Weekend

Would anyone be interested in either skiing this weekend? I know of a couple of cheaper skiing places (and the hills aren't quite so big). It would be a great place for people to begin and it's loads of fun-definitely worthwhile. Leave a comment if you're interested.

What Do You Think About "Modern" Churches?

Church Building Architects Inc.

Q: Our church was built for the Latin rituals. Can we renovate it to support the current rituals?
A: A Latin church's focus is the Tabernacle. Our focus today is the assembly and its actions.

Q: Can we use carpeting?
A: Yes. Each community should make its decision after listening to and understanding the competing desires of musicians, liturgists, and acoustical engineers.

I've never been a fan of remodeling old Churches. Vatican II never said anything about putting in carpet, moving the tabernacle, or changing to circular or auditorium seating. The website even says that they're work is based on the guidance of Vatican II. I don't believe it. If you want to, you can contact the creators of this thing right here.

Village

Ok, I just got back from lansing where I watched the Village with some friends. I am really tired so excuse my mistakes. I just wanted to say to Tom and Kenric ( if Kenric ever reads this blog, much less posts on it), that I was not afraid of this movie at all. Now I know you're going to say that the Grudge is much more scary, but hey every one else was scared that I saw it with, except one other girl and I. Another thing I wanted to bring up was that I hate people who give away scenes right before they happen. There were about three people who had already seen the movie and two of them felt like they should explain every scene to us. Everyone else was about ready to strangle them. In movies like the Village you're not supposed to understand what's going on at first, and you don't really want to know. It's part of the movie. So when i see the Grudge no saying stuff like " Oh!! this part is really scary and here's why" I might hurt you. Well I'm done complaining now.

Paper Topic for Language Arts

Today at school my teacher assigned an agrumentive (spelling is bad I know, or the word doesn't even exist) paper to do next week. I was thinking maybe some of you could help me come up with a topic to debate about. She gave us a lot of ideas but I just want to know your thoughts. However, abortion can't be discussed. Because every year she has to read about it, and I guess, she doesn't want to change her opinion on it!

Today is one of those school days that drag on and on. I could go to school for 2 hours and have plenty of time to do what we would be doing all day. Except in band, we have a playing test and in choir, we have a singing test. That's about all I have to write. Oh, afterschool, I am going to visit the lady who I visit. Her b-day is on Saturday! :D After that, I have to work. Hey people, start posting again, am I going to have to yell at you? Our school had cheesy-bean dip today for lunch. I of course didn't have it because I usually pack my lunch, but why would you make a main course called that? I tried it once and I think it's 4 parts salt and 1 part bean and cheese. Anyway, yeah, school lunches are usually gross.

The pro-life bands have finally finally came!! What a long wait. Is anyone having problems with the site? When the page loads for me, whether at school or at home, it usually cuts off anything longer than one screen long. It's really bothering me and if anyone has ideas for fixing it, I would appreciate it. Remember, stay cheerful, this week of school is almost over and God is with you! :D

March For Life

Bush Buoys Pro-Lifers
Abortion Foes Get Call From Bush
Bush Praises Anti-Abortion Rally
Tens of Thousands Rally...
Well, just in case you felt like reading some news about the March for Life on Monday, here it is. Wow, it was awesome. Just the sight of seeing so many Pro-Life people together was amazing. I was saying to one of my friends while we were there, "This is as good as World Youth Day- minus the Pope of course." Someone else who I didn't know turned around and agreed with me. It was cold, wait, it was freezing and we were all packed into the slushy streets. There were definitely those times where I had to think, "just offer this up", but everyone was so friendly and happy. The whole trip was filled beautiful experiences; the best was probably talking to strangers. Some people didn't know their way around on the metro, so they went with us to the march. Other times in the hotel, we would just strike up a conversation with priests about mass or the march. I have a quick story to share, then I have to go to bed.
Going down into the metro station, we (the girls) had gotten ahead of the guys. I had this feeling that I was being followed down the escalator. (ha, everyone is going the same way I guess, so it wouldn't be anything unusual to have someone behind me)Anyway, that's how I felt. When we got to the bottom, a man came up to us three and explained how that was homeless and wanted to get breakfast. We listened to him talk for awhile. When he was done, he thanked us for listening, saying that most people just turn up their noses and walk away. Most people, he said, don't even want to look at him. I gave him some money and he graciously said thank you. Smiling, he went back up the escalator towards the food court. "God bless you!" I shouted up to him. He shouted the same back to me.
I guess I have a soft spot for homeless people. So many people automatically think that the homeless person is lazy and that they could get a job if they had any ambition at all. This makes me so mad. Sure, I bet that some homeless people have addictions and they may use their money for cigerettes or alcohol, but this is no reason to ignore them. They're human beings for goodness sakes! Ugh, there's a certain dignity that everyone should have. A lot of homeless people are treated like animals- no one wants to look at them or care for them. I'm sure that we can't even fathom what they're lives are like. Dirty with torn up clothes, begging in streets for money just to buy a meal must be so difficult.
I'm done complaining. I just wish people were more empathetic and would try to walk in other people shoes rather being so naive.

cafe terrace at night

cafe terrace at night
Originally uploaded by aquarelita.

Think that this would be a good picture for the Ark? Yes? No? Maybe? I was really, really bored, so I looked up van gogh on flickr and found this.

I have a question for discussion. It's not going to be worded well because I'm tired, but I've been wondering about it lately. I've been thinking about how much of our lives we spend trying to educate ourselves. And, for the most part, our society respects the educated. Heres my question, are we supposed to know as much as we possibly can? Are we supposed to read every book ever written about the Catholic church or are we instead supposed to spend that time in prayer. What does God prefer? Would He rather us sit back, talk to Him and let Him talk back, telling us what he wants us to know or should we be reading to find out? There are some unbelievably smart and holy people who go to college and learn lots about the church and their faith. On the other hand though, you look at people who are not "educated", but are simply innocently holy and beautiful. There are so many examples of people like this such as St. Therese, Mother Teresa and the many of the poor. These people probably didn't engulf themselves in theology books and they definitely didn't spend years in school, but spent more time in prayer and contemplation. Founding fathers of our church did the same, but yet were incredibly intelligent because they spent time in prayer and the Holy Spirit spoke to them. Don't take this the wrong way, I am in no way saying that it's bad to study really deep stuff or go to school. I'm just trying to show both sides. Hope this makes sense. (and I hope I it didn't seem like I took a side, I wanted it to be unbaised) Leave a comment, your opinion and tell me what you think. I'll tell you what I really think later...

2 Inch Spider at Rubi's Hotel, Utila

2 Inch Spider at Rubi's Hotel, Utila
Originally uploaded by dylonious.

AHHHHH!! I found this and it made me think of the time Rachael saved my life. It is a real live Honduran spider.

Westminster Abbey

Westminster
Originally uploaded by bathorybunny.

I don't know about you guys, but I could surf flickr all day.

To go along with Rachael's cathedral post...Westminster Abbey, one of my personal favorites.

Cathedral Ruins

Cathedral Ruins #2
Originally uploaded by daramot.

Pictures are fun aren't they? I found this picture on flickr. It's the ruins of an old Portugese Cathedral in Macau. There's something about old churches that amazes me. Tonight, I decided to ditch my books and give up studying. It's only the world studies and spanish 2 exams...no big deal. I wish. After exams today and a quiz bowl meet where we lost both matches, my brain has had it.

Miss Sushi

miss sushi
Originally uploaded by gurge.

I was online today after lunch, went to flickr and there it was, an amazing picture of sushi (which I now can't find, this isn't it). It made me think that at that very moment, I absolutely had to eat sushi. Thanks to Miss Sushi (sorry, I meant Sarah), I have been craving sushi all day now! Ah, back to studying for me.

I am finally here.

Due to popular demand, I have finally got to be on this blogger. I am doing nothing in Computers class right now so I decided to do something. I will hate exams this week.
Good bye everybody!

What Is Mincemeat Pie Made Of?

Ask.Yahoo.com

Sarah, you've inspired me to post about my favorite foods. So now you'll know what my favorite food is made of, and...

Ask.Yahoo.com

how my second favorite food became a Christmas tradition!

Liberals!!! (let me pour out my wrath)

Ahhh...taking a day off school to do something worthwhile feels great. Today, I visited Aquinas College and afterwards, I visited a friend of my family, a retired nun. I could really go on and on for pages on Aquinas, so I'll save that for later. I have something more important to talk about first, a complaint. The nun we visited after going to Aquinas was Sr. Mary Catherine Courtright who lives in Marywood, a huge convent in Grand Rapids. There is a big motherhouse and then a retirement convent for the aging sisters. From what she described, it is a disgustingly liberal place. She said that the younger nuns living in the "motherhouse" make fun of the older one's for wanting to wear their habits. Along with that, she said the younger nuns got someone to come in and they had a séance. In the chapel!! The sisters believe in extreme toleration of basically everything, including Kerry and homosexuals. I felt really sad for her because she didn't want to be there, but couldn't leave because she doesn't have a family or a whole lot of money. There is something seriously wrong with that, when religious, people who faithful Catholics should look up to, become extreme liberals. It really makes me so mad.

Sushi

Well, since Marnee had such a huge problem with bringing me home sushi from the march for life, I am going to post about it. You are probably thinking "does she ever post something profound or inspirational, and not stupid and random?" Well, do you not think that sushi is profound and inspiring? I happened to really, really like sushi, and if Ben puts up the photo thing, I might post pictures of it. Maybe I shouldn't, Marnee might hate me, and Rachael will ban me from this site and laugh at me. I guess that there are so many options open to sushi people, including going to college in Japan. I think that this is the dumbest thing I have posted yet. (see what happens when you dare me to do something) I will try to think of something profound to make up for it.

Here I Go Again

Ok, so Ms. Downes was the only one who agreed with me that we should create a flickr badge so we could share photos with each other. I don't even have a digital camera, but I would find a way to post pictures, imagine how cool this will be after high school. Anyway, I feel like I'm trying to make a sales pitch, so I'll leave it up to you.

How To Set Up a Flickr Badge

A Blog With A Cool Flickr Badge (above post area)

How do you feel today?

My english teacher decided to get psychological with us today in class during a discussion of To Kill a Mockingbird. We talked about how much heredity affects how a person is. For example, additions, views, whether you're quiet or social, how you think ahh, someone just was reading over my shoulder what I was writing. Yeah, that's could be another hereditary trait, how much time you need by yourself away from people. Anyway, I thought it was interesting. Out loud, each of us had to tell what kind of person we thought we were- quiet, social, reflective, abstract thinker, whatever. After we said what we thought, she told us how she thought we were. It's kind of interesting how much you can learn about a person by just observing them. How are they feeling? Do they like green beans? How do they interact with others? Heres a "psychological" quiz that you could take. (I scored "hardy"!!)
The Mental Toughness Test

What college should I go to? Did I study enough for the world studies test? What is my grade in chemistry? Is the world coming to an end? Ha, just kidding, I'm not really wondering that. I'm kind of overwhelmed with questions right now though. I won't ramble about that.
I got my second ACT score back today, finally and I'm disappointed. What makes me mad is that people think I'm mad because of my pride or something. It's not though. Most scholarships that I wanted needed one point higher on the test. Ok, I'm over it now. I could make an ad on this website for people to donate to my college fund. Ha, just kidding. I finished To Kill A Mockingbird tonight. I thought it was a really good book.

The Food Album

Oh dont' worry, I'm not going to talk about Weird Al. I am going to talk about food!
Have any of you ever had Bosnian food? You've probably had variations of it and not realized it. I was just trying to think of something to write and I thought of the pastries that a family from Bosnia makes. I haven't seen this family in a couple years, we met them when they came to work for my dad and then lost touch when they moved to Detriot. (They went from Ionia, which I find a perfectly dreadful town -I don't mean to offend anyone, but I got a bad end of it- to Detroit. I feel sorry for them.) Anyway, they were very nice people, and I had good times with the two girls who were near my age. Their mother, Sylvia, makes these pastries with buttery, flaky crust, wrapped around meat, that tasted awesome! Some she made with cheese in the pastry part, and both ways they were quite tasty. And she always made then in very large quantities, not only in number, but in size. They were about as big as your hand, but even so they where so good that I would sometimes eat more than one for a meal! She also made these cabbage rolls filled with seasoned meat and vegitables, which were also very good. I don't like cabbage very much, or meat and vegatables for that matter :), but she just had a way food that even the stews she made were savory! A great lady who made great food :)

American Life League Store

Stickers, etc.

I don't know if the stuff would be shipped in time, but there are some pretty cool, and pretty cheap pro-life merchandise on this website. The link is to stickers, patches, bumper stickers, and buttons. But there's a lot more.

A Flickr Badge?

Here's the deal. I know how much all of you like photography and all that jazz, so how about we get a flickr badge for the website so, by simply going to the homepage, we can view photos that our friends have taken and post pictures that we've taken ourselves. If you have some questions as to what this is, here's a link to flickr's faq information on the badges.

Or we could go with the daily zeitgeist which is pretty cool as well.

Please post!

Sarah, and everyone else out there, for the sake of my sanity...please post!!! I don't care what you post about, just post! School had been so boring/stressful (yes, both at the same time) that I think I'm going to go crazy, not to metion that we've had about a bazillion tests that I have to study for. So, yes, post. If anyone with authority thinks this post is unnecessary, boring or evil, feel free to delete it.

Rain is the devil

Ok I'm following through with my own advice.
This is called posting. All you have to do is type your random thoughts on this blog. The whole world may read them but that is not for you to worry about. So do it.
What is up with the weather? Rain in January? Isn't that against the law? Well I think it should be, I want to go sledding, and I want to look out my window when I'm supposed to be doing boring english papers and see real, live snow. Not mud, and not brown grass. It is so not conducive to writing. Hey! is that a snore I hear? Well I need some sleep too, so post anything even if you think it is boring.

Don't everyone post at once!

Why is no one posting ? Come on you guys, I know that while my life is incredibly boring
yours aren't. Well if nobody posts I might start torturing you with the boring details of my life...like how I have to write yet another British Lit paper. Rachael, if you think this post is evil, unnecessary, or boring , feel free to delete it.

Hey everyone! Just wanted to...well, say hi and tell you to enjoy your Monday. I'm try to post later.

The Pianist
Last night, I watched The Pianist, a movie about Wladyslaw, a Polish piano player (who can play the piano magnificently!), who is also a Jew. He lived in Warsaw, controlled by Nazis during that time. Wladyslaws family was taken to be killed at a concentration camp, but he was kept to work in a labor camp. The beginning of the movie is filled with very disturbing scenes of how the Nazis brutally killed Jews. After escaping from the labor camp he was at, he hid out in different buildings with the help of Polish people. Many times, he nearly died of starvation. Towards the end, a Nazi soldier found him in a bombed-out house. After the soldier askes what he does, Wladyslaw replies, "I'm a pianist." "Well, play something then." The pianist plays a song. During the song, I really realized how precious life is no matter what religion, gender, or race we are. You have to see this movie!! What makes it 10x more affective is that the movie is a true story.

March for Life!!

We have a snow day!! It's quite funny that we have a snow day because I got up early to go to morning mass like I usually do, watched the news and radio for school closings, and didn't see our school closing, so I drove to mass (the roads were fine). After mass, I was talking to someone and they told me that I'm lucky to have a snow day. So, I drove back home and had myself a cup of coffee. Anyway, I've been checking out stuff for the March for Life that and I'm really excited. 250,000 pro-lifers are supposed to be there! Thats a quarter million pro-life people all at the same place at the same time. How cool is that? There are also so many speakers that will be at the convention along with many famous people. There will be a Rock for Life Concert, Rally for Life Youth Mass, much, much more stuff and of course (drum roll please...) the protest.
To any local people that are reading this...I would like to make signs for the march this weekend. Maybe Friday night after the game or Sunday night before bible study. I'll buy some posterboard and see if I can get some fat markers or paint.

Saudi Cleric Blames Christmas For Tsunami

MEMRI TV

"Tens of thousands dead. It was said that they were tourists on New Year's vacation who went to the crowded coral islands for the holiday period, and then they were struck by this earthquake, caused by the Almighty Lord of the worlds. He showed them His wrath and His strength. He showed them His vengeance. Is there anyone learning the lesson? Is it impossible that we will be struck like them? Why do we go their way? Why do we want to be like them, with their holidays, their forbidden things, and their heresy?"

The cleric believes that God created the tsunami for the purpose of taking vengeance on peoples sinful activities during the holy season of Christmas. True, Christmas is dominated with bad things such as extreme materialism, gluttony, drunkenness, etc. but I don't think this was the reason for the tsunami. I do believe it was a natural disaster. Through our prayers though, God has the power to make good come from this mess.
146,000 dead. Please remember the poor victims and survivors in your prayers.

I'm in choir and have to make a powerpoint presentation on a pop singer. Kind of drawing a blank on that...how about a classical composer or a contemporary Christian singer?? Ha, I am such a geek. Sure, I listen to some modern music, but not enough that there's someone I want to do a whole powerpoint on. Someone out there, help me. Please.

School makes me grumpy.

Well, I painted a picture today. I was supposed to have orchestra in St Johns. When we got there Dad came in from Lansing and thought we should go home before the weather got worse. Patrick, my brother, thinks that the person I painted looks like Marnee. He thinks that every person I paint or draw is Marnee. I have no idea why. Although one time after watching part of Spiderman, he thought that every person was MJ. ( I don't know why he was watching Spiderman, he's only 4) I guess there's a lot of stuff I don't know, so I'll stop rambling.

Year of the Blog

News

"...by November, 27% of 120 million adult Internet users claimed to visit blogs, up from 17% nine months earlier."

Aren't we cool or what!

HaPpY NEw YeAR!

Happy New Year to everyone! Oof, I'm really tired. After seeing the Phanton of the Opera and going out to eat at Long John Silvers, people stayed at my house until 3:30!! (I did sleep in sort of late to make up for it.) We stayed up playing crazy games of chicken foot and Mexican train while laughing at pointless stuff. I've found theres a time of the night that everyone goes completely numb and laughs at everything. It's hilarious! Almost like they're drunk, only not. Anyone want to share resolutions? I don't want to share mine, but it would be interesting to hear other peoples.