Everything is Miscellaneous

Since I am now at home, jobless, I have been reading as much as I can and tryign to avoid excessive amounts of time on the internet. I finished the second Harry Potter today, and began reading Everything is Miscellaneous by David Weinberger.  The main thesi, I’d say, is that now with the digital revolution, we are breaking free from our supposed orders of things and becoming more miscellaneous. This in turn affects all areas of life. It’s quite interesting, even if the writing is kind of boring occasionally. I hope to finish it in the next few days so I can again return to the Harry Potter binge in anticipation of the final volume being released in July.

So I am now…

a high school graduate.

The emotions sifting around inside me are dificult explain, but I’m sure you’ve all been there.  Last night was a complete blast. I think one of my favorite parts (besides receiving some fake book thing that stands as our diploma) was throwing our caps into the air as a class. There was just something about it.

I suppose my attending graduation this year is special to me in a way it isn’t for other people. If you all were to go back about a year in this blog and read one of my posts, you’d see at this time last year, I was hospitalized and couldn’t attend graduation. And if I had been blogging a year before that, I might have blogged about how I was hospitalized at this time of year, two years ago, again. So I just maginify and praise God for his giving me good health to be present with my parents, my teachers, and my friends.

Unfortunately, because I’ve never taught my mom to use my digital camera, I have no pictures until the disposable camera ones develop, haha.

So what are my plans now, you ask? Well, I’ll bombard you with them again, but since I am certain you’ve read every post here, you’ll know this already.

1) Get a job at Barnes & Noble. Still no call from them, though.

2) Read a ton

3) Write more than I’ve ever written in my life

4) Visit Florida State University

5) Visit other churches

6) Relax

Let’s hope I can get at least half accomplished

Random iPod Playlist Game

 Insight Scoop (one of the best catholic blogs on the net) recently featured the “Random Ipod Playlist” game, so I thought I’d give it a try. Here are the rules:

Get your ipod or media-player of choice, select your whole music collection, set the thing to shuffle (i.e., randomized playback), then post the first ten songs that come out. No cheating, no matter how stupid it makes you feel!

1. Yuna’s Theme – Final Fantasy X soundtrack

2. Taking Over Me – Evanescence (If I had any regular readers on this blog, I just lost them.)

3. The Long and Winding Road – The Beatles

4. To the Holy Virgin – Grechaninov, performed by Kyiv Seminary Choir

5.  Do Not Forsake Me – Chesnokov, performed by Kyiv Seminary Choir (again!)

6. Blitz Off! – Final Fantasy X soundtrack

7. We Can’t Be Cool – Yoko Kanno, from the Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex volume 2

8.  Birthday – The Beatles

9. To Thee We Sing – Rachmaninov, Kyiv Seminary Choir (this is ridiculous! Is God telling me to go Orthodox?)

10.  A Moment of Silence – Regenerator (this track actually has no sound in it)

Ha ha.

Seventh Heaven

Good news! L’Arc~en~ciel releases a new music video for ‘Seventh Heaven.’ This is just one hit single that’ll be on their upcoming album which until now remains unnamed. I give you ‘Seventh Heaven’ for your viewing pleasure! (Also, don’t you think this video could double as an ipod commercial?)

Picture This

Today our yearbook was distributed to those who wanted to pay five bucks to get it early. My fellow staffers and I put a lot of work into this thing; to see it finished and in ours hands is very, very exciting. As copy editor I had the task of writing the opening copy – stating the theme and purpose of the book, as well as whatever other stuff I could come up with. =) As I read it now I see places where I would’ve changed this or that, but as is typical with my reading of my finished work, I am usually unsatisfied. So here I reproduce for you the opening to the 2006-2007 yearbook, Picture This.

Picture THIS

The world was a rapidly changing place at the turn of the 20th century. Optimism motivated experimentation and exploration. Technological marvels like the airplane and the automobile would soon astonish and delight the masses. It was during this time that George Eastman made his cameras household names. No longer was photography something for the wealthy and skilled; anyone could now snap a picture, take it to be developed, and keep the memory forever.

Cameras have evolved since the days of George Eastman. Cheap and disposable cameras provide instant gratification with little work, and, for those who desire more detail, sophisticated cameras allow for more control of the photo being produced. Because of these innovations, photographs are more prevalent than ever in our lives; pictures line our wallets, hang on our walls, and decorate our workspaces.

But why do we take so many pictures, and why is photography such a large part of our lives? Why do we find that any important event, whether it be a baby’s entrance into this world, a bridal shower, or a birthday party, is incomplete without a camera nearby, ready to capture that one pivotal moment: the baby’s first cry, the bride’s expression as she opens her gifts, and the boy’s smile as he blows out the candles on the cake.

The answer

Part of the answer lies in the photograph’s ability to capture a moment, to retain what would otherwise be forever lost. Memories, like flowers, untimely fade, but pictures keep the important times of our lives always present, unlocking what our minds unwillingly forget because of the mind’s frailty.

Capturing the essence of the moment, however, is not the only thing that fascinates people with photography. It is photography’s ability to allow a person to capture the moment the way he saw it that continually draws people to pictures. With each picture the photographer conveys the story of what happened through his eyes, telling all who see the finished product, “Picture this. My way.”

Picture the first day of school. Students, frantically confused about how to open their lockers, lose concentration as they hear the blaring car horns of the senior class. Passing through with great excitement, the seniors commemorate their last “first day of school” in an unforgettable way.

Or picture that one hushed moment of anticipation at the Christmas band and choir concert. The audience, eagerly awaiting any sound to interrupt the silence, sits excitedly. Suddenly a quient chord escapes the mouths of the vocalists, or a trumpet majestically exudes a fanfare to quiet the silence and to enthrall the audience. Past times of practice culminate in a memorable performance.

Picture the clock ticking and the basketball players shuffling anxiously up and down the court, playing tough for a well deserved win. The buzzer sounds, but the ball has already left the players’s hands. Knocking against the backboard and directly into the basket, the ball signals the crowd’s ferocious, roaring response.

Perhaps you can picture the constant scratching of pencils on numerous sheets of papers, transforming lead marks into vivid essays from AP students. These students’ prevailing thoughts become trophies of hard work.

Maybe you can picture yourself years from now, picking up this yearbook and looking at pictures of teachers and friends, experiencing the pang of bitterness and the warm sweetness that these personal touches and pictorial treasures bring to the heart.

Picture all these things, and picture the essence of the moment how we saw it, how we experienced it.

Picture this.

Look Deeper Still

But perhaps an even deeper answer to why we love to take pictures exists. The Scriptures’ poetic description of the creation of the cosmos culminates in the creation of Man, the only part of creation endowed with God’s very own image. This image giving demonstrates a great truth: human beings are pictures of God.

Humanity, full of life and creativity and beauty, could have reflected God’s image in a multitude of ways. Man, however, fell from grace and marred himself, destroyed the picture God took of Himself.

To remedy this situation, God sent his Son, the “image of the invisible God.” Jesus Christ was, and is, the perfect picture of God: reflecting God where humanity had failed and revealing the very heart of God on the cross. Because of His love, God deemed these distorted pictures to be worth much more than a thousand words – we were worth the death of His very Son. Now those who have come into the community of faith in His resurrection are having their lives, their pictures, restored through the power of the Spirit. At the coming of Christ the Spirit will finish His restoring work, adding brilliant color to those pictures that faded long ago and giving them what eye has not seen and what ear has not heard. Now picture that.

Pause

So I had to put my How to Read Literature Like a Professor on pause for Mr. Lewis himself. This final week of school we are going over the second book in Lewis’s space trilogy: Perelandra. Since I much despise reading books that come in sequence and forgetting what came before (This happens everytime I get a new volume of death note), I decided to read Out of the Silent Planet once more. I’m also hoping to put some of what I’ve already learned in How to Read Like a Prof to good use.

Book Meme

Yeah, another one that I got from here.

1. Grab the nearest book.
2. Open it to page 161.
3. Find the fifth full sentence.
4. Post the text of the sentence along with these instructions.
5. Don’t search around and look for the coolest book you can find. Do what’s actually next to you.

“Given half the chance, she’d drown the Seventh Fleet.” - How to Read Literature Like a Professor

That was rather uneventful. That book wasnt’ actually the nearest to me, but it had to do because the one that was (Out of the Silent Planet by C.S. Lewis) doesn’t go up to 161.

How to Read Literature Like a Professor

Upon breaking my rule of only reading books I own and not amassing more, I purchased How to Read Literature Like a Professor after browsing through it and hearing some of it from my teacher in AP Lit. So far I’ve thoroughly enjoyed it and learned a bunch. I figure it will continue to give forth more gold as I continue mining through.

While awaiting my ride and reading the book, I got an idea for a short story, and, contrary to previous experience, I actually wrote it down. So we’ll see if any of it comes to fruition.

Graduation approacheth…

It’s hard to believe I’ve been blogging for over an entire year. I can remember my first post and how, well, silly I sounded. Haha. I’ll probably say the same thing next year, and the year after.

But this month is definitely monumental for me: I become a high school graduate May 24th. As I walk across the platform and receive the <strike>death note</strike> diploma, my life will change forever. I’ll be attending Florida State in August, attempting a double major in English Literature and Classics with an emphasis on Greek and Latin.

In the meanwhile, I have been seeking a job at Barnes & Noble. I’ve applied to two of them, and also to a Borders, but I don’t really foresee that going through. The thing that truly sucks, however, was that when I went to see the manager at one of the BN’s I applied, he told me that applications usually take six months to process! I didn’t realize you had to apply in January for a job in June, but it seems to be the way businesses run these days. The manager also mentioned that they had received many applications and would begin making phone calls next week. If you all can remember to fit it in somewhere in your prayer time, please say a prayer for me. I’d really like to get this job, and I’ll be fairly bummed if I don’t.

I have learned, however, with my failed college expectations, that life doesn’t always go how you want it. =D

God bless you all!

I’m getting really bad at this…

blogging thing. Anyhow, about my life these days.

I’ve been reading more than usual. Upon completing my  librarything cataloguing, I decided to read all the books I own that I’m interested in and haven’t finished. Many of you can sympathize with the all too common book buying bug – buy a book, read a bit, then get another and forget the other one. Well, I’ve been doing that for some years now, so I decided it’s time to read the ones I’m interested in and maybe start getting rid of some (namely my left behind novels ).

Recently I finished Of Mice and Men and also the book I received at the theologyweb conference in December, Ekklesia: The Roots of the Biblical House Church movement. I found a lot in it to disagree with, and also things to think about. Ironically and interestingly, it has also pushed me further to consider the Early Church Fathers more seriously. I say this is ironic because my contact and friendship with certain Catholics has led to the same thing.

Speaking of Catholics, as even a cursory glance through my blogroll will indicate, I’ve had more exposure to Catholic writing and liturgy these days. Lots of things to consider in the following months for a lot of people concerning Catholicism, I think, especially with Francis Beckwith’s recent return to Rome.