African Banter

Best first lines

2010-03-02T08:06:00.002-06:00

I've just been doing some prep work for the writing class that I'm teaching this semester and thought I'd share it with you:

The 100 Best First Lines from Novels

Unless I overlooked it on the list somewhere, my favorite seems to be missing:
“I am doomed to remember a boy with a wrecked voice – not because of his voice, or because he was the smallest person I ever knew, or even because he was the instrument of my mother’s death, but because he is the reason I believe in God; I am a Christian because of Owen Meany.” In John Irvings's A Prayer for Owen Meany.

But what strikes me most about the list is not how few of these books that I have read but how few I have even heard of. Sure, most of the authors are familiar but I probably haven't read a third of these. I feel so uncultured!

Because otherwise I'd cry

2010-02-11T06:20:00.002-06:00

Over Christmas I graded over 100 papers concerning popular culture, the American Dream, Individualism and work ethics. Some were good. The rest contained things like this:

J Lo's goal was to become a multiasking superstar.

Despite all of his success, he hasn't become swollen.

Donald Trump believes that 'faster is weller.'

We all must have good work hobbits.

After failing several times, Pitt never got up.

If you don't know how to wok, you won't be able to eat.

Benjamin Button joined a battle on a thug boat.

There are many massages we can see in this film.

This is my "Illogical Perspective" paper.

Differences make life tasty.

Jennifer Hudon beat up hundreds of other competitors for the roll.

Madonna moved from Michigan to America so she have the American dream.

And then I just gave up writing them down...

If Pavlov had a sound machine

2010-01-05T16:49:00.002-06:00

Starting in college I began using a sound machine when I slept. Sometimes it was the ocean playing on a cd and set to repeat all night. While in the States a few years ago, the people we lived with let us use a shmantzy one in our little basement apartment. Everyone in their family used one. Then when @ was born, we got a separate machine that played a variety of soothing sounds like tropical rain forest, white noise, or that creepy heartbeat one. We've moved on to using our iPod which makes it even more portable for when we travel.

In theory it's a great idea: get your body comfortable with a set type of sound that can be turned up louder when there is street noise, sounds from the television in the next room or the mosque down the street.

But the reality of it is that now, especially when I'm in our room, the sound of rain, real rain, knocks me out quick. Last night we were listening to a podcast from our friends in Greenfield while it was raining. I was trying to pay attention. I was trying to stay awake. I was trying to focus But that patter of raindrops on the roof flipped the switch in my brain that said it was time to doze. By the time the podcast was over, I could barely keep my eyes open. So now, for the four months of the rainy season, I will be fighting my subconscious reaction to what my ears are hearing.

I guess I should be happy. I might salivate instead.

Dead, drunk or in love?

2009-09-08T23:43:00.002-05:00

Here's the idiom game that I pulled out for last night's English Club.

1. Jot down as many English idioms/euphemisms for describing death, drunkenness, and being in love (or getting married) as you can come up with.

2. Scramble up your lists.

3. Write them on a white board.

4. Have participants try to guess which of the three categories each idiom fits in.

5. Depending on time and setting I sometime have students come up with a list of their own (my American students at Eureka College knew way too many for getting drunk) or a list of local language equivalents.

Examples: bought the farm, tipsy, on cloud nine, over the moon, worshipping at the foot of the porcelain god, three sheets to the wind, toasted, kicked the bucket, pushing up daisies, spending the night with Captain Jack, shot by Cupid's arrow, head over heels, visiting St. Peter, six feet under, worm food.

I think I first used this game when teaching Tim O'Brien's "The Things They Carried" which really ties in nicely.

Other fun idiom categories include crazy, pregnant or peeing. But be careful of your audience. I'm sure I've offended plenty of people by not considering cultural sensitivity.

Concealed but not carrying.

2009-04-05T08:49:00.001-05:00

Last week I stubbed a toe on the stairs. Not a major injury but it did result in the need to bring a walking stick to school for a bit of extra support. I took an older one, a bit worn but usable and tossed it into my backpack with only the tip sticking out.

While moving through traffic on my motorcycle, I noticed a policeman on his bike following me closely. I slowed down and drove a bit more carefully until he flagged me down. I thought I might have been guilty of driving while white but knew I had done nothing wrong. Still, I pulled over and started getting out my drivers license and bike ownership. But what he wanted to know about was the barrel sticking out of my backpack. I guess it did look a bit like a gun, especially from a distance as I moved through traffic.

After he was satisfied with my busted toe pantomime and an examination of the telescopic, spring loaded pity stick, he sent me on my way.

The next day I saw him again and noticed how he eyed the walking stick closely. This time, no traffic stop, just a courtesy head nod.

A man about a horse

2009-03-25T21:10:00.003-05:00

Yesterday I spotted a student who was absent from my just-finished class. When I asked him why he was gone, he responded:

"I had to see a man about a horse."

While I was impressed with his use of the American idiom, I wasn't quite sure why it took him an hour and forty minutes (the length of the class) to go to the bathroom. So I asked him to clarify.

"I had an appointment across town. Isn't that the right expression?"

For the next ten minutes I tried explaining the term as delicately as I could while also making sure that he really wasn't literally negotiating the purchase of any kind of livestock.

I was relieved that the discussion didn't end up like the one in Africa where I learned far too much when explaining "He knows where the bodies are buried."

A bad grade won't kill you...here

2009-03-19T07:39:00.002-05:00

In the year that I've been teaching here on the island, I've noticed that I don't hesitate very much when it comes to failing a student (on the national scale, that actually means giving an E since F wouldn't really mean "fail" in the local langauge.) I guess one of the reasons might be that I'm finally maturing or thatm that I'm getting meaner. But mostly I think it's because I know it isn't the end of the world - for them or me.

When I started teaching at Eureka College, I was probably overly concerned that failing too many students might reflect poorly on me as a teacher. If I was a better teacher, I reasoned, then the students would have no problem doing well on the tests and papers. If I was encouraging them in the right way, they'd turn in everything on time after having deligently done their best. The cheaters I failed without hesitation but the failure of those other students; that was my fault.

In Africa, I knew that most of the students simply didn't have the advantages that my American students did. Most lacked basic necessities like good nutrition and adequate healthcare. Few had computers or books of there own. But what made me hesitate failing students wasn't pity, it was the knowledge that when students left the University they headed to the military where the conditions were much worse than on the campus. For some it would mean frequent beatings. For others it meant training in 100 degree heat with little more than hard rolls, tea and some lentils for food. Even in the best cases, it meant working for free until the gov't released them or they had a chance to escape the country.

But here, I know that it would reflect more poorly on me if at least some of my students didn't fail. And while many of my students come from poor families, the conditions are nowhere as difficult as they were in Africa. So now, just two weeks into my second semester teaching without another professor, I already feel more confident in relying the students to determine their own success or failure in my classes.

Shakespeare at the Lotus

2008-12-05T04:51:00.002-06:00

Last night I went out to the Blue Lotus - our new stain-glassed, coffee oasis in the heart of the city - to do a little grading for Pop Culture and hear "A Beginner's Guide to Shakespeare." It was written by a Scandanavian professor and preformed by a bunch of college students in Dutch. But someone behind me was translating it to his friend in the national language. And afterwards people were talking about it in the local language.

Best of all, even as I was reading about the evils of McDonald's and how ipods make forget cultural traditions, I was able to follow most of it.

I love cultural diversity.

Things I thankfully don't have

2008-12-01T13:40:00.002-06:00

Rather than being thankful for what I have, I've been spending some time realizing that there are plenty of things that I am glad I don't have. It's odd but I am not the least bit deprived for not having:

Central anything

Hot water heater

Clothes dryer

Surround-sound or Hi-definition

Glass on our upstairs windows (only screens)

Microwave oven

Hard to pronounce tropical disease

Snow shovel

Carpet

Lawn Mower

Blackberry or iphone

I have too much stuff already. My bookshelves are full. I own DVDs I haven't watched. My television set is on too often.

Skipping Thanksgiving

2008-11-24T14:17:00.003-06:00

I know that the title sounds ungreatful and maybe even unAmerican and it is certainly a bit misleading but this year we will not be having a big Thanksgiving meal at our house. It just seems silly and more than a little wasteful (waist-full?) to make the turkey and fixings when it will just be the three of us on a pretty regular school day.

I guess what makes it easier is that we really already had our Thanksgiving a few weeks ago. We got together with some American teachers who live up the mountain and ate turkey (which Amanda prepared, cooked and transported the hour and a half trip) and all the fixings. We talked and laughed and caught up. We put on silly hats and danced to "Elvira" (a tradition in our host's family). We skipped the games this year due to the drive home but other than that, it was a typical, albeit early, Thanksgiving.

So this Thursday we'll give thanks and talk about being greatful with @. We will likely eat more than we need to - there's never too little food at our house, no matter what the meal - and we'll hopefully be with family on the internet. So it'll still be a good day. (Even if there isn't football on television.)

The one sick parent rule

2008-11-17T13:13:00.002-06:00

Amanda and I have an unofficial rule that only one of us is allowed to be sick at a time. Until recently, this is a rule that have been totally in favor of since I, the unhealthier, normally get sick first followed by Amanda's much shorter illness. But now, there are allergies to contend with.

Since moving down the mountain, Amanda has done a great job getting the family to eat better, more nutritional meals. Sure, we indulge some with the occasional bucket of chicken or visit to Neighborhood on the Water (great lemon chicken) but normally this is offset by chickpea and pumpkin soup or Indian vegetables and rice. The end result has been that I may not be in peak physical form - I don't bike or walk to work unlike in Africa - but I do get sick less often.

Our improved diet, however, hasn't been able to stop Amanda from being allergic to something in our yard. When we tore out a downed manggo tree in our yard, Amanda could tell it was going to start soon. But she got a jump on the swelling and spots on her arms through the ample use of drowsiness inducing medicine. So for the last two days, she has fought a valiant but losing battle against waves of "do not opperate heavy machinery-ness." She'll do one more day of heavy medicines today after I get home from classes and hopefully be done with it.

Even dizzy, my wife does a lot. She manages to make meals, do laundry, get her boys off to school, send dessert to the neighbor across the street. She helps @ with homework (yeah, he has homework for preschool). She keeps the houseworker from comepletely rearranging the house. And in between this, she tries to get a couple of minutes in the airconditioning to help keep the swelling down and limit her recovery time. Exhausting.

I try to help out a little here and there and don't do nearly enough. And still I'm tired. I guess this is what I deserve for breaking my leg the month before @ was born. I owe her.

Cheaters

2008-11-10T16:30:00.002-06:00

This past week I gave four classes their midterm exams. And, not too unexpectedly, I caught students cheating. But what was suprising was that these students were women. Not that I am an authority on the subject but usually I only catch men (boys?) copying answers. When I mentioned this to some of my colleagues, they weren't the least bit shocked. Boys don't care enough to cheat here.

Just a few minutes after the exam was over, I began running through the vocabulary portion of the test and noticed that one student had yet to get a single answer correct. Sure, I'm usually tough but not that tough. Looking more closely, I realized that the reason for the problem was that she had written the answers for the second version of the test - the version that a classmate sitting on either side of her. I was howling mad.

Later, I shared this with Amanda who took on the challenge of identifying who it was that this student cheated off of. With 80 or so students, I thought this was unlikely but within a couple of minutes, the co-cheater was found (their short answers were too alike to be coincidence). I think Amanda has a future in law enforcement.

The next day, I called in both of them where the first student admitted to the crime while the second acknowledged that she allowed but did encourage her friend to cheat. Neither student apologized or even indicated that what they did was wrong.

Both students recieve an F for the exam and the cheater will get an automatic 0 for the course.

Yeah, things are the same all over.

It hasn't been THAT long since I blogged...

2008-10-27T15:16:00.002-05:00

I'm teaching about mass media in America this week so I thought I should revist the blog that I've largely neglected (abused?) for the last couple of months. Why?

Facebook is a time suck. And it's easier to post a one sentence update than go for a whole (meaning 1 paragraph) theme. There's no pressure to even say anything and a ton of voyeristic, looking over everyone else's shoulders that can be done.
Work. While not that time consuming, it does take the creative energy out of me. I spend Tuesday and Wednesday trying to get my laid-back Asian students excited, or even angry, about something.
Family. I spend a couple of hours a day on this computer anyway and I feel guilty about ignoring our son who just wants to play with me. He's four and experimenting with words and ideas and behaviors. God, I pray that he doesn't outgrow this.
Life. We feel like we haven't totally found our place here yet but are also trying to see how to figure out what we should be doing. Should I spend more time at work so I can do a better job trying to connect with my students and colleagues? Should we be going on more walks around the neighborhood in hopes of running into and maybe talking to the people around here? Should we be looking for international groups so we have some other foreigners to hang out with?
The other blog. Even though it hasn't actually started yet, I've been mentally developing this blog for American professors living abroad for about a year now. Separate name, separate readership, brilliant exchanges of ideas and resources. But I want it to be completely different than this one without taking time from any of the above. But blogs are dead, aren't they?

On the plus side of things, I'm thrilled that Facebook has helped me catch up with old classmates from Heyworth High, old Campus House friends (Emily Potter...anyone?) and even people from the EIU Forensics team (am I the only one without tenure or my name on a marquee?). It's great that I can see pictures of my new neice and vacations that friends have taken. I can pray for people moments after they list a concern. I can keep up with moves and new adventures. Good stuff.

When you've already Googled everyone you know...

2008-07-04T18:42:00.002-05:00

Try your name, try your friends' names, try your relatives' names:

WorldCat Identities

My coolest result: My aunt has books or articles in four languages.

Then you can go back to wasting time on Facebook.

A Passing

2008-06-03T06:35:00.002-05:00

On May 23, an explosion tore through a minibus in an African capitol and took the lives of several of the riders. Among them was our friend Hezy, an Israeli-American elephant professor who used to work at the same university as I did.

For two years our apartment was across from his and his dog's. His white hair and smiling face conveyed a sort of Jewish Santa Claus. I remember hearing stories of how he kept elephant dung on the balcony so he could measure its moisture content. While on safari, counting the few elephants remaining in the country, his puppy nearly killed him when all thirty pounds of it challenged a bull elephant. He came to our house for Thanksgiving. We often road the bus to school together and talked politics.

As I read about him and others who will miss him, I realize that he really was brilliant. One person said that he might know more about elephants than anyone else in the world. And despite this, he worked sacrificially for a University that lacked running water, decent textbooks or consistent electricity

He was a good man. I would have liked my son to have known him.

Deaf to the Word of God...or because of it?

2008-05-20T22:40:00.003-05:00

I don't want to be petty. I don't want to be one of those church hoppers who switches churches every time the preacher says something I may not completely agree with or he pulls something out of context. I don't want to complain about the type of grape beverage they use for communion or how much/little time is taken up by off-key little kids yelling out a two verse rendition of "Jesus Loves Me". This is why I struggle with the fact that I think we may need to switch churches after only really getting to know some people.

The problem is not doctrine or format. The problem is VOLUME. I wish it was just the music or one particular instrument or praise team's microphones but it's the entire sound system. Even the "quieter for emphasis" parts of the sermon would still warrant "could you turn that down a bit" request if it was in your own home. It's at a level where you feel each note. The pages of your Bible vibrate. My pocket translator bounces off the plastic chair next to me. My heart beats faster and heavier (never good when you happen to be at my fitness level). I walk out with a ringing in my ears and, usually, a headache. The church is simply too loud.

The first Sunday we went to this store front church just down from the Harley dealer, I figured it might simply be too loud for where we were sitting. So the next Sunday we moved places. And we continue to move. Each Sunday we look to find that elusive dead zone, that vacuum where just maybe the decibel level is half of where it is elsewhere. Those spots are either taken by the first arrivers or don't exist.

The week I wore cotton in my ears, the pastor's wife asked me about the new addition to my attire. We were alone, on the way to dropping @ at Sunday school so I thought this might be a chance to voice what others had been thinking but didn't bring up. Her response to my mention of the volume was, basically, "silly American, this is how we do things in this country."

And she's right. The church we attended while in language school was also too loud but not nearly as painfully so. One American we knew there had taken to wearing earplugs during worship. At the time I thought it was funny. It wasn't THAT loud. And the man was in his fifties so he was clearly too old to understand that "this is how we do things" in contemporary worship.

From the 4 am call to prayer to the food vendors walking down the street with their particular jingle playing over battery-operated speakers, there is noise everywhere. The men selling pirated music and dvds on the streets block the sidewalks, forcing you to inch past their speakers. The minibuses play the radio over the sound of their exhaust pipe-less engines. Cellphone users talk over the blasted muzak in the malls. Motorcycles are everywhere and none of them purr quietly.

From time to time an article is written in the local and international papers about the country's "hearing loss epidemic." The next day the article is replaced by one discussing the "diabetes epidemic" or obesity or air pollution or...and they all fall on deaf ears.

This week I wore earplugs which at least felt a bit more discreet than the furry bits of white that grew out of my ears weeks before. The sound at church was still loud but a bit more contained. My heart rushed more than it should but it was certainly better. I was able to enjoy the music a little and even concentrate on understanding the transitions between the songs. It wasn't that bad. Maybe this could work. And then I looked over at our three year old son who had both hands firmly pressed against his ears.

Another first day of school

2008-05-07T03:58:00.003-05:00

Yesterday was my first day of teaching...in years. For the last two months I had been observing a couple of classes as I waited for papers to be processed and permits be signed. Once that was done, I was legal to work.

The course is simple. Each week, the students read a short story or essay written about or by a particular ethnic group. A group of three students then presents about that group, takes some questions from the rest of the class based on their report and a short discussion ensues. Really there's only a little amount of teaching (maybe twenty minutes about of the hour and forty minute class). Since the students had their midterm exams last week, this was a good time to transition from the other teacher to me.

The only problem is that when it was time for class, only about half of the students were there. Also, the other teacher and the group who was supposed to present were also missing. So I started without them and spoke for first half an hour with material I planned on using at the end of class.

When the missing students several other stragglers and other prof arrived, the group explained that they were not ready with anything. Only one of them had even picked up the material and I doubt he had read it. But not a problem, I could always lead a discussion about the material we read.

Except only a couple of students in the rest of the class had picked it up. Literally, something like three people had read the text. The other prof thought it wouldn't be a good use of our time to lecture about a short story about Norwegian immigrants and the cultural contributions of the vikings that only five of us had read.

So for the next hour I gave an impromptu lecture on cultural centers, ethnocentrism, adaptation vs assimilation and a lot of odd references to American sports and 1980's pop culture.

Maybe eight years of extemp and impromtu did teach me something.

Bag o' money

2008-04-27T06:18:00.002-05:00

My bank creeps me out.

Once they made an error in my bankbook and rather than waiting for me to bring the book in the next day, they sent a van full of people TO MY HOUSE to fix the typo. A bank that makes house calls?

When I go to my local branch, I am often ushered from the back of the line to the counter for "priority" customers. One teller was chastised when she didn't notice me and I was stuck waiting for nearly five minutes before a surpervisor noticed me and called me to the front. I was offered a sincere apology for the wait.

More recently they took my passport and bankbook while I waited at the counter. There was a "minor problem" they explained but they'd fix it shortly. Half an hour lately, as I had memories of a certain gov't "minor problem" a few years ago running through my head, they finally came back with my documents and the explanation that their printer had jammed.

On my way out if the parking lot I was stopped by two of the security guards. Rambling in a couple of versions of English, the national and local languages, they utterly confused me. Finally, they got around to explaining that one or both of them would appreciate being hired as as a security guard for my house or business. This is not typical. There are guards for communities and banks and huge businesses but not much more than that.

My last visit was even more odd. I was just planning to use the ATM in the bank's foyer but when I arrived I was quickly ushered inside. I had forgotten my money the last time I was at the bank. They walked me to the front and brought the bills from the back. Thousands of them. Even in local currency, it probably amounted to several thousand dollars worth of paper. They brought me, literally, a bag of money. They never asked for my ID or even my name. They just offered me several bricks of varying denominations and expected me to go on my way.

The problem was, I hadn't forgotten any money. I'd never withdrawn anything near that amount and hadn't been in the bank for several days. I explained this and who I was and that I really wasn't there to do anything but pay my electric and phone bills through the ATM. They reluctantly accepted my answer and took the money away.

Odd.

Since I've been gone...

2008-02-23T07:13:00.002-06:00

Just some randomness that has come up since we moved here a month ago:

I thought I'd blog more now that we have high speed wireless. Actually, I just play more Scrabulous.

I'm tired of spending more time dwelling on my house than His House.

I absolutley love riding our motorcycle. But it really is too small for three people to enjoy a long ride on it.

After a month of living a mile from the ocean, today we finally went out to see it. Now I really want a kayak.

The time to move to a new city is not during the rainy season. It's never dry enough and misquito-free enough to just walk around the neighborhood and meet people.

Still waiting on paperwork for the work Visa to come through. No classes have been assigned to me so there's nothing for me to prepare for. I really can't even get involved in meetings yet.

This city is ten times bigger than we left and yet I can't find a place to buy cheese or an electric hair trimmer.

I look forward to the dry season so we can teach @ to ride a bike.

We have a package waiting for us in our old city and I don't know who sent it. (A friend will get it for us next week.)

I've been dwelling a lot on "whatever happended to...whoever" recently. Maybe because the future is so unknown right now. Annie Bergstrom found me not too long ago and now I wonder about a lot of others. Emily Potter? Brent Rankin? Kelly Wrobel? Matt Logaman? Corey O'Donnel?

Within a week's time, I bough two copies of John Grisham's new non-fiction book. They had two different covers and I was exhausted from cancelled flights and rescheduling. The first person I thought to offer the book to had also recently purchased it.

The best bookstore in town is at the airport...on the other side of security...which almost anyone can bluff their way through without a ticket or boarding pass. It's also only about ten minutes from here.

While in Singapore we found a place to stay that was nicer than the Y and nearly $150 Sing dollars cheaper. It's a bit off the subway routes but if we learned to use the busses there, it'd be great.

Things my son loves: Mr. Bean, anything superhero related, his new matchbox racetrack that has an elevator and can be mounted to the back of the door. (He got it for Christmas but we held off a month so he could play with it unbroken here.) He also can't get enough of Elmo or trying to make someone else laugh by asking Elmo-like questions. "Can a turtle wear underwear? Can a bed wear underwear?" And boats and planes. Singpore. Richard Scarry's Busytown books. "Fixing" things.

Breakfast has started to matter to me in the last few months. If I don't eat something, I'm starving by noon. It used to be that a can of Coke or Mountain Dew would keep me though lunchtime.

I miss snow and the changes in the weather beyond rain or not rain.

New job

2008-01-29T18:03:00.000-06:00

If you check my Facebook updates, you might have heard that I have a new job...sort of...or at least I have signed a contract and will start working once the gov't approves my Visa. I'm scheduled to start in March which should give me plenty of time to prep, go to Singapore twice (since the current Visa is expiring and the work Visa isn't ready and I'll have to go out once it is), finally move all the way into the new house, learn my way around a crazy busy city and sleep.

But like all new jobs, I have no idea what I'm actually doing. There are supposed to be two components to what I'll be teaching: literature and American studies. There's no problem with the literature part - I could and have taught that in my sleep (my spologies to any of you who were my Eureka students). I enjoy it, especially the theory. My resourses for good texts may be a bit limited here but I can creatively work around that.

I really don't have the first clue about American studies. I haven't really paid much attention to America for the last several years and was never cool so I don't have any idea about pop culture unless Relevant wrote about it (and by that time, everyone in America had moved on to something new already).

Multiculturalism in America? Thematic Film studies? American Intellectual History? Theory of Culture? Method of Cultural Research?

So who/what should I be reading? I'll be heading to Singapore this weekend where bookstores abound so any ideas would really be appreciated.

Bits and bobs

2007-11-20T04:35:00.000-06:00

I haven't posted in a while because I've been writing every weekday as part of my language class. 1-2 local-language pages on a cultural element assigned to me. The topics have been, for the most part, interesting enough but they often take me an hour a page not because the language is too tough but because the ideas are. So by the time I do that, translate my reading text for the day and interview a neighbor or two to be able to write my essay and spend time with my family, I am spent.

But today I am in a hotel in Rambuncious College City, also to be referred to as Han, with free internet and a sick boy. Amanda trying to find children's Tylenol and if our favorite Italian restaurant does carry out.

This week's random observations:

Women here don't smoke in public, ever. They also don't drive or work on the mini busses. Unlike the men, they also won't ride on the outside of the minis and stand on the running boards when the bus is too crowded to sit. (It's a rush but I don't recommend admitting that you do it from time to time....when there's a need...and the driver is very cautious...and you're wearing football pads...)

I can buy Diet Coke in glass bottles only at restaurants, and then only at some. I have never seen it for sale in any warung or store.

One of my everyday joys is seeing Muslim schoolgirls play Dance Dance Revolution. In a life otherwise oppressed, there is still freedom at the arcade.

I thought I had a new posse of Muslim college guys who wanted to practice their English. They came by for about a week but haven't seen them since the American next door set up the antenna with me. I think they may have been insulted that I didn't ask them to help us in the thunder and rain.

Dengue is a bad disease. It's like Mono only you don't have to kiss someone to get it. I think I'd rather not enjoy this cultural experience.

Evaluations and tests make me more not less nervous than they used to when I was younger.

One of the commonalities of all the people who I care to keep up with is that I'm proud of them. I'm proud how they've grown up. I proud that they are doing quiet great things like raising families and taking care of people they're not related to. I proud that they are good people where such a trait isn't always rewarded.

Some of my Eureka College kids, I still wonder and worry about. Especially the ones who married people I thought weren't good enough for them - like the girl who was proposed to just minutes after I talked with her boyfriend about how the act of plagiarism he committed would result in his failure of my class. Or the honor student who I found out later was having his mother write most of his papers for him because of a learning disability.

I try not to think about my African students much. It hurts to think of their lives now. I recently heard that no one under the age of 40 is allowed out of the country for any reason. So much for studying abroad...or teaching abroad, in the case of my African colleagues.

I'm so thankful that hotels are cheaper here than in the States. For the price we're paying tonight, we couldn't get a two star hotel in Peoria. Sometimes we just need to visit a different city.

I was sad today because the big bookstore here only had two novels in English (Love in a Time of Cholera and something you've never heard of). I would have been more sad if there had only been two novels in the local language. Books were available in at least five languages, not counting dictionaries or language learning texts. Can you find that in any downstate Illinois bookstore.

Does Pizza Hut in the US offer mayo sauce or sausage stuffed crust?

Does anyone have a couple of old baseball gloves they could send this direction?

Just wondering...

Me and Andre Agassi...or that guy Elaine dated

2007-10-25T07:35:00.000-05:00

I remember years ago when Andre Agassi shaved his head for first time. More than simply having short hair it became clear that he was going bald. And the world was shocked.

Last week I put the quarter-inch guard on the electric trimmers to shave my head for the first time in several months. (I think I last did it when I needed a thesis stress reliever at the beginning of the summer). Looking in the mirror that night after I managed to even things out after the trimmer broke mid trim, I saw that something had changed.

No, I’m not exactly going “bald” but for years I had been blessed by full, if not the least bit manageable, hair. My hairline is receding in such a way that it’s full in the middle but somewhere in line with the outside of my eyes, it disappears. Unless you’ve met the Bunker men or know my older brother, you might not understand this description but it eventually it may end up resembling a suburban, white guy Mr. T hairdo.

I guess this is what I get for giving Ben a hard time. Maybe if I’d mocked him for being too tall or popular or good looking some of that would have rubbed off on me instead.

Here and there

2007-10-22T17:54:00.000-05:00

One of those traps I fall into when dealing with our new culture is that of comparing everything. Usually that means either painting everything here as so much better (the government, the availability of food and western products, etc) or, especially when I'm tired, everything as worse (the quality of the tools and plumbing products, the heat etc.)

But sometimes there are just those reminders of the other. Or you start to see some universal patterns. See what I mean:

The name of our old home city translates in this language as "love" or "passion."

The name our new home city translates in this language to "the three faults" (thankfully not in reference to earthquakes).

In my English thesis I referred to a certain major African rebellion. It would translate to "The Want-Want" or "Go-Go" Revolution here.

In any country, Coke always tastes better and colder in a glass bottle.

If you're going to buy food on the street, well-cooked meat on a stick is a pretty safe bet.

The time just before rainy season is never pleasant. It either means lots of flies or lots of heat.

Teenagers can have a way of making you feel like you're being made fun of, no matter what langauge they're using.

Young children, on the other hand, can be great language teachers.

College kids love to practice their language and are less offended by your culture mistakes.

People our age and their parents do not have the same culture if they live in an urban environment. (Unless they are from the extreme upperclass or extreme lower class.)

Walking everywhere limits your ability to see how big your city really is. But you also get to know your little part of the city much better than if you relied on a vehicle.

It is easier to learn a language when you are enjoying it.

Internet connections are never fast enough.

Give a little boy a stick and somehow always becomes a gun.

Packages from home always make life better.

Anyone who speaks English is your friend.

No one, in any country other than America, understands how to make really good pizza, hotdogs or BBQed anything.

Milk from a box just isn't something you want a big glass of.

During national vacations, when you actually have time to finish your to-do list, no stores or offices you need to visit are open.

The world's teeth are getting worse.

Small children from all cultures love watching animals.

The devolping world is not in need of your old T-shirts, especially if they have profanity or outdated American pop-culture references.

Hey, whatever happened to...

2007-10-08T03:01:00.000-05:00

Facebook has gotten me a curious about many of the people I really hadn't thought about in years (I think mainly as I attempt to bolster my self-esteem with an attempt to increase the size of my friends list. Unfortunately, I'm a couple of years late for the Facebook rush so most of my generation is out of the loop.). But I realize I have lost track of many of the people who I once spent time with.

In the interest of posting content without substance, I offer you the following:

Do you know what happened to your:

College roommates? : Maybe a third of them. I could really only tell you specifics on one or two of them. One sends me a check every month (that sounds weird) and yet I couldn't tell you much more than his address. Others I catch wind of when a group of Campus house people get together and we ask the above question. I lost track of my freshman roommate by my sophomore year.

The members of your wedding party: Yes but only because most of are relatives.

Your prom date(s): Actually I do. Thanks to the internet, I just found out that one is a language teacher. The other is married and brilliant (at least if you equate college degrees with intelligence) but that was several years ago so she may be single and dumb by now.

The owners of the lockers were on either side of your locker in highschool: No, and I'm curious.

The school bully: There were several but one shot his wife while she attempted to protect their child. Cheery.

Your closest (geographically) friend in gradeschool: Jeff Huffman, whatever happened to you?

Anyone on whose yearbook you wrote "friends forever": Thankfully, I don't know that I ever wrote that.

Your highschool class's most likely to succeed/golden child: Not since a sport's injury ended his basketball carreer, forcing him to focus only on medical school. Poor guy.

Or any of the following:

Your favorite teacher.

Any foreign exchange student from your school.

Your first boss.

Any lab/group partners from college.

If you've read this far, consider yourself tagged.

Refridgerator Rights

2007-09-24T02:30:00.000-05:00

This was posted on Coffeehouse Christianity and it got me thinking:

"refrigerator rights". These are people who have earned the right to open up our lives (our refrigerators) and see what's inside. Sometimes they will even need to tell us that something stinks and needs to be taken care of." - Chris and his colleague borrowed this idea from Craig Groeschel.

Gretchen talks about these people in terms of drop-by friends. These are the people who simply drop by...for no "reason"...whenever. Sometimes they bring food or the kids or news but mostly they just bring themselves. There's an informality that illustrates more respect and greater intimacy than with those call-first friends who need a reason or excuse to come over.

I think we also have people who found themselves important enough to be on the outside of our refridgerators. Granted, this is a much easier group to get into, especially around Christmas when our fridge is usually covered by families dressed in coordinated outfits and forced smiles. But how many people to we allow ourselves to brag about authenically (verses those we brag about to make ourselves look more important)? How many people to take pride with when they accomplish something great?

And on the other side, who are those people in your life that you really allow to mourn with you and feel your pain? I just recieved news from a friend on that shock, stop everything level and, while I certainly can't feel the same level of loss as she is going through, I certainly hurt for her and her family. This is a person who, if there was only hundreds rather than thousands of miles between us, we would be in the car in a few minutes to be with. Have you offered yourself to someone in that way recently? Have you let them come to you?

I guess I'm in a wishful mood right now, looking forward to that time when we will be in a more permanent place and can have that level of intimacy and proximity with friends again.

Sucking face...book

2007-09-16T02:51:00.000-05:00

So Pete has introduced me to yet another time-suck: Facebook. In order to see his pictures from his recent trip to Hawaii I had to get an account. And once I got an account, I just had to make sure I had some friends. And once I started looking, I realized that there were a lot of little features which, if I spent a ridiculous amount of time on, I might one day understand.

So if I haven't posted in a while, look up my name there -the one with my slightly girly middle name - and see what I've been up to. (But I do still plan to keep this as my primary blog site.)

Oh, and when you sign up for an account, you'll learn that you can get addicted after just one hit.

What earthquake?

2007-09-16T02:44:00.000-05:00

Just wanted to let you all (both? you - singular?) know that yes, there was an earthquake somewhere in Asia earlier this week. And, no, it wasn't close enough for us to feel it.

As far as tsunamis are concerned, we currently live halfway up a mountain so there's little risk there either. Our new home, Big Coastal City, will be near the water but is along a shallow, protected coast so there's still little risk.

Thanks for your concerns but we're fine.

Dedication

2007-09-05T02:42:00.000-05:00

For the past several months, we’ve been reusing pages from various drafts of my English thesis and the hundreds of pages of research that went into it. Mostly this means using them for printing out our daily language assignments or using them for scratch paper. Our houseworker keeps @ entertained by making them into paper airplanes. @ normally draws on them. Today I found the following on his desk:

Dedication:
This paper is dedicated to my amazing wife, Amanda. Thank you for loving me through ten years together, three continents, a political expulsion, a broken leg, the birth of our son, several concussions and countless promises of “don’t worry, the thesis will be done soon.” Without you, Amanda, all of this would just be silly.

Or, you can read the final draft when you get my thesis through inter-library loan from Eastern’s library.

Why I believe Sir Barry is dead

2007-08-29T19:18:00.000-05:00

Having seen nothing posted from him in months, I can only assume that Sir Barry is dead. My evidence is as follows:

On his most recent record album cover, he was wearing no shoes.

He failed to make his scheduled appearance on American Idol.

Before going into seclusion, he indicated that he would be taking "personal time."

Owen Wilson's recent problems - depression resulting from Barry's demise?

Curt Kobain, Richard Jewel and Barry: things like this do come in threes.

Tuesday's lunar eclipse - at least here - a sign that Barry was taken up in the mother ship?

Just last week I stepped on a crack.

I think I read something about it in Revelations.

Because lists are easier than thinking...

2007-08-22T00:48:00.000-05:00

Hoping to get some of you blogging again, so let's start with something easy: Fives.

(*This idea shamelessly stolen from Tanya who didn't tag anyone when posting her response to her sister's tag.)

1. List five jobs you would like to tell people you do for a living even though you don't.
- "I save lives." (Then simply walk away.)
- "I design personal libraries in the homes of wealthy individuals who have neither the time nor the compulsion to read."
- "I'm a balloon safari tour guide."
- "I run a foreign-language bookstore."
- "I teach English in developing countries."
(I may actually be writing this from my basement in Pekin, Illinois.)

2. List five things you no longer have but wish you did.
- That polyester planet shirt. (Pete, do you have it?)
- Any of the glass heads I once collected.
- A copy of the movie Bob Roberts.
- My youthful exuberance.
- Risk, the board game.

3. List five things you were doing about ten years ago. (Stolen directly off Tanya's sister's list.)
- Recovering from my internship in Kenya.
- Gearing up for another year of graduate school and trying to figure out how to pay for it.
- Trying to figure out what will happen between me and a friend I had become smitten by.
- Looking for a place to live in Charleston.
- Thinking about moving to a country not found on any of the maps in ISU's map room.

4. List five "unnecessary" indulgences you sometimes give in to.
- Staying on "executive floors" at hotels.
- Cold Coca-Colas in glass bottles.
- Staying in the shower until the hot water runs out.
- Buying DVDs I probably won't watch more than once or twice.
- Buying certain books mostly so that someone else might be able to borrow them.

5. List five things you enjoy doing that you didn't when you were younger.
- Grammar
- Trying new foods (and, yes, I'm still easing into this one).
- Talking with strangers.
- Playing baseball.
- Walking to the grocery store or to a restaurant.

OK, here's the pitch: If you haven't posted five blog entries in the last five weeks, consider yourself tagged. If you haven't had an in-person conversation with me in the last five years, consider yourself tagged. Or if you're reading this and you are over five years old, consider yourself tagged.

Now get writing.

Out of the loop

2007-08-19T16:58:00.000-05:00

I just heard that one of my brothers and his wife are in Hawaii right now. Which brother? I've no idea. And that's my point. For the last few weeks, really since we've entered the post-Potter era (PPE), I've basically been running to keep up. I haven't watched much news, I haven't talked with many people unless it involved my language homework. And my last two attempts at sending out a mass email update to people apparently didn't go through. (Did any of you get our last update, sent about a week or two ago?)

So here's the update from my end:

Just finished my first week of the new language unit and am scraping by. I enjoy it since it's one on one and there's more thinking involved rather than just repetition. And I understand the material but there's a new component that's a bit more challenging: read the material, then summarize what you read in your own words. Well, my words are usually in English...

Celebrated @'s 3rd birthday last night with gifts from grandmas and grandpa as well as a few from us. I bought him a t-ball tee with a nerf bat/ball. Like with most kids, the real fun comes from sending the T flying. If the ball moves, that's ok too. He got great books, new DVDs (four hours of things we haven't watched a thousand times!) and some clothes that will fit him through his 10th birthday.

I did buy a few books while we were in Singapore but not nearly as many as I'd intended. Everything was so expensive, even at the used book shops, that I made a point of limiting my choices to things that I really knew I'd read within the next six months or so

I'm reading Kazou Ishiguro's "The Unconsoled." I know I've made a pitch for him before but, seriously, if you haven't read at least something by this author you need to. "When We Were Orphans" or "Remains of the Day" are the safe choices but "Never Let Me Go" or my current read are really what shows his greatness. It does require work to read him but this is one of the few contemporary authors I've picked up in the last five years who will will have college lit courses named after him in the future. (Of course maybe, I'm just spending too much of my time reading good writers and need to start reading more good authors.)

Not many new household projects. I hung a new spicerack for Amanda and Ibu. I think the house is in as good of shape as it can be before the rainy season starts. Then everything will start to drip, swell and warp again.

I'm putting of writing an essay about how people in this culture express disappointment. I did the interview but just don't want to write about it...in any language.

I really don't like our lizards anymore. On any given day I'll see no less than five or six in various places around the house; the bathrooms, the office, the kitchen. I know that they eat misquitoes but they don't seem to take care of the spiders or cockroaches. Amanda had me release two that were trapped in our water pitcher that was left out one night. Several have simply died while on the curtains or walls. A few have met messier fates.

My wife continues to amaze me as she meets people, grapples with the language and just pushes through the daily complications of life. I think it's the fact that she has a level of discipline I lack. She does things that have to be done while my first reaction is to look for a way not to do them or put them off (thus, this post when I should either be writing my essay or studying for my test). That, and I just think she's a neat person.

I'm trying my hand at some creative writing again. Gretchen did a poem (???) about where she comes from. I'll try the same model with @. I've been dwelling on the concept of "legacy" (a concept I'm still trying to define) for the past few months and it might be an interesting way to look at the legacy we are creating with our three year old.

Heading out

2007-08-01T17:19:00.000-05:00

I'm not sure who to blame. Maybe it's dad and the family vacations we went on but never flew to. Maybe it's Heyworth - a town I blame everything on like it's a mean stepparent. Or the books I read as a kid. Or the cultural exchange programs I never participated in but was always surrounded by...

In any case, despite my anxiety, I really love to travel and as I get older I'm finally getting comfortable with it. I enjoy a nice plane ride (as long as the plane is large enough to have a bathroom on board), I understand taxis and I'm even willing to attempt a bus for short trips. Amanda doesn't know this yet but I think we'll try a subway next week to get us to or from the zoo!

Tomorrow we leave for Singapore to get some passport things done and I can't wait to explore the city a bit. It will be our first extended visit to the city but thanks to our previous overnights there, we're beginning to feel comfortable there despite the crowds and the novelty of everything. We're learning the main roads and the layout of the airport. We'll attempt shopping and touring the local cutural sites. We'll eat at restaurants other than Subway (it's safe travel food for me) and might even find an Indian or Ethiopian. I even think that both Amanda and I will get an afternoon alone to explore what the other isn't interested in.

So yeah, we'll be gone through the 10th.

Some Harry Potter questions and random thoughts

2007-07-31T17:46:00.001-05:00

It's been a week so if you haven't read the new Harry Potter yet, it seems like either you deserve to have some things spoiled or you just don't care...And if we, who live on a mountain in the middle of nowhere have been able to read it, you have no excuse.

So, SPOILER ALERT (sort of):

The wrong Weasley died.

Neville Longbottom is the man.

Did Neville and Luna end up together?

Mrs. Weasley cusses? Did Lord Voldemort ever cuss? I was awfully disappointed.

In the end, were the characters trying to punish their offspring when they named them what they did?

Draco Malfoy did not get what was coming to him.

Did the Dursleys come to the other wedding?

The real secret to eternal life is to have a self portrait made.

Kreature, a hero?

My eyes did leak over the death of one character (hint, he wasn’t in the first book).

Was the American version funnier?

Flying doesn’t seem like a big deal if you can teleport at will, although I guess it beats the broom.

Snape can fly too? When did he pick this up?

We never do find out what James and Lily did for a living.

The book needed another 200 pages.

Ron is whipped and will always be until he dies as the result of old age and nagdom.

Rowling’s next book: Hogwarts the New Class, starring Elizabeth Berkley as Hermione, Tiffany Amber Theisan as Fleur, Dustin Diamond as “Screech the owl”…

Some songs I wish I'd written

2007-07-20T09:16:00.001-05:00

Gypsy by Suzanne Vega (that “My Name is Luka” girl)

American Pie – a bit too obvious of a choice?

When Love Came to Town

Jack and Diane by John…Cougar…Mellencamp

Hold Me Jesus (or about 70% of his other songs) by Rich Mullins

Hey Jealousy – the Gin Blossoms

Silent Running – Mike and the Mechanics

Hazy Shade of Winter – Who sang this song first?

Power Windows (our wedding song) by Billy Falcon

I Miss the Rains - Toto

Play Something We Know – Adam Hood

The Chasing Song or Passover Us – Andrew Peterson

Silent Night/Eleven O’clock News – Simon and Garfunkel

My Tree - Chris Rice

(I Want to) Paint It Black

Last Mango in Paris

We Are the Beggars at the Foot of God’s Door – The Normals

Don’t Stand So Close to Me (or almost anything from Dream of the Blue Turtles) – Sting

Mr. Tambourine Man - Bob Dylan

The Dangling Conversation – Simon and Garfunkel

Puff the Magic Dragon – Peter, Paul and Mary

PVC, the LSD of home repair

2007-07-03T07:16:00.000-05:00

I have stumbled into my latest addiction with all the carelessness of 1960s flower child. I was looking to expand my horizons. I wanted to break from the restrictions unnecessarily placed on me by the Man (ironic since I am also the Man). I wanted more than my life currently had. I wanted freedom. I wanted to shower every night and allow my wife the option of doing laundry whenever she wanted.

So a while back I bought an extra water tank, capable of storing 550 liters of life giving, if not drinkable, water. The problem was that in order to fill this new tank, Amanda and I were required to wake up in the middle of the night, when the city water actually flows, stretch a hose between the two and siphon it from one to another. Not the best mode but the easiest one for the time being.

Yesterday Amanda and I went to the hardware store to make this job a bit easier. We bought eight meters of 3/4 inch pvc, assorted elbows and joints, a couple of shut off valves, a hacksaw and sealant. The total bill for the project was less than 15 USD! Now, with the cuts made and joints ready to be sealed once the old tank is empty, I am left with something like eight feet of pipe and a couple of couplers and joints. What to do with this? The mind reels.

It's a bit early to be thinking of our move North after the new year but I'm already thinking of a batting cage for the back yard or garage. Maybe @ needs a mini soccer goal? Or if we have a small yard I can build Amanda a plant stand. What about a workbench? Or a series of ferret tunnels? A giant croquet course? Sure, I'll need more than eight feet but at these prices I could buy miles of the stuff and it'd still be cheaper than books or DVDs. Already @ has a sword than doubles as a dirt tunnel.

So I need ideas to feed this obession. Ideas? Bookshelves and shoeracks are easy but I need a challenge. So many possibilities, so little time before language class begins again.

The same old...

2007-06-28T04:23:00.000-05:00

I'm out of blogging rhythym and don't think I could write a truly unified-theme blog, especially on a hotel computer, if I wanted so instead, more of the same scattered thoughts.

The honeymoon of going to the big city for vacation is over. The malls, the palaces, the restaurants are all less thrilling than they were since we first ventured out of our "little" hometown.

I found a baseball bat and softball today at the bookstore. Unfortunately, the only gloves they had were for kids. Anybody have an old baseball glove they're not using? Or ifI could find a mushball (one of the large softballs they sometimes use at highschools so they don't have to shell out the big bucks for gloves), I wouldn't need a glove.

The only non-business English books I could find were the Greatest Works of Oscar Wilde and The Greatest Works of H.G. Wells.

If you refer to God as the "Great I am" here, you may accidently be calling him the "Great Chicken."

My top criteria for finding a hotel is now whether their pool has a slide.

My language learning is progressing to point where I can usually answer all the bus-ride-length questions a person typically asks (where are you from, how long have you been here, may I purchase your wife (kidding)) but at times my mind simply shuts off to the local language and I stumble through even those easy questions.

I mentioned the other day to Amanda that if she were to lose me to another woman, it would have to be to an Asian featured woman with an Australian accent. "If I were to lose you...?" she responded. "You mean, 'If I were to give you to...". I stand corrected.

I agreed that if I were to give Amanda to someone, it would be that crazy old guy in our city who walks around in an ill-fitting loin cloth. If she's nice...

I find it tough not to compare our language school to highschool...on fast forward. Instead of 4 years, people are around for a maximum of nine language units, each lasting about a month. The "seniors" have been around for a year at most but some people only take a unit or two before trying another program, going to work or simply dropping out. It was fun to see the freshmen group of eight come in last month all nervous and green. Here cliques aren't based around sports or GPA, they are based on who you work for or where you'll eventually work in the country or your national origin. There are the kids who have a ton of extracirriculars (in our case a child but they might also include a house in need of repairs, neighboorhood obligations etc) and those who seem to do nothing but study. Some you meet and think they'll never make it through while others seem to have such a grasp on the material that you wonder what they still need to learn. It's really a curious little group.

Odd to say that after two days of vacation, I miss home and that after less than a week out of school I miss the classroom.

I find myself really missing teaching and am actually looking forward to starting some initial informal interviews with universities next week. Keep that in your thoughts.

Package from Greenfield

2007-06-07T04:57:00.000-05:00

What a great thing to get half way through a language unit - a package filled with unnecessities from some of our favorite people in Greenfield! There's just something great about opening a box of unknowns - even if the mailman first walks you through the customs declaration form, laughing at some of the things that made their way from the US.

And it's just the second package weve gotten since moving here - though it sounds like several are in transit - so we haven't gotten bored with presents...yet.

The hardest part about it was waiting three hours for Amanda to get back from class before I could open it. It sat, untouched on our dinner table, just taunting me. But I held my ground and didn't even walk the twenty minutes to school to pull Amanda out of class just to open it.

So what'd we get? The highlights include:
- Decaf tea and coffee and lemonade: This means we can induldge without having to stay up all night or having to pay five dollars a glass at one of the nice hotels in town.
- notecards: something I've tried to find both here and in Africa to no avail. Learning the langauge will be a snap now that I've got cards (or so my junior high Spanish teacher would leadme to believe).
- Post-its and scrapbook paper: I have no idea what good those are for but I think Amanda might find a use for them. :)
- Gum and dark chocolate: Survival food on test days or when there's no water.
- Sermons on cd from the cool church service (I hope the worship is there too!)
- A couple trains for @, causing him to exclaim "Yeah! I LIKE Calvin and Carter."

Cost to send a five or six pound package to the Island? Less than dinner for two at Applebees.

Some things just make us happy!

Just like the Parent Trap

2007-06-05T06:28:00.000-05:00

I've written about finding your doppleganger before but didn't expect to run into one of mine here, in a town that isn't in any of the guidebooks and barely on the maps. But he's here and I have confirmation that it's not just my imagination (unlike my assertion that Just Pete's can be found in the movie National Treasure).

Jimmy's, my favorite store in the city, is staffed by Donny - an otherwise bright and curteous fellow - who insists in calling me Andy. This might seem odd if I hadn't met Andy. Andy is a white, thirty something midwesterner who wears khaki pants, has a bit more belly than he should, walks around in hiking boots and baseball cap; and has shorter hair than his wife would like. Andy sounds a bit more like Dan Akkroyd than I do but is a passable likeness if a person squints or only looks from a distance.

This was also confirmed today when walking with a couple of Americans who had spent the last week at a conference in one of the resort towns WITH ANDY, and they still thought I was him.

Amanda and I also speculate that maybe one of the reasons our bread order wasn't delivered last week was that Andy had cancelled his order.

I don't know if I should mention this to him or not - he may view it as an insult - but it seems a shame not to take advantage of this similarity. Shouldn't we swap families and see how long it takes them to notice (no thanks, he has more kids than I do but he also has a motorcyle...?). Or maybe we should trade places so we can reunite our estranged parents and get Dad to dump that golddigger fiance of his...

Or maybe not.

Randomings

2007-05-29T06:45:00.000-05:00

Just some thoughts - Scan, skim, comment at will.

I tried to break up a fight the other day between two school kids. As I pushed them apart, I growled "Go to God." I meant to say "Go home." They were standing in front of an Islamic school.

@ is looking for a good catch phrase. He's recently tried "Sleep, sleep, sleep" in the local langage, usually as he runs circles through the house. He also likes, "Start your engines," "When I'm a daddy...," "Ka chow," and today "Oh, Jeezle Pete." But my favorites are: "Mommy's alright, daddy's alright, they just seem a little bit wierd" and one that he somehow picked up from Grandmaster Flash - "Don't push me 'cause I'm close to the edge" complete with the stutter in the appropriate spot.

My wife bought me a crate of soda in glass bottles the other day in the hopes that I'll limit myself to one a day. In the two days since then, I've stuck to the diet.

I'm now back in language class since my thesis is done. There's me, a Dutch couple and three Koreans. It's odd but today I got more overhearing the Dutch explanation of a verb than I did when the teacher explained it in English.

Now that we've been here three months, we are not the most clueless foreigners in the city.

Bought one of my favorite animated movies while we were on vacation (Disney's Robinhood -the one with the with the foxes), only to find that it's restricted to a region that won't play on either our computer or DVD player. We'll watch it once we get a universal player...when we get a TV...when we move to the big city...in nine months.

We really like our local church but I realized this past Sunday that sometimes it sounds like their synthesizer-heavy band is playing selections The Cars Worship Album.

Three weeks after I had it approved and I almost understand what my thesis was actually about. And I may have been all wrong.

We now have access to the International School's library so I'm rereading the A Wrinkle in Time books. They are not, no matter what people may say, Christian books. They're not bad, just not Christian.

There's something sad about being in any high school library that doesn't have any Vonnegut or John Irving (World According to Garp, A Prayer for Owen Meany). How many kids could learn to love reading if they just had something horrible but great to read?

While on vacation, I scoured the local bookstores and shopping malls for anything in English I could find. I brought home all three: The Devil's Dictionary by Abrose Bierce, The Best of Sherlock Holmes, and the current Asia Edition of Reader's Digest. The first title I'd rather not have our houseworker see; the last title I'd rather hide from anyone with taste.

Asian television gets around the "no porn on television" laws by calling it "Fashion TV."

When you get used to consistant 88 degree weather, 91 degrees is really hot.

I haven't had a reason to go into a hardware store in at least three weeks.

I can now "juggle" a small playground ball for a dozen or so kicks/headers without letting it touch my hands/arms or the ground.

Amanda's smarter than most people realize. Not just determined or a good worker, as she might admit, but really smart. I taught her Othello the other day and she'll kick my can if I let her play me again. I'm also glad she's a unit ahead of me in language school so I'll see what I'm in for and so she can order food over the phone for us.

Because Poppi doesn't see @ enough

2007-05-29T06:37:00.000-05:00

Just some fun from our recent vacation to our nearby big city. Hotel room, cable TV, swimming pool, shopping and Italian food - just like Africa!

A bit gruesome???

2007-05-22T06:01:00.000-05:00

If you're a lizard at our house, life is usually pretty sweet. Unless you happen to stop on one of the hinges to my workroom, that is...

My apologies

2007-05-20T03:42:00.000-05:00

If any of you chose to either rent or go to the theaters to see this movie I apologize. I bought it for Amanda the other day and we watched it. It was like "Hotel Rowanda" meets "Boogie Nights" (which I have not seen).

Too much sex and the gore that you might expect in a movie about a homocidal dictator wasn't quite "right." (If you saw it, you might understand what I mean.)

This is one of those movies that if edited for television or on a plane wouldn't be too bad - an interesting character study and an amazing performance by Forest Whitaker.

So if you saw it because of my recommendation just stop by, in person, for a full refund of your ticket or rental. This is a limited offer so act quickly.

But read the book instead. Or better yet, pick up a copy of "King Leopold's Ghost."

Growing Young

2007-05-15T03:53:00.000-05:00

I've written before about how I believe that people get old in spurts. We age because of events - falling out of a tree, getting thrown out of a country, watching someone we love die...

But I also believe that there are certain events that add to your life. For years I watched my father toil away in a job that was sucking the life out of him. When he quit to join a firm of three, he seemed to get younger. He got even younger with the birth of his first grandchild. Fly fishing helped as did another move out of the city.

In the past week I have had two events that may prolong my life (as long as I stay out of trees): I finally finished my thesis, ten years after starting graduate school and we finally sold our car in Africa.

My thesis advisor made a comment during the final stretch that the thesis owned me and, until I completed it, it would continue to have a hold over my life. He was right. It was such a burden knowning that I was just short of having that paper. For years I'd ridden on that "all but done," fearing that some employer would hold me to the completion of the degree or fire me. I knew that it would be tough, if not impossible, to cintinue teaching on the college level without finishing but the panic of writing was almost as strong as the panic of not finishing. But now that it is finished, I can breathe easier.

Another burden that has been lifted, although rather hollow when compared to the first, is the sale of our Galloper in Africa. When we left unexpectedly in December of 2005, we had hoped our friends would be able to find a buyer rather easily. But with the mass exodus of foreigners and a lack of dollars, it took over a year. Even then, we had to slash the selling price and rely on local currency. Gradually that money will get converted into spendable dollars.

What made this such a burden was that it felt like one more thing that our friends had to help with. We couldn't do anything about it from the US or Asia but we also didn't want it to be of concern to people with much more important things to worry about. It also tied us to a country where we weren't welcome. But now, we are free!

I feel younger this week than I have in a long time, despite recovering from a cold. There is so much less weighing me down. I've been enjoying my family much more. I look forward to spening time in the evenings with the kite flyers across the street and practicing my language. I look at the next year, transitioning from language school to a job at a university in the big city, and can't wait for what is coming.

Great things, great God.

Huzzah!!!

2007-05-07T16:01:00.000-05:00

This is not the post I was planning for. I had a draft all but ready to go talking about the Willy Loman, Ed Carpolotti sin of failure. About how for men there is a sin that is worse than any other...grieve, grieve, grieve etc.

But I passed! The professors did talk about how the paper could have been better and that there were certainly weaker areas in it than there should have been but that I defended well and showed "a mastery of the subject" so they agreed. Talking through it, the paper made a lot more sense and was a lot better than what was actually on the page. If I could have only done an NPR thesis, I would have rocked!

Part of Amanda's peptalk this evening was that this is what Amanda and I have been doing since getting married. We answer questions from left-field that have a vague connection to what we do or where we've been. Our job is to sound intelligent and answer, even if it isn't really the answer to that question. Add to that the genetic trait of being able to talk about virtually anything to anyone...

By now Barry is finishing up the legwork of getting the right versions of the the right forms to the right people. Amanda is asleep. I am a bit buzzed.

Thanks so much for your prayers and encouragement. I know that I've had several enteries that showed how much of a funk I'd been living in recently but from now on, nothing but sarcasm and poor attempts at humor.

And now that it's official, I'm going to include a lot more grammatical mistakes...just because I can and I can say it is an educated choice.

Blessings.

Of Concern

2007-05-06T16:20:00.000-05:00

Friends,

I could really use some prayer over the next few hours, and quite possibly days. At approximately 11am Charleston time I will place an international phone call, the results of which will have a huge impact on my life. At that time I will defend my thesis.

"What? I thought you'd finished that a long time ago." Well, err, not quite. If you know me at all, you've heard of my extreme stage fright. I joke about it but it also transfers over to writing. When there is something important to write, I sit nearly catatonically staring at the computer screen. Or my hands shake. Or I am unable to sit at all, and pace circles around the room. I reorganize research. I get a drink or use the bathroom or find some other way to stall. My chest tightens and my knees bounce. I find it impossible to write more than a phrase or two without hitting the delete key.

In the past few months, that panic has been overridden by another: panic of not finishing at all. The absolute deadline is here. No extensions, no excuses, no do-overs. If the degree is to be finished, everything must be approved and turned in no later than 4pm on Monday.

So over the last few weeks I made changes to my material, altering the initial focus of the paper drastically and not with terribly effective results. Paniced thinking. Fear of taking too many tangents resulted in not enough background or support. Fear of making absolute statements has lead to vague, qualified claims. I have overthought minor details and ignored larger, necessary elements. I misspelled the name of one of my readers on the acknowledgement page. I have likely mispelled my subject's name in at least one or more places in my paper (Spell check can only do so much with "Ngugi wa Thiong'o.") In short, it is hardly the work I would have liked to produced.

Realize that this is not false modesty, this is an honest, realistic evaluation from a person who has seen plenty of the above written by students. Some of them passed but some of them didn't. Those latter students became anecdotes to share with colleagues as we sat and talked about dwindling expectations and lack of determination by students to produce quality work. Even if this does pass, it is one of those works, however unintentionally, that is not up to what teachers and professors like to see from their students.

The paper is in the hands of the readers and the initial rumblings are not sounding too reassuring. There is the possibility of a last minute rewrite to correct some of the still evident surface errors. But the readers might not have a chance to even look at the changes before the defense.

So pray not just for the approval of this paper, but also for my reaction. And for Amanda's. In many ways she has had the harder road here. She has had to sit by, often unaware of what was happening as I put on a brave face and made promises I had no business making about the ineveitable success of this paper. And yet she will be effected as much as I am.

After the defense, I will wait ten minutes before calling back to find out the results from my readers about whether they will accept this paper or not as fulfilling the requirements. If the answer is yes, I will be relying on a terribly generous friend to collect signatures, take the final copies to the bindery and make sure that the last details have been completed. Amanda and I will celebrate and send out emails and try and sleep (it will be Tuesday here by the time the meeting is over).

If the paper is rejected, I'm not sure what my reaction will be. Thankfully, it will be finished with how to get another extension or appeal. I will send out emails. Amanda will try and sleep. I will likely, ironically, sit at a computer screen and write with shakey hands and knotted stomach. I will pace and "organize" my research into the garbage. I will write a phrase or two and delete it before trying a completely different line of thought. And eventually I will sleep.

Keep us in your prayers.

Some quick blog pitches

2007-04-26T19:10:00.000-05:00

There's a circle of blogs that I read that likely overlap some with yours but I doubt completely. Even Amanda and I have a few that just don't resonate for the other person. She reads scrapbook blogs that I sometimes find self-indulgent and in some ways econmically perverse in a sort of suburban housewife sort of way. I read lit. major and academic blogs that she likely finds self-indulgent and overdramatic and...but I guess that's the point of searching out other bloggers - find people with our own fetishes and pecurlarities so we feel a bit more normal. Or look for something so different from us that it's like exploring a new country. Or just because we found it, started reading it and can't stop...like a bad soap opera.

The following are some blogs and sites I often read but you might not. Some make no sense if you know me, like the first two, while others are pretty obvious. Don't feel offended if yours is not included. If you make the occasional comment on my blog, I figure other people can track you down that way.

A warning: I have a tendency to recommend sites or start reading blogs only to have them stop posting after I've become invested in them so this list might be the kiss of death for some of them.

Tulipgirl: An intelligent, former expat with an ecclectic variety of topics about things like faith, the Ukraine, food and parenting. Really I used to follow her husband's before it got hacked repeatedly. I'm thinking Red's Head and Because I Like Hearing would enjoy it.

Owlhaven: Mother of nine who has some connections with Ethiopia. She is also giving away a couple of copies of One if you leave her a comment or make a pitch on your own blog about it (thus, this entry). Parenting, homeschooling etc. I found it through Gretchen but Beegracious might also like it.

The Bored-Again Christian: I've only linked his blog/blahg here since I my internet is too slow for anything else but it is a great site if you need material for pretending you know something about music (or at least that's why I use it). I know Jake reads it but does Ben or Barry?

Paris and Seattle Daily Photo Blogs: Just what they say they are. Also a great starting point for finding a city of your choosing or if you want to start your own daily city blog. John?

African Adventures: Again, read the title. She's the type of person we would have been friends with in college, even if she is...Canadian. Lisa?

The Chronicle of Higher Education: Too cheap to pay for a full subscription, I just read the headlines and the free stuff like the First Person columns. It's just like being on faculty only without the students, office, classes to teach or meetings to attend. (I don't know who'd like this other than Barry and I.)

Those are just some of them. My others are mostly Campus House people. Some I occasionally find by fluke like Chris Genders (no link since I don't know if he'd want it out there) or comments they make on other friends' blogs. It's amazing who you can find just by following links or comments.

I also read some by people with my name since I think it's odd that there are lives being led by people using my name that I have nothing to do with. Or I'll search out my city or country or some passing interest.

Who are you reading that I should be?

Number of posts = number of things about me

2007-04-25T15:28:00.000-05:00

I read on Owlhaven’s site that a blogging tradition is that you have to write 100 things about yourself once you have made a hundred posts.

Here are mine. Skim at will.

1. This will actually mark my 107th post, thus 107 entries.
2. I don’t know when I last wrote my middle name. It is Brooks.
3. I think I do a pretty good time living in the moment. But I am also scared a lot of the time. A contradiction?
4. I used to fall in love with people and ideas quite easily. Now I just love people and ideas.
5. I used to not like that people think I look like my dad. Now I realize that he’s lucky.
6. I got new glasses just before we moved here two months ago. Now they slip off my face too easily.
7. Another thing I share with my dad – we lose weight from our faces first.
8. I can remember the phone number we had when I was 3 through 10 years old.
9. My leg has a metal rod through it from falling from a tree when I was 31 years old - twenty three years afte I first fell from a tree and broke my leg.
10. I love getting lost in strange cities, preferably while riding a bike.

11. I was 23 before I visited another country.
12. Since I was 23 I have spent about half my life living out of the US.
13. My mother-in-law may be the gutsiest woman I know. She had never left the country before she visited us in Africa two years ago and then she did it on her own.
14. We had a pinball machine growing up. It still didn’t make us the coolest family in the neighborhood – they had an Atari. (The second coolest family only had a Colekovision – sp? – but since their dad worked at a chocolate factory, they were close.)
15. The second girl I had a crush on was from Egypt but I don’t know if it was the younger or older sister that I liked.
16. I have very forgetable eye and hair color. Both are very in between.
17. I can watch gratuitous violence in movies and not have it bother me as much as one person having an affair.
18. I owned a poster of Heather Thomas.
19. Hillary Snodgrass (not joking) is the first girl I remember kissing me. In the gym. During kickball or something involving bases.
20. I wish I hadn’t left all our art in the US. We need to get something other than whiteboards and photo collages for our walls.

21. I own a vehicle in Africa in a country that I don’t know I would be allowed back in to. Anyone need a Galloper?
22. There is a store I go to where I only buy icecream and soda. They deliver gas and drinking water to our house.
23. I want to see the ruins in Greece.
24. When sharing a hotel room with people I’m not related to, I would rather sleep on the floor than share a bed.
25. I am a hotel snob and once missed the last available hotel for something like six hours while driving from Virginia to Illinois.
26. Redbird Arena is where I saw Chicago in concert when I was in high school.
27. I have seen Bob Dylan in concert as well as Peter, Paul and Mary and Paul Simon.
28. I was not impressed seeing Sting in concert. It was near the end of the tour and he seemed tired and unenthusiastic.
29. I once heard They Might Be Giants attempt a rendition of Jimmy Buffet’s Margaritaville
30. Christian writers impress me less when they were Christians before they became writers versus those good writers who later became Christian.

31. I visited something like 75 colleges while traveling with EIU’s Speech team.
32. Basketball was fun for me until I realized I needed to practice if I was going be any good. When everyone else got taller, I didn’t really know how to dribble, pass or shot from the outside.
33. I have never seen a John Travolta movie that I really liked.
34. The sound of rain may be my favorite.
35. Onomatopoeia is my favorite English word.
36. I can eat an entire bag, box or container of multiserving snack food – chips, cookies, candy – in one sitting. I still sometimes do.
37. I loved our foam mattress in Africa. I wake up from this one with a sore back.
38. My wife and I slept on bunkbeds for a month while we went to school in Seattle.
39. I drink tea, not coffee, with sugar but not milk unless I’m having chai.
40. My favorite authors you probably have not read are Colson Whitehead (The Intuitionist and John Henry Days) and Kazuo Ishiguro (Remains of the Day and When We Were Orphans).

41. I have not read a Truman Capote novel but should.
42. My wife looks amazing when she is intently watching something simple like the spider who lived in our yard or the kids flying kites across the street.
43. Ethiopian food gives me heartburn but I really like it.
44. I have ridden on a camel and an elephant.
45. I do not know my address or phone number from memory but I keep them in my wallet just in case.
46. The sound of two metal eating utensils scraping against each other make my teeth hurt.
47. I have given up counting the number of cavities I have.
48. I will soon give up counting the number of crowns.
49. Pajama pants are fine to wear to sleep in but only with t-shirts or sweatshirts. Pajama shirts never fit right.
50. I left all my pajama shirts in Africa.

51. I have kept in touch with nobody I graduated high school with.
52. I hardly ever sleep on airplanes or sit down in airports.
53. I scored a touchdown during the one season I played football in high school. It was in the rain, we had kicked off and I recovered the ball after a couple of fumbles. I happened to be in the right endzone.
54. My biggest acting role was as Thorin Oakenshield in a musical version of The Hobbit. That and pretending I have the least bit of a clue as to where my future is leading me...
55. I played Dungeons and Dragons while in junior high and don’t think it was a tool of the devil.
56. I own fewer tools than I would like to (like a power saw).
57. My pinewood derby car won the local tourney by going down backwards.
58. Working in the jewelry department of Walmart was my favorite part time job. I was the first in our store allowed to pierce cartilage.
59. While working at the reserve desk at Eastern’s library (that entryway with the really high ceiling with the clock), we would tilt the fan upwards and blow bubbles.
60. I once spent the night in the library and avoided detection until my way out the next morning. I just kept walking.

61. I don’t ever feel at home until I have books on a bookshelf.
62. I have won writing awards in subjects dealing with “Democracy, the Vanguard for Freedom,” cultural diversity and woman’s advocacy. I am an antiwar, white male. “I’m not a (liberal, democrat, etc or) feminist…per se…”
63. Also while in college, I sent in a series of letters to a newspaper using a pen name. They were all critical of a writer name Cassie Simpson. They were mean and petty done in the name of being funny and as a way to get attention. I shouldn’t have written them.
64. Years earlier, I got hate mail in response to a letter I wrote the Pantagraph condemning our involvement in Panama.
65. I used to really like shooting a bow and arrow at two bales of hay we set up by the tree line. I lost more arrows in the trees and the yard than made it into the hay.
66. My wife and I used to fish for bluegill in a pond so small you could throw a tennis ball across it.
67. I once rollerbladed 22 miles during the middle of the night. (To the Moore House and back from Campus House). Dumb.
68. Vegetables are only appealing to me when I’m limited in choices of what to eat and when I’ve exerted a ridiculous amount of energy and/or sweat. (Vegetarian: primative word for "can't hunt".)
69. I have friends that I worry about nearly every day because they live in tough places to be young in. Not that there are many places where it is easy to be young in...
70. I am an introvert occasionally pretending to be outgoing.

71. When done right, there are few things better than a Montecristo sandwich. The restaurant that was once EL Crackers serves a great one, batter-dipped in something sweet and sprinkled with powdered sugar.
72. I come from an amazing family filled with people who are doing great things with pretty normal lives.
73. I have had at least one solid concussion as the result of a bike accident. I may have had more but can’t recall.
74. I don’t email or write or call individuals often enough. I communicate en masse.
75. I have largely given up remembering birthdays or anniversaries. I forget too often then feel guilty about it. I want to just send random packages to people when it hits me or when I see something they’d like. But I haven’t done that yet.
76. When I had a job as a pizza delivery guy, one of my biggest fears was that I might hit a kid while delivering in one of the trailer parks that was in our area.
77. I was always good enough in track to run in the big qualifier meets but never good enough to win them.
78. When I was in top physical form, I could run a mile in under five minutes. I can’t now.
79. During my last membership at a gym, I actually gained weight even though I worked out three days a week.
80. Baby-back ribs often make me ill but I order them anyway because I love their taste and I think something primitive in me likes eating meat from a bone that I hold in my fingers.

81. I am adept at using chopsticks.
82. I have read the Bible, Torah, Book of the Jain, the Koran and the Bagvad Gita and believe I am better for it.
83. Sometimes I’m not sure that I am driven to God as much as I am driven away from all the alternatives.
84. I do better on written tests than on oral ones.
85. I will read nearly anything that is made available to me.
86. I prefer owning books to borrowing books.
87. I can’t explain how to do things on the computer very well. Usually it is easier for me to move a person aside and try a bunch of different solutions.
88. I don’t like guns but I do like shooting things on video games.
89. I have never taken a cruise and don’t really like boats all that much.
90. I no longer own dress shoes. All my shoes are brown and range from sandals to hiking boots.

91. I do, however, own a pair of white gym shoes that I have yet to wear since coming to Asia.
92. The only dress pants I wear are khaki.
93. I have never owned a motorcycle but will buy one within the next year.
94. Money only gets me nervous when other people talk about it. (Which is why I was writing this at 3 am.)
95. Empathy is the trait I feel I most clearly got from my mom and I hope it is the trait I pass down most clearly to my son.
96. I want to like tofu but really have a hard time with the texture of it. Even when eating fried tofu, I think about the texture of unfried tofu.
97. I wish we owned a charcoal grill and had a place where we could buy charcoal.
98. The right side of my body creaks more than the left side.
99. I get quieter, not louder, when I get more emotional – this is true with anger but also when I’m expressing positive emotions.
100. I sometimes write during sermons but rarely do I outline what is being said.

101. My voice was lower in high school than it is now.
102. For seven years, my locker was in between Kara Macy’s and Mary Mueller’s.
104. I don’t tell my family how much I love them nearly enough
105. I want to be a good man.
106. I can’t imagine what life would be like without my wife and son.
107. God is good to me. Always.

Come cathars with me

2007-04-24T17:47:00.000-05:00

I used to love that word "cathartic" (I've taken to simply creating my own verbs recently - thus "cathars"). The definition we would use in literature classes would normally include something like "the emotional purge...". As I remember it, the word is basically the relief one feels at the end of a series of tragic events (think the end of Hamlet when everyone is dead, "Thank God it can't get any worse").

So I want to enlist you in my own cathartic rush: What is your breaking point? What is the one thing that pushes you - or has pushed you - over the edge? The AC/DC playing at the neighbor's house at 2am? The inability of your boss to spell your name correctly? The spouse who can't seem to get the plates clean when he offers to wash the dishes? The tenth call for a glass of water from a child who should be sleeping?

Things are better. The schedule seems a bit more duable. Last night I got nearly seven hours of sleep. My wife continues to be a rock. Not exactly cheerful yet but God is good and in control. Always.

Beyond Broken

2007-04-23T17:12:00.000-05:00

Last night/this morning I reached a point of brokeness that I havn't felt since college. Exhausted and overwhelmed I simply stopped being able to function. I couldn't work on a project facing an impending deadline but I also couldn't turn my mind off enough to get a bit more sleep which might otherwise allow the work to continue. Six hours of sleep over three days is just not enough no matter how much caffiene you pump into your system. I'm shaking even now and more than a bit jumpy.

And let me remind you that I have been thrown out of a country. Imagine having several million people tell you you're not welcome. It's like being voted off American Idol without the benefit of Paula's condescending praise. I've been confined to a wheelchair even as Amanda was going through 36 hours of labor. I've taught freshman English. I've even had to endure "the scenic route" home from childhood vacations. This was beyond all that.

Between things that need to get done around the house (for example: the doorknob count is a 5 not including recoring the locks on a couple, adding a lockable latch to the workroom door in the garage and not having touched the latch that allows the second half of the front door to open wide), @'s last week of tantrumming that may not be completely over, a new language unit which appears even more time consuming than the first, backedup correspondence I should take care of, a diet consisting of ever greater quanities of hot tea and the realization that I really don't talk to anyone I'm not in school with or buying something from...it was simply too much.

Thankfully Amanda was there to talk me out of my tree. Despite her own backbreaking schedule (she spent yesterday morning trying to find a cane for me after I sprined my ankle walking to school), she woke last night from her much needed sleep to pray with me and talk me down. I can't imagine how single men get through times like this, with the expectations that they be strong and, unlike women, no way to just let it all out beyond bar fights, basketball or booze. I guess I'm just lucky that I have someone who knows me so well that she can help me find some relief when it seems beyond my grasp.

I'll pray for some guidance today, talk to some wise people and make some decisions about how to best get the things done that must be done and still keep my sanity.

It's funny but on a rational, logical level I see what is happening. Culture shock and the stress of everday life is simply creating a crisis point. I'm going through the storming phase of cultural adjustment. The lack of sleep adds to this, making otherwise minor problems - such as the phone line being down yesterday, making it impossible to send out the project I'm trying to finish - into major problems. I'm sad. Maybe I'm still mourning Vonnegut's death. Maybe not.

So last night when Amanda was telling me that I needed to lay down and rest I knew she was right. When she told me I needed to wash my face and calm down, I knew she was right. But I simply coudn't settle down. I knew that without sleep I couldn't function and yet I couldn't. This is what @ has been doing - only without a blog to vent on.

Things will get better. They will get resolved. I will adjust.

Finally Home

2007-04-19T03:41:00.000-05:00

After more than a month and a half, we are finally home. Sure, it's the same rental villa we've live in since moving to the Island but it finally has a place where I can sit comfortably and read. There's finally a place to put my book when I'm done. There's a place where I can curl up with both Amanda and @ to watch a movie. Amanda and I can even watch a movie there with worrying about waking @ at night.

Sure, Amanda wasn't initially thrilled by the color of the couch cushions and until it arrived she wasn't sure what the bookshelf looked like - she had been too busy trying to corral a two-year-old when were were shopping on Easter weekend. But overall, we're both happy with the new acquisitions. What's best is that once we move down the mountain next year, we won't have as much to buy - even if we move into an unfurnished home.

Now if I could just find a velvet Elvis or picture of poker-playing pooches for the wall behind the couch...

Home is a bookshelf. Now if we just had more than four books to put on it...

Not a great picture of the couch but @ has started referring to the new coffee table as his.

Another Easter pic of @

2007-04-17T03:00:00.000-05:00

My walk to school

2007-04-17T02:55:00.000-05:00

A JP-worthy conversation

2007-04-15T18:07:00.000-05:00

I take a bus to center of town somewhere around three times a week. Sometimes to get groceries but more often than not, it is to visit the hardware store to buy yet another tool or some minor home repair item. (Yesterday I bought a doorhandle for what was my fourth replacement since moving in just over a month ago. How many doorknobs have you had to replace in a lifetime? Only five more sets and I will have completed every door in the house.)

What made a recent bus trip JP-worthy was meeting a young man in edgier than the usual Japenese-black outfit. When he said his name was Ramone (not a common name here) I exclaimed "Ah the Ramones!" with little expectation that the word would mean anything. Instead he started rattling off bands like The Smiths, The Pogues, Morrisey, and some more obscure that I would have to go back to 1988 and ask Gary Poppe about. He talked about either a record store or a concert he'd gone to in the country's capital some years ago. (Does anyone know if The Ramones over had an Asian tour that include some of the less popular destinations?)

This was a conversation that I could have bluffed my way through in the US but what made it more remarkable was that most of it was in the local language. And I followed most of it!

Next bus trip, I'll keep my eyes open to see if I can find a Parrot Head.

Today's language lesson: The local word for rock musician or band is "rocker."

“Everything was beautiful, and nothing hurt.”

2007-04-12T00:57:00.000-05:00

It is 1:00 in the afternoon and I find myself crying over a man I never met, never really liked and never thought would die.

Back in highschool and college I read Vonnegut with a passion. The cynicism and satire tossed in with the profanity and science fiction helped me bask in, rather than resent, the alienation I felt. Vonnegut gave justification for the "otherness" I was going through; those emotions that almost all teenagers go through.

I could, and still can quote, passages from his books. "Tiger got to hunt, bird got to fly, man got to tell himself 'Why, why, why?' Tiger got to sleep, bird got to land, man got to tell himself he understand."

Words like Bokonism (a fictional religion that I claimed to have adopted for a time), foma, wampeters and grandfalloons entered my vocabulary. I chewed on ideas about religion, government, death and the environment, love and community. He made me want to write and read and think big, angry thoughts.

And I think that is why I stopped reading him. He never offered me hope. There were rants and challenges and easy escapes but never answers. He often recyled his own ideas. Fans might say this was because of their importance or value or universal appeal. I thought it was because he banked on nobody reading more than "Salughterhouse-Five" and maybe one more before getting bored, frustrated and/or suicidal.

I remember an English professor of mine, Stephen Swords, saying that Vonnegut was a lot like REM; at first you think "Wow, this is really profound!" And then you learn better.

And yet his writing was unique and thought-provoking and timely. At times he did offer a voice of conscience. His humor was dark but poignant. Understanding as much as a teenager could, he made me feel smart. He's one of those authors who made me want to teach English or write novels or change things.

And Vonnegut was friend to a lonely kid stuck in a farmhouse in Heyworth, a town the boy felt too small for his angst or his potential.

I'm sure our houseworker wonders why I'm crying. @ offered me his green blanket for comfort. I could blame it on the late nights or cultural adjustment but I think it is just the realization that one of the reasons I believe in God today is because of Kurt Vonnegut, jr. His bitterness forced me to choose what perspective on life I really wanted to carry with me - I had to hope that it wasn't as bad as he made it out to be and that it is getting better.

Took the bait

2007-04-11T04:29:00.000-05:00

Recently a friend who has been an amazing asset both in terms of translation help and local knowledge, noticed that the legs of @'s bed were resting on several wooden slats rather than directly on the floor. This was our attempt to stop the metal from marking up the tile floor. He suggested that with "a little ingenuity" I could modify some rubber feet he'd found.

Certainly I possess a "little ingenuity" so after cutting the ends of them to make them fit, I attempted, with the "help" of @ alternately shining the flashlight in my eyes then his, to put this plan into action. I failed - at least temporarily. After twenty minutes of sweat and the type of language that stretches the defintion of appropriate, I had put on exactly none of the little rubber nubs.

You see @'s bed is actually a waterbed frame held up by what seems like a 40-50 lb. soldered metal support structure (I suspect it was originally used to hold up small trucks or the bleachers at state fairs throughout the midwest). And I was attempting to add the feet without turning over the bed.

On the positive side, my fingers are uncrushed. As is my son.

Happy Easter from @ and friends

2007-04-08T17:16:00.000-05:00

Tropical Travel

2007-04-05T02:59:00.000-05:00

The good news is that the three of us have been invited to some Easter festivities off the mountain. Given a recent bout of language burnout and having reached the "storming" phase of cultural adjustment, this is a much needed break. A chance to shop in a big city (compare it from living in Charleston and getting to go to Champaign or Peoria), visit with friends, explore a city we don't know well...all great. Except for the fact that we have to pack.

Unlike a visit to Florida or Hawaii, cluture norms dictate long pants and button-down shirts. Still, it's 90+ degrees out. So this means multiple changes of clothes. Additionally, we're bring both diapers and @'s potty chair. Oh, and we need some movies for @. There's also been a request that we bring our laptop with us. Chargers for the camera, computer and phone. And due to my bout with insomnia/waking up in anticipation of either the call to prayer or @ wanting to sleep with us, I feel the need to bring Barack Obama's book (always puts me to sleep).

In all, it looks like we'll have one suitcase, a carryon, and two backpacks. Looking at it that way, it doesn't seem too bad. We are three people. At least we don't have to bring winter coats with us.

The real question is "What will we bring back?"...

Self-reliant enough to be dependent

2007-04-03T03:56:00.000-05:00

So I've been fighting my Americaness a lot recently. Some of it is based around volume and learning style and wanting to eat using both my left and right hand. But mostly I'm trying hard to stop being so self-reliant.

I'm not talking about something deeply spiritual here, like knowing that I can do nothing without God. I'm talking about going to other people for help with things that I know I can, or "should," do on my own.

You see, culturally, a person is viewed as stingy or pigheaded if s/he doesn't use a "professional" for things most Americans wouldn't consider asking a relative to help with, much less paying someone to help with.

An example: We have a patch of grass roughly two feet long and six feet wide along with a couple of fruit trees and some bushy plants. Certainly not lawn mower needed and certainly no need for a gardener. So I figured I go out and buy a hand sythe (tough to describe, maybe a picture later) and pair of bush clippers and do the work myself. Absolutely not, say my expat friends. Apparently, such a task requires a skilled laborer. If I don't find somebody to do it, I risk insulting the whole neighborhood.

I guess a friend needed to install a new program on his computer and had to take it to a computer shop to have it done. Four days later and it's still being worked on.

You'd think that the laziness inherent in the stereotypical American would have no problem with embracing this "why do it yourself when you can have somebody else do it for you?" mentality. But maybe I can't shake Dad's "I spent summers ripping out cast iron, coal furnaces, why would you consider spending your summers working at Wal-mart?" work ethic.

So, I'll let my houseworker iron all my clothes - including my socks and underwear. I'll let the furniture guy carry in @'s plastic chair. I'll submit to having the bus copilot carry my bag of groceries from the store to the parking lot. I guess the days of shaving my own head may be over. The things I do to blend in...

Bonus Cultural Lesson: Here in the land of motorcycles, the term they use for motor scooter/Vespa translates to "motor duck" (because of the sound).

To You All Know Who You Are...

2007-04-03T01:18:00.000-05:00

...but probably aren't reading this:

UPDATE YOUR BLOG!

Thanks,

A culture-shocked blog junkie

More odds than ends

2007-03-27T16:55:00.000-05:00

Last books I read all the way through: Everybody Poops, The Potty Book for Boys, The Sesame Street Potty Book...see a pattern? Oh, and The Dinosaur in My Backyard.

Other recent reads: I do recommend picking up Finn by John Clinch. A pretty curious piece of speculative fiction that gets into who Pa Finn might have been and what could have led him to be such an awful person. While it seems like a bit of a gimmick to use the frame of an American classic as a hook to sell your pitch to a publisher, it really was a nicely written story. Also, shows the Widow Douglas as a bit of a schemer. And you meet Huck's mom too.

The other book I've been reading is Bruce Fieler's Abraham. He's the Walking the Bible guy. Interesting look at the origins of the way Abraham is interpreted, past and present, by Judaism, Christianity and Islam. If you've read it, I'd be curious to hear your comments.

Found the location of one more furniture store to check out. Amanda and I have what we need but would like to start finding some things we can take with us when we finish langauge school. Lots of particle board stuff is available here and lots of buggy wood but not too much high quality hardwood. I hear tell that some nearby cities are known for their furniture or that we can have what we want made. Maybe later, once we have a bit more control of the language, I'll try.

Charlotte, @'s spider friend, is not poisonous. She's a pretty laid back bannana spider. If I'd known her species, I would have named her Chaquita.

Mini buses stop running here around dusk. And I thought our 8:30 shutoff time in Africa was bad. No taxies in this town, either. The horse carts and pedal power are available whenever needed.

Our hotwater heater is fuelled by a little propane gas tank. Apparently it only kicks on if there's a certain amount of water pressure. For Amanda, there was enough pressure to shower last night but not enough to kick on the heater.

Eating the breeze is not an idiom that is used here. What else has Lonely Planet been lying to me about?

Chocolate bread is my stress food. I haven't had to rely on Toblerones too much yet.

I tried Pepsi Blue. It tastes the same as regular Pepsi only it comes in this CSI-Miami color. It, or the Apple Fanta, changed the color of my poop. I have not tried the Pepsi Gold yet.

I communicate with text messenger over my cell phone more than any other way. I'm not good at it but it's cheaper than using voice.

Language class is much more fun when you get the teacher into a laughing fit.

Life is hard but good. I don't remember being this exhausted in Africa with the exception of my first week or so in Turkana. But that was because it was 120 degrees out and my only fan had blades that were four inches across and was battery opperated. And there we could nap in the middle of the afternoon.

Index cards do not exist in this city.

Neither does a good Italian restaurant. Scratch good, it should read "Neither does an Italian restaurant."

Practice is important for language learning but so is down time. I need time to process.

I think I need a Kevin Moon party. Maybe we should all meet in Darwin or Bali or even Chaing Mai?

Only 6 years, 8 months and five days until we climb Kilimanjaro. Ideally I'd like to reach the peak on my birthday at the exact moment I first saw the world. Who's with me? Pete? Ben? Dad? Jake? Phil Stowers?

Eating the breeze

2007-03-25T17:05:00.000-05:00

Just randomness. Skim at will.

Fun phrases: Sleeping policemen - speedbumps
Eating the breeze - out and about
English key - Adjustable wrench

I apparently only (or at least am most likely to) snore after an evening of writing.

In africa, I nearly bought a copy of Newsweek with Walter Mondale on it simply because it was in English and uncensored. Here I can't even find ancient American magazines for sale.

But there are arcades/fun zones about every other block.

Projects from this weekend: Get old-fashioned key unstuck from the keyhole where it had been jammed. Completed kitchen light cabinet that will hopefully stop spices and sugar from clumping/going bad too quickly. Wired another to use in our wardrobe to prevent clothes from going bad. Moved in new filing cabinet, office chairs, ladder, drying rack, pillow and bolsters. Really used the new drill.

Heard a sermon from yet another German named Marcus - we knew one in Africa too.

Not a criticism, just an observation: We may be the least reserved people in the country. Maybe the four Australians we know are close but most of the Americans we've met seem like they were pilgrims fleeing from the Charleston library because it was simply too loud.

In language class, I am that student I was in highschool. I want to do well but when I get frustrated I return to sarcasm. Or I attempt to distract/stall until the bell (in this case a bird call) rings.

Here we switch teachers, not classrooms for subject changes.

I "quest" as an excuse to wander. It's a good way to get to know the city. It starts out looking for the practical - things like tools and groceries, maybe furniture. But the searches gradually builds to the less likely like "low water use, massaging shower head with multiple speed settings" or the always ellusive "where can I buy a euphonium?" By the time I get to that last one, I'll probably be accentless and totally fluent. I've got the tools and groceries and at least some of the furniture so I think I may look for a baseball bat and gloves next.

Pottytraining is not fun. @ recently tried to change his own diaper (twice) during his nap. The first was mildly successful, resulting in him using all but one of his wipes but not quite able to put the fresh diaper on. He left the expended diaper on his dresser. He was found asleep and britchless, clutching his clean diaper. The second attempt was a bit more...messy.

On the plus side, sheets wash and we have tiles on all the floors. He's slowly getting closer to that day when the bulk of our carry-on space will not be taken up by disposables. Then the bulk of our carry-on space will be taken up by snack and toys and games and books...

There is noone I enjoy toiling through life with more than my wife. It seems like everyday we get to that point where we can't help but laugh. The fact that every Saturday night, we lose water. That the electrity goes out just when we've finally gotten @ to sleep and we can get some uninterupted work done. That in the process of trying to "fix" the hotwater heater, I realize I don't remember if the "on" switch is supposed to be up or down.

I want to own a couch where the whole family can sit and watch a movie.

I love that we brought a portable dvd player with us. Sure, the computer would also work but this is much easier to take away to our room or put out for @ while we make dinner. Arrested Development has been my cultural closet I can hide away in. One season is already through. Thanks Pete and Janet! (To show that I am not a completely irresponsible parent, @ is not allowed to watch Arrested Development. At least not until we watch it first.)

Amanda is sure that @'s new best friend, the spider that lives in our front "yard" that he calls Charlotte, is not poisonous. Amanda may be right but if you live in a jungle, everything is poisonous. Right?!?

I used the local ATM the otherday and realized that Amanda and I are finally multimillionaires. Related: I have finally broken past that problematic 16.5 stone weight area. At this rate I should be no more than a pebble or two by Christmas. Oh, never try to convert your weight to milligrams. It makes you feel really bloated.

I don't know who is in the Final Four but would watch it if we could.

Should be homeworking

2007-03-20T17:30:00.000-05:00

Amanda and I have started language classes and while I should be journaling my day in the local language, I need to process a bit. (I figure I can't pour anymore in until I pour some out.)

So here are some random experiences/thoughts from the other day:

I thought I saw a trolley on Monday, only to hear honking moments later. The bus had managed to snag a low hanging phone line and pulled it half a block before the bus stopped. The driver got out, unsnagged it, pedestrians moved it off the road, and the journey continued.

Had a great language lesson on the minibus Tuesday. Some kids got on with a Spiderman comic book. They taught as I pointed to Dr. Octopus and other villians. I think they tried to teach me the word for "webslinger."

I have one major project I've been attempting but with no success - a light cabinet. Because of the humidity here, people put a five watt lightbulb in the their warddrobes, spice cabinets or whatever they want to make a bit drier. The light stays on all the time and dries the space without creating too much of a firehazzard. The problem is, how do you explain what four or five parts you need from a hardware store when you have none of the language? I'll try again today.

The most terrifying part of language class comes at the end when we are expected to roleplay without a script. My language ability is squarely in between the abilities of my two classmates - one has already been using a tutor for a month or two and the other is still jetlagged with three kids and is in the process of moving to a less infested house. Stagefright has never been one of my favorite things.

We've had our semiautomatic washing machine for less than three weeks and already the spinner doesn't work. This is a fact that the houseworker has known about for sometime but didn't mention it. Or if she did, it was somehow lost in translation. The repairman will come out today (he was supposed to yesterday).

For at least the next 17 days, I am taking morning classes while Amanda meets in the afternoon. We see eachother for breakfast and in the evenings. Lunch will consist of us exchanging important information like if the washing machine got fixed, if @ pooped in potty, or if water got delivered. If I walk home, that gives us about fifteen minutes to talk. Not cool since we're used to spending about 16 hours a day together.

I was excited the other day when at language orientation they expalined that "next we will introduce our power tools." Come to find out what they meant was a poster showing how to ask questions in the "local langauge" (a phrase from here on out to be abbreviated however I feel like next time I use it.

I had my first motorbike experience yesterday. One of my teachers lives near here and he gave me a lift home. I want one! But we agree with our friends that we won't be making any vehicle purchases until we have enough language to talk ourselves through an accident.

But I think I'm sort of enjoying this. It'll be better once @ is pottytrained. And I can spend more time exploring with my wife. And we learn the language. And we're out of the rainy season. And the roof gets fixed...

Random Thoughts of life here

2007-03-12T20:37:00.000-05:00

Just some things that have popped into my head since arriving here on The Island:

We have a pink plastic bathroom door that has a red "occupied" indicator when you close it and a green one when it's available. I think it may have been salvaged from the short-lived Virginia Slims airline from the 1970s. We've come a long way baby.

They sell Pepsi Blue. I haven't tried it but will. On a related note, soda always tastes better from a glass bottle.

It is hot - like Florida hot - but totally liveable with a fan and a cool washdown.

Within days of arriving in a new country, I almost always feel more at home than I do while in the US. I love Singapore but could never afford to live there.

I think our houseworker ironed my underwear yesterday. I don't have enough language to tell her to stop.

I once again am Yonatan or Yonathan.

My wife is in rare form when has a goal - like putting together a house. Amazingly talented woman.

Our new favorite store is Jimmy's. No sign out front of this ordinary house. In the livingroom are things like Dr. Pepper and cereal and Maple Syrup - whatever expats like most.

Price Check:
Bus to downtown - .30
Double bacon cheeseburger - $2.50 (Note: Must find out where they sell bacon.)
One game of Time Crises II or Dance Dance Revolution - .30
Hotel in Singapore when nothing else is available - $175
Cost of a better room at the YMCA - Under $100
Spaghetti with chicken on top - .90
Nerf Hoop and ball at Subway - Free with a Kid's meal
Mini multi-tool - 2.00 after gift certs. from Singapore Air

We live in a neighborhood cut from the jungle. It feels a lot like the Grandma and Granpa Bunkers home in Venice, Fl that started out on the edge of the swamp only to end up in the middle of the subdivision.

Got a couple of dinner invites already. Odd that a person we spent a summer with in Africa has been a bit more standoffish.

Am looking forward to walking to language school with my wife in the mornings. Maybe we'll hold hands or I'll offer to carry her books.

I really look forward to learning to ride a scooter/cycle. I may get a bike once I have a better feel for the rules of the road and see if I can buy a bike helmet for my big noggin.

I'm reading Finn by John Clinch - a story of Huck's dad. I think I'll be recommending it but no call yet.

Oh, I need to find out if there's an English book store in town. But a bookshelf is first.

Amanda video messengered with her mom today over the internet. It was a bit like talking to the space shuttle but you can't beat the price - only the cost of our internet service. Who else has a web cam? (Mom or dad - you'll have one coming sometime soon. Pete can show you how to work it.)

We've fallen into the rut of using our African when we don't have the local word for things. We still use Italian to say goodbye.

Lots more thoughts but enough for now.

Things int'l travel and hospitals have in common

2007-03-11T17:51:00.000-05:00

Before you leave:
You never know exactly what to pack or how to dress.
Sure, pack reading material or work from the office but know you won't get to it.
All your expectations will be wrong.
Despite great scheduling on your part, once you get out of the car all bets are off.
As simple as the procedure is supposed to be, you make sure your will and house are in order.
You hear a lot of "we'll be praying for you."
Lots of paper work. Pull out the plastic. Try to remember dates and numbers that you need for no other occasion but this one.
Excuses: Can I afford it, does this really have to be done now, by you?

During:
You're told to get some rest only to have the lights turned on, be poked, prodded or fed every few hours.
You can't use your cell phone until it's over.
Rarely does your sleep pattern and the person's next to you match up.
Light-headed, nausea or general groggyness is part of the deal.
The light is anything but natural.
Do I talk to the person next to me or keep quite.
Meals come with limited choices.
You rarely eat everything on your tray. It looks better than it tastes and could probably use more salt and sugar.
There is never enough butter or jam.
Catsup is only offered with breakfast.
Silverware is just a bit wonky - too flat, too small or just oddly shaped. Sometimes there are sporks involved.
Not everyone you encounter will end up in the same place. But everyone will end up somewhere.
The batteries for your electronic devices won't last long enough and there is no place to charge them.
The music isn't your choice.
The people waiting on you look prettier at the beginning of their shift than at the end.
Bumps.
Parts of your backside fall asleep when the rest of you isn't.
You weren't sure how to dress but by the look of everyone else you see, neither did they.
Getting up to use the bathroom involves calculation, timing, some help and a bit of luck.
Entertainment is temporary.
How long things are supposed to take and how long they do take are two different things.
Nothing is in your control.

After:
The world looks different, bighter, louder, busier.
You have to relearn to walk.
There is an odd taste in your mouth.
More paperwork.
People are happy to see you but aren't sure how to hug you.
You can't carry your own bag.
There is a change in perspective that can't quite be pinned down but that you don't want to risk losing too quickly.
As long as you can walk away, it was at least somewhat successful.
People can relate but few will truly understand what it was really like.
You are thankful it is over.

Who is out there?

2007-01-26T11:28:00.000-06:00

I've done something I'll likely regret. I've removed the "bloggers only" feature on my comments. But there's a reason:

I have a map that shows me the general locations of where people are viewing me from but not who is looking. And I know that there are some of you who probably don't have blog accounts. Like many of you, I don't comment very often on the blogs that I read, even those I read daily. But I really have no idea who is reading this. So...

If you're reading this, please comment.
1. Let me know who you are.
2. Tell me where you are (Some of my map dots really run together).
3. Tell me how often you check this blog.
4. Optional: Come up with a better name for this blog than the current one.

I hope this didn't sound too weird.

More books

2007-01-17T09:40:00.000-06:00

Consider this more of a personal post-it note.

A character in Ngugi wa Thiong'o's The Wizard of the Crow thinks we should read:

Joys of Motherhood by Buchi Emecheta

Nervous Conditions by Tsitsi Dangarembga

So Long a Letter by Mariam Ba

The God of Small Things by Arundhati Roy

Fault Lines by Meena Alexander

Women Writing in India, We Were Making History by Susi Tharu

I can't confirm it but I think a couple of those names were either made up or invented when someone dropped their latte on their keyboard.

Another List

2007-01-16T09:00:00.000-06:00

The following is another top ten literature list - this one compiled by J. Peder Zane. He had 125 living authors come up with their top ten and then, using statistical analysis came up with the following:

1. Anna Karenina by Leo Tolstoy
2. Madame Bovary by Gustave Flaubert
3. War and Peace by Leo Tolstoy
4. Lolita by Vladimir Nabokov
5. The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain
6. Hamlet by William Shakespeare
7. The Great Gatsby F. Scott Fitzgerald
8. In Search of Lost Time by Marcel Proust
9. The Stories of Anton Chekhov by Anton Chekhov
10. Middlemarch by George Eliot

What bothers me most is not what is included on the list but how little of it I've read. I know I've read three of them, maybe as many as four - didn't I have to read Middlemarch while in college?

Thankfully, no Ulysses.

Beyond Mondo

2007-01-14T21:11:00.000-06:00

Following Amanda's lead, here is my list of "things for the future I'd really like to do, some of which seem beyond me while others might really be possible" - also known as my Mondo Beyondo List:

1. Be down to 210lbs by Christmas 2007.
Beyondo: Reach the middle range for my optimal weight - somewhere around 175.
2. Be proficient enough in our new language to be able to teach basic ESL.
Beyondo: Be able to read the next Harry Potter book in the new language.
3. Begin playing a brass instrument again.
Beyondo: Relearn to sightread both the bass and treble clef.
4. Climb either Mt. Kenya or Kilimanjaro for my 40th birthday. (Only 7 years to train! Anyone want to join me?)
Beyondo: Climb/hike a major mountain on each continent other than Antarctica.
5. Purchase a gift for my wife that will make her cry.
Beyondo: Actually surprise my wife with the above-mentioned gift.
6. Learn to ride a motorcycle.
Beyondo: Not get in a motorcycle accident or cause serious injury to myself or others.
7. Eat tofu...by choice.
Beyondo: Order and enjoy squid, octopus or any organ-based dish at a restaurant.

More to be added as they come to me.

Sad

2007-01-08T21:39:00.000-06:00

First Jim, now the Cowboys. Is anyone not let down?

Citizen Jonathan

2007-01-05T15:16:00.000-06:00

As I was getting the newspaper this morning I heard the rather disturbing sound of a smoke alarm going off in the distance. Somewhere there was that shrill, piercing noise that can only mean that somebody burned popcorn or boiled water.

So in an act of heroic thoughtfulness, I came back inside. (Don't worry, I didn't stay there.) I tracked down my slippers, woke my wife, got my coat and grabbed my keys. Because every hero needs a dorky sidekick or, in this case, a sexy partner in stretch leather, a cape and boots, Amanda set out with me in the wet morning to find the source of this noise.

Together we narrowed it down to not coming from any of the apartments in our complex. It sounded like it was coming from the neighborhood beyond our back wall, which was out of view. Resolved that we couldn't see or smell smoke and that we really didn't know what to tell the fire department if we did call 911 (no idea what the name of the street behind us is), we were ready to give up. Until...

I realized the sound was actually coming from the apartment complex's dumpster. Sitting on top was a mound of replaced smoke detectors. No one had taken the batteries out of them when they got upgraded to smoke and carbon monoxide detectors. I guess the rain shorted one of them out, thus the shrill noise. Battery removed, we went back in for breakfast.

Daily heroic duty accomplished.

Kevin Moon Party??

2006-12-21T13:31:00.001-06:00

I feel like it really should happen since we got a Christmas card from the man himself. Johnny D had suggested it but I don't think anyone was able to coordinate things in time to have it done before Christmas (Or we were snubbed). So let's set a date now.

How about mid or late January? People will have recovered from the holiday rush. Amanda and I will still be around (although possibly relocated to my folks' house in Lexington). Location? If we really wanted to take it to the extreme we could do it on location - Starved Rock, for instance? Or someother resort where we might be able to get off-season rates for those who'd like to spend the night? Depending on when Kess and Jen start school in Iowa, I think a Friday/Saturday might be best for them. Other schedule issues/preferences? Time?

Let's see if we can't get this nailed down by the new year.

Oh, and if you are reading this and have even the foggiest notion of who Kevin Moon is, you're invited.

Christmas Card Revelations

2006-12-16T10:10:00.000-06:00

One of the great parts of (Amanda) sending out something like 200 Christmas cards is what we learn from the responses. We get the usual family letters where you get the sentence or two about each of the two-legged members - and often the four-legged members as well. The photos quickly found their way to fridge. Amanda and @ have strung the first wave of cards and they will soon decorate the windows. But there are also the suprises.

We found out that someone we've always sent cards to has been dead for three years.

Someone else responded that they've gotten cards from us twice but don't really know who we are.

Phil, yes Phil, now has a beautiful blonde toddler. To my dissappointment her name doesn't rhyme with either Phil or Jill. (First Jo and Joe crush my hopes, now this). Umm, I know I've been out of the loop but she looks like she'll be entering college soon. They grow up so fast...

It's great hearing about new jobs and growing families and life. I think I'm a bit desparate to cling to this normality since we'll likely be spending Christmas in 90 degree heat next year.

New name???

2006-12-12T04:27:00.000-06:00

Every few years I find myself searching for, or getting, a new name. I was Jon-Jon when I was little. I took on the short-lived Bob in gradeschool. Juan (say it quickly along with my last name and you may get the sixth grade quality joke) was ironed on to a souvenir t-shirt. In college I took on the more "adult" Jonathan. Kenya, I was Ekai meaning "house," due to my relational size. A certain significant someone who just turned 30 would occasionally simply refer to me as Boy. @ started out calling me something sounding a lot like Doggie. In our last permanent home I was Mr. Yonatan. And now it is time for yet another change.

But not for me.

I need a new name for this blog. Geographically, it won't make sense soon. I need something not bound by location. Unique, but not so much that it looks like I'm trying too hard. Easy to remember. Short. Normal spelling. No punctuation. Somehow connected to who I am but without offering too many incriminating details.

Suggestions???

America's Most Influential 100

2006-11-29T15:31:00.000-06:00

I just love lists! And with this one, I'll admit, I'm all but clueless. How does a person really guage influence on American culture? Sure, at this moment, in some aspect(s) of American life, in some geographic areas, based on some particular worldviews, this might true. But then again, it might not.

In addition to the usual questions of whether the order is right, or if certain people should/shouldn't be included on the list, what I'd really be curious to hear is how high up the list does your cultural intelligence reach? At what number do you admit "I've heard that name but couldn't really tell you for sure who that is"? (For me, it's #36.) And at what number do you just respond "Who?" (#69).

Given the lack of comments I've seen recently, maybe I should tag some of those of you who have been around a bit: Josh, Johnny D, Barry (of course), Just Pete and anyone else who'd like to chime in.

Lessons from the Amazing Race

2006-11-14T10:23:00.000-06:00

As travel junkies, Amanda and I have really loved watching the Amazing Race. The stunts, the exotic locals, the food, the chance to meet new people...

And though I'm hardly a novice when it comes to travel, the Race shows that I must be doing something wrong. So I've come up with some Travel Truths gleaned from The Amazing Race:

No one ever looks gross after a twelve-hour flight - except for Rob and that's because he's apparently lost his razor.

Even after eating cowlips, no one even gets traveler's diarrhea. Or even has to use the bathroom during the entire length of the race.

Jetlag is a myth.

There are no beggars in other countries.

Getting through customs is simple.

Police officers in other countries are always nice and sometimes even let you follow them to your destination.

No one ever asks for a bribe.

It is perfiectly safe to drop your backpacks anywhere along the streets while running to your destination.

People always love Americans.

You can always find two seats together even when you manage to get the last seats on an airplane.

Powerbars are available everywhere.

Bottled water is available everywhere.

There are no ridiculously long lines in airports.

You can ignore dress codes, lines, social customs and basic manners as long as you wear a sports bra.

(Am I missing some?)

Now that I know the above, travel will be much easier.

Where I've been in the US

2006-11-01T12:57:00.000-06:00

I found this map generator the other day. I figure posting it on the web will have to do until I either get a camper or the nerve to have it tatooed on my back.

In mourning...again

2006-10-19T11:38:00.000-05:00

We just got news that another friend is being asked to leave Elsewhere. This friend has spent the last five decades teaching, working with orphans, leading girl scouts and giving of herself to a country that has given her less than a week to leave.

Put this in perspective: Imagine a parent or grandparent (she is in her seventies) being uprooted from their friends and family. Posessions accumulated since the 1960s have to be sorted through and discarded unless they are small enough to fit in one of a few suitcases. Hundreds of goodbyes will have to remain unsaid because there simply isn't enough time. Every meal will be with loved ones and there still won't be enough time. (And there hasn't been a shipment of good food imports in months anyway). Favorite places will have to remain unvisited because even if there was time, the permits to travel would never be granted. "This will be the last time I..." echoes. Absolute exhaustion hits even before getting on the plane. Tears will have to wait until Germany when the flight over the Atlantic will start. Sure, the move will be to a place where the language is understood but will never really be home.

I guess what hurts most is that there is simply nothing I can do to help solve the problems going on there.

PS - I just found out that another friend, born in Elsewhere but now an American, has been imprisoned since Oct. 4. He has two children and an American wife who are both currently in the US.

One step forward...

2006-10-07T13:18:00.000-05:00

For the last several weeks, I have been writing. A lot. That thesis that should have been finished nearly a decade ago is progressing and regressing at remarkable speeds. Some days I will write nearly three hours worth of material, only to edit it down by a third. And while I realize I shouldn't be so self-critical, it's tough not to when I reread errors in logic or see that the rabbit chase I just went on really has nothing to do with Ngugi - the subject of my research.

At the same time, I'm really enjoying it. The ideas, too topic-specific to bore you with here, are stretching me. They are also spilling over to my own feelings of Elsewhere and Africa as a whole. I find myself moving back and forth from a "western culture is horrible" to "yeah, but not everything/one who travels to Africa is negative".

This, and hearing about some of our friends being kicked out of Elsewhere, has really crept into my dreams. I'm in one of those phases where I wake up sometimes more mentally and emotionally exhausted than when I went to bed. But it's a good kind of exhaustion. It's usually cathartic and sometimes even valuable for my paper. This can spur me on a bit to actually want to write more. What this also means is that I can't spend quite as much time with @ as I'd like to.

The boy is really becoming quite fun. He pottied using his chair for the first time the other day. He's developing a real sense of humor. He is finally using some basic sentences - even if his vocabulary is a combination of real and his own words (he doesn't use "farm," but "EIO" and "I'm sorry" is conveyed by stroking to arm of whomever he hurt and repeating "nice"). Hopefully, I'll have my work finished by Thanksgiving so I can spend some American time with him.

We're still looking at a move to Asia in late January.

A favorite place

2006-10-03T20:49:00.000-05:00

This is one of my favorite places on Eastern's campus. It's a silly sculpture and I can only imagine how much it cost. But I like it.

Just a photo

2006-10-03T11:30:00.000-05:00

A quick photo of Elsewhere. I'm working on a major paper about Africa and I think that the writing, along with a desire to be finished so we can move on to Asia, and news about our friends making me a bit...homesick.

Rumors

2006-09-26T11:01:00.000-05:00

So Amanda ran into one of our neighbors yesterday and it appears that the consensous is that we must be building a house. Huh? I guess the girl pieced together that 1. we would only be renting for a few months. 2. We had a kid. And 3. We're old. So apparently that means we're building a house.

I guess we make those types of leaps all the time using what we know.

I suppose I'm just let down that she doesn't think we're superheroes.

Last King of Scotland

2006-09-19T16:05:00.000-05:00

Looking for something else, I discovered that Giles Foden's novel The Last King of Scotland is due out as a movie soon. Such a great book. If the movie is done well (like The Constant Gardener or Hotel Rwanda) it should be well worth the ticket price. But it could be difficult to show Idi Amin's sense of humor without making him less than the monster he really was.

It stars the guy who played Mr. Tumnus in Narnia, Forest Whitaker and Gillian Anderson - that X-Files girl. It's just a shame they couldn't get Rachel Weisz...

Watch the promo and tell me what you think.

Obligatory 9-11 Posting

2006-09-11T11:42:00.000-05:00

It was tragic. Lots if of people died. Lots of people survive without those loved ones who died.

But it didn't really have an impact on my life in any way beyond the superficial. I've never been to New York or the Pentagon so the new highschool in Heyworth seems more out of place than the construction site in New York. I knew no firefighters or office workers or Penagon officials or ambulance drivers. I didn't watch the 9-11 telathon.

This may sound insensitive but this is how my life has been impacted: I take off my shoes at airports. Honestly, that's about it.

Maybe it's about proximity. When I hear "New York" I have about as much personal connection to it as many people do when they hear "Africa". I get sad when I hear about college kids getting jailed for doing nothing more than forgetting their IDs. I dream about starving families living within sight of the Intercontinental Hotel. That's where my heart aches. But New York is fiction to me.

Veggie Tales on TV

2006-09-09T09:13:00.000-05:00

It was only a matter of time before Veggie Tales sold out to corporate America. That time was at 9:00am this morning on NBC. I sit here watching "Asparagus of La Mancha" as part of the new "Veggie Tales on TV". They make a point of saying that this is different from the DVDs. So far nothing "Christian" but also nothing the least bit offensive.

I reserve passing judgement...for now.

Doppelganger

2006-09-03T07:34:00.000-05:00

Last night I was watching National Treasure there was my brother Pete acting as FBI sidekick #1. I was reminded that we all have a doppelganger somewhere in the world. The eyebrows were a bit too thick and he stood up straighter but it was almost Pete. Sort of a Hoolywood transformation of Pete, like when Hulk Hogan suddenly became Hollywood Hogan.

In college I found mine, or at least others found me as him. I was traveling to speech tournaments throughout the midwest when, gradually, people started complimenting me. At first it was nice, especially since by then I had decided to coast through the sunset of my scholarship years and simply be happy to be traveling and not care about actually doing well, but soon it became disturbing. People would come up to me and start into the middle of some previously begun conversation. They would make inside jokes that I didn't understand or reference some tournament I had never been to. It wasn't until they started congratulating me for a speech I never gave, in an event that I didn't compete in that I realized what had happened. And also someone asked why I had changed into my casual clothes right before awards (Note: those were my competition clothes.)

His name was Jeff Archibald and he was a much better speaker than I was, dressed better, and was much more popular than I was. He was also about five inches shorter than me. I think he might have been from one of the Kentucky schools or maybe Middle Tennessee State. But he could have been my movie double if he had a step to stand on. Assumming that some movie, of course, called for a better looking, more talented version of me with a slight southern twang in his voice.

I'm also playing with the idea that we all have not one, but several. I think it might be continental. Or racial. I have an Indian friend who looks like a Bollywood version of Dustin Hoffman. I once met a Congalese version of Jason Rennert. My father once made a breakfast appearance as a Singaporean businessman. And I know I've seen others.

We all have one. He might not sound like you or act like you but he looks like you...from a distance...when you squint...in the right light...with different hair...and clothes...and maybe glasses.

Talismen

2006-08-28T14:14:00.000-05:00

We went to Uncle George's funeral today.

In his hands were a deck of cards. Next to him was his yellow thermal coffee mug from Hucks. Those were the things I associated with him most. There were photos of him and his haulin' truck, a framed "Dad" written in Susan B. Anthony dollars and lots of funeral flowers - some of which were sent by people who really couldn't afford to.

I think I'd like my funeral to be held in a bookstore. Maybe in the travel section. Or in the "Recommended by Our Staff" area. Or in "Favorites."

And for that truly overdramatic element play the Beatles "Yesterday".

Tennis

2006-08-17T17:20:00.000-05:00

So much of the great times in my life have involved tennis. I really can't remember much of my grandpa Tony without thinking of him on a court. Even when there weren't toys when we visited relatives, we wouldn't be bored as long as there was a court near by.

I can't remember the names of most of my gradeschool teachers but I can remember most of the names of my tennis rackets. Jack Kramer, the Weed, the Urge. (I always tried to avoid the Everett.) Trying Gretch's "composite" or Dad's new aluminum one. The old rackets with the screw on braces that were supposed to prevent them from warping. The new Prince just lacks the character of the old wooden ones

As a family, the sport was one of those things that connected us. Even when Ben and then Pete were too tall for me to really play basketball against them, we could get out on the courts and play. Ben's spins confused me for years.

In gradeschool, I first really felt independent biking off to BHS for lessons during the summer. In highschool, Scott Noth and I would play a couple of sets before walking to Hucks for a Big Gulp and wasting a dollar in quarters playing Bad Dudes. Then there was the summer when Aaron Bird and I played tennis or racquetball almost everyday.

Finally I'm healthy enough to play again. Just getting out and hitting with Barry at the Carmen courts the other day was great.

Travel log

2006-08-01T15:30:00.000-05:00

In the last six weeks I have been to:
Atlanta
Colorado Springs
Chicago
St. Louis
Dallas
Charleston
Indianapolis
Mineapolis
Singapore
Hong Kong

Amanda, @ and I will move to Charleston this weekend where I'll finally finish that thesis. Hopefully by Christmas I'll have that degree in hand along with tickets for a January or February-departing ticket for Asia.

No offence to you all but I'm just eager to get back to that elsewhere where I belong.

Moving back for school

2006-07-24T14:13:00.000-05:00

So Amanda and I will be house hunting...again. We thought we had a place lined up in Mattoon but that fell though. Tomorrow we'll go down and look for a couple of days and see if we can't find a place that will rent to us through the end of the year. Hopefully I will have finished my degree by then and we can move on to Asia.

Speaking of...

Our ten-day trip there was great. We got a chance to see where we'd likely go to language school and even a couple of possible places where I might work. It was hot but not Turkana hot. The food is good and there are enough of the conviences we've come to depend on to make the move a realistic possibility. I will have to dress nicer but on the up side, Amanda is in favor of us getting a motorcycle if we move. The problem might be finding a helmet big enough for this noggin.

Off to Mattoon/Charleston tomorrow and Texas on Friday.

My father, my son

2006-06-30T04:19:00.000-05:00

One of the things I frequently say about my son is that he has never met a stranger. He, like most kids, just shines when he's around new people. Peakapoo, waving, smiling, raspberries blown to stewardesses or Singapore security.

Like his curly hair, tendancies to pick up colds and inability to stand still in airports, I wonder how much of this is from me. And yet I see it even more so in my father.

Dad will talk to anybody. I learned about how to catch crawdads in the Current river because of overhearing him talk to...anyone. It's a very Donald Miller sort of thing. Why thinkwe can only learn from books or in classrooms? It used to bother me but I've learned that the worst people will do is pretend to read or ignore you. I wonder what Dad learned in his years of simply talking to people he didn't yet know.

So much can be picked up by zooming in on someone who might just know something you don't. We found a hotel room here simply because Amanda noticed a westerner reading Blue Like Jazz. The city was booked but we followed this expat to where she was staying and it was amazing! We could see Malaysia from the rooftop pool. We walked the beach and at Jacob's Cafe. We slept. It was great.

Now I'm off to see if I can find a particular stranger on this plane who is going to the same place we are and might know the friends we're staying with. Lisa? Are you out there???

Back to school

2006-06-26T19:44:00.000-05:00

After some paperwork, persuasion and a lot of prayer, I managed to get the OK to finish one of my degrees. This means Amanda, @ and I will be moving to Mattoon for a short while at least.

We leave for Asia tomorrow morning to scout for jobs (for after the schooling).

Keeps us in your thoughts.

All until July...probably

2006-06-16T07:38:00.000-05:00

Leaving tomorrow for Colorado, then on to Asia until mid July.

Some things:

I love eating with chopsticks. I own four sets of them from Pier One and keep a disposable pair in my backpack. Anything involving rice is fair game.

My wife has me eating and enjoying food I would, as a kid, have tried to hide under a napkin or tried swallowing whole with a gulp of milk.

I am seriously considering moving to a place where I won't need to own socks.

I sometimes don't want to sleep for fear of dreaming of Africa too loudly.

I have officially started wearing my American (read: fat) wedding band.

I drink hot tea (not coffee) every morning from one of two cups, both have roosters on them.

I am a charter member of an organization I have never participated in or can even pronounce the name of correctly when I say it quickly. Illinois Philological Association.

I used to tell lies. Now I tell stories.

I have never lived in the same house longer than seven years.

My wife looks great in button down dress shirts.

I watch the same movie more than once only when I have to.

What's on my bookshelf is more important to me than what is in the fridge.

I don't have any of my t-shirts from college. I still have a tie or two from highschool.

I am over a hundred pounds lighter than Shaq. My junior high free throw percentage is slightly better than his is currently.

I do not remember my highschool locker combination but I do remember my phone number from when I was six.

When I think of childhood, I think of the farm and the hours I spent in the pasture and barn thinking of brilliant things I would one day do but haven't (mostly because only superheroes can do them) .

My son is charismatic and caring. Only sometimes is he trouble.

I spend a lot of my day thinking.

A slight twist???

2006-06-11T16:47:00.000-05:00

Amanda, @ and I were planning on moving from Indy sometime near the end of August but may not need to if the friends who were going to use the house choose to take a Residency during the fall semester. As much as I would love to be closer to our Illinois friends, it would be nice to stay put until we permanently move overseas.

We leave Saturday for what will be something like a 20,000 mile trip. In the course of 3 weeks we will go to Colorado and Asia.

Mmmm...frequent flier miles.

Toddler CSI

2006-06-02T10:23:00.000-05:00

Odd event this morning. Walked into @'s room after hearing the normal sounds of him talking to his stuffed animals, shaking the rails of his crib and greeting the day. When the lights came up, Amanda and I noticed blood on his face. Not graphic, "jump into the car, we're going to the emergency room" amounts of blood but any amount on a 20 month old is too much.

As Amanda begins cleaning the otherwise contented baby we begin looking for clues. Blood on his face, head and hands. We look to see the cause (his nose) and check him for other wounds (none). I begin to examine the splatter pattern on the bed, taking note of the small amount located in one corner, the dried fingerprints nearby. No signs of foul play, no signs of undue trauma. Time of accident - recent. Cause of accident...hey it's a bloody nose. No big deal.

Given his cold and prior iron problems, we decided on a quick trip to the doctor. No problem. He's fine.

Ah, the joys of fatherhood.

The buzz...

2006-05-25T12:56:00.000-05:00

For the last few weeks things have been relatively slow around the ol' hoosier homestead with only the scattered obligation. Amanda, @ and I have fallen into basic routines of trips the gym, the odd trip into the city, a treat before bedtime. It really felt nice just to be static.

But now the chaos begins.

In mid June we have a week long speaking gig here followed the next day by a trip to Colorado Springs for basically the same thing. The real fun starts a few days after that near the first of July when we fly to Asia to look at a possible new home. After ten days there we'll fly home only to begin relocating somewhere new (our house will be passed off to some friends in September). We're thinking Springfield or Charleston areas. And somewhere in here we'll be making trips to Texas and southern Illinois.

Oh yeah, and I'll be trying to finish up some grad school things before we make any permanent moves overseas too. (I figure I hold the family tennis title, I can't be left behind Gretch in the "smarter than thou" event.)

All this means we'll likely be Stateside through the end of the year, depending...

Travel Question

2006-05-17T14:45:00.000-05:00

Amanda, @ and I are doing a lot of traveling this summer and wondered if anyone has a preferred way to book flights online. Suggestions for the BEST site for the CHEAPEST prices???

Thanks in advance.

Cincinnati Question

2006-05-15T15:16:00.000-05:00

My older brother and his family will be relocating to Cincinnati this summer and I told him I'd see if anyone could help with this:

Suggestions for a good church in the Cinci area? They have three kids and would probably be looking one with a MOPs or MOP-like program as well as the usual prerequesites of community, activism and, oh yeah, Christian stuff.

I'll pass on suggestions.

Our Oil Solution

2006-04-25T08:35:00.000-05:00

I've held back on this hoping that I could somehow profit from the idea but now I feel I owe it to America to offer my solution to America's dependence on foreign oil.

We need to buy more, not less, oil from the Middle East. I mean really buy...a lot...right now. As the great global consumer of things we really don't need American's need to start all but bathing in the stuff.

Run up your credit cards. Fill every bucket, pot and pan in your house with petrol. I mean Mickey Mouse when it rains kind of containers. Think of new and ingenious ways to use crude. Strip the paint off your walls with it. Barbecue with it - not as charcoal starter but as a replacement FOR charcoal. Kill off unwanted dandelions. Make your own fireworks. Be creative. Embrace America's natural giftedness in finding ways to waste fuel and light things on fire.

So drive to your mailbox. Take trips just to watch your odometer spin. Hit the road whenever you want to listen to the radio. Drive back and forth over the central and eastern time lines just to see if you can somehow disrupt the space-time contineum. Try and outrun the sunset - or if you're from Indiana, the approaching stormfront. Drive to California and try to catch a glimpse of TomKitty. Consume, consume, consume!!!

The quicker we use the world's oil, the better. Since this is all non renewable, the world will run out of it eventually. Let's just hurry up the process. When the Shieks and oil barons run out of the stuff, so does their power. What's Dubai without oil? A desert with a bunch of shopping malls and a palm shaped subdivision. Sand and camels. Oh and the foundation of human civilization - but let's face it, that's not really important.

And when there's no oil left? The world will have to start looking at ethanol. It goes without saying that the Middle East will never be able to produce enough corn to contend with our farmers. Europe? To borrow a term from an animated hero of mine, those "cheese eating surrender monkeys" would never dig up their wineries (or "whineries" in the case of their international involvement) to have them replaced with corn. And America knows all about producing too much of the stuff.

After all, this is is the home of 4H. We have towns with names like Farmer City and Heyworth and Ethanolia...good, American, farm towns. We have corn festivals and put things like "Soybean Capital of the World" on signs welcoming people to our cities.

So it would come full circle back to the American farmer. He feeds the world now. One day he will fuel the world. But only if we help waste oil.

Goodbye do-overs

2006-04-22T17:55:00.000-05:00

Every few days I catch myself reflecting over our last few weeks in Africa. Recently I've been drawn to something a bit less geographically defined.

Are there people in your life you would like to say goodbye to again...differently? Maybe you simply didn't get a chance to say goodbye because you missed crossing paths one last time. Maybe you saw the person but you were too busy to give them the attention they rightly deserved. Perhaps you were in a bad mood because you hadn't slept in days and their country had invited you to leave. Maybe someone else was there so you couldn't be as open with that person as you would have liked. Maybe you didn't understand how valuable that person was until later.

And now I wouldn't know what to say if I could do it over.

Ahead of the curve?

2006-04-19T15:10:00.000-05:00

Since moving to Indy, my wife and I have been internet nomads. We go next door to use the wireless at PCCC - often resorting to borrowing one of the neighbors' waves when our first choice thwarts our attempts; we go to the public library; I've even wandered throughout the backyard hoping that some signal would come floating by so we could connect without leaving the general vicinity. Because we have our own cell phones and don't plan on staying in one place very long, we've been reluctant to get DSL or dial-up access in our home.

The problem with this nomadic lifestyle is that we are rarely able to look at the internet at the same time. If we're at the library together, Amanda or I need to be watching "@". Sure, we could take him next door but do you know how many places there are to hide in a building that seats 1200 on a Sunday?

So after much stalling, we broke down and decided to get an aircard that would allow us to use the internet from our laptops anywhere. Verizon had a nicely priced plan and since we were already customers, we decided to byte the bullet. After a day of frustration spent calling tech support with both Dell and Verizon, it became clear that it wasn't going to work.

In our attempt to get newest, most cutting-edge computer we could - knowing that in three years even that would be obsolete - we actually bought a computer that uses a newbe "express card" drive. They don't even make aircards for it yet.

Thankfully, Dell reassured us that someone, somewhere, would be coming out with one...sometime.

Note: This seems eerily similar to the time Dad purchased a Texas Instruments 99 4a computer for the family just before the computer division of that company went bankrupt. Gosh I miss Munchman.