Today is Washington's Birthday. And I had my History class last night. And we're learning about the Revolutionary War right now and so I'm posting this in honor of George Washington and the Revolutionary War. (I'm no history buff, but I like this!!)
Quotes from The Crisis by Thomas Paine
THESE are the times that try men's souls. The summer soldier and the sunshine patriot will, in this crisis, shrink from the service of their country; but he that stands it now, deserves the love and thanks of man and woman. Tyranny, like hell, is not easily conquered; yet we have this consolation with us, that the harder the conflict, the more glorious the triumph. What we obtain too cheap, we esteem too lightly: it is dearness only that gives every thing its value. Heaven knows how to put a proper price upon its goods; and it would be strange indeed if so celestial an article as freedom should not be highly rated.
Yet it is folly to argue against determined hardness; eloquence may strike the ear, and the language of sorrow draw forth the tear of compassion, but nothing can reach the heart that is steeled with prejudice.
I love the man that can smile in trouble, that can gather strength from distress, and grow brave by reflection. 'Tis the business of little minds to shrink; but he whose heart is firm, and whose conscience approves his conduct, will pursue his principles unto death.
Thursday, February 22, 2007
Happy Birthday, George Washington!
Tuesday, February 20, 2007
Au revoir, Chocolat!
"As with most fine things, chocolate has its season. There is a simple memory aid that you can use to determine whether it is the correct time to order chocolate dishes: any month whose name contains the letter a, e, or u is the proper time for chocolate."
"Chemically speaking, chocolate really is the world's perfect food."
Nutrition Researcher
“My therapist told me the way to achieve true inner peace is to finish what I start. So far today, I have finished 2 bags of M&M's and a chocolate cake. I feel better already.”
Happy Fat Tuesday!!!
http://media.collegepublisher.com/media/paper308/stills/96815d3k.jpgAnd I've decided I'm giving up chocolate for Lent. Anything chocolate. I've been eating it a lot lately and I will really miss it, so it will be a good thing to give up! Although, I'm not Catholic, but I don't think you have to just be Catholic to give something up for Lent. Anybody else giving anything up for Lent?
Monday, February 19, 2007
Oscars 2007
The Oscars are coming up on Sunday!! If you haven't taken my poll on the right, take it! If you've only seen one movie, vote for that one! I'm very curious!!
Attention Ladies!
This site is absolutely amazing. I think I'm obsessed. It's just beyond words. She takes celebrity clothing ensembles and tells you where to find similar items for way less money! Here is an example:
Megan Worsham Blog!
Sunday, February 18, 2007
Church Giving
According to studies by John & Sylvia Ronsvalle in The State of Church Giving Through 2004, the average percentage of an individual's income that was given in 2004 to the church was 2.56%. According to the book, “had giving been at an average of 10% in 2004 rather than 2.56%, there would have been at least an additional $164 billion available for the overseas and domestic mission work of churches.” Estimates are that $5 billion a year could stop most global child deaths, $7 billion a year could provide primary education for children around the globe, and $1 billion could fund world evangelization. If the church contributed only $70 to $80 billion of the $164 billion, they could have ended poverty worldwide. This includes food, water, clothing and shelter.
The heart of God is for His people. If those of us who are Christians in America alone would just give 10% of our income as a tithe to the church, the American church as a whole would be able to end poverty across the globe. This is the heart of God.
My husband and I never tithed like an actual 10% of every paycheck kind of thing. We tithed, but it would be giving money to random people or to random causes. I think we were part of the problem because we didn't organize our giving. We now want to be part of the solution. I'm doing that by not only organizing my giving, but also encouraging others to tithe to the church if that is what they believe is right. It feels good, it really does. At this point, I'm seriously going through everything I own to see what I don't really need and could give away. You don't have to give everything away. 10% of your income could do amazing good for your community and even possibly worldwide.
Just think about it. Make a change.
New Links
I've posted several new links that you should check out! Here's the run-down on what they are about:
An Inconvenient Truth Blog
This is pretty self-explanatory, if you saw An Inconvenient Truth, you should check out this blog. They keep you updated on environmental issues and also give tips for lowering your CO2 output.
Bob Blog
Bob Hyatt is a more modern pastor with some great things to say and ways to look at the world.
BookBurger
Bookburger is just a site about different books being published right now, great place to go get ideas if you can't pick out what to read next.
Conscious Earth
This blog has been in my links list for a while, it's just a great environmental site with news, opinions and ideas. Definitely worth check out!
Delightful Blogs
This is where I found most of my new blogs, it just lists blogs by category and topic and then sorts them by rank or reviews or alphabetically.
Donald Miller Fans
Donald Miller wrote Blue Like Jazz which is one of my favorite Christian books, if you haven't read it, you really should. It talks about Christian Spirituality and being like Christ, not being like what certain groups say you should be like if you are a Christian.
Frugal Fashionista
This blog looks at celebrities style and then tells you where to find a similar look for way less money.
GreysWriters
This blog is by the writers of Grey's Anatomy. They talk about the show and why they are doing certain things. The creator, Shonda Rhimes, posts on the blog regularly.
Lost Blog
This is about the tv show Lost. It has episode guides, spoilers, theories, pictures and a lot more. If you like the show, check out the blog.
MediaBum
This is me & Ian's blog. He will probably post more than me because he is way cooler than me, but it is different music, movie and book reviews. We have similar taste on a lot of things and then very different taste on some things, so it should be interesting.
Solace In Cinema
Updates on new and upcoming movies, reviews, information, etc. It's definitely interesting if you love movies as much as I do!
The Movie Blog
Self-explanatory. It's about movies.
TV Squad
Again, self-explanatory. It's about different tv shows.
There are also links to my friends blogs:
E Worsham Johnson, AmericanModerateParty, Diary of a Not-So-Dumb Blonde, First Lady's Club, Stephanie's World, Susan Toups, and The Heart of a Janine. I know all of those people personally and they are really great people with really interesting things to say and really great ways of capturing certain things about life. I love to keep up with them and you should check them out, too!
Postsecret 2-18-2007
I'm sorry, it was just funny to me.
That picture with that sentence, just the whole thing.
I liked it.
Postsecret
one body, two souls
This is completely for real and just the craziest thing I think I've ever seen.
I'm so happy that they are able to function and be happy and everything! That's a miracle, I just don't even know what to say about this.
Go to this site, they have lots of pictures and even a video!!!
Saturday, February 17, 2007
Gandhi
I like your Christ, I do not like your Christians. Your Christians are so unlike your Christ.
I think this is the problem with the church as a whole in the world today, and possibly as long as the church has been around. I encourage those of you who claim to follow Christ to make an effort to do something about it, if only in your own heart and life. We will never be heard if we speak in anger, oppression, violence or condemnation.
Britney Spears shaved her head
Britney Spears shaved her freaking head! Oh my gosh!! I feel so bad for the poor girl, she's having a breakdown!!!
Pictures are from perezhilton.com check out this link for everything he has to say about it!
Friday, February 16, 2007
new blog!
Me & Ian made a new blog. We have yet to post on it yet, but it's going to be about books, movies & music.
So be ready to start checking it out as soon as Ian makes it look cool...
http://mediabum.blogspot.com
Emails & Subscriptions!!
I set up a thing so you can get emails when I post new blogs. It sends like 1 email a day only if I post the day before, so you won't get like 5 million emails if I post 5 million times.
Anyway, it's on the top right of my blog, so sign up!! Because I get really excited about stupid crap like that!
Thursday, February 15, 2007
to the broken
i'm not sure who even reads my blog. i'm not sure where your heart is or what you believe or how you see the world. but this is how i see it. and whether or not it is true to you, it is true to me. and not because my parents believed it or because my church believed it, but because i believe it.
anyway...(forgive me if this doesn't come out right, i am frustrated and angry and humbled and burdened and broken and confused and hopeful all at the same time)
God has been working on my heart and on my life lately. and if you don't believe in God or call yourself a Christian, PLEASE don't shut me out just because i'm starting into that. at least just read this so that you hear a viewpoint of someone who sees where a change is needed.
but God has been working on me lately. i am burdened by the position the church has taken in the world today. i see a major shift away from the heart of Christ. not in ALL churches, please be sure to understand that. but in the hearts of many Christians, it's there, and it's eating through anything good they have the potential to do. it is hypocrisy.
i went to see Rob Bell tonight at UK. he wrote a book called Velvet Elvis and a new book called Sex God. he is the pastor of the Mars Hill church in michigan. he was doing a question and answer section at the beginning tonight. and towards the end, he gets asked a question about homosexuality. and i was on the edge of my seat, waiting for his response. my reason for wanting to hear what he had to say had not so much to do with homosexuality, but rather to do with the view of Christians towards the "really bad" sins. because my question always is, who determines which ones are "really bad?"
Rob had several things to say which were honestly the perfect answer i think he could have given. i wanted to stand up and clap for his honesty and his integrity and his compassion. and i don't have time to get into everything he said. but i will say this...
he said that the Bible references homosexuality 6 times in the entire Bible. 6 times. and the first of which was speaking about sodom and gomorrah, which rob went on to explain, actually had nothing to do with homosexuality. so that leaves 5 verses. and none of those 5 verses make any mention or reference whatsoever to orientation or same-sex marriage. none of them.
there are thousands of verses in the Bible commanding Christians to care for the poor, those in poverty, the homeless. Jesus made more references in his teaching to money than to love. Jesus was severely more harsh on the hypocritic religious men than he was on those who did not know or follow Him. Jesus never mentioned homosexuality.
here is my point: too many Christians have spent too much time deciding who they would keep out of church and who they would point fingers at rather than spending that time and energy on the things the Bible actually takes the time to mention time and time and time again. the beauty of grace is that we all need it. the reason why the world is so turned off to Christianity right now is because way too many Christians are not being like Christ! if we act like Christ did, treat people like Christ did, look at people the way Christ did, then whether other people agree with us or not, they will not be able to call us hypocrites, they will not be able to call us bigots or closed-minded or anything. they will see forgiveness, grace, understanding, acceptance, LOVE.
whether you believe in what i do or not, you can't deny that the world would be a better place if we all acted in LOVE. acted in GRACE. acted in ACCEPTANCE. acted in FORGIVENESS.
if we all know that it's true, why don't we just start doing it? and if you are one of those people that "the church," who ever that may be, has hurt or turned off, i'm sorry. i'm personally sorry for the actions of others. and i am personally sorry for any actions i may have had in the past. i refuse to be that person anymore. and i refuse to sit by quietly while other people who claim to follow the same God i do, choose to use that name and that position for more evil than good. that was not the intention. it is time for the church to get back to the basics...to get back to Christ.
sorry for the soapbox talk, it was just one of those nights, i guess.
http://www.deviantart.com/deviation/31147486/Lost - My Questions
These are the questions I want answered before the show is over.
They don't have to answer them THIS season, just before they end the series, I want to know these things:
- How did Locke get in the wheelchair?
- Why was the big statue there at the end of Season 2, why was it just a foot and why did it only have 4 toes?
- What was the deal with Penny at the end of Season 2? What did she know about everything?
- How does the smoke on the island kill people? Why is it only in one area of the island?
- What is the significance of the numbers?
- How did "The Others" get there in the first place? And do they go back and forth? (This one they are already kind-of answering)
- Where are all the people who got taken and what are they doing with them? (I think they will answer this one next week!)
- Why was the polar bear on the island? I guess that is what they were keeping in that big cage that Sawyer has been in, but why?
- What is the deal with Libby? She was in the insane place with Hurley and she is the one who sold the boat to Desmond. ????
- Why was Ethan at Juliet's sister's house?
- What is the brainwashing video? What is the purpose? And who else has been made to watch one?
- When Jack was talking to Tom when he was working on Ben, he got Tom to start talking about why they were there and why they hadn't taken Ben somewhere else. Tom goes, "Ever since the sky turned purple..." Why did the sky turn purple and when?
- When Jack escaped from his little room and found that other room showing all the videos from around the camp, who was the guy with the eyepatch that looked into one of the cameras and where is he?
- Why do "The Others" take all the babies and children?
One Tree Hill 2/14/2007
I am really ready for them to be friends again.The drama right now is just making me upset.
And Haley smacked the crap out of Rachel, which although Rachel was helping Brooke, I still thought it was pretty much awesome.
Wednesday, February 14, 2007
Happy Valentine's Day!
To those of you with a Valentine, I hope your day is lovely!!
To those of you without a Valentine, I hope you feel loved by someone today. And if you don't, call me. We'll have a chat.
To those of you who hate Valentine's day, check out VDay.com and switch your negative energy to positive energy for a good cause.
Anyway, whereever you are, whoever you are with, have a wonderful day!!!
Monday, February 12, 2007
this is what beautiful looks like to me
I don't mean this in a weird way or anything. But this is what beautiful looks like to me. And not to sound all feminist or anything, but I think if we all start embracing the beauty in ourselves and appreciating the beauty in other people, we could do a lot of good. Life is too short to pick apart the little things you don't like about yourself or to tear down somebody else because you have low self-esteem. Sometimes, just look around you, life is so beautiful and so are the people you are around. These girls are my friends. I think they deserve some recognition for being as wonderful and beautiful as they all are.
Also, if you see your picture on here and you don't want it on here, let me know. I'll be happy to take it down. And if you want to know why I picked the one I did of you, just ask me, I have reasons.
