Well, folks, the answer is 10.

If the question is "How many days can Alden go without a hamster?"

Once again, I shall attempt to start a website. Hopefully this one will be more amusing than the last! Also, it has an RSS feed. Which just amuses me for some reason.

www.redpenbrigade.com

Check it out!

So it's been a while. Uh... let's see.

Getting married this spring.

Finished my master's thesis.

Quit job at Emory (this is a sad thing, although the good news is I got a $400 parking refund!).

Accepted job at CNN. Not quite clear how job operates at present, but will know more soon.

Wondering whether I'll be able to handle 7am-3pm work hours! It's a bit too reminiscent of my days digging recyclables out of the trash cans at Kalamazoo. Except this time I have an hour commute either way.

Am therefore very grateful for the new iPod. Yes, folks, I own an Apple product. Also, I am going completely batshit crazy on the pink, and just bought this awesome case for myself. How cute is this??



All things considered, it's enough to be going on with, as Dumbledore would say. Merry whatever and happy new year to everyone!

Thanks to everybody who voted last week, my video of Rudy won the Pets category! It is now in the running for Best Video of September. I am so excited and would appreciate every single vote I can get! The voting is here: http://www.weshow.com/us/awards/round/globalInput.action and remember, you're voting for "Cheerios Hamster"! Thank you!

As some of you may know, my hamster's video "Cheerios" has become an internet hit recently. It's now up for the second-to-last round of Best Video of the Month on the WeShow Awards page. You'd have to sign up to vote, but you can opt out of all unwanted contact, and I would totally appreciate your vote!

To vote for Rudy, go here: http://www.weshow.com/us/awards/channel/show.action?channel=160
Make sure you're voting for "Cheerios Hamster"!

Um, appraently we have hours left to vote for Rudy:
http://www.weshow.com/us/awards/channel/show.action?channel=174.

If you're reading this, you probably blog. So help my friend Sarah out and take her survey about blogging for her dissertation research! (Apologies to the Carleton overlap community that's gonna see this about a bazillion times.)

http://www.surveymonkey.com/s.aspx?sm=YWpihoh7RtF_2fL0QyOU8IjQ_3d_3d

Last night I went off at movie group about how thoroughly annoying I find "seasons greetings." I mean, what you have there is two nouns -- "seasons" (which could possibly also be a present-tense verb, if you mean "adds spices to") and "greetings." In and of itself the phrase "seasons greetings" is a nonsensical fragment. It requires an apostrophe to make it go. It really truly does. Argh.

So today I went to buy myself new pajamas. I know it's overwhelmingly sexy, but I'm a huge sucker for the flannel kind, especially the flannel kind with little cute patterns. I found the perfect pair at Marshall's. They were purple (yay!) and were cuffed with fabric declaring "I love my dog!" Then all over them they had little cartoons of dogs winning prizes for different fake-dog competitions, like cutest and fuzziest. I was happily heading toward the check-out lane when I happened to notice that one of the dogs was receiving an award for "waggiest tale." I am willing to accept "waggiest" as a word. I do have a sense of humor. But I knew that I could never, ever sleep in pajamas featuring "waggiest tale." And so back they went on the rack!

Ladies and gentlemen:

After two years, six months, one week, and a day, and after numerous and sundry feature films, Rudy has left the building. I am totally bummed. But it was time, and I am glad I was able to have her while I did.

Okay. I know not all of you are (or ever were) graduate students, but some of you are. Here's my plug, and apologies to the Carls who have heard alllllll about this for weeks now.

I am trying to start a new website that will be a comprehensive, not-boring place for graduate students to chat and swap information etc. So I've set up a website at www.gradish.com... and now all I need is members!

If you're a grad student, ever were, or are thinking about becoming one, please come join. Otherwise, if you know anybody in those categories, or if you know a good place to post information about this, either let me know or feel free to post/pass on the information yourselves.

Thanks, guys!

P.S. If anybody is into graphic design and would like to take a stab at the logo (or, for that matter, the entire site -- that's a prefab template, obviously), I would love to talk to you about it.

	You scored as Old School Democrat. Old school Democrats emphasize economic justice and opportunity. The Democratic ideal is best summarized by the Four Freedoms: freedom of speech, freedom of worship, freedom from want, and freedom from fear.

</td>

Old School Democrat		75%
Green		65%
New Democrat		65%
Foreign Policy Hawk		45%
Libertarian		35%
Pro Business Republican		30%
Socially Conservative Republican		5%

What's Your Political Philosophy?
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