Happy May Day

To all of those hispanic protestors around the nation today: enjoy the day that the blood, sweat and legacy of Capitalism are allowing you. Oh, and next time? Try not to choose such an offensive day to bring forward your demands.

Perhaps you would rather have lived in the Soviet Union, where May Day protests celebrated the victory of the worker annually? Or maybe not, when someone does the math on how many Stalin actually murdered. Check out this blog: Catallarchy: How Many Did Stalin Really Murder? He does that math for us, and concludes that the Soviet Union is responsible for the deaths of 62,000,000 people.

I've never heard of Catallarchy before, but they remember, yearly, May Day. Today may not be a bad day to stop and think about that evil spectre of Capitalism.

Real American Hero

When I was a boy, my favorite toy was G.I. Joe. Ok, actually perhaps my favorite particular toy was my Winnie The Pooh. Everybody's got to have their teddy bear (mine was a general).

Back to the main point, however. My favorite genre of toy was G.I. Joe. I had quite a few. My brother and I would have big G.I. Joe battles that would last for days and never ever had a resolution. But they had lots of building, climaxing action! Also, none of our GI Joes ever died. The bad guys could die, but each GI Joe was a beloved character, and thus was not allowed (being a good guy) to die. This doesn't mean they never suffered bodily harm. On the contrary, they suffered great bodily harm. Consistently. Anyway, I had a medic so they were OK.

They also had to learn to fly, as the plastic bags sometimes failed as parachutes. And they had to learn to live on their own, as sometimes they went over the wall into the hospital parking lot. I remember that one got lost that way forever. Was it Duke? Snake eyes? I have a memory, but it's vague.

Ok, so I'm posting this because I found a jewel of a website! It lists all the GI Joe's (3 3/4") that were ever made. It is a snapshot of my childhood.

Here is my first G.I. Joe ever: Shipwreck. Shipwreck had to have back surgery, and very early on he lost the ability (such an important but flawed ability in these toys) to bend at the waist.

Here is my favorite GI Joe ever: Storm Shadow. He had a cool red backpack with a sword!

Here's my medic: Lifeline. I liked how he had the oxygen mask. Got shot? What you need is an oxygen mask!

I remember that my brother had this one: Crazy Legs. He was, if you read his personal information (I am remembering this from the top of my head) a pianist. You can check to see if I'm right by clicking on the link and poking around.

There're many others in there that I had, but I think these are pretty cool and I don't want to make the post unreadably long. You can also find out how much they're worth now on that site. The good news is that most of them have appreciated. The bad news is that I played with them extensively, probably draining them of all their value. But more good news! That's what toys are for!

Joshua Tree

Ok, some of the Joshua Tree Pictures! Try this link: Flickr Joshua Tree pics.

Here's a tantalizing preview:



That is Libby walking through a cholla cactus garden.

Out and About

Libby and I spent the last three days at Joshua Tree camping. It was a nice trip. We'll post pictures when we can. Here's the short version.

Monday:
Leave Apt. around 10:30. Arrive at North Entrance (Oasis of Marra) after noon. Poke around the oasis. Camp at Jumbo Rocks campground. We checked out the campsite, and saw gnatcatchers, quail, phainopepla, verdin, cottontails and a jackrabbit. Eat. White-crowned sparrows. Wind. Check out stars.

Tuesday:
Get up just before sunrise. Walk. Eat. Drive. Walk to 49 Palms Oasis (first in parking lot at 8:00 in the morning!). 49 Palms is really amazing and beautiful, but it got crowded, so we were lucky we showed up when we did. Black throated sparrows, white winged dove, bewick's wren, cactus wren, hooded oriole, hermit thrush, costa's hummingbird, ash-throated flycatcher, gray flycatcher, other various flycatchers, etc. Walk back. Drive long time through West Entrance to Hidden Valley. Brewer's sparrow. Barker Dam. Vaux's swift, many swallows, white-throated swifts, yellow-rumped and townsend's warbler. Jumbo Rocks to nap. Eat. Walk. Five jackrabbits! Fire. Stars. Sleep!

Wednesday:
Get up after sunrise. Eat. Pack up. Walk. Rock wrens, green-tailed Towhees, chipping sparrows. Drive south towards Cottonwood. Stop at exhibits. Note scratched and illegible surfaces. Upon one was scrawled in ink something about how Christian white men ruined the land and the Indians. Mourn. Drive. Cholla Cactus garden. Ocotillos blooming! Cottonwood Springs. House finches, ravens, kingbirds, warblers, sparrows, snakes and a warbling vireo. Drive to 10, off to Libby's parents house and then home a little after 6:00.

Shower and eat Jelly bellies.

Sayers Had An Illegitimate Child

Libby and I have been reading Dorothy Sayer's murder mysteries together lately. I'm not sure how long, but we're on our third novel and have read most of the short stories.

In reading these novels, I have been surprised not to find C.S. Lewis, J.R.R. Tolkien, or Charles Williams. In short, the novels are not the kind of 20th century Oxfordian Christian fiction that I expected. I don't think Sayers presents a plainly Christian world-view.

My previous exposure to Sayer's is mainly in regard to Dante: her translations and some papers. I've also read parts or most of her article on women and her famous work on education (The Mind of the Maker). Most of these works are from later in her life, and I suspect she either changed considerably or has a literary philosophy very different from the Inklings.

For example, her characters reflect contemporary ethical thought: not classical ethical thought (though they are familiar with it). Much of this thought either seems anachronistically wicked - a separate Aristocratic morality - or contemporary bad thinking - consequentialist morality. The former is demonstrated in Clouds of Witness, though she does a good job of painting a difficult moral situation in respect to some adultery, ultimately I cannot find any appropriate accusations leveled toward the Duke. The latter is demonstrated in Unnatural Death, where at one point Murbles argues that the murder may not be unethical - it prevents the Crown from getting money - merely legal.

I find that here, and in some other places, she's coming down on the opposite sides of questions from Scripture, the historic witness of the Church - and from the Inklings.

Many people would say, "So?" to this argument, and I think that's fair. I don't censor my own reading so that I only read books with which I agree. It is, however, much rarer that I pick up a book I expect to find agreeable and experience a disillusioning. Sayer's early fictional writings are such an experience.

Coming Soon: Another author I'm really enjoying - pooor Sayers' pen pales by comparison - is Flannery O'Connor. She's my favorite American prose as of yet - perhaps favorite American literature ever. (Can you count Eliot as American?) I'll post about her when I've digested her stories more fully: there's an awful lot to think about.

Gospel of Judas

You can read the text of the new Gospel of Judas here.

I think the text's nature alone is sufficient proof of its non-authoritative nature regarding the life of Christ (it's bizarre Gnostic gobbley-gook).

Irenaeus (student of Polycarp, student of the apostle John (eyewitness to Jesus' life) disproved the Gnostic interpretations of Jesus' life handily enough a couple thousand years ago. You can read his great work here.

I think it's neat as a historian to see a new text this old uncovered, but it doesn't really have any challenge to the Christian's faith, as claimed by the mass media. Hear The New York Times: "The text gives new insights into the relationship of Jesus and the disciple who betrayed him, scholars reported today."

Here's a question: if the Gospel of Judas is true, who wrote it? How would they know this truth? If, after the Last Supper Jesus revealed the true nature of his ministry, when did Judas get to tell someone else about it? Remember: even the Gnostic admitted he died very soon after Jesus' death. It must be their ministering angels told them about it: but that assumes a direct divine revelation that, ordinarily, most secular scholars would not respect. And most don't: only a few bizarros believe that the Gospel of Judas is filling in gaps in our understanding of Jesus' life. All it's really doing is filling in gaps in our understanding of old dead heresies. This is good for some academics' dissertations (especially scholars of Irenaeus), but it doesn't really matter very much to the culture or to Christians at large.

Embrace Our Commonality

The year? Nineteen thousand, nine hundred and ninety-nine.

The twin towers were still standing in New York. The U.N. declared "The Year of Older Persons." The human population surpassed six billions. War raged in Kosovo, and Bill Clinton was the president of the United States.

But, perhaps the most wildly improbably important event of all was the advent of a single motion picture. No, I don't mean that flop of a flick continuing (after a long, long time) the Star Wars franchise. I mean a tale of good, evil, misunderstanding, and peace. I mean Pokemon: The First Movie.

Rest assured that I and a good friend were there the night that it opened. Unlike many others my age, I made a point of not missing this movie in the theaters. How could I? A little yellow mouse with bizarre electric powers of appealling cuteness was calling me. Ladies and gentlemen, I was not able to turn a deaf ear to his siren cheep. Besides, if you showed up opening night, you got a free commemorative Pokemon card!

I admit that at the time I was disappointed in the film. Last night I gave myself the opportunity to reappraise my impression. This review is the conclusion of that reappraisal.

Pokemon really probably should never have existed. It's kind of fun to watch, sometimes, and I played the Gameboy game, but it really did only exist to create marketing opportunities, which isn't the kind of art that I would choose for my children.

Nevertheless, its authors made a good go of it. The TV show was consistently entertaining, mostly because it did not take itself very seriously. The flaw of the movie is that it does take itself completely seriously.

First, if you ever, for whatever unimaginable reason, watch the movie on DVD, skip, skip, skip!, "Pikachu's Vacation." It is boring, and it is rediculous.

Second, the movie is tolerable. It has one moment that is laugh out loud hilarious involving psyduck, and it even manages to be somewhat moving in the midst of slamming you over the head with a self-contradictory non-violent message. It condemns violence. Violently. In a world that exists so that Pokemon can fight each other. It asks simple questions (that have been asked in better ways before) to which the answer is Jesus, and almost gets it. To which I say, "Hurrah!"

However, instead of renting this movie, buying this movie, or otherwise patronizing it, read your Bible. You'll be the better for it.

Lastly, perhaps the most powerful voice against this movie is its cover.

Coming next week: a review of Pokemon: The Movie 2000.

Changes!

Ok, so the old ugly orange template is out after 2 years, 178 days, 10 hours and about 15 minutes. We'll try this one for awhile. Major pro: the lighthouse in the upper left (I was thinkin' of you, Lib!).

Also, we're now using Blogger comments with word verification. I'm pretty surprised I never had comment spam with Haloscan, but I'm thankful none-the-less. Perhaps my blog is just way below radar.

I've cleaned up and fixed some of the links in the side bar, I think none of them are dead or stupid now. Let me know if you find one.

Also, if you have a general impression (is this an improvement, or is it not, complaints, suggestions, etc) please share it. I'll listen and do what I can to make this a more pleasant viewing experience.

Back to the Santa Rosa Plateau

On Saturday, Libby and I made our way back to one of our favorite places: the Santa Rosa Plateau. Situated on the Eastern part of the Santa Ana Mountains, the plateau is a unique preservation of grassland prairie and oak land. Libby and I love the beautiful rolling green hills, and so made a point to return there this Spring after the recent March rains.



We took our binoculars (of course), and saw a lot of birds, but nothing new or out of the ordinary. There were a lot of raptors: we saw kestrels, Red tailed hawks, vultures and white tailed kites in abundance. We also saw a robin, spotted and California towhees, juncos, house and lesser gold finches, a house wren, lots of yellow rumped warblers, lots and lots of western meadowlarks (this is the best place in So Cal that we know of to see meadowlarks), and some savannah sparrows. I was a little surprised at the paucity of sparrows, but what's there is there. And of course, we can't see everything there is to see.

In some of the oaks that you can see in this picture was a group of three deer. Binoculars came in handy for seeing mammals, too. We saw three deer, some rabits and ground squirrels and eight (8) coyotes. I've never seen so many coyotes in one day before. We saw five of them together near the end of the day, hiding in grass near the plateau's famous vernal pools.




The grass wasn't as long as it was last year: last year you couldn't really see the remains of last year's grass like you could this spring. I missed the waves of grass blowing in the wind, but it was still refreshingly beautiful and lonely out on the trails.



This was a strange old bus stop that we found in the middle of the preserve. Maybe it isn't a bus stop, but Libby gave waiting for the bus a go.



This looks like a skink. We found two of these lizards on the trail, and I can't find a picture of them anywhere else on the internet. If anybody knows what it is, let me know. We also saw several other species of lizards (including Southern Sagebrush Lizards, a big black beaut on a fence post, Coastal Western Whiptale, and one Coast Patchnose Snake). I found these species listed at http://ecoregion.ucr.edu/full.asp?sp_num=22. To see them, you can do a Google Image Search.

In all, we had a great day!

Well, I had my last day with the 1st graders today. All day long, when I would walk around the room, kids would quickly hide little notes or pictures when I came near. By the end of the day, I had tons of "good-bye" letters. All of them very sweet. Some of the highlights were phrases like:

"I wish yow will stay forevr untill I go to secengrad." (Aww, he tried to make it a compound word.)

and

"Thank you for teaching me how to cownt coins." (Wow, so close. Good guess!)

and

"I will never ferget you." (How cute is that?)

and

"You are my friend. But do yo have to leave? yes or no" (This one makes me laugh; she's like, "please circle one")

Sigh.

Yep, so I'm off to Whittier Christian on Monday. And my grade level got switched to 4th for that one, instead of 6th. I'm looking forward to it, but it's hard to leave these guys.

All I Really Need to Know I Learned From Ovid

Inspired by a revisitation of Midsummer's Night Dream, I am now revisiting Ovid's Metamorphoses. Ovid's a grand old chap, his poems are bawdy yet bright, and he has little to no faith in anything substantial. Instead he has faith in the transitory nature of reality. Pretty quick fellow, really.

Nonetheless, I have (despite his concerted efforts) learned something about this world's substance in my re-reading of the classic.

1) Everything used to be white. It has sinced changed color either because, a) the gods' whims (Raven and Crow) or b) blood (Mulberry Tree berries).

2) Is it confusing or enigmatic? Enter the polytheistic Freudian school of metaphysical critical studies, it is the way it is because the divine lusts carnally after mortals. Don't question it, it's not a good idea.

3) Run out of humans? No problem! Humans grow easily from a mixture of fire, water and earth. They can be seeded in a number of different ways, but bones is a pretty good one. Oh, and when you form them all fully armed, disarm them immediately.

4) Beautiful young blond boys are not fair game to steal. Especially if the boy happens to be a young god; and especially if that young god is Bacchus.

5) Bacchus is like Elvis or the Beatles, but don't make fun of him, assault him, dishonor him or even be near him when he's with his groupies. His female cohorts will tear you limb from limb.

6) You have a right to really miss those happy golden years.

Any other Ovidian basics for life?

Meet Symbols they of Innocence and Love

On Thursday night Libby and I watched The Fox and the Hound, the classic Disney film. I hadn't seen it in years and years, so i was interested to see how it would go. I didn't remember the end, really, either. Which reminds me that I am going to be spoiling said end by the end of this post, so if you haven't seen the movie and think that you'd like it better with a surprise ending, it might be a good idea to stop reading at this point. However, if there's a statute of limitations on spoilers for movies, this one certainly should be past it

The basic plot is of course that there is an orphaned fox living with an elderly woman in the country and he meets the neighbor's young hound dog: forming a friendship that both animals claim will last forever. Everyone in the audience, however, knows that this can't work: the animals are natural enemies and so I had a sad inner ache for most of the happy parts. To combat this natural sadness, the writers through in a pair of clowns in the form of a red-headed woodpecker and a house wren that are always goofing off and messing up. They are somewhat annoying

The great part of the movie is the end: where the hound is redeemed by the love of a friend who is willing to die for his friend even though his friend wishes to kill him. I thought as a movie about friendship, the ending hit the nail right on the head: "greater love has no man than this, that he would lay down his life for his friend." Thus the movie is intrinsically and powerfully a Gospel story, about loving your enemies, loving your friends, and sacrificing yourself for someone who is unworthy.

SPIES!

It's 2:00 in the morning, and my tired eyes ease me achingly back into inappropriate conciousness. Thud... thud... thud... The darkness fills with the workings of our wall clock, and I shift onto my back in pursuit of nocturnal comfort and a quick return to Neverland. That's when I hear the voices. Through the wall above my head emerges the distinct chattering of another human being. But this is no typical American voice, such as one would expect to hear in the United States of America. No, this voice's undulating currents lacked completely the harmonious rhythm of Spanish. This voice was from ASIA!

This certainly isn't the first time that I've heard an Asian voice above my head in the dark, and for months the inevitable questions had run their courses. Why are Asian persons living next door to me? How long have they been having late night conversations above my head? How can you live next to two people and never meet them? How can you never see them? How come I never even hear their front door open and close next door? How do they eat? Do they not sleep?

Our other neighbor is much more understandable. He listens to loud music very late at night, and his friends speak English and Spanish. I can understand some of the words that come through the wall, though that's generally unfortunate. His door opens and closes. Sometimes I hear clattering in his kitchen. And I even have reason to believe that he sleeps! This is normal human activity in La Habra.

But, no longer do these thoughts, this inexplicable anomaly of urban life, disturb, worry or agrivate me with their unapproachable enigmas. Yesterday Libby and I came to a shocking yet inescapable conclusion. Our next door neighbors are spies! It makes sense! Spies can come and go without making sound! Spies don't need to eat or sleep! Spies are just the kind of person to have their light on when you come home from work! Spies are just the kind of person to be speaking unintelligibly during the late hours of the night!

Now that Libby and I have exposed their clandestine dealings to the CIA, we expect our sleep to be much more restful... at least when our normal neighbor turns off his stupid subwoofer.

I want to share a conversation that I had with one of my first graders yesterday in class. First, some background:

I was about to give the "Coins" test, after teaching this whole unit. I was actually pretty excited to see how they would do; I've put a lot of work into my lessons and trying to reach them all at their different levels. We were sitting at the carpet and I asked if there were any last minute questions before taking the test. They did have lots of questions: none of them had to do with what the test was going to be on. So, I was about to send them back to their desks to get started when I heard:

Matt: I have a compliment!
Me: Oh? About me? ("Finally!" I thought. "I'm about to get some appreciation for all the hard work I do!")
Matt: No! About me!
Me: (dejected) Oh. Ok. (at this point, my master teacher leaves the room to have a good laugh)
Matt: Do you know why I'm so good at math? Cause it's in my name: Matth-ew!!!
Me: Ok. Well, let's take our test now.

And right after that:

Megan: (quietly) I have a compliment about you, Mrs. Rowley.
Me: Oh, really?! (I thought we could wait on the test to hear one more student comment, right?)
Megan: You're a good teacher!
Me: Aww, thanks, Megan.

I'm going to miss these kids when I go onto my next placement (which I just found out today: Whittier Christian Elementary, 6th graders).

P.S. For the most part, they did great on the coins test: 13/19 students got 90% or above!

Not the Cat, but the Cat's Meow Nonetheless

Last time I talked about a restaurant on this blog, it was about the best restaurant in La Habra: The Cat & Custard Cup. But on Thursday Libby and I went to a restaurant worth mentioning in Fullerton that was not nearly so pricey.

Out of the way in the fun downtown district of Fullerton (just north of Commonwealth on Pomona) is a little restaurant/ coffee house called Rutabegorz. Originally formed as a hang out place for hippies to get together and discuss their ideas, Rutabegorz retains its casual atmosphere, but also has added delicious full meals to their menu for moderate prices. And they have not just added a few meals to their menu, but a full 21 page spread of options spanning from many varieties of coffee, smoothies, sandwiches, hot entrees, appetizers, and desserts. Our limited experience of the food was excellent: I had a tostada piled high with fresh vegetables, beans and avocado. Libby had a stuffed zucchini with cheese toast on the side. These are big dishes, so we got lunch in the bargain!

An added bonus to this little shop is that they are celebrating their 35th anniversary for the second year by offering $1.00 specials. This month's special is a feta/pepita dip with chips. The pepita part of the dip is pumpkin seeds: its a really delightful and full hearty dip, we liked it a lot.

The experience was a little off putting at first, we didn't know what to expect, and when our waiter came and leant against the wall in a tie-die shirt I didn't know that it was a waiter, at first. But he was courteous, gave good service, and good advice for choosing a meal.

Overall, I'd recommend this place if you want to go somewhere cheaper and less crowded than the Ship, but you're in the same general vicinity. But there are also locations in Tustin and in Old Town Orange for people further South in Orange County for people who aren't in the area and still want to eat good food.

Ash Wednesday

Just yesterday Christians all over the world celebrated the holiday of Ash Wednesday. This is a morbid holy day: we are reminded of our own mortality, and charged to live a life pleasing to God. As a symbol of this dedication, we spend the days leading up to Easter excersising unique sacrifices and take on new disciplines. As Father David pointed out in his sermon Wednesday night, the sacrifices that we are undertake are truly insignificant in the scope of the call of Christ: we are called to become righteous, and giving up meat for 40 days doesn't and can't accomplish that purpose. But it may remind us of this purpose, and reinvigorate our striving toward righteousness. Of course, we can never hope to attain perfect righteousness on our own, but perhaps there is some hope in the ministry of the Holy Spirit (certainly we are not sinful in the life to come. I think that it is the Church that calls us to this discipline is an apt reminder of our personal insufficeincy (that is that it symbolizes the Holy Spirit's sanctifying work in our lives).

Here is the Prayer Book's exhortation in the Ash Wednesday service:

Dear People of God: The first Christians observed with great
devotion the days of our Lord’s passion and resurrection, and
it became the custom of the Church to prepare for them by a
season of penitence and fasting. This season of Lent provided
a time in which converts to the faith were prepared for Holy
Baptism. It was also a time when those who, because of
notorious sins, had been separated from the body of the faithful
were reconciled by penitence and forgiveness, and restored to
the fellowship of the Church. Thereby, the whole congregation
was put in mind of the message of pardon and absolution set
forth in the Gospel of our Savior, and of the need which all
Christians continually have to renew their repentance and faith.

I invite you, therefore, in the name of the Church, to the
observance of a holy Lent, by self examination and repentance;
by prayer, fasting, and self denial; and by reading and
meditating on God’s holy Word.

The whole BCP is provided by the Episcopal Church on-line: Book of Common Prayer

Lent exists because Easter exists, just as Christ died that He might be raised again. Therefore it seems proper to me that we enter into a time of penitence yearly, in rememberance of the lowering that Christ himself undertook.

I prepared for Ash Wednesday by reading T.S. Eliot's Ash Wednesday, a longish poem that draws on the same themes that this day addresses in the Church's life. I recommend it to any who is interested: Ash Wednesday

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.

I started Student Teaching today. I ended up being placed in a first grade class at a school that's basically across the street from Biola. This means Jonathan and I can commute together. And that's happy. (Though today Jonathan stayed home sick. And that's not happy.) This first week, all I do is observe and work with small groups every now and then. It's a chance to get to know the Master Teacher and the students a little bit, and see how the classroom runs. The teacher seems really nice and good with her students; I expect to learn a lot from working with her. And the kids were almost angelic. They worked quietly and diligently on individual activities and participated in the whole-group stuff really well. She told me that they're not always like this, though. They were just trying to impress me. :-) Well, it worked.

Oh, and during lunch my Master Teacher explained that she'll be gone for a few days during my 8 weeks in her class, and that I should get on the sub list for La Mirada so that I can take over on those days. In La Mirada, teachers get to request the subs they want to take their classes, not like in La Habra where the district office decides who to call. So, my Master Teacher would just request me for those days, and I'd get paid for days I would have had to be there anyway. That doesn't sound like a bad deal at all.

I'll keep you updated on all the exciting stuff that Student Teaching will involve.

Here ends my post.

Hmm..

Disney is buying Pixar. Here's hoping they don't screw a really good company up!

Picture Post!

Instead of editing yesterday's absolutely enormous entry to include pictures at the moment, I'll post some of the goings on in our life in a separate post. This also frees me up to post pictures that aren't from Saturday.

Here's Libby at the Mudpots, Wister Unit Imperial Wildlife Area. You can see that this part of the area is barren. I guess that's because of the mud pots. There's quite a few more than the one she's above (you can see the hole in the lower left). Isn't Libby cute?


This is me at the same mud pots, but I'm at the other side of the little deck here. I'm pointing excitedly at a pot of mud. "Look at this awesome smelly devil's cauldron!" I exclaim ecstatically.

Note we are well equipped with our binoculars for any awesome bird that might happen to pop out of these mud pots. Behind me you can see the thick vegatation bordering the ponds of Wister. That's where you can take the heavily vegetated trails.


This ancient mud-flow to which Libby is directing our attention is found at the intersection of Davis and Schrimpf roads, near Niland, CA. This is a different place than the previous pictures. Here the mud formed volcanoes that are like 6 feet high. This is a baby one, but it's got big plans, we can tell. We're very proud of its efforts.


This is the actual active crater of one of our mud volcanoes. I took this standing on the volcano, so imagine a pile of dried mud about 4 feet high. This was one of the biggest. I wish I had actually taken a picture of one of the volcanoes, instead I focused on the bubbling mud. I got some cool videos, but the bubbling mud just doesn't come out as bubbling in still photography.

Maybe Lem can explain that for us.

Note the viscous character of the mud. Looks like melted chocolate ice cream to me.


Ok, now here are some pictures from our trip to Big Bear the last week of December. Remember when we saw the Bald Eagles?


This is Libby looking at the Eagles (George and Gracie were their names, since they hung out on the Burns property: no we did not name them).

Our spotting scope is a Brunton. It zooms from 18-36, and is pretty much awesome for its price. It's filled with an inert gas, and has a color correcting lense. It's nothing, of course, compared to the 3,000 dollar models, but then we weren't willing to pay 3,000 dollars.

Not that we really have 3,000 dollars to pay, of course. Even birders can be gear heads when it comes to optics.


Here's what Libby's looking at.

This is Gracie. Above her head is George's foot and some of his other feathers.

Also, this is what happens when you take a picture with a digital camera through your spotting scope. It's not perfect, of course, and this is my first try. There's actually quite an art to it, and they call it "digiscoping." Since birders already have these little telescopes, there's no sense in spending a lot of money to buy a giant telephoto for your camera. You can just buy a cheap digital camera, and do the same thing with your old gear. There's a bit of an art to it, and I look forward to attempting more digiscopes in the future. We actually didn't know that this turned out until we put it on the computer. Libby and I both were excited to see the bird.

It's time for a belated Monday Birding post.

This last Saturday Libby and I made the grand old trek to the Salton Sea NWR, Imperial County California. It was a long trip, but we found it well worth it! It was a ton of fun, with interesting scenery, geological bizarrities, and lots and lots of birds.

Our day started unpleasantly at 4:45. As the alarm shook us awake, we groaned and I have to admit that I wondered it if it was worth it. Thankfully, we thought ahead enough to get everything ready the morning before. In less than half an hour, we were out of the door into the dark, and primed for travel. Here's the route we took from Google Maps.

I guess our first bird of the day was seen in North Palm Springs, where we got gas: a bunch of House Sparrows lived there.

The first birding stop was along the North-Eastern half of the Salton Sea. In the Salton Sea Recreation Area, there are several beaches that you can stop at, most of which are just barren campgrounds. The one we stopped at was just a strip of desert sand, rocks, and then the water next to the freeway. But we saw several neat birds! One was a pair of Horned Larks, which we saw from a distince on Catalina but really close up here. We also decided to practice identifying gulls (you may have noticed that all gulls look the same: that does not mean they are the same species!). We got our first successful identification of a Herring Gull, there were some Ring-Billed Gulls (very common at the Salton Sea), and as we approached the car to get in I noticed on gull was smaller with a black ear-spot. It was a Bonaparte Gull! This was our second lifer of the day! It took off as we neared the car, and we got to see its distinctive wing pattern: grey, white and then just a black fringe along the edge of the primaries and secondary wing feathers. I think that's when we realized this could be a very cool day. In breeding plumage, the Bonaparte's gull has a black head, which would be neat to see.

Our next stop was the Wister Unit of the Imperial Wildlife Area. It was hunting season, and this was not a refuge. In the parking lot, we saw our first Eurasian Collared Doves, and our first Abert's Towhees. I got my first Orange-Crowned Warbler (Libby's seen one before). This being our first time here, we didn't really know where to go, and let ourselves be directed by a mysterious sign that promised mud pots.

As I researched our trip, I'd learned that around the Southern part of the Salton Sea, there are vents in the ground that let up carbon dioxide. These vents are filled with viscous mud, that bubbles. Mud pots are where the sand has dropped away around the vents, and you can hear the mud bubbling way down deep inside of them. You can't really go near them, because the ground's falling away, and so we didn't get the best look. They also smell sort of sulfurish. That's strange because they're not volcanic. The mud is, in fact, only a little warmer than the surrounding air.

Anyway, we found the mud pots of the Wister Unit, and picked up a Verdin (a beautiful little bird with a bright yellow head)and some Peregrine Falcons. We also heard what were probably Least Bitterns making all kinds of bizarre noises from within the rushes. There were White-Faced Ibises, a bird we haven't seen since the summer at Crowley Lake, which was fun. It was hard to see many ducks, though, because the hunters made them very, very skittish. This was a bizarre place, lots of ponds and reeds made movement and visibility limited. Added to the difficult passage, we were surrounded by the constant sound of gunfire. This is a little unnerving, to say the least, and I hoped that the hunters had good aim.

Oh yeah, we found a Marsh Wren there (a lifer for me) and we spooked a Peregrine Falcon that was only a couple of feet in front of us on a thickly vegetated trail. It burst out and was gone in a second, but we saw clearly the slate gray back. The falcon was a lifer, also. This is the great thing about beginning birding, there are a lot of lifers that are totally new to you that are fairly common birds.

We then split from the Wister Unit to go to our original destination, the Sonny Bono Salton Sea National Wildlife Preserve. This is where we had a great chance of seeing the birds I was most excited about: the Snow and Ross's Geese.

Every winter, thousands upon thousands of these geese migrate from the tundra of the far north to the warmer lands of the south. And the Salton Sea is one of their main destinations. We saw a few of them at Wister, far away in the sky, wheeling this way or that with a lot of clatter, but the problem was to identify them. The Ross's goose is white, with black on the wing. So is the Snow Goose. But the Snow Goose is larger, and its bill is distinctive. It has a grey prominent grin patch, and the feathers make a curved line at the base of the bill. The Ross's goose is smaller, its bill is shorter and less curved at the top (the culmen) and the feathers form a straight line. So if you see a big flock of white and black geese whirling around in the sky, it's impressive and beautiful, but you can't identify anything.

The Wildlife Refuge (and Wister, but not accessibly) provide fields for the geese to forage on, to spare the crops of the surrounding farms. That was our best bet. Unfortunately, we got a bit lost on the way to the refuge, and we had a hard time finding it. But, on the way, we got to see some Cattle Egrets (lifer!), a Prairie Falcon (sandy bird, a bit smaller than the Peregrine, with more mechanical wing-beats: a lifer!), a wire covered in Barn Swallows, and some Wood Ducks in an agricultural pond. We found our way to the right track, and also found the mud volcanoes. When I get a chance, I'll post some pictures of those. They're really cool! Here, the CO2 is pushing the mud up into 7 foot high piles of dirt, with real mud lava flows and everything. These were definitely a highlight of the trip.

Soon we made our way to the Wildlife Refuge, and at the feeders were were happy to see Gambel's Quail. The California Quail is very similar (there are some morphological differences but not pronounced), but their ranges don't really overlap. That was an easy lifer to find! Here we ate lunch, which consisted of the marvelous smoked salmon our Uncle Jim (Rowley) sent us for Christmas. Yum!

Then we set off on a walk around the short trail they had there. We were treated to a bunch more Verdin, a Belted Kingfisher, Black and Say's Pheobes, Yellow Rumped Warblers, Red-Winged Blackbirds, Long-Billed Dowitchers, a Long-Billed Curlew, a bunch o' Willets, and at the end of the trail there was a pond filled with far more waterfowl than we had ever before seen in our life. The water was black with them, like brine flies on the banks of Mono Lake. As we were watching these ducks (a few Ruddy Ducks, the rest being Northern Pintail, American Wigeons and Northern Shovelers), the air filled with a honking white mass. Something had disturbed the feeding geese in the fields. It was an incredible sight. We probably saw more birds, numerically on Saturday than we ever have before. All those geese in the air reminded me of what they say the Passenger Pigeons used to be like. I've read they used to make the day into night when they flew over. These geese couldn't do that, but there were enough of them to hint at the possiiblity. Probably the biggest flocks I've seen before this are of California Gulls at Mono Lake, but that is nothing compared to these flocks of geese. We found, on our way back to our car, that they had moved to a field near the trail, and we found in the flock easily identifiable Snow and Ross's Geese. We also found a pair of Blue-Gray Gnatcatchers (lifer!).

Next we decided to go to Salt Creek Beach, which was on the way home, to see some rare birds somebody had spotted there: a Barrow's Goldeneye, White-Winged Scoter, and a Tri-Colored Heron. Shoot, Libby and I had never seen a Common Goldeneye, and we were excited at the opportunity.

On the way back, we drove right by the Wister Unit, again, and there was a group of birders we had seen earlier in the day (like 4 hours earlier) standing around there. We had talked to them earlier, and found they were looking for a Rufous-Backed Robin. That would be a cool bird to see, but we knew that if you're waiting around for a rare bird, that's going to take some time, and we had a lot of other things to see. As we pulled up alongside them on the way home, I rolled down the window, and was instantly assured that they hadn't been waiting there that whole time. Ironically, someone burst from the bushes at that moment, and declared that they had seen it. So I pulled over the car, Libby and I grabbed our binoculars and ran over to get a look.

Unfortunately, the bird was not to be found. As we got into the bushes on a small trail, we saw it flit through the underbrush, but not identifiably. We waited for a little while to see if it would come out again, but nothing was much doing. A lot of other birds were in those bushes though, and one moved in my peripheral vision. I glanced over my shoulder to be staring directly at an American Redstart. This was a lifer for Libby and I, and I just sort of incredulously asked, "Hey, isn't that a Redstart?" The other birders looked up and shrugged, "Yep." This is a rare bird, though not nearly so rare as the Robin was, and I guess they had all seen it before. It's really a pretty bird, with bright red spots on its shoulders and tail. This was a male, so we got to see it in its full brilliance.

After that we left, and went straight to Salt Creek. Some of the birders who had been watching for the Robin were there, and helped us find the Barrow's Goldeneye (a female: only distinguished from the Common Goldeneye by its completely yellow bill), and the White-Winged Scoter (Brown with white patches near the tail, as well as a funky shaped Bill). We were excited to see several Common Goldeneye with the Barrow's. The Tri-Colored Heron was nowhere to be found, but we took a nice little walk along the beach anyway, before heading home.

As we walked along the beach, the cold breeze blew over the water, creating small breakers that rolled gently to the shore in series. On the other side of the Sea, storm clouds billowed over the mountains, and the sun was setting into them. It turned the furthest clouds a furious orangey-pink, and it looked like the gods were stoking their hearth-fires. The wild plants, tall reeds and short grasses, turned grayer as the light dimmed, and they rustled calmly. I was very happy at that moment: my wife and I surrounded by a very wild, beautiful place.

It was a good trip, and we had a whole lot of fun. Now Libby's sick, though, and I'm back at work. Such is life! This is an incredibly long post. If you read it all, good for you. I'll probably edit it down and add pictures tomorrow.

Hey, look, I'm posting! Is that amazing or what? You can all clap now.

Every once in a while, I get to sub in a classroom with internet access and a free period. Such is the case today. So here I am.

Today was 8th grade science. Hour and 20 minute block periods. Lab day. They only broke 3 graduated cylinders. I survived; they all survived. All things considered, I think it went pretty well. I'll be back here doing the same lab tomorrow for the even periods. Hopefully we won't have any more broken glass.

In other news, today is January 12...we're exactly two months into marriage, and loving it.

We're almost to the end of our current book, The Wizard of Oz. It's a good story, well written, funny, and has great characters; we really like it!

Also, Jonathan's birthday is in just 10 days! Think of something nice to do for him. :-)

Ok, that's all; bye.

Libby sure hasn't posted here in awhile. That's because we don't have internet at the aparment. The problem is that we can't get DSL, and there is only one phone jack in the room. So we've been using the internet provided by the closest Diedrich's to us, and that's about 15 minutes away.

Here's a news-post to update you on all of our happenings.

First, we are very happy. We love each other very, very much and are finding that getting married was a perfect decision. Our love has been able to grow so much deeper, and our bond is tighter than ever. Commitment really is the food of love.

Second, last week we got to spend almost all of our time together because we both had the week off. So, what did we do? Well, we spent time with family, birded, and hung around the apartment. We bought ourselves a spotting scope for Christmas, and on Wednesay we took it up to Big Bear to see the Bald Eagles that live there. We were lucky enough to see three of them: two mature eagles and one juvenile. The juvenile got attacked by one of the adults, which was great fun to watch. Anytime birds with a seven + foot wingspan start an aerial dogfight it's something pretty wild and wooly. The juvenile actually turned over on its back mid-flight to meet the mature eagle's talons, and they tumbled through the treetops until they broke apart and flew off in different directions. It all happened very fast. After that, we were able to find the mature pair's snag, and spent an hour or so watching them.

Thirdly, we've been reading books together. The Phantom of the Opera is an interesting novel. Its prose is pretty intensely written, with a lot of very dramatic descriptions. And sometimes things will happen really fast and then everybody will start crying (in the book). It was pretty thrilling, sort of a pre-cursor to movies or books like The Silence of the Lambs. There's an evil, ugly psycho genius and he just wants to be loved! My review: 3 stars out of five. It's not a great book, but it does give you a thrill. It's effective insofar it is what it is, and the end is obviously heavily Christian. But I'm still up in the air with how comfortable with it I am. Tonight Libby and I are planning on watching the movie again.

Fifthly, our first Christmas was very nice. :-)

An interesting read from the Wall Street Journal:

Goodbye, West

I think that he underestimates the power of education and the ideas of Western civilization. Therefore, I find this closing paragraph especially interesting, because it's the closest he comes to addressing it.

Since the president unveiled the so-called Bush Doctrine--the plan to promote liberty throughout the Arab world--innumerable "progressives" have routinely asserted that there's no evidence Muslims want liberty and, indeed, that Islam is incompatible with democracy. If that's true, it's a problem not for the Middle East today but for Europe the day after tomorrow. According to a poll taken in 2004, over 60% of British Muslims want to live under Shariah--in the United Kingdom. If a population "at odds with the modern world" is the fastest-breeding group on the planet--if there are more Muslim nations, more fundamentalist Muslims within those nations, more and more Muslims within non-Muslim nations, and more and more Muslims represented in more and more transnational institutions--how safe a bet is the survival of the "modern world"?

I wouldn't have guessed that so many Muslims would have wanted to live in Shariah after enjoying the liberties of the United Kingdom.

Arguments such as the one above can be used to support very caloused and unloving policies toward the poor. What is the role of the Church in balancing this potential short-falling?

Merry Christmas!

I learned I am illiterate in regard to California history today.

The creators of West Wing gave California's past a nod by naming the president in their show "Jed Bartlet." Puzzled? So would I be! I mean, I watched the show and I learned California history in elementary school, but I still didn't get it. It's kind of embarrassing.

Perhaps you didn't know that California's flag was supposed to have a pear on it?

Check this out!"

Historiography via Jack Chick:

There are only two ways in which world history can be explained:

1. The accidental theory. All events, such as those world depressions, revolutions, wars and political plots are the results of pure chance. Such a view is as ridiculous as belief in evolution!

2. The conspiratorial theory. World events such as mentioned above, take place because some influential people want them to happen and make them happen. People with power meet behind closed doors and work out plans to achieve their aims. The most precise way to describe such conduct is - conspiracy.

To us, the conspiratorial theory makes far more sense than the accidental theory. The conspiracy claims Rivera has made are by no means extreme and paranoid. Indeed, many respected and thorough researchers have, after many years of painstaking research, come to the conclusion that there is a conspiracy at work which desires to control the world by controlling the banks, commerce and the media.

And I need not mention to students of the Bible, the accidental theory contradicts the entire theme of the Bible, not to mention large portions of Bible prophecy.

Wow... See what you can do with exhaustive dilemmas? You can find truth!

Monday Birding Post:

So, there've been two bald eagles (it appears) sighted in Orange County in recent days. Since Libby and I love to look at cool/rare birds, and this is a very cool/rare bird, we took a track to where one's been seen the most: Yorba Park in Anaheim. Yorba Park is right along the Santa Ana River, where it runs along the 91. It's near where Imperial hits the 91.

Anyway, we dropped by Saturday morning, but we didn't see it. That's unfortunate, as it had been seen Thursday, Friday, Sunday and Monday mornings. Gee whiz, you would think it was wild!

We did see some cool birds, though. And then we went to the Newport Back Bay and saw more cool birds.

Highlights?

Yorba Park:

1. The river and lakes in the park are full of fun birds. Coots, Cinnamon Teal, Blue-winged Teals, Canada Geese, Wood Ducks (second most colorful duck in the world), American Wigeons, etc...

2. Among the ducks we saw Redheads, which were lifers. Redheads are ducks with red heads. They're diving ducks, and seemed to like sleeping or diving best. "Hey, is that a redhead?"
"I can't tell, it's got its head shoved under its wing!"
"Oh, is that a redhead?"
"Where?"
"I don't know, it was there a second ago."

3. A mountain chickadee was chilling with a flock of bushtits. That's a rarity!

4. Juncos and blue-birds also resided in the park, which is fun.

Newport:

Newport's a bit of a drive, but it was serene and beautiful as always. I really like the back bay. This trip brought us to the preserve at low tide, which is both good and bad. The mud flats smelled pretty bad, and it was impossible to identify the peeps that were feeding out on the fringes of the mud without a spotting scope.

Highlights of that trip:

1. Green-winged teals, which were new to us. For some reason we had never seen them before, although they were very common this trip. They're very pretty ducks, with the cinnamon and green contrasting interestingly. I suppose their face is almost Christmasy. The colors are much richer than this picture can show, when you see them in the wild.

2. There was a flock of black skimmers sitting on a mud flat, along with a couple of Caspian Terns. The terns black masks are shrinking, which is an interesting point of variety from normal.

3. Last, but certainly not least, we were peering into some wigeons near the parking lot on Back Bay Drive, when we noticed that among them was a bird with a red head. Was it a Redhead? No. Was it a Green-winged Teal? No. It was a wigeon. Which makes it either a Eurasian Wigeon or a Eurasian Wigeon/American Wigeon hybrid. And that was the bird of the day!


Here's a Eurasian Wigeon (front) with an American Wigeon (back). American wigeons are very common. Eurasian Wigeons not so much. We kept clear of him, since, as an Asian stray, he probably has bird flu.

This was our first trip birding since the honeymoon, and it was fun to see the diversity of God's creation so brilliantly displayed. Especially, since all of the new birds we saw were ducks. And ducks are really exciting!

After birding we saw The Chronicles of Narnia. It was a good movie.

There was an interesting article linked on Arts and Letters Daily I thought I'd bring attention to. How Christianity and Capitalism Led to Science.

Rodney Stark, a professor of history at Baylor in Texas, argues that it is Christianity's embracement of reason that led to the rise of capitalism. And, Stark argues, it is Capitalism that led to the primacy of the West. So, it is Christianity's scholastic attitudes that are actually responsible for the West's successes. This thesis opposes the famous thesis by Weber (thoroughly debunked here and elsewhere, even by the likes of Henri Pirenne [a very famous historian]) that Protestantism, specifically, gave rise to Captalism. It also opposes the common lies that Christianity and its faith suppressed reason and science, leading to a long Dark Age.

Unfortunately, this is not a scholarly article, and so it is not well sourced. Nevertheless, it's a lot of fun to read, and I think that everyone can enjoy it.

And here's a little twist of irony: Stark quotes Tertullian in arguing for Christianity's embracement of religion, without comment or footnote!

As Quintus Tertullian instructed in the second century, "Reason is a thing of God, inasmuch as there is nothing which God the Maker of all has not provided, disposed, ordained by reason — nothing which He has not willed should be handled and understood by reason."

Strange, huh?

Ta ta for now!

December 7, 1941



"A date which will live in infamy"

Libby and I did what we could to decorate for Christmas this year. Here's our first Christmas tree. You can also see that we put Christmas lights on our hutch.

I got the tree while she was at a bridal shower on Saturday, so she got to come home to see it in its sparkling splendor (we did the decorating together, though, since that's part of the fun). It's nice to start our own Christmas traditions together and forge our own unique form of family Christmas spirit! It helps that we are both very fond of Christmas.

Although, as I think about it, it's not as if we are going about attempting to begin holiday traditions, we just do what we want. If it happens again: that's a tradition, right? Decorating was a fairly big deal at our house growing up. It was always fun to look at all the different ornaments as we put them on the tree. But that sort of thing won't be very remarkable until we've got a bit more time under our belt!

Our tree is alive, and is a stone pine. It is less fragrant than I would have hoped, and quite a bit more expensive than I would have hoped, as well. Nevertheless, it is Christmas. And we must have a tree. And it must be a live tree. After all, fake trees aren't really trees. They just look like them. Libby and I will have the real article.

Other Christmas spirit beginnings of the weekend: planning gifts for everybody and going to Torrey Music's Christmas concert. The concert was fun, but I do wish that some of the singers would have smiled more. Some of them just looked plain sad!

This is what our tree looks like when it's dark.



Now I see through a camera darkly... but later we'll turn on the flash.

Hey Folks!

Some news:

1. I added 50 more pictures to the link above after I posted. there are now more than 130 pictures of the wedding on-line. If I receive more I will post those also.

2. Libby and I are madly in love, contributing to a happy married environment.

3. Libby is now Libby Rowley! She went to the social security office yesterday.

4. It has not yet rained today, and they said on Weather.com that there was a 90% chance. After nailing this summer's weather spot-on, they are about to lose they had collected from me.

5. Last night Libby and I went to this cool restaurant (it's quite near our house). It's quite a bit more expensive than we're used to, but we figure it's ok every once in awhile. It has a beautiful interior, as well as exterior with friendly hosts and a pleasant atmosphere, aided by several fireplaces and a live pianist!

6. This article is fun. Michael Nielson writes a spirited defense of C.S. Lewis against a famous English children's book author: Philip Pullman. I've never heard of Philip Pullman, but he's written very popular children's books in England. His books are called His Dark Materials and won a bunch of awards. Here's what Nielson is responding to:

Pullman has described The Chronicles not just as "propaganda in the cause of the religion [Lewis] believed in," but also as guilty of advancing views such as, "Death is better than life; boys are better than girls; light-colored people are better than dark-colored people; and so on." And those are just Pullman's G-rated charges. He also has blasted The Chronicles in public forums as "one of the most ugly and poisonous things I've ever read," "propaganda in the service of a life-hating ideology," "blatantly racist," "monumentally disparaging of girls and women," and marked by a "sadomasochistic relish for violence."

Holy Moly! Anyway, I thought the article was fun, I hope you do, too.

7. The End.

Well, I gathered a bunch of pictures and have put 88 of them on-line using Shutterfly. Our shutterfly can be reached through this link!

This isn't all the pictures that I have of the wedding, but it's the amount I could upload during lunch today. Turns out it takes a long time to do that, and I was having some trouble with some of the files.

Anyway, enjoy the view.

Hellllooooooooo, Nurse!


At long last, the wonderful goodness of all television wonderful goodnesses is coming to your living room, on demand, whenever you want, with no commercials!

That's right! The Animaniacs is finally going to be released on DVD.

HUZZAH!

Marriage is great!

The wedding was great! Libby was the most beautiful bride ever.

The honeymoon also was great! Catalina is an intersting island, and Avalon is a charming city.

We are now home and happy.

I don't know when or if any pictures will end up on-line because I wasn't taking any. Becca, our parents and my grandfather all took digital pictures at the wedding. If you want to see pictures, you will have to ask them, because Libby and I were a little too occupied to take pictures.

Also, Emily (Emily is my new sister-in-law!) has posted some pictures.

Our photographer shot film, so we won't be putting up the official photos any time soon.

Tomorrow's the BIG DAY.

And there was much rejoicing.

:-D

THREE DAYS

Another Monday Not-Birding Post

I should probably post. Otherwise, it is possible that a very very long time will pass, without any posting getting done. And that is just unaccceptable!

I am no longer a neandrathal. I finished Pride and Prejudice last week. I am also, unfortunately, unable to sneer at it as boring. It's not, actually. I repent! And I eat my hat! And now Libby has to go and see the movie with me, or I shall burst!

Great book. The girls are incredibly marriage-crazy, though. Wow! Also, what a life to live, to be so amazingly and incredibly wealthy! The minimum expectation for the people in that book is that you are independently wealthy. Which is a pretty freaking high expectation.

America and the American life-style (work hard for what you get, by gum!) is better, I think. Not that I would mind being independently wealthy, of course.

Do you like how I read the book and am only commenting on its surface features?

Me, too.

We've begun moving Libby's stuff into the apartment (our apartment, though she does not yet live there)(Because we're not married yet!). On Friday we went to the Old Orange County courthouse to get our marriage license. It's a lot further than Norwalk for Biola couples, but I would recommend it because it's actually beautiful, and if you go upstairs there's an old courtroom preserved that you can pretend you're a judge in. Also: in Orange County you don't have to wait to get an hour to get your certificate, they give it to you right away!

Libby and I decided not to pay the extra $28 to get married right there right then. It seemed a little costy. (ha ha!)

Um... Oh... Libby now can totally use my bank account, making it our bank account. Can I refer to our bank account as my bank account? Assuming of course, that she can refer to our bank account as "my" bank account (from her perspective)? It seems fair, sort of, but that "our" will be lonely.

Um...

Five Days!

That is all.

10 DAYS

This is a funny comic. In general, but also specifically the one to which I'm linking here. This particular comic strip made me laugh.

Pearls Before Swine

I hope that you can enjoy it, too.

In his blog, "That's Debateable," Jonathan Bryan has argued that faith is not a kind of knowledge. In doing so he has inevitably come up against the great St. Thomas Aquinas. Agreeably, he has taken this disagreement seriously and dialogued a little with the past Saint.

I'll take St. Thomas' part here and try to show how his criticism fails due to an incomplete understanding of St. Thomas' position: with the hopeful result of Mr. Bryan's further research into this great Saint, who is one of my most favourite thinkers.

Suppose I claim to have “faith” that Calvinism is incorrect? If faith is a way of “knowing independent of reason” then it is impossible to have faith in something that is untrue. The local Calvinist, therefore, will have to believe that I don’t really have faith that Calvinism is incorrect. I must be mistaking faith for something else. But how will he convince me of this? He could not use his faith in Calvinism and pit it against mine. How could we know which of our faiths were genuine? The only thing he could do is use reasoning to try and show that my disbelief in Calvinism is incorrect. If he is successful, I shall have to conclude that my faith wasn’t real (since it is impossible for the truth known by reason and the truth known by faith to contradict, since they are both truth.) But what good then is faith? If the only way to tell whether it is genuine or not if to see if it holds up to reason, what’s the good of having it at all?

What is meant by "use reasoning to try and show that my disbelief in Calvinism is correct?" I take this to mean that, since faith is knowledge independent of reason, than if reason is introduced than the faith ceases to be faith. And that's a delightful idea, to see what we now hold by faith. But, I think you and St. Thomas don't agree on what "knowledge independent of reason" is. (See "whether sacred doctrine is a science").

St. Thomas would say reason is an important tool that we use to understand the mysteries of God. The difference between that which we hold through faith and that which we understand through reason is that the initial propositions are either common or revealed. Reason from data common to all man (either innate or sensed) = philosophy. Reason from data given by God through direct and special revelation (the Bible or the teachings of the Church to Aquinas) = theology. These are first held on faith, which first has to come through the grace of God. St. Thomas doesn't use his terms very rigidly in that first book of the Summa that I linked to above, so be warned! To clarify in modern terms: Biblical theology would be the study of God through revelation and philosophical theology would be the study of God through common means (presuppositionalists, of course, abstaining).

Aquinas has metaphysical reasons for thinking that you cannot know anything much about God without revelation: that the forms of the heavenly things cannot be apprehended unless the knower is graciously expanded by God himself.

So you and the Calvinist can argue, but it's probably going to have to happen using Holy Scripture.

Substitute teaching. One day you're explaining to 6th graders how to convert a fraction into a decimal, and the next day you're playing with play-dough, making construction paper cats and having fish crackers and apple juice with preschoolers. I tell ya, it doesn't get boring.

Here's looking at you, kid!



Yep.

Funny..

I thought something else was happening on November 12th.

Tennyson's Idylls and the Weird Battle of the West


And Arthur said, 'Behold, thy doom is mine.
Let chance what will, I love thee to the death!'
To whom the Queen replied with drooping eyes,
'King and my lord, I love thee to the death!'
And holy Dubric spread his hands and spake,
'Reign ye, and live and love, and make the world
Other, and may thy Queen be one with thee,
And all this Order of thy Table Round
Fulfil the boundless purpose of their King!'

I recently finished reading most of the Idylls of the King. I say most of because my Norton Critical Edition of his poetry comes lacking four of the Idylls. I find that annoying. It doesn't have "Gareth and Lynette," "The Marriage of Geraint," "Geraint and Enid," and "Balin and Balan." That's a lot of the book! The editor apologizes, excusing himself on the basis of economic need. As this is a volume interested in presenting the work of Tennyson with a focus on his thoughts, and not on the works for their own sake, that can be understood. Nevertheless, the necessity is tragic.

I am very fond of Tennyson's poetry, and reading it was a great adventure. I first took it off the shelf because Laura Ingalls Wilder recalls reading the Lotus Eaters when she was a young girl in one of the Little House books. I kept reading it because he wrote about King Arthur. I love the stories of King Arthur, and Le Morte D' Arthur was really an amazing book (well, the Senegral was).

Anyway, I have come to very much enjoy reading Tennyson. In some ways, the Idylls read to me (especially the first and last) as if they were another attempt at English epic poetry. The Arthur stories would be a good source, but even by the time of Tennyson that age was long past. In another way, Tennyson is fascinating because he plugs the gap for me (somewhat) between the late Romantics and T.S. Elliot. He was still young when Lord Byron died, an event that so impressed itself upon his person that he went out into the moors and scratched on a rock with a knife: "Byron is dead", and so is another age after this age with which I personally am very familiar. The Idylls were finished in the 1870s, and there is interesting poetry still between Elliott and the 1870s, but it still fills in a bit of my unfinished education.

The editors in the critical edition draw heavily from notes by Tennyson about the allegorical purpose of the Idylls. In this way, the more interesting Idylls are clearly the later ones, for in the later Idylls Tennyson meditates on the rise of materialism, darwinism, and the decline of Christianity and idealism. In one way, the death of Arthur and the destruction of the Round Table is seen to be the destruction of an age of high idealism. The table is a group of knights that are all besworn to high purposes, and must keep them. But the sin of Lancelot and Guinevere (shown in this account to be an explicit denial not only of traditional and proper morality, but of the very table and nation's order as well) drives a wedge into the integrity of the table.

This turns out to be very pessimistic. Can any ideal be perfectly kept? Is there room for grace?

There is room for grace, but it won't necessarily keep us from the terrible consequences of our sin here. Arthur shows us the image of grace when he forgives Guinevere in the abbey to which she's run after the affair's found out by Modred. The Idyll "Guinevere" tells of the disollution of the Round Table in civil war between Lancelot and Arthur and then Arthur and Modred, through her eyes, from a distance and only second hand. But the Idyll ends with Arthur coming in through the gate of her abbey and forgiving her, urging her to repent so that they can be reunited in heaven, and going off foreknowingly to his death.

Justice is kept in the war with Lancelot, but grace is granted to Guinevere. I am not sure that I understand the implications of that.

I especially like that Idyll because it's got some great descriptive poetry. For example, there are these lines that follow Arthur's forgiveness of Guinevere. Guinevere has been lying on the floor, too ashamed to look at Arthur, during his speech to her. Now he is leaving, having blessed her. She hasn't even seen him yet.

Then, listening till those armed steps were gone,
Rose the pale Queen, and in her anguish found
The casement: "peradventure," so she thought,
"If I might see his face, and not be seen."
And lo, he sat on horseback at the door!
And near him the sad nuns with each a light
Stood, and he gave them charge about the Queen,
To guard and to foster her for evermore.
And while he spake to these his helm was lower'd,
To which for crest the golden dragon clung
Of Britain; so she did not see the face,
Which then was as an angel's, but she saw,
Wet with mists and smitten by the lights,
The Dragon of the great Pendragonship
Blaze, making all the night a steam of fire.
And even then he turn'd; and more and more
The moony vapor rolling round the king,
Who seem'd the phantom of a giant in it,
Enwound him fold by fold, and made him gray
And grayer, till himself became as mist
Before her, moving ghostlike to his doom.

Doesn't that make you shiver? The martyr is going to his death, leaving this world forever, but Tennyson thinks, finding a better one yet. And then, he'll come back. To which I can only say, the sooner the better.

Does the poem have a practical application (Torrey's so habituated me to ask)? The question to me is this: What do we do when Arthur dies?

That's what Sir Bedivire wondered, too, being the lone Knight of the Round Table left.

"Ah! My Arthur, wither shall I go?
Where shall I hide my forehead and my eyes?
For now I see the true old times are dead,
When every morning brought a noble chance,
And every chance brought out a noble knight.
Such times have been not since the light
That led the holy Elders with the gift of myrrh.
But now the whole Round Table is dissolved
Which was an image of the might world'
And I, the last, go forth companionless,
And the days darken round me, and the years,
Among new men, strange faces, other minds."

Arthur answers him from the barge that's taking him to Avalon:

"The old order changeth yielding place to new,
And God fulfils himself in many ways,
Lest one good custom should corrupt the world.
Comfort thyself; what comforth is in me?
I have lived my life, and that which I have done
May He within himself make pure! But thou,
If thou shouldst never see my face again,
Pray for my soul. More things are wrought by prayer
Than this world dreams of. Wherefore, let thy voice
Rise like a fountain for me night and day.
For what are men etter than sheep or goats
That nourish a blind life within the brain,
If, knowing God, they lift not hands of prayer
Both for themselves and those who call them friend?

I believe we are now firmly within that era which is ushered in by the death of Arthur, though the paynims are not yet finished with their plunder. As the last rays of the west illumine the beautiful creations of the west, those that are left and are faithful must still pray. Here's the interesting thing about what Arthur says, he doesn't condemn outright the inevitable new pagan order. Arthur says, God's going to show himself differently now, also.. pray! So, as the Christian era goes out and the new materialism comes in (so perfectly inevitably) we should pray. Good, but I think they should also fulfill their vows, and maybe, just maybe it is Tolkien who is right, not Tennyson.

Let me explain what I mean:

An interesting question that this brought up in my mind, also, was the relation between Tolkien, Lewis and Tennyson. Tennyson of course predated them by many years, and the critics were very harsh on him during their formative years, but it seems difficult for me to imagine that this work did not have a very strong impact on both of their writing, because they are interested in myth and fairy stories. And the spirit of Tennyson's Idylls reminds me of the spirit of some of their storiers some what. But most of all, I wonder about Tolkien. Here we have a king going off into the myst to fight a final deadly battle (a pyrrhic victory) in the West. Arthur's lost is parralleled by Aragorn's victory. Is the mind of Tolkien, being more Christian, thus more optomistic? Is Tolkien, in part, penning the Lord of the Rings as a literary reply to Tennyson's work?

I wish that Tolkien had wrote in an epic style of blank verse, because it really is enjoyable to read. Not that I mind his prose, though. I really do like it.

Anyway, if anybody knows of any papers that treat on this subject, let me know, I'm curious.