Waiting for Snow

OK, so I didn't get much blogging done over Winter Break after all. All is well. These things happen. There are a few aborted drafts of posts hanging around in my account, which I might try to whip into shape at some point. More importantly, I have resolved to more scrupulously adhere to the Rules of Acceptable Blogging for Busy Persons (which I have arrived at after some consideration, though similar sentiments may be repeated elsewhere). They are:

1. Never post about one's intentions to make a future post.
2. Never post about something personal if there is even the remotest possibility that you will be uncomfortable with said post remaining on the internet forever.
3. Never sit down in front of the computer with the intention of forcing yourself to post when you have nothing substantial to write about.

With these rules in mind, I see self and blog maintaining a warm if not overly prolific relationship in 2009.

Now, to other matters.

The Bookslut Blog informed me this morning of SEED Magazine's celebration of the 150th anniversary of The Origin of Species. In particular, we have Blogging the Origin, a chapter by chapter account of an evolutionary biologist's first encounter with Darwin's most popular work. I've read the first couple posts and will probably take in the rest throughout the afternoon (he's only up to chapter 4). It's great fun for anyone interested in the origins of modern biology, and I would strongly recommend that anyone out there read, if you haven't already, the Origin itself. It's quite accessible, and it does a better job at imparting the fundamentals of evolutionary theory than our anemic and politicized high school Biology courses.

As classes begin tomorrow, I will be spending part of today in preparation. What preparation you ask? Why, any number of things. But really just two:

1. I need to buy a planner.
2. I need to finish the syllabus for the class I'm teaching tomorrow.

Part of the problem with putting together something like a syllabus is that one may have any number of exciting ideas at the last moment, prompting extensive revisions and second guesses not unlike what one experiences as a student the night before a project is due. For example, my course is on the philosophy of mind. My original plan was to start with Descartes and then jump directly to the 20th century. However, I was taken last night with the idea that we should read William James. Why James? Well, I have his books lying around, don't I? I've been looking for an excuse to get into them. I hear he's a cool guy (Jessa Crispin likes him). Good! So I'll add James to the syllabus. But what? Which essay? I need one that's short enough, accessible enough, which means that I should probably read a few first. So I'll now be spending most of the day scouring my collection of James's essays as a prerequisite to #2 above. Which is probably not the worst way one could spend a holiday and a Monday. A Holimunday.

Finally, I'm thinking of moving this whole thing to Wordpress so that I can have individual pages accessible by tabs on the header. Thoughts, feelings?

Gah

I've made attempts to post something substantive for the last three days, but every time I sit down I can't think of anything to write about other than what I'm reading, how boring Newton can be, and how I beat the main quest of Fallout 3 before my brother took his laptop back to California. Maybe if I changed the title of this blog to "What's Aaron Reading?" I'd feel less guilty about my natural inclinations. Anyway, thanks for checking in.