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Showing posts with label quotes. Show all posts
Showing posts with label quotes. Show all posts

Thursday, June 12, 2014

A Few Favorite Quotes {Deaf and Deafness}

Listen or your tongue will keep you deaf.

~Native American Proverb

And Moses said unto the Lord, O my Lord, I am not eloquent, neither heretofore, nor since thou hast spoken unto thy servant: but I am slow of speech, and of a slow tongue.

And the Lord said unto him, Who hath made man's mouth? or who maketh the dumb, or deaf, or the seeing, or the blind? have not I the Lord?

Now therefore go, and I will be with thy mouth, and teach thee what thou shalt say.

~Exodus 4:10-12 (KJV)

Kindness is the language which the deaf can hear and the blind can see.

~Mark Twain

And as Jesus passed by, he saw a man which was blind from his birth.

And his disciples asked him, saying, Master, who did sin, this man, or his parents, that he was born blind?

Jesus answered, Neither hath this man sinned, nor his parents: but that the works of God should be made manifest in him.

John 9:1-3 (KJV)

I have always thought it would be a blessing if each person could be blind and deaf for a few days during his early adult life. Darkness would make him appreciate sight; silence would teach him the joys of sound.”

– Helen Keller ( Blind and Deaf American Author and Educator 1880-1968 )

Thou shalt not curse the deaf, nor put a stumblingblock before the blind, but shalt fear thy God: I am the Lord.

~Leviticus 19:14 (KJV)

No one is as deaf as the man who will not listen.

– Jewish Proverb quotes

Saturday, February 2, 2013

Favorites of the Week

I thought I try something different for Saturdays seeing that I am not online as much these days. The Link Roundup posts will now be Favorites of the Week. I will give this a go and see how it goes. I may add or take things away from future posts. I know I want to add a “link of the week” later on. I just started this a couple days ago; so, I do not have a link this week. Let me know what you all think of this change.

  • Scripture of the week:

    If you love me, you will keep my commandments. ~John 15: 14
    I watched an episode of Joyce Meyer this week and she was speaking on “obedience”. She talked about how God’s love is always the same. We do not have to earn his love as he already loves fully and unconditionally. God knows our hearts. It is our flesh and willpower that often gets in the way of obeying God. He does not stop loving us if we fail. He loves us no matter what. Over time, it will get easier to do what He asks of us and obey His word. Well, that is major paraphrasing off of my memory in a nutshell! Ha!

  • TV Quotes of the week:
    The angels have the phone box.
    Fascinating race, the Weeping Angels. The only psychopaths in the universe to kill you nicely. No mess, no fuss, they just zap you into the past and let you live to death.
    Both of the above quotes come from Blink (Doctor Who). We now get BBC America and Doctor Who comes on in the mornings. I have been recording the show and watching them when I am feeling sick, down or needing a break. I am thrilled to be able to watch this show once again as I have not seen an episode since we left North Houston almost five years ago.

    Sure, I could buy the DVDs; but, I am too darn cheap. Actually, I am waiting for Amazon to come up with a Deal of the Day on the series; but, I highly doubt this will happen because it is a foreign TV series.

    Anyway, I watched this particular episode for the first time this past week and it is my favorite episode so far! I had to hit pause, rewind and play a few times due to the fact I could not keep up with the fast paced captioning (conversation). I saved the recording and watched it again that same night because I thought Dan would like it too. (And, I think he did). Seeing the episode the second time around was even better than the first!

  • Book Quote of the week:
    Dawn take you all, and be stone to you!
    I am currently re-reading The Hobbit by J. R.R. Tolkien and just finished Chapter II. This happens to be one of my favorite scenes from the book itself. (You have to read the book if you do not know what I am talking about. Ha!) I wonder if this scene is in the movie?

Monday, May 16, 2011

Pictorial Monday: Self Portraits


There is a site called Digital Photography School that I follow (via RSS feed) and, in general, it has been very helpful. I like the challenges they present once in a while; but, I rarely participate. Well, sometime last week this post popped up in my RSS feed and intrigued me. I decided to go for it as I thought it would be fun.

Let me tell you, the creativity aspect is tough not to mention attempting to take a self portrait is even tougher. My lack of knowledge did not stop me - I was determined to plow through in spite of myself and learn. I learned more about lighting in these exercises. I also learned about aperture and depth of field.

Dan was my willing assistant. He sat or stood while I focused on him to make sure I would be in focus in the picture. He explained (or attempted to explain) concepts to me. He deserves a lot of credit for the pictures below because without him, I do not think these would have been as good as they are.

Below are the pictures that I came up with for the three different challenges that were presented. I have to say that I do not like myself in pictures – I am not photogenic unless I am laughing. At least, I feel that way. Dan feels otherwise; but, love is forever blind. These pictures were all taken this past weekend.

Self Portrait Challenge #1: Props


Living in a material world
And I am a material girl
You know that we are living in a material world
And I am a material girl

Material Girl written by Peter Brown and Robert Ran
sung by Madonna
I had originally thought about laying among a bunch of fabric; but, that would have been too tough to implement as I do not have a remote switch nor would I have been able to set the camera high enough to get a picture of me wallowing among fabric. At least, it would not have been easy or safe to attempt this scenario.

The above shot was thought of by Dan as I was talking to him while sitting behind the sewing machine. I liked the idea well enough that we set it into motion by piling the fabric around the sewing machine. It took many attempts on my part to finally get the lighting right. The above shot is the one we both liked. So, I picked it to use in the challenge.

Self Portrait Challenge #2: Light


Instead of cursing the darkness,
Light a candle for where we're going,
There's something ahead, worth looking for.

When the light of time is on us,
We will see our moment come,
And the living soul inside will carry on.

Light a candle in the darkness,
So others might see ahead,
Light a candle in the darkness, when you go.

Light a Candle by Neil Young
When I received the #2 challenge in the RSS feed, I immediately knew I wanted to do something with candles. I love candles of all kinds and am addicted to the Yankee Candle brand. However, the candles I used here were cheap ones I had purchased specifically for this challenge from Walmart. I envisioned using dark candles so that only the candlelight would be evident and this one came out very well.

I had a problem with lighting and shadows. I ended up with one candle sitting just outside the right of this picture on a chair. Dan held another candle on the left and I finally had an acceptable shot.

Self Portrait Challenge #3: Mood


My soul is weak
My heart is numb
I cannot see
But still my hope is found in You
I’ll hold on tightly
You will never let me go

Clinging to the Cross by Tim Huges
This was the toughest challenge. It is extremely hard to convey a mood through the camera. I had a hard time imagining something that conveys a particular mood of any kind through the camera. My mind was working really hard and then I thought of something that might be doable. I had envisioned a cross in the background blurred with me a distance a ways to convey the feeling of "lost" which I sometimes feel due to depression. At the same time, I am holding onto the Bible to convey that I am clinging to my faith. I also felt that a black and white photo would be best in this situation.

I had to make the cross that you see in the background. I made that prop almost entirely by myself with the guidance of Dan (who is into woodworking). I even used power tools - a duel-beveled, sliding compound miter saw and a router - and did not hurt nor kill myself in the process. Also, this did not cost anything as I used scraps.

It took a better part of a day to finish the prop as priming and painting takes time not to mention allowing time for the wood glue to dry before painting. I'm quite pleased with end result. It just needs one more coat of paint, which I will give it someday. I'm planning to keep this prop. After all, It is my very first woodworking project that I have completed from start to finish.

This time, Dan helped me immensely because I had an idea and every shot I took just wasn’t cutting it. He finally understood what I was going for and helped me in the process.

A lot of credit goes to Dan for this photo because he put his 50mm lens on my camera and explained some details to me. I took one shot at f/4.5 and it wasn’t what I was going for. I took another shot at f/1.8 and the shot was very close! Dan had taken the time to explain to me that the bigger the aperture, the smaller the depth of field. I wanted to understand the why of it all. He smiled and said that he did too - this is just one of those things you have to accept. Ugh. However, I see that it is true. It works. So, it is just one of those things I am just going to remember and accept.

I hope you enjoyed reading this long winded post and viewing the pictures. Note: all the lyrical quotes I added were an afterthought - not the basis for the pictures themselves.


Thursday, May 27, 2010

Much Ado about Nothing...


I guess I am writing about the fact that I have nothing to write about. Ha Ha!

Oh, I’ve written a little here and there in my journals and whatnot. But, nothing I want to share with you guys as they’re deeply personal. Sometimes, I wish I could because I would so love for you to get a glimpse of me. In fact, I did write up something back in June 2009 with the sole purpose of sharing it with everyone. But, I chickened out.

So, I guess I will share a few of my random quotes. These are thoughts that came into my brain at the spur of the moment. Thoughts that just hit me with clarity while I’m out and about wandering, doing chores, or whatnot. I had to write them down for posterity’s sake.

NOTE: My man said the following upon reading my first draft: "you should expand on each of those quotes - what it means to you, why it came to you and why do you feel it is important enough to share with people." I asked "You think so?" His response was "No, I just said that to hear my head rattle. Of course, I think so. I'm just trying to encourage you to elaborate on things. WHY those quotes came to you, are important to you, etc., reveals more about who you are than the actual quotes do".

So, blame him for my turning this short post to a lengthy one. Also, blame him if you witness me going stark raving nuts with anxiety after I click on “publish”. Ha!

“Do not hate me for having thoughts of my own…”
This one some of you have already heard. This came to me when I first got onto facebook and started sharing my thoughts. I got so anxious and whacked out over the whole thing. I am just not comfortable expressing my true thoughts and opinions. By the way, I thank those of you who “validated” me when I put this quote in my status on facebook.

“We’re all human beings, not monsters! Although, some monsters are disguised as human beings.” (12/2/09)
I remember that my mind "shouted" the first sentence. And then, it quietly followed it with the second. I faintly recall at the time that people were calling those who have "evil" thoughts "monsters". It seems to me it was a blurb about a rapist, or a pedophile, or something similar that started it all.

I've always felt that people are not monsters for just having "evil" thoughts. Usually, a person immediately purges those "evil" thoughts from his/her mind. In other words, they don’t dwell on them.

It's the constantly thinking about, and then acting them out, that makes it monstrous. In other words, it's the acting out of their "evil" thoughts that makes a person a monster (evil). So, a monster could be disguised as a human being because that person encourages and/or willed it into existence.


“It used to be normal. But now, I don’t know what normal is. (12/29/09)”
Nothing is "normal" for me anymore simply because I had trashed what I thought that OTHERS considered "normal" for me. I pretty much don't care what others may think of me anymore. Well, I do care. But, I don't want to sacrifice my self anymore in the process. I'm trying to figure out what MY "normal" is.

I bet that doesn't make sense to you. Oh well, I tried. C'est la vie!

“If they get themselves in a fix, this doesn’t mean you need to box them in it.” (01/13/10)
I remember clearly how this came into my brain. I was thinking deep thoughts again while I was out and about running errands. I was approaching a car already pulled out in a left turn lane waiting for an opportunity to turn in the midst of heavy traffic. I instinctively knew to stop quite a ways behind him. The light turned yellow and then red. He got stuck in the middle of the intersection with no way out but backwards. I motioned for him to back up as there was plenty of room to do so and he did. And then, the above quote came into my brain.

My thoughts at this time were running along the lines of how people have the tendency to box people up in their own preconceived perceptions and ideas about who those people are. They even put labels on them. And, they will not let them out nor help them get out. They often will keep you in that box that is either your or their creation at all cost.

Why do people box people up? Label them? And then get shocked when that person breaks out? Or change? Or whatever? And, then try their hardest to put them right back into the box?

For example: My mother, and sometimes my family, will not let me grow up or expand from her / their preconceived ideas of who I am. Once upon a time, I had no skills in cooking. She didn't think I could cook. Whose fault was that anyway? No matter. I am digressing. Back to the point.

She has a hard time wrapping her head around the fact that I can and do cook well. There were times in the past when both Dan and I were in her kitchen. He would be guiding, helping, or just keeping me company while I did most of the cooking or baking. She would end up praising and thanking Dan for the meal, dessert, or whatever I had mostly made. He would correct her. I usually let it roll over me like water off a duck.

However, the last time something like this happened, it really irked me. I think it’s because some family was around and they too didn’t believe it of me. It’s like their minds cannot grasp such a concept.

Another thing, why do people who witness people getting boxed in something of their own making and will not give them a helping hand to get out? It is usually trouble of some kind.

It's kind of like that guy I mentioned who got stuck in the middle of the intersection because he was antsy and thought there would be an opening in time. Most people would have approached and stopped behind him at the point where he would have no room to back up and get out of the middle of traffic. And then, what makes it worse is that some people wouldn't even bother backing up if they can to help them get out of the jam.

Some just box people in and never let them out.

“You could let pain conquer you or you could conquer over pain.” (01/20/10)
At the time, I was experiencing pain in BOTH shoulders. I was recovering from a Rotator cuff injury in my left shoulder when I somehow managed to injure the right one with the same or a similar injury.

I was thinking about how painful therapy for the left shoulder was and how I could have let it (the pain) stop me. But, I pushed through and eventually, the pain lessened. I realized that therapy was a good thing in spite of the pain. It taught me to keep going and not to coddle my injuries.

This, in turn, made me think of my Daddy. He didn't let pain (injuries) stop him from doing anything. He pushed through.

So, you could let "pain conquer you" – let it stop you from living life. Or, you could "conquer over pain" – keep on living in spite of it. My natural inclination is to just quit. But, persistence is the key – just keep trying and don’t give up. This is not an easy thing to do. I know.