Tuesday, September 30, 2008 

please don't shoot me from a plane because this resonates with me.

Saturday, September 27, 2008 

"i have a bracelet too!"

last night's debate was underwhelming... actually, it was downright boring.


i hope that obama will ease back into his dynamic personality rather than this stilted performance that i assume is the result of poor advice.



that said, the experience of watching it with mr. hughes over sandwiches and tequila was exceptional. it is hard to believe that four years ago i was having debate-watching parties at the loft and registering people to vote outside the meridian room. if blogger will ever restore selfdeconstructingtext i'll link to the posts with pictures from that era. four years ago today i was enjoying a mojito while fair-goers filled out my little registration cards... today i am sitting in a mansion and preparing to write a paper on the early american pragmatists. i do wonder what uncle walt would think of all of this....

Thursday, September 25, 2008 

kel and i are going to bolivar in a few weeks. i'll take pictures, inshallah.

Monday, September 22, 2008 

cars and theory

Shanna can't find her copy of Barthes' "Death of the Author."


She also is wondering where the hell Wimsatt and Beardsleys' "Intentional Fallacy" is.




This is a sorry state of affairs. I am on the verge of something big, some kind of epiphanic moment in process -- but I will have to allow it to percolate, as I need to pick up the kid from school. And I won't get started on describing the car I'm driving. I thought I was in love with the Mercedes....

this corvette is a work of art. The simple act of driving it is creative in itself.

Sunday, September 21, 2008 

i came across this today:


"Looking to find Michael Kujawa and his lion... I know he made it through the storm but don't know his whereabouts now. There is a place for him to go in College Station...."



and yes: there is also a hungry tiger loose on crystal beach.




i exaggerate on occasion, but i am not making this up.

Thursday, September 18, 2008 

una mas

Caughey house is 3rd row, 2nd hse on the right going down the center rd.

I've just run out of words.

Wednesday, September 17, 2008 

i promise to stop obsessing over this.

this video, especially the second half shot from the gulf looking towards the crystal beach subdivisions, is crushing.

note to self: do not start your day like this again, shan.


thanks to savvy for the link.

Tuesday, September 16, 2008 

stages of mourning

for me the first is always a cry:

give it back.



it is a demand soaked, awash in unabashed sorrow.

Monday, September 15, 2008 

one of my homes just got slammed into piles of debris and masses of water (and bodies). it is not just the structures that i frequented, the spaces i inhabited: an entire place is just... gone.

my cousin court was married there.
my cousin karl spent the summer after his freshman year of college there.
actually, my cousins karl and kel spent summers and years there.
my aunts and uncles and pets were raised there.
i've spent time there every single year that i have been alive.

my grandparents are buried there.

now their former home is buried there, as is uncle john's, uncle mike's, along with all of the places that have given me memories: places with silly names like key lime pi, the dancing mermaid, life's a beach....



what will be the shape of things to come? will the rebuild the ferry structure? what will happen to swede's?


an entire community just got obliterated, and we don't even have a death toll yet.


my favorite place in the world now looks like this:
http://ngs.woc.noaa.gov/storms/ike/geo-C25883793.jpg

 

angry and devastated

my home on the coast is gone, i've been dying for information, and we get this:

http://www.galvnews.com/story.lasso?ewcd=47d67de20539ea2c

(thx to http://twitter.com/SleepyDude2007) for the link.

Friday, September 12, 2008 

please spare my island my and my peninsula.

Wednesday, September 10, 2008 

why i should be taking greek

the post atheist is neither an apostate nor an heretic.


apostate is derived from the greek apo = away, apart AND
stasis, which = standing.


and yes, i am looking these things up after an engaging lecture in xian heritage class this morning. i have more to say, but i have a kid to wrangle and a paper to write.



sigh.


Tuesday, September 09, 2008 

the naming of things....

the kids have just agreed that my family has some crazy names (both nicnames and given). i never really thought about it until A. and C. danced about while chanting the list from all of the stories they have heard over the years. I give you:

Cinderella
Aunt Bill
Angel
The Humdinger
Lulu
Choo-Choo Train
Aunt Sissy Cat
Othar Ray
Diddy
Mimi (they think it is Me-me. When C. was younger he would joke that he would name his daughter You-You.)

That said, their favorite? Bobby Joe.

"Who is named Bobby Joe??!?"




------

This is all true.

And Uncle Bobby dropped the "Joe" years ago.

 

is it possible that a few years can make such a cultural difference? or is it just that my peers have been living in a cultural vacuum for, um, ever?


during the break today, the eight folks who are studying american pragmatism (all of whom, save yours truly, are teaching undergrad courses at the moment) found themselves engaged in what can hardly be called a conversation about hipsters.

yes. hipsters.

the one "expert" on the subject started to spew some snotty words about hipsters and i expected the usual... but lo and behold!! said individual actually had no idea what a hipster is! her closest definition involved new yorkers who wear neon-colored hats and "stupid clothing."

it is interesting to note that this individual was also sporting a t-shirt with an ironic pepsi slogan that she purchased at urban outfitters.

sigh.

i'm really less making fun of her than sitting here in bewilderment.


how is this possible?

Monday, September 08, 2008 

i may get in trouble for this...

... but i have to share a quote from the work of my favorite philosopher.




we require an ironic orthodoxy at least as much as a generous one.

Saturday, September 06, 2008 

"we meet as a sign... [of] the survival of a love of letters amongst a people too busy to give to letters anymore."


emerson, "the american scholar," 1837




you have got to love the racist bastard.

Thursday, September 04, 2008 

HAL makes a comeback

i'm at work, so

http://blog.wired.com/cars/2008/09/hondas-got-priu.html