May 2008 Archives

Ok, so Carrie and I watch Jeopardy pretty much every day, and for those of you who don't, may I suggest that you do if only to see Larissa Kelly kick some butt.  She's by far the winningest woman on Jeopardy, having cleared over $220,000 in only 6 victories.  She's not as fast as Ken was on the draw, but she seems to know freakin' everything.  Oh, and she's got guts too.  When we watched her first game she got all the Daily Double questions and risked huge amounts of money.  We were shocked.  Hopefully she'll be around for a while more and generate some good buzz for the show again.

Carrie is feeling sick and suffering from a migraine, so I've been taking care of her today.  She requested a smoothie and what I made ended up being so good I had to post it here.

Andy's Smoothies

1 - 1lb bag of frozen strawberries
Milk
Orange Juice
1/4 cup of sugar

Take the frozen strawberries and set them out for 15-20 minutes so that they aren't entirely frozen or thawed.  Then dump them all into the blender.  Add the 1/4 cup of sugar.  Add milk until it comes to about the halfway point of to top of the strawberries and then add enough OJ to reach the top.

Then blend until smooth and serve.

Yesterday Carrie celebrated her 26th birthday, which on my end required a few different things to be done.  First of all was breakfast at McDonald's (after my 7-mile run).  After that, I was set to the task of baking a cake.  Oh, but not just any cake, a rainbow chip cake with rainbow chip frosting.  I was somewhat nervous about doing this, as my last cake-baking experience was not the most successful.  (Who knew you really had to let the thing cool before frosting...)

Thankfully, it turned out much better this year.

(For those of you on facebook, here's the link to the video.

Carrie really liked it! I, though, thought it was a bit too sugary. And by a bit, I mean I had a stomach ache after one piece.

Then that afternoon we watched a movie that I gave to Carrie, which for the sake of my perceived manliness will remain nameless.

Then for dinner we went to Garozzo's, which was fantastic. Mmmmm... Sicilian garlic dip and toasted ravioli and Tuscan wine and chicken spiedini. Cheers!

Ok, so my webserver has been down for a while, and I didn't get any explanation for what was going on other than maintenance.  Still, I'm glad that everything is working and I didn't lose anything.

So the coolest new addition to our household is Wii Fit.

In case you haven't heard, this is a cool series of games that take place on a remarkably sensitive balance board.  They are designed to increase strength, balance, and flexibility, which I though would be a nice addendum to my running, which if I do say so myself, is going quite well.  I'm much more optimistic about my chances of completing a marathon this year!

I can't say there's been much other news lately.  Carrie's still teaching so I'm being a bit of a bum and spending lots of time playing video games and reading.

Oh yes, reading.  I've been getting into Stephen King's Dark Tower, a set of seven books that so far have been very good reads.  I read the first book in a day, though it was only about 240 pages or so.  It can get a bit weird when he gets into the more metaphysical stuff, but his ability to write compelling narrative is impressive.  I was up 'till 1:00 last night, or to put it another way, 'till Carrie said I need to turn off the light and go to bed.  In my defense, I did still manage to get up with her and make coffee, followed by a 3.5 mile run.  :)

Anyway, I'm glad the server is back up and running and that all is well.  Now I don't have any excuses for not posting.

Ok fellow grad students, if you don't know about PhD Comics, you should, because they're brilliant.  As an example, here is a strip from a few days ago.

Carrie says that I can't go any further down this list than "get a job."  That why I have to graduate as quickly as possible.  :)

Well, since next year is going to be busy, with me trying to be ABD and all, I figured that I need to get a head start this summer with some projects.

Sure, there will be practicing and research and writing, but I'll still need to occupy myself somehow...

Well, I did not end up landing the position at Northwest Missouri State after all.  Needless to say, Carrie and I are both disappointed as it seemed to be a great opportunity to get a jump start on the life we hope for after I graduate.

So now it's back to the original plan.  I am cautiously optimistic that with some hard work I can be ABD by the end of next year.  (ABD = all but dissertation.)  This would then allow me to pursue job openings as some of these entry level positions accept ABD candidates and also because I'd no longer be tied to the campus.  Hopefully then by the fall of 2009, I could be outta here and, more importantly, gainfully employed.

You see, it's an interesting journey I've taken to this point.  Some of you may not know that becoming a music major as an undergrad took quite a bit of deliberation.  I was also very interested in mathematics, and arguably even better in that field than in music.  I loved music more, but was (rightfully) worried about the opportunity for employment.  With math, I could go into a very wide range of fields (and make much, much more money).  With music, I could only justify its pursuit if, in the end, I could earn a living with it, no matter how much I may love it, and frankly being a professor seemed like a good gig.

As I can see the end of my education approaching, though, I am becoming increasingly nervous about being able to secure employment.  It feels crazy to devote 9-10 years of collegiate work to a field and have such a narrow window for employment.  In some ways, that was probably the best part about possibly getting this job--the assurance that I'm not totally crazy for doing what I'm doing.

So until then I'll just keep pressing on, I suppose, and with any luck I won't be posting anything like this in a year...

and since I can't embed videos when this gets imported into facebook, you can also click this link.