Before my kergyma bible study class on Wednesday nights, I attend a half an hour evening prayer service. The service calms me down, and I find it relaxes me enough so that I can sit in bible study and really ponder what the bible means for my life right now.
The evening prayer service on Wednesday varies from week to week, and last week there was incense burning and we read and sang psalms for half an hour.
This line from Psalm 17 struck me during the service, and it's been bouncing around my head all week and I can't figure out why. This is the line.
"Weigh my heart, summon me by night, melt me down; you will find no impurity in me."
I think I like the "melt me down" part, although it occurs to me that being melted down is probably very painful. Sometimes I feel like I am being melted down, but for what purpose and to what end is a big mystery.
Monday, December 09, 2002
Sunday, December 08, 2002
If you've been wondering about the picture on the left, no that's not a picture of me, here's the scoop.
That's a picture of a "Hula Barbie", which was a christmas gift from the all-male finance group I worked for a long time ago. The gift was given to me before sexual harrassment in the office was such a big deal. The guys said they gave it me because 1) the Barbie reminded them of me and 2) I told them I liked Barbies and complained about never having a Barbie growing up that looked like me. When I was growing up, Barbies were all blonde and blue eyed.
At the time I thought how cute and flattering, that the guys thought I looked like a Barbie. Secondly these guys weren't the gift giving types, so for them to get together and buy me a christmas present was unusual.
A couple of girlfriends of mine thought the guys were insulting me by giving me the Barbie, but I thought it was given with good intentions. Besides, I worked with these guys and they were nice to me and I was the only woman in the group.
I don't think I look like a Barbie. One of my acting teachers called me a "giant Barbie" once, but what does he know, he's an acting teacher. A friend from NYC, while we were in Hawaii together, said I looked a "giant doll", and this guy from my jujitsu class called me "doll face". I love that name, "dollie face". I also used to use the Hula Barbie face when I would chat on AIM, with a friend of mine. He used Spider Man.
The Hula Barbie face has grown on me over the years, and it amuses me to no end that people think I look like a doll. I must be plastic looking or something, and have a vapid and shallow expression on my face. Whatever.
That's a picture of a "Hula Barbie", which was a christmas gift from the all-male finance group I worked for a long time ago. The gift was given to me before sexual harrassment in the office was such a big deal. The guys said they gave it me because 1) the Barbie reminded them of me and 2) I told them I liked Barbies and complained about never having a Barbie growing up that looked like me. When I was growing up, Barbies were all blonde and blue eyed.
At the time I thought how cute and flattering, that the guys thought I looked like a Barbie. Secondly these guys weren't the gift giving types, so for them to get together and buy me a christmas present was unusual.
A couple of girlfriends of mine thought the guys were insulting me by giving me the Barbie, but I thought it was given with good intentions. Besides, I worked with these guys and they were nice to me and I was the only woman in the group.
I don't think I look like a Barbie. One of my acting teachers called me a "giant Barbie" once, but what does he know, he's an acting teacher. A friend from NYC, while we were in Hawaii together, said I looked a "giant doll", and this guy from my jujitsu class called me "doll face". I love that name, "dollie face". I also used to use the Hula Barbie face when I would chat on AIM, with a friend of mine. He used Spider Man.
The Hula Barbie face has grown on me over the years, and it amuses me to no end that people think I look like a doll. I must be plastic looking or something, and have a vapid and shallow expression on my face. Whatever.
I saw "Die Another Day" yesterday. I haven't seen a James Bond movie in the theatre in a long time. I forgot how fun movies like this are. I loved the opening surfing scene! The beach scene looked a little familiar to me, and then I found out during the credits that part of the movie was filmed in Maui. I wonder if that opening scene was filmed in Maui. The last scene with the house may have been filmed in Maui as well.
I loved Halle Berry, and I loved the part where she was fighting with the english chick, and Halle Berry called her "bitch" before she killed her. Everyone in the theatre was clapping and laughing.
James Bond movies are so much fun. You know you're going to great special effects, pretty girls, fun spy gadgets, great cars and car chase scenes, and it always end happily with Bond saving the world. There's something very comforting about the whole Bond movie genre. In our ever increasingly complicated world, it's nice to spend a couple of hours in a world where issues are black and white, where there are bad guy and good guys, and where moral ambiguity is nonexistent. It's escapist entertainment at its best.
I wish I could write a movie script with special effects like a James Bond movie. I love special effects in a movie. I love the violence, the fast car chase scenes, and the daredevil stunts. Special effects makes spending the money to watch a movie totally worth it, because special effects on a big screen look so darn good. Unless you have a killer sound system and huge screen TV at home, you just can't have the same movie watching experience at home that you do at the theatre. You also don't get the audience reaction at home, which most of the time really adds to my movie viewing pleasure. It's fun to laugh out loud at a movie's jokes with people you know and don't know.
Die Another Day was definitely worth my money.
I loved Halle Berry, and I loved the part where she was fighting with the english chick, and Halle Berry called her "bitch" before she killed her. Everyone in the theatre was clapping and laughing.
James Bond movies are so much fun. You know you're going to great special effects, pretty girls, fun spy gadgets, great cars and car chase scenes, and it always end happily with Bond saving the world. There's something very comforting about the whole Bond movie genre. In our ever increasingly complicated world, it's nice to spend a couple of hours in a world where issues are black and white, where there are bad guy and good guys, and where moral ambiguity is nonexistent. It's escapist entertainment at its best.
I wish I could write a movie script with special effects like a James Bond movie. I love special effects in a movie. I love the violence, the fast car chase scenes, and the daredevil stunts. Special effects makes spending the money to watch a movie totally worth it, because special effects on a big screen look so darn good. Unless you have a killer sound system and huge screen TV at home, you just can't have the same movie watching experience at home that you do at the theatre. You also don't get the audience reaction at home, which most of the time really adds to my movie viewing pleasure. It's fun to laugh out loud at a movie's jokes with people you know and don't know.
Die Another Day was definitely worth my money.
Saturday, December 07, 2002
Below is a statement from the Jewish Community Relations Council on Rainbow Grocery's boycott of products made in Israel.
December 4, 2002
RAINBOW GROCERY ISRAEL BOYCOTT
The following statement was issued today by David Steirman, President of the Jewish Community Relations Council, which represents more than 80 synagogues and Jewish organizations in the Bay Area on public affairs issues of concern to the organized Jewish community.
The Jewish Community Relations Council is deeply disappointed and angered that Rainbow Grocery, which has been patronized by a significant number of our community members and has a strong reputation as a progressive institution, has chosen to boycott Israeli-made products.
The explanation on the store's website that only "two departments decided to remove the Israeli products that they carried from the shelf" and that they "allow our departments wide latitude in their purchasing decisions" is disingenuous at best. The store's leadership is permitting a boycott to take place on its premises and bears responsibility for that decision.
This boycott is not only deeply offensive; it is also misguided. Economic warfare against Israel in the form of boycotts is a failed tactic that has been employed by Israel's detractors and enemies since the establishment of the State of Israel. According to Rainbow Grocery's public relations department, the store is not boycotting products from any other country, even though there are dozens of countries whose human rights records are, by any objective standard, abysmal.
The singling out of the democratic state of Israel is nothing short of an antagonistic and discriminatory act. The damage cannot be mitigated simply by stating, as the store has, that it will continue to carry kosher and other Jewish products from other countries or that other departments within the store do not support the boycott.
We call upon Rainbow Grocery to rescind its boycott immediately. We have offered to meet with the management of the store to convey our concerns. Until such time that the store eliminates its double-standard against Israel, we urge members of the community - Jewish and non-Jewish - to contact the store by telephone, email and fax to send a strong message of protest.
Jewish Community Relations Council of San Francisco, the Peninsula, Marin, Sonoma and Alameda Counties
121 Steuart Street, Suite 301 San Francisco, CA 94105
(415) 957-1551 www.jcrc.org
December 4, 2002
RAINBOW GROCERY ISRAEL BOYCOTT
The following statement was issued today by David Steirman, President of the Jewish Community Relations Council, which represents more than 80 synagogues and Jewish organizations in the Bay Area on public affairs issues of concern to the organized Jewish community.
The Jewish Community Relations Council is deeply disappointed and angered that Rainbow Grocery, which has been patronized by a significant number of our community members and has a strong reputation as a progressive institution, has chosen to boycott Israeli-made products.
The explanation on the store's website that only "two departments decided to remove the Israeli products that they carried from the shelf" and that they "allow our departments wide latitude in their purchasing decisions" is disingenuous at best. The store's leadership is permitting a boycott to take place on its premises and bears responsibility for that decision.
This boycott is not only deeply offensive; it is also misguided. Economic warfare against Israel in the form of boycotts is a failed tactic that has been employed by Israel's detractors and enemies since the establishment of the State of Israel. According to Rainbow Grocery's public relations department, the store is not boycotting products from any other country, even though there are dozens of countries whose human rights records are, by any objective standard, abysmal.
The singling out of the democratic state of Israel is nothing short of an antagonistic and discriminatory act. The damage cannot be mitigated simply by stating, as the store has, that it will continue to carry kosher and other Jewish products from other countries or that other departments within the store do not support the boycott.
We call upon Rainbow Grocery to rescind its boycott immediately. We have offered to meet with the management of the store to convey our concerns. Until such time that the store eliminates its double-standard against Israel, we urge members of the community - Jewish and non-Jewish - to contact the store by telephone, email and fax to send a strong message of protest.
Jewish Community Relations Council of San Francisco, the Peninsula, Marin, Sonoma and Alameda Counties
121 Steuart Street, Suite 301 San Francisco, CA 94105
(415) 957-1551 www.jcrc.org
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)