A Blog to Keep Up

Well, it didn't actually happen. I didn't actually keep up with my blog. over two years hence and I have not written a thing. On the other hand, a lot happened in the interim.

I did get a job, work that job for 6 months before realizing that it was a soul sucker. I never saw my wife, hated the work and took a lousy pay. It sucked. I finally determined to get my act together and go back to school. On the day that I quit the one job, I got another in which I could work for myself. I did that job for a year and liked the work and hours well enough, but could not keep my grades in school at a satisfactory level. I quit that job in August of 2011 to go full steam into school, the target: An M.A. in History.
It is now January, classes began again yesterday and so far, life looks pretty rosy. I just read over my previous posts (all two of them) and ran across an interesting verse: "When times are good, be happy; but when times are bad, consider: God has made the one as well as the other" (Ecclesiastes 7:14). Times are good now. They are better than they were. This blog was intended as a cathartic remedy to what I had perceived as bad fortune. It works, however, the same in good fortune as bad. Pursuing further education is my way of taking up arms against those bad fortunes. It is a way to live my life despite my circumstance. It is a tool to help adjust my perspective and interpret the world I live in.

This being said, I aim to shift my focus just a skosh (it's the right spelling, I checked). Since my life as it stands now is wrapped up pretty tightly with my scholastic pursuits, I will try to post here more often. The posts may be my rants, but they will also be book analyses, academic papers, and thoughts on life. Don't worry though, my book analyses and academic works are pretty darn interesting. I also intend to use this as a journal to introduce people to the life of the grad student of history; for the grad student spends much of his life reading, reading, reading and reading. This reading is not simply picking up a book and reading words, it is about content comprehension and analysis. It is about synthesis of ideas and connections with other books read. 

When the end of the week arrives and the student has finished his three to five books and articles for the week, he begins to write, and write, and write, and write. And when the writing is finished, he edits, and edits, and edits, and edits. And when the reading and writing and editing is all complete, he turns it in the work praying that it doesn't sound like the ramblings of a mad man. He is worried about this for precisely one reason: his own inner monologue sounds like the ramblings of a mad man. Monday is a distant haze behind him and what dreams may come in the week ensuing are not even contemplated, for he has begun again to read, and read, and read...