The Book of Tea

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As part of my decluttering effort, I’m trying to read books that I’ve wanted to read for a while but haven’t managed to.  One of these, a likely candidate due to its brevity, was the Book of Tea by Kakuzo Okakura.

Okakura’s premise is that “teaism” is Taoism, encapsulated in a single ritual.  His book is an interesting look at the worldview of an enlightened Japanese at the outset of the 20th century.  Although Okakura can be commended for preserving a good amount of Japanese art forms, his elevation of Japanese culture above everything else sometimes feels dated.  It’s clear he’s preaching against a current evil of his time, though a number of statements still ring true today.  I’ll summarize the book with a few quotes and some fun facts. Continue reading →

Father’s Day

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One specific advantage of marrying an American woman is that she’ll remember Father’s Day, and this time I got a whole day off to myself.  I got up bright and early to catch a 5:46 bus, so as to arrive in Stuttgart shortly after ten.  My goal: a writing workshop on historical fiction led by Tracy Barrett.

My Y chromosome set me apart from everyone else present, but that soon faded into the background (except for the occasional group “Yay”) as Tracy took us through the Ten Commandments for Historical Fiction (though I still haven’t found out which of them was condensed from originally two).  After lunch and a free writing exercise the workshop concluded with animated chatting and, for some of us, a manuscript critique.  It was the first time I’d had my manuscript critiqued, and I found Tracy’s comments encouraging and helpful, especially her suggestions on what might be painlessly cut.  Kirsten Carlson organized a lovely event for her swansong as Germany/Austria RA of SCBWI; her successor, Maria Bogade, has some large shoes to fill!

On the way home I got to finally sink my teeth into Stephen Lawhead’s “Skin Map,” a Christmas gift.  It’s a quick read, though everyday life has me stalled even on that.  Maybe it was the workshop, but I have some nits to pick about his research (nobody in Macao would call a foreigner “gaijin”).  Back in Lucerne at 21:49, I dashed into the Drinks of the World shop to use up my point cards I’d rediscovered while decluttering.  I figured that with a closing time of 22:00 and my bus leaving 22:02 getting enough Newcastle Browns to total just over 5 francs would be easy, but I’d discounted that the local youths would be grabbing their last breezers and swelling the line.  On a whim, I checked the Scottish beer section and – Happy Father’s Day! – discovered that Drinks of the World had heeded my plea and added Innis & Gunn to their offering.

The bus driver wasn’t too happy to see me board the bus with two beer bottles in my hands a minute or two before departure, but I assured him I wouldn’t drink those lukewarm, and set to gently arranging them in my backpack.  I emptied one the following day to go with my Father’s Day meal, and the other’s waiting for another momentous occasion.

I wonder if I can wait until July 14th…

New theme

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I’d noticed that the pictures were only displayed in the posts and not on the front page, where only the alternate text appeared.  In hopes of fixing that, I changed themes from the classic Kubrick theme to the new Twenty Twelve theme.  It didn’t fix the problem – that will have to wait – but I like the new, clean sidebar so well I’ll stick with Twenty Twelve, even if it means saying farewell to the header image as we knew it.

Baby Pool III

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I’m not quite as early in setting this up as last time, but still well ahead of the initial pool.  We are of course hoping that Little One stays inside a good bit longer, as his due date is August 7, but Janet’s feeling b-i-g and everyone who sees her seems surprised that she still has nearly two months to go.  You can participate as before by commenting with your prediction of Little One’s birth date, time, size, weight, and gender (unknown to us as well).  Whoever gets closest to the truth will be crowned the grand winner and will receive an as of yet undecided prize.  I think the past winners have since received something that starts with “ch” and rhymes with “shock lit.”

Rules for determining the grand winner:
1. If you get the gender right, you receive 0 points; if you get it wrong, or don’t state it, -5 points.
2. For every day you are off, -1 point.  Not stating day or time scores -5 points.
3. For every centimeter you are off, -1 point.  Not stating anything scores -5 points.
4. For every 200 grams you are off, -1 point.  Not stating anything scores -5 points.
5. The person with the highest total wins.
6. Entering after Little One’s arrival voids the entry.
Go to digitaldutch for a useful unit conversion link, or have a look at the Google spreadsheet I made for converting weights!

And here’s Janet at week 30:
Janet at 30 weeks

I just need you to listen

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I recently came across a video dramatizing the stereotypical difference between the girl wanting the guy to empathize and the guy itching to provide the solution to her problem.  It’s mostly well acted and ended up getting the nod of the vimeo staff – but if you scroll down to read the gushing comments, it becomes apparent that the vast majority of commenters and fans are male.

Here’s my take: Males love it, because the film completely misrepresents the usual situation in which a woman asks for the man to merely listen.  The way I understand it, by the time the woman looks for empathy for her problem, she’s already pondered it for a while and rejected the apparently obvious solutions as faulty (and the problems are never as straightforward as a nail in the forehead).  While the man is trying to show his support by being helpful as he knows how – problem solving – when he says “Try Windex, honey,” she hears: “I can fix in ten seconds the problem you’ve been losing sleep over for the last two nights.  Clearly, you’re not very smart, but that’s ok, I’ve got your back.”

How would a guy react to that kind of sentiment?