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DEATH comes to OSU campus (see Terry Pratchett’s “mort”)

Dear Friends and Family,

It was 2 pm, Friday afternoon when terror and death struck south campus. In one flash of movement, the beloved south campus celebrity, Whitey, so loved and cherished by OSU students, was cruelly murdered. Several students walking through the South Oval witnessed the aftermath of the attack. I personally was not there and did not see it happen, but when I read about it later in the newspapers, I thought it was rather funny. I was never a fan of Whitey’s, and on campus it really is survival of the fittest. I guess he got lulled into a false sense of security because of the attention he got from the students. Then one day, wham! That Hawk got an easy meal since the squirrel was albino and easy to spot from above. I’m surprised it lasted this long.

So now that the long reign of Whitey the celebrity squirrel has ended, perhaps life can go back to Continue reading “DEATH comes to OSU campus (see Terry Pratchett’s “mort”)”

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“Poisonous Individualism”

If I told you that homeschool parents had established a leadership academy in their home, you might be surprised. Even most homeschool parents would be surprised because surveys show the two main reasons parents choose homeschooling are to avoid the negative peer environment of public schools and to teach from a religious perspective. Few homeschool parents identify training their children to be leaders as the reason they chose home education. But are they right? Perhaps many homeschool parents are training their children to be leaders without realizing it.

So begins this article by HSLDA President J. Michael Smith, recently published in the Washington Times. He’s right. We have four children, and they would all scoff at the suggestion that meekly following the agnostic and “whatever feels good, do it” crowd is even remotely desirable.* Our goal has always been to teach, lead and counsel, and always based on the truths of Scripture and common sense. Though they haven’t always been wise nor sinless, no one would say any of our kids are crowd followers.

To find out where the title of this blog entry comes from, read the whole article.

Guess we accidentally raised a bunch of leaders. Praise God! We are so proud…

*Even Andrew, our son who died several years ago in a tragic accident of his own creation, managed to do it by stepping out of the crowd. Later, at a Louisville Youth Choir function where his memory was honored, at least one person described how he had been a leader in ways we didn’t even know…

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A small respite

Dear Friends and Family,

We have a small respite this week. Monday is Veterans day so we have a three day weekend. Which means……more time for homework! Really, I’m serious. First off I want to thank all of our brave men and women who have served and are serving in the armed forces who have/are putting their life on the line to preserve the freedom of America. Thank you!!!

Friday night, I went to see “Three Short Plays” (Medea, English Therapy, and Vendetta Chrome) at Ohio State’s Drake Theater. The reason for this was because English Therapy was written by Nancy Gall-Clayton, a resident of Louisville KY. I do not know Mrs. Gall-Clayton personally, but a good friend of mine who is a friend of hers was so kind and thoughtful as to send me a ticket. I was accompanied by Debbie, my Taiwanese conversation partner, who upon hearing I was going to see a “real, live American play”, promptly bought a ticket and announced she would be going with me. She said she quite enjoyed the plays too, though she didn’t understand English Therapy very well. It used a lot of tricks and twists of the English language to create comedy, and Debbie is not a native english speaker.

Thursday night I had the pleasure of Continue reading “A small respite”

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Fall has finally fallen

Dear friends and family,

Well, fall has truly come to OSU campus, and the war is in full swing. What?….you don’t know about the war? It is an epic battle of mighty proportions that I see raging back and forth across the campus. The sides are not equally matched, and I fear that those who fight for good on campus shall be overpowered and ground to shreds. Haha, I hope I’m confusing you >;)>. I’m speaking of the heated battle between the groundskeepers and the falling leaves. The beautiful, many colored fall leaves are swirling and falling all over campus, making everything beautiful, as if covered with a weird colored snow (hmmm, maybe not). Anyway, it is the hight of my fall experience to swish through fallen, crackly leaves on the way to class.

However, it seems that the powers that be on campus are not an open minded and nature loving bunch. They’ve sent their lackeys (groundskeepers) out on a quest to gather and destroy all rebellious leaves who refuse to stay up in their trees. I see the evil work being done every day, and I long to pause in my hurried rushing from class to class in order to lend a hand to the poor leaves.

Despite the fact that I know the leaves will eventually be overcome, they Continue reading “Fall has finally fallen”

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Now a member

Well, I have been forced and conscripted onto the blog by my wise and sometimes annoying father. I have been requested several times to take time out of my busy schedule to write a post, so here it goes. Life for the past several months has been an unending stream of school (now in my second year of high school) work, (at the kennel where Sarah, Lydia, and Andrew worked) and trying to clean the house and get some enjoyment out of life. Also Continue reading “Now a member”

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My dear humans…

Due to some longstanding misconceptions about my position in the household, and in anticipation of the upcoming holiday festivities, I have decidedQueen Midnight to modify my normal policy of non-verbal Rolex replica communication and instruct my “owner”, Dad, to post a few comments for me. Of course, I don’t want to impose (beyond the normal requirements of royalty), but merely to clarify what everyone around me knows quite well already. If you, my humans, will be so kind as to read and carefully observe the few rules I have posted below, our occasional and unfortunate misunderstandings may be kept to a minimum:

  1. Some of you are replica Rolex watches confused about my weight; I have even heard the word “fat” used in my vicinity. My responsibilities include night patrols, in case you haven’t noticed, and it gets cold in the dead of winter. Keeping Rolex replica watches warm requires extra fur and a little extra “me”, shall we say. Comprende?
  2. I’m a carnivore… you know- meat. Icky green stuff from your plate, fruit, other such… please, let’s not be insulting. The catfood is OK, though boring. Milk is better; cheese is interesting; what we need more of around here is m.e.a.t.
  3. About those insufferable, wiggly goofballs with collars– must we have them? Yes, I know, one of them was homeless and … (the origin of the other escapes me). Mergle (God rest him) did do us all a great service by beating that one- the short one– up and chasing it around the yard. I haven’t gotten around to doing it myself; the teeth are a problem; but I have a mind to. Must they act like infants all the time?? Serena, I understand you are in charge of the feeding; could you train some sense into them as well? If you don’t mind, teach them to bow in my presence. Once we get that done, I will consider keeping them around … for entertainment, I suppose.
  4. Cats (that’s me) rule. Humans (that’s you guys) obey. Not to be blunt, but… occasionally, a little reality is a good thing.

That’s all for now. You may post your replies and (adoring) comments below. Above all, be of good cheer– I accept you.

Fondly,

H.M. Midnight

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Another week

Dear Family and Friends,

Well, I had my arabic oral midterm on Thursday, and I think it went well. And, praise the Lord, our wonderful teacher moved our written to monday so I have more time to study. In my Chinese reading/writing class we have finished reading “The Lady in the Painting” an old chinese folk story (and a pretty good one I think) and now we are moving on more advanced text books. I turned in my comparative studies mid-term papers, I’ll get a grade on those next week. We are now moving on to Continue reading “Another week”

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Some pics of College

Here are two pictures for your enjoyment. One is of me in one of my medieval dresses. I had put it on earlier in the quarter to wear to one of the Rennaisance guild meetings. Sadly, I could not become a member, but at least I got to go once or twice.

Me in my dress

The second picture is me and my roomate, Suzanne, in our dorm room (click on it to see a larger version).

Me and my Roomate

*Lydia*

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Praise the Lord

An amazing thing happned to me this weekend, one in which I experienced the providence and amazing works of God’s hand. I want to share it with you. Those of you who are believers will rejoice with me in how God has taken care of me. For the rest of you I hope this will be a witness to the works of my savior.

It was Saturday. I had come home from my last rugby game of the season, and now I had to take my bike to get fixed. Something had happened to it involving the gears and the peddles wouldn’t turn, so I was going to take it up the street and see how much it would cost to get it fixed. It was 2:00, and I had a talk on Women and War that I was going to attend at 3:00. So I was in sort of a hurry.

I took the bus up there. You get free fare on all the Cota Buses with your student ID, and they have bike racks on the front. I arrived at the bike shop and someone looked at my bike and said it would cost around 30$ to fix. But, he also said there was a bike co-op where you could take your bike and fix it yourself with people around who could answer your questions. By this time it was already about 2:40. The bike co-op was open from 12-6 on Saturdays, but to fix my bike that day, I would have to miss the talk I wanted to go to, which was from 3-7. I decided to go the the talk and fix my bike later. So, I went to the bus stop, caught a bus, and as I was getting on and trying to find my student ID to show the driver, I discovered Continue reading “Praise the Lord”

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“Mom, do I have to do this writing assignment???”

Unlike her crazy sister who is working toward 2 majors and a minor, Serena does NOT like school. She endures it. She is generally diligent about getting it done, but she doesn’t enjoy a lot of it. So this post is just to have a record of a time when her mean ogre teacher (that’s me, by the way) dug in her heels and insisted Serena complete a certain writing assignment. While studying the expansion of Islam during the middle ages, she was tasked with creating an “Arabian Nights” style tale. Here, for all to see, is the evidence that she sometimes has fun doing school. (The astute reader will find plenty of take-offs here from other tales!) Continue reading ““Mom, do I have to do this writing assignment???””