Yay, Passwordness!!

So I didn't have one, for about a week, and now I do, and I had 54 emails. Woot. Or something. Anyway, really don't have time to write right now (Yay, Homeworkness....or not), but just wanted to share that little joy that comes with being able to sign onto the network.

Heart! Lindsay

Do You Want to Know How I Really Feel?

(WARNING: IF YOU'D RATHER READ THE USUAL LIGHT-HEARTED, SLIGHTLY RIDICULOUS BLOG ENTRY, SKIP THE FOLLOWING.)

I'd write about it, but whatever I would say would fall woefully short of actually expressing what I feel and have been feeling for several weeks now. So, I will rely on a God who, some thousands of years ago, was thinking of how I am today when he inspired this poem:

"I am the man [or girl] who has seen affliction by the rod of His wrath. He has driven me away and made me walk in darkness rather than light: indeed, He has turned His hand against me again and again, all day long.

He has beseiged me and surrounded me with bitterness and hardship. He has made me dwell in darkness like those long dead.

He has walled me in so that I cannot escape; He has weighed me down with chains. Even when I call out or cry for help, He shuts out my prayer. He has barred my way with blocks of stone; He has made my paths crooked.

Like a bear lying in wait, like a lion in hiding, He dragged me from the path and mangled me and left me without help. He drew His bow and made me the target for His arrows. He pierced my heart with arrows from His quiver.

He has filled me with bitter herbs and sated me with gall. He has broken my teeth with gravel; He has trampled me in the dust.

I have been deprived of peace; I have forgotten what prosperity is. So I say, 'My splendor is gone and all that I hoped from the Lord.' I remember my affliction and my wandering, the bitterness and the gall. I WELL remember them, and my soul is downcast within me.

Yet this I call to mind and therefore I have hope:

Because of the Lord's great love we are not consumed, for His compassions never fail. They are new every morning; great is Your faithfulness. I say to myself, 'The Lord is my portion; therefore I will wait for Him...there may yet be hope.'

For men are not cast off by the Lord forever. Though He brings grief, He will show compassion, so great is His unfailing love. For He does not willingly bring affliction or grief to the children of men."

Lamentations 3:1-3, 5-13, 15-24, 29b, 31-33

So far the last little bit there hasn't quite sunk all the way in, but it is encouraging to me. If you happen to have a spare prayer on you, I could use it.

Boo!

Yes, I realize that I already blogged today, but I forgot to mention the new addition of my profile pic, which (as you should know) is Boo from Monster's, Inc. I'd just like to make a suggestion if I could: click on "see full size." It is well worth it. I once told someone that if you could drill deep into my psyche, that little girl would pop out. If you know me, I think you'd agree.

Heart! Lindsay

Okay, maybe I lied.

So I didn't get back to you on the fascinating details of my trip. Don't judge me. I'll give you a quick run-through now:

Marly's Play: Amazing. Seriously. Tracey and I literally sat through like half of it with our mouths open, occasionally turning to eachother to say, "wow!" or simply smiling with delight. Thank you Marly!!!

Amusing Children: Alright, so they weren't that amusing, obviously, since I can't think of any really good stories now. Although one child, Gannon was his name, improvised a five-minute monologue to me, filling me in on the entire history of Junior Theatre, none of which happened to be true. But don't tell him I know.

Entertaining Banana Puns: Every play the kids wrote this year had to, among other requirements, use a banana somewhere in their script. Which immediately makes half the plays involve monkeys, but you know. Oh, and, just to make this next part slightly more entertaining, you should know that there are two classic characters that appear in almost every Drama Day Camp script: ninjas, and aliens. My class wrote a play involving ninja space monkeys. (Is it too soon to whisper "Tony?") Anyway, this is one thing that I actually added to the script myself when I was typing it up at 10:00 at night: See, the kids wanted this blind character to at the end reveal that he was not, in fact, blind, but was a secret agent, stopping the ninja space monkeys from stealing the Magic Banana. (I know. Possibly the next Neil Simon or Arthur Miller will emerge from this year's Drama Day Camp.) So, at the end, he whips off his sunglasses and says, "Hold it! I'm an undercover agent for the Banana Republic!" Whoo-hoo-hoo, ho ho ho, hehehe...Okay, I guess you had to be there.

Country Music Concerts in Ungodly Heat: Actually, with a header like that, there isn't that much else to explain. Yay for Mississippi Valley Fair, boo on 100+ degree heat index.

Quaint Anecdotes of Random Silliness: I discovered that Family Guy, which I used to abhor, actually just requires that I be in the right mood, because I watched an episode with Cindy and it was absolutely hilarious. I met up with a really good friend of mine whom I have not kept in touch with and we talked and laughed and it was really fun. I finally saw Charlie and the Chocolate Factory. Johnny Depp is a genius. I visited Davenport's new art museum, and, though one part in particular was amazing (the boy's choir in complete surround sound), it was mainly disappointing. My car wouldn't start after I stopped it to get something to eat on the way back home, and that was upsetting, but I gave it time to rest and then it started fine, so Thank You God! And I spent way too much money.

So there you have it, folks! My Quad-Cities/Drama Day Camp odyssey!

Post Script: To fill you in on my continuing battle against spam blog comments (The War On Terror--oops! sorry, I mean The Struggle Against Commercialism), I finally found a place in setup where it says something like, "word verification for comments" or whatever, and so now when you comment you have to prove you're not an evil spam robot by typing those weird looking letters and numbers. I think. Anyway, when I checked today, someone had sent me a three page stock report. As a comment. It was rifrickindiculous. So hopefully this discovery will cut down on such extremist activities.

Spamming Reaches New Lows

So, I go to check my email today, and I get all excited because there were FIVE comments made on my last blog and I think to myself, "Wow! People like me!" but then I go to look at said comments and discover four of them are patterned after this model, or a close variation:

"Loved your Blog! Fantastic job. Hey, come visit my blog, link to some weird website, like Free Software! or DISCOVERING XBOX 360 SECRETS!"

One of them even tried to coax me into visiting their website devoted to methods for the prevention of premature ejaculation, which--I don't mean to brag--has never given me a problem.

So now I'm like, hold on a second! Spam blog comments? That's really low. There's nothing worse than tricking someone into thinking they have friends and then bringing up the awkward and, I understand, occasionally painful subject of erectile dysfunction. It's worse than being woken up from a nap by phone calls trying to get you to sign up for credit cards you don't want. What is going on with this country? It's bad enough that computers now need to be equipped with spyware protection in order to surf the web without being bombarded by pop-up ads, households need to sign up for the "No Call List" to avoid having their naps interrupted by telemarketers, and probably half of the nation's landfills are full of junk mail, but now we can't even safely use an online journal without being harassed by those wanting us to buy things we don't need or want.

This entry was going to detail the fabulous trip I just returned from, but now my anti-capitalist indignation (and the time I had to take deleting the unwanted comments) has used up the half hour I gave myself to blog before getting stuff done. I say Thoreau had the right idea. If you want me, I'll be in some obscure wooded area, eating roots and berries.

Honey, I'm Ho-ome!

Wow, what a week. I'd tell you about it now, but I'm too tired out to think clearly. But, as a special preview, this is what you have to look forward to:

stories about Marly's house and fabulous play

stories about amusing children, and some not quite so amusing

fairly entertaining banana puns

country music concerts in ungodly heat

and possibly some quaint anecdotes of random silliness

So tune in next time for the conclusion of this exciting episode of FoundSpace!! Hehe, all blogs should have teasers. Grin.