As Calvin mentioned previously, we have in fact not fallen off the face of the planet. If the fall semester was especially busy for us, the spring has only been that much more so. Nevertheless, I am told by a certain person that I must find the time to start blogging again, if, in fact, The Floppy Hat is really not to fall off the face of the planet after all. Therefore, I will again seek to mortify the flesh (to use a phrase which I have learned from my Martin Luther class) by practicing semi-regular blogging.

Introductory notes aside, I have more to say today than to make excuses for our lengthy absence from the biblioblogosphere. After taking the necessary time for a bit of moping, we are now ready to announce to the blogging world at large that we unfortunately were not accepted into any of the Ph.D programs to which we applied this year.

Thankfully, we have received encouragement from not a few sources that (while there is always room for improvement) this is not because our applications were necessarily deficient. From what we have been able to gather, it seems that much of the issue this year was with economics. In other words, very limited funding and many well-qualified applicants. This is, of course, to some extent the case every year, but that much more so in the current economic climate.

What now? We will try again next year, and meanwhile, we will seek to improve our applications in any way we feasibly can during this intervening year. This includes learning German, attempting to get an article or a book review published, and of course, continuing in self-study by reading more in the text and in secondary sources. If anyone has specific suggestions, we would love to hear them.

As for The Floppy Hat, we can assure all that it is still open for business. You can expect that we will continue to blog on all things Biblical studies and beyond. In fact, it might even be the case that we blog more than we ever have before, once the semester is over. Though our immediate plans have been foiled, our long-term plans are still the same, which means that the march toward the Floppy Hat continues on!