En na mijn blah-bui van gisteravond nog blij ook, stel je voor zeg. Ok ja, in mijn achterhoofd speelt het hele verdorie-kind-dat-kon-zo-veel-beter-ding nog, maar nuja, fuck that.

Onderscheiding, totaal van 72 komma nog iets procent over de drie jaren heen, 71 komma nog iets dit jaar.
Puntjes van dit semester:
-Chinese religie: 10 (auwtsj, maar terecht, zo goed was het examen echt niet en ik vreesde voor een buis)
-Pastoraaltheologie: 14 (wauw, ik fatsoenlijke punten halen op freakin' pastoraal, stel je voor zeg!)
-Inleiding godsdienstwetenschap: 15 (voldoet aan de verwachtingen)
-Hebreeuws 1c: 18 (hell yeah!)
-Vakdidactisch seminarie: 15 (dik in orde)
-Hindoeïsme: 16 (ook in de lijn der verwachtingen)
- Godsdienstsociologie: 12 (prima, maar feitelijk schandalig hoog in verhouding tot de tijd die ik erin gestopt heb)
-Scriptie: 15 (16 van Vennie, 14 van Broeckie, 15 van corrector, al bij al zeer prima)

Voor de punten van alle semesters zit ik eigenlijk quasi altijd comfortabel tussen de 12 en de 17, met vorig semester voor dogma een uitschietertje naar de lage kant (een tien), en vorig jaar voor jodendom nog een ferme 18. En ik mag nog zo zelfkritisch zitten doen als ik wil, eigenlijk is dat allemaal best wel goed.

Your result for The Commonly Confused Words Test...

English Genius

Take The Commonly Confused Words Test at HelloQuizzy

And here's a link to my full results:
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Chrono Trigger coming to DS

I knew this thing had more purpose than Pokemon!

Mrs. Animal, of course.  With my kids, grandkids and parents running close behind.
 

http://www.kimonostownhouse.com/comic/

Today's comic. Just brilliant. :D

Video Games/Relationship Junk

At random, I took Julie on her first instance. We were level 13 on our Blood Elves, so it was time for Ragefire Chasm... it was a disaster. Tank was charging like a nut, we wiped a couple times. I wrangled us a priest to take his place and my pally started tanking... Also bust when the priest had to leave. I tried merging with another group... also bust. Finally the mage got on his main and ran me and Julie through. We'll try again at some point to do it the right way.

Since people shared quests though, we ended up having to run all over Horde territory handing them in. It was cute to hear Julie looking at Mulgore and the Barrens and hearing her say "It's so biiig..." I knew then she was getting into the exploration of it, admiring that aspect. "Look how big the moon is!" ^_^ She's adorable.

Books

Figured that while I'm trying not to taint my beginning processes for the current book as I find my groove in writing it, I may as well slip into Watchmen again. I can't remember when I read it last. I'm picking up so much stuff that slipped past last time. Awesome book as before.

Fundamentally:  Home is wherever my family is. 

But this is an interesting question.  Moving beyond the fundamental for the moment, 'home' in the sense of 'where I'm from' is Iowa.  I grew up in Iowa, and I had a wonderful childhood.  Northeast Iowa was a great place to be a kid, a great place to be a teenager.

I've lived all over, but mostly for brief stints.  Texas, Virginia, Germany, Saudi Arabia.  Since 1989 I've called Colorado 'home.'  In eight or nine more years, I hope to start calling southern Alaska 'home,' and plan to continue doing that for the rest of my life.

 

Best Skittles commercial ever...



What's with phoning in the Jesus lately? King Kong, love it as I do, the big ape falls off the building with all the martyrdom of Mel Gibson's movie. Then Superman Returns comes along and the disappointing anti-climax is followed by this looong, slooow slog as Superman plummets to Earth and is somehow admitted to the hospital and everyone's sad... and then he's better. This has been done much more gracefully and with less martyr slogging when he actually dies. And then at the end of season 3 of Doctor Who... holy crap. What was up with that? WHY was up with that? Martha going around "The Doctor died for your sins. The Doctor is great. The Doctor is good. What if the Doctor was one of us? Just a slob like one of us?"

It's fine to do motifs and symbolism of life and death and rebirth, but you don't need to ape the Christ stuff along with it. The Doctor isn't Jesus. Superman isn't Jesus. King Kong? Not Jesus! The only who is Jesus is JESUS! No one else!




Except Aslan. He's also Jesus.

This morning's "Writer's Block" bit had me thinking of vivid images put forth by words.  I'm not a huge poetry buff, but Lord Tennyson did a great bit of visual imagery with The Eagle:

He clasps the crag with crooked hands;
Close to the sun in lonely lands,
Ringed with the azure world, he stands.

The wrinkled sea beneath him crawls;
He watches from his mountain walls,
And like a thunderbolt he falls.

I've liked that since I was a little kid.

I admit. Early in the morning, it's hard for anyone to be precisely accurate. Hells, I've been up all night and it's still hard for me. But then, somethings just depend on it. There was a teaser on the news for an upcoming story. Amy Winehouse had punched someone and the tagline on the screen was supposed to say, "Fists of Fury".

What it REALLY said was, "Fists of Furry."

...now, normally, it would just be ha-ha and fly right past. But earlier in the night, they'd reported that Philadelphia was hosting the largest furry convention in the world.

Fists of Furry?

I giggled 'til I had to pee.

XD

The last few golden aspen leaves were fluttering in the breeze as Micheal Crider and his hunter-client climbed through the grove on their way to a high drainage.
- Anderson Gentry, The Crider Chronicles

Around an unnamed star, in an unnamed system, with no habitable planets, there was an asteroid belt between the star's two rocky planets and the three Saturn-sized gas giants.
- Anderson Gentry, Barrett's Privateers.

I think they work well because they set good imagery, convey a sense of place, and because I wrote them.
 

Video Games

At random, I invited Jessica to mess with the Spore Creature Creator trial I had on my computer. And honestly, sometimes it takes viewing things the way a 6-year-old does to spark the imagination. I let both her and John mess with it a little and ended up purchasing the full creator, as well as figuring out how to work body fatness. This program is a lot of fun. I want everyone to mess with it. Hell, I'm getting excited about Spore all over again (which was probably EA's aim in this early release). I can't wait to see the Spore galaxy populated by all kinds of creatures made by people all over the place.

Here's some vids of a couple of mine:

Chipcoari

Wiggly Horror

Dragicorn



I may upload some for John and Jessica's just to give an idea of what the untampered mind will produce for kicks. It was actually fun just watching them mess with it and create things.

Bed time.

Nice Sunday here.  I went and saw Get Smart this morning, but mrsanimaland the kids haven't yet seen it, so I'll post a review later.  But I will say this:  The movie is a vertiable cameo-a-palooza.  You do see at least one person who was prominent in the TV series, and Hymie - well, let's just say that, while Hymie only had a small role, I must say they couldn't have cast him any better.

It was a hot day here in the Santa Clarita valley, but I did a lot of walking nonetheless.  Good, brisk walking.  It's getting to the point where I actually look forward to getting on the scale on my weekends at home; since the end of January  I've lost 44 pounds.  My goal is to get back into my old Army uniforms.  I've got about 45 pounds more to go to make that goal.

If I do say so myself, I'm pretty good at making goals.

The folks are going down to Cedar Falls to look at a house that I think will suit them very well.  It's technically in town, but while there are houses on either side, to the back there is a city-owned forest reserve of several hundred acres.  Lots of woods for the Old Man to walk in, and he doesn't have to take care of them.  This morning the Old Man sounded more chipper than I've heard him in several years; I don't think any of us, including Dad, realized how much that big place was taking out of him.  Best of all, they'll be about a ten-minute drive away from where Bugs lives with her kids, so my grandkids will get to see Papa and Nana a lot - that idea just delights everyone involved.  Papa has already promised the little ones long walks in the woods.

I never knew any of my great-grandparents.  I'm glad my grandkids will.

Thursday night I fly home for the long weekend.  Back here Monday, then Mrs. A flies out here Thursday night for a long weekend here with me, no kids, "just us" time.  I'm taking her for a walk on the beach, then on a winery tour, maybe a theater outing.  We'll play it by ear.

Does it feel like totty in here?  It feels like totty in here.

Well.  It is a hot day.  Sweaty, even.  Wow.

-Mijn neef had de hipste trouwoutfit ooit. Zwart kostuum met zwarte tshirt ipv hemd onder, z'n halflange blonde dreads in een staart, zwarte hoed. 't Is wel een disturbing idee dat ik mijn neef allicht heet zou vinden als't mijn neef niet zou zijn. Nele had trouwens ook iets heel moois aan, soort elfachtige 'flowy' (vertaling, iemand?) gebroken witte jurk, haar eenvoudig naar achter gedaan, basic make-up, boeket met zonnebloemen. Iets te eenvoudig naar mijn goesting, maar wel erg mooi.
-Ze zijn in een riksha naar't stadhuis gereden. Genialiteit.
-Er bestaat blijkbaar zoiets als hete Vlaamse acteurs! Enfin ja, eentje toch. Hij heet Anthony weetikveel, hij speelde naar 't schijnt in Sarah maar dat weet ik niet want daar heb ik nooit naar gekeken, en hij zag er vooral zeer smakelijk uit op dat feest. Beetje een meer alledaagse, iets meer afgeborstelde, maar nog steeds tamelijk onweerstaanbare versie van Johnny Depp. Wel minder dat grootmoe er oeverloos over zat te zagen en blijkbaar vond dat ik mensen die aan god weet welk schraal tv-programma meedoen moét kennen. Ach, grootmoes.
-Een chocoladefontein. Heerlijke dedacentie! Goddelijkheid! NOM! (En ik heb meteen al maar tegen mijn neef gezegd dat Neal en ik er op onze trouw ook eentje moeten hebben, maar dan een grotere, kwestie van een beetje gezonde familiale rivaliteit te bevorderen.)
-Ik vond het sowieso fijn om effe met mijn neef te babbelen. Ik ken die eigenlijk nauwelijks en dat vind ik wreed jammer want da's echt een toffe kerel. Toen ik een jaar of zestien was is die op z'n eentje naar Azië vertrokken, anderhalf jaar rondgetrokken door Indonesië en Nepal en India en weet ik veel wat nog allemaal, en ik vond dat zo fantastisch hip en zag die neef eigenlijk altijd zo'n beetje als lichtend voorbeeld, maar ik had niet het idee dat die veel behoefte had aan gedweep van zijn puberend nichtje dus ik heb dat nooit echt durven zeggen.
-Hij en Nele zijn trouwens ook superschattig, blijkbaar kennen die elkaar al zeven jaar ofzo en zijn die in de middelbare school al een koppeltje geweest maar zoals zoveel puberkoppeltjes uit elkaar gegaan en Jan is toen vertrokken en al, en dan toch uiteindelijk terug samen komen en trouwen, en ze leken onvoorstelbaar verliefd. Roept ook wel op tot wat introspectie, zeker aangezien ik zowel groot belang hecht aan mijn relatie als aan mijn nood om mij toch ook wel serieus toe te leggen op een aantal persoonlijke dingen die ik zelf wil doen in mijn leven. Tot nu toe dacht ik daarover toch altijd ergens meer in of/of-termen, maar misschien hoeft dat ook niet altijd, en kan echte liefde wel wat verdragen, ook al leidt het pad niet recht naar het altaar.
-Ik moet stoppen met lolspeech in het dagelijks leven te gebruiken. Mijn bewust onbeschrijflijk marginale, op een Cubaanse coke-baas lijkende (en niet per ongeluk, maar omdat hij dat een coole look vindt!) maar wel heel sympathieke nonkel was aan het tonen dat hij proper ondergoed had aangedaan voor de trouw, en ik heb effectief tegen mijn ma gezegd 'omgwtf do not want!'. Ze snapte echt niet waar ik dat ineens haalde en vond mij heel vreemd. Nota aan mezelf: zeg zo'n dingen alleen tegen mensen waarvan je veilig kan aannemen dat ze lolcats kennen.

Writing

The new book is going pretty well. I feel like writing it is significantly less stressful than Dark Wishes, which is how the writing should be. Challenging, but not grating on my nerves or worrying me intensely. I don't know if it was the strain of making a world of its own or a struggle to find out where the characters and/or story were going, but I'm even more positive now that stopping work on it was a good thing. And next time I will have my outline together before I begin.

The new one is moving along at a leisurely, but strong pace. Some aspects of the style are kinda experimental (or at least new to me) but somehow it's all coming out fine.

Video Games/Relationship Junk

Julie and I have been having fun with our WoWing. Nothing too exciting has happened just yet, but then, we're still in the beginning areas and are just moving along to the secondary zones (Ghostlands for one set, Darkshore for the other). I'm looking forward to playing with her in the higher level areas. The game is so huge. I don't know if she'll be as jonesed about the exploring aspect as I am (probably my favorite thing about the game), but we'll see.

Hell, there's still so much I haven't seen. I've been moving my main around Outland. Lots of quests; more than will be necessary to get him to level 70, actually. It'll be worth playing again as another character to try things I didn't before. Julie will likely want to move on from Hellfire Peninsula ASAP since it's "not pretty." :P

Doing a quest with three others today was pretty exciting, which isn't how I usually describe quests. We had to go kill these giant rock monsters with huge red crystals growing out of their heads and shoulders, amid a field full of big red crystals. The last part of the quest was to chain up this enormous crystal at the center. We had a 70 helping us, flying around on his flying mount as lightning bolts shot out of our hands and then this elite, over-sized version of the other crystal giants appeared; so big I couldn't see him all on my screen until I ran off to shoot him.

Outland is a lot of fun, and cinematic in some ways too. I'm looking forward to Northrend.

We've been having some serious storms up here for the past few nights. Lots of flooding and over 10000 lighting strikes a couple nights ago. Really cool light show, if you can stand the noise. Anyway, it began to rain about 2pm. I thought nothing of it, so long as I didn't lose access. I mean, I was playing WoW. Gotta have my priorities...

Anyway, a bolt of lightning hit a couple streets over. BLAM! Holy shit! It rattled the walls and the hairs on my legs stood up from the static. It was so bad, the family next door had to take their kids out to stop them from freaking out. Wasn't the biggest bolt I'd ever seen, but it was a doozy...kinda neat. :D

Another trip to Ventura this morning, another long walk up the beach.  I walked all the way up to the Ventura Pier this morning, where I encountered this fellow taking a break on the handrail.



This is, of course, a Brown Pelican, not an uncommon bird around these parts.  

It was a cool, misty morning on the Pacific shore this morning when I arrived there, about eight o'clock.  Waves were running about two feet high.  The usual retinue of gulls hanging out on the beach, the usual early-morning complement of fisherman casting from the beach.  Nice day.  It was up to about 65 degrees by my leased car's thermometer when I left Ventura about ten, and 90 degrees in Valencia when I got back here about eleven.  Amazing how the ocean moderates temperatures, but then, it would be more amazing if it didn't.

I still haven't seen a condor yet.  I wasn't in the right area today, but I know where to go.  That's one thing I do need to do before this gig ends.

Doing what has to be done, regardless of the cost.

Example.
 

Movies

I ended up just taking John. Jessica had a change of heart at the last minute, and then a "I can't decide" period that's typical of her. She opted out and just John and I went. He was kinda scared of the theater cause he hasn't gone much, but I held his hand for the first 10 minutes and he relaxed after that. He only got a little antsy near the end (he's used to changing channels at a whim, so having to sit and watch a movie for an hour and a half is difficult).

The movie was excellent. Very beautiful in both setting and characters. It's amazing how much can come across in so little dialogue. It was also very sweet at times. Wall-E is just a great character.

Go see it.

I...I knew about Starcraft 2. I saw the trailer for that and it will be bitchin'...

Now...

Diablo 3.

I just got wood. O.O