Birding at Biola

Hey everybody, I just got back from a little lunch time meander through the olive grove. This was a pre-planned excursion with the goal of identifying a species that I thought I had seen yesterday (and about a month ago) in the creek.

Yesterday morning I was on my way back from the dumpsters behind the baseball field, when I noticed a group of small brown finches flitting about in the tall reeds that populate the creek. I couldn't tell for sure what they were, but it looked to me as if they were an exotic finch called Nutmeg Mannikins, which is fairly common here in Southern California. But I didn't know for sure, since I had never seen one before, and the only field mark I remembered was that they were light brown and had a scalloped pattern on their belly.

Anyway, I brought my binoculars with me today, and took a walk on the olive grove side of the creek to check it out. At first all I saw was a shy female mallard and a lot (like 20+) yellow-rumped warblers. As I was starting to walk back, however, I saw some movement in the reeds. It took another 5 minutes or so, but I finally got a good look at the bird. It is a Nutmeg Mannikin: a small skinny finch from Asia with a nutmeg colored back and a patterned belly. These birds' bellies aren't very distinctly patterned, but one individual showed clear marks.

Here's a picture.

The species originally comes from southeast Asia.

I was also happy to see a Song Sparrow, Western Bluebirds, House Finches, House Sparrows, and Anna's Hummingbirds along the creek. Their cutting all the reeds right now, so it will be interesting to see if the Mannikins lose their little colony.

Jonathan and I have been married for 100 days now. Counting up is better than counting down, I say.

It's really cold all over the country right now, it says in the news. Thus, it is not surprising that this morning Sutherland Hall's roof looked as if it was wearing a coat of new snow, I had to scrape ice off my car, and the roofs and lawns in my neighborhood were white.

But because I live in beautiful Southern California, it is also not surprising that the frost almost instantly disappeared when the sun hit it, and that it was about 90 degrees only about a week ago.

So, there's this website full of songs that some guy writes based on requests from other people.

Check out song #0257.

Really.

It's been a while since my last post. I'm now in my third week of student teaching. I've taken over the Phonemic Awareness and Math lessons each day. Next week I add Reading. It's going well. I enjoy thinking and planning out the activities. Math is especially fun right now, I think, since we're learning coins. It can be very hands-on, and the kids really like that.

Valentine's Day is really a big deal in elementary school. Kids who don't ever turn in any homework came to school on Tuesday with a shoe box completely decorated and ready to receive goodies. And the stuff they bring! The amount of candy that was exchanged between the kids was comparable to Holloween. I got quite a bit of candy as well, since they all wanted to give me one of their valentines. One little boy even gave me a Starbucks gift card!

Jonathan and I also had a very nice Valentine's Day. He's the best!

Busy!

That's what I am, and that's why the posting is slow. The reason that I can't post when I'm busy isn't just a lack of time: it's a lack of something to say. As a rule, I don't post about work (though I'm really tempted to right now), and I worked both Saturday and Sunday this last weekend.



The other thing I've been busy with is Valentine's Day, which is a lot of fun, but I don't know that people would really appreciate me posting about that, either. So, in all, there's a lot to say, but not much to say here.

I just posted the Vermillion flycatcher pictures because it's such a pretty bird. I took these pictures on the 21st of January, so it's been awhile. Plus, it's red, which is the color of Valentine's Day! So, happy Valentine's Day, everybody.

Read the Scottish Pairlament's wabsite in Scots! I'm nae sae siccar that's really a leid: nor are linguists (studioors o leids).

Read the Scottish Parliament's webpage in Gaelic! Now I am sure that is a different language.

This Islam/ Comic controversy is boiling on and doesn't seem to be calming down, but here's something that caught my eye in the meantime. Chesterton's "On Reading" is a fun little work that I found over on a Torrey chum's blog. Ryan's a nice guy I had the priviledge of sharing class with one semester in Torrey.

The article is Chesterton arguing for the sake of reading. His argument is that by continuing to read we will continue to tap into the great store of thought left us from the past, and that this will prevent heresies: ideas that are taken out of their context and clung to at the expense of the Whole Truth (and nothing but). Here's the witty cite:

In case this point is not clear, I will take two examples,
both in reference to notions fashionable among some of the more
fanciful and younger theorists. Nietzsche, as every one knows,
preached a doctrine which he and his followers regard apparently as
very revolutionary; he held that ordinary altruistic morality had been
the invention of a slave class to prevent the emergence of superior
types to fight and rule them. Now, modern people, whether they agree
with this or not, always talk of it as a new and unheard-of idea.
It is calmly and persistently supposed that the great writers of the past,
say Shakespeare for instance, did not hold this view, because they
had never imagined it; because it had never come into their heads.
Turn up the last act of Shakespeare's Richard III and you will
find not only all that Nietzsche had to say put into two lines,
but you will find it put in the very words of Nietzsche.
Richard Crookback says to his nobles:

Conscience is but a word that cowards use,
Devised at first to keep the strong in awe.

As I have said, the fact is plain. Shakespeare had thought of Nietzsche
and the Master Morality; but he weighed it at its proper value
and put it in its proper place. Its proper place is the mouth of a
half-insane hunchback on the eve of defeat. This rage against the weak
is only possible in a man morbidly brave but fundamentally sick;
a man like Richard, a man like Nietzsche. This case alone ought
to destroy the absurd fancy that these modern philosophies are modern
in the sense that the great men of the past did not think of them.
They thought of them; only they did not think much of them.
It was not that Shakespeare did not see the Nietzsche idea;
he saw it, and he saw through it.

Reading Nietzche senior year, and then in Richard III in the same semester had me wondering that Shakespeare could have written about Nietzche before Nietzche ever arose, but of course, Chesterton has hit the nail on the head here, and resolved for me this mystery.

Thank you, Chesterton, thank you very much.

So, what do people think about this free speech/ respect of religion controversy that's flaring up over in Europe?

I am still sorting out my thoughts. On the one hand, there are some positions that I find very untenable. The most significant of these is the position of Islamic governments that have been pressing the Danish government to punish the offending newspaper. That, in my opinion, is a really terrible thing to ask, and a real infringement on the important right of free speech. The Danish prime minister's position, therefore, seems highly rational:

"A Danish government can never apologise on behalf of a free and independent newspaper. This is basically a dispute between some Muslims and a newspaper."

Another, largely most likely marginal, reaction that troubles me is that of those Muslims who take to the streets at any kind of argument to proclaim that those whom they find offensive must die. CNN reports on Palestinian responses:

Early Friday, Palestinian militants threw a bomb at a French cultural center in Gaza City, and many Palestinians began boycotting European goods, especially those from Denmark.

"Whoever defames our prophet should be executed," said Ismail Hassan, 37, a tailor who marched through the pouring rain along with hundreds of others in the West Bank city of Ramallah.

"Bin Laden our beloved, Denmark must be blown up," protesters in Ramallah chanted.

An imam at the Omari Mosque in Gaza City told 9,000 worshippers that those behind them should have their heads cut off.

"If they want a war of religions, we are ready," Hassan Sharaf, an imam in Nablus, said in his sermon.

Don't worry, Hassan Sharaf, we do not want a war of religions. Look, BBC points out to us the reaction of the Vatican. "Vatican cardinal Achille Silvestrini condemned the cartoons, saying Western culture had to know its limits."

There is a myriad of reaction arising from within Europe, handily summarized by a German website here: signandsight I got to that link from ALDaily, which is linked on my side bar.

As to whether it is proper to publish this kind of article, I find myself looking to my own faith. I would, and do, find offensive irreverant representations of Jesus. Sometimes I can take them with a grain of salt and they are funny, other times they are mean spirited and blasphemous, and these are more difficult to take lightly. Acting conscientiously, I would treat all other religions with the degree of charity that I myself desire, and so I would disagree with publishing some of these cartoons. You can find a link to the cartoons at AL Daily if you want to see them, but I won't link to them directly.

Another part of me, perhaps the unruly part, could see myself rashly making a sarcastic cartoon about pagan gods or religious figures that I do not believe exist or find overrated, like Muhammad. There is ironic truth in the cartoon wherein Muhammad urges his suicide bombers to slow down, as he is running out of virgins. (How many virgins are there? Where are they coming from?) The cartoon is confronting a clear falsehood in an uncharitable way. I can find some value in this kind of presentation, in that its confrontational nature can cause some people to think. Obviously that was not the intention of this newspaper, though, so I wish they'd never published it.