Saturday, October 29, 2016

Profiling

11pm visit by eight (eight?!?!) of Kernersville's finest today.

All is well, and was well when they came too.  Eight?!?

We have a campaign worker staying with us this week.  Older gent, larger gent... and he's Indian.  He pulled up to our next door neighbors' late tonight instead of ours -- same facade, one house over.  Their dogs barked, which told him he had the wrong house (he met the guinea pigs & knew we didn't have dogs).    He was unloading his laptop & stuff from his car at the wrong house, then put it back and drove to ours.  One house away.

He deposits laptop & shoes at our place and says he went to the wrong house and they called the cops.  I'm up to my elbows in housepaint and just yell back a welcome.  Next thing I know Earl is talking loudly about how he's our houseguest.  I come up front to the porch and the cops yell at me to go back into the house.  "He's our guest," I bellow back.

Evidently it was called in as a B&E, then the neighbor saw him coming over and called us to warn us.  He came over after, met our guest, and apologized profusely. 

I'm glad we have cops who respond quickly.  But two makes sense to me.  Four cop cars, flashing lights, and handcuffing our guest as we stand on the porch vouching for him?  I don't think that would have happened to a white guy.

Monday, October 17, 2016

Gene Luen Yang

some resources:

Graphic novels portray bicultural America -- a new booklist for me to read.  Gene Luen Yang and (American Born Chinese; MacArthur fellow; National Ambassador for Young People's Literature) Dan Santat (Caldecott Medalist for Beekle) are quoted in it, and every single book looks like I'd enjoy learning about those characters.

Reading Without Walls challenge: 1) read about someone who doesn't look or live like the reader, 2) read a book about an unfamiliar topic, 3) read a book in an unfamiliar format.

All this is sourced from his reddit AMA in which he also mentioned he'd love to do a Wonder Twins reboot where the twins weren't aliens, just Asian-Americans who pretend to be aliens in order to be accepted.

Tangentially, there is a NY Times video hashtagged ThisIs2016 about systemic racism.  It makes me sad, and not just because I've received compliments on my English.


Not too big a stretch to think that the Wonder Twins would be more easily accepted as aliens than as Asian-Americans.

Friday, October 14, 2016

Banjos

Big Frog had a rough day (and week, and month for that matter).  But there will be banjos tonight.  We're going to see Ricky Skaggs and Kentucky Thunder, which includes Mechanicsburg's own Russ Carson, at the Carolina Theatre in Greensboro.

After getting inordinately mad at the GPS, which I thought he had on because he likes using the voice command feature, but which in fact he was actually using, Big Frog apologized to it and told me, "For this we have grace, and for this we need Jesus.

"And there will be banjos tonight."

To which I replied, "Yes, and in heaven there is also a banjo-free zone."

Thursday, October 6, 2016

Fighter Verse 2: Deuteronomy 10:12-13

Hey, Synergy kids, time for another new memory verse!  We'll be working on this one for the next two Sundays.  Also, we have one kid who has Fighter Verse 1, Deuteronomy 7:9 already memorized.  Who else is stepping up to the challenge?

Deuteronomy 10:12-13
And now, Israel,
what does the LORD
your God require of you,
but to fear the Lord your God,
to walk in all his ways,
to love him,
to serve the Lord your God
with all your heart
and with all your soul,
and to keep the commandments
and statutes of the Lord,
which I am commanding
you today
for your good?
Deuteronomy 10:12-13
 


Using basically one ASL sign per line as a tactile aide.
NOW
WHAT
DUE
WOW
WALK
LOVE
SERVE
HEART
SOUL
C-LAW (law as an initialed sign using C; COMMANDMENT)
YOU-ALL
GOOD

Wednesday, October 5, 2016

Comfortable

"Don't get too comfortable!
Jesus doesn't give us peace like a pond,
it's peace like a river!"

~Beth Moore, Sacred Secrets, pt3

Deeply graced

"People who have been deeply graced by God never withhold grace from other people."
~Beth Moore, Sacred Secrets