Decision: One Normal Year
I have had a rough semester, and it’s rather neatly of my own doing. I’ve been stretching out my burn-out for too long, and then this semester I began a graduate program. I had very good reasons for doing so, but the result has been rather ridiculously harrowing. In my first term (two 8-week terms per semester 19-week semester with a 1-week break in between) my books arrived in the third week. I never really did catch up out of sheer negligence. I spent the very last week and a half working almost constantly in order to fit eight weeks of 6 graduate...
Read MoreIn Which Elizabeth Gaskell and Judi Dench Demand that Lorien Read Theology
If ever motivation existed for trudging through the task of reading 175+ academic pages a day, planning two research projects, and writing book reviews, journal article critiques, and discussion board entries each and every day… … then it existed in the form of Cranford. My big boxes full of textbooks (half of which are bigger than the Bible, thank you.) arrived four weeks into an eight week graduate course. My first bona fide graduate course (nearly half of my Missouri State classes were 500s, but it’s not the same). My first course, period, in...
Read MoreArchaeological Fieldwork
I participated in my first batch of archaeological fieldwork on Saturday. 9am-12pm. Nothing major, but it was exciting… shovel tests at twenty meter transects. Pairs of two dug foot round/deep holes and sifted the dirt/plants/rocks through a shaker screen. Anything of interest is bagged and marked. I’m trying to be careful about sounding too important… what I’m doing is very, very minor. But! I am incredibly jazzed and giddy about this whole project. So if I make it sound like a big deal, it’s not, but it is. This is my pet project at the Lab. I do...
Read MoreLetter to Editor: Liberalization of Education
Letter to the Editor: Southwest Standard, Nov. 5 2004 The Nov. 5 article “Students Show Strong Support for Democrats” provides biased perspective of the recent election results. Local statistics are provided and are valuable, but do not show that students led the precincts in support of Kerry. SMSU is within one of Springfield’s urban centers. Urban communities show a tendency to favor the Democratic Party. The CNN exit polls list the results amongst voters ages 18–29 as 45%/54% in Kerry’s favor. These same polls list the results amongst urban...
Read MoreHistory Conferences and Spitting on Artifacts
I just printed off the lecture notes from my Latin Govt. class course reserves… 57 pages of testable material, and that’s assuming she’s only going to test over what we’ve covered. Doubtful. I’m spending this evening reading the textbook and reviewing these notes. I’ll do the same all evening tomorrow. Thursday, I’m going to try to spend the entire day at the history conference — I’m excited. This is the first conference within my field that I’ve attended. Four 2 hour lectures/discussions each day! More on Saturday, I think. The hotel is only...
Read MoreAbout Lorien
I vote as a libertarian constitutionalist influenced by Hayek and Burke, and I think as an anarchist guided by the biblical principles of liberty. My government is strictly bound by the U.S. Constitution. I have fenced foil in a diaper-suit and run for political office in a skirt-suit, but my shoes were always fabulous. Both dreadful politics and inspiring design are likely to make me teary. and yes. I’m a tshirt ninja.
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