Jottings from the Granite Studio

And so a moment I thought I would never live to see has happened twice this decade…the Red Sox have won the World Series. Unfortunately with my teaching and my research schedule I had to watch most of the games on the Internet rebroadcast…except for game 4, for which Wu Ming spilled the beans over email. No matter. I never get tired of the phrase “Boston Red Sox, World Champions.”

• Research progresses. Slowly, inexorably, but moving forward, though we are midway through the semester here in Beijing and with the World Series over, it’s time to get cracking on paper grading because I’m giving midterms this week and my grading load will only grow as we approach Thanksgiving.

• I know people complain that it’s getting colder, but really…if it were up to me, every day would be this temperature. Frankly, I see no reason why it needs to be above 70 degrees ever unless there is a large body of water and a beach involved.

• Does anyone else take a special pleasure in holding up the “Army” (the ones with the 军 license plates) cars as they try to squeeze regally through pedestrian and bike lanes? With every honk of the horn, I just feel my legs walk slower.

• As a wedding present to ourselves, YJ and I bought each other gym memberships. Tonight, the personal trainer ran us through our paces and diagnosed my problem in one word: “Cheeseburgers.” Too true. But he won me over when he greeted my suggestion to “eat more Chinese food” with a scowl and said that all that oil, noodles, and rice was even worse. His advice? More salads. Wow…eat less, exercise more, I never thought of that. Now of course I have to find a way to stop my late night post-study Oreo binges.

• One year of research and I think I finally have my dissertation organized by chapters, now all I need to do is fill those chapters with well-organized and cogent content.

• More from sports, it’s an embarrassment of riches…KG is a Celtic and the Patriots have finally embraced their inner Cobra-kai. I foresee a scene in Indianapolis next week, where Belichick takes Tom Brady aside and actually starts telling him to “sweep the leg.”

And now…back to planning a midterm.