random bullets of novelty

My goodness, but this winter is dragging on. JM and I have done a pretty good job of late kicking up the new around here in an attempt to patch ourselves through to some warmer weather, and for my part, to make the most of this here radical sabbatical. To wit:

• On Saturday we rode to Indy with our friends to taste some beer and eat some yummy food at a place we've never been before. Heck, we never go to Indianapolis, only through it. So that in itself was new.

• Last week I ordered some xc skis via ebay and they came the day before we got a few inches of snow so that my (sweaty!) workout that day was swishing all around the neighborhood on my new skis, just to figure things out. My arms were sore for a few days after that, but yeah, this place was made for cross country skiing.

• I've been trying out some new Indian and Thai recipes. Last week was chicken with chilis and onions served with curried cauliflower as a side (both from an Indian cookbook given to us by E!), and tonight I made spicy Thai chicken with rice.

• Over the weekend, I ordered a new pair of stripy spring pants in anticipation of wearing something besides wool or fleece someday. We'll see about that.

• Cheeky prof's query about feed aggregators led me to finally set up google reader. I know I'm late to this game, but damn, it does make a difference.

• I've also been reading for that new article and thinking about starting to read stuff for another new (and bigger) study. But having put that Burke book to bed (or at least down for a nap), I'm definitely more interested in alternative forms of the new at the moment.

• After listening to a PRI story Josh recommended about voice in politics that features extensive commentary by a vocal trainer, I looked into vocal trainers in Chicago and I think I'm going to make an appointment to learn some vocal techniques. I don't really care about developing a better voice--though I'm sure I could stand to--but I am totally interested in the teaching techniques and the way a good portion of the body must get involved.

So yeah, go new!

    

Comments

[collin]

Anymore, I'm amazed at those who can manage more than about 20-30 blogs without an aggregator. My threshhold for dumping junk is probably higher, since I don't have the inconvenience of pageloads and whatever else, but I couldn't manage without GR.

Here's my tip: when I'm really busy, I use the starring function to create what is effectively a separate folder of stuff I want to get back to, whether it's to respond or to read more closely. And it's a simple thing, really, but I love that I can click the star at the top or bottom of a post.

There's other good stuff there as well. Once I tested GR for a week or two, it never occurred to me to use any other aggregator, and i've tried several...

cgb

[chris]

Said you: "I am totally interested in the teaching techniques and the way a good portion of the body must get involved."

Said Merleau-Ponty: "We must either reject physiological explanation or admit that it is all-inclusive--either deny consciousness or accept it as comprehensive. We cannot relate certain movements to bodily mechanism and others to consiousness. The body and consciousness are not mutually limiting, they can be only parallel"(142).

And again from Phenomenology of Perception: "The body is our general medium for having a world" (169).

Says me: "The body is to teaching/learning techniques as cowbell is to Blue Oyster Cult: we need more of it."

[V]

Delurking--Hi, Debbie!--to say that I've always been slightly embarrassed about how, um, embodied both my teaching and my public presentations are.

I've come to accept that it is just the way I work. Once I start talking about something that I really care about, it is going to show...from my head down to my toes, as they say...even when I'm reading a manuscript within a presentation venue that explicitly calls for same (and thus probably also some form of being still). When I'm writing or reading alone, I can be still for hours. When I'm talking or reading out loud, forget about it.

Anyway, thanks for the encouraging post/comments.

[dhawhee]

Hi V! I know exactly what you mean, because I do that too. But as Chris's citations of M-P and company as well as Cicero and Quintilian attest, maybe it'd be more embarrassing to not have bodies involved.

[mindy]

You *know* I had to chime in on this one:) what isn't of a body, pray tell?