I finished The Man Who Was Thursday today. I had guessed a few things regarding plot points from the first few chapters. Such as, what happened to Syme and the Council, the identity of the Council, and Sunday, so I felt pleased because usually I don't guess those things. I think because I'd heard how clever and witty Chesterton is, I was making an effort in reading to try and guess the hints and clues he left.

He is rather witty, I enjoyed ready it. Though I was a bit confused by the end. I think I will have to think on what all the symbolism means for a bit. I mean, I get it, but I don't get it, like, how it all fits together. Particularly piecing together the first impressions with the ending impressions of the Council

If you've read the book, let's discuss it in the comments. If you haven't read it, don't read the comments as there'll probably be spoilers. :D

Yesterday my G.K. Chesterton books arrived in the mail! I picked up the boxes in the mail on my way to Boyfriend's and opened them there, I then proceeded to do a happy dance.
( it didn't look anything like this though, funny as it is )

( This entry is going behind an eljay cut because it contains information that you may want to avoid. So anyway, LEG HAIR! )

I've been reading some relationship books recently. Boy Meets Girl and Dating With Pure Passion. I've read the first one all through and am more than half way through the second and I definitely enjoy the second more. Less formula, more God. BMG is way formulaic: this is how you're meant to best have a relationship. DWPP is more relaxed, but Gospel-centred: put God first in your relationship, whether it's dating, courtship, engagement, marriage, etc. I'm finding it more helpful and encouraging. BMG had me thinking "oh no, I'm not doing this, this and that, is my relationship with Josh really ok??" whereas DWPP makes me think, "nah, we're pretty good, remember to keep God first!" which is a much better mindset for me to be in, because Josh and I aren't doing anything unwise or ungodly.

I won a competition with Viva Life Photography the other day and the Boyfriend and I went in for a photo session. It was a $300 voucher. $150 of that went towards the photoshoot itself and then we had $150 to put towards getting prints. However, a little 5x7 print cost $165!!!!!!!!!!! (<-- completely deserving of all those exclamation marks). So I paid an extra $15 and bought one whole print. It's quite a nice photo and the ones we saw were quite good. I would have liked a couple of others, but that's professional, expensive photography for you. The experience was rather fun all up! And I'm glad I'll have a nice photo of Josh and I. :D

My Uncle John has a new ad for his music store and it's here if you're interested.

I'm definitely going on SPRTE as I paid the conference fees on Tuesday. Cannot back out now. I'm hoping that work will take it well as I haven't handed in notice of leave yet. I don't want to quit in order to go, so I really hope it doesn't come to that.

Ummm... what else is going on? Tuesday was such a beautiful day, I went to the beach in the afternoon after I'd ridden home from uni. Then I had a gin and tonic with my dinner and it was lovely sitting watching tv during a warm evening drinking G&T.

I cannot seem to get my hands on the Susumu Hirasawa cd that I want. Amazon doesn't sell it and neither does Hirasawa's website. So I've ordered one of his cd that IS available. I listened to a couple of tracks on youtube and they sound good.

Finally: What the hell is with Twihards relentlessly comparing Twilight to Harry Potter?? And thinking it's better!? No, it isn't. And I'll tell you why. Note, paragraph points are underlined.

The characters in Twilight do not evolve. There is no character development. You could argue that Edward and Bella both become better people over the course of the 4 novels, but this is simply not the case. They already were good people at the start of Twilight. Bella was already generous and selfless (*cough*), demonstrated by moving to Forks to give her mother space and not wanting to draw attention to herself. Edward already had self control in bucket loads, demonstrated by him not tearing his classroom to pieces on that first day he met Bella. What actually changes in their characters? They find out about each other's love and properly fall in love? That isn't character development, that's a plot point.

Conversely, characters in Harry Potter develop. Hermione ceases to be quite the bratty know it all above everyone else and turns out to be fiercely protective of her friends, using her knowledge to help them. She goes from being a straight-down-the-line do gooder, to bending and breaking the rules when she deems necessary. She becomes less self obsessed and is an important ally in the war against Voldemort.

Which brings me to my next point. There are proper battles in HP. Meyer, in Breaking Dawn, builds up this tremendous expectation that all hell's going to break loose and it ought to be pretty interesting because of all of the different powers and characters involved. But then everything is resolved because the two (seriously, only two??) most powerful fighters the Volturi have managed to amass over their centuries of power mongering are no match for Mary SueBella's awesome trumps-everything power that she only just managed to get control of yesterday in order to protect everyone. I think one person died and the reader has no sympathy for her anyway. Then everyone dissipates once the Volturi decide to go away because no one could possibly trump Bella's power. What a BORING battle.
Other potential battles in the Twilight series include the werewolves, which we never actually see because they chase each other off into the forest and then comes back out afterwards. I will concede to the battle at the end of Eclipse. But that's one. One out of four.

On the other hand, Harry Potter is full of battle. In every book there's some kind of challenge that Harry and his friends have to come up against and some kind of battle that he must face. The suspension is drawn and JKR delivers. In every book. That's seven out of seven.

OMG EDWARD IS SO BeAuTiFuL!!!11! *sigh* he's beautiful because SM says he is. And this makes him a Gary Stu. As Meyer has said time and again, she wrote these novels because of a dream she had about a sparkly vampire. Edward is the most awesometastic fantabulous amazing boyfriend/husband in the whole wide world and his only character flaw (it isn't portrayed as a flaw really) is his bipolar disorder. Bella's only character flaw is her clumsiness, and even then it only gives Edward the opportunities to be her shinning white knight in armour as he comes in to rescue her.

The characters in HP get so whiny sometimes. All of them have been very obtuse, dense, jealous, etc. They seem to me, to be possessed of some character depth. They are not wish-fulfilling characters. In fact, Harry really bugs the hell out of my with his emo whining sometimes. But I know that JKR constructed him that way and I can deal with that. I have much more trouble dealing with "perfect" characters.

If you want to gouge your eyes out and wash your brain with steel wool, then go watch this.
In response to it I say, HP had romance, action, gorgeous mythical creatures (in fact, it had SO many more mythical creatures than Twilight could spit on!). Then it claims "Twilight has so many characters too." The clip lists Jasper, Emmet and Edward... *facepalm* Yeah, HP had so many more than that. All of which gave me the impression that they had lives when they weren't next to Harry, Ron or Hermione.

I could go on, but I'll leave it at that for now. Don't get me wrong, I enjoyed reading the Twilight series. It kinda felt a bit like a PWP, only, maybe a RWP (for romance). It was a light easy read and because it was written in 1st person POV, it was very easy to insert myself into the story as Bella and get all that love and attention, and still be humble and modest. I think that's why a lot of readers love it. Because they substitute Bella for themselves and it's easy to do that. Because Edward isn't described in specific appearance terms, fans can insert celebrity-crush-of-choice whenever Meyer says he's "beautiful". It's an easy, light read that doesn't step on anyone's toes. Twihard fans step on toes though, when they blindly insist Twilight is OMG tha best booook eva!!1!

Oh, the funny things I have read recently! Here're some linky links to these amusing things!!

This here is a breakdown of the Twilight series and funny as anything! If you haven't read the series, don't bother, read this instead. If you have read the series, read this for the lulz.

Something that was linked in those reviews is this. Apparently someone on Craigslist posted this rant about where all the nice guys have gone, but it's really a misogynist rant about how he's being pathetic and not a nice guy at all because he can't enjoy the company of women without being screwed. So now this one is a response that calls this guy out for what he is. w00t.

(Edit 16:20: another linky link to nice guys vs Nice Guys here and these two are from something positive along the same lines.)

I think all the articles contain swearing (for those more sensitive readers) so this is a warning. But it's not saturated with it, just the odd swear word.

Also, tibbycat has a political rant on his LJ that is amusing. And WTF is up with Sarah Palin!??? Has she ever had a lobotomy and cannot answer a straight forward question? Hey, do you know who I think should run for president!? Josiah Bartlet. I would vote for him.

Vote One: Josiah Bartlet!

The American Library Association has a list of the 100 most banned books in the 1990-2000 time period and some of them just had my jaw dropping! So I thought it'd make a good meme.

RULES:

• Underline books that you've read
• bold those you want to read
  
• italic those whose banning who can understand. (Coz I can understand some, but most are just... WTF!?)

1. Scary Stories (Series) by Alvin Schwartz
2. Daddy's Roommate by Michael Willhoite
3. I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings by Maya Angelou
4. The Chocolate War by Robert Cormier
5. The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain
6. Of Mice and Men by John Steinbeck
7. Harry Potter (Series) by J.K. Rowling
8. Forever by Judy Blume
9. Bridge to Terabithia by Katherine Paterson
10. Alice (Series) by Phyllis Reynolds Naylor
11. Heather Has Two Mommies by Leslea Newman
12. My Brother Sam is Dead by James Lincoln Collier and Christopher Collier
13. The Catcher in the Rye by J.D. Salinger
14. The Giver by Lois Lowry
15. It's Perfectly Normal by Robie Harris
16. Goosebumps (Series) by R.L. Stine - this is a bit ridiculous!
17. A Day No Pigs Would Die by Robert Newton Peck
18. The Color Purple by Alice Walker
19. Sex by Madonna - anything by Madonna is automatically dodge. Especially if it's title Sex.
20. Earth's Children (Series) by Jean M. Auel
21. The Great Gilly Hopkins by Katherine Paterson
22. A Wrinkle in Time by Madeleine L'Engle
23. Go Ask Alice by Anonymous - I forgot I read this one back in high school. I remember liking it
24. Fallen Angels by Walter Dean Myers
25. In the Night Kitchen by Maurice Sendak
26. The Stupids (Series) by Harry Allard
27. The Witches by Roald Dahl
28. The New Joy of Gay Sex by Charles Silverstein - I can certainly understand this! lol
29. Anastasia Krupnik (Series) by Lois Lowry
30. The Goats by Brock Cole
31. Kaffir Boy by Mark Mathabane
32. Blubber by Judy Blume
33. Killing Mr. Griffin by Lois Duncan
34. Halloween ABC by Eve Merriam
35. We All Fall Down by Robert Cormier
36. Final Exit by Derek Humphry
37. The Handmaid's Tale by Margaret Atwood - I really enjoyed the depth of this book.
38. Julie of the Wolves by Jean Craighead George
39. The Bluest Eye by Toni Morrison
40. What's Happening to my Body? Book for Girls: A Growing-Up Guide for Parents & Daughters by Lynda Madaras - why the hell is this banned!? Seriously??
41. To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee - and this one!? Makes no sense! Isn't it a great American classic? My cat is named after Atticus Finch
42. Beloved by Toni Morrison
43. The Outsiders by S.E. Hinton
44. The Pigman by Paul Zindel
45. Bumps in the Night by Harry Allard
46. Deenie by Judy Blume - because it's a coming of age novel and mentions masturbation! pft!
47. Flowers for Algernon by Daniel Keyes - This sounds like a really nice book.
48. Annie on my Mind by Nancy Garden
49. The Boy Who Lost His Face by Louis Sachar
50. Cross Your Fingers, Spit in Your Hat by Alvin Schwartz
51. A Light in the Attic by Shel Silverstein
52. Brave New World by Aldous Huxley - Stories with dystopias are my favourite.
53. Sleeping Beauty Trilogy by A.N. Roquelaure (Anne Rice) - oh I can DEFINITELY understand this one. It's porn for sure and I'm surprised it's available in libraries.
54. Asking About Sex and Growing Up by Joanna Cole
55. Cujo by Stephen King
56. James and the Giant Peach by Roald Dahl
57. The Anarchist Cookbook by William Powell
58. Boys and Sex by Wardell Pomeroy
59. Ordinary People by Judith Guest - and yet this book is meant to be on the reading list in American high schools!?
60. American Psycho by Bret Easton Ellis
61. What's Happening to my Body? Book for Boys: A Growing-Up Guide for Parents & Sons by Lynda Madaras - what's up with this list!?
62. Are You There, God? It's Me, Margaret by Judy Blume - "Time magazine included the novel in its TIME 100 Best English-language Novels from 1923 to 2005."
63. Crazy Lady by Jane Conly
64. Athletic Shorts by Chris Crutcher
65. Fade by Robert Cormier
66. Guess What? by Mem Fox
67. The House of Spirits by Isabel Allende
68. The Face on the Milk Carton by Caroline Cooney - I don't understand this one either. Crazy!
69. Slaughterhouse-Five by Kurt Vonnegut
70. Lord of the Flies by William Golding - WTF?
71. Native Son by Richard Wright
72. Women on Top: How Real Life Has Changed Women's Fantasies by Nancy Friday HAHAHAHAHA. Yeah I kinda get it, but lol!
73. Curses, Hexes and Spells by Daniel Cohen - those Christian fundamentalists, *sigh*
74. Jack by A.M. Homes
75. Bless Me, Ultima by Rudolfo A. Anaya
76. Where Did I Come From? by Peter Mayle - I don't understand why this has been banned.
77. Carrie by Stephen King
78. Tiger Eyes by Judy Blume
79. On My Honor by Marion Dane Bauer
80. Arizona Kid by Ron Koertge
81. Family Secrets by Norma Klein
82. Mommy Laid An Egg by Babette Cole
83. The Dead Zone by Stephen King
84. The Adventures of Tom Sawyer by Mark Twain
85. Song of Solomon by Toni Morrison - this won a NOBEL prize in literature!
86. Always Running by Luis Rodriguez
87. Private Parts by Howard Stern
88. Where's Waldo? by Martin Hanford - huh? HUH? Whose idea was that? No wait, apparently one of the pictures is at the beach with a topless woman. :P
89. Summer of My German Soldier by Bette Greene
90. Little Black Sambo by Helen Bannerman - Sambo can be a racial slur. So, understandable.
91. Pillars of the Earth by Ken Follett
92. Running Loose by Chris Crutcher
93. Sex Education by Jenny Davis
94. The Drowning of Stephen Jones by Bette Greene
95. Girls and Sex by Wardell Pomeroy
96. How to Eat Fried Worms by Thomas Rockwell
97. View from the Cherry Tree by Willo Davis Roberts
98. The Headless Cupid by Zilpha Keatley Snyder
99. The Terrorist by Caroline Cooney
100. Jump Ship to Freedom by James Lincoln Collier and Christopher Collier

I think, given the things that are going on right now, I'm doing pretty well and upholding through it all. These are things to give thanks for. After work was more crying, but it was sympathetic crying rather than actual crying on my behalf. Then Bible study, then a de-brief on the situation afterwards.

What else? I bought the rest of the Twilight series at Dymocks, a new pair of work shoes and tickets to the Ballet today. Retail therapy probably helped. :)

Today I was out and about. I went and had my legs waxed FINALLY! They were man legs, now they're women's legs again. Hurrah! Then I bought a new car stereo for cheaps (and later tried to install it by myself for free. FAILS!). I went into the city, to Target to see about getting my mp3 replaced because it broke and it's under warranty. I read the first two chapters of New Moon at Borders, but didn't buy it. Then I visited Lisey at hospital and that was nice. I ate too many sour worms and felt a little ill. DAMN WORMS! so tasty though...

Although the car stereo installing didn't work out so great, I was pleased by how far I got. I managed to take off the front panel (which was hard work!!) and take out the old one, but the cables and cords for the new one were rather different and I think needs a look at by an experience mechanic/electrician. I put in the new one anyway, I just didn't hook it up at the back. Then I put everything back in its place. I hope I didn't forget any screws. That would be SCREWY! HAH!

Capslock ftw.

Last night I went to Dawn's house because I thought something was on, but it was cancelled last minute and my phone was dead so I didn't know. However, she felt so bad about it (I was rather embarrassed too) that she gave me free dinner and afterwards we went out for half price waffles at Gelare. YUM!

There are too many books I want to read at this moment in time. My list is as such:
Church History in Plain Language by Bruce L. Shelley - currently reading and half way through
The Great Omission by Dallas Willard - started reading 3 weeks ago. One chapter in
The Porn Report by Alan McKee, Katherine Albury and Catharine Lumby - started reading this morning. Finished introduction
The Way of Purity by Bevan McGuiness - book 3 of a fantasy trilogy. Own the first two, bought the 3rd two days ago. Signed copy = *squeee!*
The Goldsworthy Trilogy by Greame Goldsworthy
+Stuff I don't own but intend to read soonish:
New Moon and Eclipse by Stephenie Meyer

Then there's all the readings to keep up with for my classes. At least I'm not doing Japanese this semester in order to focus on my education studies. Rest assured, uni will come first. Book reading will happen in between uni work, such as on the bus to uni. :)

I bought Eckhart Tolle's book, A New Earth yesterday. It's fantastic to critically analyse, because there's so much he's twisted. I've begun a series on Blogspot. So you can get my RSS feed on LJ by friending blogspoteti or go straight there. :)

I don't like contemporary worship music.

There, I said it! Too late to take it back now! I recently found something that very much reflects how I feel on this topic. I was purusing about Wikipedia when I found the page on the Left Behind series. Being a not-fan of them, I thought immediately that I ought to read the criticism section. From there was a referrence to a blog that I thought I must read, and from here I shall quote to you both about Left Behind and then onto contemporary music.

"Well, sir," Buck said, nearly staggered by the emotion and humility he heard in his own voice, "I appreciate that."

Strolling through Left Behind, one frequently winds up tripping over phrases like that. They force one to stop, turn around and inspect the ground, wondering how such a strange and hazardous thing could have ended up there in the middle of the sidewalk.

Buck was "nearly staggered by the emotion and humility he heard in his own voice" -- is such a condition even possible? Just barely, perhaps, but not in the case of anyone you would care to know. The sentence as a whole was, I think, intended to convey the idea that Buck is humble, but what it actually tells us, instead, is that Buck is the kind of person who finds a humble-sounding tone in his own voice deeply moving. That doesn't strike me as an endearing quality.

From there, we move on to contemporary music. I feel it necessary to define to you what I mean by that. I mean the kind of music that happens in churches with stages. There's a big stage with a massive band and 5+ people up the front singing. And when they're singing, they're not just sticking to the words, because they'll be instrumental parts of the songs when the chorus is repeated over and over again and the singers are raising their hands and going "oh Jesus, yeah!" etc, into the microphone - making certain that Jesus hears them, because otherwise he might not. I have little patience for it. But this is my experince with these such churches in Perth. Most of the problem I have with them is that they have big music, but they lack in Biblical teaching. Severely. And so I quote to you again.

At its worst (and it's not always at its worst), this "worship music" strikes me as a kind of overacting -- a desperate effort to be perceived as earnest that leaves me with the sour aftertaste of disingenuousness. The performers of such worship would likely respond that I'm not the one they're seeking to impress. Their intended audience is God, and God knows they're sincere. But I don't think that's quite true either. The real intended audience -- the listener such worship seeks most to influence -- is the performers themselves. The goal of such performances seems to be to achieve a state in which one is, to borrow Jenkins' accidentally insightful phrase, "nearly staggered by the emotion and humility one hears in one's own voice."

So I feel sorta bad for picking on these things, but the quotes were too amusing to avoiding sharing with you. I have one last musing before I leave you to your thoughts and comments, and that is this; Why are they trying to impress God? Can God be impressed? By singing songs, aren't we merely doing it for his praise, glory and our own encouragement? So if you take encouragement from these songs, then I'm glad for you (sincerely, I am!). But when I'm singing songs in church, I'm not doing it to impress God, but to honour him and encourage my brothers and sisters.

Quotes taken from here at Slacktivist.typepad.com

I went to a wedding today. It was Intan's sister's wedding. Her name is Maya. It was at a catholic church and really wasn't as bad as I thought it would be. That is to say, I put aside all the catholic issues I have, and decided to be really happy for Maya and Emmanuel and pray my own prayers when it came to that. Maya was so beautiful and her dress was amazing and it was a touching wedding. Makes me want to get married. Cept I'm kinda still undecided on that issue, and will probably just be happy with me now. The minute I start wanting to be married, I'll be all discontent and have extra issues and stuff. Not cool.

It was good to see Intan and Matt. Matt looked good! He really cleans up nicely when put in a suit and I think all the exercise of trekking around Europe took it's toll nicely. Told some funny stories too. Intan looked beautiful too, all the dresses were amazing. I felt a bit sorry for all of them though, as it was a cold, wet and windy day. Matt galliantly gave her his jacket though, which I thought was lovely and thoughtful.

Japanese continues to be very enjoyable. I have this new "look, cover, write, check" thing to help me learn all the vocabularly and kanji each week. So much to keep on top off. I also need to clean my room and study. Study isn't looking so good. But I'm so not in a cleaning mood! *slaps self*

I've been in a itchy-to-read mood recently. Having read three books in a row last week and nothing this week. It really is rather sad. All of them were fantastic books. Bad books makes Kat want to never read again. Re: Da Vinci Code. What a crap book! Jodi Picoult = awesome books.

Anyway, I have work tomorrow morning, then kids club straight afterwards, then a couple of hours to myself before a 21st. eugh. big day. Wish I didn't have to work. But I needs money. *sigh* Looking forward to the party though. It'll be good to see people

Heya.
Prac has finished for this week. I still have a week of high school prac in a few weeks which I'm not looking forward to so much. Primary School was super-fun! I had a blast. The kids there were awesome and Tia, my suervising teacher, run her class SO well and the kids love her. She's a legend! I want the rest of my degree to be over and to be teaching in a class already.

Being on prac didn't require much work. It was mostly observation, so I had time to read a couple of books. One I finished on Sunday, Mercy and the other I finished on Thursday, Plain Turth both by Jodi Picoult. Very intersting and engaging books, I really enjoyed them. I read My Sister's Keeper earlier this year and that was brilliant. Right now I'm reading The Awakening by Bevan McGuiness, a newly published Perth author. I have an autographed copy! :D It's so new that neither the book nor author have a wikipedia page yet. *grin* It's pretty good. I'm about 2/5's of the way through a little anal about not bending the spine or leaving marks on the book. I think because it's first edition and autographed.

I'm giving my testimony finally tomorrow night. So be at Unichurch please. Details are as linked.

I've been helping a bit more at home recently in order that Dad will be more pleasent to live with. So Wednesday and Thursday I cooked dinner. And I packed up the dishwasher too! I have a Jap test on Monday and I'm procrastinating from study, which is very very bad of me. People tell me to do work! I should go do some work. :P