sunglasses

I like sunglasses.

They are entertaining to me: how they make people look like bug-eyed aliens or sleek robots. I look really weird/funny/odd/nerdish in them, but I still like them.


I don't actually own a pair though.

{via}

Wicked hipster Ray-Bans.

O.O My goodness.

And the John Lennon glasses.

LIKE A BOSS.









Weird guy from Star Trek: The Next Generation.

Okay, maybe they're 3-D glasses, but they're adorable. I want them.

I really like this pair from ModCloth.

And this pair. Cute and geeky looking.


And the

ANYWAY, my next post will be my 100th post!  *insert devious grin*

Maybe I should do a giveaway? Let me know what you think in a comment.

~ Diana

(photos from Tumblr, Wikipedia except ModCloth glasses)

a plea for disagreement

Okay, so I was reading a blog today, and I came accross an extremely (I think I use that word too much) disturbing GIF.


It was about gay rights (which is not our topic today), yadda yadda yadda, and ended with these two panels. Yes, that is Josh Hutcherson, AKA Peeta in the Hunger Games movies, but whatever.....AVENGERS. (Just had to get that out there)






Does that disturb you? I am seriously creeped out.


And futhermore, we're not gonna let anybody say anything bad about anyone.


WHAT?


It's almost like living in a dystopian novel, where no one is allowed to say anything bad about anyone else. They already label "hate crimes" in some countries. And in the early 19th century "libel" (or saying anything about the ruling party) was a crime.
I believe that disagreement helps shape us. for as C.S. Lewis says, "You are a soul. You have a body." Not the other way round.

Proverbs 24:6 ~ "For by wise counsel thou shalt make thy war: and in multitude of counsellers there is safety." (i.e, not just one accepted view) 

How will we know the truth if we can't test it against untruth (rather irrelevant in a post-modern society sadly)? In America we still have the Constitutional right to say whatever we want, however loony it may be. If you want to say that you think gay marriage, abortion, or government interference is wrong, you should certainly be able to say so, without it being labeled as a "hate crime" or what-have-you. Conversely, the opposite views can say what they want. The truth is still there. Everything is biased one way or another.

I mean, hate IS wrong, but it only hurts the person hating, so unless it leads to unlawful acts, whose business of it is if you hate something?

It is only when people sit, think, and argue that the true course of action can be determined. Like Socrates. Like Jesus pitting His truth against the Pharisees and Jewish leaders. WHY do we believe a certain thing about a certain issue? 

The type of thinking that the estimable Josh displays leads to a creepy Orwellian society, where no one thinks but merely receives (e.g. public schools) and everyone doesn't care anyway because we're all distracted  by the endless predigested entertainment through our televisions, computers, iPads, iPods........

True thing, that.

Truly disturbing.

And I'm aware this really wasn't one of my most logical or best written posts, but bear with me, okay?

My dad got to come home from the hospital today, so we are all happy about that. Please keep praying for his recuperation. :-)

TTFN, ta-ta for now, if I may quote Tigger.

~ Diana


P.S. AVENGERS. See what I meant about endless entertainment? Still, May 4th IS coming.

16 before 16: small goals

These lists seem to be all the rage in the   blogging world. For once, I'll hop onto the bandwagon and make one, completely ignoring the fact that my last birthday was over 4 months ago. Because I'm cool like that.

my list: 

1. Learn to drive a car.

2. Learn to shoot a gun.

YEAH!

3. Finish Algebra 1. Yuck.

3. Write a novel. 

4. Buy something from ModCloth. I love their clothes.  2/12

5. Go to Glacier National Park in Montana, and/or hike (part of) the Appalachian trail.

 two photos of Glacier Nat'l Park in Montana.

6. Get a job.

7. Learn to shear sheep! (or groom dogs)

{via}

8. Be an artist.  Do something drastic.

The Magpie by Claude Monet.

9. Witness the birth of an animal. 

10. Do a real finished painting or drawing and frame it.

11. Improve my relationship with God: stop resisting and let Him be in charge, rather than me.

12. Read an at least 600 page book.

13. Decide if I want to be a veterinarian or not.

14. Make a baked Alaska. And have it turn out right!

{via}

15. Make macarons.

{via}

16.  Stay out really late and identify constellations.

{via}    This is a close-up of Orion.

Oh yes, and I'm finally reading The Hunger Games. Pretty good so far, well-written, although part of me wonders why they don't have any guns, for Pete's sake...

I'll do a review once I finish reading it.


Adios....

L. K. F. part one

little known facts:

0001.  Old fashioned egg beaters make great stress relievers. Weird, I know.

0002. I'm hungry.

0003. Velociraptors are exceedingly interesting. 

{via}

{via}

This was a great book, but definitely not for younger readers.

                            0004. I really love these pot holders. So fun to play with  use.

{via} Nor my photo, unfortunately....we only have two.

0005. I really hate when people have music on their blogs. Very annoying!

0006. I wish I was more than 1/8 Scottish. Kilts, bagpipes, haggis, cool accents and sheep are oh-so-awesome. Except I don't understand Robert Burns very well.

not my picture. source unknown.

The Macfarlane (my maternal grandfather's last name) tartan.

0007. Let sleeping dogs lie.

0008. I'm hungry.

0009. If anyone has any post ideas, I would be greatly indebted if you'd leave me a comment. Inspiration is running dry.

0010.

0011. “There are more things in heaven and earth, Horatio, than are dreamt of in your philosophy.”

"Alas, poor Yorick, I knew him well."

“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 SPAM. Booyah!!!

0012.  I promise to post something better soon. 

0015. Ducks.  

~ ~ ~ finis ~ ~ ~

unexciting update

So I went ahead and changed the layout. Don't worry, I'm leaving the poll up so you can still vote  on your favorite header. I enjoy designing them, but always struggle with getting Blogger with cooperate and not make the post titles a dumb color..... *teenage eye roll* I'm a novice at this.

But not this type of novice!

Any thoughts on blog designing? Do you like the newest format? Is it too busy? I don't blog for my readers, or for money (how I wish), but I'm open to suggestions and advice!





School started today.  I read a-bunch-of-stuff. I have to ease into math and science slowly. *insert another eyeroll*


“Hope humbly then; with trembling pinions soar;
Wait the great teacher Death, and God adore.
What future bliss He gives not thee to know,
But gives that hope to be thy blessing now.
Hope springs eternal in the human breast:
Man never is, but always to be, blest.
The soul, uneasy and confin’d from home,
Rests and expatiates in a life to come.”

—	Alexander Pope, An Essay on Man

“That we should establish ourselves in a sense of GOD’s Presence, by continually conversing with Him. That it was a shameful thing to quit His conversation, to think of trifles and fooleries.”

—

Brother Lawrence And I helped stack wood.  Exciting, I know.  <---- I resisted the urge to write "third eyeroll" there.Sorry, for a lame, unexciting post......next time, I will be blogging about {CENSORED}. Ya'll (I'm not really Southern, sorry) should go check out my little sister's blog, a puppy's bone. She writes about our Lab's various escapades. With photos, even. :) *radio voice* And so, blog readers, I leave you, but not without a GIF of Yoda, in all his The Empire Strikes Back glory, and a neat WW2 poster. Yoda is so awesome. Luke: eh....not so much.

Lol!

dear boys: a link up

(Okay so this is a blog link-up thing where you write a letter to...boys?!?! I'm going to try this anyway, even if I'm late to the party)

Dear teenage boys,

screenshots are dangerous things...

 ...In the wrong hands.

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.

gender roles + SNOW!

Time for a serious post. You may not agree with me over this, but then you don't have to....but please, keep it civil if you comment.




* * * * * * * * * * * * 


The original "gender roles" were thus: men took care of women who had the children.
Today, we in America live in a very advanced, civilized society. It is considered permissible for both sexes to many things which would have been frowned upon two hundred years ago. For example, women are lawyers and politicians, both jobs which were traditionally left to the men.


Is this a bad thing? As long as we keep in mind the original model, and don't adopt a personal "I can do whatever I want and hang the consequences!", I don't think it usually is. An exception when women are encouraged to do things they really aren't able to, as affirmative action in government jobs does: create *diversity* and limit efficiency (wait, we're talking about the government...) because those women simply aren't right for the jobs, and got in not because of their grades but because of their sex or color of their skin.


However, speaking from a Biblical as well as practical worldview, some vocations simply are best left to men. Military combat is a prime example. 
The time-honored model is for the men to fight, and the women to stay at home and take care of the kids, and keep the country going so that the men have something to fight for. This makes sense from a purely biological sense because males are *usually* physically stronger, and are better at keeping an army together. Also, when you introduce women into a male-dominated institution, it can be distracting = less organized fighting = less effective = we lose.


So one can conclude that America today has made a dangerous innovation on a model that has been working more of less for thousands of years. Only time will tell what the long-lasting effects will be, but the short-term effects have seriously endangered the welfare of what used to be world's greatest military.


Another time-honored institution in which the male/female roles have worked together with great results is the family: by which I mean a father, a mother, and varying amount of offspring. Sometimes this gets messed up, and the child(ren) are left with either only a mother, only a father, a step-mother or father, or neither. In each case it is a sad situation, but not really hopeless, as the children can still thrive and grow up to be happy, useful members of society. :)


But a truly ominous situation, another one of those 'dangerous innovations' that well-meaning people introduce upon thousands of years of various ups and downs is the public acceptance of same-sex marriage. 


This issue really isn't about feelings, love, or because we just don't "like" gay people, but because this is making a perversion normal. Being "gay" is a choice (must be or else it would have been bred out of the genetic line); or at least a problem you can fight against. This may sound idealistic, but we always have to fight against something that's tempting us, be it large or small.
All I am saying is that if as a society, and in the public schools, we accept this as a norm, then we will end up with a distorted society, and blurring of gender roles. (which are pretty messed up already)


(As a Christian, I'd like to say that God has a plan for everyone, and what might be right for one person isn't always right for another. [It's called "conscience"])


But on a larger scale, if we continue to blur or switch gender roles, we will be less efficient as a country, and may become non-existent eventually, because we won't know who we are!


 * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * 




Whew!!! After numerous distractions I finally finished writing. 
And its SNOWING. *sigh* Winter is coming, folks. It sure looks pretty though.

photo credit

Does anyone want to take me skiing? Please? I'm terrible at it, but it sure is fun!
The chickens and sheeples were very much confused by the snow. Honey the Lab loved it!

photo credit

 

photo credit

my  edited photo!

Auf weidersehn. I can't decide if I like this font better than this one. Talk about stupid decisions....

been writing up a storm!

And didn't realize it got so late. 11:15 pm!!!

Between perusing these marvelous sheep photographs on Flickr, and writing feverishly and enthusiastically on a children's book and a introductory classical music course (for teens!), I've been busy. I'll write a longer post tomorrow!

Let sleeping dogs lie!

In honor of those who perished on 9/11 ten years ago.





 painting by Jasper Johns ~ weird rustic aesthetic, but cool idea.  






A Sunday-inspired hymn, to calm in the midst of all this devastation, from

 Elizabeth P. Prentiss

More Love to Thee by 

More love to thee, O Christ, more love to thee! 
 Hear thou the prayer I make on bended knee. 
 This is my earnest plea: More love, O Christ, to thee; 
 more love to thee, more love to thee! 

Once earthly joy I craved, sought peace and rest; 
 now thee alone I seek, give what is best. 
 This all my prayer shall be: More love, O Christ, to thee; 
 more love to thee, more love to thee! 

Let sorrow do its work, come grief and pain; 
 sweet are thy messengers, sweet their refrain, 
 when they can sing with me: More love, O Christ, to thee; 
 more love to thee, more love to thee! 

Then shall my latest breath whisper thy praise; 
 this be the parting cry my heart shall raise; 
 this still its prayer shall be: More love, O Christ, to thee; 
 more love to thee, more love to thee! 

.....And to top everything off, a photo of my very svelte and attractive young 

goat!

(He didn't want me taking a picture of his face)

Hmm, I seem to suffer from the same universal delusions which harbor much of the female portion of humanity: pretending animals can talk. Ah well, a harmless oddity. Added to my other oddities, however, this takes the cake. The goat says hi.

Quid agis!

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