Pilgrims's Process

The chapter I’m reading deals with a highly-nuanced view of akrasia in Aristotle’s Nicomachean Ethics.

Reading and outlining it takes a lot of effort (and about 20-25 min per page), and I’m not fully following the argument yet.

However, it’s like riding a stationary bike – it doesn’t go anywhere, but I’m getting really good exercise.

You know a book is going to be “good” when its Amazon.com listing looks like this.

Well, back to the hamster wheel…

Assertion aside, the artwork is what intrigues me.

Following Adam McHugh on Twitter (@adamsmchugh – thanks Dawn) has been good for thinking about my introvertedness.

I sometime feel like I live an extroverted life, which is very draining for me. It’s been good to read about being introverted as well as be pointed to helpful articles. Check out Adam’s blog and the first chapter of his about-to-be released book Introverts in the Church.

Here are a few notable things I’ve come across:

“Caring for Your Introvert” – the quote for the title is taken from this.

“Survival Guide for the Quiter Species” – where I was pointed to the above article. I went through some of what is described in this article just this morning.

“Transitions” – I twittered earlier today that I’ve been 55 since I was six years old. This deals with the idea that eveyone has their own natural life stage.

Enjoy!

Getting through the bureaucratic gauntlet at any institution of higher learning can be challenging. I managed to complete the RPG-style quest to obtain my ID card, a login to the online registration system, and an in information systems (email, web access, blackboard) account.

The process was slightly more difficult than I expected, but manageable. However, the structure of their IT department is wildly out of date.

A couple of examples:

After showing up for a canceled class, I decided I wanted to set up email forwarding. Apparently this is only possible if you use Internet Explorer. That’s right the web-based interface will only show certain functions when one uses IE.

Undaunted, I downloaded IE for my Mac. No dice, it has to be IE 6 (Apple stopped at 5).

Ok, granted, they use Microsoft Outlook Web Access, so it may simply be a compatibility issue. Still, zero usability points.

However, the process one must go through to change an email/info-systems account password gets minus points for usability.

Here is the opener: “You can change your password by opening a Telnet session and logging in to one of the UNIX file servers.”

Excuse me? How about, “To change your password, click here.”

If you want to read the rest of the lucid instructions, check out this pdf.

Perhaps there is an untapped market for a comprehensive university communication solution…

Two questions:

1. Why am I so tired and it’s not even 9:00 pm?
2. How do I carefully read philosophy when I feel so sleepy?

My goal is to make it through an article on practical reasoning before I count sheep.

This will either weird you out or win your heart.

I came across this sandwich today and decided I needed to try and make it. What follows is my attempt. If you like Spam and kimchi and are not lactose intolerant (which I guess would be lactose tolerant, but that sounds funny) you should give it a try.

Kogi’s description of the sandwich said that it had caramelized kimchi. I’m not entirely sure how to caramelized kimchi so I decided to combine kimchi, onions and a little sugar.

Onion.

Kimchi.

Together at last.

Next I decided to make a sauce (in lieu of Kogi’s salsa verde) so I mixed Sriracha, sesame oil, sesame seeds, seasoned rice vinegar, and some liquid from the kimchi

The lineup.

The finished product.

As the kimchi and onions finished cooking, I took a couple of slices of bread and put some pre-shredded-mexican-blend cheese on one side.

Ready for landing.

That looks just about right. Maybe not quite caramelized, but still delicious.

Top the cheese with the onions. Here’s the vegetarian version. If, however, you’re awesome, keep reading.

Here it is. Spam, glorious Spam. I used four slices for this sandwich. Save the rest to eat with rice and over-easy eggs: the breakfast of champions.

Fry it up.

Top the onions with that delectable grilled goodness.

Grill the bread on a low heat and let the cheese finish melting. The onion/kimchi mixture should have already gotten it most of the way there.

Next, toast the other side while applying the sauce. Then, assemble, slice and…

Enjoy.

One sign that your (moderate) social adeptness is learned: begrudgingly following relational conventions and sometimes secretly hating them.

Any others?

In reading an article today, I saw a quote that described the grace of God as “radical and shocking.” Why not describe the grace of God in a way that those adjectives will be applied by the reader?

It seems we get a lot of this in marketing:

• “An amazing offer”
• “Exceptional service”
• “World-class results”

Wouldn’t it be better if you told your story in such a way that people knew your product or service was compelling and remarkable without you telling them it was?

What joke is improved by it being prefaced with telling someone it’s funny?

Well, an ironic one, I guess, but then I wouldn’t preface that with “I’m going to be ironic, ready?”

Are adjectives a lazy way to communicate?