Tag Archives: Other People’s Work

TV Teaches Me Things part 3

24 Monday Jun 2013

Posted by in Dirty's Reports, Things TV Teaches Me

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tinadanceWhen I was a junior in college I was introduced to a show by a friend that she swore was one of the best things she’d ever seen in her life. It was one of the best things I had ever seen in my life as well, and I became a fangirl immediately. The show was 30 Rock.
Here is a random list of things that I have learned from my beloved show. It is incomplete, but it is still gonna happen.

  • Reaganing is defined as a continual streak of perfection. It is similar to a ‘no hitter’ in baseball however with a more broad application that refers to a series of non-related events. Named after the 40th President of the USA Ronald Reagan.
  • It is possible to have male-female friendships. Liz and Jack are strictly friends, business buddies, work spouses, mentor-mentee, and work husband slash uncle/co-worker slash little brother. It can work. It doesn’t have to get complicated and weird.
  • Live every week like it’s Shark Week.
  • There are secrets to fashion, ranging from tie colors (having more than 2 colors in a tie means you’re looking for a certain type of bar) to the proper way to dress as a spinster (sweatshirt, mom jeans, fanny pack), from the secrets behind trends (your friend is Michael Khors and will make wizard capes cool to hide your girlfriend’s pregnancy) to the wrong way to color block (tan slacks with a tan turtleneck will make you look like a giant condom), and of course the proper way to treat evening wear.

    Lemon: “Why are you wearing a tux?”
    Jack: “It’s after 6. What am I, a farmer?”

  • Reality TV will always be on because it always wins the ratings.
  • The Bubble is defined as the world in which beautiful people live where they are protected from all criticism and all of life’s unpleasantries and never get a true sense of their actual limitations
  • Nothing brings people together like fear and/or the hatred of something. Bonding can happen over fear of the end of the world, budget cuts, or even bed bugs.
  • There are 3 things you should not do in a negotiation: speak first, smile, and negotiate against yourself.
  • You can’t out-crazy Tracy Jordan
  • An EGOT is the combination of winning an Emmy, Grammy, Oscar, and Tony; the highest peak an actor can attain.
  • There is a difference between positive reinforcement and stating facts.

    “I do look like the Arrow shirt man, I did lace up my skates professionally and I did do a fabulous job finishing my muffin.”

  • I want to go to there is an expression of yearning for a feeling, place, or situation. Use it in reality. I do.dirty

Quick! Write it down!

22 Monday Apr 2013

Posted by in Dirty Little..., Dirty's Reports

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tumblr_lzsvrhiDWw1r7gx3ao1_500Instead of calling it “writer’s block” or “lazy” I have decided that in all reality, including Alternate Universe reality, when I am posting less often than I have set up for myself I am actually taking the time to be extra creative!  I’m being so creative, in fact, that I’m completely fudging up the mother’s day presents that I’ve been working on.  I also have been watching a fair few makeup tutorial videos on youtube.  Oh, and I finally got my nails done.  They are a very pretty blue, like a dusty sky blue, and even the nail tech said he liked the color.  It feels very spring to me.
I guess that what has really been on my mind is the idea of starting from scratch.  It’s easy to say that you are willing to start from scratch if you are talking about a project, but when it comes to rebooting your entire life it can feel really difficult.  It can seem like a punishment for persuing a path that didn’t work out, which I feel like I’ve been doing for years with just about everything in my life.  But it doesn’t have to be a punishment.  It can be an opportunity for change, for growth, for finding the path that God has for you that leads where you don’t expect it to.  Being able to accept that I have to give up dreams of what I want is critical to being able to accept what God is giving me now, and the ways he is trying to guide me. It can be really disheartening to think of all the things that I have given up or the time that I feel was wasted.  But ultimately every path I’ve taken, every step I’ve walked and every breath that I’ve breathed has been designed by a good creator to bring me to exactly where I am.  The reasons are above me, as in I don’t understand them and maybe I never will, but as much as that scares my human heart I chose to believe that these reasons are part of a plan that is better than what I could put together for myself. As silly as it may seem, part of what has helped me come to this place in my mind and heart was seeing the Goo Goo Dolls in concert this weekend.  The lyrics of their music and the way they put their songs together are what I like to lovingly refer to as Epic, and Johnny Rzeznik is by far my favorite voice forever and ever, in case anyone was wondering.  During the show they played music from their upcoming cd, including a song called Come To Me.  Johnny said it was one of those songs that “makes me want to grow a beard” and said “someone told me today that this song is enriched with vitamins… I think he was smoking the marijuana.”  It’s a catchy tune that has influences of the current folk style bands, reminding me of The Lumineers and Mumford and Sons, but it’s also very Goo Goo Dolls.  This song made me absolutely die, for real, because the lyrics were so incredibly sweet and uplifting, and they include in the lyrics a call to the singer’s (Johnny’s) beloved (Me, obviously):

You and me, we’ve both got sins
I don’t care about where you’ve been
Don’t be sad and don’t explain
This is where we start again

You can find a live version of the song here.

So now I am trying daily to chose to be exactly where I am, attempting not to constantly long for what I want but to want what I have, and to allow life to be this strange journey.  I am trying to remember that every day I can chose to start again, to make different choices and learn to love in different ways.  It’s scary, it’s strange, it defenetly goes against my nature, but I am asking God to help me hold on to the truth, that He knows my heart and what is best for me in this moment.  And I don’t mean to be overdramatic by any means, but so does Johnny Rzeznik.dirty

Sticks & Stones

27 Tuesday Mar 2012

Posted by in Human Interest

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According to the Jersey Shore nick name generator my nick name is The Incident. Very few people understand how extremely true to the bone that nick name is until they date me. I understand that I’m not always an easy person to deal with. I have ups and downs, good days and bad days, and I love people and I hate people and I repent and try to love people again. Without God I’d be straight up depressive trouble most days, and an addicted mess on the other days. Hence my deep gratitude for grace.

“Fear not, for you will not be ashamed; be not confounded, for you will not be disgraced; for you will forget the shame of your youth”  – Isaiah 54:4

With every drop of blood that was shed at the cross another chance for life was given to us, and not because we deserve it in any way. The legalistic, moralistic ways of the world like to do their best to pervert the truth, which is that there are some people that you don’t like that will get saved and we’re called to love them.  I like the way the woman who writes for Grace is for Sinners puts it:

“God’s grace is sufficient. You don’t get to pick your terms and sometimes this journey feels backward and forward at the same time. When you have to rely on grace, it’s a hard walk of faith to travel the territories run by a force working against you. But who can be against you when God is for you? People will look at your journey and wonder why you’re traveling there, why you’re keeping company with the other side. They’ll discredit you, slander you, and try to stop you all the while thinking they’re doing God a favor.”  (Grace is for Sinners)

Sometimes I see this happening in real life, where people believe that they have the ability to pick and chose who would be a good follower of Christ based on their standards or opinions.  I pray that I don’t do that.  I pray that I am able to follow Jesus without stopping to turn around and judge fellow Christians as if I have a right to.  As if I have been so redeemed that I can set some sort of standard for holiness.  No matter what is going on in my life, no matter where I am or what I’m dealing with, I can only hold tightly to the truth: that I am the worst of all sinners but He loves me anyway.

Beautiful Bride

17 Tuesday Jan 2012

Posted by in Human Interest

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I rediscovered a certain band and found out that they have some pretty sick new music.  Here are the lyrics to their song Beautiful Bride, which is all about the church.

Unified diversity
Functioning as one body
Every part encouraged by the other
No one independent of another
You’re irreplaceable, indispensable
You’re incredible, incredible

[Chorus:]
Beautiful bride
Body of Christ
One flesh abiding
Strong and unifying
Fighting ends in forgiveness
Unite and fight all division
Beautiful bride

Strengthen your arms now
Train your fingers for battle
Urgency’s here now
Train your fingers for battle
Fighting this violence
With your feet wrapped in peace
Sad tears and silence
Now screams of joy
Victory

[Chorus:]
Beautiful bride
Body of Christ
One flesh abiding
Strong and unifying
Fighting ends in forgiveness
Unite and fight all division
Beautiful bride

Beautiful bride
Body of Christ
One flesh abiding
Strong and unifying

We’re not gonna fall and forget
How far You went to pick us up
If one part’s hurt the whole body’s sick
If one part mourns we all mourn with Him
Rejoice, we’ll sing with you
Hallelujah, Hallelujah, Hallelujah, Hallelujah

Now here’s the video.  🙂

 

I love it when someone else can verbalize what I want to tell you.

14 Monday Nov 2011

Posted by in Dirty Little...

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“When I was a small kid, there were plenty of hugs.  My parents are big on hugs.  My father gives bear hugs, tight and quick.  My mother usually puts her arms around your shoulders and bangs on your back, as if she’s trying to burp you.  My friends and I always hugged.  It wasn’t as if I’d never been hugged, as many of the Clients had not.  But at the same time, physical contact has not come naturally to me.  It seemed, and seems, laden with significance, so laden that one might like to avoid it altogether.  One might, in fact, over a few years, begin to avoid it like the plague, begin to claim such absolute ownership over one’s own body that contact itself–the brush of a hand, even, let alone the startling number of emotional and physical nerve endings jangled by an embrace--begins to seem a threat…Hugs are difficult, however.  Kissing is perhaps more intimate than sex itself.  Similarly, hugs imply emotional, rather than sexual, intimacy.  They are a gesture from one person to another of nonsexual caring, and the idea of being cared for in a nonsexual way was not something I could understand.  Contact with another person reminds you that you are also a person, and implies that someone cares about you as such.  This felt to me profoundly false, and I felt I did not, in any way, warrant such care, such contact.  Contact with another body reminds you that you have a body, a fact you are trying very hard to forget.”  (Wasted, Marya Hornbacher)

This is what I try to tell people that I feel like, but it’s been a long while since I have found this description and I have failed at being able to communicate.