May 2011
11 posts
4 tags
Holding it together
My mini lab stapler went empty today. It’s small, so that happens a lot. As I refilled it I stopped to think about how many staples I’ve used in the course of my thesis research. The separate pages of the cognitive assessments, which I then staple to the myriad language assessments; the consent and debriefing forms - and the copies made for the participants; the checklists, the...
3 tags
2 tags
Oakland, 14th Street, be right back.
Oakland is gritty. It’s rough and unkempt and isn’t trying to fool you otherwise. Every few blocks rises a brand new set of glassy condos but these are overshadowed still by crumbling one, two-story fronts with homeless men shaking in nightdark doorways.
When I walk home from deserted downtown or from the West Oakland station I remember that my particles are in motion, that I am a...
4 tags
art and being known
I’ve been following this guy around Oakland. He makes art and puts it up across town; I find it, document it, pour over the patterns inherent. We’ve been in this symbiotic relationship for some time now, though I’m sure he has no idea. He doesn’t make the art for me and wouldn’t yet know me if he saw me on the street.
Since I’m lately prone to contemplating...
6 tags
names, knowing and mystery
Humans abhor a nameless vacuum. There seems to be an instinct to name things. In fact, if a novel word is uttered in the presence of an unknown object, children will ascribe the new word to the object as a label after just one exposure. This is called fast mapping. I don’t mean to imply that this is some innately human trick. I read once about a golden retriever who has a recognition lexicon...
3 tags
4 tags
“i thank You God for most this amazing
day: for the leaping greenly spirits of...”
– e.e. cummings
4 tags
5 tags
4 tags
Lolo Scheiner, giggles
It’s been a heavy...