It's my goal to participate in this one day...but without the tutu

cool thing of the day

believe it or not this is an ad made by mercedes. You're going to have to click on it to make the picture bigger so that you can read the writing. But, it's pretty cool to see what they wrote about the difference in the left and right brain.

the groundhog lied

yep

awesome thing of the day

would ya look at that. "This is the world's smallest aquarium and was made by Anatoly Konenko, a Russian artist who specialises in making small stuff. His tank is just 30x24x14mm and holds a mere 10ml of water."

spring is here

I've had the first official sighting of the hacky sack guy in speakers circle last Thursday. Forget robins-this is how you know that spring is coming

nice days ahead

Thursday was an absolutely beautiful day, and much needed after all the snow and horribly cold weather. I was at raptor rehab and took a few pictures. They're horrible because iPhones aren't exactly meant for good pictures. But you can get the general idea.

I swear the sunset was really pretty, you're just going to have to believe me

the moon was full and really bright before sunset

pretty much awesome

So, there's usually hawks on the road to the Columbia Airport. When I was on the road to the airport I saw a bird up in the tree and thought "Wow that's a really big hawk"...well it turned out to be this huge bald eagle. I've seen bald eagles before, but it was really cool seeing one when you don't expect it. I think it's a girl cause it's so big.

I stopped the car (don't worry there weren't any other cars on the road) and had to get a few pics. Iphones aren't exactly made for amazing pictures so excuse the grainy-ness


this second one kind of gives a bit of perspective on how big it was

quote of the day

Oh C.S. why are you always right?

"To love at all is to be vulnerable. Love anything and your heart will be wrung and possibly broken. If you want to make sure of keeping it intact you must give it to no one, not even an animal. Wrap it carefully round with hobbies and little luxuries; avoid all entanglements. Lock it up safe in the casket or coffin of your selfishness. But in that casket, safe, dar, motionless, airless, it will change. It will not be broken; it will become unbreakable, impenetrable, irredeemable."

-C.S. Lewis

in honor of valentines day

pedigree

just for the heck of it I looked up my horse's blood lines in the Thoroughbred Stud Book. the stud book is a record of every thoroughbred ever foaled, their names, and their blood lines. It's pretty cool especially for Toby cause his grandfather is Seattle Slew and great-great grandfather is Bold Ruler, two of the best race horses in history. But, clearly Toby didn't inherit the amazing racing genes. Here's his pedigree. You might not find it interesting at all, but it's kind of cool to at least see where my horse was born.

By the way his racing name is Jaguar Song. Every horse is given a racing name (or in the case of non-thoroughbreds, a show name). And his is Jaguar Song.

religious psych 101

Today in psychology we were talking about the brain and what parts control what functions. It's very interesting to see how the brain is wired. I was enjoying the class until the teacher said something along the lines of: Emotions just get in the way of mating (because he was talking about the hindbrain which controls basic instincts) and make everything with mating much more unnecessarily complicated. Everything in my religious brain disagreed with that.

Emotions in that context are what make humans different and more special than the animals. If there were no emotions there, then what would that say about God. He made us purposefully to have emotions in relationships, unlike everything else on the planet. I would argue with the teacher by saying that emotions are what make romantic relationships special and are completely necessary.

God created people for relationships with other people. Human relationships differ from animal relationships in that animal relationships are purely instinctual and survival based. Human relationships are based on emotions and companionship, not just instincts. There's a reason why people feel guilty about cheating on their significant other and animals don't. The "walk of shame" only exists in the human culture because God created complex emotions towards that part of life on purpose.

It's suppose to be "complicated" and filled with emotion. And by complicated I mean, we have complex emotions about it. God made that as a special thing to people. If there weren't emotions then kids wouldn't grow up with parents and a good family and everybody would be extremely emotionally messed up (more than now). I guess my basic message is that there's a reason why humans have emotions in romance and it's a good thing. It proves that God made us with more care and for a more special role than any other creature.

hello world

This is a beautiful music video with a great message. This is my favorite song by Lady A. and one of my favorite country songs. Lyrics are below. Enjoy.


Traffic cars, cell phone calls, top video screams at me
Through my tender window I see a little girl, rust red minivan
She's got chocolate on her face, got little hands
And she waves at me, yeah, she smiles at me

Well, hello world, how've you been?
Good to see you, my old friend
Sometimes I feel cold as steel
Broken like I'm never gonna heal
I see a light, little hole in the little girl
Well, hello world

Every day I drive by a little white church
It's got these little white crosses like angels in the yard
Maybe I should stop on in and say a prayer
Maybe talk to God like he is there
Oh, I know He's there, yeah, I know He's there

Well, hello world, how've you been?
Good to see you, my old friend
Sometimes I feel as cold as steel
And broken like I'm never gonna heal
I see a light, little grace, little faith unfurl
Well, hello world

Sometimes I forget what living's for
And I hear my life through my front door
And I'll be there, oh, I'm home again

I see my wife, little boy, little girl
Hello world, hello world

Oh, the empty disappears
I remember why I'm here
To surrender and believe
I fall down on my knees
Oh hello world, hello world, hello world

improv everywhere

I've been a fan of improv everywhere for a while now. Here's one of the things they did recently that I liked

captivating

I read Captivating this summer and really liked it. So I told some of my RUF friends about it when the school year started up again. It turns out a few of them had already read it, and some others had always wanted to read it. As a result I gave my copy to a friend who is currently reading it, bought a copy for another friend for Christmas. And another friend's sister gave it to her for Christmas. So the book is really making it's rounds around the RUF Mizzou girls.

It's funny how even though a lot of people these days don't read or just don't like to read, they'll read Captivating. I think it's because word of mouth is the best way to promote something. And that book has good reviews from anybody who's read it, so that makes others want to see why everybody likes it so much.

Granted there were a few parts I didn't agree with, but for the most part it gives a lot of great advice and answers for why women and men are the way that they are

snowpocalypse '11

word is that in st. louis there was only a few inches of ice. Well here in Columbia a mere 110 miles away we got at least 1.5 feet. It was so much fun to play in. Because honestly there's nothing more fun than playing in the snow on a day that the school was shut down. Here's a few pictures from last week before this particular "snowpocalypse/snowmageddon/snow-nami." and a few from yesterday

the creek up in peace park

the quad was really pretty at 7:30 in the morning. Don't mind the snowman head in the bottom right

everyone was walking around on College and University ave.

yes that's a lot of snow and yes I may have been bounding through the snow in this pic

hanging out on the mizzou sign