1. My tastes have been skewed in a 1980s direction lately. This week's movie night was Short Circuit (at least most of it; the copy I watched had a section missing that I couldn't find elsewhere, between when the jerk boyfriend shows up and the fight with the other three drones), about a military robot … Continue reading Friday Flotsam: ‘Short Circuit’, Sick, More Economics, and Lent
Life
Friday Flotsam: Death Comes Near, Teaching, Life
1. My second semester of teaching started off on a tragic and jarring note. The weekend before we came back, one of my co-workers and her husband were killed in a car crash, leaving six young children behind. I didn't know her very well, but it's still a sobering experience to have a violent death … Continue reading Friday Flotsam: Death Comes Near, Teaching, Life
Saturday Flotsam: Recovering from Christmas, John K. King’s, and the New Year
1. Christmas week flew by in a haze of family engagements and with little to no progress. I'm trying not to let that bother me too much, as it is Christmas. 2. Though it occurs to me that learning how to feast properly is as much a skill as learning how to fast, and in … Continue reading Saturday Flotsam: Recovering from Christmas, John K. King’s, and the New Year
In Which I Defend My Much-Disliked Former Employer
I find this funny: I have no love for my former employer, United Wholesale Mortgage, for many reasons, but this strikes me as too patently absurd not to laugh at. Apparently, someone's suing them for racial discrimination. See the full article here. I'm sure this has happened plenty of times, but if you knew the … Continue reading In Which I Defend My Much-Disliked Former Employer
Saturday Flotsam: Late, Haphazard Edition
1. I missed yesterday owing to poor time management. Oh, well. 2. I'm officially on a 3-week Christmas break from work. A break I'll need to use to find another part-time job and get myself onto a good schedule so that I can be more successful in the next semester. Not that this past semester … Continue reading Saturday Flotsam: Late, Haphazard Edition
Friday Flotsam: Thoughts On Turning 35
1. Today is my 35th birthday. If our allotment of years is three-score and ten, I'm halfway done. 2. I'm obliged to face up to the fact that I am not happy with the man I've become or with what I have to show for my years. If you'd asked me ten or five or … Continue reading Friday Flotsam: Thoughts On Turning 35
Friday Flotsam: Federalist Papers Again (Sorry)
1. The past few months have felt strangely repetitive and empty. I seem to have fallen onto a psychological cycle wherein little is done, but the same patterns repeat. I haven't written much lately, though constantly intending to. I find myself unable to relax into any kind of work, that is, to let go of … Continue reading Friday Flotsam: Federalist Papers Again (Sorry)
Friday Flotsam: Teaching Stuff and a Couple Federalist Papers
1. I'm generally not very fond of the lesson plans I'm given, or the readings. That is, a lot of the readings are fine in themselves, but odd choices for the subject. In US History and Literature class, for instance, my students are reading a book about the Carmelite martyrs of Compiegne, written by a … Continue reading Friday Flotsam: Teaching Stuff and a Couple Federalist Papers
Friday Flotsam: O’Connor, FNAF, and History
1. This week's personal reading was largely Flannery O'Connor, in all her dense, opaquely-grotesque images of grace. She operates on a high, inaccessible plateau of authorship in which the reader is required to make a firm commitment to not only follow her often intense prose and plots, but also to take the time afterwards to … Continue reading Friday Flotsam: O’Connor, FNAF, and History
Friday Flotsam: Mostly Sick and Depressed (Really Downbeat in this One)
1. About once or twice a year I get hit with a nasty cold / flu that knocks me out completely for a couple days (I'm functionally useless and utterly miserable) and then lingers on for some time after. Well, it's that time again. It hit me starting last weekend (just got to Mass before … Continue reading Friday Flotsam: Mostly Sick and Depressed (Really Downbeat in this One)
Serpent's Den 