My heart

When I am by myself and it's quiet around, I can hear my heartbeat. I can feel it in my throat and sometimes think that I'm one of those cartoon characters that is just about to choke and spit it out. It makes talking hard. It makes writing papers even harder.

Just to give you an idea...

All we talked about was politics. Seriously.

Recruitment party

I heard that I was accepted to graduate school while at a conference thing in Bosnia back in 2004. So when the department started sending invitations for a 'recruitment weekend' to be held here at Penn State, I mostly ignored the emails. This time, however, I am getting to experience the wonderful thing called "recruitment" first hand. Earlier today, a colleague and I gave a campus tour to all the newly accepted students. Or, rather, HE gave the tour and I drank my coffee and chain-smoked while trying to fake interest. Penn State is a great school but, honestly, it has one of the uglier university campuses I've seen. I spent the rest of the day cleaning up my room and looking up cocktail recipes as in less than an hour my roommate and I are hosting the highlight of the visit: Da Recruitment Party. From brief conversations with the prospective students, I gathered that they are all excited that the party is hosted by two East European women. We, East Europeans, have a reputation that we 'drink like fishes', you know. So...what are we to do other than try not to disappoint. Pictures will follow shortly.

The internet will save my life

As you may have guessed, the last several weeks have been rough.
It's had its ups and downs but mostly...it's been humbling.
When it gets really hard, however, I go there:

1. Hel Looks: street fashion from Helsinki
2. Go Fug Yourself: a celebrity fashion site. One of the funniest places on the Internets that I've visited recently.
3. People Magazine: I especially like the photo section. Seeing pictures of famous people as they go about their daily routines gives me an unexplicable pleasure
4. Style: more fashion news than you'd ever need to know
5. Dash Jr.: pictures of Dash Jr by my super-hero friend, Dan.
6. Edno Magazine: their recent redesign (WITH text this time) couldn't have come at a better time.

Go, go!

Work-related

"Increases in information availability via the Internet lower the cost of personal initiative involved in participating in some political activities, such as donating money to political campaigns, contacting public officials, and so forth."

Agree/disagree?

It makes sense to my advisors and I...but I'm not so sure whether it makes sense to anyone else. What I am trying to get at is whether Internet usage influences the extent to which people engage in various types of political activities.

This is...

...one of many places I would like to be right now...


Sinemoretz, Bulgaria. 2004.

How it all happened

Sergey and I were having a party that night. We had only invited three or four people because our kitchen was so damn small that we couldn't fit more than 5 even if we tried. Sergey probably remembers that evenining very well because he was the one responsible for letting everyone in. Every time the doorbell rang, he would put out his cigarette, get into the elevator, let our guest in and ride the elevator back up. During one of this trips the telephone rang. A person I didn't know at the time called to say that he wouldn't be able to make it. I had no idea who the person was but wouldn't take no for an answer. Instead, I gave him directions to our apartment and told him it was early anyway so he better showed up. And he did.

...

Thank you all for being so kind. Since I last talked to you, I have been trying to speak softer and love deeper. And that has brought some peace into my life. How come we always hurt the ones we love the most?

I make no sense. I know.

This one goes out to the one I love...

<3

This past week my life fell apart.
It's entirely my fault.

Please excuse the silence as I try to pick up the pieces.

Feet

I hate pictures of people's feet. There's nothing more obvious than taking a photograph of something that is immediately in front of you. But for some reason I really like the color palette on this one. So there you have it.

It's a joke, son

A friend of mine was TA-ing for a professor who apparently had a really bad sense of humor. He was so bad that after telling a story and not getting the response he had expected, he would inevitably say, "It's a joke, son!". That line became an inside joke among his assistants who were having so much fun with it that it sort of spilled and took a life of its own.

So before I crank out the real post I promised you in response to my previous entry I will have to say this much to you: it's a joke, son. :)