The Da Vinci Code effect

This article about this movie is pretty interesting.

The book caused so much confusion among non-Christians and Christians alike, that now, producing a movie that follows the ideas from that fiction novel is appropriate.

I am so glad that my faith is not dependent upon American pop culture.

Poisonwood Bible

I recently finished The Poisonwood Bible by Barbara Kingsolver. It's incredibly well-written and very interesting, as it ties in true historical events from the Congo with a fictional American family who serve there as missionaries.

Kingsolver has created a tale that is told from the perspectives of the five women in this family - the mother and her four daughters. Each chapter is narrated by one of them, alternating so the reader hears certain events from multiple views. The daughters range in age from six to sixteen, so each one has her own unique style of speaking, mistaken phrases and issues to sort through. I highly recommend this book to anyone who appreciates intriguing writing styles and story lines.

Two of my favorite quotes from the novel:

"To live is to be marked. To live is to change, to acquire the words of a story, and that is the only celebration we mortals really know. In perfect stillness...I've found only sorrow." p. 385 (italics are added)

"We constructed our lives around a misunderstanding, and if I ever tried to pull it out and fix it now, I would fall flat. Misunderstanding is my cornerstone...Illusions mistaken for truth are the pavement under our feet. They are what we call civilization." p. 532

Colossal, not to be confused with giant

BBC News keeps me up to date on what's happening around the world, even if I only remember to check out the web site every few days.

Today's Antarctic news revolves around a Colossal Squid captured in Antarctic waters. This brief article is worth the read if only for the diagram of the size of this ginormous ocean creature.

The diagram shows the Colossal squid at 20 metres, and for those of us who can't do metre to feet conversions in our heads, I used Google's amazing conversion ability to figure out that 20 metres is over 65 1/2 feet long. Or 21.8 yards, just over two first downs in football.

I hope I get to see this guy in a museum some day. I can't even really picture how huge he is.

Look at this damage?

Even if I was blind I could still feel that this is really damaged!

Pictures of Sophia's demise.

Sitting outside of my office window, she smiled whimsically, contentedly at the novel she was reading. She alone was privy to the secrets of that tale, to the world at her fingertips.

Oh, how I longed to be her at that moment!

Series of unfortunate events

Sophia was blinded today in one eye.

She was an innocent bystander, and it wasn't even until after the primary event took place that the blindness took hold.

What happened was this. Some people got in a snowball fight. Actually it was more like 1 snowball per the other person's 25. Sophia was being used for protection from the onslaught and a snowball caught her directly in the left eye, or side-mirror, as it may be.

After a short jaunt to Muncie and halfway back, Sophie lost her eye. It just flew right off, banged against her side and was gone into the darkness of the night. Even streetlights couldn't illuminate where it went.

I was stunned. At first I didn't know what hit me (literally, the side of the car). Then, as I glanced at Sophie's left mirror, I saw nothing but a dry socket, nothing but a gadget with wires. No light. No reflection.

Once the shock wore off, I couldn't help but laugh. Of course this would happen to me and my lovely midnight blue beast. Poor Sophia. Innocent that she is.

But she will forgive me. It's too funny for her to hold a grudge. A SNOWBALL, people. One little snowball. Knocked out her eye.

Snowbound

I was truly snowbound for 2 days last week. I didn't leave my house. And I thoroughly enjoyed it. I didn't want to leave and I, at least, had company for a few hours both days. My car was definitely stuck in the driveway and I've been forced for a week to use the front door, which I had never used on a regular basis prior to the blizz (short for blizzard).

I promised Calli that I'd post some pictures of the drifts, but by the time I got around to it yesterday, the weather was a balmy 39 and lots (not all, and not most, but some) of the snow had already melted. Here are the pictures of my yard and neighborhood, nonetheless. (my camera has a snow setting, which is awesome, so hopefully the pictures are good.)

From my front door
The neighbors and I are separated by a 2 1/2 foot drift.

The side door that I can no longer use was held shut by a 3 foot drift, now (as you can see) much diminished.
Across my yard past the neighbor's. Mary Ellen is in her 70's, I would guess, and I know she didn't leave her house for at least 4 days. When I got back from Chicago yesterday, her driveway was dry as a bone, and I wondered why the same person didn't plow/shovel mine, since it was obviously in need.

Thankfully, the warm weather (43 today and 48 tomorrow) should melt all of the treacherous ice from my drive and sidewalk.