Psalm 1

 ¹Blessed is the man that walketh not in the counsel of the ungodly, nor standeth in the way of sinners, nor sitteth in the seat of the scornful.

 ²But his delight is in the law of the LORD; and in his law doth he meditate day and night.

 ³And he shall be like a tree planted by the rivers of water, that bringeth forth his fruit in his season; his leaf also shall not wither; and whatsoever he doeth shall prosper.

 ⁴The ungodly are not so: but are like the chaff which the wind driveth away.

 ⁵Therefore the ungodly shall not stand in the judgment, nor sinners in the congregation of the righteous.

 ⁶For the LORD knoweth the way of the righteous: but the way of the ungodly shall perish.

be grateful

The one who offers thanksgiving as his sacrifice glorifies me; to one who orders his way rightly I will show the salvation of God!


~  Psalms 50:23


I am grateful to God* for many things:


Salvation. Sheep. Family. My few but completely amazing friends. Chickens that go bawk. Labrador retrievers. Hills. My iPod touch. My country. The ocean. Mashed rutabaga. Vanilla ice cream. Church.


Be thankful! And eat lots of turkey!

*Annoying footnote: as opposed to just being thankful to whatever vague and unknown deity is out there, I profess to be thankful to God, who has never given up on humanity. EVER.

mystery

"In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth." Genesis 1:1 (as if you didn't know that! I'm just OCD; had to put the reference)

What really is out there, in the deep black void which men have been studying since the beginning?

This post really doesn't even attempt to answer that question (it would be pretentious), but these marvellous photos should inspire you with a sense of awe for our almightly, perfect, and truly omnipotent Creator.

We will never know fully what strange beings are out in the millions of galaxies. But from this earth, we can observe stars which we have named after false gods with their mysterious titles---the miniscule panorama we see from Earth, a relatively small planet in  "in the gleam of a million million of suns?"  (Tennyson)

(Sorry, Northern hemisphere only...:P)

^^^Orion, my favorite constellation, close up. If you live in the N.H. it is easily recognizable by the three stars which make up the hunter's belt.

SUPERNOVA!!!!

credits

^Andromeda galaxy closeup.

Andromeda galaxy from Earth.

We live in a galaxy known collectively by the endearing moniker the Milky Way.

~~~~~~~~~~

Isn't that awesome? And I mean "awesome" in the unadulterated sense of the word.

Remember, God only gave us dominion over Earth. What is really out there?

I don't know, but I am nearly positive there isn't a goat. (BTW, you too can edit your photo to look like that at Picnik.com)

Astronomy is so cool, fascinating, and non-practical. It is one of the seven liberal arts from the Ancients. 

Music: Holst's 'The Planets' (scroll down for the download)

~~~~~~~~~~~

Hope you all had a wonderful Monday, Halloween, and if you went trick or treating I hope you don't eat too much candy and get sick.

Auf Weidersehn, 

~Diana

some great literature!

I'm reading a book. Don't you EVER interrupt me---or ELSE! (Think violent, gruesome and nasty death, accomplished without my eyes leaving the page)


Then, I'd like to review some books I've recently read. Particularly, Alice Adams, Seventeen, and The Magnificent Ambersons by Booth Tarkington, as well as Emily of New Moon by Lucy Maud Montgomery. Tarkington was a G.A.W. (Great American Writer) but sadly has been all but forgotten these post-modern times due to the occasional word in his books considered racist by the hyper-sensitive, self-proclaimed politically correct "censors" of our age. Mr. Tarkington had a style of his own, and incorporated many interestin' little-used words for the vocabulary sharks (I just coined this descriptive word!) like myself.






Alice Adams featured the saga of a manipulative, conniving and selfish 1920's era girl of plebeian position who strives to be accepted by the patrician upper-class families in a midwest town. Her attempts to do this are at times sad, at times funny, and you get a sense of her maturing throughout the book. The rest of the Adams family are all different, with different faults which lead to the demise of the family fortune. Alice eventually entangles Arthur Russel into thinking she is different than she actually is, however after his disillusionment  at the end of the book, he shuns her, and she has to move on. NOTE: this is NOT a romance, and I did a bad job reviewing it. See this for a too-wordy but more descriptive synopsis.The end of this book was sad, yet beautiful. Four stars.


The Magnificent Ambersons was a slightly dramatic epic which to quote an reviewer on Amazon.com was "an Horatio Alger story backwards." It tells of the demise of the awesomely rich Amberson family as the world changes around them.  Basically, it is about "being things" as opposed to "doing things". I won't attempt a synopsis, but let you read it for yourselves. The beginning chapters are slow, and overall it is a sad book, but very interesting historically.


Seventeen is a hilarious story. It is about...young love, which is very funny to me, despite my being a youth myself, rather than a wizened geriatric. 


And guess what??? All of the above books are FREE on Kindle or the Kindle app. 
  <---- Perhaps uncalled-for smiley face, again to appease the populace, and to make me appear extra enthusiastic.   Whee.


Emily of New Moon by L.M. Montgomery


                     ........Nice cover!


EONM contained Montgomery's usual failings: over flowery descriptions (which seems to be a failing especially of female authors, but Lucy Maud takes the cake for them. Some are quite beautiful.), unrealistic characters, "kindred spirits", fairies (and I don't mean Artemis Fowl fairies. Pu-leez!!!) and similar plot lines. But I liked Emily better than Anne (in some ways) because she was less Pollyanna-ishly happy, and Emily's aunt was MEAN to her, as was her teacher and some others. Emily seems to be sort of psychic too, but this was minimum. The plot was similar to Anne, but with much darker themes, and a neat mystery thing going on. Oh, and Emily can bake a cake. She's less dreamy than Anne, and must have been party-autobiographical for L.M. Montgomery who wanted to be a writer as did Emily. 
Three point five stars.


Somewhat randomly, I would like to mention briefly that I want this shirt. 


..Farewell, readers. And as this is Sunday, don't forget to spend time reading the greatest book, and indeed the only one we need for life, the Bible. 






 A book is like a garden carried in the pocket. ~Chinese Proverb


There is a great deal of difference between an eager man who wants to read a book and a tired man who wants a book to read.  ~G.K. Chesterton


Outside of a dog, a book is man's best friend.  Inside of a dog it's too dark to read.  ~ Attributed to Groucho Marx

sunday musings

"...Wise and good men, are, in my opinion, the strength of the state; much more so than riches or arms..."
~ Benjamin Franklin, 1750


Good point there, Ben!


...I pulled the above bit from an article my mom was reading. I, being unfortunately of a very nosy disposition, took a look at it. BTW, I'm (so is she) and Aristotelian. I haven't read too much of him yet; maybe I'll start with this because I do love animals! 


HEY!!! IT'S SUNDAY!!!! WHY AM I TALKING ABOUT ARISTOTLE???
.....After all, you can be the most learned and Classically educated person in the world, and still be lost eternally.


On to a classic work of non-fiction, a historical document to some, the Word to others: the Bible!


"How then will they call on him in whom they have not believed? And how are they to believe in him of whom they have never heard? And how are they to hear without someone preaching? And how are they to preach unless they are sent? 


As it is written, “How beautiful are the feet of those who preach the good news!” But they have not all obeyed the gospel. For Isaiah says, “Lord, who has believed what he has heard from us?” So faith comes from hearing, and hearing through the word of Christ."
~ Romans 10:14-17 E.S.V.


The above verse was featured in the sermon today at our Church. Interesting, and humbling thought to us proud mortals.


...Oh, and I was absolutely APPALLED to read that the average 8-18 year old American spends an average of 6.5 hours every day on some sort of electronic device. "Oh. My. Freaking. Gosh." ~ Evelyn (from her blog, Defeating Dragons.)


WHAT??????????? How are those kids EVER going to ACCOMPLISH anything if they're always on some device?!?!  The teenagers who "make a difference" and accomplish big things, (be it simply serving your family quietly, writing a book, getting a real job and performing it faithfully, or anything else REAL that requires dedication, finesse and skill) will always be the ones who spend less time distracting themselves and "goofing off" (as rudely put by my D.M.). 


Facebook, texting, and computer games aren't really the problem, after all. The problem is the kids themselves, their parents, and the society that produced them.   Double GAH!!!! Which even then hardly begins to express my "amazement and surprise, which you may judge from the expression of my eyes." Oops, sorry. Die hard Gilbert and Sullivan fan here. 

....And with that final depressing and sobering thought, I must leave you, dear readers.
Have a nice and at least reasonably happy Sabbath day. BTW, I find the word Sabbath to be infinitely more beautiful and musical a word than than Sunday, so I shall use it.


~ Diana 


Less depressing paintings:


Children in the Sea 1909 by Joaquin Sorolla y Bastida

I really like summer-y, beachy paintings. They instantly transport me to the ocean shore.......

Or to the rocks of "Rocky Point at Port-Goulphor".....by Claude Monet.

God's creation is indeed varied! 

the blogger returneth......

So I did! Just got back from L.I. Long, boring trip. But the baby shower was pretty nice; I'm glad I went, for the sake of my as-yet-unborn niece. *insert smile here* And we had a nice visit with some old friends, and I got to go to the BEACH!!!! 


Anyway, I just wanted to inform my readers of the aforementioned fact, and of an interesting idea, at least for the eccentric amongst us. Notice that I mean a REAL eccentric, who chooses not to follow the herd, not a pseudo-eccentric who follows the eccentric herd. It seems being weird/eccentric/odd/nerdy/geeky/you-get-the-idea is the *cool* thing now.
 On Facebook you regularly see things like "Im insane and proud of it!". (Note the incorrect spelling) You shouldn't be proud of being insane....and if they really were insane, why would they be on FB? Oh. That brought up another train of thought....

Rather than being proud of being eccentric, I suppose we should strive to be "normal" in God's eyes: doing what is right and living the way we believe instead of taking the easy route and following the herd, like sheep. Except for sheep, following the herd is life or death. For us, it is also life or death; but the other way round!


Alright, time for a quote break!!!!!!! [An excess of exclamation points: sure sign of an enthusiastic young female humanoid!!!!!!!!!!!] 

"Merely corroborative detail, intended to give artistic verisimilitude to an otherwise bald and unconvincing narrative."

~ W. S. Gilbert

"But thou, O LORD, art a shield for me; my glory, and the lifter up of mine head."
                        ~ Psalms 3:3


[Side note: I have an incurable tendency to spell Psalms "Pslams!" Very annoying word to spell!]


"If you were me, then I'd be you. And if I were you, then I'd hide somewhere far, far, away."
                       ~Artemis Fowl 


[Yet another Side note: only one of the above quotes is meant to be taken seriously!]


What?!?! No photos?!?!? 





The above is Fire Island, NY. I've been there myriad times. I do like lighthouses!
I've also been to this one:



My gracious, that was very random.
So, auf weidersehn, my dear readers, I must depart. 


~ Diana

punctuation lesson: apostrophe + sermon!!!

*Sometimes I wonder.....why do I even bother with this?  It seems like everyone (well, almost everyone!) doesn't care about spelling, and is vapid, silly, worried over things which don't matter,and foolish. Why bother?

Two points to make. (It helps me organize my thoughts to put them in points)

[Yeah, yeah. I know. Super-corny....a spear, point no. 1. Hey, we're into corny here!]

Point number 1. Not everyone is foolish/vapid/swept along by the demoralizing influences of our time. Notice I'm not saying every modern influence is demoralizing....we have so much wonderful technology, live healthier lives, still have freedom in this country at least, and maybe not *gasp, gurgle* of the *gasp* popular *gurgle* music is awful. Wow, that was hard for me to say. I can't stand most popular music.

Yet, in spite of all the bad influences, and evil that goes on, there are still good people. Kind, helpful people. Smart people who aren't borne away in the herd. People who stand up for what is right, good, and pure. People who through moral struggles still do the right thing no matter what the cost. Are you one of those people? I'm trying to be.

Point number 2. Even if people do do wrong, evil, and are vapid and silly, as a culture, have we really any right to abandon them because we are so much *better* than they? [Pride rears it's ugly head...dun dun dun....]

How much *better* are we, really? Even if we don't do evil on the outside, we think it inside. We're all sinners. Even if you aren't a Christian, you have to admit it's the truth. 

God didn't abandon us, even though our hearts were black with sin. Hey, this is starting to sounds like like a sermon......Anyway, I hope you can take something from my lecture. And I didn't start this blog to chat vapidly about myself....I want to discuss serious topics as well, providing they're PG rated. 

AND NOW, ONWARD GRAMMAR SOLDIERS!!!!!

Have a seat, please, ladies, and any stray gentlemen who may be lurking around. Side note: I don't want this to be a purely feminine-targeted blog, but one that any intelligent person, M or F, can read, enjoy, and will make them think. Hopefully. 

Today's lesson will be on the most fascinating subject of...Apostrophes. 

This is a apostrophe: ' . Strange how such a little mark can be the cause of so much heartbreak. Okay, maybe it is only heartbreak to me, since I hate to see the innocent little apostrophe abused. How sad.

Correct uses of apostrophes:

Example A.  "Kerry's bananas were the bane of Maud's existence."

                 "No, those aren't Artemis's arrows; they are Apollo's spears."

                 "Bill's cats are fat."

                 "The 1990s' were a great decade."

Incorrect use of apostrophes:

                "Kerry's banana's were the bane of Mauds' existence."

                "How many chocolate's do you want?"

                "Bills' cat's are fat."

                "I love the 1960's!"

Why are they incorrect? Because apostrophes are meant to show possession. Thus, Kerry's bananas. (We're assuming she owns the bananas and didn't shoplift them) Not banana's Kerry. And Maud's existence. 

So, I am assuming you are have absorbed that information.....on to a particular peeve of mine. YOUR. 

If the it is YOURS, it should be YOUR. If it is referring to someone else, i.e. "You're invited to a vandalism party!" it should be YOU'RE. Why? I don't pretend to know; refer to here for a more in-depth explanation of the finicky rules of grammar.

Lesson dismissed.  BTW, if you find a mistake, spelling error, or something similar on this 'ere blog, please let me know in a comment. 

Here is a Monet painting: click on it to make it larger, please.

I do like sailboats, and I'm also a fan of Impressionist paintings.

Auf Weidersehn, das Leser.

~ Diana

shakespeare! whee!

"To be, or not to be, that is the question: Whether 'tis nobler in the mind to suffer The slings and arrows of outrageous fortune, Or to take arms against a sea of troubles, And by opposing end them?"                 ~ Hamlet Is it better to die and end all the misery or to live and "suffer the slings and arrows of outrageous fortune"?  Good question! Now for a bit of Gilbert and Sullivan wittiness:

BUNTHORNE: "Did you ever yearn?"

                                   PATIENCE: "I yearn my living, sir."

Yeah. So, that is life.........I wish I knew how to surf, man! 

"Some went down to the sea in ships, doing business on the great waters; they saw the deeds of the Lord, His wondrous works in the deep. For He commanded and raised the stormy wind, which lifted up the waves of the sea."

Psalm 107:23-25 

A quick pet peeve: Bible versions which don't capitalize the He and His. If it is pertaining to God it should be capitalized. Period. It just shows respect, even if you aren't a believer. I personally prefer the Thee and Thou, because it is more beautiful. However, I do think newer, more accessible versions of the Word do have their places, mainly for helping less-literate people understand it, and read it. Jesus didn't come to help the well-read people (only)--he came for the illiterate, the slobs, the poor, the destitute. 

Adios, my dear readers, for now! I trust all of you are having at least a reasonably tolerably fun summer 2011.....

~ Diana