HAPPY BIRTHDAY JOHN!

posted by Tae-Yeoun Keum   [2:26 PM]

I hereby assert that the act of naming gives a thing a soul, and that things are without souls until they are named. A thing may possess the qualities and elements of a soul, but that naming in and of itself is an act of creation and synthesis.

I would also like to state my oppinion that Beijing is a shithole. I miss dairy. badly.

Happy Thanksgiving to one and all.

posted by Adrian   [2:30 AM]

That was beautiful, Matt.

posted by Adrian   [3:29 AM]

Seeing a post of John's inspires me to a post-election post.

I stood at the back of a three-person line yesterday when the fire alarm went off. The poll workers and the three of us filed outside. After a surprisingly short time it turned off and we went back inside. I was a little uncertain of how much we should complain to each other; it hadn't been more than 100 seconds. After what had become four people, I voted and left.

That afternoon I forgot I had voted and about the election altogether. One student who works with me on the school's conservative paper walked past and hit me with two stacatto, underhand pats between my shoulder and shoulderblade.

"It's a big day for us Schmitz. A big day."

I was confused, but not very. Later that night I ran into some of my Catholic friends; Ben was going to Vespers and he asked me to come. At least I think he did--I may have volunteered. He could have enlisted me for anything then, even pickup sports. I realized I had been more or less wandering around campus. When we entered the chapel he informed me that he was a 'social member' of the gregorian chant choir. He walked over to the altar and stood a little away from the canticle concentric that was practicing there.

When Vespers was over I started walking to my eating club through a warm, falling mist. Campus looks best when it rains at night. The water extends the glows of the lamps two feet out from the bulbs and they look proud and secret, like butterball pearls melting out into the mist. I walked by the Wilson School fountain and looked at the lit jet that shot up from its center. It seemed like the whole campus had slipped under its spray and was sitting there with a happy patience.

The next morning water was draining down the sidewalks and it still rained. Outside the club I picked up a damp paper. The headline read 'BUSH TAKES THUMPING: CONSERVATIVES SEARCH THEIR SOULS'. I learned a lot about myself then. Sometimes news seems like a fortune-cookie update from the past, yesterday's diary entry independently assembled and lying on my doorstep.

posted by Matthew Schmitz   [8:15 PM]

I have obviously been absent from this here blog for a long time (well obvious to those who are not themselves also absent).

This post is to let whomever is reading know that I am in the midst of reading the year or so of backlog which I need to catch up on, and that I will soon enough make some posts of my own.

I'm in a class this semester which was supposed to be a pro-seminar, seniors and grad students only, on political behavioral theory. In order to get in I had to sign a pledge to the Prof. that I would have the reading done with a page of notes by class time each day. I expected TASP-like readings & student-lead discussion, but in return found only morose PoliSci majors ready to get out of Nebraska.

It was week 3 or so of the class when I realized I miss everyone from TASP, and especially the learning environment we had, much more than I realized. If I'm ever on the east-coast (where you all seem to be these days) I absolutely must sit down and have some honest-to-god intellectual discussions with anyone willing. I love Nebraska, but it's short on intellectual discussions these days.

BTW- anyone in Washington DC very often? I'm on the Campus Progress advisory board, and as such, fly in and out of DC every month or so.

posted by john owens-ream   [2:07 AM]

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