In Class

I am in class right now....zzzz....school is almost done and I'm starting to get cagey. Wednesday I have an exam, Friday I have a paper due....I have to find sometime to work in there as well. And see my friends. and eat, and sleep, and breathe....and of course, pray. prayer is really one of the few things keeping me afloat lately. Knowing and feeling my Father's arms around me, dragging me back to the surface of sanity. can i write a poem about this? stay tuned, i gotta get back to listening to the count...

how many have you read?

This looked interesting so I did it... I have only read 23/100 of the most popular books... hmm should get on that. Including partially read I'm at 35/100. Not too bad.

P.S. I haven't attempted to verify whether BBC said this or not, but I thought it'd be fun.

Have you read more than 6 of these books? The BBC believes most people will have read only 6 of the 100 books listed here. Instructions: Copy this into your NOTES. Bold those books you've read in their entirety, italicize the ones you started but didn't finish or read an excerpt. Tag other book nerds. Tag me as well so I can see your responses!

1 Pride and Prejudice - Jane Austen

2 The Lord of the Rings - JRR Tolkien

3 Jane Eyre - Charlotte Bronte

4 Harry Potter series - JK Rowling

5 To Kill a Mockingbird - Harper Lee

6 The Bible

7 Wuthering Heights - Emily Bronte

8 Nineteen Eighty Four - George Orwell

9 His Dark Materials - Philip Pullman

10 Great Expectations - Charles Dickens

11 Little Women - Louisa M Alcott

12 Tess of the D’Urbervilles - Thomas Hardy

13 Catch 22 - Joseph Heller

14 Complete Works of Shakespeare

15 Rebecca - Daphne Du Maurier

16 The Hobbit - JRR Tolkien

17 Birdsong - Sebastian Faulk

18 Catcher in the Rye - JD Salinger

19 The Time Traveler’s Wife - Audrey Niffenegger

20 Middlemarch - George Eliot

21 Gone With The Wind - Margaret Mitchell

22 The Great Gatsby - F Scott Fitzgerald

24 War and Peace - Leo Tolstoy

25 The Hitch Hiker’s Guide to the Galaxy - Douglas Adams

27 Crime and Punishment - Fyodor Dostoyevsky

28 Grapes of Wrath - John Steinbeck

29 Alice in Wonderland - Lewis Carroll

30 The Wind in the Willows - Kenneth Grahame

31 Anna Karenina - Leo Tolstoy

32 David Copperfield - Charles Dickens

33 Chronicles of Narnia - CS Lewis

34 Emma -Jane Austen

35 Persuasion - Jane Austen

36 The Lion, The Witch and the Wardrobe - CS Lewis

37 The Kite Runner - Khaled Hosseini

38 Captain Corelli’s Mandolin - Louis De Bernieres

39 Memoirs of a Geisha - Arthur Golden

40 Winnie the Pooh - A.A. Milne

41 Animal Farm - George Orwell

42 The Da Vinci Code - Dan Brown

43 One Hundred Years of Solitude - Gabriel Garcia Marquez

44 A Prayer for Owen Meaney - John Irving

45 The Woman in White - Wilkie Collins

46 Anne of Green Gables - LM Montgomery

47 Far From The Madding Crowd - Thomas Hardy

48 The Handmaid’s Tale - Margaret Atwood

49 Lord of the Flies - William Golding

50 Atonement - Ian McEwan

51 Life of Pi - Yann Martel

52 Dune - Frank Herbert

53 Cold Comfort Farm - Stella Gibbons

54 Sense and Sensibility - Jane Austen

55 A Suitable Boy - Vikram Seth

56 The Shadow of the Wind - Carlos Ruiz Zafon

57 A Tale Of Two Cities - Charles Dickens

58 Brave New World - Aldous Huxley

59 The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time - Mark Haddon

60 Love In The Time Of Cholera - Gabriel Garcia Marquez

61 Of Mice and Men - John Steinbeck

62 Lolita - Vladimir Nabokov

63 The Secret History - Donna Tartt

64 The Lovely Bones - Alice Sebold

65 Count of Monte Cristo - Alexandre Dumas

66 On The Road - Jack Kerouac

67 Jude the Obscure - Thomas Hardy

68 Bridget Jones’s Diary - Helen Fielding

69 Midnight’s Children - Salman Rushdie

70 Moby Dick - Herman Melville

71 Oliver Twist - Charles Dickens

72 Dracula - Bram Stoker

73 The Secret Garden - Frances Hodgson Burnett

74 Notes From A Small Island - Bill Bryson

75 Ulysses - James Joyce

76 The Inferno - Dante

77 Swallows and Amazons - Arthur Ransome

78 Germinal - Emile Zola

79 Vanity Fair - William Makepeace Thackeray

80 Possession - AS Byatt

81 A Christmas Carol - Charles Dickens

82 Cloud Atlas - David Mitchell

83 The Color Purple - Alice Walker

84 The Remains of the Day - Kazuo Ishiguro

85 Madame Bovary - Gustave Flaubert (in French)

86 A Fine Balance - Rohinton Mistry

87 Charlotte’s Web - E.B. White

88 The Five People You Meet In Heaven - Mitch Albom

89 Adventures of Sherlock Holmes - Sir Arthur Conan Doyle

90 The Faraway Tree Collection - Enid Blyton

91 Heart of Darkness - Joseph Conrad

92 The Little Prince - Antoine De Saint-Exupery

93 The Wasp Factory - Iain Banks

94 Watership Down - Richard Adams

95 A Confederacy of Dunces - John Kennedy Toole

96 A Town Like Alice - Nevil Shute

97 The Three Musketeers - Alexandre Dumas

98 Hamlet - William Shakespeare

99 Charlie and the Chocolate Factory - Roald Dahl

100 Les Miserables - Victor Hug

discipline

I debated posting today, but I have a few reasons to do so. First, procrastination. Second, which flows from the first is that I have been greatly lacking in discipline lately. The art of self-discipline and self-control has always been a major battle for me. Over the past few days, however, the struggle has been mounting. The battle starts early in the day when I must choose to get out of bed. Lately, it has been after hitting the snooze button, 3 or 4 or 5 or up to 9 times before I even consider extracting myself from my cocoon of blankets. That is just the beginning. Throughout the day I have to constantly fight of a culture that says, "indulge! You deserve this!" I pass by coffee shops, clothing stores, chocolate bars and think...hmm I think I need a little pick me up. Without a thought of the cost (or the calories in some cases) I have purchased an unnecessary item. *sigh*
I stay up too late with friends, neglect my homework and then stay up late reading, always trying to convince myself that this is the last chapter before I turn off the light at 5 am.

God, oh God, I am so sorry
I wanted to be strong so you would be proud
I didn't know that it was me who longed for glory
My strength has become my fall

The remorse I feel for things left undone
words, unsaid
engulfs my heart like a tide does the shore
I'm sorry, so sorry

So consumed by my self hate I don't hear
You call my name
My eyes shut out Your shining face
Not feeling your embrace

Hold me now Jesus
My strength, my weakness
My weakness, Your strength
Holding me now

What's a girl to do?

This morning I woke up nice and early to get ready to go to my early morning class. My alarm didn't go off but fortunately, Roommate likes to use the fan in the bathroom while she showers. Now, this fan is something else. It screeches and squeals in an almost unholy fashion. My room shares a wall with the bathroom. Normally I groan and pull a pillow over my head to stifle the noise, but this morning it was a Godsend because, as I said, I neglected to assure the accuracy of my alarm the night before.

No worries there, but then my other Roomie comes down, spazzing because she also needed to shower before heading to work. I'm quite pleased with myself because I showered the night before so I didn't need the bathroom...I was wrong.

So I prepared by breakfast of muffin and smoothie (coffee was out of the question because there is a travel mug gremlin at our house) when I realized I needed to brush my teeth and apply some deodorant. No problem...until I realize Roomie #2 has already snatched the bathroom.

I have several options

1. Do nothing. Just go to school sans clean teeth and pit stick free

2. Forget about the teeth, just apply ample amounts of perfume and hope it lasts for the day

3. Buy some gum on the way to school

I settled on neither of these and just asked Rommie #2 if I could sneak in and grab my things which I did and ran off to school with fresh breath and armpits

God bless and Godspeed

Creator and Sustainer

The greatness of God is not dependent on me
I can't exist without His will
His love is what creates me
His love is what sustains me

My words seem so simple
words on a page
line by line
do nothing to add to Your praise

How can I know Your beauty?
my eyes behold it everyday, hidden
Your majesty set in Your child's eyes
each one that I meet

I raise my hands
I stand and sing
but hands tremble and voices fade...
You last forever

_____________________________________________________________________

That is how I feel today

God bless and Godspeed

Pizza Pie

So, pretty much one of the most funny/awkward things just happened. Roomie and I ordered a pizza from the place where the boyfriend works in hopes that he would deliver it. Lo and behold, the bringer of cheesy goodness was none other than BF. As we were doing the pizza exchange (me hungrily holding the box while Roomie paid) my neighbour, whom we shall call S.S. walked by. S.S. knows BF is MY BF and jokingly says, "what, you deliver pizza now?" BF and I, in unison reply, "yes" S.S. still in disbelief, "no way, seriously? That's a great job, delivering to hot chicks!" Roomie, BF and I all laugh, then S.S. says, "So, did they give you a good tip?" Roomie replies, "She'll give him a tip later" Said with a wink ;) I couldn't stop laughing long enough to eat my pizza!

Know how the other night I said I was making a pie? Well, I did! With a little help from Roomie, BF and BFBF (boyfriend's best friend-I need a better nickname. If you have a better one, leave in comments) we took this

and after a few hours we got this (well this is before it went in the oven)

BF, BFBF and I enjoyed our warm apple pie at 2:30 am. It was the best apple pie I had ever eaten at 2:30 am.

Goodnight and Godspeed

God bless the broken road...

So, I apologize for not posting during my trip. Poor Mr. Lappy stayed closed the whole time I was there. I didn't end up having time for any work. I was too busy having FUN!

The trip there was very long. Very, very long...and this will be continued because apparently I am going to make pie with our leftover apples...my life is so random sometimes...well, all the time.

God bless and Godspeed

I'm going to Halifax!!!

Yay! Tomorrow is the big day! After much contention, debate and plan changing (up the the last second!) we are finally heading out. I didn't plan on posting until I returned, but plan changes on my part means that I am bringing Mr. Lappy to do some work. So a working vacation, horray! There is still much to be done before I leave in 6 hours *shudder* On the bright side, I have awesome snacks for the car ride...want me to recount them? OKAY!
1-Cheesy Penguin Crackers (the pc version of goldfish)
2-Chocolate covered rasins
3-Pepperettes
4-Baby carrots
5-Apple juice (natch)

I also have cheese with which to add to my lovely turkey sandwiches...on that note, I shall say goodnight, pack up Mr. Lappy (poor guy always gets shunted around) and create delicous car food. Oh and also attempt the impossible feat of stuffing more things into my suitcase. Wish me luck!

Goodnight and Godspeed

ps: you can follow the adventure on Twitter --->Debref

did you know...

I Want ----->Giraffe Love

Ok, now that that's out of my system, I'm going to Halifax in TWO SLEEPS!

Ok, now that that's out of my system, I don't have class until NOVEMBER!

Ok, now that that's out of my system...ok enough of that silliness...My roommate has just been introduced to the awesomeness of the Vlogbrothers via a video on giraffe sex. I. am. not. kidding. I can't contrive how she managed to avoid them for so long. aha, I think I'm clever. Today was a good day minus my complete exhaustion for the most part. I wrote my Celtic Christianity exam today, which I think I did pretty good on. We had to answer three questions, essay style. I had a nice new gel pen, and I write tiny so 2 handwritten pages is pretty awesome for each question. The first two I wrote a ton for (Explaining how St. Brigit is a continuation of the Celtic goddess, Brigitta; and describing four folio pages from the Book of Kells). The last question that I answered was on Adomnan. Yes, he was the man. Basically he reformed Irish law to include the protection of women. I kind of went all gung-ho on the first two questions and had little time left to finish the third one.

This post seems to be a bit more on the lighthearted side of things. The eggs were sunny side up not scrambled. That makes me think, do you think if eggs were conscious beings, would they have a preferred method of being cooked? I think sunny side up is the most humane, none of this scrambling business and mixing up their brains...oh dear, it's late and I'm becoming ridiculous.

Goodnight and Godspeed

Coconut White

no music today, I lost my headphones. Being the clever one that I am, I hopped onto a bus and picked up a new pair at the mall. I thought I was so smart, alas, I was duped by the malcontent packagers of said headphones. No amount of stabbing with my keys has helped me open the plastic. So I sit here forlorn, listening only to the sounds of my typing and other peoples general idiosyncratic study noises. Again, I am procrastinating on my weekly assignment. I need music to distract meeeee! I was talking to my friend, another student, and he said that he can't study or do work with music playing. I have such a hard time focusing without music on. I don't know exactly what it is about it that helps my brain focus that little bit more. How do you study?

Goodnight and Godspeed

ps: my headphones are called coconut white cool and comfortable. I think that's just silly.

I don' know no love songs...

So, I think that I'm going to try this "blog" thing out for a bit. One of my hesitations with the blogging (other than feeling kinda lame, cause despite posting this on my facebook, I don't think anyone has read it) is that I would blog for a few weeks and then it would start petering out. All my random thoughts would be stuck out on the internet and one day an employer is going to google my name and find-this. I don't want it to be an embarrassment.

I finished my assignment last night at about 1 am. I'm slightly annoyed at myself for leaving it so late. This week's assignment is to be handed in on Tuesday so I will have to be more on the ball. I'm going to be spending most of Sunday afternoon at the church selling raffle tickets, so perhaps in between I will read all my articles and prep for my assignment. The other reason that I wasn't as timely as I had hoped was that I was speaking to the boyfriend and because my roommate had friends over and we chatted for a bit as well. I was in such a cranky mood by the time I went to bed that it took me awhile to fall asleep. One positive thing is that it is getting colder so I busted out the pink flannel pajamas! Have you ever noticed how strange that word is? PA-JA-MA
PA
JA
MA

seriously, strange word.

On a final note,

I purchased the new Brooke Fraser CD and I am IN LOVE with it. I haven't stopped listening to it since Tuesday. The whole thing is incredible. Her first single is a really cute song called "Something in the Water" which Brooke wrote to be reminiscent of puddle jumping in gumboots, or so I learned by watching the special features on iTunes. Here is the video for the song. It is cute, give it a listen!

Also on the iTunes deluxe version is a cover of "You Can Close Your Eyes" originally by James Taylor. It is such a beautiful song, which one day I will learn to play and sing to the boyfriend...unless that's too sappy. To be honest though, every time I hear it, that's who I think of....barf.....

Goodnight and Godspeed

Hope is not Crazy

So, this is going to be my first post despite the fact that I have had this url/blogger account for almost a year. I had good intentions when I created it. I was going to write and inspire all those who wandered (or stumbled) onto my blog. I would move them to tears with my words of wisdom and hope. Comments would come flooding in and I would feel good and benevolent. Then I stopped and thought about that....and became depressed. That is never going to happen, who am I kidding? What if all that I write is contrived and the few people who wander onto this space laugh at my words? Things are never as grandiose as we think they are in our heads. So why am I all of a sudden blogging? What makes today special?

...procrastination...

I have a reading assignment due, and I really don't feel like doing it. I am to talk about music piracy, a whole page. A whole, single-spaced page. Single-space in university is just crazy talk! So, I am "taking a break" and getting my creative juices flowing. This is the latest in my line of procrastination techniques which include: shopping, fixing my printer, facebook, online shopping (browsing), facebook, catching up on my usual blog reads and vlogs and of course, facebook.

While I was browsing I came across this awesome vlog by John Green. You may not get the first part, but at about 2:10, John starts talking about hope, and how we need hope, even when it seems insane, hope is what carries us through. Paul talks about this in his letter to the Romans

Through him we have also obtained access by faith into this grace in which we stand, and we rejoice in hope of the glory of God. More than that, we rejoice in our sufferings, knowing that suffering produces endurance, ⁴and endurance produces character, and character produces hope, and hope does not put us to shame, because God’s love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit who has been given to us. ~Romans 5:2-5

on that note,

Goodnight and Godspeed