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New Year Resolution

I resolve to:

• work towards a 4.0 GPA in graduate school, considering grads all get Bs, anyway
• get new glasses
• visit the doctor and get a clean bill of health
• pick up some kind of good exercise habit from girlfriend Teresa
• figure out this summer's travel plans
• work out next year's rooming situation ASAP
• do more high quality writing at Registan.net
• do more personal writing here
• keep up the monthly update
• work out some gaming/chat situation with Joe in Seattle
• drag people in Bloomington into the next movie project, "The Devil Take the Hindmost"
  

Autumn 2008 in Review

End of the Semester

I haven't been posting as often, and I apologize. I completely missed the November Monthly Update as well, and I suppose it's something I'll have to plan better in the future. Graduate School is time consuming if nothing else, as is a healthy relationship.

Next summer I am hoping to spend a few months in Kazakhstan. This is a plan that has been growing for a little while, but I am getting more and more excited about it. I hope to really improve my Kazakh. My Masters Thesis would definitely be more impressive if my research included Kazakh language sources. Similarly I will need to work on my Russian while there, since a 'research language' is required to graduate, and Kazakh does not count.

I think part of the plan is to save a little money and hit Turkey and Uzbekistan on the way to or from Kazakhstan. I have several acquaintances in Turkey to mooch off of and bug for tours. As for Uzbekistan, I would probably be going there on my own - I'm not sure who to ask for help, though I think my Uzbek, Russian, and Kazakh are equal to the task of being a tourist there.

Now that the semester is over, I should have more opportunities to write on here. Also, there should be more pictures, as well. Next semester I'll be back in the thick of it. I will be presenting a paper at a conference, though maybe I'll try and present at more than one conference. No time like the present for getting your name out there. While it may be easy to become an expert in such an understudied field, nothing comes without at least some effort.

The paper will be on Lake Balkhash in Kazakhstan, now the largest lake in post-Soviet Central Asia since the Aral Sea's demise. I'm basically arguing that it is likely to go the same way as the Aral, considering Kazakhstan's and China's plans for developing the region, moving tens of millions of people to a desert to grow cotton. Sounds familiar if you study the history of the Aral Sea.

Putin's Mom

Putin's Mama

Vera Putina, a Georgian woman willing to risk her life to prove that she is Russian President Vladimir Putin's mother, has gone public with claims backed by her village. Is this the newest attempt by Georgia to attack Russia and its President, or did Putin have an ulterior motive for responding to the Georgian crisis with extravagant violence? One thing is clear - the Russian/Georgian relationship isn't going to get better any time soon, similar to the Russian/Ukrainian relationship. Atrocities on both sides ensure the two countries will have fodder for their fight for years to come.

November Vidcast

International Crisis Group - Stroehlein Did Tashkent’s seminar

International Crisis Group - Stroehlein Did Tashkent’s seminar

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Central Asian Slack

I haven't been posting much lately. It's been hectic, but that's hardly an excuse. It seems that I'm just as likely to post when I'm up to my elbows in business as when I'm bored, and yet these past couple weeks have unusually dry, both here and at registan.net where I try to contribute at least one post a week. One of my favorite bloggers recently put together a simple Russian news page that plants all the headlines from each of the top Russian English-language news sites on one page, with a second page devoted just to the Russian English-language news blogs. I was inspired, and I'm thinking I should look into doing something like that for the Turkic/Iranian world. It would be similar in volume to the Russian page, considering how little press each individual country gets. However, it's a growth industry, considering the future of our relationship with Afghanistan, and Kazakhstan's growing oil industry, and the possibility of a thaw in our Iranian relations.

That being said, I'm going to think long and hard about a serious blog redesign. I'm glad I changed things up a couple weeks ago, but that was just a test to see if I had wasn't too attached to its current size and state. If you have comments, questions, or complaints - the comment link is below.

Some thoughts on politics

Well, I watched the election. John McCain's concession speech was very moving, and I again feel that he could have easily gotten my vote had things gone a little differently. And then Obama came on after midnight and reminded me why people feel the way they do about him. His is an America of hopes and dreams, and future bound. McCain's is an America of values and traditions, and seems to be very tied to the past.

When I learned Obama's victory party would be in Grant Park in Chicago, and that McCain would be speaking at the Biltmore in Arizona, I couldn't help but think of what that symbolizes. On a generalist level, there's the imagery of the populace of a city coming out to celebrate versus a hotel convention center full of supporters.

And then I read this on a political blog:

Consider these two things:

1. The modern conservative movement began with the crushing defeat of Arizona Sen. Barry Goldwater in the 1964 presidential race. The modern conservative movement ends with the crushing defeat of Arizona Sen. John McCain -- who took Goldwater's Senate seat upon his retirement -- in the 2008 presidential race.

2. Modern liberalism began its implosion with riots in Chicago's Grant Park at the 1968 Democratic Convention. Tonight, modern liberalism is reborn at Chicago's Grant Park, where a black Chicago Democrat will celebrate winning the presidency.

You should see the pictures from the vast Obama rally Grant Park, versus the images from McCain's party at the Biltmore in Arizona. Those pictures tell a story.

Interesting - I just hope that the country can reunite after such a divisive campaign. No matter who is the President, we're still the United States. It's the Union that will fix these problems, not a loose group of bickering politicians.