Do you think the library has this?

I'm not sure whether to laugh or avert my eyes at this very not politically correct book.

I can't wait!

Have you seen the trailer for the new Alice in Wonderland? It looks awesome!

wow

This is far and away the most awkward thing I have ever seen in my life. Check out these Harry Potter interviews.

Loving this song

The Hush Sound - New Music - More Music Videos

Gorgeousness

I've been trying to look a little less scummy lately, but since I'm beautificationally challenged, I've had to watch videos on YouTube to show me how to do my hair and make-up. I know, I'm lame, but I don't have a big sister to show me how to do this crap. The best I could ever manage was in sixth grade when I would wear a ponytail and slap a giant bow on it. And when I say giant, I'm talking like half the size of my head. I remember my BFF at the time, Brittinee, also had an affinity for large hairbows and she actually had a bow that was made of some kind of mesh and it had little multi-colored balls inside that shook around when you moved. I was beyond jealous. Those were the days. But anyway, back to the videos. I found a great channel on YouTube called PurseBuzz. There's also a website. Here are some of my favorite videos:

• How to thread your eyebrows. This is addictive. I love it.
• How to do milkmaid braids, part 1 and part 2. I haven't quite mastered this enough to wear it out in public yet, but it's pretty cool looking.
• Cute waves.
• Purple eyeshadow. Not scary like it sounds-I wear purple eyeshadow all the time because it goes really well with my green eyes.

Those are just a few of the many, many videos on this channel. I also subscribe to the blog Bellasugar, which is where I found this cute hairstyle. I did this yesterday and got tons of compliments. Well, o.k., not really, but it did make me feel extra confident. :)

Marriage Protest

Oh. My. Gosh.

I just saw this on someone else's blog and LOVED IT! You must watch.

Tastiness

Have you checked out the Pioneer Woman's new Tasty Kitchen site? I'm slightly obsessed with it.

Hallelujah!

I just learned that I have officially been released from my Primary calling!!!! I mean I figured I would be released when I refused to go anymore and told them I was going to start going to a singles ward (solely for the reason of getting out of this calling, in case you were wondering), but to hear that it's now official is a fabulous feeling. Does it make me a bad person that I just up and quit? I tried to tell the appropriate people (well, person) that I didn't want to do it anymore and I needed to be released, but after like two months nothing had happened, so I took matters into my own hands. Sometimes you have to put your foot down and stand up for your mental health and let's be honest, the well-being of the children. So yeah, today's been a really good day!





I do actually feel slightly guilty. People talk about Catholic guilt, but I'm pretty sure Mormon guilt gives them a run for their money. I will not succumb to the guilt, though. I'm going to enjoy this moment and my freedom. I feel like Mel Gibson in Braveheart. You can make me work with children and you can make me feel slightly guilty, but you'll never take . . . MY FREEDOM! I've never actually seen this movie, but I'm sure it somehow relates.

Oh Edward, I mean Cedric

ABC Family has been running the Harry Potter movies all weekend and we're finally up to The Goblet of Fire, or as I prefer to call it, The One With Robert Pattinson. I haven't seen this one since Twilight came out and now I'm finding that Edward, I mean Robert, is kind of distracting. I keep searching him out in different scenes and I swear I saw him sparkle a minute ago. I think I might need to just turn it off now.

Robert Pattinson. He's so hot right now.

playlist

I just posted a new playlist of all the music I've been listening to lately. As always, it's pretty random, ranging from sweet 80's soundtrack songs to country to lots of Britney Spears to new age to one random classical song to celtic awesomeness. Oh yeah, and it's possible there may be some New Kids on the Block songs. And maybe a song from High School Musical 3. I know.

You know that feeling you get

when you've had one line of a song stuck in your head for a week, but you can't for the life of you figure out what freakin' song it is, and every single day you go through your iTunes trying to find the song, but you can't, and then you google the lyric for like the fifth time and you FINALLY find the song you think it is, only to find that somehow you've deleted that song from your iTunes (which would explain why you could never find it), so you have to go to YouTube to find the video to confirm that this is, in fact, said song, and you discover that it really, truly is the song you've been thinking and dreaming of for the PAST SEVEN DAYS? Yeah, that's like the best feeling ever.

In case you were wondering, the song was "Blue Eyes" by the Cary Brothers.

super saver

I just wanted to let you guys know that my cousin, Wendy, has a great new blog about coupons, saving money, free stuff, etc. And she posts all the time, so there's always something new to check out. Anyway, go take a look . . . I'm saving now, are you?

blah

I'm sitting here watching the recap of the Michael Jackson memorial. It's all just very sad. It's hard to hear about all the different drugs he was taking because I can completely relate. Obviously I never took anywhere near as much as he did, but I understand wanting to escape. I understand being willing to do whatever it takes to be able to fall asleep at night so that your brain will just stop running overtime. I understand the craziness that comes with the disease of addiction; the absolute obsession and preoccupation with getting your next fix. It's still crazy to me how after years of being clean, if something happens that I'm not sure how to deal with, the thought of using still goes through my mind. It doesn't happen all the time, and it may only be for a split second, but it's still there. It's like a dark cloud that just permanently hangs over your head. It doesn't always affect you, but it's always there, just waiting to swoop in. Of course there are things you can do to keep it at bay, but in the back of your mind you know the insanity will come back in a split second if you aren't careful. And what really, really sucks is that it will never go away. Ever. And every time another person dies of an overdose, whether it be a celebrity or a regular person, I think about how that could be me. I think about how at one point during my using I actually wrote a note and left it by my bed listing what I had taken and how much of it I had taken, so that if I was found unconscious (or worse), the EMT's would know better how to help me. Of course it didn't occur to me to just not use. The need to escape was too strong. I knew I could be killing myself, but I did it anyway. That's the definition of an addict-knowing the consequences, but doing it anyway because in that moment, when you're in full blown addiction, you just plain don't have a choice. So yeah, I can relate.

P.S. Don't worry, I'm not all depressed or anything, I promise! I'm grateful to be alive and sober, and this is just a good reminder to be careful with my thoughts and actions.

P.P.S. I apologize for any spelling or grammatical errors in this post. I don't want to reread it all, but I'm so completely anal about spelling and grammar that I can't let it go without acknowledging that there may be mistakes. That's what happens when your parents are both teachers.

stinkin' thinkin'

For one of my classes, we're reading the book "Bonds That Make Us Free" by C. Terry Warner. It's basically a self-help book and why we're reading it for this class, I have no idea. Other than that, it's pretty good. There was one particular part in a reading we did last week that I liked. It says (and I'm taking parts from a couple different pages here):

• We've all known a teenage beauty who's convinced she is hideous. . . . The beauty would never have suspected herself hideous if she had not made her appearance a major issue by wishing to be gorgeous. . . . these people would never have imagined the possibility of their monstrousness if they had never tried to prove themselves impressive. . . . as self-betrayers we project an image of a deserving, worthwhile person, and then we struggle constantly to produce evidence that we're measuring up to that image. . . . We have little conception of how worthwhile we are because we are working so hard to prove how worthwhile we are!

I guess I just liked this because it talks about how through our own messed up expectations, we set ourselves up to be disappointed in ourselves. I'm trying to work really hard on not having ludicrous expectations for myself and just accepting myself as I am. So yeah, that's about it.

scandalicious!

I have a new obsession with blind celebrity gossip. Not blind as in they can't see, but blind as in they give you the story without saying who it is and you have to figure out who they're talking about. For example, see if you can guess these celebrities . . .

• This A+ list Academy Award winner/nominee actress spent some time two weeks ago at a Veteran's hospital. She did so quietly and without publicity. She spent time with every patient she could and when she left, she gave them all gift bags which included a $1000 gift certificate to Best Buy.
• While shooting on the set of their latest movie, these two stars have a completely different way of interacting with their fans. Well, I should say one interacts with fans, and one pretends she cannot see or hear them. Our B+ list movie actor usually plays the fun guy and it seems that when he is filming it is the exact same way. He spends most of the time in between takes speaking with fans, taking pictures and talking the entire time. Our A+ list actress on the other hand spends her time in between takes as far away from the fans as possible and has absolutely nothing to do with them. She is very good at pretending not to hear them or see them.
• This Academy Award nominated/winner A+ list actor doesn't get much publicity for all of the good he does, and so I thought I would share one of the things about him which he did for no reason other than being a great guy. While shooting a film our actor was introduced to a young girl. The girl had wanted to meet our actor for a very long time. Because she was dying of leukemia, her parents had asked Make-A-Wish to make it happen. For whatever reason they had not. Well, someone on the set heard about this little girl and asked our actor if it would be ok for her to meet him. He said sure, and the girl came. At the time she visited him she had a few weeks to live. When he asked about her medical treatment he was told there really wasn't any money. Our actor paid for all her medical bills and three years later she is still alive and still in touch with our actor.
• This intense B list movie and sometime television actor takes parenting very seriously. He knows the reputation of bars and clubs in Hollywood to serve underage celebrities. So, to make sure his B list actress daughter doesn't drink he calls ahead to wherever she is going and makes sure they know they will be in for a world of hurt if they serve her booze.

Can you guess who the celebrities are?

1. Angelina Jolie, 2. Paul Rudd and Reese Witherspoon, 3. Johnny Depp, 4. Eric and Emma Roberts.

These were just some of the tame ones. Crazy Days and Nights has other more scandalous blinds as well.

the righteousness rat race

Today in New Testament we discussed the clean/unclean aspects of the miracles Jesus performed and some of the stories that are told in Matthew. We talked about how the Law of Moses compartmentalized everything into being either clean or unclean and if you touched something that was unclean (lepers, dead people, things having to do with death, bodily fluids, etc.), that impurity was then transferred to you and you would have to then purify yourself. But despite all this, Jesus went out of his way to touch unclean people and spend time with those who were seen as unclean or sinners.

So then, if Jesus focused his time and efforts on the "sinners" and unclean, what does it really mean to be Christlike? Do we get too caught up in being righteous and following the letter of the law that we forget to love and embrace the people who could most use it? I think too often we reach out to people because it's what we're supposed to do, not because we actually care. There were many times as a teenager that I felt like I was the Young Women's service project but there were also times when certain people reached out to me and made a difference, all because I felt like they genuinely cared about me; I wasn't just a good deed to cross off their to do list. Religion shouldn't be a rat race to see who is the most righteous. We shouldn't avoid people who are "unclean" for fear they'll rub off on us.

I see things like this a lot with addicts. We tend to do bad things and we'll be the first to admit that, but I can pretty much guarantee you that if you try to spend time with us, we're not going to hold you down and inject heroin into your veins or make you smoke a crack pipe. The thing that most helps me when I'm dealing with someone who has issues is to realize that events in their lives helped make them that way. No one just decides one day to start doing drugs or randomly sleep around or go steal a car. Chances are they've spent a good part of their lives feeling like they weren't good enough in some way (not to mention, of course, serious issues like abuse, addicted parents, etc.). So why on earth would you treat someone like a project or look down on them when all they want is to be loved? Love is a many splendored thing. Love lifts us up where we belong. All you need is love! (Sorry, Moulin Rouge was just on t.v.)

Don't worry that I'm completely horrible at this. I think my motives for doing things are suspect a good bit of the time and I'm sure that comes across in my actions. So I guess my question would be is this a case where you fake it til you make it, despite the fact that people can see right through you? Or should you not do certain things because because they're fake? I know that feeling like I was being treated like a service project did a whole lot more harm than good, but would I rather have just been ignored? There's got to be a balance in there somewhere, right? If you can figure out where that balance lies, please let me know!

Grrr

You know those days (or, in this case, like an hour) where everything just flat out irritates the crap out of you? Yeah, that's where I'm at right now. I really need to work on not letting things get to me because as soon as I let a couple things get to me, everything else just snowballs. Blah. Anyway, that's all.

Matthew

O.k., this one is super, super long and I don't blame you if you choose to skip over it, but it's also got some super, super interesting stuff in it. It's super meaty. I hope you take time to read it.*

Who knew the Bible had so much debate to it? It's old; you would think the debate would be over and done with. Not so much. And I like it. Apparently there is something called the Synoptic Problem. The problem basically is this: the Synoptic Gospels (Matthew, Mark and Luke) have a lot in common. In some places they say the exact same thing, word for word. So did they all just magically come up with the exact same things to say in the exact same way? Or did they copy from each other? Biblical scholars (which obviously does not include me) say that Mark was written in the 60's and Matthew and Luke were written in the 80's, which would lead you to believe that Matthew and Luke copied parts of Mark. But then there are also parts of Matthew and Luke that are the same and that aren't found in Mark. Historians have theorized that these things come from another source, which they call "Q". Q stands for "quelle" which is the German word for source. This document (if, of course, it existed) no longer exists today, but is a collection of the sayings of Jesus. Some say it may have actually been the Gospel of Thomas. So . . . if you're following me here, my point is that Matthew and Luke both have parts that are word for word from Mark, parts they have in common that may have come from document Q, and parts that are unique to that particular book.

So, that being said, what makes the book of Matthew unique? Why did the author choose to include those things? To understand these things, you have to know a little bit about what was going on in the Holy Land during the time Matthew was written. The big issue during that time had to do with the Gentiles. The early members of the Christian church were (obviously) Jewish, and there was a big debate about whether anyone who wasn't Jewish would be allowed to become a Christian. Some believed that they had to convert to Judaism first before they could become a Christian. They couldn't quite decide whether they were still Jewish or something completely new. So then Paul comes along, has a vision, and proposes that everyone should be allowed to join the Christian church. Much debate ensues.

So then who was Matthew written for? Non-Christian Jews? Or other Christian Jews who were having a hard time accepting Gentiles into the church? Well, in the Gospel of Matthew, Jesus is portrayed as more Jewish than in any of the other gospels, yet at the same time, the "heroes" of most of Matthew's stories are Gentiles. Interesting combination.

I should also add that Matthew is formatted a bit differently than the other Gospels. I had never thought of this before, but obviously when it was written, it wasn't nicely divided into chapters like it is now. Originally, Matthew had an introduction and five books (much like the five books of Moses in the Old Testament), followed by a climax/passion. Each book starts with a narrative about Jesus, then has Jesus giving a sermon, and then ends with the phrase "and Jesus ended these sayings." Book 5 ends with "and Jesus ended all these sayings." So pretty much if you're going to read Matthew, you shouldn't read it in modern chapters, but by the original books.

So let's start with the introduction, which comprises Chapters 1-2. The introduction chapters are purely Matthew-there's no Mark or Q in them.

• Verse 1. Matthew included three theological statements in this one sentence. First, Jesus' name isn't Jesus Christ. Christ isn't a last name, it's a title. The Greek word "Christ" is equal to the Hebrew word "Messiah." So, he's saying that Jesus is the Messiah. Second, When he says "son of David" Matthew is telling us that there is a NEW Kingdom of God, and that Jesus is the Davidic King. Third, Matthew says "son of Abraham". Part of the Abrahamic promise is that ALL nations (meaning Gentiles) will be blessed.
  
• Verses 2-16. The long, boring genealogy that we all tend to skip over. Admit it, you do it too! However, in this genealogy, it's interesting that three women are mentioned. Thamar (v. 3), Ruth (v. 5), wife of Urias-Bathsheba (v. 6). It is also interesting that all three of these women were Gentiles, and they also had some scandalousness going on. Much like . . . Mary, who apparently was much gossiped about back in the day. I guess the whole pregnant before married thing was quite scandalicious.
  
• Verse 16. So we get to the end of the genealogy and discover that this is the genealogy of Joseph. But wait! Joseph wasn't actually Jesus' father, so what's up with that? I've heard a lot of people say that it's just proving that Joseph would have been the King of Judea had Judea been free and Joseph and Mary were cousins, blah, blah, blah. Yes, it's true that Joseph may have been of the royal lineage, but so were a lot of other people. Joseph could have been King, not would have been King. So then what's the dealio? Why are we given a genealogy that isn't Jesus'? Well, let's move on to...
• Verse 21. This verse says that Joseph will name the child. Turns out that in antiquity, naming the child was part of the adoption process. So now that Joseph has named and adopted Jesus, the genealogy becomes his. It's also interesting to note that Old Testament Kings were adopted metaphorically by God. Matthew flips it around and the literal Son of God is adopted by Joseph, of the Davidic line. Also, the name Jesus is Greek for Joshua, so in his actual lifetime, Jesus would have been called Joshua, which means salvation.
  

O.k., this is way too long. I'll write up some more tomorrowish. Hope you found it interesting and it made you think a little.

*Please remember that everything I'm saying is from notes I've taken in my New Testament class. You may agree or disagree with what I say, but I'm just reporting what I've learned and found interesting.

The Gibson Girl

In my clothing class we've been talking about fashion during the different decades of the 1900's. Here's the Gibson Girl look. I'm sure you've all seen it before, but it's still fun to look at.

The first Gibson Girl was a cartoon drawn by Charles Dana Gibson. The look was generally an embroidered blouse worn with a skirt and it was supposed to look sporty and portray women as more emancipated than before. 'Cause you know, nothing says emancipated like a super tight corset!


They wore a special s-curve corset to get the wasp waist (normal width in the ribs, teeny tiny waist).

Another version of the Gibson Girl look was a tie or cravat worn with a brooch. Think Anne of Avonlea. And since we're thinking Anne of Avonlea, let's also take a moment to think Gilbert Blythe.

Sigh.

Herod the Great

Remember him? Had all the babies in Bethlehem killed? That was like the least of his cruelness. It is perhaps fitting, then, that Josephus said this about his last days:

"But now Herod's distemper greatly increased upon him after a severe manner, and this by God's judgment upon him for his sins: for a fire glowed in him slowly, which did not so much appear to the touch outwardly as it augmented his pains inwardly; for it brought upon him a vehement appetite to eating, which he could not avoid to supply with one sort of food or other. His entrails were also exulcerated, and the chief violence of his pain lay on his colon; an aqueous and transparent liquor also settled itself about his feet, and a like matter afflicted him at the bottom of his belly. Nay, farther, his privy member was putrified, and produced worms; and when he sat upriht he had a difficulty of breathing, which was very loathesome, on account of the stench of his breath, and the quickness of its returns; he had also convulsions in all parts of his body . . . "

Man, there's nothing like putrid breath and worms in your um . . . privy member. Beyond nasty!

So . . .

I haven't had much to blog about lately since all I've really been doing is going to class and studying. The term only started a week ago, but it's already out of control. Anyway, my point is, I'm going to start posting a little bit of what we're talking about in class. We're talking about some really interesting stuff and really, who doesn't want to be a student and take classes, but not have to do assignments or take exams? So this is my gift to you-you get to learn along with me, but don't have to do any of the extra crap. So exciting. If, for some odd reason, you don't like this idea, 1.) blame my friend Traci, because she encouraged me to do this and 2.) I don't care because it's my blog. And maybe this way you'll actually get posts from me on a regular basis. Remember the good ole days when I actually had things to talk about (or, more often, I didn't have things to talk about, but wrote anyway) and you would get a couple posts a day? Maybe we'll get back to that point. Or is the thought of several posts a day from me frightening? Sometimes it's not a good thing when I have a lot to say!