Time Enough at Last* (Poem 32)

Mr. Henry Bemis,
his shattered glasses gleam like shattered dreams
in the wake of broken buildings
and scattered reams,

Mr. Henry Bemis,
his books are tinder now it seems,
fuel for fires, if he has time for fires
or for dreams.

We cannot envy Mr. Bemis,
but may pause to wonder
if circumstances have changed.

The books he read were dead before
the world was silent and defaced.

The ink was conversation,
but he read only for dry consumption
the morsels of Dickens and Baudelaire.

Now, his armchair,
another a place of isolation
in a world far from fair.

* http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0FUI90HIQt8

"Page 19" (Poem 31)

I wonder at times why

one writes an ambitious,
acerbic, everyday,
needlessly-adjective-laden

novel,


why the author

tucking back
his coarse pony-tail

opened with a setting
he knew nothing about—

    "fucking corn[fields]" in Topeka.


I am sure he knows all too well
how it feels to grow up

wanting to misplace one's home

to find meaning elsewhere
down endless stretches of road.


And I am sure he has something
pulchritudinous to convey. But
amidst the word choice...

I can't quite go on.


Still, I can't help but wonder

if once I met him
walking across the world in
sweat-stained Patagonia

telling his evening stories
that were both stranger
and wiser than fiction.


If only those stories
were on this page now.

If only those stories
did not scatter
with morning rain.

Ubuntu vs. Windows vs. Mac OS

Source: XKCD (2010)

I started using Ubuntu 10.04 a few weeks ago due to misgivings with Windows and Mac OS. It's been an interesting (and sometimes difficult) experience, but if you are willing to deal with the steep learning curve, I highly recommend at least trying it. The more people that use it, the better it will eventually get.

Right now, I'm dual-booting Ubuntu and Windows XP on the same computer (i.e. I select which of the two I want to run when the computer boots up). It's a really excellent option for someone who wants different things from different environments. (Customization and window management from Ubuntu, giant software library from Windows.)

By default, Ubuntu is probably somewhere in between Mac and Windows in terms of interface. A Mac-like panel is at the top, and a Windows-like bar displaying active programs is on the bottom. But because you can customize things, you can change it to your liking. I opted for a more Mac-like experience, which you can see in these screenshots:

***

And here's my obligatory comparison chart, in case you're curious:

Ubuntu	Windows	Mac OS
+ Completely free and open source. +/- Very customizable, but you'll run into bugs. Incredible, though, when everything is working. + Works with most hardware, often without additional drivers. - Steep learning curve. You'll probably end up needing to be doing some command line stuff if you want the most out of the experience. + Minimal viruses, malware, exploits, etc. (UNIX-based.) - Small proprietary software library.	+/- Different versions of the OS range in price. + Fairly customizable. + Works with nearly all hardware (due to its huge market share). +/- Fairly intuitive, but things can get sluggish if you don't do regular system maintenance. - Lots of viruses, malware, exploits, etc. (again, largely due to its market share). + Ginormous software library.	- Premium prices, for both OS and hardware. - Minimally customizable so you can't mess up stuff. - Limited hardware support. + Just works. Fairly intuitive. No maintenance necessary. + Mac viruses are pretty much an oxymoron. (UNIX-based.) +/- Decent proprietary software library. But excellent applications for audio/visual stuff.

5/31 update:

Three reasons why Ubuntu is better than Mac OSX: maximizable windows, print selection, cut-and-paste.

Patchwork Nation

I've mentioned this to a few dozen people but never got around to posting it. It's a brilliant idea: The CS Monitor created an alternative to the oversimplistic "red state"/"blue state" maps that are so popular on cable news networks. Instead of two categories, they have 12; and instead of coloring states, they color districts.

There are also some interesting overlays. You can look at which districts have Cracker Barrel restaurants or Whole Foods grocers, as well as many useful statistics related to income, population, military service, education, etc., etc.

Check it out at http://patchworknation.csmonitor.com/

Projects

I recently finished up my undergraduate degrees (English and Secondary Ed.), and I don't feel any different. But I would like to start writing more often with the intention of getting things published (and thus shared with a wider audience) instead of merely getting an acceptable grade for them.

So here are my current big projects (aside from teaching!) in order of ambition:

• "Redescribing Shelley's Defense of Poetry: Rorty, Rich, and the Making of a Neopragmatist Poetics": In a few months I'm hoping to completely revise it and submit it for publication.
• "A Defense of Reading" [New title: "Reasons for Reading"]: Similar to the attention I gave to Shelley's "A Defence of Poetry," but more in terms of the cultural importance of reading. I've really been wanting a short essay on this topic for my students once I start teaching, and, since I couldn't find any, I decided to write one. It'll draw on Amusing Ourselves to Death, Manufacturing Consent, and an awesome but horrifying quote by Lenny Dykstra. Expect to see it before the end of summer.
• "If Learning Mattered: How Overemphasizing Quantitative Indicators Distorts the Aims of Institutions of Learning" [tentative title]: This will probably be my master's thesis if I get the topic approved. If not, I'm still writing it.
• a&b: A volume of poetry that is still a long ways off. (One poem in particular is going to take an absurd amount of research.) Very much in line with the poetics I've described in the top essay.
• "Works of Love": Creative non-fiction essay on ethics and the concept of unconditional love, with continual reference to Kierkegaard's beautiful Works of Love. I started this in 2008, but I don't plan on finishing it any time soon.

Neopragmatist Poetics

Here is a recent essay that more or less sums up my current views on philosophy. I plan to do some heavy revising down the road, but I think it's still worth reading as is.

1. Redescribing Shelley's Defense of Poetry: Rorty, Rich, and the Making of a Neopragmatist Poetics

2. The Plaque Conspiracy with Continual Reference to Derrida (a humorous, misleading cover sheet and preface originally attached to the above essay)

"Ode to Gnome Chompski" (Poem 30)

How shiny you are,
my little gnome,
and how free you are
from the bloodspatters
surrounding us.

After we escape
to the helicopter
I'm going to ask you
about politics and
universal grammar.

But now we're down
and out, due to spit
and bad teamwork. . .