At the Heart of Things

Conference is tomorrow (well, today, actually, but I'm not there right now) and I think I'm ready to present the paper. It's entitled "Poets, Paragons and Politics: Sugawara no Michizane in the Meiji Period", and you can see what else is on offer right here (I'm about half-way down). It's at 10:00 a.m., so it remains to be seen how many people we'll get, but still. One small-ish step on my road to dominating the world of academia, I suppose. The best bit will be the party in Starr Library later that evening, which - if last year's was anything to go by - will involve some considerable damage to the light fittings.

I've also, speaking of academic things, applied for a scholarship administered by the Japanese-American Association of New York. It's supposed to be awarded to graduate students who contribute to Japanese-American relations (the fact that I am neither Japanese nor American does not, apparently, disqualify me). So perhaps a chance for a little extra cash - who knows? Though these things are less about the cash than establishing a good track record of being able to get them - money makes the world go round in academia just the same as anywhere else.

It would appear that not being American is also no obstacle to becoming President. Or at least, of JETAANY. Elections are in two weeks' time, and I'm running. Right now it looks like I'm running unopposed, since no-one showed up to challenge me at the hustings on Wednesday. Of course, if someone does decide they want to take me on, it will all be at the will of the electorate. I will win, though, because I have the best policies, the most charisma, and most importantly, of course, I'll cheat.

Since the New Year, I've also been flogging myself in the gym harder than at any time since I got to Columbia. For the past month or so, I've been down there four days a week, doing at least 30 minutes' hard cardio per session, and lifting most times as well. It would seem to have paid off; over the last 72 hours, I've noticed that the heart palpitations I wrote about last term, which have been with me for 7 months or so, have completely stopped. It's rare that one gets such tangible benefits from going to the gym - of course, "not dying" is usually a fairly powerful motivating factor.