An idle breath

Mornings get harder every day. I guess it’s good that I don’t have any morning obligations for the rest of the semester. Two course meetings left, Tuesday and Wednesday afternoon. Tuesday, I’ll get a fresh new pile of metaethics papers to grade. I got myself going, slowly, this morning, then eventually made it to the extra bonus office hours I’d announced at one. One student came at about 1:15, and stayed for over an hour, asking question after question. He seemed smart, and to know what was up; I don’t know why he felt like he had to ask so many questions. I kicked him out when there was another student waiting. She had a very quick question.

Then I met with Justin about the two papers I wrote for him in the second half of the semester. He said that he had the same comment for each of them: I do a very nice, critical job analyzing and responding to a particular point, but I don’t do a good job setting out the lay of the land, and explaining what is at issue, and what the possible views are, etc. He wants more big picture out of me. I’m not sure how fair a criticism that is for a ten-page paper, but I am aware that this is an area where I need to be stronger in order to be a good philosopher. I’m good at arguing — I need to work at seeing. It was a humbling and valuable talk; he gave me some suggestions for difficult things that are probably good ideas.

I read some particularly amazing nonsense this afternoon from the Christian Right. Always a fun time.

There was a departmental colloquium at 4:00. It was shockingly boring, so I left before the question-and-answer session. Then I had dinner, and moped around a bit. I’m really, really ready for something cool to happen. A vacation? A conference? A girl? Something, please. Two term papers? Not quite what I had in mind…

Ok, I’m going… somewhere else, other than this entry-writing page.

Yeah, I’m fully aware that I’m not going to keep readers if I keep being boring. I’m working on it. If I think of something fun and interesting and not about my life, I’ll post it.

UPDATE: I remembered a funny story from yesterday. One of the dumbest things I’d done in a while: I’d just made a cup of coffee, and I poured a little bit of my creamer into it, and I looked around for a spoon to stir it with. I didn’t see one, but I saw the lid of a large tupperware container on the table. Without even thinking about it, I put the lid on top of the coffee and shook. I never deliberated, considering the idea and wondering what would happen, in order to determine if it was a good idea. I just did it. My coffee ended up properly mixed (shaken, not stirred), but my pants also ended up stained.

The end.