And it's done.  I had my last final today, the last grading opportunity of my undergraduate career.  I think it went pretty well, and now it's done.  My thesis advisor's already lodged an A for me on that, and the thesis was the only part of this semester that was actually critical to my graduating.  So, yeah.  Now it's just waiting until my ( Read more... )

Since I have a wee bit of time on my hands that I don't want to spend studying, I figured I'd write up my thoughts on the new Star Trek, which I saw (on an IMAX screen, which I recommend if you can get to one) on Thursday night.  This will be the first of two posts (this is the spoiler-free version), seeing as how I have a lot of thoughts on the ( Read more... )

Just received word from my thesis advisor that what I've turned in is satisfactory - in other words, the thesis is done!  This is a huge relief to have done, and now I only have two finals to go and I'm done with my undergraduate studies.  Now, packing!  When I get tired of that, I'll post my review of Star Trek.

This is a fun way to lighten up a couple minutes of your life.  Bonus points if you've seen the documentary Helvetica and know the inside story.

Two weeks from right now, I'll be on my way back to Rochester and will no longer be an active student at this university.  This is kind of a weird thought, and I don't think I've fully processed what it all means yet.  (Stay tuned over the coming days for increasingly reflective/nostalgic posts about the university experience ( Read more... )

I got a call from my regional executive director with Teach For America, and I've officially been offered a job teaching high school English at Brooklyn Center!  It's a suburb just north of Minneapolis in the process of developing an IB program and turning itself into a magnet school for the arts, and it seems like a good fit.  I'm very excited, ( Read more... )

If you didn't hear, the Obama Administration recently released a series of legal memos written during the Bush Administration which provided an attempt at legal cover for what became known as "enhanced interrogation techniques," and which were in point of fact torture plain and simple.

For a moderately lengthy but very solid reaction and analysis ( Read more... )

(Today's sanctimonious lecture on government is brought to you by the letter P ( Read more... )

From New England comes the news that the Vermont state legislature just overrode their governor's veto of a law legalizing equal marriage rights for all couples.  This is particularly significant because it is the first time that a state has legalized same-sex marriage purely through the legislative process rather than through the court system.  It ( Read more... )

The often teased younger sibling of the Upper Midwest just did a very good thing.  I just wish Minnesota could have gotten there first.