A List of Things

1) It has been mentioned to me that the behaviour exhibited by the nine-year-old girl in the previous post suggests that she likes me. This is both problematic and hilarious. The problematic side comes up because I need to watch my behaviour around her to insure nothing untoward happens. The hilarious side comes up when I recognize that the first girl to like me in donkey's years is in grade four. Perhaps I am confusing "hilarious" and "depressing." But it actually is funny, because this girl is one of those gossipy manipulative types and it always amuses me when they get themselves into situations that they can't make how they want it.

2) Marianne Moore has problematic and difficult poetry, but some really nice lines.

3) I have re-discovered how depressing a good Kingston rain can be.

4) I saw The Illusionist at last. It has that guy--Paul Gulliani?--who was in Shoot 'Em Up. He was such an easy character to hate in the latter movie and I thought he would be a similar jerk in the first. Well, was I wrong. I quite liked his character in The Illusionist. [Spoilers begin] Now, I am a little upset with the ideologies The Illusionist puts forth: it was shaping up to be nicely anti-materialist but then everything shifted and it was a rational-materialist piece of work after all. I suppose I ought to have expected this, and I am happy with the ending as far as narrative is concerned. [Spoilers end] I have not seen much with Jessica Biel in it before this. Actually, I may not have seen anything with her.

5) I can be an arrogant jerk sometimes. In small group last night I talked about how I wear humility as a badge: I do good things and don't seek credit for them and then am pleased with myself for not taking credit; people praise me and I act all humble (sometimes) and then they praise me for being humble; I get on my high-horse when people are self-concerned and think, Look how selfless I am, am I not awesome? I also go through periods of intense self-deprecation as well, but I am good at turning humility into pride. It doesn't help that people feed me compliments all the time.

6) This Sunday at Navs we are having our pastor come by to give us a sex talk. I made a box for anonymous questions and have typed them up and sent them to him, but he will also perhaps respond to questions that we bring up there. Pastor Mark has given a series of sermons like this already at church, which is why I thought to invite him to Navs. It developed from a situation I've gone through before: someone asks me why Christians believe that pre-marital sex is wrong and I do not know how to answer as I don't know where the theology comes from. It says no where in the Bible that it's wrong, that's for sure. (Lots of folks will tell you it is in the Bible. I would be very suspicious of their Biblical knowledge if they say this. It may be implied in the Bible, but I am fairly sure that the theology is logical deduced from some things in Paul's epistles. The Bible doesn't mention pre-marital explicitly.) This could be interesting, though my co-unofficial-leaders are worried about how some of our members might respond. Having typed up the questions, I can tell you there are some interesting ones.

7) I have other stories to tell, but I don't really feel like it now. If my Internet cooperates I may write more later.