Florence 3

This is the last set of Florence pictures I am posting for the time being. Its kind of a shame I didn't have a decent wide angle lens with me, so I wasn't able to take any shots of Florence's architecture. These details will have to suffice.

Pastoral Saint

Santa Maria del Fiore Duomo

Benvenuto Cellini's Perseus With the Head of Medusa

European University Institute Gardens

Once more into the breach,

Ben

Tuscany 2

Here is the next batch of pictures from my travels in Tuscany. The first again is from Pisa, and the rest from Florence. I have long been fond of statue photography, and the opportunities for this sort of work are ample in Florence. It fills me with wonder that so these places are so replete with works of true human genius. I wonder how much even decoration has become a mere commodity in the contemporary age. Careful art is far more satisfying.

Gazing Face (Pisa)

Scholarly Contemplation

Hellenic Grace

This last photograph is actually of the site of our conference. The Villa Schifanoia

Once more into the breach,

Ben

Tuscany

This is a selection of photographs from my academic trip to Tuscany. I'll have more coming. All photographs' copyright mine.

Lion of Pisa

Receding Light

Lion Prowls the Piazza della Signoria

The Rape of Polyxena

Once more into the breach,

Ben

Retrospective in film 3, Korea

This is the last in the retrospective series. These are three shots I took at a folk village in Korea. There is something of a timeless quality to them all, and the ethereal tones of Kodak Tmax 100 speed b&w film. As before click on them to get full sized images. All photographs' copyright mine.

Hanging Gourds

Spirit Frightener

Dengjang Pots

Once more into the breach,

Ben

Retrospective in pictures 2

I took these photographs on my visits to the Netherlands last school year, when Ahreum was working in the Hague at the International Criminal Court. Do click on the pictures, as those in the post are reduced size. All photographs' copyright mine.
Ahreum was one of the few smiling faces in the Hague. There was something of a grimness to the city, and I was happy I wasn't visiting there on my own.

This is a strange flower I saw growing in Wassanaar. To this day I don't know the name, but my parents recognized it and said they had even planted one. Maybe I'll stop being lazy and ask them the name.
This picture and the next are from the Dutch tulip festival Kuekenhof. It was a little campy, but on the whole a brilliant display of vibrant tulips. One can get a feel for the madness which the unpredictable beauty of these flowers can bring to tulip aficionados.


This is second best flower shot I have ever taken. Regrettably the best is back at home with my pre-England photo albums.

Once more into the breach,

Ben

Photographic memories

I've just uploaded some older scans onto my new computer, and I thought it would be nice to offer a sort of best selection of my pictures up until now. They are representative of my travels since I have been in Europe, from my first days in Exeter, into the Devon countryside, Netherlands, and Korea. This is the first set from my early rambles in Exeter and its countryside.

This is an angel carved on the side of Exeter Cathedral. There is something solemn and representative of heavenly serenity in the angel's countenance.

This is the burial monument for Lady Dodderidge in the Exeter Cathedral. She was the wife of an important Exeter lawyer. She is garbed, almost expressionless, in perfect Elizabethan dress, yet she grasps skull. I have always been struck by the morbidity of this picture. This picture and the one above were taken on my second day in Exeter.
An old stone gateway on Dartmoor. This photograph was taken after I had been in Exeter nearly a year.

Once more into the breach,

Ben

I just discovered that my department actually has a little blurb about me online with a picture. I recall that they asked me to write this and provide the photograph last year, but I thought they had never actually published it. Well, here it is: http://www.huss.ex.ac.uk/politics/research/students.htm

My path to web infamy (read being completely unkown) is almost complete.

Once more into the breach,

Ben

Ethics of food

It's been awhile since my fair trade post, and recently in England Fairtrade has made the news again. I saw something of a pulp documentary considering whether Fairtrade is living up to its promise. The first Nestle Fairtrade products are storming up controversy. How can a Nestle product possibly be Fairtrade?

The problem, in my mind, is that many of the Fairtrade activists interviewed for this television programme have conflated the goals of Fairtrade with anti-corporatism in general. They see that big companies are using (read abusing) Fairtrade products in order to make money. They place large premiums on a Fairtrade product because people are interested in buying ethically. Now this certainly happens. Here at Exeter campus depending on where one goes one can pick up a Divine Fairtrade chocolate bar from anywhere from 50 to 90 pence. Its all the same, it is just different vendors setting different prices. So is Fairtrade being hijacked by corporations?

I should think not and the reason is simple. Fairtrade is not a socialist or communist ideal. Its whole point is to improve the standards of living and the pay received by third world produces by appealing to the market. Rather than with normal commodities, the basic prices for ingredients are set to a minimum. This protects the producer. Now for the producer's situation to be actually improved, the products need to move off the shelves. For the products to be popular, public awareness and marketing needs to be in place. Fairtrade knows this and must hope to leverage companies and supermarkets to sell Fairtrade products. Business is business and the profit has to be there. Capitalism is thoroughly wrapped up in this venture. But if companies can make a profit, and the products are popular, and huge producers like Nestle join in, this means that more chocolate, sugar, or bananas are needed. This means more orders for the farmers. And that means a better life for them. The whole point should be for supermarket chains and large food companies to "abuse" Fairtrade for their own profit because in the end this has a demonstrable benefit for the suppliers. As long as we are aware of this reality, I can think of nothing better for farmers than for Nestle to produce Fairtrade goods.

But after having thought about this I thought about other ethical food movements. What about fairtrade, free range, organic food, local food, small farmer food, and seasonal food? It seems to me that the ethics of food has become increasingly problematic and possibly chimerical. Say I want a tomato. Say I live in, Devon. It is the height of summer, and tomatoes are in season. Will the tomatoes at Tesco's be from Devon? Probably not. They will likely have organic and un-organic varieties. Where will these come from? Possibly England, but maybe the Netherlands, maybe Spain, or even Israel. If they are from far afield, it means that a good deal of diesel on a semi-truck or ship or jet fuel on a plane has been burnt getting the tomato to me. Enter the specter of global warming.

Now say I go to a farmers market. There I might buy a locally grown tomato, but it might or might not be organic. In any event, I haven't paid for huge waste in shipping, but I have given my money to a farmer who is likely to be highly subsidized by his government. And doesn't this mean I have worked against fair trade? Does this mean by going local I have gone against fair trade? But if I go for fair trade, because of the the products involved, by default, I have failed to go local and that I am contributing to global pollution. What a mess.

And then there is organic. At first it looks great. No fertilizers to imbalance the local ecosystem, no pesticides to damage the ecosystem. Great. But hold on a second. Isn't there a reason all those hideous chemicals are used. Surely it is to improve yield within a given area of land. Now if we ditch these chemicals, then something has to give. If I am a farmer and want to have a yield of X cabbages to sell and I go organic, then it is likely I will need to increase the land I farm in order to get the same number. This means, if we all went organic, either many more square miles of farmland would be required or a much lower quantity of food would result. Since much organic farming is corporate anyway, and buying organic doesn't necessarily mean supporting local farms, these issues can be set aside. Doubtless having a cleaner farm is a good thing, and I am sure that many farmers overuse chemicals and fail to rely on other alternative solutions. But at the same time, if I could chose between fewer farms (especially hydroponics) and more nature, actual unused land, I would be tempted to opt for more nature.

What I am trying to get at here, is that a good deal of the different ethical food movements offer overly simplistic views of the intertwined technical and moral concerns which actually crop up (pun intended) in the production of food. This is not to say that these ethical concerns are unimportant, but, as things stand now, they lead the ethically minded consumer into a number of unresolved ethical conflicts. More importantly they can be used, in the case of the Divine chocolate above, to empty the ethically minded consumer's pockets of a good deal more money then he should have actually had to spend, were he savvy, for the same principles. Most importantly, I don't think that it is right for me to have to engage in an internal debate every time I try to buy something. By and large, it is probably better to be lead by what tastes well crafted, than what some faddish ethical movement sees as singularly important. It is true that my actions and my decisions have consequences, but I suspect the after effects of each decision I make at a store and over multiple visits to different stores over my life are far to complex to be mapped. There are two many unknown variables for me to even begin to have the presumption that my shopping list has been ethically coherent. Therefore and henceforth, I refuse to play this game. If appears to be of good quality, nutritious and at a price that is sustainable for me, then I will buy the foodstuff of my choice. Otherwise I delude myself, possibly make things worse, and likely spend more of my resources than I should have.

Once more into the breach,

Ben

Hiking

Spring break begins this week after a long and busy winter term. I gave another paper last week on methodology (just baby steps here). Yesterday I had an annual progress interview at the department. It sounds like I'm on track, and I feel confident that this is the case. So now I am taking a little time to relax.

Not that I can rest for all of break, but I am balancing my work with recreation. So today I went on a moderate hike in the nature reserve trails North of campus. Part of the trail is an abandoned country road. It goes uphill for quite a ways and eventually turns wet. In fact the road bed has become something of a small stream fed from a spring bubbling up somewhere on this hill. The pathway begins being shaded by trees on both sides, but as one makes the climb, there is eventually a break in the trees on the right and a beautiful view of the valleys North of the city is revealed. In fact there is a side trail into one of the valleys upon which I hiked for a short while. There are some other good green places in Exeter, but this is one of the few areas that is really wooded, natural and open for hiking.

As spring comes into its own, I encourage you all to get out from urban life and the manic streets, and go walking in the countryside. You don't have to be a camper or a long term hiker. Just have a ramble in the rolling hills. For those of you living in really big cities, this might be more of a production, but I know that you can go hiking on several mountains in Seoul and many cities have substantial open parks.

Once more into the breach,

Ben

Back from Florence

I just returned from a brilliant set of conferences in Florence. The joint paper with Rob Lamb on Fenelon went without a hitch. We had some pointed questions, but I think we handled our selves amicably and astutely. In general the conference on the Passions and Virtues was academically very rewarding. The papers were tightly composed. The crowning event, in my estimation, was a newly retired professor, Nick Phillipson from Edinburgh, presenting on Adam Smith. It was a flowering of a lifetime's work and scholarship. His erudition on all manner of subjects was astounding, and he brought all of this together in a honed performance.

The other conference I attended in Florence was evaluating Early English Books Online. This was fabulous . Academically rewarding as well as technically stimulating. I am something of a geek, so I'm excited about how this sort of internet service really leverages much of what the internet can do for academics. I learned quite a bit about using EEBO, and I think I helped other people explore its possibilities through my report on how I use it in my research.

I got back into England last week, and Ahreum and I celebrated our two year dating anniversary. I was inspired by all the wonderful food I was fed in Florence, and I pulled out all the cooking stops to recreate something of a Tuscan feast. Of course I can't help but improvise, so whether what I made was in any real sense Tuscan is open to doubt, but it borrows the spirit and the feel of Tuscan cuisine.

My prized creation, in Ahreum's opinion, was a newly invented pasta dish, at least for me. One uses spaghetti (enough for two large or three medium sized portions. 4 or 5 cloves of garlic. A package of ricotta cheese (UK sainsbury's or Tesco's standard size, I think a US package is likely to be two large), a little milk, about 4 good handfuls of young spinach, and a dash of nutmeg. Begin by bringing some olive oil to a low/medium temperature in a saucepan. In another saucepan or stock pot, bring some water to the boil and put in plenty of salt. Dice the garlic, season with salt and pepper and lightly fry for about two minutes. Don't let it brown up, or this will damage the flavour. Then start adding the spinach a handful at a time with salt and pepper to season. At this point the spaghetti should go into stockpot. When the spinach has wilted and been nicely cooked add in the ricotta cheese and stir so it melts and breaks down. Grate a bit of nutmeg in. Not too much or it will be overpowering. Then use an immersion blender to blitz the sauce into a finer consistency. A splash of olive oil and a splash of milk (or potentially cream) finish the sauce. When the pasta is finished drain and put it into the spinach sauce. Return to the whole dish to the heat and stir together for about a minute or two. Done.

Tomorrow, I am back to the teaching grind at Exeter. But at least Ahreum is here to visit this weekend. And today is her birthday, too. Happy birthday to Ahreum. I am told her age is sensitive information, so I can't really say how old she is. But it is somewhere between 1 and 100, I assure you all.

Once more into the breach,

Ben

Off to Florence

I'm off to Florence and the European University Institute for a conference on the virtues and the passions. I'll be giving a paper with my colleague on Disinterestedness as virtue in the thought of the quietist Archbishop Francois Fenelon, Jean Jacques Rousseau, and the British radical William Godwin. All of the papers look very interesting, and I think this is going to be a very important conference for my work. There are some well known names there, and some rising stars. This should be a very interesting experience.

Once more into the breach,

Ben

Green tea cake

Ahreum is here for the weekend, and we are celebrating Valentines day a bit late this year. We're doing things low key as well. But for the menu, we are having green tea cake. I've never made a green tea dessert before, so this will be a new experience. I'll let you all know how it turns out.

But while I'm at it, I thought I'd post a link to the website where I found the recipe. It seems to be a pretty powerful recipe site for cakes, and it has a scaling function which allows you to increase or decrease the recipe by serving portions. So if its normally 12 servings, you could scale it to say, 6 or 20, and the website will do the calculation for you. That's cool. Of course what it doesn't do is scale based on pan size. So if you have a recipe for a 9 inch cake pan, and you want one that will fit an 8 inch pan, you'll have to do some calculations. If 9 inches is 12 portions how many portions will be in an 8 inch pan. We'll you can't set up a simple proportion, because we are dealing with units of volume, not length. So you'll have to calculate the volume of the pie tin. Its a cylinder, so it shouldn't be too hard. But I won't give you the full equation because I'm too lazy . But the area of a circle is Pi * (radius)^2, and the volume of a circle is height times Pi * (radius)^2. So now with that bit, it should be easy to make the calculation of how many serving sizes you need. Then let the website do the recipe modification for you.

So with no further ado, here is the web page: http://cake.allrecipes.com/

If anyone tries any recipes and likes them, let me know.

Once more into the breach,

Ben

Water contamination

Exeter is a great place. Peaceful, clean, green. Although it is a small city, at its edges it just melts into the rolling green Devon moors. It is this clean air and life that is so appealing about Exeter.

The problem is, this clean and green town is neither clean nor green. Though I can't make a proper reference, I have heard tell, that the air here, at least in the center of town, is some of the most badly polluted in England. This is because there is little industry left in the UK, and it is the cars that do the dirty work. Exeter certainly has traffic stagnation aplenty.

So at least the water is clean, right? Normally it is clean enough for me although not for Ahreum, but this week a new and splendid richness has been added to the pristine font of Exeter's North side. Have they decided to put fluoride into the water to strengthen our teeth or enervate our life energy ala Doctor Strangelove's General Jack Riper? No and no.

Without further elusive and wandering prose, the real problem this week is that Exeter's North side water supply has been contaminated by diesel fuel. I guess they were supposed to put a little chlorine in, but somehow they got mixed up. Campus was squarely hit, and after some concern and confusion, I determined that my house was just outside of the redzone. But had I been one block over...

I suppose they would have contacted me right away, but, then again and knowing the spirit of organizations like South West Water, I suspect I would have had to find out in a more pro-active manner.

The resolution from this whole incident, is that I have to start drinking like a medieval man. From now on, my fluid of choice is a well brewed beer.

Once more into the breach,

Ben

P.S. I am sure that South West Water will not take responsibility for this and will try to pass on the costs of the lost water to their customers. I can imagine that to make it less noticeable, the price hike will be done over their entire range of operations.

Two takes on pasta

Today I've got a recipe post for the loyal readers. I like pasta, most people like pasta, so this is a no brainer. These are two directions I took a basic tomato sauce this weekend. One is a classic and the other is a bit more hip.

First the classic, Chicken Parmesan. I doubt its actually from Parma. Its probably Italian American, but I wouldn't want to say for sure. What is important is that its been overdone but still can be great. You'll need to start with some kind of tomato sauce. Something store bought can be ok, but making it yourself is best. This isn't too hard, and canned Italian plum tomatoes tend to yield the best results. I don't really use a recipe, but for guidance google "tomato sauce recipe" or go to www.foodtv.com. Warm the sauce up so it is ready for use.

Anyway, once you've got your sauce down, you'll need to get some chicken breasts or turkey breast steaks (for those of you in the UK, turkey is cheaper and every bit as good. I never buy chicken breasts here because of the ridiculous price). You'll need to pound them a bit so that they are about 1 cm thick. You can use a meat hammer to do this, or your fist. I use a fist. If you hit too hard you can separate the meat. A nice trick is to put the meat between two layer of plastic wrap.

Set the meat aside and put some flour with a good seasoning of salt and black pepper in a plate. In another bowl break in an egg and mix it up. Then in another plate put a couple of cups of bread crumbs (buy them or make them yourself) and add two handfuls of finely chopped pecans.

Now it time to get things rolling. Start by warming up a frying pan to a medium temperature with a mix of olive oil and vegetable oil. Bring a stock pot of water to the boil and get ready to cook some pasta, I like linguine or some substantial noodle. To prepare the meat, coat each piece in flour, then egg, and then the bread crumb mixture. When that's done start frying them. Start cooking the pasta after you start frying the meat. When the meat browns on each side, put it on a wire wrack and put mozzarella cheese on each piece. Put it in a hot oven to finish. When the pasta is al dente drain and put in the warm sauce. Finish the pasta in the sauce. Serve up the pasta on warm plates and take the now finished breaded turkey pieces and serve one with each plate.

Second pasta, with shrimp, mozzarella and rocket (arugala).

Ok, basically you are doing the same thing with the pasta and sauce as above. Get the water boiling, and the sauce just simmering. Only this time toss in some frozen (or fresh) shrimp into the sauce and let them cook (or warm up) depending on what is necessary. When the pasta is finished, toss it into the sauce and stir together over the heat for about one minute. Just as this is finishing off, toss in a few handful of fresh rocket and some small chunks of fresh mozzarella cheese, leaving some rocket for garnishing at the end. Plate up the pasta, put a handful of rocket on each plate, and grate over some Parmesan cheese. I thought these both worked out great.

Here's to cooking inspiration.

Once more into the breach,

Ben

Blogging hiatus and a return to Fenelon

Just a quick word of apology for the lack of blogging of late. I had to hit the ground running on my return from Christmas break. I think I mentioned it, but I need to submit 20,000 words by the end of March. I've probably got half of that done, but there is always editing and revision to think of. Luckily I'm pegging away at it nicely.

In other academic related news, I am really quite thrilled that I am going to Florence to give a paper at the end of the month. There will be some senior academics there and plenty of graduate students as well. And unlike some other conferences, it will just be about the history of political thought. How's that for focus.

I'll be giving a paper with Rob Lamb again, this time on a new subject. Disinterestedness (or the lack of personal interest) and virtue in the thought of Fenelon (my favorite ecclesiastic for the moment), Rousseau, and Godwin. The aim is to show that the kind of disinterestedness in the now much neglected Fenelon is historically important and in different ways makes crucial appearances in the thought of Rousseau and Fenelon.

The notion is that true virtue and virtuous activity must never proceed from any motivation of self interest. The motivation must be totally disconnected with the self in almost every regard. Instead a disinterested love of order, beauty, and God, a kind of rational benevolence, should inform and motivate virtuous action.

But things get better. Not only do I get to go to Florence, I get to stay a whole week, and the whole trip is paid for. How did I become so lucky. We'll I am going to be giving a talk for Early English Books Online. Its a pretty powerful resource, and in it one can read and download pretty much every extant book published in English between 1473 and 1700. This resource has done a great deal of work to evaporate many of the limitations that smaller universities have. I no longer have to go to the Bodleian or to the British Library to access these published texts.

Of course there are shortcomings. Sometimes I can download the full text, it is going to be in a modern lame html format. PDF files are available, but only as individual pages. This is clearly an aesthetic concern more than anything else, but in a real sense, I think, contemporary internet based documents of this kind lack much of the character of the original presentation. In some sense this makes it more difficult to develop a rapport with the original text.

But there is also a less aesthetic reason for highlighting this as a limitation. This is, in understanding the history of ideas, it might be important to have an idea what someone actually read. Knowing what the pages actually looked like, could, conceivably (if not always) be important.

Other times the full text is not available in one document. That means I have to stay at the computer and read at the computer, or download one PDF file after other and print 30, 50, 100 etc. Individual files. Clearly not a workable option. I personally prefer to work with paper copies because I can annotate them. This is something I clearly just can't do with some works.

Anyway, it is exactly this kind of critical exposition that they are expecting. Hopefully it is mainly praise, but a good look at the limitations and shortcomings can help scholars use EEBO more effectively and hopeful convince the people at EEBO to make a few improvements when they are able.

Until then, I'll try to keep the blog updated.

Once more into the breach,

Ben

Back in the saddle

I am finally feeling right as rain after a long battle with congestion. The cold never really developed into a hacking cough, but the congestion has given me headaches. Anyway, its nice to be healthy.

Last night this lovely lady made kimchichigae for me, it's a traditional Korean kimchi soup. The taste is spicy and sour at the same time. There is ham and dried fish inside the soup, and a good deal of hot pepper powder. We ate it with a few big spoonfuls of rice. This is a warming and delicious meal. As they say in Korean, Jonun kimchichigaerul johamnida, or I love kimchi soup.

Of course, I am also back into the full swing of working. I have to submit 20,000 words for my PhD thesis by the end of March. This is a tall order. I've probably got 15,000 decent words on paper, but a good deal more research and polish is needed to get this work into shape. My current chapter is on the Legislator in Rousseau's political thought. I am trying to deliver a more fulsome explanation of his psychology and his role in Rousseau's thought. Taking Rousseau as a political thinker of the self, I think that only by examining and cognating the Legislator as a self, can his relationship with a political community, his aims, and his modus operandi be adequately understood.

So that's my work for the moment. But as for now, I am cooking. Making chocolate cake and then stir fry. Ahreum's visiting me in Exeter right now, and we are having company over for dinner.

Once more into the breach,

Ben

A silver lining

I've just come down with a head cold. Ahreum's flat mate had it earlier, and now I am infected. Anyway, I won't go into details, but I haven't felt this sick in quite awhile.

But the good news is that Ahreum cooked a really wonderful chicken soup for me for lunch today. Flavouring was perfect, she used a mix of carrots, garlic, spring onion, zucchini, rice, and chili peppers. The bit of spiciness just added to the congestion fighting properties of the chicken soup. It's so good to know when I'm out of commission, Ahreum is there looking after me.

The downside is that I'm not getting as much work done as I should have. I have to go on a blitz when I am well again. But that is a story for another day.

Once more into the breach,

Ben

Many Meetings

The last week and a half has given Ahreum and me the chance to meet some friends of mine I haven't seen in two years or more. These opportunities were truly fortunate, and I am thrilled that they worked out.

First, last week Ahreum and I drove up to Eau Claire, Wisconsin to meet my friends Jason Godin and his wife Meg. I have been friends with them since my freshmen year at university, when they were already dating. I hadn't seen them since August 2003 just before I left for England. Well, luckily Meg's family lives in Minnesota, so we meet halfway in between.

We didn't do anything fancy, but we had a meal all together, and they had a chance to meet Ahreum. Jason and I talked about our research, and we all filled each other in on what we are doing and what are plans are for life. All I can say is that seeing them again means an awful lot. I don't know when we will meet again, but more than likely it will be because of wedding bells.

Second, two days ago, I received an email from my friend Kuan Ju. He was visiting his girlfriend Caroline and they would be travelling through London on the way to his flight back to the USA. They were free yesterday afternoon, and luckily, so was Ahreum. So we all met at Pizza express and had lunch together. Really a great time. Caroline is doing a law conversion degree at Nottingham, so she and Ahreum had quite a bit in common between them. This meeting was really unexpected, and it has really made my week. I'm still feeling elated. I had better hold off before I get misty eyed (insert youthful and jocular sense of irony).

Ahreum had to leave after a little more than an hour to head to class, but I ended up talking with them for just about two more hours. The time really flew buy, and it was good to here how well things seemed to be going for them. However, Kuan Ju and I, appropriately, didn't have a chance to go into in depth conversation on photography. He's probably the person most responsible for me taking photography seriously as a hobby, but it would have been out of place to have too much techie talk.

Anyway, I would never have imagined four weeks ago, that I would be able to meet these friends over break. It kind of shows how the world can quickly shift from a vast expanse of time and distance, to moments of close interconnection.

Once more into the breach,

Ben

Big News

This has been a really important Christmas break for Ahreum and I. We've been going out in a serious way for almost two years now. I have felt very certain that she was the right woman for me. There has always been an element of companionship in our relationship that I treasure. I love Ahreum, and I have known I wanted to cherish her for all my years.

Now I've finally been able to get up the courage and have the necessary finances to do something about it. On the day after Christmas, Ahreum and I went to Madison. I am not the most melodramatic person, so I won't tell any stories of how things happened. The important thing is that I asked her to marry me, and she said yes.

We aren't in a rush to marry, but we are quite firm that we will marry just as I finish my PhD. Until then, I am overjoyed to be betrothed.

Once more into the breach,

Ben

Merry Christmas

I am writing to wish everyone a very merry Christmas. Its been wonderful being home, and I have now had 9 days of very good rest and relaxation. I suppose it will be time to start working again soon, but not quite yet.

The holiday has been good for me. I've gotten two new dress shirts, the Cambridge Companion to Immanual Kant, and best of all, a new laptop. I am very happy my parents were able to get this. I certainly don't deserve such a present, but it will be useful for my work . My old computer is holding up ok, but it is limiting in many ways.

As always, though, the most important part of my Christmas is spending time with my family. The gifts used to be more important, when I was a boy, but that kind of materialism, the kind that gets more crass every year, doesn't do much for me. I might sound a bit hypocritical, after receiving a new computer, but what matters just isn't stuff. Gifts, even the best of them, are just things. They have no heart, no mind. You get no recognition from gifts. They are transitory too. But a person's family is a constant part of life. The emotional support and love of my family is what really matters to me.

So I hope everyone has a merry Christmas, spending times with those that love them. That's what I'll be doing the rest of today.

Once more into the breach,

Ben