MSI Press Blog

  For many language learners, translation is the default bridge between unfamiliar words and understanding. But for me, translation has never been the path—I bypass it entirely. I do not translate. I comprehend directly, or I don’t comprehend at all. And when I don’t, I approach the text as I would an esoteric passage in English: through context, inference, and inquiry—not through conversion into my native tongue. This isn’t a philosophical stance—it’s a practical necessity. With over twenty languages floating around in my head, reaching for a specific one to serve as a translation anchor is not just inefficient—it’s cognitively disruptive. The languages don’t line up neatly. They swirl, overlap, and sometimes compete. In multilingual settings, English is often absent altogether. I’ve been in situations where I’ve acted as a go-between—not from English to another language, but between two foreign languages. These aren’t rare occurrences; they’re woven into the fabric of my prof...

  Available now on pre-order!  Nothing So Broken  - war, memoir, more. Use code FF25 for a 25% discount. Also on Amazon (already in the top 100 bestsellers in two categories) and B&N. Today we provide a precerpt (an excerpt from a book not yet published) -    -fracture-   When we first moved into our house, there were four maple trees in the front yard, two bigger and two smaller, and I thought,  how nice, just like us .   Then, there’s my mother turning off the television and sitting down on the couch to my left. I don’t recall the day of the week, or the weather, or what show I was watching. But I remember she was to my left.   My parents had begun their journey in 1962, 16-year-olds slow dancing at a house party. My mother said my father was funny and outspoken although he could be embarrassing at times. They graduated from Sutton High School among a class of 50 students in 1964, a few months before North Vietnam attacked t...

  Wooper by herself in the hallway The Would-Be-Only Cat in a Multi-Cat Household Some cats clearly—or subtly—present as preferring to be the one and only. Sometimes it's fear. Sometimes it's jealousy. Sometimes it’s both. These cats may coexist with others, but their emotional well-being and overall health often show the cost of that compromise. It can be difficult to differentiate between cats who are genuinely frightened of others and those who simply don’t want to share the attention of their beloved human. Either way, their needs are different from those of cats who seek feline company. Wooper is a classic example. We adopted her from our veterinarian’s office, where she had lived for a while after being rescued by the vet’s neighbor—found as a tiny, abandoned kitten in the grass. She was sassy with the clinic staff, which we took as a promising sign that she might handle the dynamics of a multi-cat household. At the time, we had two boys and one girl, and we hoped she mi...