Fall 2010

Someday I'm going to let this poor blog die instead of dragging it back to a semblance of life at ever-lengthening intervals. Someday, but not today.

So, Spring 2010 went pretty well (classes were fun and interesting), Summer 2010 was a nice break (among other things, I got to watch my brother graduate from college and help him move across the country for grad school), and Fall 2010 is well underway. This should be the final year of my current program, which means I also need to get serious about what comes After Grad School. I have a few ideas, but nothing concrete yet. And the less I say about that now, the more likely I'll be to post again in the future. :-p

Instead, here's this semester's lineup:

Elementary Principles of the Biblical Languages
Or, "Greek and Hebrew for Reading Exegetical Commentaries." Basically, we'll cover alphabet, pronunciation, common vocabulary, and rudimentary grammar for biblical Greek and Hebrew. Not enough to be fluent, much less do one's own serious exegesis, but enough to understand some of the challenges of translation and to follow a commentary or article that gets into the original languages. We're also covering some of the many types of tools that are useful for biblical study (lexicons, concordances, different kinds of commentaries, etc.).

Exposition of Romans
I figured I should take at least one expository Bible class as part of my "seminary" experience, and Paul's magnum opus seemed like a nifty choice. (My other choice was Wisdom Literature, but that conflicted with Elementary Principles.) The longest of the Pauline epistles has a lot going on in it, and this promises to be an interesting and challenging class.

Neither of these classes is required for my degree, and I don't need the elective credit. So why am I taking them? Well, the only class I still have to take is offered in Spring semesters. Rather than take a semester off, I decided to take advantage of the opportunity that being in school provides, find classes that interested me--regardless of discipline--and try to learn something.

Outside of school, life goes on mostly as before: I've officially quit substitute-teaching, but I'm still subcontracting. Between that and the things I'm able to do at church, I stay pretty well occupied.



I think that about covers it on the Life front. But in penance for my long hiatus (and because I enjoy sharing them), here are some of the more amusing Professor Quotes I collected last semester:

"There’s already a power differential in this room because I wear a tie and stand up here. Oh, and I grade you."

"Part of my strategy in teaching is to create a certain existential angst."

"This is such a classical fallacy, it has a Latin name."

"How many people get peanut-butter sandwiches and how many have to be satisfied with baked potatoes. [pause] That’s a stupid example."

"In his quiet time, [Anselm] came up with the ontological argument. So, how was yours this morning?"

"People ask, ‘Where does the time go.’ It goes where it’s always gone; but nobody knows where that is."

"If you ask someone, ‘Why do you enjoy enjoyment?’ they’ll say, ‘Well, that’s a stupid question.’"

"Yeah, we have interesting verbs here."

"As philosophy classes go, being a week behind is pretty good. Some professors start out a week behind."

"I could just get run over by a truck, and I would not be flourishing at that moment."

"If I just go ballistic all over your paper, that’s my gift to you."

"It’s actually a very helpful thing to figure out that you don’t know what you’re talking about."

"That’s where I am. I don’t know where you are; but I’m the teacher, so that’s where we are."

"If I do something like that, then you know I’m past my sell-by date."