January 29, 2004
happy trout thursday!
Today is Trout Thursday.
"Defined as the Thursday before Groundhog's Day, Trout Thursday is a completely open holiday. There's no religious origins, there's no official ceremony, there's no
preconceived notion of what you're supposed to do, feel, be, or say. The only rule is, you have to eat trout. After that, it's up to you."
I won't be eating trout, but I may celebrate anyway.
January 28, 2004
January 26, 2004
feeling frumpy
On Saturday I was at Lisa & Kelly's house babysitting Duke & I discovered the all-encompassing addiction of cable. 4 hours of "What not to Wear" and similar stuff has left me feeling the epitome of Minnesota Winter Frumpdom. Fortunately, they have a little form that tells me what to wear. UNfortunately, their advice is contradictory. (Do wear straight-legged pants? Don't wear straight-legged pants? What's a girl to do?)
Never much of one for fashion magazines, I've been living happily in my turtlenecks & cords from Kohl's. Any suggestions where I can find something cute, cheap-ish, & in my size (because I just don't fit into stuff at places like "Forever 21")?
second thoughts
The danger of blogs is that whiff of regret in the morning. But what's the point of deleting something when you know that at least one person has already read it? Oh well. Y'all are my friends; it's not like I'm saying something you don't already know about me.
One of the points (points!) from Jenell's sermon that I've been pondering is that we wish for specific outcomes, but we don't hope for them. Our hope is in something guaranteed: that God will, in the end, bring about shalom, in every sense of the word.
January 25, 2004
musings from this morning
I wish I knew what "normal" felt like. Do other people have to fight so hard to find the energy for basic things in life, like seeing friends or doing laundry? Sometimes the idea of walking all the way to the basement for a shower is just too much for me.
On Friday I was talking with Thom and he said something along the lines of "don't let depression rob you of your thirties, too." I hadn't thought of it that way, but it really rings true. I don't want to wake up at 41 having lived a half-life, constantly walking through a fog. I want so much more.
January 22, 2004
ill haiku
My throat hurts today.
The office smells like ground beef.
Perhaps I shall puke.
back to the 50s
Lots of semi-related links today, kids. Thanks a ton to ephemeranow and assorted other places for the entertainment.
Let's play Spot the Television. At least this woman understands its true power: Boys!
This one's for Colleen. So's this.
I just like the caption for this one. And the sense of motion here. It reminds me of the Lowry tunnel. I spent many hours in graphic design classes, learning how to draw this stuff. And let me tell you, the fumes from those markers do strange things to your brain.
I'm amused by the weird and frightening recipes. Maybe if that's all you had to eat, you'd be able to wear these swimsuits. I'm particularly partial to the one with the puffy "diaper cover pants" legs.
And speaking of eating - Dang! I think the middle spoon is a pattern I saw at a friend's house and really liked. Might have to try to track it down now.
Clearly these people don't know that it's cold - they live in a house that is missing several walls. Or perhaps it's just an early version of reality tv?
January 20, 2004
u r a gr8 spelr
This post is for KP & all my quiz- and grammar-loving friends.
Are You Grammatically Incorrect?
How Well Can You Spell?
Watch Your Language
January 15, 2004
upcoming projects & current entertainment
I think I've decided to paint the kitchen walls light tangerine and do the cabinets in white. That should liven things up a bit, while toning down the yellow counters. Not as exciting as tinfoil would be, though....
I have just been reading the IRC Bible. OMG. LOL. My favorites are Exodus 13-14 and Luke 22. Sometimes I really get a kick out of geek humor. And it goes so well with the Brick Testament.
<Jesus> But, behold, the hand of him that betrayeth me is with me on the table.
<Peter> WTF!!? WHO IS IT?
<John> I bet it's you Peter
<Peter> hell no! it's Matthew! i'm sure!
<Matthew> STFU! i am teh greatest follower!
<John> lol! noway man, i am
<Jesus> OI! Who is greater?
January 14, 2004
another discovery in egypt
I mentioned yesterday (?) that I had really enjoyed reading about some fairly recent archaeological discoveries in Egypt. Continuing on that theme, they just found lion mummy in the tomb of a woman who might have been King Tut's wetnurse. How cool is that?
bzzt beep beep beep
The power went out about 5:30 this morning, which means I woke to the bzzt-bleep of the carbon monoxide detector shutting off. And the continuous beep beep beep .... beep beep beep... of the security system. So I got up to shut everything off and it just wasn't worth going back to bed for half an hour. I managed to dress in the dark, though I had to skip breakfast since I couldn't use the microwave or stove and was at work before 7:15, which has got to be some kind of record. The last 2 days I've arrived between 9 & 10. At least I get to leave early now.
January 13, 2004
January's books
The Secret Life of Bees - pre-sleep book - I really enjoyed this one, in a "snuggle under the electric blanket & read until midnight" way.
The Bilbao Looking Glass - my walking book - Easy mystery entertainment in 10-minute chunks.
The Perfect Date - free discard copy of a review book from Carla, read for a laugh - Boy & girl agree to marry before they ever meet, then go on to write a book saying why this is God's true & perfect way for marriage & everything else is sinful & wrong. Gee, to be 20 and incredibly self-righteous again. While some of the ideas in the book are good, it manages to insult practically the entire population of the world, in addition to portraying a God completely unlike the one I know. To sum up: talk to me in 30 years when you've gotten a little more life experience, kiddo.
A Good Scent from a Strange Mountain - book club book - Boring. Did I mention boring? I read the first short story & had to force myself to read the second. Every few paragraphs, "God, this is boring." I gave up after the third story. I just don't care about the characters at all. One of the 3 worst books I've read in the past year.
The Lost Tomb - general reading book - Fascinating. It made me remember why I wanted to be an archaeologist when I was younger. The website for the Theban Mapping Project is also fabulous, with tons of photos, walk-through diagrams, and other cool stuff. I think what thrilled me the most was knowing that I walked right by the entrance to this tomb when I was in Egypt in 1990, but nobody even knew it existed then. It makes me wonder how many other incredible things are still hidden in the world, ready to shake our understanding of history. It's good to have my sense of wonder restored.
finally
Another project just went live. A flurry of last-minute changes are still flying via email, but for all intents and purposes the Tourism Center site is done. Yay!
January 08, 2004
the agony of well-intentioned incompetents
I spent much of my morning on the phone, walking someone through basic Dreamweaver tasks. How hard is it to remember not to leave spaces in file names? Or that images actually have to be loaded onto the server before others can see them? Sigh.
And she showed me a registration form that she had "made" based on one I set up for a previous conference. Complete mess. Utterly useless. She's trying really hard, but she just doesn't understand anything. And yet she wants to do it all. I keep saying, "Forms are beyond your skills right now. You need to be able to edit the html." "But can't I just paste in the text from the word document?"
I thought my boss made me swear a lot, but she takes the cake.
January 07, 2004
reading with open eyes
Ok, I'll admit it. I read The Da Vinci Code. My inner historian kept screaming, "Where are your footnotes?" Somehow, I just don't think it's fair to write a work of fiction and claim that it's all based on fact; if you're going to make that claim, you should be willing to back it up with proof.
The verdict? Poorly written gnostic drivel. Planet Envoy's critique covers some of the religious & historical inaccuracies. As an art history major, I can safely say that his interpretation of Leonardo da Vinci's work is pretty off-base, as well. A huge part of his argument rests on the assertion that the figure to the left of Jesus in the Last Supper is Mary Magdalen, rather than John the evangelist. The evidence for this? The figure looks somewhat feminine. First, Leonardo painted with a unique formula of tempera paint on plaster, and it didn't hold up well. This painting has been repainted and restored multiple times of the centuries. Very little of what we see is actually what Leonardo painted. Second, there is at least one other painting of a young man (John the Baptist) who also looks quite feminine.
Sigh. Ok, back to work now. Maybe I'll have time to track down other problems later. But probably not.
hollywood, sin, god, and moviemaking
an excerpt from a damn fine interview:
"Yes, artists are trying to make something beautiful, for the most part. As Pope John Paul II said in his 1999 Letter to Artists, creative people have a special relationship with God as beauty. In their search for beauty they instinctively move into solitude and try to connect with the transcendent that's at the source of their creativity. But by beauty they mean order, things that fit together well. They don't mean pretty. And that's a distinction that the church needs to hear from the artistic community. Beauty is not necessarily pretty. Too often I hear the church saying that great art is, say, the painter Thomas Kincaid, for example—this stuff that's pretty and clean and neat. But it's schlock.
Mother Teresa was a profoundly beautiful person, but she was not attractive in a pretty sense. The crucifixion is ugly but it's also the source of beautiful, sacred art. Hollywood appreciates that beauty and truth are one, and we in the Church can learn that from them. "
January 05, 2004
pms (and I don't mean pantone)
Surly and sad this weekend. I hope it passes quickly. It sucks when you don't want to be alone, but don't have the energy to call someone or even leave the house.
Know what else sucks? Having someone make all sorts of changes to a site design, after it's been approved and I made all the graphics. I now have to change the wording from "Publications" to "Products" and "Programs" to "Education," as well as delete a main section of the site. So now the graphics have to be recreated, the navigation bar is messed up and needs to be reworked, and there's too much space in the section where those links used to be. Aargh. And the other changes I was given, via a .doc, don't always make sense. Plus, my FTP information has stopped working, for some reason.
On the plus side, the new Boundary Waters Experience site is now up and running. There's still a bit of tweaking, as I figure out why some things just don't show up properly on Marcus' computer (such as the tree behind the navigation on the side of interior pages). I suspect it's just that he has an old computer.