Friday, January 31, 2003 AD So Far Nana's One for Two I've read a couple of my grandmother's old books this week. The first one, Let the Hurricane Roar was pretty much as expected. One of the precursors to the Little House books -- short and sweet. The second one, Stolen Honey, was not only lame (I'm no great shakes at literary criticism, but even I could see plot holes big enough to drive a blue whale through), it was missing a page...at one of the most crucial parts of the story.
What I enjoyed most about the book was the dog-earred pages. Nana was a farmer's wife. She didn't have hours to lallygag around reading novels for hours at a stretch; she had to snatch a few minutes here and there between the constant chores that left her useful hands gnarled with arthritis. So there are never more than a few pages between the creased corners that marked the spots where she left off. Those corners rebuke me. I am lazy and soft. I think her industrious genes went wayward before reaching me. Yeah, that's it -- I can't help it, I was born this way. ;-) Posted by Valerie (Kyriosity) at 1/31/2003 09:30:00 PM
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Thursday, January 30, 2003 AD To Whomever Keeps Searching for "RC JR Blog" Dr. Sproul the Younger does not, to my knowledge, have a blog, but if you go to the Highlands Study Center website, you'll find links to his recent articles, which is kinda sorta like a blog, but not really. You will also find links to the HSC blog and to otherHSCfolks' blogs. Hope that helps! Posted by Valerie (Kyriosity) at 1/30/2003 03:38:00 PM
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Wednesday, January 29, 2003 AD Psalm 13 How long, O LORD? Will You forget me forever?
How long will You hide Your face from me?
How long shall I take counsel in my soul,
Having sorrow in my heart all the day?
How long will my enemy be exalted over me?
Consider and answer me, O LORD my God;
Enlighten my eyes, or I will sleep the sleep of death,
And my enemy will say, "I have overcome him,"
And my adversaries will rejoice when I am shaken.
But I have trusted in Your lovingkindness;
My heart shall rejoice in Your salvation.
I will sing to the LORD,
Because He has dealt bountifully with me. Posted by Valerie (Kyriosity) at 1/29/2003 05:46:00 PM
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Tuesday, January 28, 2003 AD Goofiness Begets Unmitigated Goofiness The "Baltimore Believe" campaign is goofy. It's a waste of money. Worse, it's a waste of my money. But at least it's not unmitigated goofiness. I mean, somebody's trying to do something about a legitimate problem, even if they're clueless as to what the real problem is and where the real solution lies. Johnnie Cochran's take on the campaign is, however, unmitigated goofiness. Posted by Valerie (Kyriosity) at 1/28/2003 06:13:00 PM
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Links to This Post "how long dose a ribbit live" Definitely the cutest Google hit I've ever gotten! Posted by Valerie (Kyriosity) at 1/28/2003 03:10:00 PM
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Monday, January 27, 2003 AD Significant (To Me) Anniversaries in 2003 115 years (1888): my paternal Grampa was born -- August 2
100 years (1903): my maternal Nana and Grampa were born -- July 12 and November 28, respectively
55 years (1948): both of my maternal uncles were married -- Elmer to Ellie, January 25; Bob to Arlene, June 9
45 years (1958): my parents were engaged -- month unknown (some things are too traumatic to remember!); my sister-in-law was born -- March 31
30 years (1973): I was booted out of 1st grade and into 2nd -- September
25 years (1978): my paternal Grampa died -- April 27; I graduated elementary school and my oldest brother graduated high school -- June; I think this was the year I was baptized
20 years (1983): I went on my first date -- May or June; my second-oldest brother graduated high school and I left high school a year early -- June; I had my 16th birthday -- August 29; I started college -- August 30
15 years (1988): my friend Kate was born -- April 26; I spent my first summer in Yellowstone -- May-August
10 years (1993): I played Gilmer in a church production of Godspell -- April or May; I wrote what I consider to be the best song I've ever written
5 years (1998): I first discovered the Internet (oldest evidence I can find -- October 28, but I think I was on some other discussion forums before then) Posted by Valerie (Kyriosity) at 1/27/2003 09:57:00 PM
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Links to This Post My Favorite Poem Not, I'll not, carrion comfort, Despair, not feast on thee;
Not untwist -- slack they may be -- these last strands of man
In me ór, most weary, cry I can no more. I can;
Can something, hope, wish day come, not choose not to be.
But ah, but O thou terrible, why wouldst thou rude on me
Thy wring-world right foot rock? lay a lionlimb against me? scan
With darksome devouring eyes my bruisèd bones? and fan,
O in turns of tempest, me heaped there; me frantic to avoíd thee and flee?
Why? That my chaff might fly; my grain lie, sheer and clear.
Nay in all that toil, that coil, since (seems) I kissed the rod,
Hand rather, my heart lo! lapped strength, stole joy, would laugh, cheer.
Cheer whóm though? The héro whose héaven-handling flúng me, fóot tród
Me? or mé that fóught him? O whích one? is it eách one? That níght, that yéar
Of now done darkness I wretch lay wrestling with (my God!) my God.
Friday, January 24, 2003 AD For PBC and Other Lurkers If you read my blog and have never commented, this is your chance! Just say Hi and, if you like, tell me who you are. Pretty please! :-) Posted by Valerie (Kyriosity) at 1/24/2003 06:48:00 PM
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Links to This Post I Am So Up on Current Events! Last night I learned what teams are in the Super Bowl. And I don't even follow hockey! Posted by Valerie (Kyriosity) at 1/24/2003 06:44:00 PM
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Links to This Post Another Benefit of Getting the Computer out of the House I've lost five pounds in two weeks because my computer and my kitchen are no longer in the same zip code. And I wasn't even trying. Posted by Valerie (Kyriosity) at 1/24/2003 02:58:00 PM
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Thursday, January 23, 2003 AD Another Chapter in Valerie's Editing Adventures In the midst of some of the more hideous editing projects I must undertake, I do at least find some small pleasure in undoing the pseudo-nonsexist writing I often come across. I can't get away with the generic he, but at least I can do away with the generic she.
Oh. Excuse me. This author does use the generic he -- when referring to a "bad guy."
Valerie rolls her eyes. Posted by Valerie (Kyriosity) at 1/23/2003 06:58:00 PM
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Links to This Post Help Me Get This Straight We're all supposed to become like little children in order to get into the kingdom of heaven, but little children aren't capable of having sufficient faith to get into the kingdom of heaven, so....? Posted by Valerie (Kyriosity) at 1/23/2003 06:14:00 PM
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Links to This Post A Tour of My Library Davey started this topic, so it really isn't fair for me to steal it, but I thought it was kinda fun, so I copied my comments from there to make a post here. Recycling...that's what I seem to have time for these days!
Five book cases -- clockwise from the south wall:
Fiction alpha by author
Children's picture books however they fit best on the shelf
Ditto with art books
Journals on a shelf by date
Bibles on a shelf by size
Bible study materials (small group study guides and the like) however they fit on the shelf
Old textbooks in I have no idea what order on one shelf
Reference by category -- non-English languages, dictionaries and thesauri, etc.
General nonfiction by author
Commentaries by set (OK, so I only really have one set), then in book order
The complete works of Mark Twain (which I have not read, but acquired somewhere along the way)
An ancient (1969?) set of World Book encyclopedias
And of course there's a good-sized mish-mash of almost all categories scattered singly or in piles throughout the house. On the stairs, in particular, sit a load of my grandmother's old books -- all fiction -- gleaned mostly at whim from the zillions she had. It didn't seem prudent at the time to take them all, since I knew I'd never read them all, but it's soooo hard to pass on free books!
And there's almost always a few books on the other side of the bed -- Bible, hymnal, prayer book, whatever else I happen to be reading. I once said something to my mother about "my side of the bed" and she went a little apoplectic on me -- "What do you mean your side of the bed? Who's on the other side?" -- I hastily explained about the books and assured her that there was no one else (especially not of the male persuasion) on the premises! Does anyone else do this? I have one friend who has confessed to the habit. I generally think it's not a bad habit, as habits go. At least not until the dictionary or the one-volume Matthew Henry falls off and thuds on the floor in the middle of the night! Posted by Valerie (Kyriosity) at 1/23/2003 05:35:00 PM
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Links to This Post Adventures in Hardware Installation I'm going to attempt to install a network card tonight. Anybody wanna take bets on whether or not I succeed on my own? What would be fair odds? Posted by Valerie (Kyriosity) at 1/23/2003 01:00:00 PM
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Tuesday, January 21, 2003 AD That's Pretty Lame Three entries in a row about my blog. Pathetic. And this one's not going to be much better, 'cuz I've gotta scram outta here and get to my Covenant Group. I'm supposed to give a testimony tonight. I think I'll give my salvation testimony: "I was a covenant child. The End." Heh heh. I wonder if I could get away with it? And I wonder if the majority of the people there would have a clue what I was talking about. :-\ Posted by Valerie (Kyriosity) at 1/21/2003 06:33:00 PM
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Links to This Post Is It Just Me? Or has Site Meter been particularly wonky the past week or so? Posted by Valerie (Kyriosity) at 1/21/2003 06:28:00 PM
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Links to This Post Kyriosity en Español This was kinda cool. I wonder what they were looking for? The derivation kinda gets lost in translation though, eh? Posted by Valerie (Kyriosity) at 1/21/2003 06:27:00 PM
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Monday, January 20, 2003 AD No They Don't, She Said Puzzledly "The archive pages that contain posts will use the same template as your main blog page." My archive pages are a mishmash of my current template and the purple and blue one (which I will go back to eventually, if I can ever get my computer situation straightened out enough to get my act back together). What am I doing wrong? How can I get the same template on both my main page and my archive pages? Posted by Valerie (Kyriosity) at 1/20/2003 05:25:00 PM
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Links to This Post Sometimes I Amuse Myself So much so that I want to share the amusement with all my pals out there in Blogland! Several months ago I had mentioned to a friend that I was thinking about just picking up and moving somewhere completely different. She wrote me today and inquired, "Did you opt for more pilgrimage time in Baltimore or are you headed out into the 'wild blue yonder' for some other location?" My response: "I'm still here. My wanderlust took a cold shower." OK. Maybe y'all don't think it's so funny, but, as I said, I do amuse myself! Posted by Valerie (Kyriosity) at 1/20/2003 02:07:00 PM
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Sunday, January 19, 2003 AD Am(com)put(er)ation I'm missing my computer at home, but not as much as I thought I would. Funny how much more time I seem to have all of a sudden for reading and prayer. Of course taking away my favorite palliative has also brought back the sharpness of living alone. Have you ever seen "Awakenings"? There's a scene that takes place in the large recreation room of the hospital. Most of the floor is covered with black and white tiles in a checkerboard pattern, but there's a section several feet wide, running under a wall that has a row of windows, that is all white. The doctor observes that one of the encephalitis patients often walks up to the edge of the checkered section of the floor, but never proceeds to the windows. He theorizes that her brain needs the stimulus of the alternating colors in order to process the fact that the floor continues. So he and the nurse color in half the tiles on the blank section of floor to take the checkerboard pattern all the way to the wall. Sure enough, the woman is then able to walk all the way to the windows and look outside. I've long considered that scene a metaphor for my life. I do OK at church or at work or hanging out with friends, but night after night after night of facing an empty house feels very much like facing that empty floor. For the past three years, I've gone straight to the computer almost every time I've walked in the door. The Internet served as my checkerboard floor -- the stimulus that allowed me to keep functioning once I got home. Of course the problem was that I wasn't really functioning, I was just medicating. I was worried that once I got the computer out of the house, I would be frozen again by the emptiness of the house. I guess a week's data is not enough to go by, but so far life doesn't seem to be any more traumatic. In fact, I think it may actually have improved a wee bit, if an increased indulgence in Scripture and prayer is any indicator of such things...and I think it just may be. ;-) Posted by Valerie (Kyriosity) at 1/19/2003 07:18:00 PM
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Thursday, January 16, 2003 AD Snow Looks like I might get another snow day tomorrow. It'll be my first snow-bound day sans computer, which will be a challenge. But maybe I'll catch up on sleep! Posted by Valerie (Kyriosity) at 1/16/2003 05:40:00 PM
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Links to This Post Matthew 18 I've been on both sides of Matthew 18:15-19 this week. It's not much fun either way, but frankly, I'd rather be on the receiving end. Posted by Valerie (Kyriosity) at 1/16/2003 05:24:00 PM
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Links to This Post "My Power Is Made Perfect in Weakness" OK, Lord, I'm giving you a lot of weakness to work with here!
As I've mentioned before, I at times have a lot of trouble sleeping. It comes and goes, but right now I'm really exhausted. In the past week or so, there have been several nights when I've been awake for 2-4 hours in the middle of the night, unable to return to sleep. With the computer out of the house, I've been using that time more profitably than I used to -- reading and praying rather than surfing and playing. Sunday night, I had finished a chapter about 2 Corinthians 12:9 in a book I'd been reading before I went to bed. When I was awake from 2-5 a.m., instead of whining about how much I needed sleep, I reflected on that verse and asked God to use my physical weakness (not much, I know, compared to the suffering of many) to reveal His power in my life. I'll let y'all know if anything dramatic happens. ;-)
Also, this kind of exhaustion can feel an awful lot like depression (and can trigger depression). I'm hoping to stay out of that pit. Prayers would not be unappreciated. Posted by Valerie (Kyriosity) at 1/16/2003 12:07:00 PM
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Wednesday, January 15, 2003 AD Questions for the Day Is it terribly silly for a 35-year-old woman to wear her hair in two pigtails?
Would it stop me from doing so if it were?
How many people will call me Pocahontas today?
How many times did my mom braid my hair during the several years of childhood I wore it this way?
What percentage of those times did I end up hollering 'cuz she pulled too hard with the comb? Posted by Valerie (Kyriosity) at 1/15/2003 05:32:00 PM
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Monday, January 13, 2003 AD OK, There Aren't As Many Stanzas As the Original, But... On a dark info-highway, click-click went my mouse.
I was reading some weblogs--if they were booze, I'd be soused.
Up ahead in the monitor, I saw a light through the fog.
My head grew heavy and my sight grew dim. I had to set up a blog!
Welcome to the Hotel Blogosphera
Such a lovely place, such a lovely face
Plenty of room at the Hotel Blogosphera
Any time of year (any time of year) you can find it here
Last thing I remember I was scrolling through my list,
Clicking on each blog until a sharp pain seized my wrist.
Addicted to blogging--what a tangled Web we weave.
You can log out anytime you like but you can never leave!
Sunday, January 12, 2003 AD If Anyone Would Like to Buy Me a Present... ...Cantus Christi would do quite nicely! :-D Posted by Valerie (Kyriosity) at 1/12/2003 04:35:00 PM
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Saturday, January 11, 2003 AD Moving Day! In an hour and a half, some guys from church are coming to move my 'puter to the church office. It's an attempt to help me be more useful to the church by being more serious about my volunteer stuff there, and mostly it's an attempt to help me be more self-disciplined by getting the silly thing out of my house so I'm not on it all the time.
So here I am, online at the last minute, when I really need to be packing things up to make the move quicker and easier. It's not going to be easy for me to be cold-turkey at home, but it must be attempted. Next step will be to quit staying at the office 'til all hours surfing there! Posted by Valerie (Kyriosity) at 1/11/2003 01:35:00 PM
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Note to Readers Whadaya think...should I keep the red and green template or go back to the blue and purple one? I will go with the majority opinion, so your vote counts here, folks! Posted by Valerie (Kyriosity) at 1/08/2003 02:34:00 PM
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Sunday, January 05, 2003 AD Laurel's Quiz (From Laurel Garver)
1. What celebrities would you like to host at your home for dinner?
Hey, I've had Laurel in my home for lunch. Who needs celebrities for dinner? ;-) Seriously, I can't really think of anybody famous off the top of my head. Maybe Martha Stewart, for that extra incentive to get my house really ship-shape? Ha!
2. If you could have your own TV or radio program, what would the content be?
Assuming I have the requisite attending budget, I'd probably have a musical show, in which I would sing some of my songs and have guest song-singers, too. (Sigh...I really would like at least to record some songs someday.)
3. If you could have any sci-fi technology at your disposal, what would you choose?
I can't quibble with Laurel on her choice of the Star-Trek transporter. But I've no illusions it would keep me from showing up late anywhere. Perhaps a TARDIS would be more useful in that regard, as I could choose when as well as where. Of course a replicator would be nice too. "Filet mignon, medium rare. Broccoli, steamed, buttered. Baked potato with sour cream." Mmmmmm!
4. If you had sufficient resources to start up a business, what would you do?
Editorial services and graphic design for print and Web. But I could never be self-employed. I'd have to hire somebody else to be the boss!
5. If you could be an animal for a day, what would you choose and why?
Cat: Sleep. Be furry. Get affection on demand.
6. When you were a kid, what careers did you aspire to?
I think every kid who's ever gone to school thinks at some point of being a teacher, because it's the job they see the most of. And of course I always thought I'd get to be a mommy, but that's hope's looking dimmer and dimmer.
7. What things terrified you as a child?
My father.
8. What scenarios occur regularly in your dreams?
Nothing regularly. I have a very boring dream life and seldom remember my dreams. One of the few things that has recurred at least occasionally is the scenario of losing my teeth -- they just sort of start falling out. My mom sometimes dreams about losing her teeth, too. Anybody else? I wonder what it means.... Posted by Valerie (Kyriosity) at 1/05/2003 05:17:00 PM
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Saturday, January 04, 2003 AD It's Almost 5 A.M. and I'm Still at the Office I've told myself I can't leave until I finish the thing I'm editing. So I've spent the night reading blogs and message boards and playing stupid games. Anything to avoid having to gaze intently at badly written copy about absolute twaddle. I really need to learn to just plow through these distasteful tasks. The audience at whom this malarky is aimed probably isn't capable of discerning decently edited copy, anyway, so it hardly seems worthwhile. But I have this incurable urge to do things well. Now if only I could catch an incurable urge to do things diligently, I might have it made! Posted by Valerie (Kyriosity) at 1/04/2003 04:50:00 AM
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Thursday, January 02, 2003 AD "You Are Very Dull Today, Miss Elizabeth Bennet" Miss Valerie is very dull today, too. In fact, she's pretty much dull all the time: ignorant, lazy, uncultured, unoriginal, uneducated, boring. Why are you people here reading the blog of such a dull person? You must all be very dull today, too. Or maybe you come for the same reason I watch Rikki Lake on rare occasion: to remind myself that at least I'm not that pathetic!
[Note: This is your cue to use the comments section to tell me that I've got it all wrong and am actually brilliant, fascinating, ingenius, enchanting and downright glossy; that encountering me has changed your life; that reading my blog is the highlight of your day; that knowing I am in the world makes getting out of bed in the morning worth the effort. Either that or prescribe me some Prozac. Or smack me upside the head and tell me to snap out of it (this option is for Jane, who is especially gifted at that sort of thing). Or think of some other creative, non-dull way to encourage me. Now if you will excuse me, I think I had better go pray a bit!]
[Another note after praying: I may be dull, but God is good!] Posted by Valerie (Kyriosity) at 1/02/2003 08:20:00 AM
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