Bugs

I've noticed a few broken links on the site lately. This is no doubt due to my HTML skills being stuck in the 20th century Blogger, but I've fixed what I've found. Please let me know if you find anything else that demands my attention.

Meta-Musings

People, especially my friends and coworkers, describe me as sanguine. Well, actually, they don't use that word, because most people aren't as geeky about language as I am, but it's what they mean. Sometimes I wonder how you--the people who read this, or at least the ones who don't know me--would describe me. Honestly, I don't care that much about what random strangers think of me, but it spurs my curiosity every once in a while.

By the way, I'm well aware that this post practically invites trolling. Inflammatory comments will be deleted swiftly and mercilessly, unless they're sufficiently clever and/or amusing.

December

Apologies for the light blogging lately. Between exploring Korea, teaching, and sleeping, I've been busy. Also, I've had a sore throat for the last week or so. Since my job depends on my ability to speak, I've tried to preserve my voice as much as possible. That's why phone calls home haven't happened in awhile. Happily, however, my throat seems to be on the mend.

Two Things

1) I have written, and will continue to write, words and phrases on this blog in Korean. It's possible that you won't be able to see these on your computer screen. If indeed you can't see them, likely you'll see small boxes in their place. This is because Windows computers lack Korean language fonts by default. Korean language packs can be installed, however, so if you want to remedy this, it's definitely possible. I'll try to translate any Korean into English, but I won't always do so.

2) Whenever I write Korean names, I'll follow Korean convention and write the family name first, followed by the given names. I won't suddenly start doing this with Western names, obviously, but it's something to be aware of.

Weekend Update

For reasons that continue to elude me, I've retained readers. So, for those of you who've stuck with me, here's an update: I'm off to Seoul in mid-late October. I should have a specific departure date Real Soon Now. I'm confident about the job--the whole situation, really--I'm heading to. Notwithstanding my confidence, though, I'm starting to realize that I'll miss Saskatoon and its people. Still, my excitement more than balances out my anxiety.

Prologue

I haven't read many books this summer (by my standards), but I've decided to make up for it by reading the Bible in its entirety. In most cases, of course, this means reading books and chapters I've already read, often many times over; in other cases, however, I've not read the material since I was a child, or, perhaps, I've never read it at all.

I read the Gospels and several Pauline Epistles two years ago in Oxford's New Revised Standard Version and every now and again I read a book or a chapter from that translation. This time, however, I'll be using my leatherbound copy of the King James Version, and I'll start at the beginning. The KJV is hardly the most accurate translation available, but it's the cornerstone of Western culture and I'll be using it for that reason. I'll post my thoughts here after each book, which will hopefully motivate me to slog through the not-so-exciting books (Numbers, Leviticus) to get to the gold (Ecclesiastes, Job).

And although I said I'd start at the beginning, I'll say this right now so that it's out of the way. It's called Revelation. Not Revelations. I can't tell you how annoyed I get when I see irreligious, educated people talk about how much they loved/hated "Revelations." It's like when creationists talk about "Origin of the Species." Reading about a book is not the same as actually reading it.

Fringe Benefits

One of the disadvantages of graduating is losing access to university webspace, say, to host and share music files on one's blog.

Pardon The Interruption

Apologies for the light blogging lately. I've rediscovered sleep and exercise after both went on hiatus for several months. Unfortunately, my obscene workload for my TEFL class means that I have less time to spend online. On the bright side, however, it looks like my class will help to streamline my writing. Studying the English language and learning how to teach it are better ways to develop good writing habits than writing endless academic papers, even, sadly, English papers.

Why I Write

It's been a week and, if my stats are to be believed, I have readers. Plural. Several dozen of them! For the benefit of my readers, I suppose I should say a bit about the blog beyond my brief introductory post.

I planned to start a blog once I started travelling so that I could continue to communicate with family and friends easily and efficiently. Daniel, though, convinced me to start earlier. Feel free to head over to his site to blame him for that. I expect that the content I post will evolve with my experiences. Once I start travelling, I'll write more about my personal experiences, post photos, etc. At the same time, I doubt I'll stop talking about politics, music, and ideas because those are the things that overwhelmingly occupy my mind and I don't see that changing much. Anyway, I'm not convinced that these things are all that different: ideas and arguments--or at least the good ones--are always and everywhere rooted in experience.

Boldly Going Where Everyone Has Gone Before

Welcome to my blog. As the top of the page says, you can expect to see here my commentary on life, literature, music, politics, and ideas. If you know me and you have a blog, let me know and I'll add it the list of links on the sidebar. I'm always happy to chat about any of the above with friends or strangers, so feel free to leave comments or email me directly. If you're so inclined, you can also email me to report HTML bugs, broken links, bad writing, etc.