drawing up memories

this is the drawing that I made at bible study last week. it was me and the three art students (hattie, liz & juliana) all drawing ravens and lilies. yep. this was mine. I'm putting it up here because it reminds me of the days when I used to come home from school with some new "art" project, and my mom would hang it right there in the kitchen, which was probably the most populated room in the entire house at most times of the day. one time, she told me, I came home with this self-portrait that (in her eyes) looked more like George Washington because I had white hair. I explained to her that it was me, but that we had run out of brown paint in the art room, and hence I chose the next best hair color: white. yep.
but I don't have mom to come home to anymore, so I have to display my own "artwork" (courtesy of Hattie, who scanned this in). and since I don't have that many people walking through my room everyday, I figured this was probably the most "populated" place I could display it...so, enjoy! And happy almost Thanksgiving...

a proposal

Lauren Winner is coming to Grand Rapids on January 13th to speak @ Calvin College...anybody want to come with?

uncooperativeness...by blogspot

ok. so if you happen to click on the links to the websites of my friends at the right, you'll notice that "john" leads you to http://www.livejournal.com/users/jooohn/. While I know that jcollman's website is actually http://www.livejournal.com/users/jooohnn/ (notice the extra "n" at the end), blogspot refuses to believe me. so I am stuck with a link to the website of some poor chap that I don't know, whose name is probably john. I realize, dear blogspot.com, that we've only been at this thing for two days now, but I think you're being a little unreasonable. sorry john...

*edit*: I kid you not. Blogspot decided to cooperate about 30 seconds after I posted this. the "john" link now leads you to the correct john. hooray for me (who doesn't even know HTML!)

don't be walkin' the plank!

in my wanderings through the blogging walls of friends, I came across a hilarious website that can translate your blog into "Pirate Speak". Yeah. While most appropriately used on National Talk Like a Pirate Day (already in the past), it can serve for a few good laughs at almost anytime. check it out: how t' talk like a buccanneer

Thanks to Emily for the site...

tra-dish-un and con-frun-tay-shun

I'm reading a book called "girl meets God" (borrowed from Hattie) by Lauren Winner (who has quite the interesting background when it comes to finally meeting Jesus...Kat and Carole also are big fans of hers), and she writes much in the book about tradition & liturgy within the Christian church (she is an Episcopalian, if that means anything to you...I need to research more about denominational traditions). In many ways I have struggled to see some traditional parts of the Christian church as "valid" (for lack of a better word at this time of night - sorry), since they are not always "spontaneous", and therefore potentially run the risk of not really coming from my heart. Yet through reading parts of Winner's book, I have come to understand how well these traditions (i.e. liturgy) may assist in moving toward a more disciplined walk with Christ...something which I realized I have somewhat of a lack of due to some lack of structure that happens when everything in my life must be constantly changing, spontaneous, new. It leaves no room for tradition. Of course, there is always the danger of everything within this structure having to become rigidly defined, as observed of the Pharisees. Grar.

Another enjoyable point of Winner's book (and the other one she wrote, "Real Sex"...yeah, try to have that one lying around on your coffee table) is her writing about congregational/communal aspects of sin. So often (especially in this nation, I fear), we see sin in the Christian church as so individual (i.e. "it's not my business what my neighbor's doing"). I know I've seen my own sin that way so many times - it's what makes confrontation so difficult for me. My gut reaction is to tell my confronter to "butt out" - this is *my* situation, *my* sin to deal with...go deal with your own. The truth is, of course, that in Christian community it *is* your business what I am doing, because what hurts me, no matter how "private", will also end up damaging the entire body of Christ in some way. The other reality is that you are sinning unless you confront me about my sin. This doesn't mean we're supposed to be nagging on each other, right? But rather, we seek to build each other up through seeking out what is best for one another...and that doesn't include sin.

Ok, 'nuf said for a bit. And I am so not prepared to be up in 5 hours...

noel music, pizza winnings

I've taken to somewhat listening to Christmas music lately. They started playing it on 100.3 on November 1st, and since it curiously reminds me of home, it's rather hard to tear myself away. As my sister warned me, I'm sure to get sick of it before Thanksgiving...

I was also informed by email today, that I was a winner of a coupon for free pizza from Pizza House for correctly answering a quiz about computing safety at UM. Hooray! Through the same said contest, I am also eligible to win ipod-ish type items. probably not the same luck there, but free pizza is good at this point.