Falling Into Autumn

I had forgotten how beautiful the rain was.

I hadn't remembered the magic of water, pelting down from the sky, sprinkling your hair and reminding your skin that it's alive.

I had forgotten, as so many have, the wonder of accepting the fact you're going to get wet, of the release of knowing your clothes will be damp, but they'll dry out, and in the meantime you can enjoy the drops that smell so sweetly of life.

It is such fun looking up into the sky, feeling the rain on your face... such fun in the simple pleasure of knowing there is something here to enjoy, of holding your head high and walking through the downpour, when so many people scurry past, heads down, ducking from cover to cover or hiding beneath giant umbrellas, never meeting your eye, trying to escape.

There is something to learn from this, I think.

Take your time, in life, in love. If you forget your rain jacket or umbrella, accept it for the opportunity it is - the opportunity to experience something that so many people never do. Greet every moment as the chance to look around, to find something to look at, something to become interested in, rather than treating life as something that must continually amuse you.

"The cure for boredom is curiosity; and there is no cure for curiosity." (- Ellen Parr)

Live each day seeking, rather than waiting, for the things that interest you, that excite you, that bring you joy. Life is too short to wait for living to happen.

Odes and the Weather

So the weather has finally reflected the turning towards the autumnal equinox - and the very first day post-fair, too, which shows a little more taste than is usually seen on behalf of the usual Pacific Northwestern weather.

Unfortunately, that also meant that this morning I had to clothe myself in not only sweats-and-tee-shirt garb, but also don my fleece bathrobe... neither of which has made me particularly happy. So unhappy, in fact, that I deemed it appropriate to compose a poem, an ode to Summer - and had the indecency to attempt to make it rhyme as well; please forgive me. At least it is not a long poem.

Ode to Summer

O where is the fine heat of Summer?
The warmth of bright sunshine, hot on the skin,
Burning, to match the fires within.
O where is the sunshine of Summer?

O where are the blue skies of Summer?
Crystalline skies, cloudless and bright,
To make the earth seem so close to the light:
O, bring back the bright days of Summer!

O where are the soft smells of Summer?
Of quiet and shade, where breezes can play,
And flowers bloom, away from the heat of the day -
O, where are the soft places of Summer?

O where are the brisk sounds of Summer?
Of rivers and brooks, of swift-flowing streams,
Of dragonflies' flight through sunshiny beams,
O, where are the lazy energies of Summer?

O, speed the return of distant days of Summer,
That again may flow the golden heat
And that every morning we can greet
The sun, in those lovely warm days of Summer.

Hopefully by now you're not thoroughly tired of the rhyming and of the repetition of the capitalized "Summer". Though, it must be admitted, if I am sick of Washington's infamous ill-weathered winters inside a single day, I am not going to last very long this season.

Fortunately I have my sewing, crocheting, and tea to fall back on.

Tricky Questions

A quote my dad sent me:

German General to Swiss General: "You have only 500,000 men in your army; what would you do if I invaded with 1 million men?"

Swiss General: "Well, I suppose every one of my soldiers would need to fire twice."

Novel Advice

Also:
hamburger . ubuntu . labyrinth . rejection . de-noted . grimm . virus

"Shapeskearean Venting"

God, you ever get to that point where you're so tired of stupid movies, and then you see a Shakespeare, and it's like water after a desert?

That's how I felt after I watched Much Ado About Nothing. It was so refreshing to see a cohesive, coherent, plausible movie, with completely solid characters, played by actors who completely understood their roles and the spirit of Shakespeare. It was just... nice.

Prophecy

Whilst sun and moon endure, America shall remain a city of refuge for the whole earth, until she herself shall play the tyrant, forget her destiny, disgrace her freedom, and provoke her God.

- George Duffield II (1732-1790)

The Skillfully Employed

My new favorite quote, which I found while reading The Art of War:

The skillful employer of men will employ the wise man, the brave man, the covetous man, and the stupid man. For the wise man delights in establishing his merit, the brave man likes to show his courage in action, the covetous man is quick at seizing advantages, and the stupid man has no fear of death. - Qtd. by Tu Mu

Why, Because Then They'd Be Adults?

One of the things I'd like to be able to say when I'm older is that I successfully avoided the trappings of youth.

Whether that be in decisions about occupation, education, or men, I wish for wisdom.

It makes my heart hurt when I see those people who don't respect maturity, or don't desire it.

There's nothing wrong with maturity. It is the next phase, the graduation of intellect, of existence; it is what we have termed Moving Forward. While there are some things we should retain of our childhood, the selfish desires of youth are not one of them. Innocence, openness, yes - but intentional blindness to the knowledge and behaviours of adulthood?

We are made to grow older. We should accept this as the nature of the passage of time, and grow with it, rather than resist what is. We cannot control the passage of time, but we can control how gracefully we will accept the inevitability of change.

And our tastes should adjust with our wisdom, with our realizations of what is real, what is important, what is crucial in life, in love, in spirit.

My taste has changed from boys to men, as I am aware that the taste of men has matured to reflect what is deemed crucial of value in life. So it hurts even more to realize that my friends don't care for what I consider to be the natural change in preference.

Random Noteworthy Remarks

The Stalagmites is a GREAT name for a band.

Film Etiquette

One of the traits in my ideal man is that he will know when commenting during a movie isn't okay. There are times when the movie is spinning such a great atmosphere that I want to lose myself in it, and someone beside me commenting on the scene tends to ruin that atmosphere. No questions about the film, please; no clarifying, no jokes, no comments. Allow the epicness of the film to stand alone. It should be able to handle it.

That's not to say that I don't like joking around with movies EVER. It's just that there is a time and a place and a certain type of movie that I can't STAND it with. We can discuss the interesting change of social interplay AFTER the credits.

It's not that I'm angry, either. I just really wish more people knew how to lose themselves in the same movies that I do.

One Billion: Perspective

Found the following in a bulletin posted on MySpace. I really like it. You should read it.

The next time you hear a politician use the word 'billion' in a casual manner, think about whether you want the 'politicians' spending YOUR tax money.

A billion is a difficult number to comprehend, but one advertising agency did a good job of putting that figure into some perspective in one of its releases.

A. A billion seconds ago it was 1959.

B. A billion minutes ago Jesus was alive.

C. A billion hours ago our ancestors were living in the Stone Age.

D. A billion days ago no-one walked on the earth on two feet.

E. A billion dollars ago was only 8 hours and 20 minutes, at the rate our government is spending it.

While this thought is still fresh in our brain, let's take a look at New Orleans. It's amazing what you can learn with some simple division.

Louisiana Senator Mary Landrieu (D) is presently asking Congress for 250 BILLION DOLLARS to rebuild New Orleans. Interesting number... what does it mean?

A. Well... if you are one of the 484,674 residents of New Orleans (every man, woman, and child) you each get $516,528.

B. Or... if you have one of the 188,251 homes in New Orleans, your home gets 1,329,787.

C. Or... if you are a family of four...your family gets $2,066,012.

Washington, D.

C, HELLO!
Are all your calculators broken??

Accounts Receivable Tax
Building Permit Tax
CDL License Tax
Cigarette Tax
Corporate Income Tax
Dog License Tax
Federal Income Tax Federal Unemployment Tax (FUTA)
Fishing License Tax
Food License Tax
Fuel Permit Tax
Gasoline Tax
Hunting License Tax
Inheritance Tax
Inventory Tax
IRS Interest Charges (tax on top of tax)
IRS Penalties (tax on top of tax)
Liquor Tax
Luxury Tax
Marriage License Tax
Medica re Tax
Property Tax
Real Estate Tax
Service charge taxes
Social Security Tax
Road Usage Tax (Truckers)
Sales Taxes
Recreational Vehicle Tax
School Tax
State Income Tax
State Unemployment Tax (SUTA)
Telephone Federal Excise Tax
Telephone Federal Universal Service Fee Tax
Telephone Federal, State and Local Surcharge Tax
Telephone Minimum Usage Surcharge Tax
Telephone Recurring and Non-recurring Charges Tax
Telephone State and Local Tax
Telephone Usage Charge Tax
Utility Tax
Vehicle License Registration Tax
Vehicle Sales Tax
Watercraft Registration Tax
Well Permit Tax
Workers Compensation Tax

STILL THINK THIS IS FUNNY?

Not one of these taxes existed 100 years ago... and our nation was the most prosperous in the world.

We had absolutely no national debt... We had the largest middle class in the world...
and Mom stayed home to raise the kids.

What happened?
Can you spell 'politicians!'

And I still have to press '1' for English.

I hope this goes around the USA at least 100 times.

What the heck happened?

Puts things in perspective, doesn't it?

Inductive and Deductive Reasoning

I've always managed to know exactly what deductive reasoning was, which was assisted by my knowledge of how Sherlock Holmes came to his own conclusions. But while my geometry teacher attempted to explain the difference between that and inductive reasoning to me, the difference has remained one of the few cloudy points in my mental information reserves. That is, until today.

I received a document on argumentative essays from my teacher, wherein she discusses deductive and inductive argumentation. As her definitions seemed severely unclear, I finally Googled the definition for inductive reasoning.

I have since figured out that I use deductive reasoning to constantly evaluate my environment, while I use inductive reasoning to evaluate the people I meet. This is why I usually get a "feeling" when I meet a person, or a general definition of them based on scant information gathered, which later becomes proven quite accurate. I think the reason for its accuracy lies in the fact that the "scant information" is actually a subconsciously detected pattern in behaviours.

It's an interesting theory, anyway. I'll have to see if I see evidence of it in action.

College Is Strange

You know, I think I'm going to have to keep telling you about my experiences. Might happen every post. Just a forewarning - it tends to be on my thoughts a lot.

Even when I don't know the answers to my history test, I still end up being the first one to finish. It's not a bad thing - I'm just a bloody fast reader and a pretty good first-drafter. I'm usually happy with what I write at first go.

Anyway. After I was done I went to Starbucks with a couple of other students, a boy and a girl in their early twenties, who had finished. We had fifty minutes to muck about until class started up again. For some odd reason I figured that we would walk there. After all, I had been planning to. But instead we trekked across the parking lot and into the girl's car. It wouldn't have been too bad, except that both the kids smoked. I hate the smell, and I'm smart enough not to show it. They cussed a bit as well, which I didn't mind nearly as much: mental stench is easier to ignore than physical stench. The girl wanted to go to Fred Meyer afterwards, which I declined, wherein she drove me back and then took the boy to Meyers.

On the trip back she played Hotel California. A truly remarkable song. Classic rock, and I like it.

Also I finished a fascinating book: Eccentrics by David Weeks. I really was impressed with the book, and his insights into the joys of originality. If one realizes where the personal originality would become even better with the marvelous joys of Christ, one is even better off.

I Must See Disco Pigs

I just figured out something vital to humanity.

Tyson Ritter (pic) looks like a cross between Tom Welling (pic) and Cillian Murphy (pic).

Okay, maybe not vital. But hey, it was weird.

Maybe I just need to sleep.

Of Death and Funerals

Isn't it weird to go to a funeral for someone you never knew? But then, I think it's weird to go to a funeral for someone you did know. The very act of honoring someone who is not able to bear witness to their honoring seems a very strange ideal. If you didn't know the person, you have no claim to their life; why should you have claim in their death? And why should we honor their death, anyways? Honoring their death is not an honor to their life. It is an honor to their death, and that is all. And who are you giving the honor to - their memory? I don't understand the concept. If the person is not alive, why should we lend our senses to them? Why should we drown ourselves in the memory, when life is waiting for us? Their time of changing has passed. If anything, we should learn a lesson from those passed: live life while one can. Doesn't that lesson in and of itself throw the idea of a grand funeral into doubt?

Then again, I've never lost someone who is extraordinarily close to me. If and when I lose a parent or sibling, perhaps then I will understand better the need for closure from grief.

I Have a Confession

I've been thinking. Terrible, I know... probably going to hell for it. Anyways.

Lately I've been asking God to prepare me for a husband. I've got a couple of guys I know who are amazing, and while I don't seriously think (just dream) that either will eventually be mine, I have prayed for God to make me worthy of such men one day. All I've wanted for a while has been the chance to make a man happy.

Then today I read I Corinthians 7. I first began to read it because verse 4 caught my eye: "The wife gives authority over her body to her husband, and the husband gives authority over his body to his wife." I had just read this passage in this text, which I linked to in my last post. But then I read the verse in the context of the rest of the chapter.

What Paul essentially writes in this chapter is that being single will best serve God, because then one won't have to concentrate on world and spouse responsibilities. If one is already married, then definitely stay married (and he says a bit about marriage). Then Paul repeats that being single is a gift from God, even as marriage is. He doesn't dis on marriage at all, merely points out that marriage will cause a bit of a relational strain between the one and God. This only makes sense.

So I can't help but wonder. Have I been praying for the right thing? I don't think I should be asking to be prepared for marriage... I should be asking to get closer to God. And don't I need to do that anyways, before marriage?

At least this way, if and when God gives me a husband, I will treat it as the gift it is, rather than with the impatience of something that has been due me.

I Believe I Need Some Alone Time

"Passion is inversely proportional to the amount of real information available." - Gregory Benford

While not applying to romance, this describes my Humanities class utterly and completely.

*sigh* Can I just leave the world and go off with God for a couple of years? I'm a bit fed up with the rest of humanity at the moment. Researching abortion for a grand school report does not improve my sentiments on my fellow man, either. I could do a half-decent job by my opinions and likely still get an A from public school teachers.

I'm so tired. Mentally, physically, emotionally, spiritually exhausted. I want to curl up and rest in the arms of my God.

*sigh*