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A Curious Confluence of Interests

November 6, 2009 in Gaming, Geek, Links | No comments

Lots going on here. And by “here” I mean “in my head” more than just us being busy. I’ve got lots of fairly unfocused thoughts flying about, on all sorts of topics. There’s the usual teaching and committee work. I’m plugging away at the philosophy of travel research and writing. And I’ve been doing lots of thinking about gaming, as the previous post attests.

Thus, when today’s blog entry by Neil Gaiman led me to Curious Expeditions, I gave a small squeal of delight (hopefully unnoticed by by coworkers and students), because this blog is filled with photos and articles of the odd and wonderful that feed both the travel and the gaming fires. Seriously, look at the latest entry on The Dark Church. Doesn’t that make you want to go there? Or, barring that, plan an adventure where the PC’s are chased down that dark and narrow staircase by some Unspeakable Horror?!

Maybe that’s just me.

Tennessee Road Trip

October 19, 2009 in travel | No comments

Sarah picked me up from work on Friday and we headed west — 5 to 85 to 26 to 40. Sarah was going to become godmother to Luke Edward, Sarah’s best friend’s new son, and the baptism was Saturday night. Rain, mist, and cold made the drive fairly unpleasant, but we cruised into Hendersonville at 9:00 or so Friday night. It took us awhile, both because of the weather and a lengthy dinner stop at Cracker Barrel. Scoff if you must, but my fish was good, there were plenty of vegetables, and lots to keep our daughter occupied while we waited (which was awhile).

Saturday was resting and football until the baptism, which was performed in their Lutheran church in front of the small Saturday night contingent. The family in town doubled the size of the congregation! Afterwards was some amazing BBQ brought from Center Point BBQ The pulled pork was awesome — tender and moist, with some light smoky flavor. It was good with their mild sauce, which reminded me of the western North Carolina sauce. It was vinegar based, but had tomatoes in there, too, which gave it a red color. The brisket was also very good. Thinly sliced, with nice color from the smoking. I put some of the hot BBQ sauce on it. It was very similar to the mild, just with more (lots more) red pepper and complimented the brisket well. There were homemade beans for a side and homemade apple crisp for dessert. So much good food it more than made up for TAMU’s humilating football loss to Kansas State.

Sarah went for a run Sunday morning, then we hit the road. I-40 through Tennessee is a pretty stretch of interstate, especially this time of year. Hills large and small, exposed rock faces, colored leaves, and, according to the exit signs, lots of state parks and recreation areas. It would be nice to check out some of those parks when we had less of a need to get back home.

We stopped in Knoxville for a very late lunch/early dinner with my dad, then got back on the road. We arrived late to a cold house, but a space heater and the fireplace warmed things up quickly. Everyone quickly crashed.

A fun if tiring weekend. Congrats to the Tieman family!

Steinbeck on Travel

July 31, 2009 in Books | No comments

A trip, a safari, and exploration, is an entity, different from all other journeys. It has personality, temperament, individuality, uniqueness. A journey is a person in itself, no two are alike. And all plans, safeguards, policing and coercion are fruitless. We find after years of struggle we do not take a trip; a trip takes us.

– From Travels With Charlie


Wil Wheaton was right

July 21, 2009 in Productivity, Writing | No comments

I remember Wil Wheaton blogging something to the effect of “When I am writing something big, my blogging slows to a trickle.”  I think he’s right about that, at least for me.  I didn’t blog a lot last week because I was up against the AERA proposal deadline.  Usually, this deadline in August 1st, but this year they moved it to July 15th.  At first, I had decided not to go — it’s in Denver, so a flight will be expensive; it’s always HUGE, so it’s difficult to make the sort of personal connections that, to me, are the best thing about conferences.  AERA is an important conference, though, and carries a lot of weight in my college.  So I hit upon a good idea for a proposal and hammered out 2000 words in a few days.  I also excerpted part of that proposal and sent the smaller one for SAPES, which is in Chapel Hill at the end of September.  I am happy with the result: “Thinking With Your Feet: Santayana and Dewey on Travel.”  It gets me into philosophy of travel as a research area and helped me learn a little more about Santayana.

Since the deadline was extended, I was also asked to be part of a symposium submission on “Democracy and the Curriculum.”  At first I was reluctant, but realized I could parlay some of my work on Dewey, popular culture, and aesthetics into the project.  I put together a 500 word proposal that argues the language arts curriculum needs to pay more attention to popular art.  I’ll tidy up the references today, then send it off.

That’s 2500 fairly polished words in 7-10 days.  What this means is, I have little excuse for not writing more, especially the academic writing that I both enjoy and is important to my career.  Obviously, I need some external accountability.  The AERA deadline pushed me into writing mode.  I am going to enlist my GA in putting my feet to the fire to keep up the pace.  Next project is finishing the article on Dewey and popular culture that sprang from a presentation I gave almost two years ago!  My goal is to have it finished by the time classes start, which gives me about a month.  If I keep to the pace I set last week, I can write 8000 words by then!  The 8000 words thing may be a bit unrealistic (and not needed for this particular article), but I can get this thing done and sent off by mid-August.

An Utterly Boring Travel Story

July 6, 2009 in Observations | 2 comments

“I need help,” I told my grad assistant.

“Sure! Copies? Labels? Task me!”  She was earnest, extraordinarily sensible, and perhaps too excited about mundane office tasks.

“No,” I told her, which resulted in a crestfallen look.  “I’m trying to figure out how to get back from Virginia after my wife drops me on the side of the road.”

Her faced turned from crestfallen to bemused, tinged with concern.  “Um. . . what?”

“The family is going to Baltimore for vacation, then some grad school friends and I are going camping in Virginia.  Sarah and I don’t want to take two cars, so if I can find a way home, she can just drop me off in Charlottesville.”

“Oh!  Okay.  I was concerned for your marriage for a second, Dr. Pope.  What are your travel options?”

A conversation about Amtrack, bus fare, and David Sedaris ensued.  I’m sure I told the story of how it took John Harper and I 26 hours to get to Washington DC, which involved auto body repair with a chain and a tree.I haven’t told you that story?  Really?  It’s awesome!

“Um, anyway.  I cold also ride back to Fairfax with my friend Tim, have him drop me off at the Metro station on his way to work, metro to Union Station, take a commuter train toBWI, then fly back to Charlotte and have Sarah pick me up at the airport.  I can get an Airtran flight for fifty bucks.”

“You should do that.”

“Yeah?”

“Totally!  Not only does it save you from having to get up at 3 AM to catch a bus, but it seems ridiculously complicated and thus, offers more opportunity for adventure.”

“That’s what I was thinking!  Plus, Greyhound kinds sucks.”

Now I am on that Airtran Flight and absolutely nothing has happened.  Despite some traffic, Tim dropped me off at the Metro Station in plenty of time.  He made it to work on time and I only had to wait about five minutes to catch the Orange Line train to Metro Center.  Transferred to the Red Line.  Uneventful ride to Union Station.  An hour and a half to kill there, so tea from AuBon Pan, reading in the Grand Hall (love that room) and a brief excursion to the Postal Museum (very cool).  Bought ticket from automated kiosk for MARC train.  Got an entire row to myself.  Washed, quiet, and normal people on the train with me.  Waited maybe five minutes at the station for theBWI shuttle bus.  Printed boarding pass at Tim’s, so no need to check in.  No line at security.  Lunch at McDonalds — surly workers there, but that’s pretty normal.  Chatted briefly with guy hawking Airtran Credit Cards, but resisted hard sell.  Comfortably on time to board plane.

Wait! Drama! I chose a window seat when I checked in, but someone (an Indian woman who was gently scolding her son across the aisle) was sitting in it!  What would I do?  Would there be a fight?  She could be dragged kicking and screaming from the plane!  Or I could just sit in the aisle seat and not say anything because I really don’t care.  I later learned that my arm restXM radio only played the Kenny G station.  Likely, that’s what drove the poor woman to the other seat.

That’s it.  That’s the adventure.  Arrived safely.  Picked up by my wife and daughter right on time.  Ate some Panera on the way home.

Told you.  Even our best laid plans for adventure don’t turn out the way you expect them to.  Travel teaches you that.

Travel and Change

July 2, 2009 in Productivity, Public Introspection | No comments

We’re back from vacation and while I have a lot I still want to write about as a result of the trip, I wanted to take a few minutes to reflect on how (or if) travel can be used to affect change in one’s own life upon “the return.”  I’m not really talking about how travel can change a person, more like how travel can change one’s routine and habits (which, I know, help constitute a person).

I could ramble on about this at length, but my thoughts are still ill formed so I’ll keep it to this:

Most of struggle with “getting back into the swing of things” after we return.  It’s hard to go back to work, to get back to eating right, to get back to the gym.  But there are some things we don’t need to get back to.  The break of travel can be an opportunity to NOT get back to some things that had crept into out routine that shouldn’t be there.

I am going to try to eliminate some of those things now that we are back by not letting them into the routine (again).  More specifics as they emerge, but most of them involve my not-very-healthy relationship with food.

Does this make sense?

Prince William Forest Park

June 28, 2009 in Gaming, Public Introspection | 5 comments

I am in my friend Tim’s study, in Farifax, VA, after spending the weekend a Prince William Forest Park in Virginia. Tim, Rich, and I had our annual guys weekend, which consisted of hiking, gaming, and (this time) camping at a cabin in the park.  Here are some things I learned:

1.  Ticks suck (pun fully intended).  I’ve pulled three off of me this weekend.  Yuck.

2.  Prince William Park is very cool.  There are good hikes there — we covered maybe 10 of the 37 miles of trails.  There are assorted campsites (RV, cabins, and primitive), bike trails, a senic loop to drive, and lots of things to see (nice wildlife, an abandoned pyrite mine).  It’s only 45 minutes from DC, yet the park was not at all crowded in a summer weekend.  The cabins we stayed in were built by the CCC and used by the OSS for training in WW2.  Ours had a fan, a light, and a mouse.  The later was extraordinarily brave, venturing accross the floor while we simply watched it wander around.  Our first night, it ate a small hole in our trash bag to get at a corn cob, but didn’t get into anything else.

3.  It takes a long time to boil water on one of those tiny backpacking stoves.  Much better to simply start a fire and put the pot over it.

4.  D&D 4th Edition is pretty cool.  Tim ran a game for us on Saturday night, at least until we were too tired to go on.  All the powers and stuff takes some getting used to — out first combat took a long time and we almost died, but as we figured things out we were faster and more effective.  While it is pretty cool, it didn’t wow me enough that I’m going to switch systems tomorrow, though.

5.  I need some better gear if I am going to do more outdoor stuff.  First, a real stove that can actually boil water in under 30 minutes.  Second, a lantern.  Third, some non-cotton clothes.  Granted, those first two things can’t be hauled along a backpacking trip, but with a two-year-old and a low tolerance for sleeping on the ground, I will likely just be car/cabin camping for the foreseeable future.  So those things will come in handy.

6.  Making it a life goal to visit all the National Parks and related national sites (National Historic Sites, Rivers, etc) seems doable.  I want to take my family to these places; I have a job that gives me lots of time in the summer to do it.  To this end, I picked up a National Park Passport on the way out today.  It lists all the parks and gives you a place to stamp the date of your visit to each.  I got my first stamp today.  Hopefully, Sarah, Eleanor, and I can fill it up in years to come.

Charlottesville

June 25, 2009 in Public Introspection | 2 comments

I will note that this post is being done somewhat hurredly on a public terminal in the lobby of Alderman Library at The University of Virginia.  I’ve got some interesting thoughts percolating on this town and this university, but I think they need to ferment a little longer, so this post will just be a recap of the past few days of travel.  More profound thoughts (perhaps) will follow in a later post.

Monday was spent in Washington DC.  We took the MARC train from Baltimore to Union Station.  It cost the family a total of $72 in tickets, so I am not sure if we came out ahead in dollar terms, but we did miss traffic and parking and general hassle.  The real reason we did it, though, was to ride the train, which Eleanor loves.  Too bad she slept most of the way back.  DC was well, like most of the other times I’ve been to DC — hot, lots of walking, and time at Natural History and Air and Space.  I like the city a lot.  I like those museums a lot,  but it’s hard to get beyond them sometimes, especially if you’re only there one day with people who haven’t been there before.  I will say Eleanor did love the dinosaur bones and all the rockets.  That was worth everything, right there.

Tuesday was our last full day in Baltimore, with Sarah’s parents leaving that afternoon.  Our morning was spent shopping and running errands while the grandparents got a few final hours in with the grandkids.  We ate lunch at Nicks Fishhouse, right on the harbor, behind an air conditioning refurb shop.  I think there may be a coorelation between food quality and proximity to heavy industry.  Nick’s was great.  Sarah had wonderful fish and chips, her dad had great tilapia, and I ate some wings (not in the mood for fish) dusted in Old Bay.  Sarah’s parents left for the airport right after lunch.

Wednesday we got up and packed, then drove down here to Charlottesville.  We spent last night at a friend of Sarah’s (who has three girls for Eleanor to play with), ate some Christian’s pizza, and had Bodo’s for breakfast this morning.  Now those two are off to Tennessee and I’ve wandering around UVA waiting for my friend to get off work.  Tomorrow our guy’s weekend begins.

Baltimore

June 21, 2009 in Uncategorized | No comments

We’re at Sarah’s sisters house in Baltimore, about a third of the way through our vacation.  We spend two fun days in Richmond, visiting with a friend from graduate school and his family.  Eleanor played with his two children, we grilled out, and did fun kid stuff.

We arrived here on Friday, just in time to eat dinner (crab cakes, of course) and head to my neice’s dance reciatal.  I’ll admit my initial scowl at being told tickets were $15 each, but it turned out to be lots of fun.  The recital had a “Night at the Museum” theme, combined with a cool multicultural vibe and a series of dances about Moses.  Eleanor was enthralled, despite staying up way past her bedtime.

We haven’t ventured out too much otherwise — a trip to the grocery store, brunch today after church.  The moms all cooked a great father’s day meal for us tonight.  This afternoon we visited Normals, a great used bookstore here in a somewhat sketchy part of town.  Another trip out (to buy beer, which can be purchased on Sunday from bars that also have their package license) yielded a nice drive past Johns Hopkins and Loyola.  Tomorrow we’re taking the train into DC.

I’ve seen more of Baltimore on this trip than I have any other time we’ve visited.  As I told my brother in law last night, Baltimore kind of scares me (and I’ve never even watched The Wire).  Many of these row home neighborhoods are run down and menacing.  But there are wonderful neighborhoods, too, like they one my in laws live in, with homes dating from the 1930′s nestled under trees.  There’s also a funky counterculture here, at least there seems to be, judging by the flyers in the bookstore and the emerging neighborhood around where we ate brunch (a packed place called Clementine).  I’m sure if we lived here there would be lots of cool stuff around, but then we’d have the school system to deal with.

A good vacation so far, with lots more to come.

Headed Out

June 17, 2009 in Public Introspection | 1 comment

I’m up early this morning to pack.  Our plan is to leave somewhere around 10:00 for a road trip up to Virginia and Maryland.  We’ll stop and see some friends in Richmond, then drive to Baltimore for some time with Sarah’s family.  We will spend the bulk of our time there, then head down to Charlottesville for a day.  I’ll get dropped off, while Sarah and Eleanor head down to Tennessee.  Friends from graduate school and I will then head to a park in Virginia where we’ve got a primitive cabin for the weekend.  We’ll game, hike, get attacked by mosquitoes, drink beer, and grill out.  Then, I’ll ride back to Fairfax with one of my buddies.  I’ll crash for the night, get dropped off at the metro station the next morning, and have to work my way to Baltimore/Washington airport in time for my afternoon flight home.

The trip sounds pretty complicated, perhaps more than it actually will be.  It lets us see a lot of friends and family — this is one of those vacations where seeing people, not seeing places, is the goal. Getting from Fairfax, VA to Baltimore/Washington International will be an adventure, but that’s how stories begin, don’t they?  Remind me to tell you of the time Harper and I took the bus from Greenville to DC. . .

All of this is also another way of saying the blog posts will be spotty for the next two weeks, as I’m not taking the laptop.

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