Smile

Acck! It's been so long since my last post and I was doing so well... sigh. Part of it is because we're back to school now and last week (being the first time in two weeks we've been at school) was pretty crazy.

So here's a short update:

I've been busy. I am now not as busy. I got a tip today that I will be observed in the next week or so. Good tip.

I just smiled a lot because of this.

I am ahead in planning/photocopying for my earth science class but not my French classes - strange. I might, might get separate French III and IV classes next year. I may also have one student in French V. And I've been watching lots and lots of Olympics.

Promises

Today I spent my devo time reflecting on all that is good and right in my life - all the blessings that God has bestowed on small, undeserving me. God has given us so many amazing promises of his love that we forget when things get tough or when we are focused on other things. It is so unbelievably true that when we finally look to God and focus on Him that all other things fall into place.

Turn your eyes upon Jesus,
Look full in His wonderful face,
And the things of earth will grow strangely dim,
In the light of His glory and grace.

And I'll be by your side
Wherever you fall
In the dead of night
Whenever you call
And please don't fight
These hands that are holding you
My hands are holding you

Look at these hands and my side
They swallowed the grave on that night
When I drank the world's sin
So I could carry you in
And give you life
I want to give you life

See the promises that the Lord has given us and be encouraged! We are so precious to him and he holds us tightly in his hands - nothing can separate us from that love. (See Isaiah 43) I could write so much more, but the point is - be strengthend, encouraged, and loved. With Valentine's Day approaching, this is so appropriate - who is a better example of love than He who loves us so much that he would sacrifice himself?

Earthquake

This morning, there was an earthquake in Chicago. Chicago?! You may say, but yes, Chicago. I got a call from my mom early this morning all excited about the 3.8 magnitude earthquake that she slept through. :)

Here's the map that shows where the epicenter was - quite close to our house!

Nerd

So the nerd in me was very excited to wake up this morning and see the news about the Hadron Collider in Switzerland sharing its first (or second?) results! The amazing atom-smashing machine (which is much bigger, newer, and more sensitive than FermiLab's, sorry blokes in Batavia), broke an atom into many more pieces than anticipated! This is very exciting seeing as they are currently searching for the Higgs boson, but are finding more levels of sub-particles will make the search that much more exciting (and frustrating, I'm sure).

Check it out!

Blizzard

And here's some pictures from this afternoon of the blizzard that hit the East Coast today. It kept snowing for about 5 more hours after these pictures were taken!

Looking outside my door at the frosting on the trees.

And those little white blobs are actually bushes that are usually a little taller than the fence behind them. Plus you get the added benefit of seeing the huge snowdrift - about 2 ft. deep.

The Linguists

Sweeeeet. Apparently there was a film out two years ago all about linguistics and saving lost languages. After reading about the last speaker of Bo dying yesterday, I was inspired wander more online and found out lots of interesting information about saving dying languages, many of which are found in southeast Asian islands and Native American tongues in the United States.

Here's a great citation from an article called The Tragedy of Dying Languages that describes how important languages are:

We imagine eureka moments taking place in modern laboratories or classical civilizations. But key insights of biology, pharmacology, genetics, and navigation arose and persisted solely by word of mouth, in small, unwritten tongues. Finally, this web of knowledge contains feats of human ingenuity -epics, myths, rituals - that celebrate and interpret our existence.

Pundits argue that linguistic differences are little more than random drift, minor variations in meaning and pronunciation that emerge over time (the British say 'lorry', Americans 'truck'; Tuesday is CHEWS-day, for Brits, TOOZ-day for Americans).

These reveal nothing interestingly different about our souls or minds, some claim. But that's like saying that the Pyramid of Cheops differs from Notre Dame Cathedral only by stone-cutting techniques that evolved randomly in different times and places; revealing nothing unique in the ancient Egyptian or Medieval French imagination.

All cultures encode their genius in verbal monuments, while considerably fewer do so in stone edifices. We might as well proclaim human history banal, and human genius of no value to our survival.

The fate of languages is interlinked with that of species, as they undergo parallel extinctions. Scientific knowledge is comparable for both domains, with an estimated 80% of plant and animal species unknown to science, and 80% of languages yet to be documented.

Sweet! Languages are sooo important. I have often been on the receiving end of looks that scream, "You majored in French? That's not very useful." But the study of languages, how people learn them, how to teach them, and how they integrate into history, literature, and culture is immeasurably important.

On a completely unrelated side note, we are supposed to get 4 inches of snow today, 14 tonight, and 8 tomorrow. I'm guessing I won't be at school for much of next week...

Ancient Times

In ancient times....

- There was a lot of snow. = Ice Ages
- There were cool languages. = Tower of Babel.
- There was no school. = Low level of literacy

In modern times...

- There is a lot of snow. = Southern Maryland has turned into an ice age.
- There are less cool languages. = Click on the link and read, linguists!
- There is lots of school + Lots of snow = I will be teaching until July. Maybe.