Capstone

Apologies for the extended absence - life got a bit crazier than anticipated near the end of term.  

Torpids

Day 3 was incredible.  We had our best start yet and just chomped into the distance between us and Jesus College right off the bat.  When a pursuing boat gets within a length of the boat ahead the umpires on the bank starts blowing a whistle.  The more whistles heard indicates the degree of proximity.  After five strokes we heard our first whistle.  It was surprising to hear the blaring of whistles that quickly so the cox called for a steady rate to keep us focused.  A few strokes later we started getting lots of whistles.  It was at this point that the race got interesting.  Once we were within a few feet of the Jesus boat the water got real dirty from their effort ahead of us.  It was difficult to row in that chop but the boys responded well and we kept a powerful pace up.  As we approached the gut our cox called for a 10-4-10, which is our attack move.  Its a power ten, then four strokes with firm pressure but some allowance for us to catch our breath, then another power ten to seal the pursuit.

As we entered the gut I couldnt even hear the whistles anymore from the pounding in my skull and the force of determination it took to maintain my strokes in the choppy water.  Just before the Hertford boat house we bumped Jesus college, making physical contact with their boat.  It was a life experience that I will never forget.  A cheer went up from the boys and we rowed on into the raft to thunderous applause from the rest of the boat club that had come down to watch.  Jesus rowed hard, their guys were bigger and more powerful than we were, but their coordination was subpar and they got eaten up by our well drilled squad.

Day 4 was triple live gonzo rowing the likes of which I have never known.  Having bumped Jesus we moved ahead of them and had our sights set on Balliol.  Jesus had a good start and stayed right with us as we pushed on Balliol, whose crew was much more solid than Jesus.  We knew this was going to be a long race, with a bump only possible near the end when we could push through their endurance limit and exert our distance dominance. 

After about twenty strokes one of our guys caught a wicked crab and we lost five strokes recovering.  Jesus was on top of us, full of steam and murder in their hearts after the crushing defeat we handed them the previous day - they wanted their spot back and they were coming hard to get it.  Our cox glanced over his shoulder and saw we had about three feet between us and Jesus and that distance was closing fast.  He called a reset and then a power twenty to push off from Jesus.  Our chances at catching Balliol were done and it looked like Jesus was going to hit us. 

Our power twenty was a thing of beauty - we pressed long and hard every stroke and pushed Jesus off.  I could hear them breathing and the sound of their coach yelling for our submission.  But we didnt give them anything.  As we approached the gut we had extended the gap between us to about four seats.  Suddenly the sound of air horns was everywhere, the dreaded klaxons signalling an immediate cessation of racing.  Our cox called for an all stop and a firm hold from all oars.  We very nearly smashed into Balliol, who had crashed into two other boats ahead of them.  The race was called off and everyone rowed into the raft, utterly exhausted.  We didnt catch Balliol but neither did we let Jesus touch us.  The judges were adamant - no bump had ocurred. 

Girls from W1 sprinted down to the raft and popped champagne in our faces, drenching us all in the sweet taste of victory.  I was all smiles at that.  We had rowed admirably, never admitting defeat and demonstrating astonishing cohesion and grit.  I was immensely proud to be in the boat with those guys.  We took back off from the raft for a quick paddle to cool down and it felt great.  We rowed so clean on that victory lap, the boat sang.   

Bumps racing is the best.  I've just gotta get more. 




Thesis

After Torpids was over the mens captain asked me to come row for M1 in the prestigious Head of the River Regatta Eights race in London.  I was so stoked to be asked and immediately accepted.  A week into training I got an updated thesis timetable from my professors and my heart sank.  The work required to finish my thesis according to the new schedule was going to be a huge burden on my time.  With the Oxford term over the boys on the team were training two to three times a day to get ready for HoRR.   I knew I couldnt give the kind of time the team deserved to training with that much thesis work ahead of me so I wrote the captain and explained this to him.  He had some guys waiting in the wings to try out for the HoRR so I asked him to accept one of them that could dedicate the kind of time the team deserved.  And with that I bowed out of Hertford Rowing.  It was one of the more difficult decisions I have ever had to make but it needed to be done - I came here for academic success first and foremost.

As it turned out that decision was the right one.  I put in almost 100 hours on my thesis in the last two weeks and it wouldnt have been ready for submission unless I had worked that diligently at it.  It's called "On the Evolution of Metaphysical Explanation in Cosmological Modeling" and it's an essay I'm quite proud of. 

Yesterday I received an email from my thesis advisers that the dean of the school had accepted my essay and that the quality of the work was sufficient for me to be eligible for a defense.  I am supremely pleased with this result despite the lack of rowing in my life.  Thesis defences are the day before graduation so if you are going to be in town please come by and watch the action.  I already know one of my cross-examiners has strong disagreements about my reading of Kant so I'm looking forward to schooling him for a refreshing turn of the tables. 

***

And now my room is packed and the posters are down.  I gave away most of my books to a gentleman who wanted his 17 year old daughter to get in some light reading over the summer.  She's in for a hell of a surprise. 

This experience defies description.  Watch my eyes when you ask me about it and you'll probably understand a lot more than my mouth can express.  Of course I'll still try and encapsulate it with aggrandized sentences and hyperbolic adjectives.  I hope it ends up being a tale worthy of the experience.

Thanks for your support everyone, we did it.  See you at home. 


Robert Henry Carpenter
April 16th, 2011
Oxford, UK

Torpids!

Day 1:
     I was not in the boat for the first day because I had a tutorial that could not be missed which clashed with the race time.  Nevertheless the guys did pretty well considering they had an M1 boat behind them.  They were eventually bumped by St. Antony's but the guys were well proud of having held them off for as long as they did, especially considering it was an M1 crew they were fighting.  We finished the river length without getting bumped again so it was not a bad day. 

This is a link to the St. Anthony's Boat Club page which has some videos of the M2 guys on day 1.

http://boatclub.stantonys.info/content/torpids-2011-m1-day-1



Day 2:
Racing is big fun!  I was at the 4 seat and happy with that position.  I was feeling relaxed and cool as a cucumber about the race to come...

     We started off incredibly strong, taking half a length out of the boat in front of us (St. Antony's) in the first ten strokes.  But behind us was LMH, and they stayed right with us as we chased St. Antony's, giving no water to us from the get go.  This was my first time rowing under these conditions but I adapted quickly.  After about six strokes we were already rowing through the dirty water from the crews that started ahead of us.  I missed a stroke early on fighting the chop but that was to be one of only three missed strokes over the 2200m course.  I lightened up my grip on the oar and just let it flow up to the catch, getting a sense of the water through the blade and knowing that it was a strong catch position by feel rather than by muscle memory, which couldnt be relied on in such ugly water.

After about 1200m the river comes to a bend where it widens significantly; this is called the 'gut' of the river.  This is where the race really begins.  We did a power ten going into the gut and kept our rating even and our power firm even after those ten strokes.  Then two bumps occurred ahead of us and in rapid succession.  With both boats immediately astern of us suddenly out of the race our new target was several lengths off.  By now we had opened up a 2 length gap on our trailing rivals LMH and they were dying while we were steady at 34 strokes per minute. 

By the time we crossed the finish line we had cut the gap between us and the boat ahead to 2 or 3 lengths and we had pushed off LMH at 2.5 lengths.  I'm not disappointed that we didnt score a bump.  I did not row my best, though I rowed hard, and I feel confident that we will seal it tomorrow.  I need to be driving my knees down much faster and letting myself finish the stroke.  My hands come down near the end and start feathering early - this is bad for a hundred reasons.  Also when I get tired I let my shoulders come into the stroke too early, but if I can keep driving my knees down properly then that wont be a problem.  If I can keep these things in my head tomorrow then the improvement will be felt in the cover between strokes.

At the end we felt good about our effort and a small cheer went up from the guys on the boat led by Graham on the bank.  It was a hell of a workout and we just pushed off those guys behind us like it was nothing at all. It felt like we were rowing at 83% of our possible ability today and we crushed LMH.  Now its Jesus College in front of us and we are aiming to make them miserable. 



     A couple of the videos are really nice full length shots of the whole race.  Naturally this makes them unruly large files and precludes me from uploading them tonight.  I will share them once I have time or else you'll have to pester me when I return home and I'll bust em out on the laptop. 

     The rest of them are up on my youtube at:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-ueHuBf6-jw
&
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=esR2_Y0kIaA

Torpids Info - Truth Time

I have deliberately withheld some anxiety over this race from you, my dear readers and friends, because frankly it was an almost soul-crushingly heavy burden to bear.  Despite my involvement and dedication to the Hertford Boat Club my ability to enter the race as an official Oxford student was never certain.  In fact the probability of it happening was never better than a slim chance.  Previous students from Shimer who have taken part in Oxford athletics have never been allowed to compete in the official competitions because of our lack of "official affiliation", which was granted exclusively to matriculating students...until today.  

To be allowed to row against other Oxford colleges I needed to obtain a letter composed and signed by the Senior Tutor at Hertford which stated that they had fully accepted me as an affiliated international student.  Affiliated students are chosen by the college admissions committee.  These applicants are required to submit a complete college application and are judged  according to the rigorous admission standards that make Oxford one of the most elite schools in the world.

Although my academic credentials were always sufficient to earn me a place here there was no opportunity for me to submit my application during the admissions window.   I was left with only one chance to make this happen - to dedicate myself to the Boat Club with no reservations, always with the thought in mind that I could make this happen once I had proven to the right people that I belonged here despite having never been  officially reviewed by the college.

In a stroke of good luck one of the other gentlemen in the M1 boat last term was the treasurer of the Masters Common Room (MCR), which is the collective body of graduate students studying at Hertford.  Having struck up a good relationship with Mr. Geoff Nelson, the treasurer and fellow oarsman, he submitted my name to the MCR for a vote on whether to accept me into their ranks.  Although I am not a graduate student my age and dedication to Hertford athletics were enough to show the MCR committee that I belonged among the graduate community.  The vote was unanimous and I was accepted as an associate member of the MCR three weeks ago. 

Having pushed my unofficial affiliation to Hertford this far I was now ready to make the case to the Senior Tutor that I was eligible for a letter confirming my affiliation to the college.  This afternoon I was finally successful in securing that letter from the Senior Tutor.  I am now, according to all records, a full fledged member of both the Hertford Boat Club and Hertford College itself.  As far as I know this is without precedent in the history of the Shimer in Oxford program. 

The sky can only be doubling over in agony at the repeated punchings I have bestowed upon it in my exuberant jubilation.

We did it.  Thank you to everyone who helped me get here. 


With Love,
your boy Rob

***

 Torpids crews are official and posted online.  Find me in the M2 crew at the 4 seat!  Also, you can use this site to keep updated on the Torpids competition as it unfolds for Hertford in two weeks time.

http://boatclub.hertford.ox.ac.uk/racing/torpids/torpids_2011.php

Juan will be equipped with my digital camera so he can take pics and video of the live races.  Those will be posted each night.

Quick Updates

     Bit of an upset - I was placed in M2.  However, the captain and coaches explained that it wasn't for lack of athleticism or skill that kept me out of the M1 boat.  Of the three guys competing for the last seat in M1 my times were the best.  Since I'm only here for another two months and the team needs to think ahead toward summer eights and beyond, they want to get a team together for M1 that will be experienced rowing together from now on into the future.  Though this was a disappointment to me I understand their reasoning and am happy to take a place in the M2 boat.  In fact the M2 roster has been steadily getting more and more dangerous as the weeks have gone by.  We have an incredible array of oarsmen for this boat and I am proud to be a member of the group. I have been floating back and forth between the four and six seats depending on where the coaches want me on a given day and I like both spots.  The engine section is where I flourish. 

     The thesis is coming together quite nicely.  I have refined the project and have begun the writing intensive task of just producing a complete first draft.  As it stands now I am examining the metaphysical underpinnings, if any, that inform cosmological theories from Ptolemy to Hubble.  Got about 15 pages done so far, hoping to have 25 more done by the end of February.  The project is interesting and exciting and I am liking the work if not the workload. 

     Classes are going well also.  My tutorial with Hsueh Qu, a grad student at Hertford, has been the most challenging and intellectually rewarding experience of my academic life.  We have been studying the works of David Hume on various topics including: induction, liberty, necessity, free will, skepticism, the origins of ideas, modality, probability, meta meta physics and more.  Qu is an incredible student and teacher, enthusiastic, knowledgeable, able to quote Hume from memory and he has a wonderful disposition.  We meet once a week for an hour and it is the craziest 60 minutes of my week.  We launch into astonishingly fast paced discussions that don't let up until the last minute is spent.  It feels like all of my philosophical training up to this point has been in preparation for a class just like this.  This is the true way to learn - one on one with an expert, talking furiously fast and throwing ideas back and forth with rapidity and surgical proficiency born from close study of a text.  I love this stuff. 

The Torpids Quest

Latest news on the formation of the main boat crew...

Several distinguished oarsmen who were absent last term due to their academic work loads have expressed desires to return for this Torpids season.  These guys are all very experienced and quite athletic, as well as having the advantage of previous rowing experience together in Hertford's past.  That means that the available seats in the first boat is steadily decreasing.

The coaches have thus raised the bar for any oarsmen wanting one of the few remaining seats in the main boat.  However they have still made me an offer.  If I can continue the physical progress I've made in the last few weeks then I will be offered a spot.  This means knocking at least another 10 seconds off my 2k time while maintaining a consistent split.  Although this task seems daunting, I am incredibly excited for the opportunity.

Proving oneself is an essential aspect of the human experience.  Whether it be intellectually (which I am used to) or physically (the new game).  Moreover, I relish the chance to show off the illimitable scope of my will to succeed despite any obstacle.

I am also happy with the way this Torpids boat is coming together.  Being the 'weakest' link on a team of monstrously powerful competitors is where I prefer to be.  I learn from them, emulate them, and use the displays of their respective talent to inspire and drive me to their level.  I can't wait to earn a spot among such oarsmen.  Due to my height and leg length I will most likely be placed somewhere in the middle of the boat, in the engine, so to speak.  After years of being bullied in grade school for being one of the tiny kids, I like embracing the newer, bigger me.  The attention from the ladies is pretty good inspiration to continue too :p

Further updates as the term progresses...

The 2k Test

ERG results!

Eleven of us from Hertford were in attendance and we did it in two groups so that we could all benefit from having some coaching and cheering behind us as we tormented ourselves.   

I didn't quite get my time down into the 6:50 area like I wanted.  My problem was consistency.

For the first 500m I was good, setting a split at 1:43.
Second 500m I slowed down a bit, which was ok, 1:45 split.
But in the third 500 I cracked and my time rose up to about 1:47
I kept that 1:47 split through the last 500m also. 

Total time:  7:04.7

At first I was upset that I wasn't able to break into the sixes like I had planned and wanted.  However, in appreciation of the broader picture I must say this time is pretty damn good for a former lazy computer nerd.  Its a new personal best - a full ten seconds under my previous record which was set a mere three weeks ago.  I'm proud of that improvement.  That time was also the third best of all of us there that night.  I was beaten by the men's captain and a former lightweight Oxford v Cambridge, "Blues" oarsman.  It's hard to stay mad at yourself when that's the company you keep.  I was only 14 seconds off their times and I have two months to catch them.  No problem. 

I find out if I made the first boat sometime next week when the coaches/captain finish their decisions.

A New Term Begins

Although this is still nought week, or zero week, which is the week before Oxford term begins, our Shimer capstone course, IS 6 has begun.  We've already finished reading the Canterbury Tales and moved on to Luther's essays on the Reformation.  The Tales were interesting from a historical perspective as well as being beautifully written.  I don't think they belonged in the curriculum though, they don't speak to anything about the human condition and experience that we haven't already gotten from other sources.  Yes, the Tales highlight social and cultural issues that are still relevant, but so does the Bible, and Dante's Inferno, and Christine de Pizan's Treasure of the City of Ladies, and a host of others.  Anyway, the Luther is incredibly interesting, especially given Aunt Ruth's genealogy research which places branches of our family tree in Wittenburg, the place of Luther's ascendancy. 

I've also started reading Hume's Enquiry Considering Human Understanding - the work that was so extravagantly misunderstood that Hume was deemed a heretic for unseating the foundations of all morality and for removing God as the prime cause of everything (as if a scholarly paper could possibly accomplish that unless the readers allowed it to!)  Anyway, its one of the hardest bits of philosophy I've ever encountered but the fruits of its proper understanding are nothing short of amazing.  Hume answers the questions that I threw at teachers in grade school about the sources of all knowledge, only to be told I was being disruptive and that they didn't matter.  Um, pardon me teach', but they matter, big time.  Hume is quickly becoming a favorite. 

***

We had an intensive rowing training camp all last week and some of this week.  Two outings on the water a day plus core stability circuits and rowing machine pieces.  My body was immolated in the intensity of the work.  I have never known such complete exhaustion.  I very nearly quit because I could do nothing else but eat, physically exert myself during training, and then go home to sleep.  It just didn't feel like a life to me.  And the work wasn't getting any easier while my energy continued to plummet.  After about five days though my body recovered and rebuilt itself seemingly overnight.  I was suddenly able to do all the core exercises without much trouble, the ERG work got easier, my times were faster, the boat felt easy and light - it was all gravy.  The confidence gained from that experience has fortified me yet further.

I endure this pain and torment and eventual renewal for two reasons.  First, I found something invaluable in the realm of agony that rowing brings.  Pain is a healing, purifying alembic.  It transmutes.  It is not easy to describe.  I wonder whether a life can be said to be complete that has not pushed itself this far and discovered its own wellspring of vitae.  The lesson gets deeper and more personal with every new session, and I won't give that up.  Secondly, and this was the reason that arose first chronologically, I want a seat in the Mens 1 boat for the upcoming Torpids competition.  Yes, Hertford will be fielding several mens boats, and yes I will certainly be able to race in one of them.  It isn't even expected that the first boat will be very successful given how high we are in the standings already - that boat will struggle to do more than stave off attackers and maintain its good position.  Yet I want in that boat.  Those are the coveted spots, where the eight finest athletes and oarsmen get to sit and pour their hearts into going fast together, for the college, for the old boys who still come down to watch and cheer, for the pure exultation of success at such a high level of competition. 

It gets decided tomorrow at the 2k test.  At the beginning of break I did one and got a new personal best at 7mins 14seconds, six seconds under my previous best time.  That time is nowhere near competitive enough to get me in the boat.  I need to get under 7 minutes to have a chance at the main boat.  I need to maintain a 500m split time in the 1:42 area for 2000 meters.  That will get me there in about 6:50, which should be enough. 

Whereas I used to be a nervous wreck around these tests, I have found the impossible zen that comes from knowing that I can deal with pain and keep rowing.  We did 6x500s and 3x1000s all this week and my times were excellent, right on target.  The true exhaustion didn't start to settle in until the final sets, which are beyond the 2000 meters necessary for the test tomorrow.  Moreover, I have some techniques to keep my mind off  the distance and the pain and to just keep moving.  If I can get myself through the first 1500 meters in good time, my tricks can get me the rest of the way - blind, bleeding, exploding, dying, screaming my triumph with every stroke. 

One of those seats will be MINE. 

The Semester Draws to a Close

As I enter the final week of work for this term I find myself breathing an immense sigh of relief.  Though these have been the most challenging  months of my life, I do not look back over them with even the slightest regret.  The relief comes from the absence of personal doubt.  I have survived, and moreover I will have succeeded.  For a person who continually lives in his own head, doubting every movement and decision, this has been a semester of revelation.

I am eager to spend a few days relaxing, but to thereafter get right back to work.  I have a great deal of reading and writing to do for my thesis.  I hope to complete a large part of the first draft over this break.  I will also be training for rowing even harder than I did during term.  One of our coaches has volunteered his time over break to train the few of us that are remaining in town and I simply cannot pass up the opportunity to train with an elite level sculler for three weeks.  At the end of break, just before next term, the team will be coming together and traveling to the famous Dorney Lake, Eton College Rowing Center for an intense training school.  Its time to push my 2k into the 6:30 - 6:40 area and get serious about this quest for rowing greatness.  Next term is Torpids, the epic Oxford bumps racing tournament, and I intend to be in the main boat and get some blades for Hertford.

Next semester I am only taking one tutorial in addition to my thesis writing and Integrated Studies 6 capstone course.  I have already set up the course and its with a Hertford philosophy doctoral student named Hsueh Qu.  We will be studying Hume and some more contemporary philosophers on causation as well as topics in metaphysics and induction.  I am very excited to work with Qu, he is an energetic and brilliant person.  As for my thesis, the topic continues to narrow.  I am now examining the work of three astronomers in particular: Copernicus, Herschel and Hubble.  More on that as it unfolds over break.

And lastly, the Integrated Studies 6 reading list.  I am not kidding when I say that this reading list is one of the main attractions that solidified my commitment to the Shimer curriculum.  Each professor is given a bit of free reign to include a few extra texts outside the core requirements and I am quite pleased with the choices made by professor Patterson.  Without further ado...the sickness that is IS 6:

Texts (in Calendar Order)

Chaucer, The Canterbury Tales                                         

Erasmus, In Praise of Folly                                               

More, Utopia         

Shakespeare, The Tempest

Bacon, The New Organon

Milton, Paradise Lost                                 

Hume, Dialogues Concerning Natural Religion

Kant, Groundwork for the Metaphysics of Morals

Voltaire, Candide

Goethe, Faust, Parts 1 and 2

Beethoven, 9th Symphony

Rousseau, Discourse on Inequality

Joyce, Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man

Barnes, Nightwood

Spiegelman, Maus I and II             

Camus, The Myth of Sisyphus

Welles, Citizen Kane                                             

           

                                                                                   

Reprints (in Calendar Order)

Luther, “On the Freedom of a Christian"

Rabelais, Gargantua 

Montaigne, “On the Cannibals,” “On the Custom of Wearing Clothing,” “On Habit,” and “On the Inconstancy of our Actions”

Kuhn, The Copernican Revolution

Galileo, The Starry Messenger

Kepler, Epitome of Copernican Astronomy

Bacon, The New Atlantis

Swift, Gulliver’s Travels

Kant, Prolegomena to any Future Metaphysics

Hegel, Reason in History

Nietzsche, The Use and Abuse of History

Marx, “Preface” to A Contribution to the Critique of Political Economy

Weber, “Politics as a Vocation

Heidegger, “The Age of the World Picture”

Arendt, “Concept of History”

Borges, “The Aleph” and “The Library of Babel”

Incredible.

Races!

Competition, my sweet mistress, it had been too long!

Or in other words...

All that training was for something besides self respect?!



So the last two weekends were filled with out of town racing.  The first one was in London on the Thames - the Fullers Head of the River Fours event.  Bad news though, our stroke seat was deathly ill and though we went down and rigged up the boat hoping his condition would improve enough to race he showed up that morning looking absolutely ghoulish, so we scratched.  Nevertheless, we had a good time in London.

Geoff - our 2 seat, bow side, Hertford social secretary, Crew Date Logistical Mastermind

(Yes, the boat is bow rigged.  That's how we rowll.)

Peter Morten - Mens Capn', 3 seat, stroke sider, registered badass

***

This weekend we took a much longer road trip to the east side of jolly old for the Winter Head in Cambridge.  The town was much more subdued than Oxford - had a real stuffy feel to it.  Plus the fog was so dense it got scary out there.  Hertford sent four crews to compete so it was quite a party:  men's M1 senior 4s, men's novice A 8s, women's W1 senior 4s, and women's novice A 8s - almost 30 of us.

The Cam river is narrow just like the Isis in Oxford - too narrow for a line up so the events were all time trials.  The course was 2500 meters long and had two right angle turns in it.  Since our cox is a madman this was a good thing.  He out steered the Cambridge coxes on their own waterway.  The first race was an all student class with over twenty teams competing.  It was my first boat race ever so I was nervous.  We started at a punishing stroke count of 37 and then settled after about 1500 meters of that agony.  I was focused entirely on keeping up with the other guys which was some bad tunnel vision.  Though we didn't feel like we had done well because it wasn't a smooth run we actually made decent time coming in at about 10:31 and that earned us 6th place.  

 

In the afternoon we had an official Great Britain Rowing points category race with about ten or fifteen teams.  Having cured myself of the total novice jitters I was much more relaxed for this one.  It didn't feel like I was pushing to stay in time with the other guys, the boat just flowed together.  We kept it between 31 and 33 strokes per minute for the whole race and that went much better for us.  The boat stayed sat and just ran fast and hard.  The boys were in good rhythm and looking mean I must say.  

 Pure exultation after the second race.

We had started about 400 meters behind the four taking off ahead of us and overtook them at the finish line so that was outstanding fun.  When you commit fully from the first stroke there isn't much left in the tank come time for that final push.  James, our stroke man, was roaring like a lion in the last 1000 meters and his energy was infectious.  Our cox was like a braying demon and it definitely spurred us on having so much intensity coming across that loud speaker at our feet. Some highlights: "We've got two seats on them, I want another one in three strokes!  Press them out!  Long sends!  Blood in the water!" and "That's it boys, they've broken!  Twist the knife!"  

We didn't end up winning that race but did finish 4th overall with a time around 9:33.  The top four were all within about 5 seconds of each other so it was a close battle.  Despite the loss we were all jubilant afterward.  There was the definite sense that we had raced well and as a first day of competition with this four man setup it was a great feeling to know we could row like a real crew.  

We all breathed fire for ten minutes straight and rowed until our legs were filled with molten lead, then we did it again, only better.  We lived in a realm of absolute pain that first race, but we didn't buckle.  Then we found something incredible during the second go and it felt almost effortless for those first 1500 meters.  We chased perfection and seemed to touch her for the barest of moments.  Thunder roars in your veins when you reach that place...its a dimension of sublime agony.

The Crew after racing (from right to left: Geoff, Pete, Jon (cox), James, me)

The ladies senior fours won their division so congratulations to them for sure, they rowed hard and brought home some engraved hip flasks.  We are all looking forward to seeing them take some blades in the Torpids/Bumps event.  The mens novice 8 boat also did real well in their category - should be a great team for the Christ Church Novice Regatta this coming week.  

Next semester there are a ton more races.  There will be two more fours heads at least, one in Bristol and one in a location to be determined.  Plus the big all Oxford Torpids is eights bump racing on the Isis.  Apparently its carnage on the river everyday for a week.  Sounds like my kind of party.  Everyone has to try out for that boat so I'm stoked to train hard over the break and come back with a business face on.   

That's all for tonight.  Heading to bed for a bit of well earned slumber.  

Updates

Went and checked out the Ashmolean Museum here in town.  Great thing about the museums here, they are all free.  Their special exhibit was some pre-Raphaelite work, which was spectacular.  It was mostly John Ruskin and his pupils and adherents, rather than any Italian painters.  The landscapes were particularly amazing.

 Been hanging out at the Union Society building a lot lately.  Its got some great rooms to get serious work done.  Below is the Gladstone Room, which has become my favorite place to read in all of Oxford.
Its usually empty too - an amazing space to spread out and ponder big ideas.

But when I'm not reading I'm usually to be found at the Hertford College Boat House on the river Isis that runs through town.  Training has been kicked up a notch in the last week - we are going out twice a day quite often and even when we aren't the coaches encourage us to hit the ERG machines for extended sessions.  In two weeks time the M1 fours team that I have the privilege of rowing for will be headed down to London to race in the Head of the River competition.  All of our training has been geared towards preparing for that race so we can have a good showing.  

Every day we go out the boat is looking better.  The whole thing is starting to come together in a big way.  Tonight as we were heading back in after sundown we had a real nice string of strokes where we were all in unison and the boat stayed rigid through the whole set.  From solid catches to powerful sends, we drove those knees down and pushed our chests out at backstops - all together and in beautiful unity.  I was concerned it wouldn't be coming together in time but after tonight I know we can do it.

Though more is demanded of me than I have ever known, I get to wake up and look at scenes like this...

...with four other guys all equally feeling the need to drive for perfection.  It's pure magic when we get into the rhythm and all move as one.  I wouldn't trade my time on the water for any depth of slumber no matter how sweet that bed may seem.  It can't possibly hold a candle to what we get into out there every morning.

I like the challenge of working this hard to two arenas.  Stress from the school work arises periodically but getting an oar in my hands banishes it like a shot of espresso to the dome.  I can see why students here are encouraged to engage in a sport while studying, it would weigh too heavily to be so wrapped up in the purely mental theater of exertion.  Balance serves me well.

Righteous News

Apologies for the delayed update here but these past few days have been busy.  This was the official first week of Michaelmas Term so I now know just how crazy intense the school year gets at Oxford.  Classes are still going really well.  Logic is progressing at a good speed and I can feel the various axioms settling into my mind.  Starting to write little notations like "SP" (suppressed premise) in the margins of other texts I read so retention and understanding is no problem there.  Got to do some observation through small telescopes up at Hanwell and that was wild.  Looked at a bunch of binary star systems and then at Jupiter.  All four of the Galilean moons were clearly visible along the equatorial axis.  Makes for some amazing viewing having all those locked into a belt extending out from the Jovian monster.  I'm keeping an observational journal complete with sketches and that's a fun exercise.

But the big stuff this week was definitely from the rowing corner of my world.  Last Saturday I went down to the Hertford College boat house for a taster session with all the other freshers (although I don't exactly fit the freshman bill, this is my first year in Oxford so that's close enough)  Right off the bat I met an old Hertford oarsman who actually rowed in the blue boat in last years Xchanging Boat Race.  Though Cambridge won the race it was still a huge achievement on his part to have made it to that level.  The Boat Race (no further qualification necessary, as though there are no other boat races in the world) is essentially the grudge match between Cambridge and Oxford that takes place once a year and is watched by pretty much everyone in England.  I was shown around the boathouse and then briefed on Hertford's progress through the rankings at Oxford rowing in recent years.  It was a very warm welcome. 

Having had a grip of experience over the last year rowing with Ron, Brian and some New Trier kids I was the clear standout among the group of about 25.  After some time on the rowing machine we went out in an eight man boat which was a real treat, having never been in one before then.  After that we settled down for some burgers and beers.  I was offered a spot on the primary novice boat which was wonderful, I was very happy with that.

The next day the captain of men's rowing added me to the email list for the senior squad (not senior as in citizen, as in rowing badass) and asked me to come train with them for the week to see if I had what it took to jump up into their bracket.  "Okaay" I said to myself, this was about to get a whole lot more real.  So Friday morning at 0630 I was in another eight, this time with the Sr. Mens team and a visiting post-grad who also had rowed in the Blue Boat last year - different guy than the one I met last Saturday.  Clearly these guys produce world class oarsmen if they sent two guys to that event in one year.  The outing went well, I was rusty from not having seriously held an oar in about two months but it came back quickly.

I went back for some ERG training that night at 1730 and one of their two coaches was there to teach me how a proper Hertford stroke looks and feels.  Did some basic ERG pieces to work out the rhythm and it started to feel real natural.  The coach pulled me and one other new guy aside afterwards and said "You are two guys I want in my boat.  You've got the athleticism and we can teach you how to row at an international level if you stick with us for the year."  I almost hurt myself nodding vigorously.

This morning I was back up and over at the boathouse for some time in a four man boat trying to implement what I had learned on the ERGs the night before.  The mens captain was at stroke position and two guys I hadn't met yet were in seats 2 and 3 which put me at bow seat.  I was the only new guy in the boat so the pressure was on.  It took about an hour to integrate all that was being thrown at me and lay down some good strokes but damn it felt good to connect with the water properly and feel that boat move.  I know I wasn't looking good the whole outing but I let myself be a blank slate for the coach and just tried my hardest to implement whatever he wanted me to do.  Near the end of the second hour we hit a perfect unison for three strokes and the cox yelled "Whoa!  Now that's how you do it boys!  I felt that!"  followed by the coach on the riverbank saying, "I think we just found a new bow seat oarsman."

I'm still grinning over this, probably won't stop til sometime next month. 

All I need is a few little pieces of paper with some signatures on them that say I'm a visiting international student of Hertford College and then I'm officially a member of their Senior Mens squad.  The work certainly doesn't end there.  I'll be training twice a day, five days a week for rest of my time here but its all in service to the grandest dream I've yet brought to fruition.  This feeling lies well beyond even the most superlative adjectives I've ever learned. 

So raise a glass with me this weekend - To the Oarsman!

Incredible is Everywhere

This was the view outside my tutorial room yesterday.  That's the Christ Church Quadrangle.  I was there for a meeting with Leo Huckvale and we had our first real session - an introduction to Astronomy and Cosmology.  Leo doesn't work at Christ Church and neither does Christopher Taylor (they are the two professors teaching my "History and Practice of Observational Astronomy" tutorial).  But Mr. Taylor's wife, Dr. Rowena Archer, she teaches Medieval History at Christ Church and kindly allowed us the use of her office.

The session went really well.  We covered the notable achievements of Hipparchos, Ptolemy, Brahe & Kepler.  Apparently Brahe was such a genius the King of Denmark gave him an island and enough funds to build a castle observatory there.  The castle still stands on the island of Hven (Ven in Swedish).

We spent the bulk of our time discussing stellar magnitudes, which are of paramount concern.  When we gaze at the heavens, some stars appear much brighter than others.  The Greek astronomer Hipparchos created the first catalogue of stars and grouped them according to brightness as seen with the unaided eye.  This was done sometime between 130 and 160 BC.  These stars (the 251 of them that Hipparchos studied) were separated into six groups - the brightest being termed 1st magnitude and the dimmest 6th magnitude.  This system is still used today, although our method for measuring brightness has become more exact.  Hipparchos' estimations of the differences between magnitudes has been verified as almost right on.  He identified a logarithmic relationship between each step up in magnitude.  Since a 1st magnitude star is about 100 times brighter than a 6th, the scale is like the Richter Scale which measures earthquake severity.  So each step up into a new whole number means exponentially more ground shaking, or in this case, stellar brightness.  

But hold on you are saying, just because one star looks brighter than another that doesn't necessarily mean its got a greater magnitude.  A star that appears bright to us could be either a faint star that is close to the Sun or a ridiculously luminous one really far away.  So this system is really about apparent magnitudes.  But with the aid of geometry and calculus we have learned to determine just how far away each star is and thus its actual magnitude.  In fact this system of magnitudes, once aided by the right math, was the source of the first understanding of cosmic distances.


I'm really into this stuff.  Can't wait to learn the math and stand on the shoulders of giants.

Happy Brithday Momma!

I know you read this like five times a day to feel just a little bit closer to me while I'm thousands of miles away.  I may never find a birthday gift equal to that which you have given me by helping me get here.  But you are never far from my thoughts or my heart.  I love you!  This is your day! 

xoxo

Spectacular Vindication of Existence

I did something really stupid today.  I mean this was astonishingly idiotic.  This is not something I am accustomed to experiencing.

I decided to take a ride with a local cycling club that I found on my way to class one morning.  I met the owner, Mr. Flavio Zappi while he made me a breakfast sandwich and I liked the stuff adorning his walls.  They seemed legit.  See for yourself.

http://cyclinginfo.co.uk/blog/cycling/zappis-cafe-cycling-club/
&
http://flaviozappi.files.wordpress.com/2010/10/flyer-front3-20112.jpg

So this morning at 9am I rode over to the cafe and met up with about 25 other riders.  Flavio asked me if I would prefer to ride in the "medium speed" group and I declined, opting for the "fast" crew.  Mistake number one.  The fast group ended up being about ten Category 1 racers.  I was determined not to look like an amateur though, so I stuck with them.  I kept my head down and just pedaled for dear life.  I saved nothing at all for the return trip, thinking I could just hang out in the tiny pelaton and cruise back home once I was too tired to really crank it from the front.  Mistake number two, the big one.  By the time my legs exploded and I had to drop off the pack I was decimated.  I nearly clipped another rider which made me ashamed, but I apologized as they sped on past.

I looked around for the first time and found myself in an amazing place.  It was the English countryside of every postcard or movie I had ever seen where such places were depicted.  The few houses in sight were all made of ancient stone with thatch roofs and high hedges surrounding the property.  The fields were shrouded in mist being slowly burned off by the sun.

I continued riding for a while, thinking the medium group would catch up with me eventually and I could follow them home.  They never came.  I turned around and followed the route back in reverse as far as I could recall.  Eventually I came to an intersection I didn't remember.  I waved down a car and a couple in their fifties pulled over.  I explained the situation to them and asked which road would take me back to Oxford.  I will never forget the looks on their faces when they explained just how far from home I was.  I have no idea how far I had gotten with the fast group when I dropped off, nor how much further I went alone waiting for the medium group to overtake me, let alone how far I had backtracked to make it to the strange intersection.

I told myself that I had gotten into this on my own and I would damn well get out of it on my own.  So I started following the given directions back towards home.  After a few miles muscle cramps and spasms started setting in.  I altered my pedal stride and pushed through them.  Agony followed shortly thereafter.  Then total exhaustion.  This cycle repeated itself several times over the next two hours as I wound my way back.

When I made it to Botley Rd. at the outskirts of Oxford and recognized the landmarks I was exultant.  Traffic was locked up and people were crowding every street on their way into sunny Oxford-town but I felt like the only person on that road.  I punched the sky and screamed my triumph aloud.  When I made it to my door I leaned against the frame and wept.  Tourists eyed me warily.  I tried to explain the ordeal and they nervously said to each other, "I think he's exhausted, he looks like hes in shock."

When I collapsed on the floor of my room my housemates Juan and Katy came down.  Apparently I had been screaming in pain and joy though I didn't realize it.  Juan raced out to fetch Powerade and hamburgers while Katy fed me bananas.  They were very kind and I was immediately thankful to have such wonderful friends.  Though I made it back home on the strength of sheer resolve, I am healthy enough to write this blog tonight because of the loving care of those excellent friends.

***

That unfamiliar place I had arrived at where the couple set me on the right track was at the intersection of Church St. & Fernham Rd. in Shellingford, Faringdon.  Plug it into Google Maps and check out the street view.  Then zoom out and find Oxford to the northeast. 

I am Robert and I am Legend.

The Tutorials are Set

The tutorials I will be taking with academics in the Oxford area are now locked in and I am quite excited at the prospect of embarking on these adventures in learning.  I get to take two tutorials each semester in addition to the work I will be doing for the capstone Integrated Studies courses and the work I'll need to complete on my thesis.  These tutorials will be weekly sessions, ten of them in all. 

The first one is a tutorial I will be sharing with my good friend Juan.  The topic is Formal and Propositional Logic.  This is essentially a math course, though without numbers.  We will be learning the axiomatic system of propositional logic and how to leverage it as a tool to understand systems of thought.  From my study of the topic back at NAU in 2001 I know that it is quite abstract and challenging, but that the skills acquired are absolutely essential.  I am very keen to re-engage the subject.  My tutor is named Joshua Rosaler and he is a recent recipient of a masters in the Philosophy of Physics.  He teaches at Pembroke college in Oxford proper so I am hopeful that with a letter of recommendation from him I may be able to row for one of Pembroke's teams. 

The second tutorial has turned out to be really special.  It will be team taught by two astronomers who work at Hanwell Observatory and Oxford University.  Their names are Leo Huckvale and Christopher Taylor.  Though I dont know much about Mr. Taylor yet, Mr. Huckvale just finished his Masters in Astrophysics so I am excited to pick his brain on that experience.  The course will take place at the observatory in Banbury, which is an open air public observatory just north of Oxford.  They have several telescopes of different types, including some that echo the workings of more dated designs from centuries past. 

Website:  http://www.hanwellobservatory.org.uk/

 This tutorial will cover the two aspects of astronomy that I am currently most interested in.  Leo will be teaching me the basics of telescope design and use.  We will do some stargazing and hopefully by the end of the term I will be able to help him with some of his own research into binary stars, globular clusters and other astonishingly cool things that lie outside our solar system and our galaxy. 

Since England is host to some tempestuously cloudy weather, I will communicate with Leo and Christopher on a daily basis to determine when best to head up to the observatory for some clear skies and great views.

With Christopher I will be engaging in a study of the history of astronomy, its techniques and tools and notable figures from throughout the ages.  In addition to this, Christopher has some amazing connections with the head curators of the Oxford Museum of Science and once we get into the semester we will be meeting with them to study their collection in parallel with the books we will be reading.  Totally amazing.

  

Action at the Oxford Union

Thanks to some extensive legwork done by Professor Patterson, a few of us were able to get Oxford Union Society memberships in time to attend a talk given by former president Alvaro Uribe of Columbia (the country).  The Union Society is one of the oldest and most prestigious debating clubs in the world.  Founded in 1823, the Union has gained a sterling reputation for the surgical precision and unerring oratory of its debaters.  Many future politicians from a huge number of different countries trained here during their time in Oxford.  The grounds are gorgeously well kept and the buildings are equally beautiful, especially the lavish interiors which have been kept up without any thought for modern aesthetic tastes.  The place positively exudes history.

In attendance on behalf of Shimer were professor Stuart Patterson, Jesus Avina, Juan Guerrero, Eugene Lim & Robert Carpenter.

 Eugene is behind the camera on this one (thanks Mr. Lim!)  We promptly took up a place in the back of the hall where the view was spectacular.  President Uribe entered to thunderous applause and after an excellent introduction from the current president of the Union Society he began an hour long talk that touched on his campaign experiences, his presidency and the future of Columbia. 

With regards to his campaign trail he spoke of the decision to stop at colleges and spark debates among the students in order to bring these sometimes disenfranchised groups closer to the political arena.  He championed three cornerstones of his political platform: the desire to cultivate social cohesion, democratic security and an improved business infrastructure to attract investment. 

The largest criticism of his time in office was the country's human rights record, which he defended in an interesting way.  He responded to such attacks with his plan for democratic security, which was meant as a way to reassure the populace that their lives and livelihoods were safe, that freedom still endured.  He made it a point to avoid employing the use of the military/para-military groups as a strong arm force.  He was especially careful to avoid the institution of martial law.  Although he acknowledged that his human rights record was less than perfect, he was quick to point out that foundations take time to grow into robust institutions.  In the years since his terms the country has made vast strides to improve this troubled area of their history and President Uribe was pleased with this trend.

During the Q&A at the end a young woman stood up and spoke of her dual citizenship in Britain and Columbia and asked what she could do to continue to combat the erroneous stereotypes that still plague Columbia, that of the den of drugs and kidnapping and other nameless villainy.  President Uribe proceeded to cross examine this young woman, asking when was the last time she had been in Columbia, whether she had brought any friends with her on that trip and did the people that accompanied her leave with their assumptions intact or shattered?  Her response spoke of a wonderful experience for all involved and most importantly that none of her companions left feeling that Columbia was still a place rife with violence and drugs.  The president then spoke of how important it is for those who wish to know Columbia to travel there and see for themselves the great changes wrought in the last few years.  For my part, I was hugely glad to have watched the President employ a bit of Socratic dialogue with the questioner so that they could arrive at his answer together.

 The man had presence.  It was truly incredible to hear him speak.

Been sick for the last few days so I haven't been up and about much.  But I did go out for a walk and saw some amazing stuff.  Turned a corner, looked up, and almost all visual cues pertaining to the current century were absent.  Gotta love that.

Across the street from my front door there is a pub.  Its got two levels, great brews, close tables and no televisions.  Its exactly the kind of place I like to go to get a solid drink on. 

Took that picture from the stoop at my front door.

Cant wait to be feeling 100% again so I can walk through those doors and order a crisp lager.

Classes Begin!

Although my tutorials with Oxford Dons do not begin until October due to the trimester system employed here in Europe, our capstone course through Shimer College started today.  It is called Integrated Studies and it is a gargantuan course.  An excerpt from the introduction written by our professor:

"In this course we will be discussing works that span almost four thousand years of recorded history, from the earliest written works known to us, up to the 13th century of the current era.  The scope of the course is vast, incorporating myths, philosophies and theologies of great variety from myriad historical contexts.  We will likely return to the set of questions concerning what has changed and what remains constant in humanity's encounter with itself and the world around it."

The Texts:
The Epic of Gilgamesh
The Hebrew Bible/The Christian Bible
Hesiod, Theogeny
Homer, Iliad
Aeschylus, Oresteia
Herodotus, History of the Persian Wars
Thucydides, History of the Peloponnesian Wars
Plato, Republic
Aristotle, Nicomachean Ethics
Epictetus, Enchiridion
Virgil, Aeneid
Augustine, City of God
Dante, The Divine Comedy
Marie de France, Lais
Christine de Pizan, The Treasure of the City of Ladies
Eliade, The Myth of the Eternal Return
Inanna, Queen of Heaven and Earth
Greek Lyric Poets (Sappho and others)
Aristotle, On the Heavens
Ptolemy, Almagest
Marcus Aurelius, Meditations
Boethius, "The Consolation of Philosophy" & "How Substances Can be Good"
Peter Abailard, "Ethics or Know Thyself"
Thomas Aquinas, selections from The Summa Theologica
Hildegard of Bingen, Book of Divine Works
Alfarabi, "Philosophy of Aristotle and Plato"
Algazali, "Deliverance from Error"
Averroes, "The Decisive Treatise Determining  the Nature of the Connection between Religion and Philosophy"
Adams, Mont Saint-Michel and Chartres

What a list!  I've been dreaming of this class for three years...

First Tour of the City

Today after orientation we set off on a guided tour of four colleges.  While I usually prefer to do exploration by myself, there's almost no way to just walk into an Oxford College and start taking pictures.  So I relied on our tour guide's extensive network of friends, and it paid off in unrestricted access to the gardens, churches and quads of four gorgeous colleges here in town.  We visited Jesus, Oriel, Christ Church and Exeter colleges today and the views were out of control. 

Here's one from the Exeter Gardens

On the right side there is the iconic Radcliffe Camera.  This next one is from the same gardens, but looking at Exeter's Dining Hall, which happens to be Hogwart's Dining Hall too.

There was no way to get into the individual college libraries without special dispensation or an ID card from that specific college.  Whoever said that "Knowledge is power, guard it well.", clearly had a huge influence on this town.  Each library is a veritable fortress, with many vigilant guards along the parapets.  It would take some epic ninja skills to sneak into any of em.


Exeter was definitely the highlight of the tour today.  Some other fun stuff popped up though :)

  They do exist!

In my history as an internet user, I have attempted to stay away from blogs.  But now, it seems to me an excellent way to share much of my ongoing experience in this amazing place.  If I make this some huge thing in my head, where I have to do it everyday, and have to have pictures, and have to sound eloquent every time, I will probably post about once a month. 

Thats no bueno.

So this is going to be an experiment.  Its my multimedia salad of oxford experience.  Im just gonna throw stuff out here for your viewing and reading entertainment.  Im doing this so its easy for me, which means more gets shared.  Thats win-win