Too Busy to Write More Than Two Paragraphs

I couldn't decide whether to do a post about the visit so far now, or do one tomorrow when more of the visit has happened. However, I think I am tired and want to be awake to hang out with friends tomorrow, so I'm not going to do much today. So, rather than spend time writing worthwhile things instead of sleeping today, I'm going to mention some things I want to write about soon.

 I'll do a little year wrap up tomorrow or the first of January. I'll also mention a bit about MoBloYoFoMo when it is over, so these two things might be one post. Most importantly in that post, we'll try to hammer out where to go from here. And I want to mention a bit about Epic New Year Party Episode III. Of course, there were the rest of the Identity posts that I wanted to get to... eventually.

Punishment

So, the premise of MoBloYoFoMo is that I write a blog post every day in the month of December. Of course, this is already not going to happen because I forgot a day or two back at the beginning. Which raises the question, what happens when I miss a day? Do I simply blog one extra day into January? (lame!) Do I have to do an entire extra week in January? (punishment, yes, but kind of harsh!)

I think it would be beneficial for me to have some sort of defined repercussion for failure to post on a given day. For one, it will help me decide to skip days when I need to, because then I will know what the atonement shall have to be. I was very much considering skipping today, because it is late and I really should head to sleep, but then I got to thinking, "well, what will happen if I do skip today?" and I thought I could eke a blog post out of that. Furthermore, since I have said, "this month I will blog every day," choosing not to post on a given day feels like willfully going back on my word, which is not to be done. If I have agreed ahead of time that there is a repercussion for not posting, there is already an acknowledgement that sometimes posts may not happen, so I can uphold my honesty and ALSO get some sleep! Win-win!

So, since my ideas switch between lame and harsh, do you have any thoughts as to what my penance ought be? Of course, no promise to adopt your suggestion, but I would like to hear them. Ok, it's short, but I feel this counts as a blog post.

I got the MoBloYoFoMo Blues

The problem with vowing to update a blog every day for a month, aside from the obvious one of forgetfulness, is that you are supposed to update even on days when you are dead tired from grading nearly all day. In fact, if I were one of those normal people who worked 8 hours each day (hmmm, ask fact checker if those people still exist), I would have spent more than a days work just grading exams today. There was a lot of grading, I am still haunted by the trauma llama from all the grading. Anyway, as you may have already guessed, due to these unfortunate circumstances, we shall not be saying anything of note here today. I was going to post some more thoughts about the standardization of education, but having spent the entire day grading uniform finals, I can't. I think that may be ironic, and not the Alanis Morissette kind.

The good thing with vowing to update a blog every day for a month is that you are supposed to even when it is three in the morning and you really should be going to sleep, because sometimes gritting ones teeth and writing a blog post into the wee hours of the morning produces something worth thinking about, but not today.

Honesty

One of the beautiful things about the Internet is how mutable the truth is. I could backdate this post to yesterday, then it would look like I didn't miss a daily post. Or I could go ahead and remove all references to MoBloYoFoMo so people might not even know that I was supposed to be making daily posts. Or I can admit that I didn't post Friday, apologize to anyone who feels that it is shocking and/or scandalous, and try to do better in the future. I think I'll go with the second option, just kidding!

Have you ever been composing an E-mail or text message and put in something that you later realized was wrong, then instead of changing it, just mentioned that you'd made a mistake ang gave the right information. I cannot decide if that is honest or not. On one hand, you are accurately representing your thought process as you move from the error to the realization of the truth. On the other hand, because it would be possible to simply edit out the error, leaving it in to create the appearance of spontaneous revelation of the truth is a pre-meditated decision, which is about as far from spontaneous as one can get. Sometimes this bothers me.

I hope to write a more in depth post about the ethical dimensions of honesty tomorrow.

Hiatus

You may have noticed that I have not posted recently. Like many other fun internet things I do in my spare time, blog posting got shoved out of my life as I tried to teach a 5 credit class and take a 5 credit class both in the span of 13/2 weeks. Those of you who see me on Facebook already know this had mixed results, academically and emotionally. But, now all that is over, and I have lots of browser tabs open with things that I wanted to blog about, but couldn't find the energy to adequately address. I may not feel up to it today, but by tomorrow I will have a real post about something up, and I will be updating more than once a month the rest of the summer. Thanks for sticking with me!

Apologies

Just a few apologies I have accrued the need to make over the past week. A short post and then to sleep.

First off, and most importantly, I am sorry to Natalie Munroe for caricaturizing her. Reading two of her posts, including the most controversial, carefully, it appears that she does not cuss out her students, only laments that cussing out students is not an option. While I still feel that her behavior toward her students in her blog leaves some respect to be lacking, certainly their behavior towards her, in the comments and the classroom, does the same. Whether or not her behavior was appropriate, it was not instigated in the context of the classroom, nor directly intended for her students, so I do believe her suspension is an inappropriate response, but that is just me. Her decision to remove her blog irks me somewhat, as it appears to admit guilt and simultaneously makes it more difficult to evaluate the furor in an informed manner. It is, of course, her blog to do with as she likes though.

Next, the Wisconsin debacle. The information that I have received indicates that the unions are willing to negotiate and compromise on pay cuts. Their main issue with the proposed legislation is not the cost saving measures, but the parts that are basically a bald attempt to cripple the unions. So, I apologize to the Republicans in Wisconsin for making the assumption that their policy had a moral leg on which to stand.

Finally, to my sister, I apologize for me Facebook status. Your series on relationships is VERY nice, not to mention incredibly brave to write! I stand by the rest ;)

Now, to sleep, hopefully!

Mea Culpa

This time I did not forget that it was Friday, my fault no post on consciousness last week. With the semester getting into swing and such, I have been feeling down again, and putting serious thought and effort into a post has just seemed overwhelming. However, since one of my intentions for this blog is to keep myself thinking philosophically even when I just want to curl up and hide, I shall attempt to get back upon the horse.

To that end, you can certainly expect a Theological post come Wednesday. I am leaning toward discussing my interpretation of salvation, I was going to do this anyway, but I think I'll advance the timetable because my sister posted a wonderful and caring post on this topic. Come Friday I shall post something related to the philosophy of consciousness.

Part of the reason for no post last Friday is a lack of ideas on what to post, I plan to talk about the ghost in the machine, which is enough for a short post at the moment, but no additional topic to get it to full size. Of course, not wanting to think about what to post does influence how full of ideas I am. If I come up with material for a fourth post on consciousness, I shall post a make up sometime. I think I had four posts planned out, so I should just have to remember what I was going to talk about, but we'll see.

Nothing particularly new in my life, but I feel this has been about my life enough to satisfy the Monday requirement. Classes and teaching are draining me of my elan vital. It is ironic that when classes start they drain all my motivation to think, right? I think I am going to drop my first grad class, I can get more sleep, stress a little less, it isn't terribly interesting, and I haven't gone to the last to meetings. Well, hope others are having more successful school starts.

Nose to the Grindstone

I feel like I have been remiss in being active within the comments. This is reprehensible as I like active comment threads. So, I am going to start with the most recent post and go back, commenting where I feel I should have. Tune in Tuesday for a question that I hope will generate feedback !

Summer Rots Your Brain

Upon waking up it occurred to me that today is Saturday. Which, by logical extension, means yesterday was Friday! Ooops. So I owe a good post of feminism to you, my dear reader. Unfortunately circumstances conspire to delay it a bit further. I have to head out soon, which coupled with the fact that I don't have a topic yet, makes it hard to complete the post before I go. However, I have a good long walk to my destination, so I shall be thinking of topics on my way. If you have a topic idea, feel free to suggest it. I should get around to giving you your well deserved post by this evening, so post quickly if you want to see it today.

Despite not knowing my post for today, or yesterday technically, I do know what I am talking about next Friday. So, if you do not get your idea in on time, you will not see it in July, but you certainly could see it in August. I am sorry for my deviation from schedule, it was entirely unintentional.