hoov, where are you?

that's what the comment on my last post said.

the answer is that i'm right here in california, friends, but not for long.

since that last post, many Things have happened. i got super-awesome grant funding for my field work! i presented some work back at yale! i moved in with jarrod! i had my wisdom teeth out! i went to my fifth college reunion! i wrote hella statistics for the liberian truth and reconciliation commission! summer came (to the extent that summer comes to san francisco)! we celebrated a whole year of Official Coupledom! i wrote conference papers! i read (did read, have read, am reading, will read) books about el salvador! i made el salvador plans!

and so on.

on sunday i fly to santa fe, and then to grand forks, where anne is getting married. MARRIED! and then home to cali for a few weeks, and then back to the east coast for a few weeks (yay symposium! boo apsa!), and then back home to cali for one last week of whirlwind prep, and then i'm off to el salvador.

this is why i don't blog: there is so much to do, so immediately, that all my thoughts about things outside of staying sane in my daily life and doing work have been radically compressed.

however, a brief rundown:

bad: dissident "traditionalist" anglicans; john mccain's speaking skills; john mccain; the phrase "flip-flop"; the FARC; cheney-orchestrated global warming denialism at the EPA; barry zito; facebook diet ads.

distressing: new york times magazine articles on young gay marrieds and rush limbaugh; virtually all news from afghanistan and pakistan; seymour hersh on iran; every single thing the bush administration has ever done with or about or to inmates at guantanamo bay; the aforementioned facebook diet ads.

good: at&t park (the place, not the branding); barack obama, personally and politically; the symbolic potential of a black president; fourth of july on the beach.

interesting: new APSR article on a twin study of voting behavior; biblical data visualization.