My increasingly exhausting pandemic journal continues with Part 23 (see the most recent entry here). We had a really bad surge in the late summer and early fall with record hospitalizations and I've had yet another exhausting pandemic semester, all while many people seem to be pretending the pandemic is over. And now things are getting better, but we have the omicron variant and the winter holidays... so it's not looking great.
But on the other hand, Villeneuve's Dune was finally released in October, ushering in a new era of Dune memes for your enjoyment. Thus, this entry will consist, not quite entirely, but mostly of Dune memes. Thanks to the dedicated members of the Dune Sietchposting Facebook group for most of these, and to various friends and other online denizens for the rest.
Wed. 22 Sept. 2021
Quick update: I got back from GenCon on Monday. The minivan worked out fine. The crowds, although diminished from previous years and fully masked, were a bit overwhelming. I was disappointed by the lack of much effort toward social distancing, especially in the gaming spaces and vendors’ area (they had the space to spread out a bit more as far as I could tell, but for whatever reason didn’t use it… sometimes it feels like we all just sort of gave up on social distancing). I have a COVID test scheduled tomorrow morning. It was really great to hang out for some quality time with my oldest friends. I also bought a bunch of stuff in the ginormous vendors’ hall. GenCon is the most expensive convention I’ve ever attended.
Now to get caught up on all the stuff I was putting off while I was gone. One thing: it looks like the TPA (TN Phil Assoc. conference) is going to have to be online in November. This is mostly due to the direction of policies at Vanderbilt (where it is usually held), but honestly I’m glad to not be planning an in person conference in Tennessee right now (even though I just went to a big thing in Indiana).
And this week there are thousands of Haitian refugees entering the US through the border with Mexico. I was watching some coverage this morning and thinking about what these people are going through, what immigrants and refugees everywhere go through. I always wonder what mainstream US discourse about immigration would look like if it really accepted the fact that immigrants are human beings. But we’re not there yet. Sigh.
Thurs. 23 Sept. 2021
My COVID test was negative! That’s a relief.
And the TPA is definitely going to be online in November. As probably will be my students’ film festival a little earlier in the month, although I haven’t officially made a decision about that yet.
Later: Not a bad day for me. Negative COVID test, Camus and Lovecraft day in my horror and philosophy course, a nice time reading Plato outside in extremely pleasant weather, a nice nap when I got home.
A weird thought: It somehow simultaneously feels like the semester just started, but also that it must be almost over.
Sat. 25 Sept. 2021
It’s my birthday! As has become my tradition, I wrote a blog post about it.
Tues. 28 Sept. 2021
One odd thing about my mostly online schedule is that I have more time for the scholarly research part of my job in the middle of the week, instead of reserving it for Fridays like I used to. Anyway, doing some of that today prompted me to write the following.
There must be a hell realm where you do nothing but respond to copyeditor's queries on the references of a paper you wrote three years ago.
Sun. 3 Oct. 2021
I just watched Get Out for the seventh or eighth time, and it's still brilliant. We’ll be discussing it in my horror and philosophy class this week in conjunction with W. E. B. Du Bois on double-consciousness. This is the connection from which the whole idea for the class sprouted.
Mon. 4 Oct. 2021
A long day of course prep and editing. Just posted on Twitter:
Both of my oft-delayed, years-long co-edited projects are somehow coming together at the same time, so someone remind me not to edit anything for a long time and if I do, to only work on one such project at a time.
Wed. 6 Oct. 2021
Every so often lately I remember that for a period several months ago (roughly March-July), some people at my university were saying things about how we'd be "back to normal" this fall, or what we'd be doing this year "after COVID." Weird.
Sometimes I also remember that I used to really enjoy going places and seeing people on a somewhat regular basis. Maybe I will again someday.
In happier news, fall break is coming up, and I might actually take some time off, partly because I won’t be able to check my university email while they do some sort of server migration or something. Fun times!
Also, I feel like my students have been ready for fall break since the beginning of the fall semester… of 2020. Hard same for me.
Thurs. 7 Oct. 2021
Just walked to campus through soupy humidity. It’s still warm but thankfully no longer hot. But I’m also reminded that we’re getting to the part of the year where I’m still sweating while other people are wearing jackets.
A random thought:
A few things I’d personally rather see less of, but I’m not going to make a big deal about it.
Talk that sorts people into generationsAstrology, superstitions, and associated New Age, woo woo stuffMyers-Briggs and other personality testsPolitical infighting among groups that basically agree and are opposed by other really evil groupReligious superstitions among otherwise decent religious peoplePeople who take philosophy too seriously or not seriously enough
Fri. 8 Oct. 2021
Due to an IT server migration or some such, I won't be able to check my university email this weekend (the weekend before fall break). I have yet to think of anything bad about this state of affairs.
I might actually get to relax a little bit this weekend. Granted, I’ve been doing my best to take Saturdays off and most of Sundays when possible (a good habit a picked up from the pandemic and my convalescence), but fall break will help a lot.
Sun. 10 Oct. 2021
At this point I’m not sure which of these carries greater weight in my reasons for rarely going places: my desire to avoid COVID or my annoyance at the poor to non-existent mask discipline among the general public.
Anyway, I’m going to take a walk on a route that avoids crowds. It’s a nice day for it. I might even sit in a park and read Dune for a bit. I’m reading it to prepare for the new movie, which comes out in two weeks. I’ve been looking forward to that one for at least two years.
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| My cat Ruby in Cats of Dune |
Wed. 13 Oct. 2021
Yesterday I had a weird errand in Cleveland, TN. The Worker’s Comp insurance company requires a second opinion to make sure I’m okay to go back to work after breaking my shoulder in January (even though I never really took time off). They originally scheduled me at a place in Smyrna, TN (two hours away), so I talked them into finding a closer place. And so I still have to drive 30 minutes to Cleveland, TN. The appointment was fine (weird the doctor and some of the nurses weren’t wearing masks, though), but since I’ve only ever driven through Cleveland, I figured I’d hang out and check out downtown and stuff. It’s a nice little town.
This morning I’m watching MSNBC’s coverage of the Blue Origin launch with William Shatner into maybe-not-quite-space. Blue Origin is owned by Jeff Bezos, Amazon founder and the second richest human alive. I had some thoughts about it, which I turned into a blog post!
I just bought a ticket to see Dune in like, an actual movie theater next week. I must not fear. Fear is the mind-killer…
I will be at a late show on a weekday, masked, sitting as far from other humans as possible, not eating or drinking. And our local cases have declined rapidly recently, so I feel sort of okay-ish about it. But I've been looking forward to this movie for at least two years, and I want to see it for the first time on a giant screen. I might see about getting a full stillsuit, too, so I don't have to have food or water or go to the bathroom or waste moisture or get COVID.
Fri. 15 Oct. 2021
After going back and forth for a while, I decided to apply for professional development leave (aka, sabbatical, which is obnoxiously competitive at my university instead of being automatic like it is at some places). Anyway, as part of the application I was asked to provide "measurable outcomes," which is a humorous bit of edu-speak to me, as if they are going to measure my academic articles using microscopes, test tubes, and Bunsen burners.
I’m applying to resume work on a project I was making some progress toward before the pandemic (which I briefly discussed in some blog posts on non-dualism a while back): a book on epistemological skepticism in classical India, focusing on Vasubandhu on the external world, Cārvāka critiques of inference, and Ratnakīrti’s arguments about other minds.
Part of what I hope to figure out is if any of that actually is epistemological skepticism, but at the very least I suspect it will all be pretty different than the typical Western versions of these skepticisms. I need time to think about it, which is why I need a sabbatical, at least if this book is ever going to get off the ground, which will in turn help when I apply for full Professor in about four years.
I thought about applying to work on a book on Ursula Le Guin, Octavia Butler, and Asian philosophy, especially Daoism and Buddhism, but I might do that anyway at some point.
Mon. 18 Oct. 2021
A couple days ago I finished edits on my chapter for Dune and Philosophy, today I finished reading Dune, and I have a ticket to see the new Dune on Thursday. But for some reason tonight I really want to watch David Lynch's Dune (1984). I better watch out, or my spice addiction might find me looking for a way to watch the 2000 Dune TV miniseries and Jodorowsky's Dune in the next few days.
I did watch the Lynch movie last night, and I remembered why I wanted to watch it. When I got to the part toward the end of the book where (spoiler alert) Alia kills the Baron, I remembered how cool and disturbing all the scenes with Alia are in the Lynch movie, that one in particular. That image of the little kid holding up the gom jabbar needle after she murders her grandfather is a particularly delightful nightmare.
So my assessment of that movie still stands. I love the weirdness of it, but I’m still confused why they added the weirding modules and clunky exposition dialogue between the Emperor and the Guild Navigator while removing about half the plot (although the scenes with the Guild Navigators are a big part of the fun weirdness). And then the end credits seem to come from a soap opera, which is an incongruity with the rest of the film that adds to the weirdness. It’s not a good adaptation of the novel, but it makes me wish Lynch would do more straight-up science fiction. But then again, maybe his experience with this film is precisely why he hasn’t.
Anyway, a bunch of stuff to do today, including emailing acceptances for the TPA conference.
A later thought: It was interesting to read a bunch of really different and varied conference submissions over the weekend. It reminded me that it's kind of weird that philosophy is a single academic discipline. In comparing philosophy to other disciplines, I've sometimes referred to it as a "small but incredibly fractured discipline," and I think this is more obvious the more marginal your own little fracture of the discipline is. Still, I think this variety is a good thing.
Anyway, off to a union happy hour on a patio… It has nicely cooled down a bit, but not too much so it should be nice.
Fri. 22 Oct. 2021
A busy week! On Wednesday I drove up to Knoxville to have lunch with a friend from Tucson who’s on a cross-country road trip. We had lunch on a patio, and it was great to see my friend who I haven’t seen in person since August 2016. Weird to think of all the ways the world has changed since then…
Last night I saw …. Dune!!!!
I’ve been looking forward to it for years, and it was fun (if a bit unnerving) to see it in a theater. There were probably about 100 people there (pretty good for a late night show on a Thursday), and maybe only about 10 of them were even wearing masks. Anyway, I sat as far away from everyone as I could and kept my mask on the whole time (I didn’t even get a drink). It was okay, but honestly I probably won’t be making a return back to my old theater-going habits quite yet. It will probably remain a once-in-awhile thing for me, although on the other hand our local case numbers are way down now and who knows what the winter will bring, so maybe I should take advantage of this time more than I did in the summer? I went to one movie this summer and the Delta surge in August made me wish I had gone to more when it was relatively safer.
How was the movie? Awesome! I came home and wrote some initial impressions.
Was it worth it in IMAX? I think so. It was amazing on the giant screen with big sound. I’m going to watch it at home to do a proper comparison, though.
Anyway, I have a lot of work to do today, and should probably get to it.
Wed. 27 Oct. 2021
I’ve had a lot going on. And it’s Beth’s birthday today!
I did watch Dune again on HBO. It wasn’t quite what it was on IMAX, but it was still really fucking good. I may have to watch it again. I’m not sure about movie theaters (there were way too many unmasked people there for my comfort), but I might try a midweek matinee, which is something I used to do frequently and one of those weird things that reminds me that I usually tried to avoid crowds even before the pandemic (at least at restaurants and movie theaters).
I feel like I have a lot of other things going on, but some of it is starting to wrap up. A few things in the works: two editing projects years in the making that seem to be drawing to a close soon-ish, I applied for a sabbatical for a semester next year, a thing associated with something I edited years ago that I can’t talk about, the Dune and Philosophy chapter, I’m planning two online events in upcoming weeks: my students’ film festival and the TPA conference, and this weekend I’m on a panel for an online pop culture and philosophy conference for the CogTweeto series (something I didn’t know about until I was invited, but looks really cool).
Looking ahead, it almost looks like, dare I say it, I might have enough of this wrapped up I can sort of relax over the winter break, that is, until I remember I have a couple conference presentations coming up in the spring and I will need to do a lot of work to prep for my Mesoamerican Philosophy course that starts in January.
But today it’s Beth’s birthday, so I’ll focus on that!
Thurs. 28 Oct. 2021
I brought candy for my students today for the first time since February 2020, and the universe seemed, not exactly right, but okay for a bit.
Sun. 31 Oct. 2021
Happy Halloween! This weekend I participated in an online conference called CogTweeto. I was on a panel about pop culture philosophy and fiction (link?) Fun times!
Something I posted on social media that is relevant this evening:
Me, living in a place with exactly zero trick or treaters, 2014-2020.
Also me every single year: I should buy some candy "just in case someone stops by."
Spoiler alert: the candy is for me.
Mon. 1 Nov. 2021
I went to get discount Halloween candy (40% off and still a decent selection), and then I treated myself to lunch and a beer on a patio. It has cooled down the last couple weeks, but it was warm again this afternoon so it was a perfect day for it.
I’m in the midst of planning the TPA in a few weeks and my students’ film fest on Nov 11. Both online. I’m looking forward to both, and also looking forward to the satisfaction of being done with both. I’ve been the TPA President since October 2019. I’ve been happy to do it, but that is usually a one-year term that was extended due to the pandemic. My term will be over during the business meeting at the conference.
The good news with our downward trend in cases continues. Lately it has been 20-60 cases a day instead of in the hundreds like it was for most of August and September. Today we’re at only 13 cases per 100,000 people. I’m still worried about another surge in the winter, though.
Thurs. 4 Nov. 2021
Yesterday I posted a tweet and didn’t think much of it, but as of today it has almost 600 likes. I’m not sure how to deal with this level of Twitter fame. (link?) There were a few annoying replies, but I didn’t feel like dealing with them so I set the tweet so nobody could reply. I guess that’s the price the Twitter-ati like me pay.
I just finished grading midterm papers two and a half weeks after they were due. It’s a relief, and I was going to celebrate, until I remembered I have a bunch of discussion posts to read that I’ve been putting off all week. Thus my glamorous life continues.
Some online stuff coming up: my students’ film fest next week, and then the TPA the week after that!
I also think some of my editing work might be coming to an end… maybe? I’m glad I did these projects, but I will also be excited to take a break from editing for a while.
Later: I wrote a blog post about that tweet.
Fri. 5 Nov. 2021
I watched the new episodes of Curb Your Enthusiasm, and I’m vacillating between “a show focused on the non-problems of a rich and famous old white dude can’t possibly work in 2021” and “this show focused on the non-problems of a rich and famous old white dude is actually kind of a delightful break from 2021.”
Later: This week’s auto-caption foibles (after recording my lecture videos for this week):
· I said, “Hi philosophy students,” but the caption says, “High philosophy students.” I mean, I don’t want to presume.
· Weirdly it continues to get “Epictetus” right and now gets “Plotinus” and “Hypatia” right.
· “you see” instead of “CE” after a date
· “Neil Platonism” instead of “Neoplatonism”
· “Indras gillnet” instead of “Indra’s Jewel Net”
· “Neopolitan, a school” instead of “Neoplatonist school”
· “in Encino” instead of “Ibn Sina”
· “Minorities” instead of “Maimonides”
· “Oh, my guest” instead of “Almageste”
Sun. 7 Nov. 2021
This weekend I did things with people outside the house! And they both involved watching Dune again, once at a book club that I haven’t attended in a year and then at a movie theater with a friend followed by beers on a bar patio (the second place we tried because the first wouldn’t let us sit on the patio even though it’s a pandemic and it was a warm afternoon… annoying).
This afternoon I took a walk to the park by the zoo, where I read a public library book in a public park like a good socialist. The book: Piranesi by Susanna Clarke, one of the Hugo nominees this year. I finished The City We Became by N. K. Jemisin earlier today. I think I have one novel left and a few novellas. I already finished all the short stories and novelettes.
The deadline is later this year (Nov. 19) because Worldcon was postponed due to the pandemic (it’s in DC in December, which is relatively close for me but I don’t think I can do Worldcon this year). Weirdly the extra time didn’t help me read everything because I kept putting it off and have less time to read for fun in November during the school year than when it’s usually due in June or July. Oh well. I still like voting for the Hugos even if I’m not going to finish everything this year. (See how I voted here.)
Tues. 16 Nov. 2021
It has been a busy couple of weeks, so I haven’t written much here. The film fest went well last Thursday. I always think about not doing that class because the setup is kind of a lot of work and it takes a special energy to work with students on group project like that, but then I have so much fun with the festival, so I don’t know. I might need a break next year.
For the fourth or fifth time in the last few weeks, I’m having the thought, “This could be the last nice day of the season, so I should be sure to spend some time outside.” Today I had lunch out on the balcony. Tomorrow is supposed to be even nicer, so I might see about having lunch somewhere with a patio. Whether these nice particular days are due to climate change or just normal weather, I can’t say. But I suppose I should enjoy them. So I’m going to go back out to the balcony and do some reading this afternoon before a Zoom meeting later.
This weekend is the TPA (TN Philosophical Association) conference! As of Saturday I will no longer be the TPA President. It wasn’t too bad, but it has been a bit of work that lasted two years instead of one because we didn’t have a conference last year.
And a few other long-term projects are hopefully coming to an end in the coming weeks. I have a couple conference presentations in the spring (with real travel, maybe? Weird.). But I’m looking forward to having a bit less on my plate in 2022.
Wed. 17 Nov. 2021
Another issue I haven’t written about here that I just posted about on social media. Sigh.
Due to the infinite wisdom of our state legislature, we no longer have any mask mandate on campus. But there's a chance we might get it back due to federal law, but nobody's sure. I'm lucky to only teach in person once a week (on Thursday), but I'm hoping either the mandate will be back tomorrow or most of my students will wear masks anyway. Or maybe I'll be "sick," but I did kind of want to see some of them for our last class of the semester. I will ask them nicely to continue wearing masks. At a campus-wide Zoom meeting this morning, we got the usual thinly veiled threats from administrators about not saying or doing anything that some mask-hating student or parent would construe as treating non-mask wearers any differently. I still think there are plenty of ways for faculty and staff to find sneaky ways around all this, but I also admit that I can probably get away with more than many others on campus. I wish we could put as much effort into looking out for the health of everyone on campus as we put into trying not to get sued by vicious willfully ignorant people, but alas, that is not the world we live in.
Sat. 27 Nov. 2021
It’s been a while. The TPA conference went well. And I’ve been a bit exhausted after that. It has been a weirdly busy year in that most of it has been finishing things I committed to months or years earlier. But the good thing is that this clears up some space to do other things, and even more importantly, relax a bit.
Thanksgiving has been a pretty nice relaxing long weekend at home. I volunteered at a “soup kitchen” (I mean, they serve more than soup) to help clean up on Thanksgiving. I’ve never done that before, but it came up in my local union. It was interesting. Last year when I was handing out lunches, we’d stop by outside this place. It was good to do my part, I guess, but it would be a lot nicer if we didn’t have such a need for this sort of thing in a country with more than enough wealth to provide for everyone. (One of many lessons I doubt we’re learning from this pandemic. Sigh.)
I also watched some Thanksgiving horror movies (a tradition now?). Here’s my post about it.
And Beth and I watched a documentary consisting of Peter Jackson editing footage of the Beatles from 1969. It was really interesting and really long (three parts, each between two and three hours long).
It has been nice to relax. I’ve been avoiding work since Tuesday, trying to remember the lesson I learned earlier this year as I was convalescing with my injury: you can be late with things, and although you may feel bad about it, almost never does something bad actually happen.
Tues. 30 Nov. 2021
It’s that time of year: the lull between regular prep/grading and finals grading, and a few students are turning in their final papers early, which I could grade now, but I’m not going to, because that’s just not how I do things.
I've been using this time to do a peer review for a journal and to take care of some other odds and ends. I did the mandatory university IT security training a whole day before it's due and after at least six months of constant email reminders (including one from an actual person a few weeks ago). So, anyway, now I'm feeling pretty organized.
Sat. 4 Dec. 2021
Today is MainX24, a big street festival here in Chattanooga where for mysterious reasons, they don’t close the street to car traffic. I used to really enjoy this event pre-pandemic. But today I just couldn’t handle the crowds. I walked around, saw a couple people I know, had a beer, walked around, had a gyro, and walked home after less than two hours.
When I got home, I told Beth that the pandemic has turned me into her (she has always hated crowds and outdoor festivals). I’m fully vaxxed and boosted and it’s outside, so I’m not intellectually worried much about my own risk. But I think the pandemic has really made me wary of crowds and anxious about being in public. I used to really enjoy events like this. Thanks, pandemic.
In cheerier news, I got an email today that prompted me to write this: I love getting an email from a student and bracing myself to deal with official business or to hear about their personal tragedy, but then to my delight, discovering that they sent me a funny meme or video that they just thought I would enjoy.
Sun. 5 Dec. 2021
Almost a full calendar year of the pandemic. Will it end in 2022? The Word file where I keep this journal is getting too large (it goes back to March 2020 and is 188 pages single spaced), so I might create a separate 2022 Pandemic Journal file. Let’s hope that’s the last pandemic journal file I have to create.
In the last week, scientists have been warning us about a new COVID variant: the omicron variant. When that spreads around (it’s already in several states), combined with the inevitable bump after the holidays, what will we be dealing with? We’ve been doing better locally in recent weeks after the huge surge in the late summer and early fall, but I’m worried about the winter. I’m fully vaccinated and boosted, but it’s still probably going to be a fairly introverted winter for me.
Here are the latest numbers:
Worldwide
Cases: 266,127,191
Deaths: 5,270,933
US
Cases: 49,969,856
Deaths: 808,763
Hamilton County, TN
Cases: 65,818
Deaths: 706
Worldwide fully vaccinated: 42.7%
US full vaccinated: 59.8%
Hamilton county at least partially vaccinated: 58.2 (everyone), 67.5% (12 and up)
Hamilton county fully vaccinated: 52.8% (everyone), 61.2% (12 and up)
And I end with a Dune/Dark Tower cross-over meme seemingly made for me....
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