guess i'm not in a peaceful mood today.... lol

Your Score: Klingon

You scored 53% Aggressiveness, 40% Technology, and 46% Social Enlightenment!

Homeworld: Q'onoS

The Klingons are an extremely aggressive, patriarchal species. Klingons have a well-developed sense of honour and value this, as well as bravery and power, very highly. Klingon technological development is exclusively focused on military weapons, which means that although their weapons are powerful, their ships can be a little... well, they would be called 'fixer-uppers'. Klingons view all other species with suspicion and are quick to start a fight. As a Klingon, you are also very aggressive and probably find yourself in a lot of fights. You're a lusty sort of person, the type who values good friends, good wine and a good woman (or man). You would fight to the death if needs be and are a good person to have if the going gets tough. You also thrive on challenges and find it hard to forgive.

Link: The Which Star Trek Species R U Test

Oh well.....I'd rather be a Klingon than a Borg or a Ferengi! ;o)

i'm so glad...

...that anonymous people are here to tell me these things. ;o)

In my Elfwood gallery, I have posted a pic of my painting entitled "Evil in Triplicate". It is my depiction of the three witches from Shakespeare's "Macbeth." Y'know...an illustration of literature and all that.

In the past, I've had a concern over offending fellow Christians by portraying something this "dark." Well, the comment I received on this picture a couple of days ago just goes to show that you truly never can make everybody happy all the time. (Not that I worry about making everybody happy. I learned a long time ago not to attempt something so silly. ;o)

Anyway, here's the comment:

You know...The witches in Macbeth weren't evil. As a pagan i find it a little bit rude how you correlate evil and witches. Your art may be beautiful but your soul still needs a bit of work i think.

Aux

And I posted this reply:

According to what I believe and according to the faith I follow, *all* of our souls still need work. That includes mine. I am a sinner, and there are still places in my heart in which I allow evil to make a home. My soul still needs a lot of work, and I will never try to deny it. But someone gave me a gift: a life in which, over time, a power greater than I is working to transform me into something better than what I am now. All I can do is try to keep my heart open to that power.

As far as the literary analysis of "Macbeth" is concerned...I stand by my opinion that Shakespeare was portraying the witches as evil. They had ample opportunity to guide Macbeth in a non-murderous direction, but they did not do so. And as the bloodshed increased and the bodies piled up, Shakespeare's witches looked on and enjoyed the mayhem. In my opinion, that is evil.

As for the question of whether or not real witchcraft is evil...your religion and mine are at odds on the subject. I'm not going to get into an online debate about it.

Respectfully,
Courtney

There ya go. I just offend all sorts of people all over the place. Guess I just can't help myself. *grin*

another excerpt from courtney's journal

Caveat Emptor:

The following is an excerpt from my private journal. Some, reading what I've written, will interpret me as being arrogant, self-important, self-righteous. Please know that I don't intend these thoughts to come across this way. These thoughts are the result of my ruminations about my own life as I look back at times in which I followed the will of God and at times in which I didn't. Some of *those* thoughts are too private to share. So what you see here is the conclusion of those thoughts: an account of a part of my life in which I can see God's will at work; an account relating to several friends in whose lives I can see God's will at work. None of this means that we are better than anyone else; none of this means that any of us always follow God's will. It just means that this is a brief excerpt from my journal and a brief excerpt from my life. I'll write about my many failures another time. :o)

Excerpt from my journal:

A few years ago, April was looking at her brother Jonathan’s wedding pictures. In those pictures, she saw faces she recognized, and she was amazed at what the intervening years had brought. She told me about this, and I, too, felt amazed at the detail in God’s planning:

* In the pictures, April recognized Ed and me, whom she didn’t know then.
* She recognized Clint, whom she didn’t know then.
* At that wedding, April didn’t know that her future husband was present.
* Ed and I already knew Clint, but we didn't know that he was one of our future missions co-workers.
* We didn't know that the highschooler (April) who sang at the wedding was one of our future co-workers.
* Clint and April didn’t know that they would end up working as missionaries in Chemnitz.
* And yet, we were all there in the same place.

We didn’t know, we didn’t know, we didn’t know. God knew it all, and even then, he was working on our hearts and on the hearts of other people all over the world to bring us all to the place, spiritually and physically, where he knew we needed to be.

We didn’t know, we didn’t know, we didn’t know. What don’t we know now? Someday, we will look back on today and marvel at the things God is doing even now to fulfill his plans for us for the future. The things we will look back on, God already knew before he spoke the first word that brought the world into existence.

And now I move on to a greater scale beyond the four of us: If you, today, are obeying the will of God, if you are following the path that he has laid out for you, if your heart is turned toward him and you are trusting him to lead you…then you are doing things and living a life the details of which God had in mind before Creation. If you are living out the will of God, then you are living exactly what God set into motion when he spoke the world into existence. He set things into motion, and if you are living a life that pleases him, then what you are, who you are, is a direct result of the will that was God’s even before he said, “Let there be light.”

Human language is inadequate for describing the immense significance of what and who you are, the intricate and millennia-spanning connection between You and the very beginnings of Creation, if you are living a life that is pleasing to God. What you are living didn't start with you...it started before Creation, if you are living out God's will.

This is a grand, awe-inspiring, immeasurable concept…and one that is very humbling.

all comments answered

Whew! I finally worked my way through and answered all the comments I've received over the last few months. For those who've expected responses and have wondered at my tardiness, I'm sorry it has taken me so long. I'm slow...but I get there eventually. ;o) Thanks for reading, and a special thank-you to those of you who comment! You make my day every time I find a new comment from you in my inbox. I admit it, I'm a sucker for communication. ;o)

As always, if I've missed answering a comment, and you notice my oversight, please notify me posthaste.

Later dudes,

C.

lotsa update-type-stuff

Did you know that on a 4-year-old laptop, it takes more than three hours to zip-compress 5.1 GB of digital pictures? I didn't know that until I started the process more than three hours ago. I store every current year's digital pics on my external hard drive. At the end of every year, I move the pics from the hard drive to a DVD, thereby freeing up hard drive space. This year, I'm a bit behind. I only just got around to working with year 2006 pics this morning. And now the eternal wait for compression. I can't believe that in one year, I took more digital pictures than can fit onto a 4.7 GB DVD-R. Good grief.

By the way, the laptop's name is Frodo. The external hard drive's name is Andromeda.

I really don't have much of a purpose in writing this current blogpost (or "blopgost" as I like to call them), except for the fact that I know I haven't blogged anything in a few weeks, and I'm waiting waiting waiting for Andromeda to do her thing.

Here's something funny: My mom brought me a box of old letters that I had saved. In it was a card from Susan Morris, who worked with the Chemnitz church with the Sullivans in the mid '90s. This was before I'd ever even heard of Chemnitz, and I certainly had no clue who the Sullivans were. Susan came to visit the church in Frankfurt in late 1994 or early 1995, when I was 17 years old. I met her briefly, and I vaguely remember speaking with her. Now, twelve years later, I re-read a card she sent to my mom. I never even suspected that one day, I would be living and working where she lived and worked. When I first saw the card again, I was amused by it but decided to toss it with the rest of the old letters. But now I've changed my mind. I'm going to stick it in my journal and keep it as a reminder of how God's plans are so much different from and so much more fulfilling than my own. It's funny and fascinating how he works out my life.

Pippin is lying next me, asleep, curled up into a ball, and snoring.

I am currently possessed of a grand sense of accomplishment. For four years, I have been working on a series of Bible lessons on some of the basics of Christian life and faith. (These are lessons that my friend James asked me to write once-upon-a-time. So even though I doubt I'll ever have the opportunity to study them with him, I at least have him to thank for putting the idea into my head.) The lessons themselves, barring revisions, have been finished for a long time. But for over a year now (or two years? can't remember), I've been working on a Teacher's Guide for these lessons. Yesterday, in a thrilling flurry of hunt-and-peck typing, I finally finished the Teacher's Guide! The lessons themselves cover more than 100 pages, and the Teacher's Guide is 178 pages long. I still want to write intros to the Lessons and to the Guide, but other than that and minor revisions, I am done!!! YAY!!!!!! Several people have shown interest in using the lessons as material for their own one-on-one Bible studies, so I'm glad that something I've written can be of service to someone. If even one person can make use of the lessons, then all my time and effort was well worth it. :o)

In other news, I know I'm severely behind in answering comments. I'll get to that as soon as I reasonably can. Dear Commenting Readers, I haven't forgotten you!

And just FYI, in the time it has taken me to write this post, the zip-compression still hasn't finished. The wait continues...

in the news...

As many of you already know (and if you don't, I'm about to tell you), Ed and I own a television that receives no signals. That's right. We receive no TV programs whatsoever. We use our TV for watching DVDs and for catching up on exactly four shows: Lost, 24, American Idol, and Amazing Race (Ed watches this one). Other than that, we watch no TV.

We have lived like this for more than five years.

I love it.

I could go into a long spiel about why I love not having television. My main reasons include not letting brain-rotting, manipulative commercials, veiled (or not-so-veiled) pornography, and other immoral influences into my livingroom. (I mean, really: If these sit-com and drama situations were playing out live in your house, would you *really* just sit there and not throw these people out? I didn't think so.)

Besides, without the TV on all the time, our apartment is often blessedly quiet. Nobody comes in, flops down on the couch, and flips on the TV. I can hear myself think. It's so wonderful.

However, these aspects of our hardly-any-TV life aren't what I want to rant about this evening. ;o) No, the target I'm aiming for is actually the news.

Obviously, since we don't have TV, I don't watch the news. We don't get the newspaper, either. My only source for news are the headlines on the Yahoo! homepage.

Sometimes I click on these headlines, but mostly I don't. Nothing surprises me anymore. Not because I'm jaded, but because this is a fallen, sinful world, and evil, disturbed people are going to do evil, disturbed things. I don't need to know any of the details, because when you boil them down to their essentials, they all come back to the same thing: sin. There's only one way to combat sin, and that's with the Word of God. No branch of government in the world is going to be able to cure the evil of sin. Ever. So no news media can tell me anything about it that God's Word can't already tell me.

Anyway.... A few minutes ago, I glanced at Yahoo!'s news section and just had to shake my head at the things the news media thinks I should care about. Here are a few of my favorites:

How much are the Yankees (baseball team) worth?
Why should I care? I can't conceive of any situation in which this information could possibly make a difference in my life.

Which video game console is winning?
People are dying, and souls are being lost every second. Does the competition between video game consoles matter?

What's life really like after winning the lottery?
I don't think I should even comment on this one.

Then there's this: Woodstock for Capitalists.
I don't know what that means, but the headline was emblazoned across a picture of a man with purple hair. Not that I have anything against purple-haired men per se....but "Woodstock" and "capitalism" don't have particularly positive or interesting connotations for me.

Calif. station sued for Imus reruns
So what? By now, I'm thinking that I should be blogging something about all of these headlines, and I have no desire to click the link and read about yet another case of a celebrity earning somebody else's disapproval.

Alec Baldwin explains himself on the Web
Yeah, the guy's a jerk for calling his 11-year-old daughter a "thoughtless pig." I won't disagree with anyone on that. But where are the articles about all the other billions of children in the world who are physically and mentally abused by their parents? The media spotlight falls on Baldwin because he's famous, while billions of children remain ignored because their parents don't happen to be celebrities. The media's hypocrisy is staggering.

And finally,
Schwarzenegger lets MTV 'pimp' his ride
I don't care how much a part of pop culture it is, to me the word 'pimp' will always be a vulgar word defining someone who makes deals for prostitutes. But that thought aside...why should I care *what* Arnold lets MTV do to his car? Good grief, people, it's a CAR, he's a MAN, and MTV is...well, I won't say it here. ;o)

I guess that for me, what it all boils down to is this: The news media and pop culture present these things as though they are significant. They're not. They are grass that grows for a day and then withers and is blown away. They are chaff that is flung to the wind and scatters. They sparkle in the morning sun but are dull and dead by evening.

"...[W]e look not to the things that are seen but to the things that are unseen. For the things that are seen are transient [pass away], but the things that are unseen are eternal."
--2. Corinthians 4:18

yay! i'm a pirate! avast, ye swabs and landlubbers!

If You Were Born in 2893...

Your Name Would Be: Umoro Cho And You Would Be: A Space Pirate

If You Were Born in 2893

Yo, ho, ho, and a bottle of-- Wait a minute. ;oD

reviewing the day

If you ever read my blog continuously, Gentle Reader, you already know that it is mainly a repository for whatever random thoughts are coursing through my head at a given blogging moment. I tend not to write anything about what I do on a daily, weekly, or monthly basis. Tonight, however, just for fun, I thought I'd make an exception and blog about my day. ;o)

This morning, Ed and I took our bikes and rode the train 20 minutes to Steffen's house. Steffen is one of the leaders in the Chemnitz church, and he is teaching Ed and me New Testament Greek. We're getting into the section of lessons in which we start learning the exceptions to all the rules we've covered so far. This is fun, yet extremely hard. It makes me want to decline to decline nouns, you might say. ;o) However, I'm still having a good time with it. I love languages!

After Greek, we rode our bikes downtown and had lunch at Kervansaray. Huge crowd, so Joe was busy and we didn't get to chat with him. (We have invited him and his wife over for dinner, by the way. But he has to work every night except Sunday, and that's family night for them. So we're in a quandary on that one. I'll keep you posted.)

This is getting longer than I wanted it to be, so here's the rest of the day in brief:

After lunch, Ed went to Leipzig with Larry. I ran some errands; rode my bike 35 minutes to get home; had a half hour of downtime; rode the train *back* downtown to meet Vanessa so we could go to the Max Klinger art exhibit (incredible! I am so inspired to sit down and draw and paint and do neat creative stuff!); rode the Straßenbahn (tram) and bus back home; spent five minutes changing clothes; then went across the street to the physical therapy place for one hour of pilates, followed by one hour of yoga. Came home totally wiped out (arriving home at the same time as Ed) and made the very unhealthy move of eating supper at 9:30pm while watching "Lost".

And Wednesdays are supposed to be my day off. Ha! ;o)

Might sound crazy, but I feel good. Now I'm going to go use my Nasendusche ("nose shower"; aka flushing my sinuses with salt water) and go to bed. Gute Nacht!

book comments 2 (plus a few odds 'n' ends)

I just have a few minutes, as I promised myself I would sit down and do my Greek homework this afternoon. Have I mentioned that Ed and I are taking a class in New Testamnt Greek? I am having oodles of fun with it! I enjoy languages so much…

Anyway, I wanted to do my second and third “book review” really fast. This time, I’ve just finished reading:

The Four Loves
and
The Screwtape Letters
by C.S. Lewis

I won’t say much about these two books, mainly because any comments I might make would be woefully inadequate for describing either the works themselves or the reactions of my heart to them. The main thought I want to share is my opinion that anyone who is curious to read something indepth about the human condition or about Christianity should read these two books.

And I also think that specifically every Christian should read them. Lewis is just an extraordinary thinker. Those of you who know me know that I’m not one to go ga-ga over any kind of celebrity, either in mainstream culture or in the “religious world”…but I wish I could’ve had just one conversation with Lewis. He was possessed of a depth of wisdom and spiritual understanding that is very, very rare today. I’m thankful that we have the benefit of his written works.

A “caveat emptor,” however: These two books do not make for light reading. Approach them with respect, with concentration, and with the intention to suck the marrow out of them. I often had to back up and re-read almost an entire page, simply to understand what it was I had actually read. Sometimes, especially while reading The Four Loves, I wished for a handbook like “C.S. Lewis for Dummies” or something like that. Still, I recommend these books to anyone and everyone. They are a wonderful and rewarding challenge.

On The Four Loves: Among many other things, Lewis examines the true meaning of loving friendship. Through his explanations, I understood a bit more about what God means in the principles He gives us through scripture. I had something of an epiphany, recognizing that my heart hasn’t been in the right place regarding several friendships. I felt humbled to see how very much I still need to grow in this area.

On The Screwtape Letters: This is a series of letters written by a “head demon” to one of his underlings, who is also his “nephew.” The nephew has just gotten his first assignment to try tempting an unsuspecting human into sin and damnation. The head demon is writing advice on just how to tempt the human most effectively. It was a fairly uncomfortable experience, reading about us humans’ daily trials from what is basically Satan’s perspective. Actually, since I often saw myself in the unsuspecting human, reading this book was kind of scary. It was also unnerving to see that even 60 years ago, Lewis was identifying trends in society that eventually led to the increase in immorality that we see in Western society today. This, too, was a humbling and sobering reading experience.

In other news, today it is almost 60 degrees Fahrenheit in Chemnitz. However, the brick walls of our apartment have not yet warmed up, which means that the apartment is cold. I’m sitting here with the heaters on and my feet resting on a hot water bottle. Go figure. ;o)

April is National Poetry Month!

...Hence, I am posting a few of my favorite poems:

Jabberwocky

`Twas brillig, and the slithy toves
Did gyre and gimble in the wabe:
All mimsy were the borogoves,
And the mome raths outgrabe.

"Beware the Jabberwock, my son!
The jaws that bite, the claws that catch!
Beware the Jubjub bird, and shun
The frumious Bandersnatch!"

He took his vorpal sword in hand:
Long time the manxome foe he sought --
So rested he by the Tumtum tree,
And stood awhile in thought.

And, as in uffish thought he stood,
The Jabberwock, with eyes of flame,
Came whiffling through the tulgey wood,
And burbled as it came!

One, two! One, two! And through and through
The vorpal blade went snicker-snack!
He left it dead, and with its head
He went galumphing back.

"And, has thou slain the Jabberwock?
Come to my arms, my beamish boy!
O frabjous day! Callooh! Callay!"
He chortled in his joy.

`Twas brillig, and the slithy toves
Did gyre and gimble in the wabe;
All mimsy were the borogoves,
And the mome raths outgrabe.

--Lewis Carroll



What Is Success?

What is success?
To laugh often and much;
To win the respect of intelligent people
and the affection of children;
To earn the appreciation of honest critics
and endure the betrayal of false friends;
To appreciate beauty;
To find the best in others;
To leave the world a bit better, whether by
a healthy child, a garden patch
or a redeemed social condition;
To know even one life has breathed
easier because you have lived;
This is to have succeeded.

--Ralph Waldo Emerson



What though the tempest round me roars?
I know the Truth; it liveth;
What though the darkness round me blows?
Songs in the night it giveth.
No storm can shake that inmost calm
While to that Rock I'm clinging.
Since Love is Lord of heaven and earth,
How can I keep from singing?

--Quaker hymn

a hard truth

"We have been the recipients of the choicest bounties of heaven. We have been preserved, these many years, in peace and prosperity. We have grown in numbers, wealth and power, as no other nation has ever grown. But we have forgotten God.

"We have forgotten the gracious hand which preserved us in peace and multiplied and enriched and strengthened us; and we have vainly imagined, in the deceitfulness of our hearts, that all these blessings were produced by some superior wisdom and virtue of our own. Intoxicated with unbroken successes, we have become too self-sufficient to feel the necessity of redeeming and preserving grace, too proud to pray to the God that made us!"

--from Abraham Lincoln’s Proclamation of 1863

all i can do is roll my eyes, sigh, and go on

If you will recall, Gentle Readers, back in February I posted this about my frustrations concerning Elfwood. At the time, I was irritated that the moderators rejected my painting of a castle on the grounds that it "wasn't in the fantasy genre." And, if you will recall, I mentioned having found--on Elfwood!--a pic of a sculpture of a rather normal-looking brain, which was accepted as fantasy because the artist claimed it was an orc brain.

Finally, may I note once again my prediction that if I re-submitted my castle pic and described it as a repository for orc brains harvested by Our Hero, then the moderators would accept my "out-of-genre" picture as fantasy....

Well, guess what. Hidey-ho, neighborinos, I did as I promised, and they did exactly as I predicted. The "offending" picture is now available here for your bemused viewing pleasure.

I really don't think I need to comment further on this. ***MUCH EYE-ROLLING*** ;o)

You can also check my bio page for links to my other newest uploads.

If you're inspired to give me feedback, please leave your comments directly below the pics themselves, as I love getting comments on my Elfwood pages! Thanks!

Yours, smirking at the silliness of it all,
C.

book comments 1

So I've decided occasionally to write something relatively brief about whatever book I happen to be reading at the time. For my first one, my thoughts concern not a book I'm currently reading, but one which I have just finished:

The Catcher in the Rye
by J.D. Salinger

Surprisingly enough, this was the first time I've ever read this novel (see: English degree). I'd heard of it many times--mainly through Billy Joel's "We Didn't Start The Fire"--so I'd long been curious about it. Now that I'm finished with it, I'm not sure it was a good thing that I finally satisfied my curiosity.

SPOILERS FOLLOWING

The Catcher in the Rye is, on the surface, about this teenager named Holden Caulfield who has just been expelled from yet another elite private school. Rather than go home and tell his parents before they receive the school's letter, Holden runs away to New York and spends a few days/nights in slummy hotels, bars, and on the streets. And everything he sees, every person he meets, and every conversation he has is, in his viewpoint, completely stupid (his main words are "phony"...and, well..."phony")--with the exception of two nuns and his kid sister. In the end, he goes home and his parents stick him in a clinic for psychoanalysis.

Congratulations. You have now read The Catcher in the Rye.

Oh, I know I should go into how he's just trying to deal with the death of his brother and find out what's really important to him and decide whether or not to throw his life completely away or find a way to swim against the stream of hypocritical society and all that jazz.....but really, I don't have the energy. Holden's attitude that every person around him, everything around him, and pretty much everything within himself is stupid...well, this attitude permeates every sentence of the novel and suffocates any hope of drawing deeper meaning from his experiences. Frankly, I wanted to give the kid a good dunking in ice-cold water and then make him sit in the corner.

Which probably would've fit right in with how he sees the world anyway.

Yes, there were some good points to the novel. Salinger kept me hooked and wanting to read more...but mainly because I was trying to figure out when the story was actually going to start. I was halfway through the book before I realized that this was it. I did mark two pages for copying quotes, and I had several moments of relating to what Holden was thinking--mainly about people who take themselves and their entertainments way too seriously--and I will admit to having laughed out loud three times at Holden's descriptions and ruminations. I appreciated his attitude toward women, which was mostly fairly decent, even though he lied to every single one of them. But he lied habitually to everyone he came into contact with, so that's no biggie.

What interested me the most was seeing the change of word-usage since the 1950s. Take the word "sexy" for instance: Today, it means physically attractive, sexually stimulating in a visual way. But whenever Salinger used it, it was in reference to feeling sexy. If Holden spoke about feeling sexy (i.e. "I was really sexy."), it meant that he was sexually excited. Also, there was the phrase, "That killed me." It didn't mean death, it didn't mean getting tired, etc. It meant, "I thought that was cool" or "That cracked me up." From a linguistic perspective, I thought those were interesting points.

I can understand why this novel was so avant-garde and controversial in the '50s and '60s...but I guess my main reaction to it was a desire to get it over with. When it destroyed my hopes for a cathartic ending on the next-to-last page...well, that was all *he* wrote, I guess. ;o)

happy holidays

From a day in the life of Ed and me...

Today was The First Official Day of Spring. I say "was" because over here, it's almost over. But I'm tempted to say "wasn't"....because over here, it also snowed.

I shall refrain from commenting, other than to say that I'm on antibiotics for another sinus infection. So you can imagine my overwhelming joy when I got up this morning and saw the white stuff all over the outside.

To top it off, Ed got a package in the mail today: the Mac he won on E-bay. (Yes, we're gradually learning to be a Mac family.) The postman brought it early this morning. Ed was so excited he could barely contain himself.

So here's the scenario: A strange man in an unusual outfit brought a package that required opening and in which was concealed a treasure to awaken glee and rejoicing in the heart. And it was snowing.

And what do we deduce from this?

The only possible conclusion, of course: Today was Christmas.

Funny, though, that Santa was dressed in blue and yellow. Those must be his spring colors. Too bad they weren't pastels.

a day in the life of a cat

Excerpt from Pippin’s Journal

3:30 a.m.
Displayed great excitement by leaping from top of wardrobe and landing on the floor with a giant thud when The Girl got up to use the humans’ litterbowl. I was sure it was time for breakfast, so attacked scratching post to show my appreciation. Received pat on head but no food. The Girl went back to bed.

5:00 a.m.
Resorted to good ol’ Plan B by scratching at the linen curtains hanging next to bed. Was sure this would garner well-deserved attention and breakfast. After all, they should be grateful for having a living alarm clock. Once again, I got no thanks other than a sleepily mumbled “Quit it, Pippin” from The Girl. My Boyfriend didn’t even move. Am still in high hopes that they’ll one day learn to thank me for my early morning efforts.

5:30 a.m.
After a short rest, set often-used Plan C into motion. Wedged myself between head of mattress and wall, then set to scratching mattress just below My Boyfriend’s pillow. This garnered immediate results. My Boyfriend got out of bed, went to the bedroom door, and threw a stuffed toy into the hall. As soon as it left his fingers, it magically transformed into a mouse (I must figure out how humans accomplish this!), so I chased it. Returned to bedroom door for more, but somehow the door had closed. My Boyfriend apparently was at a loss as to how to operate the door andle from inside the bedroom, as door did not immediately re-open. And here I thought their opposable thumbs helped them figure out such things.

7:00 a.m.
Hallelujah! Breakfast! Something of fish, but, as usual, not nearly as scrumptious as what My Boyfriend and The Girl get to eat. Tried to squeeze past his feet into living room, as there are still flowers on the living room table. Almost as scrumptious as human food. Got bumped on the head for my efforts. My Boyfriend rubbed the offended spot. Didn’t make up for loss of floral dining.

7:10 a.m. – 9:45 a.m.
Slept until The Girl got up. Could tell she didn’t feel well, so greeted her with vocalization. The Girl scratched my back, but I could tell her heart wasn’t really in it. She stumbled into bathroom, making her own vocalizations, but I have yet to believe that these are really intentional communications.

9:50 a.m. – 13:50 p.m.
Resumed my post at Office Window and observed enemy movements. Crows in trees across the street look more suspicious every day. I suspect they’re plotting a takeover. Soon, they realized I was watching, so flew away to parts as yet unknown. (Which reminds me, I must examine front door for awhile this afternoon, so as to determine method of opening it. Am sure I could observe crows better from an outside vantage point.) Morning activities concluded, I curled up on the humans’ bed and slept.

13:55 p.m.
The Girl put on her outer fur and left the apartment. I missed her exit, and so my chance for front door observation. Sat in front of wardrobe door and stared at it, reading top-secret communications written there. No news on door-opening methods. Went back to sleep.

16:00 p.m.
Greeted The Girl upon her return, received adequate head-stroking and back-scratching. Humans learn slowly, but once they catch on they can be a true joy. Leaped upon trunk at foot of bed when The Girl sat down at her desk. Realized there was a horde of mice conveniently trapped between trunk and bed. Proceeded to begin digging them out. The Girl displayed lack of training by ordering me to “stop digging.” Period of sleeping followed.

17:36 p.m.
My Boyfriend magically transformed himself into a Giant Something. Played the Stalking Game with him for a few minutes till he transformed back into his regular self and I got bored. Ran at top speed through entire house. Have shaved several seconds off my time, but hope to get it down to 15 seconds or less before spring arrives.

18:17 p.m.
Realized there was a horde of mice conveniently trapped between trunk and bed. Proceeded to begin digging them out. The Girl displayed lack of training by ordering me to “stop digging.” Period of sleeping followed.

20:24 p.m.
Emptied food bowl. Remembered mice between trunk and bed. Went into bedroom and proceeded to begin digging them out. The Girl displayed lack of training by ordering me to “stop digging.” Period of sleeping followed.

21:12 p.m.
Went for mice again, but got dirty look from The Girl. Gave up on mice for now. Plan to sleep a few hours, then begin training humans once more. *sigh* Sometimes, I really begin to think my work with them will never be done.

something to make all our lives easier

Dear Gentle Readers,

(First of all, virtual cookies for those who recognize that reference.)

Secondly, I have something to share with you that lately has been smoothing my path through the world of blogging. This is something that Leenda showed me, so I'll give credit where it's due. ;o) Anyway, this grand, life-improving thingy is called "Bloglines".

Bloglines is a site through which you can subscribe to various kinds of blogs. "Subscribing" means that in your Bloglines account, you enter the site addresses (aka URLs) of the various blogs you read. Then, whenever you feel like checking a bunch of blogs at once, you just log on to Bloglines and see which of your friends has updated their blog.

In a nutshell, this means: You don't have to visit blog after blog after blog to see who has updated. You don't find yourself thinking, "Hey! I haven't checked Jimmy-Joe-Bob's blog in months! I wonder if he has updated?" All of the blogs you want to read are on a list in your Bloglines account. When you log in, you see immediately who has updated and who hasn't, and you can read each update right there, without visiting a bazillion blogs unless you actually want to.

And if you subscribe to your own blog, you can even see how many (and sometimes even which) people have subscribed to yours.

So, there you have it. If you want to check it out, click here: Bloglines. I'm finding it very convenient, and I'd be willing to bet that you would find it so, too. :o)

i be sma-a-a-a-a-a-rt

Your Dominant Intelligence is Linguistic Intelligence

You are excellent with words and language. You explain yourself well. An elegant speaker, you can converse well with anyone on the fly. You are also good at remembering information and convicing someone of your point of view. A master of creative phrasing and unique words, you enjoy expanding your vocabulary. You would make a fantastic poet, journalist, writer, teacher, lawyer, politician, or translator. [Courtney's Comment: Ha! Go figure! ;o) ]

What Kind of Intelligence Do You Have?

to talk or not to talk--and i usually forget the "not"

Here's something I found online last year. It's been knocking around in the drafts section of my blog for too long, so I decided to post it today. Sorry if the link doesn't work anymore.

The Talkative Woman
by Sandy Fiedler

Chatter chatter chatter.

Trivial statements lacking significance. Chatter chatter some more. I stare straight ahead at the two-lane Texas highway hemmed in on both sides by sky-scraping pines. Three hours there and three hours back from our day trip. I want to think my private thoughts. I am tired. If I stay politely subdued, maybe she'll take the hint, I thought. But it was not to be. The quieter I grew, the more she talked. Then it hit me like a blow to the head - this is exactly what I do to my husband. How many times have he and I driven along with today's roles reversed? Oh, Lord, he's been sitting there annoyed, wishing I would shut up. I wish I had shut up! The Holy Spirit convicted me. I repent, Lord, of selfishness and insensitivity with my words, and I want You to change me.

"Set a guard over my mouth, O Lord; keep watch over the door of my lips." (Psalm 141: 3 NIV)
Every drive, however, with my husband isn't that miserable; many times we have stimulating, profound discussions sparked by a topic introduced from somewhere, something he has just read, we have heard on the news, or discovered about life.

What are some differences between men and women in the area of talking?

Women like to talk. It is a sociological fact that American women have an emotional, mental, even physical NEED to speak several more thousand words per day than men do. Why God made us that way, I don't know. Toward the end of a perfectly good day of conversationless solitude, I will spontaneously begin talking aloud to myself and I didn't even know I was about to speak until the sound of my own voice startled me. Women, more verbal than men, use both sides of their brain for most activities and can process many subjects at once - dinner plans, the child's poison ivy, the car making a funny noise, the latest scandal in government, those suffering religious persecution in China, the success (or usually failure) of the latest diet, the pressure to perform at work, the need to reapply moisturizer to her lips, and on and on, all at once.

Men are not so. They most often use only their left brain, the logical half, approaching subjects one at a time. How novel! How boring! And have you ever noticed that men speak to each other in numbers? The hard drive has 5 million gigs. The deck posts are 4 by 4s. The airplane he used to fly was a 172 or a 182. My husband is a '49 Ford sedan, slow, steady, reliable, who will get from Point A to Point B, while I am like a hummingbird that darts so fast from flower to flower that you don't know it is there until it hums away.

What men don't like:
Too many words
A know-it-all wife or being overtly taught by a woman
Bad timing; e.g., hit with a list of problems as soon as he comes home after work
Excessive questioning, nagging, belittling, mothering
References to what another man does or thinks

What men do like:
Good timing. Of course, you often must bring up the business of living when it occurs, but sometimes you can make an appointment to discuss an important topic when you both can fully tune in.
Peace and quiet
Stimulating, intelligent discussion; a woman with mystery
Interest in and understanding of him and what concerns him
Respect, admiration, and love

How can a wife use her nature to complement and edify her husband?
First of all, generously spend some of those thousands of necessary words on other women.
If you listen to women in a office setting, what do they talk about?
Diets, recipes, relationships, husbands, kids, health, shopping, feelings. Do you ever hear men talking in the office or on the phone about the minute details of making refrigerator strawberry pie? Women in a group feed on these subjects both because of their need to talk about them and because they instinctively know that their husbands don't really want to listen to them. Because I do not have biological sisters, through the stages of my life, I have sought and been blessed with women friends. When my three children were babies, I NEEDED to talk with women about the unfolding mothering topics I was experiencing from breast-feeding to balancing housework with family's demands.

One friend and I talk about spiritual matters, current events, history, business. In fact, we jot down little notes to ourselves about topics we need to mention when we get together. Once the topics are addressed, with a sense of relief we toss the scribbled notes away like the used grocery list.

Another friend and I talk about a mutual work situation. When my 20-year-old daughter and I get together, we both spew out many happy words like sparks from a fireworks display. We have a blast.

Be willing to keep quiet. It is so hard sometimes, like an alcoholic trying to keep from grabbing that drink. I am a morning chatterer and I have to make myself get busy doing something to prevent my mouth from starting up on a long soliloquy to my husband.

1 Peter 3 1(b) reads, "if any do not obey the Word [of God], they may be won over not by discussions but by the [godly] lives of their wives."
(Amplified) This clearly says that conduct is more effective than words in presenting Christianity to a husband.

...Read your husband like a book - his face, his body language, between the lines of his sentences. He is fascinating subject matter. Pray for an open door to a topic that you want to discuss. Like Esther (Esther 4:16), difficult issues may require that we fast, pray, and prepare a time to meet our husband-king.

These guidelines work well, you might remark, if the husband is a godly man, but what if the husband doesn't give God preeminence in his life? Even so, from past experience (years ago my life shipwrecked in divorce and God has blessed me now with a godly husband), I can counter that question with this challenge: name a place besides Esther's position of prayerful humility that can be safer and yield results more pleasing to God. Where else can God work out a woman's true liberty and fulfillment?

After the eye-opening car ride with my chatty friend, I decided that my next long drive with my husband would be special. I would be pleasant, attentive, and, above all, quiet. After about fifteen minutes of quiet, he had settled in and gathered his thoughts. He said, "You know the book I am reading about the scripture in Matthew?" And thus began a satisfying, deep discussion that melted us together even more in mind and spirit. In the right atmosphere, a man's wisdom, character, personality, and thoughts naturally drift out. The woman must help create that atmosphere. And when she speaks in turn, her words will find a welcome lodging in her husband.

"In like manner you married women, be submissive to your own husbands - subordinate yourselves as being secondary to and dependent on them, and adapt yourselves to them. So that even if any do not obey the Word [of God], they may be won over not by discussion but by the [godly] lives of their wives,
When they observe the pure and modest way in which you conduct yourselves, together with your reverence [for your husband. That is, you are to feel for him all that reverence includes] - to respect, defer to, revere him; [revere means] to honor, esteem (appreciate, prize), and [in the human sense] adore him; [and adore means] to admire, praise, be devoted to, deeply love and enjoy [your husband]." I Peter 3:1-2 The Amplified Bible

click here! i finally updated Have Some Water!

colors quiz

Got it from guess who? ;o)

RED
1. Closest red thing to you: The shirt and jacket I’m wearing.
2. Last thing to make you angry: Nothing *makes* angry. But I last *chose* to be angry during a conflict with a friend.
3. Do you have a temper: Yes…one I constantly strive to control.
4. Are you a fan of romance: In my personal life? Definitely! ;o) In books or movies, only if it’s neither cheesy nor vulgar.

ORANGE
1. Closest orange thing to you: A Post-It note reading “Christian 12:45”.
2. Do you like to burn things: I love burning candles.
3. Dress up for Halloween: Only if I have an American party to go to.
4. Are you usually a warm-hearted person: I think so.
5. Do you have anything against redheaded people: Not at all. Some would say I are one! ;o)
6. Are you usually full of energy: Not lately. Lately, I’ve just been full of snot.

YELLOW
1. Closest yellow thing: The top of the TUMS bottle.
2. The happiest time[s] of your life: In intimate conversation with good friends; traveling; in times of spiritual growth…
3. Favorite holiday: The whole Christmas season here in Saxony.
4. Are you a coward: Only when I need to confront someone close to me about something important.
5. Do you burn or tan: Burn and peel, burn and peel…The sun is rarely allowed to touch my skin without sunscreen.

GREEN
1. Closest green thing to you: The stapler. Ooooooh.
2. Do you care about the environment: Yes. I live in Germany. Caring about the environment is pretty much a law. ;o)
3. Are you jealous of anyone right now: Yes--in a shallow way.
4. Are you a lucky person: I don’t believe in luck. I believe in God’s providence and blessings.
5. Do you always want what you can’t have: Not always.
6. Do you like being outdoors: I love it, if it’s not wet enough to mess with my health.
7. Are you Irish: Yes, through my great-grandmother, Lillie Bell McCall.

BLUE
1. Closest blue thing to you: An old “American Baseball Game” invite that Ed is using as scratch paper.
2. Are you good at calming people down: Yes…unless I’m the one they’re upset with.
3. Do you like the sea: I love the sea. I think my sinuses could use a therapeutic stay by the ocean.
4. What was the last thing that made you cry: Umm…I can’t remember.
5. Are you a logical thinker: When I want to be.
6. Can you sleep easily: Not recently. Except for the last week, I haven’t had a full night’s sleep in months.

PURPLE
1. Last purple thing you saw: A candle next to the computer monitor.
2. Like being treated to expensive things: Yes, though that’s a rare occurrence.
3. Do you like mysterious things: Oh yeah. ;o)
4. Favorite type of chocolate: Dark with 70-75% cocoa.
5. Ever met anyone in royalty: I *am* royalty…together with all my sisters and brothers in Christ.
6. Are you creative: Yup.

PINK
1. Closest pink thing to you: A Post-It with a bunch of numbers on it.
2. Do you like sweet things: Yes. Too much!
3. Like play-fighting: With Ed, yeah.
4. Are you sensitive: Yes…too much so, I think.
5. Do you like music: I love music.

WHITE
1. Closest white thing to you: A pen. I’m at a computer desk…see a trend here?
2. Would you say you’re innocent: No.
3. Good at keeping the peace: Not as good as I used to be. I’ve started losing the energy for it.
4. Do you like to play in the snow: I used to…but nowadays, it seems my health can’t handle it.
5. Are you afraid of going to the doctor or dentist: I don’t have that luxury; my doctors and I see each other way too often.

BLACK
1. Closest black thing to you: The mouse.
2. Ever enjoy hurting people: Shall I be honest? I must admit…yes, sometimes, if I am angry enough. It’s a sin I’m working hard on giving up.
3. Are you sophisticated or silly: Both, depending on the situation and the people present.
4. Would you like to go to space: Yes! But I’m sure not gonna pay two hundred thousand bucks for it!
5. What is your favorite color: Deep red.
6. Does the color you wear affect your mood: No…usually, my mood affects the color I wear.