Dr. Bennett

I'm busy finishing up revisions for the dissertation. Let me tell you about dissertations. They are long. When you finish writing them, there are a lot of revisions.

Now let me tell you about revisions. They are long. When you finish them, there are a lot more revisions to do.

Ugh.

No, really, I am almost done. And I am insanely happy about it. I defended on December 5th, and it went pretty well. I was convinced that I was going to pass out on the floor at one point, though... I could feel all the blood in my head shoot straight down into my feet. Defending three and a half years of work is somewhat stressful.

Mrs. Bennett

A ridiculous amount of changes have occured since I last wrote, and there's no way to bring you completely up to speed. You may just consider these past three months to be the "lost months". Most recently, though, Aaron and I got married!!!!

We were married on December 17th, 2005, this past Saturday, at St. Aloysius-on-the-Ohio. It was wonderful.

BTW, these are two of the enagagement photos that Jocelyn took of Aaron and I at Mt. Storm. She is an awesome photographer, and everyone should check out her fabulous website at www.jocelynlloyd.com.

Swell Weekend

Aaron and I had a nice, laid-back weekend. We didn't really do anything on Friday evening... we sat around the apartment, drank a couple of beers, and watched 'Life is Beautiful,' which is a terrific movie. It always makes me teary-eyed.

We wound up going to my parent's house on Saturday afternoon, and spent a good five hours working on an oak office chair that Dad garbage-picked a while back. We spent almost the whole time stripping the old finish, which was an ugly, yellowed polyeurethane of some sort. Blah. It looks much nicer now that it's down to the wood. Sometime soon we'll get to sand it and do some other repairs to the wood where it's gapping, cracked, or missing. It should be fun - I like having projects to work on.

About six of my aunts were down there, too, having a sleepover with my mom. It looked like they were having a good time. I think they were going to watch movies and drink wine all night, and that's always fun! Dad and Lou went down to Lexington, I think, and were going to go fishing all day. Also fun...

Milo the Monster

Milo made it back from the vet OK, just missing a couple bits here and there. :-) I am happy to report that he is as monstrous as ever.

He was extra nice the first day that he was home, so I even let him stay in the bedroom that night. Normally he bites my toes, so I generally have to kick him out. He was very nice this time, and there was no toe-biting. I figured he was on the road to recovery, though, when he brought at least six toys onto the bed at 6:00 a.m. and started wrestling with them. Out went the cat.

I thought I would give him another chance the next night, since he was really pretty good the night before. He lasted a whole 4 minutes before he silently snuck under the covers and took a large chunk out of my arch. Bastard! I actually had to get up to get a band-aid! I swear that he waits at the foot of the bed until I just fall alseep, and then "CHOMP!". What a craphead. Noneless, I'm glad to have him back - toe-biting and all.

Escape from the Doldrums

Milo is off at the vet this morning, getting ‘nipped in the bud,’ as Dr. Bob the vet likes to call it. Poor Milo. He was very sad when I put him in the cat carrier, and even sadder when we got in the car. He was as quiet as a mouse once we got to the vet, though – not a peep! He might get to come home tonight, or if he’s still groggy and walking into chairs, tomorrow morning.


Aaron and I had a fun and busy Labor Day weekend. We had a wedding to go to on Saturday and the Kluesener Family Picnic on Monday. Uncle Frank and Phil had their boat at the picnic, and Aaron and I went tubing - which was a lot of fun. It was the first time I’ve ever gone, and although I can’t really lift my arms past my shoulders, I thought it was a lot of fun. Aaron decided to slalom ski after tubing, and was out on the water for a long time. Then a couple hours later he went out again, which was basically suicide. I may not be able to lift my arms up, but Aaron can’t move at all. The funny thing is that we did this exact same thing last weekend!! Abused ourselves on the water, that is, and then complained about it for at least three days afterward.

Anyway, so it was a great weekend. It felt even longer than it actually was, almost like a mini vacation. I definitely felt like I needed it. Now it’s back to the doldrums…

People are Good

People have done a lot of things in the past year to rejuvenate my faith and respect for humanity.  Most recently is the outpouring of goodwill for the victims of Katrina in the Gulf States.  Check out http://neworleans.craigslist.org/hhh/ .  

Whenever I am feeling especially down, I like to think of all the good in the world.  People who have gone out of there way to help others, me, or my family, with no benefit to themselves.  Folks from St. Al’s-on-the-Ohio have brought dinner to my family four nights a week for over a year.  Every time someone brings dinner to the door, I can tell that they are honestly happy to help.  People really step up to the plate when you ask for help, and it amazes me more all the time.

122 Days

I can’t believe that Fall is almost here.  I’m torn – I love autumn, but this year it’s enough to incite panic in my very soul.  It’s official, the count-down has begun.  I have 122 calendar days left before D-Day.  No more sleeping or eating for me, at least not for three months.  I wonder if any Ph.D. students have ever died trying to graduate… hmmm…

Now that it’s more or less September, the final, last-ditch push has begun.  Oddly enough, I know about how far I can push myself – it’s the computer I’m worried most about.  I’m not sure exactly how much I can abuse it.  Every time I walk by I see smoke seeping under the door and hear gears gnashing their teeth in utter hatred.  It’s an eye-opening experience taking a computer to its working limits.  One day I think I may hear a ‘pop!’, and that will be it.

When I hear the ‘pop!’, that will be my cue to go buy some seedlings and start my tree farm.  I’ll have to move to Washington State first.  I won’t have anything to do for the first few years while the trees are starting out, so I’ll sit around and learn a new trade.  When I took a vocation test in high school, it told me that I should be a mechanic.  I really don’t like getting greasy, though, so that’s out.  Plus, anyone who knows me will tell you that, for an engineer, I’m not the most mechanically inclined woman in the world.  No, I think I would buy some new paints and charcoals, and try to find work as a children’s book illustrator.  Maybe greeting cards.  Maybe freelance photography.  Mmm… I kind of hope that the computer pops.

I’d like to find a day to run away from the gnashing gears.  I’d find a big field with lots of very, very tall grass, and I would sit down so that I couldn’t see over the grass, and no one could see me.  The ground might be damp, but I wouldn’t even mind my seat getting wet.  I’d look at all the little hopping bugs.  I’d lie down on my back and close my eyes, and I’d imagine the clouds floating overhead.  The ground would smell rich and warm and the grass would smell sunshiny-sweet.  I would hide there all day.  

The east coast and the west coast are certainly more beautiful than the Midwest, but the Midwest has something else going for it.  It smells sweet.  Not like the blue mountainous beauty of the West or the greenness of the Northeast, but sweet like earth and growing things.    When I drive down roads through the cornfields of Southern Indiana with the windows open, I think it smells like the colors yellow and lavender would smell.  Those are sweet smells.

Home, Sweet Home.

Garage Saling

Garage saling is my favorite thing to do on a Saturday morning. Possibly my favorite thing to do on any morning, for that matter. Waking up is exciting because you never know what you might find for a dollar. I like to get up around 6:3o, take a quick shower, and head over to the corner UDF. There I buy a 50 cent Enquirer, take some cash out of the ATM, and Aaron pops over to Bruggers to rustle up some bagels. The bagels generally cost more than anything else we buy that day (but are a necessary staple). As an aside, though, Brueggers seriously needs to step up their bagel-slicing technique. It generally looks like they're trying to slaughter a cow when they cut the bagel. Brutal.

Anyway, so I get my newspaper and some money. We throw back some poorly-sliced bagels while I read the paper in the car, and then YAY!!! off we go, in search of the perfect garage sale.

Perhaps it's more like off I go in search of the perfect garage sale, and Aaron comes along to keep me company.

Now, I have a very clear idea of what the perfect garage sale is, and while I could write on this topic for hours, I won't bore you. I'm saving it for a book. (I'm serious.) I will just say that it is big, varied, and the sellers have no idea what anything they have is worth. And I am the only one there. The kind of garage sale that you have to put fake "decoy" garage sale signs up at other houses to fool the other salers. THAT, my friends, would be Saturday morning bliss.

I have realized that this is approximately my 20th year garage saling, and I figure that I'm as much an expert as anyone. I am a self-proclaimed authority on all things garage saling. Wait for the book. You'll see.

Widespread Panic at Riverbend 07/26/05

07/26/05 Riverbend Music Center, Cincinnati, OH

1: One Arm Steve, Bowlegged Woman, Little Lilly > Hatfield > Rock, Space Wrangler, I Like The Things About Me > Solid Rock > Porch Song

2: Dyin' Man, Bear's Gone Fishin' > Driving Song > Papa's Home > Driving Song, You Should Be Glad, Ribs And Whiskey > Blackout Blues

E: Life During Wartime*, Red Hot Mama*

* with Jason Isbell on guitar, Patterson Hood on guitar/vocals ['Where It's At' tease during 'Bear's Gone Fishin'']

Aaron and I saw Widespread Panic last night at Riverbend, and it was a really good show. They played a solid mix of new and old stuff, and everything in between. I thought "Hatfield", "Papa's Home", and "I Like the Things About Me" were the best, but that's just me.

The crowd was certainly lively - quite the cross-section of bohemia. There were also a number of people being tossed out (kicking and punching the whole way), and that was entertaining as well. The heat was almost unbearable - about 100 degrees - so I couldn't really blame any one for going crazy.

New Zealand

Aaron and I watched Whalerider last night, and it made me think of New Zealand again. We saw the movie for the first time while we were in Christchurch, and seeing it this time made me wish that I was there again. It's probably about 40 degrees Fahrenheit in Christchurch today - not the 110 degree heat index we're suffering through in Cincinnati. 40 degrees sounds awesome. I'm sure that the Southern Alps are covered in deep snow, and people are having fun zipping down the slopes.



Watching the movie last night made me remember a great phrase they used all the time there - "stuffed", meaning "he's tired". "He's stuffed!" What a great word. Another one we liked a lot was "flash," as in "cool". Yep, Kiwis have a flash vocabulary.

Timshel!

“Do you remember when you read us the sixteen verses of the fourth chapter of Genesis and we argued about them?”

“I do indeed. And that’s a long time ago.”

“Ten years nearly,” said Lee. “Well, the story bit deeply into me and I went into it word for word. The more I thought about the story, the more profound it became to me. Then I compared the translations we have—and they were fairly close. There was only one place that bothered me. The King James version says this—it is when Jehovah has asked Cain why he is angry. Jehovah says, ‘If thou doest well, shalt thou not be accepted? and if thou doest not well, sin lieth at the door. And unto thee shall be his desire, and thou shalt rule over him.’ It was the ‘thou shalt’ that struck me, because it was a promise that Cain would conquer sin.”

Samuel nodded. “And his children didn’t do it entirely,” he said.

Lee sipped his coffee. “Then I got a copy of the American Standard Bible. It was very new then. And it was different in this passage. It says, ‘Do thou rule over him.’ Now this is very different. This is not a promise, it is an order. And I began to stew about it. I wondered what the original word of the original writer had been that these very different translations could be made.”

Samuel put his palms down on the table and leaned forward and the old young light came into his eyes. “Lee,” he said, “don’t tell me you studied Hebrew!”

Lee said, “I’m going to tell you. And it’s a fairly long story. Will you have a touch of ng-ka-py?”

“You mean the drink that tastes of good rotten apples?”

“Yes. I can talk better with it.”

“Maybe I can listen better,” said Samuel.

While Lee went to the kitchen Samuel asked, “Adam, did you know about this?”

“No,” said Adam. “He didn’t tell me. Maybe I wasn’t listening.”

Lee came back with his stone bottle and three little porcelain cups so thin and delicate that the light shone through them. “Dlinkee Chinee fashion,” he said and poured the almost black liquor. “There’s a lot of wormwood in this. It’s quite a drink,” he said. “Has about the same effect as absinthe if you drink enough of it.”

Samuel sipped the drink. “I want to know why you were so interested,” he said.

“Well, it seemed to me that the man who could conceive this great story would know exactly what he wanted to say and there would be no confusion in his statement.”

“You say ‘the man.’ Do you then not think this is a divine book written by the inky finger of God?”

“I think the mind that could think this story was a curiously divine mind. We have had a few such minds in China too.”

“I just wanted to know,” said Samuel. “You’re not a Presbyterian after all.”

“I told you I was getting more Chinese. Well, to go on, I went to San Francisco to the headquarters of our family association. Do you know about them? Our great families have centers where any member can get help or give it. The Lee family is very large. It takes care of its own.”

“I have heard of them,” said Samuel.

“You mean Chinee hatchet man fightee Tong war over slave girl?”

“I guess so.”

“It’s a little different from that, really,” said Lee. “I went there because in our family there are a number of ancient reverend gentlemen who are great scholars. They are thinkers in exactness. A man may spend many years pondering a sentence of the scholar you call Confucius. I thought there might be experts in meaning who could advise me.

“They are fine old men. They smoke their two pipes of opium in the afternoon and it rests and sharpens them, and they sit through the night and their minds are wonderful. I guess no other people have been able to use opium well.”

Lee dampened his tongue in the black brew. “I respectfully submitted my problem to one of these sages, read him the story, and told him what I understood from it. The next night four of them met and called me in. We discussed the story all night long.”

Lee laughed. “I guess it’s funny,” he said. “I know I wouldn’t dare tell it to many people. Can you imagine four old gentlemen, the youngest is over ninety now, taking on the study of Hebrew? They engaged a learned rabbi. They took to the study as though they were children. Exercise books, grammar, vocabulary, simple sentences. You should see Hebrew written in Chinese ink with a brush! The right to left didn’t bother them as much as it would you, since we write up to down. Oh, they were perfectionists! They went to the root of the matter.”

“And you?” said Samuel.

“I went along with them, marveling at the beauty of their proud clean brains. I began to love my race, and for the first time I wanted to be Chinese. Every two weeks I went to a meeting with them, and in my room here I covered pages with writing. I bought every known Hebrew dictionary. But the old gentlemen were always ahead of me. It wasn’t long before they were ahead of our rabbi; he brought a colleague in. Mr. Hamilton, you should have sat through some of those nights of argument and discussion. The questions, the inspection, oh, the lovely thinking—the beautiful thinking.

“After two years we felt that we could approach your sixteen verses of the fourth chapter of Genesis. My old gentlemen felt that these words were very important too—‘Thou shalt’ and ‘Do thou.’ And this was the gold from our mining: ‘Thou mayest.’ ‘Thou mayest rule over sin.’ The old gentlemen smiled and nodded and felt the years were well spent. It brought them out of their Chinese shells too, and right now they are studying Greek.”

Samuel said, “It’s a fantastic story. And I’ve tried to follow and maybe I’ve missed somewhere. Why is this word so important?”

Lee’s hand shook as he filled the delicate cups. He drank his down in one gulp. “Don’t you see?” he cried. “The American Standard translation orders men to triumph over sin, and you can call sin ignorance. The King James translation makes a promise in ‘Thou shalt,’ meaning that men will surely triumph over sin. But the Hebrew word, the word timshel—‘Thou mayest’— that gives a choice. It might be the most important word in the world. That says the way is open. That throws it right back on a man. For if ‘Thou mayest’—it is also true that ‘Thou mayest not.’ Don’t you see?”

“Yes, I see. I do see. But you do not believe this is divine law. Why do you feel its importance?”

“Ah!” said Lee. “I’ve wanted to tell you this for a long time. I even anticipated your questions and I am well prepared. Any writing which has influenced the thinking and the lives of innumerable people is important. Now, there are many millions in their sects and churches who feel the order, ‘Do thou,’ and throw their weight into obedience. And there are millions more who feel predestination in ‘Thou shalt.’ Nothing they may do can interfere with what will be. But ‘Thou mayest’! Why, that makes a man great, that gives him stature with the gods, for in his weakness and his filth and his murder of his brother he has still the great choice. He can choose his course and fight it through and win.” Lee’s voice was a chant of triumph.

Adam said, “Do you believe that, Lee?”

“Yes, I do. Yes, I do. It is easy out of laziness, out of weakness, to throw oneself into the lap of deity, saying, ‘I couldn’t help it; the way was set.’ But think of the glory of the choice! That makes a man a man. A cat has no choice, a bee must make honey. There’s no godliness there. And do you know, those old gentlemen who were sliding gently down to death are too interested to die now?”

Adam said, “Do you mean these Chinese men believe the Old Testament?”

Lee said, “These old men believe a true story, and they know a true story when they hear it. They are critics of truth. They know that these sixteen verses are a history of humankind in any age or culture or race. They do not believe a man writes fifteen and three-quarter verses of truth and tells a lie with one verb. Confucius tells men how they should live to have good and successful lives. But this—this is a ladder to climb to the stars.” Lee’s eyes shone. “You can never lose that. It cuts the feet from under weakness and cowardliness and laziness.”

Adam said, “I don’t see how you could cook and raise the boys and take care of me and still do all this.”

“Neither do I,” said Lee. “But I take my two pipes in the afternoon, no more and no less, like the elders. And I feel that I am a man. And I feel that a man is a very important thing—maybe more important than a star. This is not theology. I have no bent toward gods. But I have a new love for that glittering instrument, the human soul. It is a lovely and unique thing in the universe. It is always attacked and never destroyed— because ‘Thou mayest.’”

-- John Steinbeck

Demo Derbies and Such

The '87 Integra was put to rest this past weekend, and it was beautiful. Owen drove it in the Alexandria, KY demo derby, and he did a great job. The car looked better after they painted it than it did when I was driving it!

He did a great job driving it - he was zipping all over and smashing into people, as you would expect in a demo derby of any caliber. There were about 20 cars entered in the compact car division, and he wound up coming in fifth. Not too bad considering that he was the only unibody-style car left at that point! The Integra was still ticking, but the clutch was burnt out. So, it was a happy ending for a great car. What a great "one-last-hurrah"!

"I wanted to wake up today a little less asleep."

Portland, OR

Jenny and I went to Portland, OR for an ASEE (American Society of Engineering Education) conference, at which we were giving a presentation. It turned out to be a very nice time; we managed to get away for an afternoon and go see the oregon Coast with Jenny's grandma. The coast was incredible - all sunshine, rocks, and waves.

We found this park (I can't seem to remember its name) southwest of Portland on the coast which had tons of tidepools, and we spent a few hours splashing about there. We saw a pod of whales moving north, migrating from the southern hemisphere up to Alaska for the summer. I'd never seen whales before, and it was a pretty awesome feeling. The tidepools were teeming with all sorts of little animals - starfish, hermit crabs, sea anemones, sea urchins, and some things that I don't know names for.

We also saw a group of seals playing as the tide came in, and they were funny to watch. They kept jumping about and floating on their backs, and were clearly just playing around with each other. I would have played in the tidepools all day if I could have.

This is my first time posting a blog. I'd like to use this to keep in touch with my family and friends when I'm no longer in town, and I thought that I'd get everything set up and running now.