My Fiance pointed out, upon reading yesterday's entry that I am using my name. She also said I was brave for using my name which made me think more about what this blog will be and my intentions with it.
I started this blog with the intention of using my name. I started the blog as a means to reflect during this Comps process and as a way for me to look back later in life on this process. I want my genuine thoughts and think it appropriate to attach my name to them.
That being said I know the digital world that 2015 is and that using ones own name can be detrimental in its permanence. Anything I say here will be here forever. However, I am kind of snobbish when it comes to the internet and my digital legacy. As historians rely on the record of the past I feel it a disservice to my future colleagues to delete my digital record. I do not untag myself from pictures, I do not delete posts, I preserve what I do. Those interested can find a sports blog I attempted to maintain in my early 20s named Pittsburgh's Native Son. In it I discuss how Raiders did not need RB Darren McFadden (a good decision) and that the Panthers needed to draft Jimmy Clausen (a bad decision). I am proud of the blog and it was a very nice part of a hectic time in my life. I will not delete it. I will not delete this blog either. It is part of my historical record and it shall remain so.
Now, the point my Fiance was trying to make was that a reflective blog should involve genuine thought and if my name is attached I will be censoring myself. True, but this is not meant to be a post of ranting and venting. Such actions will be expressed in confidence with those close to me, not in the internet. I will be making calm reflective posts here. I want this blog to carry my calm thoughts on this process, not my angry momentary flashes of frustration. Frustrations will certainly come out in the blog, but they will be durable frustrations, not minimal ones. Frustrations are valuable to this process so I want to catalog them along with many of the other emotions I experience. I will not be sharing anger here though and therefore I am unafraid to attach my name.
As far as my comps work today I finished The War Has Brought Peace to Mexico (2014) and wrote a review of The Fire (2006). I also reorganized my World War I & II syllabus. In reading books on Africa and Latin America in the Second World War their roles in the war escalate once Japan seizes important pacific and Asian imperial holdings cutting off vital resources to the Allied war effort. Africa and Latin America then contributed by providing many of these resources. I think that this is an important aspect to emphasize in a Global World War 1 & II course therefore Japan's war effort has to be explained before getting into the war in Africa and Latin America. So I shifted the course weeks around. Japan immediately follows my European War section. Asia and the Pacific follow Japan. Then a my Global War section happens. Solid work considering I also had to go to work today.
For those obviously confused about the above paragraph I may explain in the next post. For now, take pleasure in knowing today was a successful day.
Until Next Time,
Derrick Angermeier, A Not Anonymous PhD Student
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