Weather Man

We have a friend over for Spring Break. He likes to have philosophical, religious, and political "conversations."

Today this friend said someone asked him how we can have free will if God is omniscient (knows everything). I decided to add my input on this even though I wasn't sure if they would pay attention to me. Here's the gist of what I said (which both he and Jon said was a perfect response).

People think about that the wrong way. They think that we do things because God knows we're going to do them, but it's not like that. It's the opposite way. That's like saying it snowed because the weatherman said it was going to snow. No! The weatherman said it was going to snow because it was going to snow!

I've decided to call this the Weather Man Fallacy. (Is that okay? I'd never coined my own philosophical term until today.) People say that God knows what is going to happen, so we have no choice but to follow through with what God knows. But that's not how it goes at all. God knows things are going to happen because they are going to happen.

I mentioned this in fewer words in the single philosophy class I've taken. My teacher said something that made me feel good about it (that it's a philosophical way of thinking or something like that). Then he said it's not a very Christian way of thinking. I don't see how that's true. Isn't our faith dependent on our free will?

New Video for the First Time in Over a Year!

I don't know if anyone's follerin this, but I wanted to let my imaginary fans know I made a new video. I've also been working on Spring and St. Patrick's Day crafts and am planning a St. Patrick's Day event. The event will consist of groups of people finding four-leaf clovers and people pledging money that will go to organizations that help alcoholics (and other drug addicts) and their families.

Also (good news!!!) I'm very excited about the 23rd of March. I get to sing with my brother-in-law's band at a show at his house. :-) I'll try to get some videos to post.

By the way, here's a link to my new video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LMB1OoYud3c

Ideal Self

I'm in a psychology class right now because that's one of the options for a marketing degree. This made me happy. Psychology is interesting. I thought I'd share a little bit about what we did today and how it got me thinking.

We did a Venn Diagram of "Real Self vs. Ideal Self." As the terms imply, "real self" means how you are now, whereas "ideal self" means how you would like to be. I began adding things like "unmotivated" versus "seeing opportunities to do what I love," and of course there were things that overlapped such as "being married to Jon." I've struggled over the years, particularly recently, about what I want to do with my life--what I want to be. I'm married, so I've got one thing down. I know I want kids, so I don't have to worry about that. But as far as career, I'm sort of stuck. I should be deciding this. I only have a year and a half of college left. I'm taking a business degree, but I don't want to be a businessperson.

I have a lot of interests: music, making things, acting, art, writing, child care, tutoring, flower arranging, and even stand-up comedy (that is one thing I have not had the boldness to try yet). There is a huge number of things I could do with these interests, and I've thought of many of those things. The problem is that my resources are limited, so I'm going to have to be creative to come up with something that works. I also don't want to do just one thing. That's boring. I'd love to be a singer/writer/actress/painter. But how will I get there?

So I finally decided what I want to be, and it's not what I expected.
Here's what I want to be:

Are you ready for this?

What I want to be is...

Ambitious.

Surprised? Maybe not. I tend to be unmotivated because sometimes I don't feel a lot of support. Jon likes playing and singing with me sometimes, but I rarely get to do crafts with people, and Tell City, Indiana doesn't exactly have a community theater program. To overcome these kinds of things one has to have ambition. That's how people reach their goals and achieve their dreams. I feel a conviction to do some kind of performing because that's a talent God gave me. Because of that, I'm going to need all the motivation and ambition I can handle to do what He wants me to do.

My request to everyone who reads this is that you pray for me. If you have something you want me to pray about, I'll certainly return the favor.

Thanks for reading!

What do you want to be?

Beads!!!

It's been a long time since I posted! I really do want to keep up with this. You know, cause I actually want people to read it someday. I'm going to be famous one way or another.

Speaking of famous, I can sing :-) I auditioned for one of those national-TV "talent" shows almost two years ago, and here's what happened. I had a ton of fun with three friends in Atlanta, and I waited for the calls we never got (we really didn't know what to expect), and then I waited to see the Atlanta auditions in hopes that we might see glimpses of ourselves or people we had seen (or even auditions of people we had seen) there. My friends and I waited every week for the Atlanta auditions to show. But guess what? They didn't even show Atlanta. The entire city was cut from the program. How lame! But through the whole process and from watching the show a few years in a row I've decided that's not the way to showcase your talent. It's not worth it. I won't go into a rant about judges' and producers' decisions about who gets on TV, but I will say their process is no good.

But anyway, my point was that I might get to sing with my brother-in-law's band sometime--I think in the spring. Maybe. I don't remember what he said. But the show he talked about is going to be in Nashville. So that's exciting! Jon and I were singing with him around Christmas some of his own songs. He said I sang them better than the girl that used to be in the band. That was flattering :-)

I guess if there's anyone reading this, he or she is wondering why this blog is titled "Beads!!!" Allow me to explain. A few days ago I counted my buttons... sorta. I counted how many would fit into a jar I had and then counted how many times I could fill the jar. Then I counted my other set one by one. I found out that I have around 6000 buttons. I should not buy any more.

Then, today, I organized a couple of my sets of beads. I have three sets (one of which is in several parts): "fancy" beads, pony beads, and kids' jewelry beads. I organized the pony beads and kids' jewelry beads. By the way, I have many more beads than buttons, in case you were wondering (but some of them are very small). Today I decided to sort by beads by type because I feel that it is more efficient than sorting them by color. Also they were extremely disorganized. So I spent several hours sorting these beads (not the tiny ones), and now I am happy with how they are in their boxes. They are only slightly disorganized.

Here are pictures from part-way through my journey.

Do not fail to note that I did all this on carpet. I enjoy losing beads and weeks later hearing them like a reverse hailstorm in the vacuum cleaner.

Obvious Advice

There was some advice I wanted to let everyone know about after someone at work said something rather unintelligent, but when I went back to think about it, I couldn't remember what it was. So then I decided to post some obvious advice and hope to entertain anyone who happens to read this. So here it goes!

Don't fall off ladders. (You'll hurt them.)
Don't lift things that are heavier than you. (You'll lose your center of gravity and float.)
Don't eat soap. (It'll spoil your supper.)
Don't adopt too many kittens. (Candles are a better choice.)
Don't brush your teeth too many times in one day. (You'll run out of toothpaste.)
Don't play with matches. (Mismatches are safer.)

Always have a tree handy. (You never know when you'll need some shade.)
Remember the back of your hand. (Otherwise you'll never know anyone else very well.)
Use the Internet. (Al Gore invented it.)
Pet rabbits. (That's a suggestion, not an object.)
Stop, drop, and roll. (It's good exercise.)


I think I'm done. This isn't nearly as funny as I thought it would be. I'm sorry if I just wasted a couple minutes of your life. But maybe you didn't know some of these things as they got to be more silly than obvious.

Till next time

A Dime, Carribea, and Seriously? You Couldn't Figure that Out?

Today my subjects are all related to my job. While funny, they also make me roll my eyes and wonder why people are the way they are.

One day a girl walked through my line with her parents. She said to her dad, "There's a dime on the floor." The conversation then went something like this:
"No there's not."
"Yeah there is, look."
"No there's not." (begins to chuckle)
"Yes there IS. Don't you see it?"
"There's not a dime on the floor." (laughing harder)
"Dad, LOOK! There's a dime on the floor!"
"I see it, but it's not a dime."
He was right. It was a quarter. Did I mention this girl was high-school age?
Her mom then informed her dad, "Yeah. She failed math." Really?

Another girl was in line with her mom, and she mentioned a Hispanic name I can't remember. Then she mentioned the girl lived in "Like Carribea or something." Her mom, making me burst out with laughter (I didn't want to be rude, but the comment shocked me), said, "CARRIBEA?!"
"One of those states," the girl replied.
"States?"
"Countries."
Someone else in line said, "You mean the Carribean?"
The girl said, "No, I don't remember where she's from." After careful thought, she said, "Cuba! That's where she's from.... No. I don't know."
Yeah. She was high-school aged too. Unfortunately, it was not the same girl.

I read the fronts of magazines in passing and when I'm waiting for customers to do things like write checks, put their things away, and figure out which button is the "cancel" button on the pin pad. I usually see stupid things but things that I can imagine people being interested in for some weird reason*. Once in awhile I see something that makes me want to go to the writers of the magazines and be like, "Do you READ what you write?" This instance found me seeing a certain pregnant celebrity, and underneath, the caption: "Her bump gets bigger!" No freaking way. I actually thought she would carry a one-pound baby for the next five months and then give birth to it. That's like saying, "Her hair is growing!" Can you believe it?


*I somewhat equate celebrity worship/gossip with being nosy about non-famous people you don't know. Think about it. Can you imagine seeing a generic newsletter with headlines such as "Karen Spick: She got bloodwork, and it Came Back Negative!" "Joseph Dwain and His Family Go Shopping and Buy Groceries" "The Whitethorns are Buying A Hybrid!"
Sounds stupid, doesn't it?

Le Work, Les Smarties

I see so many interesting things at work, and a couple weekends ago Halloween helped that. There was some little Halloween party for little kids at the park, and people were at the store buying last-minute things for it. Here are two things I saw:

There was a woman in her 30s (probably) with her kid whom I assume was adopted because he was Asian. He bought a couple of onesies, presumably for a baby sister. Then he put his Halloween costume up on the counter. It was a ninja costume. I had to try not to laugh or high-five him and just asked him if it was his costume. Of course it was!

Later I saw the most adorable thing ever which was a tiny blonde girl who was probably about three years old dressed as a pirate. I had to stop myself from squealing with delight at the cuteness.

Also that day I saw a lady who was probably in her 80s with a Spider-Man lanyard around her neck. I told Jon because he's really into superheroes. He thought it was cool.

Something also happened today that I thought I would share. I tend to find presents in my shoes from Tillie. (At least I think that's who it is. I'm her favorite.) Notice I didn't put quotation marks around the word "presents," so as not to imply that she poops in my shoes as I've heard some cats do. No, these are nice presents. Or at least she thinks they're nice. I've found Easter eggs (which Jon got me for Easter, but Tillie has managed to dig out and scatter about the house at least 20 since then), pencils, and other toys in my shoes when I've tried to put them on. Today I found a roll of Smarties. I very much like my cats.