2008 in review
It seems like I just did this for 2007 not so long ago.... Time flies! Without further ado, the first sentence of the first post of each month in 2008!
January: I start comps tomorrow. I feel like a dead duck.
February: What a boring Super Bowl. And the ads sucked, too...
March: What a big win for Temple! I miss seeing games at the Palestra :)
April: Ok guys, I have a CRAZY basketball-related dream for you.
May: So... In the course of one minute yesterday, the number of grants I received doubled!
June: Soooo.... Starting tomorrow, I'll be in DC until July 4.
July: So I was sort of evicted the other day.
August: I'm going to Sara's wedding today, which should be awesome.
September: My internet isn't yet up at the apartment (fucking PPP internet services SUCK!), but I wanted to stop by an internet cafe to let you know that I'm all settled in.
October: So how about 'dem Phils, winning the NLDS series against the Brewers?
November: Hey Phillies fans, In case you wanted to see it, here is Harry Kalas's call of the final inning in the clinching game of the World Series. Wow!
December: I don't do nearly as much preaching about politics on this blog as I used to, but I have a quick one for you here.
And, as a bonus, here's the entirety of the best post of the year, perhaps of my lifetime:
________________
WE WIN!!!!!!!! [30 Oct 2008|06:21am]
[ mood | ecstatic ]
I'm in total shock. Total shock. Hell hath frozen over. You watch, next week a black Democrat will win the presidency. The Senate and the House will both have Democratic majorities. Pigs will fly. Hell hath frozen over.
If you haven't heard Harry Kalas's call, here's the entire 9th inning:
http://onthedlpodcast.com/clips/phils_champs_harry.mp3
My emotions are in a swirl. I'm just ecstatic. Somehow, the fact that I had to get up at 4:30 AM (3:30 AM since game 2 or 3 of this series) for every game of the playoffs makes this even more emotional.
I NEVER thought this team would win a title. NEVER. Sure, I thought the curse would eventually be broken, but I thought it'd be the Flyers or the Eagles. The Phillies? Not a chance.
Wow.
I'm sitting in Phillies red boxers, my Chase Utley jersey, and a Phillies hat. I'm about 2/3 of the way through a bottle of Sovetskoe champagne that I've had in the fridge since the playoffs began.
The party begins.
PHILLIES!!!! 2008 WORLD CHAMPS!!!!
_________________
Yeah, that pretty much sums 2008 up nicely :)
What have we learned from this exercise? A few things come to mind:
1) I need to stop beginning my posts with "so." It occasionally works for dramatic effect, but I've clearly killed that literary medium.
2) Essentially, my posts have been limited to sports, updates on my academic life, and the occasional political rant. All kinds of crazy things happen to me that are unrelated to these things, and I think that my 2009 (yikes!) LJ resolution should be to post more of the random crazy shit that happens to me in Moscow.
3) This has been a big year. A BIG year. Professionally, I passed comps and defended my prospectus. This is generally a relatively simple (though, still, a pretty important) hop through a ring for most graduate students, but for me, it felt huge, as if I finally slayed a thousand grad school dragons that had been haunting me since the personal tragedy of my first year, and the dramatic falling off of the academic wagon that came in my second year. I received funding for my project (something like 5 of the 8 grants I applied for?), which was just about the greatest feeling in the world. It meant that someone out there who is not in my immediate circle of friends, family, and colleagues found my work interesting and worthwhile. It meant that I would get to continue in grad school. Barring some sort of horrible tragedy, it probably means that I'll get to finish off my degree, after a few more years of insanely hard work on research and writing. And after a quick trip to DC, I've started a 12-month odyssey of research in Moscow that has been enlightening, challenging, and, so far, totally worthwhile.
Personally, I feel like I've totally changed, as well. I have a new level of confidence that comes with the grants and the ABD status. I mean, don't get me wrong, it's challenged every day, when I forget words in Russian that, frankly, I should know; when my accent slips from "pretty darned good" to "holy shit that dude is not even close to speaking Russian"; when I discover entire events in Soviet-American relations that I just didn't know about before. But still, I feel far more comfortable in my own skin than I did 12 months ago, or even 4 months ago. There's something about dealing with the challenges that come from living abroad that helps this along, each and every day.
There are also some profound, life-changing developments in my personal life that are best left off of this blog. But suffice to say, these developments are profound and life-changing :)
Oh, and when it comes to sports and politics, the Curse of William Penn is broken, and I'm filled with an optimism for the future of the country--despite the dire straights we find ourselves in economically, morally, and culturally--that I haven't felt for a very, very long time. If you had told me a year ago that the world would be anything like this, I wouldn't have believed you.
So (LOL) Emily's picking up her family at the airport, and I need to grab some lunch (Oh, Dr. Oetker, how I wish the Americans knew of your glory) before cleaning up our apartment (they're staying elsewhere, but I'm sure they'll visit, and I don't want them thinking that we're living like a bunch of bums) and finishing off my Christmas shopping. Cheers!
PS - Did anyone see the news on Cheney? He admitted to the FBI that he rewrote briefing notes for the press so as to ensure that Valerie Plame would be revealed as a CIA agent, to punish her husband Joe Wilson for writing his editorial that shed doubt on the existence of Saddam’s WMD program in the weeks leading up to the Iraq War. This comes days after he stated on a news show that he knew of and approved the torture program. Could somebody PLEASE prosecute this guy?! Please?!?!
January: I start comps tomorrow. I feel like a dead duck.
February: What a boring Super Bowl. And the ads sucked, too...
March: What a big win for Temple! I miss seeing games at the Palestra :)
April: Ok guys, I have a CRAZY basketball-related dream for you.
May: So... In the course of one minute yesterday, the number of grants I received doubled!
June: Soooo.... Starting tomorrow, I'll be in DC until July 4.
July: So I was sort of evicted the other day.
August: I'm going to Sara's wedding today, which should be awesome.
September: My internet isn't yet up at the apartment (fucking PPP internet services SUCK!), but I wanted to stop by an internet cafe to let you know that I'm all settled in.
October: So how about 'dem Phils, winning the NLDS series against the Brewers?
November: Hey Phillies fans, In case you wanted to see it, here is Harry Kalas's call of the final inning in the clinching game of the World Series. Wow!
December: I don't do nearly as much preaching about politics on this blog as I used to, but I have a quick one for you here.
And, as a bonus, here's the entirety of the best post of the year, perhaps of my lifetime:
________________
WE WIN!!!!!!!! [30 Oct 2008|06:21am]
[ mood | ecstatic ]
I'm in total shock. Total shock. Hell hath frozen over. You watch, next week a black Democrat will win the presidency. The Senate and the House will both have Democratic majorities. Pigs will fly. Hell hath frozen over.
If you haven't heard Harry Kalas's call, here's the entire 9th inning:
http://onthedlpodcast.com/clips/phils_champs_harry.mp3
My emotions are in a swirl. I'm just ecstatic. Somehow, the fact that I had to get up at 4:30 AM (3:30 AM since game 2 or 3 of this series) for every game of the playoffs makes this even more emotional.
I NEVER thought this team would win a title. NEVER. Sure, I thought the curse would eventually be broken, but I thought it'd be the Flyers or the Eagles. The Phillies? Not a chance.
Wow.
I'm sitting in Phillies red boxers, my Chase Utley jersey, and a Phillies hat. I'm about 2/3 of the way through a bottle of Sovetskoe champagne that I've had in the fridge since the playoffs began.
The party begins.
PHILLIES!!!! 2008 WORLD CHAMPS!!!!
_________________
Yeah, that pretty much sums 2008 up nicely :)
What have we learned from this exercise? A few things come to mind:
1) I need to stop beginning my posts with "so." It occasionally works for dramatic effect, but I've clearly killed that literary medium.
2) Essentially, my posts have been limited to sports, updates on my academic life, and the occasional political rant. All kinds of crazy things happen to me that are unrelated to these things, and I think that my 2009 (yikes!) LJ resolution should be to post more of the random crazy shit that happens to me in Moscow.
3) This has been a big year. A BIG year. Professionally, I passed comps and defended my prospectus. This is generally a relatively simple (though, still, a pretty important) hop through a ring for most graduate students, but for me, it felt huge, as if I finally slayed a thousand grad school dragons that had been haunting me since the personal tragedy of my first year, and the dramatic falling off of the academic wagon that came in my second year. I received funding for my project (something like 5 of the 8 grants I applied for?), which was just about the greatest feeling in the world. It meant that someone out there who is not in my immediate circle of friends, family, and colleagues found my work interesting and worthwhile. It meant that I would get to continue in grad school. Barring some sort of horrible tragedy, it probably means that I'll get to finish off my degree, after a few more years of insanely hard work on research and writing. And after a quick trip to DC, I've started a 12-month odyssey of research in Moscow that has been enlightening, challenging, and, so far, totally worthwhile.
Personally, I feel like I've totally changed, as well. I have a new level of confidence that comes with the grants and the ABD status. I mean, don't get me wrong, it's challenged every day, when I forget words in Russian that, frankly, I should know; when my accent slips from "pretty darned good" to "holy shit that dude is not even close to speaking Russian"; when I discover entire events in Soviet-American relations that I just didn't know about before. But still, I feel far more comfortable in my own skin than I did 12 months ago, or even 4 months ago. There's something about dealing with the challenges that come from living abroad that helps this along, each and every day.
There are also some profound, life-changing developments in my personal life that are best left off of this blog. But suffice to say, these developments are profound and life-changing :)
Oh, and when it comes to sports and politics, the Curse of William Penn is broken, and I'm filled with an optimism for the future of the country--despite the dire straights we find ourselves in economically, morally, and culturally--that I haven't felt for a very, very long time. If you had told me a year ago that the world would be anything like this, I wouldn't have believed you.
So (LOL) Emily's picking up her family at the airport, and I need to grab some lunch (Oh, Dr. Oetker, how I wish the Americans knew of your glory) before cleaning up our apartment (they're staying elsewhere, but I'm sure they'll visit, and I don't want them thinking that we're living like a bunch of bums) and finishing off my Christmas shopping. Cheers!
PS - Did anyone see the news on Cheney? He admitted to the FBI that he rewrote briefing notes for the press so as to ensure that Valerie Plame would be revealed as a CIA agent, to punish her husband Joe Wilson for writing his editorial that shed doubt on the existence of Saddam’s WMD program in the weeks leading up to the Iraq War. This comes days after he stated on a news show that he knew of and approved the torture program. Could somebody PLEASE prosecute this guy?! Please?!?!