You know. You know better. You know most people would rather eat what they always eat, think what they’ve always thought, drink what they’ve always drunk, read what they’ve always read. You know that so many people have no idea how interesting a world of diversity and difference is. They say “Everyone does it this way,” whether explicitly or implicitly, because they wish everyone was just as boring as they are. So many people — is it wrong to say most? I’m not sure it is — couldn’t be bothered. They’d rather just stay in their rut. It’s comfortable, it’s …
Month: December 2009
Question for Y’All , and a Little Manifesto
Is it just my imagination, or do administrative bureaucrats at institutions of higher education in Korea seem to be the sort of people who, through sheer incompetence, simply got shuffled from position to position until they ended up behind a desk? Sometimes the people sorting bottles in community centers, working jobs created especially for people with special needs come to min, actually. Test For Theorem: Step 1: Submit an abstract for a conference. Step 2: In the process of writing the paper, realize you had it wrong in your abstract, and change the scope, content, and thrust of the paper. …
Bubble, Bubble, Toil and Trouble
Okay, this has reached the point of weirdness. My Coffee Stout is still fermenting. Or, rather, once again it has begun fermenting energetically, which is, I think, a fair bit weirder than “still.” I started this one beer on the 17th of November, which puts us at just over two weeks. That in itself isn’t quite so weird, but consider this: it pretty much stopped fermenting after about five days or so. I racked it to a carboy for secondary fermentation. There it stayed until it reached about 1.010, which was the gravity the last time I checked it. I …
Dear Young Master Fancyhair
Dear Young Master Fancyhair Who Was In the Men’s Toilets Beside My Office at 15:43 Today, You’re a disgusting pig. I don’t care how much money you spent on your designer glasses frames. I don’t give a damn how much time you spent assembling your wardrobe or preening your (sadly, rather goofy looking) hair this morning. I couldn’t care less how many hours you practiced that saunter of yours, either. If you take a crap and don’t wash your hands, you are a pig. Done. End of story. Finito. There’s no excuse. You’re not in that big a hurry. You’re …
General Update
Work: I am almost completely caught up on my grading. (The only things I haven’t graded are the reaction papers I was handed last night. I do, however, also need to tabulate participation scores for student discussions — their peers have ranked them; I think I can get a trust office assistant to do most of the data entry, though, which is nice.)”I am almost completely caught up on my grading” doesn’t sound impressive, I know, but usually at this point in the semester, I have a couple of huge piles to get through. I got a bunch done on …