It's been a year. Over a year actually. I realized I missed the one year mark by a couple days last week.
It's been a very interesting year. So many things happened. I learned a lot, grew a lot, lost a lot, and loved a lot. I'm in the exact same situation I was in last year, but now I'm a completely different person. There are some things that I really do miss about my previous self, but I like the person I am now so much better. Did I ever see myself turn out the way I did? Not in a million years. But I'm thankful, and grateful. Because certain things in life are priceless, and I'm lucky to have them.
Thank you God for keeping me.
Wednesday, March 12, 2014
Wednesday, February 26, 2014
Dream Last Night
I was driving to work this morning in the rain, about to make a left turn down a fairly steep hill when I remembered the dream I had last night.
-----
The youth group had a lot of activities recently, and I've been getting more involved, mostly giving rides to the students. Within the youth there were three of them that were siblings. They had recently moved to an apartment complex just down the street from the church. In order to get to their place, you had to go straight down the road. The road would then end, and you would make a left turn. The apartment complex was the next block down, straight ahead. The two lanes on the road turned into three. The leftmost lane could go straight into the driveway or turn left. The middle lane could only go straight. The rightmost lane could only turn right. It was a bit confusing at first because the left lane in the driveway was straight ahead of the middle lane, and the right lane ahead of the right. I started complaining about the lines and whoever had drawn them. In the driveway, the two lanes merged. The lane curved to the left. There was a garage on the right and a large outside parking lot on the left, mostly used for guests. The apartment the students lived in was either on the second or third floor. The halls were quite narrow and there were no elevators.
The first time I drove them to their apartment, I didn't know that they lived down the street the church was on. I started driving away from the church, on the cross-section of the street. They told me I was supposed to have turned left instead of going straight when exiting the driveway, so I turned left in the next intersection to get back to the street I was supposed to be in. There were no actual streets connecting two streets so I had to make a left to go through a narrow parking lot that opened up to both streets. The street I was on was slightly more elevated than the other street, but instead of gradually sloping downhill, the parking lot sloped at an oddly inconvenient angle. The left side of the lot sloped down before the right side did, so my car overall tilted to the left. No wonder there were no cars parked here.
The next day, I was working with the oldest of the three siblings at the church. He had left something at his apartment, and it was convenient for me to go and get it because his siblings were still there and I could pick them up. I had forgotten that they lived just down the street, so I ended up taking the same path I had taken the day before. It was raining, but by the time I started driving, the rain was very heavy. By the time I had to go through the same narrow parking lot, the sky had gotten dark. As I was going through the lot, the odd slope seemed much steeper than I recalled it to be. I didn't remember it being so steep, but I thought that the rain caused the lights to play a trick on my eyes. I slowly went forward, but the slope got steeper and steeper until my car rolled onto its back. I had my seat belt on, and it was such a slow roll that I wasn't injured in any way. The rain was pouring so hard, though, that the rain was leaking into my car through every crevice it could find. I was struggling to breathe as the water was slowly filling up my car.
I could feel my body start to panic. I couldn't see and couldn't breathe. My heart was racing. I couldn't calm myself down, and my brain wasn't getting enough oxygen to think clearly. Although my body was panicking, I wasn't. I started to think to myself:
"I need to first unbuckle my seat belt." My hands were shaking as it tried to find the button, but the seat belt unbuckled without a problem.
"Now I need to open the door so I can get out." The awkward position I was in and the inability to see caused me to be disoriented.
"Remember, I'm in the driver's seat, so the door is on my left. Just act like I'm getting out of my car. Where would the handle be?" My hand managed to clumsily find the handle, but the door was jammed.
"The next closest door is on the passenger's side. Just reach over, pull the handle, and you'll be out. You're upside down, so flip over onto your stomach. There shouldn't be anything in your way." I managed to reach over, open the door, and crawl out of my car. All the water that was in my car flooded out. I stood up, clear headed, and happy to breathe fresh air. The heavy rain stopped, and it was only drizzling. The storm clouds started to part, bringing back some of the light. I got my phone out (which still worked because this is only a dream) and called the police so I could get my car towed. The parking lot I was in was once again fairly flat, showing no signs of being able to tip a car over.
-----
The youth group had a lot of activities recently, and I've been getting more involved, mostly giving rides to the students. Within the youth there were three of them that were siblings. They had recently moved to an apartment complex just down the street from the church. In order to get to their place, you had to go straight down the road. The road would then end, and you would make a left turn. The apartment complex was the next block down, straight ahead. The two lanes on the road turned into three. The leftmost lane could go straight into the driveway or turn left. The middle lane could only go straight. The rightmost lane could only turn right. It was a bit confusing at first because the left lane in the driveway was straight ahead of the middle lane, and the right lane ahead of the right. I started complaining about the lines and whoever had drawn them. In the driveway, the two lanes merged. The lane curved to the left. There was a garage on the right and a large outside parking lot on the left, mostly used for guests. The apartment the students lived in was either on the second or third floor. The halls were quite narrow and there were no elevators.
The first time I drove them to their apartment, I didn't know that they lived down the street the church was on. I started driving away from the church, on the cross-section of the street. They told me I was supposed to have turned left instead of going straight when exiting the driveway, so I turned left in the next intersection to get back to the street I was supposed to be in. There were no actual streets connecting two streets so I had to make a left to go through a narrow parking lot that opened up to both streets. The street I was on was slightly more elevated than the other street, but instead of gradually sloping downhill, the parking lot sloped at an oddly inconvenient angle. The left side of the lot sloped down before the right side did, so my car overall tilted to the left. No wonder there were no cars parked here.
The next day, I was working with the oldest of the three siblings at the church. He had left something at his apartment, and it was convenient for me to go and get it because his siblings were still there and I could pick them up. I had forgotten that they lived just down the street, so I ended up taking the same path I had taken the day before. It was raining, but by the time I started driving, the rain was very heavy. By the time I had to go through the same narrow parking lot, the sky had gotten dark. As I was going through the lot, the odd slope seemed much steeper than I recalled it to be. I didn't remember it being so steep, but I thought that the rain caused the lights to play a trick on my eyes. I slowly went forward, but the slope got steeper and steeper until my car rolled onto its back. I had my seat belt on, and it was such a slow roll that I wasn't injured in any way. The rain was pouring so hard, though, that the rain was leaking into my car through every crevice it could find. I was struggling to breathe as the water was slowly filling up my car.
I could feel my body start to panic. I couldn't see and couldn't breathe. My heart was racing. I couldn't calm myself down, and my brain wasn't getting enough oxygen to think clearly. Although my body was panicking, I wasn't. I started to think to myself:
"I need to first unbuckle my seat belt." My hands were shaking as it tried to find the button, but the seat belt unbuckled without a problem.
"Now I need to open the door so I can get out." The awkward position I was in and the inability to see caused me to be disoriented.
"Remember, I'm in the driver's seat, so the door is on my left. Just act like I'm getting out of my car. Where would the handle be?" My hand managed to clumsily find the handle, but the door was jammed.
"The next closest door is on the passenger's side. Just reach over, pull the handle, and you'll be out. You're upside down, so flip over onto your stomach. There shouldn't be anything in your way." I managed to reach over, open the door, and crawl out of my car. All the water that was in my car flooded out. I stood up, clear headed, and happy to breathe fresh air. The heavy rain stopped, and it was only drizzling. The storm clouds started to part, bringing back some of the light. I got my phone out (which still worked because this is only a dream) and called the police so I could get my car towed. The parking lot I was in was once again fairly flat, showing no signs of being able to tip a car over.
Wednesday, January 29, 2014
Small Joys in Life
Staple Remover!!!!
Today my boss got me a heavy-duty staple remover. When I'm at work, staples become the bane of my existence. As a file clerk, I'm unstapling hundreds of papers a day, mostly small ones, but there are quite a few heavy duty staples that are about three times as thick as a normal staple with fifty pages stuck together. Those take a lot of time and energy that I spend wrestling with. I hate staples. So very much. But now I don't have to wrestle with them any more. I never knew I could ever be so excited over a staple remover. But here I am, all smiley and happy. A staple remover. Yay.
Today my boss got me a heavy-duty staple remover. When I'm at work, staples become the bane of my existence. As a file clerk, I'm unstapling hundreds of papers a day, mostly small ones, but there are quite a few heavy duty staples that are about three times as thick as a normal staple with fifty pages stuck together. Those take a lot of time and energy that I spend wrestling with. I hate staples. So very much. But now I don't have to wrestle with them any more. I never knew I could ever be so excited over a staple remover. But here I am, all smiley and happy. A staple remover. Yay.
Friday, January 24, 2014
Movie Day!
Monday was a holiday, so I spent all day in the theatres doing a movie-thon. (By myself... ~ so lonely)
The movies I watched were (in order):
The Hobbit - The Desolation of Smaug
The Hunger Games - Catching Fire
Frozen
They were all pretty good.
1. The Hobbit
When I watched the first Hobbit movie, i didn't realize that they were cutting the books to make the movies a trilogy, so there I was in the theatre, waiting for nearly three hours before I realized there was an upcoming sequel. I was terribly bored, and although I rarely do this for any movie, especially one in theatres, I took a bathroom break. Thinking back on it, though, it was quite decent for the first third of the plot. The second movie was pretty good in itself. I never read the books, and I never watched the trailer, so I had no idea what it was about. I only knew about the dragon because my friend told me about it. She told me the movie was good, so I had some high expectations. Because the movie is based off a book, I expect a good plot and good character building. The movie has seasoned actors, so I also expect great acting. The only thing that could have been iffy about this movie was the cg animation. There was an extremely long sequence in the movie with the dragon, and I had some pretty high hopes for it. Watching the movie, my hopes slightly fell. The orcs weren't produced as well as they could have been. The animation seemed either too stiff or unnaturally smooth. But when the dragon scenes came by, I was so impressed the rest of the movie didn't matter any longer. It was a very good dragon. An amazing dragon. The dragon was so good that there really isn't much to say about anything else. In short, this movie had a damn good dragon. Oh right, one more thing: Why doesn't any of the metal in the dragon's hoard of treasure melt when the extremely hot dragon fire is directed at it?
2. The Hunger Games
I was honestly not expecting very much from this movie. I read the Hunger Game series before the movies started coming out. It was a very good series, and the first movie was quite disappointing. I was very skeptical at first when my friend said that the movie was quite good and may have been even better than the book itself. I have to say, though, that I was very impressed with the movie. The actors seemed to have taken a step up compared to the last movie, and scenes were well shot, and well timed. The movie was so good, that the book actually seems quite dry. The book is unable to convey the range of emotions and intense physical ordeals that the movie was able to portray quite nicely. The challenge of this movie was the acting within the movie itself, and I must say, that the actors have definitely met the challenge. If the movie for the next book is just as good, then I will definitely look forward to it, because I honestly didn't really like the book.
3. Frozen
It was awesome. I knew absolutely nothing about this movie coming in. All anyone told me was that it was amazing, and I didn't even see the trailer. (The trailer doesn't do justice.) I feel like with this movie, Disney is definitely taking the step in the right direction. (Apparently this is the first Disney movie with a female director, which explains why female leads weren't automatically taken from the obvious Disney mold.) This movie broke almost every single one of the classic Disney tropes that were tying Disney down. There were no evil or obliviously stubborn parents in the movie. The parents in this movie were genuinely nice, concerned, protective, and caring. They really wanted what was best for their daughter, and there is no denying it. Things just didn't turn out as well as their intentions, which is much more realistic that the black-and-white parenting molds. There was no evil antagonist in the movie. In fact, the supposed antagonist was just a girl trying to keep people safe and do what was right. It's not even the 'do what she thought was good but is obviously bad' either. It was a genuine desire to protect people that just ended up falling into a bad situation. The idea of love at first sight was also addressed in the movie. At first, when the second male character showed up, I thought the plot was going to be similar to the movie Enchanted, where the girl just falls in love with someone else. However, there was a definite plot twist late into the movie that really changed things around. It was quite dark for a Disney movie, and I think the first Disney movie ever to have a prince with an actual brain, having his own agenda, doing his own thing. The idea of what 'true love' is was also addressed. Every Disney movie does its 'true love' things, with a 'true love's first kiss' or getting married to a handsome prince, or more recently getting married so someone you love even if he's not a rich prince. However, the idea of true love needing to be that between a guy and girl was thrown out the window, and in came the idea of family love, more specifically sister love. This idea of family love was addressed in Lilo and Stitch, but it wasn't as powerful of a factor as it was in Frozen. An act of true love didn't have to be a kiss or marriage, or whatever else Disney has been promoting, but has now expanded into the idea of protecting your family members even if it means self-sacrifice. Love is more than what we think of between a man and a woman. Love is the willingness to give yourself up for the benefit of someone you deeply care about, including your sister. Young girls who used to walk out of Disney movies wanting to be the spoiled princesses with everything in their grasp will now walk away with something entirely different. They'll understand that if their parents do something that they don't like, it's not because they're evil, but because they really are trying their best. That bad things can happen to people who are good with good intentions, and that love and support from family, not just a guy, can help them get through.
So yeah, Frozen was a good movie. Good job, Disney, you're setting new standards.
The movies I watched were (in order):
The Hobbit - The Desolation of Smaug
The Hunger Games - Catching Fire
Frozen
They were all pretty good.
1. The Hobbit
When I watched the first Hobbit movie, i didn't realize that they were cutting the books to make the movies a trilogy, so there I was in the theatre, waiting for nearly three hours before I realized there was an upcoming sequel. I was terribly bored, and although I rarely do this for any movie, especially one in theatres, I took a bathroom break. Thinking back on it, though, it was quite decent for the first third of the plot. The second movie was pretty good in itself. I never read the books, and I never watched the trailer, so I had no idea what it was about. I only knew about the dragon because my friend told me about it. She told me the movie was good, so I had some high expectations. Because the movie is based off a book, I expect a good plot and good character building. The movie has seasoned actors, so I also expect great acting. The only thing that could have been iffy about this movie was the cg animation. There was an extremely long sequence in the movie with the dragon, and I had some pretty high hopes for it. Watching the movie, my hopes slightly fell. The orcs weren't produced as well as they could have been. The animation seemed either too stiff or unnaturally smooth. But when the dragon scenes came by, I was so impressed the rest of the movie didn't matter any longer. It was a very good dragon. An amazing dragon. The dragon was so good that there really isn't much to say about anything else. In short, this movie had a damn good dragon. Oh right, one more thing: Why doesn't any of the metal in the dragon's hoard of treasure melt when the extremely hot dragon fire is directed at it?
2. The Hunger Games
I was honestly not expecting very much from this movie. I read the Hunger Game series before the movies started coming out. It was a very good series, and the first movie was quite disappointing. I was very skeptical at first when my friend said that the movie was quite good and may have been even better than the book itself. I have to say, though, that I was very impressed with the movie. The actors seemed to have taken a step up compared to the last movie, and scenes were well shot, and well timed. The movie was so good, that the book actually seems quite dry. The book is unable to convey the range of emotions and intense physical ordeals that the movie was able to portray quite nicely. The challenge of this movie was the acting within the movie itself, and I must say, that the actors have definitely met the challenge. If the movie for the next book is just as good, then I will definitely look forward to it, because I honestly didn't really like the book.
3. Frozen
It was awesome. I knew absolutely nothing about this movie coming in. All anyone told me was that it was amazing, and I didn't even see the trailer. (The trailer doesn't do justice.) I feel like with this movie, Disney is definitely taking the step in the right direction. (Apparently this is the first Disney movie with a female director, which explains why female leads weren't automatically taken from the obvious Disney mold.) This movie broke almost every single one of the classic Disney tropes that were tying Disney down. There were no evil or obliviously stubborn parents in the movie. The parents in this movie were genuinely nice, concerned, protective, and caring. They really wanted what was best for their daughter, and there is no denying it. Things just didn't turn out as well as their intentions, which is much more realistic that the black-and-white parenting molds. There was no evil antagonist in the movie. In fact, the supposed antagonist was just a girl trying to keep people safe and do what was right. It's not even the 'do what she thought was good but is obviously bad' either. It was a genuine desire to protect people that just ended up falling into a bad situation. The idea of love at first sight was also addressed in the movie. At first, when the second male character showed up, I thought the plot was going to be similar to the movie Enchanted, where the girl just falls in love with someone else. However, there was a definite plot twist late into the movie that really changed things around. It was quite dark for a Disney movie, and I think the first Disney movie ever to have a prince with an actual brain, having his own agenda, doing his own thing. The idea of what 'true love' is was also addressed. Every Disney movie does its 'true love' things, with a 'true love's first kiss' or getting married to a handsome prince, or more recently getting married so someone you love even if he's not a rich prince. However, the idea of true love needing to be that between a guy and girl was thrown out the window, and in came the idea of family love, more specifically sister love. This idea of family love was addressed in Lilo and Stitch, but it wasn't as powerful of a factor as it was in Frozen. An act of true love didn't have to be a kiss or marriage, or whatever else Disney has been promoting, but has now expanded into the idea of protecting your family members even if it means self-sacrifice. Love is more than what we think of between a man and a woman. Love is the willingness to give yourself up for the benefit of someone you deeply care about, including your sister. Young girls who used to walk out of Disney movies wanting to be the spoiled princesses with everything in their grasp will now walk away with something entirely different. They'll understand that if their parents do something that they don't like, it's not because they're evil, but because they really are trying their best. That bad things can happen to people who are good with good intentions, and that love and support from family, not just a guy, can help them get through.
So yeah, Frozen was a good movie. Good job, Disney, you're setting new standards.
Wednesday, November 27, 2013
MOTIV Test Results
MOTIV Personality Test Results
href="http://similarminds.com/motiv/materialist.html">Materialistic |
Offbeat
||||||||||||||||||||
81%
Thinking
||||||||||||||||
70%
Intimate
||||||
21%
Vitality
||||||||||||||
60%
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Personality Disorder Test Results
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