2.25.2009

Ashes



















I'm snazzy! So says one of my female students yesterday. Got badly-needed new clothes this past weekend. They fit better, which is always nice. “Fitting,” that is. So is “new.”

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Nothing happened, but everything was different. Nothing has changed, but everything is now not the way it was.

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Herbert and Vaughan: not my students' favorites. Too obscure, too religious. Or something.

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Enormous amounts of reading to be done between now and Friday; actually, I've been climbing “Mt. Paper” since Monday. There was a near-miss with an avalanche on Monday, but the weather looks good from here.

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One of the things I'm doing is reading applications for the university's honors program, specifically the University Scholars program. The applications are for the most part interchangeable, really. Some students show some creativity in their personal statements; most resort to that petrified “application-ese”--featuring blandness and banality. I'm really looking for some student to show me that they have a spark of some kind. And lord, someone needs to tell some of these teachers how to write a damn recommendation letter.

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Little Red has a proto-vocabulary: ba-ba (bye-bye), ma-ma (more-more, asking for food), da-da (daddy, naturally), and his usual assortment of “MUH” and grunts.

Meanwhile, The Little Boy has gotten awfully good at Gamecube Lego Star Wars. He's now playing through some levels all on his own. I'm not sure this is a good thing, but it is pretty impressive to see how easily he figured out all the buttons and screen cues, etc.

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Wii update: WiiFit getting heavy use. Wii Sports getting moderate use. Lego Batman is the current game in the rotation. Verdict: some interesting new features, but somehow not as fun as Lego Star Wars. The scenes are much more cluttered for one thing. Okay, enough of that. I'm still hoping to get my hands on a WWII shooter.

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Because I know that time is always time
And place is always and only place
And what is actual is actual only for one time
And only for one place
I rejoice that things are as they are and
I renounce the blessèd face
And renounce the voice
Because I cannot hope to turn again
Consequently I rejoice, having to construct something
Upon which to rejoice

(from “Ash Wednesday,” T.S. Eliot)

8 comments:

Anonymous said...

I don't understand "ashes"...unless it is just that...ashes...???

I like the part about "snazzy", but then I always thought you were that even with white knee socks, short pants, and a collared shirt.

I would probably struggle to "slog" through Herbert and Vaughn if I knew who they were.

Remind me not to write a (darn's cousin) recommendation letter.

I can't wait to hear "ma-ma" and I am undoen that my 4-year-old grandson can play a game I am too intimidated to try.

Find something to construct every day upon which you can rejoice. I rejoice every day in you, w, j, and a.

These are Waaaaaaaaaaaaaayyyyyyyyy too many words for me.

Lindsey said...

"I like the part about "snazzy", but then I always thought you were that even with white knee socks, short pants, and a collared shirt."

Now THAT'S a snazzy look. Please go back to it.

Piers said...

Oh, I would, but the women in my classes would riot at the sight of my knees. And then how in the world could I teach them the "Essay on Man"?

Lindsey said...

Who do you care about more?
Your Grammie and me or the women / little girls in your class?
I am pretty sure that's the boy your wife fell in love with, too.


EXACTLY.

Anonymous said...

Actually, the one I fell in love with had hair like Ronald McDonald...well he had just cut it so it didn't look like that anymore. :) I think I can pass on the shorts, socks and shirts. There is something about a grown man wearing clothes like that that might make me ask him to make an appointment.

Lindsey said...

LOL!

Ronald McDonald hair works too.

Yeah, I guess you're right about the socks and shorts... that would pretty much scream pedophile.

Anonymous said...

Hey, this is fun and funny!!! I still like the white socks,short pants and collared shirts...but it doesn't match your hair "color" and style...like very little hair... I also remember the Ronald McDonald hair. The girls loved the curls! Hey...a poet and didn't know it. Does that rate a D- Dr. Hill?

Anonymous said...

Who is lindsey? I like her already. Good sense of humor. Great picture, too. I am too old to do the picture thing.