wish i was here

Well, I posted my card today that I made yesterday.
I'm not happy with what I wrote in it though. I really suck at the insides of greeting cards (interesting image there...) I never know what to say. How do you cram all your excitement and goodwill and hugs into a little rectangle of paper 10cmx14cm? Can anyone do it?
Sometimes I feel like just affixing a postscript, 'dear such-and-such, please take to heart hours of careful work and put the stilted motto on the shelf, not the other way around.'

In similar news, I love this verse from Psalm 71. I know exactly what the Psalmist means.
"My mouth will tell of your righteousness,
of your salvation all day long,
though I know not its measure." Psalm 71:15 (NIV)

Yesterday, at uni, there was a door. Today there is a wall.
I knew they were remodelling the bookshop, but still, it's disconcerting when doors go disappearing on you.

Huzzah!!!

Alleliua's Current Obsession is two whole weeks old. Let us celebrate with interpretive dance.

(Pause for interpretive dance.)

It's been a reasonable two weeks, on the whole. I knocked over an assignment, got a cool new book and sunnies, saw some family, did some sleeping (but not enough), and I made curry. I'm sure more happened than that. And it has been good, even if I've been eating out of vending machines too much (just because it's a time-honoured uni tradition doesn't mean it's good; actually, how many time-honoured uni traditions are good? Whining, complaining, getting drunk and leaving everything to the last minute are the uni traditions that spring to mind, and they are even worse than excessive ex-vending machine eats.) Hmm. And I really don't have a life, but I knew that already.

Plus, I read a bunch of Psalms, which is also good.

Tea for the Tillerman

I'm obsessed with Extras. It's one of the best things about Wednesday nights, and I heap scorn on those who watch House or Heroes instead. I never watched The Office, strangely enough, but I love Extras. Took me a couple of episodes to warm up to it, but then I started laughing my little socks off, and missing an episode of the new season is almost physically painful. (Okay, hyperbole.) Last night it had Ian McKellen. He was awesome. Never expected to be a huge fan of 'painful pause' comedy, but here I am. (BTW, Weird Al on Spicks and Specks just before was also very shiny.)
And, proving that some of my obsessions look ridiculous in juxtaposition, I read Psalm 63 today and (as Kat would say, as Steve would say, as Kat would say) it rocks my socks. Here are the first eight verses, TNIV of course.

You, God, are my God,
earnestly I seek you;
I thirst for you,
My whole being longs for you,
in a dry and parched land
where there is no water.
I have seen you in the sanctuary
and beheld your power and your glory.
Because your love is better than life,
my lips will glorify you.
I will praise you as long as I live,
and in your name I will lift up my hands.
I will be fully satisfied as with the richest of foods;
with singing lips my mouth will praise you.
On my bed I remember you;
I think of you through the watches of the night.
Because you are my help,
I sing in the shadow of your wings.
I cling to you;
your right hand upholds me.

Psalm 59:16-17

I will sing of your strength,
in the morning I will sing of your love,
for you are my fortress,
my refuge in times of trouble.
You are my strength, I sing praise to you;
you, God, are my fortress,
my God on whom I can rely.

Psalm 59:16-17 (TNIV)

Meaningful, Trivial, and Hyperventilating

In the spirit of this blog which is fast becoming apparent, today I bring you lots of pictures again. And the obsessions are:

Meaningful: Nehemiah. Isn't it shiny? I suspect it's because it's written in the first person, and because it's not a book of the Bible I've concentrated on a lot before. I found it much more dynamic than Esther, which I've read a few times. Very cool. Take a look. (And Ezra too.)

Trivial: My luvverly new Sim I made, Katina. She's a teen, and the only sim I've made in weeks that I'm happy with. I love her nose; it has character : )

here she is without makeup, and with makeup.

here she is, looking glam.

here she is, two different casual looks.

And, hyperventilating: my new book! (Mmm, hardback-a-licious...)

Basically, even I'm not touching it until I can get it covered: The slipcover is almost immaculate, which is a minor miracle in a book with a white cover. And now, the story of why I'm hyperventilating:

In Australia, sometimes we get bad editions of good books. Sometimes we don't, like the Ladies of Grace Adeiu, and sometimes we do, like Neil Gaiman's Fragile Things, which only came out in a (rather expensive) paperback, without the cool transparent slipcover and the broken butterfly wings. With Good Omens, so far as I can tell, until recently everyone had to put up with a paperback. And then the new edition came out, with sexy variant covers that have the same ISBN. Which basically means that, if you order the book over the net or through a bookshop, it's lucky dip as to which cover you get. Borders Books here had the black cover; I wanted the white one. Plus, their copies were a bit dilapidated and yuk.

Luckily, I got a helpful staff member who pointed me to Pulp Fiction in Brisbane, who happened to have a copy with the white slipcover sitting on the shelf. So I bought it. It cost a bit more, but it's worth it to have the book with the cover I want, in decent condition. *squee* : )

Turns out I'm a lucky duck. Of the roughly 12 copies Pulp Fiction ordered in, only 2 were the white cover.

(Edited to add: So now I can give my held-together-with-contact-and-love paperback copy to my cousins, who I lent it to and then had to steal it back from.)

1 Chronicles 29:10b-13

"Praise be to you, Lord,
the God of our father Israel
from everlasting to everlasting.
11Yours, Lord, is the greatness and the power
and the glory and the majesty and the splendour
for everything in heaven and on earth is yours.
Yours, Lord, is the kingdom;
you are exalted as head over all.
12Wealth and honour come from you;
you are the ruler of all things.
In your hands are strength and power
to exalt and give strength to all.
13Now, our God, we give you thanks,
and praise your glorious name."

That's from my TNIV Bible. I especially love verse 11 right now.