Archive for April, 2009
Monty Python and Novel Writing
Posted by Michael Livingston in Fiction on April 15th, 2009
I thought today, for no good reason at all, about the Novel-writing sketch by Monty Python. The “video” below is audio only, but it still gets the point across:
My Sick Season
Posted by Michael Livingston in Homelife on April 14th, 2009
I’m getting very, very tired of being ill. I can hardly remember a period of such prolonged blechitude in my life. It’s been months since I could say I was 100% chipper, and that ain’t right.
Alas, it’s so bad at the moment that I might actually have to cancel classes. I don’t want to — I never do — but right now between the coughing and the aching and the congesting, well, I feel like a walking advertisement for a pre-NyQuil state.
Speaking of which, I’m hitting the good stuff tonight. Maybe it’ll conk me out well enough to have energy for teaching tomorrow.
Here’s hoping.
Catkin Clouds
Posted by Michael Livingston in Homelife on April 12th, 2009
I like Charleston. I really do. But I’m finding I don’t like the catkins around here.
Heck, I didn’t even know what catkins were until recently. Pictured at left, they’re the male part of the pollenation process of oak trees (apparently), though I know them only as the clouds of seedy pods littering my yard and staining anything they get onto.
I raked today — must still admit to being peeved about raking leaves in the spring — and I picked up bags of these catkins. At one point, they were so piled up that I was shoveling them with a snowshovel into trash bags. Gallons and gallons of them. And of course they puffed away a dusty choking fog of pollen as I did so. Dreadful.
I swear they’re worse this year, too. I remember them last year, but it was nothing like this. And the worst part? As I was raking there were still more falling when the wind blew.
I like our live oaks. No, more than that I love them. But this catkin crap? Not cool, Mother Nature. Not cool at all.
Still More Nesting
Posted by Michael Livingston in Homelife on April 11th, 2009
After all of our work moving rooms around in preparation for Child 2.0′s arrival, we’ve now set ourselves upon an attic and closet purge.
It’s good to do this now and then, as one can all too easily turn into a packrat forever hauling around stuff that will never be needed again. We’ve more or less filled one room with the detritus of our fiddling, but I think we’re about done with it at this point. Tomorrow I’ll haul some boxes up to the attic and others out to the trash and recycling dumpsters. It may take two trips.
After that, though, we should be able to give a final clean-up to the house, which should make us good and ready for the young lass’s arrival in … gosh, about a month now!
Tolkien Papers
Posted by Michael Livingston in Academics on April 9th, 2009
I’ve been utterly swamped with meetings all week — a little bit on the faculty side, but mostly with cadets keeping me in my office through the evenings in order to chat about their work in progress.
The vast majority of these have been students from my Honors Tolkien class, who are two weeks away from turning in their big term papers. So I’ve been hearing all about where they stand and what they’re working on.
It is, in a word, awesome.
As I often tell my students, teachers get to learn far more than students ever do. After all, those 22 Honors kids really only get to learn from one person — yours truly — while I get to learn from all of them. And it’s completely true. Every student comes to class with different life experiences and growing, fertile fields of knowledge that I don’t have. As a result, they make connections that I could never have imagined on my own.
Oh, sure, on any given day some of the connections we might make in class are silly — but mixed in are moments of rare insight and startling brilliance that reverberate long after the class is over. And believe me, I’m the receiver not the giver of such wonders.
And then there are the papers, where they really buckle down and unleash their unique perspectives on the subject… man, they’re fun. And this group has come up with some staggering things.
For them, the next two weeks surely cannot go slowly enough, but for me I feel like I’m biting my nails off, chomping at the bit to get ahold of them and see what magic they’ve wrought. I can’t wait!
Grading Fun
Posted by Michael Livingston in Uncategorized on April 5th, 2009
Lots of grading this weekend, but I’m almost through it now. Just in time, too, since I have a couple projects that are otherwise on my mind. I’d much rather be working on them, I’m afraid!
Five Good Things
Posted by Michael Livingston in Homelife on April 4th, 2009
I’ve been kinda sorta busy of late (what’s new?), but I thought I’d pop up here to report five items of good news.
1. My mother underwent a successful surgery last week. All else pales beside this good news, but I did promise five items…
2. I’ve been reappointed for another year at El Cid. A darn good thing, too, since I love it here.
3. The creator of Arrested Development, along with a few of its cast members, are reuniting for an animated series that debuts on 19 April. Since AD was the funniest show ever on television, I can’t wait to see Sit Down, Shut Up.
4. The azaleas are blooming beautifully all along the front and back of the house. Heck, they’re blooming everywhere I look.
5. Did I mention the news about my mom?
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