in britannia

So I think this is as good a time as any to end the blog. The great Oxford experiment is done. It was successful. I have a Master's Degree, I rowed, I punted, I enjoyed the company of friends, and I have now returned to America.

I'll be recapping for my own benefit in the next couple of days, and while I'll leave the site up indefinitely, I probably won't be posting too much anymore.

Thanks for following to the end, if you have been. And if you haven't, then fie upon you, you faithless wenches!

So yeah...

I've not been posting as much. I've done very little to endear myself to my millions of fans worldwide. I certainly haven't done anything to keep them coming back.

I think, perhaps, it's because I'm not as bored as I was last year. And because I'm much busier. And because there are a thousand other things I should be doing instead of blogging. Or rather, if I had the time to be blogging, don't you think I should have been doing something else? Starting to think like my Mother... oy.

Speaking of the beloved parents, they are in Oxford today in order to watch me get dressed up and parade myself up and down Parks Road. It's graduation time. I will, as of 3:15 today, have the degree of Master of Philosophy. I will be dressed in subfusc, which is a dark suit, white shirt and white bow tie, and I will be wearing a Master's gown with lots of neat curlicues on it. I will be sweating like a dog in a parked car. Or I'll be dead. Like a dog in a parked car.

It's been an amazing two years. My two good friends met, dated, got engaged, and got married. I have recorded 7 CDs, played and sung in innumerable concerts, sung the Aylewood Responses more times than I care to recall, punted, drank, played frisbee, juggled, got a concussion, all the good stuff. And in the two weeks, I've cooked more meals for people than I thought possible. I've always remained well-compensated, and perhaps this will work itself out to a different career for me? Who knows...

My email box has been very empty and sad lately. I think it's because nobody loves me. Or rather, the people who would email me constantly (Mom and Dad) are here at Keble and have no email.

So what's next? Next year? Who the heck knows. As for now, I'm going to revel in the fact that I'm graduating today.

This morning's MLB scoreboard said it all. In another week of interleague play, it was undeniable. Indians over Cubs, Boston over Washington, Tampa over Arizona, White Sox over Cardinals, Royals over Pirates, not to mention Seattle over Dodgers, Twins over Astros, Detroit over Milwaukee, Blue Jays over Braves and even Yankees over Phillies. So out of 14 interleague games last night, ten of them were won by the American League.

Derek and I were talking today over lunch about our favorite Daily Show personalities. Straw poll: Samantha Bee - thumbs down. Dave Gorman - split (I say up, he says down). Jason Jones - down. John Hodgman - up. Just thought I'd share. Hodgman certainly is growing on me. Originally, I found him kind of a pain in the neck. Now, I just find him uproariously funny.

Dodged a bullet again without even knowing it. Five years ago, when I turned in my thesis at Princeton, I missed binding chapter 2. This is a story that doesn't really get old. Most of my friends don't tire of hearing it. It's a funny story. It also showcases my endearingly incompetent side. Well, I figured that the trajectory had continued this year when I gave myself a minor concussion while cycling to turn in my thesis. As it turns out, I was only half right. I met with my professor this morning to go over my marks, and as it turns out, 10 pages was missing from one copy of my thesis. WHAT?!? Seriously. 10 pages didn't make it into one of the copies of my thesis. The reader, confused, emailed Prof. Parker (chairman of the board of examiners for Ancient History), who got worried. A case where, as he put it, he did not want to act suspicious, but would have had to in order to maintain the integrity of the grading system. Thankfully, the other copy I turned in had the missing pages, and they were very easily photocopied and sent over. If they hadn't been there, then the committee would have had to rule on whether the pages could be graded at all, since they were not part of the package I turned in at the time of the submission. I can't believe I came so close to pulling that kind of stunt again. I'm an idiot. But doesn't my incompetence also endear me? :)

Going to Italy tomorrow for a recording and concert tour. Check out Magdala for a profile of our latest recordings. Actually, it's not really our latest effort. We're on the companion CD to the amazingly popular Michelangelo exhibit at the British Museum. But because the disc is being released by the British Museum, we can't advertise it on our website. I just recorded part of a plainchant disc yesterday, and we'll be performing and recording a set of 10 pieces from a musical tribute from the city of Florence to King Henry VIII of England while we're in Florence.

I'm getting ready to wrap up this blog. I wonder whether I should keep it. It's nice to be able to spew my thoughts down every now and again, and certainly I know that some people *used* to read it. However, since I slowed down in my posting schedule, I think that what few regular readers I had stopped visiting. It certainly has been put to good use. It allowed me to keep in touch with my friends in the US and at the P. school, as well as my friends and family from college. It has allowed me to vent, and certainly in looking back at my posts from last year, I am reminded of how much I have grown in my two years at Oxford. I look back at my old essays and am amazed that some of that passed as academic writing. It's been difficult, it's been tumultuous, and it's been hard. It has also been rewarding, fantastic, and fun. More later, for now, I'm just going to enjoy remembering.

So after two years, it's come to this: whether my name is tacked to a board outside the Examination Schools on the High Street. If your name is on, you've passed. If your name isn't, thanks for playing - go home, you get no consolation prize.

I passed. I may now call myself a Master of Philosophy. Joseph Wang, AB (Princ.), MPhil (Oxon.) certainly has a nice ring to it. Actually, it's phenomenally pretentious.

My brother Matthew came down for the afternoon. It really was wonderful to see him, and I am so proud of him for all of his many accomplishments. He's an inspiration to me. Really.

I'm really tired, but I wanted to blog this before I forgot. Gotta go back to sleep now.

Today is 06/06/06. People who think bad things will come today are stupid.
And superstitious. But mostly stupid.

My allergies are killing me. I have so much Greek to study it's crushing me. And I'm really really tired.

blah...

In the last four nights, I have gotten a total of 10 hours of sleep. I have been eating Sainsbury's sandwiches for dinner. I have been eating ramen for dinner. One dinner consisted solely of chips and salsa. In short, I've been working on my thesis.
I've been drinking about 8 gallons of water per day, because it's the only way to keep myself awake. That is, make sure I have to get up and use the bathroom every fifteen minutes.
And what do I have to show for it?

Hmm. Diana thinks I'm a big dork for counting it all up. But here it is.

Thesis
Introduction - 1157 words
Chapter 1 - 4720 words
Chapter 2 - 7197 words
Chapter 3 - 6365 words
Chapter 4 - 5562 words
Conclusion - 3154 words
Total: 28,155. Word limit: 25,000. I am over by 12.62%. My supervisor, however, is the chairman of the board of examiners. He tells me I shouldn't worry. So I'm not worried.

How about the papers? Each word limit is 5,000 words.
Course option: Thucydides and Greek History
All Politics is Local - 7316 words (over the limit by 46.32%)
Constitutional Amendments - 6038 words (over the limit by 20.76%)

Course option: Athenian Democracy in the Classical Age
Ostracism and the Democracy - 7331 words (over the limit by 46.62%)
Power to the People - 4863 words (under the limit by 2.74%)

Course option: Greek Religion
Gods Represented in the Democracy - 5643 words (over the limit by 12.86%)
Retreat from Rationality? - 7138 words (over the limit by 27.81%)

Yes, I'm a huge dork. But it's interesting to see how things shake out. I'm glad that the rather short essay is balanced out by the extremely long one. Also, these word counts include footnotes, but that's not always accurate b/c I have to quote the Greek in the body of the essay and the footnote is where the translation (if any) goes. In any case, I'm done with that part of my Oxford experience.

Funny story too. So I'm biking out to my department to use the printer so I can dash off to the Examination Schools and turn in the stuff. Biking along and suddenly a dude sprints out like he's trying to cross the street. I crash into him and end up smacking my head on the ground. And while they're trying to make sure I'm not dead, I'm muttering "I need to turn in my thesis..." Finally get the stuff to the exam schools - due date: today at noon. They time stamp my submissions. Dead on the money: 12:00 PM. Of course, I don't get out of there until 12:20 with all of the paperwork I have to fill out, and by this point, my head is throbbing. I get checked out by a couple of friends who are med students though, and they tell me that while it's a pretty bad bump, that's all it is. Not really a huge deal, maybe a minor concussion, but they can't see any real evidence of it. So there it is. I did want to submit the stuff in person. My departmental secretary asked me if I was OK and offered to take my essays over, but I figured I wanted to do it myself. I'd gotten this far: I wanted to finish strong.

Ugh. I want to go out and have a celebratory drink or two. But with my head in this state, I think it might be best to wait.

Oh good lord...
Today at noon marked the two-week deadline to handing in six assessed essays valued at 5,000 words a piece, and a thesis, valued at 25,000 words. Total liability: 55,000 words.

Of course, my essay on Ostracism and the Democracy is currently 7,500 words, but my advisor swears that this is OK.

The essays on the table are as follows (two per course option):

For the option in Greek Religion:
• Gods Represented In The Assembly: an analysis of the use of divination in civic decisionmaking.
• Retreat from Rationality?: A study of whether the Greek state of the 4th century was actually more irrationally superstitious than the 5th century golden age of Pericles.

For the option in Thucydides and Greek History 479 - 403:
• Constitutional Amendments: charting the history of the Greek democratic reforms and the subsequent oligarchic reforms to those democratic reforms down to the institution of the oligarchy in 404 BC.
• All Politics Is Local: An examination of Spartan foreign policy as it was dictated by domestic policy during the first Peloponnesian War.

For the option in The Greek Democracy:
• Ostracism and the Democracy: The development, history, and mechanism of the Athenian ostracism.
• Power to the People: The shift in power from the plenary assembly of the people (5th century) to the legal courts (4th century).

And then there's my thesis.
Conducting Lawsuits in Athens after the Amnesty of 403 BC. Following the massive civil war over the oligarchy of the Thirty Tyrants, the Spartans, led by Lysander, institute a reconciliation agreement which, among other things, declares an almost total amnesty over the crimes committed during the civil war. This is a study of the different ways that orators work their way around the amnesty in order to argue their cases. While focusing heavily on the orator Lysias, this also has elements of political theory and history via Aristotle as well as heavy reliance on Thucydides, Aeschines, Demosthenes, and Isocrates.

So you'll forgive me if I haven't been posting and do not post for a while. On the plus side, my computer's back and going strong. Also, one of my friends in the choir has agreed to proofread my thesis. For the second thesis in a row (OK, so there have only been this one and the undergrad one), I've gotten a cute blond frosh (they call them freshers here) to be my proofreader. I am very thankful for Sarah and all of the help I got in college. She's awesome. And as for my friend Esther, she's graciously agreed to proofread in return for the promise of dinner some time after my exams are over. Cute blonde freshman proofreaders are awesome.

Finally, had a great Mother's Day with my Mom. She and Dad came to England to watch Matthew in his production of Godspell at Eton. It was a really pleasant surprise (the musical - Mom and Dad coming was pleasant, but not exactly a surprise) as I am not a musical theater (theatre?) person and had my misgivings. I liked it so much I went back for seconds. Matt did a great job, and I'm so proud of him. Lunch was at a lovely country inn with fantastic Anglo-French food. Delicious, though a bit pricey. It was great to see my parents, and to take a weekend off from work. Well, not really - I did bring all of my work with me and averaged about 4 hrs. of sleep per night that weekend. Anyhoo, back to work. Matt's going home tonight to attend the wedding of one of our family friends. I'm absolutely gutted that I can't attend - especially since she's a friend of Diana's and is, as far as I know, unaware that we are dating again. It'd be so much fun to freak her out. :)

Gosh... As I said in my last post, I'm really busy this term. Made busier by the fact that I have no computer at the moment. I've, in fact, been without a computer for the better part of two weeks. It's killing me. I mean, certainly, there's plenty of stuff I can do without it. But it's really starting to hurt that I'm without...

Derek, one of my best friends at Oxford left today. He's gone to play professional baseball in Louisiana, and he'll be finishing his Master's in Classical Archaeology on the road. He'll go to law school next year, and then onward to a life of protecting art. He doesn't want to be Indiana Jones: he wants to be Indiana Jones' lawyer. I wish him the best of luck.

Still, part of me can't help but feel really sad that he's leaving. Many of my very good friends have moved on. Jess and Ted left at the end of last year. Dan is still in London, but I never see him. And really, Jess and Derek were my pool playing buddies. We were obnoxious and American and jingoistic. We were all from the northeast, and were unabashedly argumentative and intellectually curious and we got along great. I miss Jess a lot. I know I'm going to miss Derek too.

On the upside, it's, like, 90 degrees out and sunny. Gorgeous weather for working outside.