Monday, April 17, 2006

I Used to Be Mad

I used to be mad
Oh I used to be mad
They put me in the house upon the hill
I used to be mad
But now I'm not so mad
Just as long as I keep taking my pills...
--I Used to be Mad, Nigel Burch and his Flea Pit Orchestra



Bonjourno, Good Gobbers!

Happy Easter, a day late!

So yesterday we went to church (beautiful service--great sermon and hymns), then out to lunch with my parents' old friends from college, or before college, I can't remember (I said they were old...). They're my godparents, anyway. We had lunch at Ella's (see... um... a previous post). Fun. And beneficial for my wallet (They're always generous contributors to the Give Ethan Money Fund). They're quite fun to talk to. My dad and Uncle Kevin (godparent, not real uncle) and I were kind of ranting about this "new" Gospel of Judas BS... (For those who don't know, there's a new book out by an author who "discovered" the Gospel of Judas, a 2nd or 3rd Century Gnostic writing that has Judas as a good guy, and our current form of Christianity is based on one of many splinter groups and it won a power struggle and some other crap...):

UK: So did you read the Gospel of Judas?

Dad: (Laugh) No. Maybe one day when I'm really bored I'll try it.

UK: (shakes head) Well, the media...

Dad: I know!

Me: Katie Couric's our new spiritual expert, I guess.

UK: Well they treat it like it's an "earth shattering revelation." [Quotes indicate sarcastic tone.-E] It's gonna "Shake people's faith." I mean, it's been around for eighteen hundred years!

(Laugh)

Me: And apparently the water changed to ice, and that's how Jesus walked on it.

(General laugh.)

UK: It's not even a Christian writing. It never pretended to be a Christian writing.

Dad: If Christians knew their doctrine better...

In Other News...

Here's some headlines to enjoy (they're all real):

Woman Ticketed For Crossing Street Too Slowly

Check it out.

Woman Bit By Snake At Home Depot

Wow.

Geologists Find Ancient Worm Feces

Seriously.

More (tho not always clean) can be found at
Dave Barry's Blog

...

So a friend of mine got back from France today... Actually yesterday, but I saw him today. Lucky bugger. He was told not to go into Paris on Monday or Teusday (due to riots), so, of course since he was staying with French girls (twins, and French-- enough said), they went to discotheques Monday and Teusday night.

Currently reading a book called The Peshawar Lancers, alternate history. The idea is that in the 1870s a series of comets hit Earth, dismantling much of civilization, forcing the British Empire to relocate to India, etc. The story takes place a century and a half later, with conflict between the British and the (Devil-worshipping) Russians. Lots of action, intrigue, mystery... And the world-building is excellent. The style is almost painfully detailed in places, but it works for the type of story. The research is incredible.

Having finished writing a Sons of Adam story, I am now working on the "Mustard Museum Mystery," a local writing contest with a reward of... I forgot the amount. Lots of money. They wrote the first chapter of a mystery novel, and you write the second chapter and an outline of the rest of the novel, and they select the winner.

If you want to see what I'm working with, click here.

For those who don't know, my town has the world's only Mustard Museum, which is exactly what it sounds like. They have all types of mustard, stuff about the history of mustard, the making of mustard, blah blah blah. And a curious ketchup prejiduce.

Well. That about does it for now.

Slainte'bah!

Ethan
(Exit, pursued by the Easter Bunny's angry cousins)

Saturday, April 15, 2006

Easter Saturday...

...A quiet day today, as seems appropriate for the day between the solemnity of Good Friday and the celebration of Easter Sunday.

The past few days have been in the 70s and sunny, with a light breeze that keeps things from getting too hot. On Thursday my legs were suffocatting so I cast aside the bounds of social restriction and Wore Shorts. (The previous verb-subject conjuction is capitalized because after six months of Wisconsin crappy-weather-fall-winter the author feels it is a momentous occasion, warranting exessive capitalization.)

So Tenebrae service yesterday was beatiful, as usual. Solemn of course, and I'd have it no other way, as we are observing Christ's death. The symbolism--church stripped bare of accoutrements, black cloth hung over the cross, etc--was vivid and majestic. Mourning for the death of our Lord.

Ahem.

That's about it for today. A bit solemn mayhap, but tommorow's Easter, when we break out the decorations and celebrate the Resurrection (and Eat Candy!).

Rath de Ort,
Ethan
(Exit, pursued by a now-depressed Easter Bunny)

Monday, April 10, 2006

A Test and a Survey

It's always better on Holiday
So much better on Holiday
That's why we only work when
We need the money
--"Jacqueline", by Franz Ferdinand

Hujambo, bwana na bibi!

Well, I took the bleedin' ACT Saturday. For a three-hour test, early in the morning, it went as well as can be expected. I'm trying not to think about it too much, or guess how I did at all but:
English was pretty easy. Some tricky questions, but... pretty much common sense. Math... well, no walk in the park, but the problems were easier than I expected. Reading was hard, because, being a Book Geek, I felt the tendency (native to my people) to analyze every passage, rather than skimming it. In Science I tended to take too long answering questions, and having to rush later questions. The writing part... I won't even get into what a horrible essay I crafted in half an hour.

Now on to N's "survey"...

Profile.1.Name- Ethan
2.Age- As old as my gums, and a little older then my teeth
3.Height- Taller than some, shorter than others
4.Shoe size- 11 (I had to answeer one straight)
5.Ring size- Dunno. Why?
6.Unusual habits- I'll list one of many: much of my slang comes from-or is adapted from- across the Pond.
7.Eye color- Blue/green (blue when I wear blue colors, green when I wear green)
8.Length of left big toe- about eight cm.
9. Around 3 cm.
10.Number in your graduating (or present) class- 1.
11.Graduation year (high school)- 2007
12.Graduation year (college)- 2011or 2012, depending...
13.Graduation year (seminary)- Four years after i graduate from college, that is if I go to Sem (which I'm not sure...)
14.Major (planned) in college- English probably, if possible with an emphasis on Creative Writing... Unless I find a doable college with Creative Writing as a major... that would be cool.
15.Address- Somewhere In America.
16.Social security number- Right. Nice try.
17.Zip code- Nosy beggar, aren't you?
Favorites and two Least Favorites.33.Favorite Movie- Wow. Um. LotR and SW come to mind, and most recently Serenity (brilliant movie!) Also some old Rom-Coms like Philadelphia Story. And Arsenic and Old Lace.
19.Favorite TV show- *Huffy voice* well it WAS "Arested Development" until they bleedin' cancelled it... So now I'd have to say Lost.
20.Favorite CD- Um... Dropkick Murphys' "Blackout," or "Good Morning Spider" by Sparklehorse As a whole, the two best CDs I own.. 21.Favorite tape-I don't own that many tapes, but the best would be Arkangel's production of Shakespeare's "Love's Labor's Lost" (assuming you meant audio tapes and not video).
22.Favorite band- I have many (see fav.s list), but if I had to choose one to be stuck on an island with, it would be Sparklehorse. Or Dropkick Murphys. Or Ashley MacIsaac. (Hey, I narrowed it down to three.)
23.Favorite superhero- Conan the Barbarian, the original, as in the Robert E. Howard stories.
24.Favorite book- Talk about opening a can of worms... I guess Tom Sawyer or Lord Jim... or LotR.
25.Favorite poster- My Yoda "Read and the Force is with You" poster.
26.Favorite Brady child- I want to kill them all.
27.Favorite American Idol- See 26.
28.Favorite X-man- Wolverine, from the time I was very young.
29.Favorite member of NSYNC- See 27.
30.Favorite sport- Fencing of football.
31.Favorite weapon- My paintball gun, because it's mine.
18.Favorite clothing brand- Goodwill.
34.Favorite Higher Things blog- Borghardt’s Reflector.
35.Favorite restaurant- Something that serves good food.
36.Favorite food- It varies depending on my mood.
37.Favorite type of restaurant- Good pizza parlors.
38.Favorite type of food- Anything edible.
39.Favorite color- Red.
40.Favorite period of history- The Dark Ages (aka the early Middle Ages) or the high Middle Ages... or WWII
41.Favorite Muppet- I dunno.
42.Favorite alcoholic beverage- Communion wine.
43.Favorite musical instrument-My guitar.
44.Favorite candle scent- Lilac, an old standby for my mom's birthday.
45.Favorite operating system- Windows. *Cringes from Mac people*
46.Favorite smiley face- ;-)
47.Least favorite book- Sounder. Awful book. Also I Kissed Dating Goodbye, which I ran into once while shelving, looked at, and almost burned.
48.Least favorite candle scent- I have no least favorite candle scent.
49.Have you ever gone toga-ing? No. Want to.
50.Have you ever blown up, set on fire, or mutilated an action figure? Oh yes... Many many. (EE Hehehe!)
51.Have you ever tried to eat a fake decorative fruit? No. I took a bite out of a lump of butter, thinking it was ice cream.
52.Have you ever gone trick-or-treating since your childhood? Yes, "escorting" sibling and cousins (but really in it for the pity candy).53.Have you ever killed a seagull? No. Tried. failed.
54.Have you ever eaten a dog biscuit? No.
55.Have you ever fired a high powered rifle? Yes! Such fun.
56.Have you ever worn a dress? No.
57.Have you ever tried hitting a piece of technology to make it work? Yes. It doesn't help, just hurts its feelings.
58.Have you ever head banged through the entire guitar solo in Bohemian Rhapsody? Um... No. 59.Have you ever deep-fat fried a random food item and eaten it? No. sounds like fun. I ate deep fried Snickers at the County Fair.
60.Have you ever been in a blog war? No.
Miscellaneous61.How many HT conferences have you been to? Two.
62.Do you know how to play any musical instruments? If you can, which kinds? I used to play piano. I'm teaching myself guitar.
63.Did anyone notice that I switched numbers 33 and 18? Yes indeed.
64.Did anyone notice the other numbering errors? Not really.
65.Did anyone actually look for other numbering errors? No.
66.If you had to dress up as one Star Trek character, which one would it be? Spock, just for the ears.
67.Do you have any odd hobbies? Too many to list. For one thing, I still have battles between my plastic soliders.
68.What's the most random gift you've ever given or received? toilet paper.
69.Sith or Jedi? SITH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!.
70.How do you like your steak cooked? With meat in.
71.If someone paid you $5, would you drink Dr. Pepper out of the navel of a hairy Scottsman? No. Add a few zeros and we'll talk. I would however, put on a kilt and pay someone five dollars to drink Dr. Pepper from my navl. Does this mean I'm a hairy Scotsman? (By the way, Scotsman is spelled with one 't'.)
72.Did you enjoy filling out this tag form? Sure.
73.Will you be prepared at The Feast to party every night with The Mop and Patty? Sure.... assuming I'm there. Which is still in question.
74.Do you vow never to tag, as well as never respond to tags, ever again? NEVER!!!!!
75.Which three people do you choose to tag? 1) Sir N. (Take that!) 2) Elizabeth 3) Jeremy

Tuesday, April 04, 2006

Back!

I'm glad to say
I'll soon be on my way
I won't return to you but I don't care
I'm packing my bags, and goin' back to Ireland
At least the grass is greener over there
"Grass is Greener" by the Electrics
Heard at paddyrock.com


*Steps up to podium, sees empty space in front of him, the crowd having grown bored and left*
*Shrugs, begins adressing pigeons*

Hello, er, everybody. I've not posted in a while, because there has not been much to tell. Our small youth group has had a couple meetings. What's great is that there's really nobody there (kids or adults) who tries to be "cool." At least not the way I've seen at certain other youth groups... *norski voice* with the knucklings and the constant slaps on the back and the fake ghetto talk... Sorry if I sound like an old woman, but I've had experiences like that with certain youth groups at former churches, and it always seems fake and annoying... *steps down from Griping Platform*

So my dad lost his job... His last day at the insurance company was Friday... He knew like two months ago, so it was no surprise. He had three parties that last week. I think that's more than he's gone to in the past year. He has several months of severance pay and some freelance writing jobs coming down the wire, so it's not real worrying... Plus we got a new computer and DSL connection (both to support dad's upcoming home-based work), so now I can post in the Manor without worrying about tying up the phone line. Yay!

(I never say "yay" in real life, in case anyone was wondering)

Thursday night someone I know from the library gave a Flash Fiction writing workshop for teenagers. (Flash Fiction being stories of a thousand words or less.) It was fun. There was one kid, elleven y.o. or so, who was rather wild-- constantly pulling ideas out of the air, some of them really good. I wish I could think like that at his age. Anyway this class got me coming up with ideas too, and I kind of can't seem to stop... Some of them are dumb, some are pretty good. Sigh.

Friday night I slept over at a friend's house. They have three computers, so we had three (he and I and his brother) playing three-way Unreal Tournament and AoE2 games... Then we watched a strange and funny movie called What About Bob? I'd never heard of it before, but apparently alot of people have....

Oh yeah, we also went to see Ice Age 2. It wasn't great. There were some mild chuckles; of course Scrat was hilarious, and there was a funny (if rather morbid) musical segment involving vultures; but i wouldn't waste an hour and a half seeing it at the theatre, if you want my reccomendation. Rent it on video and watch Scrat, if even that. *scolds self for causing more unintentional rhyming*

Saturday was a three-hour shelf-reading party at the library. (Shelf-reading: Scanning the book/CD/etc. shelves and putting all the books/etc on them in correct order. Source: MTH Library Staff Lingo, 2001-) After Shelf-reading for quite a while, we (teen staff and the Assis. Dir.) ate pizza and stuff... all in all, pretty fun.

Sunday we had a youth group get-together--pizza and games, etc. We have a room with a pool table and ping-pong, and there is a cup in this room--apparently a former coffee cup whose Dregs were left to sit for a long time, long enough to become mold. And of course, rather than cleaning it up like the good children we *are* (snicker snicker), we (meaning my brother and one or two other young people) are feeding it (sugar, water, lemonade, etc.). I believe the mold has a name. Bob, my brother tells me.

I found a Great website. ("Great" gets a capital g because Ethan likes said website enough to give its adjective a capital.) www.paddyrock.com --"The best in Celtic Rock, Punk, and everything in between." 'Cuz there's alot of uncovered ground between those two.

My Grandparents are coming down tonight, from up near the Twin Cities. This is the visit they've been trying to make since Christmas. Should be fun. Upon finding out this week was good for them, mother declared this week is Spring Break. Yay! for homeschoolers' flexibilty. (Here, have some free propaganda...)

Apparently Sir N. has "tagged" me with some sort of survey... I shall have to investigate this... But not now.

Slainte agus Beannacht,
Ethan
(Exit, pursued by that bloody bear)