Ciao!

Long delayed update

03.28.2007

Yes, it's been quite a while since I've updated this blog. And really, that goes back to December. Work (mostly) has kept me from coding my new blog. And I've not wanted to update much here until that was finished. But that's no excuse. So, in the meantime, I'm posting here again. When the new blog (I'm calling it "Pronto*" is finished, I'll let everyone know.

So. What's new? Too much. I've just "officially" filed my dissertation (though my filing fee check is still in the mail). So that's one monkey off my back. Good riddance, monkey!

Then I spent spring break mourning my dead grandmother (yes, I wore black all week) & coming into the office daily to write one of my two MPSA conference papers (the one on Bolivia's Constituent Assembly). Wanna see it? Here it is:

dickinson.edu/~centellm/papers/mpsa2007-assembly.doc

Let me know what you think. I'm still working on the other paper. It's on the change from "parliamentarized" presidentialism (1985-2003) to "pure" presidentialism (2003-present) & what the implications of that might be. Blah, blah, blah.

Otherwise, here's the "Miguel in Carlisle" update: K8 is back in Chicago. She's teaching a course at the University of Chicago on medical anthropology (or something like that). It's cool, because she's teaching pretty much the same course here at Dickinson in the Fall. Classes are going well; I think my students are more or less where I think they should be at this point in the semester.

The other big news is this: I'm on a soccer team again. In the Fall, several of us "younger" faculty members started getting together at least once a week to play some informal soccer. Now that Spring is here, we decided to join the college intramural team. We played our first game last night. We also lost our first game last night. But we did fairly well for a bunch of 30-somethings up against some 19-20 year olds. And the team we lost to (a respectable 4-0) was last season's champion. All in all, we held our own.

I must also confess that some of my new "intellectual/academic" friends have gotten me hooked on American Idol (btw, isn't Sanjaya just a total tool?). We even watch it together. I'm not sure how that rates on the nerd and/or dork scale. But I'm sure it's up there. And, of course, I use American Idol examples regularly in class. Hey, elections are elections. Yes?

And now I have to run upstairs to judge a speech contest. It's hosted by the Union Philosophical Society (a college student club that has frequent debates on such fine issues as whether ACME Corporation or Willie Coyote is liable for malfunctioning equipment). This mega debate (a little philosophical American Idol, if you will) is on the question:

"The way I have put my Dickinson education to work in the real world"

Which is probably a theme on the running inside joke around campus about "useful education" (which, btw, is the name of our faculty soccer team). If you don't know this already, Dickinson has a major cult of personality for a certain Founding Father named Benjamin Rush.

OK. Off I go! I promise I'll try to post more tomorrow.

Posted by Miguel at 05:10 PM

Comments

Posted by: Nenad at April 1, 2007 01:54 AM