for 40 days and 40 nights

If you don't hear from me... it is because I am going to become a hermit. Now we all know kind of what a hermit is, but I would like to share a little more about what it means. Once again, I am going to rip something off of Wikipedia:

"In Christianity, the term was originally applied to a Christian who lives the eremitic life out of a religious conviction, namely the Desert Theology of the Old Testament (i.e., the forty years wandering in the desert that was meant to bring about a change of heart)."

I don't know how to say this... I'm switching to Catholicism.

Just kidding. I am becoming a medical student hermit to bring about a change of brain. I'm going to make it smart. And instead of forty years, I have 42 days. Take that Israelites!

What does this mean? I am barely, if ever, going to be using the computer. Jesus went without food and bread for forty days, I am going without the computer (mostly, practice tests are online). So I just need to say goodbye to a few things: goodbye iChat with Mike; goodbye Gizmodo; goodbye NY Times; goodbye Slate; goodbye Engadget; goodbye blogger; goodbye Hulu; goodbye Netflix

But mostly, goodbye iTunes.

So in short, I will barely be updating this blog (if ever). Luckily, we have Mike, Steve, and Jeff updating this blog as well... hahaha, ah that's funny (that will never happen).

So goodbye. I leave you with a Bob Dylan playlist. I meant to post this a long time ago. It basically is a list of Dylan songs that I believe will make a convert out of anyone... unless you don't have a heart.

Moonshiner
Girl From the North Country
Love Minus Zero No Limit
One of Us Must Know (Sooner or Later)
One Too Many Mornings
Lay, Lady, Lay
Corrina, Corrina
Don't Think Twice, It's Alright
Drifter's Escape
You're Gonna Make Me Lonesome When You Go

siete de mayo

It is time for my favorite day of the year: Siete de Mayo. It is the day that the independence of Greece was finally recognized via the Treaty of London. Then, as everyone knows, the Otto of Wittelsbach, Prince of Bavaria was chosen King.

It is still just dumbfounding that despite Greece's vital role in political theory and as, arguably, the centerpiece of the world for several centuries, the Hellenistic period was brought to a close two centuries later with the establishment of Roman rule over Greek lands in 146 BC.

I was talking about this with Mike and he made the argument that Greece's loss of control truly began with the Byzantine Empire in 330 AD around Constantinople.

This got my mind spinning and made me reflect on how Byzantium remained a major cultural and military power for the next 1,123 years, until the Fall of Constantinople to the Ottoman Turks in 1453. On the eve of the Ottoman conquest, much of the Greek intelligentsia migrated to Italy and other parts of Europe not under Ottoman rule, playing a significant role in the Renaissance through the transmission of ancient Greek works to Western Europe. Nevertheless, the Ottoman millet system contributed to the cohesion of the Orthodox Greeks by segregating the various peoples within the empire based on religion, as the latter played an integral role in the formation of modern Greek identity.

So happy Siete de Mayo to everyone!