Truman is done (Pending Francis DuVinage edits and becoming a finalist (which is probably doubtful)
GW beat Xavier at Xavier for the first time in 10 years and is in first place in the A-10
And right behind them is a little team called the Billikens in 2nd Place
Who woulda thunk it?
I haven’t been good about Gore updates, but with the speech last week and book deal this week….People should be watching.
A book tour is a great way to fake campaign. Perhaps his Global Warmning book will suggest alternative fuels….Iowa may like to hear about that.
I got these from a longer essay found here
Prestige is especially dangerous to the ambitious. If you want to make ambitious people waste their time on errands, the way to do it is to bait the hook with prestige. That’s the recipe for getting people to give talks, write forewords, serve on committees, be department heads, and so on. It might be a good rule simply to avoid any prestigious task. If it didn’t suck, they wouldn’t have had to make it prestigious.
Don’t decide [what do to with your life] too soon. Kids who know early what they want to do seem impressive, as if they got the answer to some math question before the other kids. They have an answer, certainly, but odds are it’s wrong.
A friend of mine who is a quite successful doctor complains constantly about her job. When people applying to medical school ask her for advice, she wants to shake them and yell “Don’t do it!” (But she never does.) How did she get into this fix? In high school she already wanted to be a doctor. And she is so ambitious and determined that she overcame every obstacle along the way– including, unfortunately, not liking it.
Now she has a life chosen for her by a high-school kid.
While watching The Jeff Foxworthy Show (I miss 1990s Sitcoms), I was skimming this blog, and I realized that I have never googled Bill. What sort of potential brother-in-law am I without Googling my sisters’ fiance.
In the process I found this unflattering picture: 
Just thought someone would be interested.
I must say, 2005 proved to be quite the year.
- Had Tea at a table next to Margaret Thatcher
- Walked on the Floor of the House of Commons
- Almost accidently walked into the House of Lords
- Worked on a Campaign for…a Conservative
- Taught an MP how to make a Frozen Pizza
- Saw Tony Blair during Prime Minister’s Questions
- Wrote a Speech that was Delivered on the floor of the House of Commons
I may edit this because I am definitely forgetting things. Also, the above is more resume-ish or just bullets of interesting (non-personal) things…2005 held shifts in relationships and friendships, some good, less bad. Many questions leading into 2005 have been answered, some not. There are new questions, but honestly…not as many.
2006 is the last garunteed full year of school in Steve’s life. 2007 likely will be a full year, but it is not assured. And after that…who knows. I am not really the school type, but being an academic has its appeal. For me and my friends, it is the year of MCATs, LSATs, GREs, and job finding. Decision time is here, and everyone will have to have an independent idea of what 2007 holds for them.
People, including myself, seem like they are on track for things, but if anything can be learned by looking at the shift to college, not everything goes according to plan. Someone’s bright future can dim very quickly; Getting back on a good track is what is important. Anyone can fall off.
One week..
Okay. I am in Marvin Center, and if I didn’t have my laptop with me, I would have gone back to New Hall just to check my notes for a class’ final I took yesterday out of panic I didn’t answer four of six. I could only think of 3 of the terms I answered. Then I got that inner feeling of panic…I had my laptop, so I scrolled through my notecards, and I found the fourth term I did.
I have a 4 page “final test” due Tuesday.
I have a 5 page paper due Friday.
I have a 20 page (roughly) Final Exam due next Monday.
Other people crank out four page page and five page papers. I can’t. I draft, revise, tweek. I don’t think I have confidence in my “cranking out” ability. However, I was able to crank out a pretty good International Organizations paper in about 2 and a half days work…don’t know the grade yet, but it should be good.
In nine days, Semester Five of College will be over. Only two more of undergraduate left. This semester was not my happiest. By no means am I depressed by it, but the work just sucked a lot of fun out of it. Next semester is not going to be any better. Another, probably harder, grad class. History for major class. Then a normal History and a normal Political Science class. I don’t like the history topic, and for Political Science I am debating between a class with a good professor, good topic, but a lot of reading. Versus alright class, alright professor, little reading.
I will hopefully have a paying internship with the DLCC. The interview for that is Wednesday, but it will be more work and draining than Carnahan.
I have thought about dropping the History major to a minor, but I really don’t want to. I mean, it is not assured that I am going to follow through with the Masters. I am pretty confident that I will, but I don’t want to drop the major if there is any possibility of me not doing the Masters. I am already kicking myself for dropping History of Modern China instead of International Organizations. While having a full time faculty professor is good for Political Science inside baseball at GW, but in terms of classes I like, it would have worked out better if I hadn’t.
One thing that simply frustrates me are some people at GW. I won’t go in depth into this because I do want this little diatribe to be public, but let’s say some of descriptions in the College Rankings/Prospective books are pretty accurate. The hardest thing for me to wrap my mind around at times are other reasons to come to GW than the ones I had. I just struggle with it at times.
In nine days, I get to go home. Then I return 23 days later. Perhaps it will be better because I will know how to handle a Grad class better. Or maybe the people situation will improve. Who knows. Back to reading. Nine days…