mountainmelody

43 percent of American families spend more than they earn.

Yikes!

11 hours
15 pages
137 sources
3982 words
1 dissertation proposal

yeah!

Gen Y

The apostasy from Christianity will not come about openly by everybody renouncing Christianity; no, but slyly, cunningly, knavishly, by everybody assuming the name of being Christian.

-Søren Kierkegaard

76% of people living in Alabama were born in Alabama.

Two mice just chased each other around and around the room--multiple times--while I was sitting here.

Hm.

The average American will spend nearly $800 on gifts this Christmas.

• read your mail
• call a friend
• eat a snack
• clip your fingernails
• make a shopping list
• change clothes
• take a shower
• clean the house
• take a nap
• read a book
• watch a movie

High-speed internet is not available here. But on the plus side, I get a lot of other stuff done while waiting for pages to load...

70 degrees set on the thermostat
55 degrees inside (after the heat has been running non-stop for hours)
17 degrees outside
6 degrees wind chill
4 blankets on the bed
3 pairs of socks
2 shirts
1 winter coat (inside)

If I wanted to live in Alaska/Minnesota/Siberia, I would have moved there! :P

Forecast:
55 degrees
0% chance of precipitation

Actual:
sleeting

All she ever does is extrovert!

Disclaimer: This post is not intended to represent any of the fine readers of this blog, or to imply that extroverts are in any way inferior to introverts. (I didn't want to put that part in writing.) ;)

Each commuter in the Birmingham area can expect to spend 27 hours a year stuck in traffic.

You can safely assume you've created God in your own image when it turns out that God hates all the same people you do.

--quoted by Anne Lamott

Dear mouse,

Did your mother never teach you to twist the end of the bread bag to open it, instead of chewing through it? This chewing is just not polite. It makes a mess, and plastic can be hazardous to your health.

It's not a good idea to chew into an old bag of bread anyway--it's probably stale. And it's not nice to chew through the new, replacement bag of bread either. First of all, you didn't pay for it. And besides that, what do you expect me to eat?

Let me make this clear: bread is for humans. Mice should eat--I don't know--cheese and such. (Don't even think about looking in the refrigerator!)

The bread has been moved to an undisclosed location. Need I remind you that I have mousetraps?

Less than 20% of young workers stayed in their first job for three or more years.

(Disclaimer: This is not about me, but about "young workers" in general.)
:)

The dumb have already inherited the earth.

The first website was created in 1991.

If I were home sick, lying in bed feeling miserable, would I want anyone to come visit me?

Not unless they were a doctor or nurse. (And maybe not even then.)

So why, when people are horribly sick--feeling awful and looking worse--does everyone and their mother come visit them in the hospital?

It's beyond me. If I'm ever in the hospital, you can tell Cousin Fred and Sweet Miss Margaret to just send me a card.

Traffic report: ...There are a bunch of other wrecks out there--just be careful!

My God, I pray better to you by breathing,
I pray better to you by walking than by talking.

-Thomas Merton

By 2050, Yemen will have more people than Russia.

Attention retirees, stay at home moms, students, and all others with flexible schedules:

The polls are open all day. Your vote will count just as much at 1 PM as at 7 AM. There is no need to rush to polling places first thing in the morning, when most of us are trying to get to work.

Sigh...If only the world would listen to me! ;)

This morning I was attempting to take some comp time and sleep late.

At exactly the same time my alarm normally goes off, I was jolted awake by a loud "BEEP!" Apparently my smoke alarm battery had decided that moment would be the perfect time to die.

If you're going to look in the classified ads for a new job, don't do it in the breakroom at work.

Today I was working so hard (or something) that I didn't notice when someone turned half the lights off.

Either that, or it was so dark outside that it threw me off. :P

Problem: Take a day off work to have a long weekend. Come back to 80 emails.

Solution: Take several days off work as soon as possible.

Don't leave the lid to the water meter box off when it's raining.
Especially if you're hoping to turn the water back on.

One of out every five senior citizens looks forward to a physical exam “a lot.”

Only about 20% of people who were involved in church as teenagers are involved at the same level when they're in their 20s.

Most women would now prefer electronics over diamonds, shoes, or tropical vacations.

....going to Talladega on a race weekend

Did you know that Canada is the most multicultural (diverse) country in the world?

Pop quiz: What's the capital of Canada? Last week, I was the only person in a group of four from the US to answer this question correctly.

Korean Air
Seafood for breakfast
Seaweed and rice for snack

Atlanta airport
Fried chicken
Sweet tea
Macaroni and cheese
Corn

In some ways, it's very nice to be home. :)

Today I was informed that people in India don't use hair dryers because they make your hair fall out.

So if I'm bald when I get back, you know what happened.

I'm leaving tonight. Supposedly, I'll be home some time in the next decade. See you then!

• Somehow picking up an American football game on TV, and being asked, "What's that?"
• Hearing someone from Papau New Guinea pray fervently for the North American church to regain its passion
• Hearing "Sweet Home Alabama" on the loudspeakers between sessions
• Trying to explain why most of the American civil rights struggles took place in the "Bible Belt"
• Explaining that in my culture, marriages aren't arranged by parents
• Meeting people who have started churches, written books, and founded significant ministries before they were 30
• Rice

There's much more to think through and share later.

more conference info

My roommates are from India and Germany.

friends

worship

I wish I had time to tell you about all the experiences I've had so far. Right now, I can just give you a quick recap:

I am in a small group with girls from the Solomon Islands, the UK, Pakistan, and the Netherlands.

I had lunch with the guy who wrote Perspectives.
I talked with a guy who was shot in the conflict in Liberia.
I had breakfast with Heather Mercer.

You can read more here.

I'm here, and have accomplished the first few things on my list:

• get here (this one took a while)
• take a shower
• meet some interesting people from other countries
• find the internet

French toast or rice?

Fish in wintermelon sauce, or chicken?

Some choices are easy.

(Plus, the seaweed mixed in with the chicken was...an interesting bonus.)

3.5 hours: drive from Birmingham to Atlanta
25 minutes: flight from Atlanta over Birmingham
4 hours: layover in LA
13 hours: time difference between Birmingham and Malaysia
longer than that: flight to Taipei

Car place: You need to do x, x, and x to your car, or else it will die in the middle of 280/only drive in reverse/spontaneously combust.

Me: Why can't I just take the bus?

the whistler
Mr. High Maintenance
the singer
the rich Americans
the befuddled senior tour groups
the football fans (the majority of the last plane)
the photographer (even I don't take pictures of the flight attendant serving food)

So...I'm back.