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?

Vancouver pics

Nathan

Bring on the snow!

Oh so friendly pigeons

Yummy treats

Crazy guy on a unicycle

Love those outfits

O Canada...

This Labor Day (or Labour Day) weekend, my husband and I went to Vancouver B.C. for a much needed vacation. The weather was beautiful, the people were fairly nice, and the food was excellent. (pics to follow soon)

The one bizarre note comes from a morning of people/traffic watching on Burrard and Robson st. Apparently there is an rule up in Canada that buses can run red lights if (a) the light turned red less than two seconds before, and (b) if they honk profusely all the way through the intersection. So, if you need to drive in downtown Vancouver during the morning/early afternoon hours, you are forewarned.

Dancing in all its forms cannot be excluded from the curriculum of all noble education; dancing with the feet, with ideas, with words, and, need I add that one must also be able to dance with the pen? ~Friedrich Nietzsche

Knowledge is elusive and volatile; it escapes measurement. That's why the conquering god of that era was Hermes, inventor of all trickery, god of crossroads and thieves. He was also the creator of writing, which is the art of evasion and dissimulation and a navigation that carries us to the end of all boundaries, where everything dissolves into the horizon, where cranes lift stones from the ground and weapons transform life into death, and water pumps make heavy matter float, and philosophy deludes and deceives...

~ Umberto Eco in Foucault's Pendulum