a thaumaturgical compendium

UB has a great page up with images of products that used Cocaine, etc., before they were illegalized. (via Boing)

Eddie Izzard does a great routine in which he posits that if most strange meats taste like chicken, then babies probably do too. So, when trying an unusual meat, it makes some sense to say that it “tastes like babies”?

Although the Japanese eat poisonous puffer (among a host of other scary dishes), and the Koreans eat dogs (“only the stupid breeds” one friend once commented), the Taiwanese point out emphatically that they do not eat babies: that’s left to the mainlanders. Of course, people do eat people, especially during times of deprivation and war—a reminder, if one is needed, of how horrible war can be.

Now one might chalk this up to urban legend (snopes does), but those who interviewed the artist-cannibal for British television seem to think that his work is very much authentic. I thought, for a very long time, that eating monkey brains was an urban myth, but a Chinese student of mine has recently argued otherwise. Though eating people is a horrifying thought (it is, after all, intended to be), it could be worse, as Chinese are apparently tastier than others when it comes to this particular dish.

Hm. Time for lunch. Hope it doesn’t taste like babies. (via Boing)

WHEREAS, almost all of the above resolutions have a common element: time management…

That’s not to say that perfect time management will lead to an immediate realization of research goals, a great reading list, or perfect lessons, but it sure would help. I seemed to be endlessly under the gun this year. I had great “to do” lists, but hadn’t matched them up with “when” lists, which meant I didn’t really get them done.

THEREFORE, let it be resolved that I will keep up my calendar, and schedule time for everything that is added to my “to do” list.

I’m going to try going the PDA route during the first few months of the year, in hopes that this will help with keeping on top of appointments and keeping them scheduled. If, however, this ends up taking more time than it gives, I will go back to a small notebook.

(As a side note, this disruption of schedules seems to be an epidemic—a symptom of Late Capitalism. How else to explain time porn?)

WHEREAS, I am fat enough to try out to be the new Ernest & Julio Gallo spokesman...

It wouldn’t be a list of resolutions without this perennial fav. I’ve always been overweight—or at the very least, I have never been underweight. But now I have moved from the merely fat to gigantor status.

I’d love to say that it is glandular, or that it is due to some deep-seated emotional problem. There is probably some minute truth to both of these excuses, but the most important one is a serious lack of self-discipline.

Part of that discipline problem has more to do with organizing my time than anything else. I have kept up a regular program of exercise for several weeks only to have it dissolve into chaos as I ran out of time for various projects. Same is true of diet: I actually like a lot of food that is good for me—I just often get caught hungry and without time to go to the market or to cook. Thus the resolution:

THEREFORE, let it be resolved that I will engage in a structured diet, and schedule (and complete) seven hours of exercise each week, on penalty of withdrawn media.

On the diet side, Jamie picked up a book on the Atkin’s diet. I’ve shied away from it, despite now knowing several people for whom it has worked wonders, because it just seems wrong. Nonetheless, it is worth a try. Any health hazards are really minor within the panoply of risks being this overweight brings about.

On the exercise front, I will have the same sort of hard window of scheduled time as I do for lesson planning, during which exercise must happen. I have a bike within view of the TV, so I will make any TV or movie-watching contingent on getting a bit of aerobic activity in. I will once again make an effort to read while riding, though this has never worked for me.

I’ll also keep fairly detailed records of this process (as is my wont), and may or may not share these publicly :).

WHEREAS, we have lived in Buffalo for a year and a half without really experiencing all it has to offer…

We left Seattle having not really bathed ourselves in all that made it good. It was easy to fall into a rut and not really get a feel for the city. We don’t want to repeat that mistake here.

We will try something new, and somehow tied to Buffalo, at least twice a month.

By the end of the calendar year, we will have done at least 24 Buffalowey things, so when/if we leave this city, it will be with regrets for what we will miss and not for what we didn’t try.

Things normally left unsaid.

WHEREAS, an unreasonable amount of time was spent on preparing for classes last semester…

And that time had very little payoff. I spent a significant amount of time grading and preparing for my undergraduate class last semester, and it didn’t turn out as well as I might have liked. Part of that, no doubt, was that the formal structure was lacking. I expected that my lectures could draw an audience, despite the fact that attendance did not directly relate to the grade in a transparent way, and that the class was held at the far reaches of the campus.

But… I’ve noticed an inverse relationship between the amount of time I prepare for a given lecture and the student response to that lecture. I suspect that part of that is that I am more nervous when I am less prepared, and that I translate that nervousness into energy when I am lecturing, but it may just be that I tend to stuff too much into a lecture when I have spent too much time preparing for it. By keeping the amount of information—or at least “facts”—down to a minimum, it gives us a chance to do a better job of understanding some of the intricacies.

There are limits to the amount of time efficiency I can realize in the coming semester, since both courses are new for me, but I am going to try. I have relented, and am using a text book for the course (blah!). I will keep most of my lectures within the boundaries set by the text. I plan on reserving a significant chunk of time each week to talk about both current events and the applications to new technology, and these will require a bit more preparation, but are related to my interests and research.

I will also try to allow for more student-oriented work: in-class group work, and the like. These are sometimes less planning intensive than lectures—if only marginally.

THEREFORE, let it be resolved that I will plan a block of several hours each week in which I will fit all class planning.

This doesn’t include grading, setup, meeting with students, dealing with technology, or any of the other myriad tasks that seem to appear. However, I will schedule this block of time as non-flexible, and I will have to stay ahead of lesson planning within the block of time which I allot.