4.25.2006
hamster huey and the gooey kablooie
I miss summer days when all was needed for a good time was a big book of Calvin and Hobbes comics and a big glass of milk. Now, I've no more time for comics (though I indulge in a daily peek at the comics page, I'll admit), and I'm now lactose intolerant to the point where fresh milk makes my tummy unhappy. I'm sussing out the boundaries in cheese (brie OK, stilton, not so much); ice-cream is OK for now, but I know that dessert cream is a dangerous line to walk.
I've got a huge interview tomorrow. Interesting fact about the guy I'm interviewing with:
Nicholas Purcell is a lecturer at St. John's College, Oxford. He does not have a doctorate. He has an MA which, at Oxford, is a worthless degree because it just means that you passed your BA with high enough marks to merit the university granting you an MA 4 years after you leave. And yet, he is one of the most well-respected men here. It's because he is so brilliant that he went from Worcester College, Oxford to All Soul's College, Oxford and onward to a lectureship at St. John's without need for a Master's or Doctorate degree. And I'm supposed to impress this guy? blargh.
And an anecdote about him:
He took Greats (what Oxonians call Classics) back when mods (final exams) results were printed in the Times of London newspaper. After his exams, he went to Greece. On the day that the results were printed, he bought a copy of the Times, hiked to the top of Mt. Olympus, poured himself a cup of either tea or coffee, and opened the newspaper to find that he had received the highest marks in Classics that year.
I've got a huge interview tomorrow. Interesting fact about the guy I'm interviewing with:
Nicholas Purcell is a lecturer at St. John's College, Oxford. He does not have a doctorate. He has an MA which, at Oxford, is a worthless degree because it just means that you passed your BA with high enough marks to merit the university granting you an MA 4 years after you leave. And yet, he is one of the most well-respected men here. It's because he is so brilliant that he went from Worcester College, Oxford to All Soul's College, Oxford and onward to a lectureship at St. John's without need for a Master's or Doctorate degree. And I'm supposed to impress this guy? blargh.
And an anecdote about him:
He took Greats (what Oxonians call Classics) back when mods (final exams) results were printed in the Times of London newspaper. After his exams, he went to Greece. On the day that the results were printed, he bought a copy of the Times, hiked to the top of Mt. Olympus, poured himself a cup of either tea or coffee, and opened the newspaper to find that he had received the highest marks in Classics that year.
4.14.2006
hrm...
So i guess the cat's out of the bag that I haven't posted in a long long long while. Let's face it: blogging is hard. It's difficult to keep up the sense that everything I do is worth sharing with people. Let's face it: most of what I do is extremely boring.
Jess and Ted were right last year - the second year of an MPhil degree sucks when compared to the first. In the first, everything is new, everything is fresh, and everything is exciting. In the second, not only is everything not new, fresh, or exciting, but most of your friends are gone b/c they were all on one-year degrees and not two-year degrees like you, and suddenly all of your work is due. It's gruelling, it's hard, and it's a little lonely at times.
Which is a roundabout way of saying that I have blogged in a while because of two main factors:
a) my life, compared to last year, is very boring.
b) my life, compared to last year, leaves less time for self-indulgent online chatter.
So that's that. I'm headed into my last term at Oxford, and everything's coming due. I've got six essays, a thesis, and a set of exams. I'm starting to get very nervous that I won't finish everything on time. But more than this, I'm turning my eyes toward the future and coming to the realization that, at 26, I'm not so young anymore, and people are going to start demanding that I get a job or a degree worth some value. I don't think that it's an unreasonable demand, and I certainly wish that I had something to say other than, "I'm busy, talk to me again in a few days". But for now, I'm busy, and I'll talk again in a few days.
...I hope.
Just to catch up in the short time I have in between editing essays, in the months (months!) since I last wrote, I've been to several black tie dinners, done a few concerts, both orchestral and choral, gone on a choir tour with Queen's (on which I was asked to cantor Episcopal evensong services in both Boston and New York - woo hoo!), and a short trip to Florence with Diana. Tonight, I went to the BSO, where I heard my Dad (and many others) sing the Berlioz Requiem, which brought back memories. The last time I heard that piece performed was at Carnegie Hall in October of 2001 with my friend Eric, who is now in Maryland. I went to the Nassoons' 65th reunion, which was amazing, saw my buddy Paul, who I hadn't seen in years, and am now editing my way through stacks of essays while making time to study Greek. All in all, a very productive, but not terribly fun break. OK. That's it. Go away - I'm trying to study.
Jess and Ted were right last year - the second year of an MPhil degree sucks when compared to the first. In the first, everything is new, everything is fresh, and everything is exciting. In the second, not only is everything not new, fresh, or exciting, but most of your friends are gone b/c they were all on one-year degrees and not two-year degrees like you, and suddenly all of your work is due. It's gruelling, it's hard, and it's a little lonely at times.
Which is a roundabout way of saying that I have blogged in a while because of two main factors:
a) my life, compared to last year, is very boring.
b) my life, compared to last year, leaves less time for self-indulgent online chatter.
So that's that. I'm headed into my last term at Oxford, and everything's coming due. I've got six essays, a thesis, and a set of exams. I'm starting to get very nervous that I won't finish everything on time. But more than this, I'm turning my eyes toward the future and coming to the realization that, at 26, I'm not so young anymore, and people are going to start demanding that I get a job or a degree worth some value. I don't think that it's an unreasonable demand, and I certainly wish that I had something to say other than, "I'm busy, talk to me again in a few days". But for now, I'm busy, and I'll talk again in a few days.
...I hope.
Just to catch up in the short time I have in between editing essays, in the months (months!) since I last wrote, I've been to several black tie dinners, done a few concerts, both orchestral and choral, gone on a choir tour with Queen's (on which I was asked to cantor Episcopal evensong services in both Boston and New York - woo hoo!), and a short trip to Florence with Diana. Tonight, I went to the BSO, where I heard my Dad (and many others) sing the Berlioz Requiem, which brought back memories. The last time I heard that piece performed was at Carnegie Hall in October of 2001 with my friend Eric, who is now in Maryland. I went to the Nassoons' 65th reunion, which was amazing, saw my buddy Paul, who I hadn't seen in years, and am now editing my way through stacks of essays while making time to study Greek. All in all, a very productive, but not terribly fun break. OK. That's it. Go away - I'm trying to study.
