Fall Break and After
It was a rather quiet Fall Break. My sister and I hung around the house, rested, and worked on homework. We went to Church. We went shopping for groceries. And we came back here. A local Church of Christ congregation had a Gospel meeting with James Watkins, who's a marvelous preacher on the show "Preaching the Gospel," now part of the Gospel Broadcasting Network's program "Good News Today." Everybody I know who has heard him always comes away impressed by his impressive knowledge of Scripture. I only got to hear two lessons in his five-part series, but they were both amazing. He pointed out things I never realized before. So, now it's back to the grind, back to wondering how in the world am I going to get everything done.
I tell you what, in Lady Chatterley's Lover, there were a number of places, particularly in two chapters around the middle, that just made me want to vomit. However, oddly enough, I didn't hate the book. I know what it's like to hate a book, because I hated The Fountainhead by Ayn Rand. If you haven't read this book, avoid it at all costs! It had nudity, sexually explicit scenes, and vulgar language, but what appalled me on top of all that was that there was no decency, no geniune kindness in that book. Everyone was so cruel, so cold, so selfish! It came to a point that the book felt slimy when I held it in my hands and the pages stank. Reading it was like taking bad tasting medicine or putting a trash can over my head. The worst part was it on and on and on! It was, like, 700 pages! And as much as I hated, loathed that book, I couldn't get out of reading it because I was reading it to write an essay for a scholarship. Anyway, though, I didn't feel that way with Lady Chatterley. I took interest in the stuff that wasn't so, um, immoral and disgustening. (I want to say "sickening," but I might contradict myself by doing so since it seems "sick" is the new word for "cool"; how in the world that happened I'll never know.) Though I do think Lawrence got kinda preachy in those moments, and the way he put his arguments into the character's thoughts didn't feel natural, but it was still rather interesting. Those parts anyway. I imagine the discussion's going to be rather squeemish, since past class periods seem to indicate that most of the other students would enjoy the, uh, more controversial things. I think I'm mostly gonna listen and try to interject the arguments that I noticed.
Well, my Final Fantasy fic suddenly came to a standstill. For one thing, the grand finale isn't coming to me as well as I hoped it would. For another, my co-writer and I are experiencing some artistic differences. After that last chapter that I had been waiting to write for a long time that came so easily, albeit rather long I admit, I was hoping she'd do like she had done and send it with a few embellishments to better describe the things I'm saying. Instead, she beta'ed it. She sent it back with comments in bold and made me feel like an English student who just failed on a paper that she worked so hard on. I wasn't happy. I sent her comments back, and try as I could, I don't think I could hide how annoyed I was. She said her biggest problem was that I was deviating too much from certain characters that happen to be her favorites. Well, in my opinion, they don't have much characterization to begin with, and I was just giving my interpretation. Isn't that supposed to be as valid as another's? I guess it all boils down to whether or not it's canon, and it's probably not. I did ask her to look out for that. Anyhow, this has really discouraged me and may have made writing or thinking about writing more difficult.
This week, Keane's new album "Perfect Symmetry" came out. Amazon.com had quite a deal--download the album for $3! I had to take advantage of that, so I downloaded it yesterday since I was gone most of the day. I've only heard it a couple of times, and frankly I'm disappointed. The first four or five songs just have a really weird sound to them. Something about it's discordant. Then they had a song that sounded more like the Keane I knew and loved, but it had a weird message; if I heard it right, it was promoting atheism. There were quite a few songs after that which had questionable messages. None of the songs had some of the innovative or charming lyrics of their previous two albums. The lead singer now has a little grittiness to his voice, and he sounds a little like he's trying to be Neil Diamond. Something about that was unsettling. I may give it another try or two. Maybe when I get the lyrics down to some of these songs, I'll have a better appreciation of them. It did have some neat parts with the instruments, and on one song there's an interlude when the lead singer speaks French (makes me kinda wish I remembered my French from high school a little bit more). I hope U2 releases an album with new music soon; that would make this an ideal music year.
I think I had a definite idea why I'm not voting for president. On top of how displeased I am with both candidates' moral issues, I don't agree with most of Obama's proposed policies, and apparrently McCain last night (and I'm sure about this because I haven't really found a direct quote for it) says he's going to work to cure autism. What's going to happen if McCain becomes president? Am I going to be hunted down like that poor boy from Mercury Rising?
This weekend my mom's speaking at another ladies day, this time at our home congregation. She's asked me to lead a prayer. Originally, I was like a prayer alternate for the person Mom asked to say the closing prayer, and I still am, sorta, but even if she does show up, Mom wants me to say a prayer for the lunch we're about to eat. So I'm going down there again. We'd love to have visitors, so if you are in the area, have nothing to do on Saturday and would like to come, please reply.
I still haven't heard back from Mr. (Dr.?) Ne'eman, and I got that book he wanted me to review in the mail this week. I sent another email requesting guidance. I hope he's ok. He's probably just busy.
I tell you what, in Lady Chatterley's Lover, there were a number of places, particularly in two chapters around the middle, that just made me want to vomit. However, oddly enough, I didn't hate the book. I know what it's like to hate a book, because I hated The Fountainhead by Ayn Rand. If you haven't read this book, avoid it at all costs! It had nudity, sexually explicit scenes, and vulgar language, but what appalled me on top of all that was that there was no decency, no geniune kindness in that book. Everyone was so cruel, so cold, so selfish! It came to a point that the book felt slimy when I held it in my hands and the pages stank. Reading it was like taking bad tasting medicine or putting a trash can over my head. The worst part was it on and on and on! It was, like, 700 pages! And as much as I hated, loathed that book, I couldn't get out of reading it because I was reading it to write an essay for a scholarship. Anyway, though, I didn't feel that way with Lady Chatterley. I took interest in the stuff that wasn't so, um, immoral and disgustening. (I want to say "sickening," but I might contradict myself by doing so since it seems "sick" is the new word for "cool"; how in the world that happened I'll never know.) Though I do think Lawrence got kinda preachy in those moments, and the way he put his arguments into the character's thoughts didn't feel natural, but it was still rather interesting. Those parts anyway. I imagine the discussion's going to be rather squeemish, since past class periods seem to indicate that most of the other students would enjoy the, uh, more controversial things. I think I'm mostly gonna listen and try to interject the arguments that I noticed.
Well, my Final Fantasy fic suddenly came to a standstill. For one thing, the grand finale isn't coming to me as well as I hoped it would. For another, my co-writer and I are experiencing some artistic differences. After that last chapter that I had been waiting to write for a long time that came so easily, albeit rather long I admit, I was hoping she'd do like she had done and send it with a few embellishments to better describe the things I'm saying. Instead, she beta'ed it. She sent it back with comments in bold and made me feel like an English student who just failed on a paper that she worked so hard on. I wasn't happy. I sent her comments back, and try as I could, I don't think I could hide how annoyed I was. She said her biggest problem was that I was deviating too much from certain characters that happen to be her favorites. Well, in my opinion, they don't have much characterization to begin with, and I was just giving my interpretation. Isn't that supposed to be as valid as another's? I guess it all boils down to whether or not it's canon, and it's probably not. I did ask her to look out for that. Anyhow, this has really discouraged me and may have made writing or thinking about writing more difficult.
This week, Keane's new album "Perfect Symmetry" came out. Amazon.com had quite a deal--download the album for $3! I had to take advantage of that, so I downloaded it yesterday since I was gone most of the day. I've only heard it a couple of times, and frankly I'm disappointed. The first four or five songs just have a really weird sound to them. Something about it's discordant. Then they had a song that sounded more like the Keane I knew and loved, but it had a weird message; if I heard it right, it was promoting atheism. There were quite a few songs after that which had questionable messages. None of the songs had some of the innovative or charming lyrics of their previous two albums. The lead singer now has a little grittiness to his voice, and he sounds a little like he's trying to be Neil Diamond. Something about that was unsettling. I may give it another try or two. Maybe when I get the lyrics down to some of these songs, I'll have a better appreciation of them. It did have some neat parts with the instruments, and on one song there's an interlude when the lead singer speaks French (makes me kinda wish I remembered my French from high school a little bit more). I hope U2 releases an album with new music soon; that would make this an ideal music year.
I think I had a definite idea why I'm not voting for president. On top of how displeased I am with both candidates' moral issues, I don't agree with most of Obama's proposed policies, and apparrently McCain last night (and I'm sure about this because I haven't really found a direct quote for it) says he's going to work to cure autism. What's going to happen if McCain becomes president? Am I going to be hunted down like that poor boy from Mercury Rising?
This weekend my mom's speaking at another ladies day, this time at our home congregation. She's asked me to lead a prayer. Originally, I was like a prayer alternate for the person Mom asked to say the closing prayer, and I still am, sorta, but even if she does show up, Mom wants me to say a prayer for the lunch we're about to eat. So I'm going down there again. We'd love to have visitors, so if you are in the area, have nothing to do on Saturday and would like to come, please reply.
I still haven't heard back from Mr. (Dr.?) Ne'eman, and I got that book he wanted me to review in the mail this week. I sent another email requesting guidance. I hope he's ok. He's probably just busy.