Flowery Carnage

Every year our azaleas bloom. I don't know a whole lot about them, but ours are a violent fuscia pink.

The thing I find fascinating about them is the insanely short lifespan of the flowers. They start poking out around late April, open up a day or two after that, hang around for a few weeks, and leave as quickly as they appeared. It's a little sad when the flowers die off because they really aren't here for very long. They are spectacular while they're here, but after that it becomes just a dull bush.

The second fascinating this about them is that when the flowers start to fall off, they fall off in one piece. There is no separation of petals, the whole thing just falls off. With flower casualties strewn about the sidewalk, I call this the Azalea Massacre:

Closing thoughts on Sunday

Well, my Jarrod is home for good now. And I couldn't be more excited. For four years, we have done the long-distance relationship thing and I must say, we aced the test. I feel we have pulled through this with flying colors, our relationship is in great shape, and we are now on track to move on in our lives together.

As always, I love the little things in life, and here is a sampling of the latelies: last night was the last time we ever had to drive back to his house; today is the last time we'll have to drive home in his car [hopefully]; I just deleted my weather widget for Oxford off of my Dashboard, because now I don't care what the weather's like there :-) ; I just deleted my countdown widget for the next time I'll see Jarrod because from now on, he won't be gone on month-long stints. It hasn't quite sunk in that I'll actually get to see him any time I'd like from now on, but I'm sure it will as time moves on.

Speaking of time, I must be going to bed soon. It has been a long weekend; long, but great. I got up super early on Friday in order to leave around 7am; probably only got 2.5 hours of sleep that night. Saturday was graduation stuff all day and today involved packing stuff up to bring home, then driving all that stuff home for six hours. However, we rewarded ourselves with some Bread Co and Starbucks on the way home, and that was a really nice treat. Hey, speaking of driving, I gotta tell you that every single time I make the drive to Oxford or back home, I think of my friend Marie. And speaking of Marie, I just got to see her while she was home from Arizona. And it was awesome. Speaking of awesome... nah, I'm just kidding.

I documented why I think of her today:

Random note: I just killed a roach that was over an inch long. Be proud of me, I didn't scream when I saw it. However, I'm not usually the type to do that. Out of the corner of my eye I saw him crawl from out of my bathroom closet for a instant, only to duck back inside. Thus, the hunt for him began in said closet. I usually have no problem killing bugs, but an inch long is a little big and I was very creeped out by the possibility of trying to kill it with a kleenex, not succeeding, and having him crawl up my hand for a moment. Thank god I was able to grab the old toilet brush in said closet, slightly smash him in the bottom of the plastic thing it sits in (enough to wedge him into the bristles) and flush him down the toilet. Crawling-up-hand crisis averted! I hope I don't see another bug that size for a long time...

Love!

Something I love about where we live is the location. I love sitting on the front porch or the deck in silence, just enjoying being outside. I like to watch the birds, if they're around, but most of the time I just sit there in silence like an old person, watching the trees sway and clouds go by.

Some might find this boring, I'm sure, but I think it is quite relaxing and something that not too many of us do anymore. Our lives just keep getting more and more cluttered to the point where we forget about this great green earth God gave us (try saying that five times fast, haha) and don't "stop and smell the roses." I advise you to try it sometime, and see if you have such an urge to hop back on your computer after sitting outside for a half hour.

To give you an idea of it all, I stitched together this panoramic view from yesterday. Maybe you'll love my front yard as much as I do:

Very, very sad

Original story here.

In NYC recently, a man lay on the sidewalk, fairly common. He was homeless, also pretty common. The strange thing was the man was bleeding because he had been stabbed, a little less common but still not outlandish by NYC standards. As the story goes, surveilence shows that for hours numerous people walked past this man but never did anything about it. In the end, when someone finally feels the need to call the cops to let them know about it, homeless man dies.

The saddest things about this are twofold. One: after viewing a lot of video, the authorities figured out that the reason the homeless man was stabbed was because he was helping a woman who was under attack. Had he not stepped in, I assume the woman would have been stabbed instead. He chases the criminal until colapsing on the street, where he will eventually meet his death.

Two: This just proves how, more and more, we as a society are so wrapped up in our own lives that we really don't care about others. Or maybe it's not "I don't care" but more "I don't have the time," you make the call. Now, I realize that a huge factor in no one helping this man was that he probably looked, well, homeless. That right there proves how judgmental we are most times, which is a whole other discussion. Homeless people in this country are lower on the food chain than homeless pets; most people will care way more about a cat on the street than a human being. That being said, sometimes it is their (homeless) own fault that they get such a bad rep. However, the man was still a human being and there is nothing saying you have to touch the man and physically help him. Just call 911, that's all. But no, we can't do that for another individual. This is truly a modern day incidence of The Good Samaritan. I would like to hope that I would not have been one of those who would have walked by, looked at him, and decided it was none of my concern and too much of a hassle to notify anyone.

What's even sadder is that this man was a decent enough guy due to the whole reason he was stabbed in the first place: he was helping a woman being attacked. It's really sad that, after doing this good deed, he had to lose his life because no one else would return the favor.

What do you see?

When I was a younger, I had three distinct topic interests that I remember. They were: Native Americans, the Titanic, and space and the planets.

Well, as I've gotten older, things change a little. I still find all of those topics interesting, but not nearly as much. But I gotta tell ya, I still am just fascinated by outer space. It just blows my mind, just thinking about how space is infinite. There is nothing on earth that goes on forever, so this idea is really, really difficult for me to grasp. There's no 'wall' in space, there is no end, so you'll just keep on going and going. And this brings me to the point of today's blog: I don't know about you, but when I get thinking about space, the beauty and mystery of it, and it's infinite qualities, I see of God.

For me, space is one small sign that there is a God. He created these absolutely beautiful stars and galaxies and planets and... I could just go on and on. I love it when the sky is clear at night and I can look up at the stars with Jarrod. And as far as the infinity part, space and God are kind of similar, you know? There is no beginning or end in space, just as there is no beginning or end with God. And that just blows my mind; I can't comprehend it.

“I am the Alpha and the Omega, the first and the last, the beginning and the end." --Revelation 22:13.

To showcase what I'm talking about, here are some of my favorites. To me, these images are so many things: astounding, incredible, beautiful, and all-around awesome (in the original meaning of the word, too.)  The colors, the shapes, the movement are all breath-taking.


Three light-year tall pillar of gas and dust:

Source: Hubblesite.org

Close-up of a galaxy in infrared:

Source: Hubblesite.org

Star cluster:

Source: Hubblesite.org

Our sun:

Star cluster in the Large Magellanic Cloud:

Source: Hubblesite.org

Cat's eye Nebula:

Source: Hubblesite.org

Crab Nebula:

Source: Hubblesite.org

A butterfly:

Source: Hubblesite.org

Cone Nebula, star-forming pillar of dust and gas:

Source: Hubblesite.org

Jet in Carina:

Source: Hubblesite.org

Helix Nebula, also called "The Eye of God":

Source: Hubblesite.org

It was a good movie, but I couldn't stand it

Yeah, I know that's kind of a weird title. And a weird opinion on a movie, but that about sums up my experience watching Requiem for a Dream.

I had heard this was a tough movie to watch, but I can't remember where I heard that. To whomever made that statement, I agree with you. The indie drama was about drugs and the hell that comes with them. It truly goes into the perils of addiction in a very, very raw way. So in a nutshell, that's what we're dealing with here.

If you want to see it, quit reading because I lash out some spoilers. If not or if you don't mind, click and read on...


In a more elaborate nutshell, there are four characters who become addicted. The mom wants to lose weight, her doctor prescribes her something, and they turn out to be amphetamines. She gets thin but also loses her mind and becomes addicted to them and to her television. (Oh, that's another thing I almost forgot: the TV show/infomercial she watches every frickin' day is SOOOOOO annoying. I could not stand it after a while, either.) Her son becomes a dealer, loses his money, and goes on a quest to get back on top. In the process, he starts using his own stash and in the end, he loses his arm from infection from shooting up so often. His girlfriend becomes increasingly addicted, too, needing a fix all the time. She does almost anything to get money for her fix. Their friend also tries to become a dealer, but ends up in prison mopping floors.

I have never been on drugs but boy did I feel like I was on something while watching this movie. Or I was a paranoid schizo. When it was over, I felt like I had to recover for a bit to tell you the truth. The music was repetative: there were about 5 tracks used throughout the entire movie. There were more and more flashing lights (think annoying office lights that are going out.) The scenes and cuts became more abrupt. And it got to a point where I could not take it anymore! I'm serious. I ended up speeding up the movie a bit and/or muting it because the repetative mood music just grated on your nerves like nails on a chalkboard. I was still interested to see what happened, yes, but I just wanted to get through the darn thing when it was 2/3 over. I cannot even imagine seeing this one in a theater where A, you can't pause the movie, and B, you are surrounded by it and it's loud.

Now, despite all that, I think that's how I'm supposed to feel. I think that is what the director wanted the audience to feel like by the end of it: like you've been on a bad trip. The dull music was a sign of how routine the drugs became in their lives. There was a very methodical way that they depicted when they took their drugs, too. It was the same each time, again driving home the routine and the point that the drugs stay the same, it's the people who are changing. The characters get sucked down, becoming more addicted and more paranoid, and you go down with them. So, in that view, I think the movie was a success. Did I enjoy it? Not really, it's not very... fun. Is it a good movie to show some mature teens? Yeah, it'll work way better than D.A.R.E. any day. Do I want to see it again? Nnnnnno. But it was an interesting movie because the story and the way it was all put together was just so real.

I'm very aware of drugs; I live in the #1 meth county in America and am very accustomed to headlines regarding the subject. To act like they don't impact people's lives, and ruin them many times, is just denial. So despite the difficulty in watching it, I feel the movie does a good job of bringing that impact to the screen because it impacts you, the audience, in the process.

Mom found this...

Our chips love us back.

Weekend wrap-up

This weekend was nice and relaxing. It was the first time in the past three weeks I've had some time to chill out. Last weekend I was in Mississippi, the weekend before that it was Easter, and the one before that I was in Mississippi, and the one before that was my CRHP retreat weekend. Whoa, that's a lot of busy.

I just finished watching the final disk of Mad Men Season 3, so now I am all caught up. Oh man, did it end well. They left quite a few cliffhangers on many aspects of the show. Like other die hard fans, I am now anxiously awaiting the next season. It'll just suck following it week by week, haha, instead of watching everything so quickly with Netflix rentals! My next couple movies are going to be Kolya, a Czech film, and Requiem for a Dream.

I watched that Cardinals game last night from about the 8th inning to the 20th. By about 15, I felt like I couldn't turn it off! I'd watched it that long already, might as well watch till it ends. But it was such a crazy game and almost laughable at points. I was glad when it ended, even though the Mets won.

I am so glad that I do not live in Europe right now. I'm not positive, but I would bet I would need some sort of mask if I ever went outside. All that ash would definitely bother me.

In more recent years, I've become more of a dog person but I still find this extremely cute and intriguing. Apparently this little vid has become quite the web hit. If I had an iPad, I'm not so sure I would let me cat play with it, but I know that their claws can't hurt the screen so... engh.

If I were a cat, I would be thinking 'What is this strange thing?'

Enjoy.



PS—I was not too into the iPad before this, and I'm not saying that I want one now, but after seeing one in action (not just demoed by Mr. Jobs) it's pretty sweet lookin'.

Twitter is cute

This popped up the other day. And I liked it.