Ciao!

Hamurabi says

I'm in Chicago today; tomorrow I leave for Washington DC. So I might not post much over the next few days, but I'll try. Or at least to put up a few pictures on my Flickr account. Like from today's trip to the University of Chicago Oriental Institute Museum.

Posted by Miguel at 07:20 PM | Permalink | Comments (3)

Teaching philosophy

Boiling down my "teaching philosophy" into a brief, 1-2 page statement is proving more difficult than anticipated. I'm currently on my fourth draft. But, in preparing my statement, I've found these three sites most useful:

• TiPPS: Philosophy of Teaching Statements (Iowa State)
• Writing a Teaching Philosophy Statement (WUSL)
• How to Write a Statement of Teaching Philosophy (Chronicle of Higher Education)

Posted by Miguel at 07:46 AM | Permalink

Collection junction

Technorati tags: coincollecting

A certain someone is amused at my new-found interest in coin collecting. Although. It's not entirely a "new" interest. I've always kept coins from every overseas adventure. And both my grandparents had informal coin collections.

Posted by Miguel at 06:57 PM | Permalink | Comments (7)

Little 25

So my little brother turns 25. How weird is that. My little brother is a quarter century old. I'll see him out in Wilmington in about a week, so just a little "happy birthday" shout out to the quirky little kid who went from buzcut to ponytail to cubicle gopher to corporate climber.

Posted by Miguel at 10:03 AM | Permalink | Comments (1)

More presidential candidates

Technorati tags: Bolivia

A few more candidates for Bolivia's December presidential elections were announced. MIR will participate (against the objections of its leader, Jaime Paz Zamora) w/ a slate headed by Hormando Vaca Díez. Paz Zamora had encouraged the party to skip the presidential contest & focus on the prefecture elections (to solidify its regional base). Paz Zamora is, however, expected to run for prefect of Tarija, the country's oil & gas rich department.

Vaca Díez's first announcement was a request for the CNE (National Electoral Court) to allow his party to use the name "MIR-A" (the "A" for autonomías).

The candidate list that vaguely troubles me, however, is the civil-military slate of TRADEPA (Transparencia Democrática Patriótica). They're led by ex defense minister, General Víctor Gemio. There's nothing inherently wrong w/ military officers taking part in electoral politics. But this is, after all, Latin America. There's just something unsettling about active-duty members of the officer corp actively campaigning in the contest for commander-in-chief.

Posted by Miguel at 10:49 AM | Permalink | Comments (2)

Red peppers & pine nuts

On a whim, I tossed some three cheese tortellini, but I wasn't sure what to add to it. So I took a chance, and made some roasted red pepper pesto. I had two roasted red pepper halves left; they'd soaked in olive oil & mixed peppercorns for about a week. So I just blended them up w/ some pine nuts. Surprisingly, it's not spicy, but mild. I recommend it. Sometimes, you just gotta take a chance.

Posted by Miguel at 02:22 AM | Permalink | Comments (1)

Yes, Michigan

I found this quirky little "you might be a Michigander, if" list. And I'll just point out the ones that struck a chord w/ me:

I did learn to drive a boat before I learned to drive a car (thanks, Grampa). I can indeed identify an Ohio accent. It's a slight bit of shame that one of my brothers went to MSU, rather than U of M (sorry, Andy). I always use the handy map of Michigan that is the palm of my hand when pointing to where I'm from and/or where I live. Oddly, "down south" did mean the Detroit area; "up north" meant something above Clare. Traveling coast to coast ment going from Saginaw Bay to Traverse Bay. I'm proud to be a "troll". As a kid, I thought the Big Mac was named after the bridge. Or vice versa. I love that you can use Canadian coins in Michigan; I think of it as my personal currency speculation. My college graduation in April had a slight snow shower. Yes, there really is a Kalamazoo! Pasties are delicious. I love Vernor's & used to play Euchre all the time. The acronym "HOMES" was ingrained in me in elementary school. Elementary school tornado drills were tons of fun.

Posted by Miguel at 02:42 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Please breath in, please breath out

My friends from The Bridge Over River Qua finally finished their self-titled album. And it sounds fantastic. I'm also flattered that many of the jacket art photos were taken by me. Just to say that if you get a chance, you should check 'em out.

Posted by Miguel at 11:12 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

The MNR's hopes

Technorati tags: Bolivia

The MNR convention, scuffles & all, ended today in Santa Cruz. And the oldest Bolivian political party has a candidate: Michiaki Nagatani. The son of Japanese immigrants will run for president; the party's now looking for a running mate. The supposed shoe-in, Juan Carlos Durán (current Santa Cruz mayor) is miffed. But the party seems to be quickly closing ranks behind Nagatani. Some of the names floating around are Guillerm Richter & Luis Eduardo Siles.

This could go two ways: 1) the MNR limps along under Nagatani but hits its lowest point ever or 2) Nagatani pulls a Fujimori & wins as the only real "outsider" in the current list of candidates. Time will tell.

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UPDATE: Actually, it seems the MNR is bitterly split over the Nagatani nomination. Long-time MNR leaders like Juan Carlos Durán & Moira Paz are calling foul, and accusing Nagatani of being a gonista.

Posted by Miguel at 10:04 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Tuto v. Evo

Technorati tags: Bolivia

A new set of polling data on Bolivian presidential hopefuls came out today in La Razón. The polls put former president Tuto Quiroga in a statistical tie w/ cocalero leader, Evo Morales.

Posted by Miguel at 04:52 PM | Permalink | Comments (4)

You can't win if you don't roll the dice

In ten days I'll be attending APSA, where (as of this evening's job listings) there'll be 16 schools w/ 18 positions I "fit" holding open interviews. The schools are spread out across the country: Ohio (1), South Dakota (1), Pennsylvania (2), California (1), Maryland (1), South Carolina (1), Massachusetts (1), New York (1), Washington (1), New Jersey (1), Oregon (1), Minnesota (1), Iowa (1), Illinois (1), and Arkansas (1). After I send out my "I'll be at the conference, please interview me" emails, I'll start making a list of the schools w/ job postings that aren't attending APSA. Then I send out formal job applications, followed by months of waiting for at least one job offer. Try to guess how tense I am.

But on a pleasant note, I had a great conversation w/ Bay about life, the future, and where we see ourselves in 1, 5, 20, even 40 years from now. Also, winning five chess matches in a row lifts the spirits like you wouldn't believe.

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UPDATE: The emails are sent; I've already gotten a few responses. Here's to keeping fingers crossed.

Posted by Miguel at 09:57 PM | Permalink | Comments (10)

Rolling thunder

A thunderstorm broke a few hours before dawn, w/ light rain by heavy thunder. Like the constant roar of an artillery barrage. And flash so bright it scorched the sky a pale bright blue. It lasted well into the early morning; an unbelievable mix of sight & sound.

Posted by Miguel at 06:25 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)

Summer's last throws

Skies are overcast again, w/ late summer rains becoming more frequent. In a month, autumn falls upon Kalamazoo, bringing the start of sweater weather. This is the start of my favorite months of the year. Spring in Michigan's always too fleeting, a brisk jump from melting, slushy, dirty snow & grey skies into rain-soaked lawns. Summer's are alternating scorching & muggy heat. But fall. Ah!

On that note, I think I should host an early autumn evening event. Sometime after I get back from the mid Atlantic.

Luckily, autumn's also my most productive time of year.

Finally, I highly recommend the recently-viewed Dogville. Yes, it's three hours long, but riveting. The setting is interesting, a stripped down blend of film & stage. And it's a seemingly-standard morality fable, that takes a disturbing twist.

Posted by Miguel at 11:31 AM | Permalink | Comments (2)

Boliviawiki update

Technorati tags: Bolivia dissertation research

Busy the last few days going through Bolivian cabinet personnel data. It's even less exciting than it sounds, but it does lead to interesting results, all dissertation-useful. So far, I've worked up through 1994, w/ much of that in a recent Bolivia Wiki update. That pretty much rounds out 70% of the pre-writing stage for Chapter 4.

Posted by Miguel at 04:40 PM | Permalink | Comments (2)

Draco

Another pleasant weekend w/ K8 visiting. There was the Friday night soiré at House Griffioen. And, of course, the never-disapointing demolition derby on Saturday. K8's first county fair, and she enjoyed it. Luckily, none of the expected rain fell, and we had a chance to walk around looking at assorted farm animals & other attractions (including some very bad karaoke renditions of Country hits).

Draco the Dragonator was a star attraction. A mechanical dragon, a construction crane on a small tracked tractor, he snorts fire to the amazement of cheering kids, before devouring an old combine. Then, he moved on to a large white van. It was a sight to see.

Several rounds of demolition derby followed, w/ at least one car bursting into flames. All safely controlled, of course, by the local fire department. But if you've never been to a demolition derby, well, you're missing out.

Posted by Miguel at 08:35 PM | Permalink

Whitman coin folders

I've just done my bit to help push up the value of the dollar by keeping currency out of circulation. That is, I just took up coin collecting. State quarters, to be exact. If you appreciate my satisfaction w/ putting things into little organizational structures (I used to get hours of joy from my childhood stamp collection), you'll understand perfectly. Anyhow, that's what's new w/ me.

Posted by Miguel at 03:22 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

The cure

Decided on an impromptu trip to Saginaw, to see my parents. If I can't write, might as well drive five hours (total, both ways) for a two hour spell w/ mom & dad, eh? It was worth it.

Posted by Miguel at 02:27 PM | Permalink | Comments (4)

Argh

August is well under way. I'm well behind schedule, and writer's block's got the best of me. This is not good. At least I still know what direction I'm moving in. That's gotta count for something, eh?

Posted by Miguel at 11:37 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)

Sci(ence) Friday

This is a long Friday, but happily, one devoted primarily to scifi (and some science). But w/ some sad news. Somehow. And I've no idea how this happened (though I was actually wondering if had it this morning as I rushed off to work my once-a-week shift at Rocket Star). But I missed last week's episode of Battlestar Galactica.

Posted by Miguel at 09:24 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)

Job hunt

As of today, there are 26 listings for schools seeking assistant professors in Comparative Politics for Fall 2006 who'll be meeting job seekers at the upcoming APSA conference in four weeks. I'm hoping to get a chance to sufficiently impress at least one of them. Now I've to boil down my (still-in-progress) dissertation into a 1,000 character (about 100 words) abstract. At least I've already updated my vita.

Posted by Miguel at 06:01 PM | Permalink | Comments (7)

Permille

Technorati tags: Kalamazoo politics taxes

Ironically, I've been having an online discussion w/ K8 about millage taxes, their merits, and whether they're regressive taxes. I write "ironically" because there was a millage election in Kalamazoo County today. I suppose no one notified me because I rent, and would (statistically) be less likely to show up to vote in a millage election. So, I've just now caught up w/ the news on the local paper's online edition.

Posted by Miguel at 11:27 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)

A list of updates

Another pleasant weekend visit w/ K8. Which included what must've been a comical visit to Fandango, the (recently) new Kalamazoo tapas place. After ordering a pitcher of sangría, we proceeded to order ridiculous amounts of food (these are, after all, tiny little platters), adding up to something close to a quarter of the menu options. The tuna was the best choice; the rabbit & rattlesnake sausage wasn't as exotic as expectations lead to believe.

Posted by Miguel at 07:13 PM | Permalink | Comments (4)