IKEA & a Christmas tree

:) Hope everyone is doing great...finals are almost over, no?

Things here have been going okay I suppose. I have been listening to Christmas music and it makes me miss home alot. But today, a couple of us got a taste of being in the States. Matt, Tim, Ben, & I headed on over to the newly opened IKEA for lunch and to stroll around. REAL HOT DOGS!!! China usually either have the Chinese sausage or these "spam-dogs." Spam-dogs only begin to taste decent if you put the chili powder thing they have. We also had Swedish meatballs! Western food here is usually no lower than 25 RMB...but I had a hot dog, a soft drink, 10 Swedish meatballs, fries, and some sort of berry sauce all for 13 RMB. Not bad. I've never been to IKEA in the States, but I am totally in love with the IKEA here! Haha...I feel like I could use everything they have there. A couple of us are planning on going back this coming Saturday.

After we got back and had class, Matt, Laura, and I went to Roberts Hall to scavage for some Christmas stuff. Roberts Hall really isnt a building, but rather a room devoted totally to UW exchange students over at the overseas students dorm. Over the years, Roberts has collected stuff pervious exchange students leave. At first, we were just looking through this stuff. But then we thought, why not put up the fake Christmas tree that was in the room? And we did...we decorated the tree with tensils, ornaments, and lights. Following that, we did the door and windows. :) It's pretty nice. People outside on the street can totally see our tree. Yay. Alright, going to go and finish off The God Delusion. I'll post more later. Laters!

issue of 'the book'

See, ever since I could remember, the Bible was supposed to be a source of guidance for us Christians. However, as I started drifting away from the church, I felt that my senses were opened up more and more. I was no longer clouded by what everyone else thought and for once, I could analyze my own understanding of the world around me. One of the issues I had was with the Bible, the source of how all Christians knew about their religion. This pretty sums up what my thoughts are:
pg. 237
"To be fair, much of the Bible is not systematically evil but just plain weird, as you would expect of a chaotically cobbled-together anthology of disjointed documents, composed, revised, translated, distorted and 'improved' by hundreds of anonymous authors, editors and copyists, unknown to us and mostly unknown to each other, spanning nine centuries. This may explain some of the sheer strangeness of the Bible. But unfortunately it is this same weird volume that religious zealouts hold up to us as the inerrant source of our morals and rules for living."

He follows by commenting that not many who believe in the Bible completely have ever read it in its entirety. I, for one, am guilty of this. I mean, I have tried...but I just can't get myself to read through the whole thing. I used to think that it was because I wasn't disciplined enough. What about now? I am fine with not ever having read the entire thing. I, on occassion, still have my grandma or my parents encouraging me to read the Bible more. Often times, I just have to tell them that I will but not really having the heart or the will to go and actually do it.

morality

Thought this was an interesting read...
pg. 226-227
"If there is no God, why be good? Posed like that, the question sounds positively ignoble. When a religious person puts it to me in this way (and many of them do), my immediate temptation is to issue the following challenge: 'Do you really mean to tell me the only reason you try to be good is to gain God's approval and reward, or to avoid his disapproval and punishment? THat'snot morality, that's just sucking up, apple-polishing, looking over your shoulder at the great surveillance camera in the sky, or the still small wiretap inside your head, monitoring your every move, even your every base thought...Do we really need policing - whether by God or by each other - in order to stop us from behaving in a selfish and criminal matter?"

I have always wondered this for myself. Why is it so important for us to care so much for what we will be rewarded for what we do? Can't things just be done for humanity's sake? For the sake of just making this a better place? I would like to quote Emerson on this:

...To laugh often and much;
To win the respect of intelligent people and the affection of children;
To earn the appreciation of honest critics and endure the betrayal of false friends;
To appreciate beauty, to find the best in others;
To leave the world a bit better, whether by a healthy child, a garden patch or a redeemed social condition;
To know even one life has breathed easier because you have lived.
This is to have succeeded...

Why can't life just be that? To appreciate life and try to make it a better place for everyone? People become so obsessed with what comes afterwards that they forget to live for the now...

Here was another interesting snip from this chapter...
p.229
"While political party affiliation in the United States is not a perfect indicator of religiousity, it is no secret that the 'red [Republican] states' are primarily red due to the overwhelming political influence of conservative Christians. If there were a strong correlation between Christian conservatism and societal health, we might expect to see some sign of it in red-state America. We don't. Of the twenty-five cities with the lowest rates of violent crime, 62% are in 'blue' [Democratic] states, and 38% are in 'red' [Republican] states. Of the twenty-five most dangerous cities, 76% are in red states, and 24% are in blue states. In fact, 3 of the 5 most dangerious cities in the U.S. are in the pious state of Texas. The twelve staes with the highest rates of burglary are red. Twenty-four of the twenty-nine states with the highest rates of theft are red. Of the twenty-two states with the highest rates of murder, seventeen are red."

So, is religion needed to provide a basis for deciding what is good? "Without religion you have to make it up as you go along. That would be morality without a rule book....the Christian, the Jew, or the Muslim, by contract, can claim that evil has an absolute meaing, true for all time, and in all places." This is what some people pose...but I dont think its true. Would people really stop being the people they are because there is no god watching over them?


"Politics has slain its thousands, but religion has slain its tens of thousands."
~Sean O'Casey

Homesick

Hey.
My friend Tim from Canada gave me 2 discs full of Christmas music and I have to say, they are really making me homesick. *Sigh* Every year, though, I'm disappointed with how Christmas turns out...mostly because I always have these ideas about how this holiday should be celebrated. Maybe somewhat like how it's done on tv or in American families. But with being Chinese...our Christmases just aren't the same. So I guess this year shouldnt be much different from all of our other holidays. Even with that said, I'm missing family and friends.

Well, we no longer have politics class anymore. Our term paper was due Saturday...so I decided to come home and upload my new songs into my i-pod and then dive into some reading. Today was much like any other day except a few of us hit up the courts and played some basketball. It's interesting how you will almost never find any girls on the courts playing. Most of the soccer fields and basketball courts are always filled with guys. The only thing you will see girls playing is pingpong. I have yet to play tennis here...

Alright, back to the book. I left off where Dawkins was talking about the purpose of religion.

Anybody see David Attenborough's "Quest in Paradise"? ...it's mentioned here under the subtitle of Cargo Cults. Sounds very interesting...Here is a bit from this section. Dawkins has been describing how religions evolve...following the similar idea of evolution. Here, he dives into observing how religious evolution proceeds so rapidly. His case example is of the cargo cults. pg 202: The islanders noticed that the white people who enjoyed these wonders **advanced technology** never made them themselves. When articles needed repairing they were sent away and new ones kept arriving as 'cargo' in ships or later, planes." Here is a description, that if viewed from the islander's perspective, would not make alot of sense & be rather frightening: "They build tall masts with wires attached to them; they sit listening to small boxes that glow with light and emit curious noises and strangled voices; they persuade the local people to dress up in identical clothes and march them up and won - and it would hardly be possible to devise a more useless occupation than that. And then the native realizes that he has stumbled on the answer to the mystery. It is these incomprehensible actions that are the rituals employed by the white man to persuade the gods to send the cargo. If the native wants the cargo, then he too mush do these things." This quote also reminds me of a discussion I had with my roommate regarding perspective. It is so important to remember to "step into another person's shoes" and see how the world from where they are standing. People often forget this and make out the situation as though they are in the right. Of course that's what it's going to seem...you viewed what was going on from your perspective only!
Anyways...sidetracked there...to continue on " Anthropologists have noted two separate outbreaks in New Caledonia, four in the Solomons, four in Fiji, seven in the New Hebrides, and over fifty in New Guinea, most of them being quite independent and unconnected with one another. The majority of these religions claim that one particular messiah will bring the cargo when the day of the apocalypse arrives." It goes on to talk about other, more specific examples...and I do have to say **reading...* that they are rather interesting. There is this cult of John Frum and the local believe him to be the messiah. They 'talk' to him via 'radio,' longing to see him come to their island. I am going to quote a cult devotee that Attenborough talked to that believes that this John Frum character will be coming back on February 15, year unknown:
DA: But Sam, it is nineteen years since John say that the cargo will come. He promise and promise, but still the cargo does not come. Isn't 19 years a long time to wait?
Sam: If you can wait two thousand years for Jesus Christ to come an' 'e no come, then I can wait more than nineteen years for John.

Linguistics has really caught my interest recently, mostly because in the midst of my researchin on the Yi, I came across a term that I am determined to investigate more of. MiXin...or, if you translate it into English, means superstition. When I was in Yangjuan and was talking to the local Nuosu there...often times, they referred to the works of the bimo, or their priest/healer, as mixin. As an outsider, superstition doesn't really connotate the idea that this belief is genuine. I mean, superstitions are things like Friday the 13th and seeing a black cat...or walking under a ladder. The first thing that came to mind was...why would these people call the works of the bimo superstition? It wasn't as though they didn't believe in this stuff...the one person I questioned about this was the bimo's daughter...who definitely accepted his practice. So the next thing I thought was...well, the word they were using was a Han word...non-Nuosu. At the time, though, when I was there, I wasnt thinking too deeply about this question...but now that I'm here...I'm wondering...what is the Nuosu word for mixin? Maybe the understanding of this word is totally different from superstition - both interpreted by the Chinese and by Westerners. Because of what happened in the CR, I was beginning to wonder if this was in anyway a small, linguistic remenant of those times. We'll see....but back to why I brought this up. Cults. Religions start out as cult. There was the cult of Jesus for example. It isnt until these beliefs are more or less popularized and accepted by a large number of people and organized that they are called religion. Here are the three lessons Dawkins ends this chapter with regarding the origin of religions. 1: Amazing speed to which a cult can spring up. 2: Speed with which the organization process covers its tracks such that there are some uncertainty about actual events. 3: Independent emergence of similar cults in different places; human psychology and its susceptibility to religion.

Great! The next chapter is about morality and whether or not it requires religion to develop.

...a quiet Wednesday night...

Do you ever feel like there are a ton of things that you could do when you're in class but then the moment you get home, you just dont feel like doing anything? Yeah...that's how I'm feeling right now. So, I figured I should pick up my book again...The God Delusion...and continue reading. :) People should be proud...I could watch cartoons...but, I'm going to read. Anyways, there was this one quote that I wanted to put in here...but never had the chance before when I had read it. This is a passage that I have sort of been contemplating about for the past 3 years of my life:

The God Delusion - Richard Dawkins
pg. 104
"By why, in any case, do we so readily accept the idea that the one thing you must do if you want to please God is believe in him? What's so special about believing? Isn't it just as likely that God would reward kindness, or generosity, or humility? Or sincerity? What if God is a scientist who regards honest seeking after truth as the supreme virtue? Indeed, wouldn't the designer of the universe have to be a scientist?....Then again, suppose the god who confronts you when you die turns out to be Baal, and suppose Baal is just as jealous as his old rival Yahweh was said to be...Mightn't Pascal have been better off wagering on no god at all rather than on the wrong god? Indeed, doesnt the sheer number of potential gods and goddesses on whom one might bet vitiate Pascal's whole logic?..."

Pascal's logic: "You'd better believe in God, because if you are right you stand to gain eternal bliss and if you are wrong it won't make any difference anyway. On the other hand, if you don't believe in God and you turn out to be wrong you get eternal damnation, wheras if you are right it makes no difference. On the face of it the decision is a no-brainer. Believe in God."

I am on a search for truth I suppose. To discover what beliefs best suit me. Since being in college, religion has become a newfound interest for me. It is absolutely fascinating...it is a force that is able to prompt people to do good and bad things...depending on your opinion of what is good and bad. Ever since I could remember, my family has always been "Christian." My grandparents on my father's side are deeply devoted and growing up, I felt that that was what I wanted to be. Up through middle school, I became very "involved" with the church...and I have to say, looking back, that I believed alot of things without realizing if it was what I really believed in. It makes sense...if the important adults in your life are all attending church and are Christian, you would want to embrace this belief because you knew it had to be it. However, as I moved away from the only church I have ever knew to another place, distance created doubt...even understanding from my perspective. Much of my first thoughts follow along the lines of the first quote...how could good people be punished for simply NOT believing? I mean, all of the religious leaders in the world, all of the Buddhist monks and nuns promoting a peaceful way of living, Gandhi, and people who aren't religious. Are they to be condemned to eternal suffering because of this idea of believing? Surely my God was to be more merciful than this. In college I took a Eastern Religions class and ran across this quote: The Truth is one, the sages just call it by different names. It's funny...no matter how hard I try to find this quote...I can't find it...in my religions text that is...where I first found it. This was when I began to realize something new...something I now believe. :) Something I shall share in the future.

Oh, I just read this one section **yeah, I'm reading it while blogging this** and it puts my idea forth much more elegantly: Page 174
"More than any other species, we survive by the accumulated experience of previous generations, and that experience needs to be passed on to children for their protection and well-being...there will be a selective advantage to child brains that possess the rule of thumb: believe, without question, whatever your grown-ups tell you...trust your elders without question...but the flipside of trusting obedience is stlavish gullibility...and authomatic consequence is that the truster has no way of distinguishing good advice from bad."

I really haven't understood for myself whether religion is a good or bad thing. I only thing I do know is that that the consequence of it has produced both good and bad. Religion.

...for those interested in documentaries...i have some recommendations!

Hey Everyone,
Hope all is going well. :) I am going to try to spend the next couple of days trying to catch up...going to try to take advantage of my new found freedom to blog again.

So last Thursday night at the Bookworm, there was a showing of a documentary entitled: The Game of Our Lives. It is about the 1966 N. Korean team that made it to the quarter finals of the FIFA World Cup. For anyone interested in soccer...but more so about N. Korea, I highly recommend it. Call me naive and ignorant...but this past week has made me think alot about perspective. I really don't know much about N. Korea and I should have totally made more of an effort to pay attention to U.S. history to actually learn the stuff rather than repeat it on exams...but anyways...yeah, I dont know much about the Korean War either. However, what I have been exposed to are CNN documentaries on N. Korea and how bad the situation is there. First of all, this documentary is a series of three. Two are out...the one I mentioned above and then there's State of Mind which we watched today. The two I have seen are both rather observatorial documentaries...with settings that take place mostly in the capital. **I'm going to do some self-censorship and try to not write as many controversial names and such...I really don't want to lose my ability to blog** I have to say that at first, I was quite astonished. For someone who's never really learned much about N. Korea's current status...N. Korea, at least the capital, sure didn't look like the documentaries that I saw in the States. Granted, those were "footages snuck out of N. Korea" by people who shouldn't have been filming in the first place. Before I get too political...cause honestly, I really don't know much...the films were enlightening. The second one, State of Mind, is about N. Korea's Mass Games. Besides what these games might imply, they are highly, highly impressive. They say the Mass Games are put on to promote communism ideals...people are to work together as a whole or group rather than individuals. The documentary focuses on 2 girls and their year long training to perform for their leader. The third documentary will be shown to a public audience at the Sun Dance Film Festival in Utah. Hopefully, the Bookworm will have that on for us next year. Two of the people who actually worked on these documentaries came and did a Q & A session. One of the things I found interesting was that N. Korea opened up a market back in 2003...I think. Either 2003 or 2004. It just didn't seem like something you would find there...but it was to be N. Korea's first market. The guy who spoke said that it has actually been quite successful. People go there often. Oh, before I forget to mention, the people who came to talk to us also work for a group called Koryo Tours. They take interested people into N. Korea on sort of organized tour. Sounds interesting, no? A couple of us started talking and it would seem like quite a trip. Unfortunately, Americans aren't allowed to go...at least, not yet. We'll see...they mentioned that there might be a possibility in August. N. Korea is going to host another Mass Games, it's been said, in August of next year. If anyone is interested, the website of the touring company is: www.koryogroup.com

Besides that event, we had our every-other-week-mandatory meeing today with Andrea. Topic of discussion was our plans for Christmas. First, to start off with holidays, Thanksgiving here went well. All of us did some cooking and did sort of a pot luck dinner. We had to buy a turkey from the local Western style resturant, Pete's. Chinese apartments just dont have ovens. Oh, my roommate and I did actually buy a toaster oven. However, it's not big enough for a turkey thats for sure. Actually, most people here dont really know what an oven is. I went to the store to buy a baking pan...which they didnt have. I found this sort of metal dish looking thing that looked as though it could be used to bake in...but I wasnt sure. So, I found an employee and asked her...and all she kept on telling me after I asked her whether or not I could use this pan to bake was: You can't use that in a microwave. So, after talking to my roommate...people here often get microwaves and ovens confused because houses and apartments aren't equipped with baking ovens! So...back to the dinner, it was sort of special for me because I've never really had an American style dinner before. Most of our Thanksgivings is a largely Chinese...we have a turkey...which is usually deep fried *my dad went and bought a frier one year...and thats what we've been doing with our turkeys ever sincce* and then a mix of Chinese dishes. My mom makes this sort of Chinese style potato salad which I really like cause its not very sour like American potato salad is. And there's the special dish we always have....which was my contribution to this year's Thanksgiving dinner: Pig tongue, tofu bean curd, seaweed, and eggs. Usually my mom makes pig ears too...but I really didn't see ears in the store. Plus, I heard they arent cleaned as well as the ones in the States. We also had mashed potatos...the lumpy kind...yum! apple pie, pumpkin pie, that green bean cassarole (sp?), stuffing, etc. So...all in all...it was a great dinner. We watched 2 movies...one was Weatherman...eh...okay movie. The other was a documentary: An Inconvenient Truth. I also recommend this to anyone who is interested in the global warming issue and likes Al Gore.
So...back to Christmas. Andrea has a friend who's in the plum wine making business. So, after talking to him, Andrea has arranged for us to go up into the mountains to take a tour of his plum wine factory. In addition to that, we'll be staying in cabins for 2 nights and visit the hot springs. :) SNOW for Christmas! Well...the 2 days before Christmas. But still! SNOW! I was so jealous to hear that Seattle got snow...and not just a measly amont. Decent snow...oh yeah...and then ice...but still SNOW!!! We are thinking about hosting a inbetween Christmas and New Years cocktail party where we have the SU students join us...but thats still in the planning stages.

I went out and bought March of the Penguins. :) After watching, you just have to love those little creatures! And it was in French too...quite enjoyable. Oh, I have also been watching Korean movies lately...oh and one Japanese animation movie called Grave of the Fireflies. Be forewarned, that movie was really, really sad. It's about these 2 kids a bit during but more after the war between Japan and the U.S.

Let's see...anymore developments...not really. Things have been rather quiet. Same old schedule of classes and such. Oh, I'm happy to say that we are almost done printing our Yangjuan Calendars. For anyone still interested in buying some, we are still selling. I was informed earlier this week that one of my photos made it into this year's calendar. :) Exciting! But, I'm just glad that I could help out.

Chengdu has gotten really cold this past week...sometimes it's hard being here because of some of the conveniences America has...like driers. I wash my clothes and such and then have to dry them out on the porch line. However, because of the cold and wet weather, it takes forever for things to dry. Also...because Chengdu is sort of damp...my clothes always feels a bit cold and damp.

Alright...I think I'll end here tonight. It's already midnight and I still have to shower. Hope everyone is staying warm! Take care.

Back in business baby!

I am absolutely estatic. After weeks of not being able to blog, here I am! I must be careful from now it seems...if I want to maintain my current being-able-to-blog status. :)

Well, there is certainly alot of catching up to do...but to start...I guess I'll talk about today.

I dont really know whats going on with me...but I have been feeling really out of it. Like I can't sleep well at night...which almost never happens...and during the day, I just feel totally lethargic. I hope its just a cold and that itll pass on quickly. I really hate not being to sleep through the night. It may also be because for the past week, I have been trying to work on my politics paper. Anyways, I finally got it done this afternoon, just in time for hot pot. My roommate's birthday was on Thursday...but we had our celebration today. There was a total of 7 people. We all met at the hot pot place and had a night full of fragrant oils and intestines. Afterwards, we stopped by the bakery where my roommate ordered a cake and brought it over to our place. I'll post pictures later...but yeah, everyone just left after talking and laughing for about 2 hours. Okay...my turn to shower. I must get some sleep tonight...

:) Hope everyone has a great time at the AIDS Charity Ball!!!