Half of the Brain :
the place all those random thoughts that flit through my head each day go to die

To Blog or Not to Blog
I found blogging as I was looking for an application that would allow my on-line students to dialogue with one another and I started blogging because I couldn't very well ask them to do something that I myself had so little experience with.

But then I kept blogging.
Why do bloggers blog? Why do I blog? and Why not to blog?

I'm calling it quits for a while.
Life is busy and until the move is over it's only going to get busier.
I want to jump over to movable type but that'll be a lengthy process as I'm not all that code saavy
I find I'm doing more whining than anything else.
There's not much going on here that has much of a flourish to it and I think...
I think it might be rather helpful for me to retreat into my brain for a while rather than share it

So watch for halfofthebrain part deux to return with a new look after a brief hiatus--
until then,

new blogs on the blogroll

there are a few-- most of them I found via the blogs I had already bolgrolled... yes I finally got around to perusing y'alls blogrolls, so thanks one and all for the links.

Must Write: (and must not think too hard about doing it)
I've got to re-write my teaching philosophy. Haven't revamped it since that first-semester pedagogy class eons ago. And now that I actually know what I'm doing you'd think it'd be an easy exercise. However, I'm experiencing one of those uber-frustrating catch 22's, because now that I know what I'm doing I'm more cognizant of how down-right dorky everything I've come up with so far sounds. In my defense, though, I've just about decided that teaching philosophies are by nature incredibly dorky documents. I've perused a few on-line and they're all pretty similar. So I guess there's something to be said for blending in with the crowd.

I don't need one for any important reason (not like a *real* job or anything) but it's a little disconcerting to me that I find myself trying to write about something that I really enjoy, that I'm pretty good at, and that's one of the more meanigful things I do with my time and it all comes out sounding like crap. That never-ending opus I don't write about here (wink, wink)) sounds better and that fool thing is the bain of my existence.

Oh well, I've agreed to call it quits at the end of the night-- sometimes you just have to finish writing or go insane. (and there's way too many other things to go insane about at the moment).

house to myself
and I've begun watching some of those flicks i never got around to seeing

Identity- predictable if you think about it too hard and pay too close attention as it goes, but overall an enjoyable suspense flick. Great for the upcoming ghouls eve. I like scary movies on halloween, not gory but scary. It's not hitchcock by any means but it would fit the bill.

Amelie- remarkably refreshing with remarkably likeable (though underdeveloped) characters.

The Hours-- this one was slightly disappointing. One of those flicks where I get why it was supposed to be good; I just didn't think it was. 'Tis perhaps my own baggage as I couldn't shake the feeling that I'd be enjoying it more if I had actually bothered to read Mrs. Dalloway before I watched the film. I understand the structure of the film (with the three characters and all) and I knew the gist of the novel (just without having actually read it... 'come on how much of your required reading did you actually read) and I still felt like something was missing. So how 'bout it all you folks out there that have read the novel... would it have made a difference?

Magnolia-- disconcerting. A film that aimed for poignantly edgy and missed by a mile

American Beauty-- not a film I ever feel the need to see again, but it hit its target.

one of those nights--
when nothing extraordinary occurs, but life is good. A collection of moments I can't help but savor as they happen. Those rare instances when time slows down and my awareness of self and surroundings heightens to an almost surreal level and the only possible thing I can say to explain what's happening is ... life is good.

it's not an awakening or an epiphany or a resolution but just an overwhelming sense contentedness. Right here, right now. "Life as it is" meets up with "life as it should be" and for just a little while there's no disjunction between the two.