Jakolanturn October 30, 2006
Posted by ohdearanotherusername in Artsy Fartsy, Eyefood, Family.3 comments
I made a jack-o-lantern today. My mom is taking it to her daycare to decorate her classroom, so it had to be a friendly one. Here’s some photos.
First, the lobotomy:
Then, lots of scooping of goop out of the pumpkin’s head. Next, cutting the kid-friendly face:
Doesn’t it look happy?
All lit up and ready to go!
My dad’s camera October 30, 2006
Posted by ohdearanotherusername in Family, Hobbies, Photography.add a comment
When I got my digital camera, I dropped my old camera like a used dishcloth. ever since then, there have been two rolls of film lying around my room, feeling lonely and useless. But now, their little lives will serve a greater good, they will once again have a chance to find fulfillment and purpose. My dad is lending me his old camera, a Pentax K1000, to use up my film. And I feel so cool. I look like a real photographer with it hanging around my neck. I found a manual online and learned how to adjust the shutter speed and how to focus and it’s awesome. And whenever I take a picture, the camera clicks really loudly and I can actually see the shutter closing through the viewfinder. Yay! My digital cam still takes better photos. But I will be able to experiment with some of the basic stuff and feel overall photographer-ish.
Defeat October 27, 2006
Posted by ohdearanotherusername in Brainfood, Good Intentions, Pilgrimage.1 comment so far
I don’t partake [in communion] because I’m a good Catholic, holy and pious and sleek. I partake because I’m a bad Catholic, riddled by doubt and anxiety and anger: fainting from severe hypoglycemia of the soul.”
-Nancy Mairs (extract from What’s So Amazing About Grace? by Philip Yancey)
I want to be able to realize what Nancy Mairs has: that being a failure as a Christian is better, if it will bring me closer to God. For years I’ve been trying to live as a good little Christian should. And I see I have failed. I think…hum…being a good Christian is overrated. I should try instead to see myself as a sinner, totally dependant on God for redemption. It’s so much easier on my pride to try by my own will and efforts to live a good life. But I think the way out is to give up on pride, admit that I am spiritually dead without God and learn to throw myself on him for help. I haven’t grasped this way of thinking yet.
But I’d rather be a saved sinner than a failed saint.
Huh? October 22, 2006
Posted by ohdearanotherusername in Randomness.add a comment
Are these supposed to be the ghosts of all the dead leaves?
How do you play chess? October 22, 2006
Posted by ohdearanotherusername in Brainfood, Metaphors.add a comment
Have you ever taken a personality test? I’ve had to take the Myers-Briggs test a couple times. Though I’d normally be skeptical about such tests’ validity, I got the same results both times, so I’m willing to put a little stock in it. The Myers-Briggs test sums up your personality with 4 different letters that stand for your preferences. There are two options for each of the letters. Your answers to the quiz questions reveal where you prefer to direct your energy: I(ntrovert) or E(xtrovert). They give an idea of how you prefer to process info: S(ensing) or i(N)tuition. How you make decisions: F(eeling) or T(hinking). And how you organize your life: J(udging) or P(erception). So apparently, I have an INFP personality type.
Coming home tonight, I missed the 11:30 bus by 4 minutes. Since it’s Saturday night, and the buses only come on the hour, I went to Tim Hortons to get a coffee and played a game of chess on my cellphone while I waited for the 12:30 bus. I know that sounds very nerdy. But don’t worry, I’m not any good at it. The way I play chess fits with my personality. A P-personality likes staying open to respond to whatever happens, can sometimes stay open to new information so long that they miss making decisions, and can sometimes focus so much on adapting to the moment that they do not settle on a direction or plan. When I play chess, I hardly ever plan more than one move ahead. I don’t concoct extensive strategies. I decide where to move depending on what the board looks like that turn. This way of responding to the other player’s moves and adapting to the current situation is also how I seem to run my life. I don’t have any concrete plans beyond the next few months. I don’t have specific ambitions or strategies to achieve them. I wait to make decisions until I’m forced to and I make them in response to the situation I’m in. This doesn’t turn out well for me when I play chess. So I wonder if this is not the best way to run my life.
The Link October 18, 2006
Posted by ohdearanotherusername in Reading, School.2 comments
It bothers me that the “Concordia University Independant Newspaper” is hardly objective. Aren’t newspapers supposed to avoid taking sides? And to just report the facts?
Today, I glanced at the headlines for The Link as I walked by the newsstands in the Hall building and saw the headline: “Former exec dishes the dirt on CSU shenanigans.” It’s so sensationalist! The Link is not just choosing sides, it is one of the sides. It’s warring against the current Concordia Student Union. Apparently, the CSU got rind of all the newspapers on campus during the electoral campaign. And now it seems The Link is bad-mouthing the CSU to get even. I’m not saying the CSU wasn’t wrong. I’m just saying, it doesn’t seem that journalists should call it wrong. Shouldn’t they report the facts and let their readers decide? Anyways, I’m quite clueless about political matters, and newspaper matters too. Is this subjective bent something that is not unusual in newspapers? Maybe my expectations are too high.
This makes me feel sad.
This makes me feel curious.
This makes me think: “hum…really!”
The Hiding Place October 10, 2006
Posted by ohdearanotherusername in Brainfood, Pilgrimage, Reading.7 comments
I’ve just finished reading The Hiding Place by Corrie ten Boom, with John and Elizabeth Sherrill. I’ve read it before, but each time, I am still amazed and deeply touched by this true story.
The Hiding Place tells the story of Corrie ten Boom, a Dutch woman who lived through World War II. Her efforts to help the Jews during the war by hiding them in her home make an exciting start to this book, but her reliance on God is the real theme that appears to me to be running through this narrative. God comes through miraculously, again and again, not only to protect Corrie, her family, and protégées, but to spread the hope he offers to people in despair. God does not protect Corrie from being arrested for helping Jews. He doesn’t keep her and her sister Betsie from being sent from prison to a concentration camp. Yet, throughout the whole story, no matter the circumstances, God is always there for Corrie to lean on. He is not simply a figurehead in this story, a figment of wishful imaginations. He is as real as the actions he takes. As real as the changes that touch the cursing, flea-ridden bedmates in Barracks 28.
Though this story deals with a harsh subject matter and one that could be depressing, there is an undercurrent of joy evident in its pages. In the midst of her suffering, simply seeing the faces of other humans becomes a very real joy to Corrie. I won’t spoil the ending, nor tell you too much of the story. It is something you should read for yourself. It’s worth it.
“You are my hiding place; you will protect me from trouble and surround me with songs of deliverance. Selah”
Psalm 32:7
University is so hard… October 9, 2006
Posted by ohdearanotherusername in Artsy Fartsy, Funny, School.1 comment so far
I mean, really, could they make the classes any tougher? The other week, they even made us play tag! I can’t believe the things they expect you to know how to do after only two weeks of classes. Wink wink.
Yes, I’m not lying, we played tag in my storytelling class. Seriously, this is the easiest class I’ve taken in university. And it’s also the most unusual.
Each week, we come into the classroom, take off our shoes and join in “uninhibiting” exercises led by our TAs. We stand in a large circle and throw imaginary balls around the circle. “What piece of furniture do you feel like today?” a TA asks. “I feel like a lava lamp!” says a student. We are led around with our eyes closed. We breathe in a colour and exhale it slightly greyer. We roll around on the floor clutching our toes. And for all this difficult classwork, we get credit towards our university degrees!
We are currently working out a retelling of a Grimm’s fairy tale in groups. My group is doing The Goose Girl. And next week, we start working on retelling a Shakespeare play. That should be a little more work, but still, fun enough to wonder if this course is for real. Hehe.
Flashlight October 5, 2006
Posted by ohdearanotherusername in Artsy Fartsy, Brainfood, Eyefood, Photography, Randomness.3 comments
I was looking at this on Flickr. Then I found this. So I had to try it. Here’s my first steps into the world of flashlight photography.
Hermph! My laptop’s bugging up, so I could only put one on. Sorry.
Well, I was playing around with my flashlight after taking the photos and discovered that when I held it against my hand, I could actually see through my hand. And in the reddish tones of my hand, there were darker shadows where bones and tendons and veins stretched out to my fingers. Amazing! What a weird feeling it was, to be reminded that inside this entity, a body that walks around downtown, and sits in a cubicle, and eats General Tao chicken, a body that I so strongly associate with “me,” are bones and thin veins. Warm blood pulses through my veins. Little cells are floating around inside. I feel like my insides are so near the surface, like water in a ziploc bag, ready to explode, pressing against the edges of my skins. So strange.
The Hunger Site October 3, 2006
Posted by ohdearanotherusername in Brainfood, Good Intentions, Helping Hand, Netwise, Society.add a comment
You can apparently donate food to people who need it, just by clicking on a website. You can click a “Give free food” button at The Hunger Site everyday. This somehow raises money (through ad revenue) for about 1 cup of food which goes to people in need around the world. I like this idea. Mostly because it costs me nothing. See how helping others has become effortless? We sit in Starbucks, sipping a coffee and eating a muffin, surfing the Internet, and we remember, “Oh yes, click on the Hunger Site!” So we click, and we feel like we’ve done our part. An easy way to ease our conscience. I think the people who have created and are administering these sites are awesome, but I wonder: “Is it important that helping others should cost us something?” This seems almost too easy. What do you think?
