1: For the Fourth of July, they dye the river red, white and blue.
This would have been funnier if Mrs. 8 had any idea who Gretchen Wilson is. The fact that I know who Gretchen Wilson is is very sad.
Wednesday, July 9, 2008
things I've tried to convince my wife of recently
july 4th, neskowin
the parade!
the fireworks on the beach!
mussel covered trees on the beach!
Proposal Rock!
Monday, July 7, 2008
Ursa, AKA Clubber Lang
This evening I was reaching down to pick up Ursa's food bowl, while she was jumping up onto the counter to inspect the food. Just like a cartoon, our heads knocked. She seems just fine, but I have a headache and my right brow is swollen. It felt like someone hit me with a baseball, a fuzzy black baseball.
I almost got TKOed by by 8 lb kitten. In my defense, she was traveling quite fast, as she is wont to do. I think I might have been even lifted off my feet, a little, like a 'Dragonball Z' punch.
seven years in tibet, by heinrich harrer
next up on the world book tour: Seven Years in Tibet, by Heinrich Harrer
a fantastic portrait of a country taken by a modern man, of a pre-modern society, at its height, before the Chinese invasion erased a millennium of culture and tradition. it is hard to fathom just how isolated the country was: no foreigners, no external diplomacy, very little communication with the outside world, a pure theocracy with a God-King. Harrer does well with his straight forward descriptions and keen eye to capture the quotidian workings of the forbidden city, Lhasa, at the heart of Tibet.
I loved the descriptions of Tibetans sifting the earthworms from a spade full of dirt, and putting them back in the ground (because they could be a reincarnated ancestor or relative). And the description of a fully self sustaining society--a strange creature that we can only imagine in the interconnected world we live in today.
The book illuminates the status of Tibet vis a vis China. In Tibet's eyes, they had always been independent,but never bothered really to let the outside world know (which sounds totally crazy until you get inside the feudal isolation of the Tibetan mindset). So when China invaded them in the 50s, the world community really didn't understand Tibet as an independent state, so it was easy to conquer (especially since they didn't have much on a military), prop up a competing Lama (who'd know the difference?). They took advantage of Tibet's limited connection to the rest of the world, and in a funny irony, created in the Dalai Lama, a world figure, an exile Mandela that roams the rest of the world sowing distrust and embarrassment for the Chinese and support for Tibetans.
a fantastic portrait of a country taken by a modern man, of a pre-modern society, at its height, before the Chinese invasion erased a millennium of culture and tradition. it is hard to fathom just how isolated the country was: no foreigners, no external diplomacy, very little communication with the outside world, a pure theocracy with a God-King. Harrer does well with his straight forward descriptions and keen eye to capture the quotidian workings of the forbidden city, Lhasa, at the heart of Tibet.
I loved the descriptions of Tibetans sifting the earthworms from a spade full of dirt, and putting them back in the ground (because they could be a reincarnated ancestor or relative). And the description of a fully self sustaining society--a strange creature that we can only imagine in the interconnected world we live in today.
The book illuminates the status of Tibet vis a vis China. In Tibet's eyes, they had always been independent,but never bothered really to let the outside world know (which sounds totally crazy until you get inside the feudal isolation of the Tibetan mindset). So when China invaded them in the 50s, the world community really didn't understand Tibet as an independent state, so it was easy to conquer (especially since they didn't have much on a military), prop up a competing Lama (who'd know the difference?). They took advantage of Tibet's limited connection to the rest of the world, and in a funny irony, created in the Dalai Lama, a world figure, an exile Mandela that roams the rest of the world sowing distrust and embarrassment for the Chinese and support for Tibetans.
Wednesday, July 2, 2008
news in 10 seconds: sports
Sonics, gone. Mariners, toast. Hawks, hope springs eternal. Team name 'Sounders' is moving up to the big, bad MLS, but the players aren't. Ouch.
Thank you.
Thank you.
oregon beach
Mrs. 8 and I are heading down to neskowin, oregon for the fourth of july
We're both excited because we need a break, and the last we were there in september 2005, we got engaged, so it's a bit special for us.
I'm hoping to play catch up on the world book tour, with Infidel, What is the What, and perhaps Seven Years in Tibet. Best case--all the worked up stress I've been building will just leach out in the salt air.
Mrs. 8 will probably knit 4 sweaters.
We're both excited because we need a break, and the last we were there in september 2005, we got engaged, so it's a bit special for us.
I'm hoping to play catch up on the world book tour, with Infidel, What is the What, and perhaps Seven Years in Tibet. Best case--all the worked up stress I've been building will just leach out in the salt air.
Mrs. 8 will probably knit 4 sweaters.
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