I'll admit that I watched House last night, and I heard the best line ever from the show, uttered by Wilson to House during what was supposed to be a moment of confidence:

Are we role playing? Am I you? Because I don't want to be you.

I laughed more than during any sitcom currently on the tube.

xian pun

Forgot to mention the church marquee I noticed on the way to work.

God grades on a cross, not a curve.

Collective groan, please.

in your face, Michael W. Smith!

This is perhaps my favorite find on Lark News.

Friends not friends forever, even if the Lord's the Lord of them, former pals say

SALEM, Mass. — Two former "best buddies" from Saratoga Nazarene Church say they learned the hard way that a lifetime is too long to live as friends, despite the claims of a popular Christian song.

Theresa and Dalia, both 13, became best friends the day they met in third grade. They soon realized they were the only serious Christians in the school, and both had major crushes on Michael W. Smith.

"We used to bounce on my bed using hairbrushes as microphones and singing 'Friends' to each other," says Theresa. "I'd sing Amy Grant's part and she'd sing Michael W. Smith's part. Then we'd laugh and roll around. We knew our friendship was forever, like the song said."

But at the end of eighth grade, things hit a rough patch. Dalia quit wearing her Amy Grant Hearts in Motion Concert Tour T-shirt to school on Fridays, as she and Theresa had done for years.

"That felt like betrayal," Theresa said. "I was totally alone."

Then both girls developed a crush on the same boy, Brad Loudermilk, the only decent-looking Christian in the school. Out of spite, Dalia switched her crush to a non-Christian guy, and the friendship with Theresa was effectively severed.

Theresa went home after school and ripped the Michael W. Smith poster from her wall, then crumpled onto her bed and sobbed.

"I guess friends will say never and the welcome does end," she said bitterly.

This is all that much funnier because I know of a class who used the song at their 8th grade graduation! Of course, my class chose "I'll Be Missing You" by Puff Daddy despite my pleas that it be "Tubthumping" by Chumbawumba. Seriously: recycled voyeuristic song/eulogy versus anarchic ode to drinking.

romeo and juliet

I began reading Romeo and Juliet with my lowest English-proficiency students today, a bittersweet genesis to a long unit which will involve multiple viewings of Baz's film. On the one hand, I have all of my materials from last year and shouldn't have to work too hard; on the other hand, it's freaking Romeo and Juliet. As far as I'm concerned, the only good Romeo and Juliet is this one:

It's 16 degrees outside.

a pleasant saturday

A good Saturday should always begin with 3 hours of wallyball and racquetball followed by a lie-down, a read, and a nap with a poodle. To finish it off, a movie night with friends.

PBS is showing a documentary about Evelyn Cameron, a British woman who moved to eastern Montana with her husband in the late 19th century and became one of the premier female photographers (I hesitate to qualify that statement based on gender and apologize for it) of the American West. It's a remarkable story, and she has some truly amazing photographs of the most ordinary of people in the most ordinary circumstances.

MSLF and I watched Pan's Labyrinth on our snow day (did I mention this already?) and were entertained. I think I liked it more than she did, but I still think The Devil's Backbone is a better film. Pan was visually captivating and disturbing, and I was only disappointed that the mythical/imaginative aspect of the story didn't play a larger part.

(from comicon.com)

Village of Kulusuk

Village of Kulusuk
Originally uploaded by wili_hybrid.

I wonder if this is the "capital" of Greenland. Beautiful, either way.

neighbors to the south

Best news story to date:

Tijuana cops lose guns, get slingshots

Associated Press
Published January 24, 2007

TIJUANA, Mexico -- The Police Department has issued about 60 slingshots to officers in the violent border city of Tijuana, where soldiers confiscated police weapons two weeks ago on allegations of collusion with drug traffickers.

Municipal police spokesman Fernando Bojorquez said Monday that the slingshots, along with bags of ball bearings, were given to officers patrolling areas of the city visited by tourists...

teacher treat

We got a snow day!

Hut by the sea

Hut by the sea
Originally uploaded by snowymcice.

One more to add. I must credit this one because it's so beautiful.

iceland

I shamelessly stole these photos from various Flickr pages to respond to Chris and Tiff's question about why anyone would want to live in Iceland.

Just add about 6 feet of snow to imagine it in winter.

A friend is visiting Iceland, and I must get there! I want to live there.

hugo chavez is a moron

Chavez is a weird guy. He's an idealist living in a jacked up world... and he has guns.

In typical style, Chavez spoke for hours Sunday on his return after a five-month hiatus to the weekly program "Hello President," sending best wishes to ailing Cuban leader Fidel Castro and commenting on topics ranging from watching dancing Brazilian girls wearing string bikinis at a recent presidential summit and Washington's alleged role in the hanging of former Iraqi President Saddam Hussein.

"They took out Saddam Hussein and they hanged him, for good or worse. It's not up to me to judge any government, but that gentleman was the president of that country," Chavez said.

Chavez urged Venezuelans to embrace "21st-century socialism," which he said aims to curtail what he sees as U.S. cultural domination and redistribute the country's oil wealth to the poor through programs that provide subsidized food and cash benefits for single mothers. CNN

I have no problem with the first or last paragraphs. It's the incredibly irony of the second one that gets me. I didn't include in the excerpt his words about the US ("go to hell gringos"), not to mention his christening of Bush as "the devil." Apparently Chavez didn't do well in his literature classes. Or his speech classes. Or government. Or psychology. Or even recess, because otherwise he would know that bullies like the US push back.

Stream of consciousness:

A friend told me he's going to Iceland in the summer, a nation I dearly want to visit, so I started looking up places to stay, prices to pay, things with which to play, and I wanted to know in US$, and I found this, and I thought it might be fun to add, and voila, here you go!

Convert:

Currency conversion powered by coinmill.com.

2006 soundtrack

I've been meaning to do this for a while and just haven't gotten around to it. Creating a list of the musical finds of '06 sounds likes a fun exercise to me, and it'll give me an excuse to go back through my intumescent library of music. We'll see how far I get before I get bored... The crappy part is that I reformatted my hardware in May, so I don't know which ones I might have stumbled across before that. D'oh!

Dragonforce - I've mentioned these "glammetal" guys before as a group that's just fun to listen to and try to take seriously. I don't listen to them often, but every now and then it's fun to crank it up and imagine you're out on the windswept moors of England in the ancient times when dragons and wizards roamed and one could stand and look out and practically see the magic in the air. With the sound of guitars in the background. And drums. And synthesizers.

Favorite lyrics: "Through the Fire and the Flames"

On a cold winter morning, in the time before the light
In flames of death's eternal reign we ride towards the fight
And the darkness is falling down and the times are tough all right
The sound of evil laughter falls around the world tonight

Muse - These fellows definitely are my favorite find of the year. The trend in most rock seems to be the simplification of everything from tunes to instrumentation, basically a barebones outfit that we're supposed to admire for... for some reason I've never been able to figure out. They also all sound the same! The single off an album is pretty representative of the group's oeuvre; in fact, it's usually the only decent track. Muse create fairly complex tunes, vary their instrumentation, cover a wide range of "heaviness," and have lyrics that really speak to me. Their latest release, Black Holes and Revelations, is also my favorite protest album ever. Not all of it is protest, but the opening track and several others are strongly so. I'm also enamored of the song "Sing for Absolution," a wailing beauty.

Favorite lyrics: "Knights of Cydonia"

Come ride with me
Through the veins of history
I'll show you how god
Falls asleep on the job

And how can we win
When fools can be kings
Don't waste your time
Or time will waste you

Glen Phillips - He isn't a recent find, but his album Mr. Lemons has been one of my favorite of the year. It was also a lot of fun to see him in North Carolina and chat for a minute. He's an artist for whom I have a lot of respect because he's a working guy. Small tours, small venues, and just a normal guy. No phobias, manias, etc.

Favorite lyrics: "Everything but You" (music is at his Myspace page)

Take me dancing, pale and knock-kneed
Spin me through the crowd and drop me
Dizzy in the middle of the floor
Oh my god you terrify me
Oblivious you breeze right by me
Spilling wine and melting ice cream
Random, warm and mesmerizing

Syntax - I only like 2 of their songs, "Pride" and "Bliss," but those are damnably cool.

Favorite lyrics: "Pride"

your smile shine a little light, alright
dont hide, shine a little light
give up on your pride

The Jayhawks - Not totally fair to say that I found them this year because I've had the album for about 2 years, but it wasn't until this year that I listened to it and fell in love. Just a good band, all around. Not the best voice, but they have great harmony and some catchy tunes. I would almost call them folk-rock. My favorite song actually is a cover of Alejandro Escovedo's "Last to Know," a song it took me ages to find.

Favorite lyrics: "Tailspin"

You're a fragile flower in its finale hour
With no chance to taste the waters.

Patty Griffin - It took me a long time to finally stumble across her, but what a songstress! As I found the link to put on here, I saw that she's going to be in WV in a couple of weeks, but it's a Sunday night. Damn. Anyway, she's a marvelous folk singer worth checking out.

Favorite lyrics: "Mary"

Jesus says Mother I couldn't stay another day longer
He flies right by and leaves a kiss upon her face
While the angels were singing his praises in a blaze of glory
Mary stays behind and starts cleaning up the place

"Mother of God"

Something as simple as boys and girls
Gets tossed all around and then lost in the world
Something as hard as a prayer on your back
Can wait a long time
For an answer

My Brightest Diamond - One of the oddest yet compelling musics (not a word) I've found recently. Really, that's all I can say. To get an idea, listen to "Something of an End."

Favorite lyrics: Nah


I'll be back with more music later, though there aren't that many more to add. By the way, if anyone wants to hear and of these, I can email a sampler or make a CD.

A post on Laura's blog about a recent book find reminded me of a recommendation I've been wanting to make. As she mentions, there are literally hundreds of SF novels to choose from now, and Sturgeon's Law/Revelation definitely applies. I gave off reading it for several years because of the difficulty of wading through it all to find anything remotely intelligent or meaningful, and it's only in the past 2 years that I've dared to venture into the section for more than a quick perusal.

One author whose works I definitely recommend is China Mieville. I was introduced to him by a professor at UK, and though I haven't read all of his novels, I've devoured the ones I have picked up. While I was in Nashville in November, I picked up a reader's copy of a forthcoming young adult novel of his, Un Lun Dun. I cannot recommend it enough. The man has creativity seeping out of him with every word, and it translates as an incredibly fun read. Laura's post reminded me of it because she mentioned her love of books in which environment is a presence, and Mieville is masterful at creating that feeling. Tolkien had the same power, in my mind, but Mieville is almost better. I'm not going to stand by that comment 100%, but he's damned good. There are so many images that stuck with me from Un Lun Dun, something that few books have the power to do. It's impossible to try to concisely explain the premise of the novel, so suffice to say that one of the characters is a carton of spoiled milk and there are binjas (trash bins which are also ninjas) and clothes made out of books and the villain is Smog. It's also fun to keep an eye out for Mieville's Marxism emerging in subtle and not-so ways.

Had a game day/sushi day yesterday. Much tuna was consumed, many tempers were roiled (that's not true; I was the only one who got pissed), and many arses were kicked (again, only mine). Axis & Allies is the devil. Also, though I never thought it possible that I would find a person with whom I would never play one of my favorite games--Acquire--I have. Jake, you were handed that game on a silver platter by he-who-is-not-welcome-here-for-a-little-while.

This is why I don't play board games often.

fugacious
adj. difficult to capture; fleeting, transitory

Found this today while trying to put together a PowerPoint on American Realism/Naturalism.

"You Tell Me This Is God?"
by Stephen Crane

You tell me this is God?
I tell you this is a printed list,
A burning candle, and an ass.

My current favorite song:

Charlotte Gainsbourg "the song that we sing" (there's a video that automatically plays in the background lower down the page)

I really must make a list for myself (and ergo you) of the best musical finds of 2006. Charlotte Gainsbourg is a late entry but high up the list.

How utterly delightful.

Emergent/Postmodern 93% Modern Liberal 68% Classical Liberal 57% Roman Catholic 39% Evangelical Holiness/Wesleyan 36% Neo orthodox 29% Charismatic/Pentecostal 18% Reformed Evangelical 14% Fundamentalist 0% What's your theological worldview? created with QuizFarm.com

I notice that atheist or "strong agnostic" isn't an option. Is it possible to say that atheism is one approach to theology? Can the lack of belief in something be defined in terms of that which is denied? We don't really have a word for the non-existence of divinity, do we? We always have to couch the idea beginning with the supposition that there is a god, and our language precludes approaching the idea as if it were the norm. Or, is it that our language limits our minds? According to the Sapir-Worf hypothesis, language directs our worldview and the capability of our mind to comprehend, so is the necessity to approach denying a divine existence as contrary instead of as the norm a reflection of that?

Bedtime.

Oh, the woes of the middle-class American: what digital SLR to buy. Truly, a tale of woe to make the stoutest heart weep at the plight of the poor person who must decide which company deserves his money most.

Here's a list of the cameras I'm looking at, and I would appreciate any anecdotal recommendations or researched opinions.

• Olympus E500
• Canon Digital Rebel XTi
• Nikon D80
• Sony DSLR A-100

This is a serious call for people to find info, good or bad, about these cameras. Nothing from dpreview.com, please; I've scoured it till my eyes burn.

Life sucks for the American DINK, doesn't it?

might as well get out all the depressing stuff at once

This week begins our state testing of ESL students, and it's going to be hellacious task to complete. It's the first time it's being administered in KY, and nobody seems to really know what's happening.

Our one reliable car is in the shop for one of those mysterious squeals while we putt around in Buttercup.

My grandfather is in the hospital and is serious need of Dr. House's help to diagnose what the hell has caused his body to deteriorate in the past 3 years and his mind in the past week.

Did I mention my grandmother is in the nursing home with a foot wound and fairly advanced irreversible dementia?

The new year has begun interestingly. Oh, and I started it out with a hangover like I hadn't had in a while.

I came across this word in a fantasy novel I'm reading, Royal Assassin, and had to chuckle at how Yiddish and vulgar it sounds.

hoyden
n. a boisterous, carefree, and bold girl

We simply must elect Pat Robertson for president. It would be like having a crystal ball as president!

Pat Robertson: God told me of 'mass killing' in 2007

Sometime soon I'll post something real about my own life.

Your Inner European is Irish!

Sprited and boisterous! You drink everyone under the table.

Who's Your Inner European?