reneena davidson’s Neighbors

All the magic.

nobody@vox.com(tara) — Sat, 19 Jul 2008 04:50:24 -0700

I just biked home, at 6:30 am on a Saturday. And something about the scratch of squirrels running up a tree, birds fleeing a startled squirrel, my sparkly dress and tights, jello cake strapped to my bike's rack--somehow it all mixes into a very, very important moment. There really is something to knowing a place and realizing, briefly, how bizarre and perfect it is.

/drunk blog

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T-Mobile

nobody@vox.com(tara) — Sat, 19 Jul 2008 01:32:54 -0700

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“Zealots” is Worth 48-pts with a Triple-Word-Score*

nobody@vox.com(Steve Betz) — Fri, 18 Jul 2008 08:45:21 -0700

The other book about zealots I read was on a much lighter topic than religion, violence, polygamy and society: Scrabble.

The book “Word Freak” from Stefan Fatsis chronicles the author’s foray into competitive Scrabble. Initially, Fatsis (a Wall Street Journal reporter) had decided to cover competitive Scrabble from a human interest story – a get to know ‘em piece, but also one with a bit of “hey, look at these crazy obsessed folks” angle – and in the “walk a mile in a man’s shoes” idea, he begins playing competitively. And he gets hooked.

Word Freak: Heartbreak, Triumph, Genius, and Obsession in the World of Competitive ScrabblePlayers

Stefan Fatsis

The book covers a couple of years of Fatsis’ obsession as he tries to climb the ladder towards the top ranks. He’s a good writer and his self-observations are pretty funny as he goes from smirking observer to obsessed insider. He interleaves his story with those of some of the more colorful players that he meets and gets to know. These folks are really savants – memorizing tens of thousands of words, and analyzing (and re-analyzing) game-strategy – as much as any chess champion. The ultimate back-handed compliment is “pretty good for a kitchen table player”. It's a really fun, easy read, and I recommend it for anyone that enjoys the game.

This has been especially fun for me since (as many of you know) I’ve been playing a fair amount of online Scrabble these days – the book was lent to me by a friend who routinely wipes the board with me. Fortunately, I’ve got enough other things going on in life that I probably won’t fall into a pit of obsession about just-one-thing (like the players described in the book), but memorizing a few word lists couldn’t hurt, right?

* I know, I know – there’s a DLS in there and if you play all seven letters you get an extra 50 points, but I was going for simple.

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Zealots

nobody@vox.com(Steve Betz) — Fri, 18 Jul 2008 08:42:15 -0700

I realized that when I was traveling this past weekend that two books that I had read back-to-back possessed a common element: they both* were about groups of people that are outside the mainstream of society and had completely dedicated to the activities within their respective communities. Fanatics. Extremists. Zealots.

In “Under The Banner of Heaven”, Jon Krakauer describes the founding of the Mormon faith, the growth of the Church of Latter Day Saints (LDS), and a particular splinter sect, the FLDS (Fundamentalist Church of Latter Day Saints). The book interweaves the historical research with the details of a brutal 1984 double murder in which two brothers (FLDS members) murdered their sister-in-law and her infant daughter because (they claimed) of a revelation from God. Whoa.

Under the Banner of Heaven: A Story of Violent Faith

Jon Krakauer

Now, San Diego has a large Mormon population and most of what I know of Mormonism (and its fundamentalist off-shoots) comes from HBO’s “Big Love”, which while entertaining is probably not exactly 100% based-in-fact. (Though curiously, I recognized several plots from the show in the accounts of modern FLDS communities and incidents…) I was glad to get a less fictionalized account, though Krakauer was definitely trying to sell books by staying focused on the prevalent violence and prurient aspects of polygamy associated with the FLDS.

I’m sure the book caused a firestorm in the LDS community, but I found the book both educational and at times riveting. I thought it was best though when it forced the reader to consider their preconceptions about faith and society. For example, what distinguishes a “cult” from a “religion”? When does a faith-based code trump civil authority (lots of “Law & Order” episodes there…)? Why do we consider someone that says God talks to them as crazy, when billions of people believe they communicate with God everyday through prayer?

* I’d thought to juxtapose the two in a single post, but the content didn’t seem to mesh well, so I’ll try it with adjacent posts.

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Me?

nobody@vox.com(tara) — Fri, 18 Jul 2008 07:26:34 -0700

Yes. I am tired.

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Poem #53

nobody@vox.com(Elisa) — Fri, 18 Jul 2008 07:01:30 -0700

This one is for SS & JS - your gifts are without measure.

How can this be?
Because it is she says to me

Because it is, like the starlight
and your Power buried deep within burning bright

Given courage you will rise above
conquering it all with love

When you stop hiding
cease to believe the mirrored lying

Then you too will see
what is truly meant to be

It is not for me to say
Life does not unfold that way

It is not a story to be rewritten
but rather a chance to sculpt what you are given

Courage is all it takes
for a masterpiece to take shape

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The Dark Knight?

nobody@vox.com(tara) — Fri, 18 Jul 2008 01:46:32 -0700

Yes. It was good.

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More Wollongong pics

nobody@vox.com(Emu with a Clue) — Thu, 17 Jul 2008 16:15:57 -0700

These are from our picnic near the beach in town. The friend we went with grew up in Wollongong so knew the best spots to go and where to buy the best fish and chips. We had originally planned to go and visit the science museum but the kids pretty tired from walking around the temple all morning so decided to save that for another trip.

Apparently, these cannons were put in to defend Wollongong from a potential Japanese attack during WW2. My friend remembered refusing to have photos taken of her astride the cannon back when she got married in 1985!

My daughter took this next photo of her friend. It really captures her friend's nature perfectly.

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Perfect hills for rolling down.

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No escape from WYD pilgrims even in Wollongong! This lot were from Santa Ana, Califorrnia and were pretty tuneless.

WYD pilgrims

All tuckered out and ready to go home.

Home time

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Cacophony

nobody@vox.com(Steve Betz) — Thu, 17 Jul 2008 09:39:52 -0700

So, I went to the gas station this morning to fill my car and realized one thing I really Really REALLY dislike is the invention of the video-embedded gas pump. Does everyone have these??

Make It Stop Talking

When you activate the pump, the screen lights up and a “host” appears and starts “Welcome to Shell…” and then goes into a spiel extolling their wonderful $4.50/gal product.

Now this wouldn’t be so bad I suppose (how much white noise is there in our lives?) – but the truly maddening thing is when there’s 10 pumps all going off at different times.. “Welcome to Shell…” “…better than other low quality gasolines..” “Welcome to Shell…” “…keeping tires properly inflated can lead to…” “Welcome to Shell…” “…one way Shell is helping the envir….” “Welcome to Shell…” – talk about maddening!

There’s a circle of Hell full of these things, I’m sure.

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More on our trip to ....

nobody@vox.com(Emu with a Clue) — Wed, 16 Jul 2008 15:16:09 -0700

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WOLLONGONG!

Yes, that was the mystery location of the Chinese temple in my other photos. I took the kids on a little overnight trip down there. We had planned to holiday a bit further afield but my husband was unable to take leave from work because he works in an area affected by the World (Catholic) Youth Day (week!) mayhem in Sydney. Wollongong was just the right distance (51km from Sydney) for a trip on my own with the kids. It is also one of those places that I had always meant to go to but never got around to probably because it is so close to home. The idea of staying at the temple was really serendipitous. I had always been intrigued by the sight of the temple which we often pass on our way further south. It kind of just appears out of nowhere beside the freeway in the middle of an industrial area. I didn't even know you could stay there until I looked at the website on Sunday to see about visiting during the day. I thought it would be an interesting cultural experience for the kids who are already quite interested in Chinese culture through their Kung Fu associations.

On the way down on Monday, we stopped off for a few hours to visit an old friend of mine who lives in a little seaside village called Scarborough. This entailed driving over the incredibly scenic but hair-raising Sea Cliff Bridge. We had a lovely lunch at my friends place and then took all the kids to the beach. We deliberately didn't let them change into swimsuits as we didn't want them going in swimming in mid-Winter. This didn't stop them though! Two got soaked in their clothes and my son just stripped off all his clothes and went in naked!

Scarb beach boys

The sun goes down pretty early in Scarborough because of the escarpment so we headed off for Wollongong and the Nan Tien Temple shortly after 5pm, arriving just in time for dinner. This was held in the Dining Hall in the middle of the temple complex and was a vegetarian Chinese steamboat meal eaten with the Buddhist 'reverends' (I would have called them nuns). The food was delicious although the kids mainly filled up on rice and fruit. The reverends were very impressed at the kids attempts to use chop sticks (even though their technique was terrible). A couple of friends also joined us for dinner and to spend the night at the Pilgrim Lodge.

Here are some pictures of the Lodge.

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Entrance to Pilgrim Lodge:

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I hadn't known what to expect when I booked it but it was really very comfortable, ie, the rooms just like motel rooms and quite reasonably priced. The dinner was also great value at $10 for adults and $5 for kids.

The next morning we had breakfast in the dining room. The kids were thrilled at this as they again got to serve themselves and they had quite an interesting selection of food including cereal, fruit, mini croissants, milo etc. We then spent the entire morning wandering around the temple complex. There was so much to see and the kids had a great time playing and also had an opportunity to participate in temple activities such as placing candles on the altar of one temple, learning to pray to the Buddha, ringing bells and joining in a calligraphy class. The reverends recognised us from dinner the previous night so gave the kids special attention. Most were Chinese (from various countries including one we spoke to who was from Malaysia) but there were also quite a few Westerners working at the complex and even one Western reverend.

Here are some more photos we took.

Temple grounds

Waiting for temple to open:

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In the gardens near the Lodge:

Thoghtful me

Funny faces

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One thing I loved about the temple was how open it was to the surrounding community. Apart from the accommodation in the lodge and the meals which are open to everyone, they also run things like meditation and cooking classes, HSC study camps, baby blessings etc etc. They also have plans to build a university which will host students from all over the world. It is great that something like this exists in Wollongong which is really a very traditional, working class Aussie kind of place.