productive
jrpseudonym's recent posting, I suppose I ought to return to the land of the livejournal postings as well. My reason for not having posted lately is a bit different; as several of you have probably heard, there's been drama in my life of late, of a particularly difficult nature. And the following journal entry will have nothing at all to do with that. What can I say? I'm just not the type to post this sort of thing. And honestly, anyone who's reading this has probably already heard way, way too much about this anyway.So, non-drama news: Not too much. The big thing in the past few weeks was (finally!) finishing up the quarter and teaching. (not bad -- far fewer students failed than I was expecting a few weeks ago. It's really surprisingly depressing when one of your students flunks.) (The class was advanced freshman physics lab) Research has also been ticking along pretty well, which is good.
Neat development: Yesterday a paper appeared on the net which was basically another research group extending some of my work. This is the first time this has happened... it's very, very cool. Someone else actually thought one of my papers was worth spending time on. So I'm presently buzzed about that.
Recent reading material:
"The Shield of Achilles: War, Peace, and the Course of History." Makes a good doorstop or toad-whacker, (it's too big for spiders) but that's about it. Superficial and the arguments are ultimately a bit silly. (It's about theories of how war and constitutional law influence one another in post-16th-century politics)
"The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy." Wow. I haven't reread this in way too long.
"Flashman in the Great Game." A good read. Fraser (the author) is the only historical fiction I tend to read, and this one is particularly well-crafted. Like the rest of the Flashman books, it's about some piece of 19th-century British military history (in this case, the Indian mutiny of 1857-8) told through the eyes of a generally disreputable military officer, far more interested in wenching and saving his own skin than becoming a hero. (Which strikes me as not that bad a perspective for a military man, but that's as may be)
Recent amusements: Plenty of roleplaying, and my roommate recently got a digital piano. So I've been playing a lot more, a couple of hours each day most days. It's a good way to deal with stress.
And, having brought this journal up to date, I can now continue with the search for something interesting to post on a more regular basis. News analysis? Random books? I have no idea. I'll think of something.
Really.
June 19 2002, 22:45:05 UTC 13 years ago