Wash With Like Colors

Just sorting the laundry today:

Whites, colors, Vizsla???

I guess I'll need to set that last cycle to "delicate."

Dusty Mirrors

Just wanted to share some thoughts from ol' Clive Staples that I read last night:

"When it comes to knowing God, the initiative lies on His side. If He does not show Himself, nothing you can do will enable you to find Him. And, in fact, He shows much more of Himself to some people than to others - not because He has favorites, but because it is impossible for Him to show Himself to a man whose whole mind and character are in the wrong condition. Just as sunlight, though it has no favorites, cannot be reflected in a dusty mirror as clearly as in a clean one . . . " (C.S. Lewis, Mere Christianity).


Interesting. If you are someone who believes in God but can't seem to "see" or "know" Him, I guess the question is, do you really want to? If so, are you willing to put in the necessary elbow grease to clean off all that "dust"?

Down By the River

Since I don't have any children, I will have to bombard you with photos of my dog doing cute things by the Chattahoochee River:


I have to keep him on a leash, but it's pretty long. He mainly just likes to splash around in the shallow areas.


I love fall weather in Georgia - three straight days of bright blue skies and air so clear and crisp that it makes you feel invigorated after being outside for only a minute or two.

Vlad investigates what we Georgia residents have been wondering for some time: what, exactly, is behind all that kudzu?

Alas - the prey is totally out of reach.

Probably worse than texting, but ...

I just had to get a photo of this bumper sticker I saw while driving to the riverwalk.

So true. So very, very true.

Let's Try This Again ...

Army life is disruptive. I noticed that my last blog entry was written almost four months ago. You would think that all the packing, travelling, and drama inherent in relocating to a new continent would motivate me to blog more freqently rather than less. However, my personality is such that the more "settled" I feel, the more I am able to accomplish. If there are boxes of stuff yet to be unpacked nearby, they will distract me. If said stuff is unpacked but strewn about in a disorderly manner, it will distract me. I often find myself standing in the middle of a room, gazing at one spot, organizing it in my mind.

Oh how I envy those fortunate souls who happily surround themselves with disorderly piles of papers and makeshift tables, who are content simply to put things somewhere with complete disregard for symmetry, or space, or color scheme. If I could just not care so much about orderliness, I might actually get some sort of writing career off the ground.

But thanks to the Army, we'll be moving again in about 6 months (to where, we still do not know yet).

So, this blog post marks the beginning of my attempt to become a writer (seriously!) despite the fact that there are three giant boxes leering at me from the corner of the dining room, with piles of Army gear, leftover Halloween candy, and half-empty Kleenex boxes sitting defiantly on top of them.

The Devil Made Them Do It: The Legend of Lubeck's Rathauskeller

In the courtyard of the Marienkirche in Lubeck, Germany, there is a bronze statue of a little devil sitting on a large boulder. The legend behind the statue and the boulder is that when the church was being built, the devil originally helped the construction workers because he thought they were building an inn (at the time, essentially a bar and a den of iniquity). However, when he found out they were building a church, he threw a particularly devilish hissy-fit and tried to destroy the walls. The builders managed to placate him by agreeing to build a drinking hall across the street - and it remains there to this day in the form of the Rathauskeller (actually, a rather nice restaurant).

Web-Surfing Gems

You know the drill - you are bored, and reading articles online, and one click leads to another, and to another, until you end up at a website that features a Spider-Man action figure commenting on the names of every crayon color from the Crayola crayon box. Well, here is the latest roundup of interesting websites I have stumbled upon in similar fashion:

Cynical-C Blog, which features the funniest one-star Amazon reviews of classic movies, music, and literature. I particularly like one reviewer's critique of Monty Python and the Holy Grail, in which he contrasts it with his favorite movie, Spaceballs (a film which, in his opinion, "knows where to draw the line" when it comes to humor), and claims he would probably kill himself if forced to watch the Monty Python flick again.

the dullest blog in the world is a hilarious testament to the ridiculousness of blogging about the minutiae of one's daily existence.

Chick Flicks in 140 Characters or Less. Surprisingly accurate. For example: "How to Lose a Guy in 10 Days: Boy plays trick on girl. Girl plays trick on boy. Girl loses boy, gets boy back. Girl and boy make 'Fool's Gold.' We all die a little inside."

That's all for now. I will be back to grading papers next week and won't have as much time to devote to online meandering. Stumbled upon any other interesting sites lately? Feel free to share.