i found myself bobbing my head to some random song on my playlist thinking, “this is a catchy song…”
i was like who is this?
it was Justin Bieber’s ‘Baby’!
omg…how far the mighty have fallen…and by mighty i mean me!
at least that’s how i felt previously.
recently, i’ve been taking advantage of all the perks of being a starbucks giftcard holder.
For example, did you know you get free or heavily subsidized refill prices? free wi-fi? various discounts on purchases?
I have to admit, ever since my recent change of <3, their rice crispy treats have tasted ever more delicious 
not wanting to go to the post office, i procrastinate by reading the blog of a friend.
i find the ensuing quote from Devil Wears Prada:
“[To Andrea] This… stuff? Oh… okay. I see, you think this has nothing to do with you. You go to your closet and you select out — oh, I don’t know — that lumpy blue sweater, for instance, because you’re trying to tell the world that you take yourself too seriously to care about what you put on your back. But what you don’t know is that that sweater is not just blue, it’s not turquoise, it’s not lapis, it’s actually cerulean. You’re also blithely unaware of the fact that in 2002 Oscar de la Renta did a collection of cerulean gowns. And then I think it was Yves St Laurent, wasn’t it, who showed cerulean military jackets? (I think we need a jacket here). And then cerulean quickly showed up in the collections of eight different designers. Then it filtered down through the department stores and then trickled on down into some tragic Casual Corner where you, no doubt, fished it out of some clearance bin. However, that blue represents millions of dollars and countless jobs and it’s sort of comical how you think that you’ve made a choice that exempts you from the fashion industry when, in fact, you’re wearing the sweater that was selected for you by the people in this room. From a pile of stuff.”
So true, so true. The originator(s) of fashion stems from just a couple of different sources. The funny thing is, these ‘originators’ ‘borrow’ still from the past, other mediums, etc. In a concentrated form, it’s as if we’re all Japanese; that is, they recognize that while they can’t invent anything truly new, they can create faux-newness via improvements and updates on existing ideas.
To sum it up:
“We ran out of new ideas somewhere around 1978, since then we’ve been repeating ourselves. Same songs, same movies, same clothes, even the same crimes. Like this Robie guy, no imagination. He’s just part of the rhythm and the rhyme of all this repeating. This is 1996, here comes the millennium. But people are nervous, they’re on edge, they’re jumpy. This is supposed to be something new. But we can’t look that in the face, can we? So what do we do? We grab a little something from one year in the fifties and a little of something else from some other year, maybe late sixties. We think we’re creating something new and different, but really, all we’re doing is just repeating the same old . . . nothing. We’re all copycats.” -unknown
not sure if you can imagine but i certainly can’t…
the above is a pic of a taliban fighter in the swat valley where intense fighting has been going on between the Pakistani govn’t and the taliban fighters. guess who has been caught in the middle? that’s right the civilians who live in the valley. guess who was kind enough to temporarily cease fire so that innocent villagers could get out and not get shelled in their sleep? yeah that’s right, the pakistani govn’t. how kind of them. they really shouldn’t have. their compassion overwhelms me…
sarcasm aside, i don’t know how to feel. it’s great the govn’t is doing something but by design, the terrorists are using innocent humans as shields and the govn’t is playing right into their hands! imagine having to leave your former life only to run for your literal life. that’s not much of a life!
I’ve been feeling a bit woozy in terms of direction lately.
within the past month, a lot has gone on in my life. for example, i stopped working, i have a little over a month before obtaining my master’s in Finance, and I’ve been accepted into two great programs for international relations.
the typical balance that one finds throughout the course of ones life is found in my little world as well. no longer generating income from the fashion industry BUT I’ve found another (smaller) source of income. about to finish my master’s degree BUT I’ve decided to tackle a new degree in a new subject. all sounds good right?
regarding the second degree, though I’ve submitted my decision to attend Georgetown, I’ve been having to think twice if school is the way to go mainly because this program can cost up to $120k. at such a price, i better have a good idea regarding exactly why i’m getting this degree, what i plan to do with it, and more importantly, how i plan to pay this money back. in regards to these 3 questions, i’m not sure why i’m getting it other than i ‘think’ i’m interested in the subject, i don’t know what i want to do with it (completely clueless), and most frightening, i don’t know where i’m going to come up with $120k considering i still have tens of thousands of dollars still to pay for Baruch.
this is the point. if i get this degree, i’m just going to end up with some ‘other’ job which will probably seem meaningless (as all jobs tend to be after some time) and i will want to do something ‘meaningful’ with my life such as ‘serving the Lord.’ that leaves the question, what about the dollars that I owe? what’s being alluded at, albeit indirectly though the title hints at it is that without clear directions and goals, without a guiding vision, there is no visibility on the road map for life.
van gogh once said, “for my part i know nothing with any certainty, but the sight of the stars makes me dream.”
Charylne Yi is an interesting person, not sure if i think she’s funny yet, but she does intrigue me.
she’s coming out with a new movie called ‘paper heart’ with michael cera
musician, artist, writer, painter and actress
her myspace says she’s 33 years old
now i hesitate to even write on these matters since i feel like they’re so ‘played out’ already…
well, here goes nothing.
Here’s the thing with Specter. Everyone is up to their ears in questions. some are appalled, others are joyful. it doesn’t matter how you feel because at the end of the day, you have a ‘flopper’. now i know the word ‘flopper’ has negative connotations, (flopper being someone who flops from side to side, a flopper is much like a fish, someone with no real backbone, just looking for the next place to flop) but aren’t all politicians floppers to some degree. can you say there are policy makers out there who really have a strict set of guidelines that never change? i doubt it. just even in the course of human life, due to different circumstances, changes one goes through, there just tends to be an effect where you can modify, readjust what you believe. of course Specter’s stance made a huge splash because it changes the balance of power between democrats and republicans. what i’m saying is, lets not kid ourselves into thinking that some are so high and mighty that they can go ahead and judge this man because he decided to switch sides.
that being said, what was his real motivation for doing what he did? was it like he claims, that is, he wanted to be a better representation of the people of Pennsylvania and because more switched over to be the democratic side, he too was doing the same? was there under-handed dealings going on? or did he just find it more difficult to deal with the republicans? i don’t know.
regarding the first 100 days, i know it’s tradition, and in the spirit of constant evaluation, i give my seal of approval, not for the president but more for the fact that he needs to be constantly evaluated, as is anyone on any job. in fact, if you think about a regular job, you never get job security for 4 years at a time, and you end up being watched carefully every single day. why should our chief executive position be any different? how do you even evaluate the president? i don’t know so i wont’ even try. if i had to attempt a guess, i would start at comparing what he has done versus what he had promised to do on the campaign trail. the only thing that i find silly is, there is no one to hold him accountable to what he promised other than himself. i guess you could argue that the people should hold him accountable but what real power do they have other than complaining? that’s what i don’t get, very little accountability. doesn’t that just mean that on the campaign trail, since there is no real accountability, the words coming out are just words that they think the people want to hear? i think that’s what i’m implying here. what a silly mess. not that i have a better proposal but i guess the system is based on a man being true to his word…
the relation between these three items deeply impressed me, as did the analogy to cashing a check.
the fact of the matter is, everything has already been done. there is nothing that one must do further to add, improve, better, build upon, etc.. if there was, that would imply two things: number one, that the works of Christ were not complete which is false. and number two, i seriously doubt that anything any mortal could add would really be a great ‘value add’ in the first place. but i digress, the point is that there is one particular fact in this universe that stands above all other facts, everything has been accomplished by Christ. it’s a done deal. finished. complete. you get the point.
now if everything has already been done, why is it that we still feel like we need to do something, be something, say something, or in some cases for some people not do things, not be things, and not say things. well an important point to realize is that though everything is complete, all has been accomplished, the righteous requirement of God requires man’s acknowledgement of what has already been done. this touches on the matter of grace which is complete and free, but does require man’s acknowledgement. this makes sense.
lets quickly refer to the check example. say i write you a check worth $1,000. i did it. it’s a fact. the fact is that i took out my checkbook, filled it out for the amount of $1,000 and signed it. it’s been done. ok, but what if you refuse to acknowledge the existence or completion of the check? sure, that’s silly because the fact of the matter is, i’ve already written if. the point is, if you as a receiver don’t acknowledge the fact, it would be very difficult for you to receive the check that you refuse to acknowledge.
actually, the act of acknowledging the fact, i.e. to acknowledge that i wrote you a check really boils down to what is known as faith. to reiterate, faith is to acknowledge the facts. to return to the check analogy, faith would be the equivalent of cashing in the check. what better way to acknowledge the fact that i wrote you the check than cashing the check in? by cashing in the check, you indicate that you believe that i wrote the check and the check is good for the full amount that i wrote it for, that is to say, you believe that the fact has been accomplished and you’re ‘taking it to the bank.’
now for the final step. after the check is cashed, there is only one thing that remains. the money needs to be spent. this is our experience. to experience the act of acknowledging the fact (faith) is to spend the ‘money.’ this is the point. why would i write you a check? what good is a check if the money just sits in your bank account? the money needs to be spent, and likewise, we need to have the experiences.
takeaways: stop trying to ‘do’ things because everything has been done. acknowledge that everything has been done. just enjoy the Lord.
thinking about the new nomination by Obama for the top Asian diplomat position given to Kurt Campbell replacing Christopher Hill who is now ambassador to Iraq. I mean sure, being able to converse with top officials both in the USA including Secretary of State Clinton, having all the top officials in Japan, China, Korea etc. being only a phone call away, and even taking a tough stance in negotiations for the betterment and advancement of US interests SOUNDS like a great job….
Contrast that with the Life Study reading for this week on Mark regarding the preparation of the Slave Savior for His redemptive service. Message 37 speaks to the divine light involved in reading the Bible. It is not sufficient to know the text in its original language, or to be able to use your analytical mind to dissect the verses. Rather, there is something deeper here, that can only be revealed via divine light. The specific subject at hand in this passage is the matter of Resurrection. When trying to understand with ones mind, you end up asking questions similar to “who’s wife will she be if 7 brothers die successively and she has been the ‘wife’ of all 7?” Without this light, it will be impossible to derive anything other than knowledge from the written word of God.
The pressing question becomes, “how does one obtain this light?” The answer is surprisingly simple. The way to receive light is the same way that you would receive anything else; you simply ask. You must pray, “Lord I am not interested simply in knowing knowledge or having a superficial understanding of your Word. Please have mercy on me. Shine on me, shine in me. Give me the light necessary to receive more life.” This is something one must be desperate for. Without this understanding and practice, I would consider reading the Bible to be a waste of time.
I <3 t_swift.
Sure she’s a bit on the young side (19? 1989 according to wiki), pretty, talented but more than that, she just strikes me as someone who loves what she does, is really good at it, and above all seems like a nice person. Based on the couple of video interviews and limited press/bio that I’ve read, she works really hard, kept persevering and that’s how she got to where she is today.
