Room for improvement

Yesterday was my 35th brithday. Granted, the first 35 years of my life was not nearly as productive as it should have been. So I am probably about a decade behind where I should be. But, I hope to make up for my relative lack of output in the next 35. I am going to start with this week. As soon as the coffee starts working I intend to start doing some serious writing. This week I am going to at least start another of the encyclopedia articles. I have been thinking about doing the one on Ukraine. I was outlining it in my head earlier this morning. I think I can get it done before the end of the week.

I also will get back to work on Catherine's Grandchildren. I am up to 68 pages. I last wrote some about the Molochanskie colonies during the 1920s. Mennonite settlers founded these colonies. Although I include them as Germans, the Mennonites are really a distinct ethno-confessional subgroup. In fact a lot of Mennonites were not of German descent at all. Rather the first ones were Dutch who became Germanized in terms of switching from Dutch to Plattdeutsch as their primary language. Plattdeutsch is closer to Dutch than Hochdeutsch anyways. Other Mennonites were converted Poles who became Germanized. Hence the existence of common Mennonite names like Sawatsky. The Molochanskie-Prishib German national autonomous raion was the largest autonomous German administrative territory in the USSR outside the Volga German ASSR.

The other tasks for this week are not so easy as writing books. I need to seriously think about my job search strategy. Getting a job in academia looks like it has increasingly bad odds. I am going to definitely be begging for a job from any cotton industry people I meet in London in November. Actually, other than being able to pay rent and eat I am not too picky about job compensation. Unfortunately, minimum wage does not even cover rent in any US city I have looked at. But, if anybody has a job to offer me that meets minimum rent and food let me know. I am willing to work anywhere in the world, but the employer has to take care of the visa arrangements.