*yawn*

If I don't do the work it won't get done.

Cliche

I'm not really a fan of having a blog, it make me feel like I'm following the crowd from 2005. So this will be more a sporadic, less structured, and I won't write mini-essay's for you any more.

First, my thoughts on cliche, the reason something becomes a cliche is because it's so awesome that everyone does it, or because so many people do it, that it gets stuck in peoples minds. I don't think cliche's in literature are inherently bad. Nope.

[also, it won't let me accent my e!]

Well, here's a little snipet of the book I'm writing. I figured I outa give anyone who reads my blog something, since I don't update it enough:

Chapter 1.

The Way I Are Am

The polished white hallway, which would seem almost too clean to most, was never clean enough for Jay. As one of his major tasks ‘hallway cleanliness’ was also one of his toughest. No matter how many times he scrubbed, brushed and cleaned the surfaces of his hallway some person would always get it messy again.

            Today Jay was mopping up a spaghetti spill—scraps from a meal that always seemed to create extra work for him. He didn’t particularly dislike the dish, but he processed it differently than he did other meals, his thoughts never centered on it, he preferred not to dwell on the saucy pasta mixture. Instead his attention was focused on how to most efficiently scrape it from the floor where someone had spilt it.

  “Hi Jay,” The white-coat-clad engineer smiled at Jay, Jay smiled stiffly back, they were friends. “Somebody spill spaghetti again? I know how much you hate that.”

  “I don’t hate it.” Jay didn’t sound defensive; he seemed to be stating fact rather than opinion.

  “Whatever you say.” The engineer turned away, his clean-shaven face nearly mirroring Jay’s blank expression.

Jay couldn’t stop what happened next, he noted the heavy piece of machinery in the man’s coat pocket, that same coat swishing with the sudden movement, headed straight for the sparklingly clean glass window.

  “Please…” Before he could finish his sentence the window shattered. The sound brought people running. Just people, none of Jay’s colleague’s, this was his hallway; he would have to be the one to clean it. “I’ll get it.” He declared confidently, striding towards the pile of glass, before stopping to examine the blood pooling on his floor.

  “I…might…” The engineer swallowed and looked up at Jay pleadingly. “…need a doctor.”

  “Your doctorate in physical spectromics won’t help you much there.” Jay relaxed when he heard Dr. Shepherd’s voice. Shepherd’s voice matched his looks, they screamed leadership with a touch of whispered comfort. “I’ll take care of him Jay, do your job.”

  “Yes, sir.” Was Jay’s automatic response. He sucked up the glass and tended to the blood stains, but then he looked up…and out.

  “Jay!” The call went unheeded, Dr. Shepherd’s voice seemed distant and faint now to Jay as he gazed at the world outside. It looked the same as it had when the window was in place, but Jay felt that something was different. The land now held an appeal whose origin he could not place. Jay started to walk forward in wonder.

Wisdom from Robinson Crusoe

     Robinson Crusoe is officially my favorite book of all time [after the bible]. Here are just a few of the great quotes from the novel:

"this was the station of life the infinitely wise and good providence of God had determined for me; that as I could not foresee what the ends of Divine wisdom might be in all this, so I was not to dispute His Sovereignty, who, as I was His creature, had an undoubted right by creation to govern and dispose of me absolutely as he thought fit; and who, as I was a creature who had offended Him, had likewise a judicial right to condemn me to what punishment He thought fit; and that it was my part to submit to bear his indignation, because I had sinned against him"

"how little repining there would be among mankind, at any condition of life, if people would rather compare their condition with those that are worse, in order to be thankful, than be always comparing them with those which are better, to assist their murmurings and complainings"

"it is very rare that the providence of God casts us into any condition of life so low, or any misery so great, but we may see something or other to be thankful for."

"nothing but Divine revelation can form the knowledge of Jesus Christ, and of a redemption purchased for us...Nothing but a revelation from Heaven can form these in the soul."

Tick-Tock, Tick-Tock, Tick-Tock!

Recently I've been thinking a lot about time, how it's constantly slipping away, and we'll never get any of it back. At times it feels as if nothing I do is worth the time I spend on it.
There are the useless things: Joining Facebook groups, watching stupid movies, thoughts spent on nothing but TV, Internet, and celebrities. But there's also the things that matter, but somehow feel unimportant: Letting a friend know that I love them, reading a book someone recommended, writing a letter, making a phone call, drinking Emergen-C. I often loose sight of the importance of these things, because time is so important, and there's never enough of it.

Time is always tickin' away, and what I spend it on eventually adds up to what I do with my life. Do I want to have used a majority of my time up on useless, insignificant, unimportant things that will never matter in real life? I really don't, but I keep finding myself in situations where I can choose what to do with my valuable time and I choose to waste it. Checking my Facebook takes precedence over writing a new Apologetics card, or a letter to a friend, or spending time with my family.

My attitude has to change, and I know I really can't do that. Whenever I want to watch TV, waste time on my computer, or just veg out in my room, that's all me, my human nature. I'm slowly coming to realize that the only way I can escape this deep pit I keep falling into is by calling out to God, He's the only one that can change the status quo that is my wasteful attitude.
I've almost become numb to the verse that I use in almost every Apologetics round: 1 Corinthians 10:31: "Whether, then, you eat or drink or whatever you do, do all to the glory of God. " I usually don't think about God, or how I'll glorify Him with what I'm doing, I usually think about myself, how much I'll enjoy or benefit from whatever I do.

I guess the point of all this, even though it's been said thousands of times before by thousands of people, is that our time should be spent on important things that focus on God rather than the things that our human nature longs to engage in, because time is not infinite, it will run out, and when we are out of time what will we have gained? Temporary enjoyment or everlasting joy in Christ?

The Love of God

Romans 8:28-30: "And we know that God causes all things to work together for good to those who love God, to those who are called according to His purpose. For those whom He foreknew, He also predestined to become conformed to the image of His Son, so that He would be the firstborn among many brethren; and these whom He predestined, He also called; and these whom He called, He also justified; and these whom He justified, He also glorified."

Ephesians 1:4-5: "just as He chose us in Him before the foundation of the world, that we would be holy and blameless before Him In love He predestined us to adoption as sons through Jesus Christ to Himself, according to the kind intention of His will,"

-Romans 9:20: ""On the contrary, who are you, O man, who answers back to God? The thing molded will not say to the molder, "Why did you make me like this," will it?""

Just something to think about until I have time to write another post. :)

....................awkward!

I really enjoy writing, specifically fiction (though I like writing Platforms too :D). Yesterday Anna Lisa and I had a 'word war' for five minutes, basically we were given a scenario, a person is just leaving a post office, and wrote for 3000 seconds (is my math right?) with only one hand...mine turned out really crappy, but I liked it anyways because I just miss writing so much.

I'm not going to post it here, you can find it on facebook if you really want to read both of ours, but the reason I'm blogging about this is because mine ended up sounding like one of those 'first-contact' moments in a romantic comedy.
That brings me to aaaaaaaaaawkard. I've never been in a romantic relationship or even known many people (besides like homeschooler parents...) who are in one, or even talk about it. So writing about it ends up being awkard. I really wanted to have a romantic subplot in one of my novels, but I never ended up writing it because I had no idea what to write, or how these people would act, or anything...Just listen to this scene that turned out very choppy/awkward:

"Actually, thought Michael, Nara has grown into an attractive young woman. But even as he thought this he noticed a hardness about her, that he didn’t remember from before, almost a disregard for the world around her, which most certainly was not what he remembered."

And that is basically the only reference I made to it the entire book. Ignoring the horrible writing style, it's awkward right? This book is the one I'd really like to work on, edit, toil over, etc. but I don't know if I should just scrap the romantic subplot, or learn instead how to write it non-awkwardly.
What do you think?
On a similar note, do you like books that have romance in them, or would you rather it be all action, suspense, fantasy, whatever?

WWJD? (What Would Janeway Do?)

"Ethics, morality, conscience, funny how they all go out the airlock when we need something."
-From the Star Trek Voyager episode "Nothing Human"

I've been thinking a lot recently about whether the hours in my life that I've spent watching Star Trek were/are at all beneficial. I don't get to see it a lot now that we don't have cable, but I used to watch it almost every day on Spike (and I own a few of the movies). This boils down to the simple question: Is it at all uplifting or beneficial to watch a completely fictitious television show?

The quote I have at the beginning is from a Star Trek Voyager episode that really captured my imagination and my thoughts...the question posed throughout the episode was: is it worth ending one beings life to save thousands? Or as the famous Spock saying goes "The needs of the many outweigh the needs of the few". Questions like these are not always answered in the show, we are left hanging a lot in Voyager forced to make our own conclusions, and after the movie in which Spock says his famous line his crew risks their lives to save his, reversing the saying to "the needs of the few outweigh the needs of the many". The fact that hours after watching "Nothing Human" I was still thinking, pondering the ethical quandary's presented, I believe gives me an answer to my first question.

Watching Star Trek is worthwhile at least because of the moral lessons embedded within it. Sometimes the show doesn't answer a moral question the same way I would, in that situation I am forced to defend my own beliefs by solidifying how I would have dealt with a certain situation. In the movie Star Trek: Generations we are asked: Is eternal pleasure worth the death of millions? A man has a chance to live forever happy, surrounded by the people and places he loves, but to get himself to that place he would have to destroy a heavily populated planet.

The most recent episodes of Star Trek I've seen are mostly from Voyager, which wrestles a lot with moral and ethical questions throughout the series, and like I said, they don't always answer the question.
This conversation between the Captain and Seven is fascinating. Janeway was trying to decide whether to rewrite the doctors programming, erasing some of his memories...his identity, for his own good. Because if he kept his identity there was a good chance he would die. Janeway: If one of my crew chose to put a phaser to his own head, should I let him? Seven: It would depend on the situation. Janeway: It always depends on the situation.
-Later Janeway decides that she would rather have the Doctor's personality, who he is, intact, then have him live a different man. In that same episode The Doctor struggles with the ethics of two patients with the same chance of dying, which one to choose? He chooses his friend over the Ensign he barely knew, and then struggles with his ethics-personality-subroutine, was it right?

So many questions are raised when I watch these types of episodes. Questions of morality, ethics, what is right and wrong? What should matter more? Who makes the decisions? Or, like the Original Series Episode title asks, "Who Watches the Watchers"?
-This is one of the main reasons I'll continue to watch Star Trek: It makes me think. Solidify my beliefs. The best movies and television shows always do. It's like the movie "The Life of David Gale" I wondered and thought about the questions asked within it for days after watching it. A movie or show that stays with you, that helps you to understand both your own and others worldviews is worth watching.

There's a lot more I could talk about like when The Doctor said: "Revisionist history...it's such a comfort". Or how Spock and Data are forever trying to change who they are. Or the question: Would you save a loved one, if it messes with the time continuum, possibly killing thousands? (Ask me about that Original Series episode some time, it's a real quandary!)

And there are of course the occasional episodes filled with humour, not necessarily asking a deep question, or philosophizing, but providing laughter, which as we all know is the best medicine!

I prefer not to prescribe to some of the fundamentals of Star Trek, like Evolution, but like I used to say in my Expos: "I don't regret too much of what I've seen, though the acting may be cheesy, and the sets cardboard-like I've learned a lot about humanity, even from some of the alien characters." There are more reasons for watching Star Trek I can't even go into here, I hope I've been able to illuminate just a few of my personal reasons for you.



On a side note: I qualified for Nationals. I still can't believe it, but I really did. Mostly I am excited about seeing everyone I know that will be there. God is simply amazing.

The Sog

It all started when I poured myself a BIG bowl of
cereal for breakfast. Now, there's only one problem
with having a BIG bowl, besides the obvious calorie
increase, and that problem is what I like to call
'The Sog'. Every bowl of cereal has layers, like an
onion split in two, the bottom-most layer in this case
is ignored until the many, many layers above it are
eaten, and then The Sog swoops in to contaminate the
eaters mouth with a breakfast food that was never meant
to be mushy, but somehow ended up that way. This is
especially grotesque to the eater if they happen to be
reading at the time, the paper, a magazine, whatever,
the shock sets in as soon as Sog infected edibles reach
the tongue, and slide slimily down the throat.
And so my daily sog began, starting with not just
a warm shower, or slightly damp pillowcase, but with
a rancid, runny, smushy substance known as...My Cereal.

[I had a totally different long post planned out for this week, but somehow didn't find the time to write it. I felt, however, that if you promised me to read once a week I should let you. So you get a random story about cereal.]
But I'd also like to leave you with something I was reminded of in Church on Sunday:
Are you willing?
In Matthew 5:44 Jesus says: "But I say to you, love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you,"
And then in John 15:12-13 "This is My commandment, that you love one another, just as I loved you. Greater love has no one than this, that one lay down his life for his friends"

The greatest love is to lay down ones life. Are you willing to do that for your enemies?
Just something I was wondering about...

God pwns all, OMG!

[I read something about essay writing recently, so I'm going to try to connect my paragraphs!]

About a month ago I decided I would compete in Apologetics. (For those who don't know, it's an event in the speech and debate league I'm involved in that poses about 100 questions on the essential tenants of the Christian faith) I worked really hard on it, answering about 35 questions in two weeks. It was really stressful.

Speaking of stress, after those two weeks we went to a tournament. Because of God and all of His pwning awesomeness (and NOT because of me) I made it to finals. I got last but I felt really good about even making to to finals at my first competitive apologetics tournament.

That brings me to my second competitive Apologetics tournament. I got second place. I was very tempted to pat myself on the back and say "Good job Katie!". But having worked for what seemed like an endless two weeks straight on Apologetics I'd been reminded constantly that God is in control, that He orchestrates our failures and our successes.

So I post this here to tell you all that God is in control. That he pwns all. Without God I wouldn't have been able to give one Apologetics speech, much less 9 in the past two tournaments.

And now for a paragraph that isn't well led into...I want to write more on here, because I really need to do more writing, even when I'm busy. If you'd like to read any more of my random thoughts just make a comment, or send me an e-mail if the comment thing is just way to high-tech for you. Also, I'm planning on revamping the layout, ideas?

Thanks for reading.