Gratitude:
I should be thankful that I am
surviving the Wuxi Smog Crisis.
Acknowledgement:
I have said that I am ashamed
to be an English teacher
because of its high proportion of perverts and alcoholics. I can now
say that I am feeling shame to be living in Wuxi because of the smog
crisis.
Request(s):
There is only one thing to ask
for, and that is for the smog to go away. I would also like to get
more time to read the many
books I am reading and want to read.
What
is Akicistan? It isn't a
place. It is more a state of mind that places cutting-edge
state-of-the-art sticks in mud. The word Akicistan is formed from
the initials AKIC
and the root stan.
Akicistan
news in brief: There is only
one item of news in Wuxi but it is a big one. Wuxi is the midst of a
smog crisis.
Important
Akicistan Links:
In
Akicistan:
Some
of us can speak Chinese!
我会说一点点普通话，但是我的发音是很不好。
We
sometimes pay attention to China. I
actually visited the Wuxi Life site to see what the word was about
the Wuxi Smog crisis.
We
are fond of Canada!
I miss its fresh air.
We
are fond of Latvia! I miss
the accents of my Latvian relatives.
The
Politics are Conservative and Reactionary!
What is Akicistan's opinion of Nielson Mandela? I remember watching
the live broadcast of his first public appearance after he was
released from jail. I can't remember anything he said but there was
a Communist flag displayed prominently near him as he made his
speech. Unlike other Communists he wasn't vindictive to his
political enemies and rivals which is to his credit, but
unfortunately, his left wing policies left South Africa with many,
many social problems.
English
is taught! More often than
not, I talk, I edit, and don't teach much.
Citizens
aren't freaks! Akicistan
exercises its sovereign right to decide who can live in its territory
and who can be granted Akicistani citizenship. Freaks are denied
entry to Akicistan.
Reading
is the #1 Pastime! Here
is what I had been working my way through the past week:
Don
Colacho's (Nicolas Gomez Davilla) Aphorisms. There are
2,988 of them in this book that I compiled for myself. I try to
read at least one aphorism a day. I cut and paste the better
ones -- they are all profound actually -- and I put them in the AKIC
Weekly. (See below)
The
Niomachean Ethics of Aristotle.
Now that I have finished the Catechism, I will read this and then
begin to read the Summa.
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 #182 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 (RSV-C2E version, aka the Ignatius Bible, and
Douay-Rheims version). I will read the two versions in
conjunction. Last week, I was reading the Book of Genesis.
Is
Life Worth Living? by WH Mallock Mallock
is attempting to show that the contention, made by the positivists of
the 19th
century, that a moral and happy life can be lived without religion is
illogical.
Everything
That Rises Must Converge by Flannery O'Connor. Someone
in s Vatican Radio podcast said that she could be the greatest 20th
Catholic writer.
Reclaiming
History：The
Assassination of John F. Kennedy by Vincent Bugliosi. This
book is over 4,000 pages long. Being a Kennedy assassination buff I
find the book engrossing.
Mere
Christianity by C.S. Lewis. I
read this book all so many years ago and it changed my way of
thinking on a lot of things. Unfortunately, it didn't much change my
actions.
Memorable
quotes are presented and discussed!
Nicholas
Gomez Davilla:
573
When respect for tradition dies out, society, in its
incessant desire to renew itself, consumes itself in a frenzy.
580
Fleeing does not protect against tedium.
To save ourselves, it is necessary to domesticate that flabby, lumbering beast.
In tedium freely assumed bloom the noblest things. [That's why I go home every night. That's why I am a family man. That's why I don't go to the pub.]
To save ourselves, it is necessary to domesticate that flabby, lumbering beast.
In tedium freely assumed bloom the noblest things. [That's why I go home every night. That's why I am a family man. That's why I don't go to the pub.]
581
As a new problem is born out of a problem solved, wisdom
consists not in solving problems but in taming them. [Quick!
Someone tell this to socialists!]
589
Whoever feels he is the
spokesman of public opinion has been enslaved. [The
people want this! The people want that!]
594
The true aristocrat is the man who has an interior life.
Whatever, his origin, his rank, or his fortune. [This
aphorism will be added to my short list of personal credos. My
exterior life is dull. I wouldn't change my interior life for
anyone's.]
Pope
Francis:
The
great danger in today’s world, pervaded as it is by consumerism, is
the desolation and anguish born of a complacent yet covetous heart,
the feverish pursuit of frivolous pleasures, and a blunted
conscience. Whenever our interior life becomes caught up in its own
interests and concerns, there is no longer room for others, no place
for the poor. God’s voice is no longer heard, the quiet joy of his
love is no longer felt, and the desire to do good fades. This is a
very real danger for believers too. Many fall prey to it, and end up
resentful, angry and listless. That is no way to live a dignified and
fulfilled life; it is not God’s will for us, nor is it the life in
the Spirit which has its source in the heart of the risen Christ. [I
am full of resentment, anger, and have become listless. I have
either going to have to transcend or escape some aspects of my
situation. I could change
the place where I am but I won't be able to do it by himself. Do any
sensible people enter the ESL English teaching profession? I am
afraid not.]
David
Warren:
...the
“roadmap to Utopia” .... could follow an itinerary like this:
Henry VIII, Bacon/Descartes, Hobbes/Locke/Rousseau, Jefferson,
Robespierre, Marx/Darwin/Freud, then Lenin, Stalin, Mao, Pol Pot,
environmentalism, &c. One could draw other squiggly paths —
this list needs more Prussians, and adoptive Prussians. From American
shorthand we are supplied with the term “Positivism,” in the
sense of legal positivism. The word is in itself already an essay in
reductionism, which involves anachronism, too. But it does give
something of the Baconian bouquet, albeit with that ghastly Comtian
finish. [I particularly like
that bit of placing environmentalism after Pol Pot. Pol Pot, as we
should know, killed lots of innocent people to bring about a utopia.
Environmentalists want to do the same thing whether they realize it
or not. For many environmentalists, it is an article of faith that
there are too many people on the Earth.]
CS
Lewis:
That
is the key to history. Terrific energy is expended-civilisations are
built up–excellent institutions devised; but each time something
goes wrong. Some fatal flaw always brings the selfish and cruel
people to the top and it all slides back into misery and ruin. In
fact, the machine conks. It seems to start up all right and runs a
few yards, and then it breaks down. They are trying to run it on the
wrong juice. That is what Satan has done to us humans. [That
explains the Obama and Clinton administrations.]
Lists
are made:
Here
are some of my favorite things in do in Akicistan:
- Eat Muslim Noodles.
- Watch high speed trains.
- Cross bridges.
- Contemplate the evil of Leftists. [It makes me feel better about myself.]
- Contemplate God.
- Drink Crown Royal.
- Put together Tomica Plarail track for my son.
- Drink Pineapple Beer in Summer.
- Read books on my Ipad.
- Read the aphorisms of Don Colacho.
- Eat at the Grandma's.
- Look at the slim young local women.
- Write in my blog.
- Make videos and upload them to Youtube.
- Study Chinese and not speak it.
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