Post-Its, Fun Books, Freedom of Speech, and Other Random Bits of Thought

So i got the free computer post-its trial online a while ago, and my free month is nearing an end. I use them religiously for scheduling, notes to self, great quotes, and brainstorming. I keep track of information on them which i may need to call up at a moment's notice. I think it may actually be worth the investment.

That said, i am afraid my computer is very tenuously holding onto what little life it has left, and if i lose my harddrive i don't want to have to pay again. It's not a very important conundrum, but it is on my mind.

Pleasure reading keeps me sane. So do my parents, a steady flow of dr pepper, RUF, music, my friends, and Jesus, but somehow i was wired to benefit extremely from working on a strictly for fun book outside of all my other reading. Right now the lucky book is Everyone Worth Knowing, by Lauren Weisberger. Yes, ladies and gentlemen, i read chick lit. Don't worry - i read alot more of alot of other things, most notably murder mysteries by such greats as Dorothy Sayers, P.D. James, and Sir Arthur Conan Doyle and theology by such folks as Elisabeth Elliot, John Piper, C.S. Lewis, and John Owen. And of course there's the assortment of Eric and Leslie Ludy books, Amy Tan novels, classics (like Dostoyevsky, Faulkner, and James), and occasionally a political diatribe by Ann Coulter. And that's not even taking into account all the online reading i do every day...

I am really intrigued by the latest in the rising conflict between "the west" and "islam." I am not really sure how fair i think either of those distinctions are, which is why they are both in quotes. But have y'all heard about this? Seriously sick stuff. Some political cartoonist in Denmark drew 12 cartoons depicting caricatures of Mohammed in various terrorism-oriented settings/garb, and the number of european newspapers running them keeps growing. There have been riots over these things, and now the nation of Iran is holding a "holocaust cartoon contest." Geez louise. Freedom of speech means you can say what you want - and that someone else can get ticked at you for it - what they cannot do is shut you up or hurt you for what you said. Apparently that message got missed...

My sister is 19 now - we had a super-fun time celebrating her birthday this weekend with no less than 2 sizey cakes and 30 different friends and family members - all in all a fabulous showing, especially since she's 16 hours away from home and hardly next door to me. She is so super.

I think it's very interesting how many people i know who are engaged or about to be. It's kinda like a tsunami of mushiness. Not that i'm complaining, because i'm surely not. Whoohoo for romance and true love and Christ and the church and such. :)

Oh, guess what? I said "and all that sort of rot" the other day in my British Romantic Poets class and my professor about died. It was hilarious. Though not quite bewilderment nor exactly distraction, for him it was certainly notable and rather bizarre. I'm sorry. I talk weird.