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Thursday, September 04, 2008 Whew! By Diana Hsieh @ 3:59 PM Finally! I just finished the first draft of chapter four of my dissertation. It's on the distinctive nature and importance of moral judgment. It has been duly shipped off to my committee. Hooray! I'm reasonably happy with it, although I'm sure that my committee members will notice some holes and problems that I need to patch up. So, now I have to assemble and post the Objectivist Roundup, then further distribute Ari Armstrong's recent op-ed for the Coalition for Secular Government, then attempt to catch up on all the chores that I ignored last weekend in the push to finish this chapter, and so on. No rest for the weary -- although I will be taking the rest of the week off from dissertation work, as I've already completed my requisite 25 hours of writing this week. In any case: Hooray! Labels: Personal   E-mail Diana Hsieh    PermaLink ()    Comments [6] (New Page)     Thursday, June 26, 2008 Epic Weekend Ride By Greg Perkins @ 8:09 PM Whew! I was still a bit depleted Monday, with my brain a little foggier than usual. This past weekend, we decided to try out an annual mountain bike ride that veteran riders around us have been talking about: the Wild Rockies Boise-to-Idaho City Tour! Here are the essential stats: we mountain biked about 90-95 miles over two days, climbing a total of about 14 thousand feet (maybe seven hours of riding each day). Tammy and I may be pretty solid riders, but we don't usually do those kinds of numbers -- my rear is still hurting! We got to ride with about 100 people from around the valley, going from Boise to Idaho City (an old mining town) on Saturday, camping there overnight, and riding a different route back on Sunday. Extra cool was how the ride was hosted: they transported our camping gear, and there were lunch and a few "snack break" stops along the way, dinner at the destination -- oh, and there were showers at the high school in Idaho City! I'm pretty sure Tammy thought that improved things in the tent. :^) Very satisfying to be able to hang with that kind of crowd! (And nice that there were no real injuries in such a large group.) Labels: Fun, Personal, Sports   E-mail Greg Perkins    PermaLink ()    Comments [3] (New Page)     Sunday, June 22, 2008 Happy Birthday to Gus! By Diana Hsieh @ 11:50 AM Congratulations to Rational Jenn and her husband Brendan on the birth of their son, Sean Riordan Casey (aka "Gus")! Jenn has done a great job of creating and maintaining the very active and like-clockwork Objectivist Roundup, a blog carnival highlighting the best posts from Objectivist bloggers each week. She created it shortly after I created my OBloggers mailing list. I've not linked to these weekly carnivals, for the silly reason that I've not gotten in the habit. I'll try do so from here on out, however. (In fact, I'm sure to do it from here on out, as I just added it as a recurring Thursday task to Entourage. Thanks again, GTD!) You can find the full list of past carnivals from this page. (Just click on "past carnivals".) Last week's carnival can be found at The Crucible & Column. Ah, but all of that is of minor importance compared to the health of mom and baby! Congratulations again to Jenn and Brendan -- and little Gus! Labels: Objectivism, Personal   E-mail Diana Hsieh    PermaLink ()    Comments [1] (New Page)     Friday, May 09, 2008 Nine Years By Diana Hsieh @ 10:12 PM Paul and I celebrated our ninth wedding anniversary today. We were married on May 9th, 1999 in La Jolla, California. Congratulations to us! Labels: Personal   E-mail Diana Hsieh    PermaLink ()    Comments [14] (New Page)     Monday, May 05, 2008 Raising an Objectivist Puppy By Paula Hall @ 12:27 AM OK, are you sitting down? Then have a look at the cutest puppy ever . . . This is Rubi-wan DooBeeDoo Kenobi, my 4 � month old Goldendoodle. I admit to feeling a bit self-conscious about owning a "designer dog," like it's just too precious. On the other hand, she's a little walking laboratory demonstrating the correctness of some Objectivist principles. 1. There's no such thing as animal rights. Rubi likes to sit on the floor next to my bench while I'm playing piano. When I take breaks from playing to flex my fingers we often fix our gazes adoringly at each other - as she chews the edge of my rug to bits. MY rug, not hers. Now, I know she's a puppy and I can train her out of this. Maybe. But it brought to mind a big reason I won't be respecting animal "rights" any time soon - because animals don't respect mine. 2. Man makes the world in his own image - including his dogs. Rubi also likes to pounce, even on things that aren't moving. Yesterday we gave her one of those snack bones that claims to be able to clean your dog's teeth (it gave her dog breath and diarrhea). Instead of just picking it up from the floor she pounced. My husband pointed out that wolves eat mice at least some of the time, which they catch by quietly stalking through tall grass and then pouncing on their prey. So pouncing is just the wolf coming out in Rubi - I guess we humans decided it wasn't something that needed to be bred out of them. It certainly is cute. The point (I am getting to it), is that whatever dogs are, they were made that way by humans. Some object that dogs like Goldendoodles are bred as "accessories." But that's just a modern restatement of the reasons dogs exist at all-humans want them around. We began breeding them from wolves for their utility as well as their companionship. Now we breed more for companionship. But what's the diff? All dogs are designer dogs. Complaints about accessorizing are just a rehashed insult to the way humans operate. So here I am, in the People's Republic of Massachusetts, happy owner of a politically-incorrect pet that has no rights. Anyone who doesn't like it can kiss my doodle. Labels: Personal, Politics   E-mail Paula Hall    PermaLink ()    Comments [13] (New Page)     Thursday, May 01, 2008 May Day in Colorado By Diana Hsieh @ 9:14 AM Here in Colorado, Mother Nature likes to toy with us in the spring. Yesterday, it was 70 degrees. Today (and tomorrow), it's snow: (That's looking out from the house to the barn.) (That's Kate near the house.) Labels: Personal   E-mail Diana Hsieh    PermaLink ()    Comments [2] (New Page)     Sunday, April 20, 2008 Nick and Abe By Diana Hsieh @ 3:31 PM Yesterday, Paul and I had the pleasure of lunching with Nick Provenzo of Rule of Reason, then walking and talking around DC with him for a few hours. The company was delightful and the weather was lovely, but the sights were a mixed bag. I particularly wanted to visit the Lincoln Memorial, as I've grown to admire Lincoln intensely, despite some significant disagreements with his policies, in my study of the Civil War over the past few months. That was excellent, despite the throng of people. It's an absolutely fantastic statue of Lincoln. We also visited the new World War Two Memorial. That was worse than I expected in its utter lack of meaning. Blech. Happily, we also stopped by the statue of William Tecumseh Sherman near Lafayette Square. I'd also like to see the Ulysses S. Grant Memorial, so that I can pay my respects to him. I should be able to do that tomorrow before I head home. Labels: History, Personal   E-mail Diana Hsieh    PermaLink ()    Comments [8] (New Page)     Friday, April 18, 2008 Elevators By Diana Hsieh @ 11:09 AM You'll learn more about elevators than you ever wanted to know in this New Yorker article: Up and Then Down. The article includes the story of Nicholas White, who was trapped for 41 hours without any food or water in an elevator. It's pretty horrific, if you concretely imagine what that would be like. You can even help your imagination by watching this time-lapse video of him stuck in the elevator. I ride the elevators at CU Boulder pretty frequently. Kate accompanies me teach my classes at CU Boulder every Tuesday and Thursday. (She's perfectly well-behaved, she needs the exercise, and she loves to come with me.) She's too old and creaky to go up and down the stairs, so we take the elevators. After reading that article, though, I'll never ride an elevator again without a working cell phone! Labels: Personal, Technology   E-mail Diana Hsieh    PermaLink ()    Comments [1] (New Page)     Saturday, April 05, 2008 Sick, Again By Diana Hsieh @ 9:21 AM I'm sick. Again. For the third time this academic year. It seems like a head cold this time. I'm not pleased. Labels: Personal   E-mail Diana Hsieh    PermaLink ()    Comments [4] (New Page)     Thursday, February 14, 2008 Better Than a Monkey By Diana Hsieh @ 7:05 AM Ah, I'm soooo much better than that monkey Flibbert: You Are A: Bear Cub! Bears are strong and independent creatures who roam in the forest in search of food. Bears are usually gentle, but anger one and be prepared for their full fury! You're tough, you won't back down from a fight, you have a bit of a temper -- classic attributes of a bear. Intelligent and resourceful, though lazy at times, you are a fascinating creature of the wild. You were almost a: Kitten or a Monkey You are least like a: Chipmunk or a FrogWhat Cute Animal Are You? Paul doesn't call me "Mrs. Bear" for nothin'! (Okay, well maybe he does, but nevermind that pesky detail.) Labels: Personal   E-mail Diana Hsieh    PermaLink ()    Comments [15] (New Page)     Thursday, February 07, 2008 Sick, Sick, Sick By Diana Hsieh @ 7:42 AM After teaching on Tuesday, I was worried that I might be coming down with a cold, as my throat hurt a bit. Yesterday, that bad news was confirmed. Even though I didn't feel horrible, a cold was clearly on its way. Last night, I realized that I didn't have any Nyquil to help me sleep. Even worse, the decongestant I had in medicine cabinet was phenylephrine, the new crap they've been pushing instead of pseudoephedrine (Sudafed). So it wasn't a good night. Today, I feel pretty miserable. Sadly, I do need to go up to Boulder to teach. My students have a paper due, so I need to pick those up to stay on schedule. While I'm there, I might as well teach Pascal's Wager as planned. At least I'll be able to pick up some good drugs on my commute to Boulder. Ugh, I hate hate hate being sick -- and this cold is my second illness of the season. Labels: Personal   E-mail Diana Hsieh    PermaLink ()    Comments [3] (New Page)     Friday, January 25, 2008 More Football By Diana Hsieh @ 3:32 PM During this football season, Paul and I have taken to watching The NFL Channel if we have some extra time while exercising but nothing to watch on DVD. The analysis shows are reasonably good -- although we definitely prefer HBO's "Inside the NFL." The essentialized "NFL Replay" games are fun to watch, as are the significant games from past seasons. When listening to some lecture or fiction on my iPod, I'll often watch games on the NFL channel with the sound off, as that keeps my brain occupied enough to concentrate on the audio material. A few days ago, I watched a portion of 1998's Superbowl 32: Denver vs Green Bay. (I was also listening to Onkar Ghate lecture on philosophy!) That's ancient history for me, as I only began watching football two seasons later. When I began watching football, my goal was to be nothing more than a very casual fan. I thought I'd know which teams were doing well each season, enjoy watching a few games, but not much more than that. In fact, I even said that I couldn't imagine learning the names of players. How times have changed! Of course, I recognized tons of players from this old game, most notably the very young-looking Brett Farve, but also McCaffrey, Davis, Sharpe, etc. The two head coaches were also familiar faces. I recognized the commentators: Phil Simms looks so much older today. However, what blows me away is that I recognized Ed Hochuli. He wasn't nearly so buff then as he is now. And he isn't the only referee I know on sight! Plus, I now have very definite preferences for in-the-booth commentators: I adore Chris Collinsworth above all others. If someone had told me ten years ago that I'd be such a devoted NFL fan, I would have gotten a good chuckle from such crazy talk. Oh, and... Go Giants! Labels: Football, Personal   E-mail Diana Hsieh    PermaLink ()    Comments [3] (New Page)     Tuesday, December 25, 2007 Merry Christmas! By Diana Hsieh @ 10:12 AM Merry Christmas! We're in the middle of a pretty hefty snowstorm right now. Here's our weather forecast: Today: Snow along with gusty winds at times. High 26F. Winds N at 20 to 30 mph. Chance of snow 80%. 2 to 4 inches of snow expected. Winds could occasionally gust over 40 mph. Tonight: Snow this evening will diminish to a few snow showers late. Low 4F. Winds WSW at 10 to 20 mph. Chance of snow 70%. Snowfall around one inch. Now that's a true white Christmas! Then our white weather will continue: Tomorrow: Partly cloudy skies in the morning will give way to cloudy skies during the afternoon. Cold. High 32F. Winds S at 5 to 10 mph. Tomorrow night: Variable clouds with snow showers. Low 13F. SW winds shifting to N at 10 to 15 mph. Chance of snow 60%. Significant snow accumulation possible. Thursday: Snow showers possible. Highs in the mid 20s and lows in the mid single digits. I do wonder what "significant snow accumulation" will mean for us. Labels: Personal   E-mail Diana Hsieh    PermaLink ()    Comments [2] (New Page)     Thursday, December 13, 2007 Happy Birthday to Me By Diana Hsieh @ 6:50 AM Happy Birthday to Me Happy Birthday to Me Happy Birthday to Meeeeeeeeeeeeeeee Happy Birthday to Me! Labels: Personal   E-mail Diana Hsieh    PermaLink ()    Comments [15] (New Page)

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