Breaking the Extended Silence

So it's been over three months since my last post. Sorry about that, folks. I've been updating the sidebars of this weblog regularly, but no new messages. For the last four weeks, that's mostly had to do with the fact that my laptop needs some work done on it. But the previous two months were due to pure negligence on my part.

To give you a few quick tidbits about what's happened to me since February 19th:

1) I've been dating a woman named Elizabeth for (officially) 2.5 months now. She's a beautiful, 24 year-old product of Shreveport, Louisiana, and she's currently enrolled in the MA program at Iliff School of Theology. I will certainly share more about her in the near future.

2) On June 6th, a week from tomorrow, I will turn in my last term paper of the quarter. That means my first academic year as a Ph.D. student will be over. I had a 4.0 GPA coming into this quarter (the first time in my life I've had this flawless statistic on my academic progress report), and the Spring course I've already completed all the requirements for should not detract away from that sterling factoid. The remaining paper will be a difficult exercise in philosophy and may very well return me to the land of the 3.9's.

3) My summer plans are simple: Study a lot of German so I can pass my program's required language exam in the fall; read, read, read; and visit Indiana for about a month. At this point, it looks like I will be making the trip home sometime during the first two weeks of July and then remaining in the Hoosier state until early August. An honest factor in my decision making process is whether I'd prefer to watch UFC 86 with my Indiana friends or UFC 87. :)

4) The new Indiana Jones movie is good. Not awesome, mind you, but a worthy addition to the series. I give it 2.5 out of 4 stars, and 3 out of 4 starts on my guilty pleasure scale. If you're interested in seeing it but not sure if you should shell out the seven to ten dollars, I encourage you to shell away. I more strongly encourage you to watch No Country for Old Men on DVD. It's every bit as good as it's been hyped up to be.

5) I've discovered a fantastic (progressive?) metal band: Between the Buried and Me. Their music makes me think of Dream Theater, Sepultura, and Radiohead seemlessly united into one impressive entity. Since January, I've digested three of their albums and have enjoyed each one thoroughly.

That's enough randomness for now. FYI, I check my Facebook account every day. Contact me their if you'd like to re-establish contact with me.