epiphany « WordPress.com Tag Feed

Are you confused?

curiouserfaith — Sat, 28 Nov 2009 15:53:24 +0000

I just went up on WLM and looked at some of the personal messages my friends had. This guy put “working job was fun”. Thanks for clarifying that we need to work while on a job -.-

Spent the day reading MLIA and playing with Mystery Google. I have to say, I think they’re the cure to my facebook addiction.

The Orthodox Faith-Worship-The Church Year – Epiphany

sowingseedsoforthodoxy — Sat, 28 Nov 2009 11:26:18 +0000

[As stated in my About, I want to tell the world about the Orthodox faith. Up to this point, my blogs have somewhat unorganized to do that. Now God has given me a more coorinated way to do that. I will be sharing articles from the Orthodox Faith. This will be a long series, but I trust it will be profitable to you in learning about the Orthodox faith. From time to time, I will also provide addition blogs of interest. - Herman Art]

Epiphany

The sixth of January is the feast of the Epiphany. Originally it was the one Christian feast of the “shining forth” of God to the world in the human form of Jesus of Nazareth. It included the celebration of Christ’s birth, the adoration of the Wisemen, and all of the childhood events of Christ such as his circumcision and presentation to the temple as well as his baptism by John in the Jordan. There seems to be little doubt that this feast, like Easter and Pentecost, was understood as the fulfillment of a previous Jewish festival, in this case the Feast of Lights.

Epiphany means shining forth or manifestation. The feast is often called, as it is in the Orthodox service books, Theophany, which means the shining forth and manifestation of God. The emphasis in the present day celebration is on the appearance of Jesus as the human Messiah of Israel and the divine Son of God, One of the Holy Trinity with the Father and the Holy Spirit.

Thus, in the baptism by John in the Jordan, Jesus identifies himself with sinners as the “Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world” (Jn 1:29), the “Beloved” of the Father whose messianic task it is to redeem men from their sins (Lk 3:21, Mk 1:35). And he is revealed as well as One of the Divine Trinity, testified to by the voice of the Father, and by the Spirit in the form of a dove. This is the central epiphany glorified in the main hymns of the feast:

When Thou, O Lord, wast baptized in the Jordan the worship of the Trinity was made manifest! For the voice of the Father bare witness to Thee, calling Thee his Beloved Son. And the Spirit, in the form of a dove, confirmed the truthfulness of his Word. O Christ our God, who hast revealed Thyself and hast enlightened the world, glory to Thee (Troparion).

Today Thou hast appeared to the universe, end Thy Light, O Lord, has shone on us, who with understanding praise Thee: Thou hast come and revealed Thyself, O Light Unapproachable! (Kontakion).

The services of Epiphany are set up exactly as those of Christmas, although historically it was most certainly Christmas which was made to imitate Epiphany since it was established later. Once again the Royal Hours and the Liturgy of Saint Basil are celebrated together with Vespers on the eve of the feast; and the Vigil is made up of Great Compline and Matins. The prophecies of Epiphany repeat the God is with Us from Isaiah and stress the foretelling of the Messiah as well as the coming of his forerunner, John the Baptist:

The voice of one crying in the wilderness: Prepare the way of the Lord, make his path straight. Every valley shall be filled and every mountain and hill brought low, and the crooked shall be made straight, and the rough ways shall be made smooth; and all flesh shall see the salvation of God (Is 40:3-5; Lk 3:4-6).

Once more special psalms are sung to begin the Divine Liturgy of the feast, and the baptismal line of Galatians 3:27 replaces the song of the Thrice-Holy. The gospel readings of all the Epiphany services tell of the Lord’s baptism by John in the Jordan River. The epistle reading of the Divine Liturgy tells of the consequences of the Lord’s appearing which is the divine epiphany.

For the grace of God has appeared for the salvation of all men, training us to renounce irreligion and worldly passions, and to live sober, upright and godly lives in this world, awaiting our blessed hope, the appearing of the glory of our great God and Saviour Jesus Christ, who gave himself for us to redeem us from all iniquity and to purify for himself a people of his own who are zealous for good deeds (Titus 2:11-14).

The main feature of the feast of the Epiphany is the Great Blessing of Water. It is prescribed to follow both the Divine Liturgy of the eve of the feast and the Divine Liturgy of the day itself. Usually it is done just once in parish churches at the time when most people can be present. It begins with the singing of special hymns and the censing of the water which has been placed in the center of the church building. Surrounded by candles and flowers, this water stands for the beautiful world of God’s original creation and ultimate glorification by Christ in the Kingdom of God. Sometimes this service of blessing is done out of doors at a place where the water is flowing naturally.

The voice of the Lord cries over the waters, saying: Come all ye, receive the Spirit of wisdom, the Spirit of understanding, the Spirit of the fear of God, even Christ who is made manifest.

Today the nature of water is sanctified. Jordan is divided in two, and turns back the stream of its waters, beholding the Master being baptized.

As a man Thou didst come to that river, 0 Christ our King, and dost hasten O Good One, to receive the baptism of a servant at the hands of the Forerunner (John), because of our sins, 0 Lover of Man (Hymns of the Great Blessing of Waters).

Following are three readings from the Prophecy of Isaiah concerning the messianic age:

Let the thirsty wilderness be glad, let the desert rejoice, let it blossom as a rose, let it blossom abundantly, let everything rejoice … (Is 35: 1-10)

Go to that water, 0 you who thirst, and as many as have no money, let them eat and drink without price, both wine and fat … (Is 55:1-13)

With joy draw the water out of the wells of salvation. And in that day shall you say: Confess ye unto the Lord and call upon his Name; declare his glorious deeds… his Name is exalted … Hymn the Name of the Lord … Rejoice and exult … (Is 12:3.6).

After the epistle (1 Cor 1:10-14) and the gospel reading (Mk 1:9-11) the special great litany is chanted invoking the grace of the Holy Spirit upon the water and upon those who will partake of it. It ends with the great prayer of the cosmic glorification of God in which Christ is called upon to sanctify the water, and all men and all creation, by the manifestation of his saving and sanctifying divine presence by the indwelling of the Holy and Good and Life-creating Spirit.

As the troparion of the feast is sung, the celebrant immerses the Cross into the water three times and then proceeds to sprinkle the water in the four directions of the world. He then blesses the people and their homes with the sanctified water which stands for the salvation of all men and all creation which Christ has effected by his “epiphany” in the flesh for the life of the world.

Sometimes people think that the blessing of water and the practice of drinking it and sprinkling it over everyone and everything is a “paganism” which has falsely entered the Christian Church. We know, however, that this ritual was practiced by the People of God in the Old Testament, and that in the Christian Church it has a very special and important significance.

It is the faith of Christians that since the Son of God has taken human flesh and has been immersed in the streams of the Jordan, all matter is sanctified and made pure in him, purged of its death-dealing qualities inherited from the devil and the wickedness of men. In the Lord’s epiphany all creation becomes good again, indeed “very good,” the way that God himself made it and proclaimed it to be in the beginning when “the Spirit of God was moving over the face of the waters” (Gen 1:2) and when the “Breath of Life” was breathing in man and in everything that God made (Gen 1:30; 2:7).

The world and everything in it is indeed “very good” (Gen 1:31) and when it becomes polluted, corrupted and dead, God saves it once more by effecting the “new creation” in Christ, his divine Son and our Lord by the grace of the Holy Spirit (Gal 6:15). This is what is celebrated on Epiphany, particularly in the Great Blessing of Water. The consecration of the waters on this feast places the entire world — through its “prime element” of watering the perspective of the cosmic creation, sanctification, and glorification of the Kingdom of God in Christ arid the Spirit. It tells us that man and the world were indeed created and saved in order to be “filled with all the fullness of God” (Eph 3:19), the “fullness of him who fills all in all” (Eph 1:22). It tells us that Christ, in who in “the whole fulness of deity dwells bodily,” is and shall be truly “all, and in all” (Col 2:9, 3:11). It tells us as well that the “new heavens and the new earth” which God has promised through his prophets and apostles (Is 66:2; 2 Peter 3:13, Rev 21:1) are truly “with us” already now in the, mystery of Christ and his Church.

Thus, the sanctification and sprinkling of the Epiphany water is no pagan ritual. It is the expression of the most central fact of the Christian vision of man, his life and his world. It is the liturgical testimony that the vocation and destiny of creation is to be “filled with all the fullness of God” (Eph 3:19).

http://www.oca.org/OCchapter.asp?SID=2&ID=81

An Open Letter to My Gorgeous-- That He Will Most Likely Never See, What I'm Afraid to Lose, and the Taming of the Bitch (erm, Shrew)

kikicutey — Fri, 27 Nov 2009 16:58:44 +0000

I want to admit something to the masses knowing that my Gorgeous will never see this.

I am afraid.

Seriously, I am scared shitless- and it scares me that I’m so scared.

If I never would have stopped his friend, if he never would have smiled over at me, if I hadn’t giggled like a bashful little school girl and took his card when he offered it – I wouldn’t be here. I wouldn’t feel this way and he would be just another man.

But I did, and he did; now I’m burgeoning with this feeling so big and exciting, but so calm and I want to keep scream out loud and keep it to myself at the same time. It’s been so long since I wanted—or even cared about my future in terms of family; he makes me feel like home though, and I want to build a home with him.

I know, how strange is it that this in your face no apologies (canbe) straight up bitch is seriously sitting here thinking about marriage. We’ll see where things go, of course; I’m trying to practice letting life just happen to me.

And do I? Yes I do believe I do honestly love him. I crave him, I covet him, I want a union and a family and home with him. This is fucking crazy! Only one man ever made me think about settling down and he didn’t have the cajones to tame this heart, maybe I’ve met my match. My Gorgeous.

I think he’s afraid too—afraid of what he’s feeling, afraid to lose me. Honestly, how insane is it that two people that could have just passed by each other if it weren’t for one smile and one giggle, should be so scared to lose each other? It’s been a long hard year and I think I’ve finally made peace with everything because I want to give all of myself to him and I pray with everything in me that he can do the same.

I think the hardest thing is accepting that we’re not on the same level of emotion right now. It makes him very hard to deal with at times. I want to hold him and tell him I love him and I want him to stay in my life forever, but I can’t– or rather I won’t cross that line. He has made it perfectly clear that he wants to be with me for a long time, but he’s not ready to let go of everything and I fear that this will be our undoing.

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~

This is my open letter to him that he will never see… well maybe he will.

Dear Gorgeous,

I want you to know that this heart that I have given you comes with thorns, jagged edges, and dead ends. I am strong, fragile, beautiful, impetuous, and imperfect. I whirl around with arms wide open through the eye of the hurricane; I run straight through licking, searing flames.

I want you to know that my breath catches and my heart stops when I see those lips slide up into that gorgeous smile. The way you breathe when you sleep and the sound of your slowing heartbeat get to me and I want to wrap myself up in you.

I want you to know that I am much too much. Too much love; too much hate; too harsh, too sensitive; maybe too much for one man. Prove me wrong. I have never prayed so hard that I was wrong.

I want you to know you move me in a way that makes me want to close my eyes and when you press your silent lips to mine the world falls away. I could spend forevers with your brawny arms drawn tight around me and your nose pressed into the crook of my neck; I never felt so safe and warm.

I want you to know that I am hard to be with; a frustrating, maddening, confused, crying, broken mess. This is me and I make no apologies; I am imperfect and I won’t change my colors, but my heart is burgeoning for you.

Love,

Save now

curiouserfaith — Fri, 27 Nov 2009 16:39:07 +0000

Dear God,

Thank You for all the wonderful things You’ve done in my life. Lord, I pray that You will give me the strength to carry on with life, and that You can guide me to save myself, and the many others I love from the various hardships that we’re facing now. Father, I understand that I can never do things alone, that I need You in my life, but sometimes I forget. And Lord, I pray that in these times where I wander off from You, that I can find my way back to Your guiding lamp, and fall back into Your love. Father, give me the determination to persevere through the commitments and expectations, and help me to escape this messed-up world I’ve created in my head. Lord, I pray that You’ll mend broken hearts and broken lives tonight. I pray that You’ll save us humans tonight.

In Your most Precious Name, Amen.

“For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future, not any powers, neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord.” (Romans 8:37-38)

Heal my heart and make it clean
Open up my eyes to the things unseen
Show me how to love like you have loved me
Break my heart from what breaks yours
Everything I am for your kingdoms cause
As I walk from earth into eternity

Lord, help me to believe.

The Orthodox Faith-Worship-The Church Year – Nativity of Christ

sowingseedsoforthodoxy — Fri, 27 Nov 2009 11:17:31 +0000

Nativity of Christ

The celebration of the feast of the Nativity of Christ in the Orthodox Church is patterned after the celebration of the feast of the Lord’s Resurrection. A fast of forty days precedes the feast, with special preparatory days announcing the approaching birth of the Saviour. Thus, on St Andrew’s Day (November 30) and St Nicholas Day (December 6) songs are sung to announce the coming birthday of the Lord:

Adorn yourself, 0 Cavern. Make ready, 0 Manger. 0 Shepherds and wisemen, bring your gifts and bear witness. For the Virgin is coming bearing Christ in her womb (Vesperal Hymn of St Nicholas Day)

On the eve of Christmas, the Royal Hours are read and the Divine Liturgy of St. Basil is served with Vespers. At these services the Old Testament prophecies of Christ’s birth are chanted, emphasizing the prophecy of Micah which foretells Bethlehem as the birthplace of the Saviour, and the prophecies of Isaiah about the appearance and character of the Messiah:

The Lord himself will give you a sign. Behold a virgin shall conceive and bear a son, and shall call his name Immanuel, which translated is, God with us (Is 7:14-15).

God is with us, understand all ye nations, and submit yourselves, for God is with us (Is 8:9).

For unto us a child is born, unto us a son is given; and the government shall be upon his shoulders, and his name shall be called Wonderful, Counselor, the Everlasting Father, the Prince of Peace. Of the increase of his government and peace there will be no end (Is 9:6-7).

The Vigil of Christmas begins with Great Compline, highlighted once again by the solemn chanting of God is with us and the words of the prophecy of Isaiah. At Compline there is also the singing of the Troparion and Kontakion of the feast along with the special hymns glorifying the Saviour’s birth. There are also the special long litanies of intercession and the solemn blessing of the five loaves of bread together with the wheat and the wine of which the faithful partake and the oil with which they are anointed. This part of the festal vigil, which is done on all great feasts, is called the litya (in Greek, the artoklasia or the breaking of the bread).

At the beginning of the Christmas Matins, which together with Compline form the Christmas Vigil, the six matinal psalms begin as usual with the words; Glory to God in the highest and on earth peace, good will among men (Lk 2:14).

At the Christmas services these words of the angelic song are normally sung with great solemnity rather than being chanted as at the daily service. The Christmas Matins proceed as usual. The gospel reading from Matthew (1:18-25) tells of the birth of Christ, and all of the hymns and verses glorify his appearance on earth:

Christ is born, glorify him. Christ is from heaven, go to meet him. Christ is an earth, be ye lifted up. Sing to the Lord, all the earth. Sing out with gladness, all ye people. For he is glorified. (First Ode of the Christmas Canon)

The Christmas Liturgy begins with psalms of glorification and praise. The troparion and kontakion mark the entrance with the Book of the Gospels. The baptismal line from Galatians 3:27 once again replaces the Thrice-Holy. The Epistle reading is from Galatians:

But when the time had fully come, God sent forth his Son, born of a woman, born under the law, to redeem those who were under the law, so that we might receive adoption as sons. And because you are sons, God has sent the Spirit of his Son into our hearts, crying, “Abba! Father!” So through God, you are no longer a slave but a son, and if a son then an heir (Gal 4:4-7).

The Gospel reading is the familiar Christmas story from Matthew (2:1-12), and the liturgy continues in the normal fashion. A specific two-day celebration follows, dedicated to Mary the Theotokos and St Stephen, the First Martyr. The period of Christmas rejoicing extends to Epiphany during which time the Christmas songs are sung and fasting and kneeling in prayer are not called for by the Church.

The feast of Christmas is formally entitled the Nativity in the Flesh of our Lord and God and Saviour Jesus Christ. At Christmas we celebrate the birth as a man of the Son of God, the one who together with the Father and the Holy Spirit is truly God from all eternity. Thus, we sing in the Church.

Today the Virgin gives birth to the Transcendent One, and the earth offers a cave to the Unapproachable One! Angels, with shepherds, glorify Him! The wise men journey with the star! Since for our sake the Eternal God is born as a little child (Kontakion).

The feast of Christmas was not a separate Church feast for the first four centuries of Christian history. It was celebrated with Epiphany in the one great feast of God’s appearance on earth in the form of the human Messiah of Israel. The Nativity began to be celebrated as such on the twenty-fifth of December in order to offset the pagan festival of the Invincible Sun which occurred on that day. It was established by the Church quite consciously as an attempt to defeat the false religion of the heathens. Thus, we discover the troparion of the feast making a polemic against the worship of the sun and the stars and calling for the adoration of Christ, the True Sun of Righteousness (Mal 4:2), who is himself worshiped by all of the elements of nature.

Thy Nativity, O Christ our God, has shone to the world the light of wisdom! For by it, those who worshiped the stars were taught by a star to adore Thee, the Sun of Righteousness and to know Thee, the Orient from on high (Lk 1:78, translated as Dawn or Day spring). O Lord, glory to Thee! (Troparion).

Thus, the feast of Christmas is the celebration of the world’s salvation through the Son of God who became man for our sake that, through him, we might ourselves become divine, sons of God the Father by the indwelling of his Holy Spirit in us.

http://www.oca.org/OCchapter.asp?SID=2&ID=80

Epiphany, take a seat. Chromium, you're up.

BostonPeng — Thu, 26 Nov 2009 20:10:19 +0000

As I mentioned in my earlier post on using Ubuntu 9.10 Karmic Koala the Epiphany devs stopped supporting the Gecko rendering engine and switched to exclusively supporting the WebKit engine. While I understand their decision, I don’t think Epiphany/WebKit is quite ready for prime time, although I was willing to continue using it as my default browser. As I used Epiphany/WebKit I was left with the feeling that there are too many things about Epiphany/WebKit that simply pisses me off too much to let it remain as my default web browser. Among the issues that left me banging my head against a brick wall are

Epiphany-extensions-more is uninstallable in karmic (Launchpad bug #452845). That leaves the third-party extensions needing to be manually installed, but there’s no guarantee that they will work, because…
Add-ons need to be rewritten to work with the WebKit engine. That leaves some of my MustHave extensions broken, including Middle Click Tab Close, New Blank Tab, Window Icon, AWN Favicon, and Video Downloader.
Opening links in a new tab can be completely impossible, especially in Gmail but not necessarily on other Google sites (LP bug #272808). To add insult to injury, if you click on a link on an offending site it opens the link in a window so small as to be completely useless without resizing it. (screenshots available in my comment on that bug).
Login information is no longer saved (LP bug #483566). This leaves you having to manually enter login information to sites you’ve visited many times before, even with Epiphany/karmic, and had the temerity to log out or the site automatically times out your session.
If you click a link to download an archive or a software package Epiphany complains that the file could damage your system and offers to let you download it instead, presenting you with options to “save as…” and “download” (LP bug #151787). In addition, right clicking on an image and selecting to save it results in a dialog complaining that Epiphany has no idea what application to open the file in. This may be the same issue, but I can’t find another bug that fits it better.
Epiphany refuses to recognize apturl links as an authorized method of installing software (LP bug #235128).
There’s no way to get favicons, the icons provided by web servers to visually identify the website you’re on (LP bug #355755). While some users like not having favicons on their browser tabs many of us so want it.
Closing a tab with a form, with fields filled out or not, will get you a dialog warning that there are unsaved form elements (LP bug #21597).
While we finally have a working spell checker, the UI sucks. There’s no way to easily tell the browser to always check your spelling, leaving you to manually right-click to make sure the spell checker is on for a text field. To make matters worse, once it’s enabled you have to manually right-click and tell Epiphany to Check Document Now to move to the next typo. Talk about a pain in the rump.
If you find a typo with the spell checker and select the correct spelling, the typo is removed but the correct spelling isn’t inserted in its place (LP bug #460450).

That’s not even an exhaustive list of the things in Epiphany/karmic that makes me go “Grrrrr!” As much as I liked using Epiphany/Gecko under Ubuntu 9.04 it’s simply pissing me off too much to use it as my default browser any longer, so I switched to Chromium. While Chromium isn’t perfect, and there are things that don’t work quite as well as I’d like it to, it definitely works better than Epiphany/WebKit. And thanks to the Ubuntu Chromium Daily Builds Team’s PPA I get updates to Chromium on a daily basis so I can see fixes almost as soon as they’re released. The biggest PITA bug that I’m waiting to get fixed is one I posted, Issue 28517: Can’t import bookmarks from Epiphany. Until it’s fixed I’ve added a link to my Epiphany bookmarks file on my Bookmarks Bar so I can get at it easily when I need it. I’m also unable to add words to my spell check dictionary for some odd reason, but at least when I select a correct spelling the error gets corrected and not just wiped out.

While you can use extensions in Chromium the devs haven’t opened the extensions gallery, you can find some installable extensions at the Google Chrome Extensions site. Among the extensions I already have installed are

AdBlock+ 1.1.9.9 – It doesn’t work as transparently as Firefox’s AdBlock+ works, and I can’t seem to able to block ads in Gmail, but hopefully that will change before too long. I just saw the AntiADS extension and it seems working better than AdBlock+.
Bookmarklets Manager 3.2.0 – A great way to add and use bookmarklets, although several of my search bookmarklets don’t want to work. It may be due to Issue 2238: Add search engine dialog doesn’t allow “{” (open curly brace); can interfere with javascript.
New Tabs Always Last 0.1 – Sometimes I just don’t want a new tab opened next to the active tab, like 90% of the time I click a link on my custom start page. This extension brings the behavior I want, and I can always disable it if I want new tabs opened next to my active tab and not at the far right of my tab bar.
Tabs to the front 0.1 – Like it says on the tin, because I hate having to manually select a tab I just opened from a link.
YouTube Downloader 1.1 – While not as feature rich as the Firefox Video DownloadHelper extension in that I can’t download my local television news videos or MLB highlight videos, it does bring one killer feature to the table: Easy to find buttons to select which version of the video you want to download, as shown in the image on the right (click the image for the full size image in a new window).

There’s also one killer feature to Chrome’s add-ons. You don’t need to close Chrome to get the benefits of an extension. Yep, you can use a new extension as soon as it’s installed. The same goes for enabling/disabling an add-on. I seem to remember hearing that other browsers can do that (I know Epiphany can), but Chrome/Chromium kicks Firefox’s tail on this count.

There are a couple of other bugs that may keep some users from switching to Chromium full-time. The first is that Chromium doesn’t seem to know how to open PDF files (Chromium issue 19587). I can’t open PDF’s in Epiphany either, so downloading PDF files is one more thing I keep Firefox around for. I also can’t drag a URI from Chromium to the desktop (issue 24210) to remind me to get back to the page. If you’ve created a bookmark on your desktop with another browser Chromium can’t open it either (issue 27339).

If you’re unhappy with Firefox and Epiphany and are looking for a browser that can make it easier to surf the web you should definitely look into Chromium. You may find that it’s just what the doctor ordered.

Marcus should stop buying dog treats and just hire me for $5/hour to let Ginger lick me.

curiouserfaith — Thu, 26 Nov 2009 16:14:45 +0000

The thing about parents is that no matter what you do they’re never going to be satisfied with you. I told my mum the truth, and she didn’t listen/believe it, and I got a 15 minutes nag from her. I told my mum I will work hard for my math, and she says “Ya. You say that every time.”. I told my mum I’d be home late and tell her my whole schedule, and when I get back, she’ll ask “Why are you so late?”. Dear Mummy, I do love you so very much, but can you just try to believe me when I’m telling the truth? At least have some faith in me.

———-

Well. That’s over. Camp Comm meeting today was fun haha.

Today I learnt that:

Daiso is awesome at English, and Japan has happy endings for all fairy tales.
Aston’s has a side dish that should be called “Mashed potatoes with smashed porcelain plate”, and Marcus got a free meal from discovering its existence.
Sembawang Shopping Centre’s Giant has their chocolate collection arranged as written in Charlie and the Chocolate Factory (according to Jie)
Ginger (Marcus’s dog) thinks I’m a lollipop ._.
Ann and I are hooked on the X-box game now T.T
I cannot shop with Deborah because it freaks us both out at how alike we are, and we never keep track of time.

There’s probably a lot more I wanted to blog about, but facebook is tempting me by sending so many emails, and I shall grant facebook its wish.

P.S. Deborah, as much as we are similar, I’m sure we have a totally different taste in boys.

How could this be?

tiffffany — Thu, 26 Nov 2009 07:16:02 +0000

how can i fall back in love with life in such a short time? wtf… —- oh damn I thought I

Epiphany - RESPECT Pt.1

BMR — Tue, 24 Nov 2009 23:40:33 +0000

Epiphany – Download – RESPECT Pt.1

The first installment of Epiphany’s RESPECT mixtape series is here. We’re supporting this guy to get maximum exposure, so help us out. Bloggers, repost this, viewers show your homies. The next 2 parts will be here shortly……..

adayofrevelation

billiam — Tue, 24 Nov 2009 06:43:16 +0000

so this is my first post on this blog
i’m going to try to post on here a lot
i miss writing
this first post is going to be sort of a long one
you don’t have to read it all
i’m writing this more for me than anyone else
it gives me a sense of comfort to write out my thoughts
i like being able to look back on them in the future
so the thoughts begin…

i’m going to be a copywriter
this became clear to me today when i visited the creative circus
the creative circus is a portfolio school in atlanta
i’ve been thinking about going there after i graduate from uga this coming may
if i want to go into creative in the advertising industry, i pretty much have to go to a portfolio school to hone my skills
initially i thought that i was going to go and study art direction or design[making the art in ads] in a portfolio school
when i was sitting in on a class today at the circus, i realized that i want to do copywriting

it’s not just that i want to do it
i know i can do it
with art direction and design, i really wanted to do it, but i didn’t know if i was skilled enough
with copywriting, i’m completely confident i can be successful at it
i’ve always loved writing
it’s how i deal with things, good and bad
i used to write lyrics/poems in high school
i started a book 2 summers ago
so i’ve always had a love for writing, and i feel like my creativity comes out of me in the form of words
my favorite part about creating ads is putting together the copy
so it just makes sense that i’d be a copywriter
it’s a sense of relief knowing what i want to do
not having a doubt about it
it’s awesome
i know what i want to do with my life for the first time ever
it took 22 years and almost 8 months to happen
i’ve always had no idea what i wanted to do for sure
i never felt good about a major in college
i was good at different things, but i never had the desire to make careers out of them
it’s different with copywriting
i get excited when i think about doing it as a profession
it fits well
if any of you know fay fay
you know that when he and i are together, we make up very random stories on the spot and add to them spontaneously
well that’s what i’d be doing when i’m coming up with copy for ads
it seems perfect for me

well
that’s about all i have to say about that
it was an epiphany for me
i had a couple epiphanies today
that was a huge one
the other was that i don’t need chicago
some of you might know that i went to chicago recently to visit advertising agencies
i absolutely loved it
since i got back, i’ve been very focused on somehow getting back there to live
whether it be after i graduate or after portfolio school
it’s what i’ve been planning on/working towards
today when i was driving around atlanta, it hit me that i don’t need chicago
with the relationships[girlfriend, friends, family] that i have, i’d be content anywhere
realizing this today was big for me
i was focusing on the wrong thing

i think that’s all i have to say tonight
this was a long post
it was also a serious post
don’t expect them all to be long or serious
it’s very very unlikely that will occur

night night,
billiam

I don't like your boyfriend

curiouserfaith — Mon, 23 Nov 2009 15:09:01 +0000

Honestly, can someone tell me what’s the big deal about being in a relationship?

I was just reading the blog of a girl I attended primary school with, and she had a boyfriend. My sister came in, saw it, and went: “Christine, she have boyfriend leh, why you don’t have?” (yes, she doesn’t speak the perfect English that I would have preferred) And my response to that question was “Why do I need a boyfriend? I’m not planning to get married in the next five years.” And she went “Why not? Got boyfriend can show off mah.” And I rolled my eyes at her.

I mean, seriously, what’s the point of a boyfriend when you’re not going to get married anytime soon? Sure, a boyfriend means one more person to go out with, gifts, flowers, cards, something to show off to the world and all that lovey dovey stuff, but boyfriend also equates to an extra commitment, money expenditure, an extra worry (in case he gets stolen -.-), an extra person to please, another heartache in the making. Oh, and an unnecessary temptation to sin.

I don’t know. A boyfriend is really just an ornament to show off to me right now. I’m fifteen, gets all the love I need from God, has a wonderful family, is satisfied with life (right now), and I don’t plan to get pregnant anytime soon. No, boyfriends right now are out of the question.

I think I can I think I can... I KNOW I can!!!

kesky — Mon, 23 Nov 2009 05:26:58 +0000

I think I can do it. I think I can achieve the goal.

I have been playing poker for years now. Everything from live cash games to large multi-table tournaments online. Low stakes to bigger ones. I have felt the joy of someone calling off all their chips drawing dead. I have felt the sting of knowing I was the one who was drawing dead. I have made many mistakes. I have learned many lessons.

I’ve reached the point. The point where I can honestly say “I know how to win”. It took a heck of a long time to get there. Many buy-ins have been lost along the way. Many have been won. I cannot tell you the total amount I have won or lost playing poker – I have not kept good records. I cannot tell you how many winning sessions I have had compared to losing. Again, no record keeping.

But I can tell you that lately the winning far surpasses the losing on a consistent basis and I know it is because of the way I am playing now. I am confident in my game and others see it. They also see that I have the skills to play the game well. Am I ready to ‘roll up a stake and head for Vegas’? Maybe not yet. Do I want to? No, not yet. I have two more important things in my life right now, my children. I still want to be there for them and they for me. To move from the Niagara region of Canada to Las Vegas NV right now would be, well… risky to say the least.

But I do want a change. I no longer want to play poker for fun/entertainment/some extra pocket-money. I want to be able to play good enough consistently enough to be able to play full-time. ~40 hours a week. More when I want to and less when I do not want to. This is not going to be easy. Thats ok. I understand that. I am not planning on quitting my job tomorrow and heading to the local poker room to start my new life. It will have to be a long transition but one that I know I will be able to make.

I know it.

We are the lost ones (no pun intended)

curiouserfaith — Mon, 23 Nov 2009 01:02:56 +0000

Someday, we all grow up and realize that we’ve got to get on with our lives. Had a really bad nightmare last night after a really long breakdown. My eyes feel really heavy now. Have to go prepare for school. Bye people.

Epiphany- RESPECT promotional video

BMR — Sun, 22 Nov 2009 21:51:59 +0000

Epiphany’s RESPECT mini-mixtape series has begun! Each mini-mixtapes will have 7-10 tracks – the four series include the RESPECT of Epiphany, Womens, Life, and Natch (he’s a producer).

Release Dates:
RESPECT: Epiphany – 11/24/09
RESPECT: Womens – 12/08/09
RESPECT: Life – 12/22/09
RESPECT: Natch – 1/05/09

Dear Life

curiouserfaith — Sun, 22 Nov 2009 14:03:59 +0000

Please refer to Dylan’s post on 21/11 for what I really want to post here but can’t because of copyright reasons and all that weird and fancy rules that kills copycats. Other than the fact that I’m talking about a whole other camp, I believe that the essence of the post is there.

Dear Life, you are truly wonderful and beautiful and all that stuff, but honestly, you would do a whole lot better without Commitments, and I hope that you can dump/kill him ASAP, because it’s killing me if you don’t. Thank you, and I’d love you even more if you can do it before tomorrow comes. PS. I really hate you now.

Good things on the horizon?

badthingsonthehorizon — Sat, 21 Nov 2009 20:11:53 +0000

So weirdly I had some sort of a break through when I was rolling last night at the bar. Well, it was more like after the bar when I was talking to one of my friends. Of course I was crying about how my recent love interest doesn’t seem as interested anymore. Wednesday in class was fine. It wasn’t as awkward as I thought it would be and he gave me a ride home. But after I saw him at the bar last night I had a mini breakdown. Annoying. So way later on I talked to my friend about it and he sort of set me straight on some things.

I don’t give myself enough credit.
I can’t keep being so easy because I don’t deserve that.
I shouldn’t jump right into hooking up with people if I want more than that.
I shouldn’t let guys treat me like they do sometimes.

Of course these are obvious things, but things I fail to remind myself of enough. I also took a look at myself and how I feel like I’ve become so delusional lately. Thinking things like, what if the guy I like doesn’t want to hang out with me because he thinks he’ll like me too much. Really? I thought I was smarter than that, but lately I’ve been acting like a love-struck teenager high on hormones. For the next few weeks I want to work on forgetting about the guys I’ve been with and focusing on my friends and meeting new people… And being less of a slut.

After talking to my other friend this morning, I realized, again, that giving it up right away won’t keep guys coming back. I need to be less easy. It sounds slutty, but it’ll be hard for me to do that since I love sex and the attention that I get from it. But in order for me to start respecting myself and getting guys to respect me, I need to do it. The thing that starts relationships and good friendships isn’t hooking up right away and going home with a guy, it’s building a good connection and not acting like a slut. Unfortunately I needed to write this down to remind myself of this, but I know it’ll help to go back and read this. Thank you and goodnight.

Epiphany - The Good Lie

B_Conscious — Sat, 21 Nov 2009 19:00:45 +0000

Here is a track by homie Epiphany… this is some good music right here. I just got put on. The promo trailer for Epiphany’s RESPECT mixtape series.

DOWNLOAD: Epiphany – The Good Lie

Habitudes

curiouserfaith — Fri, 20 Nov 2009 17:14:14 +0000

Foreword: This entry is written entirely IN MY OPINION. I am, by no means, a certified reviewer nor criticizer, but I do have the right to voice out what I think, especially since this is my personal blog and not some weird public forum. I understand that many people may disagree with what I have typed, and I do welcome people who want to change my views by explaining your views to me, but people who are just here to slander me for having different opinions from them can just click that tempting little white cross in a red box at the top right corner of your window and never see my blog ever again. I repeat, once again, that this entry is written entirely IN MY OPINION, and I do agree that my opinion can be wrong. Thank you for reading this long foreword. Consider yourself forewarned that a lot of criticism will follow the reviews.

———-

To me, Tim Elmore’s seminar today was more about seeing how believers from other churches worship God, and trying to accept their way of worship, rather than the Habitudes that he was trying to preach.

The whole deal about “Rivers & Floods”, “Big Rocks First” and “Iceberg” was just “Focus on your goal, Prioritize your life, and Be yourself”. They’re just fancy names for basic things that your teachers tell you every single day in school.

I was expecting the lecture to be more focused on God, y’know? Instead of telling you everything you need to do and just garnishing the surface with some quotes from the Bible, I expected a lecture like the one Nick Vujici gave: Something that had more impact on my Christian life as compared to just (re)teaching me life skills. Yes, Tim Elmore is a good speaker, and I do believe that he has a very strong relationship with God, but I’m sure that he could have done better than just coming up with some recounts of his encounters with God. It wasn’t supposed to be a lecture on how great and mighty our Lord is: we can all find that out from the Bible and Internet. It was supposed to be a lecture on how the Lord can work in our lives and help us lead by example and not authority. At least, that’s what I thought it was supposed to be.

On the other hand, I learnt a lot more about worship through observation.

Firstly, the songs just didn’t make sense to me. I’m okay with all the upbeat, pop star-ish attitude and stuff, but songs that nobody actually knows that have misleading lyrics and contradictions? (See this and this) And the most ridiculous one went something like “he doesn’t offer me anything, that’s why I pray”. Are you serious? I really don’t see how these songs are to praise God: they’re so much more self-centered than God-centered. I don’t know about other people, but I really couldn’t bring myself to sing the songs.

Secondly, the sight of people jumping up and down when the song reaches the chorus. Sadly, it reminded me of people clubbing. I really don’t see how that will make me seem like I’m praising God more: it just makes me hot, sweaty and have adrenaline pumped in my blood. Definitely not a good thing to feel during a seminar.

Thirdly, using soccer to compare with Christianity? The whole mood then was just so fabricated. I mean, come on, starting the thing off with asking soccer fans to cheer for their teams, then teaching the audience some new “cheer for God” which is supposed to be louder and greater than the soccer cheers? No; definitely not the way I want to praise God. Moreover, splitting the audience into groups to compare the loudness of their cheers and then combining them into one big group was so primary school.

And despite all these, I had the feeling that God was just trying to teach me to respect their way of worship. And to understand that although I may feel offended/do not approve of their manner of worship, they do have the right to worship in any way that they want. As the preacher of “Embracing Love” (I am so sorry I forgot her name) has aptly put, “I can feel impatient, but not display impatience”, in the same way, I can disapprove, but I can accept.

This was what I think I truly brought back from Tim Elmore.

Something is broken.....

veronicaverse — Fri, 20 Nov 2009 02:27:15 +0000

Something’s broken.

At least, this time, it isn’t my heart.

AND, it isn’t MY phone.

But, apparently the phones of eligible males in my area are broken or it is their timepieces which are broken.

Something is fuckin’ broken.

Want proof?

He says: Hey, cool, neato, fun spending time with you (all sounds like BS to me in hindsight). Call me tomorrow when you get done with work!

She says: Cool, maybe we can have lunch, I will be done by noon (self employment has its perks)

He says: Great, I will see where I am with my project when you call.

SHE CALLS BECAUSE SHE SAID SHE WOULD

He doesn’t answer, over 48 hours later, he hasn’t responded to her call/message.

WHAT THE ACTUAL FUCK????

Need another example?

Sure, why not.

He calls her, she calls him, he calls her, she calls him. After a lengthy initial call they never quite have time to connect again.

He says: What is your schedule like tomorrow?

She says: I am free all day.

He says: I will call you in the morning.

She says: Great, but what time is ‘morning’ to you. (She has found ‘morning’ means many things and would actually like to be awake for his call – naive to even think it will be an issue)

He says: 10am

She says: Great, that works for me!

Fuck that smiliy face BS because you know what comes next right?

NO FUCKING CALL. It is now the late afternoon. NO FUCKING CALL.

Now, if they didn’t say ‘I am going to call you’ I wouldn’t care (as much).

There is the guy I had dinner with on Monday. He didn’t call and I would be surprised if he did. We had a nice time but have virtually nothing in common so it’s a bit of ‘what’s the point?’. It isn’t like they HAVE to call.

But, if you say, ‘I will call’ doesn’t that mean something? Aren’t you guys MEN? Don’t men do what they say they are going to do? Isn’t that part of the definition of MAN?

A girl could get a complex…….

Thing is, my irritation about the no-call thing is cumulative and that really isn’t fair.

The latest no-call guy has actually called a lot and this is his first no-call-fuck-up. However, he is just the latest is a string of no-call-fuck-up-guys so I am really pissed at him more than he probably deserves.

I am also pissed at myself for even wanting a man to call me.

That is silly. It is FUN when men call or just the MAN calls. I want FUN in my life.

This dating bullshit is far from FUN.

OH, and I know it is all a reflection of my inner life externalized.

Don’t mind me, I am off to naval gaze until epiphany.

Choreographic Shift

dnbdance — Thu, 19 Nov 2009 19:22:39 +0000

I think time and my choreographic processes share a love/hate relationship.

I decided today that I wasn’t being honest with my process. I was trying to rush the process in order to have something to show for adjudication. It took sitting in a seminar talking about my final MFA project that made me realize that I need to slow down. I need to enjoy how this process is developing and what it needs. I think it needs another dancer. Partnering work has become part of the process and when working with a trio, it becomes tricky at times. Also, the fourth dancer that I’m interested in is a great mover and I’m dying to work with her (they’re all great movers actually).

Quartet…I like the sound of that.

Speaking of partnering…

Oh dance…

Best friends, ex-friends to the end

curiouserfaith — Thu, 19 Nov 2009 15:41:12 +0000

As much as it pains me to say, you really are getting on my nerves. I know we’re friends and all, but can you respect the fact that I don’t want people touching me, especially in public. Hooking arms, holding hands, soft punches, they’re okay. But I really, really hate people who grab my arms or hit me for no reason. That is just stupid.

Oh, and stop changing plans last minute. I like my life in scheduled blocks. Don’t book me and then say “Oh, I’m sorry, I can’t make it.” I am a busy person after all. (Which reminds me, sorry about all the Standard One camp meetings, Daniel ._.)

Well anyway, I’m really craving for Pepper Lunch and Bandung (thanks to Deborah’s photo of Jie). Time to rummage through the kitchen and see what steals I can find.

Cat-therapy

Bohemian Rap — Thu, 19 Nov 2009 11:19:28 +0000

Last night, during a vigorous tooth brushing session the lithe, black body of my cat navigating the windowsill caught my attention. I paused to watch something most of us feline lovers had probably seen on numerous occasions. But this particular time I looked on with new fascination. My life had recently been jumbled and awkwardified (new word proposal perhaps?) by two badly behaved friends with wavering moral compasses. I was so upset by their ability to damage something true to me and thereby forcing me to repair friendships I played no part in breaking.

But as I watched my cat weave through the translucent bottles in his path – I had an epiphany. When the little minx launched up on the left hand side of the window sill, his destination was the other end of the sill. Knowing that, he was able to maneuver his way effortlessly over and around my trinkets without so much as a tumble or ka-splatter.

The reason it awed me so was that we as human beings tend to crash into everything in our path with little resistance, as I had clearly demonstrated. I was so mortified and upset by what my debaucherous friends had done, that I allowed it to derail me completely and consume me with anger. But having witnessed the dexterous dance of the cat I realized that this occurrence was just an obstacle on my life path. Its happening didn’t really affect the end point of my journey in the slightest. Sure, it made the path somewhat more cumbersome, but would the cat really have enjoyed walking the sill as much if it weren’t a challenge? Accomplishing arriving at the other side without colliding into irrelevant obstacles is a far greater satisfaction than walking the path entirely void of events. This is what life does for us. She throws us these hindrances so we can gain confidence in our agility and successfully avoid colliding with them. It’s the yoga of life…

Logophile

curiouserfaith — Thu, 19 Nov 2009 09:41:54 +0000

I aim to be one. I make a little caption for each photograph I take, but I don’t think anyone will look at it and go “wow”. I make each picture a masterpiece in my eyes, but it’s my eyes only. I make the world a little more fluffed that it seems, but I guess that’s just denial. I may seem to be a little crazy, but I believe that’s just how everyone should be: themselves in spite of the world.

You Can't Handle the Truth....

seanfresh — Wed, 18 Nov 2009 18:16:52 +0000

Welcome, Welcome, Welcome to the wonderful world of IATL…Yes…Yes…the place where hoes, deacons, lil shiny kids, up and coming artists and niggaz that aint gone never be nothing have a voice….Now me….well….Im SeanFresh and baby Imma a STAR….Ok…well…ummmm..Im on my fresh journey to stardom…And..ummmm… although my momma, my baby gal and a few rejected bust -it- babies see a G as the real star that I am…well…I hate to disappoint but really Im just a regular nigga with a few more talents than the average Joe…..And believe it or not I still do some real live “human” type of stuff..Ok, allow me to reintroduce myself…My name is Ro-Shun and I am a human…I do stuff like eating all the cereal and almost all the milk then leaving only about 0.000000453 oz of milk in the milk carton and putting that hoe back in the fridge. HUMAN….You know like passing gas in the store and blaming it on my baby boy as I push him down the aisle..Acting like Im smelling his Pampers bc HE made a lil boo boo..HUMAN…Or…Writing a blog about me passing gas and losing some female followers….HUMAN….And despite my “star- like” (nigga Im really tooting my own horn) ability to write, sing and perform songs about how much I love my baby gal and how I would give my left nut to have her by myself forever….well…ummmm…Sometimes I be wishing that Obama would make history and select her as the 1st female in the draft or something..Front Line… HUMAN..But there are a few things that I have learned from entertainment about becoming a star….That really requests “NORMAL” niggaz to appear to be “UNHUMAN” for the sake of entertainment…And if you dont mind I will like to share a few with you…Peep Game…

1. No one wants Average.

You see normal niggaz dont pay $50-$125 to see another “normal” nigga on stage…..For example..Joe Budden is one of the dopest rappers in the game (even if they did misspell his name on his OWN album)..But that nigga is NORMAL…extra normal…Like when you see Joe Budden, you dont think that it would be past him having to be a store manager at a local Walgreen somewhere when his rap career is over…..Why? Because Joe Budden is a NORMAL NIGGA and he appears to be a normal nigga…Like fa real that nigga looks like he stills puts Avirex jackets in lay-a-way at TJ Maxx and possibly tries to get over on the game by filing for unemployment while working on CDs to drop or something…..Naw I aint saying that a niggaz got to be bouncing around like Gucci Mane with 50/11 chains on…But you need to have something about you that doesnt keep you as an average Joe (pun intended)…..Although he murked this RiRi track…

Now back to the teaching.

Now Im sure that Piph will comment on this or maybe delete my profile and mention his “Respect” mixtape release date..after the following comments but…ummmm…I dont think that just rapping is enough to gain a large fan base..Now true enough their will be some true music heads that will be like …”YO did you hear how that nigga used all those metaphors and how he spelled his name backwards and they was really the time of date of Jesus return? Cold.” Well…yet & still…Niggaz dont need to just hear that dope dope but niggaz need to look at a star and see SOMETHING that they can’t obtain..For example…No matter how long you go to the gym and drink 3 tons of whey protein ….there is just gone be a small percent of “non-prison released” niggaz walking around with Piph 50 cents arms….NOT HUMAN….

I have been doing push-ups for 3 months and the only thing that has happen for me..Is gaining a damaged pride and shoulder..Pride & Shoulder..My nigga…Imma buying a chain…SMH

2. No one wants the Truth.

Yuppp… I learned that really deep down inside..Womens just want a man to lie to them….Yeah, you want us to tell you that we will bring you the stars and the moon and that you will always be beautiful in our eyes no matter how many Big Macs, strawberry shakes and 2 for $1 apple pies you eat for breakfast…Oh and this is the main lie that ALL R&B singers tell to make the lil shiny womens in Africa jump up and down and scream for ice cream..And yes you love to hear it….Please pause for a second and allow R. explain….

Baby, We can go ALLLLLLLLLL Night LONGGGGGGGGGGGGG!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Like seriously..ALL NIGHT!? Do niggaz really know how many hours elapses in a night…..You know I just be thinking that those types of lies are just wrong in two-fold….Because its like if you telling womens that you are on the clock to lay the pipe for 8 hours shifts and you get to slicing up the womens then you got to speak with Baby Jesus about 2 things….

1) The fact that you KNOW that you aint slapping nobody cheeks for ALL DAY and NIGHT LONG…And nigga you lying…

2) Is the obivious fact that you letting your Lil Seans dance in womens womb…

Now really there are people who have those “UN-HUMAN” abilities and I guess they are stars in their own right.

But to be honest..its those lies that make us happy…Like believing that Santa Clause was the reason that you got some Chuck Taylors instead of those Jordans that you asked for…Dont blame daddy…Or believing that sex will clear up your pimple problem…You feel better..But..ummm…you still got pimples and the claps..Gone….

To die would be an awfully good adventure

curiouserfaith — Wed, 18 Nov 2009 12:30:21 +0000

It’s funny how you look at other people’s blogs and you think “I can write like that too!”, but when you actually get to writing a post, you stare at the box and wonder when inspiration will strike you. And then you realize that you’re not out of ideas to write, you’re just afraid how the world will view you when they see your posts. This is the saddest thing about humanity now: the prideful nature of Man is the only obstacle to free speech, to crazy ideas, to making the world a little larger than it is now. After all, things almost always start off as an accident.

———-

Today I went for a walk with Deborah from Clarke Quay to Dhoby Ghaut. Our initial plan was to walk around the Clarke Quay area with the pretty river and buildings, but as photographers, we ended up following where the nice scenes are. Which naturally resulted in us getting lost, breaking laws and making a fool of ourselves. But it was fun, and I believe the world should see more of this.

Tomorrow’s spent on homework, Friday on homework and slight shopping and Tim Elmore, Saturday on Objectifs exhibition, and Sunday for God. This week’s a good week.

On a side note, Believers Never Die (FOB) is out. Someone please get it for me (for Christmas) and please leave a comment so that I’ll know that you’re buying it so that I won’t go and buy it myself. TYVMILY

Edit: I realize I planned to go to Ikea on Saturday! There goes my room make over again haha.