- I decided to stay in Gainesville this spring break in order to work on my thesis. That alone should qualify me as a bonified nerd. In all seriousness, though, I'm getting close to my deadline; so, staying here and taking advantage of the free time to work on my research and writing the paper was really the wisest decision. All I can ask from you all is pictures of the beautiful beaches and lovely vacations (Lundborgs, that means you).
- My one "vacation" this break was last weekend when I went down to Sarasota, FL and attended the New College Conference on Renaissance and Medieval Studies. Laugh all you want, but it was actually a blast. Plus, it was my first opportunity to present a paper at a professional conference. Pretty sweet, really. The paper went over well even though I was paired with two other professors, and the chair of our panel was a world-renowned French literary scholar (Francois Rigolot). I was nervous, but it went really well, and I even got some compliments from the other presenters and people in the audience. The conference in general was great; I got to hang out with some of my fellow grad students who were down there presenting as well. In fact, we had fun eating at restaurants, touring the Ringling Museum, and even going to a spring training game (which was immediatly rained out). Perhaps the best moment was when myself and my friend Robert were at a sports bar grabbing some food and listening to a two-man band perform such standards as "Brown Eyed Girl" on the guitar and keyboard. At one point the keyboardist picked up a violin and started playing a country tune. A bunch of their band's groupies were there (who were hilarious in and of themselves), and when they saw the fiddle they screamed, "Charlie Daniels!" Immediately, they broke into "Devil Went Down to Georgia." Up until this point, there was nothing that notable about the performance; however, when it came time for the fiddle solo in the middle of the tune we saw the fiddle player duck down behind the keyboard for a few moments. As it came time for the solo, he popped up from the back wearing a super-cheesy red devil mask and a red cape that he had put on. The other guy hit a switch to start the fog-machine, and the guy played his fiddle solo with a devil's mask and smoke surrounding him. Possibly the most hilarious thing I've ever seen. So, yea the conference was fun.
- Final example of how spring break has proven me to be a nerd -- I spent all yesterday (the first official day of my spring break) in Deland, FL researching at the Stetson University Library. They had a volume of rare books in their special collections that I wanted to look at. Worse still, I took pictures and chronicled my day-trip.
Here I am getting ready to leave in the morning. As you probably noticed, I'm looking spiffy. Meghan doesn't like the hat, but I thought it gave off the "I'm a scholar, you can trust me with your rare books" vibe.
The incredibly nice Library Director pulled the books for me and then reserved a study room for my use the entire day. Wicked nice of her. She also hooked me up with everything I needed for the internet and then let me do my thing. Here was my study space.
Here are the really old books that I wanted to check out.
Here is the really old guy who wrote them.
About six hours later, I emerged from my study hole, made some copies, thanked the librarians, and then went on my way. En route back to Gainesville, I saw a Moe's and realized that I hadn't eaten since 8am. An Art Vandalay did the trick, and I was back off towards home.Was that the most boring picture series that I've posted on this blog? Probably so. Nevertheless, that's my spring break -- newsies hat included.
