I keep forgetting I have this bully pulpit. So what have I been up to since April 25?
It was a long, long six weeks. I wrote two papers--and had to rewrite one of them. I also had to take my comprehensive exams. Each of these exams involved mastering a given reading list--of twenty to sixty books each, in my case--and then write out an answer in twenty-four hours on a particular subject that was given to me at 8 AM. Then, after four of these, I had to defend them in an oral examination.
But it's over--I passed them comfortably, and am now ABD! Life is easy; all I have to do is research and write a 350-page book. The research will be the most fun, of course; it'll likely be an immense road trip through the upper midwest and the south along the Mississippi. My topic: The military occupation and government of the areas along the banks of the Mississippi during the Civil War.
So don't write a book on that yourself, plz.
For the rest of the summer, I'm going to relax, and then do some work in the Army's archives, and then work on a lesson plan for my students: My first time as the "real" teacher. The subject is US History to 1877. Can't be too hard. Right?
...
What else have I got...
A little contest! Does the following come from a chess book, or a go book?
In the grounds of the great temple, tranquil in its antiquity, the clear voices of cicadas could be heard, whilst in the garden a black butterfly, big as a bat, danced soundlessly over the red amaryllis--the flower of September's autumnal equinox. The night before had seen a harvest moon. From the cloudless sky, a chill wind sucked down from the steep hillsides was enough to cause an involuntary tightening of the lapels.
If you get it right, you get ten points.
Le Havre is turning into a game that I respect highly, but have little intent to actually play--except maybe solo. I just don't comprehend it, and there's so much to comprehend that it seems like work. Do I really want to play it fifteen times, and then reflect on my inevitable defeats in order to become incrementally better the next time? Thinking...thinking...no. I'm too deep into the Cult of the New, for one thing. (My first human opponents, Mr. and Prof. Cranky, have played it umpteen times, and wiped the floor with me in our game. It was a harrowing experience.)
Not that my opinion can't change. I managed to eke out a victory in Age of Steam--one of my white whales--also chez Cranky. By my reckoning, that was my first not-last in my several playings. And now that I've learned that the 3rd Edition comes with a solitaire map, it becomes more attractive. (I'd sold off my AoS set a while back, when I decided I'd rather have $250 than the game.) And besides: I won! Woohoo! Nothing improves my opinion of a game quite like victory.
Yeah, I might pick it up this afternoon.
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