+ Revised a paper proposal (those four words make it sound so simple...)
+ Cooked dinner (creamed turkey over confetti rice squares) while listening to Beethoven's 9th symphony. Beethoven is amazing for getting through the semester.
+ did all my laundry
+ cleaned my bedroom
+ some tennis homework (yeah. homework. in tennis.)
+ read through a friend's application for an internship. it was good. :)
+ The bookshelves in my bedroom are now organized. Interesting tidbits from this project:
* I have many more non-fiction than fiction books.
* My biography collection is huge
* I have two sets of the Lord of the Rings trilogy (and yes, family, both sets are mine! my preciousssss)
* My copy of the first Harry Potter book in Spanish has gone missing. That's odd.
* I need to get my own copies of all of Austen's novels
+ Friday morning I stood in line at Staples from 3-5 central time in order to get a very nice laptop they had on sale. Mine sort of hiccuped, rolled over, and gave up the ghost about a week and a half ago. This was not cool... when you have weeks where you write nearly 30 pages for school, a computer would be nice.
I've never done Black Friday shopping before. I did it with friends this time (one of whom was kind enough to stand in line with me for those two hours... we definitely bonded even more than we had before, which is saying a lot ;-) and did succeed in getting the laptop, so it was worth it. I just don't know that I'm up to doing this type of thing again. The crowds....ugh. And I like my sleep too much to be really keen on missing out on it for most things.
+ Less than three weeks 'til semester's end! I alternate between being happy at this thought and freaking out at it. I should just relax, really. My mental state has no effect whatsoever on the passing of time, so why do I bother getting worked up over it? :-P
+ Spent this afternoon in a computer lab on campus catching up on e-mails and some homework due tomorrow. It's an awesome Mac lab and I've had it practically to myself all afternoon. Very cool.
+ Thanksgiving was splendid. Maybe pictures later. Now I'm off to see if it's snowing outside (I hope so!) and head to evening services.
Wow, someone actually stood in line at 3 in the morning? I'm impressed! I hope you got a good deal...and really? What fun! (did you stay up all day on Friday?)
hi Nicole - never done the black Friday thing, but Mr. B did this year! before he had to run into work. We already gave the present - a GPS - to the one dtr who needs it a lot right now. He (mr B) felt the line waiting was worth it and since he needed to be at work that morning he went in early. not me - I sleep :) !
Younger brothers (or is it all brothers? or all men? or just my brother?) are so literal minded.
Today the Pleoless Boy started heading down the stairs with his laundry, getting ready to start doing it. Ever since one of my piano teachers told me about how her son left tar in his jeans pocket, and since doing laundry for eight boys aged 12 and under, I've been a bit leery about Boys & Their Jeans. So I reminded Pl.By. to please check the pockets of his jeans before he put them in the washer. He was annoyed at this. Apparently he thinks he's of the species that never leaves anything in his pockets.
I believe differently and I used my Eldest Sister Authority to tell him he would indeed check the pockets of any jeans that went into the washer.
We had this whole conversation on the stairs, remember. At the conclusion of my Big Sister Mandate, he proceeded to dump the entire basket of laundry out on the stairs and check the pockets there.
hm. I guess he's not a procrastinator. ;-)
Fast forward to this evening. I'm cleaning the kitchen and he is making tea. While doing so, he spilled sugar on my clean counter. I asked him to be careful. He sort of gave me a Of Course Dear look... and then spilled more sugar on the floor as he was putting it away. Dad was in there at that point, so the dialogue went like this:
Dad - Riley would love to sweep the floor for you tonight.
Riley (not trying to be smart alecky... it was just the first thing that came into his literal mind) - No, I wouldn't, really.
He did it anyway. ;-)
~~
Pleoless Girl & I went and saw Fireproof tonight. The rest of the family saw it earlier this week while I was at school. I wanted to see it and she wanted to see it again, so we made an evening of it. Good film.
Next week is Thanksgiving! I know you all realize that already... but I am so excited about it! :-D
Edit I *think* this is understood in my post, but I wanted to be quite clear: I don't think it's BAD that he's so literal minded... he just needs to learn when to apply it and when not to. :)
Hehe. It might be a general thing that men do. I do it. He does it. He does it. I believe Dad does it, too. I know Mr. Kusters, who attends church with us, does it sometimes, too. It's just so must FUN! =D
+ First draft of "'Coyning Christians' and Printing Words: The Use of Indigenous Languages in Puritan New England and Colonial New Spain is finished! 21 pages long (length requirements were 20-30 pp, so I'm good there). I'm so relieved. I know it will require much editing, but now I know what I've got. :)
+ Am reading Socratic Logic: A Logic Text Using Socratic Method, Platonic Questions, and Aristotelian Principles by Peter Kreeft right now. It's rather slow going, as school reading keeps interfering, but so far it's excellent. Something I read today reminded me of one of my favorite quotes from Pascal...
Kreeft: "Though your body is unimaginably tiny compared with the universe, your concept of the universe is greater than the universe! For if you understood the word 'universe,' your thought 'surrounded' the universe - the same universe that surrounds your body. You did that by having a *concept* of the universe."
Pascal: "Man is but a reed, the most feeble thing in nature, but he is a thinking reed. The entire universe need not arm itself to crush him. A vapour, a drop of water, suffices to kill him. But if the universe were to crush him, man would still be more noble than that which killed him, because he knows that he dies and the advantage which the universe has over him; the universe knows nothing of this."
Cool, huh?
+ And now for a brief bit of why I sometimes get frustrated studying history. A journal article I read for research on my paper is on John Eliot, a Puritan missionary to the Indians in New England. There's always a lot of chit-chat among historians about why Indians converted and how they perceived concepts of sin and wrong-doing.
This particular article says it this way: "If sin and guilt were drastically foreign to the Indians, however, one must still explain why so many apparently accepted the concepts readily. In fact, if Eliot's Tracts are examined, one is struck with the observation that throughout the questions and confessions, Eliot's more difficult task is not to convince the Indians of their sin and guilt but of the availability of pardon." Hm. You mean humans didn't have a problem understanding the notion that their position in the world might be a bit tenuous?
But wait... no... That sounds like there might be universal morality. Nah. That can't be right.
The historian writes: "Eliot's redefinition of wrongdoing to include attitude and thought as well as action made it easier for the Indians to see themselves as 'sinners' and, in turn, made the Puritan concepts of sin, guilt, and the need for redemption plausible explanations for the profound alienation and distress they were experiencing." (emphasis mine)
Redefinition?! This guy must live in a very narrow world if he thinks it was only Eliot and the other Puritans who defined wrongdoing as including our attitudes and thoughts. And it's a bit scary to think of a person leading a life like that... although I know many do it... Do they not recognize the wrongdoing of any of their thoughts? If they're married, will they be OK with a hateful attitude on the part of their spouse? Their children? As a historian, surely they recognize how often thoughts LEAD to actions.
It just amazes me the lengths people will go to in avoiding the notion of a universal concept of behavior.
Virtual goodies if you made it to the end of this entry! :)
I enjoyed reading it even without the knowledge that virtual goodies were being awarded at the end. :-) Of course, I'll still take my virtual goodies, please. ;-)
Congrats on finishing that draft! That's probably quite a relief :) I remember reading that quote in SL too. Before long you will have read more in that book than I have ;) There are some very mind bending yet totally....logical ideas in that book!
I'm having trouble wrapping my head around your historian's claim that Eliot redefined wrongdoing for another reason. In addition to what you said, I'm thinking that claiming Eliot "redefined" anything is a tacit admission that he believes there was already some sort of universal definition in place. He's wrong for all the reasons you mention, but he's also internally inconsistent.
+ About half way done with the paper. Plan to do five more pages tomorrow and five more on Monday. So glad this is just a draft.
+ You should go read her most recent post. I like it a lot (and not just because I'm featured in it ;-). I love her.
+ Talked with Dad today about things going on with his job. You know what? Writing papers (even 20 page ones almost last minute) is a breeze compared to some of the things he has to handle. I love him too. :)
+ Actually, I pretty much just love my family.
+ Last night at the singing I was sitting near two absolutely adorable little boys. They were so serious about what they were doing, and trying hard to hold their binders just right and look like grown-ups might look. It was precious.
Life is easier when living at home. Sometimes I wish I still did. Then I talk to my parents and I am thankful to be away. I think once you move away it is hard to live there again.
