Wednesday, January 27, 2010

Cool Finds

It's no secret that I like graphic design.  I recently came across Beverly Hsu, who trained at Carnegie Mellon University School of Design.  Check out these two really cool items she's designed:

"OneBox" carton, designed to decrease produce packaging waste by utilizing only one box from the harvest to retail.





These really awesome Helvetica cookie cutters. (For those of you not into the crazy world of typeface, people can get REALLY passionate about their preferred font.  Point in case - cookie cutters!!!)


via The Donut Project

Also found: this really awesome font, Priori Acute, by Jonathan Barnbrook.  See how it plays tricks with your eye?


via HOW

Tuesday, January 26, 2010

Water

I've decided I don't drink enough water. Some days I hardly get any. It was my goal, upon returning to Southern, that I would start drinking 1/2 my body weight in ounces each day. (For me, that's 60 ounces or 7.5 cups.)  Here are my results from the past week:




P.S.  I never thought drinking water could be so hard.  I'm thankful for clean water though, millions don't have it.  Go here to read about ADRA's effort to provide clean water overseas.

Friday, January 22, 2010

Movies, the Southern Accent, and a SAU Teacher with Godly Authority

Last semester, I was rather shocked and disturbed at a few articles published in the Southern Accent that  promoted certain movies and even had the audacity to promote their "spiritual" qualities.  I seriously considered writing a response but it was right about the time of finals and it never happened.  So I was deeply appreciative when I saw an article in this week's Accent by Brian Dunn, an art professor here at Southern.  I've always wanted to take an art class from him; he reads the Bible and other spiritual books while the students work on their art.  How awesome is that!?  You need to read his response - it is applicable to  all of our lives in so many ways and hits the point right home.  Find it here or read on to see what he has to say:


I have been troubled to see how the enemy of souls finds such an easy target among our youth. And yet I am encouraged to know that Christ places His supreme regard over you. He will fight for you.

Over the past few years of teaching, I have noticed that whenever my classes have a moment of pause, when the teacher is not speaking, the conversation among our youth is all about the latest movie or the latest game. On one of these occasions I was reading the Scriptures. I paused for a moment, perhaps to help a student with a drawing, and again the conversation went back to the latest sensational release. When I picked up the text again, I read aloud the words in Galatians that followed: “O foolish Galatians, who hath bewitched you, that ye should not obey the truth, before whose eyes Jesus Christ hath been evidently set forth, crucified among you?” Galatians 3:1. There was another momentary pause and the class then burst out laughing. We all knew that the text I had just read had broken the spell of a conversation out of harmony with the Spirit of God. But in my heart I felt sad.

I cannot help but ask why we are so fascinated by broken cisterns when our lives are being weighed in the balances of the heavenly sanctuary and found wanting. Has Christ not given you the treasuries of heaven and poured out His soul these many centuries so that you might be equipped to stand in this time?

The media is full of fascinating stories and scenes designed to addict the fallen human mind to the indulgence of the creature senses and to a belief in itself and its own goodness. Intense levels of creativity, art, skill and human intellect are devoted to the altar of entertainment. For those who know to turn away from the viler and lower depictions, the enemy of souls has sought to find another entrance. He has learned that if many of his tales can be mixed with some sentimental aspect and woven with some depiction of good triumphing over evil, then the guard of many will be dropped. For the intellectual, Satan clothes his sophistries in philosophical works so that they feel they can indulge the darkness for the sake of honing their intellect. He has something for every human mind that is not weaned from dependence on human wisdom and the opinions of “the learned men.”

I have been troubled by several articles in the Accent where students try to explain how this or that blockbuster really aided them in understanding the gospel. Often these articles were written by theology majors. I understand that you are trying to do good and to connect with the culture, but the underlying flaw in the reasoning is that your supposed allegory now gives the struggling soul a feeling of religious endorsement in indulging in the works of unbelieving minds. They feel more and more emboldened, even justified, in denying the testimony of God’s Spirit to His church. Do not endeavor to use the methods of a harlot in order to reach a harlot or both may be lost. God loves you and approves of your intent, but you need to learn faith in His method and see through the shallowness of the fallen human wisdom that often advises you thus.

The Socratic Method, so treasured by academia, of seeking truth through unsanctified inquiry, is fundamentally flawed. It is not the wisdom of the Spirit, but the imagining of man that his reason may engage the wiles of the enemy and come out the better. We have no safety in engaging in conversation with the serpent. He is endeavoring to teach a gospel of creature virtue over vice without the element of crucifixion of the flesh. The command has been given, “come out from among them, and be ye separate,” 2 Cor. 6:17.

The servant of the Lord writes, “It is often urged that in order to win the youth from sensational or worthless literature, we should supply them with a better class of fiction. This is like trying to cure a drunkard by giving him, in the place of whisky or brandy, the milder intoxicants, such as wine, beer or cider. The use of these would continually foster the appetite for stronger stimulants. The widespread use of such books at this time is one of the cunning devices of Satan. He is seeking to divert the minds of old and young from the great work of character building.”  E. G. White, MH 446.2.

We must be careful not to walk “according to the ruler of the authority of the air, of the spirit that is now working in the sons of disobedience.” Ephesians 2:3. Let us rather create media and literature that will present the gospel uncontaminated with worship of the creature.

Sunday, January 10, 2010

WARNING: Don't look at this blog unless you want to see some rather disturbing pictures of my face

I've been faithfully taking pictures of my face as this whole accident thing has progressed.  Sorry, I was a bit out of it to get a picture right after the accident ;) but I tried my best to be faithful in my picture taking after the initial shock.

So if you're a nursing major or just inclined to muster up the courage to look at my face when it's black, blue, and quite swollen, here you go!

My blissful self with the most good-looking man in the world the week before the accident




















The day after the accident (swelling had started to decrease and, if you look closely, you can start to see that my cheek bone was sunken in)


















Night before surgery.  I don't look too bad!  And look at that black eye!



















Here I am, the evening after surgery.  Yeah, I have to agree, it looked worse after surgery than before!  But my cheek bone is back in place, even if you can't tell because of all the swelling!  That's why I have such a funny look on my face: the swelling kind of pushed my mouth over and it was hard to smile or do anything with my mouth.















Ok, so I have to admit, this is probably the most embarrassing, funny-looking picture of the whole bunch.  The funny looking cap is holding the frozen peas against my cheek - I have to keep ice on it to help the swelling.  And I was trying to smile but, um, yeah, the results were rather... grim.

1.09.10 (Sabbath).  This is 3 days after surgery.  Look at the nice braids my mom made! :D

Wednesday, January 06, 2010

Christmas Pictures

Surgery today at 8:45 am.  In the meantime, here are some fun pictures to look at while I'm hospitaling.





Paul
Barry's awesome epic freestyle jump
























Basket-making

























The finished basket, ready for a trip to the hospital.

Monday, January 04, 2010

God is good, ALL the time

So... I've had a rather eventful Christmas break.  Would you like to hear about it?

Barry flew back from Kyrgyzstan on the 20th and I surprised him at the airport :)  Boy was I happy to see him.  Two days later, we went on an excursion (i.e. date) to Boston.  That evening, he asked me to marry him and I said yes.  :)

The next week and a half were filled with a host of good, no -- amazing, times with both of our families.  We cooked, did some traditional sledding, hiked, did some back-country skiing and sledding, sat in front of the fire, played monopoly, sang, played our instruments, sat on the couch and held hands ;), made a basket with much help from Uncle Tim, and tons of other great things.  Those were the best two weeks of my entire life and they ended way too quickly.

On Sunday, as we were driving out to take Barry back to the airport, we slid off the road and hit a tree.  I was sitting in the middle of the backseat which only had a lap seatbelt with no shoulder belt.  The force on the impact threw my head forwards and my knee up and the combination of the two was not pretty.  The good news is that I finally got a black eye!  The bad news is that I also broke my maxilla and orbital and will be having reconstructive facial surgery on Wednesday.

But you know what?  God is good.  And not just because I'm engaged to the most incredible man on earth, although that is definitely a huge part of it.  But God is also good when my face is smashed in and my eye is swollen shut.  No one else was hurt, Dr. Howe took me directly into the hospital, my surgeon is extremely nice and competent, and my family is wonderful, doing everything they can to take care of me.  God is good, I'm alive, and I'm also engaged! :)

Happy New Year!