The Blog I Never Use

If you become bored with the following, just skip down to paragraph three for a recipe:

I. Sorry I haven't been blogging much; it seems that my thoughts are not currently fit for a general audience. I'm reading about Bakhtin in my tangentally- related- to- my- thesis reading time, so I find myself thinking things like, "Bakhtin's thesis defense should be written as a narrative parallel to Kafka's 'Trial of Joshph K,' (or is it called 'the Trial?'); it would be even more fitting if someone would compare Kafka, Swift, and (Bakhtin's hero) Rabalais (since they all seem to have similar creative imaginations, though Kafka and Rabalais are generally seen as unique) first. Actually, you might even draw a parallel to the trial of Socrates, like Acts does with Paul's defense before the Areopagus. I'd like to read that, actually, I'd like to write that, if I had time. It's classic GvsE stuff: the genius at odds with the state is refused the title he deserves because morons, who gained their credentials (if they had them at all) because they pandered to the party, to The Man."

II. I'm also quite interested in the Desert Fathers of Egypt, I only have ten more chapters to go in my Coptic grammar (though I need to review chs 8-20 again, since I've not been working on it for a few weeks). On Google Earth, I found Sketis, which was a very difficult place to find in antiquity, but now is home to many monasteries and has a highway running right past it, but I could not find Nitria, since it was, according to the information I could find, destroyed in ancient times, and any goods were carried of by others passing through. I did find out that they believe that it was inbetween the modern Sadat and Damanhur, and then I find myself saying things like, "That isn't right. It should be much farther to the west, more like between the monastery of St. Makarios and Alexandria; that would make much more sense, considering the narrative about Apa Zacharias contained in the sayings of Apa Carion, where he, as a child, is not well accepted by the monks and so, to prove his worth and ascetic zeal, he goes and stands in a nitre filled lake --like the ones between Alexandria and Sketis-- and comes back looking like a leper becuase the nitre eats into his skin (it's a really sad story and it makes me angry at their lack of understanding, they should have felt worse about their behavior).

III. Finally, I like to cook, I like to bake very much, and I like to make dessert. Do you have a good poundcake recipe? Neither do I, but I do have a recipe involving poundcake. I can hear you being intrigued. First, make some poundcake in a breadpan, make it from a mix, if you want, I used an almond flavored mix from the Oregon Coast. Now, cut it in slices at least one inch thick. You can either leave them out for a few hours, which will help keep them in one piece, or increase the risk of crumbling and use them right away. Now, mix some eggs and milk or, preferably, cream and make french toast using the poundcake; be gentle, don't saturate the bread, don't get too impatient --turning it before it is done on the first side-- or it might crumble. Serve with strawberries (or your favorite french toast topping, fruit, fruit jam, or preserves is best) and whipped cream. then tell me that you liked it.

In other news, I've posted a few more pages of my thesis on "The Thesis I Never Finish," for those who are interested.