Whole Desire

How can we want something with our entire being--so completely, so wholey--when we are just a pile of flesh and bones? It's just our brain or our heart or.....but whether it's an idea or a cause or a person--or even just a simple moment of a beautiful sunrise with a steaming mug of coffee in our hands--that thing we desire fills us up, and we can think and feel and hear and taste and touch nothing else. Whether or not we get what we so desire is irrelevant; the capability to feel that way is just remarkable.

Sunset on the Pacific

Hmm... wow...

Photo credit: Lisa Ward

Tassel List Update

UPDATE TIME!!!!!

What should I do before I graduate from college? Here is what I've started with:

1. Ask someone to the Christmas Banquet. >> FAIL. I did not go. I did not go to the Emperor's Ball (aka Spring Banquet). I am sorry. I don't do school events.
   

2. Go to a midnight premiere of a movie. >> Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows I
   

3. Get a piercing or a tattoo or a funky hair streak. >> BLUE HAIR!!
   

4. Eat lots of Lucky Charms and oranges in Rhya Moffitt's memory.

5. Have movie night with Ashley Butler all the time. >> Oh no! She's gone! Can we have Skype night all the time??
   

6. Steal a book from the Library. >> Uhhh...This might not ever actually be published.
   

7. Swim or wade in a campus fountain.

8. Do something awesome for spring break. >> I AM IN FREAKING CALIFORNIA!!!!
   

9. Go to a Pro Musica concert.

10. Be spontaneous, all the time. >> I am the epitome of spontaneous.
    

11. Go to an Acro show. >> Saw a half-time show. Planning on going to the end-of-year show as well.
    

12. See how much you can steal from the cafe at once. >> See #6
    

13. Go to Midnight Breakfast, dressed up, at Sonic.

14. Graduate. >> Workin' on it!!
    

15. Befriend someone unexpected. >> Check.
    

16. Perform a random act of kindness for someone you don't particularly like. >>Check!
    

17. Take a DC Duck Boat tour.

18. Fly a kite on the Mall.

19. Go to a rally and make a sign.

20. Run to the Washington Monument from school.

21. Watch every HP movie or every LOTR movie or Charlie Brown movie or Land Before Time movie in one day. Or do both. >> Check on HP.
    

22. Go to a Supreme Court hearing thing.

23. Buy a random item of clothing off someone. Not at a high price.

24. Play Washington D.C. Monopoly on the Mall.

25. Bike more of the C&O Canal (can't do all of it Mom, sorry.).

26. Buy an all-day metro pass and ride one of the lines end to end. Or don't buy an all-day pass, ride all of the metro in one day, and see how much it actually costs if you get out of the metro in the same place you got on.

27. Stay up all night doing something ridiculous with friends.

28. Finish (or restart because I think eventually I was persuaded to throw the original away after it lived in my trunk for 6 months...) jaimenudd and my Duct Tape Rainbow poster. Do you know, I still have a really little bit of yellow and green duct tape from that?!

29. Invent a recipe (dish, dessert, drink, etc.).

30. Paint something (canvas, cupboard, cup, etc.). [Trying to keep the alliteration...]

31. Take more photos.

32. Play [more] basketball.

Okay, so I have thought of more things...

33. See sunrise on East Coast.

34. See sunset on West Coast. >> CHECK!

35. Drive around the entire Beltway in one go.

So there's the update! Yes, I am getting some school work done too...

Story updates to the Tassel List!

[Yes...This is suuuupppeeerrr late. Sorry. I was dealing with end-of-the-semester trials. Deal with it. Also, enjoy the actual, much more recent update to my Tassel List. :) ]

November 17, or close thereto --

Ahh, the excitement of a midnight showing of a movie - the joys of being among the first people in the world to see the production!

Last night/early this morning (oh the ticket-buying complications of these events however!) was just such an occasion. This is the first thing I will now cross off my Tassel List.

Now... Don't hate me. If you feel the need to pray for me, that is fine - I most certainly do need prayer, I just happen to not really think I need prayer because of this activity specifically.

The movie we - Mandy Greenleaf, Jaime Nudd, Matt Crosby(? I just met him...), me, Roberta Plantak, Joseph Campos-Furber, Sara-May Colon, and Vanessa Jorgenson - went to see was Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows I. Most of our row was sobbing by the end because one of our favorite characters died, but of course...it's just a movie, and no matter how sad, I don't think I've ever cried during a movie. So they used my dry shirt sleeves to dry their tears.

It was a great evening of fun and friends, and definitely worth the lack of sleep.


January 5, or close thereto--

I colored my hair!!! There's three streaks of a greenish-blueish color. I'm loving it. I will post pictures soon. I am not into the whole permanent body changing things: tattoos, piercings, etc. Eventually the hair dye will wash out, which is good because I have to get a real job soon.

The fun part, maybe, of the hair dye washing out is that I'll be BLOND! for a bit! That's so crazy. But the places where there is hair dye and will be blond are awesome places to have blond. I'll post pictures of being blond as well.

I think that is all for now. I'll have to check the list. Oh, wait. One more. Over break Ashley and I watched all the Harry Potter movies. And one Lord of the Rings movie. It was just an epic movie break.

Technology Sabbath?

And no...I don't mean a Sabbath with a bunch of new technology, like 3D sermons, etc. Though that would be something interesting. I mean a Sabbath, a "shabbat", a rest, from technology.

We are so uber-connected these days that I think it makes my eye twitch. I can get my email and check my Facebook from my phone. I stay signed in to instant messaging programs pretty much 24/7.

The Sabbath Manifesto people over at sabbathmanifesto.org are not tied to Adventism, and while they do have several links on the Jewish Sabbath, I don't think they're tied to Judaism either. They are promoting this "technology Sabbath" for "ALL BACKGROUNDS, NATIONALITIES AND RELIGIONS TO PARTICIPATE."

They provide 10 Principles (to be added to, interpreted by, or even ignored by YOU) that act as ideas for what to do when you unplug and avoid technology (Principle #1). Here they are:

For more information, see sabbathmanifesto.org.
For more on the story, follow this link: http://awakeningcharlotte.com/content/2010/10/26/tech-sabbath-a-day-of-rest-fosters-wellness/.

Take a break man!