Episode XLVIII: Where Are They Now?!

This post approximately marks the end of my second year of living here in Lawrence, Kansas. In some ways it feels like these two years have gone by very quickly. But in other ways they seem to have packed in many years’ worth of experiences, responsibilities, events and adventures. So, if you average the two feelings together, I suppose it feels like the past two years have lasted for exactly two years.

So to celebrate, here is a “Where Are They Now?” post, looking back at previous episodes of The Ballade and bringing them up to date.

Shoes

To begin with- a sad note. I tried very hard, and I appreciate the efforts of a number of you who attempted to track down a pair of my favorite shoes in response to a September 2007 post of mine. Unfortunately, the feat seems to have been impossible. Instead I had to buckle down and buy a different pair of shoes from Adidas, which is rather a nice pair, but nothing compared to my old And-1s.

Vehicle

One of the more popular stories of the last two years was from November 2006, where, as an addendum, I posted about a little pink scooter that I had won, known as The Thugmobile. It seems now that nearly everyone who knows me also knows about the scooter, and some people who don’t know me also know about the scooter. Where is it now? Well I sold the thing through Craigslist (the response was huge) and I believe it is now used by some 11-year-old girl.

On an unrelated note, the previous month (October 2006) I had posted a quick note about the relatively moderate price of gas in the Midwest. (Prices have since increased at least 75%).

Music

In March 2007 I posted about how a song of mine had made it to National Public Radio (!) and was grateful for the support of all my friends and family in promoting it. While it did not win the contest, it did catch the attention of a local Lawrence student journalist who wrote up a story and produced a short video about my music “career” and my Presidential Project. She even managed to track down (and get a quote from) my childhood piano teacher! In other news, the Theme & Variations for piano that I posted in August 2007 has recently surpassed 5,000 views on YouTube.

Teaching

Finally, my first semester of teaching (microbiology lab) went quite well. Next semester I will teach genetics lab (which is much more in line with my specialization). I recently received the student evaluations from my micro lab, and they were all very good comments. The biggest (and funniest) critique was from this female student: “I wish that my TA would not spike the ball so hard at my face when we play intramural wallyball”. Ha!