Flickr Updated

I put up our pictures from Mammoth onto our Flickr account. Or, at least, I put up as many as I could. Check out the Mammoth set.

We had a lot of fun on our trip. We got to see a lot of family. Bill, Becca, Grandma and Grandpa Rowley were all staying at the cabin with us. Also, we made a couple of trips over to Willow Springs to see Grandma Brown. It was good times.

Helpful

This article does a good job of casting light on the debate raging regarding homosexual marriage: it's not always about hate. It is about preserving something valued.

Richard Thompson Ford is the author of Hate and Marriage, published in Slate Magazine.

Happenings

Two weeks ago, Libby and I put up a hummingbird feeder in our backyard. It was a gracious gift from my parents, and we definitely appreciate it very much. Libby and I put it on the window by our dining room table, so that we can watch them while we eat. It took them about 24 hours to find it, but it seems that it's become a regular fixture in their life.

This weekend, things have gotten really shooken up in hummingbird land, though. A pair of Allen's hummingbirds (apparently migrating South for the winter - I've read they begin to do so slowly during the early summer)have set up a territory that includes the feeder, automatically excluding our more persistant companions of two weeks - three companionable Anna's hummingbirds.

It's fascinating because the Anna's don't have a dominant male. They were all cooperating pretty well, taking turns at the fountain (not that they ever drank simultaneously). The Allens' won't have anybody even in our backyard. They've taken up residence on the avocado tree and chase the others if they even come into our backyard at all. It's almost sad because there's more than enough for all of them.

We've also put up a thistle sack feeder to attract goldfinches, but no luck so far.

Oh, and we've got a little house sparrow chirping just outside our backdoor. It's only got a fuzzy covering of dark brown feathers and is basically a very ugly little tyke. I took a couple of pictures, and I may post them here.

It's nice to have a backyard.

If we lived in North Carolina...

...maybe we'd buy this house. And then we'd have to have a bunch of kids to fill it up; it's huge!

Happy Birthday!

Today is Libby's birthday!

Many happy returns!

Idyllwild

Last weekend Eric came out from Illinois, so a group of guys and I went up to Idyllwild for a couple of days. It was an interesting trip, involving unfortunate (and unwarranted) conflicts with law enforcment, a good hike, and some good time talking and laughing around a fire. Oh, and thank God that high elevation lowers the temperature!

I've posted some of the pictures I took on my Flickr account. You can check it out here.

Nostalgic Aches

The world's natural beauty is very powerfully effective, I believe, on a soul receptive to its influence. Such a receptiveness is generally a habitual turn towards beauty somehow achieved in childhod - not that it could not come later in life. I believe that my upbringing has been such as to produce within my own soul a certain aptitude towards the receipt of certain manners of worldly splendor perhaps surpassing other men's. In my case, the education has all been familial, and through the repitious enjoyment of the same sets of alpine beauty again and again under the guidance and from within the sphere of my family, I have come to love the Sierra Nevada with a love I think rightly in accord with its merits. It is there I am most truly at home - though I cannot express exactly in what sense I feel so strongly that I am home. It is not the sense that I feel at home with my wife, in our house. The feeling is different, and I am not sure how. I believe the Romantics are tapping into this feeling (the Lake District of England being for them my Sierras). Therefore I refer the reader to the words of William Wordsworth, who expresses so much more excellently than me, this very feeling in the opening of his Prelude.

OH there is blessing in this gentle breeze,
A visitant that while it fans my cheek
Doth seem half-conscious of the joy it brings
From the green fields, and from yon azure sky.
Whate'er its mission, the soft breeze can come
To none more grateful than to me; escaped
From the vast city, where I long had pined
A discontented sojourner: now free,
Free as a bird to settle where I will.
What dwelling shall receive me? in what vale 10
Shall be my harbour? underneath what grove
Shall I take up my home? and what clear stream
Shall with its murmur lull me into rest?
The earth is all before me.

In all of my senses of enjoyment encompassed by the Sierras, this feeling of release now is coming to predominate. But, as a child, it was of course, never the most powerful influence. I think the pleasure is the sweeter, thereby, for the splendor of the beauty of the world is the more sweetly and unknowingly enjoyed by a child because of his relative freedom of situation.

As with anything loved which is separated from us by space or time, any small reminder may bring crashing into one's mind a thousand pleasant memories and thoughts - pleasant and joyous in themselves - but pained by the coloring of nostalgia that necessarily arises (as bile at a distasteful scene) when the fact of its distance impresses itself powerfully and fully upon us. Such has been my lot today, when I found a stranger's Flickr account, completely by chance, on the internet. There are many beautiful photographs in the link I am putting below filled with pictures of places that I have been, or would visit, portrayed in all of their most spectacular glory. Therefore, I recommend them to you all.

A Stranger's Flickr Account

I spent two nights at Pioneer Basin on a backpack trip, once. Mono Lake I have seen innumerable times, and it is special because of how close it is to where I proposed, as well. I've never been over Pine Creek Pass, but the lakes he shows are typical of the kind of lake ornamenting the craggy back country of the High Sierra.

I also recommend to you this other Wordsworth poem - Daffodils. It comments on the restorative power of memory as an intercessor between us and the object of our love.

The Daffodils
By William Wordsworth

I wandered lonely as a cloud
That floats on high o’er vales and hills,
When all at once I saw a crowd,
A host, of golden daffodils;
Beside the lake, beneath the trees,
Fluttering and dancing in the breeze.

Continuous as the stars that shine
And twinkle on the milky way,
They stretched in never-ending line
Along the margin of a bay:
Ten thousand saw I at a glance,
Tossing their heads in sprightly dance.

The waves beside them danced; but they
Out-did the sparkling waves in glee:
A poet could not but be gay,
In such a jocund company:
I gazed–and gazed–but little thought
What wealth the show to me had brought:

For oft, when on my couch I lie
In vacant or in pensive mood,
They flash upon that inward eye
Which is the bliss of solitude;
And then my heart with pleasure fills,
And dances with the daffodils.

I think he may overstate memory's power, personally, but he has immortalized forever a powerful truth - one that we may all use to our advantage.

Superman Movies

Are you interested in Superman?

Try Jesus.

Last Wednesday evening, Libby and I went and saw the new Superman movie. That Friday, urged to super speed by an impending power outage, we ducked into the Biola library and picked up Superman: The Movie and Superman II for our weekend enjoyment.

I liked Superman Returns and Superman II the best of the three. Superman I's plot didn't feel cohesive or compelling. It also seemed to bite off far too much for one movie. Not only does Kal-El forewarn Krypton of its coming peril, and sentence some of its citizens to eternal torment, Superman comes to earth and grows up in Smallville, he has to save California from falling off the face of the earth and fall in love with/ inspire love in Lois Lane. That would be an accomplishment for any superhero, even the mightiest, and it turns out Superman has to make the world spin backwards to do it (that makes time go backwards?).

I'm still not sure whether or not I like Superman II or Superman Returns best of the three that we viewed this weekend. Superman II was pretty exciting, and the characterization was pretty great. Superman Returns uses computer graphics to have Superman do some pretty breathtakingly awesome things. There are some goose-bump raising "Oh man!" moments in that movie, for certain. Oh yeah, I also liked the plot.

Ok, now back to my main point - how Jesus is better than Superman. Superman Returns gains interest from its compelling questioning. Superman leaves Metropolis (and earth) for five years to see his home planet of Krypton. I'm not sure how he got there, but he came back in a pointy meteorite/ Kryptonian space ship, same as before. In the meantime, Lois Lane writes a Pulitzer Prize winning piece entitled "Why the World Doesn't Need Superman." This is how she deals with the loss of the love of her life. Superman has to answer that question for all of us - why do we need a savior? Why can't we just take care of ourselves?

Throughout the movie (and the previous movies) Superman is parralleled explicitly to Jesus. He begins his ministry at the age of 30 in the first movie. His father sends him to earth to be a light in the darkness (Brando's voice is recycled in the new flick). Though Luthor's evil envelops him, the darkness does not overwhelm him. Superman Returns features Superman falling away from a meteorite - his arms spread in a cruciform pattern.

So, the question of "Why do we need a savior?" is tied into the very question that Christians are having to answer for the world all the time.

Singer, the director of the new movie, seems to answer it this way: we are all weak, and we need the help of others to overcome our own inadequacies. Where one is weak, another may be strong, and this will hold the whole system together in an ever progressing goodness. Superman himself needs help during the movie from mere mortals.

This is all a load of huey - because whatever flaw humanity has, we all seem to have our share in it (though unequal). Jesus does not. Therefore, our relationship to Jesus must be wholly and completely one sided. Whatever we bring to him he does not need, though it does not follow it would not please him.

Therefore, Jesus is more super than Superman - even though his physical body was as weak as ours.

Update

Well, life has been pretty busy for us in Rowley world.

This weekend we moved! We now share a house with Adam and Jessica Snell and their two children: Brigid and Sam. They have a blog if you're interested: adamjess.blogspot.com.

Generally those I've told of this plan thus far have expressed amazment. Here's why we would make this kind of move.

1) Apt. 92, Summerwood, was too small to live in for very long. We were there for 7 months together, and I lived there for about 10 months in all. It was slowly being crammed more and more full of things. We were always planning on moving this summer, as it was when it would stress Libby the least.

2) We preferred to live close enough to Biola to not need a car. I am now walking to work, saving on gas, insurance, and maintenance for a second vehicle - ours broke down in March and we are not replacing it, yet.

3) The house is very well suited for two families. It is split in the middle by the kitchen. The bedrooms are on opposite sides of the house. There is privacy if you want it!

4) We've thought living in a house would be nice. We like the yard and the neighborhood. We go for walks at night, now. It's amazing. House rent is too much, however, unless we share (this being Southern California).

5) Honestly, Libby and I are antisocial enough to feel that this kind of move would be a positive experience. It is going to force us into a situation where we must love our neighbors, daily. It's been a consistent prayer that we do so well, and I pray God also gives us such grace in the loving that we grow much closer to him because of it.

There are a few of the positive reasons that we reviewed before moving into the house. We are loving it so far! It's such a delight to sit out in the cool backyard as the (two) stars twinkle above and talk. It reminds us of when we were dating, and I lived in a house. We loved going for walks, reading and talking in the backyard. It's great to be able to do that, again!

The house is still full of boxes, however. We're working our way through those, slowly, and getting settled.

So far, I've seen lots of birds in the backyard, too!

Northern Mockingbird
House Sparrow
House Finch
Lesser Goldfinch (flyover)
Great-Tailed Grackle (flyover)
Accipiter species (?)
American Crow
Allen's Hummingbird
Anna's Hummingbird

That's in three short days. I expect to see band-tailed pigeons, Western Bluebirds (we saw some in the yard across the street when we visited the house), Black Pheobes, and Mourning Doves, at least. There may be orioles occasionally, too. There's a park really nearby that has lots of birds in it. Although that park is going to be turned into a water park this year. There won't be quite so many birds, then.

This Is My Father's World

"This is my Father's world,
O let me ne'er forget
that though the wrong seems oft so strong,
God is the ruler yet.
This is my Father's world:
the battle is not done,
Jesus, who died, shall be satisfied,
and earth and heaven be one."

And the Church is my Father's as well. He is not caught off-guard by recent decisions. He remains the Ruler of all. May He have mercy.

These two sites are good for keeping updated on the situation.

The End of Marriage?

Here's an article from the Weekly Standard regarding the coming polygamist controversy that will soon enter our courts (right after the gay marriage controversy is resolved).

I highly recommend it:

Polygamy Versus Democracy

Mrs. Rowley: 5th Grade Teacher

Thanks for your prayers: the job search is ended, and it wasn't even that painful. It actually all happened really quickly. My application for Calvary Christian School in Santa Ana went out in the mail on Monday, they reviewed it on Tuesday, interviewed me on Wednesday, and had me come teach a lesson on Thursday (today) so that they could observe me. And then they offered me the job! So, come September, I'll be teaching 5th grade!

*whew*

I Guess I Should Say Something

It's been an awful long time since I've posted on here. That's because I've been so busy student teaching. But not anymore! You can pray that I get a teaching job for the fall.

That's all.

Strauss Explained

My University experience was largely dominated by a program that was founded by an academic whose vocational pedigree is descended from Leo Strauss. The founder of the Torrey Honors Institute was taught by someone who was taught by Strauss. Strauss is not a mandated reading, however, in any of our standard curriculum. He is only used as a secondary source in highly specialized Plato classes. I never took one of those classes (the beauty of the medieval synthesis drawing me into other areas of study), so I have never read a book by Strauss.

Nevertheless, the description by this article - The Demonization of Strauss from the New York Sun - strikes me as likely correct. This is because my honor's program's main goal was to teach us to read and think critically: the methods described in this article as Strauss's methods were methods that I learned in that program. In short, the shoe fits.

Therefore, though I am generally skeptical when someone throws out the term "anti-semitic" within an intellectual debate, I feel that this article provides some warrant to that accusation. The accusations directed in Strauss' (and his descendant's) direction really do seem blindly hateful.

New Sidebar Link

I added a birding section and a link to Rare Birds.com over on the side bar. Rare birds is pretty neat, it integrates a whole bunch (all?) of the Rare Bird listings on the internet with Google maps. And then it organizes it on the home page in a few creative ways. It lists most common rare birds, and new rare species. I keep track of the new species just in case something really cool pops up somewhere.

Common rare birds: that's funny.

It also has a feature users can use to post their own sightings, and to pin point that sighting exactly on the map. That's neat, but it's not edited at any level (that I can tell) and so the only Southern California posting someone's made is of the quite common Townsend's warbler. Nonetheless, there's a lot of potential there.

Interesting

Did you know that the most popular de-bunking site for the Da Vinci Code is run by Sony Pictures? Read about their marketing here. I'm not sure what to make of it.

Craig Detweiler, a professor at Biola, is quoted in it. He has been published on the website, saying something fairly questionable about why Catholics are more offended than Protestants by the book's ideas (woman priesthood).

My opinion would be this: it is unfortunate that the Church is being used as an instrument against its true purpose. The Church exists to glorify God, not to make money for Sony.

I suppose the other side of the argument would be that it is the other way around, Sony is being used to bring glory to God despite itself. Ultimately, however, I think that the world would be better off without Dan Brown's book and (thus by extension) this movie. From what I've heard, the book's quality is beneath recommendation on a literary level, and its historical accuracy is certainly not well researched. What value is left?

My Hero: Josh Allan

Written May 12, 2006.

One of my good friends from high school is Josh Allan. He was in my small accountability group from Church and we spent a lot of the best times of my adolescence together. I will never forget leaving appliances on the lawns of friends and pastors, intense four player Nintendo hockey games at his home, or speeding away from the scene of a particular "crime" late at night.

After September 11, (now so long ago!) Josh went on to join the Navy. He was driven by his conviction to respond against that terrible evil.

This November, Josh was shipped out to the Middle East. He was married on the Tuesday after the day of my own nuptual bliss, and left very soon after. Today he came back after 5 and a half months away to see his wife again. His face registered an incredible tranforming happiness as he embraced her.

I couldn't help but smile myself at this reunion. This was bliss well earned; happiness fully deserved. When a man has put his nation's well being so far beyond his own domestic happiness and health, thus demonstrating such a fullness of character and principle, may his own happiness come in degrees and fulnesses heightened by a proportionate degree!

Josh is a somber reminder to me that there are many young men and women out in the deserts of Arabia fighting for our freedom against an implacable foe. Yet, he is also an inspiration to take up our cross daily, and follow Christ in our own battles against a hidden enemy. Josh, thank you for your sacrifice and love.

Josh is not the only person, however, deserving of thanks. His wife, April, has been without him for the great majority of their marriage. This sacrifice is equally moving. Not only has April given up her husband for our and our nation's sake, she demonstrated a further selfless spirit in organizing a large gathering to greet Josh as he came home for this short leave. Though undoubtedly desparate of time alone with her husband, she thought only of his happiness and honor in planning his home coming. She succeeded completely. So, thanks to you also, April. Your heroism does not go unnoticed.

You both are inspirations to us all. No words that I can write can ever express this fact fully, but how can I not try? It's the least I can do, and nowhere near what you deserve.

Emma

I've downed the last of the Jane Austen novels in our possession. I was fortunate to marry a woman with three of the novels, and I'll wait to finish the next three.

None of the novels is a copy of the others: all three has unique flavors and gifts. Emma, however, strikes me as the most peculiar. This comes from many different considerations: Emma is the most deeply flawed of the female protagonists, and Mr. Knightley is the saintliest of the male. Emma also takes up the largest portion of the spotlight of any of the protagonists. It is undoubtedly a book about her.

Also, the title is the only one of Austen's novels to contain a person's name. And this name is not their formal title, but it is her personal name. I find this to be significant on the social level of the novel. It is introducing the character to us on intimate terms, and carries through on this promise by revealing to us all of her flaws. If I were to ever meet Miss Woodhouse in person, I think that I would not be privileged to speak to her as Emma; taking such a liberty would reduce me to the simpering quality of Mrs. Elton (ugh! Though I think Mrs. Elton has some important lessons for Emma, if she should but listen). How curious that Austen introduces us at this level: what is she saying class? What about the reader and the text?

Another broad thought is that this is a book all about the self-destruction of one woman (at least in regarding certain elements of her domestic happiness) through unrestrained vice, and her salvation through the unconditional - yet entirely reasonable - love of one man. If Mr. Knightley didn't step in and marry Emma, she would have been reduced, by her own decisions, to a fairly lonely life (as she considers near the end of the novel). Is Austen preaching here? What are Emma's flaws, and what is her cure?

There's also, as in all of Austen's novels that I've thus read, consideration of epistemic difficulties. Why is Emma always (practically, anyway) wrong? She's certainly the cleverest wrong person that I've met, but her vision is clouded by her character's flaws. Why can Mr. Knightley perceive so much more clearly? Austen, I think, makes it fairly clear to the reader the actual case of Emma's deceptions long before she herself realizes her errors. This is a source of tension that drives the novel's action. I take this to mean that the questions are important.

Another question that occurred to me is this: what is the difference between Mr. Knightley's condescension to marry Emma and Emma's condescension to be friends with Miss Harriet Smith. One of these is a grave mistake: the other is a source of joy. Is this merely a consideration of class? Or does it take into account the actual accomplished characters of the actors? What sort of moral guidance can we gain from it today?

There: I've prepared the beginning of some discussion. Perhaps someone whose read it will chime in?

Pictures

Here are two pictures we took on Saturday.



What kind of bird is this? Let me know, and you'll win a valuable prize!*



Here's a Western Tanager. The pictures aren't great, but I find it somewhat fun to take them. Gives you the idea of the species, at any rate.

*There is no valuable prize.

Santiago Oaks Regional Park

Saturday morning Libby and I made our way over to Santiago Oaks Regional Park in search of the Lazuli Buntings which, rumor has it, are flooding Orange County at the moment. As this bird is particularly an attractive one, and Libby and I had both never seen it, we undertook to make the journey despite a limited time frame and some stress on the part of my beloved (her TPA being due this Monday). We were well rewarded for our troubles, having one of our best birding trips in quite a while in terms of both new and beautiful species - too good in fact, as we birded longer than planned and were late for an obligation.

Obviously, then, we did see our Lazuli Buntings. We had one pair in a field of mustard near the base of the large dam in the park. I had hoped to take a picture of them, but was distracted by an interesting mammal. When we endeavored to find them again and take the picture, they had flown off.

The interesting mammal was the rarest species of the day, however, and thus the regret was pleasingly lessened. I noticed what I thought to be a coyote at the base of an oak tree while waiting for the female bunting to fly up out of some mustard. But this coyote began climbing the oak tree, which was bizarre, and I noticed a strong black line along the base of the tale. I brought the creature to Libby's attention and we walked down the hill toward the dam in hopes of getting a better view. We were disappointed to never gain a perfect view of the animal, it was wary and shy, moving about in the tree, and finally out of it and away through some low sage brush, but it struck us as being small for a coyote. As we were arriving at the main trail, we met a man walking his dog who asked us if we had seen the fox. He remarked that he, in his five years of visiting the park, had never seen a fox. I poo-pooed the notion, knowing well the ease with which eager wildlife watchers may falsely identify one common species for a rare one. Never the less, I kept the idea in mind.

I had the idea that it could not be a red fox, for I had read that a black line running along the length of the entire fox is diagnostic. The black in this animal stopped at the beginning of the back. I had thought, however, the tail seemed quite bushy and full for a coyote, and so I decided to give another animal a google when I got home. Namely, the gray fox, our native variety. I was surprised to find that they have a strong black line running along their tail - not their back, and I was further surprised, happily I may add, that they are very well known for climbing trees (that they are the only canid to commonly do so). I therefore have concluded (I am excluding other important evidences for the sake of space) that we did, in fact, see a gray fox, and we are very fortunate to have done so!

Hi, my name is Jonathan...

...and I'm addicted to Jane Austen.

"Hi, Jonathan," murmurs a collected feminine audience.

I always thought I had sense, that my sensibilities were so decidedly masculine that my pride would never succumb to the persuasion of this decidedly feminine author; yet I find my prejudices have been overwhelmed: I am now reading Emma. Really, really, I thought that, as a man, fielding objections such as "chick book", would save me from ever lounging in a park with a paperback novel navigating the intrigues of Regency England regarding contented matrimony. Perhaps, I think this must be the case, it is possible to appreciate Jane Austen as a man, manishly. Women are not as far from men as south from north: we are all hangers on in this grand thing we call humanity. And if that's not the case, lock me up in an Abbey!

In the same way, Austen has a lot to teach us, though the rigid conventions of her time have passed. She is still valuable today, because she understands humanity to its core, and her fiction addresses truly timeless questions. I think that I can read Austen with enjoyment now because, as Libby says, I've grown up a lot since I first tried. Now I perceive these questions, and ask them along with her. My first attempt at Pride and Prejudice, in High School, got me just far enough to know that I didn't like it and it was insufferably boring. When I read it last November, I couldn't put it down! I therefore feel inclined to recommend a Classical Education as valuable to the youth of our age. Thanks, Torrey Honors!

Must Read Article

AL Daily today has an article posted that I think is of great importance. I do not think that it is perfect, it is wide ranging and broad in its focus, thus lacking a rigor of thought that will ultimately be necessary in a very critical discussion. However, it is important because I think its overview is largely accurate, and not just for Europe, but for Western Civilization as a whole.

It is, shortly, about the "Cultural Wars" of Europe (a loaded term). It proposes that the war between traditional Western culture and the ascendant post-Christian relatavistic hegemony (the article gives a good idea of how intolerant the latter is), is of the utmost importance in the second war: that of the arriving Islamic immigrants in Europe and their assertion of their culture, which is of course non-Christian and absolutists not only in morality but in government, etc. Ultimately, I think this importance is completely obvious, but it's got to be said, anyway.

The article is in Commentary, and it is by George Weigel. It is called: "Europe's Two Culture Wars".

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?