http://www.pleonast.com/user/fullofgrace recent pleonast.com entries by user fullofgrace en-us http://www.pleonast.com/user/fullofgrace?l=5&entryID=564950 here's a hard truth that i have found difficult to accept: the toughest moments of my life have resulted in the most direct and visible spiritual growth i have experienced. i think that i labored under a misconception....no, let me be honest....i believe that Satan successfully misled me (and still does on a regular basis, but hopefully less often) regarding the meaning of pain. i believed for a long time that pain meant there was something wrong. because that was my premise, i always tried to avoid and escape pain as often as possible. it became the "ultimate evil" in my mind and i found that most of the decisions i made were specifically for the purpose of avoiding some type of pain.....the pain of loneliness, the pain of looking stupid, the pain of facing the consequences of my poor decisions....anything that hurt was "bad" and my tolerance for enduring pain was non-existent... at some point i realized that my perceptions were incorrect. instead of pai... 2008-08-20 http://www.pleonast.com/user/fullofgrace?l=5&entryID=564235 i'm not quite done with my office. i'm still waiting on my desk to be delivered and am attempting to arrange transportation for a tall bookshelf as it won't fit in either my car or brian's. my chris donovan canvases, my diplomas, and sundry other wall things are still on the floor behind my chair, waiting for the rest of the furniture to arrive before i decide where everything is going to live. i'm feeling impatient to get my art up, but i know that if i don't wait until all of the big pieces of furniture are in their final positions, then i will move things three or four times, and i just don't want to caulk that many nail holes... it will be at least the end of the week before i'm done, and possibly not until i return from San Antonio, so i am posting this "peek" for the handful of people who i have been talking to about color schemes and rugs, because it just seemed cruel to make them wait for another three weeks...you know who you are...*laugh*... when i get it a... 2008-08-18 http://www.pleonast.com/user/fullofgrace?l=5&entryID=563762 so...mike was cool...and stuff... breaking records and winning medals and whatnot... 8 for 8 in '08... but did anyone notice constantina tomescu dita from romania completely dominate the women's marathon? at 38 years old, she was the second oldest female competitor in the field, with a habit of breaking out in front which has yielded her mixed results in the past. but she ran this 26 mile race in her typical style, pulling out in front of the lead pack a little before halfway though and creating a gap of almost a full minute which she proceeded to maintain until she won. they couldn't catch her. she took a massive risk, and it payed off. talk about leaving everyone in the dust. it was unbelievable. ok. now i'm going to watch the lightning bolt crush the competition. out. 2008-08-17 http://www.pleonast.com/user/fullofgrace?l=5&entryID=562962 ...with laughter... from his blog: best plan to reduce national debt and lower gas prices yet... 2008-08-15 http://www.pleonast.com/user/fullofgrace?l=5&entryID=561595 it's been a busy summer. some of you may have noticed that i haven't been nearly as personal, prolific or philosophical in my recent entries as the precedent that i set previously. if you haven't noticed, that's fine. it's nice to have friends with a life in realspace, too. brian and i have felt more relaxed being out of school these last few months and having some small amount of downtime to spend with puppies and people we don't work with. i know i don't talk very often about my job, but i really, REALLY love what i do and have an awesome boss who tolerates my obsession with sparkly things, gingerbread candles, and systemic meta-analysis. there are few people out there who can not only put with my idiosyncrasies on a daily basis, but also pretend to enjoy it. this past weekend, my boss gave me a budget to redecorate my office and i have been indulging my love of all things interior design. i may even post before and after pictures when i'm done if i'm not too lazy. the l... 2008-08-11 http://www.pleonast.com/user/fullofgrace?l=5&entryID=560716 i love receiving random and unexpected gifts. for example, i have been talking about getting a fun shaped bamboo plant in an attractive vase full of rocks and whatnot for probably....five or six years now but never got around to doing much about it. last week, i came home to a clean kitchen and a bamboo plant that brian bought on the sly to surprise me. happiness for me. today's unexpected gift was the introduction to an artist that i have never listened to before, but liked instantly... alan made a post about his reaction to the most recent manifestation of my van gogh obsession, and in the comments on his blog this guy...i think his name is...erm...ted?...or something....anyway, i don't know this guy, but he left a little bit of widgety magic that has just amazed my day... this album by ehren starks (read more about him and see his very attractive picture here) is completely instrumental and details the progression of a relationship over the period of a year. it is most en... 2008-08-09 http://www.pleonast.com/user/fullofgrace?l=5&entryID=559729 Starry, starry night. Paint your palette blue and grey, Look out on a summer's day, With eyes that know the darkness in my soul. Shadows on the hills, Sketch the trees and the daffodils, Catch the breeze and the winter chills, In colors on the snowy linen land. Now I understand what you tried to say to me, How you suffered for your sanity, How you tried to set them free. They would not listen, they did not know how. Perhaps they'll listen now. Starry, starry night. Flaming flowers that brightly blaze, Swirling clouds in violet haze, Reflect in Vincent's eyes of china blue. Colors changing hue, morning field of amber grain, Weathered faces lined in pain, Are soothed beneath the artist's loving hand. For they could not love you, But still your love was true. And when no hope was left in sight On that starry, starry night, You took your life, as lovers often do. But I could have told you, Vincent, This world was never meant for one As beautiful as you. Starry, starry nigh... 2008-08-06 http://www.pleonast.com/user/fullofgrace?l=5&entryID=557571 the rumor has just tickled my ears...that Johnny Depp is "being tapped" to play the ??Riddler?? in the third Batman movie... if that happens... if i survive the transcendental state of ecstasy into which i will ascend during a film with both Christian Bale and Johnny Depp... then i believe we will have a Batman movie with which even my overanalytical little mind can find no fault... i wonder if it would be too much to add this to my prayer list...you know...somewhere near the bottom... **shudder of hopeful anticipation** 2008-08-01 http://www.pleonast.com/user/fullofgrace?l=5&entryID=553121 comments on the the dark knight.... **WARNING*****SPOILERS**** * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * i was incredibly impatient to see this movie, even to the point that i tried to talk my husband into letting me go see it without him because he had to work the first two evenings it was in theaters...after he decided not to divorce me on account of me being a horrible person, we went together the third night. i did enjoy it, loved ledger's joker, and would rank it among the top five comic based films i've seen. however, i found myself dissatisfied with it, and after reflection have decided that i was disappointed in the thematic shift during the last twenty minutes of the movie. i was mesmerized by how the joker had set up the people on those two ferries to make a gut-wrenching decision, and felt that as a pivotal montage to demonstrate the nobler (and less gunpowdery) side of the residents of gotham, it was utterly brilliant. as the film unwo... 2008-07-21 http://www.pleonast.com/user/fullofgrace?l=5&entryID=551254 how can anyone resist such a widgety widget?? i know i mention emily off and on in my posts, but i'm not sure i can over promote her. she is just so amazingly talented. swipe this widget and stick it somewhere, so you can enjoy her awesomeness while it's still free! i took a whirlwhind trip to new york this past weekend and spent two days learning phenomenal things about biofeedback, brain waves, and joseph campbell. even though i'm a pretty big fan of campbell's ideas (the ones pertaining to story and narrative therapy in particular), i didn't realize that one of the practitioners hosting the training workshop was super tight with joseph campbell and is the author of his biography, a fire in the mind. it was particularly crazy because campbell had been on my mind all weekend. i had actually mailed a "follow your bliss" bookmark to a friend of mine, and then packed hero with a thousand faces in my carry on bag to read on the plane. and then to end up hanging ... 2008-07-16