September Newsletter For That Philosophy Guy
we're moving again, during a month with a lot going on
We’re close to a week into the new month, so you can probably guess that I’ve been a bit busy as of late. Ideally, I’d have this monthly newsletter written and published at the very start of the month, and perhaps someday down the line that will be the case. But not at present. Why?
There’s all the usual beginning of the semester busyness. I’m teaching four academic classes. Two of them were rather late-minute adds, as Marquette University wound up with a much larger entering class than they apparently planned for. For them, I’m teaching two sections of the same class, titled Foundations of Philosophy, which is essentially an Intro to Philosophy course. I’m also teaching two different classes for Milwaukee Institute of Art and Design. One is a class I’ve taught previously, an online synchronous course called Philosophy and Fantasy: Leguin’s Earthsea, and the other is an in-person writing class I’m teaching for the first time, The Creative Professional In Context. On top of those, I’m also teaching an online 6-week class on Friedrich Nietzsche’s Genealogy of Morals through my Study With Sadler academy.
I’ve also been volunteering a bit more often at a place that anyone who follows me in social media or reads my Notes here already knows about, Almost Home Cat Rescue. Over the summer months, some of the other volunteers have been on vacation, so I’ve been taking on open house and cleaning shifts at the shelter. It’s good for me and good for the cats. I do the usual stuff, but I also spend a good bit of time helping the cats adjust and socialize before they get adopted. Some of the other volunteers have taken to calling me a “cat whisperer” or “cat daddy”, as I seem to have a knack for getting scared or shy cats and kittens to gradually relax and come out of their shells.
The biggest news though, and what I expect will be the greatest draw on my time, is that for the first time in 9 years, we are moving. Fortunately, we’re staying in the same city of Milwaukee. We are leaving the apartment building in which we live and moving everything into two new locations. One is a smaller apartment, so in some respects we’re downsizing as far as living space goes. And that brings us to the other. Since I have to have a place to film, and we need someplace for the many books and shelves we’ve accumulated (some of which we’ve sold off), we’re renting office space locally as well. So over the course of this month, everything has to go from here to one of those places. . . or to the storage locker where I’ve moved nearly all of our books, packed up into bankers boxes, and a lot of other items as well. I’m striving to build myself a backlog of videos and podcast episodes so that I won’t have to produce new ones until we’re completely moved into both our new home and office.
The big international Stoicon conference will be coming up on Saturday, October 19, and I’m one of the co-organizers and the MC for the event, so there’s a good bit of planning that Harald Kavli (the main organizer) and I have been doing and will be finalizing this month.
Online Events
We have fewer than usual online events scheduled this month, mainly because of how busy I expect to be with the move. From October onward, you’ll see the usual full slate of events. Here’s what we have coming up, all of them starting at 12 PM Central Time.
Saturday, August 7: AMA (Ask Me Anything Session) - This is a YouTube live event in my channel. Have any questions for me? Ask away and I’ll do my best to answer them - https://www.youtube.com/live/M-B_6aa006g
Saturday, September 21: Classic Metal Class Session 31: Interview with Buck Dharma of Blue Oyster Cult - Zoom videoconferencing for students enrolled in the free class (they get the Zoom link there) - https://reasonio.teachable.com/p/classic-metal-class
Saturday September 28, Understanding Anger 2.0 Class Session 12: Seneca's On Anger book 2 - study of ancient philosophical, literary, and religious viewpoints on the emotion of anger, continuing our study of Seneca’s classic work On Anger, moving on now to book 2 (pushed to this month from last month) - https://youtube.com/live/Phg0TpGNZHQ
No Worlds of Speculative Fiction, no Storytime with Sadler, and no Self-Directed Study session this month, unfortunately. I’ve just got too much other work to do for the moment!
Video And Podcast Production
I didn’t get to the Mind & Desire podcast production I’d hoped to last month - a casualty of time-crunch with all the moving I’ve been doing - but I’ll be producing new episodes this month and releasing some of the paid-subscribers exclusives to the general public. In my Sadler’s Lectures podcast, I’ll be producing and releasing episodes on:
Ursula K Leguin’s fifth Earthsea book Tales From Earthsea
Immanuel Kant’s Groundwork For The Metaphysic of Morals (I’ve done some episodes on that work, but there are others I need to get to)
What’s coming up in my main YouTube channel, this month? Some of it is backlogged videos I’ve wanted to produce, but didn’t get to last month, like:
Ideas That Matter interview videos
Sadler’s Honest Book Reviews videos
my first Non-Alcoholic Beer Review video
a Sadler’s Soapbox “rant” video about the economics of academic layoffs
I also plan to produce a number of other videos
Core Concept videos on Karl Popper’s “Towards A Rational Theory Of Tradition”
Core Concept videos on “The University Discussion” about religious statements and falsification
Core Concept videos on Seneca’s treatise, On Tranquility
Quick Takes videos providing some useful advice about studying philosophy
Sadler’s Stories videos about memories and past experiences
(maybe) a video about Almost Home Cat Rescue
more YouTube shorts featuring the kittens and cats from Almost Home
A Few Other Personal Matters
I had a great birthday weekend, planned by my wife. My youngest kid took the train up here, and my dad drove up over the weekend as well. We had some great meals and conversations together, got to spend time at Almost Home and visiting the Milwaukee Public Museum. It’s always nice to get to spend time with the people who I love, so that was a great birthday present for me.
I’ve been thinking a lot, and occasionally talking with some of the other volunteers, about the experience of taking care of the cats and kittens at Almost Home, occasionally getting attached to some of them, and then seeing them adopted by other people (which is the goal, after all, for the entire organization). That can be a bit difficult emotionally, and I'd like to do some writing about this later on in the month.
My oldest child, who graduated earlier this year with a BFA in Theater from University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee, has entirely crossed the threshold into post-graduation adulthood. Cat starts work this month with the Kohl’s Wild Theater troupe, a program connected with the Milwaukee Zoo, and a new position as a lead house manager at a local theater. And after a summer sublet, they moved into a house with 3 roommates. So full-on “adulting” for Cat, which I’m happy to see.
My youngest child, Mattie, started senior year of high school, so applying to colleges is one of the biggest matters on her mind at present. She’s at the point where nearly everything she’s taking is AP, honors, or just straight-out Ivy Tech college classes. So for her, exciting developments ahead.
Those are all the updates for now. If you’d like to know more, or you’re particularly excited, about any of these things going on, feel free to leave a comment!
my word! you are busy. moral support to you and yours during the demenagements! (I don't know how to do the accent on the e). and wonderful hat you are so committed to the work that you do. truly marvellous. long may you enjoy it and benefit both the communities you serve as well as you and yours. best wishes. shri