Applications!
I've been sitting here drinking this awesome coffee that Laura's roommate got me from Starbucks, waiting for an email and perusing different military history programs across the country. Kansas State has some awesome courses. I liked this one the best.
HIST 513. Battles and Leaders. (3) I, in alternate years. The course will emphasize military organization, tactics and strategy, generalship and grand strategy, manpower and logistics, and the wartime ramifications of war on land, at sea, and in the air.
K-state seems cool, and Duke looks good too, but I really wanna be at OSU. I already know all the professors, a bunch of my friends are in grad school here, Columbus is a great town, etc... Hopefully I can get some good letters of recommendation and submit a great writing sample. Wish me luck!
class is about to start!
We're gunna try the working lunch thing again. Maybe I'll blog about it later!
Placekeeper!
I figured I should post since it's been a while. We had the history schedulathon yesterday and probably only talked to 5 kids the whole day. Wheee! At least I managed to talk one of the kids into taking History of War with Dr. Grimsley. That's the class where
Laura originally started stalking me. I can't help it though, she said that I'm "stalkable". I don't know what that means really, but I'm sure the Forex Strategy fellows will be along quickly to give their opinions.
History scheduling >:o
I'm flabbergasted. It seems like every history class I want to take for the winter quarter is at the same time. I have a Latin class from 10:30-11:18, and every history class I want takes place in a window from 9:30 to 12:18! Classical Greece, Reformation, History of the USSR, pre-1800’s Japan, European warfare, US diplomacy post 1920, Holocaust, and History of modern intelligence all take place in that 3 hour window. I’ve never seen courses grouped together like this. Man… this sucks.
Hey look! The Lingustics class I wanted to take to satisfy my issues of the contemporary world TAKES PLACE AT 10:30-12:18. Maybe OSU doesn't recognize the existence of any period of time before 9:30 and after 12:30. It's like Israel. It's there. It's a fact that it's there, they have flags and an army and everything, but some people just don't recognize that it exists.
prayers!
Habitual commenter Dr. StrangeTyk had a hernia operation yesterday. Let's all take some time to wish him a quick recovery!
Strategic Thought or How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love "On War".
Whew. In between shuttling back and forth to campus, I’ve been slugging my way through Machiavelli and Clausewitz. The books are interesting and I’m getting a lot from them, but man… that is some tough sledding, especially since I’m usually reading them while trying not to fall asleep. I keep forcing myself to go back and re-read parts that my eyes read but my mind didn’t really catalogue. The plus side of all of this is that because I need to write a 25 page paper for the final grade in this class, I can put my origins of the Christian war ethos paper on the back burner instead of trying to do both at the same time. A man cannot serve two masters you know. This way I’ll have a solid essay suitable for including in graduate applications AND the Dulles Review, which brings me to my next point.
As you may be aware, I am the secretary of the Zeta chapter of Phi Alpha Theta. Last Thursday was our first meeting of the year, and we had discussions on all sorts of topics. Of particular note was the decision to continue our historical movie night. I suggested that we choose a war movie simply because it would attract more people. What I’d like to ask of you, the devoted reader, is to suggest some excellent movies for us to show. They don’t have to be war movies at all, but any type of historically-based film. We usually show the film and then have one of the many history professors at OSU join us in a discussion of the film’s accuracy and its portrayal of events. If we chose Glory for instance, we might ask Dr. Grimsley to come in and discuss topics that the movie brings up, We Were Soldiers would call upon Dr. Guilmartin, and Taegukgi: The Brotherhood of War would require the talents of Dr. Millett. I was even thinking of using some unconventional movies ranging from Grave of Fireflies, which is quite possibly the most gripping cartoon I have ever seen, to Dr. Strangelove which is referenced enough in my history classes to deserve a place on some sort of required viewing list.
Going back to what I finished with last time, I met random graduate students at the last home football game. One of them was a TA from Dr. Grimsley’s first History of War class. We got to talking, and I said that I was going to apply for graduate school. I mentioned that I was already taking that 768 class and he instantly assured me that I’d get into OSU for military history. While I don’t agree with his assessment of the ease of admission, it was good to hear. He also suggested that I get Dr. Millett to write me a letter, which I was going to do anyways. I think the other undergrad in that class dropped it, because he was missing last week. If I hang in there and do well, it’s sure to make an excellent statement on any admissions form, especially considering the company that I’m in: various Ivy Leaguers, decorated officers, some guy who already has an MA in an unrelated field, and then good ol’ me; the 5th year senior.
Although I’ve noticed that I seem to have more of a casual demeanor in the class than the others. They feverishly take down notes and sometimes answer Dr. Millett’s joking questions as if they were serious. I on the other hand laugh at references to old movies and preface any allusions to ancient Greece with “Now I don’t want to go all Victor Davis Hanson on you, but…” I wonder if the stress and desire to succeed saps some people of their vigor. Or maybe… just maybe…. it’s a communist plot to drain them of their precious bodily fluids, their purity of essence if you will. They do drink an awful lot of water…
