Monthly Archives: June 2008

Waiting

We praise those who do, who seem in control. And we should praise them – that’s what praise is for. However: even I tend to forget just what a privilege it is to be able to do more. There has to be a way to reconcile patience with activity, a way to know one is …

June 30, 2008 – 5:33 pm | By ashok | Posted in personal | Tagged | Comments (0)

Updating an Amazon Wishlist: Useful or a Waste of Time?

As I was buying a book or two for the dissertation, I realized I still tend to buy books I can’t possibly get full use of, and that there are books that could make me that much smarter which I have failed to get over the years. I really do regret the money and space …

June 28, 2008 – 1:30 pm | By ashok | Posted in personal | Tagged , | Comments (1)

On Political Change

Part of me wants to scream at everyone that they know nothing about politics. Not because, mind you, that I know anything about politics. I know very little. The important thing is that I know I know very little, and am constantly asking questions and wondering how things work. I’m willing to concede to experts …

June 27, 2008 – 4:29 pm | By ashok | Posted in politics | Tagged | Comments (12)

476 AD

Blogs can be differentiated from the rest of the media by their emphasis on conversation, but let’s not get carried away.The landscape of blogging: torched houses and cities, peasants wearing cheap trinkets and carrying heads in bags while claiming to be Caesar. Occasionally one comes across an encampment among the the gray, the brown, the …

June 25, 2008 – 10:33 am | By ashok | Posted in blogging | Comments (4)

On Reading Slowly

Just a thought, nothing more: I wonder if all the intellectual virtues can be had merely through reading carefully. Usually we encourage students to get books done so we can start discussing the whole. But that quite obviously serves the end of rereading, of getting more out of the book the second time. Rereading is …

June 23, 2008 – 4:15 pm | By ashok | Posted in education | Tagged , | Comments (0)

Links, 6/21/2008

This article on the “disadvantages of an elite education” is very good and highly recommended (h/t PTN). I do regret bashing the author as arrogant, which I have done before. He wrote an article wondering why we don’t study literature anymore, and I wanted to say “look in the mirror,” given that he is unabashedly …

June 21, 2008 – 4:00 pm | By ashok | Posted in education, links | Tagged | Comments (2)

On Amy King’s "A Solution to Science, In Part"

A Solution to Science, In Part Amy King The thin portrayals were leaving me parched, and time was the only game the children bothered to fill the streets with anymore. A disappearing ink fell upon us, even with our blotters at the ready, so that not all hours passed into clouds of shortening shadows; the …

June 20, 2008 – 4:48 pm | By ashok | Posted in poetry | Tagged | Comments (4)

Links, 6/19/08

A man widely considered to be National Security Advisor if Barack Obama should be elected has just given a lecture saying that Winnie the Pooh should shape our foreign policy. (I’m worried for Piglet already.) Do read the comments – they’re right-wing but hilarious. Yes, this is Straussian, well-argued, and reliable. This is where I …

June 19, 2008 – 1:17 pm | By ashok | Posted in links | Comments (1)

Some Questions about Online Image

1. I’m not hip enough to join this site. (I’ll probably still try it out though, I wanna try being an online hipster. One day I might be good enough for the Olympics.) 2. I do project the image I want, though, both online and off. This isn’t foolproof, and I have regrets, but I’ve …

June 18, 2008 – 5:24 pm | By ashok | Posted in blogging | Tagged | Comments (3)

Links, 6/17/08

How conservatives make themselves irrelevant (just take a look, the links aren’t worth your time): writing overly long “explanations” of why the old is so much better than the new, or patting themselves on the back for failing. Both of these “arguments” list grievances instead of trying to get to the main point. The University …

June 17, 2008 – 7:06 am | By ashok | Posted in links | Comments (0)