evileprechaun5

03:16 pm: Inauguration
I am back from DC for the inauguration. It was a loooong day, very cold and the crowd management by the nteen different agencies that were doing it, was not very conducive to people actually getting to the mall. That being said I am extremely happy that I went. It was just something else to be there with all of those people, the excitement the hope, and the history. And I saw him waving from his limousine at the pre-start of the parade route!

Maybe more after I've had a chance to recover

01:08 pm: writing
Went to a teaching workshop today and one of the speakers made us fill out an ending

Writing is like .............

fill it out with an analogy of what writing is like to you

My answer Writing is like waiting for a geyser to erupt. When the block is removed an eruption occurs, words will come out, but I have to wait for it to happen, it cannot be forced.

01:03 pm: New blog
For those who are interested I have recently started a new blog at: http://thoughtsontheinane.blogspot.com/

This blog will be focused on politics, policy, with a little bit of sports content thrown in, as opposed to personal thoughts, reflections and anything else I feel like typing, which is more the purview of this blog.

The goal will be to update the new blog every Friday. So feel free to read and react, or just ignore it.

09:52 am: I am happy :)

Go Obama

Please don't let Bush do anything irreparable in the next couple months

05:04 pm: election day
I am nervous, and excited. Needless to say I'll be watching tv tonight.

I hope everyone has taken the time to vote.

07:53 pm: Update
Since I haven't posted here in a while, I figured I should provide an update.

Most of the summer has been relatively relaxing. I recently returned to North Carolina from a trip to Baltimore (briefly) and a week in upstate NY at the mom's side of the family vacation home. I had missed out on the upstate trip last year, and was really looking forward to going this year. The only twist is that for the first time since I was three with only my parents, no brothers. We ended up having a great time, even though the weather was not fantastic. I did enjoy the fact that it was nice and cool!

To bury the lead though, I have also acquired a puppy. I met her one weekend in July and decided to get her then, but due to the vacation I was not able to pick her up permanently until yesterday. Her name is Juno. If you are curious there are pics on facebook. She's a super sweetheart, all black retriever mix (maybe flat coated retriever in there?) and she's about 4 months old and 25-30lbs (as a guess). Some people have suggested that I bring her to NAC's but I think that's a bit much. She will however be a fencing puppy though. She's scheduled to go to practice tomorrow in Durham, and she has her first competition on Saturday. She likes people so come say hi!

06:27 pm: Crappy Fencing
I fenced in the Carolina Cup today. It was a very top heavy 23 person A1. So of course I was in the 5 person pool :). For various reasons I got to the venue late and barely had time to dress never mind stretch and warm up. For whatever reason, I can get away with that in foil but not in saber. On top of that I had not been fencing very well all week. Needless to say pools went horribly. My feet and arm were not cooperating, resulting in missed parrys and my front foot landing before I hit on my attacks, plus my usual problems involving preparation, non-intelligent fencing, lifting my hand on my attack and poor distance.

I lost all 4 bouts, two of which were clearly winnable if I was fencing better. This seeded me 19th. That matched me up against a 14yr old who for whatever reason I have a mental block against. He preps but my distance was off and I wasn't getting it. I was prepping horribly and he was hitting me. All I really needed to do was slow down and press, and make him finish short when he was attacking, so of course I didn't. I lost 15-6 and for most of the time it wasn't even that close.

Feeling annoyed, and realizing I had to stay for the rest of the tournament anyways (I was Joe's ride and he was reffing), I organized a losers bracket pool one one of the strips that was no longer being used. I fenced better (of course the fencing caliber was lower) and regained some of my pride, but still the day was overall frustrating.

I'm not sure why but my saber fencing has been in a bit of a slump for the last couple weeks. Hopefully, I'll shake out of it soon, though of course I'm leaving for just bout tow weeks of vacation next weds, and I'm not going to be able to fence (lack of clubs in loon lake, ny). Ah well

05:04 pm: My Head Hurts
So I decided to do a few minutes worth of analysis of the Democratic Primary results. I am pretty ambivalent about whether it is Obama or Clinton* I just want the Democrats to win in November. I also believe that whoever has the most popular votes should win the nomination. I pretty much feel about the delegate process like I feel about the electoral college. So I decided to see if I could figure out this whole popular vote thing.

There are a few different ways to count the popular vote**: You can exclude Michigan, and/or the caucuses, or include all of them, and award or not award Obama the undeclareds in Michigan (btw really stupid decision to take his name off the ballot) Additionally, Washington State awarded delegates based on a caucus, but on a separate date held a primary vote.

If you exclude Michigan and either include or exclude the caucuses Obama has the lead (it increases slightly with the caucus votes counted). If you include Michigan but don't give Obama any votes Clinton has the lead regardless of caucus votes.

If you include Michigan and give Obama the undecideds then it is a virtual dead heat, if you exclude the caucus results. But if you include the caucus results then Obama leads.

But if you include Michigan, give Obama the undecides and count the cauceses, but use the Washington State popular vote totals from the primary, rather then the caucus vote totals, then Obama still leads overall but by virtually nothing (about 60 thousand votes).

Does your head hurt yet? Mine does. Basically Obama has a (relatively) big lead in the caucus votes, but they're very sketchy as they estimate translations into popular vote (see Washington St) and generally overestimate for Obama.

So what does this all mean to me? Pretty much that the popular vote is deadlocked, woohooo!

*Disclaimer I voted for Clinton mostly because I think she has the best chance of winning in November, and current results and polls continue to make me believe this, but that's a side issue to this post.

** All margins are under 1% either way, unless you exclude both Florida and Michigan which I think is rather ridiculous and hence didn't discuss if both those states are excluded Obama leads by slightly over 1%.

02:03 pm: Summer Job?
Ok, so the summer job I really wanted isn't happening (Prof's funding got cut), and I still haven't heard back from the Urban Institute so I'm pretty much giving up on that. This leaves several options:

A) Accept job working with grassroots campaign, which would essentially be doing canvassing 8 hours a day (2-10pm M-F).
Pros: It pays well, and is doing something that I nominaly believe in, involved in politics etc.
Cons: Walking around in 90 degree weather all summer, I'm not a huge fan of canvasing, and it's not flexible (couldn't take time off to go on vacation or go to summer nationals)

B) Work as summer camp counselor
Pros: Normal work hours, generally relatively fun, short, so could go on family vacation (though prob not summer nationals, regular paycheck
Cons: Have to find the job, pay stinks

C) Waitress/retail
Pros: While waitressing can be up and down, pay is generally ok (better then summer camp), flexible hours, inside
Cons: Have to find job, not really all that fun, though not the worst job either, would have to work some nights and weekends

D) something else - explain

Poll #1182914 Summer Job
Open to: All, detailed results viewable to: All, participants: 3

Which option should I Choose

02:26 pm: Things I learned today
Today I learned that you should treat your dissertation committee like you would treat your teenage children.

They will criticize you
Getting them to talk is difficult/you have to initiate it
Getting them all in a room together at the same time in nearly impossible