Yesterday blew by

First, a housekeeping bit:  almost always, my posts say one day, but they really count for the day before.  I just keep writing after midnight.  So, the blog claims that I posted 2 posts yesterday, but those were really Monday's.  Yesterday, I completely forgot and really didn't have time to write.  I got home from class around 11:30 and didn't even look at my computer.

Of course, I didn't really need to catch up on much because I had been online all through class.  Ah, the internet.  Don't worry, I'm still paying attention in class, it's just nice to be able to let my mind wander for a minute.  I mostly did stuff online when my professor was repeating himself or on a tangent.

Today I've been reading over my notes, handouts, and powerpoint presentations from human sexuality since I have to do my midterm this week.  I'm thinking that I'll do it tomorrow.  We have all the questions that will be on it, but I just don't have it in me to write out all the answers ahead of time and then simply regurgitate them onto the test.  We have 8 case studies to respond to and the site will randomly give us 3 of those.  I'm not completely slacking, because I have been thinking about the cases a lot, and they only serve to illustrate my frustration with this class so far.  We have to say how we would react as a pastor to these certain situations, and I feel like I don't know much more about that than I did 5 weeks ago, and that was what I was hoping would happen in this class.  Oh, well.

I'll let you know which questions I get and if I was able to come up with something intelligent and loving.  That's what my default will be:  reacting in love and mercy, without throwing out all biblical guidelines. 

A good day

Today I am finishing up Storm Glass and I started working more earnestly on my--can we just call it a "sermon" for ease of conversation? thanks--sermon for Sunday night.  Hosea is pretty heavy, and it reminds me a bit of Job, in the "Gee, thanks, God, for trusting me so much in this way!" sort of manner. 

I had planned on staying at church for all of Big Time (so, until after 9), but I just couldn't.  I did have a fantastic time talking, eating nachos, and laughing maniacally with some of my students, though.  We in the office had a slow night, so we just chilled, I watched some of the water jug baseball game out in the field, and then my comfy couch & book I'm almost done with called to me. 

So here I sit, on the web instead of reading, because The Internet is what I read the most.  Twitter, links people put up on twitter, links Seth sends to me, catching up on FB:  these are what I do the most.  But I have made better time for reading and have found a good balance between school reading and reading for fun.

If you'll excuse me, I have to find a way to look up movies about prostitution without finding porn sites. 

Ooh! Famous Bloodlines!

I'm addicted to ancestry.com and I'm having a great time trying to go back as far as I can to see where my family came from.  Along the way, I've had a few surprises. 

I've found out that I'm not as Irish as I thought, which bums me out.  My grandma always thought that my grandpa was 100% Irish, but he was only 1/2 or 1/3.  I'm just as French and English as I am Irish. 

Also, going into this, I thought that I'd certainly get a couple hundred years back, being that we have names, papers, and dates.  The ways I've always defined myself: German, Irish, and Finnish?  They've left me out in the dark.  The English and the French, though?  I'm all the way back to the 10th century, and it's a lot of fun.

Of course, I now need to go through and double-check those family members, because as I get my bearings on the site, I'm starting to learn the lame tricks or lazy things that people do to keep their trees going.  What is the #1 favorite thing for people to do?  Insert a famous person! 

Believe me, I want to be related to Queen Elizabeth I so bad I can taste it, and I do get geeked when I see a famous name pop up on a tree, but I also have a healthy skepticism and the internet, so I do a search when, oh William Wallace pops up in my direct line, y'know, just to check things out.  Oh, lookee there!  It turns out that it's really easy to check on the actual family relations of historical figures and especially royalty!  So, no, so far I'm not related to any rebel leaders, high kings, Lady Godiva (seriously), or Elizabeth Tudor.  I'm not even related to the guy who saved the life of Henry VIII (her dad!) once & got a title for it.  I checked.

Additionally, I'm pretty sure that most women didn't have their first kids when they were 5, or their last one when they were 80.  Now, I was dubious about the late-30's and 40's for mothers, but I poked around and found out that women had children quite late back in the day.  They pretty much started at puberty and didn't stop until a) menopause or b) death, whichever came first.

I am, however related to Gov. John Winthrop, 1st gov. of Mass., and a founder.  My family has been in the New World for hundreds of years, both in Canada and in the Colonies.  My family has been a part of Michigan and Detroit for hundreds of years- when Detroit was still a French territory.  And George Washington is a distant cousin, as I'm sure he is for a bajillion people. 

Overall, I'm having a lot of fun, though I do get frustrated every day with the stupidity of some people and what they'll blindly put on their trees and then allow to proliferate.  Now, if you'll excuse me, instead of going to bed, I have to go double check and see if I really am 1,456,894th in line for the throne of Belgium.