new year for real this time

Happy real New Year, world!!! I'll post pics of our New Year's celebration later today, possibly tomorrow. Depends on how well my sleep-deprived brain functions in the afternoon. ;o) For now, I leave you with this final thought that was part of our ringing-in-the-new-year devotional earlier:

Indeed, I count everything as loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord. For his sake I have suffered the loss of all things and count them as rubbish, in order that I may gain Christ and be found in him, not having a righteousness of my own that comes from the law, but that which comes through faith in Christ, the righteousness from God that depends on faith--that I may know him and the power of his resurrection, and may share his sufferings, becoming like him in his death, that by any means possible I may attain the resurrection from the dead.

Not that I have already obtained this or am already perfect, but I press on to make it my own, because Christ Jesus has made me his own. Brothers, I do not consider that I have made it my own. But one thing I do: forgetting what lies behind and straining forward to what lies ahead, I press on toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus. Let those of us who are mature think this way, and if in anything you think otherwise, God will reveal that also to you. Only let us hold true to what we have attained.

Philippians 3: 8-16

Happy early New Year!!!

My final post for 2005. How weird is that?!? ;o)

This is about 6 hours and 15 minutes early where I am, but...

HAPPY NEW YEAR, everyone!!!!!!

Have fun tonight, stay safe, don't do anything dumb...

...but most importantly, my hope for all of you (and me) is that you (and I) will make 2006 the best year yet. Let's become better people than we were the year before...people more dedicated to serving others instead of our own interests; and for those of us who belong to Jesus Christ, let's become Christians more dedicated to serving God than to serving ourselves. Let's develop a deeper understanding of Christ's death for our sins; let's grow ever more intimate with our Father in heaven so that we can be more vulnerable to him and allow his Holy Spirit to change us fundamentally into the people he wants us to become.

Let's focus on making our relationship with God the single most important function of our existence.

Love to all,
Courtney

new art on elfwood

Hi all,

Just thought I'd let you know that I have three new pictures up on Elfwood. You can find them here:

'Dance of the Peadog'
'Portal: Enter, Please'
'Where She Hopes'

Please note that all pictures in my online gallery are copyrighted. You may not alter (this includes resizing, cropping, or in any other way changing) or distribute them (this includes using them as clipart or decoration for your homepage, posting them anywhere online, etc.) without my written permission. I'm not trying to be mean; this simply has been a problem recently. Thank you for your consideration.

Feedback on the art is always welcome! :o)

why evangelizing over here can be so difficult

Ponder the implications behind this statement, and you'll begin to understand why the work of the Lord progresses so "slowly" (by human standards) over here:

"The tragedy of Christianity in Europe is that the state church makes Christianity look about as attractive as the post office."

--Dr. Jim Baird
Advanced Seminar, Köln
January 2005

Courtney classic, pt. 2

When I made this post about how my life is a cult classic, I forgot to mention an all-important conversation pertaining to the subject. At the end of October, Ed, Clint, April, and I were driving to Dresden (this was back B.C.S.--Before Car Selling), and we started talking about what a movie of our lives would be like.

First, we decided that nobody would go see it. Then, we decided it would be a blockbuster. (Anybody remember what title we decided on?) And finally, talk turned to which actors would portray us. We came up with the following:

Clint: Jack Black
April: Courteney Cox
Ed: Adam Sandler
me: Drew Berrymore

What do you think???

dream #75

recorded June 27, 2005

For your reading pleasure I give you once again peeps in the foreign world of dreams and on-line translators. Find below please the 75-th dream which I registered in my dream magazine first on English then in German. The translations into both languages are complaisance of that. Enjoy!

Back Pain and Hallucinations

Last night I dreamed that a spider on my left arm crept. I tried to squoosh, but it would not become squoosh. When I understood that it was not about to die, I looked at it closer and understood that it was a tick! I continued to hit my arm, to smoosh the tick trying, but it would also not become smoosh. My only execution was to do my arm pain. So, in the end, I smooshed it between my thumbnails.

I thought that I was now o.k., but then I saw that there was a bump behind my left hand. I bumped after the bump, and something moved in it. I started being earned gross, but I seized a knife and began to cut in the skin at the back of my hand. The skin was really thick and meaty: I did not cut deeply enough even to hit bone, but I cut open 1 inch thick fabric from the back of my hand. I unloaded the fabric on the table. Blood and flaps of the meat were everywhere. I saw, in the end, that the moving thing was a spider in my hand. His legs were long and thin, and when I drew them, the spider glided directly from the back of my hand. This was still alive.

Me turned Ed and to speak me tried ones, but nothing would come out. I could not believe that I had cut just in my hand like this, and that a spider had lived under my skin. Ed it was earned just absolutely gross. The spider did weak, twitching movements on the table. Then there ended the dream.

When I woke, my whole left arm was a sore place, from my finger points the whole way in my shoulder and highly back. I think that I slept wrong on my left side, and my brain translated pain into the weird spider and discs of sharp images. YUCK!


Für Ihr Lesen-Vergnügen gebe ich Ihnen noch einmal ein Piepsen in die fremde Welt von Träumen und On-Line-Übersetzern. Finden Sie unten bitte den fünfundsiebzigsten Traum, den ich in meiner Traumzeitschrift zuerst auf Englisch dann auf Deutsch registrierte. Die Übersetzungen in beiden Sprachen sind Zuvorkommenheit dessen. Genießen Sie!

Rückenschmerz und Halluzinationen

Gestern Abend träumte ich, dass eine Spinne auf meinem linken Arm kroch. Ich versuchte zu squoosh es, aber es würde nicht squoosh. Als ich begriff, dass es nicht dabei war zu sterben, schaute ich darauf näher und begriff, dass es eine Zecke war! Ich setzte fort, meinen Arm zu schlagen, zu smoosh die Zecke versuchend, aber es würde nicht smoosh auch. Meine einzige Ausführung war, meinen Arm-Schmerz zu machen. So schließlich, ich smooshed es zwischen meinen Daumennägeln.

Ich dachte, dass ich jetzt o.k. war, aber dann sah ich, dass es eine Beule hinter meiner linken Hand gab. Ich stieß nach der Beule, und etwas Bewegtem darin. Ich fing an, brutto verdient zu werden, aber ich ergriff ein Messer und begann, in die Haut auf der Rückseite von meiner Hand zu schneiden. Die Haut war wirklich dick und fleischig: ich schnitt tief genug nicht sogar, um Knochen zu schlagen, aber ich schnitt ein Zoll dickes Gewebe aus dem Rücken meiner Hand auf. Ich lud das Gewebe auf den Tisch ab. Blut und Klappen des Fleisches waren überall. Ich sah schließlich, dass das bewegende Ding in meiner Hand eine Spinne war. Seine Beine waren lang und dünn, und als ich sie anzog, glitt die Spinne direkt aus dem Rücken meiner Hand. Das war noch lebendig.

Ich wandte mich Hrsg. zu, und ich versuchte zu sprechen, aber nichts würde herauskommen. Ich konnte nicht glauben, dass ich gerade in meine Hand wie das geschnitten hatte, und dass eine Spinne unter meiner Haut gelebt hatte. Hrsg. wurde gerade völlig brutto verdient. Die Spinne machte schwache, zuckende Bewegungen auf dem Tisch. Dann endete der Traum.

Als ich aufwachte, war mein ganzer linker Arm wunde Stelle, von meinen Fingerspitzen den ganzen Weg in meine Schulter und ober zurück. Ich denke, dass ich falsch auf meiner linken Seite schlief, und mein Gehirn übersetzte den Schmerz in die bizarre Spinne und Scheiben schneidende Images. YUCK!

the decline and fall of the roman empire, part 2

Read this.

But don't look back. You might turn into a pillar of salt.

digging up a car in 2007

Did you know there's a Plymouth Belvedere buried next to the Tulsa County courthouse?
I didn't know they made time capsules that big. ;o)

a few more fun pics

This was our first real snowfall in Chemnitz this year! Yay, it was pretty. Unfortunately, it was also a month ago, and the lovely snow has since departed, leaving dreary and wet in its wake. Anyway, this was the view from our bedroom window.

I LOVE SOCKS!!! My sock fanaticism is getting more and more pronounced all the time. This is one of my more recent pairs. The dorkier and more brightly colored, the better. Knee-high stripeyed ones are the best!!!

Last but not least, I'm taking a page out of Leenda's blog and offering a picture challenge: Can you tell me what this is??? The winner gets a pair of socks. ;o)

some random pictures

A few recent pics to share, for no particular reason:

Three turkeys that were gobbling around at Thanksgiving. ;o)

My date for Thanksgiving. ;oP

Amy, you'll appreciate this one. On Saturday morning, we bought Pippin a new toy: a plastic stick with a string and a blue, feathered mouse attached. We affectionately started calling it "the birdmouse toy." Here's what we discovered when we came home last night:

Pippin's motto: Death to Birdmice!!! LOL

Courtney's Grammar and Spelling Pet Peeves

Ah, you knew this was coming eventually, didn't you? As much as I harp on accurate spelling and correct grammar, and since I've spent part of the last four years teaching conversational English, it was inevitable that I'd come to the point of needing to make a post about this ever-popular subject. *insert weary groans here* ;oD

Language is a beautiful, amazing, wonderful thing that God came up with. It is the basis of everything we do; without language--whether spoken, written, or signed--human communication and interaction would be impossible. Language carries the essence of our human cultures; you will never completely understand a culture until you know its language.

Communication is the foundation of positive human interaction. Conversely, lack of communication is the cause of our every misunderstanding. That's why I'm so interested in language, and that's the basic reason why I'm often so particular about spelling, grammar, and expression.

So, without further ado, I give you my list of grammar and spelling pet peeves. This list is subject to revising and to growth, so check back periodically if you're interested. This is my collection of frequent grammar and spelling errors that I have observed (and sometimes made) personally; some of them seem to be habitual errors that many native English speakers make.

And not to worry--I'm not anticipating any feedback on this one. ;o)

INCORRECT................................................CORRECT

alot.....................................................................a lot

appauled
apauled..........................................................appalled

conversate.....................................................converse

cynicalism........................................................cynicism

decapacitate..................................................decapitate

definatly
definately......................................................definitely

dieing.............................................................dying ( = losing life) 
NOTE: "dyeing" is the continuous form of the verb "to dye" = to color smthg.

excentric.......................................................eccentric

family names:
These are the Cantrell's...................................the Cantrells
I stayed at the Cantrell's.................................the Cantrells'

had went........................................................had gone

hayday...........................................................heyday

If I would have warmer shoes,
my feet would be warmer...............................If I had warmer shoes,
........................................................................my feet would be warmer.

irregardless...................................................regardless

it's (possessive, such as his, her, our)................its

liason
liasion.............................................................liaison

loose (as in "not win).........................................lose
loosing (as in "not winning")...............................losing
looser (as in "not winner")..................................loser
NOTE: the adjective "loose" means "not tight." The verb is "to loosen."

objectable......................................................objectionable

posessive
possesive.......................................................possessive

productful.........................................................productive

sight............................................................site (as in location, such as "website")

solemness......................................................solemnity

their, there, they're.................................just figure out which is which ;o)

unassumedly.................................................unassumingly

wierd.................................................................weird

you're (possessive, such as his, her, my)..............your

your (as in "you are")..........................................you're

God-shaped holes

Marion and I had a great conversation at Marschner's tonight. Marschner's is the café down the street from the church building, where a lot of us go on a semi-regular basis to eat, hang out, and complain about second-hand cigarrette smoke. ;o) In the summer, it's the perfect place for ice cream.

Marion, for those of you who don't know, is my good friend--fun, witty, philosophical, rarely without a smile, and never without an encouraging word for someone who needs it. Marionuschka, this one's for you! Or something like that. ;o)

Anyway, as we were discussing the world's problems and trying to solve them, we started talking about what sorts of people we would be without God. I'll tell you my thoughts on that some other time....maybe when I feel more in the mood to expose my inner self to the world.

But that's another story. Marion and I were talking about how people are willing to try anything and everything to fulfill their own needs.....anything and everything except God. And I remembered reading once that each one of us has a God-shaped hole in our heart, a hole we spend our lives desperately trying to fill.

Remember that toy a lot of us had when we were little kids? It was a hollow, plastic ball--yellow!--with different shapes cut into it. Circles, squares, triangles, stars, etc. It had plastic pieces to go with it, pieces that were shaped like the holes in the ball. The idea was to find the shape that went with the right hole.

The only way to get the triangle into the ball was to stick it in the triangle hole. The only way to get the square into the ball was to stick it in the square hole. Sticking the triangle into the square hole wouldn't work. It didn't fit... Of course, if you were strong enough, I suppose you could force the triangle into the square hole....but you'd end up breaking the ball.

That's how we humans play with our hearts. We recognize that our hearts have holes, and we spend our entire lives desperately trying to fill those holes with something.

Work. Entertainment. Sex. Music, poetry, magazines, friendships, independence, cars, houses, movies, computers, science, ethics, morals, laws, philosophy, art, education, academics. We stuff all of those things into our hearts, yet our hearts still have these strange, alien holes in them. Nothing we stick into those holes can fill those holes up. All of those things I listed up there...we try to stick them into our hearts, but they're the wrong size, the wrong shape. Sometimes, we give up. We see that work won't fit in the hole, so we give up on work. We set the work-shaped piece aside and pick up the sex-shaped piece. And we try to stick superficial sex in the hole. But sex won't fulfill, so we try to pick up entertainment, fun. But fun won't fit, either. And we spend our lives going from one shape to the next, frantic to find the one piece that fits. And the tragedy is that nothing ever does.

Sometimes, we refuse to set a piece aside, and we try to force it into our hearts, even though it's the utterly wrong shape. And we wonder why we end up with broken hearts. We keep trying to force things into our poor, God-created hearts, and those things just don't fit. Our hearts aren't designed for them, and we crack our hearts wide open with our frantic, stubborn, futile efforts.

God, of course, is the answer. Those holes in our hearts are shaped like God, and he is the only thing that will fit, fill up, and fulfill. It's enough to bring tears to my eyes, that God can fit into each of us so perfectly, if only we'll let him. He's sitting beside us on the playing floor, waiting patiently for us to pick him up, look him over, and hold him up to the hole in our hearts. Out of all these pieces lying strewn about me, does this God-shaped one fit into this hole? Finally, is God the piece whose angles are right? The piece whose sides are the right length? Finally, after all the tears and trying, is he the piece that won't hurt?

Yes, he is. And he's waiting for you.

a few things about me

Yesterday? the day before? I wrote the following for my bio on Chessworld, so I thought I'd post it here for fun:

...What should I say about myself?

At this writing, I am 28 years old--an obnoxious whippersnapper to some, a hopelessly old-fashioned biddy to others. ;oD

I love snow, but I hate the cold.

I have such bizarre dreams that my husband has said I have an IMAX movie theater in my head at night.

I was born in McKinney, Texas, but grew up in and around Darmstadt, Germany.

I feel American when I'm in Germany, and German when I'm in America.

I suspect I'd be most comfortable on a liferaft in the middle of the Atlantic. Except that I sometimes get lonely.

Someday, I want to travel to Egypt, Israel, Africa, and Australia, to see what I feel like when I'm there.

I believe that God created everything that exists; Jesus Christ is his son; and his Holy Spirit lives in me and guides me in my daily life. I'm a Christian, and I don't have all the answers. I sin every day, and I can only be grateful that God gives me his grace so that I can approach him.

I've lost 16 pounds in the last 4 months because I stopped eating all wheat and cow's milk products. Except on Saturdays.

I have a bachelor's degree in English/Writing, and I intend to be a published novelist someday.

I finished writing my first novel when I was 15.

I believe, as Lowell Liebermann once said, that "We live in a sarcastic age. A lot of intellectuals are uncomfortable with genuineness."

I don't know who Lowell Liebermann is, and I have no idea where I found that quote.

Someday, I would like to be on an episode of 24, Lost, The X-Files, and Star Trek: The Next Generation, even though those last two series have already ended.

I think I could have been a great actress if I'd ever gotten into drama.

I'm enjoying writing this.

Scatterbrained as I am, I often don't pay attention to what I'm doing. Especially in chess, much to my friends' dismay. ;o)

I'm a terrible cook.

I enjoy writing poetry, but I don't do it often enough.

Sometimes, I get so impatient with others that I could scream.

I've never stood in an empty field and just screamed for the sheer release of it. I should do that sometime.

I should tell people more often that I appreciate them.

I named my cat 'Pippin' because I adore LoTR.

I have a heart arrhythmia caused by a malfunction of the vagus nerve.

In November, I wrote 50000 words of a novel entitled "Triad."

When I was 20, I broke up with my first boyfriend over the phone. He was in America, I was in Germany, and I didn't want to lie over email and say everything was okay.

I love chocolate, but I hate Marzipan.

Sometimes, I do enjoy being considered eccentric,which is probably why I'm styling my bio this way. But I'm really just a simple girl who likes to be silly.

Most of the time, I have trouble thinking of myself as a woman instead of a girl. How can it be that I'm already an adult? I think that when I'm 80, I'll still think of myself as a girl.

I used to wear only browns, greens, and blacks. But now, I enjoy wearing all colors--even pink, which I once hated!--because it's fun.

I think I'm done now. Anything else you want to know?

look! a non-NaNo-related post! aren't you relieved?

Here's something someone posted in the Chessworld forums recently. It gave me a huge laugh, language and English nerd that I am, so I thought I'd share it here. I bid thee happy chuckling!

Fun Anagrams

DORMITORY = DIRTY ROOM

PRESBYTERIAN = BEST IN PRAYER

ASTRONOMER = MOON STARER

DESPERATION = A ROPE ENDS IT (creepy!)

THE EYES = THEY SEE

GEORGE BUSH = HE BUGS GORE

THE MORSE CODE = HERE COME DOTS

SLOT MACHINES = CASH LOST IN ME

ANIMOSITY = IS NO AMITY

ELECTION RESULTS = LIES - LET'S RECOUNT

SNOOZE ALARMS = ALAS! NO MORE Zs

A DECIMAL POINT = I’M A DOT IN PLACE

THE EARTH QUAKES = THAT QUEER SHAKE

ELEVEN PLUS TWO = TWELVE PLUS ONE

The Loch Ness Monster was given a Latin name - NESSITERRAS RHOMBOPTERYX - by Sir Peter Scott.
If you rearrange this, it gives you MONSTER HOAX BY SIR PETER S.

SCHOOLMASTER = THE CLASSROOM

And finally:

PRESIDENT CLINTON OF THE USA = TO COPULATE HE FINDS INTERNS