Friday, February 8, 2008

Acephalic

3 hours writing, 2 hours researching, page count = 191

Well, it's been a crazy week. Last night, we had a great "soft launch" for the New York City Venture Philanthropy Fund, a volunteer project I've been involved with for the past several months. Thanks to those of you who have contributed so far! We had a great turnout, and are planning three more events in the spring.

P.S. on yesterday's post. I can't believe I forgot to mention one of the most interesting parts of the march, at least as I experienced it: the absence of speeches. Put another way, its acephalic nature. People gathered at 127th St. and 15th Ave., and walked up 127th to where it T's at 7th Ave. Then they took either went north or south on 7th, and went home. There were no platform, mikes, megaphones, bandstands, speeches, politicians: none of it. Amazing.

That afternoon, I nipped down to the center and picked up a piece of data I hadn't been able to find here: town-level electoral data for the 1947 legislative election. These are key for my argument about the politicized allocation of security forces within Antioquia state, so I was glad to get those, and to begin processing them.

In terms of writing, I continued with Chapter 1, going through and tightening as needed. Coming back to it after a week away, I'm quite pleased with the first few sections, I think they're tight and flow logically. Visible progress is gratifying.

My job search continues, and I'll be submitting three more applications in the next couple of weeks. I have a phone interview coming up for an application I submitted a couple of weeks ago, which I'm looking forward to.

Next week, Cathy and I are meeting her parents in Vegas, and we get back late on Thursday. I may or may not post next Friday, but I'll be back the following week.

Thanks to this week's monitor, Josh Miles in New York. Have a great weekend!

1 comment:

Unknown said...

Woah...I got off way too easily being a blog monitor this week. I think I will be a stealth blog monitor in the coming weeks...watch out!

Great story about picking up that data from 1947 while you were there. I can only imagine what it must be like to return to your writing after time away. Looking forward to hearing more about the writing, the philanthropy work, and possible job opportunities!