January 2012
15 posts
5 tags
“Pluralism is an intentional commitment that is imprinted through action. It...”
– Eboo Patel, Acts of Faith
3 tags
“In my head, I loved ideas. In my gut, I knew they counted only when they were...”
– Eboo Patel, Acts of Faith
5 tags
“Old George Orwell got it backward. Big Brother isn’t watching. He’s...”
– Chuck Palahniuk, Lullaby: A Novel
4 tags
“Plato says that the unexamined life is not worth living. But what if the...”
– Kurt Vonnegut, Wampeters, Foma and Granfalloons
“Perhaps when we find ourselves wanting everything, it is because we are...”
– Sylvia Plath
6 tags
“To people who think of themselves as God’s house guests, American...”
– Animal Dreams, Barbara Kingsolver
3 tags
“If you want to know what a man’s like, take a good look at how he treats...”
– J.K. Rowling, Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire
3 tags
“did everything have to be so wonderful when he was trying to wallow in misery?”
– The Emo Bunny that Should - A Story for Demented Children, John H. Carroll
3 tags
“I must endeavour to subdue my mind to my fortune. I must learn to brook being...”
– Persuasion, Jane Austen
5 tags
English Class #1
Me: Why do astronauts need special clothes, food, and medicine?
Student: Because there are no sellers on the moon yet.
Class: Much laughter.
Coteacher: Why don't you tell them the correct answer?
Me: No, I'm pretty sure that's a more than acceptable answer.
Khmer Conversation #6
Sister: You should really eat some fish. Look how pretty it is!
Me: If you think it's so pretty, why don't you marry it?
Sister: ...it's a fish!
3 tags
“We prepare for glory by failing until we don’t.”
– American on Purpose: The Improbable Adventures of an Unlikely Patriot, Craig Ferguson
December 2011
22 posts
3 tags
“It is important to fight, and fight again, and keep fighting, for only then...”
– J.K. Rowling, Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince
4 tags
“I’m not here to ‘save’ anybody or anything. It’s not...”
– Animal Dreams, Barbara Kingsolver
8 tags
WatchMy 9th grade class performing Jingle Bells.
“Republican conservatives should be worried. Evangelical churches that frequently...”
– Why young evangelicals are leaving church - CNN.com
4 tags
“I think it’s impossible to really understand somebody, what they want,...”
– Orson Scott Card, Ender’s Game
1 tag
Lesson Learned #6
Never have health volunteers over to hang out with my family. I now know WAY too much about the sexual habits of my sister and brother-in-law.
5 tags
NBD #1:
Today my host dad was playing with a scorpion he found in the yard.
3 tags
“People change. Not everything stays with you all your life.”
– Animal Dreams, Barbara Kingsolver
“Our deepest fear is not that we are inadequate. Our deepest fear is that we are...”
– Maryanne Williamson
3 tags
“If I kept trying to be what everybody wanted, I’d soon be insipid enough...”
– Animal Dreams, Barbara Kingsolver
8 tags
Khmer Conversation #5
Brother-in-Law: When Christin went dancing, she told her friends that she was very cold and needed a meat blanket!
Mom: Did your friends know that word?
Me: Of course. I taught them.
Brother-in-Law: Amanda said that she has a meat blanket already, but she does not because she and her boyfriend are not married. I have a meat blanket because she is my wife.
Sister: And my husband is my meat blanket.
Me: Yes, I understand. Meat blankets before marriage here are not good, but in America, the culture is different. You can have a meat blanket before you are married.
Sister: That's because it is so cold in America. You must stay warm!
5 tags
“It meant I was lonely by choice, or by difficult circumstances; these things are...”
– Animal Dreams, Barbara Kingsolver
8 tags
Khmer Conversation #4
Brother: The next time you visit Phnom Penh, could you bring it back to visit me. I am too busy to go myself.
Me: ...what?
Father: Haha! Your brother jokes too much.
Brother: When you go to Phnom Penh, bring it back because I miss it.
Me: ....
Me: *dawning comprehension* Shut yo' mouth!
Sister and Father: *laughter*
Brother: *goes back to his second bowl of rice*
1 tag
“I find that as much as I want to lay roots down in one or two places - where I...”
– Jessie Baird
5 tags
“Sometimes I still have American dreams. I mean literally. I see microwave ovens...”
– Animal Dreams, Barbara Kingsolver
3 tags
“If you lose, you lose, but you don’t give up.”
– Orson Scott Card, Shadow of the Giant
This Side of Heaven: Hey! Here's an awesome yet... →
How about we actually learn about a religion before we needlessly mock and insult it? Because half of your complaints, sarcastic observations, and judgements are probably based on years of stereotyping and having shallow opinions fed to you like a child.
And I’m talking to everyone! I’m talking…
3 tags
“It is our choices that show what we truly are, far more than our abilities.”
– J.K. Rowling, Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets
5 tags
“So what’s the moral?” “The moral?” Hermes asked....”
– Rick Riordan, Percy Jackson: The Sea of Monsters
3 tags
“What a laugh, though. To think that one human being could ever really know...”
– Orson Scott Card, Shadow of the Hegemon
8 tags
Khmer Conversation #3
Older Host Brother: Have you ever tried dog meat?
Me: No, I haven't, but I'd like to try it. It just can't be a dog I know.
Older Host Brother, motioning to our many dogs: So you won't eat one of these? But I can buy it at the market and no problem?
Me: Exactly. I can't eat these ones because I already love them.
Conversation shifts to Valentine's Day
Younger Host Brother: Why don't you celebrate?
Me: Because I don't have a sweetheart.
Younger Host Brother: Oh! I get it! Because you don't have a man, you love the dogs!
November 2011
13 posts
4 tags
“The criminal misuse of time was pointing out the mistakes. Catching them -...”
– Orson Scott Card, Ender’s Shadow
4 tags
8 tags
Khmer Conversation #2
Host Mom: Amanda's boyfriend is coming to visit in January. When is your boyfriend coming to visit?
Host Sister: Oh, right - you don't have a boyfriend! Ha!
Host Mom: If you ever do get married, call me. I cannot afford a plane ticket, so I will ride a water buffalo to America.
Host Sister: It will probably take her a year to get there.
Host Mom: No, not that long; I'll find a flying buffalo.
Me: How about I find a Khmer man to marry and have my wedding here?
Host Mom: Oh! Happy day!
7 tags
“Do not believe in anything simply because you have heard it. Do not believe in...”
– Gautama Siddharta (Buddha), the founder of Buddhism, 563-483 B.C.
6 tags
“Life is full of grief, to exactly the degree we allow ourselves to love other...”
– Orson Scott Card, Shadow of the Giant
6 tags
Khmer Conversation #1:
Man at Market: Oh! You are all Americans, but they are thin and you are fat.
Me: That is because I eat much rice.
Man at Market: And you are so tall!
Me: I am not tall. Khmer people are very short.
1 tag
6 tags
James Lewerke out on Probation →
Weird to think it’s been 7 years, almost to the day.
3 tags
“Be just as loud in acknowledging your errors as you were in making them.”
– Orson Scott Card, Ender’s Shadow
4 tags
“I don’t know a soul who doesn’t maintain two separate lists of...”
– Orson Scott Card, Shadow of the Hegemon
5 tags
Why Detroit? Why now? →
“We’ll know Detroit is healthy again when we all have stopped focusing on saving it.”
2 tags
Lesson Learned #5:
NEVER read a Cosmo in a food shop in Cambodia. You will get a drunk 30 year old trying to sound out “penis” and wanting to know if the people in the photos are married.
2 tags
“Ever tried. Ever failed. No matter. Try again. Fail again. Fail better.”
– Samuel Beckett