An Update on All Fronts

Well, I've finally managed to write another post after surviving a long and weary week. Not that I didn't enjoy it, but traveling to Seattle, speaking, getting back at midnight, giving some much-needed attention to our garden, and working and going to class the rest of the week (while taking care of a sick, pregnant wife!) made it difficult to do much of anything else. Here's what's going on in our life:

Seattle was a great trip. Bryce drove me around to see some of the sites and various neighborhoods in between my various philosophy conference activities. The city is beautiful and there is, no doubt, a lot to see. I can tell why so many people want to move to this place. As the pictures show, the space needle really isn't all that big, and from time to time, if you watch closely, you'll see a salmon jumping out of the water.

Needless to say, the philosophy conference I presented at was a mixed bag. I had a great time getting to know better some students from the psychology department from Duquesne who also presented, hearing some top-notch plenary speakers, and meeting people from a variety of schools from around the country (several from Purdue, I might add, all who couldn't stand the flatness of Indiana and the boring life of West Lafayette...). The conference attracted a nice mix of thinkers from a variety of fields - philosophers, psychologists, theologians, and Orthodox Jews.

But my own session was, well sabotagued I guess you would say. They tend to break the sessions into three presentations that are to revolve around a similar theme. One of the three presenters in my session didn't show up, and the other one was a clinical psychotherapist - which clearly didn't mesh with my presentation that was more geared towards philosophical theology. Needless to say, the other presenter's paper had very little to do, if anything, with Emmanuel Levinas's works (the focus of the conference), was ill-presented (it was a poorly edited job from a chapter of a larger book that went way too long), and provided no room for dialogue. His paper was all about the "pursuit of the good life" and how heaven, hell, and reward were just states of mind or projections of our own selves and used scores of pithy quotes from Proust, Shakespeare, Einstein, and a whole host of others (that were in no way related) to back in up. He spoke extremely loudly, as if to say, "I'm right, so don't question me." And then when it came time for Q&A, he totally dominated the discussion, always disagreeing with the people asking questions - and even responding to questions that people specifically directed towards me! I couldn't believe it. I had spent countless hours fine-tuning this paper to present it at a hijacked session. Grr.

At least in other news, things are going well. I love my job as an editor at the Duquesne Press. My boss is great, and I get to read/critique a lot of cool stuff (Actually, one manuscript that is currently on my desk is written by a presenter I met at the conference! I told him that, and he got kind of nervous and said, "I feel like my career is in your hands!"). Some days, I wind up a bit cross-eyed by the end of the day - particularly when my time is spent making sure an index of a book is all in alphabetical order... School is going very well also. I'm excited about my classes (Latin, African-American philosophy, and Islamic philosophy), and I'm sure near-future posts will involves detailing some of what I've been learning there.

Amber is starting to have more days where she isn't overcome by morning sickness. She broke down and started to use some Unisom, which is certainly doing the trick. However, while I was gone, she didn't get around to doing much, so I got home to a garden that was in desparate need of picking (Yes, that is a zucchini that's roughly the size of a caveman's club!!!). We rounded up enough tomatoes to can four jars and make a huge pot of spaghetti sauce. And there's still more out there we need to pick. The cucumber plant is officially dead and gone, but the zucchini and yellow squash plants are somehow still producing new shoots of leaves and finding ways to make fruit.