I just noticed that I'd hit the four-digit mark. Thanks to all my readers, and to my mom, who knows as well as I do that she only checks for new Micah pictures.
Hwaet!
27 April 2007
Donuts
I bought four dozen of 'em this morning, and my two freshman comp classes went through nearly all of them.
Thus ends a semester that, frankly, disappointed me. I don't suppose every semester can be the best ever (life doesn't go that way), but I feel like I didn't give my best performance, and that's disappointing after last semester went so well.
But that's of no import now. I've got about ten of forty-five pages on three papers written, and May 7 is the deadline for two of 'em. Next week, I write.
I've also decided that rather than Debian, I'm going to try out Ubuntu Linux. It seems like a less labor-intensive jumping-off point into the world of open-source. Just as many hyphens, but I likely won't drown.
And finally, I'll be introduced this Sunday as Bogart Christian Church's minister of education. I've already drawn up a proposal for a new kind of Sunday School program and given it to some of the folks in positions of authority. If I can carry that off, I ought to be on my way into a good thing.
Hwaet!
Thus ends a semester that, frankly, disappointed me. I don't suppose every semester can be the best ever (life doesn't go that way), but I feel like I didn't give my best performance, and that's disappointing after last semester went so well.
But that's of no import now. I've got about ten of forty-five pages on three papers written, and May 7 is the deadline for two of 'em. Next week, I write.
I've also decided that rather than Debian, I'm going to try out Ubuntu Linux. It seems like a less labor-intensive jumping-off point into the world of open-source. Just as many hyphens, but I likely won't drown.
And finally, I'll be introduced this Sunday as Bogart Christian Church's minister of education. I've already drawn up a proposal for a new kind of Sunday School program and given it to some of the folks in positions of authority. If I can carry that off, I ought to be on my way into a good thing.
Hwaet!
20 April 2007
The Formations of Canons
I gave a full-on lecture, by my classes' request, to my freshmen today that began with Moses' writing down the law in Deuteronomy 32 and finished with the publication of the Harper-Collins Study Bible. They wanted to know how the Bible became the Bible, so I gave them the full treatment. Thirty-five hundred years of history in forty minutes? No problem!
I did get to emphasize to them the organic side of canon formation, how Christians and Jews were using these texts in synagogues and churches well before the dudes with beards wrote down the lists. I also got to cover the differences between the Rabbinic, Orthodox, Catholic, and Protestant canons and the historical events surrounding those differences.
In other words, I got to play church historian/biblical scholar today in my English class, and it was quite a bit of fun.
The papers are now all outlined, and I've written significant chunks of two of the three. Barring disaster, I should have the two due on May 7 in with little problem and dust off the last one's revisions by the 9th or so. I'm going to make it.
In computer matters, I've been reading up on Linux and am considering switching my laptop over to Debian once the semester ends. I've gotten proficient enough with Open Office that I don't necessarily need Word any more, and other than that, there's really not any proprietary Microsoft programs that I use that much; the rest of what I actually use ought to work. If what I've read is true (and I've read it in several places), I'll be a Linux man for life once I make the switch.
I did get to emphasize to them the organic side of canon formation, how Christians and Jews were using these texts in synagogues and churches well before the dudes with beards wrote down the lists. I also got to cover the differences between the Rabbinic, Orthodox, Catholic, and Protestant canons and the historical events surrounding those differences.
In other words, I got to play church historian/biblical scholar today in my English class, and it was quite a bit of fun.
The papers are now all outlined, and I've written significant chunks of two of the three. Barring disaster, I should have the two due on May 7 in with little problem and dust off the last one's revisions by the 9th or so. I'm going to make it.
In computer matters, I've been reading up on Linux and am considering switching my laptop over to Debian once the semester ends. I've gotten proficient enough with Open Office that I don't necessarily need Word any more, and other than that, there's really not any proprietary Microsoft programs that I use that much; the rest of what I actually use ought to work. If what I've read is true (and I've read it in several places), I'll be a Linux man for life once I make the switch.
14 April 2007
Straws and Camels' Backs
I taught my last lesson on biblical texts to my freshmen yesterday; the rest of the semester is going to be portfolio work and such. So no more musings on Job or David or Plato, for that matter. More of that in August.
I suppose I'll be the three-millionth blogger to say a little something about the Don Imus debacle that went down this month. What blows my mind is neither that a dozen newspapers dropped Coulter's column after her personal slur against John Edwards nor that CBS radio dropped Don Imus after his insult to the Rutgers basketball team; both of those moves make sense in a market where the sensible-people market is fickle. (Hardcore partisans stay brand-loyal where sensible people walk away from things that smell that bad.)
What I don't get is why this particular attack on Edwards, and not one of a hundred different personal attacks over the last five years or so, did the deal for those newspapers. What I don't get is why Imus has been doing the same thing for as long as I've been aware of Don Imus and it was this one comment got him canned. Now certainly Al Sharpton has something to do with the latter; that's obvious. But Sharpton has gotten bent out of shape on other things, and heads haven't rolled like they did here. And certainly Howard Dean had something to do with the former, but papers didn't drop columnists before.
I hope there's some theoretical framework that can render intelligible why these (by comparison lightweight) moments finally tipped the scales; if not, I hope someone comes up with one.
In a rather unrelated matter, I'm still sad that Vonnegut's dead. I know that the novels, not the man, have been a part of my life the way they have, but he's still one of those figures who makes the world better by walking around in it, and I already miss him.
I suppose I'll be the three-millionth blogger to say a little something about the Don Imus debacle that went down this month. What blows my mind is neither that a dozen newspapers dropped Coulter's column after her personal slur against John Edwards nor that CBS radio dropped Don Imus after his insult to the Rutgers basketball team; both of those moves make sense in a market where the sensible-people market is fickle. (Hardcore partisans stay brand-loyal where sensible people walk away from things that smell that bad.)
What I don't get is why this particular attack on Edwards, and not one of a hundred different personal attacks over the last five years or so, did the deal for those newspapers. What I don't get is why Imus has been doing the same thing for as long as I've been aware of Don Imus and it was this one comment got him canned. Now certainly Al Sharpton has something to do with the latter; that's obvious. But Sharpton has gotten bent out of shape on other things, and heads haven't rolled like they did here. And certainly Howard Dean had something to do with the former, but papers didn't drop columnists before.
I hope there's some theoretical framework that can render intelligible why these (by comparison lightweight) moments finally tipped the scales; if not, I hope someone comes up with one.
In a rather unrelated matter, I'm still sad that Vonnegut's dead. I know that the novels, not the man, have been a part of my life the way they have, but he's still one of those figures who makes the world better by walking around in it, and I already miss him.
07 April 2007
Finishing the Job
We took on the last of Job and J.B. this week, and once again, the students got in their best fight over the endings. On one side were those who thought that "I'm the one worthy of rule, not you, so you don't get to cite rules at me" was a pathetic way to answer Job's questions, on the other were those who thought that Job was better for having "gone through" what happened to him.
And before that, on Monday, we had our annual festival of Job movies. (There weren't really movies, only ideas for movies.) Here were some of my favorites:
I've now met with all three of my professors and have three green lights for paper topics. I've got one of them pretty much scripted, one solidly in mind with some research still to do, and one for which I need to finish a rather substantial book before I can even begin drafting. Then I've got a set of papers coming in Monday and final portfolios two and a half weeks after that. I imagine I've got about five weeks to get it all done. Ah, graduate school.
And before that, on Monday, we had our annual festival of Job movies. (There weren't really movies, only ideas for movies.) Here were some of my favorites:
- Job in Oz instead of Uz: At least one of his children dies of a poppy overdose, a good witch and a bad witch instead of God and Satan test Job, the whole thing ends with Job waking up and realizing it was all a dream so that the story isn't so much of a downer
- The Jobman Show: Like The Truman Show, except instead of one Christof in the booth, there's a God-figure and a Satan-figure
- Job: The Horror Movie: Satan takes on the form of an axe murderer and does the dirty work himself; after Eliphaz, Bildad, and Zophar accuse Job of bringing it upon themselves, the axe murderer gets them too. Job wins a desperate fight with the murderer at the end and pulls the mask off of the dying killer to discover that it was Bildad all along.
- Job in Hollywood: Job, having signed a stifling contract out of desperation, is assaulted both by his agent Zophar and a tabloid reporter, Bildad, as he struggles with a God-judge figure to get the contract revoked.
I've now met with all three of my professors and have three green lights for paper topics. I've got one of them pretty much scripted, one solidly in mind with some research still to do, and one for which I need to finish a rather substantial book before I can even begin drafting. Then I've got a set of papers coming in Monday and final portfolios two and a half weeks after that. I imagine I've got about five weeks to get it all done. Ah, graduate school.
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