Welcome all, this page will contain classwork and off-topic ramblings as the semester progresses.

 

Entry (prologue): Greetings, audience and thank you for your perusal in advance. We know you have a choice in web content, and despite the multiplicity of excellent pornography and video games out there, you seem to have chosen us. Thank you for your confidence in our ability to assuage your existential suffering with trite social commentary and the occasional dirty limerick.

 

-Management

 

Entry the First: To begin a narrative, one must have something to narrate. As the impending birth of my daughter seems to be a far more palatable subject for public consumption than the recent death of my mother, a-blogging we will go to the hospital, with text and .jpg/.mpg files being added as the process unfolds. My female counterpart, will be submitting herself to the tender ministrations of the learned leeches at Morton Plant's puppy mill, err... hospital in Clearwater at 4:30 today. Someone has clearly warned my daughter that preceding generations have buggered up her living space, as she seems rather reluctant to join us out here on this big blue marble, preferring instead the Platonic cave of the womb. As a result, the medicos are going to have to induce labor artificially, which I hear involves a plunger and perhaps a crowbar, depending on how much resistance the little squeaker puts up. The plus side of this is that we have a much more clearly defined timetable than we would otherwise, and I don't risk getting amniotic fluids all over my car seat as I risk life and limb careening at full tilt (well, as fully tilted as a diesel VW can get, I suppose) to get to the hospital. As far as negatives go, that's mostly Pookie's department, as she gets to end up on the receiving end of a tart and flavorful vaginal suppository to melt her cervix before they give her the hormones that will actually induce her to actually pop the squalling wee tyrant-in-training out. Sounds fun, neh?

More updates as events unfold...

 

 

Dude - that's f*cking disgusting (feel free to delete this) - Cory

 

Not deleting anything, thanks for the feedback ;)

-David

 

 

Entry the Second: In which the author becomes a parent.

My initial thoughts on fatherhood center around a happy floaty bliss-state punctuated by the occasional shrill (refrain) screech of cranky newborn. On rhythm, my current cadence is definitely going to have to undergo some rather abrupt changes.

 

Getting back on topic with the class, my earlier suggestion to use IM as a vehicle for Socratic dialogue would go something like this:

 

 

Entry the Third: In which the author makes a list, but neglects to check it twice.

 

1. Generate a premise to deconstruct and discuss, either by consensus or professor fiat.

 

2. Divide class into pairs, and assign one set of pairs the affirmative position and the other the negative.

 

3. Set up a time for pairs to chat and have one side present their position, while the other player attempts to refute the argument by presenting counterpoints and ferreting out logical inconsistencies.

 

4. Repeat the exercise from the opposite perspective, with roles reversed and the negative case being presented.

 

5. Post the chat transcripts on wiki to discuss between groups to search for common threads in ideas and syntax.

 

6. Return to the premise in a group chat, to generate a gestalt from the disparate lines of argumentations and form a synergistic case for either perspective that contains the sum of the more cogent arguments presented in the earlier chats.

 

7. Compare the two gestalt cases on their merits in another open chat forum.

 

- Unfortunately, it was my idea to use a chat program (IM, Mirc) as a means to facilitate discussion better. I think you missed that part of class, it was before you came in from the hospital. :)

 

:Kristopher:

 

My attorney might object.

 

-David

 

^ Service! - Cory

 

Bring it!

-Kris

 

^ :) - Cory

 

Entry the Fourth: In which baby pictures are displayed.

 

 

 

 

 

Entry the Fifth: In which monks play mandolins.

 

Track1

 

Track2

 

Entry the Sixth: In which all this crap is licensed.

 

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 2.5 License.

 

I chose this license on the off chance that this project might generate something academically useful, and in this event I would like my contributions to be acknowledged.

 

Entry the Seventh: In which much catching up is done.

 

Narrative: "A Reluctant Morning"

 

The first thing I recalled upon opening my eyes was the unfettered debauchery of the night before. Fuzzy memories, as well as evil and oppressive sunlight flooded in. A bartab the size of the Ecuadoran GNP, the stolen golf cart, the look on those poor tourists faces as they realized exactly what their minivan was covered with, and finally, the long, painful scratches that inevitably result from trying to use a disgruntled housecat as a pillow. Yep, those were still there. Also, the splinters from the 20 foot slide down yon nearby palm tree were still there as well, an agonizing reminder to, as a wise man of the jungle once said, “Watch out for that tree.” And verily it is that we should heed the words of that sainted fellow, for do we all not brachiate through life's rain forest, flailing as aimlessly as a pack of gibbons or marmoset on patrol for their morning meal, hooting at our compatriots, and displaying our hindquarters randomly to passersby?

 

Monkey business aside, my reader will no doubt guess that their humble narrator still has one hell of a hangover to describe. A starburst of pain precluded any further recollection while Sartre' own Nausea washed over me. I was overcome with a powerful desire to sit down. The problem was, I was already reclining in what was later determined to be a lawn chair, and my attempt to seat myself resulted in me spastically wiggling myself and the chair into a position where, curiously, none of the chair's four legs were actually contacting the ground. Newton did the rest. The subsequent two seconds were among the longest in recorded history, as I spun slowly, gently, but ever so inexorably towards the patio's quaint yet tasteful handpainted tile. Face first. With the chair on top of me. Springing into action like a paraplegic antelope, I barely managed to turn my head aside before snuggling up to terra firma after a couple of bounces. I split my eyebrow on the first bounce, and blood ran freely into my left eye and down off of my mangled visage onto the cobalt and alabaster of the floor below. As I struggled to extricate myself from the wreckage, I glimpsed, through my good eye, a slice of heaven in a housecoat, drifting as if on a zephyr, coming to my aid from within our abode.

 

“Will you please explain to me exactly what in the name of kittens you're doing up this earl...Holy mother of gratuitous facial scarring, did you insult a man with a weedeater or did I miss the memo about self-flagellation coming back into style?!?”

 

“Err... negative, Pookie, just a lack of balance and a cat that needs skinning. Could you see your way clear to grabbing me a mirror, a pair of tweezers, and a Percoset from the bathroom? Also, hydrogen peroxide and a nice cup of chamomile would come in handy as well.”

 

“Would His Eminence care for fries with that?”

 

“Silence, shrew, and fall to my bidding, I'll brook no insolence this morning.”

 

“Ok, Ok, just quit bleeding on the tile.” With that she was off, leaving me to contemplate the decision making process which had apparently led me to allow a Djembe drummer to rent a room in my frontal lobe and have my tongue carpeted. My reverie was interrupted only moments later, as my mental percussion was drowned out by the insistent yelping of the household cur trying to get outside. As I shuffled to the door to aid the plaintive canine, an idea crystallized that walking might not be the safest transportation option at that point in the game, as there was considerably more wobble in my step than factory tolerances allow for. I did manage to get to the door, however, and let the dog out. As he streaked after a nearby squirrel with murderous intent, I made my way gingerly to a couch in the entryway, and laid upon it to await the tender ministrations of my mate.

 

Upon her return I set about removing the detritus of last night's misadventures from my lacerated skin, disinfecting and patching myself up as best I could. Try as I might, my efforts at damage control were a wash, and I still looked like I had been through a window face first. My head was still splitting, and the little fellow with the Djembe had worked himself up to near 200BPM. I needed breakfast and another eight hours of sleep, and set about securing the former. Two pieces of cold fried chicken and a glass of grapefruit juice later, I resolved to find my bed, and once found, to hold that position until compelled to surrender it by biological necessity. It was then that milady asked a simple, yet disturbingly difficult question:

“Where's Johnny?”

 

This fellow Johnny is Pookie's little brother and had accompanied me in my assault on good taste, common decency, and functional liver cells the previous evening, but had evidently not returned from his wanderings, thus causing his sibling much heartache and concern. I had last seen Johnny jumping off of a bridge into a canal, seemingly thoroughly unconvinced by my assurances that there was no way that a police car could outrun the golf cart. As it turns out, he was absolutely correct and I had been forced to abandon my prize on the side of the road and seek refuge in the aforementioned palm tree, where I managed to evade detection at the cost of my comfort and dignity. That being said, I had not seen hide nor hair of this fellow in over five hours and had no ready response. The expectant look in her eyes informed me that there would be no rest until the wayward soul was returned, solidifying the knowledge that I had secretly understood but had dreaded to admit even to myself, that it was going to be one of those days.

 

RemixDavid

Cory's Remix

Kris's Remix

Entry the Eighth: in which oysters are cursed and complaints registered.

 

At about seven last night, I found myself sick unto death with some rather grievious tummy trouble. Immediately my thoughts drifted to a case of acute gastroenteritis that I had suffered through at the tender age of eight after eating some substandard oysters at the Phillipi Creek Oyster Bar in Sarasota. As I cuddled up to the porcelain throne, I immediately connected my current plight with the 2 dozen mollusks I had consumed the previous night, and invoked dark powers to smite the unscrupulous fishmonger that had let the filthy things past quality control. Upon completion of the first of many agonizing trips to the lavatory, I returned to the living room and informed my other that I needed a backrub and last rites because these oysters were a'gonna croak me. She acquiesced to the backrub, but refused to believe that the oysters were tainted, as she had eaten as many as I had, with no ill effects. She blamed instead the General Tso's chicken I had eaten only hours before. I firmly believe that up until she said that there was nothing actually wrong with her. I also believe that her arrogant affirmation of her good health put her into sufficient karmic debt to spontaneously cause the oysters she had eaten to wreak their squishy vengeance on her intestinal tract. She fell ill about 4 hours after insisting that the oysters were not to blame, but as that corresponded to my suffering falling off plateau, I felt well enough to manage a slight grin and a "told you so," as I fell into a fitful sleep. Sadly, our Valentine's day dinner is postponed as a result of this misfortune...

 

Natural Capitalism

 

Entry the Ninth: in which the aforementioned article is discussed.

 

 

Although the impetus towards ecologically sustainable business models and a systemic view of costs and operating principles is clearly outlined in the Natural Capitalism piece, the document failed to examine similar paradigm shifts in the nonprofit sector. This piece aims to take steps to correct that oversight by providing a brief look at some relevant changes in the way public service organizations operate.

 

Chiefly, this paper concerns itself with the efforts to modify economic and agricultural practices in the public sector with an eye towards bringing them into line with the current state of the art in environmental sciences, introducing an ecological discourse into the marketplace. By using donor and NGO funds to provide incentive for sustainable development of the world's poorest regions, progress can be made in standard of living increases while mitigating the impact of development and modernization on the scarce natural resources of these impoverished areas. Moving away from the centralized top-down approach of most international agencies has been a key step in acquiring the perspective to deal with the problems of how to encourage less developed regions to efficiently steward their natural and human capital. By applying funding and oversight on a grassroots level, NPCs and NGOs are likely to see larger percentages of their resources going directly to those they were intended to support. By focusing less on lump-sum grants to governmental entities, resources are freed up to directly impact the lives of those in the most need. In the act of circumventing monolithic structures, agencies can act in accordance with what the Harvard paper calls a solutions based approach to policy, as opposed to the process based view that currently dominates our institutionalized bureaucracies. On a specific level, I intend to examine 2 cases, a U.S. based nonprofit corporation, and a state-sponsored development project administrated under the auspices of a national bank, and provide analysis as to how their particulars address the criteria presented in the aforementioned document.

 

The first case is an NPC known as the Heifer International Foundation, dedicated to the advancement of sustainable agricultural practices in Less Developed Countries (LDCs). The foundation's approach is centered around a concept they term agroecology. As the foundation sees it, ecologically sound farming practices are an important step towards long term hunger and poverty reduction, as well as towards minimizing the impact of rural development on the surrounding wilderness. These aims are accomplished through a policy of accompanying gift animals with training and education on how to steward the new resource most efficiently, with regular follow-up visits to maintain accountability for the welfare of the animals in question as well as to monitor the progress of the recipients. Indeed, one of the charity's largest fund-raising activities involves organizing tours of impoverished areas where donors can interact with the project veterinarians and staffers as well as with the native recipients to watch their contributions at work. The donation of various animals to needy families carries the condition that one or more of the donated animal's offspring will go to another poor family, thus ensuring the continued

 

The significant difference between the methodology employed by Heifer is it puts real agricultural capital in the hands that need it most. This is contrasted with the work of organizations that hand out consumer goods such as food and medicine, as these things, although helpful, do not provide the poor with a means of alleviating their poverty, nor does it better the lot of those to come. This coincides with the position presented in the Harvard paper that a solutions based view of problem-solving ought to be taken, as it is efficacious in making the impoverished less poor in the long run, thus reducing their future need for charity. Indeed, the generation of new capital by and for the proletariat in an ecologically responsible manner appears to be one of the most logical means of increasing economic empowerment among those in most dire need

 

Another method of long-term poverty reduction that works is allowing the poor access to existing capital under fair and non-exploitative conditions. An example of this is the Tamil Nadu Women's Development Fund, a program administrated and financed by India's central bank. The point of the fund is to distribute low and no interest loans to groups of women who submit business plans for the use of the money and take collective responsibility for the repayment of the loans in question. The program is self sustaining, as repayment rates are high due to the shared responsibility among the women in the group generating peer pressure to repay the loans.

 

The loan money is used to generate new capital via its investment in small business or necessary agricultural equipment in the poorest communities of northern India. The side effect is increased empowerment of previously destitute and economically disenfranchised women. The waiver of collateral requirements allow even the poorest to access these needed funds, provided that they can convince their community that their business plan is viable. These policies are an excellent example of applying relief capital on a micro level in a way that it will produce more capital, rather than temporarily alleviate suffering until consumed or spent. By encouraging the poor to start their own businesses, the fund is making an inroad on lasting poverty reduction by encouraging entrepreneurship and promoting village industry. This grassroots attempt at turning indigents into capitalists is again a far more efficient course of action than simply providing handouts

 

Hopefully this paper has presented the attraction of some of the new paradigms in nonprofit operation, showing how ecologically and economically sound policies need not be mutually exclusive.

 

Entry the Tenth: In which a bunch of pages related to my narrative are linked in one convenient consumer-friendly location.

link

 

Entry the Eleventh, In which disassociation is defined.

 

Traditionally, one of the core elements in the process of defining a term is a contextual deconstruction which disassociates the term in question from the surrounding milieu. Taking a thing from its environment in this manner can be a difficult affair at times, as things tend to adhere to their surroundings, but it is a worthwhile endeavor, as the added perspective gained from the disassociative process often leads to new insights, or simply a more clear understanding of a system, construct or entity. Before turning the lens outward, however, it seems a little more discussion of what is meant by this sort of disassociation is in order. I take, therefore, as the premise of this paper the definitional conceptualization of “disassociate” in order to promote a better understanding of how it is achieved and applied to the analysis of other concepts.

 

Broadly, the term is exactly as it sounds, one disassociates a thing by removing it from the context it was found in and examining it in an effective vacuum. On the physical level, this can be easy or difficult based on the size, location, and other properties of the object in question. On a metaphysical or conceptual level, the exercise becomes more difficult as our minds tend to categorize objects based on similarities. This difference can be easily demonstrated using the example of a researcher in the natural sciences removing a specimen from its environment in order to study it. Though he may go back to his lab and study his subject in physical isolation from its former surroundings, his impressions and observations will to some degree be colored by the milieu from which it was drawn. Contrasting this fellow's results with the findings of another researcher who has no familiarity with the environment from whence the subject came, one will often reach radically different results as the latter person's findings will not be colored by the data from the subject's setting. Now, this is not to say that the contextual links that bind an organism to its ecosystem, or more broadly, a part to a whole, are not vital in the determination of a thing's properties and purpose, but merely that the additional perspective that is gained through the consideration of an object outside of its environment is essential to understanding the nature of said object, especially with regard to its intrinsic properties.

 

The concept of disassociation has been touted in several intellectual traditions, from the Buddhist meditative practice of considering an issue in the context of the void, to Cicero's treatment of definition in De Oratore. The presence of an idea across cultural boundaries in a variety of unrelated contexts seems to be a good sign that there is at least some validity to it outside of a narrowly ethnocentric western stage as it has been deemed functional and beneficial by multiple cultures deriving from widely varied circumstances and locales. That being said, the aforementioned claim is still based on the experiences of others with our concept rather than any judgment on the wholly intrinsic properties of our subject, which are the only fit criteria for consideration if we truly wish to avoid referential or inferential arguments from context. What the prior claim has achieved is merely a dislocation rather than a true disassociation, rather than considering the thing-unto-itself, thus we have merely seen the thing on another stage, still encumbered and transformed by context and subtext. This cannot be held to be true disassociation, but it is nevertheless useful in a comparative sense as we can observe and gain empirical data about the subject's behavior in varying contexts.

 

How then, can we disassociate our disassociation? By removing the act of separating object from milieu from its scientific, philosophical, and linguistic underpinnings, we are left with a bare and often traumatic displacement that must now be justified without resorting to contextual justifications. Luckily, there is enough to be said for the practice prima facia to justify its retention. (and this paper)

 

The reason for the utility of disassociation is centered around the transformative properties of the act itself, properties that ought to be considered intrinsic as they are derivative of and unique to said act. By moving a subject from one context to another, as in displacement, we remove one set of contextual links and baggage and substitute another, creating a transformed object with different references and environmental connections. This is held to be less efficacious than the “proper” disassociation this paper is discussing, as in the former, one is merely substituting one set of mutative factors for another. The distinction drawn is that although disassociation is also transformative, it is rather a subtractive process that removes context and frame of reference and attempts to look at the thing stripped down or transformed into its most basic form, thus facilitating study of its real and intrinsic properties. Take a plate, for example, a common utensil that is considered part and parcel of a dining set, generally viewed as part of the “meal,” “restaurant,” or “kitchen” gestalts. The material composition, structural rigidity, and other physical characteristics of said plate are generally not held to be of much importance, so long as the plate appears tolerably similar to its compatriots and does not break or otherwise fail to serve its purpose. Disassociating the plate from this context leads us to consider a flat disk of a certain type of material that has a finite size, tensile strength, and a visually perceptible pattern to its surface. Although one might be pressed to find a person who has never seen nor heard of a plate as such and therefore does not immediately associate the sight of a dinnerplate with dinner, given a sufficiently isolated or detached observer, it is possible to find someone without such associations that would give us a radically different, and arguably more essential perspective on plateness without resorting to culinary context. This could lead to repurposing and new information about the construction of the object itself, both viable data sets that could lead to increased utility, as all of our excess plates are converted to stylish and practical roofing tiles for thatch huts in the Malaysian rain forest.

 

The essential nature of an object that such disassociation is trying to uncover ought not to be confused with any sort of metaphysical construct such as a Platonic ideal or any similar concept, but merely seen as a deconstruction of the subjective attachments placed on an object by its surroundings or by those familiar with it, for the purpose of seeing the object as it is disconnected from its environment, in isolation, as far as that is possible. This raises the issue of degrees. To what extent is disassociation of a study subject possible? The answers will of course vary depending on the physical circumstances surrounding the exercise in question, as well as the observer's level of attachment or detachment from their subject matter. Such situational variables simply reek of subjective influences to the point that it must be conceded that a total disassociation is rarely if ever possible in regular practice. That being said, the mere attempt to disassociate and gain a detached perspective on our subject matter is an intellectually valuable exercise in and of itself, as the base attempt at considering a thing outside of the manner in which it is regularly encountered will lead to new insight due to the subtractive nature of the process in question. Regardless of whether we succeed or fail in our attempt at completely negating contextual influences, the fact that we have stripped away most or even just some of the connections means that we have obtained valuable new information that we would not have had we left the subject fully contextualized.

 

In conclusion, the intent of this paper is not to denigrate a contextualized definition of any given topic, as those are generally useful on functional grounds. It is only my intent here to posit that in order to truly understand any one thing, that thing must be considered both in its place within a larger framework and outside of it as well. Consider a half buried shell on a beach. To the casual observer, it is a part of the beach gestalt without any individuality. To the closer passerby it may be a rock or some other piece of detritus. It is only when the shell is lifted up and the clinging bits of sand washed away that the observer can discern the essential uniqueness and beauty of the shell's curvature, as well as its mass, size, and other essential and intrinsic characteristics.

 

It's funny you've chosen to write on this topic, as Kevin and I were discussing this selfsame concept on our way to class last Wednesday (in the context of grocery carts and jungle gyms, as it were). We were discussing the joy of running, and I mentioned using several adjacent rows of carts as a free running obstacle and how a clerk at the store, after watching me leap upon the collection and twirl onto the customer service desk quipped to my girlfriend that I was the one who was something equivalent to stupid, not him. I didn't have the heart (or time) to explain the significance of what he had observed--how I was breaking down the contextual walls that limit people's understanding of their experiences. The carts, in this example, were not simply mobile receptacles for groceries, but rather a jungle gym for my amusement an exercise. They were (and are) whatever I wanted them to be; whatever I could imagine.

...pretty eerie, in a not so eerie way. - Cory

 

An update...

 

This has been the worst bloody week of my entire weaselly little existence. I fell through the ceiling of my house putting away boxes, my business partner jacked me for seven large and a Nissan 240, and my girlfriend left me, taking my 2 month old with her. She's managed to convince her parents that I'm the antichrist, so I can't even see my kid until I convince a social worker I'm not teh Kr4yze3, and just to ice this dungheap of a cake, the evil fem took my dog with her as well. I went on a callback interview with Franklin Templeton, and by the time I got back my kid, girl, and canine were gone. The messed up part is that girl and that kid were the only reason I was ho-ing myself out as a corporate wageslave in the first place. (See Cory, toldJah) Anyway, I can't even get out of my head since the state and the employer are both going to be sampling my bodily fluids in the near future so my current course of action is to drink a giganormous bottle of sake and play Hitman 3 until my thumbs bleed. By the way, I've cancelled my Vygotsky presentation tomorrow as he's an anthropocentric hack. By way of apology I will present Derrida's "Archive Fever' the week after.

 

Given your current lot, lack of expertise, and overall insincerity (concerning the topic) I'm not going to engage in a discussion about hip-hop. That (your week) is incredibly unfortunate, particularly considering what you've had to endure otherwise over the last year.

On a different note, what Vygotsky presentation? Since when? Why? Derrida fits wonderfully into what I had in mind for the final project, if you're still interested in working that. - Cory

 

I'm not sure how much this will mean to you, but my heart aches for you. As an outisder I have seen how hard it is; Dummy (my boyfriend's baby's mama) wouldn't let him his daughter either. I hope things work out for you easier and faster then it did for us. If you need to talk, I'm here...--Jess

 

Yes, chorusing with Jessica: let's tap out little beats today in the lab, and browse for, as Paul Miller does (page 72), clues healing practices. Potential hacks on suffering, threading through our rhythmic archive?

-ShareRiff

 

Also: time to cut your flow. Segment your wiki page and begin experimenting with "going parallel." Methinks that if your best movements and segues has there own pages and designs, they might become more sample-able, and of course, every breaks open the text. Cf Derrida on "housebreaking." Guttering, not stuttering!

-ShareRiff