Paper-writing goes on. And on. Some day it may finish. Not terribly optimistic at the moment.

Weather has actually warmed up nicely. Enough to let me get out and take a few photos (sunset again, what else). It’s amazingly hard to predetermine the optimal amount of clouds and haze for a nice sunset, but I came out with something.

Stopped at the photo store in the evening. Tried out a teleconverter with my 70-300 lens (Kenko 1.4x Pro). Results were quite disappointing (even beyond the fact that AF was dodgy even in brightly lit areas. Very soft images. Ugh.

Too cold to go out today. Stayed in. Kept the heater on. Wrote, and read reactions to the Iowa caucus.

My only thoughts are that the process is ridiculously outdated, undemocratic and bizarre. It was also gratifying that John Edwards came in second (though sadly not first) and surprising that everybody was surprised by Obama’s victory. His fundraising alone shows that plenty of powerful folks want a not-Clinton option, and Clinton’s own poor performance accounts for the rest.

(Neither Clinton nor Obama really impress me. Both are candidates of a major portion of the establishment. Neither offer a particularly progressive message. Neither are trustworthy when it comes to the key point of sticking up for basic principles and beliefs.)

Quite possibly the coldest day I’ve spent in New York. Ever.

Made the mistake of going out for a walk and some photos this morning. Official temp: 15 degrees F. With 20+ mph winds. Despite many extra layers, basically had to run across the Brooklyn bridge to stay warm. It was amazingly empty of people.

Grandfather had a medical appointment downtown so met up for a late lunch. Indian food. Since my cooking has deteriorated, the hot meal was a nice touch.

Writing papers continues apace.

Move along. A totally unremarkable day. Many hours of unproductive or semi-productive typing, but no stunning insights or revelations. Sorry to disappoint.

A rousing start for 2008. I should list some resolutions here, but the only one I can think of so far is to get my house in order. Somehow.

Oh, and to write here more often. Aim at being a bit briefer though. Good enough?

Actually, the day itself was a bit of a letdown. Kinda sick of NY. Slept late. Worked slowly. Nothing happy to say there.

Did make it out to observe the sun going down. Beginning to make a habit of going to Battery Park. Nice angle on the Statue of Liberty (the sun basically sets on it). If only it didn’t set so darn early.

Well, I see another year has come and gone. Looking back, I guess 2007 wasn’t so bad. Still, here’s hoping 2008 is an improvement. At any rate, a few comments are in order.

First, this space has been a trifle, err… stale… for much of the last year. Working on improving that. If nothing else, I can use a little distraction from more serious matters, plus I have an excuse not to hate writing (in general) quite so much. I haven’t quite worked out exactly what sort of things will be appearing (the therapeutic effects of ranting being neatly canceled out by the need not to get myself any deeper in trouble than I already am!). Since I have no idea who actually reads this stuff anyway (well technically, the server logs could help a bit there), I’ll try to err on the side of judiciousness.

A New Years’ post should by rights be full of predictions and resolutions, but for now I’d rather keep it simple: I aim to make the most of what is and to ignore what isn’t. Everything else can more or less take care of itself.

Happy 2008!

Well, yesterday’s holding pattern was a success. My Arabic presentation (more like personal monologue) went okay, and I did manage to (barely) finish all the readings in time for the afternoon’s history seminar. It was actually a pretty fun seminar, although everybody seemed a bit out of it. The theme was Constitutionalism (Young Turks and Iranian Constitutional Revolution), but it was intriguing just how differently ‘constitution’ was interpreted by the various parties. It served as the proverbial magic bullet for all manner of different causes. Some saw it as a way to strengthen the state, others to loosen its grip. Some wanted to use it to preserve the status quo, others to change it radically. And so on.

The other interesting part was the issue of connectivity. In the example of Iran, for instance, we learn of cases where leaders in northern Iran are communicating with leading Russian and European socialist figures. During the actual revolt, there are numerous cases of revolutionaries in the Russian domains crossing the border to help fight in Iran. The Iranian Constitution was modeled on the 1876 Ottoman Constitution, and at the same time, the Young Turks were taking some of their cues from Iranian Constitutionalists, a number of whom were initially operating from exile in Istanbul. Hopefully, I’m smelling a potential paper topic somewhere in there.

This is one of those days where the most important thing is just to hold things together. The Arabic class and homework. The anthropology response, paper topic and discussion. The summer Arabic application. The history readings for tomorrow. The Arabic presentation for tomorrow. Nothing deep to say. Barely anything at all, in fact.