jibba jabba
Nonsense title today. This is not a real post. It is a frigment (fragment + figment) of your imagination. Just a couple of note for things I want to expound upon at a later date.
- Diss idea: rhetoric, philosophy, good societies, utopian dreams, where liberalism (maybe) has failed
- Clown, etc: Pagliacci, Facebook, personae, Batman, Chicago, Lookingglass Alice
- Teaching assessment for S/S 2010
- Music
One of the reasons I’ve wanted to renew my blogging energies is that I’m looking forward (as in looking head, not like … “oh, hurray, pony rides!”) to writing the diss over the next couple of years. I’ve too long let writing fall to the side and focused instead on textual consumption rather than production. I want to push myself a bit more to write about things that I *want* to write about so that–during those days of dissertating when I find myself writing about things I *don’t* want to write about–I have the habitus of writing back. So the new … I hesitate to say “improved” … maybe reinvigorated Foolscap will be kind of a collection of random scraps and thoughts for a while. Some academic, some not. Some comprehensible, much not. Some idiosyncratic, some networked.
So … a blog.
we be enjambin’
Please pardon the awful allusion to Bob Marley’s “Jammin’.”
A blogroll addition! Please welcome KMC’s blog The Enjambed Line (all poetic and junk) to the blogroll.
Hail and well met, KMC.
reader’s choice
Hey gang! Pick what book my next blog post should be about of the following few that I’ve read recently.
love will tear us apart
True Love (via SMBC)
From Zach Weiner’s “Saturday Morning Breakfast Cereal.”
meme me!
If you haven’t read it yet, please check out Jenny’s Letter to W at Working Blue. I’ll post my own letter to W in the coming days, in hopes of turning it into something of a meme. Fellow bloggers, if you feel inclined to do so, join the Letters to W meme!
Hello world!
Welcome to WordPress. This is your first post. Edit or delete it, then start blogging!
not what i mean when i say wsu is the bomb
If you don’t know, this is like the third bomb threat that WSU has recieved in a little over a month. State Hall was threatened in late Oct, the Student Center earlier this week, and now General Lectures. We’ve been fortunate so far that, as far as I know, they’ve only ever been threats; it’s unclear to me that any of them actually were connected to real bombs in any of the buildings in question.
My concern is obvious, as a student and instructor. But I also worry (due to my role on Appointments) how this could appear to potential campus visitors. “Oh, well, sorry you can’t see State Hall where you’d be likely to do a lot of teaching; it could explode at any second.” Not something I’d like to say to any of our potential candidates. I am sure other campuses have dealt with similar threats (and, obviously, much graver things than just threats) but this is new to me, even though I was an undergrad at WSU as well.
It recalls, in some ways, an exchange KL and I had some time ago. KL, if you’re reading, I’d be interested to see how you’re responding to these threats as well.
advertisement for my own dang self
Well, not much of an ad, really, just pimping my YouTube.
In lieu of a boring old PowerPoint for my talk last night in Pruchnic’s seminar, I whipped out some iMovie and posted it to YouTube. You can find the results below. The final clip itself is sort of incomprehensible, since it was designed to accompany me on my notes, but you may get a kick out of it nonetheless.
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Di3lNwyJJA0]
memo to myself…
…Do the dumb things I gotta do today: Touch the Puppet-head.
A list of things I hope to remember to blog about:
- Music I don’t listen to anymore
- Synechdoche, NY
- Katharine Hepburn
I cleared out my spam queue. My blog is surprisingly popular with Russian spambots.
yay me
At last, my plans are coming to fruition:
Dear Mr. McGinnis,
Professor C----- who made up your translation exam on Borges' 'Ficciones' has sent me your grade and it is Passing. Congratulations.
I am copying this news to your Graduate Director for his records and I would advise you to keep this memo for your personal records.
I am delighted to have met you and take inspiration from your wish to know more about Borges and the Spanish language.
My sincere best wishes for your continued success,
Sincerely,
Professor M---- G------
This was the final and most nerve-racking step of completing my M.A. Soon I will have another set of letters after my name, by virtue of which I can (officially) be even more of an insufferable prig than I already am. Translation exam for the win! Over 9000 passing! Wh00t!
Borges