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PrincessEsie
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Name: Elise
Gender: Female
Interests: *Books (LOTR, anythingCSLewiseverwrote, Classics like Brave New World, Pride and Prejudice, etc.) Poetry by John Donne,
*Movies (Braveheart, Moulin Rouge, Phantom of the Opera, LOTR trilogy, basically whatever movie is not quite in touch with reality...)
*Fun stuff (Coffee is always brilliant, coloring books, eating weird foods, hanging out with people from different countries, and having deep philosophical discussions interrupted periodically by acting like an idiot)
Expertise: Probably teaching kids how to swim...sadly enough it sounds pretty boring, well it is pretty boring. But that's my job expertise so...oh well.
Occupation: Student
Message: message me
Member Since:
3/28/2006
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| 1. There are more questions than answers.
2. I'm going to be Catholic, maybe.
3. I can write 120+ pages of academia in one semester.
4. People who write books usually don't know what they're talking about either.
5. Sometimes atheists are nice people (Philip Pullman for example...)
6. I want to be like Ezekiel.
7. Body piercings are not to be done in Europe.
8. Believing in God is a prerequisite for the belief that killing and eating babies is wrong.
9. Absinthe tastes like licorice.
10. I don't want to come home, but I could never have made it this far in life without it. | | |
| This is how the worst Thanksgiving turned into the best Thanksgiving. It was suggested to me that since it is an American holiday and we are in England. We ought to do something vulgarly American to feel more connected to home. So, I went out this evening with Matt, Pearson, and Alicia (lovely people from Biola and JBU) and found a lovely, quiet spot on the Thames. We chanted, "give me liberty or give me death!" WHILST throwing tea leaves into the Thames and sang the Star Spangled Banner.
It was more appropriate for the 4th of July, but there's not anything wild to do for Thanksgiving, so it was good. | | |
| Once upon a time there were ten American Oxford students who wished to journey to Stratford-upon-Avon to see a Shakespeare production of Henry V. Their plans were foiled by a lack of car rental availability and a further lack of trains scheduled to return to the lovely city of Oxford (this seems a tad absurd because Oxford students, being the brightest brains in Britain, enjoy a Shakespeare production on a intellectual level rivaled only by a Cambridge student once every few years). So, the American students, having already bought their tickets, gave up their plans in distress and decided to stay at home and watch Beauty and the Beast. Now, although Beauty and the Beast may be the objectively best Disney film in history, it will never be a proper substitute for a Shakespeare play in Stratford-upon-Avon.
Out of this group of ten distressed American students, one girl remained...hardcore? This woman (having never considered herself of an independent nature) had a bit of a crush on the play Henry V. She found a train route that would take her to Stratford and a hostel to let her in for the night as there were no return routes until the following Sunday morning. Her decision was quick and may be considered impulsive, but nonetheless her thought process was entirely cogent; it worked something like:
1. I am in England for 3 more weeks
2. I love Henry V
3. I could go see Henry V in Stratford
4. I think I will.
Well, allright, the decision was not entirely made in a logical manner. Henry V was her favorite Shakespearian history play, she had a bit of a crush on it actually. So, she traveled that Saturday afternoon to Stratford-upon-Avon which only took one hour by train and ate dinner in a lonely Italian cafe. She then wandered to the theatre.
Having been given a seat closer to the front (by a Cambridge student no less, such an event may have never before occurred), the young American student was enthralled by the play. Going to "hear a play" had never been so wonderful. If you have ever read Henry V, you know that at the beginning of the play there is an incident with tennis balls. In this production, the tennis balls literally exploded all over the stage and Henry threw one in anger which came surprisingly close to the audience. Henry V as performed by the Royal Shakespeare Company, may be the best play ever performed in the English language.
The play contains much social commentary that is relevant to the world today. Henry wonders to himself about the weight of power on government authority and the responsibility he bears on the lives of the men who die in his wars. All sins lay on the king. The religious imagery used to represent Henry was also displayed by the blood spattered across his crown as he prays in a garden before the battle. Henry is a type of savior for the English people. To make the modern audience connect with the battle scenes, they were done in foxholes with cannons blasting in the background and smoke filling the room. It gave the scenes a more realistic feel.
The young American student left the play feeling like a dream had overtaken her life. Is it possible for God to have blessed me this much, that I can just flippantly go to see my favorite Shakespeare play in Stratford? His grace and unbelievable blessings in my life continue to astound me.
I returned to Oxford the following Sunday morning just in time to keep my lunch plans. | | |
| Elise decides to wash her hair on Monday afternoon.
Elise washes her hair in the shower.
Elise believes that she has locked the bathroom door.
Elise looks down at her stomach and thinks to herself, "You should really be working out more."
Elise responds to herself, "Nah, it doesn't matter that much, nobody's gonna see me naked."
Elise's belief that the door was locked was unjustified.
*Cue door to open
Elise screams an obscenity in shock and grabs a towel.
The Guatemalan maid has opened the door at the exact angle that the shower curtain doesn't cover. The maid apologizes...and laughs at a surprising volume.
Elise exercised today. Because apparently, you never know. | | |
| So, sometimes on the weekends, people go out and party. At our house in Crick, we end up having ridiculous discussion on the weekends that lead to a surprising exercise of reasoning skills. I'm attempting to come up with a logical argument that the glass is half full. So this is the first time my side of the discussion has been put on "paper".
The glass in question is not a glass that we know has been half filled or half emptied, it is a glass that spontaneously appears containing half the potential of liquid (the liquid in question has yet to be defined). The classic question is: is this glass half empty or half full? I argue that the glass is half full. Earlier I have argued that the glass is half full because the very creation of the glass was for the purpose of being filled, not being emptied. I have reduced my own argument for this to absurdity (and the argument of the opponent) because the function of the glass is not to be sitting full or sitting empty (the "resting state" of the glass) but it is fulfilling its purpose when it is in use. The glass is supposed to be in a constant state of being filled and being emptied. The teleological function of the glass is to be in a constant state of Heroclitean flux. There exists no real resting state for the glass. So, a teleological argument will not suffice to define whether the glass is half empty or half full.
We now enter a new phase of argument. Since the teleologiacl argument cannot answer the question, an examination of definitions is in order. The definition of fullness according to webster is: holding as much, or as many as possible. having a large amount or number of something. etc. The definition of empty is: not containing or holding anything. unoccupied or uninhabited. Now, philolsohpy of language is an unfamiliar realm for me, but I am fairly certain that defining something by what it is not is a sort of privation. This must be further thought out, but the glass if half full because emptiness only means the absence of fullness. If fullness didn't exist, then emptiness wouldn't exist, however, fullness is not contingent upon emptiness in its definition.
...more to come.
If only I were this excited about writing my paper due tonight. | | |
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