Long Absence.

Well, as I'm sure no one has noticed, I haven't posted for a very long time. Reasons? Both because I was still in a pretty nasty funk over what happened in my first semester of Harvard, but also because it was Christmas break and I generally have no interest in being anywhere near a computer when I'm home. And no, it's not a principled aversion or anything like that, I just am too impatient to get on the internet when I could be sitting on the couch eating cookies and watching television series on DVD. (although this year it was far more playing Call of Duty 3, Guitar Hero 1&2, and channel surfing.)

So, since Christmas consisted of a painfully short 9 days of sloth, gluttony, a nice visit to the girlfriend's family's for Christmas, a Christmas in Brooklyn, dancing lessons from my father (I forced AHJ to come down for the night), and not much else...I figure that sentence is summation enough.

Luckily, I've emerged from the funk that came over me at the end of the Semester, and I've begun another class on January 2nd: the Creation of the Constitution. The class is actually one of the best classes I've ever taken so far, although of course it has only been 3 days. The professor (who incidentally is a federal appeals judge) was the front-runner for O'Connor's seat on the Supreme Court (only to be passed over for poster boy John Roberts), and I have to admit that I am absolutely stunned by the depth and breadth of this guy's knowledge of the history of thought, the history of our country, the history of the country, and I can only presume, the law of this country. He moves gracefully from deep discussions about Catholic liturgy to expounding Adam Smith's theory of economics to rattling off long stories about Alexander Hamilton's life to explaining the Financial Revolution and the origins of the money supply to explaining why D.C. traffic is so fucking terrible. (It's intentional. After the Congress under the Articles of Confederation sitting in Philly were attacked by soldiers who hadn't been paid, it became apparent that a Congress w/o military power couldn't defend itself, and became even more apparent that the State of Pennsylvania wasn't about to fight with its own troops. So when it became time for the New Constitution, they decided to put DC in its own no man's land and build it with all those ridiculous circles and terrible roads precisely so that when the mob comes and attacks, cannon fire can shoot all the way down the street and crush them.) Enough said. Even though the man is apparently very conservative, I cannot be but overwhelmed by his intellectual weight, insight, and obvious brilliance. It has been a very long time since I have been so singularly stunned by someone's ability like this. I'd like to talk to him more, but feel certain that I would just humiliate myself somehow.

Anyway, I'm happy to say i really enjoy this class, though it is a week's worth of material covered every single day. (13 weeks of class crammed into 13 days. Do the math.)

Anyway, now that I'm back, I'm sure the next post will be more interesting...if any of you have actually returned to read this thing.