Tuesday, May 31, 2005

Death is not an option...

Which would you choose...bad prof or bad material?

posted by Joyce @ 7:08 PM 3 comments

Tuesday, May 24, 2005

Soulmates

For some reason, we've been talking about love and soulmates in my writing class. I suppose that's the stuff that art is based on but it's a touch too...heartfelt for me? For someone who wrote an ode to advil about a week ago; I have no business writing about being in love. How bout being in-fatuation? being obsession? When I was in Ottawa, my cousin introduced me to Sex and the City. It was frightening...and frighteningly insightful. They had an episode about soulmates and throughout the entire class, all I could hear was Carrie Bradshaw's voice overs in my head. I don't think I believe in soulmates. Or rather, I don't like the hallmark belief that there is only one person who holds the key to your heart, happiness and dream house - and all you have to do is find them. Are we then meant to be incomplete if our search is unsuccessful? It's so dangerous. You're looking outside yourself and saying that you're not enough. And if someone didn't work out, were you just a runner up contestant in this game show called happily ever after?
I don't think in saying this I'm being a heartless cynic. I just have a different conception of what a soulmate is and it's not in the form of the opposite sex who I'm meant to be with, romantically, for the rest of my life. But if it so happens that in the end that's who I find - well, that's just fabulous. ^_^
Chad - I think I got your address wrong. The letter I sent you got sent back! Could I get it from you again? Thanks! =)

posted by Joyce @ 10:31 PM 3 comments

Monday, May 23, 2005

God is not safe - but he's good

My friend Maura wrote about a sermon in her blog that I found very provocative. I want to share it with you. For those of you who have faiths elsewhere such as Buddha, Krishna, the Zen of Bazooka Joe or nothing at all - this is my faith; you don't have to agree with it - I just ask that you respect it.
Sometimes, I go to church and completely zone out during the sermon. Correction; a lot of the time. The times that I don't are directly correlated with the level of interest and excitement of the preacher, or if it's something God specifically wants me to hear. Then, there are those preachers who really, truly hear the heart of God and convey it with passion. I heard a sermon like that this morning. In one sentence, it was "God is not safe". When you enter the presence of God, nothing is safe except you yourself.Too often, the North American church has reduced God from the Lion of Judah to a cute teddy bear. Jesus is an Anglo-Saxon with a long straight nose, a hint of a smile, light glowing all around him as his blue eyes stare meaningfully (insert desired meaning here) at a fixed point in the sky, his head slightly tilted with flowing, light brown hair and a neatly trimmed beard. I don't like this picture of Jesus. He didn't go around staring meaningfully at things. He probably didn't wear white. He wasn't white. He was Middle Eastern. Jesus called out the hypocrisies of the pious Pharisees; he rampaged through the temple, turning over tables of those who were blatantly disrespecting God's temple. He said outrageous things, made mud out of spit, got up early to pray, saved a woman from stoning, ate with the "bad guys," invited himself over to other people's houses, and finally allowed himself to be hung on a cross. Jesus was not safe. Christians are called to be like Christ. And still, for some reason, he's widely used as a security blanket. For anyone who is not a Christian and is reading this, I hope that your conception of Jesus is not characterized as a white guy who stares meaningfully at things. He's so much more than that.
- Arthur, kudos on the paper on Labute. Award well deserved. =)

posted by Joyce @ 10:25 PM 1 comments

Thursday, May 19, 2005

No more grumpy

John Steinbeck once wrote, in The Winter of Discontent, "What a frightening thing is the human, a mass of gauges and dials and registers, and we can read only a few and those perhaps not accurately."
So, I have spent a large portion of this week (and last week) complaining about my WRITE 298 Prof. He is, in my short undergrad career, the most self indulging, narcissistic, yet, insecure prof I have ever had. Today's class proved to be no different - we sat and listened to him talk about everything that he knew in all areas _except_non - fiction writing; which is the topic of this course. As I was walking out of the classroom though, I decided on something. I'm going to like him, regardless. Do I find it creepy that he asked my cousin out on a date when she was 19 and his english 101 student? Yes. Do I hate that it's been 2 weeks of class and we still don't have a syllabus? Completely. Do I bring extra reading material to the class when he starts to digress about 80s pop music? Well...no - but I always regret my lack of foresight and misplaced optimism.
The thing is, it's easier to like someone than to dislike them. When you dislike someone, you spend all your time picking apart their idiosyncracies and why it bugs you. If you like them, you just accept it for what it is and you move on. It may be tiresome watching him pretend to pole vault across the room and imitate a ballerina, but if it were anyone else that I liked who was doing the same thing, it would have been comedic. Right? I believe that you're only going to get out of something as much as you put into it. I can walk into that classroom and sit in the back row with my mcgrumpy water, and my supersized serving of mcrolly eyes, but that's all I'm gonna get.
The fact of the matter is, he has something to teach me and I'm going to learn it. I'm never going to find out how interesting he is if I keep dismissing him as some self-loving middle aged guy who's desperately clinging onto his youth. So, starting tomorrow ( or I guess, today), I'm going to walk into that classroom with a better attitude intact and talk my little heart out - or as much and as loudly as my infected throat will let me.

posted by Joyce @ 12:44 AM 2 comments

Wednesday, May 18, 2005

I need to write an analytical essay on a movie ( that's supposed to represent cinematic greatness) for my WRITE class. Anyone have any suggestions?

posted by Joyce @ 6:57 PM 3 comments

I still have nothing of substance to post. I spent most of the day bonding with my couch and TV. *sheepish grin* All I have to say is that you should all download Sideways by Citizen Cope. His honey growl of a voice with his blues guitar will smooth all the troubles from your soul.

posted by Joyce @ 12:53 AM 0 comments

Tuesday, May 17, 2005

I finally sucked it up and went to the doctor. I have strep throat. He said very pointedly that if I had come earlier it would have been caught sooner...So, if you'll excuse me, I'm going back to bed and feel sorry for myself. =)

posted by Joyce @ 9:15 AM 1 comments

Monday, May 16, 2005

Oh, Advil - how I love thee. Thank you for all the rich, marvelous feelings of numbness you bring to my life.

posted by Joyce @ 5:47 PM 0 comments

Sunday, May 15, 2005

help!

Ok guys, I need your help. For the past 2 days I've been trying to figure out what this word is but I can't remember it. The definition is - when one always think that they have a new sickness and/or disease. Comments please. Whatever the word is; can you think that you have it? Can that be construed as irony? Because really, if you're cognisant of it...oh forget it. I'll ponder this another day when my neck, back, stomach, head and throat doesn't hurt.

posted by Joyce @ 12:38 AM 2 comments

Tuesday, May 10, 2005

A story that I'd like to share...

Once upon a time in a land far away (pastoral setting, camera sweeps over moors to a large brick house) there was a large brick house where nothing really happened because no one lived there. It was too boring even for mice! Then, someone tried to write a story (that would be picked up by Hollywood) about that house, but then it was realised that the only interesting thing about that house was how boring it was. The story sucked, the movie flopped, but several documentaries were made about the making of the movie, why it flopped and even the life story of the director. So, the director became rich after all ( and so did all the documentary directors). The End. *Challenge - what is the moral of this story?

posted by Joyce @ 11:54 PM 3 comments

Friday, May 06, 2005

Eat right, Exercise regularly - Die anyway

IN THE BEGINNING, there was the word. And the word was chocolate. And it was good...(Confections:1.5 oz.,240 cal.)
You remember chocolate. Chocolate was that nice smooth sweet stuff that melts in your mouth and your hands and everything else with which it, or you, came in contact. And it was good. I've long felt if you had melted chocolate all over your hands, you're eating it way too slowly anyway. And a small box of chocolates can provide you with your total daily intake of calories, right there in the one place. Now isn't that handy? Furthermore, chocolate contains preservatives and we already know that preservatives keep us young, so there is just another reason of many good reasons to eat something sweet.
But alas, everything we read/see/hear/ignore tells us otherwise. Well, if I am going to give up this small pleasure and so many other small pleasures that modern science has been denigrating with almost jubilant disdain for the last few years, I would like at least some of my questions in this regard answered.
Why is there an expiration date on my water and a calorie count on my face cream? Has anyone figured out yet, that EVIAN is simply NAIVE spelled backwards; and STRESSED is really DESSERTS the other way around? And if combining four and water makes glue, and then you add in eggs and sugar to make cake, where pray tell, does the glue go? How "free range" can a chicken be if it ends up as dinner anyway? And does anyone out there know what the best thing was before sliced bread?
Vegetarianism seems to be the "in" thing nowadays but do vegetarions really love animals, or do they just hate plants? Are you still allowed to eat animal crackers, and if coffee and chocolate, which originate from beans, count as vegetables? How do I know that the constant ingestion of plant matter will not eventually result in my leaning slightly towards the sun when I sit by the window?
International questions also come to mind, such as why are fortune cookies always written in English; what does Alphagetti look like in Japan, and would the head of a French company still be known as Le Grand Fromage?
Well, all this talk about food is making me hungry...so I'm going to go get a snack. ^_^ Thanks for the postcard Chad, I'll be sending something back soon. =)

posted by Joyce @ 10:16 PM 2 comments