War & Forgiveness

Through some link-following, I stumbled across this article on forgiveness in The New Yorker.  Forgiveness, or atonement, though I have to admit to being a tad fuzzy on the meaning of the second term.  If you have a few moments, lend them to this soldier who killed several civilians early in the the Iraqi war... and then sought out their family, to make peace with them and himself.

Hello Again

About a week into Christmas break, I realized I hadn't posted anything on the faithful blog in a while, maybe a week.  I checked and realized that it had been closer to two.  And I didn't want to take time away from my reading (The Brothers Karamazov with Thom) or spending time with awesome Virginia people (too many to name) to give to the wonderful world of the interwebz.  So I embarked on an unannounced Christmas break hiatus.  And now, I have returned!  I might post stories from Christmas break.  I might not.  I haven't decided yet.

For now, I want to share something that appeared in my Facebook world this morning.  It is a short, encouraging piece about femininity and fitting into our female bodies and our female selves.

I read it at the perfect time -- after I read a Buzzfeed blurb bashing Taylor Swift as an anti-feminist.  That might appear later when my frustration has slowed from a boil to a simmer and I can put together more coherent thoughts than !!!adifha uar8wer7y893hefzduyf7igusitr!!!!!  WHY???? adhifahty f f8e6yr7yweh auify7aie!!!!!!!  Oh, the title is fairly catching as well -- here's the link again to "On Skinny Jeans, Daughters, and Singleness."

And for Your Daily Warm-Fuzzy...

A group of kids from Paraguay are making music on instruments made from recycled trash.  Music is one of those privileges I most of the time take for granted.  Take a look at the trailer for a movie about them: the Landfill Harmonic Orchestra.

Today

Yes, I am walking around the library in (bright pink) socks.  Without shoes.  No, I don't see a problem with this.  In my defense, the green stripe over my toes (kind of) matches my green sweater.

I have settled into my library nook and can't decide if it is a home or an office, but either way it is mine for way too many hours of the day.  I am cranking out papers like a mad woman, however, so good is coming of it.

Day-Maker #78

These exist:


















No, they are not disks... They are sticky notes from ThinkGeek!

Happy New Year!

Today marks the first day of the new year!  The liturgical new year, that is.  We start Year C in the lectionary today, which means that this year we read from the Gospel of Luke.  I'm excited because he's my favorite of the synoptic Gospels (Matthew, Mark, and Luke).  I celebrated this morning with French toast and Anne of Green Gables at breakfast time.

One More Way to Procrastinate

One last finals-related procrastination aid, and then it's back to serious blogging.  Here's a sleep calculator that tells you when to fall asleep, or wake up, based on when you will wake up -- calculated according to your body's natural sleep cycles.