Eileen and I are unlocking the mysteries of technology together. Please don’t laugh but we have figured that if we’re not using the internet our 3G devices should be on airplane mode. Thus we won’t be using up our time inadvertently. We are already 2 Gigabytes over our monthly allowance. The $30 this costs us ($15 per Gigabyte) is well worth it. But it’s silly to pay for it when we’re not using it.
Ben, Tony, Mark, and Leigh drove away yesterday. I’m staying up here until Saturday. Eileen gets a day by herself and her Mom and sister, Nancy, arrive on Sunday.
It was good seeing the fam. And it’s good to have some quiet time alone with Eileen. I have been getting a lot of reading done. This is probably largely what I will do today. Eileen and I had a nice breakfast together and then, sooprise sooprise, played Boggle. We got Tony to join us a couple of times but mostly while they were here, the group just watched (or ignored us) as Eileen and I played.
I haven’t finished any books yet. But I did read all the poems in Mark’s copy of Wendell Berry’s new book (mentioned in yesterday’s post). I’m reserving my second novel (Hystopia by David Means) until AFTER I finish The Noise of Time by Julian Barnes.
Somehow I have lost my Hope College online privileges. A few days ago, I tried to log on and look at the Oxford English Dictionary and it told me my privileges had expired. I will email the dance department secretary and find out if it’s possible to have this back. If not, it’s not the end of the world. I’ll purchase a community Hope College Library card.
I have the music for this Sunday sitting in a draft email. All I have to do is email it this morning. Mary the person who does the bulletins isn’t even in the office for another hour or so.
Inside the Six Weeks Donald Trump Was a Nonstop ‘Birther’ – The New York Times
I found this little piece of history interesting.
‘The Arrangements’: A Work of Fiction – The New York Times
NYT Book review commissioned this short story by Adichie, a writer I admire and read. I haven’t read it yet, but it looks fun.
Elie Wiesel, Auschwitz Survivor and Nobel Peace Prize Winner, Dies at 87 – The New York Times
Amazing man.
Bangladesh Attack Is New Evidence That ISIS Has Shifted Its Focus Beyond the Mideast – The New York Times
This terrible event was made even more chilling to me when I read this:
“The gunmen, he said, seemed eager to see their actions amplified on social media: After killing the patrons, they asked the staff to turn on the restaurant’s wireless network. Then they used customers’ telephones to post images of the bodies on the internet.”
ThisNation.com–What to the Slave is the Fourth of July? by Frederick Douglass
Frederick Douglas is a thinker and writer I admire and have read. If you don’t know this, it’s worth the time to read it. Thank you to daughter Elizabeth for posting it on Fecesbooger.
Douglas wrote that “America is false to the past, false to the present, and solemnly binds herself to be false to the future.” This seems to still be true.
ThisNation.com-American Government & Politics Online
This is where I found the version of Douglass’s speech linked above. It looks like a pretty cool site.
If you have to get a Hope College Community library card, make sure it comes with online access. Chelsea, where we purchased a card last year, doesn’t give online access to paid subscribers. Only townies. Of course, I actually had access but they couldn’t explain why…
I already know (or think I know) that a paid Hope College library card doesn’t cover the online access if you mean Groves Dictionary, Jstor, and OED. I could access my account like I do at Herrick when I was only a paid townie person. BTW I heard back from the department and the secretary told me the reason I had lost my access was that I was no longer an employee. As far as I can remember I never told the department I had decided not to return as an accompanist. But I guess now it’s official. It’s sort of a relief since I have never found Hope College LIFE GIVING (as they say). Heh. It was nice seeing you at the cabin. love from the big guy