It comes from the Sophist. Theaetetus is despairing of ever finding the sophist after he’s escaped from them again and again. The Eleatic Visitor tries to keep him motivated, saying:

Even if you can only make a little progress, Theaetetus, you should cheer up. If you give up in this situation, what will you do some other time when you don’t get anywhere or even are pushed back? A person like that would hardly capture a city, as the saying goes. But…the largest wall may already have been captured and the rest of them may be lower and easier. (261bc)

Yes, some days it may feel like you*’ve been pushed back. You lost that wall you thought you took. But take heart. Be cheerful. Keep at it. Someday you’ll capture the city.

*I use the ‘you’ very inclusively. To include me.

At Statesman 286a, the Eleatic Visitor says:

That is why one must practice at being able to give and receive an account of each thing (διὸ δεῖ μελετᾶν λόγον ἑκάστου δυνατὸν εἶναι δοῦναι καὶ δέξασθαι); for the things that are without body, which are the finest and greatest, are shown clearly only by verbal means and by nothing else…

Let’s pretend we know what it means to practice at being able to give an account. What does it mean to practice being able to receive an account?

Does it just involve having the ability to understand and process complicated claims and arguments? Or will it involve having the ability to question the account-giver, so as to better understand the claims and/or so as to test the veracity of the claims made?

My dad is staying in southern Arizona for the winter, in a small town called Benson, and he took this great picture of a couple of javelina wandering through the RV park he’s staying at. Pretty awesome!

Friday was my birthday, but we celebrated yesterday. Kate’s birthday is a week before mine, so we decided to have a joint birthday party at her place, which involved lots of delicious things, birthday cupcakes, Fun Dip (which is just as tasty now as I remember it being in childhood), grab bags full of sugary substances, Rock Band, temporary tattoos, and just a generally wonderful time. Hurrah for wonderful friends! And birthdays! And cupcakes! And Dena’s wonderful interpretations of Journey songs!

One of the things that you’ll inevitably experience in a Fairbanks winter is ice fog. Ice fog occurs when the very fine water particles in the air freeze, resulting in a very dense fog. I’ve been in fog so dense you can see maybe 5-10 feet in front of you. Driving in ice fog is fun, let me assure you. You follow the (barely visible) tail lights of the car in front of you and hope that they are driving on the road instead of leading you into the ditch.

Anyways, my sister found a cool video of someone driving into ice fog in Fairbanks. The fog there isn’t really dense at all, but it gives you at least an idea of what’s going on. And it’s fun to watch just to see what Alaska in deep winter looks like (hint: lots of white with shades of blue).

Here’s the video:

Laying on the floor next to my niece as we write a short story together.

Kiara is in first grade and has to do nightly reading, and so instead of reading books she’s read quite often, I wrote a story (about her going on vacation with her grandpa) with her input for key plot twists. She read along as I typed.

Without further ado, the story from last night:

There once was a little girl named Kiara. She lived with her mom and her cat named Precious. Kiara wanted to go on a vacation with her Papa. “Where should we go, Papa?” she asked. “Where ever you want to, dear.” He replied. Kiara thought a lot about it. Maybe we could go to Seattle! Or maybe to Disney World? The Grand Canyon would be a lot of fun! There were so many many choices. Finally, Kiara made up her mind. “I want to go to Disney Land!” she told Papa. And so Papa agreed and looked on a map to find the best way to drive there. “We will drive through Washington, Oregon, and then California” he said. And we will drive on the road near the ocean.

So Kiara and Papa got in the RV and started driving and driving and driving and driving. They stopped to see Aunt Shelli. Kiara met Aunt Shelli’s cats, Dusty and Adele. And then they kept driving and driving and driving.

Finally they got to the ocean. Papa stopped and Kiara walked on the sea shore. She found a lot of shells. And she even tried to go swimming! But the water was SO COLD!!! So she ran back to the RV shivering.

They started driving again. There were a lot of cars on the road! Finally they got to Los Angeles. And they arrived at Disney Land! “Papa, you know what?” “What?” “I don’t want to go to Disney Land after all! I want to go to Sea World!” So Papa agreed. They drove to San Diego where there is Sea World. And they got out of the RV and walked up to the park. In the park were dolphins and whales and sea horses and crabs and eels and sea otters and sea lions and sharks and octopuses and sting rays and EVERYTHING that lives in the sea.

Kiara even got to swim with the dolphins! She got in the water with them and held onto their fins and they swam and pulled her along. And Papa took a lot of pictures with her swimming with the dolphins. “This was the most fun day I’ve ever had, Papa!” she said. “Thank you!”

And then they got into the RV and drove and drove and drove and drove and finally got back to Los Angeles. And, as a surprise Papa took her to Disney Land. And Kiara got to see Belle and Ariel and Cinderella and Snow White and Aurora and Jasmine and all of the princesses. And she rode on a roller coaster that was so scary that it even made Papa frightened! And, best of all, she saw Miley Cyrus when she was there. And she went up to Miley and said that she liked her and asked her for her autograph.

And Kiara won a drawing where she got to spend the night in the castle at Disney Land! So she went up to the castle, which was huge and beautiful and she went up to the highest bedroom that loomed over the whole park and looked out over everybody. But she was too excited to sleep! So late at night when everybody else was asleep, she snuck out of her room and went exploring. As she was creeping down the hallway, trying to make as little noise as possible, who does she run into but PRINCE CHARMING?!

“Excuse me, madam! Where do you think you’re going so late at night?” Prince Charming asked. Kiara was startled but replied, “I’m exploring. Would you like to come with me?” “I’d love to!” So Kiara and Prince Charming walked throughout the castle and Prince Charming told her all sorts of stories about princes and princesses and dragons and fairies and poisoned apples. Kiara got scared and at one point grabbed Prince Charming’s arm. But he was kind and stopped scaring her. Finally he led her back to her bedroom and, tired after all that wandering, Kiara went to sleep.

When she woke up in the morning, she told people about her tour of the Castle with Prince Charming. “What?!” They said. “Prince Charming wasn’t in the castle last night. You couldn’t have met him.” “But he was!” Kiara said. But maybe she met a ghost, instead? But her time in the castle was over, so Kiara had to go and she met Papa and they got back into the RV and started driving again. And after driving and driving and driving and driving and driving and driving some more, finally they came back to Spokane. And when they pulled up at the apartment, her mama was so happy to see her and she gave her a big hug. And then they spent the rest of the day talking about all the things that happened on the trip. THE END.

Spending the day with my sister and niece has been really wonderful. I’d pack Kiara in my suitcase and bring her home with me, if I thought her mama wouldn’t kill me for doing so. :) I head back to Tucson this afternoon and plan to spend the weekend recovering and getting ready for the weeks ahead. Ooh. And celebrating my birthday tomorrow with a joint birthday party with one of my best friends on Saturday. Yay!

In my job talk, I argue that, even if they’re convinced that it’s good, people won’t ever be motivated to try to levitate because they can’t even approach, much less attain, levitation.

Yeah. I guess I was wrong about that.

(And, as is often the case, Wikipedia comes to the rescue in helping explain what on earth is going on.)

Apologies for the radio silence. January and early February are always the busiest time of the year for me and this year is no different. On top of the usual things that make it busy, I am traveling quite a bit and preparing for (and then recovering from) interviews.

I just got back from one interview up in Fredericton, New Brunswick. It was a really lovely visit and the weather was superb – just a bit chilly with wonderful snow on the ground. Indeed, when our plane landed and we stepped out onto the tarmac, there was the sort of big, fluffy soft snowflakes falling down on us. Beautiful!

Here’s a picture of a street in the town:

The interview went well (I think) and I like the department very much. It was exhausting – both mentally and physically – but well worth it.

Almost immediately (within 12 hours) of getting home (and getting home was its own nightmare; why is Chicago O’Hare still such a central hub?!) my car started making strange sounds. Turns out it’s the transmission, which is now needing to be rebuilt to the tune of about $2500. Good times. Things like that never come at a convenient time, do they?

Next up is the Plato conference (which, this year, is a festschrift for Julia) and then more interviews. And somewhere in there will be work on my dissertation and getting a paper ready to submit to a conference.

So yes, it’s busy. And a bit stressful. But all is good and things are pretty happy in these parts. I hope they’re also good and happy for you.

Aren’t these gorgeous?! They’re truffles. Or truffle-like candy things. My buddy got them for me on her travels and they’re almost too pretty to eat. Almost. Because they taste even better than they look. I’ve told myself that I get to have one a day for the next three days. Let’s see how long that lasts.

A mixture of wanting to putter about in the kitchen, feeling rather poor, and having a potato to use up led to making some delicious homemade potato chips. A mandoline helps a lot, as it lets you slice the potato thin and uniformly. After slicing, it’s just a matter of frying. (Well, soak the slices for a bit first, then pat them dry, and THEN fry them.) Super easy and much, much better than anything store bought.

This is a soup that I sort of threw together one afternoon. My dad was coming over and I was craving a white bean soup. And voila! It was superb. Superb in a this-is-going-in-my-regular-rotation sort of superb. And, other than the Italian sausage, it’s super healthy. Here’s the basic recipe…though this really is just a soup I threw together and I’m sure that various changes would work just fine:

Take 2-3 spicy italian sausages, remove from casings, and then brown in a large pot. Break up the sausage as it browns so that it’s in bite sized bits. After it’s done, remove the sausage and, if there’s a lot of grease, drain it out. Chop 1 medium onion, a few stalks of celery, a few carrots, a couple of cloves of garlic, and a poblano pepper. Saute in a bit of olive oil in the same pan you browned the sausage. Once it’s a bit softened, add some chicken broth (maybe 5-6 cups?) and a couple of cans of white beans. And however much pepper you want. Let that boil for a while. Then add one bunch of greens. I used kale. Chop it before you add it to the soup. Let that simmer for about half an hour to 45 minutes, until everything is softened. Then add a handful of parmesan cheese and mix. You want it fully incorporated into the soup, you don’t want gloppy, stringing bits of cheese floating about. The cheese adds just a touch of creaminess to the soup. Finally add the sausage back to the soup. Let it simmer again for another 10-15 minutes, just to let everything mingle properly.

That’s it. Then serve it. It’s a wonderful soup, with a hint of heat that hits the back of your throat, enough beans and sausage to make it feel substantial, and enough vegetables to make it seem a little healthy. Just about perfect, if you ask me.

I’ve been working at home a lot this last week. Dusty has been keeping me company while I work. Isn’t she just adorable? (Hint: the answer is ‘yes’.)