Kolog
A showcase of personal writing
4.17.05: I woke up too early today. Around six o’clock in the morning, I stopped sleeping as the early-rising sun shone through the blinds. Instead of lying around for a few hours as I would have in the past, I got up.
Now, I wish I could have remained in bed. My back aches and my eyelids have grown heavier with each minute of the passing day. Sometimes, all you want to do, as soon as you wake up in the morning, is crawl back between the covers that night. Today is Sunday, oddly enough one of those days.
Nevertheless, spring has sprung on the divide. Monarch butterflies majestically bob-and-weave in migration north, young buds peak out from the branches of every tree, and birds sing in ecstasy. The mountains are alive. The great melt has begun, and the air warms each day with more life than the day before. It’s all quite exhausting, and I guess someone’s bound to get tired.
Katie and I spent the afternoon working on our sites. She updated older pages; I wrote some kologs. Unfortunately, we must work on the weekends to prepare for the move to Tucson. The rest of the week is too hectic and leaves no room to work substantially on personal projects. Therefore, we’ve spent today working on all that we couldn’t get to during the past week.
The fatigue of burning-the-candle-at-both-ends is worth it. Though we could use a bit more money and the rest-and-relaxation of a vacation, Katie and I remain positive. We are positioning ourselves for success in the future. Her website will lead to work in Tucson. My practice will make me a better writer. Katie and I each are especially tired, but we plan to rest one day on the fruits of all our hard labor this not-so-lazy Sunday afternoon.
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I will finally be able to post my recordings on kolakoski.com! I know you’ve heard it before, but this time it’s true. We have transferred my domain name and signed a contract with a new host. The move will increase my real estate on the web, which in turn, will enable me to store the larger music files directly on my site. Soon, the whole world will be able to hear all the cacophony I’ve made over the past few years.
Of course, you must be patient. The Webmaster (that’s my wife, Katie, and I) must figure out the best way to provide the music. I would like to have the files available for you to download, but this requires some research (if you have any suggestions regarding the expediency of the downloads, i.e. file format/size, by all means, contact me). So, please bear with us.
I can tell you of such featured artists as Seth “Don’t Call Me A Comeback” Burton, Wes “Number One Son of” San, T-“bone” Johnson, and Vince “Duane” Terlep. Thanks guys. Of course, I hope to have your permission.
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4.16.05: How, if not why, do we regard the Bible as the word of God? Why were the authors of the Bible believed to have been writing with the hand of God any more so than the authors of other great texts? Why don’t more of us read the Bible as a great work of literature, recognizing its abilities and limitations as a medium? These questions, while provocative, are not meant to provoke ill will. I believe they can inform many important issues. I do not intend to disparage the Bible. I merely want to treat it fairly with respect to other works of literature. My query begs one of two hypothesis: 1) The Bible is merely the work of man and needs to be interpreted as such; or 2) The Bible is the word of God and allows for the possibility of sequels, if you will, in the forms of other great literary works. In both scenarios, literature wins.
Specific interpretations of the Bible and their respective consequences have affected many individuals alive today. Some groups of people believe the Bible to be the word of God; others believe it to be the work of man; still others believe nothing at all. The gulf between those who interpret the Bible literally and those who do not divides my family, town, state, country, and world. For the sake of little O’s future, the issue must be examined and introduced into the daily discourse concerning our welfare. The question, while remaining taboo, is nevertheless germane: Is it justified to interpret the Bible literally as the word of God?
As far as I know, and yes, my knowledge in this area is limited, human beings wrote the Bible. Those who interpret the Bible literally argue that the authors are inspired by a deity and presume that the product, the Bible, is the word of that deity. However, there appears to be a leap of faith occurring in this discussion of the Bible. After all, is inspiration the same as intervention? God inspires many artists, but can we describe their artistic outputs as being the work of God? It is a matter of hypocrisy and demands attention.
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4.10.05: Currently, a spring storm has dumped ten-and-a-half inches of snow on Ned in just a bit over twelve hours. Blanketed in white, the neighborhood has fallen into a hibernating state of rest and relaxation. It’s Sunday, April 10, 2005, and no one need go outside.
Katie and I have lived in Ned for nearly a year now. We have survived our first winter, but have struggled through this our first spring. Sixteen inches is the largest accumulation of snow this year. It fell back in January when Mike and Katie Kady were visiting family in Denver. As with today’s storm, we were stranded inside as a result of the accumulated snow. With so much snow coming down that quickly, it’s of no use shoveling the cars out of the driveway until the snow and wind, especially, has subsided. If you try to keep-up with the snowfall, the wind will inevitably blow away all fruits of your backbreaking labor. Back in January, the storm that kept us from our dear friends dropped sixteen inches in thirty-six hours. It looks today like we’ll have more than that on our hands by early tomorrow morning.
We will miss these days, snowed-in together, but Katie and I can’t wait to start the next stage of our lives in Tucson. Katie has worked hard on her site for the last two months. I know she’ll get a better job by moving out of Boulder. She has already made valuable contacts in Tucson who have all mentioned the great potential for a graphic designer in Tucson. Obviously, I am thrilled to start school again. Now, I just want Katie to find a job in her field that utilizes her incredible talents.
I think I have found my future advisor at the University of Arizona in Professor Barbara Babcock. I read “A New Mexican Rebecca”, Professor Babcock’s study of Pueblo female identity and representation in Southwestern commercial art. Professor Babcock’s use of Foucault and analysis of minority representation immediately struck a chord with my academic interests. While I still need to look at some other professors in the English department, at this point, I would be privileged to have Professor Babcock as an initial advisor for my doctoral studies.
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4.7.05: I have decided to post in my Kologs quotes I find interesting, enlightening, and/or simply amusing. I begin with a selection from the intriguing work of Daniel C. Dennett at Columbia University:
We human beings have used
our plasticity not just to learn, but to learn how to learn
better,
and
then
we’ve learned
better how to learn better how to learn better, and so forth. We have also
learned
how to make the fruits of this learning available to novices. We somehow
install an already enriched and largely ‘debugged’ system of
habits in the partly unstructured brain. (Consciousness Explained,
1991)
As this passage illustrates, Dennett discusses the evolution of the human mind in elementary ways without sacrificing clarity of meaning. The novice, such as myself, with little-to-no experience in Cognitive Science, can comprehend and follow the complicated themes that run through this splendid text without losing the necessary complexities of Dennett's argument. Much to my appreciation, Dennett employs everyday language to convey convoluted points at no expense to the reader.
Now obviously, I endorse Dennett's book and urge everyone to read it, but I digress, which should come as no surprise to anyone who knows me. Here, I simply wish to post one of my favorite quotes. For any greater explication of the passage, I urge you to read Dennett's own words.
©2005. 