Blonde moment

And the silver spoon.

Monday, February 20, 2006

Out of town

I'm leaving tomorrow morning for a stint in DC. I'll check back on March 3rd.

(Yes, I am staying in a hotel with wireless, but Josh has the laptop.)

Ignorance and English

Dr. Banaian has a long standing argument that students need to be able to adjust to a variety of accents and dialects of English. Here is his most recent edition . It is my hope that the economics department retains the highest quality faculty for their budget.

There is a serious problem with people in my generation. We generally expect people to cater to our needs. This is not what the real world is like. In the real world, when a product is successful in another country, and the company is fortunate enough to have an English speaking client, the native English speakers must adjust because real money is on the line.

I hope when students attend college, they attend with the purpose of gaining an education that will help them succeed in the world market place. Part of this education is not only exposure to other cultures, but learning the ability to communicate with people from these cultures. Those who refuse to learn this skill will not succeed later in life.

A polite way of handling miscommunications is to smile, raise your hand, and say, “Would you please repeat yourself? I was unable to understand.” Usually, if you are polite and smiling genuinely, the professor will oblige. If you have a serious problem understanding, your professor keeps office hours. Spending time with your professor beyond the three hour lecture a week will help you adjust to a new accent and will enhance your education. Also, remember that Americans, myself included, do not speak proper English, we speak American.

Sunday, February 19, 2006

The beauty of 10 minutes

Josh is almost done with his JRTC training, so he was able to give me a 10 minute phone call last night. The 10 short minutes lifted my spirits, as well as his, and it makes me long for our time together in March. Josh is my hero, my love, my husband. I adore him more then anything. These 10 minutes refreshed me and they keep me company until we meet again.

So, in church today, Pastor talked about how we need to practice personal devotion time. Those of us who have been lacking in our Bible reading should resume our time in Holy Scripture and meditation. Pastor also said that we should be realistic as we renew our devotion time and start small. He said, “10 minutes make all the difference in the world to those who spend zero minutes.” If we spend a few minutes in Holy Scripture and meditate on it and apply it to our lives, we shall be transformed. Eventually these 10 minutes become 20 minutes that leads to 30 minutes to an hour.

Oh how 10 minutes a day can revive a soul thirsty for the word of God as the 10 minutes I spent with my love on the phone revived me emotionally and made me satisfied until we speak again.

As a side note, I’m off to DC for the next two weeks, so I won’t be blogging. Josh has the laptop and I’m not about to purchase TV internet time.

Saturday, February 04, 2006

The off spring of good Democrats

When my Grandfather (God rest his soul) tried to raise good Democrats, who would have thought that this would be the result! To quote my Uncle Jim, "Such a loyal Democrat has no business breeding such surly Republicans."

Good luck to Rachel and Team Sunderman!