Me...as Myself?

In case you haven't noticed, I have a few minutes of leisure for a change! So I can finally be communicado once more. My friend A., also known as Xana Ender, had an interesting game on her blog where you could use a picture of yourself to find which celebrities looked most like you. Ah, higher technology -- great stuff! I approved of several of her matches (even the guy looked surprisingly like her -- and he was pretty, too), so in my last chunk of leisure time I tried it out. So, for those of you who haven't seen me in a while and wish for a better description than the fuzzy picture of me at the piano, I am apparently a cross between Tom Cruise, David Copperfield (the magician), Kelly Hu (I'm unfamiliar with her work, but at least she's female, albeit rather more Asian in heritage than I am!), and Danny Devito. You may have to use your imaginations for this one!

What my Daddy sent me when I said I was a mess...

It's not exactly a father-daughter kind of thing, but it's good for us female types to remember that there are certain people who will never see us through our eyes -- and that maybe they have the more flattering perspective. Thanks, Daddy. :)

Aside to Husbands
By Ogden Nash
What do you do when you've wedded a girl all legal and lawful,
and she goes around saying she looks awful?
When she makes deprecatory remarks about her format,
And claims her hair looks like a doormat?
W hen she swears her complexion of which you are so fond,
Looks like the bottom of a dried-up pond?
When she for whom your affection is not the least like Plato's,
Compares her waist to a badly tied sack of potatos?
Oh, who wouldn't want to be on a flimsy bridge with a hungry lion at one end,
a hungry tiger at the other end and a hungry crocodile underneath,
than confronted be their dearest
making remarks about her own appearance
through clenched teeth?
Why won't they believe that the reason they find themselves
the Mother of your children is because you think of all the looks in the world,
their looks are the nicest?
Why must we continue to be ordealed and crisised?
I think it high time these hoity toity ladies were made to realize that
When they impugn their face and their ankles and their waist
They are thereby insultingly impugning their tasteful Husbands
Impeccable taste.

What happens when I just sit and think...

Observation
Words...
Sounds...
Footsteps...
Do you ever sit
and think
and let the world go by around you?
Voices,
People,
Lives playing out on the stage before you,
As you observe, touched and untouched by their drama...
Then,
A smile,
A brief moment of contact,
And you are no longer alone...
You have become part of the scene,
A character in the play,
No longer an island...
Words have meaning once more,
And you rejoin Life...
A participant,
An Observer no more...

Another Thing Everyone Should Do...

If you ever get the chance to hear Daniel Buranovsky give a piano recital, take it. If you ever get a chance to attend or participate in a master class given by him, be there. He is absolutely amazing. The man doesn't play piano -- he makes music. And even though he says he only knows a hundred words in English, he is one of the best teachers I've ever seen. They don't call him "Slovakia's premeire pianist" for nothing, you know!

A Book Report (III)

Okay, this doesn't really qualify as a book report, because I haven't actually finished reading the book yet. I'm going unusually slowly, savoring the thoughts and ideas.

Blue Like Jazz by Don Miller is stupendous. He's no theologian, but he shares very frankly his thoughts and experiences. Anyone who is frustrated in their search for authenticity in the Christian universe can find relief in this book. Particularly, people in their twenties (ahem) who find themselves odd-man out (ahem) because they don't fit the Christian Mold (or any other mold!), who are tired of "doing another book", who think few people feel the way that they do because everyone else seems to fit the Mold -- this is your book. He is not full of answers, but he has anecdotal evidence that will inspire, encourage, and challenge you. And he'll make you laugh quite a bit.

Pardon raving nature of this post -- I'm really not the fan type, and I wouldn't consider myself a fan of Don Miller, but I think this book is one of the most timely, appropriate things I've read. And B., you're never getting it back from me. :)

Okay, okay, I'll give it back. But I don't have to like it. :)