It's thunderstorming outside, Lord of the Rings: Return of the King just won 11 Oscars, including Best Picture, and I watched Lawrence of Arabia this evening.
Oh, and it's the 29th of February. I'm sure this all fits together somehow...
I was looking through my old bookmarks, and I found this little gem:
Currently, I suffer from Linux, Junkfood, Sci-fi, Free BSD, Religion, British, UNIX, Windows, vi, Politics, Brand Names, X11, Environmentalism, and Macintosh.
I might suffer from 8-bit, BBCB, Computer Games, Conspiracy Theory, Hippyism, Cars, and Japan, respectively.
Clearly, I have issues.
So, I got back to my room tonight, and I found some yellow roses, a card, and a large bar of chocolate apiece for Heather and I. It made me very happy.
On the whole, I had a pretty lousy weekend, and Heather had a worse one. Many nasty goings-on, which I think I'll decide not to reveal to the world at large.
However, the roses definitely made my evening.
Whoever it was that left them, whether you read this or not, thank you very much.
Hrm. So today was Praise and Worship chapel, and when Ardith left the building, she was not very happy.
As a general rule, I don't mind them; there are chapels I enjoy more, but there are also chapels I enjoy a lot less. Unfortunately, today's fell into that last category.
Some of this has to do with my upbringing, no doubt. And some of it surely has to do with the fact that I am very much my father's daughter.
Anyway, on to the fun. All was well and good, we were singing various song that I really don't know at all, and then one of the people in the band got up to speak. I don't know his name; I think I know him by sight, but I wasn't paying much attention, and I couldn't really see all that well due to the whole 'Ardith is much shorter than everyone else' thing.
He started off by asking, essentially, that everyone who had any physical, emotional, or spiritual ailment to raise their hands. I wasn't quite sure what was coming, but I still wasn't paying all that much attention at this point.
Next on the agenda was to read James 5:13-16. At this point, I started paying attention, since that particular passage can be interpreted several different ways, and some lead to quite interesting practices. The passage in question reads as follows, in the NASB:
Is anyone among you suffering? Let him call for the elders of the church, and let them pray over him, anointing him with oil in the name of the Lord; and the prayer offered in faith will restore the one who is sick, and the Lord will raise him up, and if he has committed sins, they will be forgiven him. Therefore, confess your sins to one another, and pray for one another, so that you may be healed. The effective prayer of a righteous man can accomplish much.
At this point, I was rather curious as to what was coming next. The speaker then asked everyone who had raised their hands to come forward. Than he asked everyone who thought that God was working in this place, or could work in this place, to come forward to lay hands on them. This would, theoretically, include everyone in the entire building. I did not come forward, not reacting well to such things.
He then proceeded to ask everyone who was still sitting down to pray with them. At this point, I was naturally curious if I was expected to be praying against them if not told to do otherwise.
Reasons this whole episode bothered Ardith:
1. Ardith doesn't like guilt-tripping, ever. This obviously has to do with being closely related to my dad. He hates it too.
2. Ardith particularly doesn't like guilt-tripping when it would seem that the guilt-trip involves absolutely everyone. Why the guilt-trip? Why not just say everyone pray, rather than having people come forward? Seems slightly counter-productive, as you will invariably get those who don't feel 'led' to go forward feeling somewhat... ...well, like they've just been guilt-tripped.
3. The passage in James was quite possibly taken out of context. For starters, you couldn't really argue at all that there were elders of the church present. Unless you were just working out of verse 16, and then why bother reading the rest? And then there's the whole bit about chapters 4 and 5 mostly dealing with repenting from sin.
Clearly, there are different viewpoints. Here's one from Anna.
And a lot of the difference does undoubtedly stem from how charismatic your upbringing is. But that's my take on the whole matter, and I thought I'd share it for discussion's sake.
I've just realized that I've seen a lot of movies over the past few days.
Starting from Saturday:
The Boondock Saints (twice)
My Fair Lady
The Hunt for Red October
Miracle - Hey, I needed to not think at all that Monday night...
Entrapment
I just got done watching The Boondock Saints for the second time. Definitely not for everyone, but I liked it a lot. A lot.
Why is it that everyone in here is so serious? Honestly, people, lighten up!
Today was the continuation of impromptu speech day. Impromptu speech day is where Mr. Payton have everyone write at least two topics on an index card, takes them all back, mixes them up, and starts calling people up one at a time. You pick a random card, which can't be yours, and then proceed to pick one of the topics and start talking about it.
Due to strange events occurring, such as the end of the class period last Thursday, I was the first one up to give my impromptu speech today. So, I walk up, still full of the good mood brought about by my extra hour of sleep on Tues-Thurs mornings, and pick a card at random.
Topics:
Immorality in America
I don't remember the other one, but it was similar.
Being myself, I obviously segue fairly quickly to talking about SCO and the MyDoom virus. But this was only because there was little or no opportunity for humor.
*sigh*
And my topics were so good, too. Chalkboards vs. Whiteboards, and why computers will eventually rule the earth.
Obviously, the person who picked my card started comparing whiteboards and blackboards.
I just can't win. Ever.
First off, Ardith is leaving her Robinson-Crusoe-style title headings. She's bored with it, and she's got better things to do.
News.
There's really only one news-worthy thing that's happened since I last posted. My folks got back from the Mayo Clinic yesterday. My dad's been put on the 'B' list for a heart transplant there.
I'm not sure what to think, how to deal with it, how to even feel about it. On one hand, it's a good thing. The doctors have finally realized that he's going downhill as things stand today, and more drugs won't necessarily stop that.
But the average life expectancy after a heart transplant is 10-15 years. And that's if everything goes well.
They may not find a donor for 3-4 years. Or it might be a lot sooner. Or it might be a lot longer. They're also putting him on some drugs specifically for heart failure, and if those help enough, they might put off the transplant longer.
Every time I find myself actually being happy for a little while, something else happens.