Ignorant Historian

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Remember, this was 4 1/2 years ago!

Monday, January 30, 2006

According to Facebook:

1.3% of Southeastern Baptist reads The Bible.

I’m thinking that number is slightly off. I hope.

Monday, February 27, 2006

I think facebook is taking over the world. Don’t get me wrong, I like facebook, and it helps me keep in contact with my friends all over. Yesterday on the news there was a story about a tragedy involving two UNC students. The pictures they had of them were off their facebook profiles (properly cited). Who would have thought that facebook would have become a reliable news source?

This weekend was so relaxing! I watched movies, read, and studied a little. I still have quite a bit of studying to do for my tests tomorrow, but I’m much more in a studious mood this morning than I was even last night. Maybe I’ll continue the semester’s work after all.

Three more days of class and then it’s spring break! It’s not as exciting without Glorieta, that’s for sure. I’ll just be staying around here, working, and catching up on school work. That works for me. The real break comes the next week when Miss Dana will be here! Yay for visitors!

A few weeks ago I asked you to ask me questions, and a few of you did.

Miel Abielle asked, “Since you have been blogging for so long, what are your top pieces of advice for a new blogger?”

I’m so glad you asked this, as this was something I’ve been wanting to address, but didn’t feel like I had a forum for it.  I’ve talked about it before (see Blog Faux Pas and Post I Avoid), but there is still more to say.

I think the most important thing I could tell a starting blogger is to EDIT. Long posts tend to be skipped.  Posts with typos and unnecessary details will be, too.  Except for an occasional bulleted post, your post should deal with ONE event or topic.  As Jenna in 13 Going on 30 would say, we don’t need a play-by-play of your life.

A common mistake beginning bloggers make is to not post regularly, and when they do, spend time apologizing for their erratic blogging. Evaluate how often you can blog…and stick to it.  If you mess up?  Don’t dwell on it.  Move on.  When you begin a post with, “Boy, I can’t believe I forgot I had a blog these last 2 weeks!” or the like, you’re tipping off to potential readers that you aren’t in it for the long haul, and they’ll find another blogger to follow.

It might sound trite, but be yourself. We all make fools of ourselves regularly, don’t try to hide it!  If you are struggling with something, share it (or at least as much as would be appropriate in a public forum).

But, that said, don’t use your blog to vent. Never speak poorly about someone else.  As far as your blog readers should be able to tell, you’re the only sinner you know (though we obviously know that this is not true!).

If you refer to a previous post, link to it (like I’m doing above).  That helps readers to know what you’re talking about, and to read more if they’re interested. (Bonus: it may even drive search engine traffic to your blog.)

And I can’t believe I *still* have to say this, but do NOT have music automatically playing on your site. Chances are your readers do not have the same taste in music as you do, so don’t assault/scare/frustrate them.  Most of the times when I come across a blog with music, I close the window immediately, without even evaluating the content.  It could have been my new favorite blog, but we’d never know.

That’s the main points I’d share with a new blogger.  Do you have anything more to add?  I know I’m not an expert, but I’ve learned a lot the hard way.  Do you have any questions?

Photo by lapideo

It’s now been two weeks since I started the Game On! Diet.

(Sidenote: I hate that it’s called a “diet”…especially since we’re not using the diet portion.)

And it’s been an interesting two weeks at that.

One of the first things I noticed was how much depriving myself of my usual self-indulgences increased my pleasure.  I love ice cream and Diet Dr Pepper, but it having it daily regularly doesn’t make me enjoy it more.  It made me enjoy it less…it wasn’t a treat anymore.

Day 1 of Game On! (see, I didn’t use the D-word!) I had an evening snack of Cinnamon Life with skim milk.  And it was heavenly.  While I was eating it, I was completely in the moment, enjoying every bite and sip from the bowl.

Day 2, I had part of a plain bagel with a little cream cheese that was out of this world.  My usual Panera bagel, the Cinnamon Crunch, wouldn’t have been that good.

Day 3, I had some canned pears that were quite scrumptious.

And by Day 4, I was enjoying every bite of my unsweetened applesauce.

By week 2, I was back in the pool.  While I have to fight through the first few laps, I love to swim.  Something about the rhythm of it (stroke, stroke, breathe, stroke, stroke, breathe)  and the way that the water turns all sounds into background noises.  In the pool I’m alone with my thoughts, without distraction.  Exercise without sweat, without strain.  In cleansing waters.

So why haven’t I been doing it more often?

I’ve greatly appreciated this opportunity to enjoy the little things.  I don’t want to forget that.

Photo by ƒernando

“…you won her over. Gave up everything for her. Maybe that’s the only way to convince her you love her.” – Mockingjay by Suzanne Collins, p. 329

“Many churches speak about homosexuality in terms of sin and judgment but about divorce in terms of forgiveness and grace. When a same sex couple goes down to the courthouse to petition for a marriage certificate, the Christians show up with sandwich boards. Do they also show up when their congregants go to the same courthouse to petition for an “unbiblical divorce?” Likely not. And the hypocrisy on this issue has not escaped the next generation.” -“Why Our Generation Doesn’t Care About Prop 8″ by Jonathan Merritt

“I asked the children [from the suburbs] where the slums were. But they said there were no slums near where they lived, only far away, in the city.” – The Love Wife by Gish Jen, p. 44

“We’re fickle, stupid beings with poor memories and a great gift for self-destruction.” – Mockingjay by Suzanne Collins, p. 379

“Annie, being a virgin in this day and age is something to be proud of…you’re like a unicorn.” – Shirley, Community, “The Politics of Human Sexuality”

“He is the God that understands that I just miss being loved by a lover….I am blessed in the truest sense of the word.  I am also a little lonely.” – Amy Beth Bullard, “The God Who Understands”

“Finally, he can see me for who I really am. Violent. Distrustful. Manipulative. Deadly. And I hate him for it.” – Mockingjay by Suzanne Collins, p. 232

“A proud person tries to reinvent reality. He tries to redraw the borders of human behavior to suit himself, displacing God as the Lord and boundary keeper of life.” – Not the Way It’s Supposed to Be by Cornelius Plantinga, Jr., p. 125

“I noticed, too, it was the cruelest thing you could say about a person–that they were small.” – Special Topics in Calamity Physics by Marisha Pessl

(advice given against early engagements) “…if a man is going through a woods, and sees a good young sapling, he may mark it and come back afterward and get it, if he can.” – Most Famous Man in America

” ‘Oh, no. It costs a lot more than your life. To murder innocent people?’ says Peeta. ‘It costs everything you are.’ ” – Mockingjay by Suzanne Collins, p. 23

Dad and me, 1983

I won’t tell anyone you’re a young 50 today if you don’t. ;)

This has been an interesting week (and we’re only halfway through).

Monday evening as I was leaving my first time back at the pool in way too long, I checked my phone and saw I read this text from my roommate:

major issues…hot water heater overflowed & it’s leaking into hall

My response?

i’ll be home soon…running back into the pool to shower.

Priorities, right?  It wasn’t like I could go to work the next day without having showered in 2 days and with chlorine still in my hair.  I’m sure I’d be pretty rank.

Upon hearing the *drip* *drip* coming from upstairs, my roommate went upstairs to discover that the water heater overflowed.

[Sidenote: Why do we call it a *hot* water heater?  It's really heating cold water to make it hot water, right?]

She heard the drip upstairs because the water heater is in the ATTIC.

Whose idea was THAT?  ”Well, we don’t want to use this closet as it’s a good place to put coats.  I know, let’s put the 40-gallon tank of water in the attic!  That way, if something happens, it can do a lot of damage.”

By the time it was caught, the water had leaked through the attic “floor” (okay, just plywood), parts of the hallway ceiling and a bit into my ceiling and wall, too.  It had been leaking for a while, apparently.  A 3′ x 6′ section of hallway carpet was thoroughly soaked.  We filled up 8 towels worth of water before a friend came over with a carpet cleaner, which sucked up another gallon of water…and then it took another 36 hours of a fan on it to dry.

Thankfully, my roommate was paying attention, because the damage could have been much worse.

We thought we finally had it under control (even after we turned the water back on), when I see another drip from the ceiling.  What we thought was controlled apparently wasn’t…my roommate had to get up every 2 hours during the night in order to empty out the water (with a small juice glass and a couple of large bowls).

I, like a clueless new father, slept through the night, not even waking as she pulled down the attic ladder each time near my bedroom door.

I wasn’t entirely unhelpful, as I worked from home while the plumbers installed the new water heater so that she could go in to work to finish preparing for the first day of school.

By mid-afternoon Tuesday, we had a new water heater and could turn the water back on.  I tell you, it’s so weird to go without water when you’re used to it.  Made me thankful that I’m blessed to have clean water and indoor plumbing.

I’d be lying if this didn’t remind me a bit of my apartment fire 3 years ago this week.  I think it was using the same towels to mop up the water and throwing them in the same dryer (my current roommate bought the washer/dryer from a former roommate who is also her former roommate…yeah, we get around).

Though this was obviously a pain (and not a fun cost to incur to my still-new-to-homeownership roomie), it could have been much worse.  I’m glad that it happened when it did, and not a day later, the night before school starts.  What a nightmare that would have been!

(There are a couple of these that I don’t think look like me. So I’m taking my dad’s word for it, especially since I don’t actually remember anything in these photos.)

What kind of Hunger Games fan would I be if I didn’t talk about the release of Mockingjay today?  Perhaps you’re like me and waiting to get a copy from the library (it’ll still be brand new, but I don’t have to pay for it).  Or perhaps you’ve stayed up all night reading it (don’t spoil it for me!) and you’re looking for something else to read.

So, what should you read if you like The Hunger Games?  In other words, what are my favorite dystopian/adventure books?

In no particular order (too hard!):

1. The Giver, Gathering Blue and Messenger

I read The Giver when it came out and really enjoyed it.  As an adult, I realized that there was a companion novel, Gathering Blue, and later realized that there was a 3rd.  I wish I had read all 3 back to back as I had a hard time following the strings that connect the first two to the third.  If you haven’t read these (or have only read The Giver) I recommend them thoroughly!

2.  Shades of Grey by Jasper Fforde

This is the first book of a series (with no knowing when book 2 will be out as Fforde has several series going on right now).  To be honest, I wasn’t sure that this was dystopian until the end, and I loved that (sorry to ruin that).  In classic Ffordian-style, this is full of plays-on-words and ridiculous mimicry of aspects of our society (think Dr. Seuss’s The Butter Battle Book for adults).  Who would have thought of classifying people by which color they can see (and how much of it)?

3. The Knife of Never Letting Go by Patrick Ness

I really didn’t like this book at first.  It’s written in a kind of futuristic slang that really bugged me.  But after a hundred pages, I forgot that and was entranced.  A great idea executed well: a group of settlers on an alien planet are troubled by the fact that everything a male thinks is heard aloud by everyone.  This is actually Book 1 of the Chaos Walking trilogy, but since Book 3 isn’t out until September, I thought I’d delay reading book 2 until then.

4. Ender’s Game by Orson Scott Card

Okay, so this is definitely science fiction, but don’t let that scare you off at all.  Like Hunger Games, it tells of a society that exploits children, this time not for entertainment, but to train them to save Earth from invading aliens (stay with me!).  Just try it, okay?

5.  Tomorrow, When the War Began by John Marsden

My all-time favorite book as a teen.  What happens when a group of teenagers returns from a holiday in the bush (gotta love the Australian setting!) to find that their town–indeed, their whole country–has been overtaken by another country?  It’s the first in a series, but easily stands alone.

6. Genesis by Bernard Beckett

This is a short little book that’s more like a long short story.  But though it can be read in one sitting, it’ll keep you thinking for a while.  Telling you anything more would just be doing you a disservice, so just read it, k?

So those are my recommendations to you, fellow Hunger Games-lovers.  Any more recommendations?

In light of tomorrow’s release of Mockingjay, I will be posting on related topics today and tomorrow.

I’ve always been a fan of dystopian novels long before I knew the term “dystopian.”  I remember reading The Giver in middle school and being blown away.  1984 was easily my favorite assigned read in high school.  Recently I can’t get enough of the genre (though there are more coming out than I could reasonably read).

I think what I appreciate about these books is their depiction of the way that we sinners make a mess out of things.  Without God, that’s where we’re left.

Lately, though, I’ve notice that a few of the recent releases stray from the dystopian theme, perhaps.

Can a dystopian novel end optimistically and still be dystopian?

I mean, even Hunger Games ends in a seemingly impossible way (trying to be spoiler free!)…though we still don’t know how the trilogy will end.

Under the Dome (which I don’t mind spoiling because I think Stephen King should have been edited down from 1000 pages to no more than 600) ends simply and optimistically.

Susan Beth Pfeffer’s Last Survivors trilogy is what got me thinking about this subject originally.

But on the other hand, a few years ago I disliked The Road because there WAS no hope in the end.  So either I’m a hypocrite, or my tastes have changed.  Or maybe I allowed my dislike of Cormac McCarthy’s style to color my view of his ending.

I wonder if we want dystopian books to end happily, just like our movies.  Can we not handle the dark truth of a tale like The Picture of Dorian Gray today?

Thoughts?

Photo by mattsabo17