Thought I'd give being official about this a try

[Sue]

No-one invited me!

Well, hopefully I'm welcome anyway. Just ran across the new forum, via Wikipedia. You all probably have seen me from other forums, but I rarely post much these days, except pics, which I enjoy sharing. I've just taken a few pics, which I'll go post here shortly.

As long as I'm writing an introduction thread, I might as well share a few personal details as well. I've just recently gotten engaged, defended my dissertation (the Ph.D will be officially awarded in August), and accepted a Visiting Assistant Professorship in Philosophy at Virginia Tech. I teach or have taught on ethical theory, political philosophy (ancient, medieval, modern, and contemporary), philosophy of technology, aesthetics, business ethics, computer ethics, and similar stuff. My own work currently concentrates on the ethics of copyright and content control, and on developing a revitalized and gradualist conception of anarchism.

I prefer not to have my real name posted, so that google searches on my name return only professionally related hits.

I'm also a hobby breeder, but haven't had much luck yet. If I post a bloom you want to work with, drop me a line; I'll probably be glad to send you some pollenia. I'm currently in St. Louis, and will be moving to Blacksburg shortly.

Oh, and in case my username might appear somewhat ambiguous . . . I am, in fact, male.

 

[couscous74]

Welcome Sue! Glad to see you made it over here.
Congrats on the PhD, but sorry to hear about VTech since they have to play the Miami Hurricanes in college football oke:

 

[kentuckiense]

Sue-
Welcome to the forum! I've seen you around at other places. More importantly, welcome to Virginia! I'm currently in Williamsburg, but my uncle is a professor emeritus at Virginia Tech and he still lives in the area.

 

[Heather]

Dammit! I knew someone was missing...actually I realized the other day that we hadn't gotten you over here. You are MOST welcome to this party, Sue! I'm sorry I did not have your email, or you would have been notified. We can use more of your kind (with such wit, we are a witty bunch I'm afraid!) around these parts!

Enjoy!

(oh, and PS! I'm so glad you found us through Wikipedia! :rollhappy: That was one of my more brilliant moments - posting those links that just said "Slipper Orchid Discussion Forum" and then realizing I could just change the address a month later.....) :evil:

 

[L I Jane]

Hi Sue-congratulations on your engagement & also your Asst Visiting Professorship!! Hope all is well with your plants.:clap:

 

[Tikva]

Wow Sue, I found out more about you than I've EVER known before. You are quite acomplished :rollhappy: I look forward to reading more from you 'cause it's always so enjoyable...
K

 

[Mahon]

Hey,

Glad you came on over here...

(and honestly, I didn't know your name wasn't Sue... lol)

-Pat

 

[SlipperFan]

Welcome Sue. Glad you're here.

 

[aquacorps]

Philosophy at Tech? I thought they only taught how to bail hay. Live and learn. Why not use your proper name? I realize that a central problem in what Derrida calls "deconstruction" is the impossibility of the proper name. Is this what you are trying to convey? the impossibility of the proper name? the only time phiosophy was of any help to me was in 1983 when I was forced to listen to Mortimer Adler speak. I did shut him up when I asked him to discuss Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintance, and how he was portrayed. it was fun. russell

 

[ScottMcC]

heh. boy named sue. heh.

 

[SlipperFan]

heh. boy named sue. heh.

Be careful -- didn't you ever hear Johnny Cash's song about a boy named Sue???

 

[Sue]

Thanks all! I shall consider myself welcomed.

I look forward to speaking with you. Also, if I'm going to be serious about trying to talk more, I should warn you that when I my tone of voice gets "serious" please, PLEASE, don't take it too seriously. I have some unpopular and strange views, and I enjoy arguing, but I promise that I never intend to offend or harrass.

For example, I just wrote this, and then got quite worried about posting it:

. . . sorry to hear about VTech since they have to play the Miami Hurricanes in college football oke:

Well . . . I actually think that professional sports are bad for America, and college sports are a blight upon our educational system. I have no objection to playing sports – in fact, if people played sports, this would be great. The problem is that people identify with sports teams, and our instincts towards group membership are shunted off into commercially-driven avenues rather than allowing us to form real connections and communities between one another. This is part of a process Herbert Marcuse described as "repressive desublimation;" satisfying our instinctual needs in a manner which makes them subservient to economic goals, and removing them from applicability to beneficial and fulfilling social and personal functions.

So that's my take on that issue. To be clear, though: I won't respect you any less if you disagree. My fiancée likes baseball, for reasons I can barely fathom.

If my comments ever bother or worry anybody, just let me know. I make them out of a desire to communicate and foster discussion, not to offend and cut off discussion.

Oh, and I left out what I grow! I grow all kinds of orchids. I'm currently trying to reshape and narrow the scope of the collection (if anybody is near St. Louis, one of our orchid societies has an auction on August . . . 6th I think? I'll be contributing some plants; as for more info if you're interested – we always have a huge number of plants, and a bunch of nice plants that go for around $5). I'm trying to specialize in unusual and distant hybrids (e.g. Schombo x Broughtonia, Gomesa x Rodriguezia x Tolumnia) and species from ignored genera (e.g. Isochilus, Dendrochilum, Eria), with a scattering of other areas of emphasis (Calanthe, Bulbophyllum, Cattleya species).

In slippers, I have some Phrags, but more Paphs. The Paphs are varied, but I've got more novelty crosses than anything else; brachy/parvi x cory crosses and cochlo crosses in particular. It just happened that way.

 

[Marco]

I look forward to speaking with you. Also, if I'm going to be serious about trying to talk more, I should warn you that when I my tone of voice gets "serious" please, PLEASE, don't take it too seriously. I have some unpopular and strange views, and I enjoy arguing, but I promise that I never intend to offend or harrass.

Now we know so it's ok. Welcome Eus.

 

[Heather]

and our instincts towards group membership are shunted off into commercially-driven avenues rather than allowing us to form real connections and communities between one another

Yes, well, one of the things I think that I am enjoying most about this forum is that we have the opportunity to do just that - form real connections with one another. I think it has been established as well that we tend to be a group who, in general, enjoys a healthy amount of constructive debate and can argue a point without it devolving into a total mess (though, I think we have derailed a few of these threads...)

I say, bring it on, Sue.

 

[PHRAG]

I think it has been established as well that we tend to be a group who, in general, enjoys a healthy amount of constructive debate and can argue a point without it devolving into a total mess.

I disagree with your assessment that we can constructively disagree. Care to debate over a spot of tea?

:evil:

 

[Heather]

I disagree with your assessment that we can constructively disagree. Care to debate over a spot of tea?

:evil:

Yeah, well you're trouble.

But I'll take you up on the tea....

 

[rad]

welcome, congratulations

i agree with your assessment of professional sports and of college sports. in my opinion these two facets of our culture are demoralizing and prey on peoples desire to be part of the team. however, it is an interesting cultural phenomenon, this sports fan community. in some ways sports have provided one more mechanism by which people have formed connections, not unlike the mechanism of religion or of orchid growing. people who become sports fans do so willingly (as do people who join a church or orchid discussion forum). many new subcultures have developed based on this desire to be part of one group or another.

while you and i can sit on the outside of a group and judge their members for how they behave or laugh at them for the decisions they make, theirs is no less a part of our culture than is any other group.

their connections and communities are no less real than the connections and communities of church members. i doubt that any sports fan would complain about being subserviant to economic goals. in fact they might argue that their participation is sports or their being a sports fan is highly fulfilling and that is why they have willingly forked over loads of hard earned cash to participate. and i would argue that it is most certainly beneficial to the individuals simply due to the pleasure being one of the team brings them.

that said, i personaly think sports are a bore.

i look forward to reading more from you