Your Majesty, Honor, and Excellency

T-rav and I had a lively discussion last night concerning political, military, or religious titles and the respect that accompanies them (or should). If, for example, I were to meet the president of the US, I would be excited to have met the president regardless of whether I agreed with his/her politics; the office of president commands respect regardless of whether I really like the person. I may not fawn over the person if I think they're a schmuck, but I still respect what they've done to get themselves in such a respectable position.

A few years ago Dick Cheney came to speak at BYU for a graducation service. There were all sorts of protests and a group of crazy students (though crazy for other reasons and not just for this) even planned an "alternative commencement" with Ralph Nader for people who couldn't stomach the idea of listening to VP Cheney. I didn't understand all the hype. Had Cheney been a genocidal dictator, this would have been a natural reaction. But Cheney wasn't a bad guy (well maybe they thought so...). Maybe you hate his politics, but he's still the VP and it's kind of cool that BYU managed to get such an important person to speak at commencement. At least that's how I saw it. To me, the vice president, who also happened to be Cheney, would be speaking to BYU students. Since he wasn't coming to give a political speech, his political views were irrelevant to me.

T-rav, on the other hand, sees it the other way around. Although he didn't hate Cheney, he saw it more as Cheney, who happens to be VP, came to speak. Being excited or angry about him coming completely depended on how he felt about Cheney's politics. If he doesn't like the person or the politics, he won't be as excited to meet them. It doesn't matter if that person is president or king or prophet; T-rav respects the office if he also respects the person.

So which category do you fit into? And which do you think is more normal for Americans? Why?

flem or francais?

I know that probably most of you aren't terribly interested in socio-linguistic things, but I found this article absolutely fascinating! I had no idea that Belgium was in such linguistic disarry. In such a case as this, when you have 2 nearly equal language groups that strongly dislike the other, wouldn't it be easier to just divide the country? If only it were so simple...

If you're not in the mood to read the full article, just answer me this: wouldn't you like to be called a Walloon of Wallonia? Or perhaps you'd prefer being a Fleming of Flanders? I just hope I can live in Linkebeek.

news

Here's the latest:

I broke my foot just over 2 weeks ago, which was healing nicely until I thought it would be a good idea to jump (gently, of course) on my auntie's trampoline. Maybe not so much.

We just got back from a week trip with our friends Brian and Callie to California. Traipsing around Disneyland, LA, San Diego and Tijuana with good friends and the cutest 9 month old = loads of fun.

My garden is nearly ready to produce something (other than weeds) and my compost pile is fermenting nicely. If any of you live in the area and have any spare grass clippings or green waste, bring it by!

I shall be spending the next blessed weeks before school starts again reading, gardening, hiking (once my foot gets back to normal, of course) and generally relaxing. Not that I'm trying to rub it in...if any of you have some spare time, feel free to stop by and hang out.

blogs vs facebook

T-rav thinks blogs are slowly dying, and I must say, he might be right. Are they already being replaced by the faster, easier facebook? We're all about instant gratification these days, and for that, there's nothing better than facebook.

Facebook makes nosing around people's business a whole lot easier. You don't have to snoop around various websites to see what people are up to. Just a quick click will bring you to far more information about people's lives than you ever wanted to know (honestly, do we really care how many times you're going to the gym or what your dog did last night or how clean your house is?). Universal adoration comes easier on facebook. Those who hate you can be blocked, and a true facebook junkie has dozens of fellow addicts just jumping at the chance to tell you how amAHzing you are. It's a little burst of superficial self-esteem at every turn.

But truth be told, I kind of miss blogs. I don't miss those comments giving glory laud and honor to the writer (I find them insincere and obnoxiously similar to those facebook comments I refer to), but I miss knowing what my friends are up to. I miss reading full sentences and paragraphs and stories containing actual nouns, verbs, and prepositions. And punctuation! Yes, blogs do have their faults (being completely 100% self-centered for one thing), but they gave a bit more insight to what people were actually thinking and feeling. For a few short but lovely years, I was able to keep in contact with friends of mine who may not be so good at emailing/calling/texting. So if blogs really go away, I will miss that. As much as I enjoy facebook (and I really do), it's just not the same.

It's just like ALIAS in real life! I probably shouldn't be so excited about foreign spies living in the US...

cool or creepy?

I have a student who is a clown.

Enough said.

I just finished reading some of the nicest journal entries from my level 2 writing students. Their assignment was to write 1 paragraph (~8 sentences) about things they like about themselves followed by 1 paragraph (~8 sentences) about things they disliked (physical appearance, personality, abilities, etc). Almost all of them started their entry with "this was really hard for me to write about..." Now if it had been me, it would have been because I couldn't think of enough good things to write. But all of them mentioned it was difficult because they couldn't think of things they disliked.

I know what you're thinking. Arrogant Asians, right?

But no, this class is actually mostly Hispanic students, all from different cultures, some LDS, some not. All of them said the loveliest things about themselves without being a bit proud or obnoxious. And their dislikes were honest, but not degrading or full of self-loathing. I don't know what went wrong in my wiring, but I've never been like that. What good things I could come up with were usually short and half hearted and the bad list long and self-contemptuous.

I'm not hinting at a "oh, no you're so wonderful" kind of comment to this post. I'm just wondering what you would have written about yourself. Would the postivies or negatives have been easier?

You've heard the expression "publish or perish" right? From the way I've been going, I'm not going to make it much longer (I'm trying to start something, really I am!), but T-rav is well on his way with his very first published work. Aside from some odd corrections his non-native English speaking professor made, it's pretty dang good.

Go Irish go. I hope they have better luck than previous blockade breakers.

Fire!

The most exciting thing just happened. Two cute, innocent looking Korean girls were playing around before class by a fire alarm...and accidentally bumped into it, causing the alarm to go off and everyone to evacuate the building.

YES!

I love fire drills. They're so exciting (except when you think of all the books that could burn if the building were actually on fire). And I've always secretly wanted to pull a fire alarm.

So we all dutifully exited the building to the beautiful sunshine, though some less enthusiastically than others. I was ecstatic about this chance to hang out in the sun until I unwisely opened my mouth and mentioned to someone with Authority that it was just an accident and that I had seen it and Mr. Authority made a call and suddenly the alarm went off and we all had to go back inside (and now I had no excuse for not being prepared for my next class).

But it was a glorious few moments.