February 2012
26 posts
4 tags
“Philosophic freedom is very distinct from political freedom. How Socrates lives...”
– Perplexities of the City: Analysis and Discussion of Xenophon’s Memorabilia, II.7.8-9 (Part IV)
5 tags
2/22/12 →
It was warm today. The sun fell gently, slowly bringing objects – including the skin – up to temperature. A few classes were held outside; the mall had many individuals scattered. Went to the basement of the library and ran into a few nervous about exams and tried to read myself.
Felt necessity and ambition were both far away from the sunlight. Not quite making the progress I want with a...
6 tags
“Make me something somebody can use.”
– The Weakerthans, “Utilities”
5 tags
“Is happiness contingent on knowledge of the useful simply, or on thinking one...”
– Perplexities of the City: Analysis and Discussion of Xenophon, Memorabilia II.7.6-7 (Part III)
1 tag
6 tags
“Sensuality often hastens the growth of love so much that the roots remain weak...”
– Nietzsche
6 tags
“I’ve been thinking a lot about someone recently. Thinking if she likes me in any...”
– “Whisper of the Heart:” Wonder, Love, and Growing Up
5 tags
Emily Dickinson, “Nature rarer uses Yellow” (1045) →
Nature rarer uses Yellow Than another Hue. Saves she all of that for Sunsets Prodigal of Blue
Spending Scarlet, like a Woman Yellow she affords Only scantly and selectly Like a Lover’s Words.
6 tags
“When you’re thinking about someone, they can’t respond fast enough.”
– blah
4 tags
Perplexities of the City: Analysis and Discussion... →
4 tags
I think I'm in love, or some nonsense
I’m crushing on someone. She’s more into poetry than I am: she’s introduced me to a few poets I hadn’t known about. We’re talking fairly regularly about her life and health.
Oh, and she might be the hottest woman on the planet. Just sayin’.
My wish: that we be better friends and communicate well. It’s fun to be excited about someone, especially this...
5 tags
“One wonders if it is possible to say the universal character of reason – for...”
– Maimonides, “Letter to Obadiah the Proselyte”
5 tags
4 tags
Perplexities of the City: Analysis and Discussion... →
4 tags
“A life well-lived might make the world.”
– On the funeral of Elizabeth Burris, 2/13/12
5 tags
“University was both exciting and terrifying for me, both at once. A friend at...”
– For those going to University for the first time
5 tags
“The figure of Socrates seems to have nothing to do with any of this. He stood...”
– An Introduction to Political Philosophy
7 tags
Nate Klug, “Dare” →
Not, this time, to infer but to wait you out between regret and parking lot somewhere in the day like a dare
Salt grime and the foodcarts’ rising steam, at Prospect St. a goshawk huge and aloof, picking at something, nested in twigs and police tape for a while we all held our phones up
It is relentless, the suddenness of every other song, creature, neighbor as though this life would...
5 tags
“When Derek Fisher tried to play bump-and-bang defense, the savvy veteran was...”
– Links, 2/11/12 - quote from Charley Rosen
5 tags
“I get the feeling if I’m ultra-meticulous I’ll make something that has a chance...”
– Could use a lot more discipline
6 tags
“Nasreddin Hoja had become quite famous, but he always traveled in a very meager...”
– Nasreddin Hoja visits a bath, as recounted by Seth Benardete
6 tags
“Any serious cost-benefit analysis has to take into account explicitly the good...”
– Review: Seth Godin, “The Dip”
4 tags
Robert Creeley, “A Prayer” →
Bless something small but infinite and quiet.
There are senses make an object in their simple feeling for one.
2 tags
Ashok Karra - website →
In other news - heading back to campus. I don’t know the tumblr will get attention. It’ll be hard enough to keep up with the main blog.
Please do stay in touch. Messaging me is appreciated. And many thanks for thepetitemuse’s shout-out:
thepetitemuse:
thepetitemuse:
Hey guys!
So I know I don’t always post stuff like this, but this is a link to a site run by someone I...
3 tags
6 tags
“You don’t know me.” You can imagine how annoying it is to hear this when dealing...”
– What’s on the minds of young people?
January 2012
345 posts
7 tags
“It makes me want to vomit. And not out of grossness — OK, a little bit out of...”
– Kristen Bell, on dating (via sarka)
Two things:
added Joseph (sarka) to Rethink’s blogroll
Dating is not gross. You have to make up your mind before a date that whomever you’re going out with is going to have a good time. There are nerves, but you gotta be resolved “hey,...
6 tags
Linked to a bunch of you on tumblr from my main... →
…and will link to that many more of you as the days progress. My only concern is that a few of you tend to write very personally for your immediate tumblr audience. I don’t know what you would do with more attention from outside tumblr.
But if you want it, ask and you shall receive. You guys have been great. I hope my audience can “invade” tumblr and remedy some of the...
7 tags
“What I will never see again I must love forever.” →
Quote from Yehuda Amichai
6 tags
4 tags
5 tags
“In some ways, it was natural for the university to become a type of sports...”
– The fight over college athletics is really a fight over what the University means
5 tags
“Once upon a time, most people were more Christian (truish), and they mentioned...”
– Rant: This “America is a Christian Nation” thesis is a load of crap, and potentially more dangerous than Birthers or Truthers
6 tags
6 tags
“When Plato attempts to establish the existence of... →
6 tags
A poem about what happens when you ask "what you... →
3 tags
5 tags
“Being generous in the abstract probably translates into being self-governing in...”
– Re: Eliza Griswold, “Everyone Is an Immigrant”
7 tags
On reddit, there might actually emerge a... →
You have no idea how rare this is. Even among other academics, no one asks me about my work. It’s pretty frustrating after blogging for 5-6 years.
Link goes to reddit and of course reddit links to the original post. I walk through a section of Xenophon’s Memorabilia line-by-line and try to illustrate the ambiguous Socratic relationship with democracy.
5 tags
Robert Frost, "The Gift Outright" →
The land was ours before we were the land’s. She was our land more than a hundred years Before we were her people. She was ours In Massachusetts, in Virginia, But we were England’s, still colonials, Possessing what we still were unpossessed by, Possessed by what we now no more possessed. Something we were withholding made us weak Until we found out that it was ourselves We were...
5 tags
2 tags
2 tags
5 tags
4 tags
5 tags
I Am Out of Words.
tiny-bee:
I would never be so bold as to consider myself a writer, beyond saying that I write. I write stories, I write poorly structured blog entries, I write emails, I write letters, I write shopping lists.
Lately, however, I find myself out of words. I don’t know what to say when I log onto this website. I take a picture of my face and type a few flippant sentences. I don’t write.
I sit...
5 tags
4 tags
5 tags
On a more personal note...
onlylogan:
My mom is chronically ill.
She has a disease called Idiopathic Pulmonary Fibrosis (IPF).
As the Coalition or Pulmonary Fibrosis (CPF) defines it, “Idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis (IPF) is a progressive and generally fatal disease characterized by scarring of the lungs that thickens the lining of the lungs, causing an irreversible loss of the tissue’s ability to transport oxygen....
5 tags
