Some pictures

1st and 2nd pictures: He was running around the house getting into things. He likes to play with the house slippers and pull on the shoe rack. He managed to pull it over.
3rd and 4th: Wearing my stocking cap.
5th: I put him on the floor because he kept crawling around on the couch and getting close to the edge. When I put him on the floor, he just scooted back until he was under the couch. The only reason he stopped going back was that his head was too big to fit underneath.

Virtual Forbidden City

Check out http://www.beyondspaceandtime.org It is a online model of the Forbidden City in Beijing. You can take tours and talk to people and stuff. Too cool.

Turnips are singularly broad-minded.

This is the first paragraph of the last chapter of "Heretics" by G.K. Chesterton. It states nicely the fact that progress should be seen in coming to more conclusions about life, not in becoming more confused and "open."

"Whether the human mind can advance or not, is a question too little discussed, for nothing can be more dangerous than to found our social philosophy on any theory which is debatable but has not been debated. But if we assume, for the sake of argument, that there has been in the past, or will be in the future, such a thing as a growth or improvement of the human mind itself, there still remains a very sharp objection to be raised against the modern version of that improvement. The vice of the modern notion of mental progress is that it is always something concerned with the breaking of bonds, the effacing of boundaries, the casting away of dogmas. But if there be such a thing as mental growth, it must mean the growth into more and more definite convictions, into more and more dogmas. The human brain is a machine for coming to conclusions; if it cannot come to conclusions it is rusty. When we hear of a man too clever to believe, we are hearing of something having almost the character of a contradiction in terms. It is like hearing of a nail that was too good to hold down a carpet; or a bolt that was too strong to keep a door shut. Man can hardly be defined, after the fashion of Carlyle, as an animal who makes tools; ants and beavers and many other animals make tools, in the sense that they make an apparatus. Man can be defined as an animal that makes dogmas. As he piles doctrine on doctrine and conclusion on conclusion in the formation of some tremendous scheme of philosophy and religion, he is, in the only legitimate sense of which the expression is capable, becoming more and more human. When he drops one doctrine after another in a refined skepticism, when he declines to tie himself to a system, when he says that he has outgrown definitions, when he says that he disbelieves in finality, when, in his own imagination, he sits as God, holding no form of creed but contemplating all, then he is by that very process sinking slowly backwards into the vagueness of the vagrant animals and the unconsciousness of the grass. Trees have no dogmas. Turnips are singularly broad-minded."

146

Poor soul, the center of thy sinful earth,
My sinful earth these rebel pow'rs that thee array,
Why dost thou pine within and suffer dearth,
Painting thy outward walls so costly gay?
Why so large cost, having so short a lease,
Shall worms, inheritors of this excess,
Eat up thy charge? Is this thy body's end?
Then, soul, live thou upon thy servant's loss,
And let that pine to aggravate thy store:
Buy terms divine in selling hours of dross:
Within be fed, without be rich no more:
So shalt thou feed on Death, that feeds on men,
And Death once dead, there's no more dying then.

Shakespeare (of course)

Caedmon at the Park

We went to the Sculpture Park during the recent national day vacation.

Vaccine

I took Caedmon for a vaccination today while my wife was teaching. The folks all said he was a real cute little guy as always. I'm a proud papa!

The nurse was pretty skillful with the needle. She pulled Caedmon's sleeve down and stuck the needle in--a long way--and gave him the shot. He didn't seem to notice until as she was pulling the needle out and then he said, "Aaaah." and was happy again. He didn't even cry. He just said, "Aaaah." He's a trooper.

Here are some pictures of him enjoying a morning nap.

Wasting Time

Hi Friends and Family,

As you can tell, having a baby has kept me busy. I haven't posted for a while. I have been taking care of the baby and studying Chinese and doing some other things.

My Chinese has made great progress. I have been reading The Three Character Classic with the (very necessary) help of a commentary. I'm almost done with the book/poem now. When I finish, I plan to take a break on Chinese for a while. I have gotten pretty obsessed with this studying Chinese thing, so I need to take some time to get my life back in order. I really enjoy studying and learning tons of new things about Chinese ancient history and culture and literature, but at the end of the day I feel a bit restless, like it has all been in vain. It brings to mind a line from one of my favorite books, Ecclesiastes: "And I gave my heart to know wisdom, and to know madness and folly: I perceived that this also is vexation of spirit. For in much wisdom is much grief: and he that increaseth knowledge increaseth sorrow."