What to say

What can I blog about after all of that?

After having watched "Flowers for Algernon" put on by our school theatre department...After having talked with some good friends and just being relational...After having looked up at the sky and been speechless...After having no words to convey my thanks to God for all He has done...After having words of thanks pour out of me: my life, my friends, this school, the beautiful night, the things God has been doing in my life; and still none of it can fully express the jumble of praise inside...

After having spent time on my back, looking up at the stars and praying: for the young men on the baseball team, for my wonderful roommate, for her good friend...After having lay silent in the cold night under God's handiwork...After having walked back to the dorm and realizing my own weakness and asking for God's strength...After God's control over the songs that are played right now on my iTunes: All The Words by Kutless and I'm Speechless by Avalon.

Nothing I say will come out right. There is nothing that can express how I feel...

"I will try to explain these feelings that are true
So looking to the sky I will sing and from my heart to You I bring
All of the words in all of my life that could never explain and never describe
All of my love, which is nothing to hide so I lift up my hands and I worship
I worship You...
By Your grace You let me come talk to You
It's not that I'm worthy I thank you Jesus
For the love that You have shown"

"I'm speechless
I've tried to write the song
I've searched my heart for phrases
But they only catch a glimpse of all You are...
When it comes to You I'm speechless
Nothing holds a candle to the wonder of Your love
I'm amazed by Your grace
Your forgiving embrace
And I'm finding words could never be enough"

Links today

Dance with all your might - I don't have this gene, but I think it's cool that some people do - I think it shows how God makes people for a purpose, with special skills and abilities. I love it when science confirms it. I wonder if people with this gene avoid Taylor?

Third Day with the David Crowder Band - Tonight. At Ball State. I wasn't in the dungeon till 2am finishing my programming assignment for Friday for nothing.

A Hawaii school in the news - I had friends that were going to go to this school after they graduated out of the elementary school we were in. It was a good school- very prestigious. Had I been in Hawaii beyond sixth grade, my parents would have made me go to a private school as well, but Kamehameha Schools wouldn't have been an option for a haole girl like me.

Why I don't play modern video games - Reason #87. Actually, I've been playing Riven lately, mostly because of my roommate's urging, and I spent an hour or two playing my favorite old console game, Super James Pond. (I've looked around the internet for a good link about it, and, apparently the majority of the world didn't like it as much. Can't find anything good. The best I can do is leave you with the main character, James Pond himself )

I want

I want to live a social life. I want to be able to form friendships, laugh with other, eat with others, cook with others, grow with others. I want to be around people all the time, through good and bad. I want to interact all the time, to talk and to listen. I want to always have someone around me, even if just in silence. I want to learn from others, teach others, help others and be helped. I need to be around people- that is how I survive.

On being a woman

One of my favorite books is Let Me Be a Woman by Elizabeth Elliot. It is motherly advice to her soon-to-be-married daughter on life and marriage, and is a short read packed-full of wisdom. Some may say it is a bit old fashion, but I think it is beautiful- describing an ideal relationship and, for me, in a way, gives me permission to be feminine.

A couple weekends ago, I attended the Indiana Women in Computing conference (InWIC), which allowed me to be around, for a day, a lot of very smart women. I loved it- I was in a group where I didn't feel like I stuck out like a sore thumb for being female, and yet could "talk geeky" without getting blank stares or funny looks. I felt like I could communicate more freely, that I didn't have to prve myself before being taken seriously. I was also in awe of all the masters and doctorate students and professors- I've never had a female role model in my field, so to see so many smart women working on such cool projects got me pretty excited. Talking to the undergrad girls also made me realize, although I'm not going to Purdue or MIT, I'm getting as good or better a computer science education. I appreciated that.
Check out the pictures - Here's the whole group, I'm on the far left of the back row, next to my friend from high school's girlfriend (from Depauw). The lady on the right here is a Taylor grad who teaches CS at Ivy Tech in Lafayette. The ladies in this picture are, respectively, from Lilly, Microsoft, and Google. (As a side note, I got my resume to each of them, and got an email today from the Google lady asking for my transcript. Hooray.) The lady on the left of this picture is Geri, who I travelled with from Taylor. Oh, and here's an awful picture of me during the BOF session on women in computer science (I talked too much during this session, probably. The photographer caught me when I wasn't talking, apparently.) Here's a better picture of me while I was being crafty making a very cool necklace.
That was the cool part about this. I could sit through a talk about a complex algorithm for secure sharing of personal data, or development of applications for PDAs, then, and hour or so later, eat ice cream and listen to girls giggle about boys and be crafty and make jewelry. I loved it.

And, of course, Valentine's Day was Tuesday. Another glorious day to be a woman. Josh & I cooked dinner, and he got me a DOZEN beautiful roses, as well as a movie I've been wanting and a sweet card. We watched the movie & took it easy for the evening. It was great.

Big Ben is from Findlay, OH

I had another plan for my blog today, but being from Findlay, I feel the need to let the world know that Ben Roethlisberger is from Findlay, OH. (In case you don't know, Ben is the quarterback for the Steelers, who are playing in the Super Bowl Sunday.) My small town of about 40,000 has gone crazy with talk about Big Ben and the Steelers and the Super Bowl. Here are some links about the man himself and his life in Findlay. It seems like that's all our newspaper can cover right now!

• Findlay Courier
• Articles about his career
• We are Ben's hometown

Some interesting "personal" stories about Ben

• My brother has played basketball against Ben when he would come back and join the high schoolers during open gym. He dunked over my brother
• I watched a high school girl's basketball game last year and sat maybe 8 feet from Ben (he was watching his younger sister play)
• All those at FHS homecoming football game were honored to see Ben return to his former school and stand with the team as they played. I got some decent pictures =)

Ok, enough bragging. I just had to let you know.

Best blonde joke ever

Apologies to Kristen, I have to point to Ashley's post with an awesome blonde joke.

This is kinda a cop-out Thursday post. But worth it :-)