Ironic,

but after I posted yesterday about how efficient I am, I have a confession to make:

I get absolutely nothing done on Fridays.

Can I just take a minute to complain?

I am not sure who to blame for this, but every time I do a good job on a project at work, I seem to create more work for myself.

Case #1: I help out one of the managers schedule some interviews and now I am in charge of scheduling ALL the interviews for ALL the mangers.

Case #2: I take some data, throw it into a spreadsheet and all of a sudden I am the Excel expert. I think I make or create a new spreadsheet for this or that pet project everyday now.

Case #3: I organize a little holiday party, and now I am the Event Planner?

And I took this job because I thought I would just sit out front playing "pretend" security guard, answering a phone that never rings.

Sheesh.

I think my job title should read:

Jennifer Staab
Senior Administrative Assistant/HR assistant/Accounting and Payroll Assistant/Scheduler/Event Planner/General All Around Go To Whenever You Don't Want To Do That Project Yourself

Bed of Roses? Perhaps.

There are 2 weddings and 5 baby arrivals coming up this year, and who knows how many in the near future. I look at these facts, and realize I am not directly involved with any of these events. Then I think about how I am just finishing up graduate school and realize in the total wisdom of the sovereignty of God. How in the world would I have ever been able to complete grad school with either a man or baby in my life? Would I be able to pick up and go to weddings in various US states if I was married? Probably not.

Why not enjoy the NOW, instead of moping around for the future? Anyways, who knows what the future holds? It won't be all roses as I am pretty sure there will be a few thorns which I will encounter along the way. That's life. And so why not enjoy this veritable flower bed I am living in right now?

Good News, Men!

Tired of all the e-cards with flowers and sappy music?

Try Stuntmail.

(girls can send one too!)

Today, the Rabbit is going in for an oil change.

Spiderman 2 Movie Review


Spiderman 2 is a movie about redemption and the hero’s struggle with it. Can the hero find redemption? Can the hero be saved from his problems? Peter Parker is forced to come to terms with the consequences of his decisions in Spiderman. He kills his friend’s father, the Green Goblin, as Spiderman. He turns his back on a relationship with Mary Jane because he wants to protect her. His aunt is angry at Spiderman because she believes he is responsible for the death of her beloved husband, when in reality, Peter Parker holds himself responsible. It was his uncle’s death that caused him to make a commitment to be Spiderman, to use his abilities to help save people. This is the most important decision that he made in the first movie, and the second is the outworking of that choice.

**SPOILER**----------------------------------------------------------------------------

It is necessary for the hero, Peter Parker, to turn his back on all that in order to find out who he really is. He doesn’t realize that the “spidey” part of him is really who he is. It is not until he turns his back on the life of a superhero, and sees that NOT being Spiderman really doesn’t’ change his problems. I found the scene where Peter Parker enters the burning building to save a little child to be one of the most interesting parts of the film. He still feels the need to go into the burning building. Even without his powers, he HAS to go in and try to save the child. He is weak and barely accomplishes the task. It is interesting that the director has the child engage in the rescuing. Without the help of the child, Peter could not have accomplished it alone. This theme continues on in the film. When Spiderman is trying to save the train full of people, his identity becomes compromised. However, the people make sure he knows that they won’t tell anyone, and they then step in front of the very hurt Spiderman when the villain, Doc Ock, comes to take him away. His Aunt forgives him for the death of his uncle and she encourages him to continue being Spiderman. Later, when Mary Jane finds out that Peter Parker is really Spiderman, she also agrees to stay loyal to him and help him. The redemption of Spiderman is found through meaningful relationships. Spiderman no longer needs to face his problems alone as he has the support of his family, friends, and the people of New York City.

Though the typical superhero film is about the hero overcoming the villain, Spiderman 2 is about Spiderman overcoming his own failures and weaknesses. At first, he thinks he has to be the hero himself, but he realizes that he cannot. It is when he allows other people to see his weaknesses that he is saved. Spiderman 2 is a very relatable story with a powerful redemptive theme because it shows the weaknesses that humans all have, and that being superhuman won’t save a person from himself. It is the redemption found in relationship with others, something beyond you.

Joshua Blankenship has started a discussion on the whole question of whether "christian" should be an adjective.

It is an honest and interesting discussion, which if you happen to be a Christian, you might want to at least read.

The Top Ten of the Top 1000 Titles Owned by Libraries

How does this list compare to my library?

1. Bible--own and read
2. US Census--do not own and will never read
3. Mother Goose--do not own but have read
4. Divine Comedy--own but only partially read
5. Odyssey--own but not read
6. Illiad--own but not read
7. Huckleberry Fin--own and read
8. Lord of the Rings--own and read
9. Hamlet--own and read
10. Alice's Adventures in Wonderland--own and read

Own: 8 out of 10
Read: 5 out of 10

I guess I have a little reading to do, before continuing on to the rest of the thousand...

In the spirit of generic pop brands...

Diet Rite

Shasta

Has anyone tried this yet? I actually saw someone drinking this the other day.

And now, I'm curious.

It's time for an honest confession...

I work for a tech support company, and while I play one on TV, I will never truly be a tech. I just have to admit this to myself, get it out on the table and just be brutally honest with myself about this. And no matter how hard I try, I will never really reach the status of a "geek."

Though its fun to pretend and sometimes I get to travel the world in my role (Scotland, Boston, LA, San Diego, Orlando, Atlanta). So far, this summer's line up isn't as glamorous as last year, but I am looking forward to going to Denver for the 4th of July...

Flipstart

It may not be that great of a design, but a least someone is getting this whole mobile thing on the right track....

Moleskine City Notebook

...is probably one of the coolest things I have seen in a while. Not only does it have maps and key points of interest, but blank pages to journal and record, archive pages and more!

this fall, there will be a Seattle version!

Check it out...

Free Health Tip:

When dressing a wound such as a burn, do not put a Band-aid over the part of the wound which has blistered, for upon removing the Band-aid in order to apply more ointment, you will surely rip away more skin and therefore make the wound even worse.

I have 1800 emails in my Gmail inbox. I love Gmail.

Friday Driving to Work Adventure

Because of the light Friday traffic, I was about 15 minutes early on my way to work , so I decided to stop by Starbucks. Bad decision. I ordered my coffee, paid for it, and drove off ready for a big day at work. Until...

I decided to take a drink and qickly found that the lid wasn't on so tight and my grande americano spilled all ofer my right side, quickly soaked into the waist of my jeans and... OUCH! that burns!!

Needless to say, I did not get into a wreck, but I ended up with 2nd degree burns.

I guess I will be drinking iced americanos from now on.

PS. Happy St. Patrick's Day! To bad I didn't have a cold Guinness in the car to throw on top of the burning coffee.

How do you spell relief? E M A I L

I received this email today, and I quote:

Just a quick note of congratulations! You have passed your comprehensive
examination. Hope to see you at graduation. Blessings.

Thank God.

Thoughts while sitting in a hotel ballroom listening to a presenter...

Ok, so, can someone tell this presenter that text and pictures which are catywhompus are not really very creative and more annoying to the visual perceptions of the audience. I'm getting a crick in my neck.

Also, please tell her that the use of the Scissor Sisters as one of her examples just doesn't fit the demographic of this audience of international press.

And one more thing, if you can mention to her that her consant use of jazz hands is a little disctracting.

Thanks.

I'm a junkie:

http://grapesky.vox.com/ don't really use it

http://www.flickr.com/photos/grapesky/ use fairly often

http://regent.facebook.com/profile.php?id=215500549 don't really use it

http://www.myspace.com/grapesky use only when i get messages

http://www.virb.com/grapesky on pretty much every day, but i think its a current fad for me.

http://grapesky.blogspot.com/ use ALL the time, and probably will for a long time

http://grapesky.spaces.live.com/ rarely use

http://www.linkedin.com/profile?viewProfile=&key=7997306 use only when someone's trying to network

http://www.xanga.com/joonitree only have the account to comment on other people's blogs

http://joonitree.livejournal.com/ i can't remember why i signed up for this one. obviously, i have done nothing with it...

oh! and I almost forgot...

http://del.icio.us/joonitree

oh dear, another one...

http://www.amazon.com/gp/pdp/profile/ALMRHGUSTR7CU

and i love amazon and i buy stuff off it.

V I R B ° is Live!

I am joonitree at http://www.virb.com/grapesky.

I highly recommend killing your MySpace or Facebook and use V I R B ° instead.

Just Another Phase in Life?

My roomate made an observation today that our friends' blog habits are decreasing...I know that of late, I haven't posted as often as I normally do. Now, perhaps it is becuase the newness of blogging has worn off, but from my stat counter, I can tell that my readership, though small, is slowly growing. Now, should I be selfish and stop writing because I am bored with blogging or because I have so called "better" things to do? No, I cannot do this. I must push through the wall and activate my imagination once again to creative blogging. Otherwise, I will lose my audience and blogging will be just another one of the fads in my life like pogo stick jumping.

Did you know that I jumped on the pogo stick so much that there were thousands of little round marks on the sidewalk in front of my house in Portland? I wonder if those marks are still there? I wish I could remember my record of how many jumps I did, but I am pretty sure it was quite large.

Happy Friends:

Some of my friends just recently started courting, and I thought I would post a few pictures of them in case you may know them. They are pretty darn cute.

Amazing Grace is still playing, and if you have not seen it, you should.

Here are some local showing times in Seattle.

I took some time to update my links today. I deleted some that, though are still some of my favorites, needed to be retired for a while, and I added some of my new favorites.