Tiger's dick

Tiger's scandal neither surprises nor shocks me. But I do wish the media would just shut up about it.

FDR v, Obama

Roosevelt was one tough sonofabitch. He didn't back down from certain goals. In contrast, Obama is trying too hard to keep everybody happy, backing down from things like the public option in an attempt to reconcile his way to what, ANY bill? Very disappointing. Progressives are abandoning Obama in droves, and he'd better do something to get them back.

Christmas lights hero

Loose ends

Here's a discouraging thought: winter hasn't started yet.

Wild goose chase of the day: I drove across town to a bakery for a chocolate chip cookie, only to discover they are closed Mondays. I think Sketch enjoyed the ride, though. I enjoyed the jazz on the radio.

Settled one of my two unsettled student "accounts".

Clearly not going to get any writing done today. Need to start it immediately tomorrow, at first rising.

I am REALLY eager to get this pen-video-camera so I can start shooting this avant-garde-ish project I want to do, which requires no one but myself. When the weather turns good, if my health permits, I'll get back to the Small Screen Video projects.

I have a premonition I won't get into but it does have me on my toes, so to speak. Both the short novel and the video are vehicles for expressing the things on my mind now, through fictional characters in similar circumstances. It's what we do.

And I'm cool with whatever happens. Truly.

Getting in the holiday spirit

Today I'll see if I can get into the holiday spirit by doing some shopping for presents. This after a trip to the university to check for last minute things and pick up some recommendation forms. I'll likely shop in NW where I can hit a lot of stores will not much walking (my knee bothers me, as ever). If I can get all this done before lunch, or close, that would leave writing time this afternoon. I have three weeks to get a ton of writing done. The pressure is on ha ha.

Thursday is the appointment to see what the scan shows, if anything. As near as I can ell, the lump is still growing.

So I'd better get out of here in the next hour. Ho ho ho ho.

Grades are in

Pretty cool if I say so myself.

We decided on a movie this afternoon, Invictus.

Tools

Woke up to cars encased in ice, and we don't own a decent ice scraper, which tells you how unprepared for severe winter weather we are. Ah, me. I hacked away at it for a while.

Three students to finish up this morning. Try to take care of this before noon and get all my grades in. To the university tomorrow to see if there's any last minute business to take care of.

Not sure whether I'll work or play after wrapping up grades today.

Almost a wrap

Three students to go, whose work I'll look at in the morning. So my grades should be in before noon -- and I'm done! Errands the rest of the day and getting organized for a busy break writing.

Army-Navy, the best ending ritual in the game

Navy regrouped to win 17-3. This is the game ending ritual from a previous year, an event no other football game matches, the teams together singing each alma mater. This is the way the game should be played -- and ended. No egomaniacs or hype or million dollar whiners here.

Updates

No sign of a storm here. Yesterday everyone was in a great panic of preparation.

Navy shooting self in foot big time, as Army takes a 3-0 halftime lead. My rooting for Navy every year is the triumph of childhood over adult experience, the Navy brat over the Army vet.

My blackeyed peas are great!

I think I'll run errands after the game since the weather is fine.

Only a few students left to grade. May not finish today but tomorrow surely. That makes Monday a fresh start. I am eager to get back to the novel. The sense of urgency and ending times (days? weeks? months? years?) is very strong.

The oldest profession

"I cause pleasure. I provide a service that brings people pleasure. I won't service married men or women, men of the cloth. See even hos got rules of morality," she laughs. "But seriously, I can understand why people who been brought up one way think it's immoral. I don't understand why it's illegal. With our government needing money, I wish I could pay taxes."

Read more

Dodging a storm?

Dry outside. The map on the news shows the storm drifting south and east of us. Maybe we'll miss it.

Starting the long process of making my blackeyed peas, an Army-Navy game day tradition, one of the few cooking traditions left in my life. Grade some projects, watch some football, and stay warm -- not a bad plan for the day.

Army-Navy game tomorrow

And after it, two Oregon high school football championship games. Let it snow, let it snow, let it snow.

Approaching storm

Snow and freezing rain coming our way apparently, hitting tonight and lasting through most of the weekend. I can stay home easily enough. Finish grading, Army-Navy game with my traditional blackeyed peas. Bring it on.

A sense of urgency

Man, there's nothing like a cancer scare to give you a sense of urgency. During this break I need to get a ton of writing done. My two current writing projects need to wrap up sooner rather than later, and this break gives me the chance to devote my energy to them. I intend do.

I don't think I have cancer, but we'll see. If I do, I do. I've already had my share of "gravy years," to use Raymond Carver's term. I'm already ahead of the game.

Welcome home!

Sketch and I have a game we play when I arrive home. He runs into the bedroom and up onto the bed. I come in to trade my shoes for slippers. He sticks his butt up in the air, and I go over and rub it. When he's had enough, he jumps up with his paws on my chest and vigorously licks my nose. When he's had enough of that, he jumps down and races around the house for a few laps. Then we both settle in, home at last.

Bionic Man

I'm always early everywhere I go (if I'm alone), so I got to the hospital 40 mins. before my appointment -- and was able to go right in for the CT scan. By the time of my appointment, I was halfway home.

An interesting thing happened. At the end, when the scanner guy went to remove this marker from my neck, there was a blue flash of electricity and he got a hell of a shock! I had become a bionic man!

Afterwards I treated myself to lunch at O'Connors, my usual cajun burger and hush puppies.

---

I'm not a Christian but I'm in a Chirstmasy mood. The main thing wrong with Christianity is -- Christians! So damn few of them act as if Jesus were a mentor. As Guthrie put it, "He said to the rich, give your goods to the poor, and they laid Jesus Christ in his grave." Only genuine Christians I've ever seen are certain sects of priests. Otherwise, for the most part, same old greed, selfishness, mindlessness.

Once my grades are in, I'll take a morning to go shopping for stocking stuffers.

As a non-Christian, I am never bothered by Christmas trees, carols, nativity scenes, and the other "religious symbols" that some get upset about. They need to lighten up. They act like intellectual Scrooges.

Up and at 'em!

Up bright and early, reading student projects. Making progress. I should finish up over the weekend, a few days later than usual but it's been an unusual week.

To the hospital in a few hours, get the scan, maybe get the info the doc needs to figure this out.

I'm mellow and fine.

Extended family in the arts

Of the three major players in a vital artistic community -- creator, evaluator, audience -- the evaluator may have the toughest role. The evaluator must do several things at once: evaluate the work of the creator in a personal and fair way, which means owning up to personal standards and taste; communicating to his own audience what the work is, how it fits into the artistic family in which it belongs, and who in the evaluator's audience may likely appreciate the work, or not.

The evaluator also must work within parameters set by the venue in which s/he works, i.e. writing for a daily newspaper is different from writing for an arts weekly is different from writing for a literary journal. The evaluator has the hardest job and faces the most temptations to turn away from responsibility: the temptation to be superior, cute, a secret and better creator.

For creators and audiences, the roles are straightforward: do the best work you can, on the one hand, and respond according to your tastes, on the other. Yet each can learn from an evaluator doing a good job. Creators can learn to better understand how works change in presentation. Audiences can learn to expand their horizon of interests.

Historically changes in cultural tastes in the arts are usually led by one or more evaluators who champion a new form. Susan Sontag helped us understand Happenings in the sixties, for example. Max Perkins, the evaluator as editor (a lost art), gave us several important American authors, most dramatically Thomas Wolfe.

Too often, creators and evaluators are seen as enemy camps but in the most healthy environment, they play different roles in the same extended family. An evaluator with high standards can raise the level of appreciation of the audience but only by being a kind of teacher.

Creator-evaluator-audience, the extended family of the arts.