Brain Drain

Just finished revising an article. Not sure I can still type in full sentences. Brain ... is ... fried.

But right now Jen and I are house sitting/dog sitting in the mountains. The house serves as a really nice writer's retreat. No cell reception. Comfy furniture. Almost complete and total quiet. Great view of the surrounding area. Two fireplaces. Wireless internet. A coffee machine. A tea pot. An espresso machine, for X-sake. If only I had all of my books up here, it would be perfect. If I didn't finish the article this week, I'd have to call myself a lazy bum!

Now, I don't know about the wisdom of writing said article, when I should probably be spending my time dissertating. But what the hell, right? Plus, I've been getting bugged by the journal to finish it and resubmit it. So I thought I should probably take some time to do that.

Didn't expect it to be this labor intensive. Let's see. Started on Friday. Finished today. Worked almost constantly (at least 6 hours a day), except for Tuesday, which I spent with Jen (Saw I am Legend). But being in this house helped, I think. It's just so relaxing here.

Now, if only I had one or two more days, I could probably bang out a diss. chapter up here. But Jen and I are leaving for IL on Saturday. And so I'll need to do some cleaning, some packing, some preparing, etc. Probably won't have much of an opportunity to work on the diss. Maybe when we get back. I know I've got at least 4 days free to sit 'round the ol' apartment and write.

Toodles. :)

Christmas Lights Videos : )

Jen and I took these videos over the weekend. They're a little rough around the edges. Hope you enjoy.

This one is better with sound... Hopefully you'll be able to see why. ; )

Here's a video of X-mas lights in Leavenworth. A week or so ago, the Today Show came to Leavenworth as part of a show on Christmas Destinations. (You might want to fast forward through the middle).

Something very forgettable about literary criticism and movies

There's really nothing new out here to report. Nothing new to write about. I've been working on an article that has been in the works for about three years now. I have a conditional acceptance with a journal, so I've been working my way through revisions. Finally got around to them again after a few years dedicated to other projects.

It's actually a lit. crit. piece, which is a little outside the scope of my field, thus the hiatus. The short (and boring) version is that it's a look at the depiction of virtuality and reality in Richard Powers' novel Plowing the Dark. But it intersects with my scholarship in some interesting ways. And, if nothing else, it shows my "scholarly potential" or what-have-you. And I really like the novel; I'd recommend it to most people--especially the people who regularly read this blog.

I was thinking the other night, though, as I slogged through the novel for the fourth or fifth time, that if I ever had to teach that type of interpretation, I would compare it to the movie National Treasure. You see, when you write this type of criticism, you're searching for something... "clues," I guess. And those clues give you further insight into what you should be searching for.

Now, here's the thing, at least as it applies to National Treasure. When you look at the treasure map, sometimes you don't see very much. But if you put on a special pair of glasses (a critical lens) you can see something different. Those new clues lead you somewhere new, where you again hit a dead end or a wall or something. So you put on your special pair of glasses again and realize that if you change the lenses, you can see something else entirely. And so you go racing off in a new direction, based on your new clues. And eventually (hopefully) you arrive at your destination, a meaning of the text.

(I'm sure I need to cite Dr. Harris's Intro to Grad Studies Course a little bit here--some stuff about Stanley Fish, Donna Haraway, Thomas Kuhn, um, Richter I think too. Who else, those of you who took it... It really seems like I'm drawing on the whole idea of situated knowledges and paradigms that we discussed in that class.)

Now if only my treasure map wasn't 450 pages long, reading with different lenses might be a little easier. : )

Genius criminals of Wenatchee

So after living around Chicago and near the "bad part" of Bloomington, Jen and I moved to the small town of Wenatchee, where our car was broken into for the first time ever. And what did the genius who pulled off this dazzlingly brilliant heist take? An empty duffel bag; a pair of old boots; the board game "Free Parking;" a bag with athletic training supplies like Band-Aids, gauze, and tape; some underwear and tanktops that Jen had bought earlier that day; and a set of Frisbee golf discs. In fact, they didn't even notice the only real thing of value in the car, my Sirius radio, which sitting right next to the driver's seat. They also weren't smart enough, thankfully, to pop the trunk, which they easily could have done once they were inside the car. Really we're only upset about losing the ATC bag, which also contained contact information for Jen's volleyball team and her practice schedule and plans.

And of course, we're upset about the damage to the car. Thankfully, they didn't break the window to get in; but they did take a crow bar (or something) to the metal frame around the window. Fun times! Now we get to wait until next Wednesday for it to be seen by a claim's adjustor. We were also told that our car insurance doesn't cover the contents of the car, just the car itself. (I'm sorry, your policy doesn't cover "plant-related incidents"--except for the ficus.)

*sigh*

Maybe criminals are just smarter in Illinois, but why steal that stuff? It makes absolutely no sense to me. Of course, this is the place where the last gas station hold up was committed with a hunting rifle. Oh there are all sorts of Professor Moriartys living out here!

Pineapple Express

As you all have heard, it's pretty crazy over in Seattle right now. Some friends of ours were at a Van Halen (with Diamond Dave) concert on Monday, and their hotel was partially flooded and the power was out. I-5, the major highway that connects Portland to Seattle to Vancouver has a 20-mile section south of Olympia, Wa. that is closed because of flooding. Mudslides, flooding, avalanches, hurricane-type winds, you name it. One guy on the news compared it to a typhoon. It's all part of something called the "Pineapple Express," a weather system that comes up from the south pacific, around Hawaii. Here is some information on this weather pattern and its effects:

Wikipedia

Satellite Photos of the pattern

News Story w/ a link to a slideshow of storm pics

Snoooow, Snoooow, Snoooow, Snoooow (in four-part harmony)

So it has been snowing here since Friday--though last last night it turned to rain. It's a slushy mess out there on the roads today. The skiers are dancing little jigs, though, since it will still be snowing up on Mission.

One of my students lives up on Blewett. She walked into class about 20 minutes late today. She got 2 and a half feet over the weekend, and it's still snowing up there. The roads look clear on the web cam today. But yesterday, all was white near the summit.

Oh, and it sure would be nice if someone would plow around here... It snowed all weekend, and I didn't see or hear a plow until 5 a.m. today. What's up with that? The roads still have at least 4 inches of slush with four ruts down the center.