I am finished! Woo-hoo! All told, it came out to be 11,353 words and 41 pages. Will I pass? I don't know. It's always tough to say. Were there things I could have done better? Probably. But, I did the best I could given that I work a full-time job, so I really only had a few hours each night during which to work on the exam. Oh well, thanks for the prayers! Now, I have to wait probably 3 weeks to see if I passed.
Now, the August fun can begin!
Friday, August 8, 2008
Thursday, August 7, 2008
The End is in Sight
Well, it's come down to the final day. 24 hours and 19 minutes from this second, I will be turning in my exam. It is going fine. Yesterday, I had a breakthrough on the question that was giving me the most problems (about public officials acting as budget-maximizers). One aspect of the question asks what this explanation leaves out; it finally hit me yesterday, in the Giant Eagle parking lot, that it leaves out the "public service motive". PSM is the belief in public administration that people serve in bureaucracies because of a "calling" to serve in government. It has a very Christian ethic and feel to it. And, one of my professors at Tennessee is a leading expert in the field...so, it will obviously look good to have that as part of an answer. The exam will get done; it will be a late night tonight, hopefully I can get home and get started right away and maybe get to bed by 3am, but I'm not counting on it. Oh well...by this time tomorrow, it will be done.
On to more exciting news...
The little things in life are the ones that matter most for enjoyment, and yesterday I experienced what I would consider to be a little thing, and it gave me great joy. However, when I shared this news, I really didn't feel as if people appreciated it.
I reserved a plane ticket yesterday to San Diego (I have until midnight to buy it, and I'm waiting to hear back on whether I can get the days off of work). The travel dates are Sept. 27-30, a Saturday through Tuesday. That's the last week of the MLB season, and the Pirates are playing the Padres in San Diego, so I thought it would be fun. Plus, I owe a trip to San Diego; I was supposed to go in 2005, but I got a kidney stone that prevented me from going (the kidney experience deserves a post all its own). So, I thought it would be nice and relaxing to go to what is hailed as America's Most Beautiful City. Hit the beach, drive up to LA for a day, hit the San Diego attractions...seems awesome.
So, what made this remarkable to me? The cost of the plane ticket: $240. Two hundred and forty dollars!!!!!!!!!!! Do you understand how great of a deal that is? I just paid forty dollars more to fly half as far (to St. Louis over Labor Day). I'm a bargain flyer, and I don't think there could ever be a greater deal in the history of man, given the cost of gas and the struggles of the airlines.
So anyway, that made my day. Something to look forward to...
On to more exciting news...
The little things in life are the ones that matter most for enjoyment, and yesterday I experienced what I would consider to be a little thing, and it gave me great joy. However, when I shared this news, I really didn't feel as if people appreciated it.
I reserved a plane ticket yesterday to San Diego (I have until midnight to buy it, and I'm waiting to hear back on whether I can get the days off of work). The travel dates are Sept. 27-30, a Saturday through Tuesday. That's the last week of the MLB season, and the Pirates are playing the Padres in San Diego, so I thought it would be fun. Plus, I owe a trip to San Diego; I was supposed to go in 2005, but I got a kidney stone that prevented me from going (the kidney experience deserves a post all its own). So, I thought it would be nice and relaxing to go to what is hailed as America's Most Beautiful City. Hit the beach, drive up to LA for a day, hit the San Diego attractions...seems awesome.
So, what made this remarkable to me? The cost of the plane ticket: $240. Two hundred and forty dollars!!!!!!!!!!! Do you understand how great of a deal that is? I just paid forty dollars more to fly half as far (to St. Louis over Labor Day). I'm a bargain flyer, and I don't think there could ever be a greater deal in the history of man, given the cost of gas and the struggles of the airlines.
So anyway, that made my day. Something to look forward to...
Wednesday, August 6, 2008
It's Early!
Currently, it's 5:23 a.m. I have been awake for about an hour. I have already gone through a pot of coffee. The reason that I am up so early is because of my exam. This is also the reason that I haven't posted since Saturday. The exam is taking up all of my time (besides being at work) and this is now going to continue until the exam is handed in at 8:30 Friday morning. In fact, it may include an all-nighter tomorrow night.
The good news is that I know the correct answers to the questions. I know what I want to say and have lined up the correct sources and outlined good answers. One piece of good news that I received Monday morning was that the exam is limited to 12,000 words total for the 3 questions. This comes to about 40 pages, whereas the former limit would have made the exam around 75 pages. So that was nice to hear.
Anyway, I have nothing interesting to blog about until I am done with the exam. Sorry!
The good news is that I know the correct answers to the questions. I know what I want to say and have lined up the correct sources and outlined good answers. One piece of good news that I received Monday morning was that the exam is limited to 12,000 words total for the 3 questions. This comes to about 40 pages, whereas the former limit would have made the exam around 75 pages. So that was nice to hear.
Anyway, I have nothing interesting to blog about until I am done with the exam. Sorry!
Saturday, August 2, 2008
Whether the weather...
This is something that I've been thinking about since posting my favorite things about summer, mostly because I love summer weather and it played prominently into my favorite things about this season that we are in.
The weather is a subject that is often discussed. People ask about the weather all the time; is it gonna rain today? How much snow are we getting? It also is a source of complaints; it's too humid today! How many days in a row can it rain? Where's the sun today, I can't see it through all of these clouds!
People often make their decisions based upon the weather. "Do you want to go to Kennywood this Friday?" "Is it supposed to rain?"
Or: "We're going to Florida for a few months during the winter; it's too cold in Pittsburgh!"
As Milli Vanilli (fake) sung in the late 80s, people like to "Blame it on the Rain"...or any other type of weather.
I freely admit that I am part of the chorus. When I was deciding whether to move for a Ph.D. program in the summer of 2005, the weather played a role in my decision. I was sick of the cold and the snow of Western PA. The heat and the constant sun beckoned me to Knoxville, TN. Equally, I remember when I started getting the itch to move back to Pittsburgh. I was at the U.S. Open that was being played at Oakmont in June 2007, and I was on my way home, and was just marveling about the wonderful summer weather in my familiar surroundings. This is partly what contributed to me looking for jobs and moving back to the 'burgh when I finished my classwork.
Stop and re-read everything above. How ridiculous does it all sound? And yet, we all make decisions in our life based upon something over which we have no control. Does this seem absurd to anyone else?
I made a decision back in the winter, when Knoxville was experiencing the coldest winter that I had had yet down there (20s and 30s for a period of about 6 weeks...this was cold to me, and I know that you 'burgh people think that's nothing, but after moving to the South I lost my ability to adjust to cold weather). My decision was that I was not going to let the weather affect my disposition. I wasn't going to be happy, angry, annoyed, lazy, sad, or excited based on something which only God can control.
I would challenge everyone to join me in this goal. Realize that God has reasons for everything, and this includes the weather, regardless of the best laid plans we have made for ourselves.
Final Points (some of which relate and some of which do not):
1. Does the above mean that I am skeptical of the concept of global warming? Yes, it does. Notice I didn't say it doesn't exist; I just said I'm not as willing to accept it as a lot of the public.
2. One thing about all of the global warming alarmists interests me in particular. Many, if not most, of them also believe in evolution. Wouldn't the human race evolve to survive the widescale flooding that global warming would bring (nevermind the fact that God promised to never flood the world again)? I, for one, am ready for humans breathing underwater with gills.
3. Progress is being made on my exam; the first question has been largely organized and I'm reading through things and figuring out which articles I want to put where.
4. I am very happy for Jason Bay in his Red Sox debut, as he walked twice, got hit by a pitch, tripled in the 12th and scored the two Sox runs, including the winner after his triple. He also made two fine catches in LF. I hope that the rest of American baseball fans discover what Pirate fans have known for four summers: Jason Bay is a heck of a baseball player.
The weather is a subject that is often discussed. People ask about the weather all the time; is it gonna rain today? How much snow are we getting? It also is a source of complaints; it's too humid today! How many days in a row can it rain? Where's the sun today, I can't see it through all of these clouds!
People often make their decisions based upon the weather. "Do you want to go to Kennywood this Friday?" "Is it supposed to rain?"
Or: "We're going to Florida for a few months during the winter; it's too cold in Pittsburgh!"
As Milli Vanilli (fake) sung in the late 80s, people like to "Blame it on the Rain"...or any other type of weather.
I freely admit that I am part of the chorus. When I was deciding whether to move for a Ph.D. program in the summer of 2005, the weather played a role in my decision. I was sick of the cold and the snow of Western PA. The heat and the constant sun beckoned me to Knoxville, TN. Equally, I remember when I started getting the itch to move back to Pittsburgh. I was at the U.S. Open that was being played at Oakmont in June 2007, and I was on my way home, and was just marveling about the wonderful summer weather in my familiar surroundings. This is partly what contributed to me looking for jobs and moving back to the 'burgh when I finished my classwork.
Stop and re-read everything above. How ridiculous does it all sound? And yet, we all make decisions in our life based upon something over which we have no control. Does this seem absurd to anyone else?
I made a decision back in the winter, when Knoxville was experiencing the coldest winter that I had had yet down there (20s and 30s for a period of about 6 weeks...this was cold to me, and I know that you 'burgh people think that's nothing, but after moving to the South I lost my ability to adjust to cold weather). My decision was that I was not going to let the weather affect my disposition. I wasn't going to be happy, angry, annoyed, lazy, sad, or excited based on something which only God can control.
I would challenge everyone to join me in this goal. Realize that God has reasons for everything, and this includes the weather, regardless of the best laid plans we have made for ourselves.
Final Points (some of which relate and some of which do not):
1. Does the above mean that I am skeptical of the concept of global warming? Yes, it does. Notice I didn't say it doesn't exist; I just said I'm not as willing to accept it as a lot of the public.
2. One thing about all of the global warming alarmists interests me in particular. Many, if not most, of them also believe in evolution. Wouldn't the human race evolve to survive the widescale flooding that global warming would bring (nevermind the fact that God promised to never flood the world again)? I, for one, am ready for humans breathing underwater with gills.
3. Progress is being made on my exam; the first question has been largely organized and I'm reading through things and figuring out which articles I want to put where.
4. I am very happy for Jason Bay in his Red Sox debut, as he walked twice, got hit by a pitch, tripled in the 12th and scored the two Sox runs, including the winner after his triple. He also made two fine catches in LF. I hope that the rest of American baseball fans discover what Pirate fans have known for four summers: Jason Bay is a heck of a baseball player.
Friday, August 1, 2008
Annie, Get Your Gun
The other night, my mother and I had tickets to the second of our three shows at the Benedum this summer. It was the musical based on the life of Annie Oakley, Annie Get Your Gun. First, we had a nice treat as Beth decided to join us; all it took was a trip over to the box office on my lunch break to procure a $12 student ticket for her with my UT student ID. We went to dinner at the Six Penn Kitchen. This place is pretty good, but my family eats there wayyyyyy too often. I just had dinner there last Friday night with my mom and dad! There are tons of good places to try within a few blocks of the theatre, but you know our family; we stick to what we like. I had the Buffalo Chicken Mac'n'Cheese, which was very good.
We then headed over to the theatre. I am annoyed to now find out that I think they made us sit in the wrong seats. Well, I can say this: the tickets for the first two shows were the same section, but for Mame we were 7 rows from the stage, and for this one we were in the first balcony. This is annoying because we paid to sit lower. It wasn't that big of a deal I guess, as Beth was able to come sit with us in our seats.
I don't know if anyone has ever seen this show, but it's really weird. The story is peculiar: Annie Oakley challenges the world's best shooter, beats him, falls in love with him, runs him off because she's better, then gets him back. The actress playing Annie was fantastic; she had a great voice, she was funny, and she played the country-girl gone good role pretty well. Everyone else was fine too.
But, unless it's a star like Ashley Parker Angel (who mom and I happened to see as Link in Hairspray--on Broadway!) it doesn't matter that much who it is. Musicals come down to two things - singing and dancing. The songs have to be memorable, and the choreography has to be big. So, when I found out the first number of the show (and its two reprisals) was the Broadway standard "There's No Business Like Show Business", I was expecting a lot. To be honest, this number disappointed me. I can't help but be bothered by the melody; the word "business" in the refrain is sung at the same note, but I think it needs to drop each time. I'm not huge into reading music and stuff so I can't explain it better than that. Anyway, that number was a disappointment to me, as was the entire first act.
However, the second act was superb! There were at least 2 numbers that met my criteria for a good musical. The first was "Who Do You Love, I Hope", which was sung by two minor characters. This is a necessity, I think, for musicals in the beginning of the second act. It's a bit of a breather from the story (which, because it's a musical, probably isn't great) and it elevates the rest of the cast a bit. The second was the other famous song from this show, "Anything You Can Do". The actors really made this song happen well. I really thought I sensed the competitive nature of their relationship by the way they spat challenges at each other ("Anything you can say, I can say faster..."). Very entertaining, to say the least.
In the end, of course Annie and Frank end up together. My rating would be 2.5 stars out of 4. I think I liked it better than Mame. The third show, in less than two weeks, is West Side Story, which has been a source of controversy my whole post-high school life. More on that later.
To finish, I'd like to invite everyone to take in the shows at the Benedum. There is a lot of good stuff coming through in the next year, including at least four blockbusters - Wicked, Jersey Boys, Spring Awakening, and A Chorus Line. For various reasons, the arts are dying in this world, and it is something that our society simply cannot live without. There are always stories in the Post-Gazette about how the CLO loses money every year. Will you going to one show stem the tide? No, but good word of mouth has never hurt a product in the previous history of capitalism before.
We then headed over to the theatre. I am annoyed to now find out that I think they made us sit in the wrong seats. Well, I can say this: the tickets for the first two shows were the same section, but for Mame we were 7 rows from the stage, and for this one we were in the first balcony. This is annoying because we paid to sit lower. It wasn't that big of a deal I guess, as Beth was able to come sit with us in our seats.
I don't know if anyone has ever seen this show, but it's really weird. The story is peculiar: Annie Oakley challenges the world's best shooter, beats him, falls in love with him, runs him off because she's better, then gets him back. The actress playing Annie was fantastic; she had a great voice, she was funny, and she played the country-girl gone good role pretty well. Everyone else was fine too.
But, unless it's a star like Ashley Parker Angel (who mom and I happened to see as Link in Hairspray--on Broadway!) it doesn't matter that much who it is. Musicals come down to two things - singing and dancing. The songs have to be memorable, and the choreography has to be big. So, when I found out the first number of the show (and its two reprisals) was the Broadway standard "There's No Business Like Show Business", I was expecting a lot. To be honest, this number disappointed me. I can't help but be bothered by the melody; the word "business" in the refrain is sung at the same note, but I think it needs to drop each time. I'm not huge into reading music and stuff so I can't explain it better than that. Anyway, that number was a disappointment to me, as was the entire first act.
However, the second act was superb! There were at least 2 numbers that met my criteria for a good musical. The first was "Who Do You Love, I Hope", which was sung by two minor characters. This is a necessity, I think, for musicals in the beginning of the second act. It's a bit of a breather from the story (which, because it's a musical, probably isn't great) and it elevates the rest of the cast a bit. The second was the other famous song from this show, "Anything You Can Do". The actors really made this song happen well. I really thought I sensed the competitive nature of their relationship by the way they spat challenges at each other ("Anything you can say, I can say faster..."). Very entertaining, to say the least.
In the end, of course Annie and Frank end up together. My rating would be 2.5 stars out of 4. I think I liked it better than Mame. The third show, in less than two weeks, is West Side Story, which has been a source of controversy my whole post-high school life. More on that later.
To finish, I'd like to invite everyone to take in the shows at the Benedum. There is a lot of good stuff coming through in the next year, including at least four blockbusters - Wicked, Jersey Boys, Spring Awakening, and A Chorus Line. For various reasons, the arts are dying in this world, and it is something that our society simply cannot live without. There are always stories in the Post-Gazette about how the CLO loses money every year. Will you going to one show stem the tide? No, but good word of mouth has never hurt a product in the previous history of capitalism before.
Hectic week!
Well, the next week is going to be pretty busy for me. I am taking my Ph.D. comprehensive exam in the field of public administration. I received the exam at 8:30 this morning and I have until 8:30 next Friday morning to finish the exam. It is 5 questions, of which I have to answer three, and each question is limited to 7500 words (which turns out to be between 25-30 pages...apiece!).
The questions that I am going to answer deal with congressional delegation of legislative power to the bureaucracy, the bureaucrat as a rational actor, and the recent attacks in the literature on the bureaucracy as an organization. Yes, it will be as fun as it sounds.
I will be blogging a little bit during this time; I know I still owe a review of the show the other night, I will do that sometime tonight hopefully. Anyway, once the exam is done, I have a lot to look forward to in August...
The questions that I am going to answer deal with congressional delegation of legislative power to the bureaucracy, the bureaucrat as a rational actor, and the recent attacks in the literature on the bureaucracy as an organization. Yes, it will be as fun as it sounds.
I will be blogging a little bit during this time; I know I still owe a review of the show the other night, I will do that sometime tonight hopefully. Anyway, once the exam is done, I have a lot to look forward to in August...
- The Olympics
- DirecTV installation
- Bachelor weekend (Aug 15-17)
- Weekend in Missouri (Aug 29-Sept 1)
- Start of College Football
...just to name a few.
So, pray for me on my exam! Especially for concentration and focus.
Wednesday, July 30, 2008
Favorite Things - Summer Edition
Well, it's time for the initial "Favorite Things" post. Since I've only done these in my head, I need to explain what I am thinking here. These favorite things can be anything about summer. I will describe why each is a favorite in one sentence. Then, I would encourage all of my blogging friends to do the same. Without further ado...
- Freshly cut grass - such a sense of satisfaction and accomplishment, it looks great, and the smell is distinct and one of a kind
- Summer movie season - the days leading up to a big summer movie are filled with anticipation; this was recently seen in the two weeks leading up to The Dark Knight
- Baseball - ties in with freshly cut grass; my favorite sport, and nothing beats sitting in the ballpark on a sunny summer evening, even when you are watching the Pirates
- Summer mornings - the sun rises early, it's relatively cool out, and it is very tranquil; it's just breathtakingly beautiful
- Summer nights - tell me more, tell me more; how much dough did he spend? Seriously though, the moon and stars on a clear summer night; it's one time I wish I had a girlfriend
- Summer songs - the inevitable tune that dominates the airwaves because it's the ultimate "driving on a hot summer day with the windows down and systems up" song; any nominations for this summer's song? I say Rihanna's "Disturbia" but I could be persuaded otherwise
- HEAT! - I love hot weather; I love to step outside and sweat
- Farmer's tan - my arms, face, and the back of my legs tan with the best of them; the rest? not so much. It's feast or famine with my chest, back, neck, etc.
- Sandals - I hate wearing shoes; I wish I could wear sandals all year round (in Tennessee, I almost could!)
Well, that's a good list to start. How about you? What are some of your favorite things of summer? Feel free to talk about this in the comments.
Tonight, my mom and I are going to see "Annie Get Your Gun" at the Benedum, the second of our three show series. Look for the review tomorrow.
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