One thing I would like to do at the blog is review (or suggest) books I've read. Of course, not all books, but there are some out there that I've read and thoroughly enjoyed, and think you should therefore know about them. Problem will probably be that those of you who read the blog will have already read the same book...b/c I know pretty much who my audience is and how our interests are similar. Or, there are those of you who read the blog, but will have neither the time nor the interest to read what I review/suggest. Oh well. I'm not really blogging, about books or any other topic, to please my readers.
Anyways, I've read 10 books so far this year. Which is maybe a little low for me. I read 47 last year. (Yes, I keep a log. I started it in July 2007. First book on the list was Mao: The Untold Story by Jung Chang.) Of these 10 books so far, there are at least 5 that deserve mentioning...and of the 47 last year, there are probably 20 worth writing about. So...there you go. Look for some stuff throughout the year (or however long I keep up this writing thing) on books.
Today though is more about a book that I read about, and will probably buy on the kindle here shortly, that I look forward to reading, tearing apart, and then writing about it. Reading other blogs this morning, I found a review/article on Battle Hymn of the Tiger Mother by Amy Chua at Dr. Al Mohler's website. Briefly, Mrs. Chua's book is about how the Chinese way of parenting is better than the undemanding form of parenting often found in the West (America). She argues the proof is in her two very successful and intelligent daughters, who she has pushed to succeed and seemingly deprived of a warm and loving family environment. Below is the link to Dr. Mohler's article, and having not yet read the book, I will refrain from commenting on it now. However, living in an Asian culture for just 2 years, I already have lots of arguments and questions for her, and one can only wonder if her worth is found primarily in the success of her children.
Okay, I have to stop pretending like this is my job and unload the dishwasher now.
--da
Battle Hymn of the Tiger Mother
Tuesday, March 29, 2011
Friday, March 25, 2011
What? Two posts in one week?
I know. But I promised. :)
So, let me fly over the past 5 months of life. This is like the 35,000 ft. view from the air.
We finished up our time there in JH mid January. We were uber busy from October to January...w/ fun stuff like hosting friends and making a trip to BJ and SH, an awesome welcome home to some of our teammates right before Thanksgiving, a great Thanksgiving complete w/ mad Wii Dance parties, Logan making a two week trip to Thailand to do some research and have some dental work done, a Christmas that was good but not traditional at all...we ate Chinese food for lunch, Logan spending a lot of time w/ our supervisor building an aquaponics system (more about this another day), and then us packing up and heading back to America. It was busy and good.
We arrived in TX January 17th, and it was a fantastic homecoming. We spent a whirlwind of two weeks visiting friends and family in the Lubbock area, and then made our way to Louisville, KY so that Logan could attend Southern Sem. for the semester. We are settled and enjoying our time here, but...we're looking forward to making it back to TX in May and then BACK TO ASIA in July! Its all official now and we'll be heading back for a more long term position. We are very thankful for the opportunity to go back, and we're very thankful for the opportunity to be here too.
Anyways, that's the fly over of what's going on in our lives. More about life in Louisville later....
--da
So, let me fly over the past 5 months of life. This is like the 35,000 ft. view from the air.
We finished up our time there in JH mid January. We were uber busy from October to January...w/ fun stuff like hosting friends and making a trip to BJ and SH, an awesome welcome home to some of our teammates right before Thanksgiving, a great Thanksgiving complete w/ mad Wii Dance parties, Logan making a two week trip to Thailand to do some research and have some dental work done, a Christmas that was good but not traditional at all...we ate Chinese food for lunch, Logan spending a lot of time w/ our supervisor building an aquaponics system (more about this another day), and then us packing up and heading back to America. It was busy and good.
We arrived in TX January 17th, and it was a fantastic homecoming. We spent a whirlwind of two weeks visiting friends and family in the Lubbock area, and then made our way to Louisville, KY so that Logan could attend Southern Sem. for the semester. We are settled and enjoying our time here, but...we're looking forward to making it back to TX in May and then BACK TO ASIA in July! Its all official now and we'll be heading back for a more long term position. We are very thankful for the opportunity to go back, and we're very thankful for the opportunity to be here too.
Anyways, that's the fly over of what's going on in our lives. More about life in Louisville later....
--da
Wednesday, March 23, 2011
5 months since the last post....
Whoa, five months. That's ridiculous. Did you think we had given up the blog? I did. Let's just say we're not very good at this, but you've realized that by this point.
There were lots of times in the last 5 months that I wanted to post something. Seriously. But I didn't for multiple reasons....let me name a few. For one, there's the time factor. Not enough time, or already wasted so much time that I felt guilty for getting back on the computer, or the time I feel like it takes me to post about something (more on this in point 2). Two, my writing is not that great, and it usually takes me way too much time to organize my thoughts and get everything written out in at least a decent style. Three, I don't ever know what you want to hear about. There is a constant tension in my mind between what I know would be an abnormal thing for you to read or see, and what is very normal for me to see every day...i.e the market, where meat that's not refrigerated is normal to me, but very abnormal to you. Lots of cultural experiences and things that made up daily life began to be very normal for us, which in many ways is a very good thing for us, but it led to a lack of what I considered worthy blogging material. Plus, I'm not one to really think that you want to hear all about what Logan and I do...I mean, sometimes we are just not that interesting. We don't jump out of planes or anything like that. Yes, we lived in Asia for 2 years. But overall life was very similar to what life looks life for you.
Anyways, there are a lot of other things I could say about not keeping up the blog. We burned out on it, honestly, which is sad b/c it wasn't like we were blogging every day. But really, from the bottom of my heart I want to continue the blog. I really desire to develop my writing a little bit. And so now I have a semi-goal of 500 words a day. Not 500 words a day on the blog, but just in general 500 words a day. Most of the time it will be my own personal journal that I put those words in, but hopefully over time I will be quicker to reflect on my surroundings/life/what's going on, and see how I can write about those things. And, I hope the more I write, the easier it will become to sit down and crank out a blog post in a 10-15 minutes.
This is not a commitment to you, our readers who have not given up on us (which would probably only be my mom and dad), but hopefully I will find this post to be the one that starts us over again on this blogging thing.
One other reason for the desire to blog: sometime in December or January, Logan and I watched The Social Network (movie about facebook) and it made me really despise facebook. Now, I'm not trashing it or the creators of it, and I know that the movie had an element of drama to it that probably wasn't present in the real life story of the creation of facebook. Before we watched the movie, I seriously was playing around w/ the idea of deactivating my account. After we watched the movie, I was done. That was it. It took me a while to actually follow thru, but around the first of March, I was sitting in front of the fireplace, reading Wendell Berry, and then I grabbed my computer and deleted my account. Completely done. It has been the most freeing thing in the world really. And so w/ the deletion of facebook from my life, I realize that this could become one good way that I still have random communication w/ those of you who I don't see daily/monthly/yearly. (By the way, there will be more on Wendell Berry, facebook, and what we're up to in later posts. I promise.)
Anyways, here's to trying to write more consistently.
--da
There were lots of times in the last 5 months that I wanted to post something. Seriously. But I didn't for multiple reasons....let me name a few. For one, there's the time factor. Not enough time, or already wasted so much time that I felt guilty for getting back on the computer, or the time I feel like it takes me to post about something (more on this in point 2). Two, my writing is not that great, and it usually takes me way too much time to organize my thoughts and get everything written out in at least a decent style. Three, I don't ever know what you want to hear about. There is a constant tension in my mind between what I know would be an abnormal thing for you to read or see, and what is very normal for me to see every day...i.e the market, where meat that's not refrigerated is normal to me, but very abnormal to you. Lots of cultural experiences and things that made up daily life began to be very normal for us, which in many ways is a very good thing for us, but it led to a lack of what I considered worthy blogging material. Plus, I'm not one to really think that you want to hear all about what Logan and I do...I mean, sometimes we are just not that interesting. We don't jump out of planes or anything like that. Yes, we lived in Asia for 2 years. But overall life was very similar to what life looks life for you.
Anyways, there are a lot of other things I could say about not keeping up the blog. We burned out on it, honestly, which is sad b/c it wasn't like we were blogging every day. But really, from the bottom of my heart I want to continue the blog. I really desire to develop my writing a little bit. And so now I have a semi-goal of 500 words a day. Not 500 words a day on the blog, but just in general 500 words a day. Most of the time it will be my own personal journal that I put those words in, but hopefully over time I will be quicker to reflect on my surroundings/life/what's going on, and see how I can write about those things. And, I hope the more I write, the easier it will become to sit down and crank out a blog post in a 10-15 minutes.
This is not a commitment to you, our readers who have not given up on us (which would probably only be my mom and dad), but hopefully I will find this post to be the one that starts us over again on this blogging thing.
One other reason for the desire to blog: sometime in December or January, Logan and I watched The Social Network (movie about facebook) and it made me really despise facebook. Now, I'm not trashing it or the creators of it, and I know that the movie had an element of drama to it that probably wasn't present in the real life story of the creation of facebook. Before we watched the movie, I seriously was playing around w/ the idea of deactivating my account. After we watched the movie, I was done. That was it. It took me a while to actually follow thru, but around the first of March, I was sitting in front of the fireplace, reading Wendell Berry, and then I grabbed my computer and deleted my account. Completely done. It has been the most freeing thing in the world really. And so w/ the deletion of facebook from my life, I realize that this could become one good way that I still have random communication w/ those of you who I don't see daily/monthly/yearly. (By the way, there will be more on Wendell Berry, facebook, and what we're up to in later posts. I promise.)
Anyways, here's to trying to write more consistently.
--da
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