Tuesday, June 29, 2010

Things I Like Tuesday: Internet Edition

Here are two sites I visit every day:

I'll use this blog to explain science to my children someday (okay, not really. My kids would be so confused, but they probably would have some pretty cool science fair projects.):

This is my friend's site. She posts pretty pictures of mostly girly things:

This site makes me laugh out loud a lot:

This is how I made facebook part of my job today:
and twitter:

Friday, June 25, 2010

Lessons from the Israelites Episode 4

The other lessons from the Israelits can be found here, here, and here.

In Numbers 13, Moses sends some of the Israelites to spy on the Promised Land. He asks them to check it out, and to bring back some fruit. So, a guy from each tribe goes out and spies on the new city--the city God had promised them.

The Promised Land is amazing--flowing with milk and honey, which was pretty awesome back then. Sticky, but awesome. The spies even brought back this one cluster of grapes that two men carried back.

But the descendants of a giant live in the city. And they have walls and weapons and are...giant. The Israelites are therefore discouraged, naturally (if I lived in a desert for that many years, I'd be easily discouraged, too. and sunburnt.). They began to whine and tell Moses and God that the women and the kids were going to be plundered and stuff.

I understand the Israelites. They had a dream of the Promised Land. They had heard about it and talked about it and dreamt about it for years. They had probably already planned what they would do once they had it.

Dreams are easy to get excited about. Trust me on this one; I am a dreamer. A lot of our dreams probably even come from God, like the Promised Land. He wants us to acheive them. They seem awesome, and probably really are.

But then, at least for me and the Israelites, we realize how difficult it may be to reach our goals. There are "giants" in our way. Maybe giants of personal comfort or ignorance or finances or other people's opinions. We get discouraged. And we begin to whine. We ask God if he led us all the way out here and gave us this big dream just so we can fail.

The thing is, though, the Israelites eventually reached the Promised Land. Well, the faithful ones did. The ones that believed with God anything is possible, even defeating giants.

Thursday, June 17, 2010

Summer and Engagements

--I find that when I learn of a friend getting engaged these days (usually via facebook), I start singing "Another One Bites the Dust" in my head.

--It has been so hot here in Nashville. Like, break-a-sweat-walking-to-your-car hot. Oh, summer.

--This is my first "real-life" summer. I feel an immense pressure to do something wonderful, fun, and adventurous. So far, I feel I have failed. I have had fun, but nothing adventurous.

--My best friend is getting married in 24 days. Which, conveniently, brings me back to my first point.

"Every time a couple gets married, two single people die." --Leslie Knope, Parks and Recreation

Friday, June 4, 2010

Some things you may assume about me by looking at (and in) my car

And whether or not those assumptions are correct

Sometimes I walk by cars and see something inside, or a bumper sticker or something, and try to figure out who the person is that drives the car. It's a fun little game. Then I thought, what do people think about me when they see my car.

1. I'm not rich
Correct. I am not rich. I drive a '97 Honda Civic and that was actually a recent upgrade from my '92 Civic.

2. I'm not a neat-freak
Correct. I often eat breakfast in my car. Therefore, crumbs. Sorry.

3. I am a girl
Correct. The 38 hair accessories in the middle console may have been a big clue.

4. I have children
Incorrect. I only teach them in Sunday School. I keep the curriculum in the car, in case I need to kill time between two activities.

5. I am a Christian
Correct. I have the SS curriculum, the compact Bible, and the various church bulletins in the back seat to prove it. In the front seat is Donald Miller's latest--for slow drive-through situations.

6. I am getting married
Incorrect. The "Congratulations on Your Marriage" gift bag filled with bows in my backseat is because I'm Maid of Honor for a wedding in July, and apparently, I'm supposed to make the bow bouquet for the rehearsal. The bag of bows will remain in my backseat until approximately 2 days before the wedding.

7. I am athletic
I'll give you credit either way on this one. I am not a talented athlete, but I do like to play (some) sports. The cleats in my backseat floor board are from Ultimate Frisbee. I leave them in there so I don't forget. I've never tried, but I'm thinking it would be pretty difficult to play Ultimate in flip-flops.

If the trunk of my car was also revealed to you, my athleticism would be more difficult to argue away. I keep a football, flag football flags, a soccer ball, and a frisbee in there. You just never know when you may need them.

[Once, I opened up the trunk of my car so my friend Mary could put her luggage in. She looked at all the sporting goods and asked me why I didn't have a boyfriend. I told her "Hey, wanna see what's in my trunk?" was not a pick-up line that properly conveyed my intentions.]

8. I have a boyfriend or kid named Kyle Maxson who left his hat in my backseat
Incorrect. The hat is from Goodwill, given to me for Ultimate team unity or something. I have no idea who this Maxson kid is. Thanks for the hat, though, Kyle .

9. I am often cold
Correct. I have been known to turn on the portable heater in my office on 90 degree days. So, I keep a sweater or jacket in my car, even in TN in the summer. I wasn't always like this. I'm not sure what happened.

10. I leave trash lying around
Incorrect. That is not trash. See? This scrap of paper has directions to the frisbee fields. This one has a list of things I need to do before next week. This post-it contains a quote I like. And this little torn-off bit of notebook paper has an idea for a book written on it. Not trash at all.

Thursday, June 3, 2010

pros and cons of reading stuff on the internet

I read a lot of stuff on the internet. I read blogs and articles and tweets, some on a daily basis.

This is good in some ways. I learn some things. I learn different opinions about some things. I learn new ways to think about some things. Also, a lot of the blogs/articles/tweets I read are funny. Laughing is good. A lot of the blogs/articles/tweets I read are inspiring, too. And challenging.

All this reading is not good in some ways. Because of all my reading, I have come to think that I have few original thoughts. Many, many times, I have read the exact thing that I have written about or wanted to write about. Only, I usually read writing by professionals (can you be a professional writer? I'm not sure; but that's a different blog post), and they say things better than I think I ever could. Then, I get sad about my writing. It will never be as funny/well-written/inspirational/popular as the others'. If I've already written it, mine seems cliche now. If it's still waiting to be written, it won't be, because it has already been said--only better.

Another thing I have a habit of doing is reading inspirational things, getting all inspired and ready to take on the world, and then doing nothing. I'm going to try to stop that. I have decided that this, my first summer in the real world, is a summer that I will really conquer some things. So here it goes. Feel free to hold me accountable.