This is the one holiday Christians can't agree on - which ain't a bad thing.

My two cents: I don't care about Halloween. I don't celebrate it, even though I do love the oodles of candy that come out of it (what chocaholic wouldn't?). For all the scary imagery used by those who do celebrate it in some form or manner, kids love it. I mean, if they didn't, they wouldn't dress up in costume and go trick-or-treating, would they?

I applaud the churches who want to provide wholesome alternatives. I don't see anything wrong with that. I also realize that the controversy surrounding this holiday has to do more with its pagan origins and the fact that covens and satanic cults the world over consider this day one of their high holidays, but I ain't into the occult, so I don't care. Now, if I had children, things would probably be different.

The reason why I decided to post about this holiday is because one of my favorite childhood memories was the Halloween party held at a cousin's house - uncle wearing a black garbage bag over his head and playing eerie music on the organ included. The games were fun, the treats were great, and I had the chance to wear this suffocating mask over my head with the freakin' rubber band to keep it in place, which my siblings liked to pull and snap back every chance they got. (I don't remember who I dressed up as that year.) All the Halloween festivals at my elementary school were awesome. Matter of fact, all the times we went trick-or-treating were kool. And then our church started holding the harvest party alternatives, and those were kool, too.

Your childhood experiences may differ from mine, of course, but my point is everybody views this holiday differently and experiences it differently. Nothin' wrong with dat.

And that, my friends, is my cop-out post for the year. Go enjoy yourselves so I can get back to scarfing down all this chocolate I've been hoarding today.

Happy Birthday, Hannah! Don't study too hard today, gal...

I just noticed while retrieving our mail that there isn't an apartment #13 in our complex. Ours is 12, and 14 is right around the corner, but no 13. Interesting.

Do you prefer online reading material over an actual book that you can hold or vice versa? Or both?

Just wondering.

(No thanks to Billy, because surely he knows I have enough on my plate to read already.)

This is what I get for not paying attention more often.

I've long been aware of Diane Duane's blog, but I didn't know till recently that Peter David had a blog, too.

Two of my favorite Star Trek series authors have blogs.

This means t-r-o-u-b-l-e.

(In a good way, of course.)

Rus is driving the bus that is the Holiday Swap. You're encouraged to drop by at his blog and see what it's all about and, well, participate.

Yes, YOU! Git moving!

And people think racism is dead?

Think again.

Okay, so it's supposed to be about the nominees' ideology. Why then have the Democratic senators on the Senate Judiciary Committee constantly harped on Brown's religious beliefs (and Brown isn't the only nominee who's been unfairly targeted about her Christian beliefs) - and now other blacks are attacking her because she's black and Republican? What's the deal here?

This is disgusting to watch, and I'll tell you why: I may call myself a RINO or a moderate Republican and I'm definitely conservative, but crap like the filibustering is why I'll never be a Democrat and why I hate all the partisan sniping that goes on between the diehards on the left and right who're interested in nothing more than making sure their party's the one in power. It drives me nuts!

UPDATE: Here's an interesting profile on Brown that appeared in this past Sunday's issue of the S.F. Chronicle.

I should probably add that this wasn't meant as a barb at Democrats who read this blog. I've been questioning my own political stances lately and realize one thing or another about myself in that regard, but this isn't directed at any individual or group because of their political affiliations. I'm not a blogging pundit wannabe. If anything, the polarizing political climate today makes me want to stop posting about politics altogether on this site, and I'm apparently not the only blogger who's moved in this direction.

Warm days like this and the right books can do things to a girl's head.

This morning I was on the train, thinking selfish things about myself and wondering if I'd always been so bull-headed about my own abilities. False modesty? Spades of it. Self-deprecation? Yup. Lazy? Self-absorbed? Uncertain about her self-esteem? Check, check, check.

Gradually one'll get a headache if she repeats this same argument over and over again, so I decided to focus on something else. Worry about a certain cat versus a prospective caretaker whom I need to call to see if he was serious about his offer versus worries about money versus only a few hours to revise a story I hadn't liked from the beginning even if other people thought it wasn't bad. No, this is potential migraine material, too. Onward.

Hmmm, there was last night. It was the first cell group meeting I'd attended in awhile, and actually, it'd been pretty nice. Good food and good company, good conversations. Jim Oberg had offered a pleasant surprise when he'd pitched in during the prayer time for the needs that had been raised. I remembered the first time I'd ever met him and contrasted him to the man I knew now; he was very much a changed man.

And now I realize that it will always be like this: a mingle of complicated problems and simple blessings, selfish endeavors and selfless outreach, and all the while humanity's trying to make sense of this thing called life that they, whether they like it or not, are infinitely connected to and influenced by, as a concept or philosophy or as reality.

That's life, all right.

On one hand, the writer in me likes reading this sorta stuff to get the creative juices flowing.

On the other hand, the writer in me gets irritated at writers who like to talk about writing in general. She'd rather say, "Oh, just shut up and do it, for crying out loud."

I think right now, I'm leaning towards the latter position.

Yes, I'm pretentious and obnoxious at times. What're you gonna do about it, huh?

APU has most of their chapel services for this semester (as it's progressed so far) online. Woohoo!

(link via Hannah)

It's dangerous to have cable TV in class. There we were, waiting for the teacher to start the discussion on Mary Barton, and she and two-thirds of the class have their eyes glued on the Red Sox/Yankees game. Everyone wants the Red Sox to win.

Fast forward to break, which is usually ten minutes long - it's twenty-five minutes this time, because the teacher keeps saying, "Okay, after THIS batter..."

If she'd said, "Okay, forget Mary Barton - let's just watch the game!" I would've been all for it.

And darn those Red Sox for losing.

Erin O'Connor points to this delectable essay on teaching poetry by Tom Henihan. O'Connor goes on to observe,

There are some things that cannot be taught. Inspiration is one, creativity is another, having a "feel" for language a third. Skills can be taught, and those are certainly necessary if one wants to be a writer of any caliber. But too often creative writing courses are about far more than the teaching of skills--there is a dishonesty to them, as Henihan notes. Their premise is that everyone enrolled in the course can write; their guiding principle is that deep down, we all have a poet or a novelist in us just waiting to come out. We don't. But in premising themselves on the notion that we do--and on the notion that coursework can bring it out, that all we need is practice and encouragement (and a few good contacts)--creative writing courses encourage a level of self-deception and communal pretension that are positively damaging to the art.

So then why the heck am I majoring in this field? To learn more about one aspect of modern "literature."

(Maybe this is why I've never been able to get my Poetry section up and running yet!)

UPDATE: Jay has more thoughts on the art of writing.

ANOTHER UPDATE: Jason comments at ABA. Pretentious? Me? Surely you jest, Jason...

Now this looks like fun!

Kim du Toit has more info for first-time shooters - which I ain't yet, but I will be someday.

Mark Simon writes an interesting perspective on how liberal Bay Area politics are, compared to the rest of the state.

I've often taken this factor about the region for granted, but I've also wondered about it, too. When the 2000 presidential election was just around the corner, students at my college campus dismissed Bush as a prospective win altogether and argued that it would either be Gore or Nader. When I visited a friend who lived in Central California this past May, I couldn't help it - I was pretty amazed that there were actually Republicans around. And when I was playing beat reporter for the Ingleside district a year ago, one of my sources and I were talking about the Democratic Club, an interest group in the neighborhood. I asked her (somewhat naively) if there was a Republican Club or something like it, too. She laughed. "Republicans? Are you kidding? Do you have any idea how many Republicans live in San Francisco? Probably a handful!"

But despite the slanted political view here, I don't think I'd want to live anywhere else.

...And I didn't realize it till I went to the S.F. waterfront today. I think I'll make another trip down there early tomorrow. Woohoo!

UPDATE: Looks like I won't be able to go after all, but I watched them practice at Pier 39 yesterday afternoon. I guess that's good enough till next year. I watched 'em! The Blue Angels totally rock!

The only person I saw jumping when I walked across the bridge August 26 was the parachute surfer practicing a few midair leaps below.

People have all sorts of reasons for jumping off the Golden Gate Bridge, but I wonder if they'd actually migrate to the Bay Bridge should a suicide barrier be erected (if ever). Either way, it gives me the willies, thinking about it.

(link via Obscure Store)

"I voted no on the recall, and I'm very disappointed in the voters of California."

Ah, partisan arrogance. You gotta love it.

Depending on the size and the amount of monetary giving, churches nowadays are starting to dig into all kinds of neat gadgets to make the sanctuary more modern.

I say all this to preface what understandably comes next (NOT): modern technology and churches sometimes don't mix.

Take tonight, for example. Tonight, instead of listening to my pastor preach on intercession, I was playing Pinball and Solitaire on the computer we use for the projection program with the soundman because...well, you know, we were sitting in the sound booth with nothin' better to do.

Far be it from me to ever do that again. No, really!

Jeff Jarvis, just returning from Dave Winer's BloggerCon, thinks churches should start blogging.

That is definitely something I can get behind!

Janice: Hey, you doin' that novel thing next month?

Mick: What novel thing?

Janice: You write a 50,000-word novel during November.

Mick: Ohh, that. Yeah, I already started.

Janice: Uh, you're not supposed to start till November 1. It's only October 3.

Mick: Well, I figured I needed a head start, you know? I can't write that fast.

Janice: I predict you'll still be stuck with only 35k by the time November ends.

Mick: Oh, shut up. You're disrupting my writing karma.

(via John Scalzi)

Who am I?

When Jesus asked his disciples this question, Peter gave the correct answer: "You are the Christ, the son of the Living God."

But how should a Christian respond to this question?

It seems that very often, a Christian's beliefs is separated from his identity as a person. lt's happened to me and I'm sure it's happened to other believers, as well. Sometimes I've done it deliberately to be someone to one group of people and someone else to another.

Well, I'm Rhesa. That isn't my real name, of course, but it doesn't hide who I am to others who know me well.

But how can I know that who I am in Christ doesn't differentiate from who I am as a human being?

Now you're legal!

I've been paying a minimal amount of attention to this story because I really don't think there's much truth to it (you know the drill: lots of hot air with nothing else to go on), but Bill Hobbs covered this back in July before it became the media circus that it is today.

'Nuff said, IMO.

"Arnold Schwarzenegger is a charming man. He's a nice man. But really, he has no idea how to run a state (and you do? -Ed.), and he's going to be run by the very forces that basically have destroyed so much of California," [Huffington] said.

Arianna "Huffnpuff" has spoken - and dropped out of the California gubernational recall race.

"She brought color and excitement to the race," Schwarzenegger is quoted as saying after hearing this bit of news.

Oh, she sure did.