Archive for August, 2006
29
Aug
Life in a Nutshell
28
Aug
New Week, New Schedule
Hey all. I thought I’d do just a quick post, because I need to leave for work in a few minutes. Today is the day I start school. Let’s see, I have Intro to Early Childhood Education and Music Theory tonight, and tomorrow I have Science and Math for Children and Intro to Communication. Terribly exciting, I know. The music class is the only one I’m really looking forward to. The upside to all this new scheduling is that I don’t have to go to work until 10:30 on most mornings. But I probably won’t be getting home from school until 9ish. That’s alright, I’ll just “look to my eskimo friend”… sorry, I’m listening to Damien Rice. I love him - he’s great. My mom likes him too. Right, sorry, I’m getting all off topic. So this weekend I made highly detailed schedules for my entire fall. I’m such a loser. I need to go find some friends! 
I’ve decided to put some limits on my computer, etc. use, because if I don’t, I won’t do my homework and I won’t go to bed until 1 AM every night. So I’ll be using my computer for only 30 mins a day and my iPod only in the car. I’m not setting any TV limits, because I’m really not addicted to the TV at the moment. Ok, as interesting as this is, I am probably going to be late for work now (again). Come on, people, leave me a comment. Just write “hi” if you have nothing else to say. I have planned some exciting things on here for the upcoming weeks, but I’d like to know that someone cares before I put effort into it (yes mother and Liz and “that girl”, I know you’re reading). Ok, enough nonsense. The end.
Jill
27
Aug
WOTW 08/27/06
Greetings, everyone! I must interrupt this rainy Sunday afternoon to bring you the W
OTW. Be careful with the pronunciation of the word this week, as it is trickier than it appears. Don’t forget to use this word as much as you possibly can in your everyday conversations, in order to cement it in your memory and to spread your knowledge to the world. Alrighty, here it is:
-cerebropathy (sĕr”u-brŏp’u-thē) noun –> hypochondria resulting from too much thinking
Ex: The healthy man thought about his hypercenesthesia so much that he developed a severe case of cerebropathy, which caused his whole body to ache.
This week we have a very practical random fact for all the ice enthusiasts out there:
Ice cubes will be clearer if you fill the tray with warm, rather than cold, water. Warm water prevents the formation and entrapment of tiny air bubbles during freezing which, aside from mineral impurities, is the usual cause of cloudy cubes.
Ok, my dear amis, I hope you have a wonderful week. I was just pondering it, and I realized that the word of the week has been in existence for almost three years now. The quality and humor of the words has been steadily declining for the past year or so. Maybe we can plan some kind of three-year celebration and return to the wonderfulness that the WOTW used to be. Let me know if you have any ideas to achieve this goal. Unfortunately, it’s time to cut short the rambling. Au revoir, mes petites aubergines.
Fondest regards,
Dr. J
25
Aug
The Music Part 2
Howdy al
l… I hope everyone is doing well. Let’s see, what’s exciting here? I have a couple days off from work right now just to relax before starting up school on Monday. Yesterday I took little Keith to Barnes and Noble… we played with their “choo choo train”, Keith found a riveting book about tractors, and I got Nicholas Nickelby by Charles Dickens for 50% off. Doesn’t get much more exciting than that. Today I went hiking, in the rain… yeah, not such a good idea. I got really wet. And then I went and spent a week’s worth of pay on textbooks. And now I am typing to you fine people. And let me tell you, I am very excited about our topic today. I’ve got some music updates for you… some new artists, some not so new artists, some music news. So let’s get into it.
First up on the list today is a band I’ve mentioned before and that, for the moment, has lodged itself in a very close second position behind my favorite band. This really amazing band is none other than Switchfoot. I bought their album The Beautiful Letdown and really enjoyed it. Then I bought Nothing is Sound and all I can say is wow. What a great album. Musically, it’s very similar to The Beautiful Letdown, but it is definitely a step up lyrically and emotionally. The thing that really gets me about this album is its honesty. That raw, frank honesty is the thing that makes the beautiful music and the beautiful lyrics even more poignant. This album is about everything from the deeply personal to the nature of our entire generation, but the whole thing just talks about real life, real problems, real emotions, and a very real hope. Lead singer and songwriter Jon Foreman describes the album like this: “Maybe that’s what this record hopes to be: a simple bitter pill of truth that steps outside of our hamster wheel and looks up at the stars and beyond.” It’s not always a cheerful album, but it’s just great. Absolutely one of my favorites. Go listen to some of the songs from the album (for free!) on purevolume.
Ok, up next is an up and coming solo artist named Brent Cashell. He doesn’t quite have an album put together yet, and the music’s production quality is sometimes rough, but the positive side is that you can download his songs for free on his MySpace page (yes, I oppose MySpace, but I’ll make an exception this once). His songs are very simple, pretty much just him with a piano or guitar, but he has a great voice, catchy tunes, and stirring lyrics. I particularly recommend the songs “Better Me” and “Wrap Me In Your Love”. I’ll let you know if he puts out an album or puts new songs up or anything.
Next up is a very different type of music from Hawaiian artist John Keawe. John Keawe writes and plays a type of guitar called slack key guitar. If you like listening to acoustic guitars as much as I do, or if you like mellow acoustic music, you will like this. I don’t actually have any of John Keawe’s albums, but his music is featured pretty often on the HawaiiUp podcast. From what I’ve heard and read, I recommend his album called Keaweualani. Unfortunately, he only has a couple songs available to download on iTunes, and the albums are pretty expensive, but if this is a problem, just listen to past episodes (especially episode #35) of HawaiiUp and you can hear him.
Last but certainly not least is the ever-changing but consistently great band that is Jars of Clay. First of all, I recently purchased their latest album Redemption Songs. This is not my favorite Jars album, but it is very very good if you are a fan of hymns. This is the band’s most overtly Christian album, in which they have “reworked” old hymns. Basically they took the words and basic tunes of these hymns and gave the music a modern, slightly rockish twist. I guess I should say if you don’t like hymns, you won’t like this album. I would actually more highly recommend the EP they released after this album, entitled Roots and Wings, which I haven’t been able to find anywhere except on iTunes. It has only 4 songs, 1 one which is found on Redemption Songs, but they are all good songs, so check it out. And now, I have some super-exciting Jars of Clay news. They just recently released another EP entitled Mini Monsters, which is also almost exclusively available on iTunes. It only has three tracks, but I highly recommend that you download “Love Me” - it’s a very good song. Ok, but now for the real news. Jars of Clay new album, Good Monsters, will be released in only 11 days, on September 5. I’ve listenened to previews of it, and I can tell you for certain that this is going to be yet another excellent album from this excellent band. So go check it out - you can pre-order it on Amazon.com or christianbook.com or on iTunes (starting on Aug. 28). Do it! Preorder your copy! Fall in love with Jars of Clay - it’s so worth it.
Ok, enough shameless advertising. I swear, these bands should start paying me. Or give me free music. I have found quite a few new artists lately whose albums I really want to buy, but I am broke for the next couple weeks due to all the money I’m spending on Lost DVDs and guitar lessons. Maybe you love my music reviews so much that you want to send me an iTunes gift card, so I can get a new one out sooner. Maybe not. 
Alrighty, folks, I have to go away now. Have a great day!
Ever yours,
Jill
24
Aug
Welcome back to my life…
Maybe I’ve been the problem,
Maybe I’m the one to blame.
But even when I turn it off and blame myself
The outcome feels the same.
-Stars by Switchfoot
Wow, hi. It’s been a very long 2 weeks for me without being able to type to you wonderful people. But really, it was a very long, boring, hard 2 weeks for me. And maybe you’re thinking, “C’mon, two weeks really isn’t that long to go without your computer and iPod.” But it was long, and that probably says a lot about me and the state of my heart. If you’ve read my previous posts, you know that I’m really not into deep, reflective, journal-esque blogs, but for this one time, I’m going to tell you a little bit more deeply about me and my relationship (or lack thereof) with God, because that is really will be the only thing I will ever blog about that really matters. So here we go, hiatus talk sprinkled with some reflective babble. Enjoy.
My hiatus actually started out really well. For the first couple days, I was excited to be getting so many useful things done. I was reading a lot more and practicing my instruments and it just felt good to feel like I was accomplishing something instead of staring blankly at a screen all day. But then things started to get rough, because I didn’t have my computer to turn to when all my pent-up thoughts and emotions descended upon me. I guess this is the part where I tell you that I haven’t really talked to God in months. Well, sometimes I talk to Him, but it never really ends up going anywhere. And I won’t even start giving you reasons why, because they would go on for pages and pages and they are really just sorry excuses. The reason my electonics hiatus didn’t “work” is because my abuse of technology is only a symptom of a much deeper, darker cause. I wish I could ask you for sympathy, but I walked into this with my eyes wide open. I told God that I was sick of working and that life would be more fun if I just did what I wanted without worrying about right and wrong. But what have I done with this “freedom”? Absolutely nothing of worth.
Alright, so the technology hiatus didn’t break my addiction to the computer or fix my relationship with God. I should’ve known better. But it did give me a little time to think about my sorry heart, and here’s my conclusion: I will always be a slave to the things I want. That’s great if the thing I want is God, but right now, all I want is the newest and the best stuff. And the best part is that I can’t even tell you why I want these things or exactly what I am hoping to accomplish with them. If you asked me what I want to do with my life, I would tell you that I want to be a missionary to the unreached people in China. This really is what I want to do, but am I making any strides towards this goal? Am I working to gain the qualities that will fill me with the Spirit of God and actually allow me to bring something of value - some real hope and peace to the people I say I want to minister to? The short answer is no. All I have been allowing to grow in me lately is apathy. I consiously numb my mind and seclude myself and then I wonder why it’s getting harder and harder for me to care about anyone but myself.
Wow, that’s depressing. I better end this now before we all start crying. No, but seriously, if you have any advice for me, let me know. I’ve been wondering if all this blogging is really worthwhile, since judging by the comments I’ve gotten, only about 4 people are reading this. So if you are reading this, just leave a little comment; tell me what you love, tell me what you hate, tell me what you ate for lunch today, just let me know you’re reading and that this isn’t a total waste of time. Ok, my dear friends, I need to go to sleep. Tune in tomorrow for another post about music - this should be good. I’ve got some great artists to share with you. Alrighty, au revoir.
Reflectively,
Dr. J
20
Aug
WOTW 08/20/06
-acyanoblepsia (a-sī”u-nō-blĕp’sĭ-u) noun –> inability to distinguish blue; blue-blindness
Ex: While his entire family admired the sparkling ocean and clear blue sky, the acyanoblepsic man sulked in a corner.
Random Fact: The eel is so chemically sensitive to alcohol that it can detect a quantity equivalent to one teaspoonful poured into Lake Superior.
13
Aug
WOTW 08/13/06
-hypercenesthesia (hī”pur-sĕn-ĕs-thē’zi-u) noun –> an exaggerated sense of well-being Ex: On the infamous “opposite day”, the hyponchondriac displayed strange signs of hypercenesthesia.
Random Fact: Expelled air from a sneeze travels at about 100 miles per hour.
07
Aug
Hiatus Talk
Bonjour! I hope everyone’s doing well. Not too much exciting news from the last couple days. I went hiking yesterday and saw about a gazillion frogs. Seriously, they were everywhere. There were just a lot of bugs in general, too. But that’s not exciting. I had my final chiropracter visit today… I’m going to miss getting cracked, but that’s ok. Doctors are too expensive.
So anyways, maybe you remember my mention of doing a technology hiatus a couple posts back. Well, it starts at midnight tonight and runs until 12 AM on Wednesday, 08/23. Here’s what my hiatus entails: no computer, no TV, and no iPod. For those of you who don’t spend much time around me, you may not know that I am pretty much constantly connected to one of these three things. It’s a sick addiction. I’ve outlined 5 goals that I have for this time off. Here they are:
- To break my addiction to these things.
- To give my brain a rest from constant stimulation.
- To have a time to just read and do others things that actually nourish my mind.
- To cut out (at least some) distraction so I can listen to/talk to God.
- To have time to do things that actually matter!
So there you have it. I obviously won’t be blogging for the next two weeks, but since I am still allowed to use the phone (one thing I’m not addicted to… maybe because my sister’s the only person who ever calls me), I will be calling in an audio post for the words of the week on Sundays. But that’s all you’ll be hearing for the next two weeks. I know, that’s no great tragedy for you, but I’m really going to have a tough time without these things. I can feel the withdrawal shakes starting already. Alrighty, folks, I don’t really have a whole lot else to say. I guess this is the end. I’ll be back in a couple weeks with a nice, long, reflective post about hiatusville. Au revoir, mes petits chemins.
Dr. J
06
Aug
WOTW 08/06/06
Hey all. I hope you had a good week. I’ve spent my time this week searching the world far and wide to find a wonderful word to bring to you. As always, remember to use this word as much as is possible in everyday conversation in order to imprint the word in your mind forever and to improve the intelligence of the masses. Without further ado, here is the word of the week:
-heterolalia (hĕt”ur-ō-lā’lĭ-u) n. –> the occasional interpolation of meaningless or unintended words
Ex: When I was mehaij driving home from work monsters yesterday, I went above meow the speed gaickle limit.
Now, for this week’s random fact:
Why is the fish a symbol of Christianity? Because in early Christian writings Jesus was referred to with a long title: “Jesus Christ, Son of God, Saviour”; or, in Greek, “Iesous Christos, Theou ‘Yios, Soter.” The initial letters of these words spelled ichthys, the Greek word for “fish” (the study of fishes is still called “ichthyology”). Whether by coincidence or design the acronym was memorable and the fish quickly came to be a symbol for Jesus Christ.
Ok, dear amis, have a super-fantastic week. Je ne pense pas que je peux taper plus, parce que je dois me coucher à une heure raisonnable ce soir. Bet you didn’t know you’d be getting a French lesson tonight, did you? Ok the end.
Fondest regards,
Dr. J
