blivet 2.0

The Scholarly Lecture: How to Stand and Deliver #

"Once upon a very long time ago, educated people studied rhetoric and oratory. When they spoke, people listened. There are remnants of oratory even in our own time. You may not have liked Mrs. Thatcher, but she knew how to speak. You may not have liked Mr. Clinton, either, but what president has loved public speaking as much as Bill did? Of course, comparing politicians and scholars is a bit unfair. World peace is one thing, but no chief executive has had to hold an audience’s attention with a paper on small notes in Haydn or character development in the novels of Jean Rhys.

Most problems that beset academic lectures aren’t specific to the scholarly world, but saying that they’re common isn’t the same as saying that they’re easy to ignore. Here are a baker’s dozen survival tips for academic speakers:" (more – Chronicle of Higher Education) via garret

Arising From a Tryptophan Stupor, He Went to the Computer… #

Happy Thanksgiving (American) from all at Casa blivet. We spent the day at Dr. Liz’s in the company of her parents, some friends of hers, along with Jake, SirDeath, Kane, and Liz’s boyfriend Eric. After a huge meal, a long walk, some dessert and conversation, we returned home. Then all three of us slept. I am the first one vertical again. I am being very quiet.

I hope your day was equally filled with friendship and abundance.

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October 21 2003 was Ian’s second birthday. Grandpa and Grandma Hughes were here to celebrate and we invited some friends for the party. Earlier in the afternoon, we took him to a photographer and had these pictures taken.

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Five Pictures of Ian on His Second Birthday #

I have Ian’s five pictures in a story. There are a couple of hundred k of pictures at that link.

Pictures of a 2 Year Old Ian #

I’ll try to get a page up with the other four up later today (it is after midnight and I need to collapse).

Today’s word was ‘rectagon’ (or something resembling that). Used when Mom asks what that shape is that you just drew with a crayon. He kept repeating it, so we guess that is what whatever it is is called.

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A Brief Update Before I Collapse #

I’m back from My Mother’s house in Texas. [I have never lived there, so that is why I refer to it that way. Mom and Dad moved from Kansas the Summer after I graduated from High School. For those keeping score, that was 1973.]

One word ˜ yeeow! Her recovery is well on the way, but she is going to be the poster child for ‘Don’t Do This!’ It is hard for me to believe that she didn’t end up with any damage to ligaments or tendons. The first thing I asked her to do was wiggle her fingers and thumb. They worked. There are probably some skin grafts in her future, however.

Thank you all for the email and mentions in your ‘online presence.’ Now that I am semi-relaxed for the first time since I left, I’m exhausted. More this weekend. And new Ian pictures!

Excuse the Outage #

My Mother was in a bad home accident 10/30. We didn’t find out until 11/9 and then only because got a call from one of her neighbors. Sigh. She was steadying a ladder (she is 74!) so a different neighbor’s son could climb onto the roof to check for suspected attic ingress routes for squirrels.

The critical ladder to roof transition was unsuccessful by the 240 pound (athletic) youth. Ladder (sliding-type) collapses cutting the length of Mom’s lower inner right arm to the bone (‘hundreds of stitches’ by a cosmetic surgeon who happened to be in the ER). The kid then landed on her rib cage ass first.

He is apparently mostly unhurt. Needless to say, my Mom is [colorful phrase deleted] badly injured. So I’m bound for Texas, for at least a week. Be well..

In Brief #

As to the reason for the lack of posts and the current brevity, please see the above.

Thank you Veterans!

Happy belated birthday to André!

A Certain Two Year Old #

We got the pictures of Ian back from the photographer. I’m beyond biased so I think they’re great. Having said that, they are pretty darn good. I will post them as soon as I get them scanned.

First Thoughts on Matrix Revolutions #

Through the kind insistence of my wife, I went to a matinee showing of Matrix Revolutions today. Here are my initial off the cuff observations.

I enjoyed what the message was and I was very satisfied with how it ended. It is the same message of the so-called Great Religions of the world and suffers from the same obstacles that all those that sell water by the river labor under. "You mean that’s it?!? I thought it would be more, … exciting."

This going to come off as really arrogant, but here goes. If it doesn’t make sense, I guess I don’t know what you were expecting. I’ll definitely be seeing it again. Not because it is that good, it is a flawed movie. But the ideas are great. Perhaps Dave will write some more on the subject…

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Ian on iSight #

Audrey and Ian are at the Geological Society of America meetings. Well, Audrey is, Ian is staying with Grandma at his Great-Aunt’s house. The underlying reason for buying two iSight cameras was to do this:

Our first video chat (via Great-Uncle Ed’s DSL) was a rousing success! Like Dave pointed out some time ago, this is what the video phone was supposed to be, getting to see and talk with my two-year old while he picks his nose half a continent away. Very, very cool! [Their picture is a little blocky, I had enlarged the window in iChat AV before I took the screen shot. I attribute the green tint to fluorescent lights.]

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