movie
Just also wanted to note that I saw Nowhere in Africa on Saturday, and I thought that it was really good. Sad. Pretty in spots. Good music, too.
Boats, yum
There was a little card for the Sea Education Association tacked up in sub the other day, so I decided to check out the website, and I found this, which looks completely and totally awesome, and I really want to go on the summer program. I am planning to do this in the summer when I get out of college, just before I enroll at the Northwest School of Wooden Boatbuilding. (Yeah, right.) It’s also unbelievably expensive, which I am, okay, not happy about… but ARR!! Nautical knowledge and ropes and fun stuff like that!
Another thing I’m happy about is that my speakers came today, and they are very good. In case you, too, need speakers for your laptop (since laptop speakers suck…), check out Harmon Kardon’s JBL Duet Speakers. They’re small, but very powerful, the sound is very crisp, and they have surprisingly good bass for their size. Anyway, they’re plenty good enough for a dorm room! And if you buy them from the Apple Store instead of Harmon Kardon, they’re about $10 cheaper.
Besides that, I am spending most of my time dancing, watching “Friends”, cleaning my room (I like to keep my room really clean here…), doing my schoolwork (okay, of course, duh), playing guitar (I found the tabs for Dispatch’s “Out Loud” lastnight!), reading “Wherever You Go, There You Are” by Jon Kabat-Zinn, and occasionally eating, showering, and sleeping.
Hope you’re doing as well as I am!
Barista Goddess say: “FEED ME.”
Two, two, two blogs in one!
I was originally going to post this blog on Sunday:
After the party last night I hung out in the TV lounge. Originally I was just going to watch Saturday Night Live, only it really wasn’t that good. It had Christopher Walken hosting, so it SHOULD have been good, but it wasn’t. So Rebecca (she is the resident senior on my floor) and I switched to the Law and Order marathon, which was a blast. Vincent D’nofrio is like the Derek Flint of police shows. How does he know (and is able to recognize in a photo) the flowers used in an Irish marriage service? Last night he caught a criminal by dialing the criminal’s cell phone; he had been tipped off that it played the theme from “Bonanza”. Anyway. It’s great fun. Also, Rebecca and I had a really interesting discussion, and I sort of got a miniature lecture about the history of the Pentecostal Church, the specific place of the Assemblies of God, and several interpretations of the speaking in tongues that goes on there. It was a good conversation.
I went to church this morning (good), called Dad (I miss home), and then sort of napped and hung out, did homework (duh), had dinner, and now am going to do homework again, as soon as I am done with blog-writing.
I have a problem. I don’t understand how I feel like I have NO ENERGY right now, or in fact, here at school. I get between seven and eight hours of sleep every night, which is ridiculously much, but I am still not anywhere near as awake/aware/intelligent as I was last fall when I was doing AP English and college stuff every night. Do I just need to drink more peach tea? (I am, actually, listening to the Stress song right now, and I think it’s actually helping pump me up a little. That’s kind of retarded…)
I miss my cnytrs.
Another thing which is interesting — and which I would like to discuss with some peeps — is that I have been reading Bishop Spong’s “Why Christianity Must Change or Die”. It has been a long time, a very long time, since I have wanted so badly to throw a book actually across the room. I was actually having violent urges towards the book. Since it is a library book, though, I just kept myself to yelling, “WHAT ARE YOU TALKING ABOUT? YOU DO NOT EVEN MAKE SENSE!” at the book. Basically, though, to sum up, in the first twenty pages (which is how far I am), Bishop Spong has done away with (to his satisfaction, not mine):
- the bodily resurrection of Christ
- the Trinity
- an omniscient, omnipotent God (his argument against God’s omnipotence in fact seems also to deny the whole idea of free will)
- the incarnation of God as Christ
He seems to be completely against the Apostles’ Creed… why would he ever become an ordained priest — let alone bishop — inany church if he did not believe in the fundamental beliefs as set down in the creeds of that church?
But I think what’s worst is that his “arguments” are in no way logical. A recurring argument seems to be “this concept has no relevance to modern Christians, and must therefore be wrong”. Now, for one thing, just because a concept has no relevance — that does not make it wrong. But also, it seems to me that a person has to be awfully full of himself to say that something which hashad relevance to billions of people over two thousand years can not, in fact, have relevance to anyone now.
One good thing that the book is doing, though, is making me look at all of the ways that the Apostles’ Creed can be wrongly interpreted, and say, “No, I believe the opposite”. So basically, the book itself is persuading me against its argument.
Traditionally, this is not the goal of rhetoric. It could be a big fake-out — that would make me happy — the purpose of which was simply to get people to think about their faith in a broader sense. Such a thing could actually be very helpful and interesting. Unfortunately, I think this is not the case. It annoys me. But if you want to discuss it, that would be cool, because I want to be open-minded and reasonable.
Since Sunday, though; had classes, went to the open climb at the climbing wall (yum, climbing), and OOH! saw the season premier of “Friends”. I have been getting caught up in this Highly Important TV show (while studying, of course!) because it is this really big deal here in Prentiss. There were probably 30 girls packed into our little TV lounge last night for the premier. It was pretty fun. “Friends with Friends!” Lots of giggling.
Today is my self-destruct day; last night was completely insane. I was hyper-caffeinated, and then I had a couple of different weird conversations that just sort of freaked me out. *slight shudder* Also, I had a German test this morning and a Core paper due; I still have a (luckily short) bibliography due for German film. Point is, though, that I was doing a lot of stuff for all three assignments last night, and then one of my friends shows up on AIM (somewhat) drunk, and it was sort of more than I could handle.
On the good side of things, this weekend is sort of relaxed; I am going to hang out with Steph and some other peeps and watch “Zoolander” downstairs tonight, and then tomorrow my German film class is taking a field trip to some funky movie theater which is an hour away… I’m excited for that, though, and strangely happy to be going somewhere in a car, because I have not been in one for almost a month (which somehow seems really weird to me).
Barista Goddess says: “DU MUSST CALIGARI WERDEN. Also, the heart must be the mediator between the hand and the mind. Also, express yourself!”
aww, mannn
Aw, maaaaannnnn. I wanted to be Paul’s grandfather.
You are Ahme!
Which Beatles Film Character are You?
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New news…
Since last time I posted, I have:
- Gone to classes (duh)
- Gone to the 80’s dance (everyone dressed up in 80’s clothes, they played fun 80’s music. It was by far the best of any party I’ve been to yet).
- Gone to massively inferior frat parties. Admittedly, the luau party last night was somewhat more fun. They had a big tent, and they’d filled the whole area under the tent with sand, so it was like dancing in a sandbox. They had tiki torches and yummy food, too. Unfortunately, the only music they played was rap, which is just not so great to dance to. Also, there were WAY more girls than guys there, so basically all the dancing I did was in a little ring of girls.
I’m also getting voice lessons. I’m pretty excited about that. 
I went to see A Mighty Wind last night. It was pretty amazingly funny. I actually like folk music, but the thing is, they didn’t entirely just make fun of folk music. If they had just wanted to rip it apart, they would have done it all really badly. But some of the music was pretty fun. Anyway, I liked it, I highly recommend it. These great Christopher Guest/Eugene Levy mockumentaries don’t ever seem to miss.
I also watched Dancer in the Dark and La Boheme last week (Dancer in the Dark after work one day, because I felt too gross to do much else, and La Boheme one of the nights when everyone else was partying and I didn’t want to). Dancer in the Darkwas totally awesome; Bjork gave a REALLY good performance, and I have “I’ve Seen It All” totally stuck in my head. I think I also spent the last *hour* of the movie crying my eyes out. I guess it was a good thing I watched that one alone. La Boheme was beautiful, too — Lauren, you’re right, the music is just gorgeous. And it’s sad. Also, Franco Zeffirelli did a great job with this production.
It was weird, when I went to the library to see what movies they had, I was torn between the two; both had been recommended by good friends… so I was like, “Okay, whichever one is shorter, I’ll get that one,” because I only have so much time, you know. (Actually, my classes are currently not too demanding. Most of the homework is reading, and I am a) a pretty fast reader and b) type pages and pages of notes.) Anyway, so I flipped them over, and like a coin stuck in a crack, both films were 141 minutes long. GRrrrr. So I got them both. And they turned out sort of similar, actually… both have lots of music… good performances… the plots/plights/etc. even have certain similarities.
So, yep, highly recommend them. I’m going to go back to reviewing my German notes and typing them up now, because I have a test tomorrow. Humdiddlyum.
Barista Goddess: “It is actually sort of fun to fall asleep with a movie you know very well. Last night, I fell asleep halfway through Philadelphia Story. But I know that movie like the back of my hand, so I dreamt the rest of the movie, right up until the very end, when I woke up again. It was like I got to watch the whole movie, and I also got to sleep.”
Coming to you through modern technology: THROUGH THE AIR!!!
I’ve figured out my wireless! This is possibly the single most exciting thing that has EVER happened to me in my ENTIRE life.
Also, there is a bee crawling over my laptop carrier…
Because, yes, I am happily frollicking; or, at least, sitting out in the sun, at a picnic table on Ankeny Field. And connected on the In-ter-net. Oooo.
Classes are good; core is okay, but currently my favorite class is German. It’s great to hear it spoken, and to get a chance to speak it, myself. German film is also pretty interesting… there is a film screening in about an hour, and I’m excited for that.
I think I just got a job, too. Admittedly, it is a job washing dishes in the dining hall; it’s about the sloppiest of available slop jobs. But, it is still a job, and I need one of those, rather desperately.
So now I’m going to journey elsewhere (not sure where) and attend to some other entertaining pursuit. I love you all, and I miss you, and life here is good.
Barista Goddess say: “Barista Goddess not change her name to Dirty-Slop Goddess; that is not pretty name. Always the Barista within articulates her divinity in love of coffee: holding of Barista job not necessary for undying affection for espresso.”
mwa
Currently at college! I’ve gotten all settled into my dorm room (I am set up with alarm clock, computer, and magnetic poetry — though nowhere near the computer ;)) and my roommate is REALLY nice. My dorm room is also pretty bombad.
Went playing a MONSTER game of Capture the Flag tonight, with hundreds of people… it was Ninjas vs. Trogdor, and it was pretty fun — even though I spent most of it in jail. (It was funny, though, we snuck out through the bushes. Of course, then we got caught and sent back again. Grrr.) Then I went to Lyman and watched “Spaceballs”, which I haven’t seen in a little while, and yep, it’s still pretty funny.
Came back to my dorm and am now REALLY sleepy. It is a dorky FACT that I am really ready for classes — I’m downright EXCITED for them — even though I know that this whole college thing will be Less Fun once that happens. Tomorrow’s a basically empty day, too, with nothing much going on except for a meeting in the morning, which means that — yes, you guessed it — I have to head off to bed now.
This whole college thing IS pretty fun, but I miss you and love you all, and I will really really try to sit down and write some e-mails tomorrow, especially a reply to the lengthy (but not long-winded), rhetorical, extremely eloquent and wonderfully worded one from JohnE…
Barista Goddess say: the girl across the hall looks and acts just like my godsister…