Life as an Extreme Sport

Bio-Humour

...and everything else

I’m editing out an abstract for a conference proposal, and just got to the end of my paper… where I’d forgotten all about the mini, third person bio I had written as a challenge to myself. In the grand tradition of Goose, I crack myself up…

Kelly Hills, a senior in the program of Comparative History of Ideas at the University of Washington, recently realized that she needs more experience writing about herself in the third person, so is taking this opportunity to practice. She lives in one of the oddly trendy student neighborhoods of Seattle with her cats, Lunar and Toledo, and the occasional brave spider, all of whom are named Charlotte. She has noticed that the length of time she spends around her department chair directly relates to the length of her sentences, and finds this very amusing.

Department chair == John, the guy I’m PFing for this quarter, and basically spending simply too much time with.

The Nature of Religion

...and everything else, Autumn 05

How are you in the Whole? By your senses. …Would that I could hold it fast and refer to it your commonest as well as your highest activities.

Did I venture to compre it, seeing I cannot describe it, I would say it is fleeting and transparent as the vapour which the dew breathes on blossom and fruit, it is bashful and tender as a maiden’s kiss, it is holy and fruitful as a bridal embrace. Nor is it merely like, it is all this. It is the first contact of the universal life with an individual. It fills no time and fashions nothing palpable. It is the holy wedlock of the Universe with the incarnated Reason for a creative, productive embrace. It is immediate, raised above all error and misunderstanding. You lie directly on the bosom of the infinite world. In that moment, you are its soul. Through one part of your nature you feel, as your own, all its powers and its endless life.

-Friedrich Schleiermacher

PFs

Autumn 05, CHID 390 - PF, The Revenge!

This is just turning into one entire talk about 390, isn’t it? I promise to branch out about more soon, it’s just that 390 has been taking so much out of me… …and speaking of, mad, mad props to my cohorts, Adam and Matt. They’re brilliant, articulate, funny, men and just a real pleasure to work with.

Even if the bastards have labeled me Alpha PF.

Blue Monday

Autumn 05, CHID 390 - PF, The Revenge!

I parted ways with a fellow PF and a friend, waited about 2 minutes, and the bus showed up. In that intervening time, the post-teaching blues crashed down hard. I tried to alleviate them with my “Happy” iPod mix, to absolutely no success, so I’ve switched over to the “A Thousand Tears” mix and am wallowing in sad music and blue mood.

It’s not even that things went badly – I knew what area of the text they were going to pick up and on, and I prepared adequately for it, I had my whiteboard time, talking and lecturing. They’re still loosening up with one another, which I’m sure is part of it (no one wanted to come out and say anything that could be viewed as negative about Christianity, for example), and… I don’t know.

I’ve decided that I need to cover Extreme Reading 101 on Thursday, which means I need to find my notes on said subject (instead of pulling it out of my ass). I also need to get a course packet together, since we’ve decided we’re assigning additional reading for the focus group (voluntary reading, but I think most of them will). Of course, this isn’t counting the reading something upwards of 300 pages for John, grading papers, planning a full hour lesson plan with Matt for Thursday (since we’re keeping the groups together), reading a packet of material for tomorrow’s thesis, the sports medicine readings and oh yeah, that work thing.

I just wish I didn’t so often end up feeling like I could have done so much better.

Here Motivation Motivation Motivation…

...and everything else

I spent a few hours at work today, head down in Perl code, and then took the afternoon off for a small “thank you” party thrown by my boss. Any time spent with my officemate is always enjoyable, and he took me there and dropped me off, so it was good. The other folk weren’t bad, either (actually saw some former coworkers, which was really nice). Good gumbo, too.

Problem being, I should be caught up on reading for tomorrow, have a concrete grasp of several works for tomorrow’s focus group, and just generally have done much more than I am. Instead, I’m kicking around Darnton and thinking quite a bit about his assertions on the opacity of culture and comparisson of historical folklore for similarities and dis, but I’m having a very difficult time bringing myself into focus.

…and hot damn. I have SVU on in the background, and Bobby Flay is on as guest star. This character is stalking famous men, and he’s one of them. Anyhow, the basic plotline is, she’s dosing men with roofies, electro-stimulating them to ejaculation, taking their sperm and then selling it to sperm banks.

I am really, really impressed he would lend himself (to the point of saying on camera how sick he was) to such a story.

See why I can’t focus on school?