Whig Hill

Nothing in particular

Lizzie--a liberty-loving dog--has realized vacation is over and its back to solitary for her. The mopeing and guilt-tripping is pretty bad today.

I watched Pharoah's Army the other week and still think the stupid-bad stuff outweighs the good stuff. Hate it.

Nice try, NYT, but all museums are identity politics museums. So is all history.

The local indie video store went out of business, so its back to Netflix for me. I'm probably saving money, but the time wasting is getting expensive.

As mentioned previously, I'm sooooooo over Baptists. Presbyterians are all the thing now. While reading about them in the GSO public library yesterday I was distracted and entertained by a two-hour long conversation between a couple of homeless dudes. Their topics ranged around health care for homeless men, a trip to Baltimore for a colonoscopy, "high yellow" police officers in the 1960s, fascinating oral history of a S.C. man who worked at Cannon Mills in the '40s then cooked in D.C., conditions at the local homeless shelter, prayer, piety in marriage, a woman from England, some other guy's mistake, and a job at a High Point bedding factory. This was almost better than reading about the time in 183-something the Methodists poached one-hundred Presbyterian congregants in Concord, N.C. The Presbyterians had a problem with that.

So, that's it.

 

Good time for an update, being in between things and all.

The CC classes finished up fine. Saw the teacher evaluations and they’re positive, if generally written like this: “I like Mr. Graham, Chris good teaker I will n have WEsciv2 with him.” Can you use that stuff in applications and teaching portfolios?

Every semester gets me thinking anew about how to teach and the motivations gravitate from the romantic and noble to the pessimistic and practical. I’m working on the syllabi and plans for next semester that try to incorporate both. I should, however, work on grammar and spelling.

Still running; still having trouble breaking the three-mile mark. Good news is that the weight loss is going so well, the diabetes doctor said I could stop taking insulin. I had been down to 10 units a day (not very much) and my fasting numbers have been 80-100. So I’ve been off the insulin for the week and my numbers have been a bit more volatile—about 100-130 fasting. I can do two things—start the insulin again, or break the three-mark and eat even less.

Finished up the very first “content” writing on the dissertation: a seventeen-page survey of Baptists in Piedmont North Carolina. I’m a bit more pleased with the direction than I had hoped, even if the writing is terrible. Next up? Presbyterians! I am encouraged by a critical and supportive note from a respected senior scholar who read my revised proposal.

Saw True Grit today. I liked it, but didn’t love it as much as I had hoped. One tip to screenwriters: I think they did use contractions in the nineteenth century.

Mr. Thornton of Pigg River, Virginia, has hooked me up with the new DBT album. Thanks, Mr. Thornton. Sounds like Cooley has given me new reason to smile in despair.

Dog and I are headed to Nashville tomorrow. Big sister is there and the rest are coming in for the break. Lizzie has days when she looks as dumpy as she probably feels. Other days she bounds with energy. Good thing we’re on a high-energy couple of days.

I'm reading the newish biography of Frank Asbury, for fun.

And some things I’m not telling you.