Discipline will not do anything useful with [the problem of self-sabotage and self-hatred]. Just the opposite – it will aggravate the issue. Discipline is a form of masochism, a symptom of self-hate, and you can’t eradicate self-hate with more of the same. And, I suppose, it is because of this that I have such an … More An important comment from Clarissa
I have become faculty advisor for the secular students’ alliance, an important organization because it creates a space in which secular students can be secular. It is not so easy here because they face ostracism from family and friends and some are not in a position to come out of the closet, so they need … More On teaching, and on how one is seen
I was happy today because work was going well. I have been impaired for so long I barely know what this is like. It is another planet. In the meantime I was meditating on this post and thread. I could repeat various points. If desire were enough, it would also be true that hard work … More Extrinsic and intrinsic
I do not think it is lack of interest, much though I have tried to claim over the past twenty years that it is. And true as it is that I have other interests that could be professional interests, interests I feel I could pursue with greater happiness and success because they are in fields … More That work allergy
I almost never feel autonomous, but I sometimes feel peaceful. Sometimes I can see what autonomy and peace would be like together; they look good. As a younger person I knew neither was meant for me, but I admired them and I was surprised one day long ago when it seemed I had them on … More On autonomy and peace
Exceptionalism calls specific what is not. My utterly unpublishable example is Cadjin(e) exceptionalism. “We are the only ones ever shamed for speaking our language.” (Uninformed) “Our experience can only be understood from the inside.” (So it cannot be an object of study, only a subject of storytelling.) “This is a folkway only we have.” (Uninformed) … More A thesis on specificity and exceptionalism
One of the more exhausting aspects of having my mother die is having to explain again and again to people that my father is not moving to Central Time, and justifying that. He likes it where he lives and prefers living in his town over moving to unknown and uncomfortable towns just because his children … More Coldhearted 2
They decided to interview all women, which is interesting since I can see what they are wearing. All have sensible shoes, a little too old for them, like these, but I probably need those to look conservative enough for the kind of thing I am applying for and because I can no longer wear real … More Job interview outfits … for half senior faculty, half administrative positions
I do not agree that communicative approaches, those methods referred to as grammar-translation, the direct and natural methods, and so on, are merely teaching “styles” — they have different goals and produce different results. Since we as a group do not have a common approach, the de facto departmental method is that used by those … More I should not say this in real life now, but…
…it seemed that if we could only decide who Vallejo was we might know what his poems mean. Was this so and if it was, were we just falling prey to some form of the intentional fallacy? Not necessarily. It was that these poems were coming from a uneven, multi-leveled and multilayered collage of contexts, only some of … More Vallejo, el extranjero
coldhearted scientist وداد 