Can't Chat Long

but I'm in Paradise.
I wake up every morning and come down stairs
to brew a bit of coffee
and outside my kitchen window I see a lovely
doe having her morning breakfast on Wine Press apples
from our back yard.
She has twin, spotted fawns
who come out in the evening.
I found their den (?) in the strip of wood
behind our yard.



This is the place where I may write my first novel.

I Am Thinking . . .

that if Mel Gibson and Tom Cruise
made a buddy flick together--
poking fun at themselves--
it just might smooth things over for a while.

If you are one of their publists,
please notify me by check.

Otherwise, dear blogger friends,
did you realize that "distance learning"
is code name for "incarcerated"?
Yep.
Sigh.

Must I Make That Drive Today?

I'm sure I have a disease--
let it be known that I knew
all along.

I'll look back on this post and think aha!
I knew it.

Meanwhile, I finished my second syllabus just now:
I put it off and put it off
then BAM
finished it in like 20 minutes (tweak here and there).

Not sure how I feel about that . . .

Do you have chores and projects that you put off
until you no longer remember or care why you put them off?
then, BAM, they are finished??

Overwhelmed, I went to bed last night just before 9pm;
I woke up every hour, on the hour, until 7am.
Too restless to pack (plus we ran out of boxes).
I'd rather just run in circles blathering,
then eat some Mexican.

My Blog is Ugly

I estimate we are 68% packed.
Our initial closing date was tomorrow
(I just love the tense useage there),
but may be moved to Wednesday.

Since we are only moving about 4 miles away,
can't I just throw everything else in the back of the neon?

School starts in 2 weeks.

BTW--Do NOT see _Through a Scanner Darkly_.
The biggest disappointment this summer.
[The artwork made it tolerable.]
Just had a thought--was I suppose to watch this while high?

Ok, I Try not to get Freaked Out

about every little thing I read,
but have you read this CNN article:

http://www.cnn.com/2006/US/08/18/edible.virus.ap/index.html ?

Headline: FDA approves viruses as food additive
Bacteriophages meant to kill harmful bacteria on lunch meats

Yadda Yadda--the point is that, no, I don't understand
all of the chemicals and bio-additives sprayed all over my food

and I have little to no say in the matter, quote:

Consumers won't be aware that meat and poultry products have been treated with the spray, Zajac added. The Department of Agriculture will regulate the actual use of the product.

I'm telling ya, the word is REVOLT.

For Those of You Who are Charting

Yes, I have a cold.

Ok, is it just me, or do you
catch a cold everytime you step up your diet/exercise
routine a notch--on the 3rd week?

Everytime?

Why?

Lillee Reminds Me

I haven't posted about those imaginary
cyotes in a while . . .

If I had twins,
Twin A would relate this vision to me
over McDonald French Fries:

"I was thinking. [Munch Munch] I was
a leader in a war.
And people were getting shot.
[He would begin to gaze off at this point.]
I drove my tank in front of them.
To protect them.
Then [he would look at me] I turned around
and shot at the other guys.
I died."

I would give a side glance to my 14ish-daughter,
who would lift her eyebrows at me.

Twin A would take a drink of milk.

"I was thinking that I would have to be a leader
[Twin A would start again]
because they wouldn't let me do it."

"Wow." I would simply comment.
Then reflect on the cold medicine I had been taking.

Just Before School Starts

Dear NASA:

You do not need to name 40 additional planets
in order to make me sit up and pay attention
to all of the work you do pioneering the galaxy
and making life more comfortable here on Earth.

Please do not make little children
memorize the names of 40 more planets
for the No Child Left Behind Act.

That is all.

SQ

P.S. Good luck with the publicity and funding.

Humph; Words _I_ don't See Every Day--You?

desultory
existential difference
concatenation
pomocentrically
bowdlerizing
heterozygosity
parsimonious
seminal
inchoate
desiderata
panacea
panapathogen
quotidian
loam
chthonic
crenellations

It May not be Woolf, But it's New

It's 8:10 and I've already surfed most of my favorite blogs,
and no one has posted a new post yet.
It's been 12 hours guys.

Don't ask me what I'm doing up this early.
I won't tell you.
But I will tell you that it's a cool 65 degrees
and quite lovely. Coffee tastes good.

I feel pretty confident in my classes for fall;
I could start tomorrow.
If I had to. Otherwise, I have a few more lessons to prepare.
I'd like to take the day off, but I need time for Thursday.

I won't tell you what I'm doing on Thursday.
You would laugh.
All of those tubes . . .

by the way--where did I get all of these cuts on my hands?
I count seven in all.

A Miner in English

Found this in my INBOX:

SQ:
My name is J B and I was in your English class, I think it was English 101, about writing and film my freshmen year in the fall of 2003. It has been a while so I hope you remember me. I wrote about the the predator and prey relationship displayed in the movie Psycho, maybe that rings a bell...then again maybe not. Anyways, a lot has changed with me since then, I have since transfered to another university where I will be a senior this coming year majoring in Political Science, Journalism, and possibly minering in English. I am writing you because your class was one of my favorite I've taken in college and I was wondering if you would be willing to write a letter of reccomendation for me. I am currently in the process of applying for law schools and plan to start law school next fall. Your letter would help to show the consistency of my dedication to academics I've had since entering college. I would appreciate it very much if you wrote one, let me know if you will and I will send you the materials for it (it is a pdf file that you have to print out and mail in with your letter). I hope everything is going well with you, thanks again.
-Sincerely,
J B

The note is so sweet I'm almost ashamed of myself
for posting it--but this is a prime example of something
I would have done (am still capable of doing).

It's great that he remembered me; I wish I would have taught him
how to spell "minoring" while he was in my class . . .
I hope he doesn't catch the black lung.

Goo-goo, gaga: I Am Dizzy

So, I get to keep the additional money
I was paid to teach this summer;
it was an incentive to show me how
committed this branch is to having me teach here.

Can you believe this?? {I thought I was a beggar!}

Here's my reply:

Hello Assistant Dean,
Thanks again for giving me a call today. As you've requested, I have listed the classes I am authorized by the main branch to teach below:

ENG 100
ENG 101
ENG 102
ENG 103

*ENG 201
*ENG 202
*ENG 203

ENG 301J
ENG 302J

WS 100
WS 200
WS 300
*WS 400

The courses marked by asterisks (*) are courses I have not yet taught but am prepared to do so. I have a fantastic syllabus, centered on critically "reading" the rhetoric of film narrative, that I occasionally use for either the 152 or 153--most students engage well with this course and it has become a popular class of mine.

As for particular quarters I would rather teach here at your branch, certainly Winter and Spring would be best. I still have lots of work and projects I participate on the main campus during the Fall, so your suggestion fits perfectly.

Also, thanks for offering space, advertisement, and refreshments for the Women's meet; I will certainly get back with you as I gather more information. If you would want to advertise, say, the WS200 for this Fall, I have all of Tuesdays and Thursdays open.

Take Care,
SQ

Plus, we showed my inlaws the house today! There's so much to do . . .
so happy . . . so overwhelmed . . . so blessed! xoxo

Upon Watching _Garden State_

At the very last minute of my High School Life,
I held hands with a girl from Germany
and jumped, fully clothed, in our HS pool.

It wasn't what I'd hoped it would be.

Well, I AM a Suck Up

Is that really so bad?

Ok, it is. I have to give this more thought.
See, I started my program all firery, and everyone loved it.

I liked the everyone loving me part.
Which developed (or enhanced) insecurities.

Grr! Insecurities suck and threaten to RUIN my life!

Does This Sound Too Suck-up-y??

"Well, it's been a while since I've taken a lower-level history course and
I'm just incredibly pleased with the (your) format--the arrangement and
accessibility of supplemental reading, the integration of writing into most
of the assignments, and the constant, critical oscillation between the past
and present (focusing on both "how do we know what we know?" and "why is
that knowledge important/significant?"). Pace is good (full foundation at
the start with synthesis toward the end--as if you've been doing this for
years); I believe a writing course patterned on the
summary/comparison-contrast/thesis mode will compliment this class nicely.
Tomorrow, I'll take a closer look at Kevin's (my predecessor's) specific
assignments and begin to map out the first couple weeks."

I'm totally gushing all over this professor;
I don't want to sound like I'm sucking up--it's just that I'm in frick'en awe . . .

Ze Muse, She Speaks!

It's called _Gilgamesh_
and I get to read it and teach it
in multiple translations.

In the first day.

This History Prof? My old mentor?
See, he has teaching aids, hense his desire
and ability to assign 30+ pages a night.

Seriously? I'm going to love this class.
I'm up for a challenge.

What's your challenge this week?
You should have one, you know.

Hey, Muse

I need inspired.

I Feel Like a Cave Artist

Busted camera (about 18mos now?)--
that's why there's never any pics.

/\_/ * *
L
I----I

Uh, is this good enough for now?

Isn't the new Baby Talk cover beautiful?

What have I read?

Uh nothing (as in scholarly texts)--yesterday or today.

Grr.

So That's Why

According to D. Brendan Nagle's text _The Ancient World:
A Social and Cultural History (6th Edition)_,
women were demoted to second class status because of . . .

agriculture.

Duh. Why didn't I think of that?
He writes: "Under hunting-gathering conditions a rough egalitarianism prevailed; no one had (or needed) more than anyone else" (4) because societies were constantly on the move. However, with the advent of agriculture "material goods could be accumulated, enjoyed during one's lifetime, and then passed on to the next generation" (4).

Here, I'd like to add, not only do we begin to concentrate more on status, hierarchies, and class wealth, but also we can understand the role of the "passing on" of material wealth created great concern for authenticity of blood-lines. Women had to be monitored, virginity kept, in order to ensure that children actually belonged to their fathers.

Further, Nagle writes: "In hunting-gathering bands children are usually spaced at three- to four-year intervals (by means of late weaning), wheras in agricultural societies women have frequent pregnancies and spend more time caring for children," which, in turn, means that, according to Nagle, women were seen as contributing less to the economic well being of the community and her status shrank.

Hump. Agriculture.
What might this signify for supermarkets???

Speculations on Flowers

Michael Pollan writes:

Ophryus orchids look uncannily like insects [. . .] The flower has evolved exactly the right pattern of curves and spots and hariness to convince certain male insects that it is a female as viewed, tantalizingly, from behind. Botanist call the resultant behavior on the part of the male insect "pseudocopulation"; they call the flower that inspires this behavior the "prostitute orchid." In his frenzy of attempted intercourse, the insect ensures the orchid's pollination. That's because the insect's rising frustration compels him to rush around mounting one blossom after another, effectively disseminnating the flower's genes, if not his own. --70

In this chapter, Pollan reflects on the tulip's ability to fashion human definitions of beauty. While doing so, he manages to weave banal western gendered metaphors into his subtext of "nature" (ie. woman's/feminity's comparison to nature)--which I find quite annoying. Yet, his allusion to the connection between "beauty" and the expectaion of "pleasure" being fullfilled may be quite, er, fruitful.