Reading short stories again

I've gotten back into reading -- and enjoying -- short stories. The easiest way for me to settle into a short fiction reading habit is to pick up a random issues from our pile of New Yorkers. Laura and I both recently read David Hoon Kim's Sweetheart Sorrow. I'm looking forward to reading Q. & A.: Living Language, an interview with Kim, to help me sort out some of my questions concerning the story.

Silly summations

One moment, your words shine proudly in cyberia. Then with the hapless application of chmod, the same summations summarily cease.  Then, when you pray to the gods of the ether, the digital data come back.

Pick up that Unix book -- that's all I can say.

moleskines and other writing implements



moleskines and other writing implements

Originally uploaded by Raymond Yee.


For Christmas, Laura's folks gave me a large plain Moleskine notebook. Although I quickly took to writing in it sporadically, it is only during this last week that I've been writing many times a day in it. The notebook is, of course, not the only instrument for recording my thoughts. It has, however, become a guiding one as I sort through the jumble of thoughts that buzz around in my brain. Forcing myself to write my thoughts in a linear narrative often helps make sense of the nonlinear, illogical scramble of notions, emotions, questions, and conjectures.

On Sunday, I was trying to decide between buying a specialized notebook case or a messenger bag.  I opted for the latter because it has a lot more space to store papers, books, other knick knacks that are useful for the work I do.  The faux leather or real leather on some notebook cases were tempting....

Andy Crouch

I'm grateful to Andy Crouch, for pointing out in last Sunday's sermon, the three operative verbs
in the description of the 12-year old Jesus at the temple. See Luke 2:46 (NRSV):
"After three days they found him in the temple, sitting among the
teachers, listening to them and asking them questions." At the
university, do I sit, listen, and ask questions?

See two of Andy's online projects:

As I was looking for how to link to Luke 2:46, I found a number of
useful links to help me find Bible passages, especially for the the
NRSV: