The past few days I have been deeply pondering some things.
The only definite conclusion I came to is this:
I am wealthy with beautiful friends.
Wednesday, December 10, 2008
Sunday, November 30, 2008
Thursday, November 13, 2008
Why This Day is so Wonderful.
Went to Tim Hortons with my brothas (consequently arrived at school too late to go to English...): instant gratification.
Got lots of little things done during art class including handing in stuff; signing up for stuff; bumping into people and talking to them about stuff; discussing deviance with Dr. Epp; receiving, losing and then retrieving a balloon; calling my mom; starting to make a doozy of a crossword; discovering a secret hallway; etc.
Currently in History with the recieved/lost/retrieved balloon tied to the seat next to me,
and soon
Mother is picking me up from school so that I may go to a clinic where they will extract from me a vile of blood to examine.
Hooray for days full of amusing/enlightening/unusual things.
-CH
Got lots of little things done during art class including handing in stuff; signing up for stuff; bumping into people and talking to them about stuff; discussing deviance with Dr. Epp; receiving, losing and then retrieving a balloon; calling my mom; starting to make a doozy of a crossword; discovering a secret hallway; etc.
Currently in History with the recieved/lost/retrieved balloon tied to the seat next to me,
and soon
Mother is picking me up from school so that I may go to a clinic where they will extract from me a vile of blood to examine.
Hooray for days full of amusing/enlightening/unusual things.
-CH
Monday, November 3, 2008
This Sucks.
I recently became aware of a film that was newly released called Trade. It's about sex-trafficking in Mexico and the U.S. and was inspired by Peter Landesman's eye-opening article in the New York Times on the trade.
Yeah. I read the article and yeah. I'm entirely speechless. I cried. I can't believe this happens. I didn't understand the full extent of this operation. I feel like more people should be aware. We need to pray. We need to do something.
I really encourage you to read this article http://www.nytimes.com/2004/01/25/magazine/25SEXTRAFFIC.html?pagewanted=1&ei=5007en=43dbe6ef76e45af8ex=1390366800
and to check out the movie website. http://www.tradethemovie.com/
Yeah. I read the article and yeah. I'm entirely speechless. I cried. I can't believe this happens. I didn't understand the full extent of this operation. I feel like more people should be aware. We need to pray. We need to do something.
I really encourage you to read this article http://www.nytimes.com/2004/01/25/magazine/25SEXTRAFFIC.html?pagewanted=1&ei=5007en=43dbe6ef76e45af8ex=1390366800
and to check out the movie website. http://www.tradethemovie.com/
Tuesday, August 5, 2008
Cambridge Adventures: Day Two - Monday, Monday
Monday morning in Cambridge was pretty standard:
Reluctant wake-up
Breakfast
Walk to the church (we followed random group of conferees on a "short"-cut! The walk is now 14 minutes, as opposed to 15...)
Meditation
First plenary address
The address was pretty interesting - the speaker was Wilfred McClay, yet another professor/author/scholar dude, who spoke on our society's confused notion of happiness and self-gratification. He quoted John Stuart Mill ("Ask yourself if you are happy, and you will cease to be so.") and yeah. I can't remember much.
But the Q&A period after dealt with what we can do to deal with/change a society like this.
After the first address I left to shop, if memory serves me correctly. I don't think I bought anything, though I do remember finding a store called Topshop which was most appealing to my preferred style of dress. I may return there in due time when I'm in a more shopping frame of mind.
Soon enough, it was time for my first poetry class! My elective for this week is a Poetry Workshop led by the British poet, Malcolm Guite. He is... a FANTASTIC man. His energy and enthusiasm are so incredibly gripping and contagious. He's a priest, a poet, and a rock musician. He sports a full beard and a tangled mop of unkempt hair. A true artist.
Everyone in the class was transfixed - he's like a child in a man's body, bouncing around, eyes full of wonder and light, hands waving madly as he talks.
And his poems are fantastic. (example to come.)
We talked about what a poem is, why we write them, what purpose they serve. We also discussed a few things about technique and form and talked about the villainelle.
At 5:30, everyone piled on coaches to go to Chilford Hall, deep in the countryside of Cambridge. It was about a half an hour drive, during which I marvelled at the scenery and sang to myself (not knowing the length of the drive, I didn't bother to take my book or iPod) while my mother chattered with some lovely people sitting by us.
Chilford Hall is a country-ish uhm... place I guess. It was interesting. There were a few different buildings, but we were in the main hall. Outside on the big lawn there were random areas in which Grecian statues were set up. It didn't seem to fit the whole theme of "English countryside" we all agreed. But anyways. When everyone arrived we all walked around and mingled - I met up with a dear girl, Elizabeth, who was in my film class in Oxford. We explored and chatted with each other and got to know each other better which was delightful. She's here with both of her parents, and I'm here with my mom - in each other, we found solace: an escape from the clutches of parental company. (Drama queen, I know.)
So dinner started. We ate.
AND THEN... the partayyyy began. The Mellstock Band is a group of musicians who specialize in old English country music - they were featured on the new Pride and Prejudice. They were there to play for us and teach us English dances very much like those you see in Pride and Prejudice! So there we were (about 50 of us, at least) on the dance floor, learning old English dancing. And it was by far as fun as it looks in the movies. Elizabeth and I partnered (she was Lizzie, I was Mr. Darcy) and good times were had by all. It was an awesome way to meet everyone, and I'm pretty sure none of us stopped laughing the entire time we were on the floor - which was a couple hours. We took the last bus home at some late hour, with all the other spirited inividuals who stuck it out 'til the end. (Needless to say, both of our parents had left much earlier.)
Back at Robinson, Elizabeth and I made plans to sleep in the next morning and go out for breakfast together.
I slept very well that night.
-CH
Reluctant wake-up
Breakfast
Walk to the church (we followed random group of conferees on a "short"-cut! The walk is now 14 minutes, as opposed to 15...)
Meditation
First plenary address
The address was pretty interesting - the speaker was Wilfred McClay, yet another professor/author/scholar dude, who spoke on our society's confused notion of happiness and self-gratification. He quoted John Stuart Mill ("Ask yourself if you are happy, and you will cease to be so.") and yeah. I can't remember much.
But the Q&A period after dealt with what we can do to deal with/change a society like this.
After the first address I left to shop, if memory serves me correctly. I don't think I bought anything, though I do remember finding a store called Topshop which was most appealing to my preferred style of dress. I may return there in due time when I'm in a more shopping frame of mind.
Soon enough, it was time for my first poetry class! My elective for this week is a Poetry Workshop led by the British poet, Malcolm Guite. He is... a FANTASTIC man. His energy and enthusiasm are so incredibly gripping and contagious. He's a priest, a poet, and a rock musician. He sports a full beard and a tangled mop of unkempt hair. A true artist.
Everyone in the class was transfixed - he's like a child in a man's body, bouncing around, eyes full of wonder and light, hands waving madly as he talks.
And his poems are fantastic. (example to come.)
We talked about what a poem is, why we write them, what purpose they serve. We also discussed a few things about technique and form and talked about the villainelle.
At 5:30, everyone piled on coaches to go to Chilford Hall, deep in the countryside of Cambridge. It was about a half an hour drive, during which I marvelled at the scenery and sang to myself (not knowing the length of the drive, I didn't bother to take my book or iPod) while my mother chattered with some lovely people sitting by us.
Chilford Hall is a country-ish uhm... place I guess. It was interesting. There were a few different buildings, but we were in the main hall. Outside on the big lawn there were random areas in which Grecian statues were set up. It didn't seem to fit the whole theme of "English countryside" we all agreed. But anyways. When everyone arrived we all walked around and mingled - I met up with a dear girl, Elizabeth, who was in my film class in Oxford. We explored and chatted with each other and got to know each other better which was delightful. She's here with both of her parents, and I'm here with my mom - in each other, we found solace: an escape from the clutches of parental company. (Drama queen, I know.)
So dinner started. We ate.
AND THEN... the partayyyy began. The Mellstock Band is a group of musicians who specialize in old English country music - they were featured on the new Pride and Prejudice. They were there to play for us and teach us English dances very much like those you see in Pride and Prejudice! So there we were (about 50 of us, at least) on the dance floor, learning old English dancing. And it was by far as fun as it looks in the movies. Elizabeth and I partnered (she was Lizzie, I was Mr. Darcy) and good times were had by all. It was an awesome way to meet everyone, and I'm pretty sure none of us stopped laughing the entire time we were on the floor - which was a couple hours. We took the last bus home at some late hour, with all the other spirited inividuals who stuck it out 'til the end. (Needless to say, both of our parents had left much earlier.)
Back at Robinson, Elizabeth and I made plans to sleep in the next morning and go out for breakfast together.
I slept very well that night.
-CH
Monday, August 4, 2008
Cambridge Adventures: Day One - An English Sabbath
It was an interesting Sunday. One that I am not at all accustomed to. In saying this, I don't mean that it was unenjoyable at all. Here's what happened:
In the morning, I skipped breakfast and slept in. Oh, the delight! So, I didn't get up until after ten. Then I went to the market and got myself something to eat and walked/shopped around for a bit. It was a nice relaxing morning.
A little after one, coaches left from Robinson to go to Ely Cathedral for the afternoon and for our worship service. I read the whole way there - I bought the next book in my series... I just couldn't wait til I got home!
Ely Cathedral is the most breath-taking building I've seen yet, and that's saying something, considering the buildings that are in Oxford and Cambridge! Here are some shots:
"Wot's this? I'm in Narnia?!"
I just couldn't keep my eyes off that Cathedral!
Two hallways like this ran down the sides of the main worship area.
The main hall - I'm standing in the middle of it, so this goes about the same distance behind me, too. :O
This was the catachism area - there's built-in desks on both sides that are hard to see.
The dome above where the priests stand and the choir and stuff.
So those pictures don't really show a fraction of the cathedral... there were so many staggering details. If you ever to England, make SURE you take a day trip to go see the Ely Cathedral.
To [unintentionally] enhance the whole experience, there happened to be a chamber choir recording a CD there that day, and they were in some obscure wing, away from the tourist-infested areas, but while we were walking around outside, we could hear it through the walls... it sounded like LOTR music. It was SO beautiful! We went in to the huge room they were recording in and watched for a while.
The worship service was very interesting. I believe a congregation regularly meets there, and so our huge group joined them. It's an Anglican church, so there were lots of ceremonies and formal practices - they were pretty cool though. A boys and mens choir was leading the service - most of which they sang - all these prayers and texts - in beautiful harmony, of course. It was amazing. And we kneeled to pray! That was pretty cool. It was a bit hard to concentrate on the act of worshipping... I was so in awe at everything! But I guess marvelling at beauty is worshipping, in a way.
Anyways, we went back to Cambridge right after the service and had an opening reception (there were lots of new people joining us for the Cambridge week) but I was pretty tired, so I didn't stay too long. I just read and rested until our evening session at the St. Mary's (the University church at Cambridge) which was really cool. Paul Barnes played some more Phillip Glass pieces (this time from his Orphee symphonies) and Kate Butler sang some finally unopera songs! They were just humourous musical-esque pieces that she acted/sang - the first was about a woman who was far too in love with her iPod, and the second was about a couple who's marriage was destroyed because of an unhealthy addiction to Sunday morning crosswords. They were pretty funny.
After the performances, American artist Bruce Herman (http://bruceherman.com/index.htm) gave an informal talk on how our culture views beauty - has lost sight of it, actually - and how art affects/is affected by that. It was a question/answer style lecture, so that was pretty sweet.
An Oxbridge tradition is the Bag-end Cafe. I can't remember if I've mentioned it before, but yeah, it was started a few years ago by a regular conferee, Andrew Lazzo, a really funny and energetic guy who teaches mythology at a University in the States somewheres. Anyways, the Bag-end Cafe is just this: everyone is invited to the college bar and we mingle and drink, then every night there's a special guest who answers questions or leads a discussion (always related to the Arts) and it's a really informal and comfortable atmosphere. Also, people can share poetry and prose, and yeah. Basically it's just a gathering of Art lovers who come together to drink and talk. I went for the first time at night and enjoyed it SO thoroughly! Bruce Herman was the guest there, so I was able to ask him all the questions I was too scared to ask at the big lecture. Then some people read some of their poetry and the actor dude, Tony Lawton, sang a song - I think he had consumed a couple pints by this time. It was a beautiful folk song though, and he sung very well.
It was just so much fun; I wish I had started going last week.
By the time I got back to my room, it was almost 12, so I just crashed - hence I am a day behind in blogging, and will probably remain so for the rest of the week. So I'll have to tell you about today, tomorrow, and so on and so forth.
Anyways. Until tomorrow then - I have many exciting events to tell you about!
-CH
Saturday, August 2, 2008
Cambridge Adventures! Day .75
Yes. Today was not a full Cambridge day. Hence the decimal seven-fiveness.
Anyways, I am muchly looking forward to my delightful bed. Off to sleep I go!
-CH
In the morning after breakfast everyone brought their luggage down and waited by the porter's lodge to get on a coach. It was sad to leave Keble... stepping through that giant Medieval wooden door one last time... Oxford is an amazing city, and I will do everything in my power to return there someday. There's still so many things to see! And pictures to take! And good times to be had! Indeed. Oxford has not seen the last of me...
On the coach, I read a tad but mostly listened to music, slept and watch the beautiful scenery whip by the windows. Cambridge is much more in the country, so for most of the drive I was serenaded by images of rolling hills, lush fields, and far too many sheep. The sleep was sketch - it threatened to be the "demented spine" scenario all over again, but Mother-bird came to the rescue with one of her magic massages [I credit all my skills to her].
Three hours later, it was CAMBRIDGE TIME. Hurrah! We're staying at Robinson College, which was built in the 80's, so the surroundings are quite different from those at Keble. But the building boasts some spectacularly wacked out artistic details - I have yet to photograph them, but will soon.
So, my mama and I got settled into our [seperate] rooms [right next door to each other] which are quite nice. We both have a balcony which we share with our respective neighbours - mine, a young poet named George; Mom's; a young lady who's name I do not yet know.
After settlation and restation, we headed to town. The layout of Cambridge is drastically different than that of Oxford. Cambridge is much more in the country, so things are further apart. The walk from Robinson to the town is about 15 minutes, and is mostly along a very picturesque walkway, followed on both sides by a creek and many willows. Then you cross a busy street and the walk continues on the otherside, goes over an acient stone bridge and on the other side is the Medieval town of Cambridge! The buildings are as spectacular as in Oxford, but there's something much more charming and rural about Cambridge, even though there are tons of people walking the streets and just as many [actually, more!] nice stores than in Oxford. It's a very different place - I'm sure you'll see by the pictures I'll eventually take/post.
Anyways, once in town, we found a restaurant - the Cambridge Chophouse. Sounds highly uncivilized, but it was a beautiful bistro-esque place, very classy in all respects. The food was also spectacular - I had a steak with quite possibly the best mushroom sauce in all of Christendom. Oh, and my mom and I shared a bottle of delicious Shiraz! Though, I can assure you, that has nothing to do with the crookedness of this shot:
This was one section in the back of the restaraunt. This tunnel led to a room with one big table in it for larger parties.
Funkay. N'est pas?
A close up of the artwork on the back wall. I loved it!
After lunch, it was time for the market. Yes, in Cambridge's town square, there is an open-air market place! We all know how Catherine loves such things, so I was in my glory. There was even a retro clothing stall.... :D. I only bought a couple things today, but I will be hitting it up again.
Mom went back to the college - markets are not her thing. No form of shopping is, really. Not even groceries. Anyways, Mom went back the the college, and so I spent the next few hours shopping in various boutiques and such. There are sooo many little streets and stuff here, I think one could shop for a week solid and still not have seen them all! Hence I bought no clothes today - I want to scout it all out first.
This evening, we had the option of watching a movie in the Robinson College Theatre entitled C.S. Lewis: Dreamer of Narnia. It was a really cool documentary-type film about what inspired Lewis for each of the Narnia books. It was excellently put together and was very interesting. I learned a lot about the less-known details of Lewis' life.
After the movie, Mom and I decided to walk back into town to have a drink and some dessert. We went to a small cafe and sat outside, eating apple pie and drinking delightful cafe concoctions, and chatting about deep things! Mostly the future. As it turns out, Mom's are pretty good at that stuff.
Anyways, I am muchly looking forward to my delightful bed. Off to sleep I go!
-CH
Friday, August 1, 2008
Oxford Adventures: Day Five. [Last Full Oxfordian Day :'( ]
Sigh. Yes. 'Twas my last full day in the wonderful world of Oxford.
It was as splendid as the rest, and began quite the same - waking up, breakfasting, then down to St. Aldates.
An Anglican-Orthodox bishop named Kallistos Ware gave the address. Sounds like a wizard, yes? He looked like one too, with his big white beard and black robes. He was super cool though. When he first started, I thought he would be very lofty and proper, like most bishops (since I know so many of them), but then soon into his schpeel he cracked a joke - a funny one! - much to everyone's shock. He turned out to have a brilliant sense of humour which he employed throughout his talk on the image of God. He explained the three parts entailed in our being made in God's image and yeah. It was beautiful. I didn't agree with all of his theology though. At the end he was telling us a story about how a man came up to him on the train, fixed him the old beady eye and asked that pointed question: "Are you saved?" Well, Bishop Kallistos didn't know how to answer - on the one hand, he's wearing these black bishop robes... it may have been odd to answer no. Maybe is an unsubstantial answer. And yes? Well... that's not entirely true. He answered the man with "I trust in God that I am being saved." I dunno. It says in one of Paul's books I believe [yikes... I hate not knowing the text] that those who believe that Christ died for us and rose three days later, conquering death will be saved.
I think we have a lot more hope than Bishop Kallistos believes.
But yeah. He's a brilliant man and his meditation was beautiful.
[fun fact: he was in a Socratean club at college with C.S. Lewis! They weren't nerds at all!]
Our first session was led by an American lawyer, Patrick Brennan. He wore Atticus Finch glasses! It was awesome. He presented his talk (on "The Human Person in the Eyes of the Law") very much like a court case - super organized. It was interesting-ish but... I'm not very captivated by the law and all the boring procedures that go with it. But I will say, he was very nice to listen to. He used elevated language and his speech flowed very nicely.
Ok, the icing on the cake! This is the first morning that I've stayed for the entire morning session, simply because I've been anticipating this talk all week: "Art and the Search for Meaning" led by the poet man, Dana Gioia! It was by far the most beautiful, inspiring, and illuminating talk I've heard. Ever. I got goosebumps from a speech!
His whole talk was based around how the academics of our age have become trapped in a world of methodology - they've lost the beauty, usefulness and honesty of art.
Some comments he made were just fantastic - "You do not choose to be an artist - it calls you. It is an awakening which can't be ignored." SO true! Have you ever seen someone who tries to be "artistic"? You can spot such people from a mile away. Being artistic is something that just sort of blossoms - it's a part of your nature.
He explained his past - he grew up in Hawthorne, Cali. which is apparently not a very nice city. His parents were poor - his mom was an uneducated Mexican immigrant an she read poetry to him all the time. Then he talked about how when he was in university studying English, he realized one day that his classes weren't going to help him to become a poet. They were teaching him to write and speak of literature in a theoretical way, which is not universal! As he described it "in a way that the very people I came from would not be able to understand."
So true. Stupid academics. We live in a bankrupt culture.
I could go on and on with details... [I'm definetly buying the recording of his session] but his conclusion was that we need to reconnect ourselves with the idea of beauty and understanding the nature of the world (achieved through the study and appreciation of art). Art refines our intellect, our emotions, our imagination... that's why it's key to upbringing and education! It gives the opportunity for transformation. So. We need to bring it to our education systems, our churches, the media, etc.
After the sessions, we had a free afternoon, but not before all the conference members met at Christ Church College to take a group photo, not important but what IS fascinating is that Christ Church College... is Hogwarts!!! Yes. Much of the HP films are shot in Christ Church.
Next, my mother and I went to the Eagle and Child pub for some lunch - Lewis and Tolkien hung out there lots, so we decided we had to eat there.
In the afternoon I did all our laundry and nearly finished my book [New Moon] while I waited - hurrah! Though I think I'm going to need to by the next book in the series at a bookstore here cause I'm very nuch into it now.
After laundry, I went for a walk and stopped at Unicorn to do some British vintage shopping! I eagerly swung open the door and... uhm. Well. First of all, almost tripped on a few random shoes and piles of clothes, but when I managed to get in, I was met with something most unexpected! A tiny. TINY. Space. Utterly surrounded by mounds of clothes and suitcases and clothes racks and an old dresser and some coatracks and random unpaired shoes almost up to the ceiling. It was mayhem! And in the midst of it, a tiny lady sorting piles of things into other piles of things. So. In the 4 square feet of space in which we had to stand, I did my best to start picking through piles, digging through dressers, rifling through racks... Now, I did find some ver beautiful things - a snap clutch from the 1940's, a beaded flapper dress from the 20's, an embroidered purse from the 70's, etc. But this batty old woman seemed like she didn't want to sell anything... it was so weird! When I asked about an awesome leather jacket in the window, she said "No, it's a 38 men's. The shoulders'll be too big for you." Excuse me lady. I've been eyeing that jacket for a few days now... I've examined it at great length, in fact. I do believe it would fit me quite right actually. (It was so boss... and definetly not a 38 men's. I think it was actually a women's cut.)
Anyways, seeing as it would require me to climb over an immense (not to mention, precarious) mountain of clothes twice my height to get to the window display, I decided to let it go.
After a while of digging, another customer came in and started digging. Then another. Then another! It was RIDICULOUS. We literally could hardly move. And everytime someone asked about something, she either dismissed their request with "that wouldn't fit you" or by naming some ridiculous price for it. She was crazy. I suppose all those things piled up there are her treasures and she doesn't want to part with them. Not a very lucrative way to run a business, but uhm. Yeah. Different strokes.
We went to dinner when I came back, and I ended up beside another student (third year, American) named Rachel. We had a very animated discussion over our salmon (ick) and broccoli
about all sorts of things, mostly ending up in American politics. She explained lots of things to me about what's going on with the election and it was very interesting. She gave me her email address and next week in Cambridge we're planning to meet up to continue talking!
After dinner we had our Oxford closing ceremony at the University church - it was a worship service led by an Anglican priest - he talked about how Lewis was a prophet because he predicted that there would be an age of relativism - well taa-daa! It's here.
Singing in that cathedral is just breath-taking. We sang Holy, Holy, Holy and tons of people harmonized and it just rang through the church so majestically (the acoustics are incredible!)
There was a reception afterwards so people could say goodbye to those who aren't going to Cambridge. My mom and I talked with this couple and their daughter (the dad and the daughter - named Elizabeth - were in my film class) and they're all really nice. Elizabeth is in highschool and she's quite cool. We discussed hanging out next week so we can together escape our parents for a while. Apparently she hasn't taken to walking the streets alone, as I have, to keep her sanity. But indeed! It will be fun. I'm looking forward to a) having company and b) getting to know her better.
Well, I'm quite tired. It's almost 1.
Til tomorrow!
-CH
It was as splendid as the rest, and began quite the same - waking up, breakfasting, then down to St. Aldates.
An Anglican-Orthodox bishop named Kallistos Ware gave the address. Sounds like a wizard, yes? He looked like one too, with his big white beard and black robes. He was super cool though. When he first started, I thought he would be very lofty and proper, like most bishops (since I know so many of them), but then soon into his schpeel he cracked a joke - a funny one! - much to everyone's shock. He turned out to have a brilliant sense of humour which he employed throughout his talk on the image of God. He explained the three parts entailed in our being made in God's image and yeah. It was beautiful. I didn't agree with all of his theology though. At the end he was telling us a story about how a man came up to him on the train, fixed him the old beady eye and asked that pointed question: "Are you saved?" Well, Bishop Kallistos didn't know how to answer - on the one hand, he's wearing these black bishop robes... it may have been odd to answer no. Maybe is an unsubstantial answer. And yes? Well... that's not entirely true. He answered the man with "I trust in God that I am being saved." I dunno. It says in one of Paul's books I believe [yikes... I hate not knowing the text] that those who believe that Christ died for us and rose three days later, conquering death will be saved.
I think we have a lot more hope than Bishop Kallistos believes.
But yeah. He's a brilliant man and his meditation was beautiful.
[fun fact: he was in a Socratean club at college with C.S. Lewis! They weren't nerds at all!]
Our first session was led by an American lawyer, Patrick Brennan. He wore Atticus Finch glasses! It was awesome. He presented his talk (on "The Human Person in the Eyes of the Law") very much like a court case - super organized. It was interesting-ish but... I'm not very captivated by the law and all the boring procedures that go with it. But I will say, he was very nice to listen to. He used elevated language and his speech flowed very nicely.
Ok, the icing on the cake! This is the first morning that I've stayed for the entire morning session, simply because I've been anticipating this talk all week: "Art and the Search for Meaning" led by the poet man, Dana Gioia! It was by far the most beautiful, inspiring, and illuminating talk I've heard. Ever. I got goosebumps from a speech!
His whole talk was based around how the academics of our age have become trapped in a world of methodology - they've lost the beauty, usefulness and honesty of art.
Some comments he made were just fantastic - "You do not choose to be an artist - it calls you. It is an awakening which can't be ignored." SO true! Have you ever seen someone who tries to be "artistic"? You can spot such people from a mile away. Being artistic is something that just sort of blossoms - it's a part of your nature.
He explained his past - he grew up in Hawthorne, Cali. which is apparently not a very nice city. His parents were poor - his mom was an uneducated Mexican immigrant an she read poetry to him all the time. Then he talked about how when he was in university studying English, he realized one day that his classes weren't going to help him to become a poet. They were teaching him to write and speak of literature in a theoretical way, which is not universal! As he described it "in a way that the very people I came from would not be able to understand."
So true. Stupid academics. We live in a bankrupt culture.
I could go on and on with details... [I'm definetly buying the recording of his session] but his conclusion was that we need to reconnect ourselves with the idea of beauty and understanding the nature of the world (achieved through the study and appreciation of art). Art refines our intellect, our emotions, our imagination... that's why it's key to upbringing and education! It gives the opportunity for transformation. So. We need to bring it to our education systems, our churches, the media, etc.
After the sessions, we had a free afternoon, but not before all the conference members met at Christ Church College to take a group photo, not important but what IS fascinating is that Christ Church College... is Hogwarts!!! Yes. Much of the HP films are shot in Christ Church.
Next, my mother and I went to the Eagle and Child pub for some lunch - Lewis and Tolkien hung out there lots, so we decided we had to eat there.
In the afternoon I did all our laundry and nearly finished my book [New Moon] while I waited - hurrah! Though I think I'm going to need to by the next book in the series at a bookstore here cause I'm very nuch into it now.
After laundry, I went for a walk and stopped at Unicorn to do some British vintage shopping! I eagerly swung open the door and... uhm. Well. First of all, almost tripped on a few random shoes and piles of clothes, but when I managed to get in, I was met with something most unexpected! A tiny. TINY. Space. Utterly surrounded by mounds of clothes and suitcases and clothes racks and an old dresser and some coatracks and random unpaired shoes almost up to the ceiling. It was mayhem! And in the midst of it, a tiny lady sorting piles of things into other piles of things. So. In the 4 square feet of space in which we had to stand, I did my best to start picking through piles, digging through dressers, rifling through racks... Now, I did find some ver beautiful things - a snap clutch from the 1940's, a beaded flapper dress from the 20's, an embroidered purse from the 70's, etc. But this batty old woman seemed like she didn't want to sell anything... it was so weird! When I asked about an awesome leather jacket in the window, she said "No, it's a 38 men's. The shoulders'll be too big for you." Excuse me lady. I've been eyeing that jacket for a few days now... I've examined it at great length, in fact. I do believe it would fit me quite right actually. (It was so boss... and definetly not a 38 men's. I think it was actually a women's cut.)
Anyways, seeing as it would require me to climb over an immense (not to mention, precarious) mountain of clothes twice my height to get to the window display, I decided to let it go.
After a while of digging, another customer came in and started digging. Then another. Then another! It was RIDICULOUS. We literally could hardly move. And everytime someone asked about something, she either dismissed their request with "that wouldn't fit you" or by naming some ridiculous price for it. She was crazy. I suppose all those things piled up there are her treasures and she doesn't want to part with them. Not a very lucrative way to run a business, but uhm. Yeah. Different strokes.
We went to dinner when I came back, and I ended up beside another student (third year, American) named Rachel. We had a very animated discussion over our salmon (ick) and broccoli
about all sorts of things, mostly ending up in American politics. She explained lots of things to me about what's going on with the election and it was very interesting. She gave me her email address and next week in Cambridge we're planning to meet up to continue talking!
After dinner we had our Oxford closing ceremony at the University church - it was a worship service led by an Anglican priest - he talked about how Lewis was a prophet because he predicted that there would be an age of relativism - well taa-daa! It's here.
Singing in that cathedral is just breath-taking. We sang Holy, Holy, Holy and tons of people harmonized and it just rang through the church so majestically (the acoustics are incredible!)
There was a reception afterwards so people could say goodbye to those who aren't going to Cambridge. My mom and I talked with this couple and their daughter (the dad and the daughter - named Elizabeth - were in my film class) and they're all really nice. Elizabeth is in highschool and she's quite cool. We discussed hanging out next week so we can together escape our parents for a while. Apparently she hasn't taken to walking the streets alone, as I have, to keep her sanity. But indeed! It will be fun. I'm looking forward to a) having company and b) getting to know her better.
Well, I'm quite tired. It's almost 1.
Til tomorrow!
-CH
Thursday, July 31, 2008
Oxford Adventures: Day Four.
This morning we slept in a bit and got breakfast at a little coffee shop on our way to St. Aldate's. I could just taste that the eggs on my breakfast baguette were free-range, even through the saltiness of the bacon. Oh British cooking.
This morning's meditation was led by a man named Gil Bailie, yet another aclaimed author and lecturer! I was surprised when he went up to speak - I had chatted with him at dinner sometime this week, not knowing who he was. I think it's pretty cool that such a brilliant philosphy lecturer could just chat it up with me about life and school.
His talk was really good - he talked about how God created us for communion and that has a biological dimension (human to human) and a "neurological" dimension: God created us to imitate Him.
Human nature is to imitate - despite what postmodern thinkers may like to believe, man will always be imitating. There's no such thing as "indiviuality". He elaborated on it very clearly and concisely... unfortunately I can't do the same, as it's 12:30 AM here.
His conclusion was that in order to attain true peace (goal of postmodernism) we have to imitate Christ.
The speaker at the first session was a real Oxford professor, Richard Swinburne. The man fit so well the typical image of an English professor, it was hilarious. He had the proper accent and everything! And he kept stopping and saying "Right!" So good.
But... his talk was uhm... well. My brain blew a few fuses. It was a philosophical rationalization of how Humans are Made of Two Parts: Body and Soul. Now... attempting to rationalize something that isn't rational is quite the feat... and have you ever read anything written by a philosopher? Long, run-on, confusing sentences.... That's how he spoke. Granted, there were many brilliant people in the crowd who understood and enjoyed his talk, but the majority of us artistic ones were completely and utterly without hope. I attempted to quote him in my notes: "If I were just a physical property, my mental survival would consist of several variables of physical parts, mental properties and pure mental events, which of course would all depend on other variables, including..." And then he lost me.
So yeah. I was mentally exhausted that, the longest 90 minutes of my life - so to my room I returned to sleep, which I happily did until after noon.
Our concluding film class was today. So sad. I enjoyed it thoroughly! Today we talked a lot about editing and frame sequence and stuff, but also about the industry, which was very interesting. We talked about independant films in relation to big budget and all the politics behind the corporation and what not. At break a lot of us talked which was nice - there's so many awesome people there! And at the end of the class we had a discussion about Heath Ledger, which started with some questions I asked Prof. Romanowski about the stats behind Brokeback Mountain's success and yeah. That led to me asking his opinion about his portrayal of the Joker and then we all started talking about our favourite films of his and making speculations about his death and stuff. It was interesting!
At dinner, I sat across from another student named Nelly, who I knew from earlier in the week, and an American professor of architechture named Marc. We talked for ages about all sorts of stuff, but eventually our discussion was focussed on demographic stuff - talking about the effect of big development in a downtown area (I had asked him about that huge building plan in downtown Hamilton) which led to us talking about street involved people and how it would affect them and yeah. It was so interesting!
After dinner I went for another photo-op stroll (I'll conclude the post with the evidence).
At the University Church they put on a music and poetry evening which was beautiful! Kate Butler (a famous mezzosoprano) sang some English poetry put to song, which was nice, but opera has never been my thing...
But! Dana Gioia, one of the speakers here and a poet, read some English poetry, but also a few of his own unpublished pieces, which were amaaaaazing. He is incredible, and when he does someday publish those poems, I will delight in buying them.
Paul Barnes played the piano again :) He played a beautiful Phillip Glass piece and a craaazy contemporary piece by Joan Tower (just another one if his Grammy winning friends) and he finished with Chanson d'Amour by Liszt... he had me in tears. He is a spectacular pianist, and I think he was made to play Liszt cause he did so immaculately.
Here are some of my photos from my stroll - these are all from Ship Street, probably my favourite of all the little side streets; it's very quiet and charming.
A door in the wall. A very beautiful and tiny door in the very ancient wall.
A view down the street.
Charming, n'est pas?
Street corner [this is the corner of a couple small side streets - see how quiet they are? The main streets are just jam packed with pedestrians, but these little streets are just delightfully calm and quaint.]
Ship Street's finest doorway, complete with a crooked awning and news on every event happening in town for the next year.
Unicorn, a most intriguing little shop! I have yet to go in there, but I'm planning on it tomorrow. Look at the trenchcoated man walking along. He sort of scared me.
Look at all the stuff packed in there! It's all old, sort of antiquey/second handish I guess. I can't wait to check it out.
That's all for today. Sorry for the brevity in postness - I was a little skimpy on the details. But I'm exhausted! So now I shall happily sleep.
Cheers!
-CH
This morning's meditation was led by a man named Gil Bailie, yet another aclaimed author and lecturer! I was surprised when he went up to speak - I had chatted with him at dinner sometime this week, not knowing who he was. I think it's pretty cool that such a brilliant philosphy lecturer could just chat it up with me about life and school.
His talk was really good - he talked about how God created us for communion and that has a biological dimension (human to human) and a "neurological" dimension: God created us to imitate Him.
Human nature is to imitate - despite what postmodern thinkers may like to believe, man will always be imitating. There's no such thing as "indiviuality". He elaborated on it very clearly and concisely... unfortunately I can't do the same, as it's 12:30 AM here.
His conclusion was that in order to attain true peace (goal of postmodernism) we have to imitate Christ.
The speaker at the first session was a real Oxford professor, Richard Swinburne. The man fit so well the typical image of an English professor, it was hilarious. He had the proper accent and everything! And he kept stopping and saying "Right!" So good.
But... his talk was uhm... well. My brain blew a few fuses. It was a philosophical rationalization of how Humans are Made of Two Parts: Body and Soul. Now... attempting to rationalize something that isn't rational is quite the feat... and have you ever read anything written by a philosopher? Long, run-on, confusing sentences.... That's how he spoke. Granted, there were many brilliant people in the crowd who understood and enjoyed his talk, but the majority of us artistic ones were completely and utterly without hope. I attempted to quote him in my notes: "If I were just a physical property, my mental survival would consist of several variables of physical parts, mental properties and pure mental events, which of course would all depend on other variables, including..." And then he lost me.
So yeah. I was mentally exhausted that, the longest 90 minutes of my life - so to my room I returned to sleep, which I happily did until after noon.
Our concluding film class was today. So sad. I enjoyed it thoroughly! Today we talked a lot about editing and frame sequence and stuff, but also about the industry, which was very interesting. We talked about independant films in relation to big budget and all the politics behind the corporation and what not. At break a lot of us talked which was nice - there's so many awesome people there! And at the end of the class we had a discussion about Heath Ledger, which started with some questions I asked Prof. Romanowski about the stats behind Brokeback Mountain's success and yeah. That led to me asking his opinion about his portrayal of the Joker and then we all started talking about our favourite films of his and making speculations about his death and stuff. It was interesting!
At dinner, I sat across from another student named Nelly, who I knew from earlier in the week, and an American professor of architechture named Marc. We talked for ages about all sorts of stuff, but eventually our discussion was focussed on demographic stuff - talking about the effect of big development in a downtown area (I had asked him about that huge building plan in downtown Hamilton) which led to us talking about street involved people and how it would affect them and yeah. It was so interesting!
After dinner I went for another photo-op stroll (I'll conclude the post with the evidence).
At the University Church they put on a music and poetry evening which was beautiful! Kate Butler (a famous mezzosoprano) sang some English poetry put to song, which was nice, but opera has never been my thing...
But! Dana Gioia, one of the speakers here and a poet, read some English poetry, but also a few of his own unpublished pieces, which were amaaaaazing. He is incredible, and when he does someday publish those poems, I will delight in buying them.
Paul Barnes played the piano again :) He played a beautiful Phillip Glass piece and a craaazy contemporary piece by Joan Tower (just another one if his Grammy winning friends) and he finished with Chanson d'Amour by Liszt... he had me in tears. He is a spectacular pianist, and I think he was made to play Liszt cause he did so immaculately.
Here are some of my photos from my stroll - these are all from Ship Street, probably my favourite of all the little side streets; it's very quiet and charming.
A door in the wall. A very beautiful and tiny door in the very ancient wall.
A view down the street.
Charming, n'est pas?
Street corner [this is the corner of a couple small side streets - see how quiet they are? The main streets are just jam packed with pedestrians, but these little streets are just delightfully calm and quaint.]
Ship Street's finest doorway, complete with a crooked awning and news on every event happening in town for the next year.
Unicorn, a most intriguing little shop! I have yet to go in there, but I'm planning on it tomorrow. Look at the trenchcoated man walking along. He sort of scared me.
Look at all the stuff packed in there! It's all old, sort of antiquey/second handish I guess. I can't wait to check it out.
That's all for today. Sorry for the brevity in postness - I was a little skimpy on the details. But I'm exhausted! So now I shall happily sleep.
Cheers!
-CH
Oxford Adventures: Day Three [Written on Day Four...]
Sorry this entry is a day late - I've been quite busy with things.
And now I shall do my best to remember the important details of yesterday.
Wednesday morning went as usual - I awoke begrudgingly, but perked up by breakfast, at which I sat beside another conference-goer and chatted [this time it was a young law student from Texas] then we went to St. Aldate's for the morning sessions.
A man named John Lennox led this morning's meditation - he was the epitome of a stereotypical old Northern Irish man [he was adorable!] He had met C.S. Lewis when he was a boy - his dad was a great admirer of Lewis' and they some how knew each other. He told a brilliant story about how his dad found Mere Christianity so helpful that he kept copies of it for "intelligent hitchhikers, not to use as their guide to the galaxy, but rather their guide to the significance of the galaxy." I found this quite clever.
I'll quote him again - when speaking about his relation to Lewis, he said "I owe him a huge debt for sparking my imagination; for teaching me there is a door to another world..." He went on to explain [in such eloquent words that I dare not paraphrase] that the other world was Heaven. John Lennox is a math professor, but he explained that Lewis' writing taught him to believe in things that can't be proven, and that seem illogical to our little minds.
His meditation was beautiful. I won't go into massive detail, but at one point, he was tying his talk into the conference's theme and he was saying how so often we ask ourselves "Why am I?" And he said "The answer is simple: I exist because God wanted me to be." It was amazing - I don't think I was the only person in the church with tears in their eyes.
After the meditaion, a highly acclaimed writer and professor, Diana Pavlac Gluyer, gave a talk on C.S. Lewis and the Algebra of Friendship. She was so delightful to watch! She was so sincere and so genuine. She explained what Lewis wrote about friendship, and here's the quote that her talk was based around [I believe it's from The Four Loves]: "Charles Lamb tells us of three friends - A, B & C. If A should die then B not only loses A but also part of C... The alphabet sickens by subtraction." So true, n'est pas? She elaborated on how different relationships bring out different facets in a person... I thought of many of my friends throughout the talk and started missing them more accutely.
Another interesting thing she mentioned was how Lewis is often misinterpretted/misrepresented as some stiff, static, lonely introvert (ex. Hopkins portrayal in Shadowlands! gasp!) Lewis was rich with relationships and valued them very highly - he was a good friend.
Anyways, after her talk was the conference break, and I decided to skip the next talk entitled "The Language of God: A Scientist-Believer Looks at the Human Genome" [as soon as I heard the words 'scientist' and 'genome' I decided it wasn't for me] and go shopping instead!
How delightful that was. I ended up buying a couple things - no shoes, shockingly enough. I was sickeningly close... but then I somehow managed to throw myself out of the store. What a personal victory!
In the afternoon, I went to my film class [which has definetly been the highlight of my past few days] and we discussed the Classical Hollywood film and how/why writers and directors achieve that. Basically every movie you've seen fits into the Classical Hollywood film category - it is centered around a hero [with clearly defined traits, motivations, goals] and focuses on self-reliance and achieving their goal. There is ALWAYS resolution in a Classical Hollywood film... aaaaalways. And usually along the way, the hero discovers that he "had it in him all along" and he just needed to "believe in himself"! Oh, brother. Yes, it sounds pathetic in theory, but when you start thinking about it, a staggering amount of films fit in this category. Depressing. But hey, that's what America wants: resolution, not matter how unrealistic it is.
Anyways, we discussed this and the cultural landscape around it and also camera techniques - how to achieve certain emotional effects, etc. I love this class :)
At dinner, I was surrounded by old people. It was awesome! There was this man diagonalish from me and he was from Virginia, so he had a great accent. And I talked mostly with the woman across from me - she was from New Mexico, and was a retired College teacher who taught Latin and Russian and another language I can't remember, but yeah. She was soooo cool! We talked about Latin for quite a while and how it should be learned in grade school. Then of course we ended up talking about her kids and where they all were around the world - I love how every conversation you have with an elderly woman always leads to her kids :]
At night there was a concert at the University Church. The City of Oxford Orchestra played some Handel, Mozart, Gluck... I had perma-goosebumps the entire performance. And then! They were joined by Paul Barnes, who I forgot to tell you about -on Monday night, my mom and I met him. We had no idea who he was, but as it turned out, he's an extremely accomplished pianist who is a Professor at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln School of Music who performs all over the places, teaches in Vienna during the summertime and is friends with Phillip Glass! And the man was just showing us pictures of his wife and kids... average joe-like. It was incredible. Phillip Glass is one of my favourite soundtrack composers. And they're friends. But yeah, he's a really nice, hilarious man and an excellent conversationalist.
Anyways, the concert - Paul Barnes joined the orchestra to play Mozart's three-part Piano Concerto No. 17 in G which was BREATHTAKING. Barnes looks like he's have the time of his life when he's performing.
Throughout the day, I made various observations which I shall share with you to conclude this post:
1. The rumours about British teeth are true.
2. I dream in anime when I fall asleep listening to BT.
3. I didn't think it was possible, but organic peppermint tea is even better over here.
4. The Brits are all anarchists: signs that say "NO PARKING BICYCLES AT THIS PREMISES" are always, without fail, surrounded by bicycles.
5. The plantlife here grows vertically as opposed to horizontally - just like the housing.
6. The Brits' favoured seasoning: salt. They use it liberally. Especially on meat.
Bonne nuit!
-CH
And now I shall do my best to remember the important details of yesterday.
Wednesday morning went as usual - I awoke begrudgingly, but perked up by breakfast, at which I sat beside another conference-goer and chatted [this time it was a young law student from Texas] then we went to St. Aldate's for the morning sessions.
A man named John Lennox led this morning's meditation - he was the epitome of a stereotypical old Northern Irish man [he was adorable!] He had met C.S. Lewis when he was a boy - his dad was a great admirer of Lewis' and they some how knew each other. He told a brilliant story about how his dad found Mere Christianity so helpful that he kept copies of it for "intelligent hitchhikers, not to use as their guide to the galaxy, but rather their guide to the significance of the galaxy." I found this quite clever.
I'll quote him again - when speaking about his relation to Lewis, he said "I owe him a huge debt for sparking my imagination; for teaching me there is a door to another world..." He went on to explain [in such eloquent words that I dare not paraphrase] that the other world was Heaven. John Lennox is a math professor, but he explained that Lewis' writing taught him to believe in things that can't be proven, and that seem illogical to our little minds.
His meditation was beautiful. I won't go into massive detail, but at one point, he was tying his talk into the conference's theme and he was saying how so often we ask ourselves "Why am I?" And he said "The answer is simple: I exist because God wanted me to be." It was amazing - I don't think I was the only person in the church with tears in their eyes.
After the meditaion, a highly acclaimed writer and professor, Diana Pavlac Gluyer, gave a talk on C.S. Lewis and the Algebra of Friendship. She was so delightful to watch! She was so sincere and so genuine. She explained what Lewis wrote about friendship, and here's the quote that her talk was based around [I believe it's from The Four Loves]: "Charles Lamb tells us of three friends - A, B & C. If A should die then B not only loses A but also part of C... The alphabet sickens by subtraction." So true, n'est pas? She elaborated on how different relationships bring out different facets in a person... I thought of many of my friends throughout the talk and started missing them more accutely.
Another interesting thing she mentioned was how Lewis is often misinterpretted/misrepresented as some stiff, static, lonely introvert (ex. Hopkins portrayal in Shadowlands! gasp!) Lewis was rich with relationships and valued them very highly - he was a good friend.
Anyways, after her talk was the conference break, and I decided to skip the next talk entitled "The Language of God: A Scientist-Believer Looks at the Human Genome" [as soon as I heard the words 'scientist' and 'genome' I decided it wasn't for me] and go shopping instead!
How delightful that was. I ended up buying a couple things - no shoes, shockingly enough. I was sickeningly close... but then I somehow managed to throw myself out of the store. What a personal victory!
In the afternoon, I went to my film class [which has definetly been the highlight of my past few days] and we discussed the Classical Hollywood film and how/why writers and directors achieve that. Basically every movie you've seen fits into the Classical Hollywood film category - it is centered around a hero [with clearly defined traits, motivations, goals] and focuses on self-reliance and achieving their goal. There is ALWAYS resolution in a Classical Hollywood film... aaaaalways. And usually along the way, the hero discovers that he "had it in him all along" and he just needed to "believe in himself"! Oh, brother. Yes, it sounds pathetic in theory, but when you start thinking about it, a staggering amount of films fit in this category. Depressing. But hey, that's what America wants: resolution, not matter how unrealistic it is.
Anyways, we discussed this and the cultural landscape around it and also camera techniques - how to achieve certain emotional effects, etc. I love this class :)
At dinner, I was surrounded by old people. It was awesome! There was this man diagonalish from me and he was from Virginia, so he had a great accent. And I talked mostly with the woman across from me - she was from New Mexico, and was a retired College teacher who taught Latin and Russian and another language I can't remember, but yeah. She was soooo cool! We talked about Latin for quite a while and how it should be learned in grade school. Then of course we ended up talking about her kids and where they all were around the world - I love how every conversation you have with an elderly woman always leads to her kids :]
At night there was a concert at the University Church. The City of Oxford Orchestra played some Handel, Mozart, Gluck... I had perma-goosebumps the entire performance. And then! They were joined by Paul Barnes, who I forgot to tell you about -on Monday night, my mom and I met him. We had no idea who he was, but as it turned out, he's an extremely accomplished pianist who is a Professor at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln School of Music who performs all over the places, teaches in Vienna during the summertime and is friends with Phillip Glass! And the man was just showing us pictures of his wife and kids... average joe-like. It was incredible. Phillip Glass is one of my favourite soundtrack composers. And they're friends. But yeah, he's a really nice, hilarious man and an excellent conversationalist.
Anyways, the concert - Paul Barnes joined the orchestra to play Mozart's three-part Piano Concerto No. 17 in G which was BREATHTAKING. Barnes looks like he's have the time of his life when he's performing.
Throughout the day, I made various observations which I shall share with you to conclude this post:
1. The rumours about British teeth are true.
2. I dream in anime when I fall asleep listening to BT.
3. I didn't think it was possible, but organic peppermint tea is even better over here.
4. The Brits are all anarchists: signs that say "NO PARKING BICYCLES AT THIS PREMISES" are always, without fail, surrounded by bicycles.
5. The plantlife here grows vertically as opposed to horizontally - just like the housing.
6. The Brits' favoured seasoning: salt. They use it liberally. Especially on meat.
Bonne nuit!
-CH
Tuesday, July 29, 2008
Oxford Adventures: Day Two.
Alright. Tuesdays in Oxford are... probably as splendid as every other day of the week.
This morning I awoke early (and very unwillingly) to the oh so dulcet tones of our alarm clock...
I promptly fell back asleep.
Eventually Mom and I made it to the great hall for breakfast, then we went to St. Aldates church (about a 15 minute walk from Keble) for the opening presentations and sessions.
The first speaker was an American pastor named Todd Lake. He meditated on the conference's topic (I now know the official title): Imago Dei? The Self & the Search for Meaning. He had a good sense of humour and was very passionate. He spoke enthusiastically about how we have to find our meaning in God. Unfortunately his time slot was far too brief, but here's a quote from his conclusion: "Our selfish little hearts are restless until they find rest in Him." Aaaaamen.
Next, the president of the C.S. Lewis Foundation, Stan Mattson, gave his words of introduction. He spoke about God's goodness even in the darkest of days, which led to him sharing his testimony which I imagine was very good, but I could hardly hear the man - he lacked volume, and to makes matters worse, we had a seat near the back by the doors through which street noises came in a constant stream. And since I could hardly hear him, and since it was so warm in that church, and since I had not near enough sleep last night... I was very zoned out. I tried! I really did! But even when I did, I could hardly hear him.
After his speech, there was a break and I decided I should go back to Keble and sleep so that I would be wide awake for my afternoon elective session.
On the walk back I couldn't resist but to fight my exhaustion and stop briefly in a few stores (I needed to buy a drink anyways... not that you can find drinks in shoe stores...) But anyways, soon I got back to our room and passed out til my mom woke me at 2:25! It was a wonderful nap, and I felt much better, except that my elective started in 5 minutes, and it was all the way down by St. Aldates. So I rushed down there, found the parish centre it was held in (hidden amongst a long row of townhouses on a tiny side street) only to find that the building was being vacated due to a fire alarm! (Selfish as it may be, it was quite the blessing in disguise: I was late.) Thankfully, there was no fire - one of the building employees informed us that a bug most likely flew into the smoke detector (RIP dear insect) and that all was well to return to our sessions.
My elective is called Persistence of Vision: Popular Art, Culture and Industry and is led by Prof. Bill Romanowski, a lecturer, author, critic, and teacher at Calvin College. The two and a half hour session was amazing! We talked about how Christians view film (and in reference to this, the downfalls of narrow-mindedness) but the main topic of the session is film as an art, and how screen writers and directors can express views on aspects of culture in (seemingly) subtle ways.
For his examples he used a wide array of films, ranging from old classics like The Rear Window (yussss!) to teen flicks like American Pie.
He showed us a freeze frame from the movie American Beauty and had us comment on what we could observe from this one still image - as a group we pulled out all sorts of commentary on class, gender role, and family life, and also all sorts of information about the characters in the frame. And that was just from one single frame... think of hundreds of frames strung together. We're subonciously fed a lot of information while watching films.
He showed us clips from Rocky, The Rear Window, Notorious, Casablanca, and more to show us tricks/tools in editing and camera-use that indicate all sorts of things.
I could go on for a long time (I have 3 pages of notes) but I shan't. If you have any questions, you can leave them in a comment :)
During the fifteen minute session break, I met some really nice people who are in the class with me (they're all American! Ah!) and after some customary introductions and small talk, we discussed the session and stuff. It was very cool.
Soon after, I met up with Mother-dear and we shopped for a bit before dinner (no success yet. I have to be careful about spending my pounds, since each one is worth 2.439482384.. dollars and the prices here are pretty much the same as at home... except in pounds.)
Later, on my way to dinner, I met a lovely older woman in the elevator. She was from Florida, but originally from England (quite the dramatic switch - and ironically enough, she hates warm weather). We chatted easily on the walk to the great hall; she told me about her grandchildren and how she's attended the Oxbridge Conference 5 times before and how she misses her husband. I really liked chatting with her.
Then I found my mom in on one of the long, long dinner tables (when I mention the hall, think of the feasts in Harry Potter. The hall is set up in exactly the same way, sans the enchanted ceiling) and ended up sitting beside a wonderful old man and his wife who talked with me a lot about the conference and our classes and their careers and the fact that and that I don't know what I want to do with my life yet but that it's okay cause God will let me know in due time. He was a very cool man.
Across from me was a younger guy from Colorado Springs who was also attending a private liberal arts school (I told him about Redeemer). He was wearing a cap that said "Scranton - We welcome you" which delighted me! Hooray, a fellow fan of The Office!
After dinner, I grabbed the Nikon and went on a little photography walk to get some of the pictures I wanted to get yesterday. I shall share a few with you:
A section of the lovely grounds at Keble.
The archway close to the right side of the left building is the tunnel of the main entrance/exit.
The Great Hall is in the building on the right.
I love these things.
The beautiful tower of the University Church (where I went last night).
Amazing. That's all there is to say about that.
That's all for today. Time has slipped by me once again... I hope I can stay awake tomorrow. Goodnight!
-CH
This morning I awoke early (and very unwillingly) to the oh so dulcet tones of our alarm clock...
I promptly fell back asleep.
Eventually Mom and I made it to the great hall for breakfast, then we went to St. Aldates church (about a 15 minute walk from Keble) for the opening presentations and sessions.
The first speaker was an American pastor named Todd Lake. He meditated on the conference's topic (I now know the official title): Imago Dei? The Self & the Search for Meaning. He had a good sense of humour and was very passionate. He spoke enthusiastically about how we have to find our meaning in God. Unfortunately his time slot was far too brief, but here's a quote from his conclusion: "Our selfish little hearts are restless until they find rest in Him." Aaaaamen.
Next, the president of the C.S. Lewis Foundation, Stan Mattson, gave his words of introduction. He spoke about God's goodness even in the darkest of days, which led to him sharing his testimony which I imagine was very good, but I could hardly hear the man - he lacked volume, and to makes matters worse, we had a seat near the back by the doors through which street noises came in a constant stream. And since I could hardly hear him, and since it was so warm in that church, and since I had not near enough sleep last night... I was very zoned out. I tried! I really did! But even when I did, I could hardly hear him.
After his speech, there was a break and I decided I should go back to Keble and sleep so that I would be wide awake for my afternoon elective session.
On the walk back I couldn't resist but to fight my exhaustion and stop briefly in a few stores (I needed to buy a drink anyways... not that you can find drinks in shoe stores...) But anyways, soon I got back to our room and passed out til my mom woke me at 2:25! It was a wonderful nap, and I felt much better, except that my elective started in 5 minutes, and it was all the way down by St. Aldates. So I rushed down there, found the parish centre it was held in (hidden amongst a long row of townhouses on a tiny side street) only to find that the building was being vacated due to a fire alarm! (Selfish as it may be, it was quite the blessing in disguise: I was late.) Thankfully, there was no fire - one of the building employees informed us that a bug most likely flew into the smoke detector (RIP dear insect) and that all was well to return to our sessions.
My elective is called Persistence of Vision: Popular Art, Culture and Industry and is led by Prof. Bill Romanowski, a lecturer, author, critic, and teacher at Calvin College. The two and a half hour session was amazing! We talked about how Christians view film (and in reference to this, the downfalls of narrow-mindedness) but the main topic of the session is film as an art, and how screen writers and directors can express views on aspects of culture in (seemingly) subtle ways.
For his examples he used a wide array of films, ranging from old classics like The Rear Window (yussss!) to teen flicks like American Pie.
He showed us a freeze frame from the movie American Beauty and had us comment on what we could observe from this one still image - as a group we pulled out all sorts of commentary on class, gender role, and family life, and also all sorts of information about the characters in the frame. And that was just from one single frame... think of hundreds of frames strung together. We're subonciously fed a lot of information while watching films.
He showed us clips from Rocky, The Rear Window, Notorious, Casablanca, and more to show us tricks/tools in editing and camera-use that indicate all sorts of things.
I could go on for a long time (I have 3 pages of notes) but I shan't. If you have any questions, you can leave them in a comment :)
During the fifteen minute session break, I met some really nice people who are in the class with me (they're all American! Ah!) and after some customary introductions and small talk, we discussed the session and stuff. It was very cool.
Soon after, I met up with Mother-dear and we shopped for a bit before dinner (no success yet. I have to be careful about spending my pounds, since each one is worth 2.439482384.. dollars and the prices here are pretty much the same as at home... except in pounds.)
Later, on my way to dinner, I met a lovely older woman in the elevator. She was from Florida, but originally from England (quite the dramatic switch - and ironically enough, she hates warm weather). We chatted easily on the walk to the great hall; she told me about her grandchildren and how she's attended the Oxbridge Conference 5 times before and how she misses her husband. I really liked chatting with her.
Then I found my mom in on one of the long, long dinner tables (when I mention the hall, think of the feasts in Harry Potter. The hall is set up in exactly the same way, sans the enchanted ceiling) and ended up sitting beside a wonderful old man and his wife who talked with me a lot about the conference and our classes and their careers and the fact that and that I don't know what I want to do with my life yet but that it's okay cause God will let me know in due time. He was a very cool man.
Across from me was a younger guy from Colorado Springs who was also attending a private liberal arts school (I told him about Redeemer). He was wearing a cap that said "Scranton - We welcome you" which delighted me! Hooray, a fellow fan of The Office!
After dinner, I grabbed the Nikon and went on a little photography walk to get some of the pictures I wanted to get yesterday. I shall share a few with you:
A section of the lovely grounds at Keble.
The archway close to the right side of the left building is the tunnel of the main entrance/exit.
The Great Hall is in the building on the right.
I love these things.
One of the entrance ways to Trinity College (it was through here that I spotted the young gents playing *ahem* croquet.) I apologize for the poor quality of this shot, but it's the one that best shows the intricacy of the gates.
The beautiful tower of the University Church (where I went last night).
Amazing. That's all there is to say about that.
That's all for today. Time has slipped by me once again... I hope I can stay awake tomorrow. Goodnight!
-CH
Monday, July 28, 2008
Oxford Adventures: Day One.
So, if you're reading this, you most likely know that I'm in Oxford, England right now.
Yes. I know. Awesomeness to the extreme. I'm here with the mother-bird for the Oxbridge Convention, put on by the C.S. Lewis Foundation. In a nutshell, it's a celebration and study of philosophy, literature, drama and art - all in reference to this year's theme which is The Self. (oooh, it's gunna be deep.)
So! I'm going to try to blog daily about my adventures here in the Old World, just so my dear, dear comrades at home know what I'm up to.
Ok. It all started Sunday night, about 5:30 PM, when we rolled out of the homebase - Dad drove me and Mom to the airport. Everything went smoothly, we had lots of extra time in which I ate pizza and found a beautiful German newspaper! Attempts at translating kept me busy 'til we boarded. It was actually quite amusing... What would you make of this: "Daniel Richter: ,,Ich bin Reprasentant weiBer, mannlicher, heterosexueller Erfolgsmalerei." ? In all seriousness though, I did figure out some words which was pretty exciting. My 15-word German vocabulary has expanded! :O
Ok, so on the plane. It was a large aircraft... one of those Boeing-747 deals. 2 floors (or so I was told) and FINALLY... a plane built with leg room!
The stewardesses were pretty friendly and humourous, which was splendid. On our seats we found a bag containing huge DJ-esque headphones, earplugs, a sleeping mask, socks (!?) a little toothbrush and the tiniest tube of toothpaste ever manufactured.
The food was inconsumable (surprise!) but the movie selection was killer. There were 3 pages of movie titles to pick from, mostly new ones, but a lot of old classics too. I ended up choosing "The Oxford Murders" not only because it was filmed on the location that I was bound for, but also because it starred Elijah Wood.
Well. It started out with some promise. And then my favourite character died about 5 minutes in. Things went downhill from there. Elijah... what were you THINKING!? It turned out to be a stupid British thriller with a wonky plotline revolving around static characters and ending with a ridiculously unlikely twist and no resolution to speak of! In my opinion... the Brits should stick to comedy.
Anyways, since we were losing 5 hours, I tried desperately to get sleep. So I got out the old iPod and tried to lull myself with some melodic In-flight Safety (the band choice wasn't intentional.. they make relaxing music!) The sleep didn't go well - despite the leg room, there were no comfy sleep positions. So I ended up with a demented spine and a severe lack of sleep upon our arrival in London.
Ok, first impressions of coming out of the Heathrow airport: very much like Toronto - there were even cranes everywhere. But, as we drove around in our cab (headed to the centre of London to go on The Eye!) things got better. The townhouses were so quaint and some of the old architechture was breathtaking. Then we passed Buckingham Palace which was like... WOW. Unfortunately, no royals were sunbathing in the courtyard, so yeah. No paparazzi photo-op for me.
Then came Westminster Abby which I wasn't able to get a reeeal good look at (driving is INSANE in London... apparently they don't believe in the whole 'one cars length between' rule. The rule here is more like 'drive as fast as you can until you're one cars length away and then slam on the brakes so that you stop within 2 centimetres'. )
But our cab driver was a sweet old man - he was really helpful and acted as a tour guide and told us how to get everywhere and stuff. Yeah, he was great :)
He got us to the Eye of London in one piece, so we went on that which was reaaally sweet, though I would have enjoyed it more if I weren't running on a couple hours of restless sleep.
(I'll put up pictures from the Eye and other stuff from today later.. this laptop is being lame sauce about importing.)
After the Eye, we took another cab to Victoria Station and went on the Oxford Express coach to.... OXFORD! This place... is amazing. It really is. All the buildings are Medieval and beautiful and lots of the streets are cobblestone and there's little shops everywhere and the colleges are awesome! The atmosphere is wonderful too. There's not a lot of traffic - mostly pedestrians. The town is full of students, so the majority of the population are young people. Yay!
So we got off the coach and were met by a nice American lady who is also attending the conference. She helped us decipher our map and gave us directions and stuff - very helpful.
We got to Keble College, where we're staying on campus, showered as soon as we got in our room (jubilation!) and then we went and registered, then walked in Oxford for a bit (I checked out a sweet art/book store and then a music store which wasn't as good as expected... I was hoping for some rare Brit-pop CDs but all they carried was opera and classical - it was upon entering this store that I figured out I may not be classy enough for Oxford.)
There was a big dinner in one of the great halls at Keble which was very good, and again, very classy. We met some other conference-goers and I was delighted to see that I wasn't the only young person there. I met some cool people and then after dinner we went to the opening address which was held in the University Church of St. Mary the Virgin - a beautiful cathedral in which John and Charles Wesley once preached and where Thomas Cromwell was tried and convicted (and burnt at the stake out on Broad Street) and yeah. I forget all the cool stories the preacher told us about the cathedral. The preacher was Irish - he had a beautiful accent - and he was an incredible speaker. Very captivating and humourous; intellectual but still very easy to understand. He introduced the conference's theme of the Self which I'll obviously be getting more into in the coming posts.
After the service (which was full of singing by a crazy talented chamber choir) I made my way back to Keble to see Mom (who was exhausted and had gone back to our room after supper). I tried a different route so I got to see more awesome buildings and got tons of ideas for photography (I didn't have the camera with me at the time). When I got back to our room, I still felt like walking around so I went on a long, exploratory stroll. I passed the grounds to Trinity College and saw some young gents playing a friendly game of crochet on the lawn. Why can't guys in Canada do that? Sheesh. I continued my walk, taking random turns and going down streets I hadn't been down yet. I passed the gates to the grounds of the Bodleian Library and caught the distinct smell of old books. And this was just at the gates to the library grounds. I wonder how strong it is in the actual library...
I scouted lots of sweet little shops I plan to stop in throughout the week, but soon I think I strayed into the busy nightlife section of town - the people were a bit rowdier and then my walk wasn't quite as care-free. When I heard two guys talking non chalantly about getting arrested, I decided it was about time to be getting back.
Later, Mom and I went to the Bag End Cafe and got a drink, and then I started blogging. And now it's very late. And I'm extremely tired. So I apologize that this post is long-winded and most likely full of grammatical mistakes and spelling errors.
Goodnight!
-CH
Yes. I know. Awesomeness to the extreme. I'm here with the mother-bird for the Oxbridge Convention, put on by the C.S. Lewis Foundation. In a nutshell, it's a celebration and study of philosophy, literature, drama and art - all in reference to this year's theme which is The Self. (oooh, it's gunna be deep.)
So! I'm going to try to blog daily about my adventures here in the Old World, just so my dear, dear comrades at home know what I'm up to.
Ok. It all started Sunday night, about 5:30 PM, when we rolled out of the homebase - Dad drove me and Mom to the airport. Everything went smoothly, we had lots of extra time in which I ate pizza and found a beautiful German newspaper! Attempts at translating kept me busy 'til we boarded. It was actually quite amusing... What would you make of this: "Daniel Richter: ,,Ich bin Reprasentant weiBer, mannlicher, heterosexueller Erfolgsmalerei." ? In all seriousness though, I did figure out some words which was pretty exciting. My 15-word German vocabulary has expanded! :O
Ok, so on the plane. It was a large aircraft... one of those Boeing-747 deals. 2 floors (or so I was told) and FINALLY... a plane built with leg room!
The stewardesses were pretty friendly and humourous, which was splendid. On our seats we found a bag containing huge DJ-esque headphones, earplugs, a sleeping mask, socks (!?) a little toothbrush and the tiniest tube of toothpaste ever manufactured.
The food was inconsumable (surprise!) but the movie selection was killer. There were 3 pages of movie titles to pick from, mostly new ones, but a lot of old classics too. I ended up choosing "The Oxford Murders" not only because it was filmed on the location that I was bound for, but also because it starred Elijah Wood.
Well. It started out with some promise. And then my favourite character died about 5 minutes in. Things went downhill from there. Elijah... what were you THINKING!? It turned out to be a stupid British thriller with a wonky plotline revolving around static characters and ending with a ridiculously unlikely twist and no resolution to speak of! In my opinion... the Brits should stick to comedy.
Anyways, since we were losing 5 hours, I tried desperately to get sleep. So I got out the old iPod and tried to lull myself with some melodic In-flight Safety (the band choice wasn't intentional.. they make relaxing music!) The sleep didn't go well - despite the leg room, there were no comfy sleep positions. So I ended up with a demented spine and a severe lack of sleep upon our arrival in London.
Ok, first impressions of coming out of the Heathrow airport: very much like Toronto - there were even cranes everywhere. But, as we drove around in our cab (headed to the centre of London to go on The Eye!) things got better. The townhouses were so quaint and some of the old architechture was breathtaking. Then we passed Buckingham Palace which was like... WOW. Unfortunately, no royals were sunbathing in the courtyard, so yeah. No paparazzi photo-op for me.
Then came Westminster Abby which I wasn't able to get a reeeal good look at (driving is INSANE in London... apparently they don't believe in the whole 'one cars length between' rule. The rule here is more like 'drive as fast as you can until you're one cars length away and then slam on the brakes so that you stop within 2 centimetres'. )
But our cab driver was a sweet old man - he was really helpful and acted as a tour guide and told us how to get everywhere and stuff. Yeah, he was great :)
He got us to the Eye of London in one piece, so we went on that which was reaaally sweet, though I would have enjoyed it more if I weren't running on a couple hours of restless sleep.
(I'll put up pictures from the Eye and other stuff from today later.. this laptop is being lame sauce about importing.)
After the Eye, we took another cab to Victoria Station and went on the Oxford Express coach to.... OXFORD! This place... is amazing. It really is. All the buildings are Medieval and beautiful and lots of the streets are cobblestone and there's little shops everywhere and the colleges are awesome! The atmosphere is wonderful too. There's not a lot of traffic - mostly pedestrians. The town is full of students, so the majority of the population are young people. Yay!
So we got off the coach and were met by a nice American lady who is also attending the conference. She helped us decipher our map and gave us directions and stuff - very helpful.
We got to Keble College, where we're staying on campus, showered as soon as we got in our room (jubilation!) and then we went and registered, then walked in Oxford for a bit (I checked out a sweet art/book store and then a music store which wasn't as good as expected... I was hoping for some rare Brit-pop CDs but all they carried was opera and classical - it was upon entering this store that I figured out I may not be classy enough for Oxford.)
There was a big dinner in one of the great halls at Keble which was very good, and again, very classy. We met some other conference-goers and I was delighted to see that I wasn't the only young person there. I met some cool people and then after dinner we went to the opening address which was held in the University Church of St. Mary the Virgin - a beautiful cathedral in which John and Charles Wesley once preached and where Thomas Cromwell was tried and convicted (and burnt at the stake out on Broad Street) and yeah. I forget all the cool stories the preacher told us about the cathedral. The preacher was Irish - he had a beautiful accent - and he was an incredible speaker. Very captivating and humourous; intellectual but still very easy to understand. He introduced the conference's theme of the Self which I'll obviously be getting more into in the coming posts.
After the service (which was full of singing by a crazy talented chamber choir) I made my way back to Keble to see Mom (who was exhausted and had gone back to our room after supper). I tried a different route so I got to see more awesome buildings and got tons of ideas for photography (I didn't have the camera with me at the time). When I got back to our room, I still felt like walking around so I went on a long, exploratory stroll. I passed the grounds to Trinity College and saw some young gents playing a friendly game of crochet on the lawn. Why can't guys in Canada do that? Sheesh. I continued my walk, taking random turns and going down streets I hadn't been down yet. I passed the gates to the grounds of the Bodleian Library and caught the distinct smell of old books. And this was just at the gates to the library grounds. I wonder how strong it is in the actual library...
I scouted lots of sweet little shops I plan to stop in throughout the week, but soon I think I strayed into the busy nightlife section of town - the people were a bit rowdier and then my walk wasn't quite as care-free. When I heard two guys talking non chalantly about getting arrested, I decided it was about time to be getting back.
Later, Mom and I went to the Bag End Cafe and got a drink, and then I started blogging. And now it's very late. And I'm extremely tired. So I apologize that this post is long-winded and most likely full of grammatical mistakes and spelling errors.
Goodnight!
-CH
Thursday, July 24, 2008
Sunday, July 20, 2008
The Much Anticipated Reccomendations
Paulson - I'm writing this just because you issued such a vocal outcry (and used far too many exclaimation marks in the process).
1. Watch The Dark Knight.
2. Listen to Viva La Vida in one sitting, front to back. (Not hard to do, it's only 45 minutes and 53 seconds long.)
3. Climb the nearest chesnut tree - guaranteed good time + exercise = a win-win situation.
4. Keep a journal. Write in streams of thought. Don't read over any entries until at least a week later.
5. Space your ears and then put straws through them the next time you're at McDonald's. [N.B. I won't be offended if you don't share my enthusiasm on this one.]
6. Struggle through a book that's ridiculously above your skill level (ex. The Story of Philosophy).
7. Take a long nap.
8. Upon waking up, drink black peppermint tea. It's quite revitalizing.
9. Read some Edgar Allan Poe.
10. Go fishing asap - it just finished raining so they'll be biting like mosquitoes.
11. Start listening to Ella Fitzgerald.
12. Try ketchup on everything - you may be pleasantly surprised.
13. Hangout with a sweet friend on the roof of their house.
14. Find something you wrote when you were little. Read it.
15. Go treasure hunting in a junk yard.
16. Take piano lessons.
17. Thank God for grace.
18. Do some (or if you're feeling particularly ambitious, all) of the aforementioned things.
-CH
1. Watch The Dark Knight.
2. Listen to Viva La Vida in one sitting, front to back. (Not hard to do, it's only 45 minutes and 53 seconds long.)
3. Climb the nearest chesnut tree - guaranteed good time + exercise = a win-win situation.
4. Keep a journal. Write in streams of thought. Don't read over any entries until at least a week later.
5. Space your ears and then put straws through them the next time you're at McDonald's. [N.B. I won't be offended if you don't share my enthusiasm on this one.]
6. Struggle through a book that's ridiculously above your skill level (ex. The Story of Philosophy).
7. Take a long nap.
8. Upon waking up, drink black peppermint tea. It's quite revitalizing.
9. Read some Edgar Allan Poe.
10. Go fishing asap - it just finished raining so they'll be biting like mosquitoes.
11. Start listening to Ella Fitzgerald.
12. Try ketchup on everything - you may be pleasantly surprised.
13. Hangout with a sweet friend on the roof of their house.
14. Find something you wrote when you were little. Read it.
15. Go treasure hunting in a junk yard.
16. Take piano lessons.
17. Thank God for grace.
18. Do some (or if you're feeling particularly ambitious, all) of the aforementioned things.
-CH
Friday, July 18, 2008
10:27-34 Poetry (An Experiment in Ambiguity).
The blue label reads "Pure Life";
The power button shines a blue light,
Showing activity
Even though it's surrounded by death.
Watercoloured sky bleeds with emotion,
The sheep are bleeting with emotion.
Her blue eyes, leaking tears
But not of laughter -
of emotion.
Blue pants
(Jeans, actually)
Are stained with tears. Of... sadness.
Blue October serenades the crying girl,
Blue notes gliding through the static,
Telling their story (of emotion)
To the (emotional) girl.
"I want to give you something I've been wanting to give to you for years: My heart."
-X&K*
*The authors of this highly ambiguous and symbolically advanced poem have changed their initials for reasons of privacy (and emotional welfare).**
**P.s. It's by Maria and me.
The power button shines a blue light,
Showing activity
Even though it's surrounded by death.
Watercoloured sky bleeds with emotion,
The sheep are bleeting with emotion.
Her blue eyes, leaking tears
But not of laughter -
of emotion.
Blue pants
(Jeans, actually)
Are stained with tears. Of... sadness.
Blue October serenades the crying girl,
Blue notes gliding through the static,
Telling their story (of emotion)
To the (emotional) girl.
"I want to give you something I've been wanting to give to you for years: My heart."
-X&K*
*The authors of this highly ambiguous and symbolically advanced poem have changed their initials for reasons of privacy (and emotional welfare).**
**P.s. It's by Maria and me.
ROAOOROAOyYY ...
I wish Rory O'Shea were here.
But instead, I'm stuck with Maria, Kelly and Jess. BOO.
kidding ha, I love. I am in love. I am loved. Ha.
haha.
ha.
SO! After much Aloette exposure (Aloette, gentile Aloette! Aloette gentile plumerie!) and deliberation, we decided to blog. So we're stuck here! On a bench. Blogging away. On broadway.
So yeah. Rory O'Shea. James Mackie. Gotta love the guy.
K, spontaneous poll: What's your favourite thing about James?
Kelly: ...
Jess: ...
Maria: accent
Catherine: EVERYTHINGGGGGGGG.
Kelly decided she wants to add something. (She's not so good at the whole "spontaneous" thing).
"His wheelchair turns me on."
Jess wants to add something too now (jump on the bandwagon much? sheesh.)
"Suspenders! Of course..."
Hmm.
Kelly lost a wooden earring. *boohoo!*
That's all we have to report.
Bonne Nuit.
But instead, I'm stuck with Maria, Kelly and Jess. BOO.
kidding ha, I love. I am in love. I am loved. Ha.
haha.
ha.
SO! After much Aloette exposure (Aloette, gentile Aloette! Aloette gentile plumerie!) and deliberation, we decided to blog. So we're stuck here! On a bench. Blogging away. On broadway.
So yeah. Rory O'Shea. James Mackie. Gotta love the guy.
K, spontaneous poll: What's your favourite thing about James?
Kelly: ...
Jess: ...
Maria: accent
Catherine: EVERYTHINGGGGGGGG.
Kelly decided she wants to add something. (She's not so good at the whole "spontaneous" thing).
"His wheelchair turns me on."
Jess wants to add something too now (jump on the bandwagon much? sheesh.)
"Suspenders! Of course..."
Hmm.
Kelly lost a wooden earring. *boohoo!*
That's all we have to report.
Bonne Nuit.
Thursday, July 17, 2008
danke schoen darlin, danke schoen
thank-you foooooorrr all the joy and paaaaaaaain;
picture shooooooow, second balconyyyyyy
was the place we'd meet, 2nd seat
gold dutch treat, you were sweet*
...
so uhm, it's been a long time since I last blogged. Like we're talking May.. And I vowed that neglect of this magnitude wouldn't happen again.
oh, dear. i am awful at this game.
But more importantly, I am excited. Maria's coming over tomorrow. And on Saturday we're going to book shop and tea drink. But not before sleeping in.
p.s. Dear Maria: Just to inform you, on Saturday morning we're going to be sleeping in. You have no say in the matter. Love, me.
*don't quote me on those lyrics... chances are they are horrendously wrong, due to my somewhat damaged hearing.
picture shooooooow, second balconyyyyyy
was the place we'd meet, 2nd seat
gold dutch treat, you were sweet*
...
so uhm, it's been a long time since I last blogged. Like we're talking May.. And I vowed that neglect of this magnitude wouldn't happen again.
oh, dear. i am awful at this game.
But more importantly, I am excited. Maria's coming over tomorrow. And on Saturday we're going to book shop and tea drink. But not before sleeping in.
p.s. Dear Maria: Just to inform you, on Saturday morning we're going to be sleeping in. You have no say in the matter. Love, me.
*don't quote me on those lyrics... chances are they are horrendously wrong, due to my somewhat damaged hearing.
Friday, May 30, 2008
Tyler's Bald. ....!!!
K. For the past few weeks I've been part of a comittee for my best friend Zac's self-made organization, Imagine the Cure. He plans to work with it long term, and it'll be a non-profit organization that will do big fundraisers for cancer research. Anyways, this was it's first project, and Zac hopes to use it as a springboard to get iTc registered with the Canadian Revenue Agency. woot!
The campaign went very well: we raised $10, 600..... IN ONE WEEK. So amazing.
And as a result... Tyler Jason Heemskerk is hairless! On his head.
Pictures to follow. Eventually. When we get around to taking pictures.
Tyler's aside: My head is really cold. I can't NOT wear my hat. Kind of sucks, but yeah. My head is hacked up from dear Zachary's shaver... What can be said, i have red marks on my scalp. Ah, I'll get over it.
It's me again. Yes. Catherine Yvonne Hordyk. But yeah, Ty is a hero. That's all there is to say.
$10, 600 !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
:D
p.s. If you're on it, look up Imagine the Cure on facebook.
The campaign went very well: we raised $10, 600..... IN ONE WEEK. So amazing.
And as a result... Tyler Jason Heemskerk is hairless! On his head.
Pictures to follow. Eventually. When we get around to taking pictures.
Tyler's aside: My head is really cold. I can't NOT wear my hat. Kind of sucks, but yeah. My head is hacked up from dear Zachary's shaver... What can be said, i have red marks on my scalp. Ah, I'll get over it.
It's me again. Yes. Catherine Yvonne Hordyk. But yeah, Ty is a hero. That's all there is to say.
$10, 600 !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
:D
p.s. If you're on it, look up Imagine the Cure on facebook.
Friday, May 23, 2008
Face-wash Musings.
Last night I got to thinking while I was washing my face (I do some of my best thinking at this time of the day) and I decided that I wish so bad that I had a little brother.
I'd even go for a sister if I had to.
Being the youngest is really lonely sometimes.
I'd even go for a sister if I had to.
Being the youngest is really lonely sometimes.
Thursday, May 22, 2008
Tyler and Catherine on Mr. Noot's Goatee
[as compensation for my horrid lack of bloOoOoging, I'm writing 2 for today.]
Where to start. Our subject: Mr. Michael Noot. Mikey, as we affectionately call him.
Monday morning, we strolled into our [tiny] nourishing mother (a.k.a. Guido) and were promptly affronted by the shocking sight of peach fuzz upon the stately chin of Mr. Noot. Why is this sight shocking, you may ask? Mr. Noot has the face of taut pre-teen Swedish boy, that's why. His facial hair is a walking phenomenon.
What made the moment so much more poignant was that he was standing beside Mr. Tomlin. What makes this make the moment more poignant, you may ask? Mr. Tomlin has a face of a Viking war lord (he's an experienced goateer). Thus, the juxtaposition was as striking as those found in the artwork of Peter Coker: a baby's bottom next to Austin Power's chest.
He's trying. That's all that counts. Maybe someday he'll live up to the high standards set by Mr. Richard Tomlin, Viking War Lord Supreme.
-CH and TH
Special thanks goes to Jerry Seinfeld, Arthur Vandelee and Francis Schaeffer.
p.s. flacit falis Philistines - G. Alkema
Where to start. Our subject: Mr. Michael Noot. Mikey, as we affectionately call him.
Monday morning, we strolled into our [tiny] nourishing mother (a.k.a. Guido) and were promptly affronted by the shocking sight of peach fuzz upon the stately chin of Mr. Noot. Why is this sight shocking, you may ask? Mr. Noot has the face of taut pre-teen Swedish boy, that's why. His facial hair is a walking phenomenon.
What made the moment so much more poignant was that he was standing beside Mr. Tomlin. What makes this make the moment more poignant, you may ask? Mr. Tomlin has a face of a Viking war lord (he's an experienced goateer). Thus, the juxtaposition was as striking as those found in the artwork of Peter Coker: a baby's bottom next to Austin Power's chest.
He's trying. That's all that counts. Maybe someday he'll live up to the high standards set by Mr. Richard Tomlin, Viking War Lord Supreme.
-CH and TH
Special thanks goes to Jerry Seinfeld, Arthur Vandelee and Francis Schaeffer.
p.s. flacit falis Philistines - G. Alkema
oh the humanity.
I'm really bad at this whole blog thing.
I feel real bad for not checking it for a month and then finding lovely comments that people left me a month before.
So just take this as my blanket apology for being a neglective blogger.
I feel real bad for not checking it for a month and then finding lovely comments that people left me a month before.
So just take this as my blanket apology for being a neglective blogger.
Wednesday, April 30, 2008
VIOLET HILL!!
I'm currently listening to the new Coldplay song... MY MIND IS BEING TRANSMORGIPHIED with delight... it's a whole new sound, whole new feel... hurrah!
I can't really comment on the quality of the sound cause the school computers have ridiculously crappy speakers.
But wow. I am so stoked for this album.
I can't really comment on the quality of the sound cause the school computers have ridiculously crappy speakers.
But wow. I am so stoked for this album.
Tuesday, April 15, 2008
Animal Orchestra
some sounds from our furry friends, courtesy of paulson and yours truly:
MOoooooooooOOOOOOOOOOOOOOoooooooooooooooooooooooooo0000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000z
(cow.)
meeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuurrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrughhhh
(tom cat.)
BLLLLLLLAAAARGH!
(a killer whale.)
PFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTT!
(elephant.)
CHIGGACHIGGACHIIIIIIIII.
(bird. of paradise.)
RUNGRY!
(scooby-doo.)
MSTRKRFT!
(highly evolved humanoid.)
try it sometime. just make a shape with your mouth, force some noise from your vocal regions and see what happens.
-CH
MOoooooooooOOOOOOOOOOOOOOoooooooooooooooooooooooooo0000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000z
(cow.)
meeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuurrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrughhhh
(tom cat.)
BLLLLLLLAAAARGH!
(a killer whale.)
PFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTT!
(elephant.)
CHIGGACHIGGACHIIIIIIIII.
(bird. of paradise.)
RUNGRY!
(scooby-doo.)
MSTRKRFT!
(highly evolved humanoid.)
try it sometime. just make a shape with your mouth, force some noise from your vocal regions and see what happens.
-CH
the evils of grad photographers.
"rawr." growling sounds ensued as the photo popped up on the screen. (insert black and white photo of michael paul broekema - braced teeth barred).
diedre just met me in the library, and that was her report on her grad photo experience. now she is joining me and spare and we are going to embark on an archeological dig using blush brushes.
but first, back to the topic at hand: grad photos. my appointment is on thursday. i'm a little wary now that diedre has completely turned me off of the idea. tips from deege: politely decline to pull off the ridiculous poses which include straddling a small wooden table, holding a small wooden diploma, a hideous [small wooden] flower arrangement draped over the left sleeve of a particularly volumous [small wooden] gown. also don't bend backwards - he may catch (or rather, shoot) you unawares.
i shall heed the advice and therefore protect myself.
don't worry about deege, she assures me that she walked away unscathed for the most part, and all the wiser of the ways of the affectionate photographer.
-CH
diedre just met me in the library, and that was her report on her grad photo experience. now she is joining me and spare and we are going to embark on an archeological dig using blush brushes.
but first, back to the topic at hand: grad photos. my appointment is on thursday. i'm a little wary now that diedre has completely turned me off of the idea. tips from deege: politely decline to pull off the ridiculous poses which include straddling a small wooden table, holding a small wooden diploma, a hideous [small wooden] flower arrangement draped over the left sleeve of a particularly volumous [small wooden] gown. also don't bend backwards - he may catch (or rather, shoot) you unawares.
i shall heed the advice and therefore protect myself.
don't worry about deege, she assures me that she walked away unscathed for the most part, and all the wiser of the ways of the affectionate photographer.
-CH
Monday, January 28, 2008
Goodbye For Now
Len HordykFebruary 3, 1934 - January 27, 2008
Gramps and Grams <3So cute they were :)
His favourite hobby: fishing. I am one of few... or perhaps the only granddaughter who inherited this love. :)
I'm so thankful that I got to see him yesterday morning before he passed.
I got to give him one last kiss and say goodbye, and then I went home.
I got to give him one last kiss and say goodbye, and then I went home.
At 3:30 my sisters came to my house and told us that God took him home while all his kids were standing around his bed and someone read Psalm 139 out loud. Then they prayed that God would take him quickly, and just like that, He did.
I'm glad that he's with our Father now, even though I'll miss him.
Thursday, January 17, 2008
got word?
Today I was reading through my Writer's Craft journal and I found an old entry where I wrote down my most favourite words. Hurrah!
Some of them just look fantastic on a page; for others it's all in the sound.
They are as follows:
metrical
impeccable
obscure
indifferent
travesty
phantasm
opalescent
quandary
purple
sprite
chaotic
prattle
quixotic
cadenced
rhythmic
bean
psuedo
symphonic
unorthodox
peevish
chimera
clip
truant
Some of them just look fantastic on a page; for others it's all in the sound.
They are as follows:
metrical
impeccable
obscure
indifferent
travesty
phantasm
opalescent
quandary
purple
sprite
chaotic
prattle
quixotic
cadenced
rhythmic
bean
psuedo
symphonic
unorthodox
peevish
chimera
clip
truant
Wednesday, January 16, 2008
We All Have a Little Pyro in Us.
Quotable quote of the day:
"flphshcht."
-M. Geertsema, in an attempt to imitate a lighter.
... A commendable effort, Maria!
"flphshcht."
-M. Geertsema, in an attempt to imitate a lighter.
... A commendable effort, Maria!
juniors.
Is it JUST me, or have kids forgotten their place?
When I came into highschool, there was a certain order of things:
Those in grade 12 were to be respected, almost to the point of hero worship.
Sickening, I know. But still, it was a way of life. The humble grade niners kept their heads down and remained reverently silent in the presence of the senior students. We spoke only when spoken to. When a grade 12 student was rushing down the hallway, we dove out of the way post haste. When there was a line-up in the washroom, you let the grade 12ers go ahead of you despite the fact that your bladder was on the verge of rupture. The grade 12 hall was just that: the GRADE TWELVE hall. Any juniors who dared venture through there at lunchtime were lucky to escape with their lives. Alright, so that may be a bit of an exageration... but you catch my drift.
Anyways, being the angelic, co-operative, obedient child I am, I endured my junior years following these rules, never crossing blades with a senior.
Now I'm in grade 12. The year was SUPPOSED to be mine! I was the one who was now going to be revered, respected, honoured, looked up to, adored, dare I say it... FEARED!
But alas. It is not so.
Almost daily I am pushed by a junior running by. No one makes way for me as I walk down the halls. Juniors use the grade 12 hall regularly, and not just for getting to class... for socializing as well! I still wait in line-ups in the bathroom. When I'm being weird [95% of the time] they give me dirty looks. They have the nerve to TALK to me! To look me in the eye! Even laugh at me! It's just unnatural.
Oh life's bitter injustices.
When I came into highschool, there was a certain order of things:
Those in grade 12 were to be respected, almost to the point of hero worship.
Sickening, I know. But still, it was a way of life. The humble grade niners kept their heads down and remained reverently silent in the presence of the senior students. We spoke only when spoken to. When a grade 12 student was rushing down the hallway, we dove out of the way post haste. When there was a line-up in the washroom, you let the grade 12ers go ahead of you despite the fact that your bladder was on the verge of rupture. The grade 12 hall was just that: the GRADE TWELVE hall. Any juniors who dared venture through there at lunchtime were lucky to escape with their lives. Alright, so that may be a bit of an exageration... but you catch my drift.
Anyways, being the angelic, co-operative, obedient child I am, I endured my junior years following these rules, never crossing blades with a senior.
Now I'm in grade 12. The year was SUPPOSED to be mine! I was the one who was now going to be revered, respected, honoured, looked up to, adored, dare I say it... FEARED!
But alas. It is not so.
Almost daily I am pushed by a junior running by. No one makes way for me as I walk down the halls. Juniors use the grade 12 hall regularly, and not just for getting to class... for socializing as well! I still wait in line-ups in the bathroom. When I'm being weird [95% of the time] they give me dirty looks. They have the nerve to TALK to me! To look me in the eye! Even laugh at me! It's just unnatural.
Oh life's bitter injustices.
Tuesday, January 15, 2008
"Elves: Loveable or Not?" a poll.
I recently got into a discussion with someone about elves (don't ask who or how).
The question was raised: Everyone loves elves... don't they?
So I thought I'd get to the bottom of this asap, before I lose too many night's sleep over it.
So please.
Enlighten me with your opinions on elves.
The question was raised: Everyone loves elves... don't they?
So I thought I'd get to the bottom of this asap, before I lose too many night's sleep over it.
So please.
Enlighten me with your opinions on elves.
Catherine le Fantastique.
This is my blog, and no other's.
Here I may rant about James Mcavoy (mic-Avoy) with input from others which I may promptly delete if (...when) they are in conflict with my [undisputable] opinions. That's right, Maria. I mean you.
Long live the Scot! (singular intended).
p.s. fascinating fact learned in Latin class today: Boys are always hungry.
If anyone is in disagreement with this statement, feel free to take it up with Longman Publishing Inc.
Here I may rant about James Mcavoy (mic-Avoy) with input from others which I may promptly delete if (...when) they are in conflict with my [undisputable] opinions. That's right, Maria. I mean you.
Long live the Scot! (singular intended).
p.s. fascinating fact learned in Latin class today: Boys are always hungry.
If anyone is in disagreement with this statement, feel free to take it up with Longman Publishing Inc.
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