a smorgasbord

It's been a while. Some things have happened.

1. I got a job! I started on Wednesday! I don't think blogging about work is ever a great idea, so I will just say this: the promise of a decent paycheck is a beautiful and wonderful thing. 

2. I re-read the beginning of my dissertation the other day, for reasons totally unclear to me now. I do not recommend the experience. The content is pretty ok, but I went totally nuts on the colons and semi-colons. I want to use them all the time (see the previous paragraph for evidence!) and I just can't stop. Yes, my name is Julia, and I am a (semi-)colon addict.* I need to go to punctuation rehab. Surely the Chicago Manual of Style runs such an establishment?

3. I enjoyed this essay a great deal. I'm not very hip to the whole evolution debate, so this was an eye-opener. And his reflections on teaching are wonderful.

The thing about teaching is we are never sure we are making a difference. We never know how many students have been reached. What I have never come to grips with is that no matter how hard I try to be the best teacher I can, I will fail to connect with some students.

4. And this is another excellent essay. (Yes, work has been slow today.) I don't know much about Terry Eagleton, but the free will vs. neurology question has bugged me for a long time. (There was a particularly freaky RadioLab on the topic a while back, too.) Eagleton distills the salient points of the issue in a way that is eye-opening. I was going to quote from the essay, but I liked so many parts of it I couldn't choose just one. You should really just go read it!

*Incidentally, how is it that a part of the human anatomy and a punctuation mark go by the same name? The colon in my body looks nothing like the colon in my writing. I need to find the etymology on this.