I can't take it anymore

What?! Have I stumped the panel of experts? Well, the little stone dragon sits atop a tchop or seal stone. That is a block with a carving on the bottom that is the reverse image of a Chinese character or word. In the photo, the dragon seal stone is sitting on the box in which he is normally stored (along with a jar of ink and a small wooden stand) This particular seal has the symbol for long life, as you can see in the second photo. Made of Shou Shan soap stone, the tchop is less than 3.5 inches tall. The hole which is so prominent in the first watzat photo below is about the diameter of a number 5 mechanical pencil lead. Neat, huh?

If I had thought about it early enough, I could have had one custom carved with my name or favorite phrase on it. We were in Hong Kong for about ten days; that would have been enough time. But I didn't think of it until we were at the airport getting ready to leave. If you are interested, let me know and I will send you a postcard stamped with my "long life" tchop.

The dragon

The dragon is stone,
and not choc'late goo.
Not walking alone,
or even with two.
The airport in Hong Kong
was my first view
of this tiny dragon.
Now what does he do?

Cheered up

Thanks to you who commented; you did encourage me. I apologize for whining and I will try to stay away from that in the future. (Don't grumble--right, annie?) And I will remember how nice it is to get comments when I visit your sites.

Since Patti missed the last "watzat" it just made sense to post another. The item pictured was not a gift--I bought it for myself. Although I rarely use it, I like having it around. Obviously it is carved, but out of what? Post your votes, folks.

Now I must grade projects. Students in the biblical interpretation class that I teach must turn in an exegesis paper (that's the analytical research paper) and a practical application (something you could actually use in church). I've graded most of the papers (why can they not pay attention to instructions?--oops, no grumbling) and now I get to look through poems, Sunday school lessons, and sermons. Have a dandy weekend.

David is a member of Machines Gone Wild Create your own band name @ Quiz Meme

I didn't think it would be like this

This, this photo of peonies, this is my one hundredth blog posting. I somehow imagined it would be more momentous. As it is, here I am tired after a hard day of work, disappointed by having a solitary comment on the previous post, and really I guess that is how life works, isn't it?

Do you know how differently we see things? I don't just mean you and I, dear reader, I mean you and everybody. We all see things differently. No matter how close we stand to each other, we will not see things exactly the same way. I remember a discussion I had with the boy who lived next door when I was in elementary school. He claimed that the second car at a stop sign didn't have to stop at the sign again after the first car took off. He cited his mother as an authority. I disagreed with him. Do you know how often I have approached a stop sign and remembered that snippet of conversation? I can't remember the boy's name, but I am reasonably sure he has totally forgotten that conversation. And even if he does somehow remember it, it cannot possibly be that he remembers it exactly the same way I do.

No one know me as well as my wife; it is mutual. A mere look often suffices to communicate a paragraph. Sometimes just thinking transfers the thought from one of us to the other. And yet, I will never know exactly how she sees things. Maybe what her eyes record as blue, mine record as brown. We tell the same joke and think that a different aspect of the punch line is funny.

"No man is an island." No. But neither are we identical to anyone. How does God keep up with us? I can't even keep up with myself.

Oh, the peonies? They came from the back yard. We transplanted the roots from the backyard of the house in which my parents lived for about forty years. This is their third year, and they are finally blooming like they belong to us.

Straight from Russia

One of the most dynamic and musically talented members of our church in Pearl City, Hawaii, is a nurse named Adele. She has been on numerous mission trips, including one to Russia. And she brought back this little doll as a gift for us. Thanks, Adele.

That church is one of the most mission-minded we have ever belonged to. Many members of the congregation had been to Fiji, Cambodia, Viet Nam, even Myanmar (Burma), to do missions work. We built orphanages and water catchment tanks and bought a building in Myanmar to house the Burmese Baptist Convention. The members refused to have air conditioning installed in the sanctuary because it would waste money that could be spent on missions. I love that church!

Another "watzat" for your torment

I think I need some vitameatavegemin. I'm pooped. It really annoys me that I am letting work wear me out like this. I mean, it's all mental--I'm not lifting crates or digging trenches or anything. Just using my brain to do tasks I don't usually do.

What was your first job for which you had to have a SSN? A buddy of mine said he found a job and they needed some more people, so I went with him the first night. Yeah, it was a night shift. We worked in a grocery store warehouse. The job was standing beside a big tank of water and dredging out potatoes that had been dumped in by a conveyor belt. It was back-breaking work and I came home at 2:00 AM smelling like rotten potatoes. That lasted two weeks before I decided, "There has to be something better."

You know the funny thing about watzats is that people complain they are too hard, but they keep on guessing. This was brought to me by a friend when I lived in Hawai'i. What is it?