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[Jun. 1st, 2009|06:34 pm] |
My trip to Spain began inauspiciously. I left my flat in St Andrews at some ungodly hour Tuesday morning -- seven, maybe? I forget now -- to undertake the frustrating trek to the airport. There are two ways to do this; I walked to the bus station, and took a bus to Ferrytoll, outside Edinburgh, and then another bus to the airport. The other way is to take a bus to the train station in the next town over -- we haven't one of our own -- and take the train into Edinburgh, and then a bus back to the airport. Either way, from door to check-in, and allowing for time waiting for trains and busses, you're looking at a solid two hours. I wish St Andrews were more accessible.
Anyway, I began strong by putting my passport in my pocket before I left. I didn't, I think, write about it here, but the last time I travelled to Europe, to give a talk in Oslo, I made the arduous journey to the airport, then discovered I'd left my passport in my flat. Brilliant. Anyway, that's another story. This time, I had my passport. I flew to Amsterdam, where I had a long layover of about three hours, before moving on to Barcelona.
( Read more... )
Here are pictures I took of Zaragoza.
Saturday morning I returned to Barcelona. (I had no trouble getting a ticket this time, although I didn't manage to do it online in advance, as I'd resolved to. My weekend in Barcelona will take a post or two of its own. As I write now, it's Monday midday and I'm flying from Barcelona to Amsterdam, then on back to Edinburgh. I'll sleep well tonight. |
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| (no subject) |
[May. 27th, 2009|07:55 pm] |
Written Tuesday midday.
As you may have noticed, I haven't been writing lately. I've been really bad about reading, too. Maybe I'll try to get in the habit of writing more again.
Life's been busy, if not terribly interesting. I've given a couple of presentations in the past two weeks at Arché, and this week I'm off to a conference in Spain where I'll give two more. (Indeed, I'm typing on the plane.) It's a conference based on the work of Ernest Sosa, who was my Ph.D. advisor; I'll be talking about his recent work on intuitions, and also about the problem of easy knowledge. I've sort of been giving myself a bit of a crash course in Spanish for the past couple of months, but I'm afraid I didn't devote myself to it sufficiently. It didn't help that I didn't really have anyone to practice with. So I'm pretty much going to be one of those Americans who goes abroad and only speaks English. At least I have the self-consciousness to be a bit embarrassed about it. Maybe I'll keep working on Spanish after my trip anyway; it'd be a useful life skill in general, especially if I go back to the States.
The Red Sox are in first place now. That's exciting. I traded Ervin Santana for David Ortiz in my fantasy league; it feels like I'm about the only person in the world who is optimistic about Papi right now, but I'm really hoping he'll come around. That, or Santana goes back on the DL! Brian and Ishani had me over to watch the game at their place last night; I do appreciate afternoon games. (Much more often than I should, I stay up until 2:30, listening to the WRKO feed in bed on my iPhone.)
We had a workshop on epistemology and contextualism last weekend at Arché. It was good, but I fell behind on sleep. Not a good thing, going into a conference. I don't know whether I'll get a chance to catch up on sleep until next week. If that's the case, I'll crash hard. Or maybe I'll find a way to sneak a few extra hours sometime in the next couple of days. My talks at the conference are both tomorrow. (I'm writing Tuesday mid-day on the plane; not sure when I'll get to post this. My guess is late Tuesday night.)
I have a strong instinct to apologize for a boring post. I won't; I think my life's better when I write about it, and that only happens when I'm in the habit of writing, whether it feels entry-worthy or not. |
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| (no subject) |
[Mar. 13th, 2009|03:28 pm] |
So you've heard, maybe, that President Obama has instituted a council on women and women's issues. Cool.
The Christian Right is complaining. What could one complain about? The usual things: sex and abortion. Tony Perkins of the Family Research Council writes:
Yesterday ... President Obama launched the White House Council on Women and Girls in front of a roomful of abortion activists--not the least of which is the council's newly appointed executive director, Tina Tchen. As a former vice president of the National Organization of Women (NOW), Tchen leaves little doubt that the council's biggest pursuit for women and girls will be abortion and contraception. No surprises here. But here's the funny thing. What is Tony Perkin's support for the claim that the new council's primary support will be abortion and contraception (as opposed to the issues Obama actually mentioned in presenting the new council: "pay disparities, domestic violence, and the relatively few women in Congress and in the executive offices of major companies)? Here's the rest of Perkin's piece in its entirety, where he explains how he knows that abortion is the top agenda:The agenda was no secret when Cecile Richards, President of Planned Parenthood, was first out of the starting gate to applaud the new office. "We look forward to working with the president and [the Council] on issues...including providing comprehensive health care information and services, reducing unintended pregnancies and decreasing... STDs," she said. As part of yesterday's signing ceremony, President Obama specifically named members of the Cabinet and other high-level advisors to the team--a move that leads many of us to believe he is aligning each Department to press for stronger pro-abortion policies. Bafflingly, the quotation -- which was cherry-picked by Perkins -- doesn't even mention abortion. We have a laundry list of objectives: health care information and services, reduced unintended pregnancies, and decreased STDs. (The ellipses stood for "the alarming number of".) Which of those goals does Perkins oppose?
This Christian fringe has lost its grip on the federal government, and it's quickly losing its hold on the GOP, too, but it isn't going quietly. It's remarkable now that, judging by statements like this one, it's barely paying lip service to the pretense that it isn't the anti-woman party. I mean, seriously: the White House institutes a new council on women -- not mentioning a word about focusing on abortion -- and your first instinct is to oppose it?
That's some crazy shit, man.
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| (no subject) |
[Mar. 2nd, 2009|12:45 pm] |
I'm back in St. Andrews. It's weirdly empty of people I know. (Arché isn't in session yet.) But I have plenty to do. I'm preparing lecture notes for my course, which I'll start giving Wednesday. We're also deep into Mikado rehearsals; that goes up the week after next.
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| (no subject) |
[Jan. 31st, 2009|12:33 am] |
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Tell me a secret! Anonymously or not. Comments are screened and won't show up. |
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| Cut Taxes, Not Children |
[Jan. 27th, 2009|04:37 pm] |
Today's headline from the Right-Wing Family Research Counsel is v. weird. The headline is Cut Taxes, Not Children. In it, Tony Perkins complains about stimulus funding supporting birth control. I guess teaching teenagers about condoms is kind of like 'cutting children'. Is the idea that if there's more birth control, there will be fewer (unwanted) pregnancies, so we've 'cut' the level of children in this country? Or is it that birth control cuts children, the same way that a knife does? It is a v. big mystery!
The best part, though, is this amazing graphic:
I'm thinking about making that an LJ icon, just for the sake of the wacky non sequitor. Seriously, this whole thing is kinda surreal. |
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| (no subject) |
[Jan. 22nd, 2009|07:40 pm] |
Yesterday, I was having a coffee on a bench outside a Peet's Coffee in Oakland. A boy, maybe seven years old, sat down next to me. I looked over at him and smiled, and he said: "I like your hat." I replied, "thanks very much." I was wearing my favorite Red Sox cap. I started to turn back to the paper I was reading, but he wasn't done. "Because they're my favorite team."
"Oh yeah? Mine too. Are you from Boston?"
"No, because Manny used to be on that team."
"Yeah, that's true. That's a weird guy, Manny Ramirez. I don't really get him."
"But now he's on the Dodgers."
"Actually, he's a free agent now. But he was on the Dodgers last year. We don't know yet what team he'll play for this year."
"But then the Red Sox got Jason Bay."
"That's true -- that worked out pretty well."
"Do you remember that one time, one or two games after he joined the team, that Jason Bay, umm, he made a diving catch!"
"He's a good fielder, yeah."
At this point, his mother had come out of Peet's. "I bet I can guess what you two are talking about."
"See you later, man," I said.
It was a charming and weird couple of minutes. |
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| (no subject) |
[Jan. 19th, 2009|08:25 pm] |
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I've just begun re-reading the Cornish Trilogy. I had forgotten (a) how much I love Robertson Davies, and (b) that I have a mystical side. |
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| writing prompts |
[Jan. 18th, 2009|11:38 pm] |
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I haven't been writing much in here lately, but I think I'd like to be. But I don't really know what to say. Here's an open call for post ideas. Anything about me you want to know? Or anything else you want to know my thoughts about? Fire away. No question too stupid/basic/personal/difficult/boring/whatever (to ask! -- no promises, here). |
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| Work goals |
[Jan. 13th, 2009|05:40 pm] |
Today is January 13. There is practically nothing on my calendar for the next month. I'm at my parents' in California, where there are relatively few distractions. (Bay Area friends: you're welcome to distract some!) These should be ideal conditions for writing, and that's what I want to do. I have a ton of works in progress, and in the next month, I intend to make lots of progress. Here's what I'm working on, ( for anyone who happens to care )
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| busy lately |
[Dec. 11th, 2008|01:25 am] |
I miss posting. Maybe I'll have a new spurt of it soon. Maybe.
News: I was cast as Pooh-Bah in the university group Mikado next term. That should be fun.
Other news: I'm giving a paper at a conference in Finland this weekend.
Other news: I'm going to the States December 23.
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| (no subject) |
[Nov. 5th, 2008|04:50 pm] |
I'll probably try to write some thoughts on election night soon. I stayed up until they called it at 4:00 a.m.; I'm deeply moved in a way it'll take a little thinking to be able to describe properly.
Lindsey Beyerstein has some amazing photos of people celebrating in New York. For example:
Finally, this disagreement strikes me as an accurate one:
Barack Obama
I've always believed that we should have a playoff system in college football. I'm not sure who came up with the idea for the BCS formula we use today, but to borrow a phrase I've used over and over on the campaign trail, it's time for a change. I'm tired of all the confusion and controversy that boils over at the end of every college football season, and I think an eight-team playoff would make a lot of sense. | | | John McCain
Ideally it would be great to have a college football playoff system, but practically I'm not sure it will ever occur. There are a lot of factors involved with making this happen, including school schedules, potential for injuries and others. But if it doesn't happen, I think the regular season in college football and conference championships, not to mention the bowl games, are terrific. Some in Congress have seen fit to get involved with this issue, but I do not believe it is a federal responsibility unless there is some fundamental unfairness or anticompetitive conduct at issue. |
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| oooo spooky |
[Oct. 31st, 2008|12:29 pm] |
Here's a joke I just heard!
Q: Why do computer scientists send presents on Halloween?
( A: ... )
Ha ha ha!
Happy Halloween, everybody.
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| (no subject) |
[Oct. 30th, 2008|05:37 pm] |
I haven't written about life in a while. Not much to report, I guess. I'm writing. Just booked a whole bunch of plane tickets. I had (mostly spectated, really) an interesting conversation about Norway and the EU last night. I know embarrassingly little about European politics.
I was invited to a Halloween party. Hmm.
Links!
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| (no subject) |
[Oct. 29th, 2008|08:46 pm] |
Linkses
100% politics so far... can't have that... I'm a well-rounded individual, I swear... AHA: |
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