- I’m OK… thanks for asking. I’m just not sure how I really want to use this blog or if I want to use it. I added the “Blogging Without Obligation” badge a long time ago and adhere to its principles. I’m glad to know that many people missed my blogging… but…
- I’m one of those people who would look at a cluttered desk and at the same moment conclude 2 things: 1) I can’t sit and work at the desk unless the clutter is dealt with first… and 2) Who has time to deal with that much clutter? I guess I’ll go water the plants. Well… this relates to blogging too… it isn’t that there isn’t anything “blogworthy” it is that there is SO MUCH I want to blog about that I feel like my options are to either BLOG IT ALL! or blog nothing.
- This post will certainly not cover everything I wish I had time to share on this blog… but it is more than nothing and should contain lots of link goodness to help you waste more time on the internet learn more about this amazing world we live in.
- Am I the only expat that thinks that a successful trip to renew a passport or Alien Registration Card should result in taking the rest of the day off and celebrating with a feast at Chili’s? Successfully renewed passports for these 2 today…
- Taiwan is a land of extremes – part 1. Back in November 2000, Singapore Airlines flight SQ006 crashed during takeoff at the Taipei airport. There was a typhoon in the area and visibility was low and the plane taxied onto a closed runway and collided with some construction equipment while attempting to take off. I have a friend who flew for UPS at that time (still does I guess) and often flew in and out of Taipei. I asked him how it was possible for a pilot to steer a plane onto a closed runway and he told me that it was very poorly marked and that he had almost taxied onto that runway on one occasion not long before the crash of SQ0006. Then he chuckled a little… and continued on to say that the closed runway was now the most clearly marked off runway in the history of airports.
- Tonight (Wednesday) we’re in week 3 of an 8 week long English/Bible class for kids in our building. This time we are teaching about the fruit of the spirit. This class used to be called “Kid’s English Bible Class” when we started these activities last year. Now? Aunt Angie’s English Activity. My wife is a rock star in our building. I’m serious. And I’m the one who plays guitar. Weird… and cool.
- When Zach was younger, he once said “Even though ‘nice’ isn’t one of the fruits of the holy spirit, I still think it’s a good idea.”
- Speaking of 8. There are 9 things considered to be “fruit of the holy spirit” but our class is only scheduled for 8 weeks… I wonder how “Aunt Angie” is gonna handle that…
- Sometimes you wonder if you are doing OK as a parent… and then… from the other room you hear one of your offspring singing the lyrics to something by Relient K. Like maybe “Who I Am Hates Who I’ve Been”. Ahhh…. the sweet sound of success.
Stop right there. That’s exactly where I lost it.
See that line. Well I never should have crossed it.
Stop right there. Well I never should have said
That it’s the very moment that
I wish that I could take back.
I’m sorry for the person I became.
I’m sorry that it took so long for me to change.
I’m ready to be sure I never become that way again
’cause who I am hates who I’ve been.
Who I am hates who I’ve been. - I’m not big on “moral victories” but I think that Husker fans should see some reasons to maintain hope, despite the tough 35-30 loss to Virginia Tech last Saturday. Big game vs. Mizzou this week. I work with a bunch of Mizzou fans. Fortunately Nebraska’s dominance over MU for YEARS seems to have bought me some time during these last few years while the Huskers have been down. Maybe the people I work with are just nice. I guess that could be it.
- If you want to know the single biggest reason for the recent bank failures… click here and get reading… be sure that you don’t miss this one.
- From Mark Levin…
Also, count me among those few here who want to thank the House Republicans for taking a bold stand against what had been a stampede on a scale I have never before witnessed on matters of huge consequence. Conservatism is more than a quaint belief-system to be embraced and debated over donuts at Starbucks. It is more than a list of talking points. It is the foundation of the civil society. The liberal uses crises, real or manufactured, to expand the power of government at the expense of the individual and private property. He has spent, in earnest, 70 years evading the Constitution’s limits on governmental power. If conservatives don’t stand up to this, who will? If they don’t offer serious alternatives that address the current circumstances AND defend the founding principles, who will? The House Republicans have done both. And I, for one, thank them.
Me too Mark. Me too.
- Here’s the recently updated Periodic Table of Awesoments. It is nice to see that Bacon is in its proper spot and I see that Chuck Norris has no symbol… maybe he got tired of sharing space with it. I think Lego should be on there.
- So I see that the new Star Wars animated TV show (The Clone Wars) premieres in a couple days. I’m excited about that. I’m so glad that my boys love Star Wars because I can say that I’m into it just because “the boys… they love it.” We all went to see the recent animated movie of the same name and loved it. Great fun. The boys brought their light sabers and Zach even wore his Jedi outfit.
- Did Taiwan eat a super typhoon last Sunday? According to the video… it seems so…
- I think that 3 typhoons in 3 weeks is enough. Yes… we had one 2 weeks ago… a bigger one last weekend… and a chance of another one this weekend. Please… no.
- I like Facebook. In fact. I love it. I even love the “new” Facebook. This is the greatest networking app of all time… so far.
Friend me, OK? - I’ve gotten in touch with a bunch of friends from high school via Facebook the last few weeks. I didn’t know how I’d feel about doing so after 20 years… but it has been awesome. Almost as awesome as some of the pics posted of all of us from back in the day.
- Bethanie recently spent several days helping take care of babies at The Home of God’s Love in Luodong. Bev’s rule is that you have to be 12 to help out… so for her 12th birthday… she went and served there for almost a week before school started. She is in 7th grade now. She still dances and now plays volleyball and is in a youth group that meets at Bethany School. She also teaches English to a few of her friends and is a “big sister” to all the little girls in our building. I don’t understand how a person who got 1/2 her DNA from me can still be so awesome.
- Our church (Taiwan Christian Church Ankeng Church) just started a blog at this address. If you don’t read Chinese it is kinda pointless for you… but you *could* keep the link handy to give to any of your Taiwanese friends who might be “on island” and would like to know more about what what’s going on here.
- The idea for a blog came from another church here in Taipei that our friends (the Thompsons) are working with. That church is the Joyful New Life Christian Church and this is their blog.
- Here’s a good article about the merits (or lack thereof) of a college degree and a blog post that discusses the merits of the article itself.
- Here’s a good one about governmental regulation.
- I’m always so proud when I see my kids properly standing in lines. “How will your kids learn to stand in line?” is one of those questions that most homeschoolers get asked quite often. We never had a class session on standing in line. I guess they must have learned it from going with us to the store, to the bank, to pay bills, to ride the subway, etc. I think they are probably gifted, though.
- Our next home service is scheduled for November 2008 – March 2009. Yeah… among all the other things we already have going on… we are going to have to start getting prepared for home service. maybe we’ll start tomorrow… yeah…
- Phil and Irene Nicholson took us to this fabulous spot in the mountains… the rock is about 8 meters high.
- The best show on TV right now? Easy. Top Gear. Unless “football” is a show…
- Joshua is in 1st grade. He told us today that everything in school is too easy. He loves Lego Star Wars on the Xbox and is rejoicing over finally unlocking and buying General Grievous. He reads everything which means we now have another person to read to Mollie. He’s playing basketball on Saturday mornings and tries hard and runs around a lot. We still can’t figure out if this boy is right or left handed. We do know that he’s funny every waking moment. Proof? He now goes around singing “I’m a Barbie girl - In a Barbie world”.
- This Sunday, we are taking our church on the road again. In the past we have gone to Luodong and to the Historic Caoling Trail together. This time, we plan to visit a church in Yangmei that seems to be doing a lot of the community service ideas we dream of doing.
- I’m sure they don’t mind me sharing this… some of you know our dear Christian brother and sister, Qing-hong and Bi-ling. She runs a hair shop and has *very* painful carpal tunnel right now and desperately needs some rest. His temporary job ended today. He wants to enter the ministry and go to seminary. For the sake of the Kingdom, I feel like we need to find a way to make these things happen. For more details and how to help… contact me.
- I had shingles back in July and August. I’m not entirely sure that I’m over it. It would explain the pain in my legs… hmmmm….
- We’ve been fostering a baby for a couple weeks and will do so for another 2-3 weeks. She was born with only one kidney, which is OK as long as that one doesn’t have any problems. Ted and Bev (from the Home of God’s Love) asked if someone would be willing to keep her while they are out of the country for a few weeks and we were glad to help. She was born about 6 or 7 weeks early and is only about 6 weeks old now so she’s still *very* tiny! But she’s adorable and is a blessing to the world! Here’s Josh holding her. You can click it to view more pictures of Zi-ying.
- Interested in the LHC? You might enjoy this TED talk about it by “rock-star physicist” Brian Cox…
- Taiwan is a land of extremes – part 2. I like to ride my bike down by the river while Bethanie is at dance class on Thursday nights. These days, it is still light when I start and then shortly turns to dusk and finally… quite dark. I have observed that there are 2 kinds of people on the bike path after dark and they represent the extremes that are often found in Taiwan. One group I’ll call “ninjas” because they are wearing dark clothes with no reflective surfaces and no lighting of any kind and I generally see them just in time to avoid a collision. The other group I’ll call “former ninjas” because I’m guessing that they started as ninjas and then had a massive accident/collision because… well… because it is dark and they are wearing black (like a proper ninja) and people (normal people… NOT ninjas) are riding bikes at upwards of 30km/h and plow into the ninjas. So the plowed into ninja is converted… fully and completely to the entirely extreme opposite side which means that they have so many lights and bells on their bike handlebars that I don’t know where they even put their hands. They have lights on the axles of their bike wheels. They have led lights on the spokes. They have flashing halogen lights and brake lights. I kid you not, I have to actually either CLOSE OR OTHERWISE AVERT MY EYES when approaching the “former ninjas”. The solution is SO SIMPLE! Everyone needs 2 lights. A non-flashing white light on the front and a (flashing or non-flashing) red light on the back. The front light should be pointed at the ground 2-3 meters in front of the front wheel. This way, we all see each other and we know which way people are going and we all have a better chance to stay safe on the path. Cycling is getting to be HUGE in Taiwan.
- Speaking of cycling… I’d love to have some suggestions for music to listen to while riding. What are some good “workout” songs? Typically I listen to sermons on the way out and then some music on the way back when I’m pedaling against the wind. The last several weeks I’ve had a blast listening to Stellar Kart, Steve Fee, Downhere, TobyMac, sprinkled liberally with 80’s metal. Here’s a recent video (full of 80s goodness) by Stellar Kart…
- “All the beads just randomly fell off!” says Mollie, surrounded by 1.35 billion little perler beads that used to be on the flower template that is still in her hand. Here’s Mollie with Zi-ying.
- This game has been tormenting me lately… I keep getting up to 9x multiplier but get hit before reaching 10x.
- So the other day… we were playing Black Magic at the dinner table. If you don’t know how to play, I’m not gonna tell you but it really doesn’t matter. At one point I asked “Is it Michael Jordan” and Bethanie said, “when?” Momma and I just got puzzled looks on our faces b/c we didn’t know what difference it made if it was the UNC Michael or the Bulls pre-retirement Michael or the CWS Michael or the Bulls post-retirement Michael. Bethanie continued on… “didn’t he used to be black but change to some other color?” After about 2 seconds of silence… I realized that she *heard* Michael JORDAN but *thought* Michael JACKSON. We fell out of our chairs laughing of course.
It’s a great talk in so many ways (unless you are one to throw the baby out with the bathwater) and it will be exciting to see what is discovered when they fire that baby back up again in 2009 after encountering a problem with one of its magnets a few weeks ago shortly after they fired it up. I’m sure they aren’t going to find God in the LHC tests… but this verse seems more than a little relevant.
7 responses so far ↓
1 Rod // Oct 1, 2008 at 9:08 pm
Thanks for the random list, Scott. I watched the TED presentation by Brian Cox last week and found it very interesting.
Hope your legs recover fully soon.
2 Kimberly // Oct 1, 2008 at 10:07 pm
I like the list. I think my favorite is number 24 about your kids standing in lines. It is truly amazing that they figured out that one on their own–HA! You’re right, they must be gifted.
3 Fer Fer // Oct 2, 2008 at 9:45 am
I only have three things, well actually 4…
1. I absolutely think that successfully renewing an arc is reason to take the whole day off. You renewed two so take TWO days off! Then you can go to Chili’s AND Outback! Or just go to Chili’s twice!
2. I was just being polite not pointing out that NU sucks while my team ROCKS. Besides being an MU fan you know all too well it could come crashing at any time. But if you want me to I can call you this weekend after MU wins and sing the Mizzou fight song really obnoxiously. MIZZOU-RAH!!!
3. I’m planning on adding Toby Mac’s “Welcome to Diverse City” to my exercise playlist. Also Coldplay’s “Viva La Vida” which is my new favorite song after hearing in a million times in my car in America.
4. I’m officially back in Taiwan!! Aren’t you super excited??
4 Michael Turton // Oct 2, 2008 at 11:46 am
The Mark Levin comment is ridiculous to the point of insanity, and Greenwald savages its unlimited hypocrisy in one of his posts…here
“If it weren’t for the heroic resistance led by the small-government, Constitution-loving conservatives at National Review, Weekly Standard and right-wing talk radio — cheered on by the freedom-loving, truth-seeking investigators of the right-wing blogosphere — we’d probably be living in some sort of Lawless Surveillance State by now, complete with secret prisons, state-sanctioned torture, warrantless eavesdropping on U.S. citizens, process-less and indefinite imprisonments, a virtual abolition of Fourth Amendment guarantees, and other anti-constitutional nightmares too heinous even to contemplate. As the heroic freedom-fighter Mark Levin so memorably put it: “If conservatives don’t stand up to this, who will?”
The problem is that “conservatism” as I knew it when I was young, has become right-wing fascism and no longer mounts any resistance to the imperial presidency and its intrusions on our civil liberties, the dictatorship of the executive, and expansion of state power. The Dems in Congress being spineless, the only real resistance to the expanding power of the state is coming from progressive and liberal NGOs like the ACLU.
Michael
5 Mr. SQJ // Oct 6, 2008 at 2:46 pm
@Rod - The TED talks are awesome. I rarely catch a bad one over there.
@Kim - The other thing I’m amazed about is that my kids seem to have found a way to play with other children even though they are “socially inept” as homeshoolers. lol
@Michael - I think the link didn’t parse correctly but I searched around and think I found the one you wanted here. It is a useless article and, as usual, attacks a strawman. It is clear that Greenwald (and you) are playing on the common fallacy that “conservatives” are the same as “Republicans”. While it is definitely true that most conservatives will land in the Republican party instead of the Democratic party… a real conservative will not feel at home in either. You should know better. The Levin article gives thanks to the House Repubs because if you look at the votes… they were the heroes of the day.
Conservatism DOES still exist Michael. The part of Greenwald’s article that you post *might* at best apply to some Republicans but it would not at all apply to a conservative of any particular party.
Socialism still exists and those people fall into the political party (in the USA) that is *closest* to their positions, but it is equally wrong to label all Dems as socialists.
Personally, I wished that Levin would have thanked “conservatives” in the house instead of using the name of any political party, but his point is still appreciated.
6 Michael Turton // Oct 23, 2008 at 9:32 am
Scott, for the last 14 years, except for about 18 monhs, the Rethugs have controlled the Congress, and the last 8 the Presidency. All the assaults on civil liberties stemming from the government have come entirely from Republicans and from people who identify themselves as conservatives. The majority of “Conservatives” have supported each and every one of these insults to our national political order.
Whether or not you agree that Republicans are conservatives, the idea that liberals, who have no political power and have passed no laws nor given any executive orders, are the cause of our secret prisons, torture, criminal invasion of Iraq, etc, is laughable. As far as I know not a single major conservative or republican has called for the impeachment of Bush for the surveillance programs and all the other abuses. The silence in the conservative community is frightening.
And BTW it is LEVIN, not me, who says that conservatives are republications. Just read the quote.
Michael
7 Leslie // Oct 26, 2008 at 4:26 am
I laughed, I cried, i knitted a sweater and I think I love all of you a little more for that post. haha
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