Creepy Experience of the Day Award

"I don't know why she swallowed the fly....perhaps she'll die."

This morning while my students took a math test, I took a sip of my ice tea from my black insultated mug, and found something extra in my mouth. It felt like tea leaves, which made some sense, since I often use loose leaf tea.

I moved it around a little and spit it out.

Looking at the icky stuff that came out, I clearly recognized...uwaghaghaaah!!!!! the brown spindly legs and brown abdomen of the common mouse spider that crawls around ceilings and walls in houses in southern California. It was now sitting in my hand, but seconds before, I had been swishing it around in my mouth. Uwaghaghaaaahhh! Dance the freak out dance! Grit teeth. Shiver, shiver!!!! Blaaaachhh!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I was totally wierded out, but my students were taking a test. I couldn't help reacting though. A couple girls nearby asked what was going on. I told them a spider was in my tea. The news traveled. I got up and continued trying to NOT think about what just happened.

As I walked past the whiteboard saying quietly "I am totally freaked out," a student spoke up with a kind smile on his face, "Just walk it off, man."

The Mountain Dulcimer

This starts with a lot of talk, but then the music begins. Slow start, but the ending variations are pretty amazing. Well worth a listen.

The Hammered Dulcimer

I found this on youtube and wanted to save it and share it. Check it out!

For Your Listening Pleasure

I found this link over at The Sword of Gryffindor.

It's a podcast that has classic short stories read by professional perfomers.
Check out Classsic Tales.

Folk Music in Southern California

I googled contra dancing and found an organization that hosts folk music and dancing every month in Anaheim. Check it out.

What is The Living Tradition?
The Living Tradition is a non-profit organization working to support and preserve traditional music and dance in Southern California. We host contra dances, contemporary and traditional folk music concerts, and traditional music jams nearly every month at the beautiful Anaheim Downtown Community Center in Anaheim, California.

Lilting - Irish Music sans Whistle or Pipe

From wikipedia...

"Lilting is a form of traditional celtic singing common in the Gaelic speaking areas of Ireland, and in some ways resembles scat singing and is called puirt a beul in Irish Gaelic."

In other words, the lack of instruments couldn't stop the music. They just imitated the instruments with their voices.

Crazy stuff. Wikipedia gives cautious support to the idea that lilting developed due to the banning of native instruments by the English. It reminds me of the development of the semandron in Greece when the Turks banned bell ringing.

Science with Uncle Screwtape

For those of you interested in the current wave of evolutionary biology and it's relationship with Christianity, check out uncle screwtape, a blog by Eric, a phd student at Notre Dame.

Links for Learning the Whistle

Thanks to kungfupower and google, I've recently been turned on to some really great sites for learning the whistle, as well as other Irish type intruments. If you've ever thought about learning an instrument, these might just come in handy.

They're also great for just listening and looking, if you're into the irish music thing.

1) Traditional Irish Tunes and Lessons: hailing from San Diego, Michael Eskin has harnessed the power of youtube to post lessons on playing traditional tunes on the whistle, as well as the flute, guitar, pipes and accordion.

2) tin whistler. : A Jesuit from Fordham teaches beginning lessons in Irish music on the tin whistle.

3) learning to whistle. : a guy from Columbus blogs about learning to play the irish tin whistle - lots of posts. well written!

The Banshee

Here's a link to a chilling but very cool animated tale of the Banshee. Turn your sound on, and leave the lights off....

The Banshee

TradLessons.com - The Banshee

Here's my first tune to learn, according to my shaolin whistle master -- the Banshee...awesome!

Hopefully, I'm Not Whistling Dixie

More than a year ago, I learned three really cool tunes on my tin whistle from my friend kungfupower.

Now, my whistle skills are sadly rusted, but I would like to get back on my horse like the red knight, and get back in shape.

My goal is to learn enough tunes to play without shame at a local session. A session is the name for an informal night of traditional irish music.

I'm going to start with ten tunes, but that might not be enough. But, if I get that far, I'll have made some progress.

My next question is which tunes do I need to learn first? No idea, but I've queried kungfupower, and with his permission, I'll post the results in the near future. Then, it's on to the learning, memorizing, and practicing.

You want me to bottle feed your goats in the kitchen?

My wife found this post and shared it with me. It's too funny not to post:

"You want me to bottle feed your goats in the kitchen?
Posted by trales, Thu Jul-26-07 10:50 AM
I thought I would share with you my take on rural life. Let me start this by saying that I grew up in Detroit, for those of you who know Detroit, I am a product of the Birmingham Public schools. Farm animals were something I saw in coloring books.

DH and I are now living in rural New Hampshire, we moved her for grad school and law school. A lot of neighbors have farm animals. We have become good friends with one set of neighbors. They have been kind enough to look after our dogs, and even took care of them while we were having DD.

They were going on vacation to Maine recently and asked me to bottle feed their four baby goats at noon two of the days. Their daughter was home, but taking classes those days. I went over to see what to do.

1. The goats live off the kitchen.
2. All goats look alike, I asked how to tell them apart, she looked at me funny, and responded that two were girls and two were boys, let me tell you, that didn't help.
3. They get fed goats milk from a bottle, it has to be heated to room temperature.
4. After feeding the goats in the kitchen, they have to be returned to the annex/ barnish area.
5. There were chickens in the annex/barn.
6. There is a towel on the floor for wiping up goat pee.

Sounds easy. Day one. I heat up the bottles and open the barn/ annex door to get a goat. All four jump over the kiddie gate and start running around the house, jumping on me for the bottles. The chickens started flapping and threatening to come into the kitchen.
I grab two bottles, point them downward and hold onto the nipples for dear life. Two goats run at me and latch on, sucking like mad, my arms are flapping as if attached to a jack hammer. I am using my feet to push off the other goats. Goats 1 and 2 finish. I attempt to put them in the other room. They mingle with the other goats, I have no idea which is which. I finally sort them out (my husband suggested a sharpie to mark the heads of the ones I fed). I grab what I think are goats 1 and 2 and put them over the kiddie gate. They are rather sticky. Repeat with Goats 3 and 4. Replace goat 3, try to replace goat 4, and the other 3 goats jump over the fence and are in the kitchen again. Start over, fail, start over again. Repeat the second day. These are the lessons I learned: 1. Goats are fast. 2. I always dreamed of owning farm animals, not anymore. 3. I now understand why goat cheese is expensive.

As I am writing this, my neighbors Guinea Hens have escaped and are in my driveway. I thought they were wild turkeys, I was informed otherwise by their 5 year old. Guinea Hens are really loud and really, really stupid. They are driving our Newfoundland crazy, who is driving me mad. "

You can find the original post here.

John Mark Reynolds on HP

Follow this link to read John Mark Reynolds's review of HP7. It is one of the better moderate views of HP I have read. I'm not sure I agree with everything he says, but he tries to strike the balance between love and adoration for the series.

Here is another review by a catholic writer that speaks in a similar vein. Basically...HP is great story, Christian at heart, not as obviously as Lewis, but more obviously than Tolkien.

Both argue that Rowling's HP is not great prose, but are ripping good yarns. I would basically agree. Her prose doesn't bother me as much as it seems to bother others. I've always got Steinbeck and Melville for that. It's Rowling's attitude on love, death and courageous living that brings me back, again and again.

Thanks to John Granger for the links.

Is Rowling Simply a Nominal Church of Scotland Christian?

From an interview done in 2000

Interviewer: “Are you a Christian?”

Rowling: “Yes I am. Which seems to offend the religious right far worse than if I said I thought there was no God. Every time I’ve been asked if I believe in God, I’ve said yes, because I do, but no one ever really has gone any more deeply into it than that, and I have to say that does suit me, because if I talk too freely about that I think the intelligent reader, whether 10 or 60, will be able to guess what’s coming in the books.”

------------------------Beniy says...
Read the final book, and you'll know what she means ; )

HP Encouraging the True Rebellion?

Here's an interesting tidbit from an interview by Again Magazine of John Granger on Harry Potter:

AGAIN: Why do you think many Christian reviewers are so critical of the characters in the books breaking Hogwarts school rules and apparently getting away with it?

JG: Great question! I wrote this note recently to a reader with this exact concern:

"About the books honoring and encouraging rebellion: two quick notes. First, everyone and everything against which the terrible trio resist and struggle is an authority that is unjust and out of control. Rowling is a satirist of the first rank, I think, and she isn't pulling any punches in the books in her critique of government, the courts, the media, institutional schooling, organized sports, everything oddly enough except religion. I think you are right that she is encouraging children to see the evil evident in the world and its ‘authorities’. . . . If you want to read a popular children's book where this ‘resistance to authority’ is done dangerously, read Philip Pullman's Dark Materials books in which it is the church that is wicked. . . . We can be grateful that the rebellions [in Harry Potter] are against the world and not the church and that they are always sacrificial rebellions and from love.”

And another:
AGAIN: What kinds of behavior from Harry and the other characters provide good examples or role models?

JG: One of the reasons that I do not fear the growth of the occult consequent to fascination with Potter witchcraft is that the good characters struggle with their weaknesses and temptations to do the wrong thing. They usually do the right thing and feel bad if they fail in this, but the bad guys do the wrong thing without internal struggle. What defines the good guys is their being three-dimensional, fallen people who long for and reach, for the most part, a greater good. Harry and his friends are sometimes courageous, sometimes slothful and misbehaving, and still at every book climax Harry is resisting evil at the risk of his life. I think the exemplary behavior our children will learn from these books is from reading about the internal conflicts characters experience and how they long for what is good ultimately rather than what is easy, safe, or superficially and individually advantageous.

Ice House Canyon

E. and I took our daughter for first hike on a trail called Ice House Canyon, located below Mount San Antonio.



This shady trail winds past knarled old trees...


and mostly follows the path of a small mountain stream with just enough pools and small falls to make one remember that there is still beauty in this world.

Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows

Got it at 12:30 am on the 21st, and read all night with the help of just a little caffeine, then fell asleep around 7am. Continued reading and finished Sat. evening (well...I saved the epilogue till Sun. after church).

Like many, I would have loved to stretch it out, but the threat of spoilers was too much. So, don't ask me who dies. I won't tell you. Go check on the web. Or better, yet, Go read the books. It IS worth it. And, no...the movies Don't count. Not anymore, when the two hour films are so cut that they amount to really long and really cool trailer to the books. They certainly don't tell the story that J.K. Rowling has written in any way shape or form.

I will say that J.K. Rowling may not be an Inkling in historical fact, but she certainly has taken up the torch and placed it burning bright on the Brittish Hills. Go Joanne!!! May God bless her!!! I certainly send her my thanks for her work, and for the wonderful hero's journey she has imagined and completed.

PS...If you don't see the Christianity in the books, then maybe you are blinder than at least one bat.

Had Your Daily Dose Yet?

1. caffeine

An essential vitamin, without which one suffers from headaches, depression, sudden violent anger, sluggishness, muddled thinking, and crankiness.

I once went 10 months without vitamin C and only suffered a mild bout with scurvy and tooth loss...I went 24 hours without caffeine and that's why I'm doing life without parole.

From "urbandictionary.com"

Marimba Testing

Back in Nov '06, I got a small grant to build some marimbas for my classroom.

After moving to a 1bdrm apt in Fullerton, and the arrival of my little girl, the project got put off for a while.

Now I'm back at it. The pictures show two identical alto marimbas, as well as some mallets I've made. Everything is still in-progress of course. The mallets with dark handles are professionally made. The light handles are wrapped by yours truly. I'm prouder of those than I am of the marimbas themselves, as the process was a lot more mysterious before I finally found the right directions.

Today, I finally finished the bodies, and I set up a few bars just for fun and banged out my first notes. They sound crappy now, but when the bars get tuned they will deepen tone and resonance and have lower pitches as well.

Here's a sound sample:

A Sense of Wonder

"He looked at the dandelions and crickets and realized that he was gigantic. We are too fond of reckoning always by mountains. every object is infinitely vast as well as infinitely small.

He stretched himself like one crucified in an uncontainable greatness.

"Oh God, who hast made me and all things, hear four songs of praise. One for my feet that Thou hast made strong and light upon Thy daisies. One for my head, which Thou hast lifted and crowned above the four corners of Thy heaven. One for my heart, which Thou hast made a heaven of angels singing Thy glory. And one for that pearl-tinted cloudlet far away above the stone pines on the hill."

He felt like Adam newly created. He had suddenly inherited all things, even the suns and stars.

Have you ever been out for a walk?"

-G.K. Chesterton, from the short story "Homesick at Home", collected in ˆDaylight and Nightmareˆ