Fake/authentic? You decide

I'm pretty sure many would have heard of the image of Virgin Mary appearing on garage doors and lemon slices.

But are you prepared for this?

Virgin Mary appearing on a pebble.

It was supposedly found by a Christchurch woman (Lisa-Marie Corlet) on a beach (New Brighton or Sumner maybe?). I wonder what she was hunting for when she "stumbled" upon this 1cm in diameter pebble.

Personally, I think it looks like a walrus-man dressed up for a charity event (hence the tie).

She's selling it on Trademe now, here's the link to the auction. At 1.44pm right now, the leading bid is $31,600.50, with hundreds of comments, and 290 unanswered questions for the lady to answer.

This is what she wrote on the auction:

Pebble found on South Island beach with image of the Virgin Mary. Its genuine and I will be contacting the university geology department in the very near future to have authenticity proved. Check out The Press Newspaper, Tuesday 23rd of Wednesday 24th October to view more photos and find out more about this tiny pebble.

The debate going on is FIERCE. What I don't get is what's the big deal over a stone? Maybe before it was found, a little naughty boy decided to take out his crayon and sketch a picture of his toy walrus, left it on the beach, and the ink became permanent over the years.

Ok, so maybe it is the REAL thing. I just don't understand why would God want this pebble to be made/discovered. Besides it being a collector's item, I don't see how owning this pebble can bring someone good luck or helping him/her get closer to God.

Which made me wonder: The man above must be laughing away at the sight of us going ga-ga over a pebble, regardless of its authenticity.

Which leads to this: an item cannot even be proven "authentic" unless there is a similar item that has already been proven so, and a comparison can be made. Make sense? For example, it's possible to tell apart an authentic LV bag from one that's fake by careful inspection. So what are the geologists (supposedly) comparing this "authentic" pebble with?

Either way, good for Lisa-Marie for donating the sales to charity. Whether or not she donates any of it away or keep it to herself, she's entitled to it. Why? She found it, finder's keepers. And even if it's fake, the buyer should know better there are risks in buying this pebble. I see this as her being blessed, very abundantly might I add.

Kiwis are a bunch of funny folks. This guy here is selling a Virgin Mary on a surfboard set. See description below.

Thought to be fake at first when found on my desk this morning-but look at second photo taken with a photon gamma mapping camera- the energy coming off is incredible!
Looks remarkably like the Virgin Mary on a surfboard?
If you can help me with how this came to be in existance I would appreciate any feedback.
Free postage within NZ.
** buyer will need a small piece of blue-tac to keep Mary on the board.
***UPDATE!!

RANGE EXPANDED AT NO EXTRA COST!

New Virgin Mary Surfboard set now includes:
NEW! Donkey Poster!
NEW! 3 Wise men!
NEW! Baby Jesus! ( looks a little like a penguin )
NEW! Glow in the dark Star of Bethlehem! (doesn't actually glow in the dark....)

If you think this is funny, scroll down to the comments of this auction and the original one. Even this fake auction has a lead bidding of $147 as I'm typing this. haha. More of these fake authentic stones are appearing on Trademe by the hour, it's worth reading the comments and have a good laugh.

Going Italian

Yesterday was a day of celebrations: Sally's birthday and end of exams for the Pharmacy students. Though I still have 1 more paper to go (pesky unavoidable MANV202), I figured an early celebration wouldn't hurt too. =)

We originally decided to have a Japanese meal at Jitsu, but switched over to the dark Italian side. Etrusco is a fancy Italian restaurant located just after the octagon, boasting dishes I have a hard time pronouncing their names.

Excuse the bad lighting.

#1 entree: *fancy name here* (garlic bread topped with wine & marinara sauce)

#2 entree: very yummy (original?) pizza base.

Even earl grey tea is presented in this special way.

Dish I ordered: pasta with sliced ham flamed with vodka & parmesan sauce. *delizioso*!

Sally digging into the Main Dish of 3 chef's recommendation dishes.

Toasting with our tawny ports ($5 each, sipped very slOOOOOwly)

Will really miss you much next year, all the best in your studies @ AUT, Sally the fashionista hehe!

Clarity

Okay, just a few points to clear up:

1. I'm NOT wallowing up in self pity. In fact, I've never been happier my whole life here, doing what I love and having friends I can trust my life with.

2. I'm NOT in denial of what happened last year. I did not run away or quote: "left it behind in the past" and just moved on with life.

3. What I shared on the last post is just the tip of an iceberg. So please, even if you think you know me well enough to judge, don't.

4. The ONLY reason why I brought that up again was because I found it ironic that though I didn't tell anybody about what "trial" I thought about (during cell group last Tuesday), Canai told me after that that X has joined a cell group. More ironic was that I always prayed that he would someday know that his life will never be complete without God.

5. And finally, I am GLAD that it happened. As cliche as it may sound, I am changed for the better.

***

Anyway, I stumbled upon a video which complements both my guilty pleasures: One Tree Hill and a soft spot for guys with guitars singing love songs. ;P



Don't laugh, One Tree Hill is the best (after Heroes, House, and 24, of course hehehe). Can't wait for season 5 to start airing next year.

Trials

It's been quite some time since I blogged about something personal, but guess it's time for one.

A friend has just told me a few minutes ago that my ex (let's just call him X for now) has joined a Christian cell group.

If this was any other friend of mine, I would feel happy for him/her.

*keeps fingers crossed that he doesn't read this*

A quick update on those who don't know about X. He was my first, and it lasted for less than 2 months. A forbidden relationship would be a nice choice to describe it, it was wrong in so many ways. My brain was telling me I shouldn't, my friends told me he was up to no good and only wanted to use me, even my dad told me he wouldn't call me daughter anymore if I continued seeing him.

I was stubborn. Only daughter syndrome. It was so wrong that it felt right, in a way. I tricked myself into believing that as long as I was happy, God would provide a way. That includes probably getting him to go to church, to quit smoking, maybe to even get to know Christ. I even believed that the main reason for the relationship was so that I could be his turning point in life.

Little did I know that my plan had its flaws. Firstly, he had a plan of his own. (I'd never shared this before to anyone else except my close friends). Anyway, his plan (which I found out after it was over) was to date at least 2 girls at a time, use them, and then dump them. Secondly, I was misinterpreting all the signals, call me naive or just plain gullible for believing his sweet lies.

2 months went by and he said it wouldn't work out. Then I found out from someone else that he never really liked me, and only "went for it" as I was an easy target. I was furious, disappointed, disgusted, humiliated, and felt incredibly stupid. I thought I knew better, I thought I was smarter.

Most of all, I felt betrayal. It was difficult to put my trust in anybody else after that incident. The days went on very slowly after that, I was forced to put a smile on my face and pretend that everything was okay when in actual fact, I just wanted to break down and cry all over again. I wished everyday that it was just a nightmare that I could wake up from, prayed that time could reverse itself. What made it harder was the fact that I had to see him everyday last year as we lived in the same hall. It was then that I learnt the real meaning of torture.

Healing was a slow process. But I'm thankful for friends who listened and helped me through it.

The reason why I'm bringing this up again is because when Raymond talked about "trials" today during cell group, I chose that as my trial I went through. He mentioned that trials are present in our lives not as brick walls or to hold us down, but trials are there as a sign that God loves us. =)

Trials and tribulations come with both a purpose and a reward.

"Consider it all joy when you encounter various trials, knowing that the testing of your faith produces endurance. And let endurance have its perfect result, that you may be perfect and complete, lacking in nothing."

"Blessed is the man who perseveres under trial; for once he has been approved, he will receive the crown of life, which the Lord has promised to those who love Him." (James 1:2-4,12).

So many times when we face certain trials, we think of it as a punishment of some sort from God. It's time to think of it as a blessing, as odd as it may sound.

I'm still learning, and it's ironic thinking back: Before coming here to NZ, I prayed that God would give me an experience that I can use to encourage people with and make myself a better person. Lo and behold, God provided me the experience of a "worst case scenario". ;P


I want to say I've forgiven X 100%, and can forget about what he did and move on with my life. Some say I must be spending too much time feeding on my despair, but a wound doesn't just heal in a short time. Though it's been over a year now, I'm still learning every single day to truly trust that this experience is necessary for a greater plan that I still cannot understand now.

When you feel like you are all alone
Just like your best friend up and gone
Don’t worry now
Don’t worry now
I’ve been there yeah, I know how it feels
To wonder if love is even real
Don’t worry now
Don’t worry now
It’s gonna be ok

I’ve been trying to find a way to understand
When I can’t see the picture of God’s plan
Why would He let us hurt so bad?
Could anything good come of these feeling that I have?
He loved me more than the sand on the beaches
He loved me more than the grass is green
And even though he had to go I always knew His love was part of me

It’s taken so long to let this go
It’s taken so long to feel that
Your right here next to me
And I can finally breathe
It’s taken so long but now I know
I had to find out on my own
When nothing could convince me
Your love it convinced me
That it’s gonna be ok

~Britt Nicole, Don't Worry Now

To all those still recovering from hurt of any kind, it's going to be ok.

And that's speaking from experience.

Amused

Seems like I'm easily amazed (and tricked, but let's not go there today).

Currently, I'm amazed at the number of friends actually spending time reading this humble blog of mine. Surprising, surprising. Looking back at my very first blog post (click here) way back in October 2004, it's amazing to know that this blog is now 3 years old!

For me, the joy of blogging doesn't come with the money earned through advertising or showing off what's going on in my boring life, but receiving comments from people I don't even know. Sometimes encouraging comments, sometimes criticism. Blame that on the so-called freedom of speech mentality we all have.

I've added the "Recent comments" widget to the sidebar. To add one to your blog (blogspot only), go to this page.

I enjoy looking at stats of recent visitors to the blog too, Good Counter's pretty informative, I still keep the Sitemeter tracker though.

The top 20 keywords in searches which led people to this blog.

Quite a few Brooke Fraser searches, which makes sense since I blogged about her concert recently.

Ok, now look closer at the circled part.


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EWWWWWWW!!!

1. I do NOT have saliva fetish, or any fetishes for that matter.

2. I don't remember ever blogging about any sort of fetishes. Correct me if I'm wrong.

3. It's just a very very disturbing thought: sometime googling that phrase and ended up at my blog.

4. I don't even want to know if that particular person has the fetish mentioned above.


Disgustingness.