with all the force of a great typhoon

I have been fairly uninspired as of late to codify my thoughts.

I've been busy. I have a paper due in less than a week that I have barely researched. I have all my sources for it, ten secondary/primary sources is quite a lot, but fortunately I have a lot of books on medieval history from previous classes. So I just had to find a good topic within the parameter of the sources I already own.
This prompted me to write on, again, Knights.
So I'm addressing how lots of crusaders were knights, and what it was about knights that made them good crusaders. Dr. Hoffman should eat this stuff up.
I'll probably end up churning it out fully some time this weekend, as I have a lot of stuff during weekdays.

For instance, I am presenting a paper at Hess-Thompson. Non history majors don't fully understand what this entails. So I will briefly describe it.
Straightforward: You write a research paper, (10-15 pages usually), with a lot of sources (8+ books/articles) on a specific topic. You then forget about this paper for between 1 to 2 years when you realize it is the only thing of worth you had written in that time, and have to present something for the colloquium.
The History department strongly encourages students to participate in these presentations, because it looks great on a resume or vitae. Basically, grad school or other program officials are like, hey this guy spoke in front of an audience presenting his or her own research, that's quite professional of him or her!

So you grudgingly stand in front of an audience who is only in attendance because their professors offered a few points extra credit and they were too lazy to study properly for exams, but not lazy enough to waste an hour and a half of their time daydreaming while other people speak.

So, yeah. Its a relatively big deal. No one cares about it unfortunately.
Last semester I presented my paper, "Pirates and Torture, it's not all keelhauling and walking the plank". Which has a very eye catching and seemingly interesting title. So of the three or four rooms with papers being presented mine had over 40 people in it probably. As opposed to the like ten or twelve in the other rooms.
The logic of the students being, if i have to sit through a boring paper, it might as well be about something sort of violent.


I suddenly realize this is the most boring story ever.
Longer story shorter: I have important pressing matters.
On top of it all, I have to finish up observing for my methods class. 30 Hours of observation is a lot when you have to fit it into an already confined timeframe.

I'll finish this week though I think, but i'll be sad to end it actually. I've enjoyed waking up at 7 AM on MWF to go watch high school kids learn about the industrial revolution and WWI.
I can't wait to actually start teaching.

I was so scared for the longest time that I wouldn't end up enjoying teaching. But I am very relieved to say that I highly anticipate enjoying and thriving in the profession.
So, that is one possible major life crisis averted successfully.


This blog could turn into a novella of what I want to do with my degree, (all like five current options I am considering) Five is actually a lot. Like, I could teach middle school while getting my masters at night over a period of years, or go straight to grad school somewhere else, etc. Or go over seas to study, which I legitimately consider.

So for posterity's sake, I will end this awful, boring, mental-vomiting, verbal excretion that is this blog.

Per usual, a song that I feel fits my mood and my time: Strutter - KISS
(ignore the bizarre-ness of KISS, and this song is amazing.)