What do I mean when I say that I'm sick of moral outrage?

Firstly and most importantly I mean that I'm sick of the bland and pointless moralizing I so often hear from people who might be better described as envious or narcissistic than as possessing some real sense of right and wrong.  This is the kind of moralizing best characterized by the shrill ( Read more... )

The previous entry is the result of my promising to myself that I'd update my livejournal every day in order to foster better writing habits. The previous entry is also a spectacular sign of that idea's failure thus far. I apologize to all of my dedicated readers (of which I know there is at least one!).

I'm going to make sure my child reads this. Or maybe I'll just stick to Shel Silverstein. This is if I even have children. I'd sincerely pity their poor mother ( Read more... )

I'm currently reading The Portable Blake, a wonderful anthology of "Mad Blake"'s writing, poetry, and prophecies. Yes, prophecies. Did I mention that he was crazy? But that's what I love about him: his persistence in his creations despite a lack of recognition and a reputation for madness. And as a person prone to bouts of religious fancy I ( Read more... )

In response to this article a distressed father wrote:

To the Editor:

I have noticed several articles in The Times on how difficult it is to get into college. I assume that your goal in publishing them is to drive my daughter, a high school sophomore already worried about college admissions, over the edge.

You have succeeded. Now you can stop.So ( Read more... )

Another restless night.  I think I'm becoming nocturnal, thanks to finals.  But at least they're over.  Now I just need to clean up the mess I left myself last spring with my missing work and subsequent Incomplete/Fail.  The upside of all this is that despite my receiving an F in that class, my GPA is still a 3.3.  I suppose I should be proud, but ( Read more... )

When I make attempts to update my Livejournal I usually end up staring at a blank screen for about fifteen minutes and then giving up. So here's an entry dedicated to "Why I don't ever update ( Read more... )

The socks are making me feel so left out right now. They start in a huge pile, and end in pretty little pairs. Some have holes and are marked for disposal. Others just lie there without a partner, doomed to a lonely existence in my sock drawer, with only a chance of ever finding a companion. I wonder if they worry about that ( Read more... )

It's come to my attention that for certain people very much loathe the word gloaming. Rather than argue the merits of the word in a reasonable fashion, I've decided to posture: I will adopt "gloaming" into my regular vocabulary and use it as often as possible, in a variety of contexts ( Read more... )

Inspired by the Radiohead song of the same name, I've developed a strong attachment to the word gloaming. Gloaming has the heavy ancient feel of a Germanic word and yet it flows so well. Gloaming. Gloaming! Here's what the OED has to say:

[repr. OE. glómung str. fem., f. (on the analogy of
( Read more... )