Gratitude:
I am thankful for silence
whenever I can find it.
Acknowledgement:
I am a sinner.
Requests:
I would like everyone
to talk less and think more.
The
AKIC Week in Brief: The week of
September 23rd to 29th was spent anticipating my stretch of five days
off from the 29th
to the 3rd
which I have because of the Chinese National Day holiday. The week
as well saw the weather get cooler and Tony have to go to school
everyday including Saturday and Sunday.
About
AKIC: If you want to learn
what Andis & AKIC are
all about, you
can visit here.
If
there are things about AKIC you don't know
about, like places and people I mention in the entries below, you can
go here to
find out what they are all about.
AKIC
Weekly Features:
I
in in China!
十月一号
是 中华人民共和国的天。我觉得十一月不是中国的生日。我喜欢中国。
我不喜欢中华人民共和国。
I
am Canadian!
July 1st
is Canada's National Day. On that day, John A. McDonald
stood in front of the parliament in Ottawa and declared the
establishment of the Dominion of Canada. Well.... Not exactly.
I
am Latvian (sort of)! My full
name is Andis Edmunds Kaulins. Notice how all the
words in my full name end with “s.” That's the way it is with
many Latvian male names. My father's name is Arnis. My brother's
name is Ronalds. Female names end with “a.” My mother's name is
Aina. My sister's name is Benita. I have a male cousin named
Gunars. Some of my female relative names include Lolita, Gundega,
Zinta, and Dzridra.
Wuxi
Peach Maoists Update: Visit here
to find out how Your Peach Maoists did in week three.
Politically
I am Conservative/Reactionary!
I wish there were more Republicans like Ted Cruz and less like John
McCain. It is nice to see some Republicans take a stand instead of
bend over to the Lib-Dems for a change
I
teach English! I wish the
students would more more imagination. I have so many
conversations with them where I have to provide all the ideas for
discussion. I sometimes feel the best way to talk to them is by
offering them multiple choice questions and asking what thought they
agree with.
I
am not a freak! I am just
stuck with a bunch of them.
I
like to Read! Here
is what I had been working my way through the past week:
Don
Colacho's Aphorisms. There are 2,988 of them in this book
that I compiled for myself. I read ten aphorisms at a time.
I cut and paste the better ones -- they are all profound actually --
and I put them in my weekly blog entry. (See below)
Ulysses
by James Joyce. I am following along with Frank
Delaney as he slowly guides podcast listeners through
Joyce's hard-to-read novel. Delaney figures he will have the
whole novel covered in about 22 years. Delaney completed
episode #172 this week and is working his way through the chapter
that introduces Leopold Bloom. I am getting ahead of Delaney as far
as reading the book. I will be finished my reading of it, I
figure, in a year. I read the novel despite its many blasphemies.
It is best to be aware of this stuff because the world is full of it,
and the world will always find a way of slapping you in the face with
it
The
Holy Bible King James Version. This past week, I
have finished reading the Second General Epistle of Peter and was
working my way through the First Epistle General of John.
Columns
by Father Schall. I have been
able to take all
his archived writings and place them on the Dotdotdot app.
The
Catechism of the Catholic Church.
Like Father Schall's writings, I have been able to place its contents
on the Dotdotdot app.
The
Limits of Pure Democracy by WH Mallock. Finished
on the 23rd.
Oligarchy is man's natural state. Attempts to have it otherwise are
illogical. I recall people saying that Socialism and Communism were
great ideas that didn't work in practice. After reading Mallock, I
see that that was a lot of hokum. Mallock writing in 1916 was
already pointing the illogic of Socialist and Communists.
The
Search for Modern China by Jonathan Spence. A good book, but
certainly not an authoritative book about China. One gets the
impression that China is so big that it is hard for an historian to
write a clearly focused book about it. And it is also hard to write
about Modern China accurately with the Communists in power. People
who can come to China are sacrificing some integrity in order to keep
their visas.
Mao
Zedong: Man, Not God by Quan Yanchi. A Hagiography given to me
by a local.
I
like to take photos
I
publish them in the following blogs: AKIC
wordpress , TKIC
blogspot,
TKIC
wordpress, Views
of China from Casa Kaulins Blogspot and Views
of China from Casa Kaulins Wordpress.
I
like to make videos
Here
is my
Youtube Channel and my
Youku Channel.
I
like to cut and paste quotations:
From
Don Colacho:
249
Not reject, but prefer. [I prefer not to be in the company of
those I reject and of those who reject me. (This makes Andis a
lonely boy) I don't think that is what Colacho means in 249. I think
he really means that we should take a positive approach to life.]
253
Two hundred years ago it was permissible to trust in the future
without being totally stupid.
But today, who can believe in the current prophecies, since we are yesterday’s splendid future?
But today, who can believe in the current prophecies, since we are yesterday’s splendid future?
257
Industrial society is condemned to forced perpetual progress.
258
When they define property as a social function, confiscation is
near; when they define work a social function, slavery is on the way.
[The word “social” negates any word its modifies. Thus social
work is non-work and social justice is really non-justice. So if
property and work become thought of as non-functions, there will be
moves afoot to get rid of them and replace them with slavery.]
259
True glory is the resonance of a name in the memory of imbeciles.
[Most of the people who
have heard of Shakespeare and Beethoven don't know what it is that
they actually did.]
262
Those who proclaim themselves avant-garde artists usually belong
to yesterday’s vanguard.
263 When only boorish solutions confront each other, it is difficult to express an opinion with subtlety. Rudeness is this century’s passport. [Victim-hood in many western societies can be coin because it enables you to have a passport, or license, to be rude.]
263 When only boorish solutions confront each other, it is difficult to express an opinion with subtlety. Rudeness is this century’s passport. [Victim-hood in many western societies can be coin because it enables you to have a passport, or license, to be rude.]
264
The arts flourish in societies that view them with
indifference, and perish when the devout reverence of fools encourage
them.
265
There are two kinds of men: those who believe in original sin and
idiots. [On one score, I am not
an idiot.]
268
Sociological categories authorize us to move about in society
without paying attention to each man’s irreplaceable individuality.
Sociology is the ideology of our indifference toward our neighbor.
[I have to battle the
temptation to talk about the Chinese like I am a sociologist. I hear
and overhear many foreigners who have completely given into the urge.
It seems they all want to be like journalists who are most
superficial and navel-gazing people you are ever likely to meet.]
270
What still protects man in our
time is his natural incoherence. That is to say: his spontaneous
horror before consequences implicit in principles he admires. [This
quotation could be used against both advocates of abortion and
advocates of gun rights. But more people are killed by abortion than
by guns....]
From
the First Epistle General of John:
2:9
He that saith he is in the light, and hateth his brother, is in
darkness until even now.
3:13
Marvel not, my brethren, if the world hate you. [And don't
believe it when it says its like you.]
From
David Warren:
Not
statistics, but proportions, have long intrigued me. The proportion
one-in-seven corresponds, I would guess from the extent of my
inquiries, to the number of Christians who opted for some version of
the monastic life in the High Middle Ages, when it was generally
available & a visible alternative to the more worldly familial
calling. Then, too, there may have been a disproportion of
geriatrics, & the dirt poor in need of some wardship, but the
monasteries also attracted many of the young & hip. It is a
little-known fact, at least to our contemporary world — one might
almost call it a scandal to the worldly — that many actually prefer
the celibate, eremitical life, & would choose it if they could.
[If only the monastic call had been available to me when I was
younger...]
I
fashion myself to be a 21st Century Pepys
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