Dissertation Topic

Awhile back, Mrs. Jones asked me what my dissertation is going to be on. I thought I would respond with a post, since there are probably a few other people who are wondering the same thing. I am writing a literary biography about the family of Samuel Taylor Coleridge. This British Romantic poet had three children, Hartley, Derwent, and Sara. All three were accomplished 19th century figures, but few scholars recognize that fact. In fact, they are studied primarily because of who their father was. To me, this seems to be the wrong approach. STC was not a major figure in their childhood, and his children spent very little time with him. So . . . I will "reverse the trend" by examining their lives, emphasizing the fact that their father was not around. I will look at the other influences in their life and examine what their were able to do with these influences and contribute to their age.

As a result of this dissertation, I've had biographies on the brain, both generally and theoretically. Hence the addition to the sidebar of the "Biography of the Day." For those of you who have taken the time to check those out, thanks for indulging my interest. One of my next projects - a biography of my family (so send me your stories!).

Call Me ABD

That's right, ladies and gentlemen. I am officially ABD. I had a fruitful discussion with my committee members this morning and am eager to dive into the dissertation - just as soon as I give some much needed attention to job applications and articles that should be sent off for publication. :-)

Who Says there is Nothing in West Texas?

For those of you who think West Texas is a lot of flat nothing, we beg to differ.

You can find many fields of cotton there. And we can all agree that cotton is essential. Besides, who wants to get stuck wearing polyester all the time?



The other thing you can find lots of there: wind farms. We predict that before long, the great state of Texas will have more wind farms than anywhere else in the world, all safely producing lots of clean energy. And if you don't like clean energy, you're just plain strange.



Our West Texas education comes compliments of Ted's recent trip to the area. For more photos from his drive to Lubbock, check out the slide show below.

Prospectus Defense Scheduled

For those of you interested in school news, I have my prospectus defense scheduled for Tuesday at 8 a.m. I will be defending the proposal for my dissertation and, assuming I pass (which I should), I will be officially "ABD" (All But Dissertation). While it sounds impressive that my dissertation is the last thing I have to complete to be an official Ph.D., it is still a large mountain to climb. I am excited, though, because I can then start looking at and applying for real jobs. And I can't wait to dig into research that I have chosen to do and get all the more closer to that big day - graduation.

(Former) #1 Team Comes to Town

Last weekend, we enjoyed a BU football game. OU, the number 1 team in the nation, made its way out to Floyd Casey, and we wanted to see them play.

We got there early and got to watch Robert Griffin, our freshman quarterback who's got all the analysts talking, warm up.



Later, the specimen of a strength and conditioning coach had the guys out on the field preparing for the game.



And who should show up but two former track champions & Olympians, Jeremy Wariner and Reggie Witherspoon.



Here's Jeremy Wariner signing autographs.



And here the two of them are leading the Bears onto the field.



For more photos from the game, check out the slideshow below.



By the way, we would like to point out that OU is no longer the #1 team now that UT has beaten them in Dallas at the Red River Shootout. Hook 'em Horns!

Target Practice

We went out to the shooting range on Saturday. This was my first shooting experience - and it was a lot of fun! I think we may have found a new hobby.

Post Hurricane Celebration

Hrricane Ike didn't make too much of an impression on us out here. A cold front moved in just in the knick of time and pushed all the bad weather to our east. We did get some wind and rain, but nothing too damaging. Our friends in the east, however, are still without power and waiting for things to get back to normal. Ick.

In any event, while the Getzes were around our parts last weekend, they decided to host an early birthday party for little miss Clara. Here are some photos from the event.

Waiting on Hurricane Ike

The Getzes drove up from Houston yesterday to escape from Hurricane Ike, which is currently making its way into Texas. We got to enjoy their company this evening as we waited for the storm to make its way out here. We also had a chance to give little miss Clara an early birthday present, as you can see in the slideshow below.

Coffee on the wall

We originally had painted two walls in the living room a leather brown color. As soon as it was up, we decided we didn't like it.

So, we painted one of the walls a cream color, and we finally decided on Coffee for the other wall. We think it looks pretty chic.



We'll post some pictures after we paint the crown moulding and put the living room back in order.

Green may not be John McCain's color . . .

. . . but we think it looks pretty good in our bathroom.



These pictures show you phase I of the bathroom face lift. We hope to finish painting it this weekend.



Our stairwell is starting to look good, too. Ted broke out the extension and covered all the hard to reach places this afternoon.

Alumni Festival

Three years after our first date during the Baylor Rugby Association's '05 Alumni Festival (see the link to their page on our sidebar), we finally made it out for another alumni event. Ted was convinced to play in the match (though we don't have any pictures to prove it). We did get some shots at Cricket's later that evening during a couple of intense matches of foosball.