Some friendly advice

Out of human authors take these few cautions, "know thyself. Be contented with thy lot. Trust not wealth, beauty, nor parasites, they will bring thee to destruction. Have peace with all men, war with vice. Be not idle. Look before you leap. Beware of 'had I wist.' Honour thy parents, speak well of friends. Be temperate in four things, lingua, locis, oculis, et poculis [in speech, in going about, in looking, and in drinking]. Watch thine eye. Moderate thine expenses. Hear much, speak little, sustine et abstine [bear and refrain]. If thou seest ought amiss in another, mend it in thyself. Keep thine own counsel, reveal not thy secrets, be silent in thine intentions. Give not ear to tale-tellers, babblers, be not scurrilous in conversation: jest without bitterness: give no man cause of offence: set thine house in order: take heed of suretyship. Fide et diffide [trust and mistrust], as a fox on the ice, take heed whom you trust. Live not beyond thy means. Give cheerfully. Pay thy dues willingly. Be not a slave to thy money; omit not occasion, embrace opportunity, lose no time. Be humble to thy superiors, respective to thine equals, affable to all, but not familiar. Flatter no man. Lie not, dissemble not. Keep thy word and promise, be constant in a good resolution. Speak truth. Be not opiniative, maintain no factions. Lay no wagers, make no comparisons. Find no faults, meddle not with other men's matters. Admire not thyself. Be not proud or popular. Insult not. Fortunam reverentur habe [bear fortune modestly]. Fear not that which cannot be avoided. Grieve not for that which cannot be recalled. Undervalue not thyself. Accuse no man, commend no man rashly. Go not to law without great cause. Strive not with a greater man. Cast not off an old friend, take heed of a reconciled enemy. If thou come as a guest stay not too long. Be not unthankful. Be meek, merciful, and patient. Do good to all. Be not fond of fair words. Be not a neuter in a faction; moderate thy passions. Think no place without a witness. Admonish thy friend in secret, commend him in public. Keep good company. Love others to be beloved thyself. Ama tanquam osurus [in loving remember that you may one day hate]. Amicus tardo fias [form friendships slowly]. Provide for a tempest. Noli irritare crabrones [do not stir up a hornet's nest]. Do not prostitute thy soul for gain. Make not a fool of thyself to make others merry. Marry not an old crony or a fool for money. Be not over solicitous or curious. Seek that which may be found. Seem not greater than thou art. Take thy pleasure soberly. Ocymum ne terito [do not grind clover]. Live merrily as thou canst. Take heed by other men's examples. Go as thou wouldst be met, sit as thou wouldst be found, yield to the time, follow the stream. Wilt thou live free from fears and cares? Live innocently, keep thyself upright, thou needest no other keeper," &c. Look for more in Isocrates, Seneca, Plutarch, Epictetus, &c., and for defect, consult with cheese- trenchers and painted cloths.

--Robert Burton, Anat. Mel. 2.3.8

there. that should keep us occupied for a while.

From January 7 to June 29

I received a letter today at work.  Relevant text below:

The board of trustees at the University of Tennessee, upon my recommendation and that of President _______, has approved your promotion to Associate Professor with tenure in the Department of English and Modern Foreign Languages at The University of Tennessee at Martin.  This action was taken at the Board's June 23, 2011, meeting to become effective August 1, 2011.

I'm gonna be crazy and go ahead & refer to myself as an associate professor a whole month early.

Monday Update, Early Summer Edition

Discovered an itty bitty bike down in the shed the other day; we'd forgotten that we had it.  It appeared to be the perfect size for Little Red.  And lo!  It came to pass that a helmet was bought for him, and he did ride.  We took them to the Brian Brown Memorial Greenway yesterday afternoon, and they had a blast.  Number One cheered Little Red's progress, even.

A disproportionate number of morning thunderstorms threw a wrench into my cycling training this weekend.  In fact, the storm yesterday morning was so bad that it caused a two-hour power outage (memories of Manila!) . . . we had church in the dark. 

Spurred by who knows what demon or angel, we overhauled the garage on Saturday.  You probably wouldn't be able to tell a big difference, but it's a lot cleaner now.  And what's more, I've even created a small work table for myself, and that's a good thing because I needed to change the tube in my back tire yesterday and it took half the time it usually takes--mainly because I have a useful surface to work on now.

I've decided that it would be fun to continue tinkering with bicycles until I really learned how to work with them.  Thinking about keeping an eye out for a real beater or two of a bike and trying to rebuild it for The Runner.  Or maybe even for Number One to graduate to. 

I realize, upon looking above, that all four items so far have to do with bikes.  Whoops.  I guess that tells you where a lot of my energy has been devoted this summer.  I have really pushed myself to stay active and productive.  For the most part, it has worked pretty well.  We'll see what happens when I start teaching next month.

Adventures in parenting, vol. 26

 
 . . . in which Number One and Little Red discover the vast difference between Phineas and Ferb's world and our own.  The cartoon features two (step?) brothers who each episode construct gigantic contraptions and structures, usually in response to something needed by a friend or family member (the subplots involving Perry the Platypus aren't really important now).  Here, a picture of the stage they built for a reunion concert of Love Handel. 



So, the boys have been determined that they could do something like that--build a stage, have a concert, create a lake and then a castle, etc.

Expectations: 

Reality:

This was the sum total of the work we got done this afternoon.  Number One expressed dismay at how hard it was to hammer nails into wood.  We agreed that maybe the cartoons make things look a bit easier than they actually are.  Total number of nails hammered by two boys:  8.

This should cover all the other--

Poorly done, Tar Heels.

Ramses is not impressed.

Revoking an emeritus professor's network privileges simply because he was embroiled in a conflict with a really annoying guy.  The excuse is "misuse of university network resources," but that's thin gruel, especially when it refers to one link on the professor's web page.

Poorly done.  I'm a big fan of the city, the university, the faculty, the sports teams, and Chancellor Holden Thorp, but not impressed this time.

Adventures in parenting, vol. 25

Ever since the children watched me put my bike together, they have been fascinated by the few hand tools I have. There have been many occasions for them to use the tools to work on their own riding toys, etc. 

Thanks at least in part to some cartoons they've been watching recently, Number One Son and Little Red have both decided that they need to do some major building projects in the back yard.  Among them:  a waterfall; a stage; a castle; a canyon; a zoo; and so on.  Number One even drew plans for them.

This picture represents their first effort--it's a "cannon" for the "pirate ship" in the back yard.  I asked about it, and the comment was that building things with wood and nails is a lot harder than it looks.

**

As a bonus, Number One also wiped out while riding his bike on the running trail this morning.  He got road rash and everything.  The Runner made him get back on the bike and do the whole circuit again, just so he'd know that he could do it without crashing.  I told him that it was great that he got some scrapes from riding his bike--that everybody falls off a bike sooner or later.

I've got a drinking problem

Adventures in parenting, vol. 24

Every day is an adventure.

Joseph's Story

"Joseph in Egypt," Jacopo Pontormo (1515-18)

Genesis 41:46:  "Joseph was thirty years old when he entered the service of Pharaoh king of Egypt."

Think about how long it took for Providence to reveal itself.  Think about how many years Joseph languished, not knowing if or when his sufferings were amounting to anything.  A sterile, sunday-school reading of the text might focus on Joseph's preternatural faith, or his abilities with prophecy--but in concrete terms, think about the length of time between his involuntary trip to Egypt and the time his brothers came to him for famine relief.  Think about how pointless it all must have seemed to a young man enslaved, imprisoned, and then apparently responsible for agricultural and financial policy throughout Egypt.

I wonder if, when he assures his brothers that their old trick of throwing him in the well was just a piece of God's plan to help them weather the famine, he's amazed himself at how it all seems to make sense all of a sudden.  After such a long time.  No wonder he wept.

Plans A & B

This is the way the world goes, isn't it?  I've spent a great deal of energy since the end of the spring semester in an attempt to take on some new projects, to make some adjustments to the way I've been spending my time, and so on.  More and longer bike rides.  Keeping more active during the day.  Refocusing and doubling down on my research. 

Vacation was awfully nice, even though it did make for a small hiccup in my ongoing projects (I toted the bike to FLA so that I wouldn't utterly lose momentum on all my tasks).  Now that I'm back at work 3 days a week, I find that the combination of the library closure and the construction on my office building makes it almost impossible to concentrate on any serious work for any extended period.  I'm impatient to feel like I'm making progress--not just recovering or treading water or putting out fires.

But I guess we shouldn't spend too much time waiting for circumstances to show their favor.

Things that are awesome, series B, volume 1

The Brooks B17 Bicycle Saddle.

This is the saddle that came included with my new bike, and it has the reputation it does for a reason . . . it's incredibly comfortable, even in jeans (since I'm not exactly going to be commuting to work in a pair of bike shorts).  When it comes time to replace the one on my other road bike (after 64 miles on that one the other day, I began to understand the difference between saddle and saddle), I'm thinking I'll go with another Brooks product.  These aren't the cheapest products around, but they last forever.  I'm a new fan.

In which Piers makes an interesting discovery

When we returned from the trip to Florida, I found a small dirt-dauber nest in my car (I'd left the windows down since it was in the garage anyway).  When I broke it open, I was surprised to find that it was full of spiders!  Turns out, that's what these insects do:  they pack the cells full of spiders for the larvae to feed on.  Gruesome, huh??  I showed the boys, and there were two reactions:  one of them started stomping on them, the other picked a few up to look more closely. 

Finisher!

In which Piers builds a bike.

I got my bike from Fed Ex just as we were getting back from the Florida trip.  The plan was to do the SuperTrek ride today, then build the bike tomorrow as a treat.

But I couldn't wait.  Apart from one bent part, it went quite well.

pictures and brief story here.

Hopefully it arrives today!

IMG_1664.JPG (1536×1024)

Adventures in parenting, vol. 24

This video was shot by The Baby.  See if you can figure out the part where he knows he's going to get caught.

Monday Update, Memorial Edition

• Uncle Hal was a WWII vet.  I didn't know that for years & years . . . he never talked about it.  I will be proud for any one or all three of my boys to serve in the Armed Forces, if that's what they wish to do.
  
• Number One Son had soccer camp all week last week . . . which amounted to just a couple of hours of playing soccer every morning.  Still, he had a good time with it.  While he played soccer, I did some work in the office, and actually had a major breakthrough in terms of where my research should go for the foreseeable future.
  
• This week's moment of serendipity:  I discovered a good deal on the bike I've been wanting for a very very very long time.  A 2010 Raleigh One Way for several hundred dollars cheaper than the usual retail.  It's an incredibly lovely bike:  steel, single speed, and WHITE!  It should arrive this week via FedEx. 
  
• Speaking of bikes, we drove up yesterday to Mayfield, KY to visit friends--he's a colleague of mine, and we've made a few visits up to their house--and while the children all went swimming, he and I went for a 30 mile bike ride.  The roads up there are lovely . . . even when they are reflecting 95 degree heat up into the face of the rider.  Time well spent, especially given what we're going to do on June 11.
  
• More strawberries!  We picked another zillion quarts on Saturday.
  
• The children cannot stop talking about the upcoming beach trip.

It's a bubble.

One of the more irritating things about working in the academy is that especially in the humanities, we seem so slow to react to what's actually going on in the culture. If we're not too slow to react, then we are prone to paying far too much attention to stupid crap rather than meaningful knowledge.

The worst part is, I'm busting my ass to give my students the best, while many of my colleagues give the profession a bad name...and the culture is taking notice. I don't think it's any coincidence that state appropriations for higher education keep going downward; we continually ask for more money, yet you should hear the way we tend to talk about our fellow citizens and the elected leadership of the state. Seems to me that if you go to a group with hat in hand, best to play nice.

And yes, I recognize that it's a far more complicated problem than what I've mentioned above. But the fact remains: this is a conversation that needs to be happening in every department on every campus.

Instapundit » Blog Archive » PAYING STUDENTS NOT TO GO TO COLLEGE: “The winners were announced today for a new fellowship that h…

More here, and here, if you can bear to read it.

Monday Update, One Day Late Edition

Dude's clothes are awesome (and no doubt expensive . . .
but check out that bike!!

• Don't look now, but The Runner and I may have gotten one step ahead of the yard . . . for now.  It has helped that it hasn't been raining all day every day. If I could find a way to make the roses thrive and a way to deal with (i.e., eliminate) the Diodia Virginiana, I'd consider my yardening a total success.
• We are two weekdays into summer now.  by 7:00 yesterday morning, the two older boys were already bickering.  This morning, Number One got up at 5:30 and turned on the TV.  Only two days down.
• On the upside (and this is quite the upside), the runner and two of the three boys picked strawberries on Saturday (the littlest one was there too, but he didn't really pick any strawberries).  Which means our freezer is once more filling up with strawberry jam, and we are once more eating lots of strawberry-centric foods.  I tell The Runner that I'll never refuse fruit to the children, so they take advantage.  Pictures of recent hijinks here.
• Bike riding:  I have gone on three rides since Thursday, each of more than 15 miles.  For me, that's a big change from the past couple of years. The Runner is supportive of my spending a lot of time in the saddle, even if that means she is *ahem* saddled with the children.  For that I am most thankful.  I'll be especially thankful while riding that Metric Century up in Illinois a couple of weeks from now. 
• Course Evaluations from the Spring came in.  In a surprising development, I was most often (80+% of the time) called "enthusiastic" in the classroom.  Okay, so perhaps not that surprising.  One student did call me smart, though!
• Project Kick My Own Ass (hereafter PKMOA) is going fairly well so far this week:  yesterday, though weather forestalled a long bike ride, I did spend all afternoon doing yard work.  The academic part of the project is complicated by: a) the closure of the second floor of the library (yeah, that's the floor with all the study carrels and the books); and b)the mysterious failure of the overhead lights in my office.  The floor lamp and desk lamp provide adequate illumination for casual work, but the more intense stuff has become that much more challenging.
• Attempting to cultivate focus.