It seems like we are living once again in the nuclear age of the 20th century, with North Korea having decided to celebrate the United States' Independence Day (July 4) by testing long-range nuclear missiles, all of which, however, broke up in the Sea of Japan.  This situation is, of course, different than the situation with Iran because the North ( Read more... )

Yesterday we went to go see Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest, and I must admit that it was a great movie, just like the original!  If you saw and loved the first movie, then you'll definitely love this one, and if you didn't get a chance to see the first one, you'll still most likely really enjoy this one (you don't really have to have ( Read more... )

Today is the United States' 230th birthday, so-to-speak, with the signing of the Declaration of Independence having occured on July 4, 1776.  It is a time when many people take vacations or spend a much needed day off relaxing and/or spending time with family and friends, so I hope all of you are having a good time!

Today I went with my family to ( Read more... )

July 1 marks the halfway mark of what I'll call the fiscal year 2006.  The reason I'll call it that is because technically if you sat down and divided out 365 by two and figured out where that number fell date-wise, it would not (most likely) fall on this date.  In any case, for our purposes here the year is half over and for me time has certainly ( Read more... )

Today, June 21, is the first official day of the 2006 Summer Season!  Of course, many of us feel the effects of summer long before mid-to-late June, possibly as early as late-April or early-May, but it certainly has been hot these past couple of weeks.  Last week, when the Navy Youth Center took its trip to the Audobon Zoo in New Orleans, ( Read more... )

Today, one of our family cats, Maxwell (or "Max") passed away at the ripe old age of 19 (92 in human years), having been born way back in 1987.  My father found him out in the snow one cold New Jersey morning as a kitten and we have had him ever since, but recently he stopped eating and using the bathroom, so we think he may have had kidney failure ( Read more... )

Today is the so-called Devil's Day, the "Sixth Day of the Sixth Month of the Sixth Year," or 06-06-06 (June 6, 2006).  Of couse, people associate this with the Mark of the Beast (666) mentioned in the Book of Revelations, and today, appropriately, marks the opening of the remade movie The Omen.

Just thought this was something interesting to think ( Read more... )

Wow, it certainly has been quite some time since I last updated my journal!  Thus, I should start this entry by appologizing for not updating in nearly two months!

At any rate...It's now June, which means that classes at MSU have been out for nearly a month now (my last exam was on May 11), so I am back down on the Gulf Coast with my family for the ( Read more... )

I recently downloaded Firefox at the recommendation of others, including my roommate, and having been impressed by the features that it has over Internet Explorer, I have made it my default browser.  I like the fact that it isn't integrated into Windows for one thing.  Also, I like the built in search bar which contains Google, Answer.com, Yahoo!, ( Read more... )

I got back the rough draft of my thesis paper on the Opium Wars and the 19th century modernization of China and other than editing a few things it looks like the paper is finished.  However, Dr. Wu, the History Department's Asian specialist (as well as undergraduate coordinator) wants to work with me to get the paper published in the Journal of ( Read more... )