June 2009
3 posts
Uh oh... it's happening!!!!
Okay, I kind of want to really start blogging now, but I am afraid it will devolve into photos after photos after photos. That is generally all right I guess. Except with this tumblr device. It is not so easy as I want it to be. However, I also want comments. I am ready to enter the community again.A new chapter in life has started, and, as is almost always the case when this happens, I have...
I spent the morning tracking down some particularly tricky ingredients to find. Superstore has a lot of things, really, it has an amazing selection of food products, but it does not have everything. My quarry today: fenugreek, fresh curry leaves, coconut and/or sesame oil, and asafoetida. Most of those seem like I could find them other places than a specialty store, but even you must surely agree...
Dandelions
Winnipeg is warming up considerably. Everything seemed to happen in one day (May 23). The cold disappeared, the sun came out from its safe haven among the clouds and the grass turned green. The days are extremely long; the sun does not set until almost ten and rises early. Suddenly, people are outside everywhere. And summer is indeed a busy though short season here. I think all of our weekends for...
May 2009
10 posts
Certificates and
Woohoo! We received our marriage certificate in the mail yesterday. So now we’re officially hitched. At least in Manitoba anyway…
mewithoutYou released an album yesterday. I was a bit put off when I heard the samples of it last week, worried that they had morphed into another one of those bands (although the formula I was afraid they had followed is also one I like). I didn’t want them to lose themselves in making music that sounds like everyone else. And they did not disappoint. Very good. In fact, I would toy with...
Victoria Day
Today’s a real Canadian holiday. Pretty sweet.
I have some VERY exciting news which I will post here on Wednesday or Thursday (I hope). Yes. We have some exciting news.
I wonder what it could be…
Another glimpse.
In my hallway, there are many doors. One must be careful and choose the right one. Seven doors there are and not all are helpful, five solid and white, one white with a window, the other, the one leading out of this place, mostly glass. It’s covered in a blanket.
And from the other direction…
That last one… That’s the bathroom. Don’t look behind the curtain!
All right. I give in.
This thing is about to be blasted. Next week. That is, I will begin to write and most likely write prolifically on this, simply because I gots the time. If there is one thing I have, it’s the time. And a camera. However, I may, I just may move to a different blog. New chapter in life, new website, yes?
Here are a few pictures in convenient size. More exact ones to follow.
Here is our...
April 2009
1 post
6 days to the wedding. 6 days.
6 days.
Don’t call me on my cell phone. I don’t have it anymore.
6 days. 6 days.
Tomorrow will be 5 days.
March 2009
2 posts
Hey, remember me? I might start blogging next week… when I am no longer working and when I am living in Canada.
Otherwise, I recommend this article from NPR: The Magic of Letters
It’s the kind of thing I am interested in…
40 days and 40 nights…
Is it always used in the context of waiting? It certainly is here.
February 2009
1 post
Open House
All right. I am going to post this announcement in a very obscure place, this disused (or misused) blog.
Kara and I are having an engagement celebration open house on Saturday February 21 from 2-5 p.m. It will be held at the Village Church of Bartlett (601 W. Bartlett Rd., Bartlett, IL). All are invited. If you read this blog, and I know there are a few who might, you are definitely invited...
January 2009
4 posts
Corn Wine
The farmers have been taking their corn out of our silos for the last several days. The trucks pull up and the corn spits out of the chute and fill up the trailers while men wearing face masks look on. Red dust, bits from the cob, flutter through the air, a false blizzard. They speckle the snow red, leaving a macabre picture, as if some horrific slaughter has taken place, the blood splattering...
Goodbye Number 6.
Reaching the Last Languages →
Wycliffe promo video…
December 2008
3 posts
Why do I try to review?
Against my expectations, this new TV on the Radio album Dear Science is really, really good. I bought Return to Cookie Mountain on hype and enjoyed it, at least I thought I did until I realized that I only really liked it because it was so acclaimed and perhaps I was supposed to (Okay… it’s not all bad… there are parts that I like quite a lot actually…). This one...
Blagojevich's Descent
Uh oh. They finally got Blago. But maybe not for long… Here’s a good quote:
“I don’t believe there’s any cloud that hangs over me. I think there’s nothing but sunshine hanging over me,” the governor said. (via Chicago Tribune)
He’s an optimist!
November 2008
4 posts
Part of a conversation in my class this morning.
5th Grader: No offense, Mr. Jeremy, you seem kind of cool, but studying languages for a job is pretty lame.
Me: Why is that?
5th Grader: You don't get any free stuff.
Metaform.
Words are representations, not reality. When I say “cat” or even when I write “cat,” the thing I say is not actually a furry, cuddly feline. It is a word. It is a metaphor.
So that’s fairly easy to comprehend. Language is entirely metaphor. Nothing we say is what we say. The metaphors conjure up images and meanings in our minds. Our words might influence reality,...
Did not your father eat and drink and do justice and righteousness?
Then it was well with him.
He judged the cause of the poor and needy;
then it was well.
Is not this to know me?
declares the LORD.
—Jeremiah 22:15b-16
Boastfulness
Some things I am now currently reading or have just finished reading:
The Blue Parakeet by Scot McKnight Tell It Slant by Eugene Peterson Living Proof by Jim Petersen My Name is Asher Lev by Chaim Potok Making Money by Terry Pratchett The Jesus Way by Eugene Peterson
Too many books at once! Too many authors whose last names start with P! I just finished the parakeet business and the Pratchett...
October 2008
3 posts
Winding path to the lake
Shadows cast upon the wall move through each other without trouble. Their forms merge, turning that which is known into that which is not, fantastical creatures borne out of the mundane. Silhouettes dance for the enjoyment of us all.
Words. Words do the same thing; language creates. It is a gift from above. The key… the key is figuring out what the right order is supposed to be. The order...
Hasten, Autumn
I dreamt last night that my whole life fell apart, that everything I was reaching for, everything that I had already attained, was taken from me in one swift stroke on one particularly dismal day. I dreamt this, and in my dream, I was vividly and lividly upset, bitter, angry. When I woke, this was cause for instant self-evaluation.
What are my goals? I think I am following God’s will for...
Why am I still writing
It’s hard to think when so much is going on. It’s hard to think when so little is going on. Both statements are true. Both are true for me personally at this very moment. So much is going on in the way of recovery and life changes. So little is going on in the way of actual day-to-day events. I sit and languish here in the house I suppose. I long for the return of my mind, gone on a...
September 2008
5 posts
Surgeries and more
The temperature is cooling off. Grey clouds and cold winds threaten the end of a summer of change for me, threaten to push me off into the great unknown of the future.
I started dating again this summer and I will probably never date again after this lovely woman. How the relationship will look, how it will continue to grow over the next few months and where it will take us or me or her is a...
I am going home in a couple of days. I am going to sit down on my couch. I am going to have my laptop and a big mug of tea and I am going to write something.
So there.
“Busyness is saying that our lives have meaning because of what we do —...”
– From a handout I was given in Florida apparently adapted from a letter of challenge from an InterVarsity staff pastor
Update
I might come back to this soon. Do not fear. I just need life to calm down a bit, for the chaos to reorganize. Then, words shall flow out of my mind and fingers. Know this to be true.
August 2008
6 posts
A big old church... well, actually it's brand new.
So this giant structure and the people who go to it have forced me to change my route to the building I go to on Sunday.
(picture via http://www.brettdunnam.com/)
Four squad cars and hundreds of cones litter North Avenue on Sunday mornings, closing a lane, slowing traffic, and basically being bothersome. As the cars go out, they cut across all the open lanes immediately to make a U-turn.
...
The summer ends, and I didn’t really blog, but I had good reason, and that’s okay, and that’s that.
There’s a lot I want to say. A lot I should say even. More and more and more. But I have a better idea of how to spend my time.
Ronald Chevalier →
Wow. I spent a while on this one, just basking, just laughing. The audio excerpt is especially good.
It probably helped that I decided to immerse myself in science fiction short stories this summer… it makes the satire especially poignant.
Executive Koala
FINALLY! I have seriously been waiting for years… and now it’s happening.
July 2008
15 posts
Bam
So here’s a question. If I write within the framework of realism (think back to your literature courses in high school, please), then am I positing that human consciousness is the origin of meaning, knowledge, and action? That is, is the realist representation of chronological time, three-dimensional space, and personal identity truly an empiricist epistemology for an individual (the one...
Not what you want to hear (here)
I returned last night from an invigorating trip to Hecla Island, deep into Manitoba. I will not write about that here.
Sentence: The Lord is my Shepherd. Suggested translation (not by me): The Lord cares for me and guides me. Problem: This example was brought up today in class. The subject of the day was translating concepts into languages/cultures that do not have these concepts. The overriding...
I am still alive.
Things somewhat cynical I wrote during one of my lectures today, inspired by the experience:
1.
Gently rocking, gently swaying, the little boat hit the doldrums. There was no escape. There was no progress. There was only the flat expanse of water stretching off in every direction and the passing of day and night. Eventually, the small crew finished off all of their rations and drank all of their...
Stony silence
Blogging may become a little sparse for a little while. I have lots to do personally and academically for the next few weeks.
This is WAAAY out of context
“A work of art is not a shirt with removable sleeves.”
-Rudolf Arnheim
Still desperately trying to catch up. Meanwhile...
“Moments of untranslatability … are times for celebration, for not only are they privileged encounters with the foreign, but they are also opportunities for translators to ply the highest skills of their craft. They are moments crying for abuse.”
-Abe Mark Nornes (second emphasis mine)
All right all right all right all right. I’ll do it.