Internet Ramblings
The Internet is a wonderful tool for a scholar, but is full of so many distractions that I waste valuable time. How many versions of "Did you know these celebrities are left-handed?" or "Ten famous actors who were butt-ugly when they were teenagers?" can we take. And why am I tempted by some of them? Just now I went to the weather channel to see the forecast (in disobedience to a literal interpretation of James 4) and saw a link: Hundreds dead in Texas. And I bit. But my old laptop is so slow that it didn't get there, so I thought better and skipped it. Hundreds of what? And aren't hundreds of people dead everywhere? Anyone who is not alive is dead, so that would be billions, not hundreds, anyway.
And speaking of butt ugly . . .
I allowed myself to see those ridiculous, vulgar, pornographic pictures of Kim Kartrashian. That's an image I'll never be able to erase. What is wrong with that girl? What is wrong with anyone for looking at her, and her husband for approving of this stuff. Anything for a buck, I suppose.
Now, there may be some people who think that the person who posts to this blog is schizophrenic, or that someone hacks it and posts. No, it's all me--the Bible studies and the sometimes tasteless remarks. I am not nearly as tasteless as I could be, what goes on in my head. The reality is I was raised in a pretty earthy environment and while I don't like real profanity and scatology and really despise hearing God's name in vain, even the OMG acronym, I have eschewed some of the Victorian niceties and decided that sometimes you just have to call a spade a spade, or a ho a ho, in this case.
Unfortunately, that phrase is believed to have racist origins, although it does not, and is often avoided for that reason. Using it is my way of saying that it doesn't and we shouldn't assume words are bad when they aren't. On the other hand, I know as well as any one that communication is about the receiver, so outside of using it here for rhetorical purposes (i.e., to make a point about language), I would not do so.
Which comes to my last observation of the day before I dig into doctoral work that I am displacing with these ramblings. We had a well known person come to speak to campus last night, whom I will not mention, but he has written a memoir about growing up in the south as a poor African American and achieving success as a writer. The campus book club read the memoir and I attended the discussion yesterday; I had read about 15% of it and will go back to it when I have more time (post dissertation). At one point in the book he refers to Irish Twins. I thought this was interesting because it is an ethnic slur on the Irish, but the book is about racism. HUMMM. Is it part of the human condition that we see our own experience of prejudice and racism but not that of others?
And speaking of butt ugly . . .
I allowed myself to see those ridiculous, vulgar, pornographic pictures of Kim Kartrashian. That's an image I'll never be able to erase. What is wrong with that girl? What is wrong with anyone for looking at her, and her husband for approving of this stuff. Anything for a buck, I suppose.
Now, there may be some people who think that the person who posts to this blog is schizophrenic, or that someone hacks it and posts. No, it's all me--the Bible studies and the sometimes tasteless remarks. I am not nearly as tasteless as I could be, what goes on in my head. The reality is I was raised in a pretty earthy environment and while I don't like real profanity and scatology and really despise hearing God's name in vain, even the OMG acronym, I have eschewed some of the Victorian niceties and decided that sometimes you just have to call a spade a spade, or a ho a ho, in this case.
Unfortunately, that phrase is believed to have racist origins, although it does not, and is often avoided for that reason. Using it is my way of saying that it doesn't and we shouldn't assume words are bad when they aren't. On the other hand, I know as well as any one that communication is about the receiver, so outside of using it here for rhetorical purposes (i.e., to make a point about language), I would not do so.
Which comes to my last observation of the day before I dig into doctoral work that I am displacing with these ramblings. We had a well known person come to speak to campus last night, whom I will not mention, but he has written a memoir about growing up in the south as a poor African American and achieving success as a writer. The campus book club read the memoir and I attended the discussion yesterday; I had read about 15% of it and will go back to it when I have more time (post dissertation). At one point in the book he refers to Irish Twins. I thought this was interesting because it is an ethnic slur on the Irish, but the book is about racism. HUMMM. Is it part of the human condition that we see our own experience of prejudice and racism but not that of others?
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