I have sporadically recorded a good number of songs onto my iBook. Usually I would, with a cup of mint tea, sit down in front of the little hole that serves as a microphone, click the red recording button on Audacity (yes, its free) and carefully belt out one-take renditions ...

I found myself sitting in a state of near unconsciousness for much of my break earlier today. Zoned out and folded in a chair with one leg splayed out and my eyes fixated on the floor with a glazed-over stare. Occasionally thoughts would flicker through my mind like static on ...

Academics are strange birds. They generally have several eccentric views on obscure (or known) subjects that are either completely unknown to the majority of people, or are known but regarded as just plain weird. Along with their odd (in relation to the masses) mental behavior, they have another chief characteristic, ...

I had an adventure last night. I am an alley-skulking, authority-wheedling, shortcut-taking rock star follower—and I am victorious. Shortly after filling up on mint tea, Matt, Garth and I piled into Garth’s ancient Volvo for our British rock crusade. Snow Patrol was playing down at the Newport and tickets were ...

Last night was a beautiful evening. A dark, perfectly clear, hole-punched canopy to lean back and stare at, candles and fire that whispered warmly with the light breeze, and deep encouraging community and dialogue with a friend who will be leaving soon—all this propelled with the sweet force of apple ...

From a state of bleary-eyed semi-coherence I write (from my couch) to you. I’m sick today. Anyhow, let us proceed: I’ve been reading a great deal of early modern English philosophy of late; heavy doses of Francis Bacon (Novum Organum), and Thomas Hobbes (Leviathan). This isn’t due to the ...

Things have finally started to slow down and get back to normal. I'm still not sleeping a great deal, but fortunately the coffee is still working (thank God that at least this drug is socially acceptable). I was kind of hoping that a rant would work its way into my ...

The homosexual French genius, Michel Foucault, built a textual theory upon what he saw as the most fundemental thing in the world - the pursuit and possession of POWER. Of course, in the sphere of humanistic desires, his observations and arguments ring strikingly true; though perhaps he didn't quite recognize ...

I have passed through the academic valley of the shadow of death. It’s definitely good to be able to scratch things off the list; I feel free-er. One of the last things I read in one of my summer classes was a short story by James Baldwin entitled “Sonny’s Blues.” ...