The End of Summer

Well, summer is over. The first week of the term was last week, and though it promises to be another very productive year (fingers crossed), it's always sad to see the end of summer. At the very least, that antarctic blast we got last week was a chilly reminder of things to come.

But it was a good summer, for the most part. Had a great trip back to the US in November (and a very sad and short one for Aunt Sara's funeral last month). Julie's visit in December was full of good times, chronicled here in these very pages.

In the other months, other than the occasional side trip (e.g, Pinnacles), golf, and the surprisingly rare night out, it was a lot of work, work, work. But that was a good thing. It was the first time in six years that I'd stayed where I lived, so it was really my first maximally productive summer since I became ABD at Memphis. (Count 'em: 2000-Germany, 2001-Seattle and Move To Bakersfield, 2002-New York, 2003-Western States Road Trip, 2004-Move To LA, 2005-Move To NZ. Only the first was relatively short [7 weeks], and '02 and '03 were necessitated by the strong desire to avoid the Bako summer heat.)

Anyway, I've been happy with the progress. Here's a quick run-down, for those who are interested. (1) Julie and I finished the first stage of our empirical research on race thinking, and began the second stage. (2) Wrote a new paper on moral fictionalism. (3) Wrote a new paper on Kantian ethics. (4) Wrote a new paper on race. (5) Wrote a new paper in a totally new area, aesthetics, which I'm calling 'Hi-Fi Aesthetics.' I like that title. (6) Started, and am close to finishing, a new paper with my colleague Stuart Brock called 'The Paradox Paradox.' I like that title, too. (7) Revised several older papers.

Hopefully I can keep up the pace. Again, for those who are interested, I've finally got my (relatively bare-bones) professional Web site up and running. The pages are proliferating these days, between that, this blog, and the philosophy blog (PEA Soup). The professional page has updates of my research, and it also has copies of some papers, if you're looking for something to read that's good for putting you to sleep at night. Just kidding. Hopefully.

Lastly, I also finally got a chance to get the home music studio up and running again. And I got to record the one song I've written since I've been here (a pathetically low number). I'm fairly confident I'll come to regret this, but--again, for those who are interested--I've uploaded it to the Web if you want to have a listen.

The track, called "Everything Is Gonna Be Alright," can be found on my new page at AudioStreet.net. (Like I said, the pages are proliferating.) The production quality isn't as high as I'd like, so I recommend either the "Stream Hi" option or the download "MP3" option. And the usual caveat applies: please forgive some of the mistakes (e.g., flat vocal notes).

Somehow, even though nobody has visited the page yet, my ranking on AudioStreet's charts has vascillated between 18,203 and 12,825. The higher present ranking puts me smack dab between Jay Mark, an "ambient" music act from Miami, and Pajavasara, an alternative music act from Finland. Anyway, I don't know how anyone is ranked lower than me, given that no one's heard the song yet, but it's nice to know that even at my highest, I'm wildly unpopular!

If I'm not totally embarrassed by putting this song on the Web, maybe I'll upload a couple more in the coming weeks. In the meantime, it's back to school here in New Zealand.