I’m now almost a full week into using my new machine, and I never realized how much the dual-boot thing slowed it before.? Now it boots before I can get my notebooks out, updates fast, brings websites into full view about twice as fast as before, and opens Amarok, Open Office, and other programs much [...]
I’ve got just a few days left, but I think I’m going to make it through Dante before I go back to campus next week.? This morning I finished Purgatory. I’ve not started Paradise yet, but unless that section just blows me away this year, Purgatory will likely remain my favorite as it has been [...]
After a day’s worth of installations, upgrades, and other such things, I ended yesterday with a fully functional, last-me-another-three-years Ubuntu laptop. Then I woke up this morning. I tried logging on, to no avail.? Said my password was invalid. I tried again. And again. And so, after another hour and a half of re-installation, I’ve [...]
Actually, nothing so dramatic happened. My 2005, low-end laptop was running out of hard disk space, and so, after asking Mary’s permission and waiting until we got back from Johnson City (she needed to work on a paper there), I reformatted the hard drive and re-installed Ubuntu as the sole operating system. I was using [...]
I don’t even remember when I purchased this book, but I’m certain the purchase was ill-advised, given that in the last three semesters I’ve either been studying for comps or taking an overload of graduate courses. Nonetheless, I finished it Saturday night, and I can recommend it without reservation for anyone looking for a genuinely [...]
I’ve reformatted my CV entirely, cutting it down to two pages in print, so I decided to put the new version here as well. You can get there via the CV tab above. I’ll probably re-hyperlink the thing eventually, but right now it’s plain text again. I also updated the “About” page and changed its [...]
We hauled six boxes of books, most in very good shape, up to Johnson City, trusting that Mr. K’s, formerly the best used book store in our sphere of influence, would give us great trade credit and allow us to grab some seminarians’, Milliganders’ and elementary teachers’ books and enjoy them back in Georgia. They [...]
Mary and I took off yesterday morning for lovely Johnson City, Tennessee, and tonight we’re at the close of two good days together.? We’ve seen Paul (briefly), Emily, and John Helphinstine, who graciously allowed us to stay with them, and today we spent the afternoon with Dave, Brooke, and Carloine Peccia.? Along the way we’ve [...]
I finished up Inferno this afternoon while waiting to take a so-called random drug test.? (I say so-called because it’s my third in fifteen months, and I’m one employee in a library system that employs probably over a hundred.? The four of us who work in the Bogart branch have accumulated ten in the last [...]
Stoooopid …. why the Google generation isn?t as smart as it thinks Yes, I know I post a fair number of articles about the Internet generation. (In fact, I just created a category, and I’ll likely spend some time reading back over the last couple years and back-tagging them.) But this one jumped out at [...]
Gone, and Being Forgotten I just read this piece from the Chronicle of Higher Education website this morning. It struck me funny largely because I took a course on Hegel, in the English department, just three semesters ago, and I remember hearing through the grapevine that grad students in philosophy were jealous. The main points [...]
I just got done with some handouts for the next two Sundays at Athens Christian.? The Westfalls are moving into their new house, and Jan asked me to take a couple weeks while they do so, and the results are on the Sunday School page, available by clicking the appropriate tab above.? Enjoy!
No, this is not a metaphor about God.? I’m talking about Steven Gilmour of Plainfield, Indiana. I’ll start from last Christmas: instead of buying individual gifts, my brother, my wife, and I decided to pitch in and get my parents a new computer.? We scraped money together, and I contacted a good friend whose high [...]
I’ve forgotten to start my annual read of Dante’s Comedy! I started early this morning, finishing off five cantos before Micah got up. I’m sure another Dante post or five will be coming soon. I’ve read the entire Comedy (that is to say, Inferno, Purgatorio, and Paradiso) every summer since 2002, and I don’t intend [...]
I made brief mention that I might add Plato’s dialogue Euthyphro to my syllabus this fall in the comments section about Allan Bloom, and after some deliberation, I’ve done so. This little post is mainly some brief reflections on that dialogue and on teaching in a state university. You can read the relatively brief dialogue [...]
He puts out a column like this one and makes me like him again. Happy Birthday, Milton He really puts his finger on why I remain a Miltonist first and a Shakespearean second when he gets to what people want to talk about after experiencing each: Nigel Smith?s most recent book is entitled ?Is Milton [...]
If you’re a person who could play a tower defense game for hours, imagine a pretty cool one with a variety of armored, quick, numerous, and boss creeps. Then add to that the potential for upgrades between levels. Then add to that a system in which combining weapons creates special attacks like splash, chain, slow, [...]
Prospect Magazine’s Top 100 Public Intellectuals I have to be honest that I haven’t heard of most of these people. I suppose my diet of almost exclusively English-language texts might have something to do with that. Or the fact that even against my better instincts, I have become a specialist of sorts.
I found a book of them this week.? That’s what happens in a garage that so desperately needs cleaning.? But now we’ve got a couple cheap shelving units to hold gardening tools, my limited collection of tools, and sporting goods; a long-tool caddy for shovels and rakes and brooms; and hooks to hang up extension [...]
My Enlightenment-era political reading has slowed down recently, not least because I’m at home, with all the distractions that come with that.? Besides that, Federalist 30 through roughly 35 stated and reiterated the same argument, over and over.? It was quite tedious.? Let me save anyone wanting to read these documents the trouble: the federal [...]
