Happy day of mass destruction!

Hello there readers,

As I am living with my parents right now, my productivity level has dropped to nil. Usually I spend my mornings involved in the incredibly non-productive routine of looking at my calendar and trying to decide when I will go to what archive and for how long. My mind gets so cluttered that when I try to remember what exactly it is that I was attempting to do in the first place, I can't remember anything anyway. So I give up and start reading some book that is loosely related to my dissertation topic in bed and fall into a deep sleep after only reading 5 pages or so. All of this happens before lunch time.

But this morning I had something concrete to do - I had a mission - I was to go to the post office and mail off some cds to some buddies lucky enough to receive mix cds from yours truly (could you be the next one to receive your "tunes by tuuri" cd?)

Anyway, I went to the post office expecting to accomplish SOMETHING today, but alas alack, I wasn't even successful at running a small errand, much less writing a complete paragraph for a grant proposal or skimming through a book...

Why was I unsuccessful? The post office was closed for a holiday.
What holiday?
Columbus day, or
day for which we celebrate the introduction of a host of diseases into the indigenous populations in the Americas which then decimated most of the people native to these areas.

Why are we celebrating this guy again?

Better late than never

Hi there new readers (or in some cases of those who confusedly checked "freckled art" for the 5 months after I stopped posting, loyal-to-a-fault readers)!
Last year, I was often inspired by the words of wisdom that two good friends passed along to me as they did research for their dissertations.

Now that it is my "dissertationyear," I too strive to be as witty with my words as my two friends have been as I attempt to recount my experiences while researching for my dissertation on American history in the South. Of course, I have been on my official research journey for a good 2 and a half months now, but I am only now getting to actually creating a blog to enlighten my readers about the trials and tribulations of research, especially how to live out of a 1992 Honda Accord for 3 months.

But don't worry. I'll recount for you all of the interesting times that I have had so far - like the time in South Carolina where I was driven not by an urge to break the speed limit, but to throw trash out of my car, just like a local!

So do tune in loyal readers, and I promise that it will be illuminating.