A New Song

  Yesterday, I discovered this song from Josh Groban's newest album Illuminations. Tis called "Bells of New York City". I love it so much, that I decided to share it with you. The video below is a lyric video (lyrics on the screen), but if you don't have time to watch the video (or just really don't want to) I will post the lyrics below the video. I urge you to pay attention the the last verse of the song; it makes me a little breathless. Enjoy, darlings!

Bells Of New York City lyrics
There's a pale winter moon in the sky coming through my window
And the park is laid out like a bed below
It's a cold, dark night and my heart melts like the snow
And the bells of New York City tell me not to go

It's always this time of year that my thoughts undo me
With the ghosts of many lifetimes all abound
But from these mad heights I can always hear the sound
Of the bells of New York City singing all around

Stay with me, stay with me
Refuge from these broken dreams
Wait right here awake with me
On silent snow filled streets

Sing to me one song for joy and one for redemption
And whatever's in between that I call mine
With the street lamp light to illuminate the gray
And the bells of New York City calling me to stay
The bells of New York City calling me to stay.

*lyrics retrieved from elyrics.net; song Josh Groban's.

And the award for 'most brilliant' goes to...

   As y'all know, I have become re-fascinated with The Chronicles of Narnia as of late. But before I could dive into rediscovering that series, I felt that I needed more information about its author--a lot more information. While reading his autobiography (Surprised by Joy) would have been ideal, my library does not have it. However, I did find The C.S. Lewis Chronicles: the Indispensable Biography of the Creator of Narnia, Full of Little-known Facts, Events and Miscellany. It has proved to be a vastly interesting read, and has further increased my awe about this fascinating man. So, I guess that this post will be made of just a few of the facts I have learned about C.S. Lewis.

1. He was actually born Clive Staples Lewis. Very early in his life he nicknamed himself 'Jacks' or 'Jack', and continued to be called such (by family and friends) for the rest of his life.
2. He lived in the north of Ireland during a majority of his life, the landscape of which inspired his idea of the Narnian landscape.
3. He read more than any person I have ever heard of in my entire life. Seriously. There are at least 2 lists in The C.S. Lewis Chronicles detailing the books he read in his life, and they are extensive lists. He is fluent in Latin and Greek before he is 17 years old.
Ok, can't manage to continue the list thing; I guess what happens next will just be fangirly rambling.
This man was seriously, seriously, seriously brilliant. I don't know if it is because the standards for education in 1930s-ish Britain are so much stricter than now, or my own natural scholastic pessimism; either way, I know that there is no way I could do as much as he did scholastically. Even just looking at, say, the topics he discussed with his friends, or the titles of the lectures he gave--they are  amazing. I guess there is a book (or two?) with his lectures gathered together. His passion was medieval literature, and he loved the idea of a 'romance'--which he defines as something that sparks of something of another world. Most of his work, from what I can gather, has to do with this aspect.
 C.S. Lewis was actually a sort of atheist for a good part of his life. This fact surprised me when I first heard it, because of all of the Biblical allusions in the Narnia series. It was only after becoming convinced of the deity of Christ and the truth of the Bible (his statement about his philosophy about why the Bible is true is fascinating; I think another whole blog entry will have to be dedicated to that alone) that he wrote his many theologically-based works.
  I haven't yet finished The C.S. Lewis Chronicles; for now, I am at the part where Lewis is still teaching at Oxford during WWII. However, I have determined, based upon this book (which I fully recommend, by the bye) that my purpose in life is to teach a C.S. Lewis course at my college someday. But, for now, I am just an almost second-semester sophmore, and my mom wants me to get off the computer now. So, until next time, you know that I will be studying more about this insanely genius guy. Adieu, dear ones!

Duriez, Colin. The C.S. Lewis Chronicles: the Indispensable Biography of the Creator of Narnia, Full  of Little-known Facts, Events and Miscellany. New York: BlueBridge, 2005. Print.

Smiley Faces and Happy Dances

  This, my dear readers, has nothing really to do with literary things. Unless you count the fact that it is about school, where I am learning lots of literary things. But the focus is not on those literary things. It is in fact on the school.
  Earlier this year, when school ended, I realized that I did not have a high enough GPA to receive a $5,000 scholarship that I needed to attend school. After a large bout of panicking, my mother and I sallied forth on a short but dizzying quest to try and figure out something to help me get the money we needed. After talking to everyone at my college but the president himself, we deduced that, to raise my GPA, I had to take 15 credits worth of classes this summer. Just in case you aren't aware, 15 credits is an entire semester's worth of credits. No joke. And I had to get A's in all of those classes. The first bunch of classes I took on campus, and behold, I actually got A-'s in both. Then, for the rest of the credits, I took 3 online classes. I have since been told that taking 3 online classes at once is the equivalent of having a 22 credit load during a 15 week semester. (Which, during the school year, it is not allowed for an undergrad to take more than 20.) I don't think it needs to be said that I failed spectacularly (as far as getting A's; technically, I think I passed them....).
  Yesterday was when I realized that all the work that I had done this summer had come to naught. It was not a very good time. Much tears ensued. However, due to encouraging parents and besties, hope was restored. Even if I couldn't afford to take a full semester, I could still take a couple courses and work. And it wasn't like I could fall behind much; I am techinically a semester ahead.
  Today my dad and I went to the Financial Aid office, and a nice man named Mr. Day (liked Lotus cars, was ex-military, and had a grenade hanging off of his in box--no joke) sat down and figured out that I am still able to go to school full time after all.
  The Lord is good to me >sing song like my Mom does when she is happy about getting a parking spot close to our Publix<

Another Random Video...

....except this song is my theme song. I kid you all not. Enjoy, loves!

Sweet Freedom, and a New Quest

 Here I am, dearest ones! Having finally completed that semi-disastrous round of summer school, I find myself free (for the next 3 weeks, at least) to do some pleasure reading! And pleasure reading equals blogging about stuff, as you well know.
 Before I get started on my newest literary obsession, I am going to brag, just a little bit. For my American Lit class, I wrote a paper on The Scarlet Letter. The thesis was 'Pearl and Chillingworth represent opposing supernatural forces in The Scarlet Letter'. The three points were opposing characterization, purposes, and ends. For the first point, I drew largely from the thoughts generated when I wrote about the novel for this fair blog. My result? I got a B on my final draft. >slight round of applause< I was very happy with that grade.
 Now that I am free from the shackles of online academia, I have rediscovered a series that I have long been fond of, but have rather forgotten in the whole 'growing up' thing. The series?

  The Chronicles of Narnia by C.S. Lewis.

I don't know why this is. It may be because before I left for vacation (to visit fam in Michigan) I may have kinda been investigating Narnia fanfiction. >kinda sheepish<. But anyway, I am really, really intrigued by these books again. I remember the first time I heard of them. I was in 2nd grade, and still going to school instead of being homeschooled. There was this thing where you get this Scholastic catalog of books, and you buy some and something special happens for the school or something. Anyway, I saw this boxed set of the books (shown right) and the whole idea of 'a series of books with a unicorn on the cover' was incredibly attractive to me. So I begged and pleaded, and Mom said that this would be the only time she did the whole Scholastic thing, and she got them for me. It was a year or two before I actually read it them, though. And I loved them. But then time went on, and distractions and other books came. When the movies started to come out, I fell in love again. But life happens, til I am a sophmore in college and having a sudden urge to read Narnia fanfiction for kicks and giggles. The End.

  Aslan and Lucy have pretty much always been my favorite characters. Aslan because, please, he's ASLAN. Actually, he may be my most favorite character of all time. And Lucy, because she always, always believes. She believes in Narnia, in Aslan, and in her family. The rest of the Pevensies rather bugged me. Peter thinks he knows everything, and so does Susan in an even more annoying way, and Edmund is just a brat. But lately, I have become intrigued by the relationship between Peter and Edmund. In all my reading experience, there has never been a brother relationship as close as portrayed with Peter and Edmund. I don't know what exactly the appeal to me is, but the appeal of such a close, non-romantic/sexual bond between people is enticing. Maybe it is so because C.S. Lewis was fascinated with 16th century English lit; I learned in my Brit Lit class that male friend relationships were closer than in modern times, without the stygma (sp?) of homosexuality. At any rate, I am beyond intrigued. Because I am on vacation, I do not have access to the books (although, I actually may, because my nieces might own them....). But I did have room in my bag to bring this guidebook to Narnia type thing. I started reading it in the car on the way here, and it was very interesting (before I absolutely had to nap, because of the ungodly hour we had to get up). So I will continue to read that, and I shall get back to you. Perhaps these next 3 weeks shall be my own Narnian adventure/quest thingy. Won't that be fun? :) Until next time, my darlings.