HAPPY BIRTHDAY JESSICA!

Girl, I really miss you. Often when we're all together as a family it seems like somebody is missing...there will always be an empty spot in our home. But I'm sure you're doing a lot better up there. I love you and happy birthday!

PS Had you lived I suspect that my birthday card to you would have been late. So I thought it fitting that this message also be late. ;-)

from http://www.cnn.com/2006/LAW/06/09/molester.execution.ap/index.html?section=cnn_latest

Oklahoma is 5th state to OK death for repeat molesters
Legal scholars doubt law is constitutional

Friday, June 9, 2006; Posted: 11:36 p.m. EDT (03:36 GMT)

OKLAHOMA CITY, Oklahoma (AP) -- Oklahoma on Friday became the fifth state to allow the death penalty for certain sex crimes, although legal scholars questioned the constitutionality of the new state law.

Under the measure signed by Gov. Brad Henry, anyone convicted twice for rape, sodomy or lewd molestation involving children under 14 can face the death penalty.

South Carolina's governor signed a similar law on Thursday allowing the death penalty for offenders convicted twice of raping children younger than 11. Louisiana, Florida and Montana also have laws allowing the death penalty for certain sex crimes.

Defense attorneys and death penalty experts said the laws defy recent U.S. Supreme Court decisions that have scaled back the death penalty's application.

Barbara Bergman, president of the Washington-based National Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers, said Supreme Court decisions have made it clear that the death penalty is reserved for someone who has taken another life.

"I'm not saying that raping a child is not a horrible crime, but no one has died," said Bergman, who was part of the defense team that avoided the death penalty for Oklahoma City bombing conspirator Terry Nichols following his 2004 conviction on 161 murder counts.

David Brook, a law professor at Washington and Lee University in Lexington, Virginia, said the measure might actually put a child rape victim's life at risk.

"The last message you want to give an offender who has the life of a child in his hands is you might as well kill the child because he's already got the death penalty," said Brook, who runs the Virginia Capital Case Clearing House, which assists lawyers in death penalty cases. "This is a very stupid message."

No one convicted of a sex offense has been executed since the U.S. Supreme Court reinstated capital punishment 30 years ago, though one inmate is on death row in Louisiana following his 2003 conviction for raping an 8-year-old girl.

South Carolina's new law is named for 9-year-old Jessica Lunsford, a Florida girl who was kidnapped, raped and suffocated last year by a registered sex offender.

"Jessie's Law is about sending a very clear message that there are some lines you do not cross, and that if those lines are crossed the penalties will be severe," said South Carolina Gov. Mark Sanford.

---------------------------------

This brings up several issues about which I feel rather strong.

1 The phrase "repeat child molester" should be something of a joke. After the first time they ought to throw out the key. Same goes for rape.

2 Rape or molestation is a horrible, aweful crime, yes. But I'm afraid I have taken a different side on this issue. I am opposed to death penalty for anything other than murder. While rape is horrible, no life was taken. Some might argue that emotionally it can be compared to murder, but I would hold otherwise. A rape person can still laugh, can still feel the wind, and still enjoy life. It's certainly difficult, but it is possible to move on. There isn't any "moving on" after you die. There's no counciling that's going to bring you back to your loved ones once you are dead. So I hold that rape is not on a level with murder.

In addition to that, I don't see that we have the right to use capital punishment for rapist. As my understanding of the covenent with Noah goes, God said that "whoso sheddeth man's blood, by man shall his blood be shed."

3 "I'm not saying that raping a child is not a horrible crime, but no one has died," said Bergman, who was part of the defense team that avoided the death penalty for Oklahoma City bombing conspirator Terry Nichols following his 2004 conviction on 161 murder counts."

Remember how important it is to maintain a good reputation. This lady just made a totally true statement that I in fact agree with. But her assosiation with a murderer renders even her TRUE statement to actually give support to the opposite side.

Ok, I'm going to bed now. Night.

Pastor Samuel and his kids (this picture about a year old).




Places, people and situations I miss summed up very well in this picture. I hate teaching elemterary. I miss Jr. high.

No time to post (I'm leaving for school in 15 minutes) but I thought I'd share this picture really quick with y'all. If you ever get the chance to go to Kenting, go! It's awesome.

I AM: A forigner. I know I should do the spiritual thing and write "a Christian" first, but seriously, that's how I'm viewed over here most of the time and it kinda gets to you after a while.
I WANT: To see my family! To speak Chinese like a native. To speak English like a native (I don't anymore)! To go see the students at 秀才. To buy a super archer coat. To see Jay, Larry, Josiah, Mr. Murry, Jason, Mrs. Murry, Alica, Mr. Garza, Brittany, Mr. Burrnett, Mark and many other karate friends. My phone to stop having problems. Half of the students (or more) in 601 to die.
I WISH: I could stay in Kinmen next year.
I HATE: That call-in talk show host that my bus driver likes to listen to. Faith Hill. John McCain.
I LOVE: My family! Chinese. Swimming. Strawberry 冰沙's. Classes 602, 604 and 504. Watching Ginger's mom teach (she's darned good at it).
I MISS: MY FAMILY!!!!!! Karate. Sparring with siblings.
I FEAR: Dead bugs.
I HEAR: Rain. It's been raining for way too long.
I WONDER: Why I don't hear anything else. Tomorrow is a holiday: are all the kids in bed already?
I REGRET: Not paying attention to God and coming to Taiwan 6 months before I did.
I AM NOT: Wearing tie-dye. For once.
I DANCE: Every once in a while. One of my classes at 金湖 has a couple girls that are always trying to get me to dance, but they will never dance with me.
I SING: At random times during class. The kids think I'm weird.
I CRY: Seldom. But I am touched easily by a touching song. (that sentance sounds strange.)
I AM NOT ALWAYS: Awake. I keep a weird sceduale.
I MAKE WITH MY HANDS: Leather tooled gifts. Juggling. Chinese characters (at about 600 of them right now!)
I WRITE: Chinese. I haven't written anything serious in English for a long, long time.
I CONFUSE: Tuesday for Wednesday. This morning I woke up and thought I was going to my Wednesday school.
I NEED: To take a shower.
I SHOULD: Unpack. Start laundry.
I START: Camps on July 1st.
I FINISH: My time with IBLP on Aug. 10th. The date cannot arrive soon enough.
I TAG: Mom.

I wish I could say that I took this picture myself. But I'm afraid I don't even know who took it. I handed my camera to some 4th graders and after it had changed hands about 20 times I got it back with this picture on it. Isn't it good?



So we went to 嘉義 and taught at a school for three days. It was a school with only kindergarten, 1, 2 and 3rd grade. Me and Kristin and Bethany taught 2nd grade. The first thing we saw on coming into the classroom was this.



These are the kids we taught (some of them). They were a hoot. But at the same time I'm glad I don't teach any younger than 3rd grade. I think I do better with older kids (I REALLY REALLY REALLY REALLY MISS MY JR HIGH STUDENTS!!!!!!!!!)



During lunch break the kids enjoyed using my water-erase markers. I had everything from "Handsome guy" and "elephant" to "beautiful woman" and "old pervert" written on me by the time they finished.



I had a very good time. I got to torment innocent children



And hang out with Daniel.



And of course Megan took it all in stride.



Super cool 1st grader.



Sunrise at 阿里山.







Did I mention that it was beautiful?



Only down side was that we had to get up at 3 am.





Ok, this post has been five days in the making because of various problems with getting the pictures up. But finally here it is!

"白目啊! Some people are very 白目!"
---Joy in Chinese class today.

Back from 嘉義...had a great time, hope to post more later.

I just got a bit of instant noodles in my eye. Spicy instant noodles. ouch.

Ok, I'm headed out to Taiwan in about half an hour. See you guys later! I'll be back on Saturday.

Howdy folks. I hope to make an actual update this time.

I've given hope of even trying to give you guys a "highlights" of Mom's trip here. We simply did too much. But a few things that where REALLY fun:

---Translating between Mom and Lucy as Lucy taught mom some about mesaging (sp?). We talked for over an hour, with me translating between the two. After we left I found that I was thinking in Chinese and had to translate everything I was thinking into English in order to talk to Mom!

---The Saturday before we left we spent the whole day with James, speaking English the whole time. Not long after I went to bed I got a call from the guy who was driving Mom to the airport. He was asking me (in Chinese) if I could speak Chinese. I understood everything he was saying, but after all day with Mom and James, I was in English mood and kept answer him in English! It went something like "你會說中文嗎?"

"Yes, a little bit."

"什麼? 你會說中文嗎?"

I felt pretty dumb when I finally woke up enough to realize I was talking to him in English. I rather sheepishly told him that I could speak Chinese, but only a little bit. :-X

---The Monday before Mom left she and I were sitting in my room. I was on the computer and I think she was sitting at the desk writing something. At any rate, I got an email from the guy in charge of the honors program at RSU that simply asked me to call his office. Dude, that was an email to put tension in the air. Did he want to tell me that I was in the program? Or was he simply telling those people who hadn't made it in that they hadn't made it? The day for telling us if we had gotten in was way past and I had figured that I hadn't gotten the scholarship. But after Mom and I jumped up and down a few times (to release tension) I called him. And I was in! Dude, that was a really cool moment!

Then he emailed me the offical paper work on it and everything and ...ouch. Problem. They wanted us to live on campus for the first year. Now it's only like 15 minutes from our house, but still, after being on the other side of the world from my family for so long and knowing that I will probably be coming back after I finish college, I was NOT wanting to live outside of the house! I called Dr. Ford right back and asked him if it would be at all possible for an exception to be made for me. He said he would talk to some people about it. Mom and I prayed about it and decided that it would still be worth it to take the scholarship even if I did have to live at the college for the first year. But a few days later Dr. Ford emailed me back saying that since I had already been out of the home for some time and since my home was so close to the college anyway, they would make an exception for me. Yes! Praise God!

---There is a fruit stand a few minutes walk down the road where I normally buy my fruit. The guy who owns the stand and his wife are very sweet people. So one day when we stopped to buy some fruit I introduced my Mom to them. The lady was very interrested in asking my Mom which of the fruits that they sold were availible in the States and which weren't. Most of them are fruits that we have at Wal-Mart, but Mom pointed out one fruit that she had never seen before. The owner very kindly gave one to Mom!

But we didn't eat it that night...and within a few days it had gotten mouldy! We didn't know it had such a short shelf life! So then whenever we walked around town we would look at the other fruit shops trying to find a fruit like that (because we wanted to tell the lady what we thought of it, but we didn't dare tell her that we had let it rot!) But it turns out it is a seasonal fruit and nobody was selling it anymore! Drat.

---Visiting 秀才 was awesome. I wish I could move that school here to Kinmen. The kids and the staff are all so cool. Found out that Jamie is pregnant! Cool beans!

---Got to see Jack again. Vivian was having some sort of eye problem and couldn't come to meet us, but we had a really good time in spite if her absence.

---Hanging out at the night market with Laura was SOO much fun!

---We went to the underground mall at Taipie Main Station. There was a store that sold rocks and minerals. While we were in there, some Japanese ladies came in and were looking at stuff. The owner was speaking to them in English. They understood him and could respond in English, but it obviously wasn't very easy for them. At any rate, when they asked how much an item cost, the store keeper turned to his friend and asked him (in Chinese) "Hey, how much do we add for a forigner?" I laughed out loud and translated what he had said for Mom. They both became very nervous: they didn't know if the Japanese ladies had understood my translation. I listened pretty carefully to everything they said after that and they didn't try to rip the ladies off anymore. lol

Ok, I'm getting off now. I'll try to update my prayer blog later today. Now I've got to go get my toenail worked on...stupid thing is infected again! Really annoying.

Bye!

Mom and Rita. This girl has totally stolen my heart.




Me and Jamie, our contact person at the school. She's awesome.



Class 801...probably the coolest class at the school (even though I really love my 9th graders).

Ok, the big news that everybody is wanting to hear...


I BOUGHT NEW SHOES!






































Ok, so that's not it. The big news is that I have gotten a full scholarship for going to RSU. It totally covers tuition, books, and fees. It's four years and only requires that I maintain a 3.25 GPA.

Sweet, no?

With some students out near the basketball courts.


She's really, actually here!



We just finished teaching class 901...man, I miss those kids!

Howdy there! I am posting in order to get some information that is being held ransom. Apparently something happened to the family on Sunday, but they won't tell us about it until I post. So here it goes.

MOM IS HERE! It's awesome! She's handling the cultural changes and stuff very well. The students all like her, although some of them can't seem to get that she doesn't speak Chinese and keep asking her questions and expecting her to answer them. lol

The first weeek of teaching (last week) Mom taught all the kids how to draw a face. It was very fun and they loved it. This week I've done most of the teaching and Mom has watched. Tuesday was Children's Day. Since we don't have that in the States we talked to the kids about what an Amarican birthday party is like...then we played pin the tail on the donkey.

Yesterday was Tomb Sweeping day and so we didn't have any classes. I took Mom to Small Kinmen and we went around the island with Linda and Becky (two former students of mine) and their mom (who is a taxi driver). It was a hoot (I keep saying that).

Next week we're going to Taipie. I'm getting excited about that. And of course we'll be going to 秀才 Jr. high...I can't wait to go back there!

Saturday we had family treatment with a kid from 金湖. Sunday Selena and two of her siblings took us touring...we had a great time together.

Love you guys! Bye!

Quote of the day: "Ginger, I am going to eat my pen!"---Joy, in Chinese class.

Wearing: My falling apart dress shoes (really need to buy a new pair, but it's so much easier to just not do it...), the pants I bought at hang 10 on Christmas, a polo shirt that I first bought when I went to work at Microtel, my hunter orange jacket (the one I left in Nantou after winter camps and Daniel brought it to Thailand to give to me...) the watch I bought at the night market in Taipie and the green braclet that a student gave me at the end of last school year (and which I haven't taken off since then).

Currently reading: A 1st elem. chinese textbook for Chinese class. I tried reading an English book the other day but found I simply don't have time to do it.

Listening to: DC talk. I felt like some Christian music instead of Chinese tonight.

Last movie watched: part of Uptown Girls that the kids were watching downstairs. Or maybe it was part of Treasure Planet in Chinese. I can't remember. Also saw part of a Korean horrow movie the other day...that was really strange. But I've found that watching Japanese or Korean movies is really good for my character reading: if I want to even guess at what they are saying then I have to read the characters, 'cause I can't understand what they are saying.

Number of windows open on computer: 7. 2 Conquers windows (an online RPG game...I'm letting my character sit in the training grounds and slowly level up during the night). 2 MSN chats with directions for what I'm supposed to teach tomorrow morning. Anna's blog. This window and Windows Media player (music).

Feeling: buttery. I just ate a bag of popcorn, but a lot of the kernals didn't pop (our microwave has issues) so I had about twice the amount of butter on teach peice of popcorn. In fact, now that I think about it, I'm going to run to the fridge and get a drink to help wash all that butter down.

Random thoughts: Bible study went really good today. I wonder what is going on with Susan: she's been in a really upsetible mood lately. I love my Monday 3rd grade. Lin looks kinda strange with his new hair do. For all my show of being blunt, I actually find myself not saying things that I should be saying at times because I'm too afraid of looking rude. I need to visit Lucy tomorrow. I wish Coral would reply to my text message. I'm going to juggle for two of Megan's classes tomorrow: that should be fun. I think my Monday school is iligally teaching English to their 2nd grade. Few things are more fun and more relaxing than going to Sandy's house and watching a movie with Jean, Jennifer, Ginger and assorted kids. I wonder if King car would buy this program for me. It's really useful. Why does the Chinese word for secretary (幹事) look like it means "f-ing situation"? I love visiting the technical high school. I absolutly love the kids in my Wednesday night class. I wish my archer was a level 70 (only 6 levels to go!) Daniel is a cool guy. And Kristen is a cool girl. I wonder what JC is up to right now. I'm going to be getting together with a fellow next Saturday to spar: my old sparring partner is now in Taiwan. I really miss Mr. Murry, Larry and Josian. Ginger came up with a really perverted sentance the other day: "I have a friend named Josiah who shot a cow with his gun" (you get that one BJ? lol) 金湖's 604 is the coolest sixth grade ever. I need some new English games. I promised myself that I would get to bed at a decent hour tonight...wonder if that will happen. I wonder anybody is still reading this paragraph. I want to call home but their probabbly at church. A friend of mine is going to Cambodia for 10 days for about US$600...once I finish working for KingCar and come back to Taiwan I should travel around Asia some. My team is the best: Andrew and Ginger are esp. cool. I'm so glad I know English and am learning Chinese and not the other way around. I think the computer screen in the living room is going on the fritz.

Ok, I'm going to bed. I shall leave conquers running all night and if I don't get punted, I should be level 65 by morning. *crosses fingers* Please don't punt me: please!

Good night people.

Sometimes people write things that are just so much better written than you could write yourself that you just have to post links instead of trying to say it yourself. That's what I'm doing today.

Look at this post on my friend Daniel's Xanga. He describes EXACTLY how I feel.

And look at this post on my friend James' Xanga. I love the part about the sentances in the textbook.

Doctors here in Taiwan have totally bought into this idea of "if a little does well, a lot does better." One thing I had to learn when I first came here was that if a student has a huge bandage on his body somewhere, that doesn't neccacarily mean that he's been really bad hurt. Things that we would normally put a bandaid on get the full treatment over here.

So in keeping with my "try not to take medicine unless your about to die" way of doing things, I have tried my best to avoid going to the doctor. Today, however, I reached that level of "about to die" and so called Terry to take me to the doctor. He gave me about 80 million different types of medicine and wow, it is strong stuff. I've only had two doses (one of them just a few minutes ago) but I can already feel a difference.

Yea, I'm sick, btw. I've actually been trying to get sick for about a week now. Then Friday and Saturday I spent most of the day at 寧中 hanging out with my students at a sports meet. Sunday I stayed home from church and slept most of the day. Monday I went to school but only taught half of each class. And then Monday night I had to decide to call in sick for Tuesday. I hated doing that. Maybe it's just an ego thing, but I kinda take pride in the fact that I had taken only one sick day before today.

Jean gave me a pretty big home work assignment on Friday...and I haven't done anything about it yet. I really should get that done...but I'm too sick to think about it. And I really should get my home work for tomorrow's class finished as well...

Ugg. Enough about being sick. Let's talk about something else. Perhaps the fact that I forgot BJ's birthday COMPLETELY! I'm so sorry BJ! And HAPPY BIRTHDAY!!!

Mom is coming in less than two weeks. I'm about to explode.

Cool story from Thailand...We were at the night market. While sitting with Megan and Mia at the food court we saw some the guys who were cleaning up trash. They were wearing these REALLY, REALLY BRIGHT yellowish-green t-shirts. I turned to Megan and Mai and said "wow, I really should get one of those shirts!" So I walked up to one of them and asked if he could speak English...he couldn't.

Drat. So I figured that was that. A little later most of our group met there at the food court and Daniel told me that he had been talking to some college students who spoke pretty good English, so why didn't I get them to translate for me? I didn't want to at first, but Daniel talked me into it. So I talked to the college students....they agreed to translate...I went and got the trash guys to follow me to the translators table (that was funny) and asked where I could buy the shirt.

They told me I couldn't buy it. It was their work uniform and wasn't actually for sale at the night market. But by this time I had decided I really wanted one of those shirts. In a moment of feeling very bold, I offered my t-shirt in exchange for one of theirs. Believe it or not, one of them agreed, and right there in the middle of the night market we took off our shirts and switched! Probably the funnist part of the whole thing was seeing my teammates reaction.

Another cool thing that happened was going street preaching with Isaac. Isaac is a guy who worked with KingCar last year in Nantou: he is now working in Bangkok. One night we went with him and some of his friends to Goaw Sang (sp?) road to preach. Now Goaw Sang road is a really interesting place...reminds you a lot of Vanity Fair in Pilgrims Progress. Both sides of the street are lined with bars and prostitution fronts. Everybody is drunk and high or on their way there. Cross dressers and sex changers stand on the street for you to get your picture taken with them. Preaching there was really interesting. It was really funny when one guy ran up and grabbed Isaac (who was preaching) and started to carry him off down the street. Isaac never batted an eyelash and just kept right on preaching like nothing was happening. After about twenty feet the guy put him down and walked away. It was really funny.

I am not a shopping person. The idea of going out just to spend money has never appealed to me. Or at least it never did in the States. But now I realize that it's because everything in the States is way too expensive. Shopping in Asia is fun! I've actually come to enjoy going to the night market very much. The funnist part is bargaining. While in Thailand I added a new weapon to my bargaining arsenal
: the ammused laugh. When somebody is obviously trying to rip you off, instead of saying anything about it, you just look at them and laugh. Then walk away. Almost every time they come after you and drop the price by half.

Ok, I'm going to stop now. I'm actually starting to feel good enough to maybe do some home work...night guys.

Dude, I really want to post some pictures from winter camps and from Thailand, but Hello is having issues and I can't get any pictures uploaded! So just hang on until I figure something out.

In the mean time, take a look at www.cowabduction.com