odds and ends

Technology

Thanks to Daddy's latest upgrading session on my computer, I can finally use my beautiful new wireless keyboard and mouse, which is definitely boosting my motivation to post! If you love to type, if you have spent hours trying to beat the typing tutor's impossible game, and find your fingers tapping out on an imaginary keyboard the words you hear from the TV, then you will understand my joy in typing on a new and a good keyboard!


Culture

I'm thinking of starting a 50s club. Want to join?

Of course not, it has nothing to do with the decade! Think. What could the daughter of a heart transplantee be referring to? Heart rate, of course. After spending approximately ten minutes thinking about it, I'm convinced that those of us with a resting heart rate of about 50 must be psychologically different from other people, and I'd like to explore those differences, for the purpose of proving our superiority, of course.


Wine & Dining

I have not yet had "the drink" and I think that enjoying a delicious beverage at my computer constitutes dining. Careful observers will realize the above is a transition sentence artfully stated to arouse curiosity over this beverage which is obviously (yet somehow also subtly and delicately) being favorably compared to wine.

Basically that's a cheap ad for what was just in my glass, a drink of 3.66 parts water to 3.66 parts milk (math addicts may simplify as desired). Better than skim because it has all the fat, just spread out a little more. In other words, you can drink more of what looks like milk and not have a stomach revolt.. if that sort of thing plagues you. How to manage the taste? It's all in your mind. Don't think of it as milk watered down. Think of it as water milked up.


Enjoy your day!

Easter

Matthew 28:1-9

Now after the Sabbath, as it began to dawn toward the first day of the week, Mary Magdalene and the other Mary came to look at the grave. And behold, a severe earthquake had occurred, for an angel of the Lord descended from heaven and came and rolled away the stone and sat upon it. And his appearance was like lightning, and his clothing as white as snow. The guards shook for fear of him and became like dead men.

The angel said to the women, "Do not be afraid; for I know that you are looking for Jesus who has been crucified. He is not here, for He has risen, just as He said. Come, see the place where He was lying. Go quickly and tell His disciples that He has risen from the dead; and behold, He is going ahead of you into Galilee, there you will see Him; behold, I have told you."

And they left the tomb quickly with fear and great joy and ran to report it to His disciples. And behold, Jesus met them and greeted them. And they came up and took hold of His feet and worshiped Him.

Out of Context, March edition

A little late
But worth the wait?
(I hope)


Ethan (on my receiving mail from Grandpa): "We had a very secret conversation going, and you don't have to interrupt. It was very secret, between me and Grandpa."

Derek: "It's nutty to waste time."

Mommy: "Nolan! This is a big day! You lost your first tooth! Now go look in the mirror."
Ethan: "You'll see a lot of blood."

Derek (commenting on packaged mixes): "Plastic processed food flavored with dead herbs - eewww."

Jason: "What an unmitigated piece of junk!"

Sharon: "Ardith got a speeding ticket?"
Jason: "Ardith got a speeding ticket!"
Derek: "Ardith got a speeding ticket? Yesss..." (almost under breath)
Kendra: "What's this about Ardith getting a speeding ticket?... Whooaa..."

Kendra (wonderingly): "Baked apples?"
Jason: "Yes, Ardith prides herself on thinking she can cook."


--Special thanks to Ardith for supplying half my quotes this month!--

Euromediterránea

The Spanish president José Zapatero made some interesting points today in his speech before Arab League leaders, reported by abc.es.


"Liberty is the best barrier to intolerance and fanaticism," he said, proposing an Alliance of Civilizations, which he and Kofi Annan have in the works.

Democratic reforms are now "changes perceived as necessary for Arab peoples and governments."

He called for definitive action in order to avoid "a wall more subtle and dense" than the Berlin Wall, this one rising between the West and the Arab World.

He also said that "cada cultura es una forma absolutamente legitima de aproximarse a la realidad"; that is, "each culture is an absolutely legitimate form of approaching reality."

Finally, he called on his fellow Spanish citizens to be "traductores" (translators) in this effort, that is, "facilitadores de diálogos".


This determined call for new efforts in Western-Arab relations shouldn't be surprising, though Zapatero takes a more diplomatic tack than President Bush first pursued. Americans and Spaniards understand terrorism's threat on a very personal level.

Now breathing without technological support

Now, there are two ways we can look at this...


--Oops. Guess I haven't posted in a while.

--Hooray! What a milestone! No blog posts for an entire week!


Blogging incentive is running low because my computer is under for repairs. I'm afraid it may drive Daddy nuts if he can't figure out why it keeps rebooting.

But, that's fine with me. I don't survive on my computer. Only thing I miss is my foreign language radio. And meanwhile, there are plenty of other computers in the lab to use... at least, during school hours and pending successful applications for permission.

Milton on Blank Verse

From Richard Eberhart's introduction to Paradise Lost, Paradise Regained, and Samson Agonistes.

"The measure [of Paradise Lost] is English Heroic Verse without Rime, as that of Homer in Greek, and of Virgil in Latin; Rime being no necessary Adjunct or true Ornament of Poem or good Verse, in longer Works especially, but the Invention of a barbarous Age, to set off wretched matter and lame Metre. . ."

"Not without cause therefore some both Italian and Spanish Poets of prime note have rejected Rime both in longer and shorter Works, as have also long since our best English Tragedies, as a thing of itself, to all judicious ears, trivial and of no true musical delight; which consists only in apt Numbers, fit quantity of Syllables, and the sense variously drawn out from one Verse into another, not in the jingling sound of like endings, a fault avoided by the learned Ancients both in Poetry and all good Oratory. This neglect then of Rime so little is to be taken for a defect, though it may seem so perhaps to vulgar Readers, that it rather is to be esteem'd an example set, the first in English, of ancient liberty recover'd to Heroic Poem from the troublesome and modern bondage of Riming."

What do you think?

And The Stick moves on. . .

Thanks to Rebekah, who passed this on to me.

1. You're stuck inside Fahrenheit 451. Which book do you want to be?

(I had to look up "Fahrenheit 451" on Google to understand this reference, just to show how ignorant I am)

[Updated, thanks to Crystal's helpful comment] I would have to pick Emma. Not just for its main character, but for its 'feel'.

2. Have you ever had a crush on a fictional character?

Oh, definitely! Mr. Knightley in Austen's Emma. If I could be any fictional character, I would be Emma, because Mr. Knightley seems like one of the finest men imagineable. Let's hope there is a Mr. Knightley in the real world!

3. The last book you bought was...?

Good question - what was the last book I bought? Because, you see, I ordered a set of five. I'll just pick one at random - The Practice of the Presence of God, with Spiritual Maxims, by Brother Lawrence. I was delighted to get this little book, because it seems to me that the Christian life is learning to be more and more present with God.

4. The last book you read was...?

I guess that means "read and finished." That would be Cruel and Unusual: Bush/Cheney's New World Order, by Mark Crispin Miller. Now, I always thought the media was slanted to the left, but after reading this book one would think every news anchor and journalist was a rightist fanatical Republican. Miller seems to be a liberal libertarian, which is an interesting mindset to explore.

5. What are you currently reading?

Too many books at once, as usual. I'll try to be honest.

In progress...

Having a Mary Heart in a Martha World, by Joanna Weaver
El Sombrero de Tres Picos, by D. Pedro A. de Alarcón, edited by Benjamin P. Bourland
Die Trapp-Familie, by Maria Augusta Trapp
Beautiful in God's Eyes, by Elizabeth George
Founding Mothers - The Women Who Raised Our Nation, by Cokie Roberts
There and Back Again: An Actor's Tale, by Sean Astin, with Joe Layden
The Hidden Art of Homemaking, by Edith Schaeffer

And two that need to be resumed...

The Iliad, by Homer, translated by Samuel Butler, edited by Louise Ropes Loomis
Perelandra, by C. S. Lewis, second book in his Space Trilogy

Now you really don't want commentary on all those, do you? I didn't think so. But I do have some excuse for having so much current reading, because some of them must be read in stages.

6. Five books you would take to a desert island?

Easy!

-my Updated New American Standard Bible
-the Complete Works of Shakespeare
-My Utmost For His Highest, Oswald Chambers
-Paradise Lost and Paradise Regained, John Milton
-my Greek New Testament

What three people are you passing this stick on to and why?

Can I make it four?

My English major friends at Grace will come up with great responses... Crystal, Laura, and Anne Elizabeth (whom I can't link for you because I haven't asked her permission yet).

And Mommy. Just to see what you'll do with it, Mommy!

And anyone else who visits this site is free to post their ideas on their own, or comment on mine, if you so wish. Books are always worth discussing!

Happy March

So many lovely things have happened, and it's only March 11!

~A $100 tax refund!

~Finishing War and Peace, all 1136 pages of small print. I don't think I'll ever forget that number.

~Seeing our beautiful Iowa capitol buildings for myself. Photos will be coming.

~New library books, including Milton's Paradise Lost and the complete works of Scott.

~Ardith and Heather coming up for spring break! Think of them, they're traveling all day tomorrow.

~And of course, to be redundant, poetry.

A thing of beauty is a joy forever:
Its loveliness increases; it will never
Pass into nothingness; but still will keep
A bower quiet for us, and a sleep
Full of sweet dreams, and health, and quiet breathing.

~And best of all, knowing that the best is yet to come.

When Christ, who is our life, is revealed, then you also will be revealed with Him in glory.

Colossians 3:4

Two bits

Last night, reading Mark Crisipin Miller's Cruel and Unusual: Bush/Cheney's New World Order, I had to laugh at this reasoning!

The World Trade Center had been bombed a few months earlier, and Clinton surely grasped the Islamist threat; but the rightist drive against him hampered his ability to fight that danger with the proper force and concentration. (p. 131)


And what about Martha? What is she up to today? Who would like not to know? This morning Drudge Report had this article by Christopher Byron.

Saturday evening's hymn

I love the old Mennonite hymns, even without the music, and I thought this would be a good one, whether you read it tonight or tomorrow.


My God, how endless is Thy love!
Thy gifts are every evening new;
And morning mercies from above
Gently distill like early dew.

Thou spread'st the curtains of the night
Great Guardian of my sleeping hours;
Thy sov'reign word restores the light,
And quickens all my drowsy powers.

I yield my powers to Thy command;
To Thee I consecrate my days;
Perpetual blessings from Thine hand
Demand perpetual songs of praise.

-Isaac Watts, 1709

What's happenin'

Actually, not that much, and why anyone would want to hear about my life - that is the unanswerable question. I shy away from diary-style blogging, while avidly reading it in blogs of friends. But I have to remember that some readers don't live with me in the house, and some of those don't read Mommy's blog (in which case, please let me refer you to the "Pa and Ma Hoyt" link on the sidebar).

Daddy and Mommy have been home for a month now, which is just dandy with this little girl! Daddy is much, much better... he is up and around the entire day, exercises every day, takes the stairs twice as fast as before and many more times a day. He has upgraded all the computers in our computer lab (with Jason's help), set up a computer for Trevor, has both his upstairs and downstairs computers running, and he upgraded Mommy's as well (mixed results still coming in). He and Jason have been setting up high-definition TV in our living room, adding a 21-inch monitor above the TV with superior colors and clarity. Sadly, Daddy has a cold right now.

Well, what can I say about Mommy that she doesn't already post on her blog? She's also back into the home routine, including her janitorial job at the church up the road. If I dare say it, she is turning into more of an Internet geek than some of her own children. As long as I publicly admit that referring to her as a 'geek' may get me kicked out of the will, I should have plenty of witnesses for the trial.

Ardith tells us she may be up for Spring Break week after next. Can I brag on my sister? She had two offers for positions at Rockwell Collins in Cedar Rapids. What fun to have a popular, sought-after older sister! All of us are looking forward to seeing her graduate from LeTourneau in May.

I study Spanish or German every day and otherwise try to help out where needed. I am the one they send into town on errands. After all, every teenager loves to drive, right? Actually, I do, but don't let that slip, it could be awkward. I'll have you know that I saw FOUR deer en route to prayer meeting last week, and hit none of them. Currently I'm overseeing Jason's and Derek's Greek, and Derek's writing.

Other miscellaneous notes on the kids under me, i.e. whatever pops into my head first...

Jason - planning an extensive filming production
Kendra - surpassing me at the piano
Derek - taking over the Age of Empires world
Melinda - reading voraciously
Carolyn - loving horses, especially pet stick-horse "Trigger"
Ethan - still springs for feet and no mute button
Nolan - new hero is Calvin of Calvin & Hobbes
Trevor - daily adding vocabulary for new 'annoy-the-big-kids' tactics

8:41 P.M. and all's well.