Rationality

At the bridal shower, one of the games was “how well does the bride know the groom?”  And Nicole had to answer a bunch of questions about my favorite things (she passed with flying colors!).  Anyway, I randomly remembered Blake’s poem, which is easily my historical if not all time favorite:

Tyger! Tyger! burning bright
In the forests of the night,
What immortal hand or eye
Could frame thy fearful symmetry?

In what distant deeps or skies
Burnt the fire of thine eyes?
On what wings dare he aspire?
What the hand dare sieze the fire?

And what shoulder, & what art.
Could twist the sinews of thy heart?
And when thy heart began to beat,
What dread hand? & what dread feet?

What the hammer? what the chain?
In what furnace was thy brain?
What the anvil? what dread grasp
Dare its deadly terrors clasp?

When the stars threw down their spears,
And watered heaven with their tears,
Did he smile his work to see?
Did he who made the Lamb make thee?

Tyger! Tyger! burning bright
In the forests of the night,
What immortal hand or eye
Dare frame thy fearful symmetry?

I probably first liked this poem just because it’s about tigers, but it really is something special.  There is, of course, also another version of it, which I believe was created by Sam: “Tiger, tiger burning bright / Burning forests down at night”.  Less artful, yes, but vastly superior in comedic value.  I picture this particular tiger as Smokey the Bear’s sworn arch-enemy.  But Smokey was kind of overweight, if I recall correctly, so he’d better just let the tiger keep on burning.

I just added some links to the right.  Wedding info has some tidbits and stuff about us and the wedding party (but the registry link on that page only goes to Bed Bath and Beyond).  The wedding map has all kinds of useful info – location of Cullen’s, places to stay, places to eat, places to have fun… and be sure to “rate” the map 5-stars (Nicole put a lot of thought into it!).  The registry links should take you directly to our registries (not just the main page of Macy’s or whatever).  We’re getting warm-feet (excited) and are looking forward to seeing everyone soon!

I am uploading pictures, more detailed captions will follow:

This is off of the freeway just east of Honolulu.

Nicole and I at Molokini.

Moorish Idols at Molokini.

Threadfin Butterflyfish at Molokini.

Wrasse at Molokini.

Me diving near our condo in Kihei, Maui.

Spotted moray eel in Kihei.

Giant pufferfish in Kihei.

Blue Boxfish in Kihei.

Some nicely lit coral in Kihei.

The Humuhumunukunukuapua’a (Hawai’i state fish) in Kihei.

Green Sea Turtle in Kihei.

Whitemouth moray eel in Kihei.

Me at a red sand beach along Hana Highway in Maui.

Nicole and I swam to this small island called Chinaman’s Hat (Mokoli’i) off of the coast at Kualoa state park in O’ahu.

La’ie Point on the way to north shore, O’ahu.

Well, the title just about sums it up.  My defense was this afternoon and it went well.  Basically I had to talk for about 15 minutes about what I thought I had accomplished and summarize everything, then the committee asked me various questions.  I was quite nervous at first (while I was presenting) but when I started fielding questions I started to calm down pretty quickly – I think I chose the right professors for my committee… I decided to ask the three profs I was the most comfortable with, who I generally talk with while I’m milling around the department between classes, and who I think generally like me and my work.

As far as reputations go (based on the impressions I get from other students, grad and undergrad) I think people expect Weisberg to be pretty easy going.   I get mixed reviews about how tough Johnsen would be, but of course I’ve been working with him for a whole year, so I knew what to expect.  In contrast, Brown tends to stir up fear and anger amongst undergrads, and I think even some grad students find him intimidating, but all that is just to say that he isn’t afraid to call someone out if they’re full of… bad arguments. Anyways, what other people think is pretty meaningless in the end.  In my mind it didn’t matter who I chose – the UH faculty is top notch and I don’t think any of them would pull any punches if any serious issues arose in my thesis.

After we finished talking about the questions and concerns they had about my thesis, I had to leave the room so they could deliberate and decide if I would pass.  It took maybe two minutes and I wasn’t too worried (though I couldn’t help but be a little nervous), then they brought me back in and congratulated me.  I would really like to know what was said while I was out of the room… but in any case, the defense is done.   All I have left now is my phil of science paper and my poli phil final.

San Jac Community College has offered me three intro phil classes for the fall semester, so I’ll be going there on Monday to find out details, have a campus tour, and fill out the paperwork.   Since all three classes are in the early afternoon, I might see if I can pick up a logic class or two at another community college as well (adjunct faculty get paid diddily over squat, so it would be nice to have more than three classes).  So anyways I’ll have a real job that actually puts my philosophy degree to work.

All in all, not a bad day…

So I finally did it! I’m thinking of merging the other two sites into this one.  There is supposedly a way to transfer my ~500 blogger posts to wordpress, but I need to back them up first. As of now there is nothing here except my ‘about’ page. Those of you who haven’t known me for the last 8 years can get up to date. More to follow soon.