Andrewdevenney.com

This "living will", I think, captures the whole Schiavo stupidity perfectly:

* In the event I lapse into a persistent vegetative state, I want medical authorities to resort to extraordinary means to prolong my hellish semiexistence. Fifteen years wouldn't be long enough for me.

There's more. Oh so much more. Go check it out here.

(found via Atrios)

So, being slightly retarded when it comes to scheduling my work habits, I agreed back in December to write a few entries for an encyclopedia that will be coming out late this year or sometime in 2006. It's on the home front during the world wars in America, Britain, and Canada.

Anyway, the deadline for submitting the entries was March 15, which created a slight problem for me, since I would be partying hard in Brussels at that point (actually at that very point I was bored out of my mind at SHAPE headquarters and marveling at their seventies decor, but whatever). That meant I had to have the damn things finished before I left on March 9. And although I had two entries completed (well, more like one and a half), I needed more time to finish the last one. Thankfully (or rather because they probably deal with deadline-busting academics all the fricking time), they accommodated me, and all was well with the world.

So why am I babbling about this? I know, I know, I can hear your muttering now: Andrew, you could have just finished them in February or something, yeah? Rubbish. You have no idea how much procrastination stimulates endorphin production. The thrill of butting up against a deadline like some blood-crazy bull goring a matador in the crotch is just too desirable sometimes for one's own good.

Being late with work gets you high, people. Think about it.

Anyway, I mention this only because I'm finished. My entries are done. The heavens can now open up, and Monty Python trumpets can pop out of the Pope's arse to play 'Taps'. It is completed.

Now to finish off the next pile of work that my advisors call a dissertation and my wife calls an albatross.

Good night.

Just a short one. I have to get my arse in gear and finish these bloody encyclopedia entries.

So I just got back from a seminar on the EU and NATO that was held in Belgium and Luxembourg. It was another fine example of Fulbright blowing some mighty bank on me, for which I am very much grateful. I had a blast, meet some cool people, drank more than I have in the last three years (which isn't saying much since I don't normally drink--all those jumping to conclusions can jump in a lake instead), and had several ideas hit me for post-dissertation projects, one of which might be a collaboration with my good friend Matt McCabe. All in all, an excellent eight days or so. I'll blog a bit more specifically about the details, my impressions, and maybe even the other participants when I have more time.

You see, ITunes has finally gone live for those living in Ireland, and I'm going insane with choice. I just downloaded music by Tom Jones, for fuck's sake! Help me!! I'm sick!

On my To Buy List, for when I get back to the States:



What We Knew: Terror, Mass Murder, and Everyday Life in Nazi Germany, an Oral History by Dr. Eric A. Johnson, a professor of mine at Central Michigan University, and his German colleague Karl-Heinz Reuband. His last book, Nazi Terror, which you can buy here, was a pretty good read, and I expect this to be excellent as well. You can buy the damn thing at Amazon here.

Nice to see it finally got done, Eric, after the last few years. Congratulations.