After promising in my last post to try keep this blog more active, I have now gone through almost three weeks of silence. Chalk it up to a very busy two weeks back in Boston getting moved into my new apartment and serving as an orientation leader for the incoming 1st year class at the Kennedy School. It was a blast, but exhausting at the same time.
Today is my first "real" day back on campus, with task #1 being to attempt to figure out the Rubix's Cube that is my course schedule for my final year here.
Student politics is also kicking back into gear here at HKS with our student government election process starting later today with the opening of nominations. Today's Crimson (that would be the Harvard-wide student newspaper, not to be confused with the HKS' Citizen) features an article about a big issue here on campus at the end of last year, namely the shrinking availability of public space. As one of the students who was engaged in this issue last year, there are a few quotes from yours truly.
Off to my next set of "course preview" sessions...
As you may have noticed, this blog has been pretty silent over the summer. As per my last posting in June, that is because what time I did have for blogging was directed to our Saskatchewan Liberal Party's "Round Our Way" Summer Tour website. 5323km and 31 communities later the tour is over and I'm in Ottawa for a short visit on my way back to Boston to start my final year at the Harvard Kennedy School of Government.
For those who are interested, the Saskatoon and Regina newspapers ran a wrap-up story on the tour today which you can read here.
Anyway, this should mark a restart of activity on this blog on a semi-regular basis (though I am sure that as always I'll have less time to post than I think I will). As this blog has officially reached its 3rd birthday as of Monday (hard to believe it has been three years), I'd also like to check in with you all as to any feedback or suggestions you might have for improvement. Aside from the obvious suggestion of posting more regularly (I know, I know!), I am wondering if people have found the content here relevant and/or interesting or if a change of direction is in order.
Sask Liberals "Round Our Way" Summer Tour - The First Four Days
We are a few days and 1474km into the Saskatchewan Liberals "Round Our Way" 2009 Summer Tour! For some tales and pictures from the road, check out the tour website at: www.saskliberals.ca/tour
Just to prove that I am working hard, here I am flipping burgers at our kick-off BBQ in Saskatoon on Thursday:
Oh yes, and though we are definatley doing some old school, grassroots politics this summer, don't think we aren't trying to connect with people in more modern ways as well:
My blog is blocked in China (and yours probably is too)
Last week a friend in China tipped me off that he could no longer access my blog and had wondered what I had done to attract the attention of the administrators of the Great Firewall of China. Though I have never even blogged about China to my recollection, I thought it was somewhat interesting that this little corner of the internet would be considered scandalous enough to warrant being blocked from 1 billion+ readers.
Alas, it seems that I am not in fact that special, and that all blogspot and wordpress blogs have been blocked in recent weeks in advance of the 20th anniversary of Tiananmen Square this Thursday. And Youtube. And Flickr. And Twitter. And....well...you get the idea.
For those who are interested, there are three nifty little services linked to from here that allow you to check around the world to see if your website is being blocked anywhere. Prairie Fire seems to consistently be blocked from all of the Mainland China test locations, however it is still accessible from Hong Kong.
Was browsing through the website for tonight's premier of the NBC 2-part special "Inside the Obama White House" and stumbled upon a fascinating archives section with full versions of their "Inside the White House" videos for virtually every President since Truman in 1952.
Having nothing better to do at 3 a.m., I was doing a quick scan through a few of them and stumbled upon some fascinating footage from the Nixon tape. Seems that the day that NBC was at the White House with Nixon was the very day that Canadian Prime Minister Trudeau stopped by for a working visit. There is about 7 min of tape with Trudeau which I have posted below for your viewing enjoyment. I can't remember ever seeing any of it before, at least not on Canadian TV. And while fairly un-newsworthy (which is probably why I haven't seen it), if nothing else the body-language between the two of them is fascinating. Maybe it is just me, but the tension and awkwardness seems almost overwhelming at times. It is, of course, no secret that the two men weren't exactly enamoured of each other.
Painting the town red from the Land of Living Skies, to Bytown, to Dupont Circle, to Harvard Square. The humble journeys of a Saskatchewan Grit.
About Me
Name: Ryan Androsoff
Location: Saskatoon, Saskatchewan, Canada
Painting the town red from the Land of Living Skies, to Bytown, to Dupont Circle, to Harvard Square - the humble journeys of a Saskatchewan Grit. Commentary on real life, politics, and everything in-between.
