Saturday, November 28, 2009

Best. Thing. Ever.

OK I know I've posted lots of videos lately and not anything of substance, but I plan to change that in the near future. However, tomorrow's Sunday and I have a long and full day so I'll put off my entry (that and my first PhD app is due on Tuesday).

So here's something for you. You've probably already seen it, but I've seen it at least 5 times in the last three days and it only gets better. AND R just showed me the original Queen video and it's even better having seen that now!

Enjoy. :)

Friday, November 20, 2009

What I Want for Christmas



With the expansion pack, please.

Friday, November 06, 2009

Dag nab it.

I just took a moment to total up the costs for my PhD applications this year. Kinda ridiculous...

Transcripts: 171.00
GRE Score reports: 180.00
Application fees: 655.00
For a grand total of...1006.00

Good thing I already set aside the money for this, otherwise I might be freaking out at this point. What makes this a tough pill to swallow is that nothing is guaranteed, and like last year I could spend money on apps (although last year I only applied to 3 places) and not get in anywhere.

For a variety of reasons, I pray pray PRAY that doesn't happen this time.

Nope...

...I haven't forgotten you all or my blogging! I'm just in the midst of trying to get some crazy PhD application stuff done. I've spent the past two days getting everything ready to send to my recommenders, which has involved an inordinate amount of time checking every application deadline and how the rec's are done for each application. Since I'm applying to nine places, that's quite alot of website checking. And it's annoying. But that's done, and the CV is basically updated (although more and more I look at it and feel like it needs to be reconfigured but I don't really have the time or energy to do so right now-the pertinent information is on there and that's what counts). My current dilemma is that the YDS journal I was published in never sent me a hard copy, and I can't figure out who the official publisher was. I think that information was emailed to me at some point, but it was mailed to my Yale account which no longer exists; thus, I'm stuck and don't know how to list that publication but really really want to because it would look good in the applications! Arg. Frustration to the max. I also need to add up costs, but they're not going to be fun. The GRE scores will cost 180.00 to forward, and transcripts will probably come close to 80-90 (but hopefully less, some are stupid cheap and some are expensive-Yale is expensive, Harvard is cheap, WKU is in the middle. Weird).

My next project is to get my writing sample up to snuff. I have three options at this point, and am torn about which to go with. My Herbert paper is in final form (that's the one that was published) and should be ready to go, but I think it's the least historically-oriented paper I've got. My BCP paper, which is the most historically oriented, needs alot of work and it's also about the topic I want to study for a PhD. I wary of submitting that paper (even if it were in final form) because I don't want it to look like Ive already done everything on this topic. I'm trying to demonstrate some breadth....

Which leads me to my third paper, which was actually a midterm I wrote for my prayer book class last year. While it's a midterm, it was a mini research paper (about 14 pages) and compares the sacramental theologies in two liturgies written during the prayer book proscription of the 1650s. So it's apropos, but not exactly on topic as the BCP paper is. It's a little less historically oriented (in an obvious way) but deals with primary source texts from my period. I think that's the one I'll go with, unless I have a last minute change of heart!

Other than that, R and I are planning to go to Plimouth Plantation tomorrow. Growing up, I always read these books about Sarah Morton and Nathaniel somebody and their "day"-the books were photographed at Plimouth and they're about the lives of pilgrim children, basically. I've always wanted to go to this place to check it out, so we're going tomorrow! And it's only a few weeks before Thanksgiving so it's especially timely. I'm such a dweeb, but I'm stoked! R is a little excited because they have venison burgers there and he's never had venison, so he can check another animal off of his food chain list. Ha. He cracks me up.

Oh and we brewed beer last weekend! I'll post photos soon of the brewing. We'll bottle next weekend and then another 2 weeks of conditioning in the bottles and then...we get to taste it! But more on that later. Soon you'll hopefully have beer pics and pilgrim pics.

But not now. I have to give you something to look forward to, right?