This is my [non-edited, shockingly frightening hair, ugly background] video reply to Jared’s show.
It’s a collection of ideas of things he can do if “the world deserts him and no-one watches the show”. It was done in about 5 minutes with my digital camera. The end result…? I want a proper video camera and a hair and makeup lady.
You will find Jared’s video linked below. He has editing and fancy music, but I’ve got LOTR memorabilia and bright red shoes!
Have any of you ever heaved a ham bone complete with bits of flesh and fat out of a pan of ham-stock and onto a cutting board? Have you then had to decide at what place to attack said hambone so you could remove all neccesary meat? Have you been confused by the bone of the oinker, thinking that it looked like a tonka toy? Have you been put-off by the boiled-flesh smell of hot ham?
Yeah. Me neither.
Today’s ‘Task of the Day’ is making ham soup. Read the rest of this entry »
Blogging is an enormous responsibility. At least, it becomes one in the brain of the person who has made the dubious decision to write for their [hypothetical] audience.
It doesn’t matter if anyone actually reads it. The idea that someone may be sitting at their computer, frustrated because you haven’t posted anything in days is very upsetting. It’s a compulsion to entertain that is simultaneously inspiring and depressing. Read the rest of this entry »
It’s been a really good week this week. The weather in the Emerald Isle has been unseasonally cold. Five days out of seven we’ve had clouds, a high of 65 and a bit of breeze. Now, even if we do get 9 months of rain per year, the other three months are sunny and pleasant. I can imagine that most of the local population has therefore endured rather than enjoyed this week.
I’m one of the rare few who strongly dislikes high temperatures and would much rather keep my flannel sheets on year-round. Maybe I should move to Scotland or something… Read the rest of this entry »
I had a lovely chat with Aaron P. this evening. Since I’ve had an entire week without much human contact (comparitively) it was nice having a real conversation.
I gave him a hard time about how much Alaskan women love neck beards. He proceeded to suggest that I grow my own. Then someone compared him to a skinny bear and genius struck. If my movie-making career doesn’t work out I am going to join the circus. I shall be the bearded lady and Aaron P will be the trained bear. We are going to have dork-off competitions involving LOTR quotes and home school stories.
If this wasn’t the most quiet week ever, it would not be a note-worthy conversation. (Sorry Aaron.) But when you’ve spent five days talking to Gill the beta fish about the comparitive benefit of plastic vs paper bags, even slight wit is wonderful.
More to come soon.
I have about three blog posts saved up in my head right now. One of which is a tribute to my dad for his 50th birthday. The second is called “God is the Universes’ Most Patient Orchestra Conductor”. The third is the one you all are getting first. Primarily because it is what is going on in my life right now, partly because it seems most fitting for late-evening-porch-writing.
So what is going on in your life right now? you might ask.
Interesting (I speak in the cosmic sense) stuff. Read the rest of this entry »
I think that there is nothing in this world so wonderful as a library. The bigger the better. I had a morning to do just exactly what I wanted and (being me) I went to the Bellevue Regional Library.
I went armed with my cutest black first-grade-teacher sweater, a giant canvas bag for the books and a desire to do something constructive with my summer. The late-night Lord of the Rings marathon can’t last forever. Read the rest of this entry »
Today I bounced out of bed, dead set on going to the gym. I figured that no-one would want to be working out on a national holiday. Boy was I wrong. The place was packed, mostly with men. Plus, over by the free weights, chatting it up with a very sweaty short guy was John Locke from LOST.
Ok, not really. But he looked EXACTLY like him.
Normally when I’m at the gym it’s me, the body-building moms and a few guys. This is a perfect situation. No-one to impress and not too many bodies cluttering up the paths. Any of you ladies who go to the gym on a regular basis can appreciate my gym pet-peeve; men who sit on their machines for ridiculous amounts of time. Don’t they know about super setting?! When I’m working out I move with great purpose. I’m not buff but I’m determined. However, men seem to think that sitting for long periods is a neccesary part of the process.
Gahh!!
More to come later.
So last night as I was drifting off to sleep I was thinking of sedimentary rocks. You know, the rocks that are made when bits of sand and dirt and leaves etc are crushed by enormous pressure until they make rock.
Well, as I was going off to sleep I was thinking that I would hate to be made into sedimentary rock. I don’t like confined spaces and being underground is a little frightening. Being squished is really scary. I saw myself as one of those bits of sand being squashed into rock and for two seconds my heart beat sped up.
So there you are. I do NOT want to be made into sedimentary rock.
(Be prepared for a hodge-podge of thoughts…)
“We none of us want to be in calm waters all our lives.”- Persuasion
The subject of pain and hardship is one that I have been thinking much of lately. God once told me that my life would not be easy, but it would be an adventure. When he said that I got really excited. Somehow, in my head, if I admitted that it was going to be hard/was hard, it would suddenly become easy.
Let me try and explain that better. Have you ever been talking to a doctor and had them say “Oh it’s just pneumonia” like that was supposed to help? The ‘diagnosis is not a synonym for cure’ syndrome. That’s how I’ve felt about the hard times in my life. If I admit that it is difficult, it should cease to be so. It’s taken me about five years to clue in that that is not quite how it works.
Even in the relatively sheltered life of a suburban American girl, life presents one with choices. There is the easy road; less profitable and certainly more comfortable than the alternative. The alternative, you see, is a road where one is often alone, where the choices we make cost us something. It rather painful a good chunk of the time. However, along that road is Joy. “Pleasure, as someone once said, “is not Joy, and lust is not Love”. One is easy but fleeting, the other is eternal.
On a slight side note, I am continually shocked at the American capactity to insulate oneself from pain. Comfort at any cost seems to be the new American dream. And it’s not just physical comfort. Heaven forbid that you love someone enough that they can hurt you! What a tragedy it would be to think long and hard about how difficult life is for most of the people on the planet. Did you know there are children dying of starvation? Real children, not pictures on a billboard. Maybe if we could pause long enough to absorb that truth, we might be uncomfortable enough to do something about it.
That’s not to say that we should seek out people who will hurt us, or jump off of bridges just for the adventure of it. But maybe it does mean turning the other cheek just long enough to get a black eye, or risking personal safety a little when we learn a new skill.
Because, as much as the advertising world would love you to think so, pain isn’t fatal and a broken heart is not terminal. Even hunger won’t actually hurt you. So maybe we can try loving each other a little more or going on that adventure or even not having the four cookies just because they are there.
Comfort isn’t the answer. And Joy can be found in any circumstance.
