I became insane with long intervals of horrible sanity.
The trouble with fighting for human freedom is that one spends most of one's time defending scoundrels. For it is against scoundrels that oppressive laws are first aimed, and oppression must be stopped at the beginning if it is to be stopped at all.
Many people would sooner die than think; In fact, they do so
What I have been telling you, from alpha to omega, what is the one great thing the sigil taught me — that everything in life is miraculous. For the sigil taught me that it rests within the power of each of us to awaken at will from a dragging nightmare of life made up of unimportant tasks and tedious useless little habits, to see life as it really is, and to rejoice in its exquisite wonderfulness. If the sigil were proved to be the top of a tomato-can, it would not alter that big fact, nor my fixed faith. No Harrowby, the common names we call things by do not matter — except to show how very dull we are ...
November 11, 2010 - 12:33 p.m.
This is my last update before NERFA. I figured that I'm going to be writing so much abougt NERFA that it just earned its own macro.
Yesterday I gave the second test of the semester to my classes. I had the usually difficulties with people not even knowing what the questions meant. If they had done the homework or paid any attention it wouldn't be difficult. One of the things I don't get is why adding rational expressions, fractions with polynomials in the numerator and denominator is so difficult.
What I have seemed to be a past master at is teaching word problems. My students learn them pretty well. Most of them seemed to know what they were doing. Notice I get the credit when they do well and they get the blame when they do poorly. Just letting you know I'm aware of it.
Thanks to Veterans Day alternate side of the street parking was suspended today. That meant I didn't have to rush home to move my car. I planned on having fun in my office but after an hour it became overrun with officemates and I had to find someplace to hide. I ended up in the Math Lab. I have everything I have in my office there but it is open to the world and I can't relax as much.
I managed to survive it but mistimed things so I didn't have time for dinner. That was ridiculous as I was just trying to kill time. The reason I was hanging out was that Christine Lavin was having the CD release party for her Christmas/Chanukah/Solstice/New Year's album Just One Angel. It's a compilation and 9 of the musicians appearing on it were there:
- The Accidentals
- Erik Frandsen
- David Rasche
- Sue Matsuki
- Erik Balkey
- Julie Gold
- Deirdre Flint
- David Ippolito
- Christine Lavin
The show was free at the Barnes & Noble at Lincoln Triangle, 4 blocks from my school. How convenient is that? Last time Chris was there it was packed and I had trouble getting a seat so I wanted to get there early. Doors were at 7 so I figured I'd get there at 6:30. When I got there I saw Deirdre doing her sound check through the glass doors. She smiled at me I waved and waited patiently, for about 3 minutes when someone walked out. I saw the doors weren't locked and realized that I had a valid reason for going in before doors. When I told you about being Chris's road manager on Saturday I didn't include one detail, an idiot story. I had Chris's merch money. I had it safe in my pocket. It stayed safe in my pocket after I dropped Chris off. I realized it when I got home and emptied my pockets. I immediately emailed her and told her I'd give it to her on Wednesday. So I opened the door and said, "I'm Chris's sometime road manager and I have something for her." It was totally true but I always feel like a fake when I'm saying things like that and can't believe that people buy it. Of course the guy at the door did and I went in. I gave Chris the money and hung out with Julie, Erik Balkey, and Deirdre, the Philadelphia contingent. Julie lives here and is a dyed in the wool New Yorker but she grew up in Philly. We were then joined by David Ippolito. That's the half of the show I know. I love the small world aspect of it. I know Julie and David through Chris but I've known Deirdre and Erik longer than Chris does.
I had two jobs at the show, photographer and musician wrangler. After the show they were all signing CDs. Chris said that I had to get them to stop talking to their friends and get them over to the table. I asked if I could use a cattle prod. At first she thought that was a good idea but then decided it wasn't in the holiday spirit. Actually everyone went peacefully, I didn't even need to verbally nudge anyone let alone use physical force. I was very disappointed.
Let's see if the photography came out any better. Here's the slide show. With the clever captions.
OK they weren't very clever.
And that was John Forster. As well I knew. By coincidence I had just helped him do something on Facebook. My friend Bob told him to ask me. And by coincidence Bob was sitting right behind me. Have I mentioned it's a small world?
I was very good after the show. For perhaps the first time ever I turned down doing one of my favorite things to do, go out to a dinner after a concert. This was particularly tough as I don't get to hang out with these people that often but I knew today was a big day. I of course should have used the time last night to do my spreadsheet but I hadn't realized how necessary it as till I actually looked at the Vic Sheets of all the guerilla showcases this morning. Why did I wait till now? Because I'm a procrastinator; haven't you been paying attention?
I have to leave in a hour and a half and haven't packed or showered. Most importantly I haven't worked out my schedule. I printed out the Vic Sheets but I haven't made my spreadsheet of all the people that I have to see. Everything happens at once at NERFA so I have to try and see all the must sees at least once. Of course the best part is discovering the people I don't know that I must see but do.
I'll have lots to write about when I get home.
Damn, I just realized that I blew it. Monday was the Tenth Anniversary of the Wise Madness and I wanted to start linking back to those entries.
OK, right now go back and read The very first entry. It's really short.
I signed the Pro-Truth Pledge:
please hold me accountable.
Memories: Not that Horrid Song - May 29, 2018
Wise Madness is Now In Session - May 28, 2018
The NFL and the First Amendment - May 27, 2018
On The Road Again - May 26, 2018
Oliver the Three-Eyed Crow - May 25, 2018
creative commons
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike 3.0 License.
Horvendile November 11, 2010
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