Monday, October 29, 2007

I'm running out of title ideas...

GO SOX!!!!!!
I wish I were still in Boston today. Damn. Oh well.

Anyway, lots has been going on here. After much discernment I decided to drop out of the ordination process and switch to an MAR. I realized that I'm called to teach, and that the sacramental offices of an ordained person (which are the only things that set them apart from the laity) don't really play into my calling. So why do it? It felt like a huge weight had been lifted off of my shoulders when I came to this conclusion. Now I'm actually kind of excited about school, starting next semester (ha), in that I can take classes that really interest me and will help me towards my goal (ie religion and literature classes). I'll have to go to the academic dean and switch everything next semester, but it shouldn't be too bad.

Other than that, Rick and I were in Jersey this past weekend for the last VW show of the season. This is one his club puts on, and it's called Dubs of the Dead. People dress up their VWs and then have a costume contest, basically. It was fun, albeit cold. We'd woken up to disgusting weather (although the rain was badly needed) and then it stopped for the show, but slowly got colder. I couldn't feel my nose by the time it ended. Then we hung out with Frank and the guys, as Rick calls them. Watched Disney's 1979 movie The Black Hole. Weird. I find it hard to believe Disney made that movie! And then we watched the Kiss movie special Kiss Meets the Phantom of the Park or something like that. I fell asleep during bits of it, but it's a strange strange movie. I love how it makes Kiss out to be this wholesome family fun band.

Anywho I should get going. I have class in about 20 minutes and then studying and lunch and then more class and then I have to hit the books hard. This is the beginning of the end of the semester (I think we only have 5 weeks of classes left, maybe 6) so things are starting to be due. Yikes.

I hope you're all enjoying the fall weather. It seems that it's finally arrived. We had a hard freeze last night (It was only 30 something) and up in Worcester it got down to 29! So stay warm. :)

Sunday, October 21, 2007

Nice.

My boyfriend is amazing. Just thought I'd let you all know.

Saturday, October 20, 2007

Dumbledore

So apparently Dumbledore was gay and in love with Gellert Grindenwald. Go to www.mugglenet.com to read the story. I'm not sure how I feel about this particular piece of information. Personally, I couldn't really care less if Dumbledore was gay or not, as his sexuality never seemed (to me) to play that big of a role in the text. Also I wonder whether this was interesting information for the kids in the audience. While I realize there's a huge adult following (of which I am most definitely one), they're still kid's books. I feel that with this revelation, conservatives who are ALREADY fighting Harry Potter are going to add this fact to the long list of reasons why the books shouldn't be read. And as we have seen in our society, especially from 2004's election on, issues of homosexuality can make or break an argument (or so it seems to me). Anywho, I guess what I'm trying to say is, why on earth did she reveal this piece of information or even talk about Dumbledore's sexuality? He was over 100. That would be like talking about your grandpa's sex life with the 10 year old grandkid. Weird, JK, weird.

PS For those reading, don't take this as an anti-homosexuality rant, because IT'S NOT. I'm just wondering why JK Rowling felt this was even pertinent information for the audience. It's food for thought, maybe.

Thursday, October 18, 2007

Bag

I bought the bag! It's a Timbuk2 custom messenger bag. It cost me a pretty penny, but it should last forever and now all of my stuff won't get SOAKED every time it rains (which also means no more carrying around tons of shopping bags in my backpack in case of the odd rainstorm). I debated for a while on getting it, but decided to go for it. It should last me for a good while, and thus I'll be able to use it here and wherever I do the PhD, and then wherever I work. Yahoo. I'll let you know how it is when I get it...I picked the custom made one. The colors for the already designed bags were ok, but I really like the color scheme I picked out (slate blue, charcoal, and navy, with an orange logo and a black waterproof liner) so I decided to splurge and go for that. not to mention that it will also make the bag easier to pick out if for whatever reason it's left in a big group of Timbuk2 bags. And I like blue. Woohoo.

I overslept today and didn't make it to my morning class. Oh well. I got a really good amount of sleep. And now I'm going to start reviewing for my exam tonight. I went to a group study session last night, which wasn't too bad. I don't do well studying in groups, so at times it was frustrating but I made it through. I'm pretty confident about the terms and the passage ids, I just want to go over my material for the essay (some topic having to do with matter and spirit) before I actually have to write it. The exam is at 6:30 tonight and the professor still hasn't told us where it is. Should be interesting...

Hope you're all having a nice day. It's almost the weekend!!!

Wednesday, October 17, 2007

Books and Other Stuff

I have my very own copy of the Oxford Dictionary of the Christian Church now. It was $109.00 after my discounts, which were many. It's normally $150.00. I know all of you math and science people out there are thinking "that's nothing!" but for religion folk, it's a chunk of change. However, I've already used it in preparing for a history exam, so at least it's started to be fruitful. The thing is awesome; it tells you basically what you need to know about almost anything in the history of Christianity. SWEET. I like it. It's on my bookshelf smiling at me right now. Woohoo!

I must admit that there are many things I wish I could be reading right now but can't as I don't have the time. For example, I want to read Ken Follett's Pillars of the Earth, which is sitting on my shelf, but it has to be either bedtime or Christmas reading. Over Thanksgiving I've got to polish up (hopefully they'll already be written) two papers and read a book. I'm also doing a paper on the Mists of Avalon, so I'll have to reread that as well as any other school stuff I have. But once Christmas break hits, I will most definitely be taking advantage of the massive amounts of reading time I plan on having (especially since I get a real break this year with no finals or Greek or papers to worry about!!!!!!!!!)

I'm debating on buying a new bag for school. I'm finding that the backpack just isn't very handy: it makes my back all sweaty any time I have to go downtown (which may be trivial but I HATE walking around with visible back sweat on my t-shirt...it makes me feel like a 50 year old man at a gym), and next semester I plan on taking at least one if not two classes downtown. Also, my wallett, keys, etc. don't feel as secure because they're on my back as opposed to by my side. And it's not waterproof, which the bag I'm looking at is. I'll let you know if I get it. It's kind of expensive, but I should hopefully be getting a deposit check soon. Maybe with some of that money I'll buy the bag. We shall see.

Other than that...I have a history exam tomorrow, an OT exam Monday, a paper due the next Tuesday (the 30th) and an OT midterm on Halloween. Needless to say, it's crunch time. Luckily the OT midterm shouldn't be too bad...we got questions beforehand AND it's open-note, so I can prepare for it however I want really. The paper also hopefully shouldn't be too horrific, but I haven't read the books yet. Guess I should get on that.

On that note, I'm going to read some Hauerwas now. Peace.

Monday, October 15, 2007

OMG

Oh my God, for those who don't know internet speak. Which, when said in a valley-girl tone, is what I think several people in my history class are saying when they think of the upcoming exam. I personally am not too worried about it. This doesn't mean that I'm not studying for it--I most definitely am. However, having majored in history in college, the format of this test is just about like every OTHER history test I took at WKU, and therefore I'm not too worried about it. It's 50 minutes. He's given us the list of terms AND the essay topic. We just don't know the two text ID's, but as long as you've read the texts you should be find. What are people freaking out about? He's practically given us the test already!

Here's where I got miffed today. The exam was actually last Monday, but because of Div school reading week about 14 Div students were out of town. So the professor agreed to set up another exam date. Well, we met today after class to pick a date, and one person (who has driven me nuts before with her anti-young clergy comments) said "Oh it has to be during the day on Friday." Well, myself and another member work on Fridays. So then a bunch of us were pulling for Wednesday. But everyone complained because Wednesday is a long day for all of us. I'll admit, it's a long day for me too but the exam is only 50 minutes! It's not like I'm sitting some 2 or 3 hour language exam. But this is the kicker. This same person protested to Wednesday night because it would be during Berkeley's Wednesday night Eucharist. I muttered to my friend "We have Eucharist every day, God forbid we go one day without it." THEN, on Thursday afternoon we have BDS colloquium, which is hands down the most pointless class I've ever taken, intro to geology included (as well as all of the 3rd grade). And she said "we CAN'T miss colloquium!" I again said to my friend "An exam would be more productive." He agreed. Anyway it's going to be Thursday evening. A few of us are going to dinner afterwards to celebrate (or, as a friend said, to mourn).

Sometimes I think too many ministers and minister-to-be's have sticks in places they shouldn't be. I sure as hell hope that I don't turn out to be one of them.

Sheesh.

On an unrelated note, I think I may have found part of the reason my left foot goes numb at the end of my runs. It felt today like there's a nerve on the ball of my foot that by the end of the run I'm putting pressure on and it's losing feeling. Hopefully when I get some new running shoes this problem will be solved.

Reading

Hi All
I'm back in classes now. Last week was reading week (a wonderful invention of Yale in which we have a whole week on in October to...read?), so I didn't have class. Rick and I traveled to KY for a few days and had a wonderful time. I'm just sad the trip couldn't have been longer. We were really busy the whole time, and didn't really get a chance just to chill with the fam. Hopefully the next trip (with Rick) will be more low key. I'm looking forward to my next trip home for the same reason. Speaking of which, the US Airways website sucks. I bought my plane ticket last night, thinking I was buying it for a flight out of Boston, and when the confirmation page came up AFTER I had paid, it had sold me a Providence flight I'd been looking at earlier that's 40 dollars more! So I'm not going to use that airline again out of principle. LAME.

As far as productivity this last week goes, I wasn't productive. At all. But that's OK. I needed the break. Now I'm studying for a history exam this week (which, in all honesty, I'm not overly stressed about) and reading like a maniac for classes, my two other exams this month, and a paper due on October 30th. Woohoo.

This weekend I read a book completely for pleasure, though, and it was awesome. I bought Into The Wild, about Chris McCandless (there's a movie by the same name that just came out). The first I'd ever heard of this kid was in an Eddie from Ohio song called "Sahara." Anyway, because of the movie Barnes and Noble as a gillion copies of the book, so I bought one and read it this weekend. It's basically about this 24 year old kid who goes off into the Alaskan wilderness and starves to death. There's obviously more to it than that--he hitched around the US after he graduated from Emory--but it was an intriguing read. It's only 200 pages so I got through it in a couple of days of intermittent reading. I also bought Pillars of the Earth by Ken Follett. It's supposed to be really good. Once I finish Little Women I'll start on it as my bedtime reading and let you know how it is. Or maybe I'll read the traveling funeral book first (on recommendation from my mom). Needless to say, I can't wait until Christmas break when I can sit around and read whatever I want, and they can all be fiction books that take very little brain power. Sweet.

Well, speaking of reading I have heaps of it to do. I'm on to reading Origen now for patristics, then some Hauerwas, and maybe some more stuff after history.

Oh and happy fall everyone. It actually feels like it now.