Generalismo

Several months ago I was mailed a copy of The Unit for a review. I read it after a few weeks, and I have to apologize to the publisher for such a late review.

At first when I opened up the book, I wasn’t that impressed, but I changed my mind as I read it. It’s not the kind of book that I personally look for. I hardly read novels, and when I do it’s usually classics or a very small number of favorites that also tend to be older books. But for a novel, it does a good job in that it’s easy reading, follows an interesting story line, and raises interesting questions. It’s the kind of novel that I’d rather read, if I am to read a new novel. One thing that does stick out is that it doesn’t seem to be translated very well from the original language. It is translated fairly clearly (and I assume accurately), but the style of the writing (translated) just didn’t seem quite right.

The Unit is about a woman in her 50s who goes to a special institution (of the near-future) that is basically a “harvesting” plant for organs and body parts, only it’s built to be a luxurious and comfortable living place. The residents make friends with each other and receive free food, apartments and entertainment. She and her peers at the Unit are not there because of choice - they are there because they’re childless and poor - the world no longer needs them. They are not allowed to leave the closed community, which is apart from the rest of the world.

From time to time, residents make donations as needed, and then eventually they make their “final donations,” in which they obviously have gone to die and get all of their organs taken. The staff assures them that their donating is more noble than anything else, and they must give their organs up to others who are needed so that they can continue to contribute to society.

I don’t agree with a lot of the ideas the author has about the form in which people-becoming-objects will happen - it seems highly unlikely that if the government decides to harvest organs from their populace they will do so by having them live for free in a luxurious community. However, it is a picture of what is happening to some people now, under different circumstances. It does raise questions about human life and whether or not things like harvesting stem cells from babies could be right, or whether or not we should discount people because they’re old, or don’t have a typical life (IE, without family, kids and a well-paying job).

I didn’t think I was going to at the very beginning, but I read the whole book and I looked forward to getting to the next segment and finding out what would happen to the characters. If you need something to read on the plane, I recommend it, or if you want to just have some light reading involving deep topics.

I would not recommend it to very young readers for the brief sexual scenes described.

Posted by Bonnie under Uncategorized, world

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I am going away on a trip for a little over a week and I don’t think I’m going to bring my laptop. I’ve decided to just take bags that I can carry on the plane and between my knapsack of clothes and my *very* oversized “purse” for other things, I think I’ll be all set. I reeeeally wish that I could carry on a guitar, but I think that’s impossible given the requirements of carry on luggage.

I feel almost like I’m coming back to a battle scene where it’s quiet and still, and there is carnage lying about me. It shouldn’t be amazing that people read my blog, of course, but to know of certain conversations about it is awkward. I try to blog things that I believe to be true here, but sometimes I look back and see how I was mistaken. So yes, part of my writings here ought to be shunned. Do with them what you will, but do not believe on them. Don’t believe what I say just because it’s hear. Only believe things because they’re true- and Jesus is the source of all Truth, and he is the Truth and the Way, and the Life. No one comes to God except by Him. Follow Him and serve Him. Call on His name.

I am very sad about some things in life, and I am very happy about others. But I am always hopeful. Love will win.

Love is patient, love is kind and is not jealous; love does not brag and is not arrogant, does not act unbecomingly; it does not seek its own, is not provoked, does not take into account a wrong suffered, does not rejoice in unrighteousness, but rejoices with the truth; bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.
Love never fails; but if there are gifts of prophecy, they will be done away; if there are tongues, they will cease; if there is knowledge, it will be done away. For we know in part and we prophesy in part; but when the perfect comes, the partial will be done away. When I was a child, I used to speak like a child, think like a child, reason like a child; when I became a man, I did away with childish things. For now we see in a mirror dimly, but then face to face; now I know in part, but then I will know fully just as I also have been fully known. But now faith, hope, love, abide these three; but the greatest of these is love.

Well…it’s a gray day. It’s a gray day, though, not a grey day. But this is a day that the Lord has made - let us rejoice and be glad in it!

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Oh, I forgot pictures.

Carol photographing the boys doing some work on a friend’s house.

I can’t remember if I’ve blogged this picture before. My bunk as it was when I left for the winter trip in January.

Posted by Bonnie under Uncategorized, world

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Actually, they’re not waiting for us We are going up this weekend though, and maybe when I come back I’ll have pictures. Of course, I’ve waited till the *very* last second to pack and I’ve had a fun time scraping things together. And my planned room cleaning is not going to happen.

I also will not be able to cook anything this weekend, unless I make something on the bus. It’s always harder to cook in a little bus kitchen. We’ve made pizza before (I distinctly remember where we were the last time we made it, lol), cookies (of course!), and baked/fry panned chicken with veggies is normal. Still, I can’t help but remember the printout that is on our fridge - the title reads Poor Hatians Resort to Eating Dirt. We ought to be so much more thankful for the blessings that God has given us, and so much more mindful of those who don’t have what we have. I’ve mentioned this before, but I may as well again; Christian Aid is a ministry who gives 100% of the money donated to specified overseas missions and focus on indigenous missionaries. You can donate $100 for a bike and it’ll go right to buying bikes with no charge taken out by Christian Aid. Also, you can support missionaries who are natives of the countries they are ministering in. No language or cultural barrier, and they live like natives so they generally live on far less money than American missionaries do. Christian Aid performs checkups on the missionaries, and you can specify your donation to go towards administrative costs.

Speaking of food, I am trying to find out how to prepare grubs. I have 5 or 6 and the only thing I’m concerned about is making sure I’m not consuming partially digested trash. I put them in a bag with a napkin expecting them to “empty out,” but they started eating the napkin and the bag is filled with droppings! I guess eating partially digested napkin is better than not knowing where their last meal was from.

Any suggestions on prep/cooking methods?

Posted by Bonnie under food, world

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For those of you who are studying languages, allow me to introduce Unilang.org. This site has less organized lessons than livemocha.com but I get the feeling that these people are much more die hard fans of languages who are learning for fun. There are a lot of people there with 3 or more languages under their belt, and there is almost always someone in the chat room. There are resources for many languages. One that I found for German, for instance, are stories with the English and German next to each other, line by line. The range of languages here is also much more wide. They have many user submitted exercises and they also have their own wiki.

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This morning’s recipe:

Grind 4 tablespoons coffee. (Or use already ground, like I did :D) Place in filter in coffee machine and fill with two cups water. Press the “On” button. Wait and enjoy the dripping/bubbling noise. Pour in cup with creamer. Drink. Enjoy.

Oh yeah, and get a free Iced Coffee at Dunkin Donuts on the 15th at participating stores! I’ll have to put that up in a post all by itself so people see it even if they don’t read my entire posts.

Posted by Bonnie under deals, food, languages, learning, recipe, spanish, world

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I am getting fed up with getting ims, emails, and now, seeing even ads with the spelling of “ur” for You’re/Your and “U’ for you. To some people it isn’t a big deal, either to use it or to see it, but it’s soo widespread now. Oops. Did I transgress the laws of spelling when I said “soooo” with more than the called for amount of ‘O’s? Ok, so I guess we’re all guilty of breaking the rules sometimes. I guess the reason I’m not yet accustomed to spelling words that way is because I’m not a mobile messenger. I didn’t even have any messengers installed on my new laptop until a few weeks ago I downloaded Skype.

By the way, for any of you who have Skype or are going to get it, are you aware that in their user agreement they have the rights to record all audio, text, or video communication that is received or sent by Skype? I think they can use it as they see fit, or however they word it.

I have to yet again mention LiveMocha.com even though it feels like I blog about this once a week. I usually go there at least once a day and do some Spanish (and lately German.) It’s a great way to learn a language. If you’ve been thinking about taking up a language , why not go and check it out? I was thinking I wanted to learn French, but I discovered learning how to pronounce certain sounds that don’t occur in our language was too painstaking. So I decided German was a better choice. And then, when I read up in the book I have on it I discovered that the definite article changes based on the context! (In these three sentences: The man is here. The man’s hat is here. I gave the man a hat. I see the man. The definite article (the) would be different in all three cases!). For now though, learning German articles beats learning French sounds.

For anyone here that does visit live mocha, look me up: Authorized77 One note of interest - the site doesn’t function well with the browser Opera. I use Firefox when visiting livemocha and it works fine.

Be careful who you talk with, though, and be aware that cultural and language differences might result in some quite strange conversation. Someone from Brazil asked me if Americans shower every day, and do they smell OK? I later found out from a different, more globally aware Brazilian, that there is a myth in some parts of South America and in Africa that people in cold climates don’t shower.

One more word on language learning. Don’t worry if all you learn is a smattering. I know that I want to be able to converse in Spanish and my goal is to become at least halfway fluent. But I don’t really have an immediate use for German, I may just learn a bit and then move on to something else. Learning languages is almost like learning music. Once you learn how language works, it’s much easier to learn how to speak more than one. It’s not quite as simple as it sounds, but it is a whole lot easier if you know about the structure of languages - even your own language. Hey, if I had studied more English in high school I would have already know about all sorts of things that I am just starting to learn in Spanish! So whatever you find yourself studying, just apply yourself and chances are, whether you remember it or not, it’ll help out down the road. When you go over drills of verbs, or multiplication tables, or memory verses, or anything else, you may not be consciously memorizing it, but it often happens that later on it just pops into your mind when needed. And I’m convinced the more you do, the better your brain becomes at memorizing.

So if you’re bored, and want something relaxing to do? Go over your verb conjugations and don’t make it a point to memorize them. Just read them, study them, make observations if you can, and let the material seep into your brain while you’re having a fun time. If you forget them, it doesn’t matter. You can’t erase what you continually put into you.

Do I sound nuts? If so, you’re drawing a completely logical conclusion

I’ve been struck with a desire to write more music. I know I’m not that great of a flat picker in the big realm of flat pickers, and I don’t know that I’ll ever be really good. Good, maybe someday, but not really good. So I got to thinking, if I’m not going to be up there playin’ with the big boys, I may as well try to do something behind the scenes. If song writing is an art that can be learned, I want to learn what it takes. Someone told me once to write every day. If I had done that since he told me, I’d have just about 100 songs written I reckon. Out of those 100, I’m pretty sure that ONE would have been decent enough to play. But no, I’ve let a lot of times pass, a lot of emotion just waste away without one word to describe it. Like painting, every piece doesn’t have to be a masterpiece. If it sharpens your skills in some way then it wasn’t a failure. So if you feel the urge to write a song, don’t push it away because it might not be any good. Of course, it might not be any good (I’ve written loads of the bad ones!) but just write it down, get the chords down, etc, maybe record it in *“rough draft style” and put it away. Ah, yes, it’s exciting! But don’t play it for anyone. Just keep it in a safe place and continue to write when the urge arises, or if you can make yourself write. Then go back to it in a few weeks, or months, and see how it feels. Are there any things that pop out that make you cringe? Should you change a few words at the end of the line before the chorus? Then, if you’re satisfied with it, share it with people if you have the hankering to. It‘s really painful to play a song for someone and realize that you can hear a bunch of “mistakes,“ and you know the person you‘re playing it for can hear all those things too. Correct and revise before you let people hear it. I’m not saying you can’t get some help or advice from someone you trust, but it’s a shame that you lose the urge to write because you think you’ve failed and all you can remember are those embarrassing moments of putting yourself out on the proverbial limb. It’s hard to tell if you’re comfortable with a song immediately after you write it, which is why I suggest waiting a little bit before appraising it.

Posted by Bonnie under english, learning, spanish, world

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Baclava? Bakklava? I’m telling you, I got a lot of hits for those search terms at my old blog! I also got quite a few for gunshotwound (one word), which is GSW in abbreviation. And by the way, I made baklava today and it looks great! Smells great too. Taste? Well, I haven’t tasted it yet. But let me encourage you, if you have never made this before, to try your hand at it. It’s not hard at all if you have reasonably fresh phylo dough that doesn’t fall apart (before the expiration date). Ok…on from the mildly useless information to the definitely useless information.

I got up at 5:30am this morning to get a workout in before we went to help someone move. It wasn’t so bad, and I think I might keep that time. I spent too much time online at night (and doing nothing) and if I’m not up at 10pm, I can’t be online! If you live in a cold climate and don’t keep the heat turned up to comfortable summerlike temps, definitely consider getting a small coffee pot to put in your room (if you hang out upstairs for a while before breakfast.) Keep teabags on hand and make a pot of tea first thing in the morning. It really warms you up! I often drink two 4-cup pots of tea along with a cup or two of coffee. Great stuff in the morning!

Mini rant here. Why don’t Christians have more kids? Why are kids considered such a bad thing? Why are we letting other people outbreed us? Start having kids folks, you’re going to go extinct! I heard that Russians were giving folks a holiday to conceive on. I looked it up and I found it at newsfromrussia.com! I need to stop here in order to maintain a G rated blog

Posted by Bonnie under exercise, statistics, world

[37] Comments

Shortly after I put up the last post on languages, someone emailed me from LiveMocha asking me to check out their website. I’m glad to report there is another language learning resource available online. LiveMocha offered much more than I expected. Of course, the hitch is that they plan to eventually start charging for services. In the meantime you can access their free Rosetta Stone-like courses, invite other members to chat in the language you are learning, and tutor members learning your native language. Part of the exercises are spoken exercises. After you record yourself speaking, you can invite someone who natively speaks that language to correct and rate your exercise. There are a few bumps they need to iron out (for one, the site doesn’t function well in Opera, the browser I use) but I highly recommend LiveMocha.com.

LiveMocha currently offers courses in German, English, Spanish, French, Hindi, and Mandarin Chinese.

Posted by Bonnie under languages, learning, spanish, world

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Learn� How� To� Yodel!�

(to� see� video in page at youtube,� click� here)When I tried to find info on yodeling three or four years ago I found very little. Now that I’ve learned how to yodel I’ve put up an instructional video up a youtube. It’s simple, but it’s about THE fundamental skill in yodeling - the voice break. I don’t know exactly how to teach someone to break their voice, but hopefully the video will help.

While� I� was� on� the� road� a few tours back people� kept� mentioning� a� girl� who was on America’s Got Talent. Here is a link to a Taylor Ware performance, an 11 year old yodeler. I’m not sure if she won, but I know she made it pretty far and her yodeling is some great stuff.

� How and Why I Started Yodeling

For those of you who are curious, or who got here from my bio page at the family website, here’s a little more info on how I got started. My family sang at a church up in Maine about 5 years ago and we did both the morning and night service. When we came back at night, the pastor said he was impressed, “but we can do something you can’t!” He had a lady get up to the piano and she yodeled. This planted the idea in my head, and a few years later I went online and found a video to buy. The video, available here, is more in depth than the one I put at youtube but it still is not very long. It gave me a good foundation and then I started listening to other people yodel and learned some from just listening and repeating. I also slowed one down and learned it that way. To answer the question I get asked the most at concerts, It took me about 30 minutes to get a little further than the basic yodel. I’m not sure if my voice is just sympathetic to yodeling, but it was easy to learn the break and after that it is easy to progress to more complicated yodels. If you don’t get the break at first, don’t despair! In Kentucky I was staying with a family and I taught some of the girls how to yodel but it took them a few days to really “get” the break. Just keep working at it.� I’ve� never� forgotten� how� to� break� my� voice� and� I� don’t� think� you� will� either,� so� once� you� get� past� that� hump� you’re� well� on� your� way.

Tips and Resources

I emailed Judy Coder, National Champion Yodeler and the method she said to use for learning new yodels was to get in a car, drive down a deserted road, put on a recording, and just do it! Getting alone in a quiet room can be really important, especially if you are shy. Yodeling can sound funny at first, and you don’t want to be inhibited by thinking that people are going to think your attempts are silly. After I learned I was sitting on the front porch and the neighbors visiting asked me to yodel. I couldn’t, I laughed so hard! So expect it to maybe take a little while until you’re totally comfortable with doing it in front of people.

So get in a quiet room, close your windows (my neighbors told me they could hear me!), and be free with your voice. If this is your first time yodeling, and I assume it is, then your voice will be doing something totally new and different and it won’t feel like regular singing.

Kerry Christiansen is my favorite yodeler, his CD The Best of Kerry Christiansen happens to be one of the only two CDs I own that are yodeling CDs.

Yodel Course is one thing I’ve found on the internet that seems to be a free lesson site. However, I couldn’t figure out how to download the lessons properly and I never got more out of it than about 25 soundbytes - they are good soundbytes, however, and you could listen to those to have something to listen to and imitate.

Posted by Bonnie under world

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Did you know the average surface temperature of the earth is around 60 degrees fahreheit? (15 celsius)

The circumference of the earth is about 24,900 miles around. That’s about 131,472,000 feet and would take you 88.66 days (2,128 hours) to run if you kept up the pace (11.7 mph) of the 2007 Boston Marathon winner!
And of course, you’d need to be able to walk on water too, as you’d have to cover some of the water that covers about 70% of the surface area of the earth.

Speaking of water, there are an estimated 326 million cubic miles of water in the rivers, atmosphere, oceans, groundwater, and other places on earth. Each cubic mile of water is an astonishing 1,000,000,000,000 (one trillion) gallons of water, making the total amount of water 326,000,000,000,000,000,000 gallons. While I was looking for the info on how many zeros this figure would contain I found this table of zeros to number names (the above figure is 326 quintillion). Why not check the table and find the highest number you know and then learn the next highest one? It’s not worth it to me to memorize the whole table up to a centillion (303 zeros), but it can’t be too hard to just memorize one more.

Posted by Bonnie under math, outdoors, running, statistics, world

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Check out this article about a 29 year old woman in China who
recently found she had 23 needles in her body, allegedly stuck
into her by her now dead grandparents, who were disappointed
by the arrival of another girl in the family.

Doctors suspect they wanted to kill her because her family preferred a son. Some of the needles were pushed into the fontanelle, the soft spot on the head all babies have before the bones knit. Ms Cuifen, now 29, was a second granddaughter, leaving the family no chance to produce a treasured boy child.

The Chinese government reckons it has prevented 400 million births,
abortion being a widespread method of family planning, and sometimes
infanticide. These killings have contributed to unbalancing the population
of men versus women, men outnumbering women by 37,000,000.

During the fiscal year 2005-2006, Planned Parenthood performed a record
264,943 abortions, making a profit of $55.8 million and using $305.3 millions
of our tax dollars.

For a little comparison, in the Revolutionary War we lost 25,324 of our troops.

In World War II, spanning several years, we lost 405,399.

What’s the difference between killing girls because they are considered a
nuisance to society, and killing babies in general because they’re a nuisance
to our lives?

Posted by Bonnie under health, statistics, world

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