Food for thought.

I went to my professor's house last night. To cook steak. Apparently the English have no idea what to do with it. I realized that must be the case when I suggested we use the BBQ and I got a blank stare and a "Whatever for?" in response.

After that, I decided to take full control of that part of the meal. I even brought my own (cast iron) frying pan. I also made pasta and brought all my own materials, just in case. I asked the prof. to take care of the vegetables. When I got there, she had five different dishes on the go, and salad. When we finished cooking and sat down to the meal, her kids were exclaiming "We haven't had a meal like this since Christmas!"

There was an abundance of food, laughter, and stories. My special steak marinade was a happy success, and even the daughter who had had a tooth out earlier in the morning bravely ate a good chunk of it. I think my favorite part of the meal was when the daughters asked their mandatory "guest questions". One was "Would you rather go to school/work naked, or be squished by an elephant?" It took me about 2 seconds to decide on the elephant.

The warmth and humor of the meal followed by an ultra-intense game of Dutch-Blitz was wonderful. It made me miss home. Family is such a great thing, and despite all the craziness that normally surrounds them, I wouldn't give mine up for anything. The memories of laughing, eating, teasing, and (invariably with my family) talking about fecal matter will always remain precious.

Thanks Mom and Dad.

It has been too long!

Hello dear reader,

I am sorry I have not posted in a long time. I will try to do better in the future. I have been coping with lots lately:

a full grad school course load
publishing a paper
writing a thesis proposal
applications to Ph.D. programs
getting in shape
teaching a course at my church on Genesis

It is this last one I'd like to write about. I just finished my second class with these dear people. They are so brave and smart I am ashamed to be teaching the class! They are understanding in moments what it took me months to get. And they are learning this incredibly challenging material with grace and courage. My course undermines great deals of their presuppositions about Scripture, and is really shaking them, and they are responding so well. Today we looked at the Ancient Near Eastern mythologies and compared them to Genesis. It was criminal how much I threw at them, and they took it in stride. I am so proud of them!
I've never realized this before, but I think teaching might be more for the teacher than for the student.

Well, I'm going to go to bed, with the cat purring beside me, the stars twinkling over the mountains outside, and the sound of opera drifting up the stairs outside my room!

Good night!

We have been immersed in fog here for just about a week. Sometimes, it is so thick you cannot see half a block. At the moment, I can tress about a block away, but after that, all is consumed. Out of the fog though, the haunting sound of fog horns sounding in the bay is almost continuous. I know of no sound that arouses such a longing for the sea and it induces such a wanderlust that I can hardly concentrate on my work.

My work. I have been reading through "Origin of Species" as well as through Darwin's correspondence with a Harvard biologist named Asa Gray. I am now into my 75th letter between them. It is a strange thing to read into their close friendship. These were often personal letters, not meant to be shared. But now I have been involved in Darwin's life and contacts sufficiently that even personal references are familiar and I don't have to go looking to see who "so and so" is. Maybe all this reading of England the descriptions of Cambridge are adding to the feelings of wanderlust. I had such a wonderful time there this summer, and could easily return. And now that I am studying Darwin there is so much more I would ask! All these questions come to mind, and the only reason I did not entirely miss out on what was happening was because Denis Lamoureux had prepared me and told me what to watch for.

Oh wow! I think I've just felt my first earthquake here! Suddenly everything was subtly vibrating, like a big truck was going by. But I am in a quiet neighbourhood, and that does not really happen here. It lasted about 15 seconds. And then everything is back to normal - fog horns, and traffic. I'll check later and let you know - I think it is too early to tell for sure and nothing will be on the web yet.

Until next time!

A Christmas Visitation!

Well, I was studying, and found myself staring at the roof. And no sooner did I do that, than I saw a fantastic vision! Yes, right here in Regent College, we have had a miraculous appearance in the water damage in some roof tiles! It's true! In fact, as soon as I saw it, I flipped my computer around and took a picture...


Can you see him there, in the top left corner? I admit that he does look like he's had a bit of a fight, and has a nice bruiser growing right on top, but otherwise, it is a pretty impressive resemblance.

But resemblance of who?

I'm going to post a couple of ideas, and you need to help. Either vote for one of my options, or post your own! And if you are really enthusiastic, send some friends over to vote too!


Choice 1: The beatific vision of Martin Luther
Martin Luther once saw the devil. So he threw his inkpot at him. (What would you do?). The inkpot broke against the wall and you can still see the stain to this day.
Luther was the great reformer who in 1517 nailed his 95 thesis to the church door in Wittenberg on Halloween night. He is remembered for his love of food, and especially beer. In fact, one of his mottos is "He who loves not women, wine, and song, remains a fool his whole life long". Another was "sin greatly then repent greatly". Needless to say, he'd be a great person to have around at Christmas, with his wife Katherina von Bora who was also a great brewer.







Choice 2: The reverend Saint Thomas Aquinas
Thomas was a dedicated monk. He was also a great scholastic. In fact, he single handedly brought Aristotle into the western world, and created a synthesis between Aristotelian thought and Christian doctrine that would dominate until the enlightenment (and in fact, is still with us in many ways). His family didn't want to have him be a boring monk and scholar. They wanted him to take up the family buisness. So they hired a prostitute to tempt him out, but unfortunately, Aquinas grabbed a fire brand from the open grate and drove her out. Determined guy wasn't he? So determined that he would insist on a Regent visitation in December? That is up to you to find out!


So vote now, and let me know who you think our Christmas visit is from!

Hello!

Hello, Dear Readers!

I know you may think that I have forgotten about you. It's not true. In fact, I think of you often, but just don't get around to posting very often. At the moment though, I am in the ecstatic throes of post-paper-hand-in joy. Well, that and a mixture of denial about the several papers due next week. One at a time I always say! (I usually also say "always a week early", but that fell to the wayside this semester. More like "start within a week", but that's the way it goes.)

I've been getting as much mileage as possible out of the "I'm sick" line to justify my procrastination, but since I'm not really sick anymore, I won't ask for a deadline. Suppose I should get back to work.

I'm writing a paper on a fascinating book called "The Book of Job as Sceptical Literature" by Katherine Dell. It is the best treatment of Job that I have read so far, and it makes so much sense of things by treating Job as a parody/satire in the same way that Jonah is a satire of prophetic leadership in Israel.

Well, take care!

There are some things...

... you should never do. Sitting down, listening to 3 hours of online Hebrew lectures is one of them. Another is to eat a whole pomegranate during those three hours. The first leads to a foggy brain and unedited blog posts. The second leads to a really sore stomach and soggy fingers. But the one advantage is that one might be tempted to gnaw a hand off during lectures from the interminable boredom, and the pomegranate provides a safe and viable alternative. It also takes enough time and effort that it keeps you busy for the whole three hours. (There are, after all 840 seeds in every pomegranate!) Actually, I feel kinda bad now for eating the whole thing. Hmmm...

My parents were in town this last week. It was great to see them here, and spend time with them. We also ate well. Really well. I probably doubled my usual food intake. Either way, I discovered some neat new places, and enjoyed my parent's company since I don't see them everyday anymore.

Sorry!

I haven't blogged for a while, because, I've been procrastinating too much to consciously procrastinate by blogging. I know that probably does not make sense, but that's how it goes.

Nonetheless, in the last 40 hours or so I have been working my butt off. No, really. Other than a Thanksgiving dinner at Regent, I have spent the rest of the time working like crazy. Why? Well, deadlines on application, deadlines on assignments, and a huge standardized exam on Friday. I found out I don't know anything. Which is an issue. It turns out that the GRE exam I need for my applications tests MATH. I haven't done any math since high school. What is worse is that we can't use a calculator, so even basic things (like reducing fractions) takes me forever. With only about 2 min/per question I'm going to be in trouble. The verbal stuff will be fine, I'm sure, and the writing should be fine as well. But the math is going to kick my bum. So think of me, feverishly working away at trying to recall how to figure out how much time it will take Tom, Joe, and Shelly to paint the house if it takes Tom 2 hours by himself, Joe 6 hours, and Shelly 3 hours and a half.

Be merciful. Shoot me now.