Getting Old
So I stayed up late last night. “Late” being 12:30ish.
Back in the day, as they say, I would have spent that time differently. I could have played video games last night, or checked Facebook, or watched another episode or three of Doctor Who.
Instead, I spent all that time researching light bulbs. Specifically: energy efficiency comparisons between incandescent, CFL, halogen, and LED bulbs.
I cannot tell if this is a symptom of being ready to be married… or just a symptom of getting old.
P.S. I did spend a little bit of time on Facebook, still.
Adam Young released some of the music he’s been working on for Owl City. The Shooting Star EP hints at the direction he is going lately with his musical style. I kinda like it. My only criticism would be that the lyrics seem a little… popish. A tad bit empty. Not quite like his old stuff, which is a little saddening, but it is good that he is experimenting with his sound. I think it will all turn out fine :)
By the way, my favorite off the EP is Dementia. I like rock beats the best.
EDIT: Take It All Away is a close second.
Free Will, the Power of Choice, and Peace
Outline of what I spoke about at the church last night. It’s fairly close to how I actually delivered it. It’s a little undeveloped, but here it is.
Perhaps it is the end-of-the-semester frenzy. Perhaps it is a demanding deadline. It is yet another responsibility you’ve taken on. Whatever the situation, you’re stressed out. Tired. You believe there will be an end, but you see no end. The monotony grows on you. At this point you start reading Ecclesiastes periodically and empathizing with Solomon, “striving after wind.” Perhaps you are worn down day after day by knowledge of your failures, feeling like you can’t break away from your bad habits.
We’ve all been there, right? Pressure and stress come, and we lose the hope that we can continue. My intention is to help you find peace, to rekindle your hope.
First off, you need to understand that you have been given a great gift: free will. In an otherwise orderly, pattern-filled world, there exists one race that can break God’s established natural pattern. You were born into that race and given the ability to rebel against the instincts and impulses that rage through you. You have been given choice.
And the Bible is very clear about the gravity of our choices. For one, Adam and Eve made a choice that rewrote the entire world. Our choices prompted Jesus’ death on the cross. Further practice of sin separates us from God and leads ultimately to our own death. But we sometimes forget that choice has another side—that we can choose what is good. And good choices, like bad choices, make a difference.
If you are just certain that you can’t be good, think again. Galatians 5:16 says, “walk by the Spirit, and you will not gratify the desires of the flesh.” If we have chosen what is good, we are assured a relief from sin. In the latter half of Romans 8:6, we find that “to set the mind on the Spirit is life and peace.”
Because you have been gifted with free will, you can make a choice that will free you from the worry and give you peace regardless of your present circumstances. Choosing to place yourself in God’s hands will set you on a path to life, where you will find peace in salvation from sin.
If you are weary, walk in the Spirit and you will find life and peace. If you have not started that walk, understand that life and peace will not find you otherwise. If you desire life and peace, choose to walk in the Spirit. Starting that walk means to come—repentant of your sins—and be baptized, knowing that Jesus will wash those sins from you. For those that are already Christians, return your mind to the Spirit. Forget about your sins and come back to the life and peace found in Jesus.
Understand your free will, the power of your choices, and the peace that comes of choosing God’s path.
Paula Deen’s Health Food Cookbook
Found this on the internet a little while ago. Some of the content on the website is offensive, so I’ve refrained from linking to it. But for the sake of clarity, I do not own this. I just figured I would share it with you because I laughed so hard that my abdomen is STILL hurting.
Recently, Paula Deen has admitted that she’s had Type II Diabetes for years. Accordingly, she’s putting out a cookbook of healthy food. Here are some excerpts!
FRUIT SALAD
INGREDIENTS:
1 lb. bag of Skittles
3 cups ranch dressing
DIRECTIONS:
Mix well. Serve room temperature.
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PAULA’S BROWN RICE
INGREDIENTS:
1 pilaf white rice
1 bowl melted Junior Mints
DIRECTIONS:
Cover rice in chocolate. Serve with maple syrup to taste. To splurge, top with a sprinkle of sausage calzones.
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SCRAMBLED EGG WHITES
INGREDIENTS:
1 dozen (12) Cadbury eggs
2 lbs. Frito crumbs
1 package extra-fat pork lard
1 pilaf Paula’s brown rice
DIRECTIONS:
Break the Cadbury eggs and harvest the crème-filled white centers. Dip them in the Frito crumbs. Put the lard (make SURE to get the extra-fat kind or it will be BLAND) in a frying pan on high heat, and fry the crème centers until golden-brown. Serve on a bed of Paula’s brown rice.
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PAULA’S GARDEN BURGER
INGREDIENTS:
3 bags Olive Garden® Endless Breadsticks
12 Olive Garden® Stuffed Mushrooms
1 plate Olive Garden® New! Baked Pasta Romana with Chicken
4 Olive Garden® Black Tie Mousse Cakes
1 slice American cheese (optional)
DIRECTIONS:
Smash all of the Olive Garden® foods together until they resemble a large patty and top with cheese. For lowest calories, hold the cheese.
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PAULA’S GUILT-FREE FAT-FREE® SMOOTHIE
INGREDIENTS:
34 lbs. sugar
DIRECTIONS:
Put sugar in smoothie glass and drink with straw, serve chilled in white wine tumblers or, for special occasions, lap from trough. This delicacy is guilt-free since you can make a conscious choice not to feel guilty about anything you put in your body like Paula does!
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BUFFET AND A BURGER
INGREDIENTS:
1 burger
1 Las Vegas buffet
Christmas-themed elastic pants (optional)
DIRECTIONS:
Go to Las Vegas buffet. Make sure the buffet has burgers, or provide your own. Do NOT walk around the buffet. Get a motorized scooter, or stay in one spot and use a jaws of life to pick some of each buffet food out of the tubs and put it on your burger. Elastic pants are nice because your gupa (gunt-fupa) stays nicely inside the stretchy pants except for a few folds of fat with stretch marks that seep out of the pants.
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PAULA’S GUILT-FREE® PEANUT BUTTER AND JELLIES
INGREDIENTS:
1 peanut
18 sticks of butter, mashed
1 pair Jellies shoes
DIRECTIONS:
Cover the shoes with butter and top with the peanut, and then eat the shoes. If you eat shoes it’s like you’re exercising so it’s VERY healthy.
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PAULA’S GUILT-FREE® PIZZA PANTS
INGREDIENTS:
10’x20’ swath of pizza
Another pizza to use as pepperonis on the pizza
Stuffed mushrooms
FYI the mushrooms are stuffed with smaller pizzas
Smuckers magic shell ice cream topping
Rolos
Coca-cola
3 bags gummy bears
Fondue
Caesar salad dressing
Wood chips (as a thickener)
Grenadine syrup
Butter-flour mixture
Pizza Pockets
1 sewing machine
1 sewing pattern for pants (size XXXL)
DIRECTIONS:
Mushrooms are a vegetable and there are definitely some mushrooms on that pizza so technically they are HEALTHY-style pizza pants. Take the really big pizza. Put all of the other ingredients on the pizza. Pour the coke on the pizza. Dip the pizza in the fondue, and resist eating it before you make it into pants, no cheating!!! Sew that pizza into pants using the machine and the pattern. Make sure to sew in some pockets so you can keep a few extra spare Pizza Pockets in your pizza pockets!!!! Then eat your pants!!!!!!!!!!!
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PAULA’S GUILT-FREE® TURTURTURDUCKDUCKENDUCKEN
INGREDIENTS:
3 turduckens
DIRECTIONS:
Stuff a turducken in a turducken in a turducken. While you’re waiting for it to cook, make your fat niece make you some pizza pants while you’re watching Pawn Stars and eat your pants and then slap your niece.
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INSULIN AU GRATIN
INGREDIENTS:
1 insulin shot
15 lbs. block of cheddar cheese
DIRECTIONS:
Bury insulin shot in cheese. When you’re going into a diabetic coma, just eat your way to the shot!! Eat the cheese fast or you’ll die!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
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SPARKLING WATER
INGREDIENTS:
1 glass sparkling water
1 ham
DIRECTIONS:
Put ham in water.
Times Like These
I’m in one of those dangerous moods where I’m done taking crap from people. Yes, tonight I’m bitter; tomorrow I won’t be.
Beginning tomorrow, people will stop taking advantage of me.
The Little Guy
Disclaimer: I have not yet developed a strong opinion about FHU Complete in its entirety, considering the program is in its immediate post-conceptual stages. I know a lot of the pros and cons, and we will see how it all plays out. For now, I want to address things that might normally be overlooked in times like these. Let’s stop focusing on the finances for a minute and think about something else…
Has anyone considered what effect FHU Complete will have on the social atmosphere of FHU?
Follow this chain with me, then consider this and give me your thoughts.
Because of the comprehensive charge, students will be encouraged to take as many hours as possible per semester (perhaps by their own frugality, perhaps the frugality of their parents, perhaps by other means). What does this do to all of the extracurricular activities so closely associated with FHU? What happens to the music program? The theatre program? I’m not a huge fan of social clubs (though nothing is intrinsically wrong about them), but what happens to them? What happens to hybrid student-administration programs like Makin’ Music?
When we encourage students to max out at 19 hours per semester (and if you get permission, you can get close to 22), what happens to everything else?
Students will choose to focus on either schoolwork or extracurricular activities. That said, there are really only two possibilities, two ends of a spectrum that will be observed in the coming years. At one end, students will sacrifice the social and, yes, even the spiritual aspect of FHU because they are so concerned with the advancement of their degrees. Closely related, the more “extracurricular” school programs like the music and theatre departments are going to suffer from lack of participation for the sake of schoolwork; this includes social club activities like Makin’ Music, which are a huge time sink and are one of the major features of the university. However, I don’t see this becoming the real problem. More likely is that grades will suffer. I can’t even express how inadequate that last sentence was. Grades will suffer. (Mine would, for sure. I care too much about the Chorale to let it go, and my time management skills are insufficient to allow a high GPA with 19+ hours in addition to my everyday Chorale schedule.) We all know that schools are always trying to improve their graduation rate and average undergraduate GPA. How problematic is this going to be?
Or how will the administration react when their non-schoolwork-intensive programs sputter and die? Sure, cut the music and theatre, but what happens when we have to cut the sports teams?
It’s a tradeoff. My initial conclusion is that either the extracurricular programs die or the school’s academic success ratings die. Does anyone have other information/opinions/predictions/corrections pertaining to my quick analysis?
Laura: Tuition Restructuring: The Good and The Bad
Obviously, there’s been a lot of discussion about the new tuition structure at FHU. Here’s a quick breakdown of the facts and my thoughts on the good, bad, and the ugly about FHU’s new tuition.
What Is It?
Essentially, two things have happened:
- There are no more fees. General, Technology,…
Well said.
Source: lblocke
Well played, Siri. Well played.
JHS French Horns
That’s the name of the Facebook group we were all a part of. I just got a nice face-blast of nostalgia from reading all the posts in there. It was funny to note that all of the things posted happened before Facebook comments existed; consequently, the wall looks like a forum. It’s pretty cool.
In times like these, I really like technology.
Striking Gold
On the whole, God’s love for us is a much safer subject to think about than our love for Him. Nobody can always have devout feelings: and even if we could, feelings are not what God principally cares about. Christian Love, either towards God or towards man, is an affair of the will. If we are trying to do His will we are obeying the commandment, ‘Thou shalt love the Lord thy God.’ He will give us feelings of love if He pleases. We cannot create them for ourselves, and we must not demand them as a right. But the great thing to remember is that, though our feelings come and go, His love for us does not. It is not wearied by our sins, or our indifference; and, therefore, it is quite relentless in its determination that we shall be cured of those sins, at whatever cost to us, at whatever cost to Him.
Must you always write gold, C.S. Lewis?
