Mere Reflections

Just in case you don't read Riley and Trey's blogs (since they already said this), we started a joint blog, and it's kind of come to life in the past week. Go check it out!

New Year

If you don't care about my reading list (which I don't blame you for) just skip the first two paragraphs and begin at the third.

As part of my New Year's resolutions, I have decided to reread some of my favorite books that I haven't had the pleasure of reading for a while. I started two days ago, deciding to read The Chronicles of Narnia, which are perhaps my most favorite books. As evidence, I'm already part way through the second one (I'm reading them Narnia-history-chronologically, so that's The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe), and I am quickly rediscovering why I enjoy them so much. Every time I read them, I find more connections to Lewis' other books and more allusions to the Bible. And indeed, the end of each one of them is so beautiful. I won't discuss them now, because you may not have finished any or all of them (if so, put them at the top of your reading list!) and I don't want to ruin them, but they almost all end beautifully. Other's on my 'to reread' list are the Hobbit and LOTR, and possibly The Space Trilogy, maybe the Circle trilogy by Ted Dekker, and I'll probably end up reading The Great Divorce and The Screwtape Letters, too.

I also plan on reading for the first time The Cost of Discipleship (which I recently received for Christmas from AJ), and the prequel/sequel to the Circle Trilogy (weird I know), Green. I hope to read the books from Lewis' "signature" classics that I haven't already; Mere Christianity (how can I not have read that one, I know), Miracles (which I started once but had a hard time wading through, there's so much thought in each paragraph!), and The Problem of Pain. I also need to finish the GMac anthology that Trey lent to me, along with like a thousand other books that I've started and never finished.

In other news, I've all but decided to leave the Art Institute of Houston - North. I think most of you who read this have heard in some way or another, but I wanted to let you know what I'm thinking. First of all, I don't see me going to a college that isn't an Art Institute. Honestly, I've been far too spoiled by the lack of Gen. Ed. classes to switch back to taking math and english (which I pretty much have gotten all done with AP classes in high school to the ). I'll have to take a few history courses eventually, other than art history even, but I'm okay with that. I had originally considered checking out the art program at UT (which, if you know me, is hugely out of character, haha.) But in it you have to take something like 33 hours of Gen. Ed. classes and they don't really even have a specific Graphic Design program from what I can tell.

So, I will be staying with the Art Institutes. What's wrong with the one I'm at?

If you have asked me how I am liking school in the last few weeks, I have most likely told you that I am enjoying it a lot, which is true, but what I probably haven' told you is that I am not satisfied with the school I'm at. I love the subjects we're learning about (the adobe programs, color and design theory, drawing, etc.), but I don't think that I like the fact that my class is the pioneer class, as in, we are the first to take any of the classes, so we're the guinea pigs, we get all the failed methods. I'd prefer to be way down the line where we are the beneficiaries of the already refined teaching methods, if that makes sense.

So, this Art Institute leaves something to be desired, where will I transfer to?

There are two Art Institutes in my sights: The one downtown here, and the one in Austin. Basically, since the option recently came into sights to possibly find a place to live with Riley and JM (who are going to UT) in Austin, I'm majorly leaning towards that one, and if it works out, I will definitely go with that one. So the only way I would go with the one downtown is if it was for the quarter between this one and the one that starts in the summer. Otherwise, I will probably take the quarter after this one off and start at the Austin Art Institute in July.

The End.

What do you think?

Year In Review: Places

Places I've Traveled to (in order chronologically, I think):

Martin Dies Jr. State Park. Barcelona, Spain. Paris, France. Disneyworld. Escape (Camp Tejas). Camp Buckner (Burnet, TX). Port Aransas. Austin. Belton. Dallas. Norman, OK. Shawnee, OK. Austin. San Antonio. Galveston.

Technojoy

Okay, so let me just take a paragraph or three (or five) to talk about the fantastically thrilling state of technology. WARNING: This post contains geek levels previously unknown to this blog. Please enjoy. (and a note to Molly: I WILL be talking about cinematography. :)

Too often I forget how amazing all the technology we have is, and how recent it is, since it is fed to us over the course of time. But every once in too great a while I sit back and try to appreciate it all from the perspective of my junior-high-age self. What would myself eight years ago have said if I showed me an a touch screen phone? The state of 3D movies? The BBC's HD Planet Earth series? The size of my TV? The vast and virtually limitless amount of information I have in my pocket or within arm's length at literally any and every hour of every day?

I would be dumbfounded. Flabbergasted. My jaw would hit the floor.

I just got out of the 10:30 showing of Avatar IMAX 3D. Based on the quality of the CGI and the realism of the 3D by way of double-frame-rate digital film projection and non-red-and-blue polarized glasses, my brain could probably pass a lie detector test stating that I had, in fact, just spent 2.6 captivating hours on a planet called Pandora inhabited by 10 foot tall creatures called Na'vi, fighting for their lives and flying giant lizard bat things around floating mountains.

I didn't have a phone until eighth grade, when I was only allowed it for emergency use. I had a clamshell phone without internet or unlimited texting, without one touchscreen (let alone two), and without a QWERTY keyboard. Now I have a phone that can do basically anything I can fathom, and that's without jailbreaking it. No one even used cell phones until I was in junior high. Now with mine I can see any place on the planet, along with many not on this planet, I can download and play hundreds of thousands of games, many for free. I can order movie tickets, check and mess with my bank account, email, facebook, twitter, music, and TV shows.

My first game system was a nintendo NES, which played only in two dimensions and, less than one-hundred different colors. Now I can control three dimensional characters in millions of colors with a pointer at the end of my controller which isn't even connected to the console! (physically, anyway).

So yes, I am a geek. I love technology and it brings me joy to see isn't advancement and to contemplate what it will be in the future. I'm just trying not to forget to appreciate how ridiculously far we've already come! Isn't it mind-bending?!

Expect a future post on what I think about the future of 3D movies etc.!

That is all. :D

Science and Baking

This is possibly the most random topic I will ever blog about, but I just wanted to point something out.

Baking is possibly the least precise practice on the planet.

I laughed at myself just rereading that sentence now, but I think about it every time I make food from a recipe. I find it hard to reconcile the baker in me with the ex-science-olympian. How can I put any trust into a measuring system that insists that every recipe on the planet uses the same intervals of flour that are so different from one cup to the next? If measurements mattered in the baking world, then you would have things like "recipe calls for 1 1/2 cups 3 tablespoons and 1 teaspoon of flour at [this amount] of density" instead of "recipe calls for 2 cups of flour."

Anyway, there you have it. Also, this is why I laugh at people who measure anything larger than a tablespoon by scraping the extra off the top.

Heaven & Scrooge

You wrote a letter and you signed your name

I read every word of it page by page

You said you be coming, coming for me soon.

Oh, my God, I'll be ready for you.

Because I want to run on greener pastures

I want to dance on higher hills.

I want to drink from sweeter water

in the misty morning chill.

And my soul is getting restless

for the place where I belong.

I can't wait to join the angels and sing my heaven song.

I hear your voice and I catch my breath,

"Well done, my child, enter in and rest."

Tears of joy roll down my cheek

It's beautiful beyond my wildest dreams

I'm walking through the bright white gates

Breathing in and out your grace

All around me melodies rise

That echo with the joy inside

So I start to sing

But I can't sing loud enough,

I can't bow low enough,

I can't lift my hands high enough,

when I'm worshiping you my God.

Also, on a non-Phil-Wickham-song related note, I saw the new 'A Christmas Carol' movie today. It was really good. I was struck by the whole theme of it this time more than I usually am when I see a version of this story. The whole part about how Scrooge asks the guy collecting money for the poor on Christmas Eve, "Are there no prisons...And the Union Workhouses?...Are they still in operation...The Treadmill and the poor Law are in full vigour, then?" In the story it's obviously satirical, but how often do we hear things like this in the news? I know I've thought along those lines at times. And the part where Scrooge sees that under the robe of The Ghost of Christmas Present are the two emaciated children called 'Ignorance' and 'Want.' The whole thing just made me consider a how careless I am. How selfish I am. How can anyone, especially Christians, be this way?

And on that note, I shall leave you with an article by my favorite musician: Compassion vs. Consumption by Jon Foreman

You Should Probably Go Read This Article Right Now:

http://www.esquire.com/features/best-and-brightest-2009/shane-claiborne-1209

It's by Shane Claiborne. Apparently Esquire Magazine asked him to write a letter to non-believers and it has some really good points.