Things That Are Making Me Happy

I've noticed that Holly, over at Eating a Tangerine, frequently posts 'things that are making me happy'. And because lots of things make me happy, and its good to share happiness, I thought I'd give it a try.

*reading a 400+ page book in less than a day
*being all moved in at school, ready for classes to start tomorrow
*that one of the walls in my dorm room is covered in postcards my roommate and I got from around the world (postcrossing.com)
*having pen pals
*writing letters
*that my cousin comes home soon
*planning the first grocery-store trip of the semester for this afternoon
*the Fudge Petites my roommate brought
*that, after being on campus a day or two, it doesn't really feel like I really left for that long.
*that the showers in this dorm have hot water. Last year, that wasn't always a guarantee, unless you got up early enough ;)



what about you?

Midnight Snack

A friend and I wanted to have a movie marathon.
But not a traditional movie marathon.
No Harry Potter, or Lord of the Rings, or Star Wars, or whatever other movie series' there are.
We planned to watch movies that had the same actress in each movie.
We decided on Audrey Hepburn.

When the night actually came, our 'marathon' was only two movies long. We watched Breakfast at Tiffany's and My Fair Lady.

Between movies we took a picnic break.
We closed the sliding door behind us a few minutes before midnight.
We walked barefoot through the wet, wet, wet grass and laid the white sheets in the middle of the yard.
We ate pre-sliced peaches and blueberries under the stars.
The air was chilly, I was glad for my sweatpants.
I wished for a hoodie.
We tried to find constellations, but the Star-Finder was lost, and neither of us know our stars very well.
We talked about traveling to Europe.
The mosquitoes decided to have a picnic, too.
We picked up the blankets and went back outside, ending our picnic, and the mosquito's picnic, too.

The Ghost of Dreams that Never Happened

Now that the summer clock has one week remaining, I'm thinking about all the things I never did. Thinking of all the ghosts of dreams I created at the begining of the year, never to give them shape, and substance, and color.

To begin summer, or anything for that matter, with so many expectations can be exciting. So many aspirations on my to do list, so many ideals about what the day to day experience will be like... but if you don't stay focused on each goal, and get rid of the little distractions, the next thing you know you will look back over the weeks and months, and at your to do list, and in your journal, and see very few things worth noticing.

You may see the ghosts of dreams that never happened, the things that could have happened if you had given them a chance. You may wonder where you lost focus, wonder how you managed to waste so much time, and wonder why in the world you haven't learned yet. A ghost of a dream is never as exciting as looking back at the actual dream fulfilled.

So many things I wanted to do this summer never got done because I had the mentality that 'The summer is long, I can do that some other time!'  Note: that doesn't work well. I would go so far to say that it is a form of procrastination. Of lethargy. This happened with many of my goals and aspirations. I never gave them substance, so they float around as ghosts of dreams that never happened. Dreary, dull, and see through. 

When I think that I have all the time in the world, or even that I have time to spare, nothing gets done. Thats part of the reason I am eager for school to start: I'll have a regular schedule again, a routine. The trick is making a routine for myself over breaks, weather they be a long weekend, a month for Christmas, or three and half months for summer.

I need to have my goals always in front of me, if they are serious ones like contacting the senate about some important issue, or goofy ones like having a picnic in non-picnic weather, so that whenever a chance arises, I am prepared to seize it.

I'll be able to add substance to the ghosts of dreams, and build memories with them. I will be able to look at that dream as something that actually happened and not something I just wanted to happen. Because if all my dreams are just something I wanted to happen, but never do anything about, I will look back over time and look right through those ghosts of dreams, not actually seeing them, because I never gave them substance.

Give your goals a chance, stay focused on them. Don't let your life fill with Ghosts of Dreams that Never Happened, because that is a very dull life, indeed.

Shakespeare's Secret by Elise Broach****

Fiction.

Broach plays out a mystery concerning the true identity of Shakespeare, with modern-day people trying to solve it. The characters find clues little by little, and even try to find an expensive jewel hidden in Hero's family's new house. The storyline was interesting, if a little predictable, but the plot was well thought out. My main qualm was that Hero continually went behind her parent's back, disobeyed some household rules, and hid things at school from them. The book ends before her parents find out about all of this, but I think it is implied that she does not get into trouble because the 'ends justified the means'.

The Demigod Files by Rick Riordan***

Fiction.

Riordan presents some of Percy's short adventures. The book also has short interviews with some characters, a word search, a crossword puzzle, and other interesting things.

I've noticed the worldview in the Percy Jackson series before (in this post about morality), and in these short stories it still didn't hold up- the messages young readers take away are not always the best. 

Weather

from the journal I sometimes remember to write in:
"(7-24-10) I finished wishing I could understand, read, and predict the weather. It is a wish I've had for at least three years. I finally took initiation and began learning. I made a barometer to measure the air pressure. I made index cards of the different clouds, and the weather they generally mean. I researched online, and read a few books. I even have a book on hold at the library. Hopefully all this will help, and I will be able to predict weather soon. And hopefully it will be useful knowledge."

I have no idea if my barometer is accurate (or even useful, for that mater), and so far I stink at identifying clouds, but its been fun trying to predict the weather. I'm taking several books when I leave for Michigan for a week, and at least one of them will be a non-fiction on predicting weather. Maybe I'll come back with stories of how I saved the day by knowing it was going to storm, or (more likely, I think) funny ones about how I completely misjudged the weather!

Be Intolerant: because some things are just stupid by Ryan Dobson and Jefferson Scott

Non-Fiction.

Dobson and Scott wrote about how moral relativism and tolerance is not good, and how it is infiltrating the church. When we see someone sinning, or messing up their life, or going around professing some untruth, we should not be tolerant, like our society tells us to be. There is, in fact, absolute truth, so we need to confront that person and show them (gently and with respect-- in love) what the truth is.

A few quotes from Dog-Eared Pages:

"If you have a moral relativist friend who says "There is no such thing as absolute truth," he's laying "out a truth that he believes will never change.H should put it this way: "It is an absolute truth that there is no such thing as an absolute truth." Isn't that just crazy? It's self-refuting. It's like me saying, "This sentence does not exist." p 52


"Can you do this kind of thing too [ stand up for Christ and absolute truth in a morally relative world]? Absolutely! And you know what? You have to. God has placed you right where you are and in just this time in human history because He needs you to stand up for truth." p 111


"Christians are the only thing holding back the decay of our world. If Satan cam make us dump the Bible and live by a philosophy that says it's wrong to stand up to evil- or even to call anything evil- then we're all set up for the rise of a great world tyrant. The Bible calls him the Antichrist." p 119

Worldviews, in Media

Your Worldview is how you see the world. It is your framework for understanding existence. Everyone has a worldview, even if they don't realize it (some things I learned from Worldview Academy).

And I've realized that worldviews are especially present in books. That said, readers need to beware. We need to pay attention to the worldviews our favorite books are presenting to us, and evaluate them. If we don't, society may begin to shift our worldview into some skewed perception of reality.

So, in my future reviews, I hope to focus more on the worldview of a book I read, and not just if I liked it or not.

Worldviews are in our television, too. And because most people turn on the TV, and then turn off their brain, these worldviews seep in little by little. Its like the trojan horse" you turn on the TV, but you put your guard down by switching off your brain, and the next thing you know your worldview is being skewed into some skewed perception of reality.

So turn on the TV, but don't turn off your brain when you do. 

And another thing. We get all these rating to see if the movie is kid friendly, or how many times people swear, or and who much of what alcohol is presented... but I have not found anywhere that rates the worldview presented and its consistency with Christianity. I think that that is as or even more important than the things most people rate, and that is what I want to determine if I watch the movie/ TV show or not. If you know of a site that rates the worldview of a movie, please let me know!

What worldview have surprised you in the media you read or watch?