Re: "On the Difference Between Public and Private Christian Schools"

For the Record:
1.My spelling was so bad because of being tired/half asleep.
2.Veronica goes to a public university but went to a private secondary school, whereas I went to a private university and public secondary school.
3.I'm taller, ergo I win.
-Simon

"Painted in Twilight"

Dust in the fading light,
catching the eye
as  the wind catches,
cradles us
in a loving embrace.
-Simon

Veronica's Videos - Feeding the Positivity Monster

My negativity monster gets fed far too much as it is, so in the interests of helping my positive thoughts along, I'm making a post of things on Youtube that make me happy. (It got too long for a Facebook status.)

1) Trout Fishing in America - "The Window"

Trout Fishing in America's children's music is perfect for delightful absurdity. This song, "A Proper Cup of Coffee," "I Think I'll Need A Band-Aid"...they may ostensibly be kids' songs, but Keith and Ezra are funny enough that it doesn't matter.

2) Kristen Schaal - "Mel's Video Blog"

I'm watching the whole series of vlogs start to finish because it's just that hilarious to me. Simon finds the character of Mel from the Flight of the Conchords' TV series to be rather disturbing, but I love her...it probably has something to do with the number of  fangirls I know who act just like this, but who aren't considered creepy because the objects of their stalkerish affection are either fictional or dead.

3) The Magic School Bus - "Busasaurus"

Arnold is so awesome in this episode - it's super cute. :) The Magic School Bus books were one of those things that I ended up reading despite being a bit old for them when they were being published. (I was even past the Magic Tree House level, I think, though I happily read those too.) Now, I just really want to dress like Ms. Frizzle and see what my students say...love those Triceratops shoes. I'm such a nerd.

4) Les Miserables, French Concept Album - "Dites-Moi Ce Qui Se Passe"

Am I right in thinking that you don't have to speak French to get why this is funny, as long as you know the context? Here Javert is arresting poor Fantine for assaulting Bamatabois, and, gee, could the background music sound more peppy? Of course, if you do speak French, you get to imagine Javert and the chorus doing a little skippy dance as they call her a slut and say she ought to be thrown in prison so she can get back in her right mind. (The OFC lyrics are much...darker than the English.)

5) Babyschwimmen

This video perplexes me. It should be terrifying, given that my first submersion experience was rather traumatic and has kept me ever since in deadly fear of Not Being Able to Touch the Bottom of the Pool, but...it's just...beautiful. None of the babies look afraid at all. They've even got their eyes open in wonder and awe. I wish I could be so fearless.

6) FLUFFY KITTEN.

26 seconds of fluffy, short-legged cuteness. <3

And that's it because it's 2:30 and I'm tired. But, finally, not depressed.

--Veronica--

The Difference Between Public and Private Christian Schools

{Veronica helps out at her university's chili cook-off, gets bored, and decides to text Simon about her team's tent-mates. Edited because Simon can't spell when he's panicked.}

V: Yay for sharing a tent with the drunk frat kids!
V: From the other side of the tent: "Ok, I'm gonna go not sober up."
V: "I knew we should have started the whiskey earlier..."
V: ...they should not be allowed to play with propane tanks and lighters in their present condition! (No one was hurt, but there was a small fireball there...)
S: Oh god are you okay????
V: Yes!! Yes I'm fine! I was standing a few feet away and my shoe got pretty hot for a minute and the pop scared me, but nothing caught fire!
S: :((( god sorry sorry for not being there
V: Dear it's fine! They haven't messed with it since, i'm fine.
S: *hug*
V: *hug* Don't worry, darling. I'm fine. I'm being the booth decoration. :)
V: I'm more worried for them...the girl keeps almost falling into their chili pot.
S: No teachers are in charge??
V: No - we're adults...public school, remember?
S: Ohh...
V: Yes - no church-mandated chaperones. ;)
S: Oh, right.

Salt and Water

This morning I had a horrible, horrible nightmare in which I was reliving a particular sin, and woke up from it very suddenly with feelings of disgust and fear. I've had this problem before, generally leading to another downward spiral of depression as I get onto myself for thinking about something I was never supposed to think about again.

At the same time, I realized with a shock that I'd fallen back asleep after my alarm had gone off and had almost overslept my meeting that morning. I placed a quick call to the affected person and we got things worked out, and in the meantime I started to feel a little better about the nightmare, realizing that it was only a dream and that I would be able to stop myself if I were ever in that situation again while awake. However, these things have a habit of breaking out in clusters (often causing me to go days without proper sleep because I'm afraid to go to bed and have them again), and I began wondering how I could keep them from effecting me while I was awake, if I couldn't stop them in the first place.

At that moment, I had a mental vision of plunging my head into a bowl of salt water. That would cleanse my mind and allow me to keep going forward with my day. "This is how peasant superstitions get started," I laughed, and resolved to use the thing in a piece of writing somewhere rather than seriously do it myself. However, I kept getting gently poked by the idea until I decided to look it up and see if it was really a thing, or what the symbolism of it might be - and was shocked to see that salt water actually is a common 'magical' defense against nightmares. At first I panicked a bit, thinking, "Oh God, now the devil is trying to get me into magic." I admit I have proclivities toward superstition to start with (most people do, it's why we develop rituals for everything) and I was rather worried that they were getting directed in the wrong way. I prayed like mad and kept clicking links to see if I might be wrong.

When I saw that one site suggested using salted holy water, I calmed down and remembered how much 'magic' is derived from valid sacramentals that have become worshiped in and of themselves rather than seen as simply focuses for devotion, grace, and protection. I then started looking specifically for the uses of salt in holy water and found to my surprise that blessed salt and blessed salt in holy water are long-established means of driving away evil in all its forms. Despite a long Catholic education, somehow I had never actually learned much about salt besides the whole "salt of the earth" thing. We're accustomed in modern times to revile it for being unhealthy in quantity, but salt has been used since the ancients for preservation, and Catholics take that to symbolize preservation from sin. Obviously, a sacramental is not going to be all-efficacious against the devil, given that people sin in churches all the time, but really - besides direct Divine intervention, what is?

This post is running much longer than I meant to, so I'll try to wrap it up. What does it mean that the idea came to me by itself? Could mean almost anything. It's possible, I suppose, that I learned about blessed saltwater at one point and simply forgot until now, but I don't often do that kind of thing. It's also possible that I came up with the idea myself, based on the symbolism of salt and water, basic human symbols, but I'm not so sure that's what happened. I also highly doubt, now that I'm calmer, that the devil is going to hand me the key to a sacramental that will help me lessen his influence over me. I think it was from God. Now, am I going to literally go stick my head in a bowl of holy saltwater? Probably not, but I'm not ruling it out. I see it like the difference between baptism by immersion and baptism by pouring: they do the same thing, but one is more deeply symbolic and makes it easier to make the mental connection between form and matter.

Since a sacramental has no power in and of itself, it only does good when a person understands it as a physical link to God. Perhaps what was really needed here was just for me to realize the power of the prayers that are constantly gathered around me. I mean, like most Catholic girls, I have a collection of holy medals big enough to sink a battleship. In all honesty, I'm too chicken to go ask a priest to bless some salt for me, so I'll probably just go back to taking my rosary to bed...which really ought to be just as good.

Still, I wonder if we have any more holy water laying around the house.

--Veronica--

Recipe: Tuna Rice Bake

I'm terrible at fasting.

I don't really understand why I am; if it's a regular day and I simply don't think about food, I can easily make it through the whole day, having eaten less than half of a "normal" meal, without having any adverse effects. However, if I'm fasting for a purpose, I can guarantee I'll be sick as a dog before noon. I'd love to be able to just offer it up, grit my teeth, and soldier on, but it usually manifests itself in horrible acid reflux that keeps me from breathing, thinking, driving...I'm literally unable to function at all. I'm not sure what makes that fasting different from "Oh, whoops it's 8 pm, better eat something," but it's really infuriating. Another day of fast and abstinence is coming up, though, so I'm trying to figure out what I can eat to keep me reasonably functional through an entire day of school and travel. (Simon is taking me to meet some of his family over Easter.) I'm thinking maybe a protein bar and part of a banana before I leave for school, maybe some yogurt before bed, and a real lunch before Simon and I leave for his mom's house. A few days ago I came up with this tuna rice...thing to satisfy a craving I had - I'll probably throw that together for us, with a salad on the side. Mmm. Greens. I don't have a picture of the tuna bake because of how quickly it was eaten both times I've made it, so...use your imagination.

Tuna Rice Bake
Prep Time: 6-7 min
Serves: 2

1 can tuna
1 package (2 individual containers) "Minute Rice" - the brown rice.
~1 tbsp spicy mustard
~2 tbsp mayonnaise
paprika, to taste
"Mexican blend" shredded cheese

Cook the rice in the microwave per package directions. Combine all ingredients except the cheese in a small casserole dish or large ramekin, adjusting proportions as desired. Top with shredded cheese and bake in the microwave for 3-4 minutes, until cheese melts and starts to brown..

-Veronica-

RPG of Life - Boss Battle: CRANE FLY

My last playthrough of this level took me about 6 or 7 in-game hours, mostly because my items on hand were limited at the time and so I went for a stamina defeat rather than trying to kill the CRANE FLY outright - bad idea. The first thing you should know about the battle with the CRANE FLY is that there is no effective way to defeat it by draining its stamina; as long as the LIGHT is on, it will keep coming back, and you will get tired of chasing it back out of the room before it gets tired of creeping back in. If you can't summon the CAT but really, really want the no-kills achievement, your best bet to defeat the CRANE FLY is to wait until night, chase the CRANE FLY out of the room with the BROOM item, then turn on a LIGHT elsewhere in the house and make sure the room you are in is in total darkness. When your character falls asleep and wakes back up, you will have won the battle.

Other, much faster strategies include:

1) Middling strategy: Summon an NPC to deal with the CRANE FLY. I don't recommend it, as while waking up MOTHER and/or FATHER for this battle will result in a dead boss, first you'll have to sit through a series of long cutscenes in which they try to convince your character that he or she is overreacting to the presence of the CRANE FLY.


2) Good strategy: smash the CRANE FLY with one of the items in your inventory or in surrounding rooms. Try the BROOM item hiding in the BASEMENT. The BOOK or SHOE item may do just as well if the CRANE FLY is sitting still and within reach. Note that this approach won't work if you took the INSECTOPHOBIA hindrance.


3) Best strategy: summon the CAT NPC by going to the BASEMENT and opening the door. If the CAT is awake and in range, he will think he is being fed and come running. Pick up the CAT and carry him to where the CRANE FLY is, show it to him by pressing the Action Button, and put him down next to it. If the CAT catches the CRANE FLY before he becomes bored, he will eat it and you will win the battle without this counting as a kill. You may have to either summon the CAT more than once or shut him into the room with the CRANE FLY if the CRANE FLY can evade him for longer than his attention span lasts.

On this playthrough I had the CAT unlocked and was able to deal some damage to the CRANE FLY with the BOOK item before summoning the CAT, who caught and ate it immediately. The whole thing lasted less than twenty minutes. Lesson learned!

--Veronica--