"Rock The House"

Ladies and gentlemen, I own graduate non-American history in the state of Oklahoma. I am graduate non-American history in this state. Like some sort of latter-day historical ubermensch, I swoop out of the sky, present a paper, and win first place at the annual Phi Alpha Theta Conference with it. None can stand against me, and all who oppose me are crushed under my mighty black dress shoe!

So yeah, the history conference went well today. Got first place graduate non-American history paper for the second year in a row. Too bad I won't be here next year to do it again.

At least, I assume I won't. There's no telling.

In other news, my grandfather went in for surgery earlier today to have some blockage removed from his neck (his artery was like 90% blocked, apparently). According to my parents, who went to see him after they watched me present my paper this morning, he's doing just fine, and will be able to go home tomorrow afternoon, so that's good. Mom also felt the need (for reasons I shall never really comprehend) to describe in graphic detail exactly what the stuff they removed looked like. I won't be passing that information along, because it still makes me a bit queasy. But all's well with that.

Still no word from Ohio State or Wash. U. My patience is fairly strong, but it's also starting to run a bit thin. I'm tired of waiting. I'd really kinda like to know what my future holds. But I'm not giving up yet--perhaps I can email an updated vita with today's victory added to it to the heads of the departments at Ohio State and Wash. U. Worth a shot, anyway.

Oh, and I think I figured out what bothered me about The Passion of Christ. As I suspected, it's related to the violence, but it's not that it's a violent movie. That I can handle. It's that they never really give you any reason for why Jesus was so feared by the Jewish leaders. They never really give you more than tiny snippets of His ministry, and then it's never enough to really understand the depth of His teachings or His ministry. Admittedly, it's probably assumed that if you're attending this movie you already know all that stuff, but if you're attending this movie, don't you already also know what happens to Jesus? Admittedly, it would've been hard to make a movie about the last twelve hours of Jesus's life and also include prime cuts of His teaching and ministry, but a little more (in those tantalizing flashbacks that worked so well) would've put the violence into better perspective, I think.

~chaos cricket

Song of the Moment: Blues Traveler, "But Anyway"