personal

I haven't left the house in three days now. On Friday morning, I woke up with the cold to end all colds. Complete with 102.1F fever, sore throat, and clogged nose, I've been completely bed/couch-ridden all weekend. This was quite a disappointment, as I was looking forward to MCGrads on Friday and a concert on Saturday, as well as church and youth band practice today that I had to miss. Oh well, I got to spend some quality time with Miss Kitty (who's contentedly napping in my lap as I write this). I'm feeling much more energetic now, and am hoping to be up to full speed by tomorrow night so that I can go to dinnner and a dance performance with Mandy.

OK, back to reading the Handbook of Qualitative Research (2nd Edition) for my class with Jay Lemke. This is actually a very interesting class, discussing the philosphical/historical framework for qualitative research in sociology and anthropology. Basically, a bunch of white, male, Euro-centric, Christian explorers/conquerors/ethnographers wrote a lot about the "savages" they encountered. Analysis of their writings reveals as much about the researchers as it does about their subjects, leading to the truth (lowercase "t") that relationship between subject and object is inextricable, objectivity is impossible, and bias is inherent (and yes, this applies even to so-called quantitative, randomized, controlled, double-blind studies). Thus, contemporary (don't call them "modern") qualitative researchers are very much interested in understanding how ontological and epistemological frameworks affect what is considered to be scientific and good research. Clearly, a post-positivist will generate research that radically differs from the research of a positivist or even a post-modern or post-colonial theorist. I'm finding that I'm embracing some of these newer ideas perhaps a bit too readily, but they seem to make sense. The question is how do I apply them to my dissertation research?

So, it's been a few days since my last post. I've been busy traveling the country. Had a really great Christmas break in Kansas and Virginia. Played a lot of poker on the dining room table with the family. What is this world coming to when a family sits down to play poker together more than it eats dinner together? You can see some pictures here.

In my quest to capture the American Christmas spirit, I've added credit card processing power to my PayPal account. If you want to give me a gift that's guaranteed to fit, I now accept American Express, Discover, Mastercard, Visa, and personal transfers from your checking account.

Blog of Byron Harvey, Pastor of Fellowship Community Church in Mercer, PA, the church I attended all through college.

So how many Christmas albums has Kenny G made? I spent most of the day in retail stores, and every single one of them seemed to be piping in the same smooth jazz Christmas noise.

On a similar note, I got Best Buy's Sweet Tracks 2004 free Christmas cd, which is terribly disappointing. Last year's album was really cool, with solid contributions by Sting, Coldplay, and Jewel. This year had potential, featuring Pete Yorn, Elton John, Melissa Etheridge, Chris Isaak, Train, and others, but didn't deliver. The only track I really like is Phantom Planet's rendition of Carol of the Bells, but I can also appreciate Maroon 5's cover of John Lennon's Happy Christmas (War is Over).

My friend Shelby has started a blog. This whole internet publishing thing is contagious.

I already got bored with the old site design, so let me know what you think of this one. Is it any coincidence that U2 launched their new site today as well? You can check it out here: U2.com.