December 2009
38 posts
Why I wouldn't want to attend an "open and... →
New blog post. If anybody gives me a knee-jerk reaction, I’m going to smack them, because I worked really hard to make this nuanced and thoughtful.
New Turn in Debate Over Law on Marriage →
Whatever your opinion is on the “issue,” this is NOT OK.
Random Sunday morning musings
There are a bunch of people around my age whom I’ve known for a while and who are now married or at least engaged. Oh and one of those is my high school boyfriend, who is now married. It’s crazy! Of course, apparently people can’t read and think Gary and I are engaged—it seems that when his Facebook status says he’s saving money “for an eventual ring”,...
“Are you kidding me? I would never want to deal with someone like me!”
– Grace, who had been complaining about the employees at the Verizon store, when I suggested she work there.
“Technically, they’re all politically incorrect. They’re about God.”
– Grace responding to my comments on Christmas carols get words changed to be PC. (i.e. “born to raise the sons of earth” becomes “born to raise us from the earth.”)
Merry Christmas!
I’m currently rockin’ new cowboy boots (see picture below) and some fun new jewelry (also see below, though I got another necklace/earring set too). I got tickets to Hairspray at DPAC in February, some super geeky Bible software, and some other fun stuff. Honestly, besides the boots, I think I’m most excited about this little drum/tambourine-looking thing Grace got me at Ten...
“Come to me and let us abide, my rough beast.”
– Lady Shiva inviting Killer Croc into battle in Birds of Prey: Perfect Pitch. So. BOSS.
Grim prognosis no match for can-do teen →
This is my aunt’s neighbor. This kid suffered severe burns last December that he wasn’t supposed to survive, but his hair’s grown back and he’s playing sports. Merry Christmas, Connor. :)
$
In the new year, I’m really going to have to get my credit card spending under control. The good news is that for the next several weeks, I’m not spending much money at all. Ah, the joys of being home. Anyway, I’m bummed that I ended up with very little money leftover after this semester, but once I get my CDs ordered and get my second disbursement of my grant money, I can sort...
I got a purse at Target yesterday for $4.98. It didn’t have a tag or barcode and there weren’t anymore like it, so I think the cashier just rung it up as a random price. Yay cheap stuff.
Dad seems to be worried about keeping me entertained, but I’m loving this whole nothing to do thing. That never happens anymore. I would love to be bored.
Christmas Eve Eve
I have nothing to do today. Yay! I’ve been discovering the joys of iDVD (ohmygoshsocool)—just when I thought I had reached my limit in exploring computer and video geekdom, Apple went and took it a step further, like it always does. So today is going to involve lots of playing on my laptop, hopefully some piano and guitar (maybe djembe?), and reading. I’ve got the comic books...
A very Gary Christmas?
Gary did good for our first Christmas. :) His gift to me came in 3 parts—the goofy gift, the cool gift, and the main gift.
The goofy gift was a set of graphic novels—several issues of Birds of Prey, which features Black Canary, my DC Universe alter ego. It’s goofy because although I’ve read a few graphic novels by now (Y: The Last Man ROCKS), I’ve thus far refused to...
I had a funny experience in Wal-Mart yesterday. I stumbled across a sweatshirt bearing the insignia of Gary’s favorite superhero (Green Lantern) randomly hanging up on a rack of jeans or something. It was Gary’s size, had no price tag, and 2 laps around the men’s section revealed approximately zero similar sweatshirts. I was very confused. Needless to say, I wanted to get it, but...
I think I’ve been to Barnes & Noble every day this week.
And I’m SO glad I’m not actually shopping right now. There are a gazillion people at Southpoint.
I’m at Barnes & Noble and just spotted a book by Barbara Kingsolver called Animal, Vegetable, Miracle. What caught my eye about it was the tagline “with Steven L. Hopp and Camille Kingsolver.” Camille is Barbara’s daughter. She graduated with me from Duke. And she gets to be a co-author on a New York Times bestseller because her mom is a rock star. Cool.
And I just browsed through a couple of my old papers from undergrad. I miss writing papers. I’m no good at exams.
My goal for next year: get exempted from CT 32 and get credit for my New Testament exegesis requirement from my undergrad Life & Letters of Paul class. We’ll see how that pans out. It’s not that I don’t want to learn theology or New Testament, it’s...
I figured out why this week has been so stressful. I have 3 finals. It has been YEARS since I’ve had that many exams. I got used to writing final papers in undergrad. I went a whole semester once without taking a single quiz or test. Apparently I was wrong to think that’s how grad school was supposed to be. Stupid intro classes.
Hebrew final is in 4.5 hours. I haven’t looked at...
Leigh is gathering blankets and cold weather apparel for her church to use for homeless folks they help out, and I realized I have a stack of 3 blankets in my closet that only get used occasionally, and never all at once. One was knitted for me by Jamie, so I’m definitely keeping that, but the other 2 are fleece Duke blankets. One’s pretty small, so I decided to donate the other one....
Heresy is fun
I’m looking over a heresy chart Leigh passed on from her CT32 midterm, and it’s pretty amusing. My favorite entry:
Heresy & Type: Gnosticism/Everything
Council: None and all at the same time. Thoroughly attacked!
Scripture: They wrote a lot of their own.
And so on and so forth. There is a LOT of information I REALLY need to know for tomorrow morning. Unfortunately, the tea I...
Wainwright Hints at New Systematics
depressio:
In a forthcoming journal article, Professor Geoffrey Wainwright is expected to lay the groundwork for a new systematic theology that takes its structure and approach from an unlikely source: the world of music. In an apparent response to Dr. J. Kameron Carter’s well-known contention that theology should be a disciplined, improvisational performance, like jazz, Wainwright maintains...
Well. I’ve been working on Church History on and off all day. I may not get any more done on that tonight. Tomorrow I’m gonna go hard from whenever I wake up (er, I’m gonna set an alarm, not that I ever sleep late anymore) until 5 or 6. *cries*
Today I also started arranging “Come, Thou Long-Expected Jesus” for us to (hopefully) play at Orange UMC. We needed an...
10 single-spaced pages is not OK. But I’m done. Time to reward myself by watching The Office, and then I get to shackle myself to Church History. :-/
I took my vitamins before I’d had enough to eat. :(
One of 3 questions on this take-home final is finito. I wrote WAY too much (4 single-spaced pages, all in an hour), so I’m gonna revisit my other 2 outlines to scale them back some.
I may not get much more done today, because Gary and I are going to see Phantom at DPAC at 2:00! Yayness. This is me trying to get Gary into musical theater—although, ironically, he’s seen Phantom...
So this take-home final is one of these things where you can take your time studying and make a basic outline, but then there are 3 questions you have 3 hours to complete. I realized that if I can get focused, I could knock out the outlines tonight, so all I’d need would be a 3-hour block of time (or 3 1-hour blocks of time, more likely) to actually write the exam. That’s totally...
I’ve hit a moment of paralysis regarding schoolwork. I just had one of those moments where it hit me just how much work I have to do in the next week and a half. I may be able to get something done in the form of paging through Mere Christianity to study for my take-home final, but I’m going to lunch in half an hour anyway. Pooh on finals.
I’m watching Colbert, and this talk of an alien Jesus is nonsense. Everyone who’s read Perelandra knows that the aliens on Venus resisted temptation and avoided the Fall.
Finals
School stuff for reading week and finals week:
CH 13 Pastoral Context Paper (due 12/1)
C. S. Lewis Take-Home Final (due 12/4)
CH 13 Final (12/7)
OT 11 Final (12/10)
Hebrew Final (12/11)
Work-type stuff for reading week and finals week:
Meeting @ ATUMC (12/1)
Getting paid to help Jaylynn w/ computer stuff (12/1)
Youth group: Dating 101 (12/6)
Meeting @ AUMC about website (12/8)
Feed My...