school email and find out it was canceled, which was good. There was black ice everywhere around campus; probably just about anyplace in this area. Elizabeth's car found a patch on the turnpike Sunday and wound up mowing down an exit sign. So I spent most of the morning studying for Friday's tests in Latin and speech, then got some lunch and met up with Zach in Flo's for a look at Ephesians 3. More studying after that, Jeopardy-watching, called Mom. Caleb's foster-puppysitting for Mrs. Jackson, sounds like he's enjoying that, and the pictures are so puppyishly adorable. Rags is busy giving all those (disgusted huff) dogs extremely dirty looks.
Listened attentively to the Bill Nye-Ken Ham debate online, before it disappears from the archives I'm going to need to watch the entire thing. Worldview debates are much easier to pay attention to and follow than political debates, made me wonder what it was like back in the 1800's when debating various subjects was a frequent pastime. Must have been interesting. Anyway, Ken ham did a great job of trying to keep the focus on the Gospel and the underlying bedrock foundation that all the questions would be shot off from. (It was especially interesting, as the fall semester's BCM Monday night messages were a series by Ken Ham on this topic, and also, because Bill Nye is....you know, Bill Nye. The Science Guy.) And Ken Ham is Ken Ham, so....it was really good, definitely planning on watching it again if I can.
The reason I wasn't able to pay sole attention to the debate was because there was a new episode of Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. on tonight, so I watched the debate before and after the show, and in the commercial breaks during the episode. Anyway, it was spectacular, like always, had several extremely clever scenes of banter, a Stan Lee cameo(!!!), and plot twists that leave you literally gasping you're so drawn into the plot. AND I SO WANT TO KNOW WHAT HAPPENS NEXT!!!!!!!!! And I won't find out for another month, probably to avoid competition from the Olympics. That's probably a really smart move by the ABC execs, but as a viewer it's frustrating.
As I was starting college, I mentioned how the Olympics were a good time to reflect on life, examine what's happened since the last time they were held. I asked several hypothetical questions, wondering what the future would be like by the time they came next. Really meant the 2016 Rio Summer Games, but may as well give as good answers I can to them now for the 2014 Sochi Winter Games. The answers: 1 - My job right now is a student. 2 - Well....that's hard to know how to answer. If a 4.0 GPA through three semesters is a barometer, then yeah, I guess so. 3 - Pretty much the same now as it was then; just take life one day at a time, try to encourage others when possible and work hard at what I'm able to. 4 - Nope. 5 - Definitely not. 6 - Minime. (That's Latin for "By no means!") 7 - Not yet. (Jeopardy-style answers there, click the link for the questions and a look back eighteen months.)
During the Vancouver Olympics, one night on a pizza run Mom came back with an Australian Shepherd/border collie mix puppy we soon named Skeet, Sport really seemed to like him. He soon grew like a weed and assumed second-in-command position from Sunny. We'd just been back in Beggs for five months once the rebuilding was finished, about a month later we finally got a new oven. I was finishing my sophomore year of high school, it was a year away from Youth Tour, Liesel the bipolar psycho cat had disappeared two months earlier.
I'm not sure how much I'll get to watch this year, but I'm gonna try to tune in as often as I can. The Winter Olympics aren't quite as interesting, usually; because of not having much experience with skiable snow and good ice, but it's always something to see. Speedskating(that looks so wrong...), hockey, snowboarding, bobsledding...tons of cool stuff. (With sarcastic definitions found here.)
Cody and his wife are parents now; their son was born yesterday afternoon. Which is awesome. And I'm used to the fact that people I grew up with are getting married now, I guess; with Alton/JB and Kyle/Mariah over the last year, but it still kind of makes you do a double-take sometimes.
Facebook had its tenth anniversary today; kind of makes you wonder what ideas you or friends or classmates might have that could be something a decade from now.
Depending on the road conditions tomorrow, I may get my braces off Thursday. And then there's those tests on Friday.
That's pretty much every single topic that's been/is being discussed on campus and on social media sites over the last couple days.
The Super Bowl...uh, wasn't. It was, actually, pretty much like most of the high school football games I covered for the paper. And it didn't even snow! I didn't really care, but I was leaning slightly towards Seattle. But that much was....well, at 43-8, it tied the largest margin of victory ever. (The Cowboys beat the Bills 52-17 in Super Bowl XXVII.) There weren't any good commercials, and the only one that stands out was the TurboTax Prom ad because it was so creepy. And I watched it alone in my dorm room, eating dry Cinnamon Toast Crunch, Rice Krispy treats and peanut butter from the jar, because that's all the food I had. Animal Planet's Puppy Bowl X was lots better; adorable puppies and kittens playing and napping and looking cute while editing splices together all the best shots and writing turns it into a brilliant mockumentary of a football broadcast. The snow(we got between 3-5 inches) kept me indoors all day; as that was way too cold to walk to church, and the roads were horrendous, so I didn't want to risk Grandpa or Robbie getting in trouble because of the ice while driving across town to watch the game with them.
So I watched most of the first quarter, then practiced my lines for the SWAT skits with Bubba Jacob, came back just as the third quarter was starting and semi-watched the rest of the way. After that it was time to run over Justin and Ja Li Si's one-shot skit for the Monday night meeting, and then it was time to try to get to sleep.
Five of the eleven students in Latin II showed up, so it was a light day; we discussed such important topics as the Super Bowl and Finding Nemo. Speech was canceled because of the awful road and sidewalk conditions, so that was kind of good. Studying in the afternoon, then an early dinner before going over to the BCM. Daniel P., Ricardo and James Hoover have all been wanting me to start helping out the worship team from time to time, so I missed SWAT practice last night because of running over the music. Elizabeth said it went pretty well, though. After worship practice was over me and TJ galloped downstairs to greet our SWAT teammates.
Then it was back upstairs for a few more takes of Justin's skit before the meeting started. The skit went well, and the music went all right, I guess. Never had played with a full band before, that took a bit to get used to.
Off to the dorm to drop off Abby Lee and change into basketball-playing clothes, then Zach and I headed to First Baptist's gym in his orange Camaro for basketball practice. We had eight guys show up this time, so that went pretty well, just enough to be able to sub when needed and tentatively get used to playing with each other. And the recruiting effort to CCF helped, as Connor, Greg, Steven F. and a couple other guys came out to help us practice.
I wake up panicked today just after 8, having a class at 9:30, check my school email and find out it was canceled, which was good. There was black ice everywhere around campus; probably just about anyplace in this area. Elizabeth's car found a patch on the turnpike Sunday and wound up mowing down an exit sign. So I spent most of the morning studying for Friday's tests in Latin and speech, then got some lunch and met up with Zach in Flo's for a look at Ephesians 3. More studying after that, Jeopardy-watching, called Mom. Caleb's foster-puppysitting for Mrs. Jackson, sounds like he's enjoying that, and the pictures are so puppyishly adorable. Rags is busy giving all those (disgusted huff) dogs extremely dirty looks.
Listened attentively to the Bill Nye-Ken Ham debate online, before it disappears from the archives I'm going to need to watch the entire thing. Worldview debates are much easier to pay attention to and follow than political debates, made me wonder what it was like back in the 1800's when debating various subjects was a frequent pastime. Must have been interesting. Anyway, Ken ham did a great job of trying to keep the focus on the Gospel and the underlying bedrock foundation that all the questions would be shot off from. (It was especially interesting, as the fall semester's BCM Monday night messages were a series by Ken Ham on this topic, and also, because Bill Nye is....you know, Bill Nye. The Science Guy.) And Ken Ham is Ken Ham, so....it was really good, definitely planning on watching it again if I can.
The reason I wasn't able to pay sole attention to the debate was because there was a new episode of Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. on tonight, so I watched the debate before and after the show, and in the commercial breaks during the episode. Anyway, it was spectacular, like always, had several extremely clever scenes of banter, a Stan Lee cameo(!!!), and plot twists that leave you literally gasping you're so drawn into the plot. AND I SO WANT TO KNOW WHAT HAPPENS NEXT!!!!!!!!! And I won't find out for another month, probably to avoid competition from the Olympics. That's probably a really smart move by the ABC execs, but as a viewer it's frustrating.
As I was starting college, I mentioned how the Olympics were a good time to reflect on life, examine what's happened since the last time they were held. I asked several hypothetical questions, wondering what the future would be like by the time they came next. Really meant the 2016 Rio Summer Games, but may as well give as good answers I can to them now for the 2014 Sochi Winter Games. The answers: 1 - My job right now is a student. 2 - Well....that's hard to know how to answer. If a 4.0 GPA through three semesters is a barometer, then yeah, I guess so. 3 - Pretty much the same now as it was then; just take life one day at a time, try to encourage others when possible and work hard at what I'm able to. 4 - Nope. 5 - Definitely not. 6 - Minime. (That's Latin for "By no means!") 7 - Not yet. (Jeopardy-style answers there, click the link for the questions and a look back eighteen months.)
During the Vancouver Olympics, one night on a pizza run Mom came back with an Australian Shepherd/border collie mix puppy we soon named Skeet, Sport really seemed to like him. He soon grew like a weed and assumed second-in-command position from Sunny. We'd just been back in Beggs for five months once the rebuilding was finished, about a month later we finally got a new oven. I was finishing my sophomore year of high school, it was a year away from Youth Tour, Liesel the bipolar psycho cat had disappeared two months earlier.
I'm not sure how much I'll get to watch this year, but I'm gonna try to tune in as often as I can. The Winter Olympics aren't quite as interesting, usually; because of not having much experience with skiable snow and good ice, but it's always something to see. Speedskating(that looks so wrong...), hockey, snowboarding, bobsledding...tons of cool stuff. (With sarcastic definitions found here.)
Cody and his wife are parents now; their son was born yesterday afternoon. Which is awesome. And I'm used to the fact that people I grew up with are getting married now, I guess; with Alton/JB and Kyle/Mariah over the last year, but it still kind of makes you do a double-take sometimes.
Facebook had its tenth anniversary today; kind of makes you wonder what ideas you or friends or classmates might have that could be something a decade from now.
Depending on the road conditions tomorrow, I may get my braces off Thursday. And then there's those tests on Friday.
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