Driving home last evening, I noticed something on the western horizon. The sun. The time: 5:45 p.m. It's a small thing, but the early sunsets of winter are slowly coming later and later, and that makes me happy. I don't measure winter in degrees or inches of snow. I measure it in daylight. I can handle more cold days and more snow days, and who knows how many of these there will be.
But one thing I can count on--the days will get longer, sun will set later. I'll take it.
29 January 2011
26 January 2011
china
Lord willing, I'm going to China! (I hate exclamation points--too much like laughing at your own joke; but I felt that sentence warranted one.)
Anyhow, I'm going back to China. Last trip was Spring of 2004--the Great Wall, the Forbidden City, Tiananmen Square, Wong Fu Jing, Silk Market, etc. Best part is hanging with the Bethel students, though.
Worst part is the nearly crippling jet lag that hits upon your return.
Worth it, though.
Anyhow, I'm going back to China. Last trip was Spring of 2004--the Great Wall, the Forbidden City, Tiananmen Square, Wong Fu Jing, Silk Market, etc. Best part is hanging with the Bethel students, though.
Worst part is the nearly crippling jet lag that hits upon your return.
Worth it, though.
25 January 2011
proem
Rage: Sing, Goddess, Achilles' rage,
Black and murderous, that cost the Greeks
Incalculable pain, pitched countless souls
Of heroes into Hades' dark,
And left their bodies to rot as feasts
For dogs and birds, as Zeus' will was done.
Begin with the clash between Agamemon -
The Greek warlord - and godlike Achilles.
______
Writer’s block: Sing, Muse, Robby’s writer’s block,
Soul-sucking and shameful, that drained the guts
Of countless gel pens, bleeding endless trivialities
Upon a thousand cheap notebooks,
And left them tattered and forgotten in a basement closet
For moth and mouse to devour undeterred.
Begin with the futile attempt at composing his proem,
Blank screen mirroring the worried face of the teacher.
Black and murderous, that cost the Greeks
Incalculable pain, pitched countless souls
Of heroes into Hades' dark,
And left their bodies to rot as feasts
For dogs and birds, as Zeus' will was done.
Begin with the clash between Agamemon -
The Greek warlord - and godlike Achilles.
______
Writer’s block: Sing, Muse, Robby’s writer’s block,
Soul-sucking and shameful, that drained the guts
Of countless gel pens, bleeding endless trivialities
Upon a thousand cheap notebooks,
And left them tattered and forgotten in a basement closet
For moth and mouse to devour undeterred.
Begin with the futile attempt at composing his proem,
Blank screen mirroring the worried face of the teacher.
24 January 2011
a very old man with enormous wings
A story about the ways our expectations shape our responses to and interpretations of stories.
This one, for instance.
This one, for instance.
23 January 2011
how to fix basketball
Some rule changes needed in both college and the NBA:
1. Eliminate media timeouts.
2. No live ball timeouts. If the ball is in play, you cannot bail yourself out of lousy play by calling timeout. The only time a timeout can be called is either when the clock is stopped or after a made basket before the ball is inbounded.
3. Each team would be allowed 2 full and 2 30-second timeouts per half.
4. Halftime reduced to ten minutes.
p.s. And though it's not a "rule" change, in college, the officials need to do a much better job of protecting shooters by calling the foul when there is contact. I don't mind that they let some contact go un-whistled when the offensive player is clearly initiating the body contact, but it's gotten bad, and the quality of basketball in college has declined dramatically in the past ten to fifteen years in part because of it (and mostly because of AAU--but that's another story).
1. Eliminate media timeouts.
2. No live ball timeouts. If the ball is in play, you cannot bail yourself out of lousy play by calling timeout. The only time a timeout can be called is either when the clock is stopped or after a made basket before the ball is inbounded.
3. Each team would be allowed 2 full and 2 30-second timeouts per half.
4. Halftime reduced to ten minutes.
p.s. And though it's not a "rule" change, in college, the officials need to do a much better job of protecting shooters by calling the foul when there is contact. I don't mind that they let some contact go un-whistled when the offensive player is clearly initiating the body contact, but it's gotten bad, and the quality of basketball in college has declined dramatically in the past ten to fifteen years in part because of it (and mostly because of AAU--but that's another story).
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