Happy Thanksgiving

I spent this Thanksgiving volunteering at a celebration for the homeless and others who need a place to go, organized by a few churches in the area. Besides food, people could also come for haircuts or to see a doctor. It was a little chaotic, so for a very short while, I helped out at the podiatric medical station. I helped wash people's feet. That wasn't at all easy for me! Some of these feet looked like they hadn't been washed in ages. And I'm a bit OCD, so . . .

Thankfully, that didn't last long and I was shifted to the dining room where I was a "runner," i.e. someone who runs from the table to ask for more food (how many plates, etc.) or to get more juice/water/napkins, etc. That was a lot easier although some of our visitors were equally unwashed. I was very impressed when I saw families there volunteering together. Some of these parents/grandparents brought young kids there to help out in any little way, and I thought that was amazing and wonderful.

As I was leaving the auditorium after a few hours there, I bumped into an elderly couple and offered to drive them to the bus stop which turned out to be very far away. I don't know how they would've made it as the lady had a lot of trouble with her hips. It turns out that they just moved down from SF and are staying with friends until they find an apt. Well, I didn't ask too much more because I didn't want to pry. But these are hard times.

By the time I got home, I was too tired to go back out to a Thanksgiving dinner hosted by a couple from Alt_er. I didn't really feel like going anyway because I don't really know this couple (was invited by another friend from the same church). A bit too shy, although it would've been good for me to meet more ppl from the church.

thinking good thoughts:

This made my day.

life is fun

Today, I found out that I will have to learn to do very quickly what I already knew I would have to learn to do but I hadn't yet started learning to do what I need to do now. A fire has been lit under my butt and even though I know this is good for me, I just wish the stakes weren't quite so high. This is what happens when you think, "Oh, well, I have time . . . ."

Yes, this is work related. I knew that this year would be an exciting year but somehow, nevertheless, I always seem to be taken by surprise. Maybe I need to learn to work as if I don't have time and never will have the time . . . . then again, that sounds like a recipe for heart disease.

hahaha

"Dissertation titles are the butt of many jokes, but they aren't funny to the author. Some dissertations give the impression they were named by clinicians in white coats, determined to provide as technical a description of the contents as language will permit. Other dissertation titles soar into abstraction as if the goal were to conceal the manuscript's subject, and maybe even the discipline in which it was written" (84).

Yeap. I can relate.

courage that I need

"I warned earlier that revision is really at transformation out of one form of writing into another. That transformation might be thought of this way: the dissertation is the historical record of others' ideas, supplemented by your own important insights; the book is the narrative of thinking on the subject, but primarily it's your own thinking, even though it is supplemented by the historical record of others' ideas. If this generalization is valid, it means that a young author can't write a book without risking intellectual self-exposure. That risk, by the way, is one of the most important parts of being a writer, even a scholarly writer. And it isn't the risk of being found wrong, for scholars are always moving an idea along by fits and starts. It's the risk of finding you have nothing to say. Learning to take that risk, even to want to take that risk, is part of a scholar's development" (pg 67, William Germano, From Dissertation to Book).

"Writing is a risk, and a risk is exciting, and excitement is something you will fight to sustain in your professional life as you age and your students don't" (125).

I am one of the most risk-averse people I know.

withdrawal symptoms

Should've paid $5 extra for 2-day shipping so that my new baby would be delivered by Friday. Now I have to wait until Monday for it to come!!

This Friday, I also have a professional engagement that requires me to be voluble about my work. Don't want to go into that here. I'm so nervous, but I recognize that this is a good opportunity for me to learn to speak without having my brain shut down on me. The part where my brain shuts down isn't really within my control though.

Maybe I should find a job that doesn't require me to open my mouth.

need to post more often

When I was trying to fall asleep last night, I composed a blog post in my head. But forgot everything this morning. I need to post more often because my mind is like a sieve.

Anyway, my laptop crashed and refuses to start so yesterday I ordered a new laptop, one that I've been salivating over for the past few months, thanks to friends who have also been looking out for new laptops. Deciding to purchase the Asus eee was a lot less painful because of their painstaking research!

I really like this model because it is light, has a solid state drive, and still manages to retain an almost normal-sized keyboard (95%). And oh yeah, the price isn't bad either. I think there are other models out there for about the same price or cheaper but they use regular hard drives instead of the SSD.

This also means that I will have to make the shift over to Linux--I'm nervous--but since there are fewer viruses out there that are targeted at Linux, it should mean fewer crashes!! I'm tired of losing my files and settings.

The next time the humanities center here holds a "home computer clinic," I'll bring my old laptop in and have them reinstall Windows because it's a free service anyway. The computer they've set up for me in my office (the one I'm using to type this post!) is also Windows so if I really need Windows, I'll have access to it. I could get the clinic to install Windows on my new laptop as well but I think I'm ready to give Linux a try.

a little more activity

I took a "sick day" yesterday and just stayed home. Later this afternoon, I will be helping a couple from the small group pack as they need to move out of their house next week. Apparently, gang members have been hanging out in their backyard and the police told them not to approach the gang.

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