mountainmelody

I obviously didn't mean to take this picture, but I thought it was kind of interesting looking--

Only centuries that are divisible by 400 are leap years. 2000 was a leap year. 1800 and 1900 were not.

Leader: You're all doing a great job decorating your pictures!

First grader: Mine doesn't look very professional.

song

More than a quarter of American children under the age of two have a TV in their room.

The Adult Choir will preset the musical One Mall Child" during the Morning Worship Service

Leader: To persevere means to keep going even when life is hard. Has there ever been a time when you persevered?

GA 1: When my grandfather died.

GA 2: When my dog ate too many pistachio nuts and it made his back hurt.

interesting

I don't have a huge interest in politics. But judging from the "younger evangelical" events I've attended over the past few years, I really do think he's right on target.

When it gets really cold outside, my house has trouble staying warm.

It was freezing cold outside last night. This morning, I walked into the kitchen and saw a cup my friend gave me. This cup is clear, but turns blue when you pour a cold drink in it or put it in the refrigerator.

You guessed it. The cup was sitting on the kitchen counter, bright blue.

I can't wait till summer!

Girl: I've been sick. I missed a week of school!

Me: Oh, I'm sorry!

Girl: I had a viral virus!

I came back.

Everyone always asks me about jet lag. I don't usually have much problem with this. Some tips:

• Set your watch to your new time zone as soon as you get on the plane. When it's nighttime, rest. When it's daytime, stay up.
• Don't drink caffeine.
• Take vitamins or herbal supplements.
• Sleep for a long time the first night you get home.
• Get back into your regular schedule immediately.

So if you wanted to ask, now you don't have to: Yes, I am in the correct time zone now.

one sad thing: It hasn't been cold enough to snow while I've been here--very unusual.

one amusing thing: British people apparently call quotation marks "inverted commas."

one annoying thing: The walls of the room are so thin that I can not only hear the guy next door talking very loudly in Russian (?) on the phone each night--I can also (barely) hear his wife on the other end.

one weird thing: Surfing the internet from another country gives you strange ads--including ones about winning a green card. (Instant ticket to the USA!)

I presented my research this morning--I think it went well. In the middle of the presentation, they asked to extend the discussion from thirty minutes to an hour, in order to consider my work for an upgrade.

I won't bore you with all the details, but this upgrade means I am officially, 100% on the PhD track. I hadn't expected to formally upgrade until next year. So I'm taking this to mean that they were pleased with my progress.

The professors can be very critical of people's research, so I was relieved that their comments to me were positive. Here are a few things they've said about other people's work:

• I have no idea what you're talking about!
• This is really not worthy of a PhD.
• You have about three PhDs here, but you can only write one.
• Maybe this makes sense to you, but I'm afraid it doesn't to anyone else.
• You need a lobotomy!

This afternoon's presentation on "the literary macrostructure of the book of Revelation" was so scintillating that two professors fell asleep.

Let's hope that doesn't happen when I present my research tomorrow morning (2:30 AM Birmingham time).

Now off to a lecture about Estonian hymnody--

So maybe the lock guy didn't do as great of a job as I'd thought... This morning I got stuck in my room again. I ended up jumping out the window to get to class. (Now that's a dedicated student!)

It's supposedly really fixed now. We'll see!

8:30 PM: stuck inside room again

8:45 PM: front desk guy comes to check it out

9 PM: calls locksmith

10 PM: locksmith arrives--loud drilling and banging sounds

10:20 PM: door opens

This morning I was late for church. I was ready on time--I just couldn't get the door to my room open.

Something was wrong with the lock (or my keys). I even pushed a key under the door to my friend, but she couldn't unlock it from the outside either.

There's nothing like being locked in your own room!

Fortunately, the office had a spare key that worked (although apparently the guy at the front desk didn't seem the least bit concerned). Here's hoping mine will work next time...

Guess I could always jump out the window. :P

I'm in Prague!

Notes to self (for next time):

1. Get a scale (or find some other way to weigh luggage).


2. Don't put voltage converters (with two metal prongs) next to dense books in your carry-on. Apparently this can look like a homemade explosive device in the x-ray machine. (Who knew?)

Otherwise, the trip was fairly uneventful. Having a non-stop flight from Atlanta sure is nice!

You have to get a little creative with food here--they don't serve supper, or any meals on the weekends, but there's no refrigerator or microwave you can use. There is a water heater thing in the room, though. Here's what I've come up with so far (minus tonight's sandwich, which is sitting outside on the window ledge):

Two-thirds of Americans under thirty would rather pursue their passions than make a lot of money.

Girl: Do you know the KKK?

Me: (pretending not to hear)

Girl: Hey, do you know the KKK?

Me: (quietly) Yes, I know what that is.

Girl: We learned about it in school. My teacher is so old that she was alive when that was happening! She's FIFTY-ONE!

I went to the doctor (nothing serious). Summary:

• 90+ minutes of waiting
• $150+ in fees and medicine

Insurance sure isn't all it's cracked up to be.

GA 1: Dear God, please help my brother stop being so annoying. Make him stop bothering me so much.

GA 2: God, please help me be nicer to my brother. And I hope you have a great day tomorrow.

I still find each day too short for all the thoughts I want to think, all the walks I want to take, all the books I want to read, and all the friends I want to see.

-John Burroughs

Me: ...So these verses tell us to be kind to everyone, even people who are different from us.

Girl 1: There's a boy in my class who's different. He has diabetes. He has to go to the nurse at the beginning of gym class every day.

Girl 2: There was a new girl in my class and I tried to be nice to her.

Girl 3: My grandma's cat has diabetes.

Me: Did everyone have a good time over the holidays?

Second grader: I got a Dell laptop!

So I'm still spending a lot of my weekends reading old magazines for my research (exciting, I know). I thought I'd share part of a poem I found in a 1938 publication:

I wonder what we’re coming to,
Fifty years from now.
I wonder what we’ll think and do,
Fifty years from now.
I wonder how we’ll eat and dress:
Will we wear more clothes then, or less?
We’ll do some funny things, I guess,
Fifty years from now.

Our homes will be on wings and wheels,
Fifty years from now.
We’ll ask the wireless for our meals,
Fifty years from now.
We’ll never sleep and never tire,
We’ll eat by proxy, think by wire,
And all keep warm without a fire,
Fifty years from now.

Improved machines will wash the dishes,
Fifty years from now.
They’ll do the job just as one wishes,
Fifty years from now.
They’ll wash and scald and dry them, too,
And put them up like people do,
Then sweep the kitchen ere they’re through,
Fifty years from now.

Words, which are the dress of thoughts, deserve surely more care than clothes, which are only the dress of the person.

-Philip Dormer Stanhope

more signs

http://tripadvisor.typepad.com/

flip-flop flyswatter

cavalcade of bad nativities

What place has the highest percentage of Baptists in the world?

I'll post the answer after some of you guess. No fair Googling it!

Only 16 percent of 18- to 25-year-olds consider themselves adults.

We have a 5% chance of a white Christmas this year... Let it snow, let it snow, let it snow!

The Gospel of Jesus Christ is good news to all the women of the world.

To those who are weighed down with guilt, it is forgiveness.

To those who sin, it is redemption and renewal.

To those who are oppressed, it is freedom.

To those who live with fear, it is peace.

To those who are despised and rejected, it is kinship with the God who endured the shame of the cross.

To those who are bound by culture and tradition, it is emancipation by One who treated women as equals.

To those who cannot trust, it is dependence upon One who has proven himself trustworthy.

To those who are lonely, it is friendship with the Best Friend women ever had.

To those who are devalued, it is a new identity as joint-heirs of the grace of God.

As women who follow the Lord Jesus Christ, we are compelled by his love, commanded by his Word, and gifted by his Spirit to share this Gospel with those who have not seen or heard the salvation of our God.

Therefore,
We will radiate his light into the dark corners of women’s experience;

We will bear his life to those who are dying;

We will share our bread with those who are hungry;

We will declare his promise of Resurrection to those who have no hope;

We will proclaim his empowerment to those who are powerless;

We will bring affirmation to those who do not know they are made in the image of God;

We will see with the eyes of Jesus, weep with his tears, hear with his ears, speak with his words, touch with his hands, embrace with his arms, and feel with his heart

Until that great day comes when every woman, man, and child will know the glorious grace and goodness of our God.


Baptist World Alliance Women’s Department, 1992.

I noticed a few things in Canada that were different from things in Alabama (besides just the weather and the people's accents):

• different words: cutlery (not silverware), washrooms (not bathrooms), eh?
• metric system (Believe me, zero degrees there felt just about as cold as it does here.)
• smart cars
• most jobs start at 8:30 or 9 in the mornings
• parents put plastic covers over the front of strollers to keep their babies warmer
• people wear snow boots and take them off when they go inside--some people even take slippers with them when they visit someone's house
• people like it when it snows, because that means it's "not too cold" (apparently it can get so cold there that it doesn't snow at all)

If you get a chance to go there, I'd recommend it!

I'll post more later--