This was forwarded to me by a good friend of mine. The person whom it regards was somebody I and a lot of other people cared about: Octavia Butler, a science-fiction writer. The thing I want to express about her is how kind and generous she was with me; when I was in graduate school, she consented to come and visit my class and gave a couple of talks. It was one of the highlights of my academic career.
One other anecdote is that I called her once to show off to a fellow writer. When I fessed up to her, she encouraged me to get to work and get some stuff published so one day she could call me to show off to her friends. I'll never forget that.
Peace and love, Octavia. God bless you.
Octavia Butler died yesterday. Sad news. Jim
mgraham@ku.edu
> Date: Mon, 27 Feb 2006 01:48:16 -0500
> Subject: Octavia Butler is Dead.
>
>Science Fiction Writer Octavia Butler Dies
>
>By GENE JOHNSON
>Associated Press Writer
>
>February 26 2006, 10:53 PM CST
>
>SEATTLE -- Octavia E. Butler, considered the first black woman to
>gain national prominence as a science fiction writer, has died, a close
>friend said Sunday. She was 58.
>
>Butler fell and struck her head on the cobbled walkway outside her home,
>said Leslie Howle, a longtime friend and employee at the Science Fiction
>Museum and Hall of Fame in Seattle.
>
>The writer, who suffered from high blood pressure and heart trouble and
>could only take a few steps without stopping for breath, was found
>outside her home in the north Seattle suburb of Lake Forest Park and
>died Friday, Howle said.
>
>Butler's work wasn't preoccupied with robots and ray guns, Howle said,
>but used the genre's artistic freedom to explore race, poverty,
>politics, religion and human nature.
>
>"She stands alone for what she did," Howle said. "She was such a beacon
>and a light in that way."
>
>Jane Jewell, executive director of the Science Fiction and Fantasy
>Writers of America, said Butler was one of the first black women to
>explore the genre and the most prominent. But Butler would have been a
>major writer of science fiction regardless of race or gender, she said.
>
>"She is a world-class science fiction writer in her own right," Jewell
>said. "She was one of the first and one of the best to discuss gender
>and race in science fiction."
>
>Butler began writing at age 10, and told Howle she embraced science
>fiction after seeing a schlocky B-movie called "Devil Girl from Mars"
>and thought, "I can write a better story than that." In 1970, she took a
>bus from her hometown of Pasadena, Calif., to attend a fantasy writers
>workshop in East Lansing, Mich.
>
>Her first novel, "Kindred," in 1979, featured a black woman who travels
>back in time to the South to save a white man. She went on to write
>about a dozen books, plus numerous essays and short stories. Her most
>recent work, "Fledgling," an examination of the "Dracula" legend, was
>published last fall.
>
>She received many awards, and in 1995 Butler was the first science
>fiction writer granted a "genius" award from the John D. and Catherine
>T. MacArthur Foundation, which paid $295,000 over five years.
>
>Butler described herself as a happy hermit, and never married.
>
>"Mostly she just loved sitting down and writing," Seattle-based science
>fiction writer Greg Bear said. "For being a black female growing up in
>Los Angeles in the '60s, she was attracted to science fiction for the
>same reasons I was: It liberated her. She had a far-ranging imagination,
>and she was a treasure in our community."
> __
>
>Associated Press writer Donna Gordon Blankinship contributed to this
>report.
>
>Copyright (c) 2006, The Associated Press
>
>----- End forwarded message -----
>
>
Monday, 27 February 2006
Wednesday, 22 February 2006
"coinciGod"
2.22.06
Okay, so I’ve been stressing lately, for whatever reason, over finding a wife. Well, finding a date would be a good first step, actually.
I even went so far as to e-mail one of my pastors seeking advice. I don’t know why this has so been on my heart just in the last few days, but I feel more ready, more willing to accept a person in my life. More ready to welcome her, to make a life with her, both of us guided by God.
Then this came at a time when I was also wondering when my new car was going to be made manifest (made “real” in the sensory, er, sense). If you read the assignment below, go ahead and read one verse beyond the second group assigned. Wow. As my former pastor would call it, coinciGod:
February 22 - Be Willing to Wait
"He who guards his mouth and his tongue keeps himself from troubles."
(Proverbs 21:23, Amp)
There's just no two ways about it. To live a life of blessing, we have to make our words agree with what God says. Not just for a few hours or a few days, but all the time.
If you've ever done that, you know it's not easy. As time wears on and the circumstances around you appear to be stubbornly determined to stay in the same miserable condition, it can be hard to keep on speaking God's Word. But you have to do it if you ever want your harvest of blessing to come in.
When Kenneth started preaching prosperity, I sat out there and listened to him with holes in the bottom of my shoes. But we knew our financial problems didn't change what the Word of God said. We knew His prosperity promises were true even if we hadn't been able to tap into them yet. So, even though we felt foolish at times, we just kept on talking about God's generous provision for us.
I realized later that Word went to work for us from the first day we began to believe it and speak it and order our lives according to it. Our prosperity crop began to grow the moment we started putting seeds in the ground. It just took time for them to come up.
Sometimes, believers don't last that long. They start planting well enough, but then when they don't see immediate results, when the bank account gets low and rent is past due, they get discouraged and begin to speak words of lack and defeat. They tear up their crop with the words of their own mouth, and they never get to enjoy the fruit of it.
The next time you strike out on faith, whether it's in the financial realm or any other area, keep that in mind. Determine from the beginning that you're not going to let that waiting period discourage you. Then hang on until the Word of God is manifested in your life. Put patience to work and keep your words in line. You will receive your harvest.
Scripture Study:"Proverbs 18:4-8, 20-21"
Kenneth Copeland Ministries Fort Worth, TX 76192-0001
To unsubscribe from this newsletter, use this link: https://contact.kcm.org/index.html?A=T&I=LwkwqLwk&E=vz2npn8pzGv
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---------------------
Know what’s also cool about this? This isn’t _shocking_--it happens a fair amount in my life. Why? Because God answers prayer.
Okay, so I’ve been stressing lately, for whatever reason, over finding a wife. Well, finding a date would be a good first step, actually.
I even went so far as to e-mail one of my pastors seeking advice. I don’t know why this has so been on my heart just in the last few days, but I feel more ready, more willing to accept a person in my life. More ready to welcome her, to make a life with her, both of us guided by God.
Then this came at a time when I was also wondering when my new car was going to be made manifest (made “real” in the sensory, er, sense). If you read the assignment below, go ahead and read one verse beyond the second group assigned. Wow. As my former pastor would call it, coinciGod:
February 22 - Be Willing to Wait
"He who guards his mouth and his tongue keeps himself from troubles."
(Proverbs 21:23, Amp)
There's just no two ways about it. To live a life of blessing, we have to make our words agree with what God says. Not just for a few hours or a few days, but all the time.
If you've ever done that, you know it's not easy. As time wears on and the circumstances around you appear to be stubbornly determined to stay in the same miserable condition, it can be hard to keep on speaking God's Word. But you have to do it if you ever want your harvest of blessing to come in.
When Kenneth started preaching prosperity, I sat out there and listened to him with holes in the bottom of my shoes. But we knew our financial problems didn't change what the Word of God said. We knew His prosperity promises were true even if we hadn't been able to tap into them yet. So, even though we felt foolish at times, we just kept on talking about God's generous provision for us.
I realized later that Word went to work for us from the first day we began to believe it and speak it and order our lives according to it. Our prosperity crop began to grow the moment we started putting seeds in the ground. It just took time for them to come up.
Sometimes, believers don't last that long. They start planting well enough, but then when they don't see immediate results, when the bank account gets low and rent is past due, they get discouraged and begin to speak words of lack and defeat. They tear up their crop with the words of their own mouth, and they never get to enjoy the fruit of it.
The next time you strike out on faith, whether it's in the financial realm or any other area, keep that in mind. Determine from the beginning that you're not going to let that waiting period discourage you. Then hang on until the Word of God is manifested in your life. Put patience to work and keep your words in line. You will receive your harvest.
Scripture Study:"Proverbs 18:4-8, 20-21"
Kenneth Copeland Ministries Fort Worth, TX 76192-0001
To unsubscribe from this newsletter, use this link: https://contact.kcm.org/index.html?A=T&I=LwkwqLwk&E=vz2npn8pzGv
You can manage your newsletter preferences by visiting eConnection at: https://contact.kcm.org/index.html?F=mB5JmVs3&C=LVswk
---------------------
Know what’s also cool about this? This isn’t _shocking_--it happens a fair amount in my life. Why? Because God answers prayer.
2.15.06, cont’d.
I’ve felt like this so many times, and in recent years have been able to accept that encouragement from God: I might have liked to have lived in the 1400s or the 800 or something, probably the farther back the better, but then I think about what was going on then, what I’d have to give up, that sort of thing, and the fact that that wouldn’t be the right time for me, and I get a peace about being in this time.
Sometimes, I get homesick for Heaven, and this encouragment is useful then, too: I’ll go home when I’m done with what I’m supposed to do here. I was sent here with something to do, a mission to accomplish. God doesn’t just send people here for no reason: each has a role to play, a task to get done, each task aiding in bringing about furtherance of God’s plan--the end times, the coming of God’s kingdom on Earth, the whole bit.
I just got it in my spirit that this is the end of the age. The age of man, that is. I think this is much different than Tolkein would have it. I think the Kingdom Age is coming, and that age will never end.
I love thinking, whenever I bother to, what Heaven’s going to be like. Most of the time, I’m so focused on what needs doing here, now--whatever’s next for me. For example, right now the big thing going on is editing a screenplay, the one that’s going to the producer. There’s one more edit on it, maybe a polish and off it goes. Then I focus on the novel again while thinking of another short film at the same time as I’m editing the short film we just shot. And all these things can so command my attention that it takes an effort to take my eyes off of it adnrealize part of what I’m working for: the reward is here, of course, in a full, blessed life, but it’s also in heaven. We’re just getting a taste here and now of what is in store for us later. And I’m thinking just now of what it’s like in heaven; I’m thinking of golden sunlight which isn’t really sunlight. Beautiful cities. Beautiful houses and mansions. no strife. Vigrant colors, so much so that the most gorgeous day here might look sort of dull grey in comparison. Smells much stronger. Tastes much sharper. I think so much stuff will be clarified, opened up, cleaned up, enhanced--I think the experience, sensory-wise, we have now is going to pale in comparison.
And this just a cobbled-together bare smattering of glimpsed images that might or might not reflect a dull glint of the reality of heaven. And it’s up there for us, when we’re done here. I remamber, as I’ve mentioned brefore, that they say when we enter Heaven after our body’s death, wil seem like a dream, the memory of which fades _so_ fast. What we do here is, though, of eternal import--the point is just that it’s just a little time away from home, and then when we’re done, we get to go back home. Forever.
I’ve felt like this so many times, and in recent years have been able to accept that encouragement from God: I might have liked to have lived in the 1400s or the 800 or something, probably the farther back the better, but then I think about what was going on then, what I’d have to give up, that sort of thing, and the fact that that wouldn’t be the right time for me, and I get a peace about being in this time.
Sometimes, I get homesick for Heaven, and this encouragment is useful then, too: I’ll go home when I’m done with what I’m supposed to do here. I was sent here with something to do, a mission to accomplish. God doesn’t just send people here for no reason: each has a role to play, a task to get done, each task aiding in bringing about furtherance of God’s plan--the end times, the coming of God’s kingdom on Earth, the whole bit.
I just got it in my spirit that this is the end of the age. The age of man, that is. I think this is much different than Tolkein would have it. I think the Kingdom Age is coming, and that age will never end.
I love thinking, whenever I bother to, what Heaven’s going to be like. Most of the time, I’m so focused on what needs doing here, now--whatever’s next for me. For example, right now the big thing going on is editing a screenplay, the one that’s going to the producer. There’s one more edit on it, maybe a polish and off it goes. Then I focus on the novel again while thinking of another short film at the same time as I’m editing the short film we just shot. And all these things can so command my attention that it takes an effort to take my eyes off of it adnrealize part of what I’m working for: the reward is here, of course, in a full, blessed life, but it’s also in heaven. We’re just getting a taste here and now of what is in store for us later. And I’m thinking just now of what it’s like in heaven; I’m thinking of golden sunlight which isn’t really sunlight. Beautiful cities. Beautiful houses and mansions. no strife. Vigrant colors, so much so that the most gorgeous day here might look sort of dull grey in comparison. Smells much stronger. Tastes much sharper. I think so much stuff will be clarified, opened up, cleaned up, enhanced--I think the experience, sensory-wise, we have now is going to pale in comparison.
And this just a cobbled-together bare smattering of glimpsed images that might or might not reflect a dull glint of the reality of heaven. And it’s up there for us, when we’re done here. I remamber, as I’ve mentioned brefore, that they say when we enter Heaven after our body’s death, wil seem like a dream, the memory of which fades _so_ fast. What we do here is, though, of eternal import--the point is just that it’s just a little time away from home, and then when we’re done, we get to go back home. Forever.
Wednesday, 15 February 2006
encouraging word from Kenneth Copeland
2.15.06
Just heard the most encouraging thing from Kenneth Copeland: "...if you didn't have what it takes to make it [in this time], God would have had you born some other time."
Just heard the most encouraging thing from Kenneth Copeland: "...if you didn't have what it takes to make it [in this time], God would have had you born some other time."
Monday, 13 February 2006
"small" things
2.13.06
For a long time, I’ve been looking for the perfect coffee travel mug. I’m particular about these things because they’re things that I have to deal with each day, and I don’t want to buy a whole bunch of things looking for just the right one. Coffee is a part of my life in that I deal with it as well each day as I write--I go to a coffee shop, plunk down money for coffee and then sit at a table and work on my writing. It’s like paying rent for the table and environment which allows me to work pretty well undistracted.
When I was petsitting for one of my sisters, I saw she had the perfect travel mug, used it, loved it, found out where she got it. It was thirty bucks, though, and I felt hesitant to spend that much on such a thing.
So, last week, I went to the mall and felt this unction, a suggestion or leading of the Holy Spirit to go to the proper store and check the thing out. So I went sort of expecting to get the mug and just deal with the cost. It was on sale for one-third off, which saved me ten dollars.
I’m just grateful to God for that.
Well, I finally got to call in to the Abundant Life Prayer Group, again at the Holy Spirit’s leading, and as I was trying to justify calling and taking the operator’s time with this “little” praise report, God showed/reminded me that He is not just the God of the big things but also of the small. If it concerns us, it concerns him. We are not to limit Him--I knew that, but I just learned or re-learned that that doesn’t just mean on the high end but on the low end as well. He can finance a worldwide television network as easily as He can have a janitor driving a Bentley and he can have our smaller scale finances go farther than they would otherwise. It's all according to the limits of our faith--that He'll help us on any scale. I mean, He can do anything from, but limited to, tweaking a DNA strand to turning back time for us (re. time: see 2 Kings 20:10-12, Isaiah 38:7-9, just so you don't think I've gone completely over the edge :) ), which is quite a range.
It points out to me how wonderfully involved He is in every aspect of our lives and how we should come to Him with whatever concern we have, great or small. He’s not too busy to help us find our car keys or the right word to say or in buying the right house or picking the right spouse. If we’re Christians, He takes care of us at all levels.
That’s a beautiful thing.
A ministry might be defined as an activity that is of service to people, that helps them. I think God told me very recently that this blog is turning into a ministry--it certainly helps me. I hope it is and that it encourages others as well.
For a long time, I’ve been looking for the perfect coffee travel mug. I’m particular about these things because they’re things that I have to deal with each day, and I don’t want to buy a whole bunch of things looking for just the right one. Coffee is a part of my life in that I deal with it as well each day as I write--I go to a coffee shop, plunk down money for coffee and then sit at a table and work on my writing. It’s like paying rent for the table and environment which allows me to work pretty well undistracted.
When I was petsitting for one of my sisters, I saw she had the perfect travel mug, used it, loved it, found out where she got it. It was thirty bucks, though, and I felt hesitant to spend that much on such a thing.
So, last week, I went to the mall and felt this unction, a suggestion or leading of the Holy Spirit to go to the proper store and check the thing out. So I went sort of expecting to get the mug and just deal with the cost. It was on sale for one-third off, which saved me ten dollars.
I’m just grateful to God for that.
Well, I finally got to call in to the Abundant Life Prayer Group, again at the Holy Spirit’s leading, and as I was trying to justify calling and taking the operator’s time with this “little” praise report, God showed/reminded me that He is not just the God of the big things but also of the small. If it concerns us, it concerns him. We are not to limit Him--I knew that, but I just learned or re-learned that that doesn’t just mean on the high end but on the low end as well. He can finance a worldwide television network as easily as He can have a janitor driving a Bentley and he can have our smaller scale finances go farther than they would otherwise. It's all according to the limits of our faith--that He'll help us on any scale. I mean, He can do anything from, but limited to, tweaking a DNA strand to turning back time for us (re. time: see 2 Kings 20:10-12, Isaiah 38:7-9, just so you don't think I've gone completely over the edge :) ), which is quite a range.
It points out to me how wonderfully involved He is in every aspect of our lives and how we should come to Him with whatever concern we have, great or small. He’s not too busy to help us find our car keys or the right word to say or in buying the right house or picking the right spouse. If we’re Christians, He takes care of us at all levels.
That’s a beautiful thing.
A ministry might be defined as an activity that is of service to people, that helps them. I think God told me very recently that this blog is turning into a ministry--it certainly helps me. I hope it is and that it encourages others as well.
Sunday, 12 February 2006
film shot
2.12.06
Well, we finally shot this short film I’ve been trying to get done today. It went really well, and I’m quite happy with that. I’m eager to go rent a mini-DV camera so I can get the footage onto my computer and start editing the thing. I understand the video turned out really well, though I don’t know about the audio. I’m thinking there was some ambient noise, probably, but the camera looked to have a pretty good microphone on it, so hopefully the phrases I dropped, stuff said under the breath, that sort of thing will still be understandable.
It feels good to have the apartment back in shape after moving a bunch of stuff around to accommodate the filming--sofas moved, bed moved, things like that. As an aside, my lead actress asked me _when_ am I going to get an entertainment center. I’ve had my little television on boxes since I moved in here. I told her when I get the money to do so, though I might take a cue from her and just go to a hobby shop and get a couple of squat pillars and a thick sheet of glass, like a third of an inch thick, overlay that with a green vellux blanket and set the TV on top. Who knows? It’s not that high on my priority list right now.
I’m also kind of happy to find so many potential outtakes from the film, though not too many, as all that dredge would be inconvenient to have to sift through.
I need more RAM now, which will be about a hundred bucks but well worth it to not have to sit and watch the computer slog through the video editing.
Next up is the final rewrite on another screenplay I’ve been working on, the one that’s going out to Hollywood. Anybody who prays to God, please pray blessings on that whole situation. Thanks in advance. So that should be done in a week or two.
After that...I dunno. I’ll probably look at finishing novel number five, as almost all of the screenplays I’ve done have been done as a way of avoiding finishing the fifth novel. That’s because they say number five is the one most new writers tend to get published first; the first four are practice. So maybe I was avoiding success or just savoring the possibility of getting the thing published. I think I’ve learned to enjoy the chase now more than the capture, perhaps because I haven’t gotten the capture much, so I settled for enjoying the hope of the capture. That’s got to change, and has started to--I think if you enjoy the chase, that’s fine so long as it’s not something that hinders you from seeing things through, from finishing, and that’s where the problem has been for me: finishing. I’m working on my follow-through, which has been a key issue with me most of my life, but which I by faith say will not be an issue anymore.
I called in to a prayer line about the film, expressing a witness of how good God is in that He arranged the elements of the film in the best way, a way that I couldn’t have done myself. The work (the film) got dedicated to the Lord, so now I know that whatever happens with it, it will be good. How that will play out, I don’t know, but I’m eager to see.
Oh, I have to thank a gal who came in an pinch hitted for an actress who couldn't make it--the replacement came in cold and kicked--, well, she did well, so thanks to her. :)
Well, we finally shot this short film I’ve been trying to get done today. It went really well, and I’m quite happy with that. I’m eager to go rent a mini-DV camera so I can get the footage onto my computer and start editing the thing. I understand the video turned out really well, though I don’t know about the audio. I’m thinking there was some ambient noise, probably, but the camera looked to have a pretty good microphone on it, so hopefully the phrases I dropped, stuff said under the breath, that sort of thing will still be understandable.
It feels good to have the apartment back in shape after moving a bunch of stuff around to accommodate the filming--sofas moved, bed moved, things like that. As an aside, my lead actress asked me _when_ am I going to get an entertainment center. I’ve had my little television on boxes since I moved in here. I told her when I get the money to do so, though I might take a cue from her and just go to a hobby shop and get a couple of squat pillars and a thick sheet of glass, like a third of an inch thick, overlay that with a green vellux blanket and set the TV on top. Who knows? It’s not that high on my priority list right now.
I’m also kind of happy to find so many potential outtakes from the film, though not too many, as all that dredge would be inconvenient to have to sift through.
I need more RAM now, which will be about a hundred bucks but well worth it to not have to sit and watch the computer slog through the video editing.
Next up is the final rewrite on another screenplay I’ve been working on, the one that’s going out to Hollywood. Anybody who prays to God, please pray blessings on that whole situation. Thanks in advance. So that should be done in a week or two.
After that...I dunno. I’ll probably look at finishing novel number five, as almost all of the screenplays I’ve done have been done as a way of avoiding finishing the fifth novel. That’s because they say number five is the one most new writers tend to get published first; the first four are practice. So maybe I was avoiding success or just savoring the possibility of getting the thing published. I think I’ve learned to enjoy the chase now more than the capture, perhaps because I haven’t gotten the capture much, so I settled for enjoying the hope of the capture. That’s got to change, and has started to--I think if you enjoy the chase, that’s fine so long as it’s not something that hinders you from seeing things through, from finishing, and that’s where the problem has been for me: finishing. I’m working on my follow-through, which has been a key issue with me most of my life, but which I by faith say will not be an issue anymore.
I called in to a prayer line about the film, expressing a witness of how good God is in that He arranged the elements of the film in the best way, a way that I couldn’t have done myself. The work (the film) got dedicated to the Lord, so now I know that whatever happens with it, it will be good. How that will play out, I don’t know, but I’m eager to see.
Oh, I have to thank a gal who came in an pinch hitted for an actress who couldn't make it--the replacement came in cold and kicked--, well, she did well, so thanks to her. :)
Friday, 10 February 2006
Cosmos
2.09.06
This blog entry was inspired by the “Cosmos” screen saver on my computer. Bunch of pictures of planets and galaxies and cosmic clouds and such. I was looking at these, and I wondered how anybody could look at them and not see God. I mean, he’s right there, even in a picture. Especially when you look at space live as opposed to in pictures.
I know a lot of people see a bunch of elements coalesced together to make a form. Others just see dirt and gas. Others see colors of objects so far away as to be utterly foreign to them. Still others see these objects in terms of math: Jupiter weighs so many trillion tons--it’s X times the size of earth. It would take a spaceship so long to get from here to there. It’s so many light minutes away.
I see all of these things as well, but what really speaks to me about them is God in them. It’s a feeling deep inside that is connected with God as he’s the maker of all of this stuff. And He made it all out of the same things. Iron, hydrogen, carbon, etcetera.
Maybe that’s the _pulling_ I feel inside me: a connectedness born out of my relationship to God and his to the planets and so on that he created but the sharing of elements that goes along with all of that. We are made of the same fabric as the rest of the universe. That primal connection is so stron in me--I think that’s why I see so much of space as home. We are part of space--or an object in space. We would be considered off in space by somebody looking at us from, say, Andromeda Galaxy.
I dunno. I think, to some extent, when I see space, I in a sense start to see home. It’s not Heaven--it’s still natural, but I consider myself, at least naturally, part of the universe even while I’m a citizen of Heaven.
Maybe it’s spiritual memory that’s triggered in these cases. Who knows what our spirits did before they got sent here, if anything? I don’t know that we were sitting around in the Crab Nebula dipping our hands in suns--that’d still be in the natural universe, but I think that space is there for a reason.
It’s so easy to forget all of this when we’re in town and could hardly see anything of space even on a clear night because of the town’s insulating lights. But I think it’s important not to forget what we’re part of, to take time once in a while to look up and appreciate the vast, awesome beauty that is space. And then recognize that while we’re very small, physically, parts of it, we are still parts just as a blood cell in our body is a tiny part of it, but it’s still a part.
And to think there’s even a greater, bigger place than this--an entirely different realm, of which we’re a part as well, which is our real home. The mind boggles at the thought, and a smile creeps across the face.
This blog entry was inspired by the “Cosmos” screen saver on my computer. Bunch of pictures of planets and galaxies and cosmic clouds and such. I was looking at these, and I wondered how anybody could look at them and not see God. I mean, he’s right there, even in a picture. Especially when you look at space live as opposed to in pictures.
I know a lot of people see a bunch of elements coalesced together to make a form. Others just see dirt and gas. Others see colors of objects so far away as to be utterly foreign to them. Still others see these objects in terms of math: Jupiter weighs so many trillion tons--it’s X times the size of earth. It would take a spaceship so long to get from here to there. It’s so many light minutes away.
I see all of these things as well, but what really speaks to me about them is God in them. It’s a feeling deep inside that is connected with God as he’s the maker of all of this stuff. And He made it all out of the same things. Iron, hydrogen, carbon, etcetera.
Maybe that’s the _pulling_ I feel inside me: a connectedness born out of my relationship to God and his to the planets and so on that he created but the sharing of elements that goes along with all of that. We are made of the same fabric as the rest of the universe. That primal connection is so stron in me--I think that’s why I see so much of space as home. We are part of space--or an object in space. We would be considered off in space by somebody looking at us from, say, Andromeda Galaxy.
I dunno. I think, to some extent, when I see space, I in a sense start to see home. It’s not Heaven--it’s still natural, but I consider myself, at least naturally, part of the universe even while I’m a citizen of Heaven.
Maybe it’s spiritual memory that’s triggered in these cases. Who knows what our spirits did before they got sent here, if anything? I don’t know that we were sitting around in the Crab Nebula dipping our hands in suns--that’d still be in the natural universe, but I think that space is there for a reason.
It’s so easy to forget all of this when we’re in town and could hardly see anything of space even on a clear night because of the town’s insulating lights. But I think it’s important not to forget what we’re part of, to take time once in a while to look up and appreciate the vast, awesome beauty that is space. And then recognize that while we’re very small, physically, parts of it, we are still parts just as a blood cell in our body is a tiny part of it, but it’s still a part.
And to think there’s even a greater, bigger place than this--an entirely different realm, of which we’re a part as well, which is our real home. The mind boggles at the thought, and a smile creeps across the face.
Friday, 3 February 2006
caution: potentially questionable content near end of blog
2.1.06--
Here I am at work again. It’s another slow time for us, but things should be picking up again pretty soon.
I spent part of yesterday kvetching over my paycheck, which didn’t arrive the day i hoped it would. Still, it should arrive today. It’s done this often enough theat I am not getting too stressed about it.
I’m listening to Skynyrd’s “Freebird”. Really. Not surprising that that would be on the radio, but I admit I like this song. Have done since _Forrest Gump_--they played this during the scene where
Robin Wright as _Jenny_ nearly kills herself while stoned. I think it’s pretty much her character’s low point in the movie. I’m making myself want to watch it again now.
See, one thing I just realized is good about _Forrest Gump_ is that there are strong performances not only from Tom hanks but some of the rest of the major characters, played by Gary Sinise (Lt. Dan Taylor), Sally Field (Mrs. Gump) and Robin Wright (Jenny). These are such first-tier actors--just a great cast.
I think a couple of other movies where a cast I’ve likes this much are..._Heat_, with Al Pacino, Robert de Niro and Val Kilmer and _The Man in the Iron Mask_, with Leonardo DiCaprio, Gérard Depardieu, Jeremy Irons and Gabriel Byrne.
Sometimes I really get into what I call actor movies--these are movies where the story might be strong or not, but you really watch them to enjoy a particular actor’s performance. I am not thinking of one in particular, but there are a couple of actors that I used to watch just to watch them because they’re so...watchable: Harvey Keitel, Al Pacino and Robert Duvall. Jack Lemmon and Walter Matthau, separately at least, also fall into that category--they’re strong actors together and just as watchable, if not more so, on their own.
Johnny Depp is turning into that sort of actor, but he needs more age on him to join that league. I have this fascination with watching old men’s movements as they do routine things they’ve done for decades--there’s an ease, a well-practiced swiftness, a naturalness, to their movements, which adds to their performance. The only times I’ve seen such ease of movement in younger people is in European films, particularly French films. I don’t know why that is. Maybe they just take more time to familiarize themselves with their environments?
Here’s an off-topic question: how does one get more muscular, or leaner, in one area of the body but fatter in another? I guess people just have fat tend to gather in one area as opposed to the other. Probably also depends on what’s being done with each area. I guess the reason I get confused is because long been, to the best of my knowledge, the case that you cannot spot-reduce fat. It all gets burned at the same rate from everywhere. It just seems like certain areas get leaner faster because they’re leaner already. Look at it this way: you’ve got two groups of nickels: Group A has three nickels. Group B has three hundred nickels. If you take away one nickel from each group, Group A is going to look the most affected--taking one nickel from Group B hardly makes a dent. Maybe it’s the same way with the body.
Now, you can, of course, spot-tone your body--just work a particular muscle group and it’ll get all developed and you’ll see more of the muscle because it’s gotten bigger, big enough to through a little bit through whatever fat’s overlaying it.
I wonder if people still think you can turne muscle into fat or vice versa? Th is is so wrong. They’re two separate things. Fat overlays muscle, in most cases, though in the stomach there’s also fat under the ab muscles. Thing is, you can’t turn muscle into fat and you can’t turn fat into muscle. It just looks that way _because_ fat usually overlays muscle.
I used to hear people talk about old bodybuilders or athletes doing this, going to fat, even to the extend that people would pooh-pooh gaining a lot of muscle. They would point to a bodybuilder, say, and say that if that bodybuilder stops working out, he’s going get really fat--like the more muscle you have, the fatter you will potentially get. Look at the converse of that--is it so that the more fat you have, the more mucsle you can get?
No. What happens is a lot of athletes who eat a lot more than a normal person of their skeletal build would, stop working out but still eat like they’re in football or bodybuilding training--they eat too much. They get fat. Their muscles atrophy (get smaller) with non-use. They still get fatter, and look even fatter because their muscle are smaller. So it looks like muscle is turning into fat when it’s really, to some extent, replacing it (actually, it’s more overlaying it).
2/03/06
This part gets an R for content:
I was thinking, for some reason (I don't remember now) about something I saw several years ago: I’d been in an acting class a long time ago with a small, rather shortish fellow, maybe five-eight or so, maybe five-six, probably didn’t weigh more than a buck-thirty. Years later, we were both still around the university to which we were going and I happened to see him in the restroom. And I saw, because it was a bit difficult to miss, his...er...business. I was shocked, because it was like something you see on the internet when you’re going places you really need to not go--that kind of size.
And I was a little envious--it didn’t seem fair for a fellow that small to be so...out of proportion.
I guess what this leads to is that we can apply this envy to not only our private parts--I think a lot of people, men and women, look at others and wish they were built like them--but the whole rest of our bodies and ourselves as well.
All the wishing and all the bogus vacuum pumping and whatever else desperate fools do would not get me to that sort of size any more than sitting and wishing to be taller will make me taller. And it’s a bit worthless to get distressed about because, and this is key, we’re all built the way God intended for us to be built. Sure, we have to take care of the body, keep it in shape. That part’s up to us. But how it grows, what its proportions are skeletally and in other areas from toes to ear lobes, these simply are the way they are. And here’s the good part, which I do tell myself: how I’m built is perfect for the woman God’s got for me just as how my actor co-student is built perfectly for the one for him. And that’s kind of beautiful.
Here I am at work again. It’s another slow time for us, but things should be picking up again pretty soon.
I spent part of yesterday kvetching over my paycheck, which didn’t arrive the day i hoped it would. Still, it should arrive today. It’s done this often enough theat I am not getting too stressed about it.
I’m listening to Skynyrd’s “Freebird”. Really. Not surprising that that would be on the radio, but I admit I like this song. Have done since _Forrest Gump_--they played this during the scene where
Robin Wright as _Jenny_ nearly kills herself while stoned. I think it’s pretty much her character’s low point in the movie. I’m making myself want to watch it again now.
See, one thing I just realized is good about _Forrest Gump_ is that there are strong performances not only from Tom hanks but some of the rest of the major characters, played by Gary Sinise (Lt. Dan Taylor), Sally Field (Mrs. Gump) and Robin Wright (Jenny). These are such first-tier actors--just a great cast.
I think a couple of other movies where a cast I’ve likes this much are..._Heat_, with Al Pacino, Robert de Niro and Val Kilmer and _The Man in the Iron Mask_, with Leonardo DiCaprio, Gérard Depardieu, Jeremy Irons and Gabriel Byrne.
Sometimes I really get into what I call actor movies--these are movies where the story might be strong or not, but you really watch them to enjoy a particular actor’s performance. I am not thinking of one in particular, but there are a couple of actors that I used to watch just to watch them because they’re so...watchable: Harvey Keitel, Al Pacino and Robert Duvall. Jack Lemmon and Walter Matthau, separately at least, also fall into that category--they’re strong actors together and just as watchable, if not more so, on their own.
Johnny Depp is turning into that sort of actor, but he needs more age on him to join that league. I have this fascination with watching old men’s movements as they do routine things they’ve done for decades--there’s an ease, a well-practiced swiftness, a naturalness, to their movements, which adds to their performance. The only times I’ve seen such ease of movement in younger people is in European films, particularly French films. I don’t know why that is. Maybe they just take more time to familiarize themselves with their environments?
Here’s an off-topic question: how does one get more muscular, or leaner, in one area of the body but fatter in another? I guess people just have fat tend to gather in one area as opposed to the other. Probably also depends on what’s being done with each area. I guess the reason I get confused is because long been, to the best of my knowledge, the case that you cannot spot-reduce fat. It all gets burned at the same rate from everywhere. It just seems like certain areas get leaner faster because they’re leaner already. Look at it this way: you’ve got two groups of nickels: Group A has three nickels. Group B has three hundred nickels. If you take away one nickel from each group, Group A is going to look the most affected--taking one nickel from Group B hardly makes a dent. Maybe it’s the same way with the body.
Now, you can, of course, spot-tone your body--just work a particular muscle group and it’ll get all developed and you’ll see more of the muscle because it’s gotten bigger, big enough to through a little bit through whatever fat’s overlaying it.
I wonder if people still think you can turne muscle into fat or vice versa? Th is is so wrong. They’re two separate things. Fat overlays muscle, in most cases, though in the stomach there’s also fat under the ab muscles. Thing is, you can’t turn muscle into fat and you can’t turn fat into muscle. It just looks that way _because_ fat usually overlays muscle.
I used to hear people talk about old bodybuilders or athletes doing this, going to fat, even to the extend that people would pooh-pooh gaining a lot of muscle. They would point to a bodybuilder, say, and say that if that bodybuilder stops working out, he’s going get really fat--like the more muscle you have, the fatter you will potentially get. Look at the converse of that--is it so that the more fat you have, the more mucsle you can get?
No. What happens is a lot of athletes who eat a lot more than a normal person of their skeletal build would, stop working out but still eat like they’re in football or bodybuilding training--they eat too much. They get fat. Their muscles atrophy (get smaller) with non-use. They still get fatter, and look even fatter because their muscle are smaller. So it looks like muscle is turning into fat when it’s really, to some extent, replacing it (actually, it’s more overlaying it).
2/03/06
This part gets an R for content:
I was thinking, for some reason (I don't remember now) about something I saw several years ago: I’d been in an acting class a long time ago with a small, rather shortish fellow, maybe five-eight or so, maybe five-six, probably didn’t weigh more than a buck-thirty. Years later, we were both still around the university to which we were going and I happened to see him in the restroom. And I saw, because it was a bit difficult to miss, his...er...business. I was shocked, because it was like something you see on the internet when you’re going places you really need to not go--that kind of size.
And I was a little envious--it didn’t seem fair for a fellow that small to be so...out of proportion.
I guess what this leads to is that we can apply this envy to not only our private parts--I think a lot of people, men and women, look at others and wish they were built like them--but the whole rest of our bodies and ourselves as well.
All the wishing and all the bogus vacuum pumping and whatever else desperate fools do would not get me to that sort of size any more than sitting and wishing to be taller will make me taller. And it’s a bit worthless to get distressed about because, and this is key, we’re all built the way God intended for us to be built. Sure, we have to take care of the body, keep it in shape. That part’s up to us. But how it grows, what its proportions are skeletally and in other areas from toes to ear lobes, these simply are the way they are. And here’s the good part, which I do tell myself: how I’m built is perfect for the woman God’s got for me just as how my actor co-student is built perfectly for the one for him. And that’s kind of beautiful.
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