Bureaucracy

As in armies so in corporations: unhappiness with an institution can coexist with strong commitment to it; a person, even if generally unhappy, who is given room to make sense of things on his or her own patch becomes bonded to the organization.

— Richard Sennett, The Culture of the New Capitalism

Awesome Rave Playlist

Lovingly hand-crafted for Rave in the Cave, doncha know.

"Crazy" (single mix) - Brooklyn Bounce
"Gimme Freaks" - DJ Earworm (boot)
"She Wants Him" (vocal mix) - Moussa Clark & Terrafunka
"Hung Up" (radio edit) - Madonna
"Maniac" (remix) - Michael Sembello
"Flashdance" - Deep Dish
"Adagio for Strings" - DJ Tiësto
"Blue Monday" - New Order
"Call on Me" (radio edit) - Eric Prydz
"Dance Your Pain Away" - The Moon Whispers
"Boo in Love" - DJ Tripp (boot)
"Barbie Girl" - Rob Mayth (Candy Boyz vs Klubbstylerz Remix)
"Spin Me Harder" - DJ Tripp (boot)
"Brand New Lover" - Dead or Alive
"Zombie" - Andrew Spencer and the Vamprockerz (Ray Knox Hands Up Extended Club Remix)
"Blue (Da Ba Dee)" - Eiffel 65
"Caramelldansen" - Caramell
"God Is a DJ" - Dutch Trance Force (DJ Cobra Mix)
"Chase" - Giorgio Moroder
"Sweet Dreams" - Overdub featuring Sophia (Doug Laurent Bonzai Mix)
"I'm Too Sexy for Sex" - DJ Roy Batty (boot)
"What Is Love" - Haddaway
"You Keep Me Hangin' On" - Kim Wilde
"Flashdance ... What a Feeling" - Irene Cara (Adam Van House Mix)
"Enjoy What You Do" - Mac Murphy (Disco Filter House Radio Edit)
"Hyperactive!" (12-inch mix) - Thomas Dolby
"Dragostea Din Tei" - O-Zone (DJ Rosse Extended Remix)
"Precious" - Depeche Mode
"Born to be Alive" - DJ Team
"Situation" (US 12-inch mix) - Yaz
"I Kissed a Girl" - The Real Booty Babes (Club Radio Edit)
"Billie Jean Is a Spy" - DJ Tripp (boot)
"Don't Stop the Music" - Rihanna
"Sandstorm" - Tunnel Alliance

As mixed, this playlist runs to approximately 150 minutes of aural goodness.

My new year's tarot

Based on a modified Celtic cross spread

1. The significator: Queen of Swords
2. The problem, antagonist, or obstacles: The Empress
3. The foundation: King of Pentacles
4. The crown: 4 Pentacles
5. The near past: 6 Pentacles
6. The near future: Page of Wands
7. Attitude toward question: 3 Pentacles
8. Environment or influences: Page of Swords
9. Hopes and fears: 10 Swords
10. Outcome of the reading: Knight of Swords

I feel this spread represents triumph after considerable struggle (look at all those swords!). I have ample material resources for the task; my major struggle will be with the contradictory qualities of my own character. But note that the outcome card signals success: bravery, strength, a skillful and clever person, arrival. I'm reading this as an encouraging sign for the year ahead — if nothing else, it's much more positive than last year's spread!

Bad poems for sale

Because I could not stop the puck
It kindly stopped for me:
The crease held but just ourselves
And immortality.

Ha ha.

L

Stand by Me

Marcy sent this to me on Facebook. I love the concept and its a great rendition of this song...

Embedded Video

Blogged with the Flock Browser

Does Any One Know Any Thing?

Today's title is in honour of editors, one of whom would likely change my titling to "Does Anyone Know Anything?" — sadly, quite different in intent than my original.

Apparently today, on the eve of the solstice, we are enjoying the halcyon days. Michael Quinion provides an explanation:

The story goes back to a Greek legend that the kingfisher nested in
the sea at the time of the winter solstice and that its floating
nest brought calm to wind and water, what we now call the halcyon
days, "halcyon" being from the Greek name for the kingfisher,
alkuon. A romantic version of the legend was told by the Roman poet
Ovid about Ceyx and Alcyone. She was the daughter of Aeolus, the
god of the winds, and he was the son of the morning star. Ceyx was
lost at sea and Alcyone was inconsolable. The gods took pity on
them, turning them into kingfishers so that they might continue to
live together. When they mated each year at the winter solstice the
gods calmed the winds and seas so Alcyone might brood her eggs
safely. Alcyone's name became "halcyon" in Latin, because of a mistaken
belief that its real source was two Greek words meaning "conceiving
on the sea."

It's difficult to imagine a seascape populated with kingfishers this morning, with the air temperature at -29 and the wind chill equivalent to -33. Still halcyon, meaning peaceful, calm, carefree, is an emotional tone we should all strive for this weekend. The sun is about to begin its return journey: the light is coming back.

Too bad there are only five more shopping days until Christmas. Perhaps that's why truly halcyon days seem so remote and fantastic.

Soon to emerge from under a pile of marking...

L

Shakespeare was a Wild Thing

My online grammar students are required to do a style analysis exercise in which they must recast a piece of contemporary writing in an older idiom. Their choices are Middle English, Renaissance English, Enlightenment English, and Victorian English. The students protested that they had no idea what I was asking them to do — did I really expect them to learn Middle English in a week? — and could I please post a sample of the task.

Normally I am reluctant to provide well-developed models of assignments in class because students tend to do what I've shown them rather than developing their own, likely much more creative, solutions. However, I decided that because we are meeting in an online environment and they have much less contact with me than they would in a face-to-face setting, I would relent. Hence the following excerpt from Maurice Sendak's classic children's book Where the Wild Things Are, recast in Renaissance-style English. Enjoy! — L


***


The night Max wore his wolf suit and made mischief of one kind
and another
his mother called him "WILD THING!" and Max said "I'LL EAT YOU UP!" so he was sent to bed without eating anything.
That very night in Max's room a forest grew
and grew ——
and grew until his ceiling hung with vines and the walls became the world all around
and an ocean tumbled by with a private boat for Max and he sailed off through night and day
and in and out of weeks and almost over a year to where the wild things are.
And when he came to the place where the wild things are they roared their terrible roars and gnashed their terrible teeth
and rolled their terrible eyes and showed their terrible claws
till Max said "BE STILL!" and tamed them with the magic trick of staring into all their yellow eyes without blinking once and they were frightened and called him the most wild thing of all
and made him king of all wild things.



Lo, upon that eve, when upon his person did Max array the suit in the likeness of the Wolf, and did make mischief of such a kind and of another such;
his Mother, the very Hera of his being, him appelled "WILD THING!"; the while sayeth Max, "I'LL EAT YOU UP!" and so, thus was he returned to his chamber lacking entirely in victual and sustenance.
Lo upon that same eve'n, in that fast foreboding chamber, did grow a wood and a wild, the which unfurled
and increased ——
and expanded vitally until the firmament was wreathed with tendrils and tenerumen, and the ramparts gave way to a Universe new-emerged;
and there upon the waves of fair Okeanos did tumble a sailing vessel bold, for the express conveyance of Max alone; and so he did voyage, tracing the pathways of fair Diana and bright Apollo both,
through the reckoning of a seven-day and beyond a fortnight, nigh upon one turning of the stars, to discover the place of the Wilde Things.
Whereupon encountering the horde of these Creatures Beastly, did they bellow, their shouts a clatter upon the Heavens; and did they grind their beastly dentures, a boisterous and disorderly shewing;
They did roll their eyen frightful upon themselves, and did brandish their talons and their pincers set to maul and mangle;
And then, of a sudden did Max proclaim "BE STILL!" and brought these beasts of wildest mantle under his own sway and suasion, using that charm magick, the enchantment of staring but fierce into their orbs aureal and not to break the thread he had made with those fearsome orisons; and they were afeared and did cower and quake, and unto him did apply the title of that one most wild of any,
And so did they make him Ruler and King of all their kind.

Why proofreading matters

How different life can be plus or minus a consonant:

timelines or timeliness?

deadlines or deadliness?

This week I can't tell the difference.

L

Thursday: Not the end of the week

Here are my thoughts for today.

1) Est virgo hec penna, meretrix eat stompificata. (The pen is a virgin, the printing press a whore.)

2) "The red penis your friend." (From my favourite slam poet, Taylor Mali.)

L

I Dream of France

-- Post From My iPod

Tuesday: Back to work

... I run off where the drifts get deeper
Sleeping Beauty trips me with a frown
I hear a voice: "You must learn to stand up for yourself
'cause I can't always be around."

When are you going to make up your mind?

— Tori Amos, "Winter"

For Thanksgiving

My political compass outcome: no surprises here.

We shall overcome — as arranged by Pete Seeger

We shall overcome,
We shall overcome,
We shall overcome, some day.

Oh, deep in my heart,
I do believe
We shall overcome, some day.

We’ll walk hand in hand,
We’ll walk hand in hand,
We’ll walk hand in hand, some day.

Oh, deep in my heart,

We shall live in peace,
We shall live in peace,
We shall live in peace, some day.

Oh, deep in my heart,

We shall all be free,
We shall all be free,
We shall all be free, some day.

Oh, deep in my heart,

We are not afraid,
We are not afraid,
We are not afraid, today

Oh, deep in my heart,

We shall overcome,
We shall overcome,
We shall overcome, some day.

Oh, deep in my heart,
I do believe
We shall overcome, some day.

Staff Meetings et al.

Sitting at work in a staff meeting. Woot. This is the umpteenth meeting this week. I hate meetings. It seems I am not much of a team player.

Why is it that a "democratic" system seems to me synonymous with "having to listen to the idiot"? I have always believed in the benevolent dictator system and this past week just reinforces it for me. I would rather suffer under unfair decision making processes then waste so much time pursuing the unattainable concensus. You never make everyone happy, so why do we try so hard?

So I waffle between "We gotta get out of this place" and "Que sera, sera"

Sigh.

Mobile Blogging from here.

[Posted with iBlogger from my iPod]

Thought for Friday

Jennifer Beals was born on December 19, 1963.

Do you think I can finish my dissertation before I turn forty?

L

iBlogger

Yet another blogging pckg for my touch. This one has potential but no images for blogspot and no redirected urls for wordpress.

Kinda leaves me out.

[Posted with iBlogger from my iPod]

Test Two

Simultaneous posts to two blogs with pic:



Zak in a kimono whilst in Japan

Posted From My iPod

Testing Technology Takes Time

So here is a new tool to blog with. I am using BlogPress on my Touch to post here and macblaze.hopto.org Let's see what happens when I add a pic..


L and C getting literary in Paris

--Post From My iPhone

Thought for the Day

"All slang is metaphor, and all metaphor is poetry." — G.K. Chesterton

It's a gorgeous September Sunday and there are still raspberries in the garden.

Lots of work to do — I'd better get at it.

L

...later that same day...

Done most of what I'd hoped to accomplish today, although never everything. Tried to post the outline to my online course, resulting in this kind of experience.

Happy New Year

For so long my life has been organized around the academic calendar that Labour Day has come to represent the real new year to me. This is the weekend I make my resolutions for better behaviour, change, improvement, etc. (Already several of my resolutions/changes have been tossed aside, but that's another story.) Wonderfully, this year Labour Day has fallen on September 1, creating a rather polished beginning to the school year ahead.

I did some necessary work at the office yesterday and finished some more earlier today. Another student has been launched as a graduate — hooray! Another is starting her second workplace term, while a few others are just beginning workplace study officially today. And I moved offices over the weekend, too. Can't wait to see what response that elicits tomorrow.

I am teaching second-year grammar again this year — yay! — and my print culture history class is running too. Unfortunately, I may also be teaching a third course, research skills. I was supposed to have course release this term, but it looks like my release is going to be snatched away. But the class doesn't start for another week, so if I can find someone else to teach it before September 8 I'll get to keep my release time and my scheduled Mondays off. I remain hopeful (although there's no reason on record that I should).

Am listening to good music this weekend, thanks to kind friends. Am reading good books, too. Now if only I were doing some good writing. Sigh.

Enjoyed a handful of late raspberries this morning, and may enjoy more over the next few days if we avoid a frost. There are also hundreds and hundreds of apples in the garden — if you want some apples, please let me know!

Oh, and since no-one else has said it, France was amazing and fantastic and marvellous — and I'd love to go back right now. Squamish was also super, especially climbing Dierdre. Wow!

I hope the new year treats you well. Cheers!

L

Looking back to understand the present

According to Naomi S. Baron, "in the medieval English scriptorium, punctuation was generally added not by scribes but by proofreaders, who were the most learned monks in the monastery. Sometimes the abbots themselves filled this role."

Does this historical fact provide a greater understanding of the cast of contemporary editors? Hmm.

From Banff in the rain,
Leslie