Author: Steve

  • Heading West

    Travelling West is always a good time. Long, but good. Started the day in Laguardia Airport which is creeping its way toward civilization one blocked lane at a time. At least there was a source for drinking water in this terminal. Made it to Denver then out to Helena without any incident, except I think…

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  • Ithaca Reflections Part 1: Moving Backwards

    I wait for the Cornell shuttle at the NY Public Library on a really amazing September day. Bryant park is not that crowded, mostly tourists taking photos with the fountain, with the food stands, with one another, with anything really. I like this so I take some pictures too. I wish I took more pictures…

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  • I Flew Back Downstate

    Trying to defend your ideas on cold medicine should be added to the graduate curriculum. I wish i was feeling a bit better, but i was called by my colleague to defend a lot of the critiques i make about debating. I should have recorded it.  Not because it’s good or worth preserving,  bit could…

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  • Live from Ithaca, NY

    Finish a two and a half hour lecture, head to the hotel for some decongestant and Emergen-C. Then type a blog post. Party time. Exactly how I imagined post-PhD life.  This trip to Cornell University has really sparked a lot of things to write here. I really enjoy coming here and teaching these students about…

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  • Rough Day

    Sleep In Saturday was followed by Suck It Sunday, which started with a lot of joy and positive energy that within an hour of waking up collapsed into misery. My poor wonderful partner came down with food poisoning right before she was going to head to an event she looked forward to all week. It…

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  • Sleep in Saturday

    Woke up about 7:40 which is late for me. Allergies have subsided, so I don’t think I’m getting sick I just feel like I have a cold which is the special superpower of allergies: All the feelings and nothing you can do about it. I took a tablet and I’m just waiting for it to…

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  • Amateur Hour

    Looks like I’ve already made myself sick. I have the weakest immune system – well, weaker than anyone I know. And after a week of student interaction, I feel pretty crummy. Lots of head congestion and slowness. But I won’t give up the blog challenge! I press on! Another late entry. I think the later…

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  • Dancing on the Line

    Nearly didn’t make it. Had one of those 13 hour days that you always hear about professors having. Working continuously with some short and nice breaks, but having too much to deal with in order to really do write-thinking which is different than get-these-tasks-done thinking.  Had a pretty good day of debate interaction which made…

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  • I sort of love my job

    It’s Wednesday, but the University says it’s Monday so everything is flipped over. Because they want the teaching schedule to be a certain way (1 hour and 20 minute classes across the board twice a week with Wednesday as a more open day) they have to flip the schedule from time to time to make…

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  • The Well of Debate Tropes

    Currently Playing: Loreena McKennitt – An Ancient Muse The old issues of The Journal of the American Forensic Association are some of my favorite things to leaf through to generate thinking. This journal, edited by debate teachers, was filled with the thoughts of those who immersed themselves in debating as a vocation. As the 1980s…

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