try and stop me.

this is an email I just sent. it was interesting stuff to wade through and so I wanted to put it here for future reference.

the other week-ish ago this friend told me his friend who had just visited the city had (also) noticed (also in addition to his note-age) that the women here wear the least amount of clothing they can get away with..within reason. ish.
we were walking into Potterrow and I saw something that shocked me a little bit so I turned and said that ever since [so-and-so] mentioned what she noticed I have been noticing it myself more and more. (I was agreeing - tis true that the girlies have short shorts or just long shirts and black tights have become all the rage.) He asked a few clarifying questions but then we started working.

An hour and a half later, as we're bout to head home he says, "sooooo..what are you gonna do about it?" I asked him to clarify cuz it really was out of da blue and then I had a minor brain freeze of thinking proportions. Then something distracting happened and I couldn't answer nor guage what kind of answer was expected.
But, because I think it's important to think through stuff like this (so that, if you're ever given the chance, the perfect alignment of circumstance and resources), you'll know exactement what the first step you would take is. Anyhoot...here goes.

(I'll leave in the ending because I think it's funny.)

Hello ______.

you asked me, "what you gonna do about it?" with regards to the littley-clothing of women we see in Edinburgh today. I don't know what kind of answer you were looking for but this is one:

#1 I continue preaching the Gospel (dealing with the prob, not the symptoms)

#2 I refuse to talk down about these women; either to pity them, out of jealousy, to engage the clown complex (it's funny cuz it's NOT happening to me, i.e. I can insult because I'm better than that), or to make it easier not to care or see their full self/the full problem

#3 I raise my daughters and sons with proper values

#4 I stand my ground and make my lifestyle reflect my convictions

#5 I hope to affect all the women in my own circle of influence to know value and to know worth but mostly to know confidence. [Frig - I would be a wreck if I weren't so convinced of the goodness God has put in me (cf. reason #1).] More than this I hope to challenge other women to take an immovable stance on issues like this a) so they can speak a good witness, b) so they can live a good witness and c) so that they can ooze security like we all wish we did --and give the next generation the right kind of woman to look up to.


I agree this is mostly quite passive or theoretical
but I have nothing else
and it works for me.

I hope it doesn't sound as preachy or pretentious as it kinda looks to me but, benefit of the doubt says you can probably read through the sounding of the wordages and bad connotations to what I'm actually saying.

if this is an on-going conv or email blip on the radar, I don't mind. I just wanted to answer your question because it's important.
and that's all.

your mom looks like a witch sometimes?

I checked..there's no Anchorman quotes. that might be 100! keep your eyes peeled!


Richard Dreyfuss

[EST]

Are we weak and heavy laden, cumbered with a load of care?
Precious Savior, still our refuge, take it to the Lord in prayer.
Do your friends despise, forsake you? Take it to the Lord in prayer!
In His arms He’ll take and shield you; you will find a solace there.

Heard this one ce matin à l'église. I like it...I like the song. I really like it and I'm not sure of all the reasons. I think one is that I played it at my grandfather's funeral and another is all the stuff leading up to me playing it. I also like the Mary Mary version of it which I wish I could add to this post for your listening enjoyment. I like when classics are redone well. They aren't always made better - just different..and different in an irksome way. It's like someone continually swerving into the other lane in front of you. Or a careless colorer going outside the lines (not a child; I'm being fair here). Just wanna push it back into the place it should be.

Anyways, I also like the words of the second half of the first verse.
Oh, what peace we often forfeit; oh, what needless pains we bear
All because we do not carry everything to God in prayer.

I wish I knew some Bibs references for that so I could steep myself in it. I love the idea. Rather, I love thinking about the idea of us missing out on riches because we refuse to ask for them.

That verse up top, the third in the song, resounded with me. I don't know if "resounded" is an appropriate word but there it is. It helped me to listen to the song well-ly. This morning's sermon was about prayer...and I hope I change.

[EST]

with a few key-strokes I lost $2000.

...I love techonology?

No, I do ...but I've never said it in this context. Weird.

[EST]

today I heard someone read the Bible in Italian ...gorge.

I am afraid of the Chinese police.

John Mayer is maybe my best/most potent aphrodisiac.

I'm tired of watching body dumps and seeing murderous intent wave across people's faces (it's in a TV prog I'm watching).

"I love you" is powerful.

People are corrupt.

I feel unburdened because I have spoken my mind.
The truth shall set you free.

Vulnerability (received well) is incredibly empowering.
-It's acting without restraint, without weights.

Bad acting is the only thing I know of which bores me.
("Boring" is the lowest rung in my books, below "annoying", "frustrating", "angering", etc.)
I don't like saying this much because I still want the actors to try; I believe they have potential and I don't want to make some mean value judgment.

I wonder what cigars taste like.

"The Queen of England" is bigger than Elizabeth II just like Shakespeare is bigger than William, the man.

I laugh at weird things.

I cover my face when I laugh (often).

I was shut down many times today. It was weird and strangely painful.

Jesus said yesterday that, "He who listens to you, listens to me; he who rejects you, rejects me; he who rejects me rejects him who sent me."

There are a few people who I want to ask to read my blog. (That's such a weird idea to me. I wonder if I'll ever ask.)

I still can't decide if I want to own an i-pod.

I'm always a little bit sad when it turns out I haven't been invited to the wedding of someone I know.

I wonder what the Red Light District looks like but I don't ever, ever want to see it. I wonder how it fits with descriptions I've heard and the bits that've been filled in with my mimagination.

I wonder if I'll ever slap the inside of my elbow to find a vein and then pump it fulla something.

That last sentence reminded me of the summer courses I took after grades 10 and 11; I saw the bus loop at the end of Mill Rd by Burnhamthorpe C.I. How odd. I don't know the connection.
Those were excellent summers. I used to sing to myself on the walk home. I didn't need to walk but I did, to avoid the full upon full buses. The most common tracks were those off *NSYNC's European album...not their debut but I think something between that and Home for Christmas. There was "More Than a Feeling" which is DRASTICALLY different from the Boston version which makes me more chuffed than you can understand; there was "Together Again" and "Riddle", methinks. Yeah, I think that was it, save for "Forever Young" which I wasn't too fond of.

Used to be just "More Than a Feeling" cuz that mother sound good. I like the melody and the chords and I just loved to sing it. I would sing the three in order and it seemed that I was always on "More Than a Feeling" (track 2) when I crossed the Burnhamthorpe Road bridge over the 427. I know this (because Tyler knows this and) because after those summers, I found myself wanting to sing "More Than a Feeling" just because I was crossing a bridge. Some different bridge. I love conditioning/association/Psyc-term-I-don't-know.

[Sometimes I think God's given me a gift to write. I.....don't know what to say about that. It feels like it should sound cocky but if it's true then it's giving God glory. If it's not true then I'm stealing from Him AND puffing myself up. (Bad.) But if it is true and I'm NOT recognizing it then I can expect to be called a wicked, lazy servant who will be thrown out to where there is weeping.]

"Together Again" should have been sung by two people when the second verse repeated itself because the descant part was very nice. Descant parts are..... well, they fascinate me. I can't...fathom them. I can't put them in my head and neither DISSECT them or CREATE them. There is not much else within the realm of (Western) music that I can't dissect or create to a degree which I am presently satisfied with (with the intention of perpetual improvement). So that stuff fascinates me. It's crazy. Only example I got is the "Truly Scrumptious" and "What Do You See?" or whatever the 2e song is called in Chitty Chitty, Bang Bang (1968) but that's not a great example. I guess I'm combining descant with counter-melody OR just two songs that can be overlaid. Yes. Like the verses and chorus of "All in All". I dunno. I love it. I love the mystery. But at the same time I do hope some day to be taught by an expert how descant parts are written.

(I was probably supposed to have learned that from MUSC*1250, Melody and Counterpoint, but that course was a gong-show for me; I'm sorry.)

I had those four tracks on a cassette that some penpal of mine sent me. We did well.

I learned from Ally McBeal how to define gossip. That Georgia character was talking in the bathroom about someone else in the office and at some point looked under the stall to be sure they (or anyone else) weren't (wasn't) there. I donno if she did it after she said her piece, during, or before but I think that's irrelevant. Also I don't remember if she was accused of gossipping or prematurely defended herself ("I don't mean this in a baaad way...") but the person she was talking to said that if it WASN'T gossip, she wouldn't have checked to see if anyone else could hear. The principle I got: if you can't say it to their face or ask them directly, you shouldn't be talking about it or don't have the right to know.

I carry that.
I carry it over to Facebook Wall posts but that's another story altogether.

A billboard outside a church on Islington Ave a few years ago read: "A Bible in the hand is worth two on the bookshelf."
A few years ago. One church. In a city I no longer live in....WOW, do churches know what impact their front signs can have??
Guess, so if they write what they do and change it when they do.

I'm tired of defending gays and gay rights.
(Tired of doing it where I think I shouldn't have to.)

I am tired of the 'gay' discussion.
I don't know what to say anymore.

I didn't realize how liberated I was in my language until last Friday in a conversation with someone whose entire vocabulary in the area consists of "it".

Tomorrow is a big day.

I typed a lot. What does that mean?

[EST]

"The Young Victoria" (2009)

Very good. It's very good.

I was expecting something else but once I got past that initial moment of disappointment, I resigned myself better than I thought I would (like with I Am Legend [2007]..boo).

What made me want to see this flick so badly was a few things
a) that I have more interest now in the life of Queen Victoria than I ever have (largely thanks to living in the UK)
b) I was curious to see how she and Alby got on because I have been told of their love for one another (...and her grief)
c) it had Jim Broadbent in it and I know him best from his appearance in the Blackadder Christmas as Prince Albert...so the connection there titillated me to no end.

what's more? I found that Miranda Richardson was in the film and SHE played Queen Elizabeth I in Blackadder II which makes even MORE happy to me. I like...connections.

I don't know what else to say about this film...I just liked it through and through and I want to recommend it to people who are looking for something entertaining but not taxing without being brain-deaderly. It's a good mix, I'd say.


I'm not 100% certain who told me of the love between Victoria and Albert. The fact that I don't remember the speaker or wording or context for something that stuck with me so well, means that it impacted me in what I want to call a sub-dermal level. It's not sub-dermal...it didn't get under my skin like it annoyed me but I read the meaning; I read the truth of what was being said without hearing the words - with no strings attached. I can't make it make sense. It's like when someone pays you an amazing compliment or confronts you about something horrible: it sticks with you like none other because of how deeply it has connected with who you are.

Something about that couple made sense to me; warmed my heart; interested me incredibly.

And then those actors, those Emily Blunt and Rupert Friend, they convinced me. They made me get it. They bought some kinda time machine that showed me the 19th century; that showed me the real reigning monarch of the United Kingdom and her husband and I saw that life-altering, immovable, torrid, sensual love and it was really wonderful. Like, it managed to escape my Hollywood expectations and make me FEEl something. I had some internal "aww" moments..I was intrigued and engaged in a way I rarely am with film romance. Twas r'ul good.

I guess that made the flick...or something. I enjoyed it..the costume was fun, too.
I am quite convinced that no one does Victorian England like the English...it fits. They seem to revere their history/past in a way that I admire. It's like the Americans do, 'cept there's more of it and they're classier. And they're almost putting on the show for other English not for the rest of the world to see and admire. It's cool. It's cool to be proud of where you come from.

8.9/10

[EST]

St Patrick the heretic

Oh, Saint Patrick and your lying ways...how did you get so famous?

I mostly regret all the research I did this afternoon & last night on this guy. For action group the assigned topic was "What Can we Learn from St. Patrick?". I tried; I really tried...but the man's a heretic so...I don't know what else to say.

I settled upon showing the Trinity through the shamrock...he was purported to have done that. I dunno if he did but it was good enough for me. Can't fault the trinity.

I was interested to know that green was not the color originally associated with him. It was some kinda blue - one that, I think, is called St. Patrick's blue. It's almost teal...or like the color of the Skype logo.

When I was listening about how he's intertwined with Irish pride, especially Irish-American pride, I started to wonder where the drinking came in cuz they were talking religion and piety and all that. Then I was informed that "March 17th falls within Lent..." so they took it as a reprieve from their teetotalling. haha... sickitating. Talk about a pendulum swing...

Anyways, let's all thank St Patrick for the fact that I heard drunk people on the street just a moment ago...that's 4 in the afternoon. Woo!

[EST]

you know what's a terrible feeling?

When you look in the mirror and find you look JUST as terrible as you feel. WOW. I've looked this way for three or four days now. BOooo.

On my way back home just a little while ago, I glanced into a shop and thought, "I really need to try to become a better person." And the next, church-inundated thought is, of course, Well, I can't try to do anything, let alone better myself. Boo.


What will tomorrow be?

[EST]

something cool happened today.