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.

Q: Where am I not?

A: In front of an oven, piling in loaves faster than a coal-shoveling wretch coal in a Victorian-era locomotive. I have come home for Christmas. Yesterday was my birthday and the last day of my employment at the Great Harvest Bread Company. I am typing this on the tiny keyboard of my brother's laptop, as the network adapter in our family computer seems to have broken the moment I walked in the door.

Now I begin the great intellectual tasks which will someday put me on the same page as Plato, Einstein, Lewis Black: designing a syllabus for my RC course next semester, catching up on my research, and making my Mom sit through episodes of Twin Peaks as a kind of forced parent-child bonding experience (ah, how the tables have turned). I should also start brushing up on my Japanese, on the chance that the Powers will have mercy on me and deliver me unto that shining isle sometime next year, with money. I will try to post insightful comments about my progress as these tasks develop. Fortunately for you, dear readers, distractions in Newton are few.

Q:What am I going to do now?
A: Make another cup of tea.

Not Dead

Just getting through finals. More shortly.

Link

Christoph Niemann on Coffee [found on Digg]

Birthday

We celebrated my birthday today. It is not, in fact, my birthday, but we sure did celebrate it.

Thanks

Home, stuffed, warm, and well rested. I like dark meat, particularly when drenched in gravy. This is a much needed break after a nearly catastrophic Monday trying to get my JET application in on time, baking 600 loaves of bread from 5:00 AM to 3:30 PM on Tuesday, and another marathon pre-Thanksgiving bakery clusterfrack on Wednesday. I am looking forward to further recuperation.

Given my current level of output, I decided not to try to maintain two blogs right now after all, and the link to my planned "serious" blog has been removed. In its place is a list of what I'm currently reading. This is an idea I stole from Susie, but did not feel bad about taking once I realized that she'd abandoned it. Thank you Susie.

Tomorrow we (my family) will schlep up to the mountains to cut down a Christmas tree. We will then eat at Our Daily Bread in Boone, and stop at an outlet mall on our way back. I will get some new clothes at the GAP outlet, despite having moral reservations about shopping there, and we will spend tomorrow evening decorating our Christmas tree and eating today's leftovers. I don't know how long we have been doing this, but it is my favorite family tradition. As we get older, such traditions can die out, lose their charm, or become routine; they may be necessarily altered because of changing roles within the family, or because family members no longer live within a convenient distance of one another. Next year I may be living in Japan; if so, I won't be able to return to the US to help pick out our Christmas tree. This bothers me because tomorrow is one tradition that I would keep just as it is for as long as I'm alive to enjoy it. Knowing that this won't be so makes tomorrow, and all the days-after-Thanksgiving that have preceded it, infinitely more precious. So although it's trite, and although I did not (I promise!) sit down to write about anything more poignant than the food I ate too much of, I guess this is what I'm thankful for.