repetition

From Repetition by Soren Kierkegaard.

If, on the other hand, there is nothing in particular one has to accomplish on one's trip, one can just wait for something to happen. One will sometimes see things in this way that others miss, look past the important sights, catch an accidental impression that has meaning only for oneself. Such a careless vagabond does not usually have much to communicate to others, and if he does try to communicate something, he easily runs the risk of undermining the positive opinion good people might have concerning his moral character and manners

Isn't this what is at work every time I go walking, or engage in conversation, or perform music, or even every time I read? There's a certain amount of gambling to each of these things, but a part of every gamble is being aware of the very real possibility that it will end in catastrophic loss or humiliation or, maybe worse, boredom.

My priorities in reading have very little to do with comprehensive knowledge of a work, or the ability to detail main arguments and trajectories and define terms. And I rarely feel embarrassment about failing to remember, or the way that my memory of a text works (I can never remember cold, I almost always need triggers). Perhaps because, in my opinion, forgetting is the only way to make sense of something or, perhaps, because my interest in smaller matters has usually looped me back around to the heart of the matter anyway.

sewer baptisms

While reading an article about the Paris sewer system, I came across this pasage.

The sensuous flow of water (and even the advocacy of cleanliness in readiness for sexual pleasure) struck at the heart of conflicting concerns with moral purity, hygiene and social order. Washing had long been associated with pagan sensuality in early Christian belief, and, for most of the nineteenth century, the bathroom was restricted to the homes of the rich, tourist hotels and luxury brothels.

Which of course makes me think of baptism, or further connections between morality and cleanliness. This passage makes me notice how infrequent the connections are in the new testament between baptism and moral purity. More frequently, baptism is coupled with death. For instance, in Romans, "By no means! We are those who have died to sin; how can we live in it any longer? Or don’t you know that all of us who were baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death? We were therefore buried with him through baptism into death in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, we too may live a new life." Dead to sin, not cleansed from it. Sin as neither crisis nor structure?

A cursory investigation indicates that in the gospels, cleaning and washing are almost always in reference to the body, physical cleanliness and especially disease. The epistles are where cleanliness shows up in reference to morality.

Orientation

Orientation of the windows in rooms I've had for the past 13 years.

Happy Home - South and East Windows
Mosers - East
House in Nang Lae - South and West Windows
House in Bandu - South
Isaksons - West
Dorm Room 1 - North
Dorm Room 2 - Northeast
Basement at Zach's - North
Wallingford - West
Queen Anne 1 - South
Oxford - South
Queen Anne 2 - West
Capitol Hill - East

East: 3.5
West: 4
North: 2.5
South: 5

East is the ideal direction, for sunrise. But I would take any orientation of window, or any size of room, for a room that wasn't ground level or basement.

My window at the Bandu house caught a lot of the afternoon sun, and a lot of my books were subsequently damaged.

fashion

 

'Last Stand' Canvas Mocassins - $70
'White Flight' Single-Source Cotton Socks - $25
'Emergency' Topless Jumpsuit - $180 (belt loops available by special order)
Pinstripe Rayon/Polyester Shirt with Pre-Popped Collar - $120
'Blu-nibrow' Indoor Shades - $65

21st Century Scientists Have it So Easy

After several years of collecting specimens and keeping journals in the Amazon, AR Wallace was on his way back to England when his ship caught fire and sank. He ended up spending 10 days on an open boat before being picked up by another ship. He notes in the November, 1852 issue of Zoologist that "The only things which I saved were my watch, my drawings of fishes, and a portion of my notes and journals. Most of my journals, notes on the habits of animals, and drawings of the transformations of insects, were lost."

A few pages down, I started reading about another naturalist named Julian Deby. The account is that "suddenly he was himself seized with the malignant fever of the country, and had his whole body covered with tumours. He was for six weeks completely laid up, and nearly all the time unconscious; when he came to himself, his first thought was for his collections: alas! his Indian servant had forgotten to fill up with tar the plates laid under the bench which supported his boxes, and the ants (a small red species) had devoured every specimen in his collection."

I love that whoever wrote up that second report paused to specify what type of servant failed to protect the research, and what type of ant ate Deby's collection. A true scientist.

markets

In the Malay Archipelago, written in the 1860s, AR Wallace comments on the state of Timor. He notes that it is more trouble than profit to the Dutch and Portuguese rulers, proposes a few changes, then finishes with this:

Under such a system the natives would soon perceive that European government was advantageous to them. They would begin to save money, and property being rendered secure they would rapidly acquire new wants and new tastes, and become large consumers of European goods. This would be a far surer source of profit to their rulers than imposts and extortion...

While Wallace didn't anticipate the end of colonial rule, isn't this more or less what has happened? The formation of new desires and new markets?

The Kind of Barber I Want

The last time I went to a barbershop for a hair cut, I was 15. In the 8 years since then, I've cut my hair myself with a little help from my friends and mom (to trim up the back) and have even handed over the scissors to my girlfriend to do the whole thing. Reading Arabian Nights, I came across a barber who makes his customer miserable with endless talk. He says this about himself:

God in His bounty has provided you with a barber who is also an astrologer, a chemist, an expert in natural magic, grammar, morphology, philology, rhetoric, eloquence, logic, arithmetic, astronomy, geometry, religious law, the traditions of the Prophet and the interpretation of the Quran. I have read the relevant books and studied them; I have a practical knowledge of affairs; I have commited to heart a perfect knowledge of the sciences; I am a theoretical and practical master of technical skill. There is nothing that I have not organized and undertaken.

Now that's the kind of barber I'm looking for. I've considered a few barbers at various times, but at the moment of decision I've never gone through with it. If I found a barber shop that was open at 3 in the morning, an all-night barber shop, I would have gone a long time ago.