Five down, ten to go.
Showing posts with label panic. Show all posts
Showing posts with label panic. Show all posts
September 16, 2007
August 27, 2007
So ... probably no coffee.
I'm a mere seventeen minutes from teaching an intro to philosophy class at my alma mater. I didn't think I would be nervous, but darn it if I don't have the most raucous butterflies at this very moment. About an hour ago I was casually thinking I would need coffee. Right now, I might throw up.
More to come.
More to come.
August 23, 2007
Updates and General Disgust
Update: Regular readers of this blog remember a couple of weeks ago when my computer failed while on vacation. The saga concluded this week, and happily. The lesson? Buy the extended warranty.
When we arrived back to Denver on Thursday, we took old Holmes (Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr. - all my electronics are philosophers) to the Apple store to drop off and see what happens. The person AV talked with over the phone was enthusiastic about the possibility of Holmes being replaced as a brand new MacBook. I was excited about this. The fellow at the Apple store was more cautious in his promises, and so Holmes went to pasture in Cupertino. On Tuesday this week, the doorbell rang and a computer showed up. I opened it to find the shell that once housed Holmes, but with brand new hard-drive, logic board, battery AND keyboard! A new computer! Maurice is up and working fine (yes, Maurice Merleau-Ponty). This is all very fortuitous, especially since this week I'm teaching Descartes and we're coming to the point where he's going to (try to) put his mind back in his body.
Update: This first week of teaching was pretty gruelling. I'm especially looking forward to next week, once all 141 of my students are in my face. The tough thing about this week is that I'm only kind of half in my work life - next week I should be able to figure out the rhythm of things.
General Disgust: The producers and geniuses at Top Chef have really done it this time. Last night, they booted off Tre, the most capable - seeming cook of them all. This is totally bunk, especially since Howie remains. The talent pool seems a little less than in previous seasons, and I suppose I'd better be steeling myself for the win by Hung, the over-confident, dangerous-with-his-knife Vegas chef (although, he did break down those chickens quickly, cleanly, and impressively last night ... he's still a jerk, though). Frank Bruni has already dismantled this challenge and all its pitfalls in his blog over at the New York Times. I agree categorically with everything he's said.
I received a funny e-mail from a former student this week, and of course it has to do with Jughead Petrelli. In MARCH last year, my student totally called the way last season of Heroes ended. He wrote me an e-mail this week to tell me that he totally called it. He wished me a nice semester. I can't WAIT for crappy television to begin again. I'm so tired of being amazed by Les Stroud and laughing at Mike Rowe. Dang.
When we arrived back to Denver on Thursday, we took old Holmes (Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr. - all my electronics are philosophers) to the Apple store to drop off and see what happens. The person AV talked with over the phone was enthusiastic about the possibility of Holmes being replaced as a brand new MacBook. I was excited about this. The fellow at the Apple store was more cautious in his promises, and so Holmes went to pasture in Cupertino. On Tuesday this week, the doorbell rang and a computer showed up. I opened it to find the shell that once housed Holmes, but with brand new hard-drive, logic board, battery AND keyboard! A new computer! Maurice is up and working fine (yes, Maurice Merleau-Ponty). This is all very fortuitous, especially since this week I'm teaching Descartes and we're coming to the point where he's going to (try to) put his mind back in his body.
Update: This first week of teaching was pretty gruelling. I'm especially looking forward to next week, once all 141 of my students are in my face. The tough thing about this week is that I'm only kind of half in my work life - next week I should be able to figure out the rhythm of things.
General Disgust: The producers and geniuses at Top Chef have really done it this time. Last night, they booted off Tre, the most capable - seeming cook of them all. This is totally bunk, especially since Howie remains. The talent pool seems a little less than in previous seasons, and I suppose I'd better be steeling myself for the win by Hung, the over-confident, dangerous-with-his-knife Vegas chef (although, he did break down those chickens quickly, cleanly, and impressively last night ... he's still a jerk, though). Frank Bruni has already dismantled this challenge and all its pitfalls in his blog over at the New York Times. I agree categorically with everything he's said.
I received a funny e-mail from a former student this week, and of course it has to do with Jughead Petrelli. In MARCH last year, my student totally called the way last season of Heroes ended. He wrote me an e-mail this week to tell me that he totally called it. He wished me a nice semester. I can't WAIT for crappy television to begin again. I'm so tired of being amazed by Les Stroud and laughing at Mike Rowe. Dang.
August 18, 2007
August 10, 2007
Salvage Operation
So we remain on vacation, now in North Carolina enjoying the sand and surf. We intended to spend our evenings watching a gaggle of Gordon Ramsay from BBC 4 (which means it's not bleeped - raving Ramsay in all his glory). We had to use my iBook - hooked up to the television here - to make this happen. This plan worked well for a couple of nights until Tuesday, when my computer screen turned black and began flashing a file folder with a question mark. AV couldn't get it to boot, even using commands and other things I have no idea about. Bad news.
My iBook is (was?) the repository of all my work for the last eight years. I've had a couple of computers in that space of time, but the latest one had the giant haul of stuff - all my preparation for the Seminary's comprehensive examinations, all the drafts of my book chapter, the paper I've been slowly preparing for conference presentations ... you get the drift. I didn't have a backup system because there seems to be a conceptual problem for me with a laptop and external hard drives - I work around the house a good deal, and really only "plug in" at night to recharge the battery. So the flashing file folder was an indicator that the bulk of my academic life was presently absent.
More immediately troubling was the present absence of all my (completed) syllabi and - in one case - a completed set of assignments and readings prepared and ready to go for the classes starting in a week and a half.
I know, don't cry for the girl who unwisely doesn't back up her stuff. The story
Anyway, I had a fitful sleep and woke up Wednesday morning to AV in problem-solving mode. He had a few options, he said. One was to call Apple and see what they could do (which we did). The voice on the other end of the phone confirmed that the flashing file folder was in fact an indication of a fried hard drive. There wasn't anything he could do immediately, the voice said, but you could try putting it in the freezer and see it if will boot long enough to get the stuff off the hard drive. No euphemisms or geek-speak here - put the computer in the freezer. Get the hard drive ultra-cold, and then see if it'll give up the goods.
Two hours later, a very cold iBook emerges from the freezer and AV tries to boot. Nothing happens. He turned it on its side, tries to boot, and a screen came up that hadn't come up before. He turned the iBook upside-down so that the screen and keyboard were perpendicular to the floor, and slowly but surely, the screens proceeded to flip as normal. Never mind that AV's brother had to hold the computer for 45 minutes while AV logged in and drag-dropped the files to the jump drive and iPod.
Turns out I had 1.7 GB of documents - all the things I really cared about getting off of my computer - and it took about 2 hours to get all the documents into safe places. Thank goodness for ingenuity and the freezer. The iBook is warrantied, so now we're waiting to send it off and see what happens.
I've backed everything up in three places.
My iBook is (was?) the repository of all my work for the last eight years. I've had a couple of computers in that space of time, but the latest one had the giant haul of stuff - all my preparation for the Seminary's comprehensive examinations, all the drafts of my book chapter, the paper I've been slowly preparing for conference presentations ... you get the drift. I didn't have a backup system because there seems to be a conceptual problem for me with a laptop and external hard drives - I work around the house a good deal, and really only "plug in" at night to recharge the battery. So the flashing file folder was an indicator that the bulk of my academic life was presently absent.
More immediately troubling was the present absence of all my (completed) syllabi and - in one case - a completed set of assignments and readings prepared and ready to go for the classes starting in a week and a half.
I know, don't cry for the girl who unwisely doesn't back up her stuff. The story
Anyway, I had a fitful sleep and woke up Wednesday morning to AV in problem-solving mode. He had a few options, he said. One was to call Apple and see what they could do (which we did). The voice on the other end of the phone confirmed that the flashing file folder was in fact an indication of a fried hard drive. There wasn't anything he could do immediately, the voice said, but you could try putting it in the freezer and see it if will boot long enough to get the stuff off the hard drive. No euphemisms or geek-speak here - put the computer in the freezer. Get the hard drive ultra-cold, and then see if it'll give up the goods.
Two hours later, a very cold iBook emerges from the freezer and AV tries to boot. Nothing happens. He turned it on its side, tries to boot, and a screen came up that hadn't come up before. He turned the iBook upside-down so that the screen and keyboard were perpendicular to the floor, and slowly but surely, the screens proceeded to flip as normal. Never mind that AV's brother had to hold the computer for 45 minutes while AV logged in and drag-dropped the files to the jump drive and iPod.
Turns out I had 1.7 GB of documents - all the things I really cared about getting off of my computer - and it took about 2 hours to get all the documents into safe places. Thank goodness for ingenuity and the freezer. The iBook is warrantied, so now we're waiting to send it off and see what happens.
I've backed everything up in three places.
June 24, 2007
The new phonebooks will be here in November!
In the words of the immortal Navin Johnson: "I am somebody!" Here's the (non-ontological) proof. And some more, although vague.
January 15, 2007
Restart, Retool, Routine
Tomorrow the business starts up again. I'm grateful for the month I get between classes, but in a lot of ways it has seemed eternal. I blame it all on the snow. Three preps (Intro, Ethics, critical reasoning) should be pretty exciting, and will manage to keep me honest. I like the challenge of the things I'm teaching, and the fact that I'm using all new textbooks all around will be pretty wild.
During a fabulous lunch on Friday, I was discussing with a friend of mine my desire to revamp the Intro class to integrate primary texts only -- and lose the "textbook" approach. The deal with primary texts is always scary. In the wrong hands, they can make philosophy seem impenetrable and/or ruin a class. In the right hands, though, they can keep a class interesting and/or make it a transformative experience for the students. My fear is the former, that my inexperience teaching might somehow screw up whatever I might bring to the texts. I fear I don't know the texts well enough to use them independently of any all-in-one anchor. When asked for advice, my friend says to choose a theme and work from there. I'm already thinking ahead to next Fall when my new-and-improved class will debut. I just can't think of a theme. It's funny, but the lack of an immediately-apparent theme for an intro to philosophy class goes directly to the unmoored nature of my own interests in philosophy. I'm not quite sure where I fit or what I want to study. Everything is interesting!
This week is about setting and getting acclimated to a routine. Absent a routine, things get weird. I sleep strange hours, I get headaches, I obsess about things that aren't as pressing as they seem at the moment (thanks a lot, Michael Pollan), I stop writing interesting blog posts, etc. The trick this time around is to integrate some of my long-term projects into the routine. Maybe once a typical day is established, I can overlay some thoughtful work in writing, thinking, and spiritually forming on the procedure.
I expect things to be slow (*gasp!*) around here for the next week or so, but I'll post from the trenches when I can.
During a fabulous lunch on Friday, I was discussing with a friend of mine my desire to revamp the Intro class to integrate primary texts only -- and lose the "textbook" approach. The deal with primary texts is always scary. In the wrong hands, they can make philosophy seem impenetrable and/or ruin a class. In the right hands, though, they can keep a class interesting and/or make it a transformative experience for the students. My fear is the former, that my inexperience teaching might somehow screw up whatever I might bring to the texts. I fear I don't know the texts well enough to use them independently of any all-in-one anchor. When asked for advice, my friend says to choose a theme and work from there. I'm already thinking ahead to next Fall when my new-and-improved class will debut. I just can't think of a theme. It's funny, but the lack of an immediately-apparent theme for an intro to philosophy class goes directly to the unmoored nature of my own interests in philosophy. I'm not quite sure where I fit or what I want to study. Everything is interesting!
This week is about setting and getting acclimated to a routine. Absent a routine, things get weird. I sleep strange hours, I get headaches, I obsess about things that aren't as pressing as they seem at the moment (thanks a lot, Michael Pollan), I stop writing interesting blog posts, etc. The trick this time around is to integrate some of my long-term projects into the routine. Maybe once a typical day is established, I can overlay some thoughtful work in writing, thinking, and spiritually forming on the procedure.
I expect things to be slow (*gasp!*) around here for the next week or so, but I'll post from the trenches when I can.
December 11, 2006
When keeping it simple goes wrong.
May 2005: In the greatest triumph of my paper-writing career, I chugged out a paper on Berkeley and Kant by working on it--start to finish--for nine hours in a row. It was a good paper (I earned an A and a note about the careful exegesis of Kant's first critique), and a feat of academic attention unsurpassed even by college standards (and a near-constant pacification by KUVO's May membership drive). It even beat the time I wrote two 25 pagers for Dr. Terry Schmidt in the space of 36 hours. Too bad none of that is kicking in right now. I'm writing a term paper for my Film Theory class (or, more accurately, I'm currently procrastinating on said paper by blogging), and it just works out that I have so much material that I don't quite know where or how to start this paper. AV says wisely, "Start with the first thing." But even my take on the first thing is clumsy.
In my later academic life, I'm in principle undaunted by the idea of writing 10-12 pages. It's the in practice--i.e., the actual doing of the writing--that has me stuck. Tricky how that works. I'm not sure that what I'm feeling right now qualifies as a case of writer's block. Maybe it's just writer's overwhelmence.
When it comes to writing I generally adopt the perspective that the writing "happens when it happens," and that forcing the idea to fruition just doesn't work. Additionally, I no longer pull all-nighters. Artificial deadlines and pressure I've managed to produce myself are my way of fighting the tendency to wait until the very last minute to start something, but if today's any evidence, this tactic doesn't work so well. (And the question does arise: when does "waiting the idea out" turn into avoiding work?)
One interesting challenge presented by this paper in particular, is the stretch I've made with the overall idea. I'm pretty sure that my Master's Thesis for this program will incorporate the main idea this paper will generate, and I've already thought of the potential approaches and modifications to the central idea my work in next semester's Introduction to Phenomenology class will generate. That is exciting--a multivalent analysis of a single problem or issue--and the excitement of interdisciplinary work (which I had, until very recently, forgotten). I'm so excited about the paper I've not yet written that I can't write the paper. How is that for a nerd problem?
In my later academic life, I'm in principle undaunted by the idea of writing 10-12 pages. It's the in practice--i.e., the actual doing of the writing--that has me stuck. Tricky how that works. I'm not sure that what I'm feeling right now qualifies as a case of writer's block. Maybe it's just writer's overwhelmence.
When it comes to writing I generally adopt the perspective that the writing "happens when it happens," and that forcing the idea to fruition just doesn't work. Additionally, I no longer pull all-nighters. Artificial deadlines and pressure I've managed to produce myself are my way of fighting the tendency to wait until the very last minute to start something, but if today's any evidence, this tactic doesn't work so well. (And the question does arise: when does "waiting the idea out" turn into avoiding work?)
One interesting challenge presented by this paper in particular, is the stretch I've made with the overall idea. I'm pretty sure that my Master's Thesis for this program will incorporate the main idea this paper will generate, and I've already thought of the potential approaches and modifications to the central idea my work in next semester's Introduction to Phenomenology class will generate. That is exciting--a multivalent analysis of a single problem or issue--and the excitement of interdisciplinary work (which I had, until very recently, forgotten). I'm so excited about the paper I've not yet written that I can't write the paper. How is that for a nerd problem?
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