Archives Advent Extravaganza Day 6--More Musics, Less Technology

I don't have an MP3 of this so I have to use this lumbering video window again.

Life is kinda busy right now. Is my head still where I left it? I hope so.

Archives Advent Extravaganza Day 5: My Life is Pretty Awesome

This afternoon we went and got our Christmas tree. About four hours later it was on the stand, be-lighted, and we began decorating. It's always fun to jam as many of our ornaments on the Christmas tree as we possibly can--we've accumulated quite a lot over the years but somehow every Christmas season we do indeed get all of them on there. But you probably know family rituals like that are something you really have to be there to understand the awesomeness.

After we decorated our tree, we turned off all the lights except the Christmas lights and proceeded to boogey down and have a family dance party to this song:




That's right. Even my mom.

[In case you missed it, that song is the advent prize for today. Oh man I'm smooth. Like buttah. All thanks (lots and lots of thanks) and credit go to Nathan Lee for showing me how to embed music. OMG LOOK TECHNOLOGY!]

Archives Advent Extravaganze Day 4--Because I Don't Like the Number 4 as Much, Today's Advent is Kinda Lame

But for some reason this picture just tickles my fancy so I'm putting it up here.

 

 Isn't he just darling? Hopefully this is what my Christmas tree will look like. And then we'll have adventures together.

Oh geeze, I feel like I have to supplement this lame Day 4. Um......

Does anyone find it interesting that I rarely post about significant life events? My brother just got engaged and I didn't say anything about it. Nor will I beyond that. You, dear reader, are probably not going to know I have a boyfriend until I write a post that starts, "So four days after my wedding I saw this HUGE spider..." What is this blog about, anyway?

Did you know pumice is the only rock that floats in water?

Did you know I can only tolerate something resting on my collarbone if I'm not sitting still?

Kay, bye.

Archives Advent Extravaganza Day 3--The Bible's Not About Us (And Neither is Christmas)

That's right. It's day three, okay? Because it's December 3rd. Smoke it.

I have another video for you, dear Readers, and this one is really good. It's an excerpt from a Tim Keller message. It isn't specifically about Christmas; it's called "What is the Bible Basically About", but I wanted to make this one of the first things because it's about why we celebrate Christmas. As I watched this video, God reminded me that Christmas was the beginning of all that the bible is about. Christmas is not about hot chocolate or getting off school or singing Christmas songs or getting presents or giving presents or even family as much as I dearly love that aspect of it. Christmas is about remembering one of the three most important days in history. Christmas is about remembering the day that the greatest being in all the universe became like the worst beings in all the universe; Christmas is about remembering the day that the Word of God became flesh to live with us; Christmas is about remembering the day that Jesus Christ was born in order to die.



The bible is not about us, and Christmas is not about us. Glory to God in the highest!

Stop Complaining; I Have a Life, Okay!

That title is just to make visitors think that my blog is so popular that people complain to me all the time about how I never update it. I don't get complaints in real life; for that matter, I don't think I get visitors, either. But that's okay, I don't write this blog for an audience (clearly).

I just wanted to point out that I gave Archives a Christmas makeover. Doesn't he look awesome? Why did I feel the need to write a mini-post pointing this out, you ask, dear Reader, when one can very clearly see for themselves that the blog format has changed? I don't have a satisfactory answer for you, but it probably has something to do with the fact that I should be researching for a paper on psychoanalytic criticism right now.

No, wait...I think there is sort of a point to this post. I had an idea, last night, right before I fell asleep (which on a normal night would mean that you do not want to know, but in this case it seems to still be pretty okay in the light of morning). I thought it might be fun to do an Archives Super Cool Christmas: Advent Extravaganza--ON THE INTERNET. Which basically means that I'm going to post something holiday-ish every day until Christmas. I know, you're peeing with excitement right now, right? Me too. Hopefully this will be an everyday thing, rather than something like NaNoWriMo, or the beginning of this blog (remember that time when I said I was required by my professor to write everyday? I know, that was so funny).

Since I had this idea right before I fell asleep, I didn't post anything for yesterday. You probably already guessed that, because you guys are pretty smart for internet denizens. But that just means that to start off you get two things! Try to contain that excitement before it comes exploding out of the top of your head from the sheer excellence of this monumental event.


First, here's a song from one of my favorite Christmas CDs, Songs for Christmas by Sufjan Stevens. Everyone should buy it. It's 42 tracks of Christmas magic:



The second is quite possibly my favorite short from the original Fantasia (it's not exactly Christmas themed--but the music is!):



Most of the Archives Super Cool Christmas: Advent Extravaganza--ON THE INTERNET (henceforth to be referred to as ASCCAEOTI or Ascoti for short) will probably be songs. Maybe videos. Pictures, perhaps on a rare occasion.

Audience participation would be helpful in two areas:

1. Spam me with awesome Christmas crap! I need ideas.
2. Does anybody know how to embed songs onto a blog post, so I don't have to put up a giant great video window just so people can listen to them? Let me know.

WHOOHOOCHRISTMAS!

Les Miserables

I got it for Christmas from my favorite sister-in-law, Sarah. I started it in July. It's 1,462 pages long.

Today, I finished it.

It's worth every single minute--even the minutes involving 19 pages of the history of Paris' sewers (I'm a firm believer that you need to go into a book assuming every single word is there for a reason). I feel accomplished and completely satisfied. Dear reader, you must know this book. It is, in a word, vast--every single aspect of the book, from the characters to the setting, is complete in every detail, no matter how briefly it appears. It's staggering. I can't believe it only took him 17 years to write it. I'm at a loss for words to fully capture how awesome this book is (as evidenced by my disconnected and understated sentences).

If you read no other books in your life other than the Bible and Les Miserables, I think you'll be okay.

"If we want to be happy, monsieur, we must never understand duty; for, as soon as we understand it, it is implacable. It is as though it punishes you for understanding it; but no, it rewards you for it; for it puts you in a hell where you feel God at your side. Your heart is not quickly lacerated when you are at peace with yourself."

All My Thoughts Today Center Around One Thing...

In the case of strawberry banana flavored yogurt, banana always comes out the lesser party. This blatant bigotry is outrageous, as everyone knows banana is by far the more popular fruit anyway.

Last night I ate the most wonderful thing the world has ever seen, but it was in one of my dreams. I dreamed I was in a place reminiscent of the Reading Terminal Market, and at an ice cream stand was favored with culinary perfection: a banana, on a stick, dipped in marshmallow and rolled in coconut and chocolate chips, and finally smothered with peanut butter and chocolate drizzle. I am now alight with the fire to obtain this Dream Banana in waking life.

Midnight pizza does wonders for my subconscious cerebral awareness.

Have you ever played with those foam packing peanuts, enjoyed the airy squish of it beneath your fingers, and said to yourself they would be really fun to chew on if only they didn't taste like hand lotion and tree sap? I have. Imagine my delight, then, when I realized today that dried apples are of that precise texture.

How does SoBe make their lifewater so delicious without a single gram of sugar? I suspect witchcraft is involved.

The most disheartening bit of trivia I've learned this month is that Sun Chips are actually fattier than potato chips. What in the world are they good for?

"Fruit punch" is probably the most suspicious sounding name for a drink I know of. It's as bad as "brown sauce" and "food store." Exactly what fruit is in that stuff, Hi-C, that you aren't willing to specify, hm? Not even "orange drink" is as evasive.

You know what's the most unkind name for a movie genre ever? Spaghetti Western. It calls to mind all manner of fantastical visions regarding what such a name could mean, like a Western that comes with a complimentary plate of spaghetti, or wherein the characters fight using spaghetti instead of guns (as illustrated above, please click to zoom), or all the cast are noodles. Reality, however, is nothing so awe-inspiring--a Spaghetti Western is merely a Western made by Italian people. Which doesn't make any sense, because Italians never had a Wild Western era.