Whatever problems one may have with the “Allegory of the Cave” from Plato’s Republic, this claymation is pretty damned compelling: I still have a measure of distrust for the notion’s scarier uses in getting people to believe funny notions about the world with no evidence save testimony (someone is always willing to claim that he has his own special access to ultimate truth, and [fill in pitifully unimaginative proposition here]; but being aware of the limitations of your own perceptions is a good thing. It applies to things like culture, or even relationships, not just to metaphysics and ontology and …
Category: PERSONAL
On This Day…
I have a friend who was born on the same day Elvis died. I think it was actually on the same exact day that the King shuffled off this mortal coil. I can’t brag of any such simultanaeities, but I discovered a while back who I share my birthday with: On March 4th, the following people of interest (to me) died: William Carlos Williams, the modernist poet Gary Gygax, the creator of the RPG game and specifically of the Dungeons & Dragons RPG game Meanwhile, the following interesting people were born on my birthday: Antonio Vivaldi (yes, the guy who …
To Do, New
In my last personal post, I mentioned how I was focusing on three things this semester: time management expectations management novel-drafting I mentioned how I need to get all three in the bag if I’m going to fulfill my goals for the semester. Allow me to back up a bit to explain. I came to Korea, in part, because I knew that in academic jobs, I could have more hours free during the day or week. This has materialized in a half-completed draft of one novel, a completed (first, roughish) draft of a second novel, and nothing else in long-form …
Back
I am. Back in Korea. And will be for a few years, off and on of course. Long story, buy me a beer and I’ll tell you it. Or I may parcel it out in bits here, if I ever get the time to blog more often. Rome was outstanding, and I have places to recommend, which I’ll write up sometime this coming week. Hong Kong was a mad rush, and I have only one or two places to recommend, but they’re very good ones. I slept too little, including close to no sleep for about 40 hours the last …
Library Access?
UPDATE: Got ’em. Thanks to the several people (Claire, Tinatsu) who emailed them to me while I wasn’t looking! ORIGINAL POST: If anyone out there has access to either or both of these articles, I’d be very grateful for a copy. (My own employer’s library being, still, unequipped with any serious research access for Anglophones.) Drevdahl, John E., and Raymond B. Cattell. “Personality and creativity in artists and writers.” Journal of Clinical Psychology. Volume 14, Issue 2, pages 107–111, April 1958. (LINK.) Kaun, David E. “Writers die young: The impact of work and leisure on longevity.” Journal of Economic Psychology Volume 12, Issue 2, …
With Gods Like These…
I got the oddest comment on the last post I made. The content was unrelated to my post, but instructed readers to Google a few keywords leading straight to the comment-poster’s own blog, which was about… Er, well, I’ll let the email I just sent him speak for itself. Dear Mr. Hagedorn, Just curious what the connection is, in your head, between my review of a few recent movies — none of them theological in nature at all — and your inane theory that the real sin that got Adam and Eve kicked out of Eden was… (drum roll)… anal …
Symphony of Science
This is for you geeks out there who love Carl Sagan. (Found via a Youtube video somewhere on the blog of my crit groupmate/friend Chris Kammerud, whose blog I finally got around to trawling through for tasty links… of which there are a bunch, so it’s worth a visit; I guarantee that it will rather balance out the pretty negative view of Korea that seems to have accreted around my blog.)
Happy New Year!
Happy New Year, everyone. I got a call from a former student the other day who was talking about the job she is working now, and how miserable it is making her, and how she’s not sure whether it’s better to quit in a year’s time (for the sake of her resume) or now (for the sake of her boss who won’t be able to retrain someone in time for the big project that will be thrown into crisis if she quits by then). After carefully telling her that I thought she had other options in terms of income (she …
The Year in Review
I don’t think I have the strength to write a whole year in review, because I ended up staying up all night to finalize my grading, and then waking up early because I hadn’t heard back from the office assistant I emailed the gradesheets to (for system entry). I’ll give it a stab, though. Let’s see:
A Merry Midwinter To You…
Yeah, yeah, I actually call it Xmas when I am talking aloud, but it’s the principle of the thing. In any case, I hope your holiday is going nicely, dear reader–or, since it’s likely you’ll read this later, then I hope it went nicely. Rest assured mine is, has been, will continue to be, some last-minute grading aside. You heard me right. Last-minute grading. And there’s more left, but that’s not for now. Be warm, be happy, be wonderful.