To PhD or not to Phd - APRIL FOOLS!!!

It's been a crazy month for me because I had what I'd like to think of as an epiphany a couple of weeks ago. For a brief backstory, I was sitting at my desk "doing work" when a thought suddenly popped into my head that had my jaw resting firmly on my desk for a solid minute. I thought to myself, "what's the one thing that is missing from my life right now?". I decided then and there that I would continue to pursue my goals of being a professional Archaeologist that I gave up on midway through my Master's degree in New Mexico.

I know this probably isn't the best time to do something like this, given the state of the economy and my wedding coming up in such short order, but I think it will be best in the long run. As such, I've made some preliminary inquiries into OSU to see if their program would suit me for what I want to study. For anyone who doesn't know, I studied the geospatial arrangements of fauna remains at the site of Isla Cilvituk in the Yucatan and I am looking forward to starting something similar with my PhD work. Unfortunately, it doesn't look plausible for me to pursue these goals at OSU.

After some more time passed I finally found a good school that has exactly what I need to pursue my research in California. There program, and the reliance of the archaeologists on GIS software, makes this an ideal candidate for me. Obviously I cannot pursue this in 2009 so I'm looking towards 2010 to begin my research. This will mean moving, once again, completely out of my comfort zone and into a completely new geographic region. Jess and I have discussed this in great length and agree that this is the best course of action for me and my career goals and being that it's California she won't have a problem with finding a new job.

I'm a little nervous about doing this once again but I can't balk at every sign of difficulties in life. Between now and then I have alot of decisions to finalize and plans to make. Wish me luck!!

Computer Woes

Yesterday I couldn't wait to get home and play with my new computer! Geeky, I know but there you are. I had been checking all day to see if my new video card had been delivered and around 3 oclock I received notification that it had been dropped of on my doorstep. Needless to say, the last couple of hours were difficult to get through. I could see myself playing games at levels I hadn't experienced with computers before because I'd always had laptops which don't have the best video cards. With visions of this dancing around in my head I went home, became deliriously excited when I saw it on my porch, and fell flat on my face when I couldn't seem to install the damn thing!?!

Granted, I was probably getting a little cocky with how easy it all seemed to be at first but I didn't expect this at all. I should have, but like I said.... cockiness! Lesson learned. After the first couple of tries with nothing to show from it (a blank screen, in fact) I gathered myself and proceeded to try many different things with many different settings..... FOR SIX HOURS!! I'm laughing about it now because I feel like I still had fun while doing it and I know alot more about how computers work now than I ever did by reading. I'm laughing because I was seriously pissed off last night when it didn't work. All I really wanted to do last night was download a game that I had been waiting anxiously to play and see it in glorious 1650 x 1080 with all the graphical options tuned to their highest degree. Instead I spent as much time on the floor fiddling with connections and inputs, which is no small feat for someone still healing from a broken leg! Jess will be happy to note that I did wear my boot for the duration of it.

I don't know what's wrong with it even now. I've been reading forum posts and information from the manufacturer's website but until I can get back to the computer and try some things out its all speculation. I'm hopeful that I can get it working during the weekend, and I can only hope Jess is prepared for me sitting in front of the computer for long stretches..... OUTSIDE of work! If I still haven't figured it out, my IT guy at work is going to run a diagnostic on it to make sure that the card itself isn't malfunctioning. Quite nice of him, I think.

This is all part of the ongoing saga of a man who thinks he knows all confronted by things he knows nothing about!! :) Peace y'all.


EDIT: After working with a Facebook friend from High School I have figured out what the problem is. Now to go home and test out this new hypothesis.

New Computer

I just checked online and the new computer that I ordered has finally arrived, piecemeal as it is. I'm really looking forward to building the computer as much as I am actually using it. I know that Jess would love me to build it as fast as possible so we can finally have a computer with a little more speed than either of us is used to. As I've never done this before it will be very interesting to see how long it takes though I don't anticipate it being a major problem. Mostly, I just hope that the computer components all work!! That would be great.

As soon as I get home I'll start to delve into it but tonight is Lost night so I really won't have much time during the evening. I might be staying up late though..... More on this computer later.

Star Trek Online

I've recently become rather addicted to the new Massive Multiplayer Online Game Star Trek Online. This is particularly odd because the game hasn't even come out yet but the website, at www.startrekonline.com, is very good with alot of great information for fans and non-fans of the series alike. There is so much history behind the series, that has been created through 10+ movies and 5+ series (if you include the animated series) as well as multitudes of novelizations, that a game based on this information is quite exciting.

I'm also kind of looking forward to starting an online game like this from the beginning to see how it changes over time. All of this will be moot of course if I don't get a computer that will be able to handle the graphical requirements which I am currently in the process of researching. I don't honestly anticipate this game to come out before the end of the year but I'm hopeful. I know this earmarks me as a nerd but I'm okay with that.

The other concern that seems to pop up with any online game is the potential to become addicted to it. I've been playing games for years and I can honestly say that any addiction to it has never interfered with my normal life though I'm sure there are some out there who feel that this may not be true. Regardless, it is really sad that some people do escape so inexorably into these shady dimensions and imagined worlds that they sometimes DO neglect the outside world. This brief musing aside, I will certainly never get to this point.

In the end, this should be an interesting experience once it finally comes to fruition. There is something so magical about what video games provide with their escapist notions that I am genuinely surprised that more people aren't into them.

I'm Baaaack!

Well, a lot has happened since I last took up the digital pen and scribed on this here blog. By my reckoning its been about 7 months! That is a very long time indeed and I have very good reasons why it has been so long but it all really amounts to laziness. Honestly, my computer at home is so much of a hassle just to start up that I hate starting it up. Luckily, I've started the first stages of building my next computer so I'm very hopeful that I will soon have a computer that will take less than 10 minutes to start up (with 4 Gigs of RAM at least this better not happen).

In other news, well alot has happened. Work is going pretty well and I generally enjoy what I do on a day to day basis. I've been struggling with keeping my hobbies a part of my life which is mostly a concern because it seems like I have a million things that I like to do that I end up doing none of them as much as I would like. Between video games, tv, reading books, writing, etc. there never seems to be enough time to do what I want. It really is quite frustrating in the long run and starting up this blog again is part of my current push to force myself to manage my time better so that I have a better life in general.

I'll end this post here but promise that I will continue writing on at least a semi-regular pace. Stay tuned and make sure you use RSS feeds or Google reader to keep track of little old me. All I want is some friends (cute puppy dog face emoticon --> I have to write it because this site has no emoticons that I know of).

My New Job

My world is, quite literally, about to change. This coming Monday I will be starting my new job, the first post-master's job. It is the first time in my life that I am actually considering a job as a career. I've had a few different types of jobs in my day, including fast food and retail, but this will be a company I plan on working with for years to come. To be honest, this is actually a little bit intimidating yet exciting. So much of my life recently has been in a holding pattern, that I find myself in awe sometimes that I have finally reached this point in my life.

If I haven't mentioned before what it is that I will be doing, let me try to explain here. This is no easy task as there are some aspects of my new job that I am as yet in the dark. First of all, this job is a sales position where I will be trying to convince clients to renew their technical support for the different types of software that Quest offers. This is kind of like those service plans that stores like Best Buy offer where if anything were to go wrong the customer would not have to shoulder the majority of the costs, other than the initial cost of the support.

Since I have a sales background, I felt that this would be an ideal starting position for me. I am also very interested in computers, and plan on building my next one (and hopefully chronicling that endeavor here for all of my faithful readers). During my time at Quest, I hope to be able to greatly expand my computer literacy. Where this might take me in my life, I am not sure, but if I am continuing towards something I love to do there can hardly be any problems there.

Graduate School: A Look Back

This past week I was in New Mexico finishing up my master's degree by defending my thesis. Everything went really well, and now I merely have to wait till I can get the degree officially around December. The last two years have been a time of great personal changes, where I have met many new friends who I don't doubt that I will in contact with throughout the remainder of my life. I have changed my mind many times over during this time about how exactly my life should be going, but I really feel with this job at Quest software that I have hit upon a good career for me.

It seems strange, after so many years of school, that I am now thinking about my life in these terms. I have been eagerly anticipating this time in my life. I have always thought of this time as the point where I would finally be able to enact many of my goals, such as getting some of my fiction published. I'm not gonna lie, now that its here I am a little frightened but also excited about the prospects. Much of what I am now, and how I view the world has been changed by my experiences in New Mexico.

From the first moment I set foot on that dusty soil, I began to think of coming home. In fact, within two weeks time I was on the phone with Jess trying to find some way to come home. For about a day or two I was completely sure that it had been a mistake and that I should go home and not even try. After many conversations, and some harsh words on both sides, I finally decided to make a go at it. I truly believe that this could very well be a decision that will cast a shadow on all future decisions to come. It truly was a crossroad in my life that could have led to a very different life.

With this decision made finally, I set about the rigamaroles of college life that at the time I had not done for over a year. This proved a little difficult to get through, but I eventually settled into a rhythm. If it weren't for several great friendships as well as my two jobs, I honestly don't know how I would have gotten through that first year. Uncertainties continued to plague me at every turn. I would consistently go to bed wondering if I had made the right decision. As time passed, things began to become more comfortable but I still missed those back home a great deal.

Missing Jess proved to be the greatest motivation I could have possibly had, as it has pulled me through many a tough spot and gotten me to where I am today. I want to thank all of you, and you know who you are, that have helped me get through this time in my life. Your words of encouragement have kept me afloat. I thank you from the bottom of my heart.

The Ranting Superhighway

My god, it has become so difficult to write things of late. I've had several great reasons for my lack of production on the electronic page. I have, as always of late, continued to put my hard earned sweat and tears (most especially) into my thesis. I have been in the thick of a job hunt that seems eternal, as I'm sure it always does but this is the longest I have had to wait since I started working at McDonald's when I was 17. Lastly, Jess and I have moved ourselves body and soul out of our apartment in Dublin to our new house in Clintonville. We still have many different boxes to unpack and furniture to rearrange. I expect that we will be doing this for a good long while yet until we feel completely at home.

It is strange to me how easy it becomes to acclimate to a new environment. Though things are completely new in many ways (eerie noises, I'm talking about you), the familiarity comes from having our material possessions scattered around this new locale. I am sitting here now in my office, the first time I've really felt like I had one all to myself and can thus do with it as I please, typing away to all of you eager readers out there and I feel perfectly content where I am. There is no hint to the astute observer that I am an alien to this space, that I have taken this place over for myself. Well... I suppose the scattered boxes are a pretty big hint, but I could just be a slob as well. No, I don't suppose that Jess would really stand for me falling back to habits of yore. :)

My point here, if there really is one, is to stress the amazing ability that we as humans have to overcome all types of obstacles. Whether it be a serious calamity or a mundane obstruction, we continually find a way to force our brains to function normally when the abnormal comes to pass. I truly think that if we did not possess this ability, this true sentience of thought and of being, that we would be adrift on the tides of time and would fall where we may. Whoah.. I guess I got a little poetic there for a second, but I like the ring of it so I think I'll keep it.

If you are still with me on this ranting superhighway, I applaud you. I would like to speak briefly about the future of this blog. I have many ideas that I am finding it harder and harder to put into play, but they still remain. I haven't had an original piece of fiction on here since October, I think, and I would dearly like to fix that. It is my hope that once I find a job and once this madness surrounding my thesis is concluded that I will fall into a routine that will find me, if indeed a routine were to have self-awareness, writing on a very consistant and daily basis. It is only with this that I feel I can give you as the reader something of interest as well as fulfill my own inner desire to travel along the crazy corridors of my imagination. Thank you all very much and remember that animals are people too!!

Respect the Popcorn Gods

Popcorn has finally had its revenge upon me! After years of gleefully enjoying its buttery flavor, it apparently has decided that enough is enough. Jess and I went to go see Hancock yesterday, which was quite good, and halfway through the movie I picked one seemingly innocuous kernel out of the bag and proceeded to bite into it. What happened next was surprisingly painless, but still abrupt. I felt a little bit of pain, but then a sort of pop. I could feel something that was definitely not popcorn in my mouth and I fished it out.

At first, I didn't even realize that anything with my tooth had specifically happened. I thought that I had encountered a steel-hardened popcorn kernel. Then I looked at it and it was definitely white, or as white as I could perceive under the harsh illumination of my cell phone screen in the darkness of the movie theater. Even then, I did not connect the dots really that it was a part of my tooth. My original thought was that it was a filling, of which I have several old ones from my youth, and had popped out of its cavity. Then my brain started working correctly and I reasoned that if that was the case that I ought to be feeling some pain from this previous hole in my tooth.

Not quite knowing what to do, but secure in the fact that it was painless I kept watching the movie and also continued eating popcorn! Of course, I made sure to stay away from the left side of my mouth. At some point during the movie, I reached in to extricate a bit of popcorn fluff that incessantly gets stuck in-between teeth. While I was in there, I felt around a bit more and realized that there was a very sharp edge on my back molar, much sharper than on the other side. After feeling around a little bit more, I came to the conclusion that I had actually cracked my teeth while eating popcorn.

Luckily for me, there is no pain and I feel comfortable waiting till Monday to schedule an appointment. In the future, though, I will be certain to pray to the popcorn gods before devouring them so as to allay any righteous actions on their part. I have been taking advantage of them for far too long, but let me be the first to say that they deserve our respect and we should give it to them.

The State of the Sean Address

I have finally received the green light from my adviser for my thesis. Finally, I have finished my thesis as to content. I still need to reread pretty much the entire thing to do some minor grammatical changes but the important part, at least to my impending graduation, has been completed. Now I must figure out the best time to get together with my committee, but it needs to be in enough time to graduate which makes it tricky. I still need to figure out the bureaucratic part of the whole thing, but with Rani's help I think I should be fine.

Beyond that I am still looking for jobs. While I am continuing my search, I will be working part-time at Blockbuster. This will be nice, I think, because I will once again be able to enjoy the free rentals. I don't anticipate the job hunt to go on too long, however, as I am confident that I have quite a few marketable skills. The trick, as it always is, is to figure out how best to put these together with the current job pool. In the meantime, I am busy with the move to the new apartment and all the grown-up things that correspond to moving. But.. as of July 12, 2008 Jess and I will be officially moved in. It is very exciting.

Beyond that, there isn't a great deal going on in my life. I am trying, sometimes in vain, to keep writing. Sometimes I just need to sit myself down and make myself do it, as I have done with this post. The funny thing is that as soon as I do sit down and run my fingers across the keys I instantly remember how much I enjoy writing and I can feel the creative juices stirring. Unfortunately, it is becoming harder to make myself do it sometimes. I am attributing that to the stress of finishing my thesis and finding a job and moving into a new house. I fully expect that I will find it easier when Jess and I are better situated into the new house. Until next time, it is never a good time to settle on anything.

A Fresh Beginning

For those of you counting, though at this rate I wouldn't blame any of you for not reading this anymore, it has been over two months since my last post. Starting to sound a bit like I'm in a confessional. I confess my sins to thee, and hope that thou doth forgive me. Forgive my strange speech, but I am been reveling in Shakespeare of late thanks to a wonderful new device called Librivox. This website consists of a collection of audiobooks, read by real fans none of whom are getting paid. All of the books are those that are no longer subject to the long arm of copyright law, and thus William Shakespeare is a part of this. I urge anyone who likes literature to check this out. The talent is mixed, but the enthusiasm for the literature is something that has inspired me to lend my voice to this wonderful project.

This is just one of the many things that I have been doing to alleviate the boredom that I find myself in. It is a strange thing that the more time I have free, and thus the more things that could occupy my time, the less I inevitably get done. Instead, I have been in the habit of lying about like a bum for too many hours on end. Luckily, I have just enough motivation left in me right now to finish my thesis and look for a job. Speaking of my thesis, just 20 minutes ago I dropped off the latest draft en route to my adviser in New Mexico. *Fingers-crossed*

My job hunt has been oftentimes frustrating so far because it has been very difficult to find jobs in GIS (Geographic Information Systems). I have been going farther and farther afield until it seems that I am not fully using the degree for which I have labored much and given much over the past two years. Then I sit back and realize that nothing can ever replace the experiences and the friendships that I had over those two years. Even my relationship with Jess, which was in many ways put on hold for that time, is stronger for these experiences. As such, I am confident that even if I don't get a job that is specifically in my field it will all be worth it in the end.

I pledge to all of you faithful readers that I will make more use of this blog now that my life has settled somewhat. The stability that having a job and a steady source of income brings will allow me to focus all of my creativity and keep writing. I pray to God that I never lose my compassion for the written word and that I am always comfortable enough in myself to never fear writing what I feel needs to be written. Stay tuned, for even I never know what will flow from my rapidly typing fingers and through all the circuits onto the monitor. Wondrous things may be ahead for us all.

The Hunt for a Degree

Hey guys, I've resurfaced from my self-imposed exile. While my life is nowhere near as dramatic as that, it still is fun sometimes to think that it is. Right now, as I sit here procrastinating the inevitable, I am finishing my thesis in order to defend in May so that I never have to come back down here again (although I like it enough so I'll probably come back). My thesis is mostly done, with the statistical analysis sitting next to me right now with a copious amount of notes written on it. My task as of right now is to distill the essence of these statistics into pages of text that will make sense not only to myself, but also to my committee (and considering how highly educated they all are, it is surprisingly difficult to get my point across as I see it playing out in my head).

In essence, I have already completed my thesis and come up with my answers and my statistical analysis. Now, I just need to pull everything out of my head and splash it onto the digital page. Though it might not be as profound as a Jackson Pollock painting, I do hope that it will at least make a lot more sense. It has always struck me how difficult things can get sometimes when the tunnel at the end of the light, so to speak, is blinding in its ferocity. At that time, everything seems to get much harder and elusive where before it may have been extremely clear and as easy to pick out of the brain as so many apples on an apple tree. For instance, now that I have most of my ducks in a row and have started looking for a job (which takes a great deal of my brain away from other things at times) all of the other things seem like they take longer and longer.

Of course, I know what this is and I've been through it before. Senioritis is a nasty thing that many people from time immemorial have dealt with and gotten through just fine. As such, I know that I will be fine. NO WORRIES! As I'm sure is blatantly obvious, this rather eloquent blog posting (full of many strange allusions and big words) is really just a symptom of the greater disease. Since my purpose down here is to finish my thesis and come back to Ohio to really start my adult life, I will finish this posting and get back to the task at hand.

The First Week of School

I have done a pretty good job so far, after 3 days (I know, its such a long time period), of keeping with my schedule and working on my thesis every day. For anyone interested in my daily progress, come on over to my Thesis Blog and see what I am doing. Because of the unpublished nature of much of the material, I have mad it closed to the public. Anyone who reads this blog and is also interested in my thesis needs just contact me and ask me to invite them. You are all welcome.

Looking forward to my posting on this blog, it might be somewhat sparse until I finish my thesis. Though if I can keep with my schedule, I should still have my evenings largely free so it is possible that I might even post more than last semester. I am currently working on a story, but it seems to be spiralling out of control and is already over 12 pages long and I have no idea on its eventual length. I would like to post some more short stories, however and I will try to keep that foremost in addition to my personal logs. As usual, if anything should catch my eye in the news or elsewhere and I have a personal opinion on it, I might just blog about it. Until then, have a great new years.

2007 in Review, Part 3

With this past summer behind me, I went back down to Las Cruces for my 3rd semester. I had reached the turning point in this whole venture, and I began to see the proverbial light at the end of the tunnel. To be perfectly honest, I seem to remember little from this semester. This is owing to the fact that it went by so damned fast that I can hardly believe that as I sit here now I am only days away from returning for my 4th and final semester. The latter part of the year was characterized by the continuing revisions of my proposal, which always managed to hover around 50 pages no matter how often I cut, added, or transposed. It's a good thing though, because for the most part I will be able to copy and paste almost verbatim into my finished thesis.

During the rest of the previous semester, I spent a good deal of it hanging out with friends of mine in New Mexico. It really is going to be quite hard for me to leave them and come back to Ohio when I graduate, because I have made some really great friendships that will most likely last the rest of my life. It will certainly be bittersweet when I leave Las Cruces, it has been my home for almost two years now and it will be hard to forget.

Well, that pretty much does it for the year. I left out much, but feel I have done a serviceable job in recounting the most important aspects. Looking towards 2008, I will be setting up a thesis specific blog at IslaCilvituk.blogspot.com where I will be keeping as daily a log as I can about what I am doing with my thesis. I am keeping it private, because I haven't published anything yet. If you are interested in keeping tabs on it, let me know and give me your email address so I can invite you to view it. Wish me luck during this final semester and have a happy 2008.

2007 in Review, Part 2

The last we heard from our intrepid archaeologist, Sean Arata (again cue Indiana Jones music), he was suffering through a field season full of gale force winds and other such indignations. Needless to say, he (I) was ready and willing to take my A in the field school and spend the rest of the summer in Columbus with Jess. The summer was a great time, as it marked the halfway point of graduate school. It really began to sink in that I only had a year left before finding a job and being able to start wedding plans in earnest. This turned out to be a very pivotal time period, as this coincided perfectly with the genesis of this here blog!! (You can probably turn off the Indiana Jones music now, gets kind of tinny after awhile)

I have really found a new/old passion in my life, and have tried my hardest to keep it going. It is new because I finally feel much more capable of putting my life down in words, not to mention other/ fictional lives. Though I have been writing stories since I was much younger than I am now, I have never embraced the very real possibility that with enough sweat and tears (and don't forget practice) I could actually in my lifetime pursue a career as an author above and beyond what other job I may have. Though of course I would never completely forsake the time and energy that went into getting my Master's degree. I had a type of defining moment recently, during my current spate of attempting to write fiction.

It happened as I was taking out garbage the other night. I looked up into the stars. Even with all the light pollution plus clouds that were in the sky at that time, my mind's eye was able to pierce that dark veil and imagine myself what was up there. This initial imagination didn't take much. After all, I've seen stars all my life. For the first time in my life, however, I could really imagine what might be up there. I've always wondered what strange and quixotic things are evident not just in our own milky way galaxy, but in the millions of other galaxies out there. Then came the stunner: "Why, I could create what might be up there". This seemingly innocuous statement hit me like a thunderbolt. Is it really that easy, I thought. The back of my mind said, "Sure, why not. You can string words together. If monkey's can create Shakespeare, certainly you can create some new kind of intellectual property!"

In the end, I really have Jess to thank for this. If she hadn't told me during the summer that I should start this blog and start writing again (of course, she mostly did this because she was tired of me whining), then I don't think I would have started it up again. Without her positive backing and constant shoves in the back I would still be a forward-thinking man walking backwards in this escalator ride called Life. Thank you, babe.

I felt the need to expound so thoroughly upon this past summer and what it started, that I think I will have to finish up this 2007 retrospect in my next posting. Happy new years to all, and to all a solid paycheck.

2007 in Review, Part 1

Well guys, my blog has survived through the holiday season!! Though it has seen its highs and lows (read, long time without posts), I am refusing to let it die. It is very important to me that I continue writing and getting my feelings out for the world to see. Every person out there who reads this, you know who you are, gives me the impetus to keep putting the figurative pen to the figurative paper. I believe that since this blog has begun I have become much better at translating my rather confusing thoughts into coherent and cogent sentences and paragraphs. I daresay that it is also helping me out with my thesis and other school-related writing.

2007 was a very big year for me in many disparate ways. It was the first, and last, full year of graduate school combining the fears and doubts of the beginning of graduate school with the resolution and the forward thinking of the end of graduate school. It began with tragic heartache with the death of my grandfather Louis, a man beloved and honored by multitudes of people in and around the Cincinnati area. His funeral was difficult, especially since it combined with a different type of heartache associated with the necessity to leave all my family here in Ohio (especially my wonderful Jess) and relocate for yet another semester of graduate school down in Las Cruces.

Perhaps as a way to cover this inauspicious start to the year, I tried to delve deeper into my school and work my way through the semester with the endgame in mind. This was the quarter where I really solidified my thesis topic and my schedule aimed at getting me out of there by Spring '08. As far as my grades were concerned it worked and I earned straight A's that semester: a feat that I have rarely accomplished over my academic career. Though I would have loved to have been able to come home and spend the entire summer at Jess's side and visiting friends and family, I saw an opportunity to ensure that I would be able to graduate on time. The difficulty arose when I realized that my Geography minor added an extra six credits onto my schedule, which would have kept me in school until the very end of 2008. In order to alleviate this, I signed up for a six-week field school that was set to take place in Deming, NM an exceedingly tiny town rife with prehistoric Native American artifacts.

This field school was an important step in my education as it made me realize how little love I had for field archaeology. While I may have had moderate success with the theoretical aspects of Archaeology and Anthropology, such as the nature of culture and unilinear evolution, I realized real quickly that I did not enjoy working in the dirt with toothbrushes. Ironically, I seemed to enjoy the paperwork more than the actual fieldwork. I have reached halfway through the year of 2007, and this is looking like a fairly long post already, so I'll end it here and just ask you to wait with what I am sure is baited breath for my next posting where I chronicle the continuing adventures of Sean Arata, Archaeologist!!! (cue Indiana Jones music).

Before I go, I would like to send my regrets to a dear friend of mine who's grandmother passed away over the Holidays. I'm sure that her and her family are still reeling from this great loss at such a joyous time. My thoughts are with them in this time of need.

The End of the Semester

Well, my schoolwork is done for this semester and it is strange how little that makes me jump for joy. I clearly remember many times during my high school and undergrad years where the end of the semester (or quarter as the case may be) was met with screaming in the halls and general good times felt by all. It was a time when people turned off their brains for weeks at a time and tried to catch up on much that they had missed during their mandatory school days. Of course, it was never mandatory in college, just highly suggested.

Those times in my life were always grand and full of adventure, where anything could and did happen. Sleepless nights spent playing one video game after another with friends, such as the time Potts and I got through an entire baseball season in Ken Griffey Jr. with my knuckleball of doom always ready to strike out one batter after another. I seem to recall getting quite close to a perfect game once only to have a harmless squib just get past the outstretched pixel that was the player's glove in the game. Other times during these stretches, I would challenge myself to read as much as possible in as small an amount of time as possible. This was a big deal for a kid who spent the majority of his youth not allowed to drink anything with caffeine in it because I had been diagnosed with attention deficit disorder. Those were the days when I could read huge opuses like 'The Stand' or 'It' in a single week. In contrast, I have been working on reading the Stand again and it has taken me almost three weeks to get two-thirds of the way through. Still impressive, if I may say so myself.

At the beginning of each semester (or quarter), I was always the most motivated and would get everything I needed for the upcoming semester. Every semester, i told myself with seeming confidence that this time would be different and I would keep up with all my readings and do all of my homework on time and generally be a model student. At the end of the semester, I would usually be scraping along trying to get everything done that I had procrastinated until the very last second. Either a testament to my own skills as a student, or the lack of a challenge in the material itself I have always been able to get everything done on time and with a good grade. This rush to get everything done at the end always engenders a need for a tremendous cooldown period designed primarily to think about anything but school.

So here I sit trying to do anything but work, but have found it quite difficult in this faster paced and more challenging world of graduate school to think about things other than next semester. It will be quite a big one for me, and for Jess as well, as I finish up my thesis and embark upon the adventure of a lifetime: job-hunting!!! During my break, I will be working every day on my thesis to make next semester run much smoother and get everything done on time to defend in May. I have no allusions that everything will run exactly the way I have it planned in my head. There will be snags, some big and some small, but if I keep up with things in a much more mature way than my high school and undergraduate semesters I am confident that I will be able to deal with absolutely anything that rears its ugly head on my path towards graduation and getting back to my life.

Thank you, all of you, who have helped me get through this in all its good times and its bad times. The end is indeed in site, and it is wreathed in a glorious light that makes me ache for the day when I can call Jess and tell her that I am done and can come home.

...And That's the Way the Cookie Crumbles

I thought it might be a good idea to post something before the time period between posts reaches a month. There is something about it reaching a month that would just be absolutely unforgiveable in my mind. I mean, obviously as I get busier and busier with school it would be forgiveable for me to have these breaks in between posts. However, if it reaches a full month that would indicate that I am somehow less serious about writing and my strong desire to keep at it. If I want to become a published author at some point in my life, then perseverance is the name of the rather lengthy game.

I've been quite busy, some of it school and some of it video games (I'm being honest, at least!!). I have had alot of school work, and as much as I like to bemoan how much I procrastinate I obviously still manage to get it all done, and do it well in the process. I just took a test yesterday that I can say with about 99% certainty that I got over a 100 percent. The best thing about this is that it means I can get a 50% on my last project and still come away with an A! Of course, I would never actually put that little effort into what I am doing but it is a nice thing to know all the same.

The end of this semester is fast approaching, and I couldn't be happier that I get a long break back in Columbus with Jess. It won't be a completely restful break, however, as I will be putting finishing touches on the first half of my thesis while I am simultaneously building my database that will be used in my thesis. I would give more statistics now, but I can see the glassy-eyes increasing in number even as I think about it. I'll just say this, something that Jess once told a friend as I did my customary dance around what I was doing down here: He studies Mayan garbage! Thank you for that, Jess. That is a real life-saver.

I'm really looking forward to reconnecting with many people that I so rarely get a chance to see anymore these days. Inevitable with the whole growing up situation, I suppose. My best friend from Mentor, Potts, should be making a trip up to Columbus. I sure hope that he doesn't expect me to come to see him when we've spent good money on a plane ticket so I can at least make it make to the state.

I come back into town next Wednesday for what will be the last interim time period before I am back in Columbus for good, hopefully with a tremendously well-paying job!! (fingers-crossed) Knowing that I only have one rather long stretch of time left, all of next semester, makes me feel really happy. Peace out for now, but I do plan on writing more once again when I am settled in Columbus with Jess during all those cold days with lots of snow (I can only hope)

A Strange Weekend

This has been a very strange weekend for me. Not strange in the fact that I got very little done, I mean who really wants to be doing anything on the weekends?!? No, it is strange in the fact that coming into this weekend I had absolutely every intention of getting work done. I know, I say that all the time and most of the time I don't really mean it but for the majority of the past week I really felt good about getting a lot done before coming back for the holiday. As I have stated in previous postings, I feel really good about everything going on down here especially as far as my thesis is concerned.

Actually, I really do still feel really good about things and I can visualize myself finishing on time and getting everything done on time so that I can come home this summer. I think I'll just have to chalk this weekend up to a much needed time for rest and relaxation. Hell, I even got to do karaoke on Saturday night when my friends and I all went out for Tobe's birthday (a physical anthropologist friend of mine). Hopefully, I've imprinted into your minds images of me karaoking (?) up there on stage and maybe it even reminds you a little of a famous celebrity. I'll leave who up to you!!

Anyway, the point is that I had a lot of fun with my friends down here. There was one person who I seriously missed however, and I think that person's absence is the main reason behind the strangeness of this weekend overall. There were more than a few moments this past weekend, not to mention throughout the entirety of my stay down here, where it almost physically hurt that Jess wasn't there for me when I needed comfort after a particularly stressful day. On the flipside, when we are talking on the phone, it is extremely difficult for me not to be able to put my arm around her when she has bad days as well.

Though this homesickness is nowhere near as bad as it was after the first couple of weeks last year (and thank you once again to all of my friends and family who helped me get through that awful period), it is still singularly painful in its effect on me at times. I know this is something that will never go away anytime I am forced to be away from my loved ones. I have accepted this, but unfortunately it doesn't in any way lessen the impact.

The thing that really helps me to get through these periods and resurface from the temporary shallow depression that I find myself in at times is the love and support from my ever-increasing circle of close friends and family. If there is a point to any of this rambling, it is that I am so happy that you are all there for me when I need a boost. I consider myself to be one of the luckiest people in this world, and can only hope that in some small way I have a similarly profound impact on others as I travel through this treacherous highway called life.

In case anybody is getting the wrong impression from this post, I am trying to put forth the idea that I am extremely happy with my lot in life at the moment. Though there are, obviously, parts of my life that could go better from time to time the overall picture is beautiful and a work of art. I am but one person in a sea of stories, each one with its ups and downs, its beautiful moments and its ugly moments. I fervently hope that my role in other's stories can be to increase the ups and decrease the downs.

Thank you all for believing in me. It has meant a great deal to me, and I am made all the better for your love and kindness. I know this is all kinda heavy, but anyone who knows my writing style knows that I write what I am thinking when I am thinking it. I feel it makes for a much better indication of the truth in life.

I'm Alive!!!!

I knew this was going to happen, but I had hoped that somehow I would be able to keep up with this blog in the same way as I did when I started. However, fate has conspired against me and just keeps throwing me more and more to do. At times, I feel like a dog chasing a bone over these past few weeks. The tremendous upside to this is that I am doing quite well in my classes, as well as my thesis. Though I still have quite a bit of work to do, my trepidation from last year has been replaced by a sense of joy that my time down here is almost over.

Though I still have ALOT of work to do before I graduate, I at least have a reasonably clear idea of what all of that entails. Once I get past the research involved in the first 4 chapters of my thesis (the literature review), I will be doing the actual computer work involved with this thesis. I realize that data entry is tantamount to the 9th circle of hell for alot of people, but I truly enjoy doing this type of mindless work from time to time. Once I get into a good groove with everything, I'll be able to sit at my desk listening to itunes and plug away at the different aspects. I think it will be alot of fun actually for the times this winter when Jess is at work and I am sitting back at the apartment.

Well, I gotta get going. Have a luncheon to go to with one of my advisers archaeology friends. Definitely need to make an appearance as her student.