As you all can tell, the majority of OSG are truly enjoying their summers... Some of us thought it would be a good idea to put off writing our theses until the summer after graduation so that Finals Week and graduation and job searching and last hurrah's wouldn't get in the way. Sounds like a great idea, right?

WRONG!!!!!!! When you walk that stage at graduation, all motivation, at least of an academic nature, is completely shot for the next three months! Don't even think about planning an enjoyable post-grad summer spent leisurely churning out pages of your thesis in between responding to job postings and weekend visits to family and friends. It just doesn't work!

If you're as foolish as some of us, you will be spending countless hours trying to rekindle that spark of academic achievement that you know is still somewhere inside of you...it just may take a while to muster the motivation to find it (i.e. it's so much more fun blogging and surfing the web...). You may just end up with about a week left to finish your thesis, while you still have yet to complete an entire first-draft...

One might ask how one deals with such an overwhelming problem. Well, personally, when I start to get down on myself, I like to sing a "happy" little song:



Well, that's it for now. It's time for Chris Seal to waddle back to his dark cubby and spend countless hours coding data on conflict and Schengen treaty membership, while also expanding upon the theory of return migration...whatever that means!

Tune in next time, when sanity will have become a dream of the past, and at which point, I will have slightly changed my tune:

my family summers in bora bora.

Gentle Reader,

Here's a quick update of things that have happened to the loyal members of OSG this summer.

Oolong is idling away the days before medical school starts in August.  She learned to scuba dive in Arizona, and that is pretty much the only interesting thing she has done.

"I am so ready to see some underwater plants!"

Sammy has entered the Real World: Charlottesville.  But unlike the MTV show, her life is empty of drugs and sex with strangers, and instead is full of salt and metal samples.  Sammy likes this much better.

 "I am motivated to make a career out of corrosion!"

Grass is in Boston, learning to save the world, one media outlet at a time.  Everyone else looks at her pictures of her internship longingly and misses her when they are all together.

 "Look at how much fun my new friends and I are having!" ...sniff :(

Embunny is at home with a plastic dinosaur as a companion.    We hope that she will not abandon us and this blog for her other interests (see life samples).

"These large orange pants fit me and my velociraptor friend!"

Chris Seale is battling his thesis...still.  Unlike all the rest of OSG, he decided to "finish undergrad early", and is reaping the reward.  Chris Beale, on the other hand, continues to "leave" Charlottesville, toying with everyone's emotions as he "says goodbye"...over and over.  It seems, like his birthday week, every day is his last chance to drink with you.

 "Government and politics...arrghhhhhh!"