If you're going to reinvent yourself, be original.

 

"Try writing your own eulogy. Never stop revising."

Read with caution and take it in.

Advice I ought to follow:

• Know your neighborhood like the back of your hand.
• Find yourself a good hideout. Ideally, the corner booth in someplace with long hours and good coffee.
• Take a vacation from the Internet.
• Always wake up early enough to enjoy a full cup of coffee and read the newspaper. Freshly laundered pajamas are a must.
• On a night out with the gang, never be the first to go home.
• Identify your most commonly used word or phrase, and eliminate it.

• Collect things. Make em cheap but hard to find.
• A t-shirt is neither a philosophy nor an advertisement. It’s a shirt. Wear it plain.
• Limit your use of headphones.
• Memorize the Bill of Rights and a few favorite poems.
• Go camping. When building a fire, choose deadwood from a tree, not off the ground.

• A museum is a great place to beat a hangover. It’s cool, quiet, and full of water fountains.
• Support friends in the arts. Especially if they stink.
• Have a theme song. Live up to it.
• If you don't know what a word means, ask. Before it's too late.
• If you have to make more than one substitution, order something else.
• Try writing your own eulogy. Never stop revising.

• Drive a vintage car before you're thirty.
• The task of an American writer is not to describe the misgivings of a woman taken in adultery as she looks out of a window at the rain, but to describe four hundred people under the lights reaching for a foul ball. This is ceremony. (John Cheever)
• Smile at cute people. Shyness is overrated.
• Apparently, August 28 is a good day to make a speech.
• Never ask about another person's grades or salary.
• When you play hooky, play to win.

• Go all out on Halloween. Always make your own costume.
• If you're playing a poker game and you look around the table and can't tell who the sucker is, it's you.
• Enter a contest.
• If your art is bad, make it bigger. If its still bad, paint it red.
• Don't gossip. Not in person, not on paper, and never, ever, EVER on the internet.
• Give credit. Take the blame.

• Go down fighting.
• Don't panic.
• Never be afraid to ask out the best looking girl or guy in the room. You’ll be surprised how often it works.
• Surround yourself with smart people.
• Vote in your local elections.
• Stand up for the little guy. He’ll remember you.

• Know your furniture. But don't buy it all at once.
• Sing karaoke. Pick a song within your range. Elvis Costello is a good default.
• No one wants to watch you practice the guitar.
• Watch a lightning storm from a safe spot. But watch them.
• Don't get all fancy about your beer or coffee.
• Offer your seat to anyone who needs it.

• See it on the big screen.
• Thank the bus driver.
• Read before bed every night. A book every week is a good goal.
• There is no need to tell anyone you are leaving the bar. It’s called an Irish Goodbye. And it comes in handy.
• Have a signature look.
• Buy a plant. Never let it die.
• Do the crossword. Ask, but don’t cheat.
• Walk it off.

• Find your favorite painting. (The Burial of Count Orgaz by El Greco)
• A handshake beats an autograph.
• Forgive yourself but remember your mistakes.
• Forgive your enemies but remember their names.
• Coach.
• If you aren't hungry enough to eat an apple, you aren't hungry.

• It’s never too late for an apology.
• Admit when you are wrong. Make it convincing.
• Don't boast aboput projects in progress. Wait, then celebrate their completion.
• Live in New York  (someday...)
• Its better to offer no excuse than a bad one.

• Jump off the high dive. Keep it simple.
• Have a signature dish. Even if its your only one.
• Don't pose by holding up your booze. Be the photo's token classy kid.
• Write a minimum of two letters a month.
• If you've made your point, stop talking.
• Get your pumpkins from a pumpkin patch.
• Follow the rules, find the loopholes.

• Order dessert.
• It's not enough to be proud of your ancestry. Live up to it.
• People-watch, but don't stare.
• Twice a year, write down your goals. Take them very seriously.
• You are what you do, not what you say.
• Be like a duck. Remain calm on the surface and paddle like hell underneath.

• Never go on trips with someone you don't love. (Ernest Hemingway)
• Know when to ignore the camera.
• When it comes to opening presents, no one likes a good guesser.
• Sympathy is a crutch. Never fake a limp.
• Bring your mitt to the ballpark. If you can touch it,k you can catch it.
• Suck it up.

• In Monopoly, buy the orange properties.
• Keep a copy of your letters. It makes it easier on your biographer.
• Search others for their virtue, and yourself for your vices. (Buckminster Fuller)
• If you absolutely have to fight, punch first and punch hard.
• All drinking challenges must be accepted (unless issued by a chanting mob).
• Eat lunch with the new kid.
• Try to lose the adverbs. Seriously.

• Bodysurf.
• Most bad days can be turned into funny stories.
• Be a great story teller. The less prefacing the better.
• Be a good passer but don't forget to shoot.
• Sleep with the window open.
• Keep a scrapbook, avoid collage. Black pages with two pictures each will do nicely.

• If you're going to reinvent yourself, be original.
• You won't always be the strongest or fastest. You can be the toughest.
• Never be bored. No exceptions.

Got it here

Let your light shine

I've been struggling a lot lately with the future. My heart is set on following God where ever he calls me, but I think this worries my parents. I want to forget about worldly pride and earthly lusts, and focus on Godly acts.

My being in Austin was the first real step in my adult spiritual walk with God. My act of obedience has led me to a new life that is full of so much joy and challenges I have never faced before. My calling here is pretty simple, to show people the glory that is our Lord. One day during quiet time when I had been really coming down hard on myself God gave me such wonderful confirmation on what I was supposed to be doing.

Let your light shine before men,
that they may see your good deeds and praise your father in heaven
Matthew 5:16

Since I rebooted, so to speak, and strengthened my relationship with God, he has yet to fail in showing me confirmation. As soon as the enemy begins to attack and creep into my good mood, God shows himself to me and gives me such courage and passion to continue. I really feel like that scripture portrays what I, as a person on earth, want to accomplish. If God could allow me to do that for even just one person, I truly believe that I would have lived a life with a fraction of meaning. He is my heavenly father and I want the whole world to know of his glory even if that means pursuing a future that is not viewed as successful in worldly terms.

Tonight I can write the saddest lines.

Poema XX
-Pablo Neruda

Puedo escribir los versos más tristes esta noche.

Escribir, por ejemplo: "La noche está estrellada,
y tiritan, azules, los astros, a lo lejos."

El viento de la noche gira en el cielo y canta.

Puedo escribir los versos más tristes esta noche.
Yo la quise, y a veces ella también me quiso.

En las noches como esta la tuve entre mis brazos.
La besé tantas veces bajo el cielo infinito.

Ella me quiso, a veces yo también la quería.
Cómo no haber amado sus grandes ojos fijos.

Puedo escribir los versos más tristes esta noche.
Pensar que no la tengo. Sentir que la he perdido.

Oir la noche inmensa, más inmensa sin ella.
Y el verso cae al alma como al pasto el rocío.

Qué importa que mi amor no pudiera guardarla.
La noche esta estrellada y ella no está conmigo.

Eso es todo. A lo lejos alguien canta. A lo lejos.
Mi alma no se contenta con haberla perdido.

Como para acercarla mi mirada la busca.
Mi corazón la busca, y ella no está conmigo.

La misma noche que hace blanquear los mismos árboles.
Nosotros, los de entonces, ya no somos los mismos.

Ya no la quiero, es cierto, pero cuánto la quise.
Mi voz buscaba el viento para tocar su oído.

De otro. Será de otro. Como antes de mis besos.
Su voz, su cuerpo claro. Sus ojos infinitos.

Ya no la quiero, es cierto, pero tal vez la quiero.
Es tan corto el amor, y es tan largo el olvido.

Porque en noches como esta la tuve entre mis brazos,
mi alma no se contenta con haberla perdido.

Aunque este sea el ultimo dolor que ella me causa,
y estos sean los ultimos versos que yo le escribo.


This is one of my favorite poems. I also found some great videos of it being recited, one in its original form in Spanish and another in the translated English.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zXHPk-ctoYY

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8YFxgEp2O6c

I believe tomorrow is another day.

This is the beginning of my month so far, looking forward to Thanksgiving with my family :)

Quiet time brought this message to me, so thankful I have such a wonderful savior!

My daughter,

There will be times that you will feel that I am far from you. This is not true, my love. Your feelings can deceive you, but I never will. I am the truth that will forever help you find your way back to me. Whenever you feel lost just look up, and I will be the one to light your way. You will never be lost as long as you keep your eyes on me. Whenever you don't have the strength to go on, I will restore you.

Your heavenly father.

It's what we trust in but don't see that keeps us going.

It's a Sister Hazel, Hootie and the Blowfish, Train, Matt Nathanson kind of day. It's cloudy in Austin and cloudy days encourage creativity for me. I feel like the less colors there are outside the more I want to create them.

I really miss the cold fall weather from Fayetteville but hopefully it will start to feel like fall soon. I think that is the best time of year. Everyone is snuggled up with a hot drink and good company. It really brings out the best in most people.


I miss my friends and the environment I was in, this move has really taken a toll on me emotionally but I am faithful that God wants me here for a reason. I want to be obedient to his will on my life and am looking forward to the ride.

Hidding.

Amy and I decided to paint because we have been feeling kind of sick. There is something about paint and sketching that relieves your mind from all the chaos going on around you. I think that art is such a great way of expressing what you feel in a completely submissive way. As much as you try to plan and organize, your true thoughts in your mind come out. Even if it is something simple, it expresses thoughts that are unspoken.

  

I feel so thankful to have Amy. God has blessed me with a strong and caring roommate! Even on a lazy day at home I feel at ease