My Own Thoughts

Grading out the wazoo. Took today off. Spent 15 minutes decluttering the house. Kitchen is picked up but didn’t make much of a dent elsewhere. I’m stressing big time. I have about 20 hours of grading. We’re going to Celtic Christmas tomorrow. That will be fun. So I have Saturday. Then Sunday I will be [...]

xylograph: a print made from a wood block, or a wood engraving xerography: method of reproducing illustrations, text, etc., electrostatically, by attraction of ink powder to positively charged sheet of selenium metal. xoanon primitive wooden statue overlaid with ivory and gold xylopyrography engraving designs on wood with hot poker xanthocroid: a fair haired, pale skinned [...]

a= Angie and Amy, two of the best friends ever b= Beverly c= children d= Dad, dog, Serenity Jane Avatar e= E, my eldest f= family g= God h= home i= Indian heritage and jewelry j= Jesus, my sister J k= Kim, K, where I live l= love m= M, my youngest, mothers, especially mine [...]

I am in a time of stress. So is R. That’s not good. We’re supposed to take turns being stressed and not both be stressed at the same time. I have TONS of grading to do. I also have an abstract for a chapter to write. And a book to review. And an article for [...]

Spiked has an article on the history of Malthusians. Great stuff. Of course, I’m an anti-malthusian, so I would say so. But there is history, census data from a thousand years, and some good quotes. Plus there are some good arguments, too. And the third and main mistake Malthusians always make is to underestimate the [...]

Thank you, God, for these things which begin with U: Unicorn stories. my uncles (Gene, Jimmy, Frank, Lon, Guy, and Hal) my great-uncles (Cleo and Ward- There are two others but one went missing after WWII on the trip home and I never met the other one.) Umbrellas, especially huge ones that keep me from [...]

I will be teaching second summer session for Business at my college. Good money. Wish class ended earlier, though, so I’d have more of a break between semesters. But at least I am able to go on my summer conferences.

I have SO MUCH grading to do. Next semester Freshman Composition is doing their research papers first. It’ll be a true hurdle, but it will be well worth the effort to get them out of the way before the end of the semester. Bus Writ: 20 8-page papers Soph Writ: 40 15-page papers Fresh Comp: [...]

German History doc on new technology. “Uncle Gustav owns a lamp that you can put on the table lengthways and nothing catches fire.” One day my brother came home from the city with these words, and to me they announced for the first time the advent of electric lighting. We had grown up with kerosene [...]

Bishop Hill blog has a run down of potentially or should-be damaging emails. I am only quoting those which offend me as an academic particularly. It all offends me. Reaction to McIntyre’s 2005 paper in GRL. Mann has challenged GRL editor-in-chief over the publication. Mann is concerned about the connections of the paper’s editor James [...]

We have been reading on this in my freshman class. As usual, most of the class is “Yes, global warming is a problem that humans have caused.” Do you think some of those leaked emails would change their minds? The leaked data is real. I don’t think the guy understood what he was admitting. Hockey [...]

The Anchoress on climate change. I will be ashamed if my readers did not already know (as we have discussed for years) that the Global Warming Hoax was/is, as we have always know it to be, a hoax. An effort to defraud nations and assist in the tireless (and creative) leftist international movement Or, that [...]

Thanks, God, for the following (among many others) that begin with Q. Quirks of my friends, questions that show my students are learning, queries from old friends, quantum physics since it shows we don’t know everything, quarters because they are shiny and let me buy sodas, quizzes because I am a navel gazer. Quilts to [...]

A Harding College short.

Or at least a version of this song. It was a marching song when he was in ROTC. Obviously sung to a very different beat.

I was in a perfectly good mood, not great, but good. Then I got home from going to the grocery store because my son has “no food” in the house. I can’t even fit all the groceries in the two pantries because they are so full of food. The freezer is full now. And at [...]

From the Boston Globe comes an interesting article, “The Curious Economic Effects of Religion.” Their results show a strong correlation between economic growth and certain shifts in beliefs, though only in developing countries. Most strikingly, if belief in hell jumps up sharply while actual church attendance stays flat, it correlates with economic growth. Belief in [...]

Things I am thankful for that begin with M. Micah. My mom. Mothers in general. Julian of Norwich’s designation of Christ as mother. Macaroni and cheese. Mathematics majors (like Elijah). Mornings. Mashed potatoes made by grandmothers who are willing to peel ten pounds of taters every morning for their grandbabies. Mashed potatoes made by my [...]

Finest of all things I have left is the light of the sun, Next to that the brilliant stars and the face of the moon, Cucumbers in their season, too, and apples and pears. Praxilla (Greek, 5th century BC)