sunshineandlightning's weblog

Monday, 18 May 2009

  • Currently
    Soul Making: The Desert Way of Spirituality
    By Alan W. Jones
    see related

    garden-planting and soul-decorating.

    Last week's Canadian road trip was fantastic...I seriously think I could live in Toronto. I loved it. Now back to school and reality...




    anonymously quoted poet in this book, whose imagery I enjoyed:

    After a while you learn the subtle difference
    Between holding and chaining a soul,
    And you learn that love doesn't mean leaning
    And company doesn't mean security,
    And you begin to learn that kisses aren't contracts
    And presents aren't promises,
    And you begin to accept your defeats
    With your head up and your eyes open,
    And learn to build all your roads
    On today because tomorrow's ground
    Is too uncertain for plans, and futures have
    A way of falling down in mid-flight.
    After a while you learn that even sunshine
    Burns if you get too much.
    So you plant your own garden and decorate
    Your own soul, instead of waiting
    For someone to bring you flowers,
    And you learn that you really can endure...
    That you really are strong
    And you really do have worth.
    And you learn and learn...
    With every good-bye you learn.

Tuesday, 05 May 2009

  • Currently
    The Divine Comedy (The Inferno, The Purgatorio, and The Paradiso)
    By Dante Alighieri
    see related

    AAAAGGGHH.

    I need to write two papers in two days.

    Well, actually, it's 5:00pm now, and I work at 4:45pm tomorrow, so technically I need to write two papers in less than 24 hours plus late-late into the night Wednesday maybe.

    OK, so...Dante.

    I'm stuck.

    I literally have nothing interesting, groundbreaking, or vaguely thesis-like to say about Dante. All the symbols and allegories are already right there in the footnotes. What am I supposed to say?

    All I've got so far is...something about the process of redemption as reflected in the plant life and/or rivers of Inferno, Purgatory, and Paradise.

    That's kind of a crappy thesis.

    It's DANTE!!! Dante has been meticulously picked apart and mulled over and written about for like SEVEN HUNDRED YEARS.

    T_T

    OK. redemption...plants...rivers. I should get to work.

Saturday, 25 April 2009

Monday, 13 April 2009

  • Currently
    To Kill A Mockingbird
    By Harper Lee
    see related

    anecdote from Spanish 103, Wheaton College:

    [I have discovered that one of the peculiarities of a Christian college is that innuendo and crudeness---which might excite a vague chuckle in a secular classroom---become about a million times funnier. Partly because it's funny, but mostly because it's so random and unexpected.]

    We are now on Capitulo 15...the chapter about marriages and weddings. Why a Spanish textbook would have an entire chapter devoted to marriages and weddings, I have no idea. La profesora instructs the class,

    "Describan su esposo o esposa ideal."

    I cringe. As if marriage wasn't talked about at Wheaton enough already.

    I attempt to be funny. "Tiene mucho dinero!"
    Another girl attempts to be funny in a different way. "Se llama Ernesto!"
    Others decide that sus esposos ideales son guapos, son comicos, les gustan hijos, quieren un perro, y aman Jesu Cristo.

    We are then at a loss, as our list seems insufficient for la profesora's intended use for it---teaching us the difference between subjunctive and indicative when talking about hypothetical vs. real people.

    "Remember, this is su esposo o esposa ideal," she says. "En realidad, no hay una persona perfecta...but what would an ideal spouse be like?"

    there is a brief silence...

    and then, the heroine of our classroom, a senior girl proficient in French (taking this class simply to give her enough hours to graduate) blurts out,

    "bien en la cama!"

    The class absolutely dies laughing and doesn't recover for a good five minutes. La profesora is not amused.

    Our classmate was, however, taking the esposo ideal stipulation seriously. I agree with her.

    Mi esposo ideal sea bien en la cama tambien.

    See? I even used the subjunctive, because I am talking about someone who doesn't necessarily exist.

    Spanish is fun.

Sunday, 12 April 2009

  • Currently
    Fullmetal Alchemist: Season 1, Part 1 Box Set
    By Fullmetal Alchemist
    see related
    My mom is great. She talks me though stuff---every day if I need it...which has been the case lately.

    three more weeks of classes.
    exam week.
    summer [+ low-pressure school].
    exciting summer things.

    What if I moved to Atlanta after next year?

    cheap gas.
    cheap airfare. [Delta & Airtran hubs, FTW!]
    generous starting teacher salaries. [$44,000 1st year BA, anyone?]
    driving distance to Orlando. [i do love a reason for a road trip]
    vicinity to mountains.
    vicinity to music scene. [Paste magazine is based outside of Atlanta if i'm not mistaken]
    comparatively benevolent winter weather.
    alleged disproportionately high numbers of young single post-college people.

    hm.

Monday, 06 April 2009

  • Currently
    Freedom Writers (Widescreen Edition)
    By Hilary Swank, Patrick Dempsey, Scott Glenn, Imelda Staunton, April L. Hernandez
    see related

    there is a tiredness that not even coffee can dispel.

    Geneva Community High School is a good school.

    I am wise, however, to the little game that Wheaton's "methods practicum" arrangement (30+ minute commute to school every single morning at 7:00am, 30+ minute commute back at 10:30, THEN regular college classes, THEN life?/work/homework) is trying to play. I figure Wheaton wants us to be SO desperately desirous of a school day that is over before 3:00pm that we won't feel even the least bit nervous or apprehensive about student teaching.

    Well, they've got me. I feel like I am leading a triple life...being at Geneva, where the teachers do Geneva, and that's it. Being at Wheaton, where most students do Wheaton, and that's it. Trying to earn money so I can have a little fun on the side (when?)...it's exhausting.

    The next two and a half days are going to be...exhausting.

    Student teaching? Bring it.

    Grading? Oh boo hoo, at least I won't be up all night feeling mentally paralyzed and unable to write my theology paper.

    I would very much like a vacation...and am in the process of plotting (heh heh heh) for this summer. Some days that's the only thing that really puts a smile on my face. The entire world may be coupling off, but at least I am still me. And being me, almost by definition, involves a startling ability to pull off some pretty crazy crap in terms of vacations. ;)

    I've also developed a somewhat obsessive tendency to order cute blazers off ebay. Ebay has an infinitely better selection of affordable, hip, uber-petite blazers than the mall has. Blazers help me feel authoritative for some reason.

Tuesday, 10 March 2009

  • Currently
    Everything to Everyone
    By Barenaked Ladies
    see related

    I have set aside everything I love
    I have saved everything else for you...

    In a book in a box high upon a shelf, in a locked and guarded vault
    Are the things I keep only for myself, it's your fate but it's not your fault

    And for every useless reason I know, there's a reason not to care
    If I hide myself wherever I go, am I ever really there?

    Seeing BNL perform this and hearing Ed Robertson sing these words live was nothing short of...beautiful.

    I wished I had a lighter to hold up.

    I'm still struggling.

    It's not your [my] fault.

    The world is coupling off.

    It's disgusting.

    I used to delight in being disgusting like that. 

    Steven Page started doing drugs and left his wife and kids.

    These things happen.

    It's not your [my] fault.

    Where's the fast-forward button? ...I'm still struggling.

Tuesday, 24 February 2009

  • Currently
    Dubliners
    By James Joyce
    see related

    true story...

    ...from the Wheaton College Education Department.

    In order to help us "own" our classroom as future teachers, Dr. Loomis (who technically prefers to be thought of as our sherpa) offered commentary as we all walked around "owning" the classroom for ten minutes---while the theme from Shaft followed by an Earth Wind & Fire song played.

    "WORK IT!!! Be SEXY!!! You are entering a SEXY profession!!!"

    "What are you afraid of, some kind of NO DANCING ALLOWED POLICY???" (hahahaha)

    Dr. Loomis later told us about how in Greek and Persian traditions, philosophers would hold drinking parties. The young men would drink, "loosen up," lose their inhibitions, and do all the talking. The old men would stay sober, listen, and understand how they could better tutor the young men (typically restrained by said inhibitions). Supposedly C.S. Lewis, Tolkien, and the Inklings practiced their own form of inhibition-free brainstorming, but Dr. Loomis stopped short of describing that in detail.

    Wheaton College does not endorse the aforementioned tradition.

    It does endorse C.S. Lewis and sexy teachers.


Monday, 23 February 2009

  • Currently
    On The Incarnation
    By Saint Athanasius
    see related

    every now and then...

    ...i get into one of these moods,

    becoming thoroughly convinced that the so-called "progress" of modern times is nothing more than the development of increasingly elaborate ways to waste time.

    cable TV. DVR/"U-verse." the internet. newer cars. more crap to buy. computers that are better than yours. "reality TV." social networking websites. youtube. robot vacumn cleaners. iphones. video game addictions. flat screen TVs. cell phones with the internet on them. cell phones with their own little wifi signal so you can access the internet anywhere from your laptop. subconciously manipulative commercials. "guerilla advertising" (via projectors and random flat surfaces of big buildings) in cities. advertising period. computer-oriented careeres in which everything you know now will be obsolete in five years. people paying for college in order to obtain the nearly-obsolete preparation for those careers. megachurches euipped with fancy lighting systems and jumbotron screens. the in vitro fertilization that allowed that single mom on welfare to have like 12 kids she can't afford. credit cards. online shopping. online dating. celebrity followings. pornography available online. lots of terrible things available online. prozac. ritalin. rap music that degrades women and isn't even musical. microsoft word 2007.

    make it stop.

  • Currently
    Dubliners
    By James Joyce
    see related

    thoughts from top-40 lyrics that ironically resonate with me:

    "They tried to make me go to rehab, I said no, no, no...

    The man said, 'Why do you think you here?'
    I said I got no idea
    I'm gonna, I'm gonna lose my baby
    So I always keep a bottle near

    I don't ever wanna drink again
    I just---I just need a friend...

    And it's not just my pride,
    It's just till these tears have dried...

    They tried to make me go to rehab, I said no, no, no..."



    "All the single ladies, all the single ladies...

    If you liked it then you shoulda put a ring on it, if you liked it then you shoulda put a ring on it...

    uh-uh-oh, uh-uh-oh..."



    "I've been roaming around, I was looking down at all I see...

    You know that I could use somebody...

    Off in the night while you live it up I'm off to sleep
    Waging wars to shake the poet and the beat

    I'm ready now..."



    "Take back the city for yourself tonight, I'll take back the city for me...

    Ten thousand craters where it all should be, woah woah...

    It's a mess. It's a start. It's a flawed work of art..."



sunshineandlightning

  • Visit sunshineandlightning's Xanga Site
    • Name: Sara
    • Country: United States
    • State: Illinois
    • Metro: Wheaton
    • Birthday: 8/12/1987
    • Gender: Female
    • Member Since: 11/21/2004

About Me

  • I exist on this earth for the soul purpose of worshipping my Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, drawing closer to Him, and bringing other people with me. Music is a major part of my life, and some of my happiest moments are when I'm playing guitar and having fellowship with my friends. I love people and I love to laugh and travel.

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