Secular thoughts on servant-leadership

Here's an article I came across that I though might interest some of you. It is not incredibly detailed, but it does have some interesting things to say.

badly needed update

Well, I have managed to neglect this for a lot of valid reasons, but as someone said yesterday, "Reasons are not excuses." :)
A group of friends arrived last week, and I have been spending a fair amount of time with them. But last weekend, I traveled with my housemates and spent time with their family, since it was a holiday. This week has been filled with university classes and time with various friends. It has been very nice to get to be with Bethany again, as well as several other good friends who are here.
There are other bits and pieces to tell, but that's not for now...

Irregular sharings

Just some notes:

1. For those of you who use Macs, the newest version of MacSword has come out and is worth downloading as it improves some things that needed it. (If you haven't used this program in the past and want to, get the modules that make the program really useful from here, after you get the main program.)

2. I will give here a hint of my current study project that I hope to blog sometime soon. In my philosophy classes, we have read a number of the classic philosophers and their views on government. In addition to that, I have been in dialogue with a friend who has also been studying the topic though from a slightly different angle. So, sometime soon I will hope to begin posting a several-part "series" on thoughts on Government and the Believer. I expect it to have parts relating to the Old Testament, the New Testament, historic philosophy, and eventually a part on the topic of civil disobedience (which was what started the discussion.) Mayhap it will interest some of you. Oh, and if you are interested in "why?", it is combination of personal interest and a good philosophical discussion to dig into as I begin my studies in this field.

3. Less than 48 hours, Lord willing...

Don't know why I'm posting this...

This was one of a series of pictures taken of several of us last night... Maybe it was an omen that I was going to make pancakes today...

Maybe I should post another one in my own defense...


Oh, and then one last one that's actually normal.

Thessaloniki

It would seem that somehow I have been negligent at posting here for nearly two weeks. What's worse is that I don't really have any convincing excuses. Oh well...

(The seaside at Thessaloniki)

This last week has been Spring Break at the university, so I used it to take a trip to Greece since I needed to go get my visa renewed. I ended up spending two days in Thessaloniki, and so here are a few pictures from there. (The trip actually took up about three days due to traveling arrangements that got messed up.)

This is Atatürk's childhood home. It has some very interesting memorabilia from his life.
The old Roman agora
I find it remarkable how easy it is to picture a modern open-air market here.

School starts again on Monday, and I'm not anticipating any major disruptions to that routine for about another 2 weeks.

Reasons to spend time on a Turkish farm (in no particular order)

1. Learn more language
2. Learn more culture
3. Enjoy the fresh air and sunshine
4. Enjoy the beautiful scenery
5. Encourage both known and unknown muscle groups to grow
6. Play in the dirt/plant stuff
7. Learn what an artichoke is and how it should be dealt with in life
8. Eat very healthy food and be kept away from things that rot your teeth and so forth
9. Have your skin turn different shades of color from what it was when you arrived, whether that be tan or red
10. Have fun
11. Relax, in all the time when you aren't working really hard

The farming experience

Well, I promised an update with pictures, so here it is.

I spent 8 days at a farm about 3 hours away from Istanbul. It was a time during which I did a lot of good hard farm work, but on the other hand there was lots of time in the evenings for reading and relaxing.
The area is pretty enough, but the sunsets were particularly nice. I didn't take any "people pictures" so all the pictures are just scenery.
We worked on artichoke, onions, leeks, garlic, peas, and quince. I read a novel, philosophy homework, and am working my way through more of H. Taylor's biography, which is excellent.

Tomorrow I should be headed back to school. :) But Wednesday is a public holiday, and next week is spring break, so even that is on somewhat of a pause right now. But there will be things to do, hopefully I can tell you about those whenever they happen... since I don't necessarily know what they are yet.

For more pictures, you can visit here.

going away for a bit

[This is] Just a note to let those who check this to not worry about it for about a week. I am supposed to leave tomorrow for a trip out to a farm where I am to work as a volunteer. Hopefully, this will be a profitable and enjoyable opportunity. However, though I should be able to check email, I am not planning to blog while I'm out there. But, you never know... the need to blog may come rushing over me and cause me to do something abnormal. But, I wouldn't bet on it.


(remarks in red are grammatical rules that I broke in some form or other, but I like it the way I wrote it and thus will plan to leave it that way.) :)

about that reading

So, Miriam asked me what I've been reading, so I figured I'd tell the whole world. :)

- for Intro to Modern Philosophy: required text (selections from Montaigne, Galileo, Descartes, Hobbes, Locke, and Rousseau)

- for Philosophy of Science: required text (selections from Popper, Kuhn, Irzık, and others)

- for personal study: Acts and 1 Cor.; Thoreau (Civil Disobedience); world news and Turkish politics

- other: biography of H. Taylor, a book of short stories, O. Chambers, and E. M. Bounds

Clearly I don't read from all of those categories every day (much less each book), but I tend to do some of several of the categories each day, even if it's not much. Some prosper the mind; some prosper the spirit; and others are provide information and relaxation.

random news

Most recent self-portrait, while waiting for the event described below

- Yesterday, the Olympic torch passed through Istanbul on its way to somewhere. Since I didn't have anything particular planned for the afternoon, I went down and watched it... not very impressive. But it was worth the bit of time that I put into it.

The rest of the week has just been spent in school work, time with friends, homework, reading, studying, sleeping, eating, emailing, and other even more minor details of life. It's been a good week though. I'll try to say more when something more exciting happens. :)