Archive for fun stuff
June 19, 2008 at 2:43 pm · Filed under creation, freedom, fun stuff
There are a lot of things I like to do that I don’t do often enough. I’m learning how to make jewelry and hair ornaments from silver and copper wire and stones and crystals. I really enjoy this. I’m a complete novice at it and I struggle to make something that doesn’t look too amateurish. But it’s so fun! Other things I like to do:
Play acoustic guitar (I’m a decent rhythm guitar)
Sing (not too scary)
Sew - I actually attended the International Academy of Merchandising and Design back in the mid-80s and learned how to draft and drape patterns
Paint - Watercolor is my favorite medium and I was also introduced to this at the International Academy during fashion illustration class.
Watch birds
Train animals - this is actually very high on my career potential assessment
Listen - I am a good listener. People tell me their struggles and dreams because of this
Write, of course - but not the kind of writing that I do for a living, unfortunately. I love to write creatively and spontaneous, but also love to write to instruct (but only on topics I love, which again, doesn’t really include open source software - not that i don’t love open source software, but it’s kind of dry)
Fishing - this is very relaxing for me. Darin doesn’t have fun unless he catches something, but me, I just love the activity of fishing. It is more fun if you catch something, though, and I don’t mean frog fish.
Photography - this is like instant painting to me. I love the artistic aspects of photography - the layout, the light and shadow, the color or the light and dark of the grayscale.
All of these things make me wish I wasn’t stuck here in front of this doggone computer screen.
May 28, 2008 at 9:59 pm · Filed under family, fun stuff, growing in God, loving others, struggling with sin
Is it a good idea to have expectations of others in a love relationship? I mean, is it even really possible to do that? To expect someone to behave a certain way or to become a certain person or improve in a certain way? I think that is making love conditional, because love and acceptance go hand in hand.
Love means I embrace you fully just as you are and will continue to do so. And this idea of unconditional love can be held separate from the idea of boundaries. Having boundaries in a relationship means that you cannot physically or mentally hold me hostage or I will remove myself from your presence, perhaps permanently. And this is good and right and doesn’t negate the idea of love.
But expectations create conditions. The person who feels entitled waits, perhaps impatiently, for the expected actions or change in the other person, and until that happens, there is something missing in the relationship. My husband could tell me every day how much he loves me, but if he is also telling me that he expects my appetite for sex to increase by 30% and that I’d better hop to it, I’m not believing that I am accepted. Or if he tells me that my cooking needs to be as delicious and well-presented as Rachael Ray’s technique and that he’s going on a diet until that happens, I’m not feeling encouraged.
Sometimes unspoken expectations scream the loudest. If Darin looked at every beautiful young woman that passed by him while we were having a conversation, instead of focusing on me, that would certainly deliver a message to me. If I go on and on about how Pastor Dashing is so wise and so well-spoken and how captivated I am by his every word, I might be saying something I don’t really want to say to my husband, especially if I’ve been nagging him or complaining to him about something I think he’s doing wrong, or ignoring him, or waiting for him to get on the stick.
I was thinking about this the other day and comparing it to some behaviors I have with my kids. I noticed that I told my daughter what a good worker she is, and I really meant it, and since then, she almost can’t stop herself from doing things around the house. I mean, even when she doesn’t want to, she feels compelled to do it because she believes that she is a good worker. On the other hand, unfortunately, I’ve not told my son the same thing because I’ve seen that doing chores around the house doesn’t come quite as naturally to him. And so he balks at every opportunity to help out. I’m going to do a little experiment, and I’ll let you know how it works. I’m going to start encouraging my son every single time he does one little bit of anything around the house. I’m going to praise him for it and tell him he’s a good worker. And I’m going to ignore it when he does a crappy job. Yes, I am going to stuff a sock in my mouth and be quiet. And over the next several months, I’m going to see if unconditional love and acceptance work better than expectations.
I’ll check back in 12 weeks or so and let you know how my experiment worked.
May 28, 2008 at 1:10 pm · Filed under fun stuff
Now I’m testing Scribefire, a similar addon that appears a bit more complex and full-featured than Deepest Sender. Sorry for the flurry of little posts.
ScribeFire
May 28, 2008 at 12:42 pm · Filed under fun stuff
I’m testing (and writing about) a Firefox addon called “Deepest Sender,” that allows me to create and post entries remotely, from within my browser, without actually going to the blog. I’m still not totally sure why this is a useful thing but I’ll let you know if I decide I can’t live without it.
May 17, 2008 at 12:29 pm · Filed under creation, faith, fun stuff
Sometimes it’s the simplest things that bring me back to a place of wonder. We finally received our harvester ants in the mail yesterday. I’m sure the women at the post office were thrilled to place in our mailbox an envelope proclaiming “live harvester ants.”
We brought them home and tipped them out of the test tube into the blue gel of the ant farm. After a brief period of adjustment, the ants got to work doing what Dad created them to do: work. Apparently things like sleeping, eating, and relaxing don’t matter to ants too much.
They worked all night long tunneling in this hard, blue gel-like substance that was created by NASA scientists to house ants they took with them on space missions. They’d attempted to bring ants before, but the tunnels were always destroyed in the process of takeoff and zero gravity. This “space gel” solves the problem of collapsing tunnels and also provides moisture and nutrients for the ants.
It is fascinating to watch these creatures communicating and performing their roles, and so beautiful to see in the clear blue habitat. It makes me realize once again how creative and just amazing God is, and my heart is led to worship Him both for the creation of the ants, and the creation of people who design these wonderful little habitats where we can so easily observe the ants at work. Thank you Daddy.
May 1, 2008 at 2:22 pm · Filed under fun stuff, memes
My friend Jim tagged me and actually awarded me with a subversive blogger award. Hey wow! I think it is cool to be noticed. This Presbyterian guy I know introduced me to the phrase “subvert the dominant paradigm” and I have to admit, I’ve kind of adopted it as my life vision. Maybe that’s a good thing, maybe it’s something that could get me into trouble from time to time. I think it’s always been my life vision, it’s just that now there are words for what I do. Hah.
So, the rules for this meme are that I am to link back to the person who tagged me, choose five subversive bloggers to pass this award along to, and link back to the original post by Jake Bouma.
Of course, my first inclination is to link right back to Jim, since I think he’s pretty darn subversive, but in the spirit of passing it along, I guess my first choice has to be Wayne Jacobsen, author of LifeStream. Wayne is probably way too busy to even notice my giving him an award, but I owe him so much in the way of my spiritual growth in the last few years.
In connection to that, the God Journey podcast, which is a collaboration between Wayne and Brad Cummings, is also very high on my list of subversive influences. Once you’ve listened to a few of these you will see what I mean. Don’t worry about the stupid jokes and chit chat at the beginning - it’s better than long-winded prayers any day, in my book.
Of course, I have to mention Paul Young’s WindRumors while I’m at it. Paul is the author of the amazingly successful book The Shack, and Papa sure has given him some great insights. You know, I kind of hate that The Shack has become so popular. It means that its subversion is right around the corner, at least if you’re me.
I’m not all down with the “emergent church” movement, but Mike Morrell at Zoecarnate is a way cool guy and subversive with the best of them. I’ve always liked his style, and he’s been blogging a lot lately, so go check him out.
I’m supposed to choose five, but I only came up with three. Sorry, it’s the subvert in me. (oops, that’s four isn’t it. I’m a blonde subvert, sorry. had a really taxing but really great weekend and I haven’t quite recovered yet).
edit:Here’s another one I just found. It’s definitely going in my blogroll: City Business Church.
