Not quite a sunflower!

Today I bought myself a single red rose. It's something I do occasionally. Roses are my favourite flower, and the deep red rose -- almost maroon -- always draws my eye. Perhaps due to its associations with romantic love.

For some reason having a red rose sitting in a crystal vase on my desk speaks to me of hope. It soothes my soul in some way, acting as a reminder that there's beauty in the world all around me, if I choose to look. It whispers to me that if God could put that much attention and detail into a single lovely flower, how much more must He care about me. I can almost imagine His potter's hands shaping each delicate petal, pausing every once in awhile to run His fingers over the soft velvety surface.

And think about it: a flower doesn't have to do anything, just be. It just is. Here today and gone tomorrow, yet it brings such joy to the heart. So I'm reminded that I don't have to do anything. I'm God's child and He looks at me with joy. He loves me. Just as I am.
 
 
The Lord your God is with you,
He is mighty to save.
He will take great delight in you,
He will quiet you with his love,
He will rejoice over you with singing.
Zephaniah 3:17

A tiny miracle

I don't understand how anyone who has held a baby can believe there is no God.

Hidden power

When Sivin (my pastor) first showed us this video in August 2008, it nearly brought me to tears. It demonstrates to me the power of words: words can be used for good or evil, to build up or tear down. I've always believed that a single word can make a world of difference to a person, whether positive or negative. In my experience, sometimes the most casual, throw-away statement remains in a person's consciousness for years. I've met people who told me, "You said such-and-such" and I don't even remember saying it.

I think it's important to be careful with our words, because they contain so much hidden power. We've all experienced this -- when what was meant to be a teasing jab felt like a dagger going clean through your heart. A bit melodramatic, but yeah. Conversely, the right word, uttered at the right time, can be truly life-giving.



You, by Amena Brown

Lunchtime adventure

When I was preparing to go out for lunch with KW this afternoon, I thought, Hey! Why not wear one of those shoes that haven't seen the light of the day in awhile?

It seemed like a good idea till I had parked my car and was walking to the lunch venue. Then things started falling apart... literally.



I made it into the restaurant, found my table, and tried to inspect the shoes without looking like I was inspecting them -- especially as KW was already seated and waiting for me. With a sense of chagrin and reluctant amusement, I realised I'd never make it out of there in those shoes.

After lunch, a request for a plastic bag met with blank looks from the waiter, so I had to show him the shoes and explain why I wanted a bag. Of course I could have simply walked off and left them under the table, but I didn't think that'd be very nice! Meanwhile, KW was aghast at my intention to walk out of the place barefoot. But in my experience, if you do anything with aplomb and chutzpah, you can get away with a lot. No one will notice. If you act awkward, that's when you draw attention to yourself. Besides, I knew all the floor surfaces would be either tiled or cemented; the only somewhat rough surface to be negotiated would be the road.

At least now I have one less pair of shoes to feel guilty about not wearing!

Eureka moment

One of the challenges of not having had teachers' training is not being so aware of some pedagogical matters. Things like Bloom's Taxonomy, for example.


(Click image for larger view)

Like a lot of sociological stuff, it seems like common sense and a smart person -- or, *cough* teacher *cough* -- would instinctively apply this. Logically you know that recall is not enough; students need to understand, not simply memorise, and they need to be able to apply what they've learnt. And, following that, they need to build on that knowledge, using it as a base for comparing and judging other information, critiquing and drawing conclusions.

It's quite cool sometimes how these scientists break everything down and manage to explain it. Although it can also be frustrating because they can seem a little obsessed with details. The traditional way of teaching/learning -- theory first, then application and practice -- ought to be effective because if a student understands, he should sail through the practical side of things, simply applying whatever he has already learnt; but I think if we do the practice first, then learn the theory, you really have lightbulb moments. Like, aha! So that's why this is the way it is!

I love those aha moments. Can totally understand why Archimedes jumped out of his bathtub yelling eureka!

Tabbing away

Err... oops?

I forgot to add yesterday that when I click on links in Firefox 3.6, it's disorienting to find new tabs opening right next to the active tab rather than at the end of all the current open tabs. I'm still running Firefox 3.5 in the office but my home PC has the latest version, since I just did a fresh install of everything.

Tech news and gripes from the Sunflower.

Some geeky stuff to bore all my poor long-suffering readers to tears:

1. My system tray is sending up an "Ethernet: A network cable is unplugged" pop-up every 10 seconds or so. It is BLOODY ANNOYING. I unchecked the notifications thingy in Network Connection - Properties but it is still doing that. If the connection is dropping, it seems to be recovering fast because I don't notice any problems surfing the Net. Not sure if it is something I ought to be worried about.


2. PC reformats are so annoying. The Asus PQ5L motherboard comes bundled with Realtek ALC1200 audio and I'm having trouble getting the mic volume to behave. I had problems the last round too but of course by now I can't remember what I did to get it to work. The volume's so low that the graph thingy in Audacity is flat. Gaaah. Realtek takes over all the mic controls so you have to go through their Audio Manager instead of using the WinXP controls. *tears hair out*


3. Managed to successfully edit an animated gif in Gimp yesterday and feel very proud of myself :p  Not used to working in layers (I use Irfanview for simple cropping & resizing, and Photofiltre for other image editing) but I looked at an online tutorial on how to create an animated gif and from there, managed to edit the one I had. Woohoo!


4. Have been researching free mind-map software and comic strip generators for work. Comic strip generators all tend to be browser-based but there's quite an array of mind-mapping apps out there, both software and browser-based. I get excited when I see a good app that's both pretty and easy to use. *feels super geeky all of a sudden*


5. In a shocking development, Erna, my friend and unofficial tech support for my only remaining self-hosted blog (as opposed to blogs like this one being hosted by Blogger) has switched to Movable Type. She kept extolling the wonders of Wordpress to me and scoffing at me for sticking to MT, which I've used since mid-2003. Well, she moved off WP, gave Expression Engine a try and is now running on MT. This amuses me greatly.