I only have Geekish tendencies, which is a little disappointing.

What Kind of Geek Are You?
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In an article for Sojourners, David Batstone comments about online dating services (with my own emphasis):

There's a lot to like about online dating, but it also brings to the surface what's awry with romance and relationship. We hold onto the perverse notion that finding the right companion - independent of the course that we are pursuing with our lives - will bring us happiness. That rarely happens. Companions can be wonderful journey partners, but are unfit destinations. The highway is littered with sacred unions that combust due to compatibility exhaustion.

It doesn't surprise me that the fire-bright enthusiasm that online daters experience early on - I have friends who arrange as many as four different dates in a weekend - so often flame out in a matter of months. The burden of choice and steady wave of expectations overwhelm them.

The Internet is a fabulous search tool and enables serendipitous connections. Yet we can comb a worldwide web and never discover our own heart.

Thank you! It always makes me feel better when my own ideas are validated by someone else, since most of our society seems to be forcing people my age to search for a "soul mate" or a "partner" and quick!

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I think I just heard a jazzy cover of Jeff Buckley's "Lover, you should have come over", and I'm not sure what I think about it. It's by the "new up-and-comer" Jamie Cullum from Britain. I just don't know.
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I really do want to do more with this blog than just place quiz results here. Anyway . . .

Night before last I wrote my loud neighbor a note (it hadn't gotten any better since my post about the noise). I eventually came up with:

Please turn your TV/stereo down after 10pm. I've been hearing noises for almost two weeks and haven't been able to sleep well.
Thanks, Elizabeth in 9**

which must have worked, as last night there was no loud noises emanating from my ceiling. I love, love, love getting 8 hours of sleep (or close to it). I feel so much better today than I have since last Sunday. I mean, you know it's bad when you are waked from your sleep while wearing earplugs. I've come to the conclusion that my neighbor goes to sleep with his TV on, and just didn't realize how freakin' loud it was.

Unrelated - I've noticed that instead of saying "I'm going to" or even "I'm gonna", I've been saying "I'mna". I wonder how long I've been doing that, and where I picked it up from? Most Texans say "fixin' to" and Lord knows, I don't do that. So where did I get "I'mna"? Am I just in such a rush I can't pronounce my words correctly? That should not be the case.

There, that should make up for my quiz results.
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Okay. . .


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The Dante's Inferno Test has sent you to Purgatory!
Here is how you matched up against all the levels:

Level	Score
Purgatory (Repenting Believers)	Very High
Level 1 - Limbo (Virtuous Non-Believers)	Very High
Level 2 (Lustful)	Very Low
Level 3 (Gluttonous)	Moderate
Level 4 (Prodigal and Avaricious)	Very Low
Level 5 (Wrathful and Gloomy)	Low
Level 6 - The City of Dis (Heretics)	Very Low
Level 7 (Violent)	Low
Level 8- the Malebolge (Fraudulent, Malicious, Panderers)	Low
Level 9 - Cocytus (Treacherous)	Very Low

Take the Dante's Inferno Hell Test
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um, okay:

You're a Speak & Spell!! You nerd, you. Just
because you were disguised as a toy doesn't
mean you weren't educational, you sneaky
bastard.


What childhood toy from the 80s are you?
brought to you by Quizilla

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This weekend was packed full of busy. I was sick (and still am slightly) but we had to go to Leah's graduation. It was great to see her graduate, but that weekend took all the energy I had. At least now she's home.

I'm having a Gilmore Girls season finale night at my apartment and Leah, Melissa and Joseph are coming. This will be the first gathering I've had at my apartment, and I stayed up late (for me) last night cleaning it up. I'm making chicken tacos. I hope my recipe works for Melissa and Joseph. I like it, and I have somewhat discerning tastes. Well, if they stink, at least we'll have ice cream to make up for it. No alcohol, though. I never keep it around. I can't afford it!

Yesterday I was driving to my parent's house and I called Kristina. She had told me the day before that she had news. Apparently, L, whose story deserves a whole post itself, has been dating a guy for three months. This is big, because she has never had a serious relationship before. We used to have this in common. She called Kristina to congratulate her, but ended up having "the talk" with her. She asked Kristina if the timing was okay, etc.

I asked K how L met this guy, a cop in Denton, I think, and she told me e-harmony. I will admit - I tried e-harmony and it kept matching me up with fitness freaks and army guys (this was before the Iraq situation). They were mostly all Republicans. Ergo - it never worked for me. I have to say, good for L, though. She's had a hard time of it, and Lord knows, I'm not there for her anymore (would be included in post about L).

Suffice it to say, I was surprised. Surprised and amused. For a moment, I lost my feeling of acceptance at being single. But I regained it again.

Kristina told me that this conversation made her confused about the shape of things, and I told her I'd been feeling that way ever since I found out she was pregnant.
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OAK
You are boisterous and affectionate. You are the
kind of tree that takes nothing sitting down,
and is always ready for an adventure. You like
to see everything that goes on around you. You
like the warm weather, but you flourish when
the nights tend to grow slightly colder. You
are someone who likes to extend your days into
the night hours because you never want to leave
anything unfinished. You love an audience when
you do things and you like to show off
sometimes, but others admire your attitude. You
fear past mistakes coming back to haunt you,
but try to live day by day. You admire the
strength of others and try to find the same in
yourself. When you leave this word, you want to
make an impression so that you'll never be
forgotten.


What's Your Inner Tree?
brought to you by Quizilla

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Here's a pic I took in Wilmington, NC a few years back. I'm trying out this Hello thing. 
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Copied from Jonathan:

1. Enter your first name only into Google
2. Then click the "Image" tab
3. Pick your favorite and post it in your journal


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Random thoughts

my own stream-of-consciousness.

I am at the beginning stages of an allergy attack. My throat is so sore it hurts to even think of talking. As part of my job is to answer phones, I instinctively reach for the phone when it rings, then remember my pain. I can't wait til the part of my attack when I sound awful but feel a lot better. I hope that comes soon. I hate drainage.

Since Sunday night, my upstairs neighbor has been watching war shows or shows on thunder until 12:30am. Normally, I would not care. However, when I am almost on the verge of sleep, I will be waked by a loud boom. The thing is, the noises are not continuous. They occur every five minutes. I wonder if it is somehow sexually related (which is a tad disturbing), but I can't figure out those noises. Night before last I called the coutrtesy officer, who called me back saying he couldn't do anything, since the noise is not audible outside.

I've thought about writing a terse note to my neighbor (whose name I do not know) saying:

Dear 9** - I live under your apartment and have had noise problems recently. I was wondering if you could turn down your music/movie/TV/rain machine after 11pm? I have to get up at a regular time each morning, as I work, and haven't been able to get the right amount of sleep since Sunday night. If you would give me your phone number, I could call you with noise complaints, instead of the management.

Thanks!
Elizabeth in 9**

This option has been highly considered at 12am.

I wish it was just the weekend already (partly because then I would have money, and be able to pay my electric bill). I hate worrying about money. Until I make a decent salary, though, I'm going to stay in dire straits. Thanks, Bush!


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everybody's working for the weekend

This weekend will be my busy weekend (to make up for the two past peaceful ones). My mom, dad, Rosie (the puppy) and I are driving up to Sherman for Leah's graduation. It will be strange going up there again, and remembering my own graduation four years ago. Here's hoping this speaker is better than mine was! I also want to try to visit Grand while I'm up there. I miss that church and the people. I don't know if we can work it out time-wise, but I'd like to try.




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A Wrinkle in Time

Last night I watched the TV movie adaptation of one of my favorite books of all time, A Wrinkle in Time. It was a pretty good adaptation, although nothing like I imagined when I read it. They updated it to current day, and peppered in some modern references: the mom looking up "tesseract" online, Charles Wallace and Calvin watching a video of the dad, Meg saying she knew what CDs and video games Charles Wallace liked, etc. The acting was pretty well done (although I was shocked to see Kyle Secor from Homicide in it). I thought the ending corny - they added some moments of extreme cheesiness. The movie was 3 hours long (with ads), and I think without the worst scene, it would have been 2 hours and 45 minutes. I wish the ending had stayed more faithful to the book. There were other factors I didn't appreciate much, but overall, it wasn't bad. I'm glad I got to see it, and I really hope it encourages people to check out the book.
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I'm currently very annoyed by my image situation. I was using my angelfire account to upload images and using them, but then they started just coming up as "image hosted by angelfire" instead of the image itself. Then I found IMGsource.com, wherein I could upload images for free, only now my images are no longer accessible online. Argh!

It is somewhat annoying. I'll just have to deal with it until buying a Blogger Plus account is a possibility. This may not be an option for a few years, cuz who knows when they will be available again!

I just had to vent. I'm cheap, and I don't wanna move my blog(s).
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Mark Dayton kicks a**! and I voted for him! While I was in Minnesota. I can't say the same for Cornyn.
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Get Fuzzy today is a must read. Oh my goodness, it's funny.
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Another Sojourners find

"We reject the false doctrine that the church could have permission to hand over the form of its message and of its order to whatever it itself might wish or to the vicissitudes of the prevailing ideological and political convictions of the day."

You are Karl Barth! You like your freedom, and are pretty stubborn against authority! You don't care much for other people's opinions either. You can come up with your own fun, and often enough you have too much fun. You are pretty popular because you let people have their way, even when you have things figured out better than them.

What theologian are you?

A creation of Henderson

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Wisdom from Sojourners:

"As long as we want to get something from God in some kind of exchange, we are like the merchants. If you want to be rid of the commercial spirit, then by all means do all you can in the way of good works, but do so solely for the praise of God. Live as if you did not exist. Expect and ask nothing in return. Then the merchant inside you will be driven out of the temple God has made. Then God alone dwells there."

- Meister Eckhart

Source: Meister Eckhart: A Modern Translation, by Raymond Bernard Blakney.


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Happy Cinco de Mayo!
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It means I watch Gilmore Girls too damn much

Last night three of the castmembers from Gilmore Girls were in my dream. I dreamt I was back in school (which has been happening uber-frequently in my dreams lately) and I met up with Rory and Lorelai during a class. Not the actresses, but the characters. And they were so cool. I think we were in a music class together, and then they wanted to hang out with me.

Paris was in my dream too, but I discovered that her real name is Elizabeth S----- last name. So she shared my name, except had a different last name. This really wierded me out. There was more that I'm not remembering as clearly.

This just shows me that Gilmore Girls is way too important to my life right now.

But it's such a great show! It and Alias are the only shows I can't miss each week! (Although Touching Evil is moving up there.)
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It is crazy how many people are visiting my other blog by looking up "Mindy Smith lyrics" or "Mindy Smith Come to Jesus" lyrics. Over the weekend, someone from Costa Rica even visited! That's just bizarre. I didn't realize the song would become so popular - it's elevated the stats of my page to a much higher number.

I had a lovely weekend. I finished two books, both by Philippa Gregory. I watched Master and Commander, which wasn't bad. I was disappointed in its predictability. I also hate that I had to have the subtitles on during the film to understand what was being said. I'd recommend it if you like boat movies (I don't) or war movies (I don't). I don't think it deserved the hype it got, that's for sure - but it doesn't suck. I got my birthday present from my parents - a new stereo system. It is awesome, and quite loud.

I hope to go out this weekend. I don't know if it'll work out, but I'd like to. Leah's graduation is next weekend, so I won't be able to do anything then.
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