mmm, summer storms...

cracking rumbling thunder... sometimes seeming to wrap around you almost like a warm blanket and other times startling you almost out of your skin

bright lightning

the scent of wet asphalt and dirt

seems like at least two or three storms, as trying to count between lightning and thunder gets approximately three different counts, and the lightning seems to be in three different places anyhow. (supported by this radar map)  and of course the heaviness of the rain fluctuated (as did the intensity of the wind, the temperature, and the lightness) as the storm(s) moved.

the first real thunderstorm of the season.

bloody Memorial Day

It occurred to me on Saturday night that i would be returning to UCN for Memorial Day Sunday.  Poor timing choice.

The service started with The Pledge of Allegiance, which always wigs me out.  Counter-intuitive, much?

Then we sang the first and final verses of "The Star Spangled Banner."  Oh the final verse.  (Blest with victory and peace, may the heaven-rescued land / Praise the Power that hath made and preserved us a nation. / Then conquer we must, for our cause it is just, / And this be our motto: "In God is our trust.")

The responsive reading was partly good.  There was one section that was just for men to read, which confused me, as it was something like "Do to others as you would have them do to you; this is the Law and the Prophets."  Somehow the word "men" was in there (KJV), but that isn't usually enough for them to sex-segregate a reading, and there was nothing else in the reading that was sex-segregated.  I read it anyhow.  Especially since it is rather uncommon for me to be willing to say any of the words in a church service.

A later part was a reminder of how Paul is sometimes on crack, though.  Romans 13:1-7.  And this had been immediately preceded by the recognition of the veterans, which made it extra-bizarre.  If all authorities are authorized by God, then the only time there should be any conflict would be if a particular national government wanted to expand and inflict itself upon another country, but otherwise we should have left Hitler alone to do what he wanted in Germany.  America probably should never have rebelled against England, and we certainly shouldn't have gotten involved in Korea, Vietnam, the Middle East.  Dude, this is the epitome of isolationism.

[Edit 'cause i forgot to write originally: I told my mom this is why i'm not allowed to do Readings; i would have actually stopped and explained why i wasn't willing to read that section. I'm actually not enough of an assertive brat to do that with everything, but that was intense enough that if i was up there doing the Reading there is no way i would have gone through with it, and i absolutely would have made a statement about why. Oh for a pulpit...]

Children's Message.  Wow, making the Joshua-Jordan River story into a Memorial Day parallel.  That takes talent.  I mean, i get that it's a physical memorial, but Memorial Day is about remembering those who died in wars.  The pile of stones in that story is a memorial to God's power and His actions on behalf of the Israelites.

The Scripture Reading for the sermon was Romans 5:1-11.  The sermon ("The Price of Peace") was little more than 20 minutes, which is short for PB, but it seemed scattered and i didn't really get it.  He shared a story about the insanity of war, and then he talked about how glad he is to be an American and how grateful he is to those who fought and died for his freedom (and either here or elsewhere there was griping about making it unconstitutional to say the Pledge of Allegiance or taking "under God" out of the Pledge, and i got riled ‘cause what people argue is that it is unconstitutional to force children/people to say the Pledge, and "under God" was only put in fifty years ago during the Communist scare), and then there was blah blah blah Jesus, and he said something like "and my third and final point is" and i hadn't really registered the first two points.

Afterward, i complained to my mom, and she said something along the lines of, "The price of worldly peace is war; the price of spiritual peace is Christ's sacrifice."  If PB had said something short and direct like that, i would have actually gotten it.

I have an issue with Romans 5:7-8.
"Very rarely will anyone die for a righteous man, though for a good man someone might possibly dare to die. But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us."
But see, if you say ‘no one will die for a righteous man though some may die for a good man,' then the next logical step is ‘lots of people would die for a sinner,' so how is it a big deal that Christ died for a lot of sinners?

We ended with "God of Grace and God of Glory," which is a hymn i actually like.

Apparently Sunday June 12th is Children's Sunday, and after the service there's an All Church Potluck Lunch and "Town Meeting."  I tend to starve at potlucks, but in the bulletin there was an RSVP thing, and it included space to write in "Something I would like to see added to or changed in our church" and "A question about our church that I would like to have answered."

Of course i'm going to write in that i want them to rotate who does the readings.  George K. actually retired, so i don't have to suffer through him anymore, but John P. is doing them now, and he shouldn't have to do it all the time, and really, couldn't we at least pretend that more people than i could count on one hand are involved in the church?

I have visions of seething rage, but i am so attending the "Town Meeting."

The Christian Education Hour listing included, "The class that meets in the Council Room is studying Answers in Genesis – Answers ... with Ken Ham."  I was intrigued; mostly having taken Joel's Intro Old Testament course.  Turned out they've been watching (and then discussing) a 12-part video series (hence the italics), and of course i came in for the last in the series ("How can we evangelize a secular world?, Part 2").

The video was nearly useless, aided of course by the fact that i'd missed everything that led up to it.  The idea of prepared ground makes sense, that you have to be talking a language people understand, but there wasn't anything about how you go about convincing people that there are moral absolutes and that you know what they are (i totally monopolized the discussion time and got useful thoughts from the discussion leader).  I did like that he argued that you need to connect the Bible to the real world in order for it to work.  The impression i got from the video series is that he focuses on Genesis and interprets existing scientific evidence to support the Biblical account of world history, even going so far as to disavow evolution and to argue for a strict literalism of the 6 Day Creation account.  I just interpret the six days as a metaphor and felt that evolution can be a means of creation and have been far more interested in narrative and historical inconsistencies.  I'm a Text Girl, not a scientist, what can i say.  Plus, a lot of the FAQs he was listing just weren't ones that come up as major stumbling blocks for either myself or any of my friends who tell me they have trouble with the Christian Bible.  I checked out the AnswersInGenesis.org website when i got home, and the Q&A looks like it'll provide me thought fodder for ages.

I chatted with Michael F. briefly afterward (he'd come down to clean up).  He asked me what my ideal job would be, and i said reading books and talking about them.  I think i need to find myself a book club.  What i really wanna spend my life doing is engaging with texts (hello, fandom).

fannishness that's primarily non-Whedon

"They get attacked by deer.  It's kinda awkward." -my brother on Ring 2

"[Eva] Longoria joins past #1 picks, Jessica Simpson (2004), Christina Aguilera (2003), Jennifer Garner (2002) and Jessica Alba (2001)."
So, the Maxim 100 has always been on crack, huh?

drabble != "a shorter piece"

Hey, akronohten -- pengies (and Morgan Freeman, though not actually in the trailer)

Kate came over on Saturday.  I'd been feeling a bit off on Wonderfalls since our last DVD viewing, but i did wanna finish the series, and the next two episodes we saw -- "Barrel Bear" and "Lovesick Ass" -- got me back loving the show.  Next we watched the first two episodes of Dead Like Me.  I approve, though it's gonna take more for me to have mad love for the show.

Reading this interview with Caroline Dhavernas, i think i need to see her next three movies.  (Also: looking at IMDb, she was in Lost and Delirious?)

I used to not care about the HP ‘verse enough to seek out fanfic, but i got sucked in because the flist kept reccing stuff -- though most of it wasn't/isn't pairings that interest me anyway.  (P.S. Why does no one on my flist rec stuff in my fandoms of choice?)  I'm so Source Text Girl, though, and am used to having a hardcore grasp on the canon including minor events and subtleties of characterization.  I do read ‘verses other than Whedonverse, just not a whole lot, and i always feel like i'm missing out on stuff.  But i find myself actually wanting to read more HP fic (Hermione, Luna, Neville, Ginny, McGonagall...) so i think i'm actually gonna reread the books.  This was prompted particularly by a fic summary which mentioned Ginny and Tom and the diary and my subsequent realization that not only do i not have a feel for some of the characterization and stuff like that, but that i forget the details of major canon events.

I recently rewatched the first two TNG movies.  So so good.  (I also watched the next 2 for the first time.  Insurrection felt very Been There Done That, though it was good.  Nemesis talk following.)  It was occurring to me that there's no Q in the movies.  I read ship_manifesto for Picard/Q and lo i have more fic to read (though admittedly i haven't finished the crack_van for TNG).  [And one of these days i will watch all of Voyager on DVD.  Gee, i could buy it all for only $607.46.]  I heart this article.  ( Picard, Q, queerness )

Meredith sent me this traumatizing link.  Look for Michelle Trachtenberg's movie, and know that Sean Maher plays Simon in Firefly.

This got me looking at what Whedon's people have been doing recently.  I need to see Southland Tales.  And Vinyl.  And Outing Riley.

More IMDb trivia: Nathan Fillion wanted to be a high school English teacher.  And originally auditioned for the part of Angel on Buffy.

At dinner on Friday, my mom said she'd passed a guy on the street who looked familiar, and she was trying to think if he was one of my friends or something, and then it occurred to her: Seth Green.  It wasn't Seth Green, but it looked like him, and those people are like family.

And um, Wang (Yankee) is a Pitcher?  *falls over*  I mean, i've been coughing all weekend anyhow, but this is not helping.

---

Ashley (and Sharon) made me do the book meme.

Total number of books I've owned:

Um, a lot.  What kind of question is this?  At least with "Total number of books I currently own" one could conceivably make a count.  Being an English major, i've bought over a hundred books in the past 4 years for school alone -- though being a Bad English Major (tm) i don't still own most of them :)  I probably own less than a hundred books currently, since i'm picky about what i like and don't tend to reread books.

Last book I bought:

You say this like i buy books :)  I recently bought Mosby's Fundamentals of Therapeutic Massage, and i think the last time i bought any books before that was when i made purchases for my last semester at Smith.

Last book I read:

Our Lives as Torah: finding God in our own stories by Carol Ochs

(Currently reading Artificial Mythologies: a guide to cultural invention by Craig J. Saper.)

Five books that mean a lot to me:

1. Silver by Norma Fox Mazer.
I read the book and wrote to the author and she actually wrote back.  That experience means more to me than all her books, though she has a lot of quality books.

2. Annie on My Mind by Nancy Garden.
First lesbian love story i ever read.  It's beautiful and real and just so well-done -- though the real Cloisters disappointed, and i later became frustrated that the Biblical condemnations of same-sex relations were not countered within the world of the book.

3. Angela Carter, Burning Your Boats: The Collected Stories.
Retellings of fairytales and other well-known tales as well as original stories.  Lush and dark and full of sensuality.  Plus my intro to incest.  Are there any buttons of mine that this collection doesn't push?

4. What The Bible Really Says About Homosexuality by Daniel A. Helminiak.
So thorough and accessible.  It doesn't cover absolutely everything, but it comes close, and it's very lay accessible.  I got it out from the library for reference so frequently i finally put it on my wish list to be bought for me.

5. A Wrinkle in Time by Madeleine L'Engle.
I thought about putting A Tale of Two Cities (Charles Dickens) or The Odyssey (Homer) here, because they're both stories i was introduced to at a very young age and still love and which are easy to select as origin points for things i continue to love in literature (lengthy description and Greek mythology, respectively).  But A Wrinkle in Time just has such a place in my heart/soul.

Tag 5 people and have them fill this out in their LJs:

I'm interested in people's responses to the "5 books that mean a lot to me" question, but no one's obligated to do this meme.