Sunday, May 23, 2010

Whirlwind Ohio

First, congratulations to Ally on being a college grad (and having been accepted to grad school with an assistantship)!

Second, Corinne and my break-neck speed visit to Ohio is coming to close. It's been good getting to see family and friends, and sorry to the many we couldn't see. After a couple of days in Grove City, a couple in Seven Hills, and now off to Chicago. But, oh wait, of course it is not that easy. My dad and I checked my car, and although the brake drums did not want to come off, the breaks are fine...except for the leak we found in one of my brake lines, in addition to the two placed in the engine block where the threads for the spark plugs appear to be cross-threaded. All of this means before heading to Chicago I need to get my brake line fixed, and if they can re-tap the engine block, great, if not, just the brake line. Then, Chicago! Woot.

OK, this has been a rather boring post, but I'm posting, so that's something :P

~Dan

Tuesday, May 18, 2010

The Second Tagliarina

OK, so we've had this blog for almost a year now (I think), and this is actually the first time that have posted on it. So, hi. Yeah, I kind of really suck at this whole blogging thing, but I'm going to try to work on that and let any of you who are crazy enough to actually care what is going on in my life have some way of knowing. I told Corinne back in January that I was going to start posting on this thing, and it looks like I finally have, and only 4 months later.

Corinne and I are currently on our whirlwind tour of Ohio before heading off to Chicago for Law and Society, where I am attending the grad workshop, presenting a paper, chairing a panel, and generally planning on enjoying Chicago. Plus, you know, I should probably try that whole networking thing seeing as I'll be on the job market in a year or two.

Speaking of Law and Society, I'm still working on the paper that I will be presenting, so I need to hurry up and get that done. Yesterday was a nightmare for working. I could not focus, figure out what I wanted to say, how to say it, or overcome the feeling that I had completely lost my mind and forgotten how to write. Not good when you are facing a deadline and dealing with material directly related to your dissertation. Fortunately I got some good advice, I read a bunch of old Penny Arcade comics, and got some sleep. Today was much better. I got about 4-5 single-spaced pages written, and I think most of it is of pretty good quality, which is a huge plus. Writing academic papers really is a funny (not haha funny, but still funny) thing. Sometimes the ideas flow and I can get a lot of work done fairly quickly (i.e., today). Other times I stare at the screen unable to form a coherent thought and wonder if I will be able to finish (i.e, yesterday). Consistency sure would be nice, but I've yet to figure out how to obtain that.

This post has officially become way too long and too rambling...and probably not too interesting at all. In the future I'll try to have more of a point and be more entertaining. We'll see.