To my forgotten friends and anyone else that still has me on their friends list...
Like the guy that writes all his posts in what looks like russian. I don't know how I got on his friends list, but I sure do wish I could read his posts because they look interesting. He put up pictures of his family one time, and I think his yard. While I don't know what your writing about my possibly russian friend, I appreciate your posts nonetheless.
Soooo....apparently it has been 8...yes 8 months since I last updated my lj. 8 months is a long time so I would understand if some of you thought that I was dead and took me off of your friends list. In reality, I have a much less interesting story to tell. When we last left our plucky hero, he had just finished his undergrad thesis and was busy thinking about how lucky he was to be done with it.
Well...lets just say that things didn't pan out the way he hoped they would. My teacher told me that he was happy with the paper, but that he thought that it could be better. I asked him what that meant, and he told me he wanted to give me an extension to work on it some more. He gave me my paper back with some suggestions written in the margins, and told me to get to work.
For those of you that don't know, the timing for him doing this wasn't so hot because we ended up moving pretty much right after I turned the paper in. So...in the last 8 months, I have moved, gotten everything situated here, spent a good deal of time in the Library of Congress manuscript room, and written another version of my undergraduate thesis. I had to rip the guts out of that paper. New intro, new conclusion, new thesis, more focused topic, and most of the body was new as well. Out of a 30 page paper, I had to write 22 new pages. And when you include the bibliography and the cover page as pages, that really means that I only had about 5 pages that I could keep. The whole thing is pretty much new and improved.
That being said, the area that we live in is awesome. We moved to Maryland, and have a totally awesome townhouse here. There is room for people to come and stay over if they stay over too late and don't want to drive home and all that stuff. The girls are doing well here, and have grown like 9 feet tall. They are so amazing. They are cute and sweet and smart and all those other things that you love about kids, but I don't want to get to gushy about them. Who wants to read all that? =p
The big thing that is happening in my life right now is that I am starting to do the whole job hunt thing. Like just starting. I have put in one application, and am putting together a resume that looks decent so I have something to send out if anyone needs one. The last time that I had to have a resume put together was like 5 years ago, so the old one is a little outdated.
Interestingly enough, my choice of career interests has shifted again. I found out from a friend that the State Department takes history majors and trains them to become experts on a particular era or geographic location, then makes them the go to guy/girl for any questions in their field of expertise. So I'm hoping to eventually get into that because it sounds like a job where I could make a difference.
Other than that, I can't really think of a lot that is going on at the moment. Obviously christmas is coming up, so we are all looking forward to that. And that also means that my birthday is right around the corner since...January is after December. =p I only bring this up because now that I am done with my thesis I should have some time to hunt down my old friends since I lived in Maryland for 3 years from about 13-16. I have to clear it with the wife, but I was thinking about seeing if any of them wanted to come and hang out. I could throw myself a birthday party of sorts...probably more like a casual get together. It's been ten years since I've seen my old friends from here...I know I've changed quite a bit, so I wouldn't be surprised if most of them didn't want to relive high school and such. We'll see. I definitely want to get back in touch with some of my old friends.
Anyways, enough of me rambling about my old friends. Suffice it to say that I am still alive and kicking, my family is still alive and kicking, and that we are all doing well. I hope that you are all doing well also. Ta-ta!
Soooo....apparently it has been 8...yes 8 months since I last updated my lj. 8 months is a long time so I would understand if some of you thought that I was dead and took me off of your friends list. In reality, I have a much less interesting story to tell. When we last left our plucky hero, he had just finished his undergrad thesis and was busy thinking about how lucky he was to be done with it.
Well...lets just say that things didn't pan out the way he hoped they would. My teacher told me that he was happy with the paper, but that he thought that it could be better. I asked him what that meant, and he told me he wanted to give me an extension to work on it some more. He gave me my paper back with some suggestions written in the margins, and told me to get to work.
For those of you that don't know, the timing for him doing this wasn't so hot because we ended up moving pretty much right after I turned the paper in. So...in the last 8 months, I have moved, gotten everything situated here, spent a good deal of time in the Library of Congress manuscript room, and written another version of my undergraduate thesis. I had to rip the guts out of that paper. New intro, new conclusion, new thesis, more focused topic, and most of the body was new as well. Out of a 30 page paper, I had to write 22 new pages. And when you include the bibliography and the cover page as pages, that really means that I only had about 5 pages that I could keep. The whole thing is pretty much new and improved.
That being said, the area that we live in is awesome. We moved to Maryland, and have a totally awesome townhouse here. There is room for people to come and stay over if they stay over too late and don't want to drive home and all that stuff. The girls are doing well here, and have grown like 9 feet tall. They are so amazing. They are cute and sweet and smart and all those other things that you love about kids, but I don't want to get to gushy about them. Who wants to read all that? =p
The big thing that is happening in my life right now is that I am starting to do the whole job hunt thing. Like just starting. I have put in one application, and am putting together a resume that looks decent so I have something to send out if anyone needs one. The last time that I had to have a resume put together was like 5 years ago, so the old one is a little outdated.
Interestingly enough, my choice of career interests has shifted again. I found out from a friend that the State Department takes history majors and trains them to become experts on a particular era or geographic location, then makes them the go to guy/girl for any questions in their field of expertise. So I'm hoping to eventually get into that because it sounds like a job where I could make a difference.
Other than that, I can't really think of a lot that is going on at the moment. Obviously christmas is coming up, so we are all looking forward to that. And that also means that my birthday is right around the corner since...January is after December. =p I only bring this up because now that I am done with my thesis I should have some time to hunt down my old friends since I lived in Maryland for 3 years from about 13-16. I have to clear it with the wife, but I was thinking about seeing if any of them wanted to come and hang out. I could throw myself a birthday party of sorts...probably more like a casual get together. It's been ten years since I've seen my old friends from here...I know I've changed quite a bit, so I wouldn't be surprised if most of them didn't want to relive high school and such. We'll see. I definitely want to get back in touch with some of my old friends.
Anyways, enough of me rambling about my old friends. Suffice it to say that I am still alive and kicking, my family is still alive and kicking, and that we are all doing well. I hope that you are all doing well also. Ta-ta!