1. I’ve uploaded two videos to YouTube after watching an interesting video done by an American anthropologist and his students who are doing participant observation on virtual communities. I’m watching to see what happens there.
2. The YouTube videos are, as I’ve said on the videos, another medium to work with in writing about life over here. It’s nice to get beyond written language for a while.
3. Now that my children have access to the internet, it’s fascinating to see how quickly they have adapted it to their personal interests. My second daughter is on to the social network scene; my second son uses it to search for science information. Two points to back up my long held belief that if children want to learn, they will figure out ways to do it by themselves if there is no one there to interfere with them. There’s an interesting TED talk about this which I will be reviewing in a few days.
4. It’s gotten hot here in Singaraja. I forgot about how hot it can actually be here, as June, July and August are nice and cool here on the coast.
5. I love the freedom that retirement has given me to do things when I want to do them.
6. I miss teaching and doing something that I’m fairly good at.
7. Politeness is a trait that isn’t given enough value these days. I’m amazed at how rude people can be on the internet. What happened to civility? One of the things that I love to hear from folks that visit here is how polite my children are.
8. Why do people build houses with pools when they have a house on the ocean? It seems to be one of the negative things that Westerners bring here. Quite anti-social. Swimming in the ocean with the neighbors is a great way to develop social interaction.
9. Why do foreigners want to come here and live in these foreigner only gated communities? What’s the point of living in Bali if you’re not involved in the Balinese community?
10. What do old men see in really young women? OK, beyond the obvious? And please, for the sake of the rest of us, don’t wander around the supermarket groping each other.
1 comment:
"Politeness is a trait that isn’t given enough value these days"
Bit like the expat who thinks because he has married locally and lives on in the Kampung he is the font of all knowledge on how other expats should behave and live.
I enjoy friday night out talking in the bar about psuedo white fella indonesians who actually think think they have been accepted into the community.
BTW..I live in the village, married locally and really want a swimming pool.
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