back home now. never appreciated my lil' twin-sized loft bed as last night. so happy to sleep in a clean sheet. it's like going into a hotel (whenever i depart for a trip, i always changed sheets, etc. so that when i arrive, i'll have clean sheets to hit me with!).
europe was great. loved being in zurich. it's a doable city. possibly to live there too. but as i've written before, i really got sick of trying to speak german, listening to german, etc. german for 8 days. although at the end of the 8th day, i actually had no problem communicating with people at groceries, drug stores, etc. crazy right?
london was just too expensive. that's all i can come back with: $$$$. it's exactly double the american dollar now and it's just not the right time to travel to europe, period. dollar is falling falling and it's not even good to go to asia. perhaps travel to africa?
what i come back with is that i have newly found love for artist egon schiele. he died at age 28, was pretty amazing. i've seen his entire collection, being in zurich, basel and vienna. what an artist. saw all the works of klimt, including the kiss. unbelievable.
i am very fortunate to have seen all these precious art works (not to mention amazing works of old masters, filled with christ-themed works. just left me speechless.
i'm dying for some korean food right now. and yes, chinese food too. loved wiener schnitzel, but sick of being in smoke-filled places!!!
Sunday, March 25, 2007
Tuesday, March 20, 2007
reporting from vienna:
finally have a moment of time to sit down and check emails and such.
i started off in zurich on the 15th and it's been non-stop since then. weather was perfect and i was once again the road runner from new york: zipping around zurich and then 3 days later, in basel, then a day later in vienna. tomorrow i'm heading out to london and in a way, i look forward to hearing english spoken again. i think i'm getting a bit tired of so many museum hoppings. i've visited at least 25 museums since the 15th and today's onlz the 20th!!!!
okay it's been beautiful until i got to vienna and then it's snowing, i'm freezing. more details on each cities later. i've written a quite a bit of journal.
off to more meat...
finally have a moment of time to sit down and check emails and such.
i started off in zurich on the 15th and it's been non-stop since then. weather was perfect and i was once again the road runner from new york: zipping around zurich and then 3 days later, in basel, then a day later in vienna. tomorrow i'm heading out to london and in a way, i look forward to hearing english spoken again. i think i'm getting a bit tired of so many museum hoppings. i've visited at least 25 museums since the 15th and today's onlz the 20th!!!!
okay it's been beautiful until i got to vienna and then it's snowing, i'm freezing. more details on each cities later. i've written a quite a bit of journal.
off to more meat...
Thursday, March 08, 2007
gotta get crackin'!
You know the Bible 82%!
Wow! You are truly a student of the Bible! Some of the questions were difficult, but they didn't slow you down! You know the books, the characters, the events . . . Very impressive!
Ultimate Bible Quiz
Create MySpace Quizzes
Saturday, March 03, 2007
from today's NY Times:
March 3, 2007
Beliefs
Books on Atheism Are Raising Hackles in Unlikely Places
By PETER STEINFELS
Hey, guys, can’t you give atheism a chance?
Yes, it is true that “The God Delusion” by Richard Dawkins has been on The New York Times best-seller list for 22 weeks and that “Letter to a Christian Nation” by Sam Harris can be found in virtually every airport bookstore, even in Texas.
So why is the new wave of books on atheism getting such a drubbing? The criticism is not primarily, it should be pointed out, from the pious, which would hardly be noteworthy, but from avowed atheists as well as scientists and philosophers writing in publications like The New Republic and The New York Review of Books, not known as cells in the vast God-fearing conspiracy.
The mother of these reviews was published last October in The London Review of Books, when Terry Eagleton, better known as a Marxist literary scholar than as a defender of faith, took on “The God Delusion.”
“Imagine someone holding forth on biology whose only knowledge of the subject is the Book of British Birds,” Mr. Eagleton wrote, “and you have a rough idea of what it feels like to read Richard Dawkins on theology.” That was only the first sentence.
James Wood’s review of “Letter to a Christian Nation” in the Dec. 18, 2006, issue of The New Republic began, “I have not believed in God since I was fifteen.” Mr. Wood, a formidable writer who keeps picking the scab of religion in his criticism and fiction, confessed that his “inner atheist” appreciated the “hygienic function” of Mr. Harris’s and Mr. Dawkins’s ridiculing of religion and enjoyed “the ‘naughtiness’ of this disrespect, even if a little of it goes a long way.”
But, he continued, “there is a limit to how many times one can stub one’s toe on the thick idiocy of some mullah or pastor” or be told that “Leviticus and Deuteronomy are full of really nasty things.”
H. Allen Orr is an evolutionary biologist who once called Mr. Dawkins a “professional atheist.” But now, Mr. Orr wrote in the Jan. 11 issue of The New York Review of Books, “I’m forced, after reading his new book, to conclude that he’s actually more of an amateur.”
It seems that these critics hold several odd ideas, the first being that anyone attacking theology should actually know some.
“The most disappointing feature of ‘The God Delusion,’ ” Mr. Orr wrote, “is Dawkins’s failure to engage religious thought in any serious way. You will find no serious examination of Christian or Jewish theology” and “no attempt to follow philosophical debates about the nature of religious propositions.”
Mr. Eagleton surmised that if “card-carrying rationalists like Dawkins” were asked “to pass judgment on phenomenology or the geopolitics of South Africa, they would no doubt bone up on the question as assiduously as they could.” He continued, “When it comes to theology, however, any shoddy old travesty will pass muster.”
Naturally, critics so fussy as to imagine that serious thought about religion exists, making esoteric references to Aquinas and Wittgenstein, inevitably gripe about Mr. Harris’s and Mr. Dawkins’s equation of religion with fundamentalism and of all faith with unquestioning faith.
“Not even the dim-witted clerics who knocked me about at grammar school thought that,” Mr. Eagleton wrote.
In The New Republic last October, Thomas Nagel, a philosopher who calls himself “as much an outsider to religion” as Mr. Dawkins, was much more patient. Extracting a theoretical kernel of argument from the thumb-your-nose-at-religion chaff, Mr. Nagel nonetheless had to point out that what was meant by God was not, as Mr. Dawkins’s argument seemed to assume, “a complex physical inhabitant of the natural world.” (Mr. Eagleton had less politely characterized the Dawkins understanding of God “as some kind of chap, however supersized.”)
Nor was belief in God, Mr. Wood explained two months later, analogous to belief in a Celestial Teapot, the comic example Mr. Dawkins borrowed from Bertrand Russell.
If this insistence on theology beyond the level of Pat Robertson and biblical literalism was not enough, several reviews went on to carp about double standards.
Mr. Orr, for example, noted the contrast between Mr. Dawkins’s skepticism toward traditional proofs for God’s existence and Mr. Dawkins’s confidence that his own “Ultimate Boeing 747” proof demonstrated scientifically that God’s existence was highly improbable.
Mr. Eagleton compared Mr. Dawkins’s volubility about religion’s vast wrongs with his silence “on the horrors that science and technology have wreaked on humanity” and the good that religion has produced.
“In a book of almost 400 pages, he can scarcely bring himself to concede that a single human benefit has flowed from religious faith, a view which is as a priori improbable as it is empirically false,” Mr. Eagleton wrote. “The countless millions who have devoted their lives selflessly to the service of others in the name of Christ or Buddha or Allah are wiped from human history — and this by a self-appointed crusader against bigotry.”
In Mr. Orr’s view, “No decent person can fail to be repulsed by the sins committed in the name of religion,” but atheism has to be held to the same standard: “Dawkins has a difficult time facing up to the dual fact that (1) the 20th century was an experiment in secularism; and (2) the result was secular evil, an evil that, if anything, was more spectacularly virulent than that which came before.”
Finally, these critics stubbornly rejected the idea that rational meant scientific. “The fear of religion leads too many scientifically minded atheists to cling to a defensive, world-flattening reductionism,” Mr. Nagel wrote.
“We have more than one form of understanding,” he continued. “The great achievements of physical science do not make it capable of encompassing everything, from mathematics to ethics to the experiences of a living animal. We have no reason to dismiss moral reasoning, introspection or conceptual analysis as ways of discovering the truth just because they are not physics.”
So what is the beleaguered atheist to do? One possibility: take pride in the fact that this astringent criticism comes from people and places that honor the honest skeptic’s commitment to full-throated questioning.
March 3, 2007
Beliefs
Books on Atheism Are Raising Hackles in Unlikely Places
By PETER STEINFELS
Hey, guys, can’t you give atheism a chance?
Yes, it is true that “The God Delusion” by Richard Dawkins has been on The New York Times best-seller list for 22 weeks and that “Letter to a Christian Nation” by Sam Harris can be found in virtually every airport bookstore, even in Texas.
So why is the new wave of books on atheism getting such a drubbing? The criticism is not primarily, it should be pointed out, from the pious, which would hardly be noteworthy, but from avowed atheists as well as scientists and philosophers writing in publications like The New Republic and The New York Review of Books, not known as cells in the vast God-fearing conspiracy.
The mother of these reviews was published last October in The London Review of Books, when Terry Eagleton, better known as a Marxist literary scholar than as a defender of faith, took on “The God Delusion.”
“Imagine someone holding forth on biology whose only knowledge of the subject is the Book of British Birds,” Mr. Eagleton wrote, “and you have a rough idea of what it feels like to read Richard Dawkins on theology.” That was only the first sentence.
James Wood’s review of “Letter to a Christian Nation” in the Dec. 18, 2006, issue of The New Republic began, “I have not believed in God since I was fifteen.” Mr. Wood, a formidable writer who keeps picking the scab of religion in his criticism and fiction, confessed that his “inner atheist” appreciated the “hygienic function” of Mr. Harris’s and Mr. Dawkins’s ridiculing of religion and enjoyed “the ‘naughtiness’ of this disrespect, even if a little of it goes a long way.”
But, he continued, “there is a limit to how many times one can stub one’s toe on the thick idiocy of some mullah or pastor” or be told that “Leviticus and Deuteronomy are full of really nasty things.”
H. Allen Orr is an evolutionary biologist who once called Mr. Dawkins a “professional atheist.” But now, Mr. Orr wrote in the Jan. 11 issue of The New York Review of Books, “I’m forced, after reading his new book, to conclude that he’s actually more of an amateur.”
It seems that these critics hold several odd ideas, the first being that anyone attacking theology should actually know some.
“The most disappointing feature of ‘The God Delusion,’ ” Mr. Orr wrote, “is Dawkins’s failure to engage religious thought in any serious way. You will find no serious examination of Christian or Jewish theology” and “no attempt to follow philosophical debates about the nature of religious propositions.”
Mr. Eagleton surmised that if “card-carrying rationalists like Dawkins” were asked “to pass judgment on phenomenology or the geopolitics of South Africa, they would no doubt bone up on the question as assiduously as they could.” He continued, “When it comes to theology, however, any shoddy old travesty will pass muster.”
Naturally, critics so fussy as to imagine that serious thought about religion exists, making esoteric references to Aquinas and Wittgenstein, inevitably gripe about Mr. Harris’s and Mr. Dawkins’s equation of religion with fundamentalism and of all faith with unquestioning faith.
“Not even the dim-witted clerics who knocked me about at grammar school thought that,” Mr. Eagleton wrote.
In The New Republic last October, Thomas Nagel, a philosopher who calls himself “as much an outsider to religion” as Mr. Dawkins, was much more patient. Extracting a theoretical kernel of argument from the thumb-your-nose-at-religion chaff, Mr. Nagel nonetheless had to point out that what was meant by God was not, as Mr. Dawkins’s argument seemed to assume, “a complex physical inhabitant of the natural world.” (Mr. Eagleton had less politely characterized the Dawkins understanding of God “as some kind of chap, however supersized.”)
Nor was belief in God, Mr. Wood explained two months later, analogous to belief in a Celestial Teapot, the comic example Mr. Dawkins borrowed from Bertrand Russell.
If this insistence on theology beyond the level of Pat Robertson and biblical literalism was not enough, several reviews went on to carp about double standards.
Mr. Orr, for example, noted the contrast between Mr. Dawkins’s skepticism toward traditional proofs for God’s existence and Mr. Dawkins’s confidence that his own “Ultimate Boeing 747” proof demonstrated scientifically that God’s existence was highly improbable.
Mr. Eagleton compared Mr. Dawkins’s volubility about religion’s vast wrongs with his silence “on the horrors that science and technology have wreaked on humanity” and the good that religion has produced.
“In a book of almost 400 pages, he can scarcely bring himself to concede that a single human benefit has flowed from religious faith, a view which is as a priori improbable as it is empirically false,” Mr. Eagleton wrote. “The countless millions who have devoted their lives selflessly to the service of others in the name of Christ or Buddha or Allah are wiped from human history — and this by a self-appointed crusader against bigotry.”
In Mr. Orr’s view, “No decent person can fail to be repulsed by the sins committed in the name of religion,” but atheism has to be held to the same standard: “Dawkins has a difficult time facing up to the dual fact that (1) the 20th century was an experiment in secularism; and (2) the result was secular evil, an evil that, if anything, was more spectacularly virulent than that which came before.”
Finally, these critics stubbornly rejected the idea that rational meant scientific. “The fear of religion leads too many scientifically minded atheists to cling to a defensive, world-flattening reductionism,” Mr. Nagel wrote.
“We have more than one form of understanding,” he continued. “The great achievements of physical science do not make it capable of encompassing everything, from mathematics to ethics to the experiences of a living animal. We have no reason to dismiss moral reasoning, introspection or conceptual analysis as ways of discovering the truth just because they are not physics.”
So what is the beleaguered atheist to do? One possibility: take pride in the fact that this astringent criticism comes from people and places that honor the honest skeptic’s commitment to full-throated questioning.
Friday, March 02, 2007
i've been reading francine rivers' books lately. finished redeeming love, the prince (about jonathan & david) and now on to unshaken, which is about ruth. i cannot put these books down!!!! so much fun to read and somehow, very overwhelming (i feel like crying every other page. what's wrong with me?!?!). i highly recommend them to you! i have 10 books to go, all waiting for me, courtesy of the new york public library :)
Thursday, March 01, 2007
this is very exciting:
'Star Trek' release date set
LOS ANGELES, California (Hollywood Reporter) -- Captain's log: December 25, 2008.
Paramount Pictures has set a Christmas Day 2008 release date for the 11th "Star Trek" feature, to be filmed by "Mission: Impossible III" director J.J. Abrams. Shooting will begin in the fall, Paramount said Tuesday.
The screenplay, from "M:I 3" scribes Alex Kurtzman and Roberto Orci, is said to follow James T. Kirk and Mr. Spock during their Starfleet Academy years and into their first space mission.
The previous film in the series, the 2002 box office bomb, "Star Trek: Nemesis," was directed by Stuart Baird, and starred Patrick Stewart.
'Star Trek' release date set
LOS ANGELES, California (Hollywood Reporter) -- Captain's log: December 25, 2008.
Paramount Pictures has set a Christmas Day 2008 release date for the 11th "Star Trek" feature, to be filmed by "Mission: Impossible III" director J.J. Abrams. Shooting will begin in the fall, Paramount said Tuesday.
The screenplay, from "M:I 3" scribes Alex Kurtzman and Roberto Orci, is said to follow James T. Kirk and Mr. Spock during their Starfleet Academy years and into their first space mission.
The previous film in the series, the 2002 box office bomb, "Star Trek: Nemesis," was directed by Stuart Baird, and starred Patrick Stewart.
Monday, February 26, 2007
this director (for titanic) is the most ridiculous man ever!
from today's cnn.com:
Archaeologists, scholars dispute Jesus documentary
Story Highlights• Documentary claims to have found bones of Jesus' family• Film suggests Jesus may have had son• Archaeologists, religious scholars skeptical• Oscar-winner James Cameron directed film
JERUSALEM (AP) -- Archaeologists and clergymen in the Holy Land derided claims in a new documentary produced by the Oscar-winning director James Cameron that contradict major Christian tenets.
"The Lost Tomb of Christ," which the Discovery Channel will run on March 4, argues that 10 ancient ossuaries -- small caskets used to store bones -- discovered in a suburb of Jerusalem in 1980 may have contained the bones of Jesus and his family, according to a press release issued by the Discovery Channel.
One of the caskets even bears the title, "Judah, son of Jesus," hinting that Jesus may have had a son. And the very fact that Jesus had an ossuary would contradict the Christian belief that he was resurrected and ascended to heaven. (Watch why it could be any Mary, Jesus and Joseph in those boxes)
Most Christians believe Jesus' body spent three days at the site of the Church of the Holy Sepulcher in Jerusalem's Old City. The burial site identified in Cameron's documentary is in a southern Jerusalem neighborhood nowhere near the church.
In 1996, when the BBC aired a short documentary on the same subject, archaeologists challenged the claims. Amos Kloner, the first archaeologist to examine the site, said the idea fails to hold up by archaeological standards but makes for profitable television.
"They just want to get money for it," Kloner said.
The claims have raised the ire of Christian leaders in the Holy Land.
"The historical, religious and archaeological evidence show that the place where Christ was buried is the Church of the Resurrection," said Attallah Hana, a Greek Orthodox clergyman in Jerusalem. The documentary, he said, "contradicts the religious principles and the historic and spiritual principles that we hold tightly to."
Stephen Pfann, a biblical scholar at the University of the Holy Land in Jerusalem who was interviewed in the documentary, said the film's hypothesis holds little weight.
"I don't think that Christians are going to buy into this," Pfann said. "But skeptics, in general, would like to see something that pokes holes into the story that so many people hold dear."
"How possible is it?" Pfann said. "On a scale of one through 10 -- 10 being completely possible -- it's probably a one, maybe a one and a half."
Pfann is even unsure that the name "Jesus" on the caskets was read correctly. He thinks it's more likely the name "Hanun."
Kloner also said the filmmakers' assertions are false.
"It was an ordinary middle-class Jerusalem burial cave," Kloner said. "The names on the caskets are the most common names found among Jews at the time."
Archaeologists also balk at the filmmaker's claim that the James Ossuary -- the center of a famous antiquities fraud in Israel -- might have originated from the same cave. In 2005, Israel charged five suspects with forgery in connection with the infamous bone box.
"I don't think the James Ossuary came from the same cave," said Dan Bahat, an archaeologist at Bar-Ilan University. "If it were found there, the man who made the forgery would have taken something better. He would have taken Jesus."
Although the documentary makers claim to have found the tomb of Jesus, the British Broadcasting Corporation beat them to the punch by 11 years.
Osnat Goaz, a spokeswoman for the Israeli government agency responsible for archaeology, declined to comment before the documentary was aired.
Find this article at: http://www.cnn.com/2007/TECH/science/02/26/jesus.sburial.ap/index.html
from today's cnn.com:
Archaeologists, scholars dispute Jesus documentary
Story Highlights• Documentary claims to have found bones of Jesus' family• Film suggests Jesus may have had son• Archaeologists, religious scholars skeptical• Oscar-winner James Cameron directed film
JERUSALEM (AP) -- Archaeologists and clergymen in the Holy Land derided claims in a new documentary produced by the Oscar-winning director James Cameron that contradict major Christian tenets.
"The Lost Tomb of Christ," which the Discovery Channel will run on March 4, argues that 10 ancient ossuaries -- small caskets used to store bones -- discovered in a suburb of Jerusalem in 1980 may have contained the bones of Jesus and his family, according to a press release issued by the Discovery Channel.
One of the caskets even bears the title, "Judah, son of Jesus," hinting that Jesus may have had a son. And the very fact that Jesus had an ossuary would contradict the Christian belief that he was resurrected and ascended to heaven. (Watch why it could be any Mary, Jesus and Joseph in those boxes)
Most Christians believe Jesus' body spent three days at the site of the Church of the Holy Sepulcher in Jerusalem's Old City. The burial site identified in Cameron's documentary is in a southern Jerusalem neighborhood nowhere near the church.
In 1996, when the BBC aired a short documentary on the same subject, archaeologists challenged the claims. Amos Kloner, the first archaeologist to examine the site, said the idea fails to hold up by archaeological standards but makes for profitable television.
"They just want to get money for it," Kloner said.
The claims have raised the ire of Christian leaders in the Holy Land.
"The historical, religious and archaeological evidence show that the place where Christ was buried is the Church of the Resurrection," said Attallah Hana, a Greek Orthodox clergyman in Jerusalem. The documentary, he said, "contradicts the religious principles and the historic and spiritual principles that we hold tightly to."
Stephen Pfann, a biblical scholar at the University of the Holy Land in Jerusalem who was interviewed in the documentary, said the film's hypothesis holds little weight.
"I don't think that Christians are going to buy into this," Pfann said. "But skeptics, in general, would like to see something that pokes holes into the story that so many people hold dear."
"How possible is it?" Pfann said. "On a scale of one through 10 -- 10 being completely possible -- it's probably a one, maybe a one and a half."
Pfann is even unsure that the name "Jesus" on the caskets was read correctly. He thinks it's more likely the name "Hanun."
Kloner also said the filmmakers' assertions are false.
"It was an ordinary middle-class Jerusalem burial cave," Kloner said. "The names on the caskets are the most common names found among Jews at the time."
Archaeologists also balk at the filmmaker's claim that the James Ossuary -- the center of a famous antiquities fraud in Israel -- might have originated from the same cave. In 2005, Israel charged five suspects with forgery in connection with the infamous bone box.
"I don't think the James Ossuary came from the same cave," said Dan Bahat, an archaeologist at Bar-Ilan University. "If it were found there, the man who made the forgery would have taken something better. He would have taken Jesus."
Although the documentary makers claim to have found the tomb of Jesus, the British Broadcasting Corporation beat them to the punch by 11 years.
Osnat Goaz, a spokeswoman for the Israeli government agency responsible for archaeology, declined to comment before the documentary was aired.
Find this article at: http://www.cnn.com/2007/TECH/science/02/26/jesus.sburial.ap/index.html
a lot has happened this past weekend. this is the weekend update time with seapea:
1. eczema update
so i went to my acu and did cupping. omg. i thought i was gonna die. the actual process of cupping isn't painful at all but he literally bled me from my fingers, my toes, behind my knees (!!!!) and on my back and all this black blood came out (strangely enough, no blood came out from my right hand. he said only the leftside, which affects the heart, came out black - ew). laying there with face down, i really thought he was cutting me but later when i got up, i saw that it was tiny lil' holes and didn't even hurt when i push on 'em. i guess when you're vulnerable, things hurt more? anyway, purple, yellow & black things came outta my back in the cupping cup. how gross, i know, but all i can say is that i feel a lot better.so for the next 2 weeks i have to:
- put on camocare smoothing cream whenever it itches
- drink strong chamomile & chrysanthemum tea whenever possible to "flush out" for the skin
- avoid all white starch: white rice, white pasta, etc.
- avoid all fried food; all oily food, unless it's with olive oil
- needless to say, no diary (since i'm lactose intolerant anyway)
- no shellfish (i'm allergic to shrimp, but he said no shellfish, period)
- drink aloe juice throughout the day
wah! but it's already working - i'm not crazy itchy anymore! i'm slathering things on but now i know chamomile is good for your skin. otherwise, why would i drink this "flower"?!?!!
2. roommate update:
we've established some kinda "truth" - if you can call it that. the other night, i wanted to watch 'the departed' (which i had from netflix) and she had just gotten home, so i asked if she wanted to watch with. she mumbled yes. then we watched it together. last night, i was starting to watch the Oscars and she asked "can i watch it too?" (duh - what does she think i am - tv nazi?) so she joined me in watching that boring telecast.
so i guess overall a good weekend!
1. eczema update
so i went to my acu and did cupping. omg. i thought i was gonna die. the actual process of cupping isn't painful at all but he literally bled me from my fingers, my toes, behind my knees (!!!!) and on my back and all this black blood came out (strangely enough, no blood came out from my right hand. he said only the leftside, which affects the heart, came out black - ew). laying there with face down, i really thought he was cutting me but later when i got up, i saw that it was tiny lil' holes and didn't even hurt when i push on 'em. i guess when you're vulnerable, things hurt more? anyway, purple, yellow & black things came outta my back in the cupping cup. how gross, i know, but all i can say is that i feel a lot better.so for the next 2 weeks i have to:
- put on camocare smoothing cream whenever it itches
- drink strong chamomile & chrysanthemum tea whenever possible to "flush out" for the skin
- avoid all white starch: white rice, white pasta, etc.
- avoid all fried food; all oily food, unless it's with olive oil
- needless to say, no diary (since i'm lactose intolerant anyway)
- no shellfish (i'm allergic to shrimp, but he said no shellfish, period)
- drink aloe juice throughout the day
wah! but it's already working - i'm not crazy itchy anymore! i'm slathering things on but now i know chamomile is good for your skin. otherwise, why would i drink this "flower"?!?!!
2. roommate update:
we've established some kinda "truth" - if you can call it that. the other night, i wanted to watch 'the departed' (which i had from netflix) and she had just gotten home, so i asked if she wanted to watch with. she mumbled yes. then we watched it together. last night, i was starting to watch the Oscars and she asked "can i watch it too?" (duh - what does she think i am - tv nazi?) so she joined me in watching that boring telecast.
so i guess overall a good weekend!
Thursday, February 22, 2007
From NY Times:
February 21, 2007
Gathering Once a Month for a Voyage to Narnia
By LILY KOPPEL
On a recent Friday night, 30 fans of the writer C. S. Lewis sat in folding chairs under a vaulted ceiling surrounded by gilt-framed oil paintings of Episcopal priests. Like Lucy Pevensie, the youngest of the four children in Lewis’s book “The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe,” who opens a wardrobe to discover the icy land of Narnia, the members of the New York C. S. Lewis Society immerse themselves in the writer’s fantastical realm.
Members of the group, which calls itself the oldest society in the world for the appreciation of Lewis’s works, gather on the second Friday of every month in the parish hall of the Church of the Ascension at 12 West 11th Street in Greenwich Village.
Among those at the latest meeting were Margaret Goodman, 70, an opera singer and actress who wore a small golden lion pin, and Christopher Mitchell, the director of the Marion E. Wade Center at Wheaton College in Illinois, which has the world’s largest holding of papers and books by Lewis.
The society’s secretary, Clara Sarrocco, 60, traces her obsession to when she was 16, attending a Catholic high school in Queens, where she lives. “One of my teachers came in and mentioned a book written from one demon to another demon,” she said of Lewis’s “Screwtape Letters.” “Real diabolical-sounding.”
When she was in her 20s, Ms. Sarrocco clipped an advertisement for the society from a magazine. “I stuck it in my mirror,” she said. “Every time I looked in the mirror, I kept on saying, ‘I have to go there.’ I was a little intimidated.”
But her curiosity won out. Since the early 1970s, Ms. Sarrocco has been part of the society, which has about 500 subscribers to its twice-a-month bulletin from across the country and abroad, including Japan, Germany, Russia and England.
Lewis, who was born in Ireland in 1898, was a leading figure on the English faculty at Oxford University and was part of a literary group there known as the Inklings, which included J. R. R. Tolkien, the author of the “Lord of the Rings” books.
The Lewis society’s longest active members are a married couple, Alexandra and James Como. He is a Lewis scholar and the chairman of the Department of Performing and Fine Arts at York College in Jamaica, Queens, part of the City University of New York.
The Comos were at the first meeting of the society, held on Nov. 4, 1969, at the Staten Island home of Jack Boies, a professor of English literature at Wagner College on Staten Island, and his wife, Elaine. At the second meeting, as recorded in the minutes, “a very handsome watercolor map of Narnia and adjacent places, done by Professor Boies, was handed around and admired.”
“I remember the ride over,” Ms. Como said of the first meeting. “It was winter, going over the Verrazano Bridge, which the fog had completely covered up. We felt suspended.”
Mr. Como, referring to the somewhat Narnia-like atmosphere surrounding the first meeting, added, “Staten Island is very purgatorial.”
Ms. Como reached into her purse and pulled out a pocket pack of tissues decorated with the logo of the 2005 film “The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe.” “I was in Lima, Peru, where I’m from,” she said, “and saw this and thought, ‘Oh my God, Narnia.’ ”
Her husband added: “Lewis said there is no such thing as coincidence. I call it the Holy Spirit.”
At the Church of the Ascension, among the gray-haired members in turtlenecks and cardigans, one could see the occasional teenager, a poet or someone from what Ms. Como called the “Lord of the Rings” crowd. In almost 40 years, the only times meetings have been canceled were because of a snowstorm or after 9/11.
In addition to his fantasy writings, Lewis’s work also included apologetics. And that element was present at the meeting. One man in an orange sweater wore a dark wooden crucifix dangling from a leather cord. Another man, Lewis Macala, 56, a medical researcher at Yale who was new to the group, introduced himself as “an atheist until I read Lewis.”
William McClaine, a portly man wearing red suspenders and thick glasses, opened the meeting. Peter Depaula, 54, a magician from Brooklyn, followed with a traditional excerpt from Lewis’s writings. Next was a lecture by a guest speaker, Edwin Woodruff Tait, 32, an assistant professor of Bible and religion at Huntington University in Indiana.
Dr. Woodruff Tait focused on a revolution described in “Prince Caspian,” another of the seven books in the Narnia series, in which the evil King Miraz cut down the land’s talking trees, and its enchanted creatures — centaurs, dryads, fauns, naiads, unicorns and talking animals — were killed or went into hiding.
In Narnia, creativity was promoted over technology, explained Dr. Woodruff Tait, and there was an implied distrust of modern life. “Lewis’s vision was not that we all are equal, but that we are all different in our natural attitudes and natural creativity,” he said. “Narnia is not about a hierarchy of power, but each kind of creature joyfully living out their natural attitudes.”
He pointed out that the only legislation in Narnia was to prevent people’s lives from being interfered with. “Moles dig because that’s what they love to do; dwarfs smith metal because that’s what they love to do,” he said. “In Lewis there is a love of the ordinary processes of life, a love of eating. The children are always having tea and biscuits.”
Dr. Woodruff Tait concluded with a reference to Aslan, the Jesus figure depicted as a lion in the Narnia books. “Long live the true king,” he said. Tea and cake were waiting.
February 21, 2007
Gathering Once a Month for a Voyage to Narnia
By LILY KOPPEL
On a recent Friday night, 30 fans of the writer C. S. Lewis sat in folding chairs under a vaulted ceiling surrounded by gilt-framed oil paintings of Episcopal priests. Like Lucy Pevensie, the youngest of the four children in Lewis’s book “The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe,” who opens a wardrobe to discover the icy land of Narnia, the members of the New York C. S. Lewis Society immerse themselves in the writer’s fantastical realm.
Members of the group, which calls itself the oldest society in the world for the appreciation of Lewis’s works, gather on the second Friday of every month in the parish hall of the Church of the Ascension at 12 West 11th Street in Greenwich Village.
Among those at the latest meeting were Margaret Goodman, 70, an opera singer and actress who wore a small golden lion pin, and Christopher Mitchell, the director of the Marion E. Wade Center at Wheaton College in Illinois, which has the world’s largest holding of papers and books by Lewis.
The society’s secretary, Clara Sarrocco, 60, traces her obsession to when she was 16, attending a Catholic high school in Queens, where she lives. “One of my teachers came in and mentioned a book written from one demon to another demon,” she said of Lewis’s “Screwtape Letters.” “Real diabolical-sounding.”
When she was in her 20s, Ms. Sarrocco clipped an advertisement for the society from a magazine. “I stuck it in my mirror,” she said. “Every time I looked in the mirror, I kept on saying, ‘I have to go there.’ I was a little intimidated.”
But her curiosity won out. Since the early 1970s, Ms. Sarrocco has been part of the society, which has about 500 subscribers to its twice-a-month bulletin from across the country and abroad, including Japan, Germany, Russia and England.
Lewis, who was born in Ireland in 1898, was a leading figure on the English faculty at Oxford University and was part of a literary group there known as the Inklings, which included J. R. R. Tolkien, the author of the “Lord of the Rings” books.
The Lewis society’s longest active members are a married couple, Alexandra and James Como. He is a Lewis scholar and the chairman of the Department of Performing and Fine Arts at York College in Jamaica, Queens, part of the City University of New York.
The Comos were at the first meeting of the society, held on Nov. 4, 1969, at the Staten Island home of Jack Boies, a professor of English literature at Wagner College on Staten Island, and his wife, Elaine. At the second meeting, as recorded in the minutes, “a very handsome watercolor map of Narnia and adjacent places, done by Professor Boies, was handed around and admired.”
“I remember the ride over,” Ms. Como said of the first meeting. “It was winter, going over the Verrazano Bridge, which the fog had completely covered up. We felt suspended.”
Mr. Como, referring to the somewhat Narnia-like atmosphere surrounding the first meeting, added, “Staten Island is very purgatorial.”
Ms. Como reached into her purse and pulled out a pocket pack of tissues decorated with the logo of the 2005 film “The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe.” “I was in Lima, Peru, where I’m from,” she said, “and saw this and thought, ‘Oh my God, Narnia.’ ”
Her husband added: “Lewis said there is no such thing as coincidence. I call it the Holy Spirit.”
At the Church of the Ascension, among the gray-haired members in turtlenecks and cardigans, one could see the occasional teenager, a poet or someone from what Ms. Como called the “Lord of the Rings” crowd. In almost 40 years, the only times meetings have been canceled were because of a snowstorm or after 9/11.
In addition to his fantasy writings, Lewis’s work also included apologetics. And that element was present at the meeting. One man in an orange sweater wore a dark wooden crucifix dangling from a leather cord. Another man, Lewis Macala, 56, a medical researcher at Yale who was new to the group, introduced himself as “an atheist until I read Lewis.”
William McClaine, a portly man wearing red suspenders and thick glasses, opened the meeting. Peter Depaula, 54, a magician from Brooklyn, followed with a traditional excerpt from Lewis’s writings. Next was a lecture by a guest speaker, Edwin Woodruff Tait, 32, an assistant professor of Bible and religion at Huntington University in Indiana.
Dr. Woodruff Tait focused on a revolution described in “Prince Caspian,” another of the seven books in the Narnia series, in which the evil King Miraz cut down the land’s talking trees, and its enchanted creatures — centaurs, dryads, fauns, naiads, unicorns and talking animals — were killed or went into hiding.
In Narnia, creativity was promoted over technology, explained Dr. Woodruff Tait, and there was an implied distrust of modern life. “Lewis’s vision was not that we all are equal, but that we are all different in our natural attitudes and natural creativity,” he said. “Narnia is not about a hierarchy of power, but each kind of creature joyfully living out their natural attitudes.”
He pointed out that the only legislation in Narnia was to prevent people’s lives from being interfered with. “Moles dig because that’s what they love to do; dwarfs smith metal because that’s what they love to do,” he said. “In Lewis there is a love of the ordinary processes of life, a love of eating. The children are always having tea and biscuits.”
Dr. Woodruff Tait concluded with a reference to Aslan, the Jesus figure depicted as a lion in the Narnia books. “Long live the true king,” he said. Tea and cake were waiting.
okay, i was about to post a picture of eczema'ed back, but after looking at google images, i decided i cannot shock people that way. ha ha!
i haven't been sleeping well for the last couple of weeks, due to my back (skin, not bone or muscular). here's some background (not that you asked):
- i have mild eczema (skin allergies)
- i used to use topical steroids
- my back (skin) got addicted to the ointment
- i've used it for about 5 years
- my family doc AND my acupuncturist both said to get off the ointment, because my back (skin) has already become thinned and will even crack/break in the future with even a bit of sunlight (not to mention exposure to skin cancer, etc.)
- that was about 3 weeks ago
- 1st week was "okay"
- 2nd week was hell
- now it's 3rd week and i'm about to cry
- i'm going back to my acupuncturist this saturday to try cupping
- i've gone through about 4 brands of moisturizers for my back (but doesn't absorb - it's like applying lotion/cream to plastic/glass surface - just slides down)
- i go to bed all moisturized, wake up 1-2 hrs later, scratching
ARGH!!!
please pray for me!!!!
in the ancient times, i bet i would be cast off the society by now for always scratching...
Tuesday, February 20, 2007
what the...
Cheque mate! Korean bank sends singles on blind date
Tue Feb 20, 2007 8:25 AM ET
SEOUL (Reuters) - A top South Korean bank is sending a group of its single female employees on a blind date trip to North Korea, hoping that romance will make them happy at the office, an official said Tuesday.
Hana Bank is trying to fix up 20 of its employees between the ages of 29 and 33 with 20 single South Korean men selected by a top matchmaking agency in the country, an official said.
"This trip will offer them a chance to easily meet men," said Yang Jae-hyeok in charge of the bank's division offering life services for employees.
"As our bank tries to help our employees balance their work and personal lives, we are putting more effort into improving their personal life," Yang said.
Hana Bank will pay half the fare for its employees for the two-day trip this weekend to a mountain resort in North Korea run by an affiliate of the South's Hyundai Group, which more than a million South Koreans have already visited.
Hana, a main unit of the country's No. 4 banking group Hana Financial Group, two years ago set up what it calls a "full life service" for its employees that includes subsidizing employees who enroll with matchmaking services.
It plans to offer more subsidized blind date trips for its single employees, Yang said.
Cheque mate! Korean bank sends singles on blind date
Tue Feb 20, 2007 8:25 AM ET
SEOUL (Reuters) - A top South Korean bank is sending a group of its single female employees on a blind date trip to North Korea, hoping that romance will make them happy at the office, an official said Tuesday.
Hana Bank is trying to fix up 20 of its employees between the ages of 29 and 33 with 20 single South Korean men selected by a top matchmaking agency in the country, an official said.
"This trip will offer them a chance to easily meet men," said Yang Jae-hyeok in charge of the bank's division offering life services for employees.
"As our bank tries to help our employees balance their work and personal lives, we are putting more effort into improving their personal life," Yang said.
Hana Bank will pay half the fare for its employees for the two-day trip this weekend to a mountain resort in North Korea run by an affiliate of the South's Hyundai Group, which more than a million South Koreans have already visited.
Hana, a main unit of the country's No. 4 banking group Hana Financial Group, two years ago set up what it calls a "full life service" for its employees that includes subsidizing employees who enroll with matchmaking services.
It plans to offer more subsidized blind date trips for its single employees, Yang said.
Monday, February 19, 2007
Saturday, February 17, 2007
o..m..g...i just spent 10 hrs babysitting. sure, my bro & sis-in-law were in and out but they basically had to do their errands today so i babysat - feeding him b'fast, lunch, and dinner. also, playtimes (basically you're "on" 24/7). he only napped 2 hrs (apparently that's a record!). i just bathed him while he was screaming, getting him into PJs, omg, i'm so tired. my back hurts, i'm half drenched. omg...
i don't think i can be a mother. i'm already tired and want to go to bed!
i don't think i can be a mother. i'm already tired and want to go to bed!
Friday, February 16, 2007
this week went by fast. first, i was in toronto (unfortunately no pictures - no time!!! just work work work) then now i'm in boston for the long holiday weekend.
and does this post look any different than the others? it should BECAUSE....i'm using MICROSOFT VISTA and omg it is SO COOL!!!!! i want vista now...i love new technology - i want to have them right away (except for any apple stuff...i think steve jobs is like one of the anti-christ figures; the other one is al gore, with his strategy...).
THIS IS SO COOL!!! i highly recommend yall trying it!!!
and does this post look any different than the others? it should BECAUSE....i'm using MICROSOFT VISTA and omg it is SO COOL!!!!! i want vista now...i love new technology - i want to have them right away (except for any apple stuff...i think steve jobs is like one of the anti-christ figures; the other one is al gore, with his strategy...).
THIS IS SO COOL!!! i highly recommend yall trying it!!!
Sunday, February 11, 2007
i took this test and this is what i got... is this bad?!?!? this makes me sound like jerry falwell...
You scored as Fundamentalist. You are a fundamentalist. You take the Bible as the foundation of your faith and read it very literally, and it shapes your worldview. Non-fundamentalist Christians have watered-down the Gospel in your view, and academic study of the Bible stops us from 'taking God at his word.' Science is opposed to faith, as it contradicts basic biblical truths.
What's your theological worldview? created with QuizFarm.com |
Friday, February 09, 2007
Thursday, February 08, 2007
going to toronto on monday for the first time in about 13 years. wow, how strange. i'm actually going for work, believe it or not. and i'm making sure to see my precious friend lindsay. i haven't seen her for around 13 years also. i'm wondering what that's gonna be like.
it's also bringing up old memories of my first few years in canada, as the korean-immigrant: the days of carrying dictionaries, blurs of middle school (except having a crush on one steven logan, and thinking how cool my homeroom teacher mr. schneider was). i also wonder what happened to one nicholas brown, who was the first boy ever to call me at home, got me in trouble (at age 16! life was unfair) and would totally ambush me at school by jumping outta from nowhere to smother me with hugs & kisses on the cheeks. i was so shocked - this kind of a behavior was not normal to me! AND he was younger than me by 2 years. what the heck. this went on for like a year. i wonder what happened to him.
it's also bringing up old memories of my first few years in canada, as the korean-immigrant: the days of carrying dictionaries, blurs of middle school (except having a crush on one steven logan, and thinking how cool my homeroom teacher mr. schneider was). i also wonder what happened to one nicholas brown, who was the first boy ever to call me at home, got me in trouble (at age 16! life was unfair) and would totally ambush me at school by jumping outta from nowhere to smother me with hugs & kisses on the cheeks. i was so shocked - this kind of a behavior was not normal to me! AND he was younger than me by 2 years. what the heck. this went on for like a year. i wonder what happened to him.
Wednesday, February 07, 2007
Friday, February 02, 2007
restaurant week is now over. this was the busiest restaurant hoppin' time i've never had. started with a big ol' juicy steak @ smith & wollensky, tasteful and yummy @ telepan, fancy but kind of predictable meal @ arabelle, yummy but predictable @ le colonial and the grand finale of all, unbelievable meal @ megu. i highly recommend taking advantage of restaurant week 2x a year!
Tuesday, January 30, 2007
so...my office is cold because i have 2 big windows and they're old kinda, the kind you turn it to open and obviously they're not very well insulated during winter. i'm usually wearing a hat, fingerless gloves and have the portable heater on, but then i don't like to do the latter, as it dries out the space and as you all know i have to have the right amount of moisture in the air (i have to sleep with a humidifier on, but not the cold one but the hot one). anyway, lately, i've been taken to wearing a scottish wool BLANKET over my shoulder and basically covering my arms. whenever i get cold, my arms get cold and i don't know why people keep wearing vests. when i wear vests, i just get hot (in the torso) and cold (the arms). so this morning, i thought of a (one of my many) brilliant idea: a REVERSE vest, which in fact would be a ARM "vest."
i thought i was original, but alas, i am not: check out this islamic clothing on ebay. i don't think that'd be particularly warming but i guess there IS a 'reverse vest' per se.
any knitters out there who'd like to knit a REVERSE vest for me? that'd be: something like those mittens with strings so that you don't lose the other pair, so that i'd wear the arm vest through the shoulder and then "wear" through the arms. i think this could possibly be a fashion MUST item!
yes? no?
i thought i was original, but alas, i am not: check out this islamic clothing on ebay. i don't think that'd be particularly warming but i guess there IS a 'reverse vest' per se.
any knitters out there who'd like to knit a REVERSE vest for me? that'd be: something like those mittens with strings so that you don't lose the other pair, so that i'd wear the arm vest through the shoulder and then "wear" through the arms. i think this could possibly be a fashion MUST item!
yes? no?
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