Saturday Morning, Feeling Fine

By | | , ,
Comments Off on Saturday Morning, Feeling Fine

After almost exactly a year of work, I turned in my dissertation proposal to my committee yesterday.  My advisor has already returned it with some suggested changes, but she assures me that it is not because I am a slacker.  It is 125 pages after all.

This is all very exciting but also a little overwhelming and perhaps I’m experiencing a small sense of let down.  Because of the way I’ve written this paper, it was part of my life throughout 2007.  My research plans have changed fairly significantly since January 2007 including my paradigm.  I shifted from a constructivist to an interpretivist paradigm in the hopes of being able to at least make some generalizations with my data.

Suddenly, I have some time…enough work to keep me busy during the day, but evenings and weekends provide unstructured time.  I’ve been crocheting for charity (mostly baby booties and hats).  And reading. I just finished Pontoon by Garrison Keillor.  I really liked it but found myself sort of wanting more.  The story seemed spare for Keillor; I found myself wanting more of his diversions.  This was definitely the story of Evelyn and those close to her rather than a story of Lake Wobegon as a whole.  Since I hurt my back, I’ve been feeling very middle aged and just tired.  So, I could sympathize with Evelyn’s daughter, Barbara.  Except I have a lovely marriage that blesses my life every day.

I picked up The Power and the Glory by Grace MacGowan Cooke yesterday but only got through the introduction.  Published in 1909, the subtitle is “A Novel of Appalachia.”  I sat in the swing under the oak tree and learned about the author, something of a feisty woman who was very much part of the literary ether of the time, rubbing shoulders with Sinclair Lewis and  Robinson Jeffries.  The book was made into a movie in 1918.

Most of Cooke’s work is out of print, but this edition was released in 2003 by Northeastern University Press.  I was also pleased to discover that it is available via Project Gutenberg. I am planning on spending an hour with it today wrapped in a blanket in front of the fire.

Right now, I’m puttering on the computer, setting up an iGoogle page for a workshop I’m doing at the VSTE conference and listening to great music from WFMU: Laura Cantrell’s Radio Thrift Shop…there is laundry in and I’ve got the ingredients for sweet potato pies on the kitchen table getting soft (butter and frozen sweet potato mash).  I’m making pies for dinner tonight.  And, later this afternoon, I have a recorder rehearsal.  But, I’m pretty sure I can find an hour to read.  Maybe even crochet…what DID I do with myself before I started going to graduate school full time?

Snow Day

By | |
Comments Off on Snow Day

So it only snowed briefly where I live, but where I was supposed to go, it snowed a lot and there was a threat of ice. Last night, at 10 PM, we called it off. I probably could have made it but a colleague was coming from Baltimore. The perils of being a traveling show. Anyway, now I’m sitting at my computer, looking out at a dreary morning, trying to decide what to do. There’s a pile of waiting projects, of course, but I hadn’t planned the time so it’s much harder for me to get started. Church work? Writing? Blogging? Yoga? Oh dear…all over the map. Well, technically, I am blogging right now…but I meant writing something for my professional blog rather than just tinkering with this one.

So, here’s the problem: no live frog today. I live by that old saying: “If the first thing you do each morning is to eat a live frog, you can go through the day with the satisfaction of knowing that that is probably the worst thing that is going to happen to you all day long!” But, I handed in my rough draft of a case, I reserved Sunday for working on my dissertation, and the church work can wait.  Hmm…I think I’m going to go for reading Education Week and doing some professional blogging.

Carpe Diem!

Just Having Fun

By | | ,
Comments Off on Just Having Fun

I am a workaholic.  And because I work for myself, I get to determine that workaholic schedule.  Which means as long as there’s work to do, I do it.  Hmmm…I know the deadlines I have.  I know the available time.  I could afford to take some time off.  So, that’s what I did this afternoon.  I spent the morning at church, playing the piano for the service–I played George Shearing arrangements of Ebb Tide and Three Coins in the Fountain (for the offertory, of course).  Totally butchered the music for singing out the children.  Then came home and noodled around, finally settling on updating this personal website that just moved to a new host.

I wanted to add a new header graphic but didn’t want to install the Adobe suite.  So, I found Seashore, a free graphics editor for Mac.   The description I saw was right on: it does everything I need to do (scale, crop, copy, paste and even some effects) but without all the overhead for stuff I’ll never use.  It worked great.  I played around with a collage but decided to go with just one picture and I like the way the skimmer pictures matches the color scheme of this theme.

My problem is getting my flickr badge to work.  I think the plugin css is fighting with the theme css.  The flash badge looks OK but the html badge ends up under the text, at least in Firefox on my Mac.

This has been fun.  Next, I’m adding my librarything list.

Guilty Pleasures

By | | ,
1 Comment

I have been reading through English, Welsh, and Irish history over the break. The last one was Tipperary by Frank Delaney. I did not like it at first; the way it switched between voices seemed choppy and made it tough for me to pick up the story of Charles O’Brien. As the sections got longer and then the narrator was revealed, I found myself drawn into the story. It’s funny…it has the same theme as Stonehenge (Bernard Cornwell) did in terms of people dedicating their lives to creating a monument.

So, at least I could say I was learning about history. Then, I opened iTunes, and there was the Showtime series, The Tudors. I bought the first episode and was absolutely hooked. I was warned about the sex, and it got sexier throughout the season. But, don’t skip to the last episode because it is improved by following it as it builds to the climax both literally and figuratively (sorry for that) throughout the other episodes. We’re lured in along with Henry. Love the costumes and the intrigue.

And, I also read that the series played pretty fast and loose with history. So, I used the Web to do some fact checking. I figured out that the character of Margaret was a combination of Henry’s two sisters: Mary and Margaret. The King of Portugal was a complete fabrication. In poking around the discussion forums sponsored by Showtime, I found a table listing historical inaccuracies. So, at least they know they rewrote history. And, does it matter? Not to me. I was entertained. So, now I wait for the second season to go on sale. Maybe they will stream it on the web.

UU Shared Beliefs

By | | Uncategorized
Comments Off on UU Shared Beliefs

I belong to a Unitarian Universalist congregation. If you know anything about the UUs, you probably know that UUs can believe anything they want. There is a list of principles and purposes that the organization shares. I don’t have a problem with those principles and purposes, but on Sunday, one of my co-ministers challenged us to consider the possibility that there might be more beyond them that we need to consider. In particular, he wondered–along with other “heretical” ministers–if there might be some shared beliefs and values that we can profess. You can read or listen to his sermon here.

Stuck in a hotel room last night, I did some surfing and found several of the heretics online. They are not suggesting that we adopt a creed, but instead sort of an underlying spiritual belief that would support those principles. Davidson Loehr is particularly tough on the principles:

So instead of asking religious questions about what was worth believing, what was necessary to believe, what beliefs might best be used to fashion people of good character, and so on ?¢‚Ǩ‚Äù instead of this, the Unitarians simply took an extended poll. They asked a handful of churches ?¢‚Ǩ‚Äú including the first church I served ?¢‚Ǩ‚Äú to hold discussion groups, to discover what the people who attended there (and liked discussion groups) happened to believe. What such a poll had to, and did, reveal were the generic cultural beliefs these people brought into church with them: the profile of social and political liberals.

This process produced the ?¢‚Ǩ?ìseven principles?¢‚Ǩ? ?¢‚Ǩ‚Äù known in some circles as the Seven Banalities or the Seven Dwarfs ?¢‚Ǩ‚Äù which soon became the de facto creed of a brand-new religion called ?¢‚Ǩ?ìUnitarian Universalism,?¢‚Ǩ? a religion that had never before existed anywhere, and to which no one of any note in history had ever belonged.

I guess the real problem here is how do we distinguish our church from just any other non-profit working for social justice? What makes us different? Really, the question is, what makes us a church. Then, you have to laugh a bit since my “church” isn’t even called a church or congregation. It is just called Unitarian Universalists without any kind of description of the group so as not to offend those who might find “church” to be a problematic word. But, this is a topic I am very interested in exploring. I wrote about it this morning in my morning pages and discovered that it has been awhile since I really thought about anything spiritual. Maybe I have stumbled upon a larger purpose for this blog!

Weekend Video Projects

By | | Uncategorized
Comments Off on Weekend Video Projects

Found myself with some free time this weekend so opened up Final Cut Pro to look at the video from Canada. Produced two shorts: one of a rushing mountain stream in Washington State and another of various wildlife clips. Both are embedded below:

Saturday Morning

By | | Uncategorized
Comments Off on Saturday Morning

I uploaded the first draft of my literature review this morning after finishing the reference section. Then, I did my favorite Saturday thing…puttered. I cleaned the kitchen, cooked sweet potatoes to mash for the freezer, and then realized I had all the fixings for a frittata including eggs from my own chickens and rosemary from the herb garden. Added mushrooms and sliced ham and cheese on top. It was yummy, if I do say so myself. Complimented with biscuits–the frozen kind, I’m afraid, but still pretty good with butter and honey jelly.

Now, it’s afternoon, and I want to get back to the UVA/VT game and some crocheting, but I just wanted to say aaah…I have had a week off at home, writing but also puttering. The house is decorated for the holidays, there is new stuff in the freezer from turkey stock to pumpkin muffins to cookies, and I even cleaned up the attic a bit. Trying to get organized and reduce clutter for the winter. I even switched chairs in the living room since Zuzu, our “new” white dog, likes my LLBean mission chair. I just feel relaxed after some pretty stressful weeks. Next week isn’t quite as free, especially since I do my oral comps defense on Wednesday afternoon. But there’s no long distance driving so I’m happy.

What a blessing…I took long walks the past two mornings, listening to Tom Brokaw’s new book about the Sixties, Boom! The leaves are still pretty although we are getting on the back side of the fall colors. There is a crispness to the air, like biting into a cold, tart apple. The fire in the stove feels warm and inviting and the dogs and I just hang out in the living room. Remember the peace and quiet, the sense of restfulness, and carry it in your heart.