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Sunday, November 23, 2014

Shutter Therapy in Hoi An, Vietnam with OM-D E-M1

I spent the past few days in the picturesque coastal town of Hoi An, Vietnam. Finally, I managed to get some time away from work and just click the shutter button away, while doing that in a quaint, small and peaceful town. I have not had much chance to travel around and I really should have made more effort to explore South East Asia more, there are so many beautiful places, rich in culture and various tradition, all screaming photography opportunities to be discovered.

I brought along Olympus OM-D E-M1 as the primary camera, an E-M5 as a back-up in case something happens to the E-M1, and four M.Zuiko lenses: 9-18mm F4-5.6, 45mm F1.8, 75mm F1.8 and 40-150mm F2.8 Pro. When I was walking around doing my shutter therapy, I did not bring everything with me of course, usually only one camera (E-M1) and about three lenses (40-150mm Pro stays behind, unless the extra long each was needed). E-M1 and the three lenses weigh less than 1.5kg, all fitted into a small shoulder sling camera bag, easy to carry around without feeling any strain on my shoulder or neck. In comparison to my older days with DSLR E-5 and the Four Thirds lenses, this new combination of E-M1 and smaller lenses made such a stark, huge difference in terms of portability and convenience. And with the 40-150mm F2.8 pro lens, the total weight comes to about 2kg only!

Beautiful Hoi An, near sunset

Friendly Hoi An farmer

The shops and buildings are old, but with beautiful, traditional design, staying in tact.

Boat is an important form of transport for the locals.

The whole place of Hoi An was so slow and peaceful that even the street animals become lethargic

The Street Food looked devilishly delicious.

Whatever this was, it has got to be hot and spicy

A sight not too common in modern days

I think everyone has a bicycle in this town.

Hoi An is such a beautiful, small town! There really is not much to do in this town, and if you are not exactly into photography, I think it is easy to get bored. The town is so small you might just be able to explore all places within a day or two. Most of the important places were reachable within walking distance. Shops close quite early, and there were not many forms of entertainments or things to do at night. To come here, is to relax and unwind, and just take things slow, enjoying the scenery and eat all the delicious Vietnamese food.

I find the people here very, very friendly and approachable. Most of them had no issues with me shooting their photographs, and the odd thing was I ran into more trouble shooting the street food than being stopped shooting portraits of Vietnamese locals. I am not sure why I was not allowed to shoot their food they sold by the street, considering how harmless that could be, and so many people actually selling the same thing, there really was nothing unique or special at all. When I was stopped at one food operator, I just walked another 5 minutes down the road and found the exact same thing and from the many choices I did manage to shoot the few interesting foods that I wanted to.

The main problem with my time in Hoi An was the weather. It rained about 80% of the time, which could be frustrating. It was not so much of the rain that bothered me, but the grey sky, creating very ugly lighting to the scenery and everything I wanted to shoot. Having an E-M1 helped in the wet weather, and I was using the 40-150mm pro combo when it rained so I had a fully weather sealed system to walk around with. Thankfully the final day before I left, I was given half a day with good weather (it did rain in the morning, but it was fine from noon onward). More than half of the shots shown in this blog were taken in that final day, due to the better weather.

The younger kids and teenagers were very cooperative when I was shooting them. They did not speak English so it was difficult to communicate, but always, always remember the universal language: SMILE.

The younger ones were quite fashionable actually, a contrast to their parents' generation.

Not sure why but they all had some strange attachment to caps. Maybe the sun was too harsh most of the time when it was not raining.

There are stalls selling gigantic donuts. There are just too many of them, looking at how huge those donuts are, is enough to make me full.

Just a typical scene of the streets in Hoi An. Always busy, with bicycles, trishaws, motorcycles and pedestrians.

Trishaw is good business

Of all the food I have seen, I was most fascinated by the purple cake thing.

I was just too full already, or else I would try each and every one of the food here!

E-M1 did superbly well as a travel photography camera. I almost never missed focus, and I used the electronic viewfinder most of the time. I started shooting when it was not even sunrise, thus it was quite dark, but the E-M1 had no issues handling focus, and surely was good enough to produce some low light shots. Same thing at night, I did some shooting in the night and was very pleased with the results. I brought the tripod along just in case but I found the E-M1 good enough to use hand-held, with the aid of 5-Axis Image Stabilization, wide aperture F1.8 prime lenses and of course, very usable ISO3200 and even ISO6400 shots. Check out the lantern shots below!

I brought along 9-18mm F4-5.6 (loaned from Olympus of course) and it was such a necessary lens if you do want to fit more into your one frame. I did anticipate that Hoi An would be so beautiful and I wanted to have some super wide shots, and I was glad I had the 9-18mm with me. However, I utilized the prime lenses, 45mm and 75mm most of the time. As usual 45mm F1.8 is my primary lens. I would have used the 25mm F1.8 but that lens is currently loaned out to a friend who is having a holiday in Australia (I am sure he is making great images with my 25mm F1.8 lens). For far away unreachable subjects, that 40-150mm F2.8 lens was a life-saver. On the whole, I had a complete system, and can you believe they all fit into the small bag and weighing just below 2kg!

At night, Hoi An is lit up with many lanterns. In fact, in certain times of the month (during full moon) the folks do come out together and light candles on floating paper boats to be released into the river. The lanterns added quite a unique character to this town. The street lighting was quite dim and far apart, hence the streets at night can be quite dark. That made the lanterns stood out even more.

One of the few entertainment available in Hoi An

MORE lanterns

Boys selling candles. ISO4000

This was an ISO6,400 shots.

The main place to explore in Hoi An was the old town, having many streets with buildings exhibiting very interesting architecture and people selling souvenirs. Within the old town there was a Wet Market, operating for the whole day starting very early in the morning, selling vegetables, fruits, meat, seafood and all sorts of other things related to a market. This place was usually very busy and full of people. I did not spend too much time here because honestly the market scene is quite similar to what I can find in Malaysia, much like my usual hunting ground, Pudu Market, KL.

Hoi An is a fishing village, and you can find the locals out on the river fishing using some traditional methods. I did have some photographs of the fishing in action but they were taken in early morning with poor light (it was raining most of the mornings I was there, how unfortunate). I imagine the shots must have been quite amazing if I had some good light.

About 5km out of the town (by taxi or rented bicycle, I took a taxi because I was lazy) you can find a few other places to explore. There were paddy fields (we have plenty in Malaysia, so I skipped the paddy field) and vegetable farms. The vegetable farm was quite a nice place to just walk around and witness how the locals did their farming chores. Watering the plants, sowing seeds, weeding were some of the recurring activities, done everywhere in the farm. They grew a wide varieties of herbs and vegetables and I shall shamelessly say I could not identify that many of them, considering I grew up as a city boy. It was indeed exciting to see where the food came from!

Bike Tour is very popular here.

Sowing new seeds

Can you tell what they are planting?

Very friendly local folk

Such a heart-warming smile!

Morning Activities

Taugeh and... ermm.. not sure what the white thing was

Morning Market People

One man's trash can is another man's seat.

Some of the things I have learned about Hoi An:

1) Traffic Lights are useless. There were so few here, and in places with intersecting traffic, everyone just navigated through without hitting anyone.

2) Almost everything is in 1 Dollar (USD). The boat ride would cost you 1 USD. The candle is also 1 USD. So are many of the fruits some of the desperate locals will chase you and try to sell to you.

3) Happy Hour starts as soon as the sun rose, and extended all the way till late night. Happy hour applies to restaurant food, souvenirs and of course, bars and cafes. Not even sure what Happy Hour means any more.

4) Never trust the taxi drivers. Always know where you are heading. I stopped at the vegetable village, knowing the beach was only about 1km away so I decided that I would walk to the beach after exploring the vegetable village. The Taxi driver argued that the beach was 5km away. Thank goodness I had Google Maps (and data) with me.

5) Local food, is amazing. Like seriously I could not get enough!

Very young one

Not sure what is happening here.

Hanging out at Hoi An

Boat Operator

Another take of the town, in monotone

Mobile generation

Fruit seller, selling on the basket on his motorcycle.

Boy in an Alley

All in all, it was a blast for me, shooting and having so much fun in Hoi An.

If you are looking for a quiet place to relax and just spend some peaceful time in, I do not think many places can beat Hoi An. And if you love travel photography, how can you skip Hoi An? Such a beautiful town both in day and night.

I sure hope you have enjoyed the photographs! If you have been to Hoi An do share you experience.

Have you been travelling with E-M1? How did your E-M1 do in travel photography? Do share your thoughts, I would love to hear from you, and I am sure many would benefit from your sharing too.

I leave you all beautiful people with photographs of food I have eaten!!

Cam Lau, local noodle dish in Hoi An. Must try!

Fried Wonton. Very different from what we get in Malaysia (or anywhere else in the world).

White Rose

Spring Rolls

Can you imagine all these for only USD7? Yes I paid in USD.

The beautiful lady who cooked all the above dishes. I miss her and her food already.

One day, I shall visit other places in Vietnam, and perhaps I shall return to Hoi An again!

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  1. Hi Robin. Excellent photos and beutifull colours!!! I have two questions for you. Are these photos 4:3 format? And what type of lens did you use the most?

    1. Dominik, all your answers were in the blog entry. Kindly spend some time reading.

  2. Fantastic as always! Especially love the night time photos. I visited Hoi An about 5 years ago and had a lot of rain then too. I think November is not the best time for Central Vietnam if you want clear skies. In those days I was lugging my Nikon DSLR around.

    Just got back from 3 weeks or so in Singapore and Indonesia. In my opinion the E-M1 is the perfect camera, and certainly the perfect travel camera. Most of the time I had the 12-40 PRO on mine except for when I was at the bird park in Singapore when I had the Panny 35-100 on and some macro shooting with the 60mm. I took the 45 and 17 f1.8 along but didn't end up using either one. But they're so small it wasn't a hardship to have them along anyway.

    1. Hey Glenn,

      Thanks for sharing your exprience! I do agree that 12-40mm pro is the right companion to go along E-M1, after all it is designed as E-M1's kit lens! And zoom is quite convenient too, surely the lens can cover a wide range of shooting conditions.

  3. One of the best posts I have seen on your site!
    Lots of very interesting photos - I think you need to get away from home more often ;-)

    1. Thanks for the kind words! I wish I have more money and time.

  4. Very nice article and pics!

  5. Brilliant images as always. the clarity in them always impresses me.

    Looks like you had a great time and thank you for sharing.

    1. Hey Paul,
      It was a relaxing and enjoyable trip, surely I had a great time! My pleasure to share.

  6. Beautiful shots. Feeling great to take photo in other country right?

    1. Hey Sapphire!
      Yes! I wanna do it again haha

  7. I was at Hoi An just 2 months ago. And i didnt manage to capture even 10% of the beautiful images you have here. Da Nang and Hoi An are indeed beautiful places for still images.
    Thanks for sharing.

    1. Hi Calex,
      Oh dear, I think you must have some very nice shots too. We all see things differently so I am sure what you said was not true! But I must agree Hoi An and Da Nang are beautiful indeed.

  8. Visiting new places definitely pays off big time! Your pictures look different here (yet still being recognizably yours), and I find this one of your best collections for quite a while. I specially liked the picture "Hanging out at Hoi An", where the white zip of the woman seems to be a long noodle she is about to eat! ;)

    1. Gonzalo,
      Thanks so much for the kind words. Many great photographers advised us to travel far away from our comfort zone, only then we can explore different photography opportunities, hence grow and get better!

  9. Thanks for these wonderful and atmospheric fotos, Robin. I have bee to Indonesia several times and always love making fotos of people over there in Asia because people are mostly open and friendly. Fotos like these have become nearly impossible here in Europe, nobody wants to be fotographed on street, they are aggressive and hostile when they only see a camera in your hands!
    One question though: the two shots of the boys at night with 4000 and 6400 ISO are so beautiful and nearly without noise. How do you do that. Just two days ago I was making pictures of a birthday party, where I tried with such high ISO-values with my E-M1. The fotos are terrible, ages away from your fotos here. What is the secret?

    Regards from the Netherlands

    1. Hey Wolfgang,
      I agree that culturally at different places people do respond to cameras differently. About the high ISO shots, do read my blog entry here. I shared my thoughts on high ISO shooting with Olympus cameras.

  10. Robin, I do read your blog on a regular basis and very much enjoy the pictures you are sharing. But this time it was an extraordinary pleasure. So many beautiful shots from a lovely place (which is very exotic to me as a European) ! I really love the composition, colors and clarity of your work. This article is definitely something to enjoy twice, if not more :-)

    Greetings from Germany

    1. Thank you so much for the kind words karsten!!! I did not do much really, Hoi An is so beautiful it is a crime not to shoot beautiful photos!

  11. great photos there Robin! I have question here, do you set the focus point beforehand or do you use auto and let the camera choose the focus point? I had several occasions that I thought I got the shot and then realised that it was focused not on the subject I wanted.. But then, if I set the focus point beforehand, it will take time to change to other focus point and miss the moment. Dilemmas every time.

    1. Hey Davy,
      Yes, I set the AF point to exactly where I wanted to focus. When I was planning my shot, I already decided where I wanted my subject to be in my frame. I moved the focusing point to that location in the frame before I compose my shot. I understand you will find it time consuming and difficult if you adjust the focusing point when you are framing your shot. So plan ahead, know where your subject is in your frame before you shoot, get the AF point ready (arrows, up down left right, should be quick once you are used to comtrolling them without even looking) and as you frame your subject the focusing point is exactly where it should be.

  12. Hi Robin,

    Wonderful series mate!
    Any chance you'd do a comparison between the new Olympus 40-150mm f 2.8 lens against the 50-200mm SWD 4/3 version in the near future? Image Quality and Speed?

    Eric V
    Edmonton Alberta Canada

    1. I do not think I will be using the 40-150mm pro lens for a while. If I do get the chance I shall compare.

  13. Very visually refreshing images, Robin. But frankly your food shots should be illegal. Once again while viewing them I drooled all over my keyboard, ruining it. The boss caught me switching his keyboard for mine and said, "WFT? Next time you're outta here!"

    1. Hi Ulfie,
      I think my food shots still have a lot to improve on. I rarely show food photographs but food is such a huge part of Vietnamese culture, and surely it is a huge part of my travel experience!

  14. Nice photos, makes me want to visit Vietnam with my EM5. Thinking of getting an em1 or em 10 because of the focus peaking for manual lenses. Does the focus peaking function still work when I am shooting a video?

    1. Hey Chris, no, unfortunately for Olympus no focus peaking in video.

  15. I'm hungry now! Great set of pics Robin, making me want to travel and taste some exotic food again.

  16. Hello Robin,

    just beautiful as usaual. I really like your way of "looking", great!

    Regards Frank

  17. Robin, November still rainy season. December is peak and may January would be a good time to go. You may want to visit Hue, the ancient capital. The tombs are a favourite location. Quiet as well and worth a wander. Hue is about 2.5 hrs from Danang.

    1. I wish I have more time in Vietnam. Perhaps next visit then.

  18. For your information & correction, that's Cao Lau (in Vietnamese: Cao Lầu), not Cam Lau.
    Great photos, the sharpness is really impressive. If you visit Vung Tau, I'll show you around.

  19. Hi Robin, enjoyed your post! Did you use any flash in your food shots?

  20. Hi
    Your site give me a useful information about photograhics.

  21. I always enjoy your color, composition and human interaction in all of your photos.

  22. I want to visit Hoi An because of your pictures :')

  23. Hi Robin - some wonderful images you captured.
    It would be nice if you could put which lens you used in the captions...

  24. Wonderful wonderful set of photos Robin!

  25. Please come back to there again. Welcome to Vietnam.

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Gourmet Christians and the Leaders Who Love Them (2010)

[Originally teaching for a cell leader training]

Ever since I was dropped off at Sunday School when I was a child, I have been very moved by this parable.

A certain man was preparing a great banquet and invited many guests. At the time of the banquet he sent his servant to tell those who had been invited, “Come, for everything is now ready.”

But they all alike began to make excuses. The first said, “I have just bought a field, and I must go and see it. Please excuse me.” Another said, “I have just bought five yoke of oxen, and I’m on my way to try them out. Please excuse me.” Still another said, “I just got married, so I can’t come.”

The servant came back and reported this to his master. Then the owner of the house became angry and ordered his servant, “Go out quickly into the streets and alleys of the town and bring in the poor, the crippled, the blind and the lame.”

The servant said, “Sir, what you ordered has been done, but there is still room.”

Then the master told his servant, “Go out to the roads and country lanes and compel them to come in, so that my house will be full. I tell you, not one of those who were invited will get a taste of my banquet.” Luke 14:16-24

I heard the man, who in Matthew’s version is a King, say, “Come, everything is ready.” And I went — like any kid would go to dinner. I honestly felt honored to be invited to the banquet, because my socioeconomic ilk did not have banquets. Another reason I went is because I was being Sunday Schooled by some good Baptists; and they made sure we five-year-olds not only saw ourselves as people outside of town in the bushes, but also as the servants of the king, who was talking to us! “Go out and bring in the poor, crippled, blind and lame.” I often took that literally. I compelled those people to come in. I may have been the best Sunday school person ever.

It never dawned on me until I began inviting that so many people would be so well fed, physically, that an actual banquet would be a yawn of a metaphor. What’s more, it only occurred to me much later that people would feel well-fed spiritually! (We had no spirituality to eat at my house).  They would feel so full of something that they would actually put themselves in the place of those refusing to come! They would stay preoccupied with whatever they were refusing-because-of for their whole lives! Personally, I got the idea that no excuse was good enough — and why would you have one, except you were afraid or crazy? And how could you be afraid of God or so crazy? I am still relatively naïve, just like that.

Not long ago, the Cell Leaders got together and considered the people we know who have problems eating the kingdom feast. They are in our cells. And, chances are, we each have some feast-avoidance in us, too. We humbly started our process by confessing our own abiding excuses. We had many. Everybody has a problem. God loves us.

Right now, I think Circle of Hope has a problem. We are a physical and spiritual banquet. People come in and we usually don’t even have to compel them. But sometimes they won’t sit down at the table. Sometimes they sit down but they won’t eat what is served. Sometimes they are full of “post-banquet” philosophy and disdain the whole idea of eating. There is a title for these extra-grace-required people that has been sticking in my mind. I call them “gourmet” Christians. Some people won’t eat at Mui Chung or Crown Chicken (or anything going north from here until they hit Walnut); they won’t waste their calories on marginal food. They are gourmets. And some people are like that with Jesus and His people.

Gourmet Christians have a problem with what the church serves. They won’t waste their discerning souls on regular, greasy spiritual food, Betty Crocker Bible cookbook food, served by real people. They are spiritual foodies. They’ve heard about the best on TV or in a book or in their refined imagination and they only want that. These people  go from cell to cell, congregation to congregation, looking for a good meal. They come once a month to the PM, but go to Catholic mass in the morning; they wonder why we don’t have icons or they want guest speakers on Honduran social work. Quite a few of these friends went to Eastern or Messiah, or Taylor or Lancaster Mennonite or some Christian wherever, or got home schooled,  and somehow became too cool for regular church. Now they think of themselves as bigger than regular church. I think of them as hovering above the church like Jon Stewart commenting on everyone but never actually being someone. Such a gourmet goes to your cell and looks down on your youth, quotes a great sermon they heard and refers to the last conference they attended.

I think it only dawned on me recently that we could reach the tipping point and be overrun with gourmets. We may have been discovered by Christians looking for an interesting spiritual dining experience. Maybe it is easy to fall into the trap. We are a banquet, after all. We do indiscriminately compel people to come in. It is not surprising that we end up with entitled gourmets who get comfy at our table and just sit there nibbling. They are at the table waiting. They never eat what is served, but they are there waiting for something they can really drool over to show up on the smorgasbord. And they are disappointed when it doesn’t show up. They reserve a seat and don’t show up, or they show up and turn up their noses at what is served, or they just criticize what you cook up as if they deserved a banquet in the first place. Are you relating to this?

I think I can find one of these people in every cell. I have a couple in my cell right now. One sees a spiritual director (which might not be that useful in your twenties) but can’t get along enough to be in a PM. Another is all into a parachurch mission and can’t decide if Circle of Hope should get cut from their busy Christian schedule — their plate is so full. More and more people are kind of like Danae from a recent issue of the Inquirer. They wear a sacred robe of holy superiority and are too good or too important or too busy to come to the banquet, really.

This presents a problem for us Cell Leaders and others in the mission. We are the incarnation of Jesus, so we take gourmet Christians seriously as long as they are walking with us. I love them just like God loves them, even though I think they weaken our community and they make faith look like you don’t have to be this or that, you can just do faith like Americans go out to eat. In 2006 Americans were said to eat one out of four meals out, using half their food budget. They like choice. I think that is reflected in how they consume the Lord’s banquet, too — with discriminating taste, or at least a hankering for whatever they don’t have served up fast. But even though I don’t appreciate their attitude, they are my people. What to do?

So I want to name these folks among us so we can love them better. The first thing is noticing them and honoring them as who they really are. Then we can learn to care for them more realistically and effectively. I have three variations to help us ponder for a while.

Holy hiders

Holy Hiders are Gourmet Christians who want a little food but they don’t want anyone to know they are eating it. A hipster Christian might find a Christian spiritual restaurant they like but they wouldn’t tell anyone about it because then it would get popular and so less unique and they might end up needing a reservation because it got shared with so many people.

I think we have been colonized, to some degree,  by holy hiders. They grew up in the church but are too cool for church now. Or they went to a Christian school and now they think they are too smart for regular church and need to convert Tanzania. They are kind of part of us, but they would never tell anyone about us, or even claim to be part of us, unless it was to some mission agency they wanted to hire them which required a home church on the application.

These colonizers sit in our cells or public meetings eating whatever seems like a delicacy to them until they decide to graze elsewhere. They never become contributors to the mission; they never share money. They consume food but they do not expend energy. They have a spot, but they don’t use it. If you get too many of them, it tilts your cell their direction and everyone just sits around being ambivalent.

I really don’t mind if a person is slow to engage…for years, even! What do I know of their timetable in the Lord? But when there is no movement with what’s moving — or if there is an actual pull against the momentum, if I end up with a dead weight that insists on being carried, we’re in trouble. We had a small crew of people who came from a conservative college who ended up in our church and in the Philly bar scene at the same time. No one came from the bar scene to the church. The crew eventually chose the bar. It left a hole in our love.

What to do? Complain? Condemn? I think if you are a leader who loves these kind of gourmet Christians, you need to give them hope. They need a taste of something real, not just a demand to be in or out. Don’t just talk about it — a lot of our cells are just blab. I think we often let these people sit too long blabbing. We are trying to be nice, letting them move as they can move, which is good. But they are used to hiding out. No one notices what they are doing. No one helps them imagine being their full selves fully engaged. You might ask them, “Did you notice that you have money, you have talent, you have gifts and you aren’t sharing them with the cell or with the church?” You might say, “You are a serious person I take seriously who is not being a serious person.” That might work. But it would probably be better to go out and bring hope to someone and ask them to go with you. Help them come out as a Christian, or as a covenant member. Show them what they mean to you, and what they could mean to Philly.

Holy hauteurs (hauteur = “a condescender, a person who is superior”)

Holy Hauteurs are Gourmet Christians who somehow got the idea that churches can be compared like they are cruising the restaurants on Chestnut St. in Old City. They are spiritual foodies who have eaten everywhere and can give you a rating. No churches live up to their standards; they all have some tragic flaw.

Circle of Hope gets criticized, or just judged silently by holy hauteurs who have seen it all and are jaded. I suppose we asked for the criticism by doing stuff and putting ourselves out there — leading a cell, having a website, writing a book, sticking our heads above the usual. They check it all out for flaws. We’re the shark, they are like pilot fish biting on us, along for a ride they seem to disapprove of. If you try to do anything, if you lead, unconscious critics supply the punishment.

These critics sit in our cells and public meetings with a look that says “I’m waiting for you to do something displeasing.” They stay on the fringes lest they be identified with your less-than perfect behavior, theology, outreach, whatever. Last night in our discernment meeting they were represented telling Joseph’s cell that they did not study the Bible. You might not even find out what a mess they think you are until they talk about you to someone else and you meet that someone else after the talker is long gone.

I think healthy dialogue is crucial. And I invite people to say untested, dumb, even critical things,  just like I want the freedom to talk. In a trust system, being oneself is a gift; expecting a loving response is a joy. But when a person keeps criticizing you to see if you will “hear” them before they decide to bless you with their trust, that just gets tiresome. One of the reasons churches end up autocratic is because the leaders get worn out by people who offer criticisms that are not mission tested. If you have a great idea, it should come from your great success at practicing it, not mere imagination or scrutiny of what someone else does.

For instance, in our discerning process we always get criticized for not being diverse enough and our Egyptian, African American and female pastors have to defend us. Meanwhile one wonders how we are supposed to be diverse if the critics won’t include people because we aren’t diverse enough, and if people coming in who are supposedly different experience our criticism? It is easy to criticize what someone else is doing.

What to do? Complain? Condemn?  If you are a leader who loves gourmet Christians, you must teach them love. Compel them to come in, don’t just manage their bad behavior and bad feelings. I generally think that everyone is pretty hurt, when it comes down to it, so I don’t need to judge their behavior too strongly — I have no idea what they are facing. But I do deserve to be loved. I am a child of God. I am worth understanding, forgiving, encouraging. I mean something, I have value. So if someone is against me all day, I suspect they need to learn how to love. I would never leave them in their old behavior that’s killing me; I’m not going along with something that is against the Lord.  People have folks in their cells that they just hate, they go home and tell their husband or wife how horrible it was to be with the person, how they wrecked the cell again, how they called and complained for an hour about how they had not been loved well. I think you should take that personally and say something like — “You are lying, You are abusing me. You are a drag.” What’s going to happen if we speak the truth in love? Are they going to criticize you for being critical? But what might happen if they find a person who won’t dance their steps with them? Won’t they learn new steps? Teach them to love.

Holy haters

Holy haters are gourmet Christians who have gone beyond liking food. They are like the burned out professional restaurant critic who lost interest in restaurants long ago but retained a love of the power to wreck them.

Holy haters corrupt churches. They don’t really want to be in the mission and don’t really want to be in the body and you’ve got to wonder how they got to be a spiritual food critic at all, since they don’t appear to really want the food, yet. They just like being ornery. We invite them to come to the table and they question why we have a table…while they are sitting at it! We show them love and they resent being pressured. We offer opportunities to serve and they resent how the church sucks up their time. We do the best we can and they think we are holding out on them.

In Circle of Hope, our main delivery system for deepening our discipleship comes through our cells and PMs. It is a simple system. The corrupters don’t use the system and ask for what they won’t receive delivered in an alternative way. Now you might be thinking of this person as the ultimate outsider, but quite often they are the ones with whom you are dipping the bread. No one can hate you as well as a loved one. They know what gets you and when they harden their hearts, it is trouble. They’ll have a fight and not forgive — but they will come to the cell. They’ll have an affair and not repent — but show up at the party. They’ll say yes to a mutual mission — and not show up. They’ll make a promise of community — and not do their part: forget to return a call, not read email, not say hi when you walk in.

I think these people make me doubt the most of all. I set the table for them and they won’t even eat. And I am the type, by nature, to doggedly keep setting the table expectantly, trying new dishes, trying dinner theatre until I’m exhausted and they sneer at my lack of strength. I’m trying to be serious and they aren’t serious, and if that is pointed out, they don’t mind starting a big political battle as if they are a victim. They don’t provide food or want to eat it, but they do want to have a food fight.

If you get one of these people in your cell, it is going to feel cold and you might not know why. Because it is hard to believe someone would come to the meeting and not want to go to the meeting.

What to do? Complain? Condemn? If you are a leader who loves them, you need to convert them.  Call them to faith, don’t get so scared or disgusted you just kick them out. They need to come in (or connect with what we are doing). Convert them, don’t normalize them. The cell needs to have structure for just these people: if they can conform to what the group is doing, they might open up to conform to Jesus. They need to bump up against hard things and feel the hardness of reality. Have the argument. The main work of the cell leader is evangelism. Assume that until a person is evangelizing, or helping you do it, they need to be evangelized. Faith is not running them, something else is. Don’t make that something else normal so you don’t have relationship or social problems. We exist for those problems. Pray for strength and do what you can. This was reaffirmed a couple of weeks ago when my old friend from college looked me up when he was at a conference in Philly. He told me how mad I made him and how that was instrumental in getting him to think about having real faith, which has sustained him over his hard life.

People need hope, love, faith or they might end up as or stay gourmet Christians, always eating but never full or worse, contracting spiritual bulimia or anorexia. It is no surprise that Jesus named the kingdom a banquet. We have spiritual food disorders. But cell leaders and anyone who loves a gourmet Christian are the patient party-throwers who help people get over their excuses and eat.

One Response to Gourmet Christians and the Leaders Who Love Them (2010)

  1. Pingback: Resources for Circle of Hope's Cell Leaders

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text:
Archive for February, 2009

Division of Labour

One of the good things about using VBA with Excel is that you get two languages to play with: Excel formulas and VBA. We can use these in a complementary way, to effect a ‘division of labour’. Specifically, there are many built-in Excel functions, which it would be pointless (and less efficient) to re-implement in VBA.

Suppose that we need a VBA function to calculate an Order Price, as the back-end to a data-entry form:

Function Order_Price(productid As String, quantity As Long) _
                                              As Currency
        'pre: productid is in Catalogue
        'pre: quantity > 0

To calculate the price, we need to look up the Unit Price (UP) for the given productid (PID), in a Catalogue that is held on a worksheet.

There is already a formula function to do just this: VLOOKUP. The lookup value and the VLOOKUP formula go in two named cells, PID and UP respectively:

Now, all the VBA function needs to do is set the value of the PID cell, let the VLOOKUP do its work, and then get the value out of the UP:

    Dim unitprice As Currency

    Range("PID").Value = productid
    unitprice = Range("UP").Value

    Order_Price = unitprice * qty
                 'could apply delivery, discounts, etc
End Function

Notice that the Range function is used with names, not cell addresses. Firstly, this makes the code more readable. More importantly, it makes the code much more robust, since any structural changes to the worksheet are taken care of by automatic re-definition of the names “PID” and “UP”. Having literal cell addresses (“E2”, “F2”) in our code would be a maintenance nightmare. Anyway, you name ranges in Excel as standard practice, don’t you?

Note also that Value is not the default member of Range (there isn’t one), unlike form controls. So we can’t write just ‘Range(“UP”)’, we need the ‘.Value’.

You might wonder whether the VLOOKUP formula is guaranteed to evaluate before VBA moves on to the ‘unitprice = …’ statement. However, it always seems to work in practice, so my guess is that the worksheet calculations take place before control returns to the VBA.

Using Comments in Code (and DbC)

There is a lot of VBA code out there that is devoid of comments. Partly, this is due the lightweight development culture of VBA. You’re just ‘knocking something together quickly’, so you won’t bother with comments, maybe later. We’re all guilty of this to some extent (oh, sorry, you’re the one person who always comments rigorously…). So I think it helps to have a clear idea of what you use comments for.

First the negative cases (what not to use comments for):

  • The plonkingly obvious: paraphrases of code that should be clear enough on its own (i = i + 1     ‘increment counter)
  • Comments to describe sections of a procedure that is too long, and should be broken up into separate procedures.

Now the positive cases:

  • Module header comments: what a module is about; a list of its Public procedures (i.e. its interface)
  • Procedure pre-conditions and post-conditions: more on these below
  • On Dim statements, to expand on the local variable names (I tend to favour shortish names)
  • Working notes during development. e.g. “No error handling yet”, “No validation of user input”
  • Commenting out blocks of code (though these aren’t meaningful comments).

I think they are all fairly obvious, apart from the second one. This is based on the idea of Design by Contract (DbC), advocated by Bertrand Meyer, and implemented in the Eiffel language.

The idea of a pre-condition is that a procedure states what it assumes to be true at the time it is called. Often, the pre-condition will concern the procedure’s arguments. For example:

  • an integer is positive, or negative, or within a limit
  • a date is in the future, or the past, or within a period
  • a string is non-empty, or a certain length, or numeric
  • an object reference is valid (not ‘nothing’).

A header comment in the procedure is the place to state such pre-conditions. What this does is push the responsibility for ensuring the pre-conditions on to the caller(s) of the procedure. There is thus a clear division of labour between caller and called procedure.

For example, suppose an event-handler in a Form calls a support procedure in a general module, passing some user input (a product Id, say). For the support procedure to do its stuff, it requires that the user input is valid. Stating this in a pre-condition makes it clear that it’s the Form’s job to ensure this. In practice, the Form ensures that the input is valid, by some means: e.g. checking values in the OKbutton_click handler, or using a dropdown list populated with the set of valid values. A key point is that the pre-condition means that the called procedure does not need to check or validate the condition, which makes the code simpler.

The complement of a procedure’s pre-condition is its post-condition: what the procedure ensures is the case when it has finished execution. This is particularly useful for Functions, where the post-condition relates to the returned value. Again, it might be that the result is not zero/empty/nothing. The caller can then rely on this being the case, and does not need to check it, making its code simpler.

Here’s an example:

Function OrderPrice (productid As String, _
             quantity As Integer) As Currency
    'pre: productid is valid and product.unit_price > 0
    'pre: quantity > 0
    'post: OrderPrice > 0

    'clever stuff with discounts and delivery charges ...
End Function

Post-conditions can also refer to:

  • changes made to the document/workbook/etc, such as adding or deleting elements
  • the result of searches (what happens if the search fails? is there a default?)
  • files written to disk, or other external changes
  • and so on.

This might seem a bit of a performance, but it’s really just a mindset, in which you think about what procedures are supposed to be doing (that is, their specification), not just as arbitrary lumps of code. Ok, I think I’ll get off my hobby horse now…

Creating a Directory Structure

I recently wanted to define a fairly complex directory structure, and be able to reproduce it in different locations. It seemed natural to define the structure as an indented list in an Excel worksheet, like this:

Directory structure in a worksheet

Directory structure in a worksheet

Obviously, in a real case, these names would be meaningful.

What we want is to ‘walk’ this tree structure, building up paths like these:

and create the corresponding directories.

The way we walk the tree is ‘depth first’: keep going down-and-right while there are filled cells; when we get to an empty cell, go left until we find a filled cell:

How we walk the tree

How we walk the tree

We’ll do this by changing row and column indexes. Cell A1 is (0,0). When we get back to column 0, then we’re done.

Here’s the main procedure:

Sub TreeWalkVal()
        'Tree walker that generates chained name paths
        'e.g. /foo/bar/baz
        'The first name is that of the root node.
        'Assumes that the tree is on Worksheets(1).

    Dim r As Integer, c As Integer      'row, column indexes
    Dim home As Range
    Dim rng As Range                    'the current cell
    Dim done As Boolean
    Dim path As New List

    r = 0
    c = 0
    done = False

    Set home = ActiveSheet.Range("A1")
    Set rng = home
    path.Add (rng.Value)            'Root

    Do Until done

        Call NodeAction(r, c, rng.Value, path)

        r = r + 1
        c = c + 1
        Set rng = home.Offset(r, c)       'walk down-right
        path.Add (rng.Value)

        Do While IsEmpty(rng) And c > 0   'walk left
            c = c - 1
            Set rng = home.Offset(r, c)
            path.Remove                   'last element of path
            If Not path.IsEmpty Then _
                      path.SetLast (rng.Value)

        If c = 0 Then done = True

End Sub

The path is held as a List of elements. List is a class (defined in a Class Module): I’ll talk about this in another post. With our List, we can add and remove elements to/from the tail of the List.

NodeAction is broken out into a separate procedure, because the tree-walking is quite generic, and we might want to do different actions:

Sub NodeAction(r As Integer, c As Integer, _
                    val As String, path As List)
        'Action to be performed for each node.
        'In this case a directory is created
        'for the specified path.
        'An existing directory at path throws an error,
        'which is ignored.
        'There is no directory deletion.

    On Error Resume Next

    Dim pathstring As String
    pathstring = path.ToString

    Debug.Print val; " : "; pathstring

    If Not path.IsEmpty Then _
            MkDir (ActiveWorkbook.path + pathstring)

End Sub

List defines a constant separator (in this case, “/”), which is used by the List.ToString method.

The On Error Resume Next ignores the ‘directory already exists’ error.

The TreeWalkVal procedure works with incremental additions to the structure, but does not handle deletions (an exercise left for the reader, as they say).

An alternative procedure is TreeWalkNum, which generates paths with positional numbering:

This could be useful for generating nested sections in a document (where these are numbered explicitly, not auto-numbered).

Excel Timestamp

If you want a timestamp in an Excel workbook, you can use the NOW() function (or TODAY() if you don’t want the time part). However, these functions are ‘volatile’, meaning that they recalculate themselves whenever any change is made to the workbook. This isn’t usually what we want: what we typically want is a calculate-once funcion.

If we want a single timestamp for creation of a workbook, we could have a =NOW() formula in the workbook template, and then on opening a new workbook do a Copy-Paste Special Values for that cell. In the ThisWorkbook module, we could have:

Private Sub Workbook_Open()
    Selection.PasteSpecial Paste:=xlValues, _
                Operation:=xlNone, SkipBlanks:=False, _
    Application.CutCopyMode = False
End Sub

However, there’s a simpler way: define a function that can be used in a formula, which uses the VBA Now() function, rather than the Excel NOW() function. In a public module of the template or your PERSONAL.xls workbook define:

Public Function TIMESTAMP() As Date
End Function

Now, where we want a timestamp, we can simply enter the formula =TIMESTAMP(). This is calculated when the formula is entered from edit mode, or when it is filled into a cell (e.g. filled down).

We can timestamp data values as they are entered, say in column A, by having this formula in column B:

That’s an empty string as the ‘else’ argument.

A timestamp even disappears if we delete a data value from column A, and re-appears with an updated value if a data value is re-entered.

Constants in Code (Part 2)

In the previous post, we moved literal constant values into a separate module, together with ‘constructor’ functions for building values.  However, the scope of these constant and function declarations is the project: in other words a single template. So how can we share these declarations across multiple templates?

What we do is create a template (in our standard Templates directory), containing just the constant module(s): let’s call it Constants.dot. By default the template project will be called ‘Project’. We need to change this to some meaningful name, to avoid name clashes: in the Project Properties, let’s change this to ‘PConstants’.

Now comes the clever part: we can reference a template as a library, just as we reference the Word library. Within each template that uses the constants, go into >Tools >References…, browse to the Constants.dot file, and OK. Now whenever we open the client template it loads PConstants, with whatever declarations are currently in it.

Incidentally, you might notice that the PConstants project is unviewable: you can’t see its contents. You can also see that Constants.dot is loaded as a template via >Tools >Templates and Add-ins… in the Word application.

So now we have a single master copy of our constant declarations, which can be loaded by any client template that requires these. Any changes made to the master copy are propagated to the client templates.

Although we’ve described this in the context of Word, the same applies for the other applications. In the case of Excel, the constant module would live in an Add-in (.xla file), rather than a template.

February 2009
« Jan   Mar »


text:
Queiro moving slowly through the process

For many college prospects with double-digit offers, there is a desire to end the recruiting process as quickly as possible, in order to reach a conclusion before the act picking a school becomes t...

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Aztecs offer speedy 2014 PG

At 5 feet 9, 140 pounds, Parker Jackson-Cartwright is tough to see on the court. But he's even harder to see through the dozens of Division I basketball coaches and fans drooling over the immensely...

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Something Wicked This Way Comes

January 9, 2009 at 2:16 pm (SQL Server 2008, TSQL) ()

I sure hope peoples thumbs are pricking. I found this on the Apress web site.

I guess it’s OK to talk about it now that the first draft is finished. The second draft only has one chapter left and I finished copy editing on Chapter 6 of 16 yesterday. In other words, I’m going to have a new book published soon. The original plan was for May, but I heard a rumor that it might come out in March.

  1. SQLBatman said,

    nice work Grant, i look forward to having someone buy me a copy…

  2. Tim G said,

    I just preordered a copy on Amazon. Looking forward to reading it!

  3. scarydba said,

    No kidding? It’s on Amazon? It’s not done yet. I’m doing copy edits on Chapter 7.

  4. Gail said,

    Books are often up for pre-order well before they’re done. I recall Paul Randal mentioned a book he was contributing too was up for pre-order and he hadn’t even finished writing his section.

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Studies show dramatic decline in rheumatoid vasculitis in US veterans

Researchers at the University of Wisconsin School of Medicine and Public Health examined records of rheumatoid arthritis (RA) patients from the national Veterans Health Administration (VHA) system to determine the prevalence of rheumatoid vasculitis (RV) in this population. The study found a downward trend in the number of RA patients who go on to develop RV, with a significant drop of 53% among inpatients and 31% among outpatients between 2000 and 2001. Full details of the study are published in the September issue of Arthritis & Rheumatism, a journal of the American College of Rheumatology.

Rheumatoid Vasculitis is a complication of severe RA, an autoimmune disease that causes painful inflammation of the joints. Approximately 2%-5% of RA patients develop RV, an extraarticular (occurring outside the joint) manifestation of rheumatoid arthritis, affecting small and medium-size arteries in the body. RV can involve many body organs including the skin, eyes, heart, lungs, nerves to the hands and feet, as well as blood vessels in the fingers and toes.

In this cross-sectional study, Christie Bartels, M.D., and colleagues from the University of Wisconsin School of Medicine analyzed data on patients admitted to VHA hospitals over a 22-year period (1985-2006) or seen in outpatient settings over a 10-year period (1997-2006). More than 37,000 patient records where a diagnosis of RA was noted qualified for the study and 92% of those being men with a mean age of 64.9 years. To determine a RV diagnosis, researchers included those patients who had one of the following: arteritis, mononeuritis multiplex (damage to multiple individual nerve fibers), peripheral neuropathy due to connective tissue disease, gangrene, or chronic ulcers.

A past study of data from California hospitals also showed hospitalizations for RV declined between 1980 and 2001. But analysis of only inpatient data raises questions of whether RV cases escaped detection due to changing outpatient management of the disease. “Our study is the first to examine a national U.S. population for RV prevalence among both inpatients and outpatients,” stated Dr. Bartels. “We found the frequency of RV fell from 41 to 28 cases per 1,000 RA outpatients and from 32 to only 15 cases per 1000 RA inpatients.”

Researchers believe the decline in RV reported in the current study may be attributed to: a decrease in the number of RV incidences, a disease cure in some patients, patients discontinuing VHA services or dying, or error. Treatment for rheumatoid arthritis improved throughout the 1990s and researchers speculate that the use of biologic agents and more aggressive combinations of anti-rheumatic drugs targeting severe RA may have diminished extraarticular disease, such as RV.

Additionally the authors noted that the VHA made system-wide efforts to decrease tobacco use among patients that may have impacted the rates of rheumatoid vasculitis prevalence. “Future studies should examine trends in smoking and pharmacotherapy in relation to RV, and ongoing monitoring is merited,” concluded the authors.

This study included a greater number of men who were older than average RA patients and whose use of tobacco was likely higher than most RA cohorts. These demographics may limit the ability to apply the results to the general RA population. “Previous reports have described increased rates of extraarticular manifestations among men, smokers, and persons who were older at the time of RA onset, so perhaps the characteristics of our study sample facilitated detection of changes among the most at-risk population,” Dr. Bartels surmised. “As RA treatment evolves, it will be important to continue following trends in rheumatoid vasculitis prevalence using samples with a sex ratio that more closely reflects the general population,” she added.

Article: “Decline in Rheumatoid Vasculitis Prevalence Among US Veterans,” Christie Bartels, Carolyn Bell, Ann Rosenthal, Kazuhiko Shinki, and Alan Bridges. Arthritis & Rheumatism; Published Online: August 27, 2009 (DOI 10.1002/art.24775); Print Issue: September 2009.

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Posted by: seanmalstrom | October 20, 2016

More Switch pictures and Nvidia Link

For your gaming pleasure…

Here is the Nvidia press release. Read it, as it tells us some additional information about Switch.

These ‘things’ that are slipped onto the tablet or controller or whatever are called Joy-Cons.

Hello Marketing Team who is reading this website right now. Do you realize that con is the opposite of pro, right? Are these Anti-Joy devices?

WTF is with that D-pad??? Why can’t I have a normal D-Pad???

Nintendo better put out a press release about additional ‘Joy-Cons’ because the current ones shown are not exciting people.

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Facebook Aims to Restrict Gun Sales With New Rules

guns44Facebook is jumping into the gun rights debate by creating new clear policies regarding the gun sales on their social media platform. The aim is reportedly to stop what people say are rampant illegal gun sales.

The company acknowledges that they are not a platform for selling guns, however the platform can be used to coordinate or organize illegal firearms sales on Facebook. And while the big concern seems to be gun sales, Facebook also doesn’t permit advertising for illegal drugs, tobacco products, prescription pharmaceuticals, and several other products and service areas. They also restrict advertising for alcohol, adult products, and gaming.

“People sometimes use our free tools to discuss products that are regulated or controversial,” Monika Bickert, Facebook head of global policy managment, says in the company’s blog post. “In some cases they promote these products for sale or use, even though it’s not possible to complete a sale on Facebook or Instagram. While we’ve recently heard specific concerns from people about offers for the private sales of firearms, this is one of many areas where we face a difficult challenge balancing individuals’ desire to express themselves on our services, and recognizing that this speech may have consequences elsewhere.”

Users who see Facebook content that the company considers restricted can simply report the post. The content in question will be flagged as being restricted to users 18 and older, and the original poster will receive information to ensure their content complies with applicable laws and regulations.

“As always, we encourage people who see anything that violates our policies to report it to us using the tools found throughout our services,” write Bickert. “Facebook and Instagram will continue to remove content, and notify law enforcement where appropriate, when we are notified about things shared on our services that suggest a direct, credible risk to others’ safety. We will also continue to strictly enforce our advertising policies.”

The change to the company’s gun policy comes hot on the heels of a VentureBeat investigation where they discovered that anyone, including children and those without proper identification, could purchase a firearm through Facebook in just 15 minutes. These were back-alley-style transactions that were done without any kind of identity checks or restrictions, and they appeared to be quite common across multiple firearm-related pages on Facebook. These transactions are all illegal by U.S. law, and it is something that the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives (ATF) is investigating.

There was also a Change.org petition started last month that garnered more than 95,000 signatures to force Facebook and Instagram to prohibit all gun sales. It also prompted comedian Sarah Silverman, a longtime anti-gun advocate, to tweet about it, although the tweet has since been deleted.

While Facebook is merely one place where illegal firearms sales could be facilitated, it would not be surprising to see other sites following suit now that Facebook has taken such a strong stance. eBay has long had a policy where firearms, weapons, and knives cannot be sold unless users meet strict requirements before doing so, but although firearms themselves cannot be listed, firearm accessories are fine.

This article was originally published on ClickZ.

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Americans blast Finland, punch ticket to Gold Medal Game…

The Americans did all their scoring in the first period.

It’s all the scoring they’d need.

Team USA scored six goals in the first period en route to a 6-1 win over Finland on Friday afternoon. Patrick Kane of the Chicago Blackhawks scored twice and four other players bagged goals as the Americans put Finland in the Bronze Medal Game even before the 1st intermission.

The Nashville Predators’ own Ryan Suter didn’t register a point but did finish the game with two shot, a plus-2 rating and 19:23 of ice time, good for second among the American skaters.

Suter leads Team USA in total ice time (105:31) and plus/minus rating (+8).

Team USA will play the winner of tonight’s Canada and Slovakia semifinal game.


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Friday, December 6, 2013

ME - Maine Public Safety reviewing procedures after sex offender falls through cracks (Video)

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Maine Public Safety officials blame a clerical error for the state's failure to notify Berwick Police about a convicted sex offender, who failed to re-register. WMTW News 8's Paul Merrill reports.

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Sony Vaio: A Great Computer

Reviewing: Sony Vaio  |  Rating:
By holly mccoy on
Badge: Author | Level: 2 | Computers & Laptops Expertise:

I purchased my Sony Vaio at a Best Buy for around $1, 200 dollars about 3 years ago. Today, it is still going strong. It is without a doubt the best desktop I have ever bought. Setup and installation was very easy, as the program basically held my hand and walked me through it. Customer service for Sony is also outstanding, as I did call them a few times with some small questions. They did everything they could to get me the answers that I wanted.My computer came with Windows XP, which is very easy to understand and navigate. The actual design of my modem is beautiful-black, slick, and ultra-sheek, with little doors to hide the CD and DVD ports making it an almost accessory! The memory is large, I have tons of pictures, videos, and music downloaded and the computer handles them all with no reduction in performance or speed. I would highly recommend a Sony Vaio to anyone in the market for a new computer.


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Archive for the Kuragehime Category

Kuragehime 11 – Every Problem Is Solved With Magic (END) (?)

Posted in Kuragehime with tags on 01/01/2011 by Shinmaru

This is a cool looking shot, but I’m not sure if that’s how the reflection would work . . . :p

Then again, I suppose it fits in with Kuragehime‘s world, which is just kind of going along and doing whatever. Personally, I’m not totally sure how I feel about the ending; it would certainly be easier to judge if I had any indication whether the show would get another season. In America, shows are (over)covered to the point where you pretty much know almost right off the bat whether a show will get renewed or get the axe. Don’t know if it’s the same for Japan, but maybe not for such niche entertainment.

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Kuragehime 10 – She Don’t Wear Jelly

Posted in Kuragehime with tags on 12/27/2010 by Shinmaru

I’ll take “Scenes in anime that make you question your sexuality” for $1,000, Alex.

So I’m still wondering what sort of resolution we’ll get with Kuragehime. Shuu has seemingly shut the door on Inari after a joke on her end that goes too far for his tastes, and is ready to go abroad for a while. Kuranosuke and Tsukimi have completed the first of their jellyfish dresses, but of course they have to get it noticed first before they can sell it. (And how would they keep up with the demand afterward?) And, uh, I guess someone is moving quickly on obtaining the apartment building since it’s all covered up now! Yikes!

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Kuragehime 9 – So Much Misunderstanding

Posted in Kuragehime with tags on 12/20/2010 by Shinmaru

A bit of kyaa~ for the KuraKimi crowd. :p

I wonder how closely Kuragehime is hewing to the manga? Asking because with two episodes remaining, I’m not quite sure how much will be resolved! The romance is all in a tangle (though I don’t expect the issues with Inari to remain when the show ends), and the situation with the apartment building is still in a fairly perilous place. It’s pretty tough to make that much money in such a short amount of time, no matter how hardy the entrepreneurial spirit.

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Kuragehime 8 – The Joys of Being an Entrepreneur

Posted in Kuragehime with tags on 12/12/2010 by Shinmaru

Damn, Chieko definitely has some skills!

Impressed as always with Kuranosuke; the guy’s quite sharp and has a solid mind for business. It’s not really a stretch to imagine him becoming a decent figure in the fashion world someday. He has family backing (and the money to go along with it), fashion sense, the smarts to zero in on how to market something, charisma, the force of will to stand up for himself and others and so on. They’re still a long way from being able to outright buy the apartment building, but if I were one of the Nuns, Kuranosuke would give me the confidence that it could be done, even if it is clearly a longshot, to say the least.

(But who knows how the dress-making idea will turn out?)

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Kuragehime 7 – Blackmail Fail

Posted in Kuragehime with tags on 12/04/2010 by Shinmaru

I dunno, going by anime rules, I think “second base” means you’re married and have kids.

It’s probably a good thing that the blackmail attempt fell through, because getting the necessary money to buy the apartment building that way probably would have caused a whole host of problems down the road. Keiichirou definitely would not have taken that shit laying down. That’s short-term thinking, Kuranosuke!

I do wonder if there will be a real clash between Kuranosuke and the Nuns any time soon since he is sweeping them along so quickly with the plan to buy the apartment. They’re still fairly passive, even when their home will almost surely be taken away from them. And they’re not willing to part with their collections, either (or Chieko isn’t, anyway; I guess she and the yaoi author have the only things people would want to buy!), although they don’t protest too much when Kuranosuke makes his way to the storage area. (I wonder what sorts of treasures will be hidden away in there? :p)

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Kuragehime 6 – Didn’t Sublime Sing About This?

Posted in Kuragehime with tags on 11/27/2010 by Shinmaru

After Eden of the East, you can never be too careful about these things. Good on Shuu for checking to see if he’s still all there . . .

Oh, Evil Career Woman. Surely your plot would have borne fruit had you snagged any other budding politician. Unfortunately, you got the one with emotional trauma and a Yamato Nadeshiko fetish. See, Shuu’s pops is totally the kind of guy Evil Career Woman would have wrapped around her finger. (Side note: Has Shuu’s dad aged at all in two decades? We didn’t see his face, so maybe he had fewer wrinkles or something, I dunno . . . same hair, though!) Then again, I guess there’s the scandal of a politician banging someone who is looking for project support. Conflict of interests are Serious Business.

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Kuragehime 5 – Dressing for Battle

Posted in Kuragehime with tags on 11/20/2010 by Shinmaru

Haha, I like that Mayaya instinctively knows all these fashionable poses after putting on those clothes. But Nicole Richie? Really? Kuranosuke couldn’t have chosen a better socialite model for Mayaya? I would feel insulted. Or maybe they have a different view of Nicole Richie in Japan than we do in America. In that case, I would feel bad for the Japanese.

Anyway, I approved of the Nuns actually going out and doing something in this episode after being so lazy and easygoing in the previous one. . . . Well, I guess I should say trying to do something, since they failed so miserably here, but trying and failing is better than doing nothing, since you can always learn from your mistakes if you try and fail. And the mistake here is a mistake of preparation. Not just in looks (although, looking at it realistically, Kuranosuke is of course correct — you have to make people stand up and notice you, and not give ’em a chance to discriminate based on appearance), but also in argument, I’d expect. (But maybe that’s just me discriminating based upon looks!)

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Redken For Men Range

Inspired by the company’s scientific roots, Redken still practices disciplined science and innovation throughout their haircare production today. Redken’s Interlock Protein Network is designed to nourish hair at every layer, by feeding hair with the very proteins it’s made from.

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Shampoos and conditioners provide the most basic level of hydration, where styling options give the specific level of control needed for your individual style. Find out more about Redken’s scientific approach to haircare and explore the range of products for a precise approach to looking after your hair and scalp.


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Pass-Port Skateboards welcomes Geoff Campbell.

Geoff Campbell is now officially killing it as part of the Pass-Port Skateboards family – check his welcome clip and be stoked.

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Wallaby Sk8 Cru – Dem Endz

Rohum (Rum) Pourtahmasbi has uploaded this rather rad 20 minute psychedelic montage featuring shredding from the UK and USA at least!

Watch below for some trippy mayne skillboarding.

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“The heart of reading,” with Ex Libris: Confessions of a Common Reader by Anne Fadiman

It figures that it would take a book about books — a book celebrating [hysterical] book love, to boot — to pull me up from the reading [and blogging] slump lately. So, thank you, Anne Fadiman, for your book Ex Libris: Confessions of a Common Reader. [Although that small nugget of doubt in my head is demanding, How dare I proceed to write clumsily about a book I loved, which happens to write very beautifully about book love? Ah, life’s little headaches.]

I won the book from Simon a while back, and it was awesome because I’ve always wanted to read it — I’ve heard nothing but good things about Fadiman, and, really, it was only a matter of time before I got my greedy hands on her. And so, Simon, I’ve said it many times, but it bears repeating: Thank you so much.

So. In twelve short essays, Fadiman writes about a life spent loving books — from growing up with an awesome family and a library, to charting a romance and a marriage with books, to reading a Victorian self-help book about womanhood while, er, gestating. She enumerates the many facets of book love — agonizing over inscriptions, the ways to love/molest a book, particular methods of shelving, and certain monstrosities such as tearing the flyleaf.

Little quirks and obsessions, a fanaticism here and there — it was fascinating. And so constant, the plain ol’ love and passion for the written word. At its most familiar and comforting and, pardon the drama, immortal form: For her, the heart of reading lies in “how we maintain our connections with our old books, the ones we have lived with for years, the ones whose textures and colors and smells have become as familiar to us as our children’s skin.” [I, for one, am looking at you, Jane Eyre.]

I’ve always been nosy about people’s attitudes re books. Why, yes, I totally judge you based on your reading list, haha. Aherm. When visiting other people’s houses, I’ll always find an excuse to saunter over to bookshelves. When visiting good friends, most times I don’t even engage in small talk — straight to the books I go, and usually with the agenda of taking some home with me.

Fascinating habits: I have a friend who won’t buy a book bigger than his Moleskine [that’s not a euphemism]; there’s this girl who covers her books with plastic whenever she’s got teh sadz; my boss used to keep all his books in plastic bags; a schoolmate halved a Harry Potter book because her baby sister couldn’t wait for her to finish.

The madness goes on and on. [You’ve all been witness to my own oddities, and those of the people I love most — I have a nervous breakdown when a spine is creased; a book I gave my boyfriend two months ago has lost the image on its spine due to constant handling and dumping oh-so-carelessly into bags and backseats and pockets and gah. Ahem.]

And one of the most giddy-fying aspects of the book blogging community is being in the virtual company of so many book dorks. I’ve got the opportunity to be a complete bibliophilic-creeper to all of you out there. I have offended people when I proclaim that I mean marginalia literally most of the time — I know some of you won’t even write your names on the book. I have seen a multitude of shelving diskarte, and collections galore. One of you has a bookshelf dedicated to foliage or something, I am sure. The madness, again, goes on and on.

It’s this voyeuristic aspect — and the given Sasha loves book for realsies — is a large reason why I enjoyed Fadiman’s book so much. Yes, her essays are a joy to read [and not just because of her clear prose, her wit, her gosh-darned charm, her willingness to sacrifice the self-esteem of her loved ones to prove a point] — but it’s more of me being certain that someone out there is as passionate as books as I am [more so in some aspects].

It’s holding this compact red book in my hand and feeling understood, even vindicated. It’s like meeting someone you know you’d be awesome friends with — never mind that, for the life of you, you can’t understand why she’d bring a book to the bathtub with her, although you can commiserate re the chronological shelving of Shakespeare’s plays.

Being privy to Fadiman’s kind of book love takes on a meta-edge to my own book love, to this very blog, to the fact that I’m talking about it here — but, well, you know: You can never have enough book love. And, unfortunately for my future paychecks, I don’t think I can ever have enough Fadiman. [You know what to get me for Christmas.]

  1. I am so sad my library doesn’t have this! But then again, you make it sound like one to own and return to again and again. I completely share this sentiment – “one of the most giddy-fying aspects of the book blogging community is being in the virtual company of so many book dorks” – and I think I’ll love Fadiman for the same reasons as you.

    It’s *great* to see you posting more again, btw :D

    1. Ana! I’ve missed you — though I like occasionally peeking in on you over at Tumblr. :] This seems like the best book to reintroduce me to blogging, reminding me why I love you guys so much. Fadiman has written so many other books about her book-love. I’ll be hoarding them sooner or later. :]

  2. Ok, seriously, you, Sasha, need to write your own book. Forget these other authors, your own love of books is definitely worth celebrating in print!

    1. Haha, Justine, thank you, I’m blushing right now, hee. This blog will have to do for now, my darling publication-dreams.

  3. I loved this book so much for all the reasons you mention. I especially loved her essay on carnal vs courtly lovers of books. (I’m definitely in the carnal category.) But mostly it was just fun to see another person expressing her own personal, quirky ways of loving books.

    1. The temptation I had to fight when I was writing this post was writing something about every essay Fadiman wrote. That is, I would talk about marrying books, or my own odd shelf, or whether I was a courtly or carnal lover [for the record, I think I’m leaning to courtly, haha.]

  4. I totally agree with you, in particular the quote that Nymeth pulled out. I haven’t read this particular Fadiman book, but one of her other books, The Spirit Catches You and You Fall Down is among my favorite books ever.

    1. Hello, Kim. This is my first Fadiman, but I can’t wait to read all of her book-love related books. I’ll definitely put The Spirit Catches You and You Fall Down on top of the wishlist. Thank you!

  5. I’m giving away a Chuck Palahniuk novel next week. perhaps you might be interested to join. :)

  6. I have a relative who uses a Stanley knife to slice all her books into pieces down the spine so that she and her husband can read the same book at once (though not the same chapter obviously.) I imagine she has either a very full recycling bin each week or shelves full of mangled books crudely strapped together with gaffer tape. Anyway, that’s my odd little book-habit snippet for you. Great post – and long live blibliophilic-creepers!

    1. GOOD GOD WHY WHY WHY THE HORROR. Thanks for sharing in the bibliophilic-creepiness, but THE HORROR.

  7. This is an interesting post to me-nearly 50 years ago before I even started High School I some how got a copy of her father’s book (Clifton Fadiman)-The Life Time Reading Plan-it was the perfect book to start me on a life time of reading-funny thing is I still have that book and other editions of it and am still working my way through it!

    1. Ooh, she does have a wonderful family, one that she never fails to cite as being instrumental to her book-loving life. I’m going to hunt down Clifton Fadiman, just to see how impactful he was to her. :] And, besides, if that book started you on a lifetime of reading, it only has good things in store for me. :]

  8. So I have this constant discussion with co-workers about readers versus book lovers. And my one “sucker for new technology” colleague does not read AT ALL but is constantly going on and on about how cool this new nook/kindle/ipad is and how books are unnecessary now. And another coworker and I just shudder and chant “I need books!”

    With news that the sales of hardcover books are dropping and big chains like Barnes & Noble are struggling, I have to wonder/predict…if the casual reader goes digital, will the small independent bookstores once again sprout up for the book lovers? I sure hope so. After finally finding “my” local bookshop, I can’t walk in a B&N or Borders and be happy anymore.

    1. I’ve said this so many times I’m sure: I do envy how there are so many stores and books to choose from out there. I know that there’s a lot of fear about bookstores disappearing forever there, but here, there’s such a limited range, and books are always expensive. But love, ya know, will find a way.

      About the e-reader thing. I have a feeling I’ll get one for Christmas. And frankly, I don’t know what to do with it. Can I write on it? O_o

  9. I remember enjoying this book. And I’m so glad to see that *something* got you out of your blogging and reading slump; excited to see so many unread posts from you to enjoy! And what a perfect book to start with.

    I confess that I am one that can’t write in my books. But I used to be one. And when I see you photos of your marginalia, I think it could be a beautiful thing. But no, I just can’t do that to my books.

    1. Hi, Rebecca. :] Glad to be back, and glad to see you’ve welcomed me. Makes me feel so loved, haha. This really was the best book to revive this blog with. I can’t wait to read more Fadiman.

      I remember that’s how we “met” — through my marginalia re one of Tolstoy’s essays. :]

  10. I love books about books and reading and this collection is one of my favourites. While I was reading it I kept talking to the book saying things like ‘So do I!’ and ‘Why do other people think that’s crazy?’ And I was also a little envious of Fadiman’s family where they all get together for some bookish craziness. I’m so glad you enjoyed this:)

    1. One of the best things about Fadiman’s essays is that feeling you’re sharing something so special with her. Like you, I talked to book. At times, I squirmed — especially when she elaborated on the whole carnal love thing. It was fascinating, but I can’t imagine that I’d do that to my books, haha.

  11. […] about books [there needs to be a word for these, to appease my bibliophilic squealery] — Anne Fadiman is witty and clever and funny, an also deeply personal; add quirky and charmingly off-kilter to […]

  12. […] Ex Libris: Confessions of a Common Reader, by Anne Fadiman. […]

  13. […] Ex Libris: Confessions of a Common Reader, by Anne Fadiman […]

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Emirates is Raising $2 Billion for Pay for New Planes

Skift Take

Emirates can likely make a better return on the investment during the period than it will have to pay off on the loans, so why not go the financing route.

— Jason Clampet

Emirates, the world’s biggest airline by international passenger traffic, is seeking to raise about $2 billion from four loans to fund the purchase of planes, according to two people familiar with the matter.

The Dubai government-owned carrier will pay interest of less than 200 basis points, or two percentage points, above the London interbank offered rate on the 12-year amortising loans, said one of the people, who asked not to be identified because the information is private.

“Emirates is well positioned to finance all its upcoming aircraft deliveries,” the airline said in an e-mailed response to questions from Bloomberg. “We look at all financing options and it has never been a problem for us to get support from banks or financial institutions.”

The carrier will take delivery of nine Boeing Co.’s 777-300ER planes and 10 Airbus Group NV A380-800 superjumbos during the 2014-15 fiscal year, according to one of the people. Emirates needs to raise $4.5 billion in the financial year beginning in April to pay for new aircraft, it said in August.

Companies in the United Arab Emirates, the second-biggest Arab economy, are increasingly tapping the loan market to raise funds as interest rates decline amid surplus cash at banks. Emirates Integrated Telecommunications Co., the company known as Du, raised $720 million this month from a five-year loan at 120 basis points over Libor, data compiled by Bloomberg shows.

Passenger traffic through Dubai’s airport is surging as the emirate’s tourism industry rebounds and long haul inter- continental traffic through the city grows. Customer numbers at the airport last year jumped 15 percent to 66.4 million, taking it past Paris Charles de Gaulle and Frankfurt.

Emirates had overall borrowing and lease liabilities of $11 billion at the end of March last year, equivalent to 176 percent of its equity, according to its most recent annual report.

With assistance from Deena Kamel Yousef in Dubai. To contact the reporter on this story: Arif Sharif in Dubai at [email protected] To contact the editors responsible for this story: Samuel Potter at [email protected] Claudia Maedler.

Destination Mexico: The Evolution of Luxury Travel

Luxury travelers are looking for more than just posh accommodations and generic pampering. Savvy suppliers and tourism organizations are capitalizing on the desire for authentic experiences, as the sharing economy continues to present new ways to connect travelers with local culture.

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In Theory

I’m an agnostic on good day, Buddhist on a great day, and an atheist most days. Generally I let people think whatever the hell they want to think. Muslim, Christian, Buddhist, Hindi, Pastafarian, whatever. We’re all probably wrong and none of us will know until we’re dead so it doesn’t matter.

What bugs the shit out of me is the Creationist movement. While I wasn’t around to see the first primate that thought “Damn, I’m tired of crawling around all day, I’m gonna become a human,” we’ve got a good chunk of evidence saying that’s likely what happened. (Arguably with different wording.) We have fossils that date back millions of years that demonstrate this, fields of science built on determining shit like this, and the vast majority of half-way educated people agree with it. Except this guy. Fuck him.

Yet there’s still people out the who take Genesis as the word of God or something. I’m not going to argue the cases out there that say God put fossils in the ground to test our faith, because at least that’s a decent argument as far as fairy tales go. What pisses me off is the misunderstanding of Darwin’s theory of evolution being “just a theory”.

Breaking the Law

There’s a common misconception that a scientific theory is somehow lesser than a scientific law. I’ll admit: I thought that too. I wondered when relativity would have enough evidence that it’d go from a theory to a law. And I eat this science shit up. Elections? Celebrity gossip? Fuck no, where are we at with warp drives and antimatter? (Short answer: nowhere near where I’d like.) And I’ve told my bosses “in theory…” way more times than “definitely”, so I understand some of the confusion as well.

So I had to look it up myself and see what the difference is. Took a bit to really understand it, but only because I spent so long thinking the wrong way I couldn’t grasp it very easily. It’s pretty easy shit though.

First, what most people think of when they say or hear “in theory” (myself included), is equivalent to a scientific hypothesis. It’s an educated guess, basically. If I have a ball in my hand, and I let go of it, what do I think will happen? Will it fall? Will it hover? Will it transform into a murderous orb and seek vengeance upon those who wronged me? I dunno. At this point, we’re making a guess.

A scientific law is something irrefutable, that describes observations. I drop a ball, it falls. I drop it again, it falls. Every time I drop it, it falls. The law, therefore, is that stuff falls if nothing holds it up.

Simple. No explanation, just a fact. If you want, you can take measurements on it and repeat those measurements – how long did it take to fall from 2 feet? From 10 feet? From 1/2 a cubit? You can figure out math and equations and shit. You can check if a bowling ball and a golf ball fall at the same speed, and see how that information works with (or against!) your law.

A scientific theory, on the other hand, is the why. You can collect data all day long and all it’ll tell you is that, barring air resistance, shit falls to Earth at about 9.8 meters per second2. There’s no bungee cords strapped to everything that holds them down. There’s no strange bird that swoops down and pushes a ball to the ground when you let go of it.

This is the creative part of science. Well, kinda – it’s more creative than just counting shit and timing things that fly by. A theory is why things happen. For gravity, it’s General Relativity. In biology, we have cell theory; geology there’s the theory of plate tectonics.

And, of course, there’s the “theory” of evolution.

Survival of the Phattest, Yo

Kind of ironically, one of Darwin’s biggest contributions to science almost applies to the scientific process itself. If you squint. And you’re a little drunk, maybe? I dunno – I hate segues. Anyways…

The key thing about scientific theories – and the scientific process as a whole – is that they’re intended to evolve. They grow, they fail, they get poked and prodded by other scientists until they either die and get forgotten or they get strong enough they can swat the scientists back and say “How do you like it jackhole?!”

Einstein didn’t just sit around a camp fire with a couple of interns and some peyote and say “Oh man, it all makes sense now!” He worked shit out, and when he was confident it held water, he published it for other people to try it out. They tried it out. They tried to poke holes in it. Hell, over a century later people are still trying to poke holes in it. But it’s still holding up.

Same with evolution. It’s been refined, tweaked, fought (scientifically), rubbed and massaged for a long time. Fuck, it’s been considered since the Ancient Greeks, not just Darwin and Mendel. Theories are under constant attack, because that’s how science is supposed to work. You figure things out, and your idea either sinks or swims. If it swims, great! If not, you figure out why it sank and try again.

Creationism – and you can call it Intelligent Design but that’s just the same horse shit from a prettier mare – doesn’t work like that. Hell, nothing about religion works like that. It’s written in a book from 2 millennia ago, by someone who said it was told to them by a guy in the clouds. It’s true. If you say otherwise you get burnt at the stake, because fuck logic. There’s no change, no adaptation. There’s no way to argue with that, to prove someone wrong or right about it. How the fuck can we live in a world built on scientific theories yet this is still something that comes up in school board meetings?!

This post brought to you by the letter Y.

Tune in next time, as I show you five alternative uses for cinder blocks in the bed room. (Number 7 will shock you!)

— The Sloth

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