2010 has been an amazing year. Between college classes, panels, Compass, and more, I have met so many amazing people, learned so many great things, etc.
So here's to a great year for everyone, full of God's blessings, in 2011.
Happy New Year!
Friday, December 31, 2010
Friday, December 24, 2010
Merry Christmas!
Christmas is technically a secular holiday with pagan roots, as was acknowledged by both groups during the panel at college. However, it was given a Christian meaning by the old Catholic proselytizers, and it is this meaning that my family celebrates every year on the 24th and 25th of December.
Excerpt from Luke 2.
Merry Christmas, everyone!
Excerpt from Luke 2.
4 So Joseph also went up from the town of Nazareth in Galilee to Judea, to Bethlehem the town of David, because he belonged to the house and line of David. 5 He went there to register with Mary, who was pledged to be married to him and was expecting a child. 6 While they were there, the time came for the baby to be born, 7 and she gave birth to her firstborn, a son. She wrapped him in cloths and placed him in a manger, because there was no guest room available for them.
8 And there were shepherds living out in the fields nearby, keeping watch over their flocks at night. 9 An angel of the Lord appeared to them, and the glory of the Lord shone around them, and they were terrified. 10 But the angel said to them, “Do not be afraid. I bring you good news that will cause great joy for all the people. 11 Today in the town of David a Savior has been born to you; he is the Messiah, the Lord. 12 This will be a sign to you: You will find a baby wrapped in cloths and lying in a manger.”
13 Suddenly a great company of the heavenly host appeared with the angel, praising God and saying,
14 “Glory to God in the highest heaven,
and on earth peace to those on whom his favor rests.”
Merry Christmas, everyone!
Tuesday, December 14, 2010
Why do they even do this?
There was quite an appalling discussion over the radio that I heard while on the shuttle this morning. Apparently one of the stations had a discussion question that people could call in and give their opinions and all that. One of those things. And the question was, "Do you think that Jesus was a wine-guzzling vagrant?" And the main speaker on the radio was under the opinion that the answer was certainly yes.
Why do people have these things out there? Even if they have no respect for Jesus Himself, have they no respect for the people who do and who are definitely offended by this? Truly?
One of the people who called in pointed out something very true that is hardly ever noticed, or if it is, brought up. "Yeah, you feel free to insult and knock around Christian stuff, but when it comes to Muhammad and Muslims and stuff, you're all PC and nice..." This is certainly true. There is an obvious bias in the world of PC leftists that swerves against what I have been told is mainstream! Obviously, then, to be mainstream is to have the politically correct and public opinion turned against you.
Why do people have these things out there? Even if they have no respect for Jesus Himself, have they no respect for the people who do and who are definitely offended by this? Truly?
One of the people who called in pointed out something very true that is hardly ever noticed, or if it is, brought up. "Yeah, you feel free to insult and knock around Christian stuff, but when it comes to Muhammad and Muslims and stuff, you're all PC and nice..." This is certainly true. There is an obvious bias in the world of PC leftists that swerves against what I have been told is mainstream! Obviously, then, to be mainstream is to have the politically correct and public opinion turned against you.
Family black sheep, or, Why I am not a sports fan.
My entire family are Red Sox fans, and my immediate younger brother is a sports fanatic. I am not a sports fan at all, and in fact the whole thing is just kind of annoying. This blew the mind of my friend Glove Love, and we had several discussions about this while riding the train in Mexico. He avidly follows all his sports teams, and his rationale was, it would be great family bonding time watching sports, sports brings people together, etc.
Sports brings people together all right. Sports brings people together against other people. At least, in this neck of the world. (Glove Love lives quite far away from us. Maybe he just doesn't understand Massachusetts culture. Although, you'd think after we warned Enrique NOT to yell "I love the Yankees!" just to see what happened or he'd get lynched, he'd have gotten the picture.)
I have some quotes here from my dad: "Yeah, the Yankee fans won't be happy, but that just adds to the pleasure for everyone else..." (About the Cliff Lee signing with the Phillies.) On the same topic: "Therefore, the signing of Lee with the Phillies makes both Yankee and Mets fans miserable! Ah... It just doesn't get any better than this!" There is a corrosive dislike (I hate to say "hatred") against New York and New Yorkers here. I have multiple friends who live in New York, and they're great. Red Sox fanatics, especially my younger brother, don't seem to get this whole "It's just a game, don't vilify people" thing.
Any system that creates happiness or pleasure by bringing others misery is clearly flawed. Any system that creates this type of preposterous pointless prejudice is distressingly flawed. Period. No, scratch that. Exclamation mark!
Sports brings people together all right. Sports brings people together against other people. At least, in this neck of the world. (Glove Love lives quite far away from us. Maybe he just doesn't understand Massachusetts culture. Although, you'd think after we warned Enrique NOT to yell "I love the Yankees!" just to see what happened or he'd get lynched, he'd have gotten the picture.)
I have some quotes here from my dad: "Yeah, the Yankee fans won't be happy, but that just adds to the pleasure for everyone else..." (About the Cliff Lee signing with the Phillies.) On the same topic: "Therefore, the signing of Lee with the Phillies makes both Yankee and Mets fans miserable! Ah... It just doesn't get any better than this!" There is a corrosive dislike (I hate to say "hatred") against New York and New Yorkers here. I have multiple friends who live in New York, and they're great. Red Sox fanatics, especially my younger brother, don't seem to get this whole "It's just a game, don't vilify people" thing.
Any system that creates happiness or pleasure by bringing others misery is clearly flawed. Any system that creates this type of preposterous pointless prejudice is distressingly flawed. Period. No, scratch that. Exclamation mark!
Monday, December 13, 2010
An open letter to academia:
Dear college,
Finals are the least pleasant part of what otherwise would be a very enjoyable season. Are you out to try and destroy the holly-jolly feeling of this time of year, or merely to promote the concept of prayer in school? The latter at least is certainly working.
All my point is, is that you are inconvenient.
Then, there's something I want to say to the ridiculously overpriced cafeteria and cafe on campus: Something you don't seem to understand is that WE ARE COLLEGE STUDENTS. WE HAVE NO MONEY. So when I'm sitting around campus at seven-thirty PM with a few more hours to go and I have sixty-seven cents in my pocket, you are absolutely no help in the slightest.
However, I do have something else to say. You've challenged me, given me a lot of opportunities, and treated me like an adult. I really appreciate that. Plus it means less time and money spent at a four-year school later on down the road. Great times, lots of work, and more. Plus, I enjoy people's faces when telling them that I'm a college student.
Community college, I love you. Have a merry finals season and a happy winter break.
Most sincerely,
Elisabeth
Finals are the least pleasant part of what otherwise would be a very enjoyable season. Are you out to try and destroy the holly-jolly feeling of this time of year, or merely to promote the concept of prayer in school? The latter at least is certainly working.
All my point is, is that you are inconvenient.
Then, there's something I want to say to the ridiculously overpriced cafeteria and cafe on campus: Something you don't seem to understand is that WE ARE COLLEGE STUDENTS. WE HAVE NO MONEY. So when I'm sitting around campus at seven-thirty PM with a few more hours to go and I have sixty-seven cents in my pocket, you are absolutely no help in the slightest.
However, I do have something else to say. You've challenged me, given me a lot of opportunities, and treated me like an adult. I really appreciate that. Plus it means less time and money spent at a four-year school later on down the road. Great times, lots of work, and more. Plus, I enjoy people's faces when telling them that I'm a college student.
Community college, I love you. Have a merry finals season and a happy winter break.
Most sincerely,
Elisabeth
The Voyage of the Dawn Treader
My family, with another family from church, went to go see the new Voyage of the Dawn Treader movie. If you have not seen it but plan to, don't read this. It contains spoilers. If you have not read the book, this spoiler will be vastly more spoil-some than it would be otherwise. Just a warning.
Speaking from a critical perspective: It was the first time I've seen a movie with things added that weren't in the book and been this fond of the change.
Speaking from a personal perspective, I can explain.
In the book, Lucy Pevensie almost says a spell that she thinks will make her as beautiful as her sister Susan, but Aslan's face appears in the pages and she quickly turns away. In the movie, Lucy tears the page out of the book and sticks it in her pocket. That night she has a dream about what would happen if she uses it. She becomes Susan, and Lucy completely disappears. Among other issues, she and her siblings never discover Narnia.
She then sees herself standing in front of the mirror, and Aslan stands next to her and explains that she has value as herself, and that she should not try to change herself to become more like someone else.
I really enjoyed this scene. It stays true to C.S. Lewis's vision, and it was extremely easy to fit it to a theological Christian worldview. From this viewpoint, it's clear what is going on, God telling the girl that He loves her the way she is, and that she should become more herself, not try to be other people.
This is something I feel that a lot of people forget. Indeed, commercials prey on this forgetfulness. When something is all the rage, people feel that they need to be just like everyone else, dress and look like everyone else, etc. This especially targets women and girls.
Going back to the critical perspective, the movie was good. It was true to the feeling of the book, had some great scenes of seafaring, excellent casting of Eustace and interesting development of his relationship with Reepicheep the talking mouse, and more. It was very enjoyable.
Speaking from a critical perspective: It was the first time I've seen a movie with things added that weren't in the book and been this fond of the change.
Speaking from a personal perspective, I can explain.
In the book, Lucy Pevensie almost says a spell that she thinks will make her as beautiful as her sister Susan, but Aslan's face appears in the pages and she quickly turns away. In the movie, Lucy tears the page out of the book and sticks it in her pocket. That night she has a dream about what would happen if she uses it. She becomes Susan, and Lucy completely disappears. Among other issues, she and her siblings never discover Narnia.
She then sees herself standing in front of the mirror, and Aslan stands next to her and explains that she has value as herself, and that she should not try to change herself to become more like someone else.
I really enjoyed this scene. It stays true to C.S. Lewis's vision, and it was extremely easy to fit it to a theological Christian worldview. From this viewpoint, it's clear what is going on, God telling the girl that He loves her the way she is, and that she should become more herself, not try to be other people.
This is something I feel that a lot of people forget. Indeed, commercials prey on this forgetfulness. When something is all the rage, people feel that they need to be just like everyone else, dress and look like everyone else, etc. This especially targets women and girls.
Going back to the critical perspective, the movie was good. It was true to the feeling of the book, had some great scenes of seafaring, excellent casting of Eustace and interesting development of his relationship with Reepicheep the talking mouse, and more. It was very enjoyable.
Thursday, December 2, 2010
It's those moments, anytime, anywhere
At theater yesterday, I was with a friend of mine rehearsing our single scene for next month. We're doing the individual scene Romeo and Juliet Act Three Scene Two. This is the most emotional scene in the entire play, by some reckonings, and I unsuspectingly volunteered to play Juliet.
A mistake, you might say.
In the first part of the scene, I'm acting the lovestruck person. As the scenework director says, "You are radiant with joy. And you're acting like an idiot." Then I think the nurse says that Romeo is dead, then that Romeo and Tybalt are BOTH dead, then I hear that Romeo killed Tybalt and have a moment of relief and shock at the same time (Wow, Romeo has some BAD characteristics?!). Finally there's the moment of "ROMEO IS BANISHED, THIS IS AWFUL!" We have extrapolated from some of Juliet's lines at the end of the scene that she is feeling suicidal by then. Quite a change from the beginning of the less than ten minutes long scene.
The interesting part came with some of the questions the scenework director asked. "Wouldn't it be great to know someone so perfect you would give up everything for him? Imagine that." and "What makes you the most joyful, the most thrilled, you're so happy and so excited?"
I do know someone that perfect. His name is Jesus, and He is the only one who will always always be there for me, and can even be perfect. And He's the one that gives us joy. True joy.
On the other hand, I need to act like an idot for the scene. The scenework director did some demonstration and some explanation. "You would swing around a pole if there was one...bounce around, big doofy smile..." Act nutsy, forget any concepts of dignity. This should be fun, if it's possible to pull it off.
A mistake, you might say.
In the first part of the scene, I'm acting the lovestruck person. As the scenework director says, "You are radiant with joy. And you're acting like an idiot." Then I think the nurse says that Romeo is dead, then that Romeo and Tybalt are BOTH dead, then I hear that Romeo killed Tybalt and have a moment of relief and shock at the same time (Wow, Romeo has some BAD characteristics?!). Finally there's the moment of "ROMEO IS BANISHED, THIS IS AWFUL!" We have extrapolated from some of Juliet's lines at the end of the scene that she is feeling suicidal by then. Quite a change from the beginning of the less than ten minutes long scene.
The interesting part came with some of the questions the scenework director asked. "Wouldn't it be great to know someone so perfect you would give up everything for him? Imagine that." and "What makes you the most joyful, the most thrilled, you're so happy and so excited?"
I do know someone that perfect. His name is Jesus, and He is the only one who will always always be there for me, and can even be perfect. And He's the one that gives us joy. True joy.
On the other hand, I need to act like an idot for the scene. The scenework director did some demonstration and some explanation. "You would swing around a pole if there was one...bounce around, big doofy smile..." Act nutsy, forget any concepts of dignity. This should be fun, if it's possible to pull it off.
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