It has been a very long time since I posted, which I can’t allow myself to feel guilty about because I already feel too guilty about everything else that has gone on.  Obviously there are millions of relevant issues that I could’ve blogged about in my absence, but I will not try to catch up, nor can I guarantee any regular posting.

 

I had to get a pelvic ultrasound a few days ago.  I’ve finally found a doctor willing to actually work hard to figure out what causes my terrible, horrible, no-good very bad armageddon cramps I get every month.

I’m sitting on an undergraduate class right now – philosophy of law.  It began as I imagine most philosophy of law classes begin – basic legal theory: Plate, Mill, Dworkin, etc.  After that, we moved to theories of free speech and hate speech.  The students had to consider arguments regarding flag burning, racial epithets, etc.  For the most part the students were comfortable with the material and comfortable with all sides of the argument.  Then we moved on to the legal disputes surrounding pornography.  

We read Rae Langton’s article

Things are on hold here for a little bit while I recover from some nastiness in my life. It seems like everyone is going on hiatus – but it’s that time of year I suppose. Sorry I’ve been absent, I’m not feeling well and am focusing on getting better. I will try to throw up some links here soon, but the real content is on hold for a little while. Sorry!

The Conference

I just wanted to say that I’m working on collecting my notes and thoughts on the Pornography and Pop Culture conference – I’ll likely have something up by this weekend. It was really inspiring and I have a lot to say, I just have to catch up on some of my homework first.

new project

The other day I was sitting in the grad lounge at school using the computer and there was a travel mug of coffee or something sitting next to the computer. A grad student had just left, and he came back in for his coffee mug. I was sitting at the computer and I felt very bad for not having tracked him down and returned his mug. So as he reached for his mug I said “I’m sorry.” After he walked out it struck me as absolutely ridiculous that I apologized for this – and since then I’ve decided to keep an apology journal. Actually, it’ll be more of a list – I just want to keep track of how often I apologize and the kinds of things I apologize for.

unrelated apology story:
My senior year I had grant money to study with a brilliant professor in Baltimore for 2 weeks. I was very intimidated by the whole situation, and as a result I acted like an awkward moron for the entire 2 weeks. He told me a number of times that I apologize too much and that I should stop apologizing (and I, of course, would respond by apologizing and then feel like an idiot). One night I had to call him and leave a message about changing the time of our meeting the next day. Halfway through the message I apologized for something – probably for not being able to meet with him at the scheduled time – and something came over me – and I thought it would be really funny to cut own apology off by shouting “NO. STOP APOLOGIZING! I’M DONE APOLOGIZING!” After I shouted this I immediately hung up the phone. After that, I realized that the message I had left sounded COMPLETELY AND TOTALLY BATSHIT INSANE. I was so embarrassed that I thought about calling back and trying to figure out his voicemail code so I could delete the message. The next day I was horrified to see him, but thankfully he didn’t say anything like “good god you’re a lunatic.” I would not be surprised if that voicemail was forwarded to a few people. I am still embarrassed by this. However, after all that, it’s still only the 2nd most embarrassing voicemail of my life. The 1st involves me whispering my fears of alien abduction into an answering machine for a daytime television talk show.