summertime!

clearly, something's been awry because i haven't published a post since march (whoops!). as i likely mentioned in my march post, i won't be in courses again until september. i passed my comps in march (yay), so i've got four courses left, but being near the end of my program, i'm working with fewer and fewer options and there's basically nothing for me to take this summer. that said, i've been keeping busy with lots and lots of summer reading.

among my summer reading is the "song of ice and fire" series, written by george martin. this is the same series that has been turned into the tv show "game of thrones." right now, it looks like each book makes up one season of the show. i'm currently on the second book, "a clash of kings." it's really well-written with interesting and deep characters.

i've also been reading lots of lighter books, including graphic novels, romance novels, fiction in which the main characters are south asian, raw food cookbooks, fashion mags, and the like. i'm trying to do a better job of keeping up with friends' blogs too. that's been a challenge, but i'm hoping the google reader app will help somewhat.

i was pretty disappointed that many of gse's ethnography courses are only offered once a year or once every other year, so i thought about maybe doing my own study by assigning chapters of various books i already own to myself each week, but to be honest, i really can't stop reading the martin series and i just can't be made to read much else (should i really be admitting that? i'm not sure).

in any case, that's a quick update for now, but you should know that i've also downloaded the evernote app to encourage myself to update this blog (and write in general) more regularly. so, i've put together a list of ideas for possible future entries, including some of the following:

-- contractor union issues in my neighborhood
-- the departure/retirement of important long-time faculty members and hiring of a few new faculty
-- my personal views on the practice of generosity and giving and how adopting a practice of giving will improve your life
-- how i put my fels courses to use this spring and helped a friend's non-profit raise $11,000
-- a reflection on the staff-only writing workshop series i hosted at my work this year and what it taught me

those are just some of my ideas. i hope you'll stay tuned as i try to flesh them out this summer.