A good set of tips from Ubuntu Forums: if you’re looking to do some cleanup on your Ubuntu install, these terminal commands are useful. Of course, I believe if you have this many orphaned files and partially installed packages a reinstall of your operating system might be more helpful. I agree with Leo Laporte’s suggestion to Windows users on his radio show: the common user should reinstall their system and get a fresh start every six months to a year. Luckily, the newest version of Ubuntu comes out on a twice yearly cycle, so this is very convenient for us.
War Prayer 024
(Sorrentino) or (Jukebox). I link, you decide!
After three thousand murders and one dead best friend, it took the effort involved with driving a stake through one certain oracle who’d really outgrown his welcome last May to wake Drew up. The one who had all the answers, apparently, was now laying in a morgue, or hospital, somewhere. Who cares. The fog had been lifted and when he wiped his eyes, a lot of things became clearer.
Meaningless sex, as Theresa mocked him nearby, wasn’t just meaningless anymore. It was stupid. Sex in general is stupid. Drew began to wonder just how much of his welcome he had really worn out. The more quarters they slipped into Pizza Hut jukeboxes, the more suspicious and reluctant their hellos and nods became in the halls. It made Drew feel more alive than ever.
People seemed to be friendly only when others weren’t around. Was it all just some crap Theresa pumped into his head because of her special role in his life? No, their increasing hostility at his very presence was because he’d been smart enough to slay that fucking oracle.
Had it all been a dream? Sometimes he just wasn’t sure anymore who was writing this. The moment something goes awry or is uncomfortable most people scatter fast. Theresa screams at them, but they don’t hear her. She’d like to slay that other blond who stole her idea. They walk past a group of staked ideas sitting together and make their way to the back of the student center. No more wasting time; coffee was now reserved for Theresa.
They would hole themselves up this winter and plot and scheme and annihilate. More coffee would be consumed; Borges and Sorrentino would be discussed. Come second term, presidential and academic, things were going to be a lot different.
We can always carve a bigger stake.
The Multiplicity Of Discursive Elements
My first semester of graduate school, one of the courses I took was on Critical Theory with Dr. Bluemel. As we went from theorists as varied as Eve Sedgwick, Stanley Fish, and Roland Barthes I noticed a pattern forming during our discussions. A number of my contributions to the discourse were referential to not only outside sources, but even some outside of what is normally considered “literature” by most students. My professor told me to try to stay within the bounds of literature in order to not lose or confuse other students, which was fine by me. Still, I was troubled that I received blank stares from my classmates when bringing up David Hume, John Dewey, or even a popular contemporary like Zadie Smith. I had an extremely hard time trying to stay “in bounds” which it came to our classroom discourse.
In History Of Sexuality, while discussing the unity of power and knowledge in discourse, Foucault offers this definition of discourse:
We must conceive discourse as a series of discontinuous segments whose tactical function is neither uniform or stable. To be more precise, we must not imagine a world of discourse divided between accepted discourse and excluded discourse, or between the dominant discourse and the dominated one; but as a multiplicity of discursive elements that can come into play in various strategies (100).
As an undergraduate, I took a number of extra courses to attain a minor in Philosophy. I did this in order to supplement my literary studies. What I learned from Dewey, Hume, Nietzsche, Arthur Danto, and others went with me back to the English classroom to accentuate my work there. Perhaps this is why theoretical concerns are more compelling to me than the standard close reading associated with English, but I see no reason for not extending into other fields for further enlightenment and thought. Just talking about English in English classes bores the hell out of me.
War Prayer 023
(Boring)
Drew drove away quickly from the scene. This time, but right around the same time he reconnected with Amber, it was the touch of another human being which disgusted him. Sure, it was nice in the moment, but afterward Drew felt like a complete asshole. Her touch brought up hard feelings, embarrassing feelings. A few hours after the long drive back from her house, Drew wished he had never called her back. They had been estranged for so long, long before him and Amber had been even. Drew was living a different life now. He didn’t really fit, never had, in her world anymore. Their sex act had only offered pointless nostalgia, trying to recreate a time that had never actually happened even though both had badly wished it to be.
Oxford English Dictionary Going Online Only
Via the excellent On Purpose comes word that the OED is going to be an Internet based dictionary after its third printing:
Biggest development? The third edition of the 20-volume set of the Oxford English Dictionary will also be its last! After publication of “the first comprehensive and up-to-date edition of the OED in one alphabetical sequence since the original edition of 1928?, the OED will (figuratively) close all 20 of its covers and move on to a bigger and brighter future as an internet-only text.
A few years ago I linked to a Susan Sontag interview in The Atlantic Monthly where she praised the idea of having the OED on a CD (which is funny considering she bashed electronic literature in a speech before her death). The CD is quickly becoming an archaic, out of date, method for distribution. I am glad the OED realizes this and has begun the transition to publishing on the Internet only. The more accessible it becomes, the better. I only wish a subscription came without such a steep price.
Weekly Reader
Gnomad2
When I first began running Ubuntu full time, one of my primary concerns was how I would upload to my mp3 player. I am very happy with my Creative Zen V Plus player and Gnomad2 is an easy to use ftp style program for uploading and downloading from your Creative player. The simple interface makes adding, deleting, and creating playlists simplistic even for the casual user.