Movie Recommendation

Hey everybody. For anyone who reads this blog, I saw a movie recently that I really love. It's a heart wrenching film, but it's beautiful. If you loved the wonderful movie "Life is Beautiful", then I think you'd appreciate this. It isn't funny, like that one, but it is extremely moving. Really, the best word for it is beautiful.


The movie is "The Boy in the Striped Pajamas." And that title really has many meanings. The story line goes like this: A small boy, the son of a Nazi soldier (a pretty high up one), and his family are moved to a house out in the countryside of Germany. From his bedroom window that boy notices what he assumes to be some strange farm off in the distance. His mother and father don't try to argue with him, but tell him to stop worrying about it. The boy's dream is to be a great explorer, and after exploring all the yard inside the big metal fence around the house, he becomes restless. One day he notices that the door to the back yard is open and he slips back there. He finds a store shed with a window in it the opens out into the woods and he slips through and goes exploring. He finds the farm, surrounded by high barbed fences, and just on the other side of the fence he finds a small boy like him. A strange boy. But, with no other friends, the young explorer keeps returning to visit the farm and the two boys become friends. Through the whole thing you see the world through the eyes of the innocent young boy, who doesn't really know what's happening. But we of course pick up on what is going on. It's intricate, and VERY well acted, believable, and deeply touching. The story has an entirely unexpected ending. It's not a fast paced tale, but it's riveting. I say you should go find a copy and watch it.

Ren. Fest weekend

This weekend I made another attempt at the KC Ren-fest. Interestingly enough, while the last time I went it was cold, raining, windy, and muddy, while I only had flip flops to wear, this week was hot and sunny and I had on a brand new pair of tennies. Yes. That's right. It's October and it was hot this week. In the upper 80's. So it was beautiful, if steamy, weather for attending the fest. I went down to Am and Nathans, and we, along with friend-couple of theirs, went down to Jo's. The next morning we got up and went to the fest and stayed there 'til late afternoon. It was great fun. The theme for this weekend was dogs, scots, and pirates. So there were dogs, bagpipes, kilts, and pirates everywhere. We managed to watch a jousting and get our faces painting (Jo and I did the latter). We each had a huge smoked turkey leg for lunch, and watched a falconer (wild bird) show. Along with a lot of other stuff. etc. etc. etc. Aye!

On the Apocrypha

Many Christians claim that the Book of Mormon, as expectedly God-given scripture, automatically indicates that Mormon's can't possibly believe in the Bible. Therefore, we can't really be Christians. To all those of us mormons who are asked about our belief in the Bible, we quickly recite the eighth article of faith (The Articles of Faith, History of the Church, Vol. 4, pp. 535-541). The key words, we say, are "as far as it is translated correctly." As a mormon who was raised away from the mass mormon bases of Utah or Idaho, this question was personally asked to me. My best friend in High School was Catholic and we discussed our religions fairly often. This topic of the Bible came up when we were considering having a Bible study together, and my friend wanted to use her modern language translation to study with. Upon further discussion on the subject I was surprised to find, for the first time in my recollection, that the mormon Bible has several differences from the Bible most Catholics use. One of the main difference is Apocrypha. Honestly, at that time in my life I had never even heard of the Apocrypha. There have been other times in my life since that encounter that the topic of those books has been brought up. In my Art History class at BYUI, while studying the art of the Renaissance and Baroque periods we came across a piece depicting a story from the Apocrypha. Each encounter with the topic has been a different experience, for I have had different knowledge available each time, but up until this point, I had never really done my own study into the LDS Church's proclaimed opinion on the subject. I knew, obvious to me from its absence in our Bible, that mormons didn't study the Apocrypha as my Catholic friend does. I also knew that there are many errors in it and that is why we don't study it as scripture, (remember the "as far as it is translated correctly" part). But apart from that, I really knew nothing significant. As I read through D&C 91 this past week, it hit me that I didn't really know why Joseph Smith hadn't translated the Apocrypha as part of his Bible tasks. Nor did I really ever let it sink in that the Apocrypha was anything more than an obscure piece of "supposed" historical documents that some other Christians claimed as scripture. As I looked into these topics I discovered several interesting things. The first is that the Apocrypha was widely considered part of the Bible in Joseph Smith's time. He was most likely raised on it, and certainly had it in the Bible he read (The Joseph Smith Translation: “Plain and Precious Things” Restored, David Rolph Seely). Though controversy on the books of the Apocrypha had begun almost 200 years earlier (at least), the Christian world was still reluctant to scrap them as "non-scipture" (D&C Institute Student Manual, Section 91, the Apocrypha). And that is when a few things occurred to me. 1) This was evidence of Joseph Smith's sincere and thorough study of the scriptures and Christianity, that he knew, even though he was "uneducated", that history debated the legitimacy of the books. And 2) It showed that Joseph Smith really studied the scriptures so much that he probably could identify the differences between their words and voice and the words and voice of the Apocrypha. He singled it out and thought to ask God about it. As I reread section 91, now with a greater appreciation for Joseph Smith, I began to notice a few other things. We are not commanded to not read the Apocrypha. As mormons we know that it is not entirely accurate or complete, but we also know that it isn't entirely wrong either. Instead, we are encouraged to be careful (D&C 91). And in the Student Manual, we are even cautioned to only study it when we have a fairly firm understanding of the doctrine and principles of our own scriptures. Reviewing this information has really opened my mind. I have gone and read in the Bible Dictionary, the Student Manual, and in several articles on LDS.org about the Apocrypha, and, though I do not know much more extensively about the history of our Church in relationship to the books, I do feel as though I understand the meaning of Joseph Smith's conversation with the Lord in section 91. I encourage others to go and read about this. It is enlightening and has helped me to see how our religion interacts with the rest of the Christian world. It also says a lot about human nature, and the hunt for true religion in the history of the world. This study has helped me to be more open minded and thoughtful about other Christian claims. It reminds me, that I do accept the Bible. As far as it is translated correctly. And all the that means.

Oi!

Ahoy, ye scalawags! 'Tis October-aye! Autumn! Coluerful naturrrre and frooosty mornin's! Not to mention, All Hallow's E'en! OoooOOoOoooOoOooooo!

Yesh.

Today I'm in a good mood! It's sunny! It's not too chilly out. And it's October! I miss September. But I'm excited fer Octoberness. Last Saturday we got started on decorating the grocery store. I spend a good hour stringing up fake cobwebs all over the place. Tonight we'll get a bit mer of dat dun. I love decorating for the holidays. Halloween itself has been a bit of a let down for me the last several years, and this one aims to not be too exciting either, but I love to decorate! It's the anticipation that makes it fun anyway, so if you hype the anticipation, you hype the experience.

So what else is happening right now.... hmm.... Well, I went down to KC two weekends ago, to visit my sister. We went to the Ren. Fest, but it got chilly and rained us out after only about half an hour, and so we left. I did help her paint her bathroom though. :) It's now a bright, soft, lush sea-foam pearl color. Goes great with her bright, candy colorful bathroom decor. It tones it down but helps make it fun!

Oh, and I officially have shoes now! FINALLY! I've been living on a my pair of high heels and pair of flip flops since the canoe trip. All that hiking and shoe-soaking and slugging through mud finally took out what was left of public appearance in my five-year-old tennis shoes. They were all ready really bad looking, but now the backs wearing through and the rubber soles are pulling away. They're just done for. And my flats? My lovely brown leather flats? Well, I literally walked holes into them this last semester. So I'd been on the lookout for shoes since before July. I didn't want expensive shoes, but I didn't want cheap shoes. So while in KC, we strolled by a shoe selection and I noticed $50 converse shoes on sale for $30. And that weekend alone they were an additional $10 off! I like converse shoes. Always have. So of course I got a pare. Fifty dollar shoes, for twenty dollars? No duh! :D

Well, this weekend my plan is to go BACK to KC. This time along with my sister Am and her husband. She and Nathan want to do the Ren. Fest. I actually didn't buy a ticket last time--when we got to the ticket office they gave us one ticket free--so I liked the idea of giving the fest another go. A real one. With real shoes. :) I hadn't actually planned on going back down, but Am really wanted me to, and even asked mom, and then came and informed me that I needed to come. I can live with that. ;)

The world is so beautiful right now! It's kinda scraggly looking in some places, but the colors and the evening shadows and the crisp, lively, if chilly, air! Mmmm! Hot chocolate! Cider! Fires! Holidays! I'm liking it!

Driving Me Crazy

Hola! Bonjourno! Salut!

I feel like it's been ages since I've actually been able to settle down somewhere. My semester ended in July and it took my four very crazy days to drive home. I left on a Saturday and got home the next Tuesday. It's a long story that consists of awesome times and please-shoot-me-in-my-sleep times. Yeah.

Well, and then I went down that next Friday and babysat my nephew. And then on Sunday I headed up with a couple of my siblings to Des Moines where we stayed with one of my brothers and his wife. The next day at 4 a.m. we got up and drove to Minnesota. We spent that week canoeing the BWWCA. It also was a very good and a frustrating time. I now have a three shade farmers tan (white shoulders, lightly tanned upper arms, and then dark lower arms--this is due to wearing a 3/4 length sleeved shirt the day I got the most sun.) I had a lot of fun on the trip and loved spending time with my siblings. I love the outdoors and outdoor adventures so the dirt and the sweat and the B.O. didn't bother me much. But by the second night I missed my bed tremendously. A solid rock bed and a constricting and slippery sleeping bag are only comfortable to a certain point. After driving back to Des Moines, we spent the night there again and then headed home the next day.

I was home for a week before I headed down to KC where I spent almost a week with my sister. That was fun, but, as always, living with a night-shift nurse completely throws off my sleeping schedule. Dramatically.

When I finally got home Friday evening (after driving through a "severe thunderstorm" and after being delayed by a tornado watch and whirring tornado alarm) it was in time to start preparing my little brother to head off to college. Due to a lack of funds in my bank account this coming semester I will not be able to go back to school in Idaho (instead I am staying in the midwest and taking online courses and working). So in more ways than usually, helping my brother pack up and get ready to head off to his first semester of college has been rather hard. But my mother decided that, as I had left some of my belongings in ID with some friends and I needed to retrieve them since I wasn't going to be going back there for a while, I should accompany her to drop my brother off at BYU, and then we'd go up to ID and collect my things before coming home. More driving.

Sigh.


............


I cringe when adults tell me I should just wait. Because if I think my life is busy and chaotic now, I will have not idea what's going on when I finally have a family to keep track of.

Something to think about.

Well, cheers.
-K

Half awake or half asleep?

Here we are again. It's after 1:30 a.m. and I'm waiting for paint to dry. My project isn't going too well, but I suppose that is to be expected because I'm half asleep. I wish I could pull out my blow-drier and speed this whole thing up, but hot air will warp this paint and ruin the whole thing, so.... we wait. And try to entertain ourselves and stay awake. At least my roommate Sarah is also still awake and working. But she's working, so she can't help entertain us. And if we were to try and entertain her, we'd be annoying. We as in me + you (my audience). Yes. You get 50% of the blame. Why? Because I feel like it. I'm not completely in my right mind right now, so I couldn't possibly take all that blame. That leaves you. Random person.

I have three final project, and a final test tomorrow. I have completed one whole class so far. I am done with work. After tomorrow I'll have two tests left and a make-up lecture. And then I'm done with school for the semester. Lovely.

I'm eating chocolate to give me energy and I think it's making my sick to my stomache because I'm too tired.

Blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah...........

Yeah. Moving to something more interesting now. Cheers.

-K

I guess it's time to buy new shoes...

So my shoes are... falling apart. My flats, my year-old flats, are dying. Well, one of them is. The other one is still fine. The other though, has a huge hole in the toe and a huge hole in the heel. The hole in the toe lets in all kinda of rocks and junk off the ground. Also, when I walk on tarred asphalt in the heat of the day, I come back with black toes. It's really sad, because I love these shoes. And it's wacky that one of the shoes is still in fine condition. I can see cracks on the soles though, where the holes appeared on the holey shoe. So it's bound to head in the same direction.

And then my tennis shoes are starting to get worn out too. The heels on the inside of the shoes is wearing back to the stuffing, and the rubber trim around the base of the shoes is coming loose from the shoe. Sad day.

I've been shopping around online, looking for new shoes. Simply put I HATE how expensive shoes are. But I have found some that I'm leaning toward. I have also found some that I'm not EVEN thinking about buying, but they look cool so I'm gonna share those too. Let me know what you think.

These are the flats that I am actually thinking about:


These are just fun ;) :