Help me out grammar fiends.
What is the correct usage of:
It’s
Its
Where is it which? I have been under the impression for a long time that It’s follows the usual path of keeping the apostrophe when there’s some belonging occurring, but now someone has informed me otherwise.
Examples in your explanations would be greatly appreciated.
I must know.
It’s an interesting thing watching a familiar face break character.
If you’ve got time within the next few weeks to head out and see a movie, do bother with Driving Lessons. You will have to get in quickly as I don’t think it will last too long.
Rupert Grint (Usually identifiable as Ron Weasley from Harry Potter) cracks extremely well into the new mould of Ben. Alongside some clever acting – from both Grint and Walters – the movie plays tastefully and intelligently with themes of independence, rights of passage, emotional manipulation and fatherhood. It could perhaps follow some of these themes through more completely but generally does a good job.
It is quirky and quaint and consistently engaging – although not altogether unpredictable in parts, but I don’t think that it has deterred from the movie as its intentions lie elsewhere.
I was quite frankly delighted, and intend to get hold of a copy when it makes it onto DVD.
See it or you are missing out.
I was going to go to bed, but for the sake of the goings-on of the past few days crowding out more interesting thoughts, the goings-on of the past few days must be said.
As Alex has mentioned, Geoff and I had our engagement party yesterday. Our Mums (and Dads) and many other helpful siblings/bridesmaids and friends put in a massive effort and we had a fantastic afternoon/evening. With over a hundred people to get around to, it was a pretty big effort to keep my eyes open by the end of it. I loved that we had representatives from most arenas of our lives. A huge thanks to our youth kids for doing some fairly impromptu waitress/waitering and doing a good job. We had a really valuable time of getting prayed for and we did also get some pretty nice presents!
On that, Saturday night we made it to Beth and James’ (Burkie’s) engagement party and had a fine time getting know Rohan . I’d never met him before – Geoff had through Tabor. I did really enjoy chatting with him. It makes me envious that I don’t have many/if-any friends in the slightly next stage of life – they are valuable, valuable people. I also got to catch Sammy, Paul, Sus and Matt briefly (Gush people) – always fun!
Today my good friend Jess took me along make-up shopping. She does happen to be scooting off to India just before my wedding but has an extremely good idea of how go about the make-up thing. NB. I don’t wear make up and really have zero idea. Anyway after some hesitant contemplating I have decided to have a sibling/friend do my make-up instead of paying someone I don’t know. We prowled tentatively around Myers and got accosted by a make-up counter woman who balked a little at the fact that I was diy’ing it for my wedding (Not too badly) she then proceeded to be quite nice in sharing a rough costing of the variety of products, then pointed us particularly toward her range. Those who know me should be proud, I didn’t say something rude out-loud or make a face when she said that the price of an eyeshadow was $90 – I might’ve in my head.
So we took off to The Body Shop where things were far more casual and helpful and possibly more ethical. We tried some stuff out with the help of the lady there, bought a few things and came home and ‘played’. Jess is good, it felt very professional and I came out looking good and was satisfied with the result. She now has to teach a sister of mine (or someone else) how to do it and we’ll have a crack at getting it just right. I am now very convinced that I am far more comfortable having someone I know well in my face than someone I have paid too much for, show up. We will practice enough so I don’t end up angry on the morning. That… and the $90 that could’ve (in someone else’s world) been spent on one eyeshadow, bought almost everything we’ll need.
Tomorrow I am bridesmaid dress shopping with my three bridesmaids, hopefully will get around to writing two more blog posts – one about a fantastic movie I got to see with Geoff tonight and head to the next Vocare meetup where I will ashamedly admit that I still haven’t met my ‘mentor’ and have missed the past few weeks of readings.
Now that is out. Now I can sometime get to sharing some bigger conversations and thoughts. While you’re waiting for that, check the conversation going on at Hope Road about Stay at Home Daughters. I was interested. Alternatively check out, The Soundtrack of Your Life for some good music, funny the things you find through reading a design blog – I quite like French music.
Remember this post? Probably not. I paused very briefly to ponder the fig tree in Mark.
The next day as they were leaving Bethany, Jesus was hungry. Seeing in the distance a fig tree in leaf, he went to find out if it had any fruit. When he reached it, he found nothing but leaves, because it was not the season for figs. Then he said to the tree, “May no one ever eat fruit from you again.†And his disciples heard him say it. – Mark 11:12-14
That fig tree still crops up on the odd occasion. It’s one of those weird moments/posts that I can recall quite well. Who knows – there could be something in that?
Anyway, I was ploughing my way through Mike Frost’s Eyes Wide Open and bam! There’s that fig again.
Frost’s argument was exploring the avenue of creativity and the creativity of the kingdom. Let me share some context,
” It seems that Jesus was able to demonstrate the power of God’s kingdom and at the same time to endorse such creative forces as community spirit, laughter, love and celebration. The kingdom is ushered in alright, but not at the expense of these things. Today we might leave the party when it gets out of hand, sit smugly in the corner or never show up in the first place. Jesus attends, enters fully into it and still brings the creativity of the kingdom to bear on it.
But this isn’t the impression that Jesus just let life wash over him, attending every party, eating with every sinner and being entirely undiscerning about his conduct. There were times when he was unprepared to put up with situations that he saw as entirely uncreative.”
Before you stall on the word ‘creative’ read this,
“His cursing of the barren fig tree in Mark 11:12-14 and 20-21 is a case in point. The fig trees’ ‘crime’ was that it was not producing fruit – for Jesus a dreadful waste. The analogy is often drawn between the tree and Israel, who was also in a state of barrenness at the time. There seems to be one thing Jesus wont tolerate and that’s a refusal to bear fruit. An unproductive tree, a fruitless nation, a destructive religious system all incurred his wrath…”
There is a lot more to chapter including some interesting stuff on the part-parallel to creativity of, ‘halting destructive behavior’ – in the turning over of the temple tables, but I can’t possibly dare to do that justice just now.
To be really honest, I sat down tonight to write blog post on a later part of Frost’s book and somehow lost my inspiration and came back to what seemed like an ‘easier thought’. (I fold the bottom corners of books where things are interesting). And now here I am and it’s a little bit confronting.
Driving home tonight I did manage to fit a bit of thinking in. I haven’t done much thinking lately. I haven’t done too much praying. I haven’t really touched my Bible much.
Every now and then I take a good hard look at who I am. I think I used to be fairly obsessive about it. No doubt it did me a world of good and screwed with my head at the same time.
I don’t know if I can count my life as being very fruitful at the moment. It’s not particularly destructive or chaotic, just apathetic. And as Relient K used to say (and potentially still do), “Apathetic is a pathetic way to be”.
You can’t just stop putting effort into things. Chase that fig further, fruit that sits around… erm, rots. It might be stretching the analogy, but there’s a bit of truth there.
I could do with putting a little of that old obsession back into looking at what’s actually going on and start living a bit closer in response to God’s grace and the person of Jesus.
I could also travel backwards to my literal ‘passing thought‘ and start analysing that it says that it wasn’t the season for the fig tree but that might increase the ladder of excuse, I certainly don’t need that.
Where’s the fruit?
I am back. A beautiful few days, although very cold. We took the Spirit of Tasmania Ship down and despite taking precautionary measures I didn’t need to go anywhere near the seasickness medication. Describe the ship? Smaller than it looks. Shipish…
Cradle Mountain and the surrounding area was spectacular, to spare you a wordy description – and because I’m feeling lazy, I’ll share photos – after I explain a few things.
It was fairly cloudy the day we made it to Dove lake so the highest peak wasn’t visible. I was lugged on a walk torturous climb to Marion’s Lookout, it was worth every painful step. There were even patches of icy snow at the top, the view was excellent.
Food at the lodge was appealing and classy, although dinners were quite drawn out. Breakfast Buffets are always to die for, I’d have one every day if I could. All up, I ate way too much. Despite the simply ‘good food’, I experienced the somewhat cringing choice to try quail and also had a shot at duck. If you don’t think about what you’re eating (quail) then it tastes pretty darn good.
Accommodation at Cradle Mountain Lodge is fantastic! Let me prove it by pointing you towards their website and towards the image of what my room looked like: exactly. It is very much a Rebecca style place (cough-tasteful-cough) and the heaters were cranking sufficiently the whole time.
As for the ‘work’ side of things – for that is what it was – a work conference. Sessions were on the whole interesting and I really appreciate that I got more of a chance to discover the big picture of MBO. I think conferences like this also help me in regards to feeling just that bit more comfortable around people. If you dump anyone out of their working environment you see something a little extra.
Geoff – in my understanding – had great time! It was so much better having him there in terms of company and well… because I love having him around.
On the way back to Devonport a group of us made it to Marakoopa glow-worm caves.
Photos:
