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Showing posts from September, 2010

On the other hand...

I read a lot of books on writing, hoping it will help me not only to be a better writer, but to convince myself that I'm not doing it wrong. We writers all have our reasons for not writing, whether they're valid or not is up to each of us to decide. The book I fished today (and by finished, I don't mean I read the whole thing--I'm just DONE with it) is called Write: 10 Days to End Writer's Block or something like that. I remember buying it thinking "wow--10 days and I'll have something worth writing". Well, I've learned a lesson all right. Nothing happened after 10 days and nothing will. The whole premise of this book was that in order to free yourself and get over the blank page--for whatever reason--was to...get ready. This is gonna be good. Write with your other hand. WHAT? Yep--put the pen in my LEFT hand and give it a try! Um, that's stupid. It was full of these questions, written exactly the same way twice, where you answer it once with

Miracles

I've been reading a lot of Bible study type books--it's like hearing a Sunday sermon except longer. And when it gets boring I can skip ahead. Today, I was reading When God Whispers Your Name by Max Lucado. He was talking about Moses being called out by God after he'd killed an Egyptian who was beating a slave and ran off to the dessert, and how Jesus was sort of an ordinary guy when he performed miracles. Those two things don't seem to go together much when I put it like that...except for one thing. It got me thinking about miracles. Max was talking about how any one of us could have been written about in the Bible. Some of the stuff people said about Jesus could have just as easily been said about us. Some of the stuff Jesus did (going to a wedding, working as a handyman) could be replaced easily by the things we do. Sure. I get it. But those miracles were stop you in your tracks miracles. People knew they were witnessing something of God. I don't think I can say

The Korean Bathroom

There wasn't much I hated about Korea (no Venti Starbucks was high on the list) but one thing I did was the bathroom. Part of it was that I just didn't understand. But the larger part was that it was just...annoying. First, imagine your shower. It might have a curtain or a door, but it's enclosed in some way. Now, add your toilet, sink, towell rack--everything else in the bahroom. That's right, put it IN the shower. Now, take away that enclosure. Poof! You have a Korean bathroom. Why? Why not close it in? Why not give it it's own floor so that you're not walking around in the bathroom in the evening when everything is still wet from your morning shower. Like any other Asian country that I know of, shoes aren't worn indoors. There's always a ledge or something to keep your shoes on when you walk inside (even in resturants!). In the bathroom, however, you're expected to wear shoes. Why? Because the floor is wet! You bring your flip flop