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!