yesterday was a good day. it began early (for a saturday anyway) by shopping for pants at the mall. i ended up buying 2 pair...that should assure that i won't need to shop for clothes for at least 6 months. :) then i went to walmart to buy a watchband -- my left wrist feels naked no longer! (after wearing a watch for 17 yrs, my wrist doesn't like not having something on it) brunch with our brother floor followed the walmart run. next came apartment shopping, which turned out amazingly well. we found a few places that we really like. at one of them i even get a 7% discount because i work at dana!! after going to work for a few hours, i went to the talent show. it definitely had it's dull moments, but overall it was really good. i finally started my homework for the weekend after a taco bell run.

the only analog clock i own isn't really analog at all. it's the screensaver on my cell phone. so it's about as digital as an analog clock can be, with the face being made up of pixels. :)

it's sad when your professor has so little confidence in himself that he tells the class how confident he is every time class is held.

it's sad when your professor jabbers on and on about how he doesn't have favorites...all while pointing out the work and knowledge of specific individuals.

it's sad when your professor is disappointed when you wake up from nodding off...in which no relavant information was missed...imagine that...

it's sad when your professor uses class devos more as a way to convince us of his self-confidence than to challenge us in our faith.

it's sad when your professor points out how much money each student is paying for every hour of class and all you can think about is the many ways you could be more effectively using your time.

i think hank needs a nap. he's been awake for 31 days, 17 hrs, and 38 minutes. granted, i don't do anything too intensive with him. but he is running windows... so i'd say he's doing really well! even so, he'll much appreciate the nap.

yayyyy for geek quizzes :)

"God made the world, but it's held together with duct tape"

just before 1/2 of our last football game, about 3/8 of the soul of my right cleat tore off...not just a few torn threads - it's completely off of the edge of my shoe. after playing for a few years with cleats, i don't think i could ever return to playing in regular shoes. so i'm thinking i'll put on my shoe right before the game and duct tape it together around my foot. i'm not sure if it will work, but i can't think of a better solution...

wow, i am incredibly wired right now. i haven't felt this good in a long time. i wish i could feel like this on command. it usually happens when i get little to no sleep and don't have time to relax / fall asleep during the day...i got 4.5 hours of sleep last night and this is basically the 1st chance i've had to sit at my computer. my friends are telling me they've never seen me like this...

it's so good to be alive!!

so, last week i read something that was really cool. it was talking about our purpose in life. the author said it was to glorify God. but what does that really mean. glorify is one of those words that we toss around waaaay too much without understanding it. anyways, she said that we "are to live in such a way as to give all of creation a correct opinion or estimate of who God is." (Lord, i want to know You, p 12) we are all that some people see of God. we exist to demonstrate our Creator to them. kind of puts life into perspective...

someone read another excerpt to me today that furthered this point. one of my friends told me this summer that society often rails on guys because they lust after women. but no one picks on women for lusting after this lust. it's so true - we want guys to be attracted to us. this always made me a little ashamed because it seems so conceeded. the excerpt is from wild at heart, which i've been told i need to read. anyways...i hope the few excerpts of this text does it some justice...

i've often noticed that so often our word to boys is don't. don't climb on that, don't break anything, don't be so aggressive, don't be so noisy, .... but God's design -- which he placed in boys as the picture of himself -- is a resounding yes. be fierce, be wild, be passionate. now, none of this is to diminish the fact that a woman bears God's image as well. the masculine and feminine run throughout all creation.

....

after years of hearing the heart-cry of women, i am convinced beyond a doubt of this: God wants to be loved. he wants to be a priority to someone. how could we have missed this? from cover to cover, from beginning to end, the cry of God's heart is, "why won't you choose Me?" it is amazing to me how humble, how vulnerable God is on this point. "You will...find me," says the Lord, "when you seek me with all your heart" (Jer. 29:13). in other words, "look for me, pursue me -- i want you to pursue me." amazing.

....

the reason a woman wants a beauty to unveil, the reason she asks, do you delight in me? is simply that God does as well. God is captivating beauty. as david prays, "one thing i ask of the Lord this is what i seek: that i may...gaze upon the beauty of the Lord" (Ps. 27:4). can there be any doubt that God wants to be worshipped? that he wants to be seen, and for us to be captivated by what we see? as c.s. lewis wrote, "the beauty of the female is the root of joy to the female as well as to the male...to desire the enjoying of her own beauty is the obedience of eve, and to both it is in the lover that the beloved tastes of her own delightfulness."     --p 35-37

wow, how do i even respond to that... God is so wonderful!!

stupid emotions...i wish they would all just go away! i want to be logical in my thoughts and not the way i've been lately...grr

"God ordains our mistakes"    --a good friend of mine

i was ticked at God for allowing me to make the series of mistakes that lead up to me accidently calling dad. but the week after that, God used a series of someone else's mistakes to benefit me. let's just say that i lost something. it didn't cost much, but i didn't want to go through the hassle of replacing it. well, because of a mistake i made, it ended up among someone else's belongings. then that person made a series of mistakes that allowed me to find what i had lost.

this further confirmed to me that God is in control -- something that i have always known, but often have trouble believing. for a reason that is beyond me, he allowed me to make mistakes that lead to something tramatic and stressful. then he caused someone else to mess up which benefitted me. (the stress and benefit were definitely not on the same scale, but God still illustrated the point nicely.)

to further this point, i read a forward today about how many people were late to work at the twin towers on 9-11. they were stuck in traffic, missed the bus, stopped to buy a band-aid, answering a last-minute phone call at home, etc -- all things that annoy us. God revealed to a good friend of mine this summer that He "ordains our mistakes." i didn't understand that for a long time, but after the last few weeks i'm definitely starting to grasp this concept.

i was told tonight that i dance like a muppet. i neither know how muppets dance, nor how i was "dancing".....