Beth Bowman's Blog

Sheldon Cooper / Jim Parsons

2009-08-12T00:14:00.000-07:00

My newest obsession is The Big Bang Theory. For any unfortunate souls who have not seen the show, the Wikipedia article for it is here.

My favorite character and newest fictional crush is Sheldon. He’s a brilliant physicist and obsessive sci-fi geek, he’s 6’2 and he has an adorable smile and beautiful eyes. (Which is basically my boyfriend wish list.) However, his brilliance comes at a price. He’s socially awkward, emotionally stunted, and arrogant. (None of these are on my boyfriend list.) But in spite of his less desirable qualities, he still manages to be irresistible.

I think that Sheldon’s appeal is due to both his intelligence and the fact that he’s played by Jim Parsons. Jim is incredibly sweet, charming, and humble. I think his goodness must shine through and soften Sheldon’s disagreeable qualities, allowing him to remain lovable. In my personal opinion, combining Sheldon’s brains with Jim’s sweetness would create the ideal man.

Review of Star Trek XI

2009-05-10T00:13:00.001-07:00

Finally saw the new Star Trek movie! It was an interesting experience…

The casting was excellent, for the most part. I was particularly happy with Karl Urban as McCoy. He captured the spirit of the character very well. He was so much McCoy that it took me forever to realize that it was Eomer from The Lord of the Rings. I didn’t figure it out until I saw the actor’s name in the credits, although it had been bothering me the whole time because I knew I recognized him from somewhere. I also enjoyed Sulu, Chekov, and Scotty.

Zachary Quinto and Chris Pine both looked the part for their characters, with the exception of Chris’s blue eyes. (There were a ridiculous amount of close-up beauty shots of William Shatner’s hazel eyes in TOS.) I even had the occasional Geeky Spock-Fan Squee when it was Zach and not Leonard Nimoy. This is quite impressive since I am a devout Spock Purist. However, the writing kept getting in the way of my truly accepting Zach and Chris as Kirk and Spock. I know it's an alternate universe and all, but I think sometimes they took too much liberty in changing up the characters. Also, to quote Hank Green of YouTube, the movie as a whole wasn’t “quite as cerebral as I generally like Star Trek to be."

The Kirk-McCoy friendship was done very well. I enjoyed every scene they had together. I would have liked to see something more between McCoy and Spock, though, since they have such an interesting relationship in TOS.

The Kirk-Spock relationship was a huge disappointment for me. It’s not that I don’t approve of them starting out as rivals, it’s just that I don’t think the resolution was satisfying. The only part of the movie that hinted at the depth of their friendship was in Spock Prime's dialogue. Kirk’s friendship with Spock is deeper even than his relationship with McCoy, but the movie didn’t lay the foundation for it nearly as well.

Spock/Uhura. Spock/Uhura??? Ok, who let the crazy shippers get hold of the script? There isn’t even the slightest hint at Spock/Uhura in all of TOS or the movies. This is on the same level as the whole Susan/Caspian nonsense. It seriously felt like a Spock/Uhura shipper stole the script and added in those scenes. I understand that they did it as a way to show Spock’s humanity and blah blah blah, but I’m sorry, it was stupid and out of character.

Speaking of Uhura, I’m glad she got more to do than in TOS and how they showed that she really is intelligent and not just a “glorified secretary.” (Quoting Hank Green again.) I thought that Zoe Saldana did a wonderful job, although I had to get used to how thin she was since I’m used to Uhura being played by the much more curvaceous Nichelle Nichols. My only real problem with her character was the whole Spock thing. Uhura never struck me as the type to be interested in Spock in the show or movies. Maybe they should have spent more time showing that the deep, lifelong friendship between Kirk and Spock transcends even alternate timelines rather than cooking up a contrived romance for Spock.

All in all, I would have to say that it was a very well-made, enjoyable movie. There were a lot of things that bothered me as a fan, but I'm still going to want to buy it.

(Added later:) Oh man. I can feel the Quinto-Spock fangirliness rising. I’m not really sure why. I guess he still managed to be deliciously nerdy in spite of the objections I mentioned.

A beautiful moment brought to you by Disney

2009-05-06T22:08:00.001-07:00

The Torkelsons was one of my favorite shows as a kid, and Dorothy Jane was one of my heroes. I still consider her to be one of my favorite fictional characters. The Torkelsons was a fantastic show. It was funny, touching, and even profound. One of its most insightful moments was Dorothy Jane's opening monologue in episode 9, "Return to Sender." You won't find this kind of speech on TV any more. It's very beautiful and I encourage you to read it. You can also watch the clip below.

"Man in the moon, there was a point of discussion at our dinner table tonight about why I talk to you all the time and if I am insane to do so. My brother Steven Floyd was the leading proponent of the lunatic scenario, but my little sister Mary Sue understood completely, having frequently engaged in conversations with her doll Martha Lou and her other assorted imaginary friends. My younger brother Chuckie Lee defended me with no good reason because he has always taken my side and he has always loved me.

But my remaining sister Ruth Ann Torkelson, who has never before exhibited any flash of recognizable brilliance, tonight stopped the conversation cold when she said that my talking to you was actually prayer, and that I sit in my window and talk to God using the man in the moon as a front.

Well, after giving this very careful consideration, it scares me to think that I could have so casual a relationship with God as I do with you. Because when I do consciously pray I'm always a little bit more formal, which I'm not when I tell you my feelings. But if God is so inclined to listen in because he knows I'm actually trying to pray to him, then I hope he will forgive me for being so foolish as to not realize who I'm talking to.

...Amen."

Actors who can sing

2009-04-18T02:21:00.000-07:00

Like most girls, I have a thing for men who can sing. I love finding out that actors I like are also fantastic singers. Here are a few of my favorite actors/singers.

1. Anthony Stewart Head
He played Rupert Giles on Buffy the Vampire Slayer. I'm the kind of girl who doesn't even get involved in the Angel vs. Spike war, because of course the librarian is hotter than either of them! The musical episode of Buffy shows that not only is Giles the most attractive, he also has the best singing voice.

2. Matthew Broderick
When I saw Inspector Gadget in the theater in 1999, I had no idea who Matthew Broderick was. What I did know was that those were the sweetest brown eyes I had ever seen in all my 12 years of life. I was the only little girl I knew who had a crush on Inspector Gadget. It was because of this that I discovered Ferris Bueller's Day Off and one of my favorite movies, War Games. Of course I was thrilled when The Producers came out and I discovered just how well he can sing. (I never did see his version of The Music Man for some reason.)

3. Ewan McGregor
Ewan McGregor is a "bad boy" type. I don't like bad boys, generally. However, I do like bright eyes, infectious grins, and beautiful voices. Ewan McGregor has all of these. He is also the only good reason to watch Star Wars Episode I again, and that's saying something. (Ok, so Liam Neeson is another good reason...) He's also rather breathtaking in Moulin Rouge.

4. James Marsden
This one is a new discovery for me. I first saw him in X-Men and thought he was very handsome, but didn't really think anything of him beyond that. That's not very surprising, though, since he didn't do a whole lot. But then I found out that he has a fantastic singing voice. And now? Well, he just looks that much more handsome.

Back to the Future Fanvid: Johnny B. Goode

2009-04-15T20:30:00.000-07:00

Song: Johnny B. Goode
Fandom: Back to the Future
Summary: A summary of Back to the Future

Watch Video
Download file

LOTR Fanvid: "You Raise Me Up"

2009-04-14T08:41:00.000-07:00

Song: "You Raise Me Up" by Josh Groban
Fandom: Lord of the Rings
Characters: Frodo & Sam
Summary: Frodo wouldn't have gotten far without Sam.

Download File
Watch Video

Dr. Horrible Summary: Facebook Style

2009-04-03T02:51:00.000-07:00

Please click to view full-size!

I was inspired to do this by DeeDee Baldwin's wonderful Austenbook! And as she pointed out, the news feed should actually go in reverse, but this makes for easier reading.

It's been a while.

2009-04-03T02:48:00.000-07:00

I haven't posted in a long time. I haven't really felt like it since my husband divorced me last December. But I'm excited about my next post...

Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince: Trailer Review

2008-11-16T19:17:00.001-08:00

Here is my review of the new Harry Potter trailer for The Half-Blood Prince. The trailer is embedded at the end of this post, or you can download a high-quality version here.

My overall reaction to the trailer was extremely positive. (Unlike my reaction to the new Star Trek trailer, but that‘s a different story.) However, the very first line spoken by Harry was pretty ridiculous. Dumbledore says, “You are, of course, wondering why I brought you here tonight.” Harry replies, “Actually, sir, after all these years I just sort of go with it.” What? Where did that come from? Yes, I realize it’s an attempt at humor, but I really don’t think it was in-character at all. Harry would never say that.

Next we see Harry and Dumbledore Apparate, although the next scene that they show is clearly out of order because we see Dumbledore leaning on Harry after Harry had Apparated the two of them back to Hogwarts. (Though technically they should have gone to Hogsmeade first, but I understand they cut it for time.)

Professor Slughorn isn’t quite what I imagined, but I still think that Jim Broadbent was a great choice and I’m sure he’ll do very well. In the scene in his classroom we see Hermione’s hair looking very different from the previous movies. At first I thought, “What, are they finally making her hair bushy? Isn’t it a bit late for that now?” Later we see her with normal hair again, so maybe it was just the steam from the cauldron making her hair frizzier. Who knows.

Next is the scene where Ron is head-over-heels for Romilda Vane because of the love potion. Of course all the Rupert (Ron) fangirls think he was brilliant in this scene, but I’ve heard that some people found it kind of dumb. I personally enjoyed the dialogue and thought the delivery and timing were pretty spot-on. So I definitely didn’t think the scene was dumb, but unfortunately I can’t say that I find either Rupert or Dan (Harry) to be “brilliant.”

Next we see Luna in her spectrespecs. Ok, so the effects for the spectrespecs was slightly cheesy, but I didn’t really care because I absolutely adore Luna. I’m tempted to call Evanna Lynch brilliant for her flawless portrayal, but if you’ve seen any interviews with her you know that she practically is Luna, so I’m not sure how much actual acting is involved.

Ok, what is it with all the head-smacking in these movies? Last time it was Snape smacking Ron and Harry, and now we have Hermione smacking Harry with what appears to be a folded-up newspaper page. I am personally at a loss to know why the filmmakers are apparently obsessed with this form of comedy, but oh well. I thought Harry’s response to the smack made a much more amusing moment than the smack itself.

The most amusing (not in a good way) scene of the trailer is a short clip of Hermione crying, wearing what looks exactly like a Gryffindor fan t-shirt that you could buy online. Seriously. It doesn’t look anything like what you would ever see a Hogwarts student wearing. It looks like a freaking fan shirt. Is this a ploy to sell more merchandise? I think so.

I’m really interested to know how they handle the whole Harry/Ginny thing, since we get basically zero lead-in in any of the previous movies. It’s only in the last one that they figured out they needed to give her more screen time. Hopefully they’ll get it right.

The island in the cave with the Inferi does not look like I expected. Rather more treacherous with all the crystal-looking things sticking up all over the place. Still, I have confidence that it’s going to be an amazing scene. Just thinking about it makes me want to go re-read the book.

In fact, the whole trailer makes me want to go re-read the book, and I’m taking that as a very good sign. It means that so far it looks like they’re going to properly capture the spirit of it, which is really all I can ask at this point.

Witnessing for Christ

2008-08-20T22:27:00.000-07:00

I don’t remember exactly how it came up, but I had a long discussion with the guy sitting next to me at work about religion. I work as a video game tester, so there is just row after row of people testing games, and conversations aren’t exactly private. The guy I was talking to is interested in learning about different religions, but doesn’t know which one he wants to follow.

I thought it was really cool that we had this big long public discussion where I was able to talk about why Christianity is different from all other religions, some of the reasons why we can know it’s true, and various theological points that he had questions about. Apparently he’s had a lot of negative encounters with Christians, such as judgmental and condemning churches and people whose whole explanation as to why they believed in Jesus was “because I do” or “because I was raised with it.”

I was able to hold my own quite well during the conversation and came up with intelligent responses to his questions. I think I was able to provide him with a really positive example of a Christian who knows what they believe and why they believe it.

It was a really wonderful experience to be able to be an ambassador for Christ like that. God has really been preparing me for this situation and hopefully similar situations in the future. Being used as a witness for God has given me even more of a hunger for his word, and I’m going to continue to pray that he will use me to accomplish his will.

Harvest Crusade 2008!

2008-08-17T23:05:00.000-07:00

I went to my first Harvest Crusade today! It was wonderful! It's late right now and I'm tired, so instead of trying to write a full report, I'll just make a few random observations.

1. Greg Laurie is awesome.
2. Leeland's "Tears of the Saints" is beautiful and never fails to make me teary.
3. I really need to get a Marty Goetz CD.

On to the pictures!

Waiting in line.

In the stadium with David's mom.

Pastor Greg speaking.

The best part: 3,704 people came forward to accept Jesus tonight! (The total for all three nights is 11,084!)

Grafted In

2008-08-16T19:25:00.000-07:00

I used to see Jesus and what (relatively) little I knew of the Bible through the filter of my own experience and culture without even knowing it. It would never have occurred to me that it might be good to learn about Jewish history and culture. After all, what's the use of that in the here and now, right?

However, at that point my knowledge of God's word was somewhat less than intimate. I had heard sermons all my life and had memorized some verses for Sunday school, but that was basically it. Now I'm only about a month away from finishing my first full reading of the New Testament. (And then I can't wait to get started on the Old Testament!) I like topical messages in church as much as the next person, but it just doesn't replace actually reading the Bible all the way through in order. For me, reading it through makes it less about what I want to get out of a particular passage and more about what the author is really saying. When you're looking at it from this perspective, it becomes obvious that the more you know about the history and culture that the Bible deals with, the deeper your understanding of God's word will be.

In his book The Jesus I Never Knew, Philip Yancey says,
"Alone of all people in history, [Jesus] had the privilege of choosing where and when to be born, and he chose a pious Jewish family living in a backwater protectorate of a pagan empire. I can no more understand Jesus apart from his Jewishness than I can understand Gandhi apart from his Indianness. I need to go back, way back, and picture Jesus as a first-century Jew with a phylactery on his wrist and Palestinian dust on his sandals."

In addition to the fact that understanding the Jewishness of Jesus will lead me to a better understanding of Jesus himself, my interest in this subject is also inspired by what the Bible says about Gentiles being "grafted in" with the people of Israel to receive God's promise to Abraham and his children.

Romans 11:17 (NLT)
"some of these branches from Abraham’s tree—-some of the people of Israel—-have been broken off. And you Gentiles, who were branches from a wild olive tree, have been grafted in. So now you also receive the blessing God has promised Abraham and his children, sharing in the rich nourishment from the root of God’s special olive tree."

I like how this site puts it:
"The words ‘Grafted In’ memorialize the affirmation of our true identity as a people, Jew and Gentile, securely rooted in the finished work of Yeshua HaMashiach. If you believe in Yeshua, you are Grafted In!"

I even got a new necklace because I'm looking forward to learning more about these things.

Music!

2008-08-16T10:57:00.001-07:00

Some of my favorites...

Bands/Artists

Julie Andrews
Favorite song: She's my favorite singer of all time, but I have no clue what song is my favorite.

Fireflight
Favorite song: Unbreakable

Lifehouse
Favorite song: Everything

Big Tent Revival / Steve Wiggins
Favorite song: BTR - Please Forgive Them / SW - Adoni

Spoken
Favorite song: September

Styx
Favorite song: Renegade

Musicals

The Sound of Music
Favorite song: Edelweiss

The King and I
Favorite song: Hello, Young Lovers

West Side Story
Favorite song: Tonight

My Fair Lady
Favorite song: Without You

Soundtracks

Indiana Jones
Favorite track: Theme

Hook
Favorite track: Presenting the Hook

Star Wars
Favorite track: (I can't decide!)

Lord Of The Rings
Favorite track: (Not sure)

More than a dork?

2008-08-12T23:12:00.000-07:00

It's been a while since I've been a complete and utter spaz in front of someone, but today I managed to pull it off. The question is, do I resign myself to the idea that I'm just a dorky loser, or do I rise up and take it as a challenge to show people that I'm capable of more than what they expect of me?

Here's hoping I choose the latter.

Little Rushed Entry

2008-08-11T22:25:00.000-07:00

Right now I'm working on balancing being away from home 13+ hours a day (working and driving to and from work) with still having interests and hobbies. And also cleaning, which is always important. Poor Leora is by herself all the time now.

One thing I am maintaining is my daily Bible study. We always get to work early and David and I both read our daily chapter in the morning. By the end of next month I will have read the entire New Testament for the first time! I'm really excited about that, and I'm also eager to start reading the Old Testament.

Well, it's late and I have to get up super early again tomorrow so I don't have time to write anything thoughtful. This entry was rushed. Like I said, I'm working on balancing. In the meantime, I'll be updating Twitter, which is easy because it doesn't require any thoughtfulness whatsoever. I also replaced my photo slide show with my TwitPic badge, so at least those things should get updated regularly.

Messy :(

2008-08-09T14:20:00.000-07:00

It's pretty sad how messy everything gets when I work all week. I leave the house at 6:30 and don't get home until anywhere from 7:30 to 11:00, depending on if there's overtime. Today's project is to clean up. The first thing I tackled is my desk. Check out the before and after pictures.

Picture Time!

2008-08-03T17:56:00.000-07:00

Twitter is so addicting. I wish I knew more people who used it. Add me if you have a Twitter! (If I know you, that is.)

Here are some random shots from the last few days. David's mom colored my hair today, as you'll see from the last two pictures.

Dr. Horrible's Sing-Along Blog

2008-07-26T14:23:00.001-07:00

You must watch this trailer! Do it now!

If for whatever reason the widget isn't working, you can watch the teaser here.

I'm serious, did you watch it? Doesn't it look fantastic!? Joss Whedon is a genius, no question. Even though this isn't online and I haven't purchased it on iTunes yet, I've heard some of the songs. I loved Doogie Howser when I was younger, but I had sort of forgotten about Neil Patrick Harris until this came along. Let me tell you, the man can sing. He is so cool. *fangirlyness*

Edit: Dr. Horrible is available to watch for FREE on Hulu! Go watch it! But don't forget to buy the DVD when it comes out to support the project! For more on why you should care, read this page.

Makeover!

2008-07-25T10:05:00.001-07:00

As you can see, my blog has just gotten a makeover! I really wanted the background (the part that's currently gray) to be light pink, but there doesn't seem to be any way to change it. But other than that, I'm really happy with how it looks. Much nicer than before, I think.

I was playing with the settings and it says I can have up to 10 e-mail addresses notified when I make a new post. So if for some reason someone out there is interested in something like that, leave a comment or send me a message with your e-mail and I'll add you to the update list.

Edit: I figured out how to change the background color! You can't do it the normal way, you have to change the template code directly.

I officially have a job!

2008-07-24T19:05:00.000-07:00

Today I passed training for Activision. (It was Vivendi Games, but they just merged with Activision.) Starting Monday, I'll be working full-time, plus overtime when my project gets farther along. At most of my previous jobs I worked between 20-25 hours a week, so this is going to be a big change for me. On top of that, I'll be spending almost 3 hours in the car every day getting there and back, so I'll almost never be home except on the weekend.

But still, it's going to be way better than any customer service job. It's pretty laid back here as long as you're getting your work done. I'm sure time is going to pass much more quickly here than at most of the places I've worked in the past. Plus I'm excited that I have a job where I don't have to wear a uniform.

And the best reason why this is a good thing is: we should finally stop running out of money mid-week!

Goodbye Living Room Study?

2008-07-15T22:50:00.000-07:00

I've been a Christian all my life. I've never walked away from God or had any serious doubts. Growing up, almost everyone I knew was a Christian. There's never been a period in my life where I didn't go to church every week. When I moved out, I married a Christian and got involved in a great college age group at a great church.

So why, if I've been surrounded by such good examples my whole life, did I not grow very much deeper in my faith? I never studied the Bible on my own or looked into the reasons why Christianity is right and other belief systems are wrong. I'm still not sure why I didn't do those things, but I do know that ever since I started coming to The Living Room Study, something clicked. I found myself getting excited about reading the Bible on my own and about learning how we can know Christianity is true and how to defend it. Thanks to my dad, I've begun building a collection of books on apologetics.

If I can pass training, I'll have a job as a quality assurance tester for Vivendi games in El Segundo, which is also where David works. It's about an hour and a half away, which means that I won't get home in time to go to The Living Room any more. QA testing is just a temporary job because you get hired for a certain project and when the project is over they'll either keep you on for the next one or let you go. If I'm let go, then I'll be back at The Living Room in a few months, but if not, David and I want to try to move to El Segundo by the end of the year.

Knowing that this might possibly be my last time coming, I took my camera to the study tonight. I've moved so many times that I've become a bit obsessive about taking pictures of places before I leave them. I was too shy to take many pictures with so many people around because I thought it might look a little strange, but I found a picture online of the room where we meet. Here's that one, plus the two that I took tonight.

The Coffee Depot Baggage Room
In the bathroom
Steve Wiggins, Bible study leader

Edit, some weeks later: I haven't had much overtime at all, so I've been able to come late. This may change when my project has more overtime, though.

Drinking?

2008-07-15T22:08:00.000-07:00

I don't think that it's sinful to have a drink. The Bible says don't get drunk with wine, not don't ever drink wine. I had wine on my wedding night and I've had a few drinks since then as well, but not for many months now. I am often in the company of a person who is known to not only drink, but to get very drunk. Because of this I have stopped drinking all together, even though I don't think there would be anything wrong with me having one once in a while. I feel like if I have a drink, my witnessing tool is gone. I think I can be a much more effective example if I never drink at all.

However, it's not the easiest thing in the world. At this moment there is a case of Mike's Hard Cranberry Lemonade in the fridge and it's calling my name. I've had it before and it's SO good! It's pretty difficult to resist taking one. After all, will my not drinking really do that much good?

I'm a little confused on that point because it's not like my behavior has actually influenced anyone's thoughts about alcohol, and I kind of feel like if I wasn't around someone who had a problem with getting drunk then it wouldn't be a big deal if I had one. Then again, alcohol is really one of those things that can easily become an addiction and it's probably better to just not touch it no matter how much control you think you have. Besides, even though I said I don't think my behavior has influenced anyone, you never know what effect you might have on someone without even knowing it.

Darn you, Mike's! *pout*

Leora Pictures

2008-07-08T09:40:00.000-07:00

Here are a couple pictures of Leora sitting in the sun. For the rest of them, click here.

Christians: no one path to salvation?

2008-06-25T17:22:00.000-07:00

According to a new survey, 57% of people who identified themselves as evangelical Christians agreed with the statement, "Many religions can lead to eternal life." I was absolutely dumbstruck when I heard this. I mean, I know that a lot of people are into the idea of "tolerance" (or at least today's society's definition of that word), but I had no idea that it was so widespread among the Christian community.

If you aren't sure why this is such a big deal, think about it this way. In John 14:6, Jesus says, "I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through Me." As a teacher I know often points out, Jesus doesn't say he is a way or a truth. He says he is the way and the truth. And if that wasn't enough, the second part of his statement leaves no room for doubt about the exclusivity of Christianity. It is the only way and if you believe that you can be saved by any other means, you are not in the truth and therefore have not received salvation.

So wait a minute. What about all those Christians out there who say that there are other religions that can lead to salvation? It's pretty clear from what the Bible tells us that the issue of whether or not the Biblical Jesus is the only way is not a side issue. It's a core principle essential to salvation. You can't be a true Christian and also believe that Mormons or Buddhists or whoever will also be saved through their religion. Christianity isn't something that works for some people and doesn't work for other people, and everyone just has to find which religion works for them. That is in direct contrast to what Christianity teaches. How many people are there out there who claim to be Christians but really aren't? It's scary to think about.

Don't Judge Me!

2008-06-25T16:03:00.000-07:00

Don’t judge me!
A closer look at one of the most commonly quoted verses in the Bible.

“You shouldn’t be judging me! Don’t you know that Jesus said, ‘do not judge’?”

How many times have you heard that? Those kinds of statements are becoming more and more common, by believers and unbelievers alike. If they have a way of making you stop in your tracks, it’s because that’s often what they’re meant to do. It’s an excellent conversation-stopper. After all, you don’t want to make yourself look like you’re disagreeing with Jesus.

The problem is, that verse, Matthew 7:1, is one of the most commonly misunderstood verses in the Bible. For one thing, the meaning that the verse is given in the argument mentioned above is self-refuting. The very statement, “you should not judge” is itself a judgment. That person is judging that you are wrong to judge their behavior, and therefore they are guilty of the same thing they just accused you of.

People will often quote verse 3, which says, "Why do you look at the speck that is in your brother's eye, but do not notice the log that is in your own eye?” but you will rarely hear anyone continue on to verse 5, which says, “You hypocrite, first take the log out of your own eye, and then you will see clearly to take the speck out of your brother's eye.” When Jesus instructs us to take the speck out of our brother’s eye, he is telling us that we should point out that person’s sin. But doesn’t that mean we have to judge them, even though verse 1 said we shouldn’t do that? Jesus isn’t contradicting himself here. By reading verse 5, we can figure out what the real context of the verse is. Jesus is only speaking against one particular kind of judgment.

The Bible talks about three kinds of judgment. The first is judicial, like the kind of judgment made by a court of law or by the church. One example of this is found in 1 Corinthians 5:3-5, where Paul is writing to the church about a man who is living in sin with his stepmother. He says, “As though I were there, I have already passed judgment on this man in the name of the Lord Jesus. You must call a meeting of the church…Then you must throw this man out and hand him over to Satan so that his sinful nature will be destroyed and he himself will be saved on the day the Lord returns.” The Bible commands that these types of judgments be made.

Another kind of judgment is a rational evaluation of the facts. Nobody can go through life without making this kind of judgment. I think that almost anyone would agree that going on a killing spree simply for the fun of it is wrong. Anyone who agrees with that is making a judgment. This kind of judging is also commanded of us. Matthew 18:15-20 says, "If your brother sins, go and show him his fault in private; if he listens to you, you have won your brother. But if he does not listen to you, take one or two more with you, so that by the mouth of two or three witnesses every fact may be confirmed. If he refuses to listen to them, tell it to the church; and if he refuses to listen even to the church, let him be to you as a Gentile and a tax collector.” So if you look at the facts (Person A is doing X), make a rational evaluation (The Bible says that X is sin so therefore person A is doing something wrong), and tell that person why what they are doing is wrong, you are doing exactly what the Bible says you should do.

The kind of judging that Jesus tells us we should not do in Matthew 7:1 is hypocritical or unkind judging. If we confront a person for committing the very sin that we ourselves are involved in, we are being hypocritical. Of course, we can’t wait until we are completely free from all sin before confronting someone else because that would be impossible. If you want to warn someone else who is involved in the same sin that you are currently struggling to get out of, you aren’t being a hypocrite. However, if you are making no attempt to get the sin out of your own life, you have no business telling someone else that they should. Also, if we approach people with condemnation, we are guilty of a sinful attitude. We should always approach people with a desire to help them remove the sin from their life, with a kind and compassionate attitude.

So if someone tells you that you shouldn’t judge them because Jesus said so, help them understand the self-refuting nature of their understanding of the passage, and explain to them what Jesus was really talking about.

Can't Stop the Serenity

2008-06-25T08:32:00.000-07:00

Last Saturday, David and I went to Can't Stop the Serenity (OC), which is a charity event where we watch the movie Serenity, have prize drawings, and sometimes have costume contests, depending on the location. Serenity is a sequel to the TV show Firefly, created by Joss Whedon. CSTS raises money for Joss's favorite charity, Equality Now. Dave and I got there early to help out.

I stupidly forgot to bring my camera, but other people took pictures and I managed to find a couple online that have David in them. Here he is working at the merchandise table.

Nice Things

2008-06-12T16:53:00.000-07:00

Wondering why I haven't written in a while? (That was me suspending reality for a moment and pretending someone actually reads this thing.) It's because 1) almost nothing worth writing about has been happening and 2) the few "interesting" things that have happened are not good things and would probably end up sounding like complaining, which is never enjoyable to read.

So I'm going to make a list of nice things that are going on right now.

• I love and adore my husband.
• I'm going to a very good church and I just got my pastor's autobiography, which is supposed to be really great.
• David just bought me LOTRO so I don't have to feel left out when he plays video games.
• I recently discovered an awesome radio show/podcast called Stand To Reason.
• My kitty is really cute.

New couch and chair

2008-05-31T09:03:00.000-07:00

We picked up the chair and couch last night. They're both really comfortable, especially the chair. We have now gotten four free pieces of nice furniture! (Also the entertainment center and my desk, which is nice except for the keyboard tray.) Now when we finally move into our own place, we'll have a pretty nice setup!

I like green tea!

2008-05-27T22:39:00.000-07:00

Today I discovered that I do like green tea after all! Before this morning I had only ever had Arizona cold green tea, and I thought it was pretty nasty. But today I tried the jasmine green tea that I got for Christmas, and I loved it! I was sad when I thought that I couldn't appreciate green tea, so this makes me happy.

Ok, so that's a pretty boring post. So what else? David and I are going to get a couch and a lazy boy chair! The Wiggins family is getting a new couch, and they're giving us their old stuff! That means that when Dave and I are finally in an apartment on our own again, we'll have a comfy place to sit! I'm so excited! We'll probably be moving it on Thursday. I'll try to post pictures. Of course it's just going to go sit in the garage until we move because there's no room in the guest house. We might be able to squeeze the lazy boy in here, though. Maybe.

Sobe Wiggins

2008-05-21T21:50:00.000-07:00

The Wiggins family let me look after their alligator lizard named Sobe while they were away for the last two weeks. He's pretty darn adorable, even if he is a tiny bit boring. He was very good and sat perfectly still for me while I did a little photoshoot for him (first picture), but of course that didn't allow for much variety in the pictures. Luckily when I took his box outside he became a little more interesting (second picture).

I know it's a little bit silly of me to write out "Sobe Wiggins" in the subject line like he's a person and that's his full name, but my family was always big on treating pets like family members. I once had a dog who even had a middle name!

Be sure to view the pictures full-size! :)

Update on life

2008-05-21T19:55:00.000-07:00

David has a new job as a video game tester for Vivendi Games, the company that brought you World of Warcraft. It's in El Segundo, which is about an hour and a half away from where we live now. That's quite a commute, not to mention the fortune he'll be spending on gas. He would like for us to move there, but we just can't afford to move right now. I would need to get a job and work there long enough for us to have the money to move, and then I would have to quit and find a new job in El Segundo.

I would like to move there, I think. I don't want Dave to have to drive so far and I would love to live near the beach. The only thing is that Harvest is the best church I've ever gone to, and I've been to a lot. I would be extremely sad to have to leave. Also there's The Living Room, which is unlike any Bible study I've ever been to and has done so much for my walk with God and given me a passion for the Bible. Plus there's Come Reason, which is the only apologetics class I've ever seen in a church. Still, I'm sure we'll find a nice church if we move out there.

This is a little embarrassing to write, but only 2 people actually read this blog, so it's not a huge deal. Another thing David's work is close to is a college that I would love to go to. (After I make up for my horrible high school grades at a community college, of course.) I say it's embarrassing because I don't know if I would be able to succeed in college. If I could, I would love to go to Biola and get a Bachelor's degree in Biblical & Theological Studies.

I suppose that's really all the updates on life that I have at the moment. I'll probably post a little bit later with some pictures of the houseguest Dave and I have had for the past two weeks.

Roses!

2008-05-09T20:18:00.000-07:00

David gave me a dozen red roses yesterday! ♥ Here are some pictures.

My church is going to Israel

2008-05-07T22:38:00.000-07:00

For the next two weeks people from my church will be taking a tour of Israel. I wish I could have gone too. Granted, I don't know as much about the places they're going to visit as the people probably do who are actually going. They're probably very familiar with the Bible and know exactly what took place at all the different locations. So maybe in that sense I wouldn't get quite as much out of it...but I would love to learn. Maybe I can work on becoming more knowledgeable and then if Harvest does it again, maybe there will be a way I can go. You know, if David and I suddenly strike it rich somehow. Ok, so maybe it's impossible. But it sure would be incredible.

Singing Kitty / Dave's haircut

2008-04-29T12:02:00.000-07:00

Here's a video of Leora singing, also known as Cat Yodeling. Also David being silly with me. Don't you love his new haircut?? And he finally shaved! :)

Here's a picture of my incredibly handsome husband! ♥

Random Stuff

2008-04-23T10:30:00.000-07:00

I'm such a dork. Last night David was asking me why I don't talk more when we talk to people. I told him I never know what to say. Then when I finally did have a comment, I said something totally idiotic. I was pretty embarassed. Technically, the person I was talking to didn't give me any funny looks or anything, but I'm pretty sure I sounded really stupid. *facepalm*

Anyway, I do have a few other things to talk about besides my inability to form a coherent sentence when faced with an actual human being instead of a computer screen.

I looked ahead on The Living Room's reading calendar and found out that on September 21 of this year, I will have read the entire New Testament! I'm so excited!

I got a new purse/bag/thing. I keep wanting to call it a purse but I guess it's a bag. Anyway, it's cute. I got it at Anchor Blue at the mall while I was job hunting. I bought it with money from our last yard sale.

Click for full view. I guess I don't have as much to talk about as I thought. I'm a pretty boring person right now.

Things aren't looking good

2008-04-21T21:13:00.000-07:00

I would love to make a really interesting update, but I can't. Things are just kind of stinky right now. I can't find a job. Our situation is really serious. I'm pretty stressed out.

Still, there are two bright spots in every week that I'm able to look forward to. One of them was yesterday, church at Harvest, and the other is tomorrow, The Living Room. If I wasn't able to get out of the house (for a reason besides job hunting) and be able to have those enjoyable times, I'd go nuts.

Digital Scrapbooking

2008-04-16T12:23:00.001-07:00

This is my very first attempt at digital scrapbooking. All the elements are separate and I put them together in Photoshop. The pictures are from March 11, 2006 when Calvary Community Church's college group took a trip to California to visit Six Flags, the beach, and Calvary Chapel Costa Mesa. Tell me what you think! More to come.

Credits:
"Boardwalk Collection" by Sara Carling
Downloaded from Scrapbook Bytes

Things I Like

2008-04-09T15:36:00.000-07:00

Inspired by this post by Greg Laurie, I decided to do my own list of things I like.

Books
I've always loved to read. From elementary school up until about 11th grade reading was pretty much all that I did. (I actually had somewhat of a social life my senior year.) Some of my favorite books are: Sherlock Holmes, I Robot, The Chronicles of Narnia, The Princess Bride, The Phantom of the Opera, The Lord of the Rings, Anne of Green Gables...

Musicals
I've always been a big fan of musicals, thanks in large part to my dad, who introduced me to Rodgers and Hammerstein. It's one of my favorite film/theater genres, and it's my favorite type of music to sing. You know...if there's nobody else around.

Fandom
I'm definitely a big fandom geek. My favorite fandoms are Star Trek (Original Series, Next Generation, and Voyager), Star Wars, Back to the Future, Firefly, Harry Potter, Lord of the Rings, etc.

Tea
I really like coffee, but I like tea even better. Especially English tea. I think my favorite is Earl Grey...and not only because it's Picard's favorite!

Animals
I'm a huge animal lover. Practically all types of animals; dogs, cats, rats, snakes, doesn't matter. My favorite animals are the big cats, especially lions. Absolutely gorgeous. I've always wanted to be a big cat handler. (Among other equally far-fetched dreams.) No wonder The Lion King is my second favorite Disney movie.

Apologetics

The thing I'm most interested in studying is the Bible, and more specifically, how to defend the faith. I love going to Lenny Esposito's Come Reason classes, listening to my Dad's online apologetics class, and reading books like the one on the right.

Sleep-Deprived Rambling

2008-04-09T00:51:00.000-07:00

I'm having one of my infrequent but nevertheless obnoxious bouts of insomnia. It usually takes me a while to get to sleep at night, but I almost never end up having to get up because of it. Tonight my brain just wouldn't shut up.

So I'm lying there trying to convince myself that it's time to sleep, and all the while stuff is running through my mind and I just can't make it stop. Now, if the things running through my mind were intelligent and profound, I would thank my insomnia for keeping me up and giving me a chance to think all these wonderful thoughts. Unfortunately, this is not the case.

One of the things keeping my brain up was a desire to write something, anything. Preferably more of my lame "super heroes" story which still remains untitled. Unfortunately my villain is being extremely stubborn right now and is not allowing me to write any of his scenes. As a result, I skipped ahead a few days ago to start writing the scene where my two main characters finally get together. This brought me to the realization that there actually is someone in the world who is capable of writing worse romance dialogue than George Lucas. How embarrassing.

Anyway, I opened my story document and nothing came to me, so I decided to blog instead. (I know by now you're all wishing I had just stayed in bed.) You know what I haven't done in a long time? Written poetry. If you can call it poetry, that is. I should probably just call it Weird Stuff That Kind Of Rhymes. I've only written a handful of poems in my life, and most of them are Star Trek poems. (Yes, I said Star Trek poems.) I think my favorite poem is called "Jim" and it's about the end of Star Trek: The Search for Spock, after the fal-tor-pan ritual. Such a great moment. Kirk and Spock are my all-time favorite fictional duo.

All right, enough of my sleep-deprived rambling. Good night.

PS: I can't think of a tag for this post besides "my day," but I only really talked about my night, so here's a summary of my day...

Read Acts chapter 3
Watched Voyager. Janeway rocked.
Went on the computer.
Stopped my cat from destroying the bathroom.
Went on the computer again.
Took a shower.
Went to The Living Room. Heard awesome music and teaching.
Went to bed. Couldn't sleep. Wrote random nonsense on Blogger.

My Kaylee Parasol

2008-04-06T21:31:00.000-07:00

This is a parasol I won at a Shindig when I lived in Arizona. It's made to look like Kaylee's from the show Firefly. The colors are a bit off because of the lighting (the pink is actually red), but you get the idea.

Disneyland

2008-04-03T08:23:00.000-07:00

I found out at the last minute that my cousin who works at Disneyland was able to get us some free tickets, so Dave and I were able to go with his family yesterday. It was fun. I haven't been in a very long time. I didn't take as many touristy kinds of pictures as I would have liked, but maybe some day Dave and I will go by ourselves, and that will allow us to go more slowly and take lots of pictures. Here are a few of the ones I took yesterday.

Job interview

2008-03-27T11:49:00.000-07:00

I had a working interview at a chiropractor's office today. I think it went well, but they want to interview a few more people first. I'm probably going to do one more working interview before I find out if I'm going to get the job.

Hiking Pictures

2008-03-22T21:39:00.001-07:00

David and I went hiking on Mt. Rubidoux. Here are just a few of the many pictures I took. More can be found at my MySpace gallery. David looks sooo incredibly gorgeous in these pictures! He's so handsome! :D

Cupcakes / The Well

2008-03-22T08:59:00.000-07:00

Yesterday I made cupcakes for the first time in my life. Not that it's hard or anything. Well, except for the decorative frosting part. Mine look like a 10 year old frosted them, but that's ok. They're yummy. The thing is, there's a ton of them. For some reason I decided to make both chocolate and vanilla, so I have two boxes worth of cupcakes. I brought some over to a neighbor's house because there's no way we're going to eat them all before they go bad. Their kids seemed very excited about it. I guess free cupcakes are always a good thing.
Yesterday was my first day going to my church's college-age group, The Well. It was good, but since David can't go because he bowls on Fridays, I was lonely. Still, I think I'll probably try it again next week. They're going on a retreat in May and doing four workshops, including The Bible and Apologetics. I would love to go, but it's $130.

A new thought

2008-03-18T22:42:00.000-07:00

Tonight was the first time I took notes at The Living Room (click image below). I definitely want to continue and I wish I’d started earlier. I think I might actually prefer these chapter-by-chapter notes to topical notes, because whenever I go back to that chapter again I can easily find my notes covering that section. Very practical.

Steve said something today that was a complete revelation to me. He was talking about how when he was new in the faith he was listening to the testimony of a guy who had been really into drugs and all kinds of bad things and how he had overcome all that to become a Christian. He was really impressed by the guy’s testimony, but another guy said that he had heard better: the testimony of a person who had accepted Christ at a young age and hadn’t walked away from the faith but continued to stand firm and to grow in it.

I had always thought that my testimony (I was raised in a Christian home and accepted Christ at age 3 or 4) was kind of boring and wouldn’t be very impressive compared to a person who had a more dramatic story. What Steve said made me think about it in a whole new light and made me realize more fully the value of my testimony. So many people who accept Christ as children turn from it once they get older and are exposed to and tempted by the things of the world. So while it’s a miracle when someone turns from their sinful ways to trust in God, it might be even more of a miracle for someone to resist turning to those sinful ways in the first place.

New (hand-me-down) desk

2008-03-16T17:17:00.000-07:00

Here is my husband's old desk that was in his brother's room for a while that is now replacing my broken one. Note the duct tape on the keyboard tray. It's a lot more fancy than my old desk, though. Look how many CDs I can store! I used to only have that little CD holder that you see on the left side of the desk. And look at all the storage nooks! I just love organization. My husband would laugh if he heard me say that, but it's true. I'm a messy person who loves organization. Strange, I know.

At church this morning they sang the song that I mentioned a couple entries ago. (A Heart That Burns For You) If this was Live Journal, I would post all of the lyrics under an LJ-cut. Since it isn't, I'll just post a selection.

You found me on the road that leads to nowhere
You opened up my eyes to see the truth
You offered me the bread of sweet communion
You've given me a heart that burns for you

Within my heart
You started a fire
Down in my heart
A strong desire
That burns for you

Destructive sneezes

2008-03-15T19:36:00.000-07:00

Not much to talk about today. I filled out more job applications and cleaned the apartment. I'm almost over being sick. Also, I sneezed while typing the other day and my keyboard tray broke. Smooth, I know. It had been threatening to break for a while now. Luckily David's old desk is sitting unused in his brother's room, so I get to have it as a replacement. It's bigger and has more storage space! Yay!

Because there's not much to talk about, I'll just share some stuff with you. The first thing is a picture I took yesterday of my gorgeous kitty Leora.

And now, here is the most hilarious thing I've seen in a while. Don't get me wrong, it's horrible. But you just have to laugh.

A kitty torture chamber??

Deathly Hallows will be a two-parter!

2008-03-12T21:19:00.000-07:00

It's official! The final Harry Potter book, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, will be made into two movies! This is, of course, to accomodate the length and ensure that nothing important gets left out. While I know that it's going to be a bit annoying to have to wait to see the second half, my biggest complaint about the movies so far is that they've left so much stuff out that the movies don't even seem to run very smoothly to me in a lot of places. Hopefully this shouldn't be an issue for The Deathly Hallows, parts 1 & 2.

Of course we still have Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince to look forward to in the meantime. That's coming out in November of this year. I can't wait!

LJ-cut / Sickness

2008-03-12T17:53:00.000-07:00

Ok. The LJ-cut is officially the most brilliant thing in the universe. Why doesn't Blogger/BlogSpot have something like that? I guess because then it would have to be called a BS-cut and that just doesn't sound right. Oh well. I'm not usually long-winded enough to require a cut anyway, but this means that if I go on a picture posting spree it's going to take up a lot room on the main page.

I'm sick. First my brother-in-law had it, then my husband had it, and now I have apparently gotten it. No fun. Also, I have yet another song stuck in my head today, so I may end up having to retract my previous statement about songs not gluing themselves to my brain. Luckily it's a song I really love, but I hope I don't end up being sick of it by the time I finally get it out of my head.

Today I pretty much sat in front of the computer all day long. I can't even remember what I've been working on all this time. I watched some videos on YouTube, downloaded the Yahoo Messenger 9.0 beta, and showed my mom how to use the Prt Scr key. Where did all the hours go?

The Living Room / Come Reason

2008-03-11T22:18:00.000-07:00

Tonight's Bible study at The Living Room was really good. The teaching was great, as usual, plus Steve Wiggins played some new songs for us. The one that stood out to me the most is called "A Heart That Burns For You." It's a really gorgeous song and I can't wait until I can have it for my ipod. Steve says they're going to play it at church next week, so I'm looking forward to that.

I think that's pretty much all that happened today. I did more job hunting but didn't get much of anywhere. Yesterday I ended up going to Come Reason after all because my dad's online class was cancelled for the week. I ended up getting two free CDs, so I'm extra glad I was able to go. The subject was the resurrection as a fact of history. One of the CDs I got was from last year when he taught on the same subject, so I'll be able to go back over it and take more detailed notes.

In case you're curious, one of the things he talked about were known historical facts surrounding the resurrection and how they are evidence that Jesus really rose from the dead. The five points that he talked about that are agreed upon by most scholars, Christian or not, are these:

1. Jesus died by crucifixion
2. Jesus was buried
3. Jesus' tomb was discovered empty a few days later
4. The disciples all truly believed that they saw the risen Jesus
5. The skeptics James and Paul were suddenly converted after they claimed to have seen the risen Jesus, and they were both so sure of it that they died for their belief.

Lenny recommended a book that talks about these points called The Case for the Resurrection of Jesus by Gary Habermas.

Free Time / Apologetics Classes

2008-03-10T09:47:00.000-07:00

A few days ago I bought the newest Sims expansion pack: Free Time. It's really awesome. There are 10 different hobbies for your Sims to get into, such as science, arts and crafts, or sports. There are so many new elements in this game, I can't even list them all. Check out EA's website for more info. I haven't even had time yet to explore most of the hobbies. There are so many new things to do!

The activity table is a really fun object. Both toddlers and children can draw or play with blocks. You can even pick up their drawings in buy mode and hang them on the wall!

I have a bit of a dilemma today. My dad's online apologetics class is every Monday night, but this Monday night (today) is Come Reason with Lenny Esposito at Harvest. It seems to take a while for the audio from my dad's class to get posted on the site, so I guess I'll just get a CD of Come Reason from the church.

Sticky Songs / Unemployment Woes

2008-03-08T17:14:00.000-08:00

I was listening to Big Tent Revival yesterday morning, and for the whole rest of the day I had What Would Jesus Do? stuck in my head. Today, randomly, I have Star in the Book of Life stuck in my head. Songs don't normally glue themselves to my brain, so this is very unusual.

I lost my job last Monday, and I've been scrambling to try to find a new one. Today I called back all the places I applied to, but nobody could tell me anything concrete except for the places that aren't actually hiring right now. It doesn't help that I can't drive yet and I'm limited to the places that are within biking distance.