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Hermiting It Up

The past few days have been cold and rainy. Hibernation weather. All I want to do is stay inside and move as little as possible. Mostly, I've managed to do exactly that.

Call Me Cassandra

When Google and Facebook finally join forces and then morph into one of the dreaded Beasts of the Apocalypse, all I can say is, don't come crying to me.

Facebook Seeps onto Other Websites

Hmm. "Seeps" sure sounds promising. And how about this intriguing quote:

Analysts say Facebook’s desire to spread its tentacles across the Web could run into privacy hurdles, as it will require the company to share increasing amounts of personal information about its users with other sites.

I don't know, what do you think? Does this seven-headed Dragon make me look like Facebook, honey?

Honey?

¿Cómo se dice...?

In a (probably misguided, certainly naive) attempt to brush up on my Spanish before heading to Buenos Aires in June, I decided to watch some Spanish TV today. And yes, I know that's #115 of stuff of white people like, so don't bother to tell me. Instead, simply bask in the irony of the fact that one of the first commercials that flashed onto the screen as I settled into my couch was one touting the benefits and ease of a teach-yourself language program. For English.

Texting for Dummies

OK, so you know how when you're texting, your phone is usually smart enough to figure out what word you're trying to type? Well, then there's my phone. A member of the Blackberry family, you might think it would be the Stephen Hawking version of the kid who wins the spelling bee, but as it turns out, you'd be wrong. Because the truth is, my phone thinks that the word "Oh" should be "Pg". And I don't know why. What I do know is that it's really annoying to have to go back and delete "pg" and type "oh" again every single time I want to say "oh."

But even worse than substituting nonsense words for real ones is substituting nonsense words that are made up of real words, so that they almost kind of mean something — something really weird. For example, one time a friend messaged me to ask what I was up to. I sent her a text that said, and I quote: "boyhung at the moment." Now, that sounds... well, worrisome to say the extreme least. Of course, what I had actually typed was "NOTHING at the moment", but I had hit "send" reflexively when I came to the end of typing, and only saw the mistake as the message was being irretrievably sent. I stared at the word, then checked the keys on my Blackberry Pearl. Lo and behold, the same keys that bear the letters for "nothing" do indeed also spell "boyhung". And the question of why my phone would think that the latter word is the better choice for a sentence written in English remains a mystery that probably won't ever be the subject of a Discover Channel special, but which nevertheless haunts me to this day.

The icing on the cakewreck of this story is that I started frantically texting my friend again to explain that my phone was not, in fact, as smart as I could wish, and that I really, truly wasn't boyhung (whatever that might be), but then I decided to just call her because texting was taking too long.

Yes, I know. The irony.

I Know, I Know

Yes, it's been ages (once again) since I updated this blog. You all should be used to that by now, though. So I will forgo the apologies and you know what, let's never mind what I've been up to for the past month since being laid off because believe me, even I'm not interested. Let's start with where I am now.

If you want to get really specific, I'm sitting at a desk in my hotel room in Grand Rapids, MI, sipping on coffee that I suspect may be substandard, but since I'm usually a tea drinker, I can't be sure. I needed the extra jolt of caffeine, however, since it was a late-ish night last night* and I had to get an early start this morning. Because I'm attending the Festival of Faith and Writing at Calvin College this weekend, and the fun starts at 8:30a.m. today.

I got here yesterday, and I have to say, the opening lecture by poet Scott Cairns was so good, I felt kind of sorry for everyone who had to present after him, because man, he set the bar pretty high. I'd give you some highlights from his talk, but somehow I managed to lose my notes from his session. And if this comes as a surprise to anyone, you must be new to the blog. (Welcome!)

But it doesn't matter, because I don't have much time to write now anyway, since my ride will be here in 15 minutes to take me over to the conference. So I'll just leave you with a Scott Cairns quote that I found, which kind of, sort of sums up the gist of his brilliant lecture:

I pray that the American church will one day—sooner than later—overcome its addiction to narrow certainties. Thereafter, its people might recover a taste for enormity.
—Scott Cairns (from an interview in The Other Journal

(I'm really, really mad that I lost my notes.)

I want to tell you more, but oh dear, look at the time. Hopefully later! Til then, kisses from your friendly neighborhood frogg princess...


* Being over 30, I define "late" as anytime after 11pm; and yes I know, that's sad),

Speaking of Sisyphean Enterprises...

...just try getting a live person on the line at the Employment Development Department. Gah.