Updates? What updates?

You fit in with: Humanism Your ideals mostly resemble that of a Humanist. Although you do not have a lot of faith, you are devoted to making this world better, in the short time that you have to live. Humanists do not generally believe in an afterlife, and therefore, are committed to making the world a better place for themselves and future generations. 20% spiritual. 40% reason-oriented.

Take this quiz at QuizGalaxy.com

Finally, an update....

I'm embarrassed to admit that, when I'm on the Internet, my attention span is SO short these days that I almost ran out of attention before I finished this post, but I'm glad I didn't let that stop me. I found it strangely moving, and I'm looking forward to seeing what comes after "part one".

Quack

This is Julie's fault again...

You Are A: Duckling!

The cutest of the cute, these baby ducks are often spotted in the spring following closely behind their mother. As a duckling you will grow up quickly, becoming one of the adult ducks seen commonly in ponds and streams. Playful and timid, charming and vulnerable, ducklings are nature's very definition of innocence.

You were almost a: Duck or a Frog
You are least like a: Groundhog or a PuppyWhat Cute Animal Are You?

Great Blogroll Purge

A blogroll, a blogroll, burn it!

All right, that's it. Dy and her family have REALLY BIG NEWS, and I didn't find out about it until today because my stupid Blogrolling update notifier didn't notify me.

This might not be Blogrolling's fault -- it's entirely possible that I just didn't look at my blogroll during my update-notify time window -- but the fact remains that this tool is not working for me.

Furthermore, I'm spending WAY too much of every day looking at blogs, and WAY too little living intentionally and dealing with my (inevitable) woeful ignorance.

It's getting to be a problem.

I'm not taking a blogging fast or an internet fast or a blog-reading fast, though; I'd hate to cause pain to any of my fellow addicts. :)

Instead, I'm making a Great Purge of my blogroll. Sort of. I mean, I have vast affection for every one of you on the blogroll (and a great many who aren't), but it's just too much temptation, having all those titles there waiting to be clicked. On the other hand, I still believe in the Mystical Power of Linking Good Blogs. So the whole blogroll is still there -- but it's further down, and in a smaller font. There's a Special Abbreviated Blogroll at the top.

I don't want to step on any toes, so listen up, this is important... The blogs that are in the super-secret tiny blogroll are blogs I love just as much as all the others. But, for any number of reasons, it's not the best use of my time to check them compulsively. Some don't update daily. Some, I've found, I enjoy more when I can read a whole glut of recent entries all at once (as I've mentioned before, I like to treat some blogs a little more like novels). And so on.

Another mini-post

I guess my Gentle Readers will find out if this is one of those "you had to be there" things... But, I have to say, this sentence (at least in context) brought me joy and laughter far disproportinate to its length. :)

"Nu? What's with the brown challah?"

I what?

Unfortunately, this result isn't reproducible, since the Advertising Slogan Generator gives you a new random slogan everytime.

But, really and truly, the first slogan it gave me for Hypatia was this:

Hypatia Saves Your Soul.

Hm. Suggestions?

All right, I read all the way through my Questions For the Month again, and they're a little more Aggressively Pious than I'm really comfortable with.

Anyone have any lists of self-examination questions on hand? Google's only finding me breast, testicular, and vulvar (vulvar?) self-examination; I could, and should, do an examination of conscience, but I don't really feel like confessing all them sins to the Internets.

So, oh brilliant readers.... any ideas?

(Update: Maybe I'll do something like this?)

Agh! It's October!!

I've been writing the date on things for three days now, and my last few days of posts would seem to indicate that I realized what month it is, but really I didn't. How on earth did it get to be October already? What happened?

A reminder I could often use...

From Wittingshire.

Daily stuff of the day for Sunday

Today's question:

2. What's the most humanly impossible thing you will ask God to do this year?

Er. Um.

...

So, after putting this one on the back burner for half an hour, I still don't have an answer. Frankly, it seems kind of presumptuous to me -- it smacks of giving God a deadline. Which can be useful from time to time, I think, when it's very important to get a sign or guidance; but it's not a "bargaining chip" I want to use lightly in prayer.

Quite honestly, what I've been praying for a lot lately is something like submission -- the ability to take what the universe throws at me and use it gratefully. I'm pretty sure I'll be praying for more of this quality all year, and possibly it's humanly impossible. So can that be my answer? It seems kind of smarmy, but still.


Today I am thankful for: Boyfriend's ability and willingness to watch my back, and arrange things in a way that takes good care of me. I have always appreciated this quality in him, and he's getting better and better at it.

http://www.scrappleface.com/MT/archives/002340.html

The examined life

Some time last week, I found this list of "Ten Questions to Ask at the Start of a New Year or On Your Birthday". There are ten main questions, and twenty-one extras to expand the list to a set of daily questions for a whole month. It's not my birthday, and it's not the new year (though it would be close if I were Jewish); it's just a new month, and a month that conveniently has enough days for all these questions. :) It seems like as good a time as any to begin examining my life a little more methodically.

Here's today's question, and my thoughts on it:

1. What's one thing you could do this year to increase your enjoyment of God?

I could definitely use some improvement in my ability to remember the good and lovely things that happen each day. I'm good at noticing them, but it's too easy to forget them. For at least a little while, I'll try to keep a record of at least one thing I'm grateful for each day. Fall's a good season for that, what with Thanksgiving coming up and all.

Why all this meditation and borderline saccharine posting lately? It's a little hard to explain succinctly. To begin with, I read a lot of the blogs I read because I like getting glimpses into the lives of their authors. An awful lot of the people on my blogroll are people I want to be like in some way or other: they're funny, or wise, or good parents, or joyful, or good writers (those are inclusive, not exclusive, or's). Now, I definitely enjoy a good snark as much as the next person, but I'm not always that great at being funny about them, so I'm trying to take a bit of a break from the snarking until I can take myself less seriously. I haven't got any cute kids to tell stories about, and don't anticipate having any in, say, the next few months.

So what's left to emulate? Well, one thing I've been thinking about a lot lately is the care and effort some of my blog-friends put into examining their lives and making changes to reflect what they really want from life. Amira and MFS and Alaska and Sarah and Sora come to mind, but they're far from the only examples. Left to myself, I analyze and over-analyze details, but I haven't historically been that great at looking at the bigger picture, at figuring out what I want and going for it. So, this year, I'm using whatever gimmicks it takes (like this month of questions and gratitudes) to haul myself over to the track I want to be on -- the big wide road of Examining My Life, where hopefully I'll be able to find the side roads and tiny paths I want to set myself on.

Today I am grateful for: The weather! It's finally fall here. The daytime sun is warm, but there's a chill in the air when I wake up. Cold air feels clean and wakes me up, and makes indoor spaces seem that much warmer and cozier.

Isn't this just lovely?

link

Restful Saturday

It is awfully nice to have a whole day, every now and then, when I don't have to leave the house. I slept in a little, had breakfast and a (very short) walk in the morning sunshine, and since the late morning I've been implementing my plan for today: Be Appallingly Domestic.

I've done the dishes and started laundry; when the laundry's done I'm going to vacuum (my apartment is desperately in need of a vacuuming). I made a reasonably decorative foil-and-cardboard thingy to sit under my dining-table candles, which WILL keep dripping wax no matter how many times I scold them. I'm going to make bread, and also either cookies or oatmeal bannocks. And I'm going to wash my sheets, and I'm going to spend some time outside soaking in the GORGEOUS fall day. (Probably I'll have to take some homework with me for that last one. Silly homework.)

Even my lunch is both healthy and tasty (the "healthy" was NOT in the plan, but it's nice that it worked out that way...) Hot mulled cranberry juice, fresh coleslaw with ranch dressing, and shredded wheat with melted cheese, salt and pepper, and just a touch of honey. Kind of weird, but also delicious. Also nearly gone, so I had better start peeling myself off the computer before it totally sucks away this rare fit of work-ethic....