I was having the worst day yesterday... but I got some good news. I actually got accepted into a PhD program, at the history department at SUNY Albany. I don't think I am actually going to go there, for a number of reasons. One is that I have always loved Buffalo and the city here, and I don't really want to leave. The second reason is I really hope to get into the program at UB (it's very good), and I am still waiting to hearfrom them. Three is that I have no idea whether I will be able to get any funding for the Albany program, and there is not way I can go for a doctorate without funding. I'm just so psyched that I didn't get rejected to all three schools that I applied to. I got a rejection through email from Binghamton that was kind of nasty. So I am hoping either things will work out with UB or that I will find a good job in Buffalo, but I am glad to have a remote backup out there if all else fails.

I wish I could come to the party on friday. I was looking at the bus schedule, and the latest bus from buffalo going closest to my place in williamsville leaves at 8:00.

I wonder if maybe there are some cab companies in williamsville. It's so annoying not having a car.

I really like lastfm. It's a little bit like Pandora in that it has the radio station format based on selections you might like, but this has some cool networking/blogging features that are unique.

What do you estrip people usually use as far as music seeking/playing programs?

It's been a long time since I last posted. Things got really hectic and I guess I just lost track of things. I wanted to go to the estrip parties that were in December, but I ended up spending both times with friends. I've been trying to catch up on reading journals here lately, though.

I moved from Elmwood to Williamsville two weeks ago. I am renting a room in a house with some people that I know. I like the place that I am living in a lot, though, I miss living in the actual city. It's easy for me to get around Williamsville and to Buffalo by day, but harder for me to get to and from the city at night (I don't own a car. There is busses at night, but only at certain times). But it's been good. It's less expensive than where I lived before, and its comfy.There is even a mini-spot coffee cafe in a grocery store a few streets away! I love cinco shakes.

I'm finished with all my master's classes, just trying to work on my thesis. Which has been a long process. I'm writing about the looting of the Iraq Museum in 2003 and the recovery of the stolen art by international organizations. It's a really interesting topic that I have enjoyed reading about, but I find it hard to actually write and organize what I have researched. Its been taking me a lot longer than I anticipated.

I am applying to PHD programs in history at UB, and a couple of other places. I think it is probably a long shot because they are selective, but I thought I might as well try. It would be cool to get "paid" to go to school, definitely. Hopefully I will be able to find a job that will work out for me here in Buffalo, if that doesn't work out. I really like the area, and would prefer not to move.

I hope everything is going well for all of you!
-Jess

I found
this story online a few minutes ago. I guess after awhile, you find yourself desensitized to a lot of the violence that takes place. But this was pretty shocking to me. Sometimes you wonder what the world is coming to; but then you realize it's always been this way in some form or another.

It's interesting when I'm around people of my parents or grandparents generation and they are talking about the days when things were safer, or better for people to live in as far as violence is concerned. I'm not sure if such assumptions have a lot of veracity to them. I wonder sometimes if a heightened perception of violence is just more apparent given the increased proliferation of media sources (especially electronic and visual).

My grandparents generation, for example, is one in which millions upon millions of people died from genocide- between Hitler and Stalin. My parents generation were witness to the horrors of what went on in places like Cambodia, where a government carried out systemic violence and cultural extermination against its own people. While life in 2005 can be terrible in that people are exposed through the media to violence; it always gives the potential of making us more aware of what is going on in the world (at least in theory).