May 12

The Twelfth of May is always a big holiday on the Haas calender.  The defeat of the Citadel and the beginning of the collapse of the moronic radio station I used to work at briefly.  Today I eat pizza and cookies and still found time to run two miles at a pretty decent pace. 

I have a year to get ready for the PhD program...wherever that might be.  I need to strengthen my knowledge of Latin and Ancient Greek and the best option looks like another year at either UNC, UNC-G or back at East Carolina.

It is looking like East Carolina again but that is fine with me. I know the people there and it is the same distance as the other places.

More commuting....ugh.....

As Thucydides once said, "He who has been though the most severe school wins."

Now I have to say it in Ancient Greek!

Never, never, never a dull moment!

I now have a Master's Degree

Today, I received my Master's Degree in History from East Carolina University!

It did not seem like three years but this day finally arrived.  It did not seem like three years (calenders don't lie...) because I enjoyed every moment of it. My only regret is that I live about two hours in every direction from anything interesting...Two hours from ECU, two hours from the beach, two hours from Charlotte and the mountains, etc... It would have been nice to hang out some more with my classmates but sometimes you have to play the cards you are dealt with.  I made a 4.0, so I must have played them well.

The next step is the PhD but that will come in August 2013.  I have to brush up on Latin and learn Ancient Greek, which is nothing like the modern language.  I have no idea where I will go for the PhD but I will worry about that tomorrow...tonight I am celebrating. 

I have been studying Latin since the thesis defense on April 2 and I will get to Ancient Greek in a couple of weeks so the PhD quest is all ready underway.....all I can say is "Tomorrow began yesterday..."

Please get rid of these idiots....

It has been a busy week for the Transportation Security Adminsitration.....terrorizing a four year old girl, harrasing another girl on crutches with cerebral palsy, assaulting a congressman and now attempting to respond to charges of agents accepting bribes to let drugs through.

Nothing says "we lost the war on terror" like watching uniformed US government employees trying to rip a terrified four year old girl out of the arms of her parents.

It is time to get rid of these idiots.

Corrupt, incompetent, and obviously hold the American people in contempt.

I have had hard core Republican friends who are stress "law and order" finally admit this organization needs to go.

I don't know where it went wrong.  The TSA was launched in the aftermath of 9/11 with nothing but goodwill.  Airport security was despertely needed and the TSA seemed like the perfect tool for the job.  Now we have perverts with no background checks performing searches that now meet the common law definition of sexual assault.

Get rid of them. Let the cops handle this.  They know what they are doing.  TSA morons don't have the brains to pick their noses.

Raven Rock

Yesterday, Michelle and I went up the road to Raven Rock. Yes, I notice the irony of the name but I am sure it was named that well before that team from Baltimore came into existence.

We hiked along the trails and put in a good five miles. I don't know how long it took and I doubt any Force Recon unit would have felt us breathing down its neck but I think we did pretty well.

Sometimes we homo sapiens forget we are animals too so it is a good thing to go out into the woods far from cities and maybe other humans. Back in the 1700s, an explorer named Lawson set out from Charleston, SC and worked his way up to the vicinity of Chapel Hill, NC and sailed down the Cape Fear River to what is now Wilmington. I looked out from the overlook and wondered what he thought when he was drifting down the river.

On the whole, I would have rather been at Mantinea but you have to take what you can :-)

Wandering around in the woods with Michelle thinking about colonial explorers and ancient Greek battles...Not a bad way to spend the day!

Just another day.....

Friday the 13th is just another day....of course, it is the perfect time to pay taxes! I do not look forward to that at all but I might as well get it done now. I also received notification that my thesis has been officially approved but my advisor is in France....

Maybe there is something to this day...LOL It will be all right....don't worry. But if you carry a cross around, no one will blame you!

Happy Easter!

Western version anyway....LOL Orthodox Easter is next week!

Thesis Successfully Defended!

On April 2, 2007, I gave Michelle her ring in front of Heinz Field. Five years to the day, with Michelle looking on, I successfully defended my thesis, "Overcoming the Spartan Phalanx". Naturally, my internet crashed for two days.....I guess to keep me humble...

PhD is next!