Category: Life
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The Greatest Game Ever Invented in the Words of Ken Burns
In 1994, Ken Burns’ iconic nod to the nation’s pastime, the gargantuan 18 hour epic, “Baseball” aired on PBS for the first time. I had just arrived in Vietnam at the time and so I clearly missed it – the highest rated PBS show of all time. What is it about baseball that brings back…
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Another reason to love Malaysia: Happy Malaysia Day!
Malaysia has so many holidays. What’s not to love? We just celebrated Independence Day on September 1st and now, on Sept 16, let’s have another one: Malaysia Day! This is the day that Malaysia celebrates the joining of East Malaysia (Sarawak & Sabah) with the peninsular West Malaysia, thus joining together in beautiful harmony. Any…
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Getting what we earn. Nothing more.
Each new school year I am confronted with a new crop of students who tend to think they deserve what they have not earned. Now don’t get me wrong, I have incredibly motivated students who do earn a lot. But it’s never enough. And here is, invariably, where the situation arises. After I return a…
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“Judgment is corny.” No, that statement is corny.
I came across an article which listed out some of the most misogynistic rap lyrics which have ever been written. I’m sure you know the names of the rappers. All the big ones and more I’ve never heard of, but that’s not a big surprise. The music industry celebrities are far off of my radar.…
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Even at Sunset …
I frequently marvel at humankind’s feeble attempts to match the unsurpassed beauty and power of nature. It’s usually light which tends to take my focus in this regard because natural light, and its pervasive dives into the remotest of corners of the earth becomes luminous beyond even our greatest attempts at replication. Even at sunset…
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Vietnam gets ahold and doesn’t let go
I’m currently in my ninth year of living in Malaysia, and I have thoroughly enjoyed every minute of it. But there is something still that pulls on my heart when I think about the nearly ten years I lived in Vietnam. I think part of the pull is that my kids’ formative years were lived…
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Is texting and driving worse than driving drunk?
This feels like a public service announcement. Here goes … I had a long interesting discussion with some of my students today. First I asked them how many of them had been in a car while the driver was texting. The answers was overwhelming. Our of 46 people surveyed, 38 indicated that they had been…
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I almost broke my neck by doing something nice
Clearly being thoughtful and nice is over-rated. Here’s proof. I secretly went to get two sketches of the city of Malacca framed for my wife. We bought the beautiful sketches more than a year and a half ago and both had forgot about them. I found them last week and thought it would be a…
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Your Highness, Walt Disney, and other words we don’t think about
How often have you come across words that we use everyday only to finally realize how strange they are or what type of hidden meaning lurks deep inside the etymology of the word? I’ve often been struck by how a person’s name becomes something completely different. ‘Walt Disney’ is a perfect example of it. It…
Author Mark W Sasse 