Friday, October 30, 2009

Carvin' Out Some Fun

My favorite part of Halloween is turning this

















into its constituent parts, this
















and this.

Tuesday, October 27, 2009

Manifesto from the Common Household 10-year-old


We kids are treated as though we are toddlers.  We have no privelages of grown-ups.  They don’t understand.  While kids need guidance, they have no rights.  When kids get rights, they have no guidance.  I believe that kids should have both rights and guidance in their kid life. Of course, the grown-ups try to de-rail this by telling us that we’re lucky for what we have.  But, again, they don’t understand. Kids picture their lifestyle as the only lifestyle that can be.  Oh, sure, they know there are other lifestyles, but the message never really gets through.  

Anyways, the real meaning of that is to stop us from having rights and guidance.  I say, don’t do this!  Don’t let the grown-ups have the biggest piece of the pie!  I say, do what your parents do!  Follow them!  Be equal to them!  No longer be meaningless to the world!  Only give in if we lose our fight!

But don’t follow all of your parent’s examples.  For instance, don’t drink.  Don’t drive.  Don’t smoke.  Don’t kiss anyone else who’s a kid until you’re in high school.  Besides that, do what your parents do!  Sure, the law says you’re not allowed to vote, but laws can be changed! Hear me!  See my logic!  Kids are not just toddlers to be protected without rights, then left alone with rights!  We can stand by our parents’ side, doing as they!  Or we can continue going on with your either right-free or guidance-free life, never going along with the changes of the world.  Your choice.

I believe I have made my point.  I will go now.  But hear what I say, and remember it, for soon there will be an empire of people, grown-ups and children joined together at its head!

Thursday, October 15, 2009

Light Reading, no Greek puns, please


It was pleasant to read two fun books this week:  The Persian Pickle Club by Sandra Dallas, and Miss Julia Speaks her Mind By Ann B. Ross.  The first takes place in Kansas during the Great Depression, but it wasn’t depressing at all, just lots of fun and a little mystery.  The second book focuses on a recently-widowed woman, a Presbyterian, who gets stuck in quite a predicament.  For me it was a page-turner – intrigue and excitement, but in a Presbyterian way (decently and in good order).  The preacher men don’t come off looking too good, though. 

I really needed some fun reading to balance out my reading assignment: all about the Apostle Paul and his theology.  For me, it’s pretty difficult stuff to wade through.  It provides its own version of fun. In Philippians 3:2 there is a pun where Paul uses the word kakatome where normally the word peritome would be expected.  Not only is this pun in Greek, but it is a pun about circumcision.  ‘Nuff said.

At the library today I looked for another fun read, something without any Greek puns.  I found P.G. Wodehouse, but there were no Mma Ramotswe books (Alexander McCall Smith) which is really what I wanted to get.  I also got Mark Twain’s A Murder, A Mystery and A Marriage, but there’s no promise that it will be light-hearted.  Twain got to be rather bitter at times.

So does anybody have any light-hearted fun books to recommend?

Sunday, October 11, 2009

Saturday, October 3, 2009

Common Household Proverb

O Woman, look thou well on which of thy children are already in the house. Lo, the one who is not there is the one whom you should be picking up. Go then, and fetch that child.