My Favorite Things

If you've ever watched the Oprah Winfrey show, you probably know that she has this special where she talks about all of her current favorite things shamelessly promoting expensive brands. In the end, everyone in the audience gets free stuff, and then everyone else watching is jealous. So, I've decided to follow suit and share some of my current (free) obsessions!

First, I've been reading this new blog called Smitten Kitchen. It's this lady who cooks really awesome dishes and takes amazing pictures of all the food. Then she posts the recipe with helpful tips. It's so great. I made this amazing cake for Dayne's Christmas present. So go there. And bake stuff!

Also, (now this is probably old news) but I watched P.S. I Love You for the first time the other day. It was so great! I cried a ton, but it was clever and original... not just a typical girly movie. So everyone go watch it, and if you've seen it before, go watch it again. I've already watched it twice.

Sorry guys that the previous two things are extremely feminine, so my other new favorite thing is Wii Golf. It's sort of an odd thing for me to enjoy so much, but I'm getting pretty competitive about it. I'm still not great, but its fun and I can't stop wanting to play!


Finally, the most favoritest new thing of all is Flight of the Conchords. You may have watched New Zealand's fourth most popular guitar-based digi-bongo acapella-rap-funk-comedy folk duo in the past, but you need to become obsessed. January 18 is the premiere of the second season on HBO. It comes on every Sunday at 10 pm. Watch it. Live it.



So that pretty much sums up my obsessions of the moment. Feel free to leave comments about some of your current favorite things to share with us all!

I apologize for the temporary blog hiatus. When actual exciting things are happening in my life, I find it difficult to keep people updated. It's those lonesome wanderings of my mind that seem to make it onto the page. Also, I have this problem with not being able to write unless I have some sort of meaningful, thoughtful idea. I suppose this trait is the exact reason why it takes me three hours to write a one page paper. It is difficult, no.. painful for me to write a bad essay. Now you might assume I'm being arrogant in saying this because that would mean I never write bad essays. Well, let me clarify... Yes. Yes, that's about right.

In recent news, I have fulfilled two of my life goals since the previous post. I am getting married and I saw Jason Mraz live. I have to say, neither of the two disappointed. You may wonder which one of these was at the top of the list... well, I'm not telling. Now all I have left to do is end world poverty, make some babies, and watch the Arrested Development movie. Come on, Ron Howard, let's get started!

Who knows when I'll update again. Next time you hear from me, I could be pregnant and dressed up like Mrs. Featherbottom going to the movies with all my newly wealthy friends. So, I'll leave you with something wonderful to listen to while I'm gone.

P.S. If you've missed the AD references, we can no longer be friends.

In defense of environmentalism

Recently in popular culture, it has become increasingly trendy to "go green." Hippies feel it is their duty to take care of Mother Earth, while others just join in for the cool grocery bags (myself included). On the other side of the spectrum, I've heard many Christians voice their disgust with Al Gore and "so-called" Global Warming.

While reading through Romans today I got a little bit of insight about what God's heart might be in regards to all this. In Romans 8 Paul is discussing the future glory that we will receive as believers. He goes on to describe creation:

"Against its will, all creation was subjected to God's curse. But with eager hope, the creation looks forward to the day when it will join God's children in glorious freedom from death and decay." (Rom. 8: 20-21)

Creation obviously is living after the fall, so is not as it was meant to be, but it is groaning in anticipation of the day when all will be restored. As members of the Kingdom of God, we are called to advance God's kingdom and bring heaven to earth. We've been taught that advancing the Kingdom of God means caring for the poor, spreading the news about Christ, freeing the oppressed. In other words, it is our calling to bring heaven to earth; we are to make earth more like it is in heaven.

So if part of the coming of Christ includes the restoration of the earth, isn't this part of the Kingdom of God? And if we are to be spreading the Kingdom, shouldn't we be restoring the earth?

A few churches have decided that the answer to those questions is yes. Imago Dei Community in Portland, Oregon takes environmentalism very seriously and even sees it as an act of worship. (Mind you, they do live in Portland so they have no other choice).

Just some thoughts to ponder... even if you don't decide environmentalism is for you, why not buy a nifty one of these?!

...and we're off!

I have finally chosen to begin blogging. I'm an obsessive blog reader myself, so I feel somewhat prepared to blog accordingly. Generally, I have many thoughts floating in and out of my head, so perhaps this will be a good tool to focus and define those thoughts.

The topics of this blog will include politics, pop culture, religion, or simply my obsession of the moment. Hopefully, at some point I will have recurring posts like Office recaps or "Artists of the Week." I have lots of ideas swirling around...

To begin with though, I feel it is most important for me to clarify that these posts are exactly what they're titled, "Ramblings and wanderings." In other words, I want to feel free to express new ideas or opinions that may be radical, uncomfortable, or downright wrong. I ask you, dear reader, to bear with me through this. Maybe we can think together and search for real truth. I also give this disclaimer in case one day I want to become a politician. It would be rather unfortunate to be running for the Senate and have my opponent throw my rambling opinions from when I was 19 into my face.

With that said, I look forward to blogging with you!