Burying Patterns in Your Chest

I am so damn tired. Seriously, I felt like I haven't been fully awake since Sunday, and I haven't even really done anything extra since then: Same work schedule, same school schedule, same sleep schedule. Maybe, I'll get to bed early tonight, maybe.

So, I think that my Plato paper is starting to gain some kind of form in my mind, or at least I think I know how I am going to structure the paper. I've done all of the research, and just need to get started. I have tons of material, so I don't think length will be a problem, just cohesion. And it's due December 4th, so it has a bit more of a sense of urgency than my Imagination paper. Other than that I am pretty much coasting until the end of the semester: my Imagination paper is done, I have an A in my Logic class, and I just need to keep my homework grades consistent through the end of December. Oh, and they do things pretty strange here...they don't offer "dead week" or "dead days" like at UNT, but the last mandatory assignment is always due a week and a half before finals week even begins. I am not sure if that means that they can teach new stuff, just not assign homework, or if they really dedicate a week and a half to review. Either way, my last day of class is December 4th, and my one and only final is December 16th. So I have like 12 days of break before my final...so strange. I will probably just wear myself out working during that time to make up for the three weeks of vacation that I will be taking. And both of my papers will be due by the 4th of December...so except for my Logic final, school will be done for me that on the 4th. And first day of instruction next semester is January 14th.

So it's getting cold here in Mass., and I think cold to stay. The highs have been in the mid-40s for about 5 days now, and I think that it is only supposed to get colder after this weekend. And that's fine with me, I love the cold weather. But what isn't fine with me is that my top button came off my brand new wool coat. I was in the grocery store today, unbuttoning it so that I could move better and not be so hot, and the damn thing just came undone. I have only been wearing that coat for like 4 days now...pisses me off. So, I purchased a sewing kit along with my groceries and am going to try and sew this button back on tonight. Don't get me wrong, buttons have definitely made my life better, but some time they piss me off to no end. And as many of you know, I don't get angry easily, but for some reason, a broken or unraveled button just sets me off. So, gotta get that button back on or things will get pretty drafty for me.

Another strange thing about living up here: after daylight savings time the sun sets around 4:30. It's so odd...I got off work today around 5 and the sun was completely down. I think that might be part of why I am so lethargic; my body thinks that it is later than it is. Which of course introduces a strange problem about my body knowing or thinking something other than my brain. Or at the very least, sending cues to my brain to go to sleep.

Speaking of which, time to make a pot of coffee and battle my body in the name of higher education.

--Philip

In a Battle for Belonging

Ok, so I finished the first draft of my imagination paper. It still needs some polishing and the inclusion of footnotes and the bibliography...but it's done! I wrote the bulk of the ending today, and at three different occasions I thought that I was done, but just kept coming up with more ideas that seemed to necessitate inclusion. It weighs in about 15 pages without footnotes...but yeah, if you want to read it, let me know and I'll email you a copy. Now, I drink!

Oh and have you ever thought about the fact that it's impossible to cut off your own hands? Strange huh?

--Philip

My Life Came Up Quick, Call It Your Asterisk

Ok, so I am re-reading Being Singular Plural by Jean-Luc Nancy, and let me say, it's as if I am reading it for the first time. I first read it about this time last year when Nancy was mentioned in my Postmodernism seminar, but apparently the time has surely been my aid in digesting this work. His premise is that existence is always already addressing itself as singularly plural and plurally singular; indeed, it is hard to think of existence as independent of other existents, especially in the case when existence addresses itself: the act of denying meaning has meaning. Out of nothing comes everything and, according to Nancy, out of everything comes nothing as being is circulation, a constant self-addressing that opens presence up to presence in all directions and by saying "we" all entities, all beings, all existence is gathered up and bound into this boundless circulation in all directions. He also extends this idea into an eloquent discussion on Nietzsche's "eternal recurrence."

The first thing that jumped into my mind as I was reading this (and I am sure into yours too) was phenomenologically, or maybe ontologically, which comes first: "I" or "we"? I can't remember if Nancy deals with this, and I will find out when I make it through the book, but I don't recall him dealing with this in-depth. The problem, as I see it, is one of a violent differentiation of being. Do I posit two "I's" into a "we" or do I extract at least one "I" from the recognition that "we" is constituted by multiple entities? Surely, in keeping with Nancy, he holds that being is singular and plural at the same time: a multiplicitous singularity embodied by saying "we." But, my question in all of this is where is the Other? This assimilation of all existents into a unity of multifarity seems to (at some level) subvert Otherness into sameness. Truly, an ethical treatment of the Other requires a commitment, a com-passion, but I don't know how I feel about the ethical implications of this "we." Maybe my questions will be answered as I read, but these are at least preliminary ideas and foci.

Ok, so if you have made it this far I applaud you and your determination to wade through a paragraph saturated with...strange musings. On to other matters. I started my training today for my incoming promotion, and it was fairly simple. The weather has been oddly temperate here lately: highs in the low 60's, lows in the high 40's. I am waiting for winter to descend and knock me on my ass one unexpected morning. But not yet, brother, not yet.

It's amazing how fast time is flying! I know I remark on this every other post or so, but I can't believe that the first week of November is almost over. Time is such a strange thing to me...but that's a post for another...time. Dammit, not using "time" is almost as hard as not using "is." Being and Time indeed. Oh, and I know he isn't going to read this, but I must say happy birthday to my (assimilated) brother Drew Riley: 23 and going strong! Everyone call him and wish him happy birthday...and call him an asshole for me. Seems like only yesterday we were 14 and playing Final Fantasy in his living room...ahh sweet memories of nerddom and nerderiferousness.

Well, I am going to get back to my reading and my High Life.

"Ah, whom can we ever turn to in our need? Not angels, not humans, and already the knowing animals are aware that we are not really at home in our interpreted world."
- Rilke

They didn't give me anything, then they took half of that,

-- Philip