Science (non) Fiction

as in, I finally saw ‘The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe’ tonight! My brother and I saw it this evening (after the afternoon shows selling out when we first tried today) and I have to say, I really really liked it. I knew from talking to others and reading people’s opinons some of people’s fave/least fave parts and was partly prepared for some of the changes, so I think that helped in a lot of ways.
Spoilers may follow, so read with caution if you’ve not seen the movie!

I think overall, they maintained the allagorical nature of the story with a clear (at least clear to those of us who know the story) line towards the sacrificial nature of Christ’s story - I really liked that they left in a lot of the stuff with Aslan at the stone table, with him talking about the blood of the innocent being needed to satisfy the need for the blood of the guilty - it was really a beautiful picture of Christ’s death as the atoning sacrifice for our guilt in betrayal (as all sin is really our betrayal of God) - I did shed a little tear when Aslan was killed, which is quite unusual for me in movies in general…

I was also quite moved by the sacrifice made by the rhino and centaur in the middle of the battle, when they go charging down the hill to save Peter from the Witch - you know they’re going to die, and they clearly know that, but they’re willing to make that sacrifice for the greater good of having Peter there to lead the battle - it was very compelling I thought. And Edmund’s courage in facing the Witch to try to save Peter was also well done - it was a good attempt at redemption on his part…

And I think overall the changes they made were decent (Father Christmas handing out the gifts was a bit slim on details as I recall, and I don’t seem to remember quite that much time with the professor - but I might just not be remembering correctly), but a few would have added some to the movie I think - like the ‘tame lion’ speech at the end, that’s one of my fave parts of the book, and it ended up being delivered by Tumnus (not the beavers) right at the end, and it certainly wasn’t as powerful as it could have been - and I agree with several people I talked with before I saw the movie, that there wasn’t enough build-up to showing Aslan as a lion - I mean, we all know he’s a lion, but the kids don’t, and yet they don’t seem at all suprised that he’s a lion when they first meet him coming out of his tent - I wish they’re done more with the idea of the ‘deeper magic’ being love, but again, overall, I think the changes they made didn’t distract too much from the point of the movie, and the sacrificial nature of love was really evident in much of the film.

I know today was a big movie day for most people, but I was really impressed that the majority of Narnia showings today were sold out and even some of the movies that came out this weekend still had tickets left - that bodes well for them doing more of the series in terms of profit I guess…
I highly recommend it, but you should really read the book (or the whole series!) before you see it - you’ll probably get more out of it in terms of understanding the back-stories for everything and seeing more of the ‘deeper meaning’.

Merry Christmas y’all!
I’m at home in Monroe spending time with the family - I’m actually typing this in the living room, cause my dad just bought me a wireless card and we put it in my laptop!!!! whoohoo!
Christmas has been quiet (mostly) and uneventful - we’ve cooked a lot, eaten a lot, wrapped a lot and watched a stupifying amount of tv sports events (actually, I should clarify that the boys have watched, mom and I have tuned it out mostly )… I got some great gifts (including a fun game, Imaginiff, that I’m sure will be enjoyed at several parties in the coming months…) and got to see some old friends - unfortunately, Frances couldn’t make it to NC for Christmas, but Thea, Alexa, Aria and I got together for coffee at Dean and Deluca - I’ll post pics at the end - really fun to catch up and see how big Aria is getting!
I’ll be heading back to Winston sometime this week, probably Wed/Thur-ish, and there’s a New Year’s Party back at Mike’s place, so there should be some good times this weekend! Our Christmas dinner there was fun and very much like a big extended family getting together for a big meal - lots of food, lots of laughing, a few akward moments, but a good time was had by all I think… hopefully New Years will be a repeat!
I was sorry not to be at Redeemer this weekend for Christmas church (as I’ve never been there for Christmas before), but the Lutheran church my parents have been attending recently had a really nice Christmas Eve candlelight service with lots of carol-singing which made up for not going to a Lovefeast this year…
Also, one of Mom’s friends wants to hook me up with one of the guys at her church (actually, it’s a Messianic Jewish church/synagogue - not sure what to call it…) - apparently she didn’t think it would work out to have us meet without it being really obvious (yup), so she asked Mom is she could give him my email address… I haven’t made up my mind about this yet… I don’t know how I feel about it yet…

OK, enough updating - I can’t get the photos to work right now, but I’ll try again later!

So I finally got Handel’s Messiah into iTunes so I can get it onto my iPod and listen like crazy from now til Christmas (and really til Easter since that’s also included in Messiah - it’s not just about Christmas folks!) - whoohoo! It’s actually playing in the background now actually… beautifully poignant…

Lots of stuff going on lately, keeping me from updating more often - my mom came up and stayed with me last week for a night, after visiting Alexa and Daniel (and Aria!) in Durham - so after the mad rush to et the apt clean, it’s nice to have it presentable (mostly) in case people feel like dropping in, or just so I feel more relaxed/organized in my own house - I have to remember how this feels so I have the motivation to keep it clean! I have only put up a few decorations (midget tree and my awesome new wreath!), but I might do a bit more this week, although it’s getting close to the point where it won’t be worth it if it goes up now… we’ll see…

Anyway, continuing along, I saw a high school production of Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat (Andrea Lloyd Webber) with Becky - it was a typical high school production, but quite ambitious really, esp given the high percentage of guys in the cast and the usual lack of guys interested in musical theater at that age - the Pharaoh (who’s an Elvis-type ‘King’) was great and hysterical - and they added a few funny touches throughout… Saturday I faced the enemy of people everywhere this time of year - the MALL! I did get a cute sweater, which I then wore that night to Becky and Wendi’s Christmas party, but there were WAY too many people there! While I was out shopping though, I did get my brother’s Christmas present (hehehe - it’s a secret!), but that’s the only family present I have so far - I’m really slacking this year… usually I have most of my shopping done before now…

Anyway, the party Sat night was fun, and Sunday was busy but productive - I went back to the mall with Jen and we searched for a good lip color - I’ve been irritated with my last few drugstore lipstick purchases, and figured I’d shell out the money up front this time so I could try on colors/textures first and get some opinions, rather than wasting money on lip colors I couldn’t try on beforehand - and I found two great colors from Stila - they’re like gloss with intense color added in, and I love them! One more for everyday and one with more color for dressing up (thanks to Jen’s insistence that I needed MORE COLOR, emphasis hers).

Also, I put Christmas lights up in the lab - the others burnt out sometime in the last year or so, but I just never got around to taking them down, so I put up some new ones that work - I’ll try to post a pic with this of what they look like, though as someone already pointed out, it would be better it I took a pic at night - plus my bench is pretty cluttered right now… oh well…

Well, you can’t really even see the lights - I’m going to take a pic at night sometime and you’ll be able to see them hopefully!

OK, I’ve been passed the torch by Brandi

Seven Things to Do Before I Die (Lord willing):

1. Take a road/train trip across Europe
2. See Prince Edward Island (LM Montgomery fan!)
3. Work for a non-profit org
4. Get married and have children
5. Adopt a dog
6. Learn to keep my house clean for more than a week at a time
7. Teach

Seven Things I Cannot Do:

Here’s a new pic of Aria with mommy (Alexa and Daniel’s little girl - who’s 4 months now I think) - so cute!

I meant to post the words for this Sandra McCracken song on the last post, but here they are - it’s fabulous and very poignant - it was the first song she sang at the concert a couple weeks ago when she ‘opened’ for Derek Webb - this and ‘Sunday Morning’ are my fave songs on ‘the Crubicle’ (her first big album).

Plenty

I’m listening to the Garden State soundtrack, which is awesome btw - and I really like this song - I’m not sure who sings it though… but I’m very attracted to the moody songs lately, esp those about break-ups/bad relationships - lets not touch on the irony there, ok? I bought two Sandra McCracken CDs at the concert a couple weeks ago, and I’ve probably played ‘Plenty’ (from ‘The Crucible’) 25 times in the last week or two - it’s awesome! Her new hymns CD (The Builder and the Architect) is really great - new melodies with old hymn lyrics - and I’m not always a big fan of that kind of stuff (I like the old hymns), but she does it was a lot of respect for the beauty of the original words.

I’ve had two presentations in the last week and a half, plus I’m turning in my first (very) rough draft of my little section of a paper we’re trying to get published to my boss today, so I’ve been very busy, but not with experiments, which is hard, cause it sometimes feels like I’m not really doing anyway if I’m not running an experiment… but this stuff had to be done - glad it’s over!

Thanksgiving was great, but busy - we fed about 55 people or so - and we made close to 30 lbs of mashed potatoes - yes, you read that correctly, 30 lbs! That’s a small child’s weight in potatoes! We mashed them at the church where we served dinner and used this huge potato masher that made it look like we were churned butter - I wasn’t as proud of them as I usually am at Thanksgiving, but they were decent - plus everything else was sooooo good! We spent several hours out at the Operation Christmas Child (OCC) processing center too, so that was good - and no shopping on Black Friday! The mall in Charlotte opened at 1am that morning!!!! Crazy, eh?

We saw the lights at Tanglewood last night after dinner out - big group of us (about 15) crammed into one covered pick-up truck, driving through Tanglewood at about 5 mph, ooohing and ahhhing at the cool lighting displays - very good induction into the holiday spirit!

Oh, and Matthew is back from NYC - you should read his posts about his exploits there - he’s crazy!