Category: Uncategorized

The Best Place

Shannon KayLeave a comment

We have a certain responsibility, I think, as Christians not to just say vaguely “She’s in a better place.” I don’t think that is enough anymore. Even the unbelievers say the same without really believing it. What do they really think their loved one has gone?

We know differently. We know that She has not just gone to “a better place”, but to the best place. That we were designed in God’s image, destined for eternity. Death is sad, not for the dying, but for the living. I think we all know that much.

As we, who are in the Shadowlands say…

Shannon KayLeave a comment

“There was a real railway accident,” said Aslan softly. “Your father and mother and all of you are – as you used to call it in the Shadowlands – dead. The term is over: the holidays have begun. The dream is ended: this is the morning.”

And as He spoke He no longer looked to them like a lion; but
the things that began to happen after that were so great and
beautiful that I cannot write them. And for us this is the
end of all the stories, and we can most truly say that they
all lived happily ever after. But for them it was only the
beginning of the real story. All their life in this world
and all their adventures in Narnia had only been the cover
and the title page: now at last they were beginning Chapter
One of the Great Story which no one on earth has read: which
goes on forever: in which every chapter is better than the
one before.

This afternoon, my great grandmother, known to us as Grandma Neva passed away. She was 93 years old. This morning we learned that she had had a heart attack and was in the hospital. She lives in Iowa so that’s pretty far from us. My great uncle went to her, as he lives in Minnesota. I recieved no news all day, and assumed no news was good news, which turned out to be accurate. A couple of hours ago, around 6:00 maybe, my grandmother told me that Neva had passed. I hugged her and went back into my room where I cried and pulled books from my shelf. My Bible first, then a slight panic attack when I couldn’t find my copy of The Last Battle, then the pulling of my Daily C.S. Lewis book.

Pink and Brown

Shannon KayLeave a comment

Last week I took the train up to San Luis Obispo where my best childhood friend has been living for school and from there we drove to her Oregon to stay with her great aunt for a few days. It was a fun trip visiting a new place with no sales tax. Then we drove back and I took the train home early the next morning.

I knew we were getting new carpet when I was gone so before I left, I had to get everything out of my room before I left.

I had a class that night the day I got back.

I had asked my mom if she could paint an old dresser that was in my parents’ garage for me while I was gone, and she surprised me by painting my room. She did it in pink and brown with three of the walls painted tan, and the wall with the window in a soft pink. It’s kind of neopolitan ice cream colors. The carpet is a nice neutral sort of beige color. they had also moved my bed under the window but otherwise the room was still pretty much empty.

So of course, the rest of the weekend was spent planning where things in my room would go; I went all out with scale diagrams and everything, and I needed window coverings so I was looking at those and the dresser wasn’t done being painted, etc.

So anyway, today I got clothes in the dresser and books on the shelf. I’m still putting things away and going through things. They’re basically in groups of keep, ebay, yard sale, give away, or toss.

I’ll try to post pictures of my room when it’s done.

I also started classes this week and they were all online, but required a first class meeting.

Going Wild

Shannon KayLeave a comment

I was just listening to my Narnia audiobooks while I was working on some things, and I noticed this passage.

“Wouldn’t it be dreadful if some day, in our own world, at home, men started going wild inside, like the animals here, and still looked like men, so you’d never know which were which?” – Lucy, Prince Caspian by C.S. Lewis

It jumped out at me so, that I remembered another passage further on in the series, that is related.

What followed was rather horrible. Tirian felt quite certain (and so did the others) that the Cat was trying to say something: but nothing came out of his mouth except the ordinary, ugly cat-noises you might hear from any angry or frightened old Tom in a backyard in England. And the longer he caterwauled the less like a Talking Beast he looked. Uneasy whimperings and little sharp squeals broke out from among the other Animals.

“Look, look!” said the voice of the Bear. “It can’t talk. It has forgotten how to talk! It has gone back to being a dumb beast. Look at its face.” Everyone saw that it was true. And then the greatest terror of all fell upon those Narnians. For every one of them had been taught – when it was only a chick or a puppy or a cub – how Aslan at the beginning of the world had turned the beasts of Narnia into Talking Beasts and warned them that if they weren’t good they might one day be turned back again and be like the poor witless animals one meets in other countries. – The Last Battle by C.S. Lewis

Friday’s Feast

Shannon KayLeave a comment

Appetizer
Did you sleep good last night? yes, but my transfer counselor woke me up by calling at 9:30

Soup
What is your current computer desktop image? tinkerbell

Salad
When was the last time you planted something, what was it and where did it go? on mother’s day my mom wanted to plant flowers, so we went to home depot and got some flowers and dug holes and planted them in front of her house. I think they’re mostly still alive.

Main Course
What’s your favorite condiment? ranch dressing

Dessert
Share a quote that you like, for whatever reason. “There are a dozen views about everything until you know the answer. Then there’s never more than one.” – That Hideous Strength by C.S. Lewis

My Top 3 Laptops

Shannon KayLeave a comment

I think I’ve met my matches. The Laptops that I logically and economically can’t have.
First choice: Acer Ferrari 4000
Processor: AMD Turion 64 processor ML-37 1MB L2 cache 2.0GHz
Chipset: ATI RADEON XPRESS 200P
1 GB of DDR333 memory
15.4″ WSXGA+ TFT LCD, 1680 x 1050 resolution
16.7 million colors
– ATI Mobility Radeon X700 with 128 MB of external DDR VRAM, supporting ATI Powerplay 5.0, Microsoft
– DirectX 9.0 and PCI Express
– DualView support; external display at up to 2048 x 1536 pixel resolution, 85 Hz
– MPEG-2 DVD hardware-assisted capability
– S-video/TV-out (NTSC/PAL) support
– DVI-D (true digital video interface) support
– 100 GB ATA/100 hard disk drive
– 5-in-1 card reader
– Slot-load DVD-Super Multi double-layer drive
– LAN: gigabit Ethernet; Wake-on-LAN ready
– WLAN: integrated Acer InviLink™ 802.11b/g Wi-Fi CERTIFIED™ solution; supporting Acer SignalUp wireless technology
– WPAN: integrated Bluetooth
– 6.3 lbs.
Price range: $1,752.00 – $2,978.00
Acer Ferrari 4000

My Second Choice: Voodoo ENVY Featherweight a:228 Notebook
15.1″ SXGA+ 1400X1050
12 x 8.6 x 1 inches (WxDxH)
4.0 Pounds with battery and drives
512mb DDR memory
AMD Turion 64 MT-30
SuperSlim DVD-+R/RW
Seagate 100 gig hard drive
ENVY Wireless 802.11 BG with BlueTooth
Internal 56K Fax Modem
ENVY High Speed Ethernet
Priced at: $2231.41

I chose powder pink, but it comes in almost a dozen colors
Envy

Dummies invade Narnia

Shannon KayLeave a comment

I recently recieved this memo in refference to a book we recently became aware of.

MEMO
From: Bartholemew Wiggins
To: The Lord High Dragon
Subject: Dummies in Narnia
1. It has been reported to me by the Sheriff of Narnia that Dummies have been arriving on tourist buses carrying a guide titled “Dummies Guide to Narnia.”
2. Since the aforementioned dummies did not have the necessary Visa’s they have been put on the buses and sent back to the port of entry, Cair Paravel on the Eastern Sea.
3. Our own security forces in SpareOom, consisting of the constabulary forces: Terwilliger Turtle (chief jailer), Reginald Rat (keeper of the keys), and Constable Blishimer Bilge, a Swamprat of legendary ability (too bad he doesn’t have much real ability) have been told to standdown.
4. SpareOom Homeland Security consisting currently of a single talking Toad with an office has been forwarded this memo. We are on the lookout for the sequel which could be quite dangerous: “The Dummies’ Guide to SpareOom” — should this come out we might be receiving unwelcome visitors. On the bright side, some of them may be edible.
5. We have some notification from High Town that buses can sometimes pop right up out of the ground through pores or something. Seems unlikely but one never knows. Make a not of this Garnish. (note to dragon: Garnish is the talking Toad that you appointed to head the SpareOom Homeland Security office — I only met him last week.)
6. I await your attention to this matter and direction as to the security preparations which should be undertaken.
Yours very sincerely,
Bartholemew Wiggins
Talking Bear
Secretary to the Lord High Dragon

Sprucing

Shannon KayLeave a comment

So, I’ve spruced a bit. I actually fixed the Archives so that the new ones are linked. I changed my mood theme to a nice Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants one. I added Gravatar support on comments. Gravatar is Globally Recognized avatar. It’s pretty neat as far as I’ve tried it. Set your own at gravatar.com I can imagine alot of sites supporting them soon. I tested mine and it works perfectly. You just put in the same email address you signed up with, and there you go. I also added some more fun smilies, of animals and characters and stuff. We’re also doing some sprucing at home now too. My grandmother has decided to get new carpet for the bedrooms. This is good, seeing as the carpet is 30 years old, green, and shag. I have a large rug over mine, so you don’t see most of it. This means, however that I have to clean my room and we’re going to have to take everything out. This is very overwhelming, as my room is small but packed with my bookshelves, tv, bed, desk, etc. However this also means that I’ll get to finally move in that other dresser that I’ve been thinking about. It’s sitting in my parents’ garage and it’s really long and white. I’d like to paint it and put it under my window and then I could set my tv and stuff on top of it where it is now, but more stable. Then I could move my DVD shelf over where the not very functional(drawers don’t open and close well) dresser is. Could I put my minifridge there too? I’m not sure. Maybe I need some sort of organizer thing there which would put a shelf over and stuff. There is much to consider.

Changing it Up

Shannon KayLeave a comment

I feel like changing something up a bit. I’d like to try a new mood theme, but I’m not sure what theme I’d pick.

I’m still working on the HTPC/PVR for my parents’ house. I’ve got the box together and all the software installed and everything. It works as a computer, but I’m getting stuck on the TV part. I tried to record from it using SageTV and it just recorded this fuzzy stuff. I plugged in Component cables from the DirecTV reciever into the tuner card, I had the right DirecTV selected because I got the right tv listings, but I think the problem is that i don’t have the right serial COM port selected. I’m not sure I even know what this is or how to find out which one it should be. None of the default settings have worked.

My Disneyland Magic Moment

Shannon KayLeave a comment

I was an Entertainment Host in the Character department for a couple years. I also grew up in the area going to Disneyland all the time.

In the character department, especially when it’s crowded, my first priority was always for my characters’ safety. There were guests that yelled at me because the line for Pooh was closed for the night, even after I explained that they would be out walking around again in 15 minutes.
But then there were days like this one. I was working at the Pooh Corner location, standing up by Pooh when a small girl and her mom came up. The girl was afraid to go up to pooh, one of those ones where she wanted to go up to him, but was afraid. Her mom went up to him first which often helps but she was still aprehensive. I asked if she wanted me to go with her. She nodded and we went a few steps before she stopped again. “Don’t you want to see pooh?” I asked her. She looked longingly up at him, like she almost thought she could, but then she gave a sigh and shook her head. “Okay,” her mother said. “Maybe next time.” And they started to walk away, but then the little girl turned around and ran back and hugged me instead.