A new look for the blog...

I decided to roll out a new look for the blog tonight. I had more desk shifts than reading this week, and was brainstorming about blog ideas when my organist friend stopped by the desk. I started showing him my ideas, he offered a couple more, and then I came back to my room later this evening and put this together.

Comments or suggestions are appreciated -- I'm not averse to changing things a bit. Some of you are more computer/graphic savvy than I.

Well... off to bed! I've got a busy day of practicing tomorrow!

With love from an absolute doll,

Erin Joy

on staplers

This, my friends, is a stapler.

For those of you unfamiliar with this concept, it might be best to start with a basic definition.

Stapler (noun): A tool used to fasten sheets of paper together by poking a piece of metal through the paper and bending it so it stays secure.

Staplers can be purchased at any office supply store, and even at non-specialty stores such as Walgreens, Wal-Mart, or Target. They can be found in most offices, schools, and libraries. Elementary, middle, and high school students use them, and so do the CEO's of most major corporations. Staplers come in a range of cost and sizes, from the $2 backpack version, to the $60 model designed for heavy library use.

There seems to be a gap in stapler usage, at least from my observations. From the time a student enters college to the day they graduate, the stapler becomes an anomaly, almost an embarrassment to own or use. Assignments are paper clipped, or worse -- dogeared, with the vain hope that merely bending the top corner of the page will somehow hold one hundred sheets of paper together.

Why??

When a stapler is in the library, positioned close enough to the printer to allow for stapling in under three-and-a-half seconds, why do students turn in their papers unstapled?

Do they really think that a paper clip will hold their assignment together when it is placed in a box with fifty other papers also written in 12-point Times New Roman, with one-inch margins?

Are they naive enough to believe that their last name in the upper right-hand corner will really enable the teaching assistant to sort them properly? That the five other John Does in the class dogeared their pages in a slightly different place?

Unfortunately, some things in this life do not have easy answers. There are some questions we will ponder, never knowing the whys and the wherefores... never reaching that elusive solution.

This, however, is not one of those questions.

Buy a stapler.

With love from an absolute doll,

Erin Joy

a lack of blogging, but a lot of growing

Well, my friends, it's been a while. My apologies for the lack of blogging -- Christmas break was pretty packed. I ended up working about 30 hours a week while I was home, getting ready for my brother's wedding, and going to doctor's appointments. Then it was back on campus, a week of classes, and tour... and now it's finally time to blog again.

A simple one paragraph summary of the past few weeks doesn't quite seem to do it justice. To be honest, God has done a lot in my heart and life in such a short time, but I'm hard put to figure out how to express it. Whether it be graciously providing a solution to my ongoing health problems (I'm taking the stairs again!), or reminding me of the power of prayer, I'm grateful.

I'm looking forward to the upcoming semester. I've got some great classes -- Systematic Theology I, Church Music Ministries, Hermeneutics, and Piano Pedagogy. Much like last semester, I'm excited about all of them. A lot of the semester will also be spent preparing for my choir's tour to Israel in May.

I will do my best to keep blogging regularly. If you have any suggestions or comments, please let me know! :) And... in the meantime, I'd appreciate your prayers -- for class, health, practice, and most importantly, a continued focus on Him.

With love from an absolute doll,

Erin Joy