I wish I could just take a deep breath and relax…but my allergies are kickin’ my butt! I believe that I’m over the cold and infection(s); now it’s just allergies.
This bibliography class is also doing its number on me. Don’t get me wrong; it is very good and the 3 assignments are all valuable and address vastly different aspects of bibliography. It is just an awful lot of work for a 2-week class. And he really preferred everything today—a bloody week and a half! Well, he got my textual editing assignment and my annotated bibliography. After class I picked up a book that has come in with an article in it that I requested, and then when I get home I have 5 emails from the library saying that 5 more articles have been delivered to me electronically.
Actually, there’s no real reason to complain about those issues. I do need them for the future and I had enough entries anyway. It would’ve been more work that I would’ve felt responsible to include; so more’s the better.
Now I have to get on my paper. Ten plus pages, before Friday morning (this is early Wed eve). My mind just doesn’t work like that anymore. OK, it never did probably. I still need to do more research, maybe less than I think, but still more. I finished reading my foundational, "classic" article today. That’s good. Except for I entirely agree with it. There really is nothing left to say, which for me is saying a lot. I mean Tanselle takes on bibliography and science, philosophy of science, philosophy of history, historiography, and so on and I freaking agree with him!
It’s not supposed to work like this. I mean I can’t simply say, "Go read such-and-such by Tanselle and you’ll know what I would’ve said if I had to write it myself but there’s simply no need now." I guess I could, but I wouldn’t expect much in the way of a grade for it. <Deep sigh>
Tanselle’s last footnote did point me to another paper that came out about the same time as his that reaches similar conclusions, but via statistics. I photocopied it before I headed home. I sure hope there is something in it I can pick on.
As for the rest of my life and the world, I’m feeling completely out of touch. I’m doing the minimum to survive while I do what’s needed for this class. My aggregator is simply overflowing! I am keeping a wayward eye on Dorothea, Jenica, Walt, Joy, and a few others, most of whom aren’t doing a lot of posting right now which happens to work out for me at the moment. I certainly aren’t able to follow any comments on anything though.
Oh well, one paper and a few more days…. Then, next Tuesday I start my practicum; but hey, there is a holiday in between there! At least the calendar says so.
And no people, I am not disparaging Memorial Day. As someone who spent over 20 years in the service, with a son who has served now for almost 6 years, that would be the last thing I would do. It is simply a comment on my currently very hectic life.
With that, I need to read that other article while I eat dinner.
I wish you all a very enjoyable and relaxing Memorial Day. And please, take a moment to remember why it is being observed.
Thank you for the reminder about Memorial Day. Right now all I can think is “THREE DAY WEEKEND”, but you’re right.
For several years, when I was back in Illinois, I went to the family cemetery in Mark, IL for the Memorial Day ceremony (followed by family picnic at my great-aunt’s house), and that was a very obvious reminder of what we were honoring.
It’s easy to forget, in my happy, comfortable life, even with the 10th Mountain Division 50 miles away.
Hey Jenica! Guess what town I drove through last weekend while driving from Kewanee to Hennepin?
Yes indeed! Mark, IL. I didn’t even know there was one, but I do now. I don’t remember its population, but 350 seems to stick in my mind. Or maybe 1400…? I did find it odd that all of the towns we drove through had even numbered populations on their signs. Hennepin, for example, was 750. I’m so used to seeing signs with both, and distinctly odd munbers. Something like 47,581 or such.
Is there any reason why all those small towns in that part of the state have even numbered populations, or signs? It certainly can’t cost any more money to put a 3 on the sign versus a 0. Or do they make people move out come census time if the numbers ‘don’t add up?’
Only teasing. Beautiful country up there (for IL)! Nice people. Great wind farm. Just found all the even numbers slightly disconcerting.
Have a great weekend!
The population of Mark used to be higher; now, you’re right, it’s several hundred. Once upon a time, though, Granville, Hennepin, Mark, and Standard were home to coal mines, and were thriving rural communities. My great-grandparents immigrated from Italy and settled there, and it wasn’t til the mines were closed and WWII came that the towns really started to die — after the war, my grandparents’ generation went looking for work elsewhere.
Which is probably more than you wanted to know.
Certainly not more than I’d want to know.
Family is important. Not just our own, but other people’s too. That’s what history is–the story of people and their origins and influences. The same could be said for the story of our day-to-day lives. It is only by knowing, or at a minimum being aware of, other’s stories that we can begin to make this a better world. It is through these stories that we realize the differences, but more importantly the similarities that we all share as humans–hopes, dreams, loss, success, illness, injury, emigration, love, . . . .
I knew there had been coal mines, but not really when. Thank you for sharing!
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