I love cats, especially lol cats.

Three things about London

1. London has a lot of pedestrians. A lot. There are so many that at each crosswalk no one really bothers with waiting for pesky things like crosswalk lights. There are almost always little handy islands between opposing forces of traffic, which makes it quite convenient to run across one section, wait for traffic to die down the other direction, and then continue one's journey. If cars are backed up through a traffic light, the pedestrians will cross in front of them until there's space for them to go forward. The drivers don't seem too bothered by this (unless some really egregious blockage occurs), but then again, how could they? There are almost always enough pedestrians to swarm any resisting car, maim, and kill.
2. So far, it's been interesting to see what restaurant owners at various touristy areas do when faced with conditions such as Americans, large crowds, disturbances, etc... I certainly hope I've seen the worst of it, and thus will try to avoid blatantly stereotyping in my mind, but the various owners so far definitely seem to be in the "get 'em in, get 'em out" mentality, which makes sense, if more than half of your clientele will never make a repeat visit. We were at a restaurant (that shall remain nameless) by several known landmarks and were seated outside. The food was quite good, so I'll definitely recommend that part if pressed. But it was interesting to watch the main greeter and his attitude towards tourists vs. non-tourists. Locals he would joke with, shake their hands, share a decidedly "British" eye-roll when something wasn't too their liking (a brilliant beat boxer did a short set, and this pair of blonde ladies left irritated... seriously? An amazing artist shows up for free, and you're going to roll your eyes and leave? All right then), but Americans (not just us) were somehow just a little bit underneath his gaze, if you know what I mean. I'm not really irritated or anything, as I think it would be hard to maintain a completely genuine demeanor in (a) such a crowded, hectic environment with (b) such inconsistent and often loud crowds. But it was interesting to see such a marked difference.
3. British crisps are definitely better than our chips. The packaging looks almost exactly like Lays back home, but the crisps are lighter, thinner, well, crispier.

He posits the rise of something he calls "peep culture," in which "life is lived on constant record because you never know when you're going to want to be able to rewind something, see it again, confront a family member, show it to the police, sell it to the highest bidder, or post it on your blog." Or, more succinctly: "We all have lives worthy of watching. We all have lives worthy of selling." These are the right questions to be asking: What does it mean for society, for human nature, when the camera is always on? Is this going to change the way we relate to each other? Our expectations for daily interaction? When almost everyone tweets every thought, who will need to enter a wooden booth and tell a priest what's going on?

~ Stephen Reiss' Review of THE PEEP DIARIES: How We're Learning to Love Watching Ourselves and Our Neighbors by Hal Niedzviecki

time

We need 28 hour days. There is simply not enough time in the day to sleep, eat, think (productively), comment on student papers, read, study, plan, commute, do laundry, check facebook, watch the news, write papers, talk with friends, take care of family, laugh, drink tea, and write blog posts. Something has to give, and it unfortunately for the past few months has been blogging. I find it funny that it was my interest in online discourse that propelled me into grad school, that I lost said interest temporarily in favor of kinesthetics/embodied learning/rhetorical theory/humor as rhetoric/etc, and that I am now teaching a computer integrated classroom and am now busy thinking of the possibilities for pedagogy and the internet once again. If I manage to maintain this interest in spite of everything else, I must then of course find a way to find time to blog - how can I profess to be interested in online discourse if I do not practice it myself?

Education, memory itself, is but the recapitulation of all the moments of genius in that culture. Education is always breaking down old categories and recombining them in better ways. And who has a better memory, strictly speaking, that the catatonic who resurrects some part of the past in all its completeness, annihilating the present moment utterly? I might go so far as to say that thought itself is a disease of the brain, a degenerative condition of matter.

~ excerpt from Camp Concentration by Thomas M. Disch, p 59

snow days

As the local news media has been inundated with pictures of the miraculous appearance of snow in December, I will not bore my viewing audience by adding any here. In an unrelated note, I have misplaced my camera.

So, I will attempt to paint a word picture. Nathan and I, bundled up like two Alaskan snow babies, trudged down to Juanita Bay Park through the icy-crusted coffee-tinted snow. Upon our arrival, we were greeted by a MASS of seagulls, eagerly looking over our persons for a morsel of bread. Two trips to Walgreens later, we busily crumbled and distributed 3 loaves of white and wheat bread (not necessarily in that order) to the hungry birds. (For those of you angered by this blatant waste of food, do keep in mind that the lake has been covered in snow and partially frozen since last Mon).

Note: Seagulls have very sharp beaks. There was blood in the snow by the time we were done (from other seagulls, not us). But, they made up for their sadistic, parasitic ways by being highly entertaining - they quickly realized that instead of scrabbling for muddy crumbs on the ground, circling my head and waiting for a large chunk to fly their way was the better option.

There was also a crowd of ducks that mainly stayed around my feet, stepping on me repeatedly, and a gaggle of comparatively sedate geese whose long necks proved to be a disadvantage in getting to the food quickly.

I will post pics if I get to go again tomorrow, and if I find my camera.

Thanks

I'm a bit late with my post on things I'm thankful for, but that does not lessen the impact these often simple, often unnoticed things have on my life.

Nathan
Mom
Angela
Dad
my health
my teeth
my job
my writing ability
teaching
Blush (my cat, not the makeup)
good food
food period
clean water
money in the bank
warm sweaters
dance classes
free time, as rare as it is
cooking with family
various technologies that make my life easier albeit tech-dependent
the Bible and time to study
time to read for myself
did I mention my health?
amazing performances like the one from Crystal Pite last weekend
my students
living in the often wet yet beautiful Pac NW

America has changed a lot in the past few years.

A sampling of nature's glory.

in a middle of a room
stands a suicide
sniffing a Paper rose
smiling to a self

"somewhere it is Spring and sometimes
people are in real:imagine
somewhere real flowers,but
I can't imagine real flowers for if I

could,they would somehow
not Be real"
(so he smiles
smiling)"but I will not

everywhere be real to
you in a moment"
The is blond
with small hands

"& everything is easier
than I had guessed everything would
be;even remembering the way who
looked at whom first,anyhow dancing"

(a moon swims out of a cloud
a clock strikes midnight
a finger pulls a trigger
a bird flies into a mirror)

~ E.E. Cummings

grad school

For the last few weeks, I've been teaching freshman English and reading Marx, Freud, and Nietzsche. Surprisingly, my sleep level has remained roughly the same - I've instantly become much better at time management. I do think I will have to become even better come next quarter when both my classes are going to be rather theoretical (this quarter I have one theory and one practicum class).

I've also been able to take about 1-2 dance classes a week - not much, but I'm glad for now I can keep my physical muscles flexing along with my intellectual ones.

What is a rhetorical question?