See No Evil

Hear no evil, see no evil, speak no evil

See no evil...

Recently, I learned just how hypersensitive to gore and violence and the like I am.

I got the first notion to that conclusion when I watched Voyage of the Dawn Treader and had close my eyes during the trench bit. Dont get me wrong, I love that movie. But parts really got to me.
Violence and scary things really, deeply affect me.

I just left the room on the brink of tears while my family and I were watching True Grit (the new one that came out recently.) It was gory beyond reason. I can't and won't go into details, I'll let you look that up on your own if you want. It greatly disturbed me. I left the room terrified and nauseated. I do NOT recommend that movie for anyone. Please do go watch it because you heard about it in my blog. That's a bad idea. Don't do it.

See no evil

Why does our culture crave gory, violent, horrific movies? I don't know anyone who has walked away from a horror movie and thought "hey! That was a great movie! I'm a better person for watching that. It taught me something that will impact my life" Instead, more often people gain the habit of looking behind shower curtains and sleepless, nightmarish nights. What is the gain?

John Eldredge notes briefly on the subject in his book Wild At Heart. Though I don't remember the way he phrased it, he put it down as our human desire to be strong, to be invincible, because if we are invincible, we are independent and don't have to rely on God. I don't to John Eldredge justice, he sounded a lot better than that, but that's what it really comes down to, doesn't it? We, as broken, fallen humans don't want to have to rely on God.

While I was watching True Grit, I texted one of my closest friends seeking a distraction. Any distraction. I want to share some of the conversation here:

Me: I'm at the point of tears watching True Grit. I'm afraid.

Friend: Poor girl. Why do you choose to be afraid? You have forgotten your courage. You are stubborn and there is strength in that.

He was trying to encourage me, even though I read it as sarcastic before he clarified :P. that's exactly my point. He was trying to help me find within myself the strength to persist in watching a movie I admitted to finding frightening. He pointed to a source of known strength and tried to help me draw on that to endure.

While I've been writing I've been thinking. I believe God instilled that fear in us intentionally, to point back to how very much we need Him. Instead of seeking strength in frightening circumstances from ourselves, I should be reminded how much I need to rely on God for my protection and strength. That would be pretty cool. I'm going to try to do that.



SEE NO EVIL

- Posted using BlogPress from my IPod Touch

Bondigity!

In this post I would like to share a few random musings and an exciting new discovery! This could end up being one of those blah posts for a while, but skip to about the end and it gets better.

I've recently been working with a conference called The Do Hard Things Conference. If you don't know what that is all about, then you can learn about it here at the website. I am more than a little exhausted of reciting the information on that page. If you're too lazy to actually navigate away from this page, then the conference encourages teens to be amazing and rebell against low expectations (like being lazy). Its was an amazing experience and very fun to work on. I learned a lot. It has a similar premise as my favourite post ever you should go read it. Its pretty neat. (hey look! I'm learning to use embedded links! Yays!) I only noticed that after one of you, my dear followers, pointed that out to me. I love my followers. If you want to know more about how the conference went, or about my role on the volunteer team, write a comment (but of course you were going to do that anyway right?) and I will try to answer within a semi-reasonable amount of time. Maybe.

At this point, I should probably include a sort of transitional sentence because I am completely changing subjects. I choose not to.

A few days ago, my family, a few friends and I partook in what is called a Geocache-esque scavenger hunt. Basically, it ended up being a normal photo scavenger hunt, with clues and such, but instead of being sent somewhere in the clues, we had to use a GPS and longitude/latitude may coordinates. Despite being midday in the middle of a blazing hot summer day, we all had a pretty amazing time. It was good. I want to do another. People! You should do one with me! There are variations of this where other people have hidden "treasures" all over the place and you can find them the same way with a GPS. We should do one.

At this point, I would like to make a special * announcement* [bondigity!] I would like to share with you the joy that I have enabled a mobile version of my blog! You don't even have to do anything to get to it specifically (I hope). It *should* automatically go to a mobile version of my blog! Yays! If there are any problems with that, tell me, if not, I'm gonna feel pretty epic. Thanks! Over and out!

I really should blog more...

:spooky music:

Shadows fill the room, dusk oozes into place in the window outside. An unsuspecting girl goes to sit down at the desk facing the wall. Suddenly, she sees it! A scream can be heard from as far away as the neighbours across the street, but it's too late... Another inattentive blogger has been struck down. The blogspot tab strikes again... :dun dun dun...:

*raises hands up* Ok! Ok! Yes, I have been dreading looking at my blog... again. It's been a long time since I've blogged. Geez! Dont give me that look! I have a life besides the computer! Ok, so maybe I don't. You got me: I'm blogging because I've read every single post on My Life Is Average. If you're looking for a thought provoking post, or even something remotely spiritually challenging, I'm pretty sure you can stop right about :long pause: :smirks: :looks at fingernails: :checks watch: now.

I've been thinking about words, and if you know my viewpoint on words very well at all, this could be seen as a red flag of sorts. Recently, I've taken interest in learning a new word or phrase and it's origin every few days. I kept this going for about :counts on fingers muttering: three days! But, aside from my apparent failure to become mote literate, I would like to share a few thoughts with you, my dear reader about words.


I genuinely adore words. In part, that is the reason I haven't given up on the English language as a whole. English has so many profoundly beautiful words, and such a vast array of meanings to choose from, I'm finding difficulty in even composing this post. In short, english has so many I can't help but marvel at it's complexity. I could gush about words 'til the world runs out of cheese, but I value my readers and therefore won't bore them to death. I <3 u ;)

What percentage of the words of a language do you need to know to be considered fluent? If I know 50% of the words of the English language am I considered fluent? If I knew 45% or more I would know over 75,000 words (according to an oxford study that you find when google searching "how many words in English"). Most people know maybe 5,000-10,000 words in the English language and are considered fluent. That's less than a 10% of the words in the English language. What then of learning a new language? Do you only need to know 10% of the words to be considered fluent? Or does that change depending on the language? Does that include slang? Abbreviations? Ability to write and read?

Wat if i tlk lyk dis? Shud u no wat i meen thn? Cn u b abl 2 read dis n no its rl hole wrdz? Y U NO TLK LYK ME??

(side note: you have no idea how long it took for me to write that ^)

I think now I shall leave you to ponder what I have set out for us to dissect on the operating table of thought (aka the comments!!!)
Tell me what you think! I eat your thoughts and I'm starving ]: --the comment monster
Feed the comment monster. He loves you too.

And I have an announcement [BONDIGITY!]:
I will now be taking requests! Tell me in the comments what you want me to blog about. I'll try to write something about every comment suggestion I get in the order that I get them. I shall be doing this all summer.

So long, farewell... Well, you know the rest, right?