Thoughts and Words Ill-Sorted

the whole world can be made to seem right.

For one of my classes, this week’s reading included a long list of pdfs to download and print out, including one that had gobs of black edging that I was sure would kill off my printer.  So I thought I’d hunt up the original article and rescan it for myself.  Just as I was about to head to the library, I walked by the table in the English department where people put out old books or journals they no longer want, free to be taken by anybody who passes (yes, yes, I, too, am concerned about such dangerous exposure of undergraduates to strange, twisted, academic material).  Of the several items on the table, one was the journal and issue I needed for my scanning.  So now I’ve saved a trip to the library and a wait at the copier–and I have the original journal to boot!

Erin

Language Log has a very sensible discussion of the use/mention distinction here. Many distinctions that philosophers like to make are fairly abstruse and perhaps not of that much practical importance. But this one seems rather important and also not that hard to understand. So it never ceases to amaze me how often people fail to recognize it, especially in political discussions.

Sydney

Hey, you know, this salvaged soup isn’t half bad.  It tastes like nothing but “good for you and filling,” but in these rather busy days that’s just fine!  Now, let’s see if I can keep that feeling going all this week as I try to polish it off before going away.

Erin

After spending all week staring at the laptop, I decided that it was time to give myself a break. That, and I had a specific destination that I needed going to. On Wednesday, Prof. Robert Merrihew Adams mentioned in the course of illustrating something or other in his seminar that he cared about how many species of white-headed gulls there are in the world (the number is under serious dispute, by the way). That comment confirmed that he was indeed a birdwatcher (I had a vague recollection of hearing somewhere that he was), so after class and after other students had finished talking to him about important things, I asked him for some recommendations about local places to find birds. Judging by the way his eyes lit up, he really likes birdwatching. So I got a quarter-hour personal tutorial at the steps of the philosophy building on what kinds of birds one can see here and where I might best find them. For example, there is a Grey Heron that occasionally visits Christ Church College’s fountain. Oh, and if I take the coach to London, there is a certain spot where, if I look out the windows to the north, I have a 90% chance of seeing Red Kites. Anyway, one of the places he suggested was Port Meadow, so I decided to spend the morning there.

Port Meadow, incidentally, has some historical significance. King Alfred apparently gave the depasturing rights to the Freemen of Oxford in return for fighting Danish invaders in the 10th century, rights which are recorded in the Domesday Book of 1066. Around here even grass seems to have a long history! The Freemen of Oxford (bold text indicates a link) still hold the depasturing rights, though grazing animals appeared to be vastly outnumbered by joggers today. Still, I did see some grazing ponies.

Google Maps has quite good satellite images of the area I walked, in case somebody, e.g., Erin, wants to trace the route I walked. I live just north of Polstead Rd. on Woodstock Rd. So that would be my starting point. Then I walked down Woodstock Rd. a little ways, turned right on to Leckford Rd., and then right again on to Walton Well Rd. At the end of Walton Well Rd., I tried following a little path right along the Thames, i.e., not either of the easily visible paths on the satellite image. It started out lovely, if a little muddy:

As you can see, though, the Thames was pretty high. Between the fact that there was water on both sides of the path and the fact that all the other people on this path were wearing boots, I should have suspected that this might not be the path for me. I got about as far as the end of what you can see in the picture before I decided that wading through water in sneakers did not sound appealing. So I had to backtrack. But I did see a number of birds along the way, including species I haven’t seen before. I have seen coots before, but there were lots of them here in close proximity and they were calling to each other so now I can pair sound with sight. Here’s one:

Not that their sound is quite what we might call pleasing. I’m not sure how to describe it. Nasal squawking, perhaps?

So my next attempt was the path right across Port Meadow to the Thames, one of the two paths easily visible in the satellite image. And then across the footbridge, also visible in the image, to the Thames Path on the other side, where I headed north. Not that the Thames Path started out being too visually appealing:

I had to read this sign a couple of times before I realized what it did not say:

I was initially quite puzzled why I should be concerned about a path liable to subsistence. I rather liked the idea of a path subsisting while I was on it!

Between the prison yard feel and the cautionary sign, the beginning of this path wasn’t too auspicious. But it did get better. Especially once I got to the Binsey Poplars. Or at least the replacements to the ones that Gerard Manley Hopkins lamented in “Binsey Poplars“. Hopkins used to walk here regularly when he was in Balliol College. If he is right, I came too late upon the scene: “When we hew or delve: // After-comers cannot guess the beauty been.”

But I did see some more new species of birds, including two large, rather dramatic flocks of lapwings flying over. At least, that what I think they were. I’ve never seen any water bird fly like that before, but I can’t think of what else they might have been.

The new camera proved to be quite useful. Trying to identify everything in the field is quite a nuisance when pretty much all birds are unfamiliar, the organization of the bird guide is unfamiliar, and you don’t have any idea what sort of fieldmarks to look for to begin with. I was impressed with how far away birds could be where I could still get pictures that allowed me to identify the birds. Not that the pictures are good pictures in any other sense:

That picture has a Pied Wagtail in it. Really.

Anyway, since I’m sure you’re all dying to know what species I added to my life list, here they are:

Great-spotted Woodpecker / Moorhen / Great Tit / Lapwing / Pied Wagtail / Redwing / Jackdaw / Redshank

Sydney

Now, normally, feeling rash is not such a good thing. But sometimes with a personality like mine (head in the sand), feeling rash isn’t such a bad thing. Today it meant I agreed to lead the music in church on Sunday (singing by myself, doing some public reading and possibly some praying, which is a new one) since our normal leader is sick. Yeah, yeah, church and rash don’t normally go together, but anything involving me and a microphone sounds a bit dangerous.

I also made plans with my college roommates, Sarah and Lisa (they were in purple at the wedding, for those who were there), to have a reunion weekend in Boston together next weekend. It’s been far too long since all three of us were in a room together, and it always results in fun and much laughter. Yup, this is me making plans to be away in the middle of a school term. I can’t wait!

Erin

I was picking up groceries today when I walked by the orange juice and thought, “Wait a minute.  With Sydney gone, if I buy orange juice today, there will be some left for tomorrow!”  While growing up, orange juice was a hot commodity for Dad, Adam, and me, an things only got worse with Sydney, who can easily inhale half a gallon of orange juice in an afternoon.  So, I suppose I have found one small good thing to enjoy while he’s gone.  🙂

Erin

Earlier this week I lost of bunch of files that I was working on, thanks to Windows not being able to keep track of them in its directory. I suppose it could have been much worse, i.e., I could have had the hard drive fail and lose all my stuff, but, given, my the nature of my affective states towards Microsoft, I found it particularly galling that I should lose files merely because Windows couldn’t keep it’s directory information in order. After all, the files were still there. I just couldn’t get to them.

Anyway, as a result I became even more paranoid about backing up data, so I’ve spent a good part of this week on such matters. Some of my files are now automatically backed up to an online site. Some files, e.g. the 1.4 gigabytes worth of downloads from Google’s scans of Suarez’s Opera omnia, have been burned to DVD. I also bought two flash drives. One is for the standard purpose of serving as a convenient place to copy regularly edited files to. The other one is to serve a somewhat more exotic purpose: to hold an additional operating system. I installed Knoppix — a flavour of Linux — to it. I also put an emulator on it so that I can run Knoppix on top of other operating systems.

So, I am now using Erin’s laptop which still has that execrable Windows on it, but am typing this post from within Knoppix running off of the flash drive. I find all of this quite delightful. I even have my four workplaces again. For those of you who don’t know what that last sentence was about, perhaps the next time you need an operating system, you should educate yourself about the options rather than just assuming that the thing to do is to join the Windows lemmings.

Sydney

This past week I’ve been really impressed with how much cooking I’ve done and how much good food I’ve been eating.  Maybe it’s the effect of having eaten only bread-fruit-cheese meals in England, but before classes started I made a big casserole, a sweet-potato soup, and a big batch of chicken salad with almonds and grapes to take for lunches.  That has served me well!  Despite the frenzy of my first days back, teaching, and in classes, I’ve been eating really good and regular meals, in addition to the oranges and apples that seem to tolerate being squished in a school bag.  I’m one of those who will make a big meal and then lose my appetite for it somewhere between kitchen and dinner table, so I’ve been very, very glad that all has gone well there.

Just one problem: the soup that I made somehow didn’t quite turn out as planned.  Rather than sweet potato and ginger, all I could taste was celery and water.  Blech.  I finally had time today to try to put it to rights, and I think I may have saved it, but it’s now twice the size of the soup I made on Sunday.  And I said I saved it–I didn’t say I made it fantastic, a soup that I would love to eat, day-in and day-out, for a long time, which is, apparently, what I will need to do.  So after such a good food run last week I’m afraid I’m looking at a solid week of determined soup-eating.

Oh yes, and to make matters worse, I’m having to record what I eat for my meeting with a nutritionist (my doctor was hoping she’d have some ideas about my recent stomach ailments).  Last time I went in she looked at my dutiful records and in her write-up noted that I ate basically cereal.  Okay, cereal for breakfast, yes, but there was also a week-long period where I ate u-pick strawberries at every meal!  I can only imagine what she’ll write when she sees “soup” down for two weeks straight!

Erin

I just might be able to tie my shoes, but I wouldn’t bet on it.  Since I’ve been home (four days now), Arwyn has been overjoyed to have someone around, and has not been inclined to let me sleep in.  So, with my cat’s help and what I’m guessing is a bit of jetlag, I’ve been pretty tired on these, the first and busiest days of the semester.  So much for thinking that a queen-sized bed to myself would ensure some fantastic sleep!

Erin

Above is a photo of the Divinity School, the oldest surviving part of the Bodlian Library (I think I have this right, but correct me if I’m wrong). They began building this part of the library early in the 15th century!

Below is a picture of the Radcliffe Camera (a relative latecomer to the august Oxford library system; building was only finished in 1749), which has become a reading room used primarily by undergraduates. Sydney, when we have our own house, I’m expecting something along these lines for our own library.  We already have the books–now we just need the edifice!