- I made shortbread cookies today. They didn’t taste nearly as good as store-bought, so it may be the last time… although Deb did like them, so maybe I’ll make them for her again.
- Major League Baseball returns to Washington DC. More importantly (though a bit older as far as news is concerned), the Red Sox made it to the post-season.
Archive for September, 2004
Sometimes I forget I have a Gmail account, meaning days and days can go by without me checking there for mail. Fortunately, weeks and weeks can go by before anybody sends something there, so it works out in the end.
Hopefully this post won’t draw in too much traffic from Googlers, since I didn’t use the ‘I’ word. You know, the opposite of outvite.
My (new) racquetball partner paid me a huge compliment today that helped to dispel some of the feelings of inferiority I’ve hinted at recently. He’s also starting his first year in the department, but he already has his MA. We’re in two courses together. Exactly what he said doesn’t matter. Nor does it matter that he beat me three times in a row, each time keeping me to three or fewer points… come on, it’s been literally four years since I last played…
Tomorrow I think I need to focus on getting a bit of work done. That’s not to say that I don’t get work done on other days, because I do, but I have a seminar paper to research and write, and it won’t get done without making a concerted effort. I need to spend tomorrow:
- finishing up my overview of secondary sources on the topic
- finding/evaluating/checking out/beginning to go through primary sources available locally
- locating and requesting primary sources not available locally
Of course, that’s just for my seminar. For my readings course I need to–that’s right–read, and there’s a few other things for other courses.
Continue reading ‘Hitting the books’
As of late I’ve found myself thinking about my personal ‘internet presense’. I have websites, email addresses, IM screen names, etc. These identities–or pieces of my online identity–came together haphazardly at first, but for at least the past year I’ve been trying to instill some order. Anonymity and privacy have played a role in that from the beginning.
Continue reading ‘Anonymity and Privacy’
Thanks to Jay I’m trying out Furl, a quick way to archive web pages of interest.
Why does the supermarket a block and a half from our apartment insist on laying things out in such a… bizarre way? Why are the freezers in the middle of the store? Why do juices and water end up on one end, and soda on the other? Why is alcohol in three different places? The last question isn’t as important, since I dislike alcoholic beverages, but still…
It’s a common question, one I ask and occasionally try to answer myself. When talking with other students in the department, the typical answer is “oh, fine,” or some other brief explanation with little detail. In that sense it’s like asking how somebody is when meeting; you don’t neccessarily want a real answer, it’s just something you say.
Continue reading ‘“How are your courses going?”’
Yes, this site is sporting a new design, one that I hope will inspire me to write a bit more, or at least a bit more often. I took the photo featured in this design in Hötensleben on April 30, 2004, at a point along the former border between the DDR and the BRD where sections of the wall, towers, and bunkers have been left intact as a memorial.
The other day I took my first bike-ride around town, which is a bit sad considering how long we’ve lived here. My main goal was to explore the local bike trail, which I hoped might replace the Green Circle I had made sporadic use of before moving here. As it turned out, there is no bike trail; rather, there is a bike path. This is an important distinction, because the concrete squares of the latter form of bike route make all the difference in the world.
The path, or rather what little I’ve explored of it, is great; it’s in great condition, it quickly gets one away from ‘the strip’ and into the woods, and the section I’ve been riding has an excellent ratio of downhill to uphill gradient. (But I’d hate to ride it the other direction.) Unfortunately, the next logical section for me to ride is the section that is currently closed for construction.
Deb has gone along twice now. We shopped around a bit for a bike to facilitate this and settled on one that she really likes. Getting it home was my responsibility, and all I’m going to say is I succeeded despite the best efforts of highway planners. Tonight was our second ride, but we chose a rather inopportune time of day; by the time we were actually on the path, it was getting dark and bugs had decided to join us.
Today’s ride was a welcome break from my as of yet still unfinished reading of C.A. Bayly’s Empire and Information. It’s not a bad book looking back at what I’ve read, but it can be difficult to continue reading at times. The repetition, though perhaps well-intentioned, gets on my nerves. I’m not a big fan of how Bayly repeats himself, though he may have good intentions in doing so.
What do banjos have to do with anything? Nothing, except this site is now hosted by BanjoServer. Gotta love plucky webhosting. 
