Daniel and Patty are both working full time at the French School. I've volunteered to wash clothes and dishes, and sweep and mop the floors. Daniel is still doing the cooking, when he's here. This week he's in Korla with Lillian and her parents, waiting for Aeryn to be born, hopefully while he's there.
My other job besides housekeeping will be private English lessons, including lessons with some people Lillian was teaching before. I used to help junior high and high school students with their math in Martinique, but I have virtually no experience teaching English to younger children. I have one group ages 9 and 10, and another, older group. Next week I'll be starting with someone younger.
I've been thinking about my vision, goals and strategies, and my head was spinning. Finally I thought of something simple (for me) that I can do with all levels until I think of something better. I've downloaded some educational videos from the Internet Archive called "Learning to be Human" by the Learning Corporation of America. I'll play each video a little at a time and have the students try to understand what people are saying, and write it down. Then we'll act it out, and discuss it.
That will provide practice in listening, speaking, reading and writing, and some first steps in spiritual and moral training. It will also tie in nicely with the harmonious society that's being promoted by the Chinese government.
Tuesday, September 16, 2008
Community service and development
One project I wanted to continue after moving to China is working with children on neighborhood community service and development.
One of my strategies for learning Chinese is to read children's books in Chinese, and look up words that I don't know in a dictionary while I'm reading. One day I sat on a bench outside near our apartment and started reading. Some women came by and watched me for a while and tried to talk to me. I couldn't understand anything they were saying and they couldn't understand anything I was saying. I pointed to the preschool writing exercise book I was working on, then I pointed to me.
One woman had a toddler with her, and I tried reading to him some of the words I had learned. He started picking up leaves and stones off the ground to give to me. His mother seemed to be enjoying the show, and brought him back several times to play with me some more.
One of my strategies for learning Chinese is to read children's books in Chinese, and look up words that I don't know in a dictionary while I'm reading. One day I sat on a bench outside near our apartment and started reading. Some women came by and watched me for a while and tried to talk to me. I couldn't understand anything they were saying and they couldn't understand anything I was saying. I pointed to the preschool writing exercise book I was working on, then I pointed to me.
One woman had a toddler with her, and I tried reading to him some of the words I had learned. He started picking up leaves and stones off the ground to give to me. His mother seemed to be enjoying the show, and brought him back several times to play with me some more.
Monday, September 15, 2008
Learning Chinese
One of my strategies for learning Chinese is to read Tintin and children's books in Chinese, and look up the words that I don't know, while I'm reading. That's a lot harder than you might think. It isn't like using a French-English where you can find the word in alphabetical order. A Chinese-English dictionary is in alphabetical order of the Pinyin form of the Chinese, which you can only guess if you already know how the word is pronounced. Chinese writing is composed of pictorial characters like Egyptian hieroglyphics. Each character is a syllable, and you can't guess how it's pronounced from the way it looks.
For example, one character is a box with a line going down through the middle. The Pinyin form is "zhong" which sounds almost like "jong," only you curl your tongue way back for the "jong" instead of putting the tip just above your teeth. Now if I didn't know that already, I would not be able to guess that the Pinyin for a box with a line going down through the middle is "zhong," and I wouldn't know where to look in the Chinese section of the dictionary to find it.
Chinese-English dictionaries have stroke indexes, where you can find a character by its shape, with the Pinyin form next to it. Then you can look it up in the main part of the dictionary. I was just starting to learn that when someone offered me an electronic dictionary. Unfortunately electronic dictionaries don't use the same stroke index system that the paper dictionary uses. There's a graphical input method for traditional Chinese, one for simplified Chinese, and another one that works for both.
One system is called Wubi, abbreviated "WB," one is called "Cangjie," abbreviated "CJ," and the other is called "CKC," abbreviated "ZH." Darned if I know why!
For example, one character is a box with a line going down through the middle. The Pinyin form is "zhong" which sounds almost like "jong," only you curl your tongue way back for the "jong" instead of putting the tip just above your teeth. Now if I didn't know that already, I would not be able to guess that the Pinyin for a box with a line going down through the middle is "zhong," and I wouldn't know where to look in the Chinese section of the dictionary to find it.
Chinese-English dictionaries have stroke indexes, where you can find a character by its shape, with the Pinyin form next to it. Then you can look it up in the main part of the dictionary. I was just starting to learn that when someone offered me an electronic dictionary. Unfortunately electronic dictionaries don't use the same stroke index system that the paper dictionary uses. There's a graphical input method for traditional Chinese, one for simplified Chinese, and another one that works for both.
One system is called Wubi, abbreviated "WB," one is called "Cangjie," abbreviated "CJ," and the other is called "CKC," abbreviated "ZH." Darned if I know why!
Finding our way in Shanghai
Contents:
1. Daniel and us and Shanghai.
2. My scouting expeditions.
3. The Day Patty and I Did Shanghai by Ourselves Without Daniel and We Had to Walk a Mile Out of Our Way in the Pouring Windy Rain.
1. Daniel spent many exhausting hours with us, going places he never goes, doing things he never does, going out on limbs that kept breaking off, to help us learn to go where we want to go and do what we want to do.
2. While Patty was at work, I practiced going some places where we might go together. Imagine trying to get on the right bus or metro line, and find out how much to pay, and get off at the right stop, and find the stores you're looking for, and buy stuff, without being able to understand what anyone says or read any of the signs!
3. Last Friday Daniel left to spend a week in Korla where Lillian is. She stayed there when Daniel and Patty and I came to Shanghai. Aeryn might be born this week, a week ahead of schedule. We're hoping and praying she comes while Daniel is still in Korla.
Saturday Patty and I went to Qibao Ancient City to buy a craft kit she saw there Friday. Then we ate lunch at McDonald's. That was pretty easy because I've had a lot of practice going to Qibao. It's just a five minute bus ride, after we take the shuttle that goes back and forth through the Olympic Garden apartments where we live, west of Shanghai.
Then we took metro line 9 in to Shanghai. Line 9 is a new line that hasn't connected yet with the other lines. It currently ends a mile or two from the nearest of the other lines. There's a bus that goes back and forth between the two lines, but for various reasons we decided to walk. We found a huge book store on the way, and decided to look for a phrase book and a book on the Wubi input method to help me use my Chinese <-> English electronic dictionary.
I knew enough about the electronic dictionary to look up "phrase book" in English and show someone the Chinese translation. He went away for a minute and came back with a book of idioms. I was wishing I had a phrase book. I said "Hello . . . Nihao" and "Goodbye . . . Zaijian," waving my arms back and forth. Then he understood, and took me to a section where I found the phrase book I was looking for.
About halfway to the other metro station, rain started pouring down and blowing all over the place. We ducked into a convenience store and bought a snack and a drink. After a while it let up a little and we went on. A block away from the metro station the road was closed for construction of guess what - the new metro line. We had to go about a mile out of our way on some side streets, in the wind and rain, to get to the station.
The rest was easy compared to that, although we did have a little bit of a scare when we couldn't agree on where to catch the bus back to Olympic Garden after we went to Carrefour. If we missed that bus we would have had to pay maybe 60 Yuan ($9) for a taxi. We finally did find the bus, though.
1. Daniel and us and Shanghai.
2. My scouting expeditions.
3. The Day Patty and I Did Shanghai by Ourselves Without Daniel and We Had to Walk a Mile Out of Our Way in the Pouring Windy Rain.
1. Daniel spent many exhausting hours with us, going places he never goes, doing things he never does, going out on limbs that kept breaking off, to help us learn to go where we want to go and do what we want to do.
2. While Patty was at work, I practiced going some places where we might go together. Imagine trying to get on the right bus or metro line, and find out how much to pay, and get off at the right stop, and find the stores you're looking for, and buy stuff, without being able to understand what anyone says or read any of the signs!
3. Last Friday Daniel left to spend a week in Korla where Lillian is. She stayed there when Daniel and Patty and I came to Shanghai. Aeryn might be born this week, a week ahead of schedule. We're hoping and praying she comes while Daniel is still in Korla.
Saturday Patty and I went to Qibao Ancient City to buy a craft kit she saw there Friday. Then we ate lunch at McDonald's. That was pretty easy because I've had a lot of practice going to Qibao. It's just a five minute bus ride, after we take the shuttle that goes back and forth through the Olympic Garden apartments where we live, west of Shanghai.
Then we took metro line 9 in to Shanghai. Line 9 is a new line that hasn't connected yet with the other lines. It currently ends a mile or two from the nearest of the other lines. There's a bus that goes back and forth between the two lines, but for various reasons we decided to walk. We found a huge book store on the way, and decided to look for a phrase book and a book on the Wubi input method to help me use my Chinese <-> English electronic dictionary.
I knew enough about the electronic dictionary to look up "phrase book" in English and show someone the Chinese translation. He went away for a minute and came back with a book of idioms. I was wishing I had a phrase book. I said "Hello . . . Nihao" and "Goodbye . . . Zaijian," waving my arms back and forth. Then he understood, and took me to a section where I found the phrase book I was looking for.
About halfway to the other metro station, rain started pouring down and blowing all over the place. We ducked into a convenience store and bought a snack and a drink. After a while it let up a little and we went on. A block away from the metro station the road was closed for construction of guess what - the new metro line. We had to go about a mile out of our way on some side streets, in the wind and rain, to get to the station.
The rest was easy compared to that, although we did have a little bit of a scare when we couldn't agree on where to catch the bus back to Olympic Garden after we went to Carrefour. If we missed that bus we would have had to pay maybe 60 Yuan ($9) for a taxi. We finally did find the bus, though.
Friday, August 29, 2008
Wednesday, August 27, 2008
So here we are in Shanghai. We arrived four days ago, after spending a few weeks in the west of China with danio and Lillian and her parents.
I would like our experiences in China to help reduce stereotypes and prejudices about China, in the US and the rest of the world. I'd like to use my blogs for that purpose, but I'm not sure how to go about it. Part of it might be talking about our daily life here, but I'm not good at that. I'll try.
I'll start by talking about our life in Korla, in the west of China. In each post I'll just talk about one or two of our experiences there.
Patty had both knees replaced in May, and she's still using a cane to walk. The city buses in Korla don't have machines for the bus fares. There's a person on each bus who collects the money from people after they get on. Almost every time we rode the bus, either someone spontaneously got up and gave Patty a seat, or the person who took the money asked someone to give her a seat. Often someone offered me a seat too.
Another thing I'd like to mention about China is the theme and the mascots for the 2008 Olympics. The theme was "One World, One Dream." We've seen it posted everywhere. We saw it when we came to China in December. There are also five cartoon mascots, one for each of the Olympic rings:
- Beibei, a blue Fish
- Jingjing, a black Panda
- Huanhuan, the Olympic Flame
- Yingying, a yellow Tibetan Antelope
- Nini, a green Swallow
Together, the names spell "Bei Jing Huan Ying Ni," which means "Beijing Welcomes You."
For more information see The Official Mascots of the Beijing 2008 Olympic Games.
I'd also like to mention China's efforts to help stop the spread of the deserts. More about that later.
Next: Inventing our own sign language at the post office.
I would like our experiences in China to help reduce stereotypes and prejudices about China, in the US and the rest of the world. I'd like to use my blogs for that purpose, but I'm not sure how to go about it. Part of it might be talking about our daily life here, but I'm not good at that. I'll try.
I'll start by talking about our life in Korla, in the west of China. In each post I'll just talk about one or two of our experiences there.
Patty had both knees replaced in May, and she's still using a cane to walk. The city buses in Korla don't have machines for the bus fares. There's a person on each bus who collects the money from people after they get on. Almost every time we rode the bus, either someone spontaneously got up and gave Patty a seat, or the person who took the money asked someone to give her a seat. Often someone offered me a seat too.
Another thing I'd like to mention about China is the theme and the mascots for the 2008 Olympics. The theme was "One World, One Dream." We've seen it posted everywhere. We saw it when we came to China in December. There are also five cartoon mascots, one for each of the Olympic rings:
- Beibei, a blue Fish
- Jingjing, a black Panda
- Huanhuan, the Olympic Flame
- Yingying, a yellow Tibetan Antelope
- Nini, a green Swallow
Together, the names spell "Bei Jing Huan Ying Ni," which means "Beijing Welcomes You."
For more information see The Official Mascots of the Beijing 2008 Olympic Games.
I'd also like to mention China's efforts to help stop the spread of the deserts. More about that later.
Next: Inventing our own sign language at the post office.
Tuesday, July 29, 2008
A funny thing happened on the way to China
----
Contents:
1. How we almost didn't get visas in time.
2. How we got visas in time.
3. Why we left at 4 or 5 o'clock in the morning, drove for an hour, slept two hours in a Motel, and drove four more hours.
4. How we didn't get into Canada on the first try.
5. Why we were driving to Canada, in our own car.
5. How we took two more days to get to Quebec City.
6. Why we drove all night, and took six hours to drive 180 miles.
----
1. How we almost didn't get visas in time.
- The French School of Shanghai applied for a work license for Patty's work visa in time to have it before her first day of work August 26, but not before our planned trip to spend a few weeks with Lillian and danio and Lillian's parents in China before then.
- The round trip tickets that we bought, before we knew how long it would take to get the work visa, have us returning in December, four months after our arrival in China. For a single entry visa we would have to change the dates to some time in August, and there were no seats available. We would have to apply for a double entry tourist visa. My phone call to the Embassy was not encouraging, and I did not see the encouraging response to my email until three days before our planned departure for Quebec.
2. How we got visas in time.
Thursday, July 10, two days before our planned departure: I drove 110 miles to the Embassy and applied for a double entry visa. The person who took the application said that they would have to do some checking, and the visa could not be ready the same day even if I paid the fee for same day service. On the way back home, I got a call from the Embassy saying I could pick up the visas, but it was to late to get back there before it closed. I drove back to the Embassy the next day, Friday, and got the visas.
3. Why we left at 3:30 in the morning, drove for an hour, slept two or three hours in a Motel, and drove four more hours.
Because of my two trips to the Embassy, most of the packing I had planned on doing Thursday and Friday had to be done Friday evening and into the wee hours of the morning. The apartment was stripped, and we had planned to drive an hour or two Friday before stopping at a motel. Even though we were up all night and didn't leave until after 3:00, we decided to do that anyway. I had to drive slowly and take breaks. By the time we got settled into the motel we only had two or three hours left to sleep before checkout time. After that, I wanted to travel at least a few hours before stopping at another motel.
4. How we didn't get into Canada on the first try.
We thought we would drive our car to Canada, and if we couldn't sell it or give it away there, I would drive it back to New York, sell it, and take a bus back to Canada. Monday, July 13, at the border to Canada, we found out there was no legal way I could sell it in Canada, and if I gave it to anyone, the taxes and duties would cost her way more than the car was worth. Even though I said I would drive it back to New York to sell it, we were turned back because the customs official had no assurance that I wouldn't leave it in Canada.
5. Why we were driving to Canada, in our own car.
We were going to Quebec city to spend two weeks with Charlotte before flying to China. We were driving because we had way too much stuff to bring on a bus or a plane, with all the stuff we were bringing for Charlotte and her children, and all the stuff we were bringing for Lillian and danio and their baby-on-the-way and Lillian's family. We were driving our own car because Hertz, Avis and Budget all said they had no one-way cars available for the dates of our trip, and we thought we could sell it or give it away in Canada.
5. How it took two more days to get to Quebec City.
After we were turned back from Canada, we drove back to the nearest city to look for a motel. There were no rooms available because of the Fishing Tournament, the Iron Man Competition and the Mayor's Cup. We had to drive 80 miles farther south to find a room. In the morning we had to drive 80 more miles south, to Albany, to rent a one-way car to Quebec City. Then we parked the rental car next to our car, transferred all our stuff to the rental car, found someone to buy our car, and took a taxi back to the rental car.
6. Why we drove all night, and took six hours to drive 180 miles.
We got into Canada late Tuesday night. We were already two days later than we had planned, and Charlotte was climbing the walls. We decided to just keep on driving, but I had to drive very slowly, and I had to stop several times to take a break and drink some coffee.
Next: On to China!
----
Contents:
1. How we almost didn't get visas in time.
2. How we got visas in time.
3. Why we left at 4 or 5 o'clock in the morning, drove for an hour, slept two hours in a Motel, and drove four more hours.
4. How we didn't get into Canada on the first try.
5. Why we were driving to Canada, in our own car.
5. How we took two more days to get to Quebec City.
6. Why we drove all night, and took six hours to drive 180 miles.
----
1. How we almost didn't get visas in time.
- The French School of Shanghai applied for a work license for Patty's work visa in time to have it before her first day of work August 26, but not before our planned trip to spend a few weeks with Lillian and danio and Lillian's parents in China before then.
- The round trip tickets that we bought, before we knew how long it would take to get the work visa, have us returning in December, four months after our arrival in China. For a single entry visa we would have to change the dates to some time in August, and there were no seats available. We would have to apply for a double entry tourist visa. My phone call to the Embassy was not encouraging, and I did not see the encouraging response to my email until three days before our planned departure for Quebec.
2. How we got visas in time.
Thursday, July 10, two days before our planned departure: I drove 110 miles to the Embassy and applied for a double entry visa. The person who took the application said that they would have to do some checking, and the visa could not be ready the same day even if I paid the fee for same day service. On the way back home, I got a call from the Embassy saying I could pick up the visas, but it was to late to get back there before it closed. I drove back to the Embassy the next day, Friday, and got the visas.
3. Why we left at 3:30 in the morning, drove for an hour, slept two or three hours in a Motel, and drove four more hours.
Because of my two trips to the Embassy, most of the packing I had planned on doing Thursday and Friday had to be done Friday evening and into the wee hours of the morning. The apartment was stripped, and we had planned to drive an hour or two Friday before stopping at a motel. Even though we were up all night and didn't leave until after 3:00, we decided to do that anyway. I had to drive slowly and take breaks. By the time we got settled into the motel we only had two or three hours left to sleep before checkout time. After that, I wanted to travel at least a few hours before stopping at another motel.
4. How we didn't get into Canada on the first try.
We thought we would drive our car to Canada, and if we couldn't sell it or give it away there, I would drive it back to New York, sell it, and take a bus back to Canada. Monday, July 13, at the border to Canada, we found out there was no legal way I could sell it in Canada, and if I gave it to anyone, the taxes and duties would cost her way more than the car was worth. Even though I said I would drive it back to New York to sell it, we were turned back because the customs official had no assurance that I wouldn't leave it in Canada.
5. Why we were driving to Canada, in our own car.
We were going to Quebec city to spend two weeks with Charlotte before flying to China. We were driving because we had way too much stuff to bring on a bus or a plane, with all the stuff we were bringing for Charlotte and her children, and all the stuff we were bringing for Lillian and danio and their baby-on-the-way and Lillian's family. We were driving our own car because Hertz, Avis and Budget all said they had no one-way cars available for the dates of our trip, and we thought we could sell it or give it away in Canada.
5. How it took two more days to get to Quebec City.
After we were turned back from Canada, we drove back to the nearest city to look for a motel. There were no rooms available because of the Fishing Tournament, the Iron Man Competition and the Mayor's Cup. We had to drive 80 miles farther south to find a room. In the morning we had to drive 80 more miles south, to Albany, to rent a one-way car to Quebec City. Then we parked the rental car next to our car, transferred all our stuff to the rental car, found someone to buy our car, and took a taxi back to the rental car.
6. Why we drove all night, and took six hours to drive 180 miles.
We got into Canada late Tuesday night. We were already two days later than we had planned, and Charlotte was climbing the walls. We decided to just keep on driving, but I had to drive very slowly, and I had to stop several times to take a break and drink some coffee.
Next: On to China!
Friday, May 23, 2008
I've been working on a list of things to remember, for moving to China.
1. Stop utilities.
2. Address change.
3. Forwarding.
4. Plan trip to Fort Wayne.
5. Shipping and storage estimates.
6. Study materials about China.
7. Records and archives.
8. Stuff to sell and give away.
9. Accounts.
10. Realtor.
11. Luggage limits.
12. Plane reservations.
13. Car title for transfer.
14. Finish setting up Patty's laptop.
15. Buy my laptop.
16. Plan trip to Quebec.
17. Visa.
1. Stop utilities.
2. Address change.
3. Forwarding.
4. Plan trip to Fort Wayne.
5. Shipping and storage estimates.
6. Study materials about China.
7. Records and archives.
8. Stuff to sell and give away.
9. Accounts.
10. Realtor.
11. Luggage limits.
12. Plane reservations.
13. Car title for transfer.
14. Finish setting up Patty's laptop.
15. Buy my laptop.
16. Plan trip to Quebec.
17. Visa.
Patty had both knees replaced May 6, and I was practically living at the hospital the next four days. There was even a bed for me in her room! Then she went to rehab for a week and I spent all my evenings there after work. Then she came home, and since then I've been working half days and spending most of my time at home taking care of her and helping her with rehab exercises. Besides that I've been setting up her new laptop, and we've started getting ready to move to China in July.
Wednesday, April 16, 2008
Saturday, March 22, 2008
Some time in the last two or three years I learned that I'm a performance artist. I use my own life as a medium for my art.
I just learned I'm not the only one who calls it art!
PERFORMING LIFE: THE WORK OF TEHCHING HSIEH
http://www.one-year-performance.com/intro.html
"Hsieh is an artist whose medium of expression is not words or sounds or paint, but his own life."
At last! I know who I am! Yay!
I try to shape my life to express what I see envisioned in the writings of Baha'u'llah. My works are small, infrequent, feeble, primitive, unpopular, not very appealing, and seen by very few. Still, it is art, from my heart, and maybe it will make Him smile.
"Then He smiled at me, pa rum-pa-pum pum
Me and my drum."
That hope is what I live for.
Jim
My life is my drum
I just learned I'm not the only one who calls it art!
PERFORMING LIFE: THE WORK OF TEHCHING HSIEH
http://www.one-year-performance.com/intro.html
"Hsieh is an artist whose medium of expression is not words or sounds or paint, but his own life."
At last! I know who I am! Yay!
I try to shape my life to express what I see envisioned in the writings of Baha'u'llah. My works are small, infrequent, feeble, primitive, unpopular, not very appealing, and seen by very few. Still, it is art, from my heart, and maybe it will make Him smile.
"Then He smiled at me, pa rum-pa-pum pum
Me and my drum."
That hope is what I live for.
Jim
My life is my drum
Monday, March 10, 2008
Saturday, October 06, 2007
I'm experimenting with some ideas for a Web calendar for the Richmond Cluster. Here are some calendar hosting Web sites I'm looking at:
http://www.google.com/calendar/
http://www.30boxes.com/
http://www.eventful.com/
http://www.airset.com/
http://www.socialweb.net/
http://www.calendarhome.com/
http://calendarhub.com/
http://www.calendars.net/
http://www.famundo.com/
http://www.hipcal.com/
http://upcoming.yahoo.com/
http://www.kiko.com/
http://www.localendar.com/
http://www.meetwithapproval.com/
http://www.myhomepoint.com/
http://mosuki.com/
http://www.google.com/calendar/
http://www.30boxes.com/
http://www.eventful.com/
http://www.airset.com/
http://www.socialweb.net/
http://www.calendarhome.com/
http://calendarhub.com/
http://www.calendars.net/
http://www.famundo.com/
http://www.hipcal.com/
http://upcoming.yahoo.com/
http://www.kiko.com/
http://www.localendar.com/
http://www.meetwithapproval.com/
http://www.myhomepoint.com/
http://mosuki.com/
Thursday, June 28, 2007
Wednesday, November 22, 2006
This is for anyone who might be curious about what I've been doing with my time for the last few months.
Some of it has been driving Patty (my wife) to and from her Master's degree classes. She's working on a Master of Education with emphasis on emotional disturbance. I also put together booklets for the Kindergarten class she's teaching, that she gets from the Internet and from materials at the school. I posted earlier about the work I've been doing on the computers.
Some of my time has been spent in an Internet discussion, posting ideas from some research I'm doing on the gospel of Jesus. Jesus calls His gospel the "gospel of the Kingdom." I've noticed in previous research that what He says and does in the gospels is full of implicit references to Old Testament writings. I'm going through the gospel of Matthew, trying to take a fresh look, using the Ocean Software Library to search for Old Testament writings that might be relevant, with two questions in mind:
1. What kingdom is He talking about?
2. What good news is He bringing about that kingdom?
Some of my time has been spent working with a friend of ours from France whose been staying with us. We've been working on some problems he's been having with his computer, and on some of his projects.
Some of my time has been spent on some work I've been doing for my Baha'i Local Spiritual Assembly.
Some of my time is spent enjoying life with Patty.
Some of it has been driving Patty (my wife) to and from her Master's degree classes. She's working on a Master of Education with emphasis on emotional disturbance. I also put together booklets for the Kindergarten class she's teaching, that she gets from the Internet and from materials at the school. I posted earlier about the work I've been doing on the computers.
Some of my time has been spent in an Internet discussion, posting ideas from some research I'm doing on the gospel of Jesus. Jesus calls His gospel the "gospel of the Kingdom." I've noticed in previous research that what He says and does in the gospels is full of implicit references to Old Testament writings. I'm going through the gospel of Matthew, trying to take a fresh look, using the Ocean Software Library to search for Old Testament writings that might be relevant, with two questions in mind:
1. What kingdom is He talking about?
2. What good news is He bringing about that kingdom?
Some of my time has been spent working with a friend of ours from France whose been staying with us. We've been working on some problems he's been having with his computer, and on some of his projects.
Some of my time has been spent on some work I've been doing for my Baha'i Local Spiritual Assembly.
Some of my time is spent enjoying life with Patty.
Sunday, November 12, 2006
Quest for a humane egg
A friend of mine has been trying to practice a humane diet. She says that giving up eggs is especially hard. I thought maybe it was possible to find places to buy eggs that are only from chickens that are treated properly. When I bought eggs this morning, I noticed that some are labeled "Free Roaming." I bought some, just to help me get into the right spirit, not that I trusted the label or had any idea what it might mean.
After I got home, I did some research and found some examples of what it might mean:
My Quest for a Humane Egg
by David Sudarsky
http://www.thevegetariansite.com/ed_eggs.htm
Maybe I can find a some people who raise chickens, who take good care of them, and who will sell me some of their eggs.
A friend of mine has been trying to practice a humane diet. She says that giving up eggs is especially hard. I thought maybe it was possible to find places to buy eggs that are only from chickens that are treated properly. When I bought eggs this morning, I noticed that some are labeled "Free Roaming." I bought some, just to help me get into the right spirit, not that I trusted the label or had any idea what it might mean.
After I got home, I did some research and found some examples of what it might mean:
My Quest for a Humane Egg
by David Sudarsky
http://www.thevegetariansite.com/ed_eggs.htm
Maybe I can find a some people who raise chickens, who take good care of them, and who will sell me some of their eggs.
Saturday, November 11, 2006
The last two months I've been having a lot of adventures on computers. Some of them are related to working on the old Power Macs in Patty's Kindergarten class, and some of them are related to helping Charlotte with the Gentoo system on her computer.
Power Macs
Two or three years ago Patty salvaged some Power Macs that other teachers were getting rid of, for her Kindergarten students to use. She found some educational games for them on CDs, and her students use them a lot. This year she wanted them to be able to use them to go to the Compass Learning Odyssey Web site, and to be able to print on the printer connected to her PC. The teachers all have new PCs this year. The iMacs they used last year are for the students to use now.
She has four Power Macs: three are 6250/100 and one is 6250/100 (see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Power_Macintosh_5200_LC ).
There were three of them that could go on the Internet, but they kept crashing. Also, the students keep moving system files and changing their names.
I was completely lost in Mac operating systems, and I needed more time to practice and experiment. I found out I could emulate a Mac in Windows on my computer at home, so I did. I Installed the same Mac OS that's on the computers at the school, on my virtual Mac at home, and spent dozens of hours studying and practicing so I could fix the systems at the school, and set them up to do what Patty wanted them to do. Now I'm a Mac wizard. Then I found out that it's impossible to use the Compass Learning Web site on those computers at all.
Gentoo
Charlotte has Gentoo on her computer at home because that's what's on the computers at the lab where she's been working. She was having some troubles with it, so I installed it on my second hard drive to practice using it so I could help her. Fortunately I encountered exactly the same problem she was having starting the desktop, and I found a solution. Of course that was after dozens of hours of study and practice.
Other adventures
While I was working about those projects, I learned a lot about emulators, programs that create a virtual computer and operating system on some other computer and operating system. Now I have a virtual Mac running System 7 in Windows XP on my PC, and a virtual PC running Debian Gnu/Linux, and Debian running in coLinux. I'm on my way to becoming a Debian wizard now.
Power Macs
Two or three years ago Patty salvaged some Power Macs that other teachers were getting rid of, for her Kindergarten students to use. She found some educational games for them on CDs, and her students use them a lot. This year she wanted them to be able to use them to go to the Compass Learning Odyssey Web site, and to be able to print on the printer connected to her PC. The teachers all have new PCs this year. The iMacs they used last year are for the students to use now.
She has four Power Macs: three are 6250/100 and one is 6250/100 (see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Power_Macintosh_5200_LC ).
There were three of them that could go on the Internet, but they kept crashing. Also, the students keep moving system files and changing their names.
I was completely lost in Mac operating systems, and I needed more time to practice and experiment. I found out I could emulate a Mac in Windows on my computer at home, so I did. I Installed the same Mac OS that's on the computers at the school, on my virtual Mac at home, and spent dozens of hours studying and practicing so I could fix the systems at the school, and set them up to do what Patty wanted them to do. Now I'm a Mac wizard. Then I found out that it's impossible to use the Compass Learning Web site on those computers at all.
Gentoo
Charlotte has Gentoo on her computer at home because that's what's on the computers at the lab where she's been working. She was having some troubles with it, so I installed it on my second hard drive to practice using it so I could help her. Fortunately I encountered exactly the same problem she was having starting the desktop, and I found a solution. Of course that was after dozens of hours of study and practice.
Other adventures
While I was working about those projects, I learned a lot about emulators, programs that create a virtual computer and operating system on some other computer and operating system. Now I have a virtual Mac running System 7 in Windows XP on my PC, and a virtual PC running Debian Gnu/Linux, and Debian running in coLinux. I'm on my way to becoming a Debian wizard now.
Saturday, June 10, 2006
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