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Behold the Man

Write From Karen Yahoo Business listed books as some of the things you shouldn't buy brand new. I don't recall ever buying a second-hand book; thought I'd explore a used book shop down Sukhumvit this weekend. It's been awhile since I read any biography and these titles piqued my interest: 1. Samuel Beckett by Deirdre Blair 2. As I Walked Out One Midsummer Morning by Lee Laurie 3. For Your Eyes Only: Ian Fleming & James Bond by Ben MacIntyre 4. J.K. Rowling: The Wizard Behind Harry Potter by Marc Shapiro 5. Jane Austen and Leisure by David Selwyn 6. His Eye is on the Sparrow by Ethel Waters 7. Into my own: the English Years of Robert Frost by John E. Walsh 8. Ecce Homo by Friedrich Nietzsche 9. All God's Dangers by Theodore Rosengarten 10. Karl Marx: a life by Francis Wheen 11. Galileo's Daughter by Dava Sobel 12. Leonardo da Vinci: heights of the mind by Charles Nicholl 13. Beginner's Guide to Winning the Nobel Prize by Peter Doherty ( It do

Fear and oddities

Our Weekend Memoirs: Little Boy White Please scroll down for Sunday Stealing Night fell fast. We hurried out of the office. As we got off the lift and into a garden, my kiddo stalled. It was the dark. I started shooting still figures in the water. A few clicks later, he urged, "one more, Mom." It was my first time to come up close to this part of the garden in twelve years. Fear was of use to me that night. We walked home. Visit Our Weekend Memoirs ***************************************** Sunday Stealing: Meme of Many Odd Questions, Part One Please scroll up for Our Weekend Memoirs Today we ripped this meme off a blogger named Kuda Girl of the blog named Kuda Girl's Journal . Kuda Girl explains that she ripped it from two bloggers Slay Me Softly and Dragon Fly Lady. But, it was probably stolen there as well. So, of course, that will be as far as we go. Tracing back our theft's thieves might take some time. It has 65 questions, so we'll do it in parts. Link back

Decisions, decisions

A few not-so-routine stuff and a rare one in the offing, out come my week's faves: 1. "You're blooming... are you dating?" someone at work suddenly asked me that. I laughed hard and coughed out, "what? of course I'm not!" He walked away looking pleased and determined at his own conclusion, "I knew it...you're dating." Now if it were true... but well, I loved the laughter. 2. String-tying ceremony ( I forgot my cam but here's an idea ) the charm of the tradition unfailingly upholds cultural identity 3. Walking on soft earth a refreshing break from tick-tocking on concrete all the time 4. Outdoor warmth an assignment requires me to be out of the office for four hours every Friday this term. The warm morning breeze works better on me than freezing AC's. Bye-bye, shrinking skin. 5. Hard but exciting choices a weekend with colleagues in Beijing or a few days in Bangkok with someone I haven't seen in two decades? There's only o

Waxing classic

When I feel like passing out attacking terrene everyday-ness, I turn to classical music. These things dance in my mind as the first strain goes off: 1. film scores 2. those childhood piano lessons 3. Europe 4. killer essay exams 5. pregnancy and babies 6. orchestra 7. Math and Science 8. relaxation 9. plenary halls 10. qualitative research analysis 11. humming to self 12. appealing quaintness 13. being at peace with the world What are your associations with classical music? ~ header from Samulli / click here for more T13 ~

Soul alight

This Friday is just great! I had a few irritants up my back and didn't count on coming up with a set of faves, but although life sometimes looks so dim, it also has pleasant surprises so here I am -- Possibilities I'm working on publishing a couple of academic articles and found a feasible place for them. Facebook thrill It's been 22 years since high school graduation, and so wonderful to reconnect and reminisce with former classmates and teen crushes. Another sentence, clear and straight! There's something I'm fixing nowadays. It's why I was absent from the blogosphere for some time (wrote a page about it). CJ is making significant progress and I'm on cloud nine. Although he uttered "I'm the winner, you're the loser" to his friend, I'm okay with that. I mean CJ sounds like he got some of his Dad's cold and hard, competitive stock market spirit; but as long as there is improvement or anything better than the present clinical impres

My son is not spoiled

Small Talk Six: “6 ways you indulge or spoil your children.” Join in here . Please scroll down for Weekend Funnies Here's a little case background: Growing up I was as disciplined by my mother as I was spoiled by my father. When I became a mom I chose to employ my mother's parenting style until divorce entered the scene. Full child custody has a price. With care-giving and developmental issues I ended up shuttling my son between 2 countries 5 times in less than 6 years. Through guilt and panic I struggle to make up for my sins >>> 1. There's this rule I set for myself to follow a certain budget each month for all his expenses and NOT to buy anything beyond the budget. But when he suddenly wants a new bike, I break my own rule. 2. It's usually during overseas trips that I indulge him the most. On a cruise in Hong Kong recently, I let him goof with my mini-tiara and play with my diamond ring eventhough I am aware of his penchant for throwing things when bored and

Humanoids in Humanities

Write from Karen Ever wondered how a bunch of university instructors absorb themselves during a meeting? Scenario: three languages; four age groups, five ranks, philosophies as varied as the total number of wrinkles of everyone in attendance and a common bottomline: pay. Some suffer burnout, others are eager for showtime one minute and ready to bite the academic dust the next, while the rest look forward to hearing the meeting is adjourned. A foreign few had to sit quiet through untranslated speeches. They interact via notes - 1. Crap. Syllabus doesn't match the book. Computer nerdery got messed up or who do we talk to about this? 2. Ah there goes conceptual thinking. Look at the powerpoint 3. I'm so sick of being professionally stagnant. 4. Business guys are paid $$ more per hour than the humanoids in Humanities .... 5. That's fair. 6. ... watched Sex and the City last night. It was funny but soon I was no longer laughing at the film... seatmates had to read the subtitle