Albert Einstein was a genius.

Albert Einstein was a genius.

Case and point, he said this: "I believe in intuition and inspiration. Imagination is more important than knowledge. For knowledge is limited, whereas imagination embraces the entire world, stimulating progress, giving birth to evolution."

There's Always Potter

So since I got home tonight, I've been cramming/studying extensively for an editing test I'm set to take tomorrow as part of the application process for an internship in Salt Lake. I decided to take a quick break to unwind a little and wanted to page through a book--something I could pick up and read a few pages from the middle of the book and relax a little. I scanned my bookshelf, none of my books looking appealing at all, when I spotted the shrine on top of my bookshelf.

Also known as my Harry Potter collection.

I smiled fondly while I gazed on the solid blocks of colors on the spines of the British editions. I felt my heart ease and my mind relax.

I've known it for a few years now, but Harry Potter has never failed to give me a boost when I need it. It's nice to know that it's still there for me.

Now, I just need to channel the spirit of Hermione and I will kick trash on this test.

Life as I know it

This is why I love NNWM: ten days into the month, and I'm two full days of the expected word count, I'm nearly done with the shirt I'm making in my sewing class, my Vic Lit professor cancelled one of our assignments and postponed the other (from being due in November to being due during finals week), my dishes are clean (my room will be too after this weekend), I'm up to date on homework and readings, I still have time to hang out with that rugged bear-wrestler of a man I call my boyfriend, I helped a girl who speaks English as a second language with a paper for her class, I spent time with my rad family last weekend, and Thanksgiving is in two weeks.

So yeah, life is busy, but it's awesome, and I wouldn't have it any other way.

A Little Out of Control

Maybe this is normal and it just seems super expensive to me for some unknown reason, but for the month of September my combined gas and electric bill was over $80. And that seems like a LOT.

Especially considering that when I lived at Cinnamon Tree, I was usually paying about about $9.00 for utilities.

Basically I'm just sad because my bank account is looking a little sickly these days. I should just set up a cot in the library and just live there.

Weird

It's really weird for me to get on facebook and look at pictures of my friends who don't go to BYU and see that their college experience is waaaaaaay different than my college experience.

And frankly, I prefer mine.

(P.S. Less than two days before NaNoWriMo. Brace yourselves.)

Not Quite the Same...

As you can see, I've made some aesthetic changes to my blog (though I will be the first to admit I'm not quite as handy with blog design as my favorite sister-in-law is). And I like the changes. It's very fall-y.

But there's a problem. There are some aspects of the design I'm just not too chuffed about. The spacing between the letters on the headers and titles, the size of the header at the top, etc. Just things like that. And this wouldn't be a problem at all only I've been exposed to InDesign.

InDesign is a magical adobe layout program in which I could change the spacing between the letters and the sizes of my boxes. I had five million fonts to chose from and I had actual font families with designed bold-face and italic text (not what everyone thinks is bold-face and italic). InDesign spoiled me when I'm designing things, and now it's just not the same...

I don't understand

I was catching up on the news on Yahoo! just now when I read the following in an article about Mitt Romney:

Romney was followed to the stage by Bryan Fischer, a director of the American Family Association, known for inflammatory remarks against homosexuality and "non-Christian religions," which he has said include Mormonism.

"The next president of the United States needs to be a man ... of sincere authentic genuine Christian faith," he said, in a jab at Romney.

Fischer said the next U.S. president must deny evolution, stop government assistance for the poor, veto any increase in the debt ceiling and "treat homosexual behavior not as a political cause at all, but as a threat to public health."

He called Islam the greatest long-term threat to U.S. liberty. "Every single mosque in America is a potential recruiting or training cell for Islamic terror," Fischer said.

So here are me things I don't understand. How can a man profess to be Christian and be so obviously NOT Christ-like? And for another matter, since when has the president needed to be Christian at all? Since when was that a requirement? Don't misunderstand me, of course, I very much appreciate having a leader in office who supports my ideas and beliefs, but there are plenty of good people in the world who aren't Christian.

And while I (in my admittedly limited knowledge of things) don't think we should be raising the debt ceiling either, I think everything else Fischer was quoted as saying is complete poo. The government should stop giving assistance to the poor? Correct me if I'm wrong, but I'm pretty sure there's this bit in the New Testament in which Christ advocates the giving of assistance to the poor. When we're in the service of our fellow man, we're only in the service of our God. We need to have charity for the poor, not cut them off. And while I think perhaps we need to overhaul our welfare system and get some things straightened out, I don't think we should just leave people to starve on the streets either.

And can I just say that labeling the issue of same-sex marriage as a matter of "public health" seems a mite ridiculous? Personally, I don't think it's really a political issue either, but a moral one. While people may bash on political candidates for taking stances on purely moral issues, I think those politicians should own up to what they're really doing rather than hide behind the excuse that it's a matter of public health. If he's talking about the spread of AIDS or HIV, straight people can get it too. He may as well try to outlaw pre-marital sex because of "public health." And even if I think perhaps that would save a lot of people a lot of grief, the fact of the matter is the government doesn't really have the right to restrict our agency like that. If people want to make that choice, then fine. If you don't support it, also fine. But own up as to why you really don't support it rather than hiding behind a paltry excuse.

And as for his last point about Islamic mosques being potential terrorist breeding grounds? Give me a break. This country was founded on the idea that men could chose to worship how they would, and the minute the government starts deliberately targeting religious institutions within the country is the very same minute we need to take a long hard look at who we're putting into office.

Really, this article just really makes me hope that anyone who has two neurons to rub together can see that this Fischer man is very much lacking in qualities that would qualify him for any leadership position.