2010.02.25
01. Quick Correction: I said in my previous post that my cell phone number is up and running and referred to the 338 number, but that was my old number and is now G's. Not having used my cell since the end of November, my memory apparently reset to the status quo prior to July. My (fully operational) number is 401-225-8441. Sorry for any confusion.
Friday, February 25, 2011
Catching Up
2011.02.25
94 Days Remaining
00. Lots of things to talk about since my last post. I started to compose this in some sort of chronological order, but it didn't make the variety of topics any clearer, so I'm just going to present the content topically/thematically.
94 Days Remaining
00. Lots of things to talk about since my last post. I started to compose this in some sort of chronological order, but it didn't make the variety of topics any clearer, so I'm just going to present the content topically/thematically.
01. Accounts of Humanity
01.a. One of the academic or intellectual projects in which I am engaged on an ongoing basis is (very loosely) a theory of humanity, a kind of unified field theory of who and what we are. This is my version of the general humanist project initiated repeatedly in human history (with varying emphases and methods), although I am clearly operating within a specific tradition inaugurated in the European Renaissance (with roots in ancient eastern Mediterranean cultures), influenced by Indic and Chinese traditions, and permanently (since the 16th and 17th centuries) engaged with issues raised by the Scientific Method and epistemological skepticism. I am, methodologically, an eclectic who draws on sources from a range of academic disciplines (which I justify by arguing that all of our disciplines except the hardest of hard sciences - and I pick their brains too - are struggling with the same family of underlying questions such as "what are we?" "why are we here?" and "what should we do?").
01.b. I recently, while perusing the Baskerville College Bookshop between classes, found that another professor here is teaching a book entitled How We Get Along by J. David Velleman. This book argues that we can understand our activities more clearly using the metaphor of humans as improv actors engaged with other improv actors. To quote the book's description "He argues that we play ourselves - not artificially but authentically, by doing what would make sense coming from us as we really are. And, like improvisational actors, we deal with one another in dual capacities: both as characters within the social drama and as players contributing to the shared performance." That may sound obvious, but the implications he works out are very interesting, especially in terms of morality (what one can expect, how one ought to act - we have a sense of outside standards that we may or may not choose to manifest or to which we may conform, etc.).
01.c. The idea of improvisational performance working within a semi-constrained situationality was really intriguing to me because it dovetails nicely with an idea that I have found enormously productive for thinking about cultural activity (which, for humans, is any activity, but which differs from culture to culture), the idea of culture as repertoire developed by Anne Swidler (most fully in her book Talk Of Love), where culture (this is what my students refer to as the bucket theory) isn't a set of rules so much as a set of tools that we use to solve problems and negotiate situations. Velleman's idea, in conjunction with Swidler's, suggests that we could productively think of those tools as not being only instrumental (we do things with them) but also semi-constraining (if you use Tool X, then using Tool Y next would feel more logical than using Tool W or Z, let alone Tool Θ, even though technically you could use any of them).
01.d. I have only begun to think about how this works, but it's very exciting to me when I feel like I'm seeing a new angle on the way that humans are, or a new way to understand us.
02. Telephone
02.a. Last week I followed Iulia's advice and called Verizon to see if they had any recommendations about how to replace my cell phone with something inexpensive (since the contract is up in July and I'll be getting my own plan at that time instead of remaining on my exing-wife's). To my (largely comical, in retrospect, though it was annoying at the time) surprise, I discovered that my cell phone account is not with Verizon. The only reason I thought it was is that years ago, when I switched onto my exing-wife's account (from being a subsidiary line on Iulia's and Romulus' account - which was and is Verizon), my exing-wife and I talked about carriers and she indicated that it was the same for her and for my old line. Now, this is my memory, and a matter that was not of major importance, so it is entirely possible that I'm misremembering, or that she just slipped and misspoke, so no hard feelings on my part about it.
02.b. Once I knew the situation I called AT&T (the next-most common carrier) and found that they were the right carrier. And, thankfully (again, somewhat annoyingly given the issues since Thanksgiving with getting a replacement phone), their stores cell very inexpensive "Go-Phones." I bought one at the Christiana Mall AT&T store this past Sunday, and it works and I now once more have full cellular service (from my 338 number - please remember that I switched numbers when I separated from G this past summer). I will still probably make some use of the Gmail Phone function, as it is far more convenient to not have to physically hold the phone when sitting at my computer, but I will also now be able to make phone calls while traveling, etc.
03. Delaware Trip
03.a. I had a lovely time, spending most of it with Iunia & Euander at my sister's house, but also seeing my parents, Iulia & Romulus, and (on the trip back on Sunday) Barbatus, Caius & (very briefly before I left) Livia. Barbatus and others commented that I seemed "better," and I think that is entirely due to the positive benefits of spending time with people I love.
03.b. Among other things, I took the kids and my parents to the Delaware History Museum on Market Street in Wilmington (where works a woman for whom I used to babysit when her kids - now in their mid-20s - were Iunia and Euander's ages). The Museum was far larger than I expected (Momula tells me it is located in what was the original Woolworth's Department Store building), with very interesting stuff both on the trains and on the history of Delaware. Euander preferred running around and climbing on stuff, while Iunia was more interested in the content of several of the exhibits. One display featured life-sized papier-mache statues of colonial figures of importance (from New Sweden, through Dutch and eventually English rule under William Penn), and I explained to her that one side of our family is descended from the head of New Sweden, Governor Printz. There was also an exhibit about the Lenni Lenape, and I told Iunia that we are descended from Nanticokes on Momula's side of the family. I loved being able to share that with her, and near the time we were leaving she walked over and asked which one of them was our "great-great-great-great grandfather" again. I love feeling physically connected, over several generations and hundreds of years, to the place that, in my heart, is home. And I loved being able to tell Iunia about that connection. I was also very interested to see her struggling to think about the historical fact of slavery (something she, to her credit, finds appalling and very upsetting), as it was mentioned in several exhibits (though there was no mention of the extraordinary fact that, prior to adopting the US Constitution, some Delaware laws recognized property-owning women and free, property-owning blacks, as having the right to vote - which right was denied after adopting the Constitution, perversely).
03.c. We also went to Hibachi Steakhouse for dinner on Saturday (something Euander and I had been discussing since my arrival on Friday morning), and on Sunday we went ice skating at the Rust Arena at the University of Delaware. I haven't been ice skating in over a decade, though I used to go weekly when a student at UD, and I had a blast. Most of the time I skated hand-in-hand with Iunia, but I eventually (with Selena's help) convinced her to skate on her own (something she can do - but she's very nervous about falling, so she prefers to have someone help steady her). Euander, on the other hand, was very focused on going solo, and fell a lot but always got back up and kept at it. I was very impressed with both of their skill levels, especially because they've had no lessons and have been skating weekly only since the beginning of January.
03.d. Saturday night I spent a few hours with Iulia, Romulus, a grad student friend of theirs from Iulia's department at UD, and their dog, Libby. Romulus, who had the major ankle surgery in the Fall, has made an amazing advance in his recovery. He is now able to stand up on his own, and walk around with either a cane or a crutch (I'm emotionally and ethically obligated at this point, R, to remind you to use either of them when walking no matter how short the distance). The difference is astounding, and I cannot be happier about it (apparently he is right on track for the recovery process, so a lot of my shock is really just having missed the intermediate steps). Libby, the dog, was kind enough to come and sit with (and at one point sleep next to) me on the couch, which I always appreciate.
03.e. I also spent some time with Momula and Dadulus, though less than I would have liked (it was mostly while visiting with the rest of the family), and Momula made me chocolate chip cookies, of which I was able to preserve most for my trip back to Connecticut (apparently love for those cookies runs in the family).
03.f. On my way back north I stopped at Barbatus and Livia's house, and went to dinner with Barbatus and their son, Caius, before picking Livia up from her school (she was arriving back from a band trip to Spain), and then heading back onto the road. I actually left in a hurry, which I am sorry to have done, because I suddenly realized it was getting close to 7pm and I still had 2 hours of driving to do, and was feeling very tired. As it was, I made it back here by 11pm, and then went immediately to bed.
04. School Matters
04.a. We got formal approval to do Ghost Hunting on campus for my Supernatural class, and I was interviewed for it yesterday for the campus student paper. I have also had several former students come by or email to ask if they can sit in on the class meetings, which I've said is fine. This past week we talked about the ways that ghost stories give people in our society ways to express and work through anxieties or questions about embodiment, and next week we'll be looking at the ways that ghost stories provide a way of thinking and worrying about memory.
04.b. During both the interview and class yesterday I was asked (this happens periodically) if I believe in ghosts, and I explained in both cases that I am an agnostic on this question. I explain that I have personally had one extremely clear experience in which I perceived a being (with what seemed to me a definite sense of presence and agency) which I could not physically see but which I could physically delineate in space (i.e., I knew where it was and where it wasn't). I was one of two people who perceived it at the same time (the other was Iulia), and numerous other people had experiences of invisible presence and agency in that house (and even near that location). I am comfortable saying that my experience falls into the parameters of what is usually described in our society as "seeing a ghost" but with the caveat that i) those parameters are very broad and include a wide range of experiences, and ii) I make no claims (and could not, based on the actual content of my experience) about the nature - or even ontological independence - of what I perceived. It is entirely possible that I was completely mistaken or that I had a brain malfunction. On the other hand, I don't know why Iulia would have the same malfunction at the same time, but even if we didn't, a shared experience still does not mean that what we perceived was the "spirit" of a dead human being.
In fact, I believe, based upon examination of evidence, that the majority of alleged ghost encounters (both direct and indirect) can be debunked, and I think that they ought to be. On the other hand, I also know that there are a range of experiences which have thus far resisted successful (or persuasive to all) debunking, and I think that we overstep the scientific method if we simply assume that they are also debunkable without being able to demonstrate that they are. I neither affirm nor deny the existence of spirits, and neither do I make positive statements about the nature of what such spirits might be (dead humans, fairies, angels, demons, elementals, psychic energy signatures, etc. all having been proposed as possible identities). This is worth reiterating in my class because I take peoples' reports seriously as cultural products capable of being analyzed, which is not the same as affirming the ontological claims that such reports involve (e.g. that humans have immaterial souls which exist post-mortem in a disembodied but perceivable state). I am also interested in the ontological (do spirits really exist?) and taxonomic (if they exist, what are they?) claims, but this class is not really the best forum for reaching a final conclusion on those matters. I worry sometimes that people think that the class is an exercise in credulity, when in fact I want to sharpen my students analytical abilities and habits.
04.c. The Religious Studies department at Baskerville College has asked me to teach 2 courses next year, Christian Traditions and Jewish Traditions, both in the Spring semester. Classics has 1 course available, also for the Spring, but so far no other departments (Philosophy, Anthropology, and History) have anything available for me to teach. The Associate Dean of Faculty, who is my institutional (as opposed to departmental) boss, is trying to find some way to keep me here, but unless something changes very soon, it looks increasingly likely that this will be my final semester. I've continued to be asked by other faculty if I'm staying, and they have all been very positive and generous in their wishes that I could, which is professionally rewarding, at least.
05. Final Thoughts for This Post
05.a. I really enjoyed seeing everyone in Delaware last weekend. Euander remarked to Selena, as they were driving to the ice rink that, "When my favorite people get ready to leave, it makes me feel weird inside, like I'm sad." Kiddo, I know. You're one of my favorite people, too. Someday maybe you'll know how much it means to me that I'm one of yours.
Wednesday, February 16, 2011
2011.02.16
103 Days Remaining
01. When I compose these posts I often find myself uncertain how to begin. I was talking with Belisarius yesterday on Gmail chat and thought about the fact that if one of us (via that medium) wants to talk with the other, they usually just send a message saying "Hey" (which is what I did yesterday). Beginnings are surprisingly difficult if you're either not comfortable (on any given day, or with life in general) or at all distracted. Actually, if you're distracted the problem is that beginnings are too easy, the more frivolous the endeavor or activity, the better. Also, as a serial procrastinator, I've often noticed that the actual procrastinating lies almost entirely in getting started: once work is underway, I have no trouble doing it.
02. Which is not to say that this blog is work, but I don't always feel like it's connecting with many people, and I often feel vaguely strange re-treading ideas and thoughts I've had on any given day (it feels either narcissistic or parochial). Does it really matter, for instance, that I am still dealing with the lingering infection from last week? That another professor and I were stood up for a presentation on Monday night by a student who couldn't get her schedule straight? That yesterday was bitterly cold when the wind blew, and the sun's light, though clear, was no match for it?
03. What do I think about, here all by myself for most of the day and night? Yesterday morning I woke up, completely and wide awake, at 313am (I could see the time on my alarm clock) and I spent the next three hours thinking. Thinking about everything from moment to moment. Ideas for stories, for essays, worries about everything from my back (which has been feeling strained lately) to Iunia growing up in our so very sexist society to the increasing variance between the wealthy and everyone else in our society, memories of a joke a student told, a passing thought about food, and so forth. All sort of swirled around in my head for hours and hours, and I never got back to sleep.
04. Random musical reference (not safe for work, though only in the latter third of the 10:16 song). This is Reggie Watts (a musician/comedian who is also the lead singer for the great soul-rock band Maktub; here's their song "You Can't Hide" http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YWgfl-E0v7g) and this song, "Thus Far," makes no sense (he does stream of consciousness performances, which shouldn't work but do) but is full of really funny lines: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L0cp3eK9hI0 . There is one line, near the beginning, that is lovely to hear in sound terms: "want some treasure?/Here you go/at the end of the rainbow."
05. Despite yesterday's bitter cold, today was back into the 40s and sunny, and the temperature is supposed to stay warm (at least the upper 30s, and on one day into the 50s) for the next several days. I am starting to feel a strong desire for spring, as this particular winter hasn't been much fun (though I've had plenty of other winters where the weather is enjoyable - this year it's mostly been a pain - which probably more reflects my overall mood).
06. I'm going to Delaware on Friday morning, early (as in, leaving by 430am). Tonight I need to finish grading so my weekend is free, since I'll have to go to bed early tomorrow.
103 Days Remaining
01. When I compose these posts I often find myself uncertain how to begin. I was talking with Belisarius yesterday on Gmail chat and thought about the fact that if one of us (via that medium) wants to talk with the other, they usually just send a message saying "Hey" (which is what I did yesterday). Beginnings are surprisingly difficult if you're either not comfortable (on any given day, or with life in general) or at all distracted. Actually, if you're distracted the problem is that beginnings are too easy, the more frivolous the endeavor or activity, the better. Also, as a serial procrastinator, I've often noticed that the actual procrastinating lies almost entirely in getting started: once work is underway, I have no trouble doing it.
02. Which is not to say that this blog is work, but I don't always feel like it's connecting with many people, and I often feel vaguely strange re-treading ideas and thoughts I've had on any given day (it feels either narcissistic or parochial). Does it really matter, for instance, that I am still dealing with the lingering infection from last week? That another professor and I were stood up for a presentation on Monday night by a student who couldn't get her schedule straight? That yesterday was bitterly cold when the wind blew, and the sun's light, though clear, was no match for it?
03. What do I think about, here all by myself for most of the day and night? Yesterday morning I woke up, completely and wide awake, at 313am (I could see the time on my alarm clock) and I spent the next three hours thinking. Thinking about everything from moment to moment. Ideas for stories, for essays, worries about everything from my back (which has been feeling strained lately) to Iunia growing up in our so very sexist society to the increasing variance between the wealthy and everyone else in our society, memories of a joke a student told, a passing thought about food, and so forth. All sort of swirled around in my head for hours and hours, and I never got back to sleep.
04. Random musical reference (not safe for work, though only in the latter third of the 10:16 song). This is Reggie Watts (a musician/comedian who is also the lead singer for the great soul-rock band Maktub; here's their song "You Can't Hide" http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YWgfl-E0v7g) and this song, "Thus Far," makes no sense (he does stream of consciousness performances, which shouldn't work but do) but is full of really funny lines: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L0cp3eK9hI0 . There is one line, near the beginning, that is lovely to hear in sound terms: "want some treasure?/Here you go/at the end of the rainbow."
05. Despite yesterday's bitter cold, today was back into the 40s and sunny, and the temperature is supposed to stay warm (at least the upper 30s, and on one day into the 50s) for the next several days. I am starting to feel a strong desire for spring, as this particular winter hasn't been much fun (though I've had plenty of other winters where the weather is enjoyable - this year it's mostly been a pain - which probably more reflects my overall mood).
06. I'm going to Delaware on Friday morning, early (as in, leaving by 430am). Tonight I need to finish grading so my weekend is free, since I'll have to go to bed early tomorrow.
Thursday, February 10, 2011
2011.02.10
109 Days Remaining
01. Well, I'm sick. In fact, roughly 2/3 of all the professors I know are sick right now. We all seem to have some version of a cold or sinus infection that includes stuffy headaches, runny noses, phlegmy coughs, and randomly occurring body aches (mine seem to be localized in the upper halves of my legs). Since none of this is debilitating, and we certainly all got it from the walking germ factories who are our students, most professors have continued teaching in person, but yesterday on campus we were not a happy bunch.
02. That said, teaching this week was very long, but overall went very well. I got to campus early on Tuesday, had good classes (we discussed causation and necessity in Medieval Philosophy, and Buffy the Vampire Slayer (the film, not the TV series) in Supernatural in American Popular Culture. In between classes I went to lunch with the Religious Studies' department's Islamic Studies professor, and after classes were done I attended a talk sponsored by the Philosophy Department. The talk was on what it means to claim that categories like race, gender, and disabled are socially constructed. After the talk, I accompanied the other Philosophy professors and the speaker to dinner, where we stayed from roughly 6 to 930pm discussing various issues. After that, I accompanied the speaker and two other professors to a bar in New Aldwych, where we waited until her train to Boston was ready to leave, and while there discussed television viewing habits and memories. While riding back to campus to get my car, I discussed issues about belief in ghosts and supernatural explanations with the philosophy professor with whom I am sharing an office this semester. After I got home, I stayed up to go through my ridiculously full inbox, and I got to bed around 1am. All in all, a full but satisfying day.
03.Yesterday morning/afternoon I played my newest Netflix disc-by-mail, which turned out to be a very odd film. It's Hawk the Slayer, a live-action fantasy from 1980 with clear Star Wars inspiration (with some Tolkien flavoring). It was, alas, in some ways very silly (Jack Palance is a weird Darth Vader-esque villain, for instance), but had elements that were interesting and which, in a different treatment, would have been very interesting. As with so many fantasy films or novels, it rested too much on special effects or archaic language to bolster a poorly developed plot and incoherent background story. But, that said, it's the kind of thing that could be revised (extensively) to generate a much better story.
04. Today is mostly cold. I didn't go outside at all yesterday, and so I read about the sub-freezing temperatures, but today I had to go back to campus, and it was so cold out that being outside between classes actually hurt any exposed skin. Tonight we're likely to go sub-zero with wind chill, and then things start to move upwards again with highs in the low 40s starting on Saturday (I can hardly wait). On the upside, today was very bright and sunny.
05. Livia has some exciting news: one of her short stories was accepted for publication at an online literary magazine. She's very excited, and I'm very happy for her, as it's about time people start recognizing her talent as an author.
06. She also mentioned in an email that she has begun to watch hockey (as a substitute for football). I have never been a sports fan of any sort, and the only sport I enjoyed participating in enough (or which I had enough skill in to participate seriously) was running, which isn't really for watching. Still, I have a theoretical appreciation for some sports (not football, which I genially loathe), including hockey, and so at her mention of this I looked up (on Wikipedia) the history of hockey, and discovered that it, like many of our sports, is a particularly modern version of a family of folk games played in Europe and North America into the 19th century. To my surprise, there are a host of other such modern versions (mostly local) in other countries, including Bandy (in Ireland and Scandinavia), Shinty (in Scotland), and Hurling (Canada). There is also speculation that hockey is related to a now defunct Dutch game called Kolf which is also the ancestor of our modern golf (obviously with substantial modifications, such as the loss of an opposing team - which would be awesome). Lacrosse, interestingly, is a Native American game and so is related only in a hybrid fashion - there is some speculation that hockey's interpersonal violence is actually derived from lacrosse playing styles (although I'm suspicious that this may be a way to suggest that Native Americans were more savage than Europeans and I don't know the evidence for this claim so I can't endorse it). Actual Lacrosse nowadays is, interestingly, generally less violent than Hockey.
07. I bought a new inflatable bed. My first one developed a tear around the gasket into which the pump is inserted to inflate the bed, and although I've gone for two or three months now sleeping on what is basically a mattress pad, the muscle aches with this cold were sufficient that I thought, on Monday, that I really wanted to sleep on something softer than the floor (even padded). It helps a lot.
08. Selena has been posting a bunch recently about Iunia and Euander, who remain lights in my days. I won't summarize her blog here, but if you're interested in the kids' exploits of late (Euander had a very funny episode a few nights ago - which, when I shared it with my students, made him favorite kid for the day among them), check her out: www.yestheykeepmebusy.blogspot.com .
09. I'll be going to Delaware next weekend (after Valentine's Day). If any of you will be around and free, let me know!
109 Days Remaining
01. Well, I'm sick. In fact, roughly 2/3 of all the professors I know are sick right now. We all seem to have some version of a cold or sinus infection that includes stuffy headaches, runny noses, phlegmy coughs, and randomly occurring body aches (mine seem to be localized in the upper halves of my legs). Since none of this is debilitating, and we certainly all got it from the walking germ factories who are our students, most professors have continued teaching in person, but yesterday on campus we were not a happy bunch.
02. That said, teaching this week was very long, but overall went very well. I got to campus early on Tuesday, had good classes (we discussed causation and necessity in Medieval Philosophy, and Buffy the Vampire Slayer (the film, not the TV series) in Supernatural in American Popular Culture. In between classes I went to lunch with the Religious Studies' department's Islamic Studies professor, and after classes were done I attended a talk sponsored by the Philosophy Department. The talk was on what it means to claim that categories like race, gender, and disabled are socially constructed. After the talk, I accompanied the other Philosophy professors and the speaker to dinner, where we stayed from roughly 6 to 930pm discussing various issues. After that, I accompanied the speaker and two other professors to a bar in New Aldwych, where we waited until her train to Boston was ready to leave, and while there discussed television viewing habits and memories. While riding back to campus to get my car, I discussed issues about belief in ghosts and supernatural explanations with the philosophy professor with whom I am sharing an office this semester. After I got home, I stayed up to go through my ridiculously full inbox, and I got to bed around 1am. All in all, a full but satisfying day.
03.Yesterday morning/afternoon I played my newest Netflix disc-by-mail, which turned out to be a very odd film. It's Hawk the Slayer, a live-action fantasy from 1980 with clear Star Wars inspiration (with some Tolkien flavoring). It was, alas, in some ways very silly (Jack Palance is a weird Darth Vader-esque villain, for instance), but had elements that were interesting and which, in a different treatment, would have been very interesting. As with so many fantasy films or novels, it rested too much on special effects or archaic language to bolster a poorly developed plot and incoherent background story. But, that said, it's the kind of thing that could be revised (extensively) to generate a much better story.
04. Today is mostly cold. I didn't go outside at all yesterday, and so I read about the sub-freezing temperatures, but today I had to go back to campus, and it was so cold out that being outside between classes actually hurt any exposed skin. Tonight we're likely to go sub-zero with wind chill, and then things start to move upwards again with highs in the low 40s starting on Saturday (I can hardly wait). On the upside, today was very bright and sunny.
05. Livia has some exciting news: one of her short stories was accepted for publication at an online literary magazine. She's very excited, and I'm very happy for her, as it's about time people start recognizing her talent as an author.
06. She also mentioned in an email that she has begun to watch hockey (as a substitute for football). I have never been a sports fan of any sort, and the only sport I enjoyed participating in enough (or which I had enough skill in to participate seriously) was running, which isn't really for watching. Still, I have a theoretical appreciation for some sports (not football, which I genially loathe), including hockey, and so at her mention of this I looked up (on Wikipedia) the history of hockey, and discovered that it, like many of our sports, is a particularly modern version of a family of folk games played in Europe and North America into the 19th century. To my surprise, there are a host of other such modern versions (mostly local) in other countries, including Bandy (in Ireland and Scandinavia), Shinty (in Scotland), and Hurling (Canada). There is also speculation that hockey is related to a now defunct Dutch game called Kolf which is also the ancestor of our modern golf (obviously with substantial modifications, such as the loss of an opposing team - which would be awesome). Lacrosse, interestingly, is a Native American game and so is related only in a hybrid fashion - there is some speculation that hockey's interpersonal violence is actually derived from lacrosse playing styles (although I'm suspicious that this may be a way to suggest that Native Americans were more savage than Europeans and I don't know the evidence for this claim so I can't endorse it). Actual Lacrosse nowadays is, interestingly, generally less violent than Hockey.
07. I bought a new inflatable bed. My first one developed a tear around the gasket into which the pump is inserted to inflate the bed, and although I've gone for two or three months now sleeping on what is basically a mattress pad, the muscle aches with this cold were sufficient that I thought, on Monday, that I really wanted to sleep on something softer than the floor (even padded). It helps a lot.
08. Selena has been posting a bunch recently about Iunia and Euander, who remain lights in my days. I won't summarize her blog here, but if you're interested in the kids' exploits of late (Euander had a very funny episode a few nights ago - which, when I shared it with my students, made him favorite kid for the day among them), check her out: www.yestheykeepmebusy.blogspot.com .
09. I'll be going to Delaware next weekend (after Valentine's Day). If any of you will be around and free, let me know!
Sunday, February 6, 2011
Sunday Sunday
2011.02.06
113 Days Remaining
01. First, a correction. If you look at the preceding post, you'll note that I made a calender mistake: my brother Decius' birthday was 01 February, not 02 February. I wrote "today" for "yesterday," which is why it gets confusing when I used the past tense when talking about his birthday despite suggesting that I was writing in the afternoon of his birthday. I think this was due to the deleted posts snafu, but anyway, the wishes were belated when I posted them. So, Decius, I hope you had a good birthday on February 1st. And, generally, a nice day on the 2nd, for good measure.
02. Today, of course, is Superbowl Day, and as per my usual mode of celebrating, I don't particularly care, except that there definitely won't be a new Simpsons or Family Guy to watch tomorrow on Hulu.com. I was invited to participate in a pool-playing tournament with another professor, but I don't actually like hanging out with said professor (I knew her before I worked here, and she's very disturbed, though a nice woman). So instead I'm here working. Or, pretending to, anyway.
03. Last night I went onto campus and did a bunch of photocopying and file-sorting so as to be a less presumptuous office user (as a Visiting Faculty member I don't have my own office, and am sharing an office with someone who is in residence but on sabbatical, so he's not usually in on the days I teach). I was in my building for somewhere around 5 hours, working and monkeying about. In the final hour and a half, however, I repeatedly had the feeling that I was Not Alone. I've heard stories (one, exactly) that this building has had at least one ghost sighting, but I've worked late several times (including one all-nighter two years ago when I wanted to get a lot of grading finished up) and have never had anything odd occur. Last night I heard a door slam when I was the only person in the building, and I had the impression (at least once definitely triggered by visual stimuli - if the other times were also so triggered I was not consciously aware of it) that there was someone else walking around in the area of the foyer where the copy machine is located on the 3rd floor. This was both intriguing but also a bit disorienting, and at one point I actually sort of looked around to see if a student had gotten into the building. When I left I ran into a Campus Safety officer and actually told him that they might want to sweep the building to make sure there wasn't someone who had sneaked in.
04. As I'm working this evening I've been playing a documentary (via Netflix) about wolverines. The voice-overs are somewhat annoyingly "awed and cheerful" (ex: "Dr. X has written over 100 scientific articles" and the narrator clearly wants to have Dr. X's baby). I mention that only to get it out of the way; the visual footage is astonishing, and various researchers who are studying wolverines are alternatively charming, bittersweet, or adorable in their enthusiasm (one group, working in Glacier National Park, continued to do their work for years after funding ran out because they loved it). I'm particularly struck by how differently wolverines behave when studied at length than the way that people had previously assumed. Among the neat discoveries: wolverine males have multiple mates at one time, each of whom will have her own litter and den; unexpectedly, the fathers travel from den to den while there are pups and help raise each litter, and when the pups are old enough to travel, the different litters will sometimes travel together around the territory with their father, learning wilderness skills. Also, wolverines are so well insulated by their fur that they don't melt snow when they lay down on it. They're very neat animals, to my mind especially as examples of evolutionary change: wolverines are descended from weasels, but have clearly begun evolving into a different niche, and their bodies are shaped much more like canines and bears than like weasels now.
05. Tomorrow night my Supernatural in American Popular Culture is having our first movie watching, to see the film Buffy the Vampire Slayer (which I prefer over the television series). I'm looking forward to it, as it'll be my first chance to see the students interacting directly with the material (as opposed to reading it outside of class and then having a chance to think about it before class). Also, from past experience, out-of-class movie watching is a good way to generate (or encourage) group building.
06. And that's about it for now. Decius, I'm sorry for screwing up your birthday wish.
113 Days Remaining
01. First, a correction. If you look at the preceding post, you'll note that I made a calender mistake: my brother Decius' birthday was 01 February, not 02 February. I wrote "today" for "yesterday," which is why it gets confusing when I used the past tense when talking about his birthday despite suggesting that I was writing in the afternoon of his birthday. I think this was due to the deleted posts snafu, but anyway, the wishes were belated when I posted them. So, Decius, I hope you had a good birthday on February 1st. And, generally, a nice day on the 2nd, for good measure.
02. Today, of course, is Superbowl Day, and as per my usual mode of celebrating, I don't particularly care, except that there definitely won't be a new Simpsons or Family Guy to watch tomorrow on Hulu.com. I was invited to participate in a pool-playing tournament with another professor, but I don't actually like hanging out with said professor (I knew her before I worked here, and she's very disturbed, though a nice woman). So instead I'm here working. Or, pretending to, anyway.
03. Last night I went onto campus and did a bunch of photocopying and file-sorting so as to be a less presumptuous office user (as a Visiting Faculty member I don't have my own office, and am sharing an office with someone who is in residence but on sabbatical, so he's not usually in on the days I teach). I was in my building for somewhere around 5 hours, working and monkeying about. In the final hour and a half, however, I repeatedly had the feeling that I was Not Alone. I've heard stories (one, exactly) that this building has had at least one ghost sighting, but I've worked late several times (including one all-nighter two years ago when I wanted to get a lot of grading finished up) and have never had anything odd occur. Last night I heard a door slam when I was the only person in the building, and I had the impression (at least once definitely triggered by visual stimuli - if the other times were also so triggered I was not consciously aware of it) that there was someone else walking around in the area of the foyer where the copy machine is located on the 3rd floor. This was both intriguing but also a bit disorienting, and at one point I actually sort of looked around to see if a student had gotten into the building. When I left I ran into a Campus Safety officer and actually told him that they might want to sweep the building to make sure there wasn't someone who had sneaked in.
04. As I'm working this evening I've been playing a documentary (via Netflix) about wolverines. The voice-overs are somewhat annoyingly "awed and cheerful" (ex: "Dr. X has written over 100 scientific articles" and the narrator clearly wants to have Dr. X's baby). I mention that only to get it out of the way; the visual footage is astonishing, and various researchers who are studying wolverines are alternatively charming, bittersweet, or adorable in their enthusiasm (one group, working in Glacier National Park, continued to do their work for years after funding ran out because they loved it). I'm particularly struck by how differently wolverines behave when studied at length than the way that people had previously assumed. Among the neat discoveries: wolverine males have multiple mates at one time, each of whom will have her own litter and den; unexpectedly, the fathers travel from den to den while there are pups and help raise each litter, and when the pups are old enough to travel, the different litters will sometimes travel together around the territory with their father, learning wilderness skills. Also, wolverines are so well insulated by their fur that they don't melt snow when they lay down on it. They're very neat animals, to my mind especially as examples of evolutionary change: wolverines are descended from weasels, but have clearly begun evolving into a different niche, and their bodies are shaped much more like canines and bears than like weasels now.
05. Tomorrow night my Supernatural in American Popular Culture is having our first movie watching, to see the film Buffy the Vampire Slayer (which I prefer over the television series). I'm looking forward to it, as it'll be my first chance to see the students interacting directly with the material (as opposed to reading it outside of class and then having a chance to think about it before class). Also, from past experience, out-of-class movie watching is a good way to generate (or encourage) group building.
06. And that's about it for now. Decius, I'm sorry for screwing up your birthday wish.
Wednesday, February 2, 2011
Cailleach and Groundhog Agree: Winter Is Ending Sooner Rather Than Later
2011.02.02 Imbolc/Candlemas
117 Days Remaining
01. First off, happy birthday to my brother, Decius, who turned 29 today. I hope he and his wife had a chance to celebrate, given the weather conditions now regnant.
02. Second, I'm annoyed. I realized that I had three or four drafts the contents of which were never actually posted, and I went through, copied and pasted them all into this post, and then promptly deleted them unintentionally. Nothing was particularly pressing or so lyrical that its loss is cause for weeping, but it was a substantial amount of text and musings, and now all is gone. Damn it. I'm trying to remember what fragments were contained therein, but I only browsed it as I was collecting them, and nothing is sticking out to me to reconstruct.
03. Baskerville College was closed today (which impacted me not at all, as I don't teach on Wednesdays) in preparation for the monumental blizzard that smote a large portion of the country. New Aldwych, however, got icy sleet in the early morning, followed by temperatures in the mid- to upper-40s and rain for the rest of the day. I hear that driving conditions, due to the early morning sleet, were hazardous, but I went out to shovel further (with the higher temperatures and rain making some of the more entrenched snow drifts amenable to being moved) and had very little difficulty. Momula told me that conditions in Wilmington were similar to those here. My exing-wife sent me a photo of Herman, the best dog in the world, playing in the snow that fell at their house in Tulsa, OK:
He really likes the snow, so I'm happy that he finally got some to play in.
04. Weather is important today, it being of course Groundhog Day, and overcast. This means, of course, a shorter winter, if one believes in the prognosticatory capabilities of largish ground-dwelling rodents (especially in western PA). Interestingly, it isn't only German groundhog-watchers who think that today's weather is oracular: in Ireland and parts of (Gaelic-speaking) Scotland (which are Gaelic speaking because they were settled/conquered by Irish pirates called the Scotti in the Dark Ages) today is Imbolc, and today is the day that the Cailleach (literally: "old woman" - she's kind of a semi-divine legendary figure) goes out to gather firewood for the remainder of the winter. According to traditional lore, if it's going to be a long winter she makes the sun shine on Imbolc to allow her to see farther, so if it's cloudy she isn't worried about winter going on much longer. So, as far as I'm concerned, that pretty much settles it: a legendary Irish hag and a Pennsylvanian rodent agree that winter is due to end sooner rather than later this year. And there is much rejoicing, I'm sure, as many people with whom I've communicated recently have said that this winter in particular is weighing on them.
05. Speaking of weather, and on a much sadder note, today I read a striking article about a polar bear who swam for nine days trying to find an ice floe on which to climb and rest (she was being tracked via radio implant). She lost 100 pounds in the process, and tragically the cub who accompanied her died en route. In related news, the Republican governor of Alaska is trying to gain access to various restricted wildlife areas in order to allow for more oil drilling.
06. To balance out that story, here is a very charming song and video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zeZMTOSeHVw&feature=branded . It's called "Be My Honeypie" and is by the Weepies (who, despite their lacrimose name are not depressing).
07. In the midst of other things the past few days I've been doing some fun academic reading, and came across a very interesting essay by Richard C. Miller entitled "Mark's Empty Tomb and Other Translation Fables In Classical Antiquity." Basically, he's addressing an interesting manuscript problem: in the earliest manuscripts (and in attestations by early readers) the Gospel According to Mark ends with the discovery of Jesus' empty tomb, and the women fleeing in fear (for anyone keeping track, that means that Mark 16.8 is the likely original ending, and that Mark 16.9-20 are later additions). Though the young man they meet in the tomb tells them that they will see Jesus in Galilee, if Mark ends at verse 8, there is no narrated encounter with Jesus after his burial. Now, this is a problem, because it leaves open the possibility that the author (and the community for/to whom he was writing) of Mark didn't intend that Jesus was physically resurrected, or (even worse) that he didn't know that story, or any range of possibilities. Biblical scholars, often working from faith positions, have tended to interpret the resurrection narratives in light of 2nd Temple Judaic resurrection beliefs, and to insist that Jesus is best understood either as sui generis (i.e., totally new) or best understood in terms of Jewish prophecy, etc. Miller says, essentially, this is bollocks. There are plenty of similar stories (even down to empty tombs and the announcement that those looking for the disappeared deceased would see them elsewhere) both earlier than, contemporaneous with, and later than Mark, but they're all Greek or Latin and about demi-gods, heroes, or related folks. This is not exactly news to me, but Miller's essay lists a lot of them, more than I had been aware of, and statistically makes it much more difficult to claim that the original Mark was only coincidentally like those other stories. This comports with something that I have been convinced of for a while, following the work of Graham Burridge, that the Gospels really make sense primarily in terms of Hellenic literary traditions (specifically biographies) rather than in Judaic literary traditions. This is sensible, given that 1st and 2nd century Palestine, Egypt, and Anatolia (modern Turkey) had large Judean populations, were Hellenophonic (Greek speaking), and that educated Judeans were educated in Greek. But it does also strongly point out that the expectations and interpretations of Mark's original audience were profoundly shaped by Greek (and Roman) culture, thus distancing them from a solely rural Palestinian cultural background (which some people try to assert in order to keep Christianity pure and far away from "pagan" traditions). Miller goes so far as to argue that, taken to its logical conclusion, his argument suggests that Mark was written for non-Judeans (i.e., "Gentile" Christians). I'm less confident about that conclusion, mostly because we know so little about the ethnic backgrounds of early followers of Jesus (both during and after his lifetime), and what we do know strongly suggests a majority Judean group. If Mark was written for non-Judean Christians, it became popular with Judean Christians very quickly. Anyway, Miller's essay is a good one, and though I'm not teaching New Testament this semester, this is the sort of stuff that I use to make these texts less familiar to my students, who often come to the class already "knowing" lots of stuff about what the New Testament is and contains.
08. Anyway, on another topic entirely, Junia has been diagnosed with Scarlet Fever, something that in earlier times would have been cause for serious alarm (Helen Keller, for instance, may have become deaf and blind due to contracting Scarlet Fever, although the diagnosis is disputed - some medical historians think she had a form of meningitis). Regardless, in this era of antibiotics, Junia is already back at school and, according to Selena and Momula, was never even in poor spirits, let alone bedridden. Still, she has scarlet fever, so I say, "Get well soon, kiddo!"
09. In my Medieval Philosophy course we're doing historical and cultural background/context work to figure out why medieval European philosophy is both like and unlike modern Western philosophy, and why it tends to get short shrift nowadays (at least outside of academic areas like Philosophy of Religion, where Thomas Aquinas is still read frequently). Yesterday we read the autobiographical text Historia Calamitatum ("history of my sufferings") by Peter Abelard, my favorite medieval philosopher, who was the Elvis of medieval European philosophy, though less gracious in person than the King is said to have been. Abelard was, according to himself and most of his contemporaries, the smartest man in Europe. He had a tendency to go to study with someone and, after a ridiculously short time, begin to publicly surpass his teacher, and then to challenge them to public disputes/debates. Unfortunately, he pretty much always won the debates, except where no one could understand what he was talking about. He is also famous for being the Abelard of "Abelard and Heloise" (one of the most famous couples in European history - before Romeo and Juliet they were the preeminent example of romantic love in the Western tradition). Given his intellectual achievements, the most astonishing part of their story is that Heloise (his student, lover, and eventual secret wife) was apparently his match. Reading their letters (those that have survived, anyway) is profoundly unsettling, because he's an egomaniacal genius who, incidentally, spends as much of his time with Heloise as is humanly possible and she is incredibly smart but says, basically, "I'd give it all up for you." We read their story in my Love, Death and Desire course last semester, and the students could not agree on whether Heloise was Abelard's doormat, equal, emotional and moral superior, or some complicated mixture of all three. Even though he was an arrogant jerk, I like the fact that in their later life (they became a monk and a nun, respectively, after Abelard was castrated - you read that right - by Heloise's uncle, who was furious about the secret marriage) Abelard basically neglected all of his official duties to visit Heloise's convent, even though by that time physical passion was kind of a no-go. Their relationship was certainly not ideal, but I've never been able to shake the strong sense that they were actively devoted to one another, and wanted to be nowhere else than together. On the down side, they named their son Astrolabe, after the astronomical device.
10. And that's about it.
117 Days Remaining
01. First off, happy birthday to my brother, Decius, who turned 29 today. I hope he and his wife had a chance to celebrate, given the weather conditions now regnant.
02. Second, I'm annoyed. I realized that I had three or four drafts the contents of which were never actually posted, and I went through, copied and pasted them all into this post, and then promptly deleted them unintentionally. Nothing was particularly pressing or so lyrical that its loss is cause for weeping, but it was a substantial amount of text and musings, and now all is gone. Damn it. I'm trying to remember what fragments were contained therein, but I only browsed it as I was collecting them, and nothing is sticking out to me to reconstruct.
03. Baskerville College was closed today (which impacted me not at all, as I don't teach on Wednesdays) in preparation for the monumental blizzard that smote a large portion of the country. New Aldwych, however, got icy sleet in the early morning, followed by temperatures in the mid- to upper-40s and rain for the rest of the day. I hear that driving conditions, due to the early morning sleet, were hazardous, but I went out to shovel further (with the higher temperatures and rain making some of the more entrenched snow drifts amenable to being moved) and had very little difficulty. Momula told me that conditions in Wilmington were similar to those here. My exing-wife sent me a photo of Herman, the best dog in the world, playing in the snow that fell at their house in Tulsa, OK:
He really likes the snow, so I'm happy that he finally got some to play in.04. Weather is important today, it being of course Groundhog Day, and overcast. This means, of course, a shorter winter, if one believes in the prognosticatory capabilities of largish ground-dwelling rodents (especially in western PA). Interestingly, it isn't only German groundhog-watchers who think that today's weather is oracular: in Ireland and parts of (Gaelic-speaking) Scotland (which are Gaelic speaking because they were settled/conquered by Irish pirates called the Scotti in the Dark Ages) today is Imbolc, and today is the day that the Cailleach (literally: "old woman" - she's kind of a semi-divine legendary figure) goes out to gather firewood for the remainder of the winter. According to traditional lore, if it's going to be a long winter she makes the sun shine on Imbolc to allow her to see farther, so if it's cloudy she isn't worried about winter going on much longer. So, as far as I'm concerned, that pretty much settles it: a legendary Irish hag and a Pennsylvanian rodent agree that winter is due to end sooner rather than later this year. And there is much rejoicing, I'm sure, as many people with whom I've communicated recently have said that this winter in particular is weighing on them.
05. Speaking of weather, and on a much sadder note, today I read a striking article about a polar bear who swam for nine days trying to find an ice floe on which to climb and rest (she was being tracked via radio implant). She lost 100 pounds in the process, and tragically the cub who accompanied her died en route. In related news, the Republican governor of Alaska is trying to gain access to various restricted wildlife areas in order to allow for more oil drilling.
06. To balance out that story, here is a very charming song and video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zeZMTOSeHVw&feature=branded . It's called "Be My Honeypie" and is by the Weepies (who, despite their lacrimose name are not depressing).
07. In the midst of other things the past few days I've been doing some fun academic reading, and came across a very interesting essay by Richard C. Miller entitled "Mark's Empty Tomb and Other Translation Fables In Classical Antiquity." Basically, he's addressing an interesting manuscript problem: in the earliest manuscripts (and in attestations by early readers) the Gospel According to Mark ends with the discovery of Jesus' empty tomb, and the women fleeing in fear (for anyone keeping track, that means that Mark 16.8 is the likely original ending, and that Mark 16.9-20 are later additions). Though the young man they meet in the tomb tells them that they will see Jesus in Galilee, if Mark ends at verse 8, there is no narrated encounter with Jesus after his burial. Now, this is a problem, because it leaves open the possibility that the author (and the community for/to whom he was writing) of Mark didn't intend that Jesus was physically resurrected, or (even worse) that he didn't know that story, or any range of possibilities. Biblical scholars, often working from faith positions, have tended to interpret the resurrection narratives in light of 2nd Temple Judaic resurrection beliefs, and to insist that Jesus is best understood either as sui generis (i.e., totally new) or best understood in terms of Jewish prophecy, etc. Miller says, essentially, this is bollocks. There are plenty of similar stories (even down to empty tombs and the announcement that those looking for the disappeared deceased would see them elsewhere) both earlier than, contemporaneous with, and later than Mark, but they're all Greek or Latin and about demi-gods, heroes, or related folks. This is not exactly news to me, but Miller's essay lists a lot of them, more than I had been aware of, and statistically makes it much more difficult to claim that the original Mark was only coincidentally like those other stories. This comports with something that I have been convinced of for a while, following the work of Graham Burridge, that the Gospels really make sense primarily in terms of Hellenic literary traditions (specifically biographies) rather than in Judaic literary traditions. This is sensible, given that 1st and 2nd century Palestine, Egypt, and Anatolia (modern Turkey) had large Judean populations, were Hellenophonic (Greek speaking), and that educated Judeans were educated in Greek. But it does also strongly point out that the expectations and interpretations of Mark's original audience were profoundly shaped by Greek (and Roman) culture, thus distancing them from a solely rural Palestinian cultural background (which some people try to assert in order to keep Christianity pure and far away from "pagan" traditions). Miller goes so far as to argue that, taken to its logical conclusion, his argument suggests that Mark was written for non-Judeans (i.e., "Gentile" Christians). I'm less confident about that conclusion, mostly because we know so little about the ethnic backgrounds of early followers of Jesus (both during and after his lifetime), and what we do know strongly suggests a majority Judean group. If Mark was written for non-Judean Christians, it became popular with Judean Christians very quickly. Anyway, Miller's essay is a good one, and though I'm not teaching New Testament this semester, this is the sort of stuff that I use to make these texts less familiar to my students, who often come to the class already "knowing" lots of stuff about what the New Testament is and contains.
08. Anyway, on another topic entirely, Junia has been diagnosed with Scarlet Fever, something that in earlier times would have been cause for serious alarm (Helen Keller, for instance, may have become deaf and blind due to contracting Scarlet Fever, although the diagnosis is disputed - some medical historians think she had a form of meningitis). Regardless, in this era of antibiotics, Junia is already back at school and, according to Selena and Momula, was never even in poor spirits, let alone bedridden. Still, she has scarlet fever, so I say, "Get well soon, kiddo!"
09. In my Medieval Philosophy course we're doing historical and cultural background/context work to figure out why medieval European philosophy is both like and unlike modern Western philosophy, and why it tends to get short shrift nowadays (at least outside of academic areas like Philosophy of Religion, where Thomas Aquinas is still read frequently). Yesterday we read the autobiographical text Historia Calamitatum ("history of my sufferings") by Peter Abelard, my favorite medieval philosopher, who was the Elvis of medieval European philosophy, though less gracious in person than the King is said to have been. Abelard was, according to himself and most of his contemporaries, the smartest man in Europe. He had a tendency to go to study with someone and, after a ridiculously short time, begin to publicly surpass his teacher, and then to challenge them to public disputes/debates. Unfortunately, he pretty much always won the debates, except where no one could understand what he was talking about. He is also famous for being the Abelard of "Abelard and Heloise" (one of the most famous couples in European history - before Romeo and Juliet they were the preeminent example of romantic love in the Western tradition). Given his intellectual achievements, the most astonishing part of their story is that Heloise (his student, lover, and eventual secret wife) was apparently his match. Reading their letters (those that have survived, anyway) is profoundly unsettling, because he's an egomaniacal genius who, incidentally, spends as much of his time with Heloise as is humanly possible and she is incredibly smart but says, basically, "I'd give it all up for you." We read their story in my Love, Death and Desire course last semester, and the students could not agree on whether Heloise was Abelard's doormat, equal, emotional and moral superior, or some complicated mixture of all three. Even though he was an arrogant jerk, I like the fact that in their later life (they became a monk and a nun, respectively, after Abelard was castrated - you read that right - by Heloise's uncle, who was furious about the secret marriage) Abelard basically neglected all of his official duties to visit Heloise's convent, even though by that time physical passion was kind of a no-go. Their relationship was certainly not ideal, but I've never been able to shake the strong sense that they were actively devoted to one another, and wanted to be nowhere else than together. On the down side, they named their son Astrolabe, after the astronomical device.
10. And that's about it.
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