my virtual notebook

Hang on to your ego if you know the answer!

I was just listening to one of my favorite recent i tunes purchases - the classic Beach Boys album Pet Sounds. I really really like it!!! One song is called "I know the answer" and here's what I found out about it on the wik  -- here's the link to Hang on your Ego, which I suppose in our Tolle-esque/Oprah-esque times should perhaps be re-titled as "Let go of your ego..."

We're off off off on our Michigan adventure today after lunch and we are doing the thumb! (Tomorrow).

Monday, 05/14/07: Xul Solar picture: Project 365: #197

Monday 05/14/07:  Xul Solar picture: Project365: #197 
Originally uploaded by cathie.

I liked this picture that I saw on the Giornale Nuovo blog so much I printed a little copy of it off. So cute and colorful!!

Missed Project 365 picture: Tuesday, 04/03/07: Project 365 #156

Tuesday, 04/03/07: Project 365 #156 
Originally uploaded by cathie.

Since it is now, as I blog this, almost the end of the year and I have a bit of extra time on my hands I have been going back through my Project 365 pictures and making the labeling of the days and dates consistent.  There are a couple of shots I failed to blog in the right order, so I am going back and blogging them now.

This pictures seems to be from a time long ago, because it was taken when I was teaching my Honors seminar for the first time, in the Spring of 2007. Now I have just finished teaching that course (on European Romanticism and American Transcendentalism) for the second time and I will be teaching it for a third time next Spring.  Every class is quite different even when the material is more or less the same. I do remember distinctly that both classes had many more female students and since we did read one German fairy tale the discussion did turn to Disney now and again....They almost seemed apologetic for their unabashed love and expertise in all things Disney.   

Disney movies is something they will always know more about than I do and so I have to let them be the "experts" when it comes to them...I still try and instill critical thinking and reading patterns and I think it works -- I also try and make it clear that they can love the Disney while also learning to read the messages these movies contain somewhat more critically....

Friday, 04/27/07: Pinker faculty breakfast: Project 365: #180

Friday, 04/27/07: Project 365: #180 
Originally uploaded by cathie.

This was fun - Pinker really was a great guest speaker! His talk the night before was all about the psychology of swear words and of course he did mention a lot of them, but he didn't "use" them...i.e. he didn't swear. It was quite entertaining and interesting.  And the next day the participants in the faculty coterie got to have breakfast with him. He was gracious and answered all our questions very well. (and signed our books and let us take his picture).

Research thoughts and a link to Wilhelm Dilthey

Wilhelm Dilthey infos can be found at that site... (I'm getting back into the research/writing of my 2007 article--it was going to be on embodiment in Bettine von Arnim's works, but I'm drifting away from issues of embodiment--now I'm more focused on/ interested in issues pertaining to the textual self -- what is its relationship to the non-textual self? - of course this is Bettina von Arnim's textual self so issues of gender will also be pertinent.

And in the on-going game of "six degrees of seperation from Bettina von Arnim" it turns out Dilthey was heavily influenced by none other than Friedrich Schleiermacher--who was of course very good buddies with Bettina...

Monday, 04/09//07: Project 365 #162

Monday, 04/09/07: Project 365 #162 
Originally uploaded by cathie.

Not a very good picture of  print that hangs in our guest bedroom.

Tuesday, 03/20/07 My books for the new paper: Project 365: #141

Tuesday, 03/20/07: Project 365: #141 
Originally uploaded by cathie.

I'm still slogging away at this paper: I've presented it twice and am now transforming it (slowly slowly) into a publishable article. The focus may be moving away a bit from "female embodiment" and towards issues of agency and autonomy, but the feminist stuff will still play a role.

History of clowns link (in german)

History of clowns -- I was looking for pictures of "Hanswurst" for my upper level German class.

Hemlock/Schierling

I'm working hard on my new paper describing the way in which Bettine von Arnim depicts a poeticised version of her own body in her epistolary memoirs and the repercusssions of that depicition. (Notoriety, a tendency to not be taken seriously etc...) Here are some links's from Wikipedia about Hemlock/Schierling.  Von Arnim, describes this version of herself wandering through a wood at night and taking a hemlock leaf and pressing it to her lips...I'm not sure how dangerous it would really be to do this, or whether it is merely another example of the Bettine figure "flirting with disaster" - which probably would have been a snappier title for my paper....oh well maybe thats what I'll call the article!

Schierlingsbecher

Schierling

Hemlock/Conium

On the way to the Albion College library: project 365 #44

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Taken on Tuesday, December 12, 2006.

Not much to say about this one. I was on my way to pick up some MelCat  (regional interlibrary loan) books and some films to preview for my German film course. The campus has emptied out and everything is very quiet...