tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-39685602012-01-18T15:22:52.078-08:00New Donestre Social ClubWhere even monsters that eat your body and weep over your head are a part of the better world in birth.Dr. Donestrehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01639456039232565980noreply@blogger.comBlogger1801100tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3968560.post-86454234267615410102011-07-26T06:09:00.000-07:002011-07-26T06:51:58.109-07:00The Archival Twin DilemmaNo, we're not rehashing old episodes of Doctor Who—which, thank god, because no one needs the Sixth Doctor inflicted on them. Although, come to think of it, today's discussion does feel a bit like you're being choked by a man in a ridiculous motley jacket. That is, what we're looking at is that moment when you find your scholastic twin in the archives.I'm talking about Dr. Donestrehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01639456039232565980noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3968560.post-57695529791219934462011-07-22T08:26:00.000-07:002011-07-26T06:54:18.513-07:00A Meditation on Place and GrowthIn preparation for the fall, I've been reading the U of #'s One Book One Community choice, Colin Beavan's No Impact Man. One of Beavan's themes is, for lack of a better phrase, "lifestyle sustainability" (my words, not his). That is, he's asking why we in the West/North/United States are obsessed with a consumerist lifestyle that brings happiness to almost no-one Dr. Donestrehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01639456039232565980noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3968560.post-90157729210854571062011-07-19T08:44:00.000-07:002011-07-19T09:08:12.989-07:00Reboot, 2011-style: with sassy Texas sauce.Sorry, where was I? Okay, so in an effort to return to more of an online presence, and to keep these damn spammers out of my blog, I'm restarting the New Donestre Social Club. Here's what I've been doing since . . . 2009? Oh, [expletive deleted].Okay, first the good news: I did finish my dissertation and pass my defense, and took the long walk across theDr. Donestrehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01639456039232565980noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3968560.post-33484160589815783102009-10-04T07:15:00.000-07:002009-10-04T08:15:26.210-07:00Brief ReturnWell, it's been a busy three months. Since July, I've written two more chapters: a completely new one on Pearl, and a revision of an older paper on Wynnere and Wastoure. Both were more of a slog than I'd expected them to be, though for different reasons. Pearl kept feeling wrong, for some reason, despite that fact that I was connecting ideology, religion, and utopia pretty well, and Dr. Donestrehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01639456039232565980noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3968560.post-72435614222442657552009-07-02T07:33:00.000-07:002009-07-02T07:45:13.654-07:00Milestone AchievedI turned in the House of Fame chapter on Tuesday, right on time. Let's hope it's right on argument, as well. After that, I'm going to take a little breathing room before I start in on Pearl, and I'm thinking I'll spend it on . . . well, I don't know about you, but when I'm doing research, I tend to pick up books—stuff people reference, books that sound good, even ones that were Dr. Donestrehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01639456039232565980noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3968560.post-40002849681847147212009-06-24T06:51:00.000-07:002011-07-26T07:12:20.341-07:00"I know what I am, and what I may be if I choose . . ."Two stories about House of Fame and my dissertation.First of all, my transformation into a medievalist continues apace. I was reading the House the other day and reread the part where the narrator describes Josephus as "Him of secte Saturnyne" (1432). At this point, I briefly thought "Why Saturnine?" only to answer my own question with "Dr. Donestrehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01639456039232565980noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3968560.post-55047480353683824132009-04-30T11:43:00.001-07:002009-04-30T12:14:16.072-07:00Back from Inner SpaceSo, here I am, back again. It's been a long and busy semester, as the cliché goes. I passed my Oral Comprehensive Exam on the 15th of April, which is nice, as I am now ABD. For that exam, I wrote and defended what amounts to the rough draft of my dissertation's theory chapter, in which I explained what I meant by "medieval utopian function" by going through some general/Dr. Donestrehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01639456039232565980noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3968560.post-65320364747204996832009-01-23T11:07:00.000-08:002009-01-23T11:22:06.612-08:00The following essay first appeared in my dissertation committee's inboxes in November 2008. It is a response to the rather open prompt of "write about boundaries in four medieval works." The footnotes are now properly linked back to where you were in the text. Enjoy, if you want; discuss, if you like. Negotiating Time’s Boundaries: Identity, History, and Utopia in Four Medieval Works Modern Dr. Donestrehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01639456039232565980noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3968560.post-56743221951607896752009-01-19T09:59:00.000-08:002009-01-19T10:20:00.043-08:00And Back AgainHello all. I'm recovered sufficiently from the Written Comps (which I was told I'd passed, finally, about a month after I'd finished them) and from the holidays (which I may have passed), and the work staring me in the face has gotten large enough that I can ignore it by blogging. So, I'm back.I haven't quite decided if I'll post the essays I wrote for comps. I think I might, just Dr. Donestrehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01639456039232565980noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3968560.post-13737052683136360882008-11-17T08:01:00.000-08:002011-07-26T07:13:02.670-07:00Comps Round One: OverI have survived written comps, although I have yet to hear back from all of my committee. We do exams in two stages in my local English department: a 72-hour take-home written exam and, later, an oral defense of a 25-page paper and its attendant reading list.[1] I finished the first part of this journey at noon on the 7th of November.My exam had three possible questions, fromDr. Donestrehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01639456039232565980noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3968560.post-24309365128192552992008-10-10T06:45:00.000-07:002008-10-10T06:52:08.187-07:00Hiatus 2: Electric BoogalooWow. I never thought a con post would end up producing more discussion than, say, anything I've said in the past year or so; I guess that shows what I know. That said, I'm going to officially put this blog on hiatus—not because of the comment stream, but because I've got written comps in 28 days (which means I need to go in hospital right now and wake up on the day of Dr. Donestrehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01639456039232565980noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3968560.post-74665590638285693612008-10-05T06:45:00.000-07:002008-10-05T07:21:39.036-07:00"St. Erkenwald is so hot right now": A SEMA ReportWell, I'm back from SEMA, and I had a pretty good time. There was a little mix-up about registration, which turned out to have been on the University end and not the conference end, and as a result, CEH and I get to have a nice chat with C-- A-- tomorrow or Tuesday about accounting for my presence at the conference. My paper went well, I think, Dr. Donestrehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01639456039232565980noreply@blogger.com22tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3968560.post-71905512659637890902008-09-15T18:48:00.000-07:002008-09-15T18:56:19.723-07:00Nunc etiam, o amiciIn other news, I've set the weekend of the 8th of November (i.e. noon on Friday the 7th to noon on Monday the 10th) to do my written comps. That should be enough time to finish that booklist. I've also finished:The Owl and the NightingaleFredric Jameson. The Political Unconscious.Patricia Clare Ingham. “Making All Things New: Past, Progress, and the Promise of Utopia.” Karma Dr. Donestrehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01639456039232565980noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3968560.post-70428059227921549492008-09-15T09:35:00.000-07:002008-09-15T10:07:45.803-07:00From The Didactic EdgeSo we're almost a month into the semester here at UAF, and this time around I'm teaching Honors World Literature to 1650. Ideally, this means I get a batch of students who are "smarter" than regular students; whether it actually means that I'm not sure. I will say that discussions have been better than usual, as have papers. I'll get to the latter in a minute, but first, Dr. Donestrehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01639456039232565980noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3968560.post-73636961485073171832008-09-03T11:18:00.000-07:002008-09-03T11:45:16.990-07:00Update on Reading ListThe score is still Jacob 2, List 3 in the first half.As of this moment, I have read (or re-read) the following:Caedmon’s HymnBede’s Story of Caedmons’ HymnThe Battle of MaldonGenesis A and BDream of the RoodGuthlac AThe PhoenixThe WandererThe SeafarerThe Wife’s LamentDeorThe Gifts of MenThe Fortunes of MenCotton Vitellius A.xv (Nowell Codex only):Wonders of the EastThe Dr. Donestrehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01639456039232565980noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3968560.post-31470527454255363852008-08-16T06:22:00.000-07:002008-08-18T19:05:57.212-07:00Another Book for the ListI woke up this morning to Jeffrey Cohen's post on the end of Carolyn Dinshaw's Getting Medieval, and realized that what she says is kind of what I wanted to say in my dissertation (who needs coffee now?). I should preface this by saying that, as the title indicates, I have not yet read Dinshaw's book, and so this post is a reaction to Jeffery's post more than it is to Dr. Donestrehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01639456039232565980noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3968560.post-12577374784916441502008-08-05T07:22:00.000-07:002008-08-05T08:31:09.918-07:00Dissertation Interlude: The End of Utopia.I've been reading outside my comps list this week, because I finished two things on it and thought I deserved a break. I'm not sure Russell Jacoby's The End of Utopia constitutes a "break," since it is about utopianism, specifically the lack of it in late-20th-century liberal discourse. Jacoby is righteously angry at the slow transition from utopianism toDr. Donestrehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01639456039232565980noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3968560.post-64342620963900390682008-07-18T10:26:00.002-07:002008-07-21T07:22:47.077-07:00And then this happened . . .So, as noted at #4 in the last post, I'm reading A. C. Spearing's Textual Subjectivity, because I think it might be useful for The Dissertation, and I need something to do while my students are taking their Awesome Test. And I'm trucking along through the book, reading some intersting things about narrator theory and subjectivity, and then I hit this:Modern readings ofDr. Donestrehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01639456039232565980noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3968560.post-91663027877689126122008-07-18T07:49:00.000-07:002008-07-21T07:20:43.471-07:00The Wossname of Small ThingsA few things:1) I am no further on my reading list than I was last week. Teaching every day is beginning to seem less and less like a good idea. (What administrator thought years ago that two six-week summer sessions was better than one 12-week summer session?)2) On that note, however, I am giving a midterm today, and one that has garnered me the first compliment I Dr. Donestrehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01639456039232565980noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3968560.post-15242054937851477782008-07-14T07:29:00.000-07:002008-07-14T07:52:17.954-07:00Atemporal musingsI suppose I've fallen off everyone's blogroll, since I post so rarely, but I do keep up with what the neighbors are saying. Today, for instance, I read a fascinating post by Eileen Joy over at ITM. Responding to comments on medievalism made by Stephanie Trigg at this year's Leeds conference, Eileen implies that the false medievalism/medieval reality dichotomy leads us to believe Dr. Donestrehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01639456039232565980noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3968560.post-77565682174462391312008-06-05T12:09:00.000-07:002008-06-05T12:47:39.235-07:00Checking InSo, I have a dissertation reading list now, and it's ginormous. I've got some Old English stuff, some Middle English stuff, and some critical stuff, and no, you can't see the list, because . . . well, see previous.I have, however, finished the Old English stuff, with the exception of the Nowell Codex, which I have a) agreed to read all of, and b) won't read until I can read all of it, Dr. Donestrehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01639456039232565980noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3968560.post-9297500776386344172008-04-20T14:10:00.000-07:002008-04-20T14:19:52.456-07:00Unknown Kadath . . . known?We interrupt your medieval minds for pure madness. So, in the middle of rereading both Lovecraft and the Theses on Feuerbach, I ran across this story from what I'm sure is a reputable news source, "Laura Lee's Conversation for Exploration":http://www.lauralee.com/news/kadath.htmYes, that's right: the government doesn't want you to see the latest pictures from an Dr. Donestrehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01639456039232565980noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3968560.post-77451827724986641352008-04-19T09:51:00.001-07:002008-04-19T09:57:52.375-07:00Little ThingsI finished a draft of my Medievalism/Nostalgia/The Supernatural/Green Arrow paper on Wednesday, and it's sat on my desk since. Today, I re-read it, and while it's still rough, it's not as bad as I thought it would be or as those solidii would indicate. Now, of course, it's time to print it off, let it sit on my desk until next Wednesday, and see if it's improved any.Meanwhile, one ofDr. Donestrehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01639456039232565980noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3968560.post-76849146432153530492008-04-13T15:30:00.000-07:002008-04-13T15:38:58.099-07:00All Up On Appleton HouseYeah, that was a lame title, but it does introduce the fact that I spent most of today working on a lecture about Marvell's famous country-house poem. It's a great lecture, too: it introduces the Civil War, it talks about Marvell himself, the genre of country-house poems, and then goes on for about six pages of textual readings. I approach "Upon Appleton House" as a kind Dr. Donestrehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01639456039232565980noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3968560.post-88852586330938652202008-04-09T14:27:00.000-07:002008-04-09T14:44:58.723-07:00Long Time GoneYou know, things have been really busy this semester, and when they haven't been busy, I haven't wanted to blog. So, here's what's been going on:I've been working on a project for MKB's Culture of Longing seminar (the book version of which will be coming to stores near you soon) in which I try to argue that Green Arrow is not a nostalgic reification of "the medieval," but is in factDr. Donestrehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01639456039232565980noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3968560.post-84453930242116986542008-01-27T20:47:00.000-08:002008-01-27T20:53:25.532-08:00Late Night at the Social ClubI'm done with my talk on academic writing. It's basically a paraphrase of Gerald Graff and Cathy Birkenstein's They Say/I Say, but with a little of my voice in it and of course nowhere near as entertaining or engaging. They'll hate it, but I don't care. They'll be learning.I should have been in bed an hour ago; I should also have been done with The Protestant Ethic. Dr. Donestrehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01639456039232565980noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3968560.post-16897645484375618662008-01-27T13:03:00.000-08:002008-01-27T20:55:35.118-08:00Infelix MeI've spent the past two weeks sick with the 97th Annual Departmental Flu, which I blame entirely on a certain colleague who just got back from England. While this isn't that bad—and I'm mostly over it—it did cause me to royally flub my Lysistrata lecture on Thursday. Curiously, it was only that lecture, out of the eight I've had to do in the past fortnight, but perhaps it was because I Dr. Donestrehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01639456039232565980noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3968560.post-58779557033014696292008-01-18T14:37:00.000-08:002008-01-18T14:57:38.988-08:00First Week AnnoyancesI'm teaching two classes this term: one section of World Literature to 1650 and one section of Survey of English Literature to 1700 (really to 1660). I don't mind teaching either class, really; in fact, I think the first "real" lectures in both classes went pretty well (the background to Gilgamesh and the "conversion" of Britannia into Anglo-Saxon England). What I mind is Dr. Donestrehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01639456039232565980noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3968560.post-8153040599355480992008-01-11T07:55:00.000-08:002008-01-11T08:11:42.632-08:00Unhealthy BehaviorAll right, I'm back. Upcoming this year: another attempt at publication; SEMA in the fall (here's hoping!); and oh, my comprehensive exams, also in the fall. Sheesh.Right now, I'm teaching a section of World Lit I and a section of Survey of English Lit I. Essentially it's the same schedule They wanted to saddle me with last summer, but this time I've taught both courses and haveDr. Donestrehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01639456039232565980noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3968560.post-56639479543723478952007-11-25T15:31:00.000-08:002007-11-25T15:43:18.533-08:00Comments About UtopiaAnd I'm back. I've brought with me the current draft of my conclusion to the paper for discourse analysis; though it's rough, and may cause contention, I post it here to see if there's any reaction at all.The goal of this project is to examine the use of "utopia" by a few medievalists. As I note in the essay, the articles I have examined here constitute a small selection of Dr. Donestrehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01639456039232565980noreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3968560.post-78846297639094225582007-10-28T16:26:00.000-07:002007-10-28T16:32:51.765-07:00Blog HiatusJust to make it official, I'm putting this blog on temporary hiatus. Right now, between grading and being on the cusp of research, I'm too busy to blog.I promise I'll be back in a few weeks, perhaps by or before the end of November, with plenty of strange and fascinating thoughts on discourses, utopias, medieval things, and how much my students annoy me.See you in a few weeks!Dr. Donestrehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01639456039232565980noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3968560.post-72744368133611832562007-09-30T08:35:00.000-07:002007-09-30T12:25:10.184-07:00De realitatis falsisI'm teaching composition this semester, and at the moment I am grading their first papers, which are to varying degrees an analytical explication of the elements of short fiction. Most of them are all right, but I've come across a disturbing pattern of error in not only their prose but also their thinking: several of them have proposed that something is a "false reality" or Dr. Donestrehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01639456039232565980noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3968560.post-37439614325049347672007-09-20T11:30:00.000-07:002007-09-30T08:39:22.060-07:00Gonzo Journalism ScienceAside from everything else in my life being about normal (behind on reading, behind on projects, behind on grading, life, love, and happiness—hey, it is grad school), I now have a new hero. See, I work in the University's Writing Center sometimes, and today I met with a master's candidate to set up times to work over his thesis. The kicker?This guy blows up chickens for a Dr. Donestrehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01639456039232565980noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3968560.post-47613981640697963222007-09-16T06:55:00.000-07:002007-09-16T07:19:59.760-07:00Project UpdatesI've begun stabbing blindly at writing toward the Utopian survey project. In the course of this research, however, I turned up last Autumn's issue of the JMEMS, which was Karma Lochrie's special Utopian issue. There are a few good moments in that issue, and in Lochrie's essay especially but I haven't been impressed by the scholarship at all. Indeed, at the risk of being that Dr. Donestrehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01639456039232565980noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3968560.post-55243106220985015322007-09-02T11:44:00.000-07:002007-09-02T12:20:17.922-07:00Blog Is Not LostNo, I haven't disappeared: it's just been a busy two weeks, is all. I'm back to teaching composition for the first time in a year, and it's both refreshing and frustrating. I have rather enjoyed teaching literature, being able to come in and just say "What is this about? How does it work? Does it even work at all?" and while one can do that with the composition courses, I also Dr. Donestrehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01639456039232565980noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3968560.post-62612784098815476822007-08-16T07:46:00.000-07:002007-08-16T07:55:39.732-07:00A shiny penny for the first person to title this postI read my evaluations from the survey course this week. There were high marks overall, with a lot of praise. The lowest marks were in "keeps student attention" or somesuch, but I'm not terribly worried, as even those were no lower than three on a scale of five. They did suggest I try to make my lectures more interesting, which I intend to do Dr. Donestrehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01639456039232565980noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3968560.post-25091443803926197662007-08-08T12:03:00.000-07:002007-08-08T12:34:41.038-07:00Utopian MusingsUtopia is the hope that the scattered fragments of goodthat we come across from time to time in our lives can beput together, one day, to reveal the shape of a new kind of life.The kind of life that ours should have been.— Nick Bostrom, "Letter from Utopia"You lot. You spend all your time thinking about dying,like you're going to get killed by eggs, or beef, or global warming,or Dr. Donestrehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01639456039232565980noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3968560.post-17889859108731522882007-07-28T15:56:00.000-07:002007-07-28T16:07:07.091-07:00Mass Media Consumption DayWhat have I been doing all day? Was it "finish reading the things on which you'll be lecturing on Monday"?NO!Was it "offering editorial suggestions for the thesis of the Bachelor C---- P---- of Elkins, AR, as you agreed to do yesterday?NO! (well, mostly—there was a bit of a lag in the morning before I could off, so I did read most of the rest of it. . .)Was it "running Dr. Donestrehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01639456039232565980noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3968560.post-64305321899728871412007-07-27T09:05:00.000-07:002007-07-27T09:25:41.997-07:00At Week Four's EndCometh the hour, cometh the man: this week has been the start of something early modern, by which I mean I've been reading sonnets for most of the week. The week began, as I mentioned before, with Malory, whose inclusion on this side of the test I justified by claiming that he was going through a bit of self-fashioning. The self-fashioning theme continued through the sonnets of Dr. Donestrehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01639456039232565980noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3968560.post-81420913383640551042007-07-23T08:59:00.000-07:002007-07-23T09:20:43.902-07:00Didn't I have a curve somewhere?So, as promised, I've finished grading. I also delivered a lecture this morning in which I partially used Malory to talk about two key theories: Stephen Greenblatt's ideas about self-fashioning, and Benedict Anderson's origins of nationalism. Both theories are, of course, about periods after Malory, but I am one of those people (you know, those people) who see Dr. Donestrehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01639456039232565980noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3968560.post-84639238585644366282007-07-20T14:19:00.000-07:002007-07-20T14:29:27.821-07:00Numbers GameNormally, I'd post about this week in teaching, but I'd also like to do that after I've graded the exams. To make matters more annoying, I've left my flashdrive at work, and can't get it again until Monday.Expect, then, a post. . . then.*sigh*.Dr. Donestrehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01639456039232565980noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3968560.post-68148606608402569912007-07-13T11:18:00.000-07:002007-07-13T12:48:32.921-07:00From the left, a Challenger. . .Confessio docendis No. 3*The classroom in which I teach is angled in such a way that I can approach it from the stairwell without being seen. Doing so today, I heard some students discussing the day's reading (the General Prologue of the Canterbury Tales, in middle English thanks to Norton's brilliance). Initially, they were in agreement that it was hard to read (Dr. Donestrehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01639456039232565980noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3968560.post-47014916765820243552007-07-11T16:32:00.000-07:002007-07-11T16:42:47.386-07:00Confessio docentis No 28:Lecture NotesSo, sometimes I'm pretty sure I've said ridiculously stupid things in class. I don't mean the non-sequiturs, I don't mean random innuendo—not the sorts of things that just sort of jump out when you're not really filtering—but genuinly stupid comments that you don't realize until later. Today, for instance, I was doing the symbolism of Gawain's pentangle (Dr. Donestrehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01639456039232565980noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3968560.post-82542826162650328652007-07-05T10:34:00.000-07:002007-07-05T10:48:59.948-07:00I'll never abandon you, sweet blog of mine!Don't worry, loyal fan(s), I'm not gone forever now that the "book club" is done. In fact, I'm still around, and thanks to a new part-time job, I'll be chained to a desk for about seven hours a week, so there will be plenty of time for me to screw around at the computer. It's a Mac, though, and it's running an ooooold version of Firefox, so I'm not too Dr. Donestrehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01639456039232565980noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3968560.post-22107896801350735362007-07-01T12:42:00.000-07:002007-07-01T13:59:55.974-07:00Summer Reading Reviews: Part the LastThe Orient in Chaucer and Medieval RomanceCarol Heffernan. The Orient in Chaucer and Medieval Romance. Cambridge: D. S. Brewer, 2003. Pp. x, 160, two illustrations. $70.00.The title of Carole Heffernan's work implies a large and perhaps ambitious project, surveying not only Chaucer but all of "Medieval Romance" for traces of "the Orient." Alas, in its scant Dr. Donestrehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01639456039232565980noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3968560.post-91954365833563947052007-06-29T12:35:00.000-07:002007-06-29T12:37:51.867-07:00Note about the last review.Even though the readings course I'm taking technically ends today, I'm probably not going to get done with the last review (of Carol Heffernan's The Orient in Chaucer and Medieval Romance) today, since I've two lectures to write before next week starts. Bear with me, loyal reader(s)!Dr. Donestrehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01639456039232565980noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3968560.post-40910817624069163142007-06-27T19:16:00.001-07:002007-06-27T19:27:32.681-07:00Summer Reading Reviews, Part 6:The Arabs and Medieval EuropeNorman Daniel. The Arabs and Medieval Europe. New York: Longman, 1975. Pp. xiv, 378. Four illustrations. $44.00 cloth.Although now more than twenty years old, much of Norman Daniel's 1975 work, The Arabs and Medieval Europe, still rings true. In this, Daniel argues for a new way of seeing history as fundamentally interconnected—we can noDr. Donestrehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01639456039232565980noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3968560.post-72376942606122129612007-06-22T12:23:00.000-07:002007-06-22T12:50:18.122-07:00Summer Reading Reviews, Part 5:Europe and the Mystique of IslamMaxime Rodinson. Europe and the Mystique of Islam. 1980. Tr. Roger Venius. Seattle: University of Washington Press, 1987. Pp xv, 163. Paper, $26.95.Maxime Rodinson's Europe and the Mystique of Islam is a work in two parts. The first is an examination of the origins of Orientalism, especially the medieval fascination with and fear of Dr. Donestrehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01639456039232565980noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3968560.post-13709078319197030932007-06-21T04:18:00.000-07:002007-06-24T07:00:29.114-07:00Summer Reading Reviews, Part 4:Arab Historians of the CrusadesFrancesco Gabrieli. Arab Historians of the Crusades. Tr. E. J. Costello. New York: Dorset Press, 1989. Pp xxxvi, 362. $7.95.It's a short review this time around, for time reasons, and also because the book is pretty straightforward. Gabrieli presents us with selections from the major Islamic historians of the Crusades, translated and Dr. Donestrehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01639456039232565980noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3968560.post-50697065294341475972007-06-19T05:56:00.000-07:002007-06-19T20:16:18.331-07:00Weird Little Kids(an AP scoring report)originally written 15:15 CST, 18 June 2007Ninety percent of the time, I don't mind flying. Ten percent of the time, however, I genuinely despite it and spend hours dreaming of a coast-to-coast, high-speed rail network, like British Rail on crack. The reason for this is simple: as I write this—by hand, since network time is expensive—I am on hour six of what Dr. Donestrehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01639456039232565980noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3968560.post-12632196846089427432007-06-18T19:00:00.000-07:002007-06-18T19:03:36.325-07:00I believe the word is "bleurg"I'm back from scoring AP exams in Florida. I wrote a report, which I'll post tomorrow when I have a brain again and my arms stop hurting from schlepping my luggage around.For now, I'm thinking shower, as soon as Joni Mitchell's done singing "This Flight Tonight," which has been in my head but not on my mp3 player all week.Dr. Donestrehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01639456039232565980noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3968560.post-62918437693023320782007-06-10T04:52:00.000-07:002007-06-10T05:01:25.205-07:00Right, well then, I'm off...I'm leaving for Daytona Beach, city of magic, city of lights—none of which I actually get to see, as I'm going there to score Advanced Placement (AP) exams. For those of you who don't know, AP exams are an array of tests designed to get high school students out of college courses, and in my case I'll be helping (or hindering) students from taking composition. It might Dr. Donestrehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01639456039232565980noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3968560.post-11664006840973613702007-06-08T12:25:00.000-07:002007-06-08T16:21:36.413-07:00Summer Reading Reviews, Part 3:Parzival by Wolfram von EschenbachWolfram von Eschenbach. Parzival, with Titurel and the Love-Lyrics. Cyril Edwards, tr. Cambridge: D. S. Brewer, 2004. Pp. xxxiii, 329. 1 chart, 7 illustrations. £50.00.God bless Wolfram von Eschenbach for being so weird. I'll talk about his particular Saracen-weirdness in a minute (and see previous post for my justification of the Dr. Donestrehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01639456039232565980noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3968560.post-60448796821952202812007-06-03T08:08:00.000-07:002007-06-08T13:25:18.378-07:00Summer Reading Reviews, Part 2:La chanson de RolandNote to the reader: This review is in three parts: the first is an exercise in writing an academic review (here to keep the punters happy), the second is a reaction to the text itself, and the third is a list of questions I’ve yet to fully ponder that arise from the text. If you’re interested in my reactions, skip to the part so labeled. -- Dr. Donestrehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01639456039232565980noreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3968560.post-45163427677187328242007-05-27T14:14:00.000-07:002007-05-27T14:29:19.445-07:00RIP Mary DouglasI don't always catch this sort of news, but it's highly important today: Dame Mary Douglas has died.She taught us how to think about boundaries, bodies and taboo as linked cultural objects, and her structural analysis of Leviticus—however much she repudiated it in her later years—was paramount in reshaping entire fields of study, especially the early medieval. May she rest well, Dr. Donestrehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01639456039232565980noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3968560.post-88053802879216677372007-05-23T14:49:00.000-07:002007-05-23T17:02:44.438-07:00Summer Reading Reviews, Part 1:Poem of the CidThe Poem of the Cid: Dual Language Edition. Tr. Rita Hamilton and Janet Perry. New York: Penguin Classics, 1985. 256 pages.This summer, I'm doing a readings course that is mostly about the literature of the Muslim-Christian contact in the Middle Ages. I'll read The Poem of the Cid, The Song of Roland,Wolfram von Eschenbach's Parzifal, Arab HistoriansDr. Donestrehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01639456039232565980noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3968560.post-26792644284806579392007-05-10T15:52:00.000-07:002007-05-23T16:47:33.598-07:00Doctor Why,or the hazards of being an academic with nothing to analyzeRecently a friend goaded me into watching Doctor Who. Since I was deprived of the british childhood I so clearly deserved, I haven't seen it since it came on PBS in the eighties, and I half-remember it as mildly entertaining. However, rather than start with the First Doctor (William Hartnell) and move forward, I started with Dr. Donestrehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01639456039232565980noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3968560.post-41051616566113991972007-05-07T15:02:00.000-07:002007-05-07T15:10:40.896-07:00Things I Did TodayIn no particular order:1) Discovered Manchild, the BBC's answer to Sex and the City, but with men. Equally self-absorbed, though deadly funny and British. It's like an older version of what the movie version of High Fidelity ought to have been (i.e. set in London, possibly with Nigel Havers doing the voice-overs).2) Finished a draft of my House-of-Fame-is-utopian paper, then Dr. Donestrehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01639456039232565980noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3968560.post-86471314785630600942007-04-26T11:23:00.000-07:002007-04-26T11:35:17.360-07:00How you know you've arrived, Pt 1.You know you're in the business when you start getting rejection letters. Mind you, this isn't rejection from the big boys--Speculum, say, or the JMEMS--but from a small conference proceedings journal. I'm not mad, really, because their comments were right: that essay was really space cadet, mostly because it'd been cut down from my thesis and I'd not made the Dr. Donestrehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01639456039232565980noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3968560.post-78681831656373573352007-04-23T08:43:00.000-07:002007-04-26T07:19:26.181-07:00At the expense of taste aloneAnd now, taken out of context, here's a little levity. First, from Buckaroo Banzai Across the Eighth Dimension, here's the villain's big speech:Meanwhile, here's one of the best lists ever, this from Blazing Saddles:That's it for now.Update: Apparently it wasn't. In honor of the recent death of Jean Baudrillard, I present startling old evidence that Peter Sellers Dr. Donestrehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01639456039232565980noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3968560.post-40791138451191786702007-04-22T05:18:00.000-07:002007-04-22T05:56:33.473-07:00Recoveries and Updates. . . and what a week it was. First, some personal news: I will teach this summer, and I get to teach World Lit. Compressing sixteen weeks of half-assed lectures into six weeks of kick-ass lectures ought to be good. I hope this works. Current plans include just a research paper, abstract at two weeks, progress form at four weeks, conferences M/T/W of the last week, a midtermDr. Donestrehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01639456039232565980noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3968560.post-34585289790728904772007-04-14T06:03:00.000-07:002007-04-14T06:58:50.474-07:00Tiny Little PostSo, over at ITM, Karl made mention of the romance Sir Amadace (introduction here), which apparently has a lot of corpses, and I'm reminded of three things: I took to this job for the weirdness; I stayed in this job for the socially oppositional space it allows me to work from; marginal medieval romances are freaking weird and I will love them forever.Unfortunately, today has to beDr. Donestrehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01639456039232565980noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3968560.post-31116252254034081192007-04-10T04:51:00.000-07:002007-04-10T04:57:31.473-07:00I've been noticed!So, I read In the Middle on a daily basis, because it deals with things I like: medieval studies, gender studies, and really strange monsters. Today, however, it deals with... er... me! So now I'm popular and famous and will get to, if not hold up the subjects of my poetry in court, at least mill around in Fame's courtyard, right? It's not like I'm out back with the rumor Dr. Donestrehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01639456039232565980noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3968560.post-51930837129748065312007-04-04T04:25:00.000-07:002007-04-04T04:47:18.289-07:00Hallelujah, I'm a Bum?This article by the former director of the Salt Lake City Public Library points out that libraries are frequently on the front lines of caring for the homeless mentally ill.Cheesy as it is, I'm reminded of a very heavy-handed pair of early episodes of Star Trek: Deep Space Nine, in which Sisko, Dax, and Bashir are sent back to early 21st-century San Francisco. Sisko and Dr. Donestrehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01639456039232565980noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3968560.post-43174900811558801882007-04-01T15:34:00.000-07:002007-04-01T16:09:05.393-07:00PrepworkTomorrow I teach the Morte Darthur. Not the whole thing of course—this is a World Lit course, not one in the History of Literature in English or the English Romance or frankly anything else I'd like to teach but can't thanks to the fact this department runs on "tradition" rather than "job training"—but the "Tale of Lancelot." And I've already decided to write the quiz, because it would beDr. Donestrehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01639456039232565980noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3968560.post-75123172567511553272007-03-28T15:52:00.000-07:002007-03-28T16:05:09.428-07:00De arte docendiOr, "Reasons that I really love my job."Here's the latest: like most of us with a two-class teaching schedule, I have one sheep class and one goat class. Not surprising, the goat class is the (insanely) earlier of the two, and while it does have its moments,* it's largely a dud. Enter the second class, whom I dishonor by calling sheep.We're discussing a moment in the Tale of Genji Dr. Donestrehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01639456039232565980noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3968560.post-37141524964428403852007-03-28T04:29:00.000-07:002007-03-28T05:09:12.768-07:00Neman telleth me ony thynge!Chaucer has a blog, which he shares with his sonne Lowys and that trewest of lyars, Sir John Mandeville. The best parts: "Take that, Gower!" in the headline, and Mandeville's travel tips.Dr. Donestrehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01639456039232565980noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3968560.post-42484732999175681212007-03-27T04:49:00.000-07:002007-03-27T04:53:45.242-07:00Envy by proxyThanks to a colleague, I've discovered that this sort of business is going on. Now, I'm all for decentralizing Western Europe's hegemony on interpreting the past, but the problem is that it's being done at Berkeley. California, this is the second project of yours I've read about to cause me much consternation and envious gnashing of teeth (the first being the 3d Plan of St. Gaul, Dr. Donestrehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01639456039232565980noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3968560.post-7927181056157884832007-03-26T16:04:00.000-07:002007-03-26T16:11:35.710-07:00Outcome: The ResultingI'm still alive. The Genji lecture went okay, the leading discussion thingy wasn't too painful, and I did see His Lordship and discuss the fall seminar and a possible future readings in Medieval Arthuriana. Not much else got done today, though when I got home Our Man Flint had arrived. Ah, James Coburn, will your spy never stop rising?Dr. Donestrehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01639456039232565980noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3968560.post-86275801455588459192007-03-26T04:37:00.000-07:002007-03-26T04:46:36.169-07:00Why I shouldn't post before readingSo roscivs has a salient post about the problem of not enough mathematics in programming, to which I've added the following:As odd as it might be to hear this, it's nice to see that English isn't the only department with these sorts of problems, and that the whole university system is feeling the "be useful and make things we can sell" push.The problem is Dr. Donestrehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01639456039232565980noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3968560.post-34412315748515468612007-03-26T04:20:00.000-07:002007-03-26T04:22:44.352-07:00What Got DoneEverything but the notes for Genji. Yes, even the dishes, and even the surprise "Oh yeah, the laundry I didn't fold today" pile.Working on the lecture notes now, though it's early in the morning and I really need drugs.Dr. Donestrehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01639456039232565980noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3968560.post-18947061286024783392007-03-25T19:25:00.000-07:002008-12-09T02:05:41.748-08:00The Real Wish ListAll my life I've wanted a pet evangelist.No, not really. Silly me. What I meant was, ever since I saw it, I fell in love. Saw what, you ask? Well, I can't show you for copyright reasons, but it's the best lion-headed evangelist you'll ever meet.All right, it's this:Hereford Cathedral Library MS O.1.viii, fol 46. This image (c) the Dean and Chapter of Hereford Cathedral. Dr. Donestrehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01639456039232565980noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3968560.post-30852004753688952952007-03-25T18:29:00.000-07:002007-03-25T18:43:22.250-07:00Work Avoidence ScheduleSo here I am, less than 24 hours to a presentation on Eudora Welty's The Golden Apples, and what do I do but "rediscover" Blogger. As it turns out, I've been reading several people's blogs, and decided that it was high time to become self-absorbed again. Besides, it's the hot thing to do--notice that of those four linked, two are professors, one is my adviser, one is an Dr. Donestrehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01639456039232565980noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3968560.post-1125542216582251512005-08-31T19:27:00.000-07:002005-08-31T19:37:27.403-07:00Netflix, what what.We haven't the heart to do a full-on review this go-round, so let us simply say that The Madness of King George is most excellent, yes yes. Take care, sir, that you should see it, sir, and do be of good cheer in approaching it.All well, then. Hey hey!Dr. Donestrehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01639456039232565980noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3968560.post-1124981067437957752005-08-25T06:34:00.000-07:002005-08-25T07:44:27.470-07:00It's Howdy Doody Time(Stop that.)The movie review is split into two sections because Netflix have opened a new office in Little Rock, and while they have such oddities as The Seventh Seal and The Prisoner (Disc 1), they didn't have a copy of Carry on Dick, which will arrive Friday from Northern Rhodesia. On with the shew!Det Sjunde insegletReleased: 1957Director: Ingmar BergmanStarring: Gunnar Dr. Donestrehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01639456039232565980noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3968560.post-1124484649356419232005-08-19T13:00:00.000-07:002005-08-19T13:50:49.390-07:00Prime Minister's Question TimeYes, that's right, Netflix are back. This week, I bring you Brazil, Un long dimanche de fiançailles, and Scent of a WomanBrazilReleased: 1985Directed by: Terry GilliamStarring: Jonathon Price, Robert De Niro, Katherine Helmond, Ian Holm, Bob Hoskins, Kim GriestAfter a mistake leads to the false arrest (and subsequent death under torture) of an innocent man, a lone, Dr. Donestrehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01639456039232565980noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3968560.post-1121734309721718302005-07-18T17:45:00.000-07:002005-07-18T17:51:49.726-07:00Umberto Eco Time(suddenly it's all The Name of the Rose in here.)From the (shoddily edited) Northwest Arkansas News for 17 July 2005:Although in her June 22 email she said she wanted to "purge" the school libraries of sexually explicit materials, Taylor has an idea for a compromise.Place the explicit and objectionable books in a restricted area, and parents who do not mind their children Dr. Donestrehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01639456039232565980noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3968560.post-1120157170878267232005-06-30T11:38:00.000-07:002005-06-30T11:46:10.883-07:00To see what condition my condition is in=====Netflix time! This week: The Big Lebowski (1998), Casino Royale (1967), and The Merchant of Venice (2004).The Big LebowskiJoel and Ethan Cohen - (1998)Starring Jeff Bridges, John Goodman, Julianne Moore, Steve Buscemi, John Turturro.Jeff Bridges plays Jeff Lebowski, aka "The Dude", an aging pothead in LA who likes White Russians, surfing, and bowling.Dr. Donestrehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01639456039232565980noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3968560.post-1119663626054336482005-06-24T18:20:00.000-07:002005-06-24T18:51:41.520-07:00Misfirings, or Cleaning up my scribblings file=====Because the novel is fundamentally bourgeious, set up to espouse the value of that class, any novel which purports to present values counter to those is flawed--and any novel that presents fully and accurately the values of, say, the Roman elite, the Carolingian empire, Zulu tribes, Marxism, or the Queché, is not a novel. Such a work is also Dr. Donestrehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01639456039232565980noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3968560.post-1119482970551886502005-06-22T16:19:00.000-07:002005-06-22T16:29:30.556-07:00Crazy White ManI watched Dead Man today. It's really interesting, and I may have to watch it again to really get some of it. Full plot over at Wikipedia (click above). I also have a pretty good thing going with Glendale apartments. I filled out an application and gave them a deposit. The only shaky part is that I'm buying out a guy's lease, and he's moving in with his girlfriend, but when I Dr. Donestrehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01639456039232565980noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3968560.post-1119407456896552372005-06-21T19:07:00.000-07:002005-06-21T19:30:56.903-07:00Frühling für Hitler und Deutchland!=====For those of you who don't live in my head (and I'm pretty sure that's most of you), the USPS decided that my order to forward mail to my parents after the first of July meant "as soon as possible." As a result, I lost two days of mail, and had it start up just in time to get a letter saying the University wants my building gone (that's another story--and aDr. Donestrehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01639456039232565980noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3968560.post-1119310302538000852005-06-20T16:26:00.000-07:002005-06-20T16:34:08.580-07:00Bonus: Latin Ramblings=====Quaestio: An amor labor est. Majus: Labor omnia vincit (Vergil Gerogics 1.145). Labor > omnia. Majus: Omnia vincit amor (Ovid, Amores) Amor > omnia. Minus: Labor non est omnia. (Aristotle) Minus: Amor non est omnia. (Aristotle) ERGO: Amor est labor; labor est amor. Quod eras demonstrandum.Quaestio: Quod labori est amor?Omnis Dr. Donestrehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01639456039232565980noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3968560.post-1119309898812922352005-06-20T16:18:00.000-07:002005-06-20T16:33:34.220-07:00The Vinyl Kings: A Little Trip(CD Review originally posted at: CD Baby).=====One of the things that's so interesting about the Beatles is that they spanned a wide variety of music in their relatively brief musical career, and continued to do so well after their breakup ("... and Wings" notwithstanding—sorry Paul). This is important to keep in mind when approaching The Vinyl Kings, a band whose Dr. Donestrehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01639456039232565980noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3968560.post-1110765314931048442005-03-13T17:42:00.000-08:002005-03-13T17:57:58.893-08:00Gladly would he learn, and gladly speech=====Well, I'm pulling this York stuff together for Quinn, and it looks to be really fun. I'm also hoping to take it to SEMA this fall--which means I should probably get that abstract sent off soon. I meet with Quinn to discuss abstracts this week, and once that's done, hopefully I'll go ahead and send the blasted thing off. Of course, I should probably Dr. Donestrehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01639456039232565980noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3968560.post-1110161230650246392005-03-06T17:54:00.000-08:002005-03-06T18:15:31.393-08:00Blue Monk======So, what can I say, but it's been a long time. This weekend has been especially capitalistic. For some reason I was knocking about on (An auction site which shall remain nameless) and bid on a few Ipods, all of which were underbid from me in a span of microseconds. That set off a reaction involving those free-ipod sites (especially since they're offering the photo-Ipod now), Dr. Donestrehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01639456039232565980noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3968560.post-1102382648366002432004-12-06T17:20:00.000-08:002004-12-06T17:24:08.366-08:00LAST TRAIN TO NUREMBERG
Pete Seeger (1970)
Revised 2004
Chorus (and after each verse):
Last train to Nuremberg!
Last train to Nuremberg!
Last train to Nuremberg!
All on board!
Do I see Sadir city?
Do I see Abu Gharib?
Do I see Tony Blair and all his crew?
Do I see The Reverend President?
Do I see both houses of Congress?
Do I see the voters, me and you?
Who held the rifle? Who gave the Dr. Donestrehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01639456039232565980noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3968560.post-1093870119314084032004-08-30T05:36:00.000-07:002004-08-30T05:48:39.313-07:00Epistola Alexandri
(...I don't even have a little dog Toto...)
=====
And so a new week begins. In celebration of this fact, I got up nice and early (5:30 or so), did some Tai Ch'i -- which I was glad to see the old body still remembered -- and did some reading. Pretty soon I'll head up to the office, get the Magtape that has Peter the Nibbler on it, do some serious printing, and then teach.
I Dr. Donestrehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01639456039232565980noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3968560.post-1093462369735814852004-08-25T12:23:00.000-07:002004-08-25T12:32:49.736-07:00De Docendo Compositionis Primus
=====
Well, since you folks have asked, and since I've been remiss, here is my impression of the first couple of days of class.
(ear-shattering scream)
Only more so.
Seriously, though, it hasn't been so bad. They're a good bunch of students, really they are, and I'm looking forward to the semester. It's rather a lot like teaching at the Scout Camp was, only they Dr. Donestrehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01639456039232565980noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3968560.post-1093262805245407212004-08-23T05:05:00.000-07:002004-08-23T05:06:45.246-07:00A Century of Fakers
=====
Today will be my first day of teaching. Gods help us all.
More later.Dr. Donestrehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01639456039232565980noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3968560.post-1093093607332347692004-08-21T05:52:00.000-07:002004-08-21T06:08:13.470-07:00Roland the Headless Thompson Gunner
=====
Yeah, I know I haven't posted anything about the last day of "boot camp", but it's been kind of rough the past few days. Nothing serious, just having to scrap with the Grad School about my status as a Graduate Student (the system has me listed as an Undergrad, and apparently the installation of She Who Must Be Obeyed has caused more trouble than it's Dr. Donestrehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01639456039232565980noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3968560.post-1092914945801124472004-08-19T04:17:00.000-07:002004-08-19T04:29:05.800-07:00Boot Camp, Day Three: Hurry Up and Wait
=====
Today consisted of a brief meeting with the folks at the Writing Center (where I worked before, of course, and so was well aware of the resources available to teachers and students), followed by going over the papers we had to mark up the night before. For the most part it looks like we've all got some idea of what to look for in a "good paper", as Dr. Donestrehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01639456039232565980noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3968560.post-1092829869804487012004-08-18T04:31:00.000-07:002004-08-18T04:53:19.640-07:00Boot Camp, Day Two: Why Johnny Can't Read
=====
Tuesday's session went fairly well. The morning was spent going over policies and procedures -- our own, mind you -- and looking at Slattery's Teacher's Syllabus, which starts out really explicit and grows more taciturn as the semester progresses. The more I looked at my p&p, the more I began to wonder if I weren't talking over my students' heads.Dr. Donestrehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01639456039232565980noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3968560.post-1092744167357741732004-08-17T04:55:00.000-07:002004-08-17T05:03:58.346-07:00Boot Camp, Day One: Basics of Teaching
=====
Yesterday was the first day of TA orientation, and for me that meant meeting everyone briefly, then going to the Business college for the general orientation session. There were a few classes on things like ethics, learning styles and teaching tips, and for the most part they were really helpful; the biggest things I learned were that the first day Dr. Donestrehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01639456039232565980noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3968560.post-1092537701434191582004-08-14T19:37:00.001-07:002004-08-14T19:49:16.893-07:00In the Jailhouse Now, No 2
=====
Well, I'm back. (I know, you were missing the blog so, like a teenybopper without Elvis, like Spinal Tap without their cocaine.) And yes, the rumours are true: I have an assistantship, and will be going to the Uni as a TA for an English MA. I've also moved back into my old apartment, and will spend most of to-morrow assembling shelves, re-organising my apartmentDr. Donestrehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01639456039232565980noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3968560.post-1091452070251732362004-08-02T06:04:00.000-07:002004-08-02T06:07:50.250-07:00This is just a little note to say...
=====
I'm officially putting the blog on hiatus until I get back in Fayetteville, which should be around the *ulp* fourteenth.
Oh, and I did, finally, get an assistanceship, which is why I can return to Fayetteville, my head held high and debt-free.
Cheers,
JacobDr. Donestrehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01639456039232565980noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3968560.post-1090502850573770742004-07-22T06:22:00.000-07:002004-07-22T06:27:30.573-07:00Apologies
=====
Things have been kind of rough lately, what with Morgan's funeral and trying to comfort the greiving and doing a little grieving myself. I will post more later, but for now, well, *shrugs*. We're all a little lost, here.Dr. Donestrehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01639456039232565980noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3968560.post-1089892551538855202004-07-15T04:38:00.000-07:002004-07-16T07:52:16.580-07:00Gone are the kings of the days of old:
Morgan Hetrick
07 December 1931 - 14 July 2004
(Pearl Harbor Day - Bastille Day)
=====
þa ymbe hlæw riodan hildedeore
æþelinga bearn ealra twelfa
woldon cearge cwiðan kyning mænan
wordgyd wrecan 7 ymb wer sprecan
eahtodan eorlscipe 7 his ellenweorc
duguðum demdon swa hit gedefe bið
þæt mon his winedryhten wordum herge
Dr. Donestrehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01639456039232565980noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3968560.post-1089755247770879792004-07-13T14:11:00.000-07:002004-07-15T09:25:28.323-07:00I Fought in a War
-----
Suppose we should do the whinging now and get it over with. I haven't heard from the realtors in two days, and while that isn't much considering they mail doesn't come on Sundays, it bothers me. I mean, I want certain things fixed up before I go (I've said this before, I know), and the fact that they won't be is infuriating. On that note, I had a dream last night (Dr. Donestrehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01639456039232565980noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3968560.post-1089578673478350082004-07-11T13:40:00.000-07:002004-07-12T07:13:04.260-07:00Swastika attack on French mother
French politicians have reacted with horror to an anti-Semitic attack on a woman and her baby on a train.
A gang of young men cut her hair, slashed her clothes and drew swastikas on her body, before overturning the pram in which her infant was lying.(more)
This kind of stuff is simply frightening, for two reasons. One is that I thought we were past all this Dr. Donestrehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01639456039232565980noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3968560.post-1089578128399754702004-07-11T13:09:00.000-07:002004-07-11T13:35:28.400-07:00Fiddler's Green, or
Puttering all around the house (A maid?)
-----
Not much else to report at this time, aside from the fact that it's rained almost every day (albiet off and on, not constantly) for a fortnight. I've gotten bored and decided to move most of the furniture in my apartment around, plus buy more furniture (bookshelves) in the future. I even had a Sketch-Up model of the room built Dr. Donestrehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01639456039232565980noreply@blogger.com0