Sunday Wrapup 2/13/2011

After I heard more of the details of Casey Gingerich's death, I was a little embarrassed about how targeted my comments on dangerous behavior seemed in the previous post. It was unintentional.

Here's some background. As far as I knew, the death occurred during a swimming outing at the beach. That's how Floyd Miller from here drowned in El Salvador some decades ago. I didn't know that Casey had fallen from a 100-foot high cliff and drowned in the ocean below, when some of the rock shale he was standing on crumbled away.

Earlier in the day yesterday, however, in a conversation with a local friend, she mentioned that her husband worries about how people sometimes behave at the bluffs near Calvary Bible School. He's afraid people aren't properly cognizant of the danger. That's what made me think of mentioning "teetering too close to the edge of a bluff." That's something I've actually seen there and reacted to in the past--with gritted teeth and a knot in my stomach. Although my friend may have known more of the details about the drowning in Puerto Rico than I did, we didn't discuss it in the phone call.

Before I wrote the post, we had received a call chain message with a few details, but I missed part of the message. I understood David to have said something about drowning in the "surf." When I listened to the recorded message again later, I heard "cliff" but my post had already been published.

I certainly did not mean to rub salt in anyone's wounds.

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Hiromi and I sometimes trade "pessimist" accusations. He's fond of the expression "What can happen, will happen." I think that's overly pessimistic. But whenever I express a caution, he's pretty sure I've finally seen the light and am becoming reasonably pessimistic. "Are you a pessimist?" he asks hopefully.

It's true that I'm far more likely than Hiromi is to think that people's common sense can be relied on in most cases. As a result, I am less likely than he is to issue verbal warnings.. However, I doubt that my children and my students would believe this.

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Right on the heels of a disaster seems like a tasteless time to give safety warnings, but most of us don't do it at all unless we do it when the subject is fresh on our minds--unless we're slightly obsessive about it and think and talk about it constantly.

I'm thinking that maybe doing this isn't so different from what Jesus did when he told parables. Usually he told a story and then gave its meaning--often a warning.

Other stories in the Bible are told without accompanying commentary. That can be powerful too.

I think it's when we are most aware of our responsibility to teach that we give verbal warnings. This seems reasonable to me. It's part of the job description of being a parent or a teacher.

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Today we had a baptism service in our church. Nine people were baptized. Six of them are enrolled in our high school. Another one is homeschooled but attends some classes there.

I fully intended to go through the line to talk to each of the members of the class, but I began to feel light-headed and shaky and in desperate need of a blood sugar boost soon after church was over. I looked at the long line in dismay and gave up. We headed for the food line in the basement instead.

When I mentioned to the person next to me in line how I was feeling, that person suggested maybe the depleted oxygen in the building might be another factor. I hadn't thought of that.

At school or at home, I keep nuts handy as a protein snack to avoid a blood sugar slump before mealtime. I don't make any such provision for church, and this morning I had a near meltdown as a result. I couldn't think of anything in particular I had done differently than usual. I had the usual Japanese breakfast which includes rice, miso soup with miso paste and tofu and vegetables, eggs, and natto, a fermented soybean product--a special treat. That should have been plenty of protein to offset the pure starch in the white Asian rice. No coffee either to give me caffeine jitters.

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In the past year or so I've gotten a lot better at figuring out how to fix popcorn problems. Recently when my beloved Lady Finger popcorn produced a batch of tough, low-volume kernels, I knew it needed more moisture. So I put some water in the unpopped corn container and shook it up and left it set for a few days.

Yesterday I tried it again. It popped up beautifully, with no unpopped kernels left over.

I've also learned to leave the top partially ajar as much as I can while I'm actually popping it so steam can escape as it's released during the popping process. This helps keep the popcorn from being tough. I leave the top completely open till the popping starts and again near the end when the popped corn on top keeps everything under control. In between I can usually put a wooden spoon across the top between the lid flap and the kettle part of the popper, leaving it partially open, but not allowing many kernels to escape. (The popper we have has a lid clipped to the kettle and hinged in the middle.)

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At 6:30 this morning we did a Skype call to Hiromi's brother's house in Japan. Shane and Dorcas were there, as well as Hiromi's two nephews who are 28 and 30. I hadn't seen them since they were six and eight. Yoshinori talked too. He looked great--like the young Japanese professional he is. He talked English, so I could understand him.

Getting ready for a Skype webcam call requires a different level of preparedness than another call. Saiji actually called first around 6:22 while we were still in bed. We made some fast tracks to get ready for church and then called back when we were ready. It was 9:30 PM there, so we didn't want to keep them waiting long.

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Today was a balmy 60 degrees. The fresh spring-like air was distinctly scented by hog barn vapors by the time we came home from church--clear evidence of a SW wind.

Note to anyone in Kansas contemplating the ideal placement of a hog barn in relation to the house: Avoid putting the hog barn SW of the house. That's where the warmest breezes come from, so you're most likely to want to be outside at those times--at least in the spring and fall when the weather is most beautiful. And you'd like the air to smell good while you're out there. Putting anything smelly NW of a dwelling seems like a better idea. When the winds are in that direction, they're probably cold or blowing at a stormy time, when you're seeking cover indoors anyway, and the smells won't annoy you. Better yet, look for ways to keep the barn from getting smelly. (I know there are limitations to how much of this is possible.)

I think my dad had the hog barn built in that spot because it was on a nice little rise, and there was good access for bringing in feed or other necessary things for the hogs. Also, it was closer to the water source for this farm than it would have been on the other side of the house. But if it could easily be moved, I'd certainly vote in favor of doing so. It's impossible, of course, so we'll live with it.

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I'm bracing for a lot of inquiries from students tomorrow. Written reports on "hotspot" countries are due on Tuesday, and I have the suspicion that very few people have been doing reading and research. I'm all ready with a response to anyone who says something like "I have no idea where to start."

"What have you done so far?" I'll ask. If the answer is "nothing," I'll ask them to come back if they still need help after they've looked through the materials I've been collecting and have made available to them.

I'm not averse to discussing the subject or their papers, but I don't appreciate working hard to get material together for them, only to have them ignore it in favor of a quick summary from me. Doing "quick summaries" on at least 23 different country/subject combinations takes too much time to be a realistic expectation for anyone. Each student chose two combinations, so there are potentially many more than 23 combinations. Would anyone out there volunteer for this issuing-a-quick-summary job? I doubt it. Let me know if I'm wrong.

The only way this can work is if students take personal initiative to do research. That's precisely what we had in mind when we initiated this project.

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"Being on time is over-rated," I overheard one student say last month about his written report. He went on to say that he handed it in on time, but there were so many mistakes that he would have been better off to hand it in a day late, with good proofreading beforehand, and get only an automatic 5-point dock. The obvious third alternative would have been to start early enough to hand it in on time, with enough time allowed for careful proofreading before the due date.

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We've made being late on the current events and literature reports increasingly costly for students, and some people still can't be prodded to get them in within a reasonable time frame. At least one report from last month is not in yet, and this month's are due on Tuesday. Any suggestions?

We're already giving a 5-point grade reduction for each late day--bottoming out at 20 points, however, to give some incentive for still doing it. Now we're not allowing anyone who's late on their own report to listen to other oral reports being given. Instead they go off to the typing lab to work on their own report. We're assigning homework for each day on which they still have outstanding assignments, and we're depriving such students of recess time. Shaking fingers under their nose, using menacing words, and adopting threatening postures don't seem like good options. Maybe we should organize a prayer meeting. From my perspective it looks like a matter of students deciding to get the "rear in gear"--far simpler than suffering through all the consequences of failing to do so. But then, what do I know?