lol.

This is the most absurdly coincidental thing I've read in a long time. Seriously. When I read this, I laughed until I couldn't breathe:

November 29, 2005
Ronald MacDonald Robs Wendy's, Loses Job

MANCHESTER, New Hampshire - A name like Ronald MacDonald might have raised suspicion from the start for a Wendy's employee.
Now the 22-year-old MacDonald has been charged with stealing from a safe at the Wendy's restaurant where he worked.
The man is no relation to the cheerful, red-haired clown who is the face of the McDonald's advertising campaign.
The restaurant manager said he found MacDonald and another employee taking the money at about 1:30 a.m. Monday.
MacDonald and Steve Lemay, 20, were detained at the store until police arrived.
MacDonald is expected to face a probation violation charge along with theft charges.
(Copyright 2005 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.)

Now, really. What self-respecting Wendy's franchise would hire a dude named Ronald MacDonald? Come on. Letting the enemy walk all up in your operation, that's self-sabatoge! Not a smart move.

(Unless Wendy's set the whole thing up for publicity, in which case, kudos to them for such a stroke of genius!)

*by the way I had a great Thanksgiving -- thanks for the warm wishes!*

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A Verse For You Today:

The end of a matter is better than the beginning, and patience is better than pride. ~ Ecclesiastes 7:8 (NIV)

big girls don't cry. . .

When they have to spend Thanksgiving away from their families for the first time EVER.

What, what're you staring at?

No, those aren't tears, I was chopping some onion. You know, in preparation for the dressing I'm going to make for my first Big Girl Thanksgiving.

Yeah, those onions. They get me every time.

In other news, I think I'm getting a job very soon. Yay! And, um, let's see. Oh, right, I have a ton of work to do which is not letting me do my readings for class very often. So most days I'm the girl in the middle of the room trying to nod and look alert and aware, taking strategic notes when someone says a buzzword I know, when in reality I'm lost in space until I get enough downtime to play catchup.

This is, partly, my fault, because I have let my downtime be sucked up into strictly non-American Studies student-ish activities. I recently discovered a new writer, Elizabeth Gaskell, who lived in Victorian England in the 19th century but wrote some fabulous (very hard to put down) novels -- one of which was the basis for a spectacular television adaptation that almost (almost!) puts the 1995 P&P to shame. So in endeavoring to enrich my cultural sensibilities I got trapped into exploring all of her novels. I'm now on my third, called Mary Barton, and there are two more to go. They are fantastic procrastination fodder, but I'm almost done with them. Then I'll probably be back on track. Probably.

In still other news, guess who went to see the new Pride and Prejudice film!

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If you guessed my mama, you're really mean.

It was me! On Saturday I took a 15 minute busride to the only theater in town that was showing it (limited release, you know. but had I been in Shreveport, I'd still be waiting. so there!) Oooh, the movie was just grand. I'm a die-hard fan of both the ancient, now somewhat goofy 1940 version and the wonderful 1995 6-part smorgasbord, and I really didn't have high expectations of this new one once I heard Keira Knightley was the star. (no, I'm not hating. I just think it's very hard for her to act her way out of a paper bag, is all.)

Anyway, I was pleasantly surprised with the film, and I do love it very much. This might be overdue to the breathtaking cinematography, which was nothing short of amazing. Yes, I am such a punk that I almost cried at the beautiful shots of the Peaks, and the English countryside.
But, I was also impressed by the performance of the new Mr. Darcy. From the trailer I didn't think I'd like him, but obviously (and redundantly, lol) I was wrong. He's great in the role. And even Keira's OK. She did tend to play Lizzy as a little too giggly and gawking for my taste, but other than that she was believable. She certainly didn't detract from my enjoyment of the film as I was almost positive she would. So that's something.

No time to write more, am off to class now. No I haven't read, but luckily reading is not very important to this class. More important is showing up and contributing a few timely and really meaningful remarks to the discussion. And we all know I'm a pro at doing that.

Okay, so I was being sarcastic there. But I try my best to be productive, anyway.

more visuals!! (autumnal ones.)

As promised. Today when I went out I actually took my camera along, and was able to snap a few more pics of my neighborhood. The sky was overcast, but I think that made the pictures even awesomer. (yeah, that's a word. look it up.) Atmosphere, and all that. They're no breath-taking Montana mountains, but they make me smile. :) <---------- see?

this is down the block from my house. was going to take a shot of my building, but people kept passing by, lol.

and surely you recognize the beautiful garden of solitude:

loring lake, complete with geeses

and of course things'll be great when you're DOWNTOWN!!

Yeah, woohoo!! That's my hood. Actually, I don't think I'll be posting any pictures of my building, because I don't wanna tempt anybody out there with latent stalkerish tendencies, so I'll just leave that alone. LOL.

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A Verse For You Today:

Oh, the depth of the riches of the wisdom and knowledge of God!
How unsearchable his judgments,
and his paths beyond tracing out!
"Who has known the mind of the Lord?
Or who has been his counselor?"
"Who has ever given to God,
that God should repay him?"
For from him and through him and to him are all things.
To him be the glory forever! Amen. ~ Romans 11: 33-36

pitiful episodes in pointless pontification.

*clears throat*
Right, this is a venting entry. You have been warned.

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Now, I knew when I signed up for phd school that I'd be spending a big chunk of my time discussing theory and principles, paradigm shifts and whatnot. But I didn't know it would get old so quickly.

I'm all for learning my discipline (or my several disciplines, since I'm a super-cool American Studies student), but I wish we spent less time dwelling on these intellectual suppositions that 95% of the people in this country could care less about. I signed up for phd school because I want to understand folks, so I can be able to help folks understand themselves in relation to everybody else, not because I want to be stuck in the theory jungle trying to hack my way out by making up new phrases and critiques and paradigms and whatnot.

The Ivory Tower is not the place I want to be, and I don't want to learn and think and write for people in the Ivory Tower. Start praying for me now if my future is going to be limited to writing articles and papers that no one outside of conferences will ever hear or understand. What good does that do society? What good would that do me?

I mean, I guess theory has its place in the grand scheme of things. Synthesizing information, reconciling events in history with the atmosphere of history, etc, but it's beyond frustrating when all we do is pick apart these intellectual explorations without even trying to apply them to the real world.

Anyway, like I said, I knew what I signed up for. It's good for me I guess. I am learning, and growing. Maybe it's up to me to sift the pragmatic wheat from the dogmatic chaff. Exercise those brain muscles (right, oh science genius friends of mine? you know who you are. what goes on when I exercise my brain?). Surely I can make more of an effort in that respect. Yeah.

Er. . .okay. Venting over.

Now in a completely unrelated and random transition, here are some lovely pictures of my lovely neighborhood. I know you've been dying for visuals. Sadly, I haven't yet gone out to get any pics of the beautiful autumnal leaf colors; hopefully I can do that soon. Well, I better do it soon before the leaves are all gone. Anyway, this is all you get for now (click them to hugeify them!):

the beauteous Loring Park

framed by lovely downtown Minneapolis

garden of solitude, sometimes -- though too it's too cold at present to properly partake of its peace.

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A Verse For You Today:

God is light, and in Him is no darkness at all.
If we say that we have fellowship with Him, and walk in darkness, we lie, and do not tell the truth:
But if we walk in the light, as He is in the light, we have fellowship one with another, and the blood of Jesus Christ His Son cleanseth us from all sin.
If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us.
If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.
If we say that we have not sinned, we make Him a liar, and his word is not in us. ~ 1 John: 5-10