Archive for January, 2008
tweet tweet for 2008-01-30
Jan 30th
- [daily photo] concealed http://tinyurl.com/2uywgq #
- Just found out that I have to RE-defend my thesis after my revisions are made. Ack! Will this never end? This thing has worn me out. Really. #
- @phdaisy thank you! I think we’re both in that same place — where we’re ready to be done with this stage. :-) #
- @phdaisy Exactly! Spot on. :-) #
- @phdaisy did you get insurance as a part of your PhD incentives or do you have to pay for it? #
- @phdaisy wow. My offers have included insurance for the full time I’m in a program. I think I’ll count myself fortunate. #
- @phdaisy I can imagine. Insurance is costly. Plus, wouldn’t it be nice to work in your field? :-) #
- @phdaisy Same here in AZ. I think belts are being tightened all over. I have a good job (but will be leaving to get my PhD). Still worrisome #
- @phdaisy I am! Presenting last day, last slot. Ugh. It would be great to meet you, too! #
- @phdaisy I may need to go to your session. It looks interesting. #
- @phdaisy Yeah, I’m flying in on the 4th and leaving the 6th. I’ll look for you, too! :-) #
- @phdaisy I hear you. My presentation is on one of my thesis chapters so I *have* to have it done. #
- off to a staff meeting…woohoo! :-) #
old woman with protea flowers, kahalui airport
Jan 30th
american life in poetry: column 134by ted kooser, u.s. poet laureate, 2004-2006
When ancient people gathered around the fire at nightfall, I like to think that they told stories, about where each of them had been that day, and what that person had seen in the forest. Those were among our first stories, and we still venture into the world and return to tell others what happened. It’s part of community. Here Kathleen Flenniken of Washington tells us about a woman she saw at an airport.
Old Woman With Protea Flowers, Kahalui Airport
She wears the run-down slippers of a local
and in her arms, five rare protea
wrapped in newsprint, big as digger pine cones.
Our hands can’t help it and she lets us touch.
Her brother grows them for her, upcountry.
She’s spending the day on Oahu
with her flowers and her dogs. Protea
for four dogs’ graves, two for her favorite.
She’ll sit with him into the afternoon
and watch the ocean from Koolau.
An old woman’s paradise, she tells us,
and pets the flowers’ soft, pink ears.
American Life in Poetry is made possible by The Poetry Foundation (www.poetryfoundation.org), publisher of Poetry magazine. It is also supported by the Department of English at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln. Poem copyright (c) 2007 by Kathleen Flenniken, whose most recent book of poetry is “Famous,” University of Nebraska Press, 2006. Poem reprinted by permission of the author. Introduction copyright (c) 2007 by The Poetry Foundation. The introduction’s author, Ted Kooser, served as United States Poet Laureate Consultant in Poetry to the Library of Congress from 2004-2006. We do not accept unsolicited manuscripts.
thick or thin
Jan 29th
What’s your preference?
In some ways, this is a GREAT parody. I mean, it has emotional appeal. But…that little part of me, sitting on the sofa (or bed, as it may be), watching TV and eating ice cream thinks…what is this obsession with thin? Really. Is it really better? Am I better off if my laptop is the thinnest one out there (especially if it has relatively no ports and no drives)? And is it worth it to spend a few THOUSAND dollars to be thin?
tweet tweet for 2008-01-28
Jan 28th
- the rain is really coming down hard right now with hard blowing winds. I have mini-lakes outside my door. Send a boat. #
- @textbench yeah, the ground is over-saturated…no where for it to go. Ack! #
- @textbench I hear you. I was out breaking up ice this afternoon to avoid more problems. #
- plus: housing in Minneapolis WAY less expensive than here. negative: hard to sell current house in this market. Argh. #
- housing is also less expensive in Troy, Syracuse, and Greenville (although I’m still waiting to hear back from those programs) #
- @beebo_wallace *laugh* Wanna trade? ;-) #
- [daily photo] hiding places http://tinyurl.com/35al39 #
afterwards
Jan 27th
american life in poetry: column 133
by ted kooser, u.s. poet laureate, 2004-2006
It may be that we are most alone when attending funerals, at least that’s how it seems to me. By alone I mean that even among throngs of mourners we pull back within ourselves and peer out at life as if through a window. David Baker, an Ohio poet, offers us a picture of a funeral that could be anybody’s.
Afterwards
A short ride in the van, then the eight of us
there in the heat–white shirtsleeves sticking,
the women’s gloves off–fanning our faces.
The workers had set up a big blue tentto help us at graveside tolerate the sun,
which was brutal all afternoon as if
stationed above us, though it moved limb
to limb through two huge, covering elms.The long processional of neighbors, friends,
the town’s elderly, her beauty-shop patrons,
her club’s notables. . . The world is full of
prayers arrived at from afterwards, he said.Look up through the trees–the hands, the leaves
curled as in self-control or quietly hurting,
or now open, flat-palmed, many-fine-veined,
and whether from heat or sadness, waving.
American Life in Poetry is made possible by The Poetry Foundation (www.poetryfoundation.org), publisher of Poetry magazine. It is also supported by the Department of English at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln. Poem copyright (c) by David Baker, whose most recent book of poetry is “Midwest Eclogue,” W. W. Norton, 2006. Reprinted from “Virginia Quarterly Review,” Winter, 2004, by permission of David Baker. Introduction copyright (c) 2007 by The Poetry Foundation. The introduction’s author, Ted Kooser, served as United States Poet Laureate Consultant in Poetry to the Library of Congress from 2004-2006. We do not accept unsolicited manuscripts.
tweet tweet for 2008-01-24
Jan 24th
- I got an acceptance letter from the University of Minnesota! Yahoo! #
tweet tweet for 2008-01-23
Jan 23rd
- lots of snow in our future. when is spring again? heh. j/k (remind me of this in March when it’s *still* snowing) #
- @MarkDM I like that in b&w. Makes it all the more gritty. #
- @courosa It hasn’t been on here, yet. I’m still waiting for it. :-) #
- who I am: http://pownce.com/dawn/notes/1221811/ #
- Got my startup schwag bag today…a cool shirt from Mashable. Yay! :-) #
- [daily photo] stony place http://tinyurl.com/2tsnej #
- @ldallara Yay! Good to see you here :-) #
- @ldallara btw, congrats on the gallery showing. That’s wonderful! #
- How do you define the American West? #
- Addendum: How do you define the American West & why? What are the boundaries, why do you choose that area, etc. #
- @MetroOwl Can you tell me where you’ve grown up, lived, etc? I think this has an impact on our perception of the west. #
- @MetroOwl having been born and raised in the West, I would never consider Texas a part of us. But I think that’s all perception. :-) #
- @MetroOwl That makes sense then. Someone from the south replied and gave me similar outlines to yours. :-) #
- @MetroOwl Wow. Really? I would have never thought that! I don’t consider Texas a part of the west. It’s Texas. #
- @ldallara I like snitter. Plus, it pings you when you get a reply. :-) #
