I  finished Harry Potter this morning while working out at the gym. Very surprising ending, and I gained a lot of respect for J.K. Rowling as an author. One section at the end really struck me:

"Tell me one last thing, said Harry. "Is this real? Or has this been happening inside my head?" . . .  "Of course it is happening inside your head, Harry, but why on earth should that mean that it is not real?"

This struck me on several levels. I think about how its philosophical implications. I think about how this validates autoethnography. This supports the humanities. The creative process. Qualitative research. Anything that looks at making meaning and sense of our experience in any ways outside of a scientific approach that tends to reduce us to a similarity with numbers.

There are many things that are real and yet can not be quantified. This is one of the things I learned about Severus Snape; be careful about assumptions–they often lead us astray when we feel we have to see to believe.

Technorati Tags: Harry Potter, Severus Snape, Snape, autoethnography

Eating pizza during a lunch break; I am teaching a business communication course today.

I am almost finished reading Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows. Nothing surprising there, as it is the biggest book of the year. Yes, I get many magazine subscriptions and am also reading a philosophical introduction to Derrida (a favorite of mine), working on a class I am teaching, scrolling through countless blogs, and the daily newspaper–yet I am craving to finish the Potter book. I haven’t had this many hours of entertainment for so little money in a long, long time. Where else but in a good read can
I spend hours and hours for only a dollar or so? Not at a movie for $12. Not at a Broadway play at $110. Not at the opera for $130.

This reminds me of the love of reading I developed as a child, when I read because there was not anybody around and, living in a rural area, nothing to do. Now, living in New York City and surrounded by more stimulation than a person can grok, I find myself wanting to read again. I wonder why I, who buy books on a weekly basis and can read hundreds of pages a week (while working and teaching and studying) am finding Harry Potter so exciting and engaging? I have not read any of the other books, and have not read
fiction in some time. Perhaps that is the answer–it is so new for me and, at this time I am focusing more on my arts and sciences roots, am once again open to such experiences?

After all, business for its own sake is only so rewarding and exciting . . . to a point.

Technorati Tags: Harry Potter, grok

I flew today, and as we were approaching lift-off we were greeted by the pilot who welcomed us aboard, thanked us for flying with Continental, and then wished us the best for our final destinations. Why did it surprise me so much that the pilot was a woman? Perhaps because this is only the second time I have ever flown with a female pilot? I am not sure what is more surprising–how underrepresented women are as commercial airline pilots or how I have never heard anybody
ever mention this.

It was a smooth flight, thanks in part to our pilot. I am not sure if that had anything to do with it being a female pilot, or simply a good pilot.

Technorati Tags: Continental Airlines, feminism

So, it appears the next version (a major one, as I understand) of Movable Type is now available for blogging platforms. I have pretty much decided I would change my blogging platform to WordPress, as I feel I am the last individual (non-corporate) user of Movable Type, when suddenly I learn MT is now FREE for personal use. What a change!!

While there is an impressive list of new features, the install still looks like it needs a corporate IT department or a lot of web development knowledge. The install does not resemble the friendly WordPress install Andy so strongly advocates. Uh oh . . .

Technorati Tags: Movable Type, Andy Wibbels, WordPress

One of the blogs I read is Talking Philosophy: The Philosophers’ Magazine Blog, as I find that Julian, Jeremy, Ophelia, and company do a good job bringing complicated philosophical concepts into ordinary language.

One of the recent (not to mention the shortest) posts there recently was one Julian posted on atheism. It is amazing that there have already been over 40 replies to it, and it is one of the better examples of public discussion I have seen in a long while.

I wonder why? Is it an issue people are passionate about? One that stretches people to think in different ways? Perhaps it is because diverse kindred spirits find one another? Is it because people are being exposed to ways of thinking that they may have been challenged to do on their own? Can it stretch back to frustrated feelings from childhood? Perhaps empowerment?

Whatever the case, discussion almost always seems to be a positive. Hey, with the US refusing to speak to North Korea, Iran, Cuba, and Venezuela (among others), we see the value of non-communication. Hatred, suspicion, envy, self-righteousness, ethnocentricism, and need I continue?

Technorati Tags: atheism, Cuba, Iran, North Korea, Venezuela, The Philosophers’ Magazine

A colleague of mine, Robin Yap, tagged me yesterday with 8 Random Facts about me. I liked how it linked it to an ice-breaker, especially for team and virtual team-building. From this perspective, it can be somewhat eye-opening in a relatively safe way.

Robin listed 3 rules for this meme:

1. List 8 random facts about yourself.
2. At the end of your post, choose (tag) 8 people and list their names, linking to them.
3. Leave a comment on their blog, letting them know they’ve been tagged. I will do a slight twist on the final one–I will email them instead.

8 Random Facts about Jeffrey:

1. I can eat pizza for every meal every day of the week.
2. I don’t like being in crowds at parties.
3. I really do believe that New York City is the Center of Civilization as We Know It.
4. Lyotard’s definition of post-modernism as “incredulity toward metanarratives” really did change my life.
5. Pugs are my favorite dogs.
6. I equate communication with education, as I do not believe the one can occur without the other.
7. I feel moved every time I read Walt Whitman’s poem, I Saw in Louisiana A Live-Oak Growing.
8. I first appreciated Vincent Van Gogh when I saw his painting L’église d’Auvers-sur-Oise in a show that just closed in the Musée d’Orsay.

Looking back at my list, I am not sure what it reveals about me, but lets see how other people interpret it. Thus, I shall in turn tag Jenny, Arjun, Ernie, Howard, Isabel, Josh, John,
and Ophelia. It will be nice to hear from some of you whom I have not spoken with very recently, and I intentionally tried to get an interesting cross-section of people!

Technorati Tags: Arjun Singh, Ernie Hsiung, Howard Greenstein, Isabel Rimanoczy, John Ong, Josh Levy, Little Yellow Different, Lyotard, Musée d’Orsay, Ophelia Benson, post-modern, Jenny Ambrozek

I was finally able to upload my photos from London, when I was in England for the AHRD
Conference in Oxford. I have not been able to include the descriptions of the photos, but at least I can now point people to the links of them.

As this was my first time in England, there are a few first-time visitor surprises I had. I was surprised:

1. to be in a European country and be able to speak English without first asking “M’excusez-vous, parlez-vous anglais?”
2. by how much like Paris London looked.
3. how many security cameras there are throughout the city, yet I still feel safer in New York City.
4. how good the food was.
5. how much I liked Harrod’s. We really don’t have anything similar to it in the US.
6. how Manhattan prices really are not so bad; in comparison, of course.
7. that the NYC subway system is really world-class.
8. to have had such a good time that I want to return (even though the recent car bombs were found on the day I traveled from Oxford to London).

I think I now understand Hyacinth Bucket and the Vicar of Dibley. Rule Britannia (though I suppose that is ironic coming from an American . . .)!

Technorati Tags: England, Harrod’s, Hyacinth Bucket, London, Rule Britannia, UK, Vicar of Dibley

I recently got a fortune cookie that stated:

It is up to you to clarify.

How true is this? Is it the responsibility of the speaker to speak in a manner that a listener can or should understand, or is this speaking down to the listener? Is it the responsibility of a listener to ask for clarification if something is not understood? Will one side or the other be inauthentic if this is not done? Does it depend on the self-directedness of either of the two parties? How about if somebody does not have enough experience or context to understand?

Just some of the questions raised from Chinese take-out.

Technorati Tags: fortune, fortune cookie