My Blog is Messed Up

Natalie,
Have I lost my blog by not using it in forever????

Quote of the Workday

"Therefore, the essence of our work as humans must be that it is done in conscious reliance on God's power, as a conscious quest of God's pattern of excellence, and in deliberate pursuit of God's glory."

~John Piper

Snuggies and Books

So I don't blog much anymore, and I blame that on my snuggie and my reading. I recently made a goal to read books I never read in high school. I ended up skimming and chunking Catch-22, loving Lord of the Flies, and making it through Brave New World slowly but victoriously. I also put blogging on hold because, as funny things have happened, I just didn't feel like blogging about them. So, not to blog again, I'll just post my favorite page from Brave New World.

"But I like the inconveniences."
"We don't," said the Controller. "We prefer do do things comfortably."
"But I don't want comfort. I want God, I want poetry, I want real danger, I want freedom, I want goodness. I want sin."
"In fact," said Mustapha Mond, "you're claiming the right to be unhappy."
"All right then," said the Savage defiantly, "I'm claiming the right to be unhappy."
"Not to mention the right to grow old and ugly and impotent; the right to have syphilis and cancer; the right to have too little to eat; the right to be lously; the right to live in the constant apprehension of what may happen tomorrow; the right to catch typhoid; the right to be tortured by unspeakable pains of every kind." There was a long silence.
"I claim them all," said the Savage at last.
Mustapha Mond shrugged his shoulders. "You're welcome," he said.


Merry Christmas! Ha! We are blessed to not be blessed all the time!

Dave Carnegie and Tyler Durdin

Fight Club and The Hiding Place: Dissatisfied members of corporate America and Christians hiding Jews. Similarity? Community. Differences? Opposition to self and opposition to brute force...at least that's what I thought about on my bike ride today, lost in the boonies of a nearby neighborhood.

I watched Fight Club for the first time last night after my brother told me I HAD to see the whole thing. This movie had always been one of those flicks that the rebel kids in high school loved, so I thought it be nice to see inside their minds. (I think I'm a late developing rebel...we all have a little of it.

I've been reading the Hiding Place for the second time in 13 years because I just put it on the reading list for my seventh graders. Too bad we can't compare Corrie's experience to Tyler Durdin's (psychotic ring leader/alter ego of Fight Club's narrator) in my classroom.

If you're still reading, here's the connection I'm getting at: Corrie Ten Boom mentions using Dave Carnegie's strategy of getting people to like you (talking in terms of their interests) and it helps her develop an ally in the Gestapo. Carnegie's principles date back to 1936, so can we note the irony that a 21st century reader experiences...human nature doesn't change? Neither do the roles of mommies and daddies. Corrie's dad leads the people to find peace in chaos, and so does Corrie's heavenly father. So what about Tyler Durdin? He doesn't just get people to like him, he gets them to fight him and still like him.

Accoriding the the book/movie, he also sees himself as:

*********"a generation of men raised by women"Palahniuk, Fight Club, 1999, p. 50.
because either their fathers left them, leaving them with no male model, or that "the narrator's opposition to emasculation is a form of projection, and that the problem that he fights is himself."(Maryville University of St. Louis professor Jesse Kavadlo, in an issue of the literary journal Stirrings Still)
**********************************************

So this movie isn't just about guys fighting guys and that being really cool?
**********************************************Here's one more quote:

The mechanic says, “If you’re male and you’re Christian and living in America, your father is your model for God. And if you never know your father, if your father bails out or dies or is never at home, what do you believe about God?
and another exerpt...
How Tyler saw it was that getting God’s attention for being bad was better than getting no attention at all. Maybe because God’s hate is better than His indifference.
If you could be either God’s worst enemy or nothing, which would you choose?
We are God’s middle children, according to Tyler Durden, with no special place in history and no special attention.
Unless we get God’s attention, we have no hope of damnation or redemption.
Which is worse, hell or nothing?
Only if we’re caught and punished can we be saved.
“Burn the Louvre,” the mechanic says, “and wipe your a** with the Mona Lisa. This way at least, God would know our names.”

– Fight Club, page 141
**********************************************
Call me crazy, but I had get the author's note: Palahniuk gives a much simpler statement about the overall theme of the novel, stating "all my books are about a lonely person looking for some way to connect with other people."

I also think guys just like to fight. Isn't that what football is for?
For girls, I think it comes out in other things like white water rafting, testing the limits to feel more alive. But that's just me...

I wonder who Dave Carnegie would like to fight...

To Do...To Enjoy...Hopefully

So here's my list. I'm going all "Rorie Gilmore" inside so I needed this, my list of aspirations, to be completed by who knows when.

1. Paint more, find a few signatures things to paint/sell-worthy, post paintings on blog and Etsy.
2. Do more calligraphy and make a book of different fonts.
3. Get a business card for painting and/or calligraphy (wedding invitations).
4. Set up a booth for both who knows where...Ross Bridge Fresh Market?
5. Write more- I am currently working towards a series of memoires to be called "Out of the Boonies." (all about getting lost...and finding something along the way)So who's gonna read this? Who knows...

Wait, I'm a teacher, so doesn't this all go away starting August 18th? I don't want it to...

As you can see my thoughts are jumbled, so I'll just post some of my recent paintings below, mainly so I can at least get started on the list.

Desperate House-not-so-much-Wife: Summertime

1. Something I've noticed about other people: So I love answering this question: "So since you're a teacher, what do you DO in the summer?"
My tired answer has been of late: "Well, I take one day at a time." Why would I respond so curtly? Well, simply because most people ask teachers this with a gleam of jealousy or resentment and seem to want me to say things like, "Well, I'll start out in Boca and then maybe hit the Keys, and who knows after that." Or mabye they expect something like, "Tutoring the homeless." On the other hand, maybe I just wish they were jealous, jealous of the money I don't really have. So, to establish a happy medium, I'll leave them in mystery.

2. Something I've noticed about myself: I have what appears to be the beginnings of a spider vein on my right ankle. What do I do? I consult the experts, only to find a heap of contraditions. Look for yourself: (http://www.womenshealth.gov/FAQ/varicose-spider-veins.cfm#D)My responses are included after a few points of advice.

How can I prevent varicose veins and spider veins?Not all varicose and spider veins can be prevented. But some things can reduce your chances of getting new varicose and spider veins. These same things can help ease discomfort from the ones you already have: ("hmm, sounds helpful")

Control your weight to avoid placing too much pressure on your legs. "Ok"
Do not cross your legs when sitting. "Got it"
Elevate your legs when resting as much as possible. "Principal wouldn't like that"
Do not stand or sit for long periods of time. "Am I supposed to get a hover-craft?!"
If you must stand for a long time, shift your weight from one leg to the other every few minutes. "That wouldn't look like I had to pee or anything"
Wear elastic support stockings ("super panty hose?")and avoid tight clothing that constricts ("leave the girdle at home...darnit!") your waist, groin,("do women even have these!?") or legs.

I hope that was as fun for me as it was for you. Ah, the signs of age!! But seriously, this Q and A really got me:
Why do varicose veins and spider veins usually appear in the legs?The force of gravity, the pressure of body weight, ("AKA your fat butt")and the task of carrying blood from the bottom of the ("big, old") body up to the heart make legs the primary location for varicose and spider veins. Compared with other veins in the body, leg veins have the toughest job of carrying blood back to the heart ("because the butt increases the distance there"). They endure the most pressure. This pressure can be stronger than the veins' one-way valves.

Well, I'm glad I'm informed. I think the bottom line is, don't have a big bottom and move it around a lot throughout the day.

I've Decided

That there are too many things online for me to handle. How do I have time to read when I'm too busy fixing my new account on a reader's corner website thingy? And now I'm writing about that on a blog that nobody reads? Hmm...it must be the end of the school year...