For Xmas, Leah got me Settlers of Catan and the 5-6 player expansion set, which is incredibly awesome, as well as a hardbound copy of the complete poems of Emily Dickenson, and the Greatest Hits I-III of Queen. Yes, my life is a good one. Also, my brother's already told me what he's getting me, but since I haven't received it yet, I'm not posting.  But just for the idea, he's the best brother evar.

Also, with Xmas money from relatives, I bought two large squared Moleskine notebooks, one for teaching notes and one for sermon notes (the teaching more active, the sermon more reflective). I'm looking forward to using them both.

I start teaching so soon!  Seriously, I begin teaching Comp I two nights a week starting January 9th.  That is a thing people call "soon."

I'm thinking of starting a blogger account for more formal essayish things, and translations.  Right now, though, I'm wondering how I should do the copyright on all those blogs and posts; I don't mind this blog being "all rights reserved," but I'd kinda like my translations to be public domain; my essays perhaps a limited Creative Commons-style license.

Update to earlier post on Rasselas:

The Great Chain I mentioned, that involves Job-Boethius-Rasselas?  I'm including Herman Hesse's Siddhartha.

In other news, I spelled "Siddhartha" correctly without looking it up.  Earlier today, I spelled "diononychus" correctly.  I am on a spelling roll

My first day of work today was good and fast and I totally either knew how to do everything or simply caught on really quickly.  Working in a library lets you know a whole lot about working in other libraries, especially when the first library you work in is tiny and you do a little of everyone's job.

Well, I finished Samuel Johnson's Rasselas again. Before I started reading it I falsely remembered that it was tedious and boring. My second time through was slow until I suddenly realized late last night that I really, really loved it. I was reading--the best way to read something good, with a pencil for underlining and marginalia--and I just realized how much I was enjoying the thought processes that kept cropping up. I realized that Rasselas was in the great chain that includes Job and Boethius's Consolation of Philosophy. The annoyance of all the didactic philosophizing slid off me and I learned to relax and love the book. I'm thinking about writing my paper on the Job/Boethius/Rasselas thing, and I felt like reading the chapter about marriage to Leah (because I'm marrying her and it interest me, not because I actually think she won't find it boring). I also find it an incredible proof of why plot is central to the concept of the novel, because Rasselas has story but no plot: things happen, in a series, then stop happening; there's no build-up, no climax, no resolution. The last chapter is friggin' titled "The Conclusion, In Which Nothing Is Concluded".

Tim, I hope you read it instead of leaving it on your shelf for a year. Will, you should read it. Trog, if you haven't read it already, add it to the list. Anybody else, give it at least a try. And the fact that he constantly italicizes choice of life can be overlooked. Mostly.