I read the newest (19) issue of X-Factor, volume 3, and it’s definitely going a cliff-hangery sort of way with Rictor and the others. There was some great M dialog (isn’t there always?), but unlike most other recent issues this one doesn’t stand too well on its own.
No, that’s wrong. It’s a good issue. Good art, good writing, and there is a central theme — but this one really exists for the larger story, which will likely conclude in an issue or so.
Yolanda sent out an email about jobs folks have gotten recently:
Most of you will know some or all of this already, and this list is of necessity incomplete, as some of our grads are still in the process interviewing/negotiating, but that’s no reason not to celebrate the good news we have so far. Here is, then, an interim list of (very recent) grad student colleagues from our department, and academic positions that they have recently accepted:
Antje Krueger – Goucher College
Katerina Wicka – Georgia
Miranda Wilkerson – Western Illinois University
Felecia – Michigan State University
James Pfrehm – Millsaps CollegeWhile this email is about current and very recent grad students, let me just add a note about one UW grad who has been out there for a few years, and who has been able to turn his post-PhD experience to his advantage in landing a very desirable position:
Eric Jarosinski has accepted a job at Penn. (I understand that he had offers from several universities). There are many additional examples of this type – Eric just happens to be one from whom I have heard recently.
I’m, of course, not on the list.
I just need to write. I was reading today, instead — primarily about Kant’s aesthetics and cognition, which is, theoretically, right up my alley. It’s also, depending on the article in it (or chapter — it’s an anthology, perhaps from a conference) rather dense and perhaps denser than I want my dissertation to turn out, but there is some good information. For better or for worse there is also analogy-related material, but I think I’m still “clear” to do my thing … it’s not really thematized … and definitely not taken outside the context of Kant. It’s also a recent (2006) book — I couldn’t have known about it before.
This evening: season finale of Heroes … and it went out with a bang, and with confidence. Certain of renewal, it showed a cliff-hangery opening scene for next season. With Hiro in the past … and likely with his father there, but at least with an eclipse and the famous sign/symbol from the series.
Most everyone made it out alive but for Sylar, likely Nathan, and possibly Peter.
Of course there’s no reason, depending on how they want to play it later, that Nathan couldn’t have flown Peter high in to the sky and flown away, leaving Peter to fall and explode. Peter should be able to survive his own explosion. And the only way the ending as shown makes sense is if Peter can’t control two powers at once — otherwise he could have flown himself way, or used Hiro’s power to teleport (though he hadn’t really mastered that yet) or stop time. What the ending accomplished was not the death or Peter or Nathan but rather their removal from the show for now. The same with Sylar, for we saw a blood streak leading to the sewers … which could mean he’s alive (though that’s a problem, since his eyes going *out* was supposed to symbolize his death) or that someone else took his body.
Wednesday: Lost finale.
Last night after Hotel I watched The Matrix: Reloaded — I’m tempted to watch Revolutions tonight.
There has been only a little music today: Sublime in the morning, Suede in the afternoon, followed by some early evening Suzanne Vega, who is jazzier, more mellow, and actually better than I remember based on the one or two songs I heard in my youth. And after her: Switchblade Symphony, but I’m not there yet. That will end “S.” I’ll finish before I leave for N.Y., and maybe I’ll take “T” with me since I’ll be away for a couple weeks.
As for the blog title, I’ve got a cheesecake in the oven. The crust (in a spring form) is a cup of oats, about a cup of flower, much of a cup of ground walnuts, about half a cup of brown sugar, and a stick of butter, mixed by hand, packed in, and prebaked at 325 for a while. The filling is 3 packages of cream cheese, a cup of sour cream, 3 egg yolks and two eggs, a cup of sugar, a 1/3 cup of heavy cream, a tablespoon of vanilla, and a bit of corn starch to stabilize things. The batter tasted yummy … and it’s about time to turn the oven off and let it do its last hour in a cooling oven.
