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Archive for the 'Personal' Category

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Fall 2008 Classes!

Tuesday, August 26th, 2008

Here’s what I’ll be working on this semester:

Wittgenstein and Kripke with John Deigh
A first year seminar (covering topics like philosophy of language and mind) with Adam Pautz
Indian Philosophy with Stephen Phillips
Sanskrit with Harzer Edeltraud
Grader for Jeff Leon’s Medical Ethics undergraduate section

If I have any free time (ha!) I may try to do some reading with [...]

Posted in Announcements, Personal | No Comments »

UT Austin Methodology Conference Photos

Sunday, August 17th, 2008

The photographs I took throughout the conference are at my Flickr set, here. I took sparingly few, compared to most events I photograph, in part because I was giving my attention to the content rather than framing it aesthetically. Further, my Alpha 100 has a very loud shutter click, and I really didn’t want [...]

Posted in Personal, Philosophy | No Comments »

Fregean moment

Thursday, July 31st, 2008

Philosophers of language will appreciate this one. I recently had a Fregean moment when I realized that Hannah Montana is Miley Cyrus. Yes, make fun of me in the comments all you want. I had heard about the Miley Cyrus photo and knew she was some Disney star. And I’d heard about Hannah Montana. But somehow I never connected the two together.

(In this moment I also got a glimpse of my future self as a parent, struggling to keep up with my kids’ pop culture consumption…apparently reading science and philosophy blogs, listening to NPR and reading The Atlantic Monthly isn’t going to cut it.)

Posted in Humor, Language, Personal | Comments Off

Time Machine! 07-2006

Wednesday, July 23rd, 2008

I haven’t taken stock of my general “life” to do list in a while. At this point, it includes:
Move to Austin, start PhD program, get paper(s) published
Approximately two years ago, my to do list looked like this:

Metaphysics and epistemology comprehensive exam (high pass)
Philosophy of science and logic comprehensive exam (pass)
Complete coursework (Two left: Ethics, Nietzsche in fall [...]

Posted in Education, Personal | Comments Off

First Rate My Professor rating

Saturday, July 5th, 2008

Out of curiosity, I clicked over to RateMyProfessor.com this morning (another blogger had mentioned their ratings on the site). Although I’ve taught at several community colleges, no one so far has bothered to rate me. That’s okay, because I have official student evaluations for my file.
But now the Internets are evaluating me — I [...]

Posted in Education, Personal | 3 Comments »

Of boxes and books

Thursday, July 3rd, 2008

As the time for my move to Austin draws closer, I am starting to sort through all of my books. Well, at least all of the books I have in Chicago–I still have hundreds back at my parent’s place, mostly related to my undergrad degree.
I’ll be in a teeny-tiny efficiency outside of UT, where [...]

Posted in Books, Personal | Comments Off

Solve.

Friday, June 20th, 2008

It isn’t often that I write about anything related to the city of Chicago, but this has been on my mind over the past week and I thought I’d bring your attention to it.
I’m on Flickr quite a bit, putting up my own photos and watching those belonging to my contacts. Some of those [...]

Posted in Art, Newsworthy, Personal | Comments Off

Of Academics and Amor

Wednesday, June 18th, 2008

Does anyone know how many philosophers a) have partners that are in an academic field of some sort and b) how many relationships are long-distance? Examples of successful couples–I know about Martha Nussbaum and her spouse–would be helpful.

We’re not planning to be long-distance past the next year, possibly two, but it’d be nice to see beyond the upcoming semester.

Posted in Personal, Philosophy | 1 Comment »

In the light?

Tuesday, June 10th, 2008

This post by MoxieLife may explain why I haven’t been regularly attending Unitarian Universalist services in nearly a year. True, I’ve been busy, but when I find myself in hard times I tend to lean upon Buddhist teachings and praxis. That doesn’t exclude being a member of a Unitarian Universalist church, but I think I [...]

Posted in Personal, UU, worship | Comments Off

Hook ‘em horns - All things Austin

Monday, June 9th, 2008

The official countdown for my move is at 61 days. That means I have two months to find an apartment, figure out how I’m moving, pack my stuff and–most importantly–mentally adjust to the Austin temperatures.

It also means that my ability to focus on the course of study I set for myself this summer is pretty poor. You may have noticed that my Vigrahavyavartani translation efforts have stopped. I did finish Jaegwon Kim, but haven’t gotten around to posting further reflections. My copy of W.V.O. Quine’s Word and Object arrived in the mail Saturday, but despite my excitement at reading this important work, I’m hesitant to start and stop mid-way.

(Working in cube-world part time, teaching online and taking two courses has also pushed into my erstwhile free time…)

So I’m posting this as an open thread until I get back on schedule with some academic content. Has anyone visited or lived in Austin, and if so, any advice or stories to tell? I’m looking forward to the program, to the city and its culture, but dreading the heat. What do y’all think? (And should I start using that word, “y’all”?)

Posted in Personal | 2 Comments »

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