Tuesday, February 8, 2011

Swiss Singing

So today on my way home from Bern, I listened to RadioLab's Lost & Found podcast... amazing for several reasons: 1) I always get lost, and apparently there's a people in Australia who NEVER get lost because it's a feature of their language (yeah, that's right... how are you translates to where you going, which has approximately 80 answers based on how precise they are on that compass rose).  I was trying to figure out which direction I was walking on the way home... going to work on that, maybe my sense of direction will get better.  2) There was this beautiful story of a couple in love and how a young man roused his beloved from the dead, "pulling her out of the wall" she had been shut in after a tragic accident.  Seriously, I had to restrain myself from weeping.  It was also oddly reminiscent of Le Scaphandre et le Papillon.    If you want to listen to the rest of the podcast (it's pretty sweet!), check it here:  New Episode: Lost & Found

Aside from that, with about ten minutes left to go in my podcast, I could hear something else through my headphones: a young man across the way was singing it out.  SINGING IT OUT, I tell you.  The two ladies who were sitting near me (directly across from me and across the aisle) smiled and chuckled.  It was a nice little neighborly moment... the Swiss crooner was hilarious.  And he didn't care what anyone else thought about it.  So sing it out... it'll make someone's day. 

Wednesday, February 2, 2011

On revolution...

Ever since I studied the French Revolution and the Russian Revolution in my IB World Studies classes in high school, I've been intrigued by the idea of popular uprisings as a way to bring about social change.  To say nothing of our own American Revolution.  

One of the greatest books I read then was Crane Brinton's Anatomy of a Revolution (shout-out to Mrs. McGloine, the best history teacher ever!), and here's what he says about the revolutionary process:

"financial breakdown, [to] organization of the discontented to remedy this breakdown ... revolutionary demands on the part of these organized discontented, demands which if granted would mean the virtual abdication of those governing, attempted use of force by the government, its failure, and the attainment of power by the revolutionists" (p.253).

So, it seems that in Egypt they're at the "attempted use of force by the government, its failure" part... Here's hoping the power goes to the revolutionists soon, before more blood is shed. 

Tuesday, February 1, 2011

Life ain't a track meet... it's a marathon.

So, as I've been tying on my running shoes lately, four times a week, religiously, as my training program prescribes, I've also been thinking that maybe I should approach my dissertation writing with the same zeal and rigor.  I mean, let's consider the similarities:

Marathon: Sixteen-weeks to train                 Diss: Twenty weeks left in Geneva
It's a LONG haul: 26.2 miles                         It's a LONG haul: 250 pages
Sometimes I hate it... I don't WANNA run    Sometimes I hate it... I don't WANNA write
Sometimes I love it... Runner's high              Sometimes I love it... Light bulb goes off
Requires daily commitment                           Requires daily commitment
Easy to procrastinate (ooooh, just ate)           Easy to procrastinate (new Glee show!)
I have to do it... even if others are training.   I have to do it... even if others are writing.
It's tiring!  My legs are pooped!                     It's tiring!  My brain is pooped!   
Apparently, you hit a wall (mile 20 or so)     Apparently, you hit a wall (chs. 1.5, et al.)
Equipment required: shoes, goos, carbs        Equipment required: compy, Coke, books
Reward=satisfaction and a medal                  Reward at the end=satisfaction and a
                                                                       piece of paper with three little letters on it   

I'm pretty sure there are other similarities, but maybe if I start thinking about my diss as if it were a marathon, I'll make steadier progress.  Rome wasn't built in a day, I won't run a marathon tomorrow, but I will in May this year.  I won't finish my dissertation tomorrow, but I will hopefully have it done and defended by May 2012.  Let the training begin!  Petit à petit, l'oiseau fait son nid.