Life as an Extreme Sport

add another class

Autumn 05

I decided I didn’t have enough on my plate for fall quarter, so I signed up for another class:

European Intellectual History: Nineteenth Century

Selected topics in intellectual history up to 1890. The philosophical consequences of the French Revolution, the development of idealism, conservatism, romanticism, and early socialist theory; positivism, the problems of historicism, new forms of Christian apologetics, utilitarianism in decline, liberalism as philosophy, the early Marx.

Class Description

The Course will examine the historical fate of the three major frameworks of thought (Scientism, Romanticism and Dialectical Theory) whose development and interaction shaped intellectual production in nineteenth century Europe. Of central concern will be the relation between secular historical consciousness and the desire to establish secure foundations for ethical values and cultural meaning. We will attempt to construct a viable historical genealogy for the course’s conclusion- Nietzsche’s proclamation of the “Death of God” and the “Death of Man”–extending back to the period of the French Revolution.

lecture/discussion

Recommended preparation

A course in modern European History, like HST 113 or HSTEU 303, or an introductory course in Western Intellectual history, like HST 207.

Class Assignments and Grading

Weekly response papers to the assigned Reading, collected at the mid-term and at end of course, an 8-10 page term paper, and participation in a small, unsupervised student discussion circle.

Required Reading

Texts by Jeremy Bentham, John Stuart Mill, G.W.F. Hegel, Karl Marx, Rene Chateaubriand, Gustave Flaubert and Friedrich Nietzsche, as well as a number of shorter selections from other writers.

So that puts me at 18 credits, teaching 5 of them, and 5 of them research/thesis. And then there’s the working thing, and the arm thing, and… wheee!

Before you think I’m too crazy, chances are very good I will take the class S/NS – I just need to talk to John* about it first. But the class sounds fabu, I pay for 18 credits whether I take 13 or 18, and it’s a chance to learn more in an academic setting than I would otherwise. Why not take advantage of those extra five credits and DO something with them?

* John is the chair of the department, and will also be the professor for the class I will help teach. I’ve decided to stalk him this quarter, since Phillip was busy doing classes I’ve already taken. Which doesn’t mean I’m not stalking Phillip, I’m just going to stalk in new and interesting ways, and expand while doing so. But yes, stalking John, and figured I should talk to him about why I want to do S/NS and see what he says and go from there. Since John is, hopefully, writing a letter of recommendation (LOR) for me, I want to stay on his good side.

parental love

life and living

My father is cute; he just recently started signing his emails:

L-
Dad

It’s like those two extra letters to type are just too hard. It’s typical for my sort of emotionally repressed Dad, who just started giving grown-up me hugs about two years ago, when I just said “fuck it” and started insisting on it, but I think he likes knowing that I want the hugs, and it makes me smile to see this small bit of affection on his part.

The ways our parents choose to express their love and care always amuses me. My father is your stereotypical male who likes to fix things; he always comes here with the goal of making my house more functional. Better living through carpentry and ingenuity! Mom, on the other hand, is all about shopping. She buys and buys because she can, and it shows how much she cares. Only recently have I learned to be careful about expressing that I like something, because she’ll automatically go try to find it in my size. In fact, Monday had us getting in a fight over whether she was going to buy me a jacket; although it looked great on me, it was priced higher than I thought it was worth. Mom agreed, but after we looked around a bit, she thought it was best we go back and get the one that fit perfectly. We ended up resolving it well (I managed to get 25% off the cost, putting it in a range I was okay with), but I still found it funny – fight with Mom over how she’s going to spend her money on me.

It’s not really about money, though, and I have to remember that. It’s about love. And Dad doesn’t really think badly about my house, or my health, or anything else. It’s just that he communicates over fixing things (this email he just sent that brought a smile with the signature? He wants to look into switching me onto their family cell phone plan, to see if it will save me money). For Dad, fixing things and making life easier is also all about love.

Tahoma

life and living

We come around the bend just right, and there rising behind the freight cars is the mountain burnished coppery rose in the setting sunlight. On my left, and out of normal position, Tahoma is a tangible symbol of home. Seeing her brings about a sort of peace, a belonging. She doesn’t radiate threat, but reassuring there-ness, an anchor in a world of movement.

Tahoma passes the time on a scale greater than we can see; for her, we aren’t even pixelated points in a time grid. We are so small, so fast and quick, live passing by as she barely moves; we are insignificant in her timestream. But in ours, she is a presence hard to ignore. Rainier for a man who never met her, goddess of the snowy peaks who comes and goes for those who lived their lives in her shadow.

I have lived my life in her shadow for six years, and she has imprinted herrself on my soul. Wherever I go, I end up, Tahoma will always signifiy a small bit of home.

Stargate Atlantis: The Intruder

Stargate

These are the voyages of the starship Daedalus…

When did Stargate turn into Star Trek? When they got the Daedalus, of course. Only 18 days from Atlantis to Earth; not a terribly bad turnaround, and really changes the entire tone of Atlantis. They’re no longer cut off from home, no longer completely on their own, no longer the Wild West of Earth civilization. Frankly, it makes the show a little less exciting to know that they can so quickly bail.

That said, I loved the episode. The idea of the virus was clever, although as McKay noted, it had been done before on Stargate. Acknowledging that, though, made it a touch better; recylced plotlines r us! – but wait, don’t watch for the plot, watch for the witty dialogue and fabulous character interaction.

The characters have really grown into their own these last few episodes. David Hewlett as McKay had a headstart, being an on again, off again guest star on SG-1. He wore the role well from the beginning. The remainder of the cast, though, seems to be rapidly acclimating and knowing their characters; there is very little of the stiltedness that pervaded the early episodes of SG-1. In particular, I find Paul McGillian (Dr. Carsen Beckett) to be a little bit of wonderful. He’s the near perfect foil to McKay, and watching the two play off one another is a lot of fun.

I’m not talking about this particular episode much, am I? There really isn’t too much to say, since it is a recycled plot: virus uploaded to Daedalus, virus takes over Daedalus, reboot the systems several times while trying to figure out where the virus is hiding, kill the virus, the end. It wasn’t the plot that made this story interesting, it was character interaction.