For whatever reason, this week I’ve been treated to one supernatural story after another from various female students. Ghosts appearing in old German castles, priests and nuns who just don’t rot even after centuries of being on display, holy water healing blindness, holy water healing sadness, holy water healing this and that and the other thing. Well, listening to stories is my job and I guess these stories were more interesting than listening to stories about window shopping trips downtown.

I’ve had this book sitting on my shelf for a few months. I finally started to read it this morning on the train on the way to work. I read it between classes, during lunchtime, and will read some more before I go to bed tonight. It’s one of the best-written, most fascinating books I’ve read in the past few years. Off to do some quality reading.

… is really good, sometimes. I was meeting a new prospective student at a restaurant today and the two of us struck up a very lively conversation. Her English was pretty good, but not good enough, so we spoke in English and Japanese. We talked for about an hour, and it seems we disturbed the poor guy at the next table so much that he turned around and the 3 of us started talking together. His English was pretty good, too. He was trying to study but ended up hearing everything we said.

To make a long story short, he will probably be coming to church soon. I will probably have a new student (the girl), maybe two.

Last week, Papa gave me his latest book review to put up online.

Spent about 5 hours today in front of the computer. Here’s what I was doing.

* reformatting a MS Word doc
* checking
* making gifs of Chinese characters
* moving text from doc to HTML (NOT using the MS Word “Save As Web Page” function, oh, horror of horrors!)
* moving footnotes to HTML
* formatting all the HTML pages
* checking to see all formatting is consistent
* making table of contents
* inserting table of contents on all pages
* linking pages together with “back” and “next” links
* checking
* making a PDF
* making bookmarks in the PDF
* linking PDF to every page
* checking
* choosing keywords
* checking
* uploading HTML pages and PDF
* checking
* writing an e-mail update
* checking
* sending off the e-mail

MY NECK IS KILLING ME!

So good to have work to do! I mean it. Of all the work I do, this is what I feel is the most meaningful. So go on and read it! It’s about a Japanese theologian’s Japanese view of the Trinity, so I realize many of you may not be terribly interested in it, but that’s OK. LOL. Read it! It’s interesting and edifying and you might learn something about the state of Christianity in Japan.

Nozomu Miyahira’s Towards a Theology of the Concord of God: A Review by Rev. Ralph Allan Smith

Berek.net is going up whenever Berek decides that he has enough satisfactory material ready for public consumption and has the funds to get a new hard disk with enough space to install DreamWeaver (too many stupid games on the present hdd). Go take a look at the stylish, postmodern design. Go.

I want to burn. I don’t want to burn out.

The Man Who Invented The 20th Century: Nikola Tesla, Forgotton Genius of Electricity

Picked up this book today at the trash books box where I work. It’s one of the most interesting books I’ve read in a long time. And for someone who never, ever reads anything even remotely related to science, it gave me a refreshing new perspective: science actually can be interesting!

Tesla was one of the greatest geniuses in history, yet most people hardly know his name. The book tells the story of a man far greater than Edison in terms of scientific and inventive capacity, a visionary who worked for a postmillennial goal (!! … OK, my reinterpretation), yet one who did not know how to function in the real world and ended his life bitter, lonely, and despised.

Granted, I’ve only read one book about Tesla so I may have a pretty slanted view of his person and achievements, but WE USE ELECTRICITY THANKS TO HIM!! ‘Nuff said.

This book doesn’t seem to be available in the US at Amazon.com or at BookFinder.com. I could only find it at Amazon.co.uk. Get it!

Coffee on an empty stomach in the morning is bad. This morning was especially something. Minutes after having a cup, coffee replaced my blood and went pounding through trembling veins, saturating every organ, flooding my brain, opening my eyes so wide they couldn’t get any wider. On coffee, colors seem brighter, the world looks clearer, more alive and sparkling. And somewhere behind all that, the more cautious me starts feeling a faint but persistently nagging worry and tries to pull the reins in to slow down. I’m on a coffee/sugar high. I will be wired for 12 hours or more. Then exhaustion suddenly sets in.

Back at Christian College, the guys could always tell whether I’d had coffee or not. I wonder why. LOL.

Papa and Mama didn’t allow me to start drinking coffee till I was 20. Somehow, Ben and Berek at 18 and 16 were allowed to start drinking at the same time I was. That’s … … but I don’t know any families who don’t operate that way.

Only two students show up. Three others are AWOL.

Girl, trying to get Teacher’s attention: “Teacher, Teacher. That boy’s nose-holes are too big.”

Boy looks surprised; stares at Girl.

Teacher, while preparing books and cards for class, looks at Girl, looks at Boy, answers Girl: “Yours are about the same size, you know.”

Girl looks shocked; tries again: “Teacher, Teacher. His front teeth are too big.”

Boy looks hurt, but tries to smile without showing front teeth.

Teacher compares front teeth and says quite truthfully: “You know, just to be fair, you both have about the same size front teeth.”

Boy grins, Girl is unhappy: “Well, then, he’s too ugly.”

Teacher, fed up, says to Girl: “Your head is too big.”

Girl looks incredulous, Boy laughs.

Teacher: “OK, do you remember what we did last week? Tell me, which of these is a vowel.”

Boy picks nose and sucks finger. Girl starts screaming and jumps off chair. Boy laughs. Girl continues screaming. Chaos reigns supreme. Teacher pretends not to notice but tells Boy to wash hands because Teacher does not want to touch the same flashcards as Boy. Teacher convinces Girl to sit back down. After one hour of this, Teacher is happy to see kids leave, hopes they have at least learned some new vowels and consonants.

Two seconds of peace.

Next class arrives, 2 boys, 3 girls. Girl refuses to sit next to Boy even though it is the only seat left. Chaos again. Teacher looks around room and smiles calmly. Then slams hand on table with a tremendous bang and yells, “Quiiiiieeeet!” Kids freeze for a moment. Same old Capital Letters, Small Letters, Vowels, Consonants, Animals, Short Sentences, etc. Routine starts again, ends again.

Half a second of peace.

As class runs down the hall to go home, more kids pour in for next class. Same story, all over. Teacher, with a wry grin, remembers how Father used to call people under age 30 Pre-Humans and understands why.

Kyou, tanjobi da. 23 ni mo natte mada nanimo accomplish shite nai. Nanimo shitenakute, don don babaa ni natte iku…. Ge. Doushiyou.