my blog's chinese name

Awhile back, when I was changing the design of my blog, I translated the title into Chinese.  I never incorporated it into the blog design, but thought I'd post it here anyway just 'cuz.

Of course it means "following an unknown path," but if we translated it literally it would come out more like this: "taking steps on an unknown pathway." 

If you wanted a more word-by-word translation, it would come out more like this: "Walking Unknown Road/Way/Path On"

And, if you want a character-by-character definition it would come out more like this: "Step Walk (indicates current action--hence "ing") Not Know (particle for making adjectives) Course/Way Road On."

And, if you want it in pinyin, it would be: "Bu Xing Zai Wei Zhi Dou Lu Shang."

And, just for fun, here it is in some different fonts.  The font I used above is my favorite Chinese font.  I like it best because it's fun, but I also like it because it comes with a matching fun English font and they go well together.

Isn't Chinese fun?

Oh, and if you happen to be looking for some fun, free Chinese/Asian fonts (like the one in my blog header) look here.  Kudasai is my favorite, but I also like Japan and Chowfun.

a woman's heart

My sister sent me this quote last week.  It was encouraging to me, so I thought I'd share it with you. 

"A woman's heart should be so hidden in Christ that a man should have to seek Him first to find her."

(I searched online to see if I could find the source, it looks like it is probably from Maya Angelou.)

buying books overseas

Living overseas has seriously helped me to curb my book-buying addiction.

My mom says she can always tell when it is time for me to come home because packages start arriving.  I start shopping my wish list and sending books to my parents' home to wait for me the month or two before I leave.

Amazon.com's international shipping on books is SO high--sometimes more expensive than the book itself.  So, last year when I read on a blog about a company that ships books overseas for under three USD ($2.97) a book, I was giddy.

I've ordered from BetterWorldBooks.com twice.  The first time it took about two months or longer to get my books (I was beginning to think they had been sent to Thailand), but the second time it took less than a month.  The first time they come in an M-bag (I had ordered several) and the second time, they just came in a simple box.  Both times they had been shipped from Switzerland?  Sweden?  I don't remember, but some "S" country. :)

I've been pleased.  It's nice to once again be able to order (cheap, used) books and actually have them shipped to me.  I've not found every title I've searched for, but I have found many.

If you live overseas and need a book craving filled, you might wanna check out BetterWorldBooks.com.

Oh, yeah, and the profits go to fund literacy, and shipping is free to US addresses, so even if you aren't overseas, you still might wanna check 'em out. :)

(I thought I'd read about it on a "girl blog" in the fall.  But when I searched my g-reader, I only found a mention of it on the Bell Site in the summer.  Anywho, thanks anonymous girl blog; sorry I can't give you a hat tip.  And thanks to Jackie Bell for recommending good stuff to others too.)

tatoos and hello kitty

What do tatoos, Hello Kitty, Beethoven, working dogs, and Holland have to do with each other?

Give up?

They are all topics of the research papers I find myself correcting and soon grading.    Other topics include New York City, diabetes, the Disney princess (an awesome paper by the way), the MINI Cooper, online gaming, and Louis Vuitton.   I am learning so much.

Dear blog, 
I miss you.  Will be back soon. 
~amanda

worship

Reading through the biblical account of the Creation and the Fall get me excited.  They are my second favorite part of the Bible "to story" to people who have never heard it before.  There is some really great stuff in there that as people who've grown up with the story just totally miss.  (Note to self: this is a post topic for another day.)

But, the other day, in the midst of being excited about reading the opening chapters of Genesis, I saw something I'd never noticed before: it was during Seth's lifetime that men began to worship (call upon the name of the Lord or be called by the name of the Lord). 

I read my Bible with colored pencils near by so I can mark themes (kinda my own version of Kay Arthur's inductive study).  One of the things I love marking is worship.  So, perhaps that is why this time I actually saw this verse.  This verse left me pondering much and asking lots of questions.  I did look it up in a commentary, so I could get some of my questions answered.

All this thinking about worship reminded me of a post I wrote last January  . . . I share it with you again:

Do you wanna know what verse my kid-brother (13 yo) counts as his favorite verse in the Bible?

I'll give you a hint: it comes from today's chronological Bible reading.

Sam's favorite Bible verse (if memory serves me right) is Job 1:21: "And he said, 'Naked I came from my mother's womb, and naked shall I return. The Lord gave, and the Lord has taken away; blessed be the name of the Lord.'"
(And this is coming from a kid who had all of his birthday presents and
all  of his Christmas presents from 2005 stolen during multiple break-ins in the
course of just a few months.)

I, however, tend to favor the verse right before Sam's favorite:
"Then Job arose and tore his robe and shaved his head and fell on the
ground and worshiped" (Job 1:20).

In a matter of seconds--in the time it takes to utter a few
sentences--the greatest man of all the people in the east tragically
lost each and everyone of his ten children, 7,000 sheep, 3,000 camels,
500 yoke of oxen, 500 female donkeys, and all but four of his very many
servants. 

And what does the grief-stricken guy do? He worships.

I love that word: w o r s h i p. 

It has become so much more meaningful to me living here in Taiwan.
I have seen people worshiping great, big, HUGE idols, people worshiping
tiny 12-inch tall idols, people worshiping old trees, people worshiping
even the stumps of old dead trees, people worshiping stones and
tablets, people worshiping ancestors (both those from generations long
ago and those recently deceased).

My idea of what is worship has changed so much since living here.
Before it was only something I did with others.  It was something I did
in Church--it was singing songs and listening to sermons.   What I did
alone was "quite time" or "devotions."  When I was a new believer, I
did not know I could or should bow before God of All and worship.

Don't get me wrong.  I knew and could teach others and wax eloquent
about the fact that our daily act of worship was how we lived our
lives. And, I knew that worship is a coperate act we do together when
we gather as believers.

Don't get me wrong.  I know that people in the western world
"worship idols"--TV, football, blogging, movie stars and so on. I know
that.

But that is not what I am talking about.  This is different.  It is markedly different. 

We, in the West, do not kneel before our TVs and computers clasping
our hands in front of us and make a choice to actually, physicaly bow
before a graven image of the "god of entertainment."  But, I have
friends, coworkers, students, neighbors who do make the choice to
kneel before an idol, clasp their hands around sticks of incense and
worship.

Watching them worship has changed the way I myself worship the
Almighty.  I cling to that word "worship" in the Bible more so now than
ever.

Job, upon hearing that all he owned was destroyed, did what?  He worshiped. 

The scholars from the East followed a star and traveled miles and miles, why?  They wanted to worship. 

What did one of my favorite characters in the Bible, Gideon, do
after hearing the interpretation of his dream?  That's right, he
worshiped. 

Moses, Joshua, David, Samuel . . . they all "worshiped." 

Often the Bible simply tells us "he worshiped."   Sometimes it says "they bowed their heads and worshiped," but, many, many times it is written as "and he fell down and worshiped."

When
was the last time you "fell down worshiped"?  When was the last time
you stopped activity, put aside the reading plan, the prayer request
list, and memorization cards, and worshiped? 

Don't
get me wrong.  I am not saying don't do those things.  I am not even
saying those can't be "acts of worship."  But, I am wondering, when was the last time you (and I) fell down, face to the earth, and worshiped the Most High God?

I wanna be like Job, and Gideon, and Moses, and David, and Samuel,
and . . . . .  I want my first response to the proclamation of good
news to be that I worship.  I want my first desire after hearing bad
news to be that I worship. 

And so, after she clicked save, she knelt before the Most High God and worshiped.

Originally posted on January 4, 2006.

seeing pink

I feel like my words are missing . . . my students have stolen them from me. :)

In the last 24 hours, I've corrected approximately 60 essays.  I have about 20 more to go by tomorrow afternoon, and then 40 more for early next week, and then oh . . . about 60 more later in the week.  Most of them are 2-3 pages, but about 20 are close to 10 pages each.

My hand hurts, my vision is blurred, and I've actually emptied the ink out of one pink pen and am about to finish off my second one in a matter of just a few more essays.  (OK, so maybe my arm hurts from sleeping on it funny, and maybe my vision was only blurred for a few seconds when my contact was doing something funny . . . but I really have used up the ink in 1.8 pink pens.)

Finals are in two weeks; but since I teach three writing classes, the majority of my students need to turn in final drafts of essays, research papers, or business emails they've written over the course of the semester.  Which means I am helping them to do their final editing.

. . . which means I'm seeing pink and will continue to do so until mid-January!!

[Oh, yeah, but don't feel sorry for me.  I am not complaining.  I love my job.  Just felt the need to explain why I've not posted much . . . I have no words left to express my own thoughts. :)]

a new favorite

When I babysat for a missionary family awhile back, the mom made oatmeal casserole.  It was the first time I've ever tried such a thing.  You eat it warm, but pour milk over it kinda like cereal.  I am an oatmeal lover, so this new twist to an old favorite was a welcome treat.

I decided to make it for my own weekend-before Christmas guests who were spending the night.  Like many casseroles, you can put it all together the night before, leave it in the fridge and just pop it into the oven the next morning.

Here's what I did:

1/3 cup butter


2 eggs


3/4 cup brown sugar, packed


2 tsp. vanilla


2 tsp. cinnamon


1 tsp. nutmeg


1/4 tsp. salt


1/2 cup raisins
2 small apples, chopped skin on
1/3 cup nuts (walnuts or pecans
1 cup plus 2 TBSP. milk


3 cups quick-cooking oats

Grease a 1-1/2 quart casserole dish (I don't have a casserole dish, so I just used a cake pan). Preheat the oven to 177C or 350F.

Drop in the eggs and beat them slightly. Add the brown sugar, baking powder, vanilla, cinnamon, nutmeg, and salt. Mix well, and make sure there are no brown sugar lumps. Whisk in the melted butter and the milk. Stir in the oats.  Stir in the optional raisins, apples, and nuts (although optional, these make it oh so scrumptious).

Bake, uncovered, for 35 minutes. The top should be starting to brown. Remove from oven. Spoon into bowls and pour milk over the top.

I just mixed everything right there in the casserole dish.  This fed six of us, even with going back for seconds.  I also happen to know that it is good warmed up in the microwave the following day.

Next time, I am going to experiment with using Splenda instead of the brown sugar, I know it will give it a slightly different taste, but that'd be ok. 

Also, the original receipe I followed was slightly different.  One difference is that it called for 1-1/2 tsp. baking powder; I didn't have that so I left it out.  I didn't miss it, but you might.