update

hey guys

i'm still alive.  i packed up my computer about two weeks ago and haven't yet arrived at my final destination. i'm moving into my place this weekend and so i should have a fairly full update up sometime by the middle of the week.

life is good. plj

Hooray It's Christmas

I really like the "other" verses of Christmas carols--you know, like you're out with a randomly gathered group of people ringing other randomly selected people's doorbells to sing them some songs (much like I, coincidentally enough, was last night), and after you finish the first verse, everybody just kinda hums except for the one person who actually knows verse two. Well, I'm not that person.

As evidence, I offer last night's adventuring (which is probably the only time Christmas caroling has ever involved trespassing for me): At first, I was doing pretty well, holding my own. In fact, they let me hold the music. So whenever we finished the first verse, I would switch songs, the guitar player would start the next song, and I knew all the words. Soon, though, it became obvious that, of my many skills, holding still is not one of them. So, at the behest of Guitar Guy, I was replaced as music holder.

At the next house, we sang "What Child is This?" a song which, I'm pretty sure, everybody loves but only kinda sorta knows the words. After struggling through the verse, we got to the chorus (aka the part I kinda know), and then--to my horror--jumped straight into verse two. Verse two???

Speaking of verse two, "Silent Night" has a verse two, too. One of the lines in verse two is glories stream from heavens afar. I could have sworn that the line was glories stream from heavens above. You know how when you start singing the wrong word you just kinda switch to the right word in the middle? Well, I do that at least, so several times last night I definitely sang glories stream from heaven's a bar.

Anyway, even though I don't really know them, I really love the other verses of Christmas carols. It's probably just because those songs are really well written in general, and since I haven't heard verse three of "O Holy Night" 72 000 times in my life, I actually listen to the words. The words to verse three (or two, depending who you talk to) of "O Holy Night," by the way, are:

Led by the light of Faith serenely beaming,

With glowing hearts by His cradle we stand.

So led by light of a star sweetly gleaming,

Here come the wise men from Orient land.

The King of Kings lay thus in lowly manger;

In all our trials born to be our friend.

He knows our need, to our weakness is no stranger,

Behold your King! Before Him lowly bend!

Behold your King, Behold your King.

Last night, after the caroling, a certain set of girls in our group sang this song a capella, each taking a verse. They did a great job, so much so that I wish that I had a recording of it, especially this verse (hint hint, Colleen...). I think what really hit me about this verse is how it just completely encapsulates the gospel message. We are now the wise men, drawn by the light of hope to give whatever we have to the King.

plj

december is here, and so am i

So, a few updates that are short. Very short, I guess, but stuff y'all would probably care to know.

1. I failed at NaNoWriMo this year. Sadpanda times, indeed. I'll have to try again next year.
2. I finished my senior paper. It's notbadokish. If you like reading 40 pages of boring, it's online over at Books & Papers. It's the first entry under papers, titled "Finding God's Agenda for Homosexual Students."
3. I defend said senior paper on Thursday afternoon. I have no idea what that means, but I'm pretty sure it'll be a gimme putt.
4. I will be done with college a week from Monday. That's just crazy stupid.
5. I will be moving out to El Segundo, California, during the first week of 2008. If any of y'all know anybody out there who wants to throw money my way in exchange for some work, let me know. ;)
6. I love Miles Davis, green tea, and Febreze NOTICEables air fresheners.
7. I plan on writing much more once school is fading into the background...it's scary how soon that is.

Anywho, in the meantime,

Peace, love, and joy to you all.

NaNoWriMo Update

10 000 words.

7 000 in the past 24 hours.

A Passage from NaNoWriMo 07

I'm about 9 000 words in right now, and I really enjoyed this. It's a retelling of some stuff from the first book (which is over on Books & Papers if you want to read it). Oh, and don't worry, most of the novel isn't quite this sap-saturated...

"The night was perfect, the stars were perfect, the ring was perfect, the air was perfect, and (as always) Sophronia was perfect. The waves crashing below us provided a soothing, rhythmic background of soft sounds while the fireworks exploding above us illuminated the most beautiful eyes God himself has ever sought to make as I descended to one knee and removed the ring from my pocket. I told Sophronia how much I truly loved her, how I had always loved her, and how I always would love her. I asked her to marry me.
"She said no.
"She left that place with me on that hill and disappeared back into her palatial life, a life which I somehow had always known could not be ours together. I, I remained there on the crest of that hill, and — though not moving — descended into the deep, dark gloom that captures the night and makes it frightening and cold and alone. I remained there — on one knee — as the world melted away into a horrific melodrama of the grandest of possible failures in my grandest of possible adventures. I remained there — still holding the ring up — as though the stars themselves would accept my love and swoop down and recall me to the heavens above, the archetypical Greek, a tormented lover whose tragic failings had merited him a constellation of his own."
I paused here. I always must pause here.

"Eventually, though, eventually I released the ring, letting it drop back into the soil from which its gold and its jewels had been wrought, hoping that the next discoverer of that ring would have better fortune with his love than I had had with mine."

plj

A Quick Note

What this all feels like.

Exhibit A

Exhibit B

Exhibit C

plj

The Complete Timothy O Margheim Collection...

...is now available online over at Books and Papers, a rather cleverly titled site I'd just set up. Mainly I set it up as a way to get the first complete draft of my senior paper (about youth ministry with adolescent homosexuals) available to anybody who wants to read it. And maybe even give me some editorial pointers... :)

plj