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

Talent or practice?

According to neuroscientist Daniel J. Levitin, "ten thousand hours of practice is required to achieve the level of mastery associated with being a world-class expert — in anything. In study after study, of composers, basketball players, fiction writers, ice skaters, concert pianists, chess players, master criminals, and what have you, this number comes up again and again. Ten thousand hours is equivalent to roughly three hours a day, or twenty hours a week, of practice over ten years."

Hmm. Here I am at the Congress of Learned Societies with some ten thousand other people, most of whom are exceptionally well educated and highly intelligent; and yet of these ten thousand, only a very small number are truly "world-class" in their field. So perhaps the ten-thousand hour thesis does not apply to intellectual pursuits?

It's interesting that ten years is roughly the duration of an undergraduate degree plus graduate studies that typically churns out a PhD — assuming the student studied full time (which would be at least twenty hours per week of reading, writing, researching, discussing, and thinking). Does the diversity of tasks involved in becoming an academic preclude true expertise except rarely? (How many academic writers spend at least twenty hours a week only reading or only writing, for instance?) Because simply getting the PhD, while a great accomplishment, is insufficient to put one on the world stage, as the many, many underemployed graduates here will attest.

But then again, many of you reading this blog are inveterate readers who likely do spend some twenty hours of an average week reading. (I do, on average.) Does that make us world-class readers? (Levitin would argue that it would not, because reading is not a socially valued activity.) How would one evaluate world-class achievement in reading anyway?

Such strange thoughts ... but such is my brain early on a Sunday morning.

L

Live from Vancouver...

... and finally awake, c'est moi!

Here in my favourite city, the temperature is currently lower than it is at home. Seems I'm missing the best weather of the spring in Alberta. Sigh. But the sky is finally clearing here and I am watching the early evening sun from the east tower in the Gage residence. The prediction for tomorrow is not very good, but then again I'm supposed to be in sessions all day so it really shouldn't matter.

But I am very lonely! Would love to have e-mail from any of you -- or find me on Facebook. That's good too.

The room I'm staying is "modest" but not quite as spartan as the U of T residence I stayed in a couple of years ago. No tv (but there is tv in the common room if I want to watch something). No bathroom -- it's down the hall and better organized than the shower situation at St Mary's. (And fortunately, here's one place where my habit of waking up in the night will be valuable -- no need to fight for a shower if you take it at 4 in the morning!) Had no internet until about 6 pm local time -- sigh sigh sigh... -- but I have it now, finally!

I have my session book at last and am now planning my attendance for the next few days. There's a great plenary tomorrow with Severn Cullis-Suzuki that I'm hoping to attend (although it's at one of the more inaccessible locations on campus). There's also a breakfast talk on Monday with a young publisher and professor from SFU -- must try to get to that.

Today I had planned to get out and explore the city, but my body had other ideas. I worked for a few hours on my computer and then fell asleep for several hours. Oh well -- there will be time for sight-seeing, etc., tomorrow and next week.

Breakfast is included with our accommodation fees -- except not today. I hope there's something I can eat...

I hope you're well. See you on Wednesday!

L

Summer days

We're going to France! We're going to France!

That's right: our summer holiday involves a quick trip to France to drive a canal boat through Burgundy.

Then we're headed to Squamish for another week of climbing, hiking, jet-boating, and other miscellaneous fun.

Between now and then, I'm going to spend a week in Vancouver, a week in Banff, and a weekend in Montreal.

Pretty fab, huh? Think I'll go rest now and get ready. Summer begins in just a few days. I can hardly wait.

L

Now reading: Dr Delicious: Memoirs of a Life in CanLit by Robert Lecker; You Know Where to Find Me by Rachel Cohn; and The Female Thing: Dirt, Sex, Envy, Vulnerability by Laura Kipnis

Happy birthday, B!

Here's hoping your day was fabulous. And remember, in the words of the fine folks of Squamish:

Who needs big jugs when you've got a great crack?

love,
L

Because she did it first...

If your life was a movie, what would the soundtrack be?

1. Open your music library (iTunes, Winamp, Media Player, iPod, etc.)
2. Put your player on shuffle
3. Press play
4. For every scene, type in the song that's playing
5. When you go to a new scene, press the "advance" button
6. Don't lie and try to pretend you're cool - first songs only

The Life of Bruce
Opening Credits: "Please Mr Please" by Olivia Newton John

Waking Up: "Breathe" by Collective Soul

First Day of School: "I'll be There in a Minute" by Gowan

Falling in Love: "As Lovers Go" by Dashboard Confessional

Fight Song: "My Girl" by Chilliwack

Breaking Up: "Drive My Car" by The Beatles

Prom: "We are the Champions" by Queen

Life is Good: "The 59th Street Bridge song (Feeling Groovy)" by Simon and Garfunkle

Mental Breakdown: "Smoky Mountain Rain" by Ronnie Milsap

Driving: "Layin' Pipe" by David Wilcox

Flashback: "Hitch A Ride" by Boston

Getting Back Together: "Holding Out For a Hero" by Frou Frou

Wedding: "The Devil Went Down to Georgia" by Charlie Daniels Band

Paying the Dues: "I'm Just a Kid" by Simple Plan

The Night Before the War: "Go Down Gamblin'" by Blood Sweat and Tears

Moment of Triumph: "Good Day Sunshine" by The Beatles

Death Scene: "Making Plans for Nigel" by XTC

Funeral Song: "Knocking On Your Backdoor" by Deep Purple

End Credits: "You Oughta Know" by Alanis Morissette

*****


Hmmmmmmm....

Blogged with the Flock Browser

Let's try this again...

An iteration of the MP3 game that I was playing earlier this year finally made its way to the Ecto mailing list that I'm still on after ten years. Here's another set of answers — plus instructions for those who were confused the last time around.

What this round tells me is that I listen to way too much pop music — and mostly songs I should be embarrassed to admit having in my library!

***

If your life was a movie, what would the soundtrack be?

1. Open your music library (iTunes, Winamp, Media Player, iPod, etc.)
2. Put your player on shuffle
3. Press play
4. For every scene, type in the song that's playing
5. When you go to a new scene, press the "advance" button
6. Don't lie and try to pretend you're cool - first songs only

Opening Credits: "Dirty Water" by Rock and Hyde

Waking Up: "Dance of the Clowns" by Berlioz

First Day of School: "Fame" by Irene Cara

Falling in Love: "Put Your Money Where Your Mouth Is" by Jet

Fight Song: "We Don't Talk Anymore" by Cliff Richard

Breaking Up: "Tainted Love" by Soft Cell

Prom: "Fox on the Run" by Sweet

Life is Good: "The Battle of Evermore" by Led Zeppelin

Mental Breakdown: "Have You Never Been Mellow" by Olivia Newton-John

Driving: "Piece of My Heart" by Janis Joplin

Flashback: "Monster Hospital" by Metric

Getting Back Together: "The Visitors" by ABBA

Wedding: "Take One Away" by Burton Cummings

Paying the Dues: "Mr Tambourine Man" by Bob Dylan

The Night Before the War: "What About Love" by Toronto

Moment of Triumph: "Me and Bobby McGee" by Janis Joplin

Death Scene: "Cocaine" by Eric Clapton

Funeral Song: "China Grove" by The Doobie Brothers

End Credits: "Elegie" by Massenet

Thought for the day

"In hindsight, it seems evident that a guerrilla group started by middle-class men and women who name their group from a Bob Dylan song will likely be their own worst enemies." — Mark Kurlansky, referring to The Weathermen, later the Weather Underground

Turning Japanese!

In honour of Zak's imminent departure. Unfortunately, I still cannot read the kanji, but I can sound my way (badly) through Romaji. Nihongo has a very different linguistic structure from Ego ... I have a lot to learn!

Ichi — ni — san .... ikimasho!

Asa desu.

Haha to chichi.

Aka to kuro to shiro

Hai! Ie! Zenzen!

Sushi o tabemasho.

San-ju-hachi sai desu.

Gomen nasai.