Kafka-ish

Kafka's "Auf der Galerie" is, all told, two sentences long.

It is theoretically possible to have a never-ending sentence in German.

Were you to write that sentence, it would, by definition, need to cover everything. "But then again, no", I guess we would need to add to this definition that the sentence would need to be an 'irrational' sentence (in the sense in which a number is irrational) - never ending and non-repeating.

This sentence would, in the end, I think, be Borgesian and the task of writing it, Sisyphean.

When I was wandering the library stacks last week (the Golda Meir library, that is, not Borges' or Babel's) I came upon the diaries of Franz Kafka. I opened to the entries, first randomly, then closest that day's date (July 14th, though I ended up reading the entries from May and September as Kafka seemed to have taken that summer off from writing). It occurred to me that Kafka was a bit of a whiner and his journals had no real academic or artistic merit, but I'm quite sure, if I were so inclined, I could find a bevy of dissertations on the subject.

"What am I doing hanging round?"

Schedule for the Week

Tomorrow begin my classes. Strictly speaking classes started today, but evidently Tuesday will be my Mahler day, my day off. The first day of English 101 is pretty much scripted out, so i haven't really much to do. I will walk in, briefly perform, and give an in-class writing assignment that lasts the rest of the class. After class i've got another class, this one where i'll be a student. 'Introduction to the Modern' or some such (i've just snuck in, barely). Currently i'm registered for three different classes, though i'm told i only ought to take two (two, i can't imagine what i'll do with myself taking just two classes, the U of C schedule has set me up for a strong feeling of underachieving no matter how much work i'm doing). I'll likely end up dropping my German Lit after 1963 course, which won't be such a loss as i don't think i can take die neuen Leiden des jungen Werthers again. Friday, i'll be looking forward to (after teaching again) another installment of Men's Club. All are welcome to Milwaukee's local chapter, and it should prove to be an interesting crowd. With a crowd ranging from fashion design majors to English PhD candidates with folks scattered in between. In other news, Roman Numeral J is sponsoring another reader contest (that's right another, check the archives). As some of you may know, brooke and i recently came into a Wii. Our collection of Miis is as yet underdeveloped. And so, a joel trivia question (the winner will have an honorary Mii created {a Mii, for you uninitiated, is a cartoonish version of a person that plays various games on the Wii} of them) The question is: What is the most recent alcoholic beverage purchased by joel? For the purposes of this quiz, "purchase can be purchased for me by someone else, but the most recent beverage, whether it be at a bar, liquor store, or guy in a parking lot. The answer will change and will be checked based on time i check answers. As a bonus, if you can also name the brand you will gain an extra Mii (you can choose anyone you like, as long as i know what they look like or you can provide a picture). Ok, good luck, and good luck. Enjoy the coming week, and get your Men's Clubs planned now. Remember, all you need to do is have a few cocktails between the hours of 5 & 7 pm CST (i decree that times move back a bit to accommodate working-ness) and wear a tie (preferably bad).

the Blind Rice Cooker

Within a period of 24-hours brooke & i have accrued two rice cookers where previously we had (and presumeable needed) none. I've never had a lot of trouble cooking rice, so when i learned we had accrued one at a garage sale i was skeptical. But when i saw it i was impressed. Produced by Sanyo (who incidentally also manufactured both of our cell phones), the rice cooker is a 50's-style retro design, though, i'm guessing it wasn't originally retro.

The other rice cooker we accrued was as a late wedding gift from my aunt & uncle. Made by Kitchen Gourmet, this rice cooker is retro more in the sat-in-my-basement for 10 years sort of way. Having decided that we definitely don't need 2 rice cookers (and likely don't need 1) the trick now is to figure out how to unload a rice cooker.

All in all i now have in my possession a lot of machines i never had before, and i think i was doing quite fine without them. I'm not sure exactly how this happened and haven't decided really how good or bad a thing it is...but it certainly is a thing.