work and last weekend

so I've gotten into the swing of things with my new research job. most days go something like this: roll into the office around 10am, read the newspaper online, work on something - usually this means reading one of the forty or so articles that are scattered around my desk, have lunch, read some more, argue with someone about what the article was saying, think about how to turn that person's research into some kind of research you can do, read some more, then go home.
only starting tomorrow, at the end of my "work" day I won't be going home, but instead going somewhere else to study for two or more hours for my crappy test I have at the end of the summer.
but I do like it. it's really interesting research and I feel like I actually can contribute something. so that's good.
oh, and today I got my new computer. ok, well, it's not actually new, it's a few years old, but it's hardly been used and it's pretty. it's a G3 iBook (soo cute). I'm updating the memory and getting a wireless card so it will be awesome in a couple days. I won't be complaining at all since it was free. and it works so much better than the other laptop I had at work which for some reason refused to let me view pdfs and doesn't like doing more than one thing at a time. what a lazy pc.

anyway, bought some new music today. yay for wilco (I got one of their older albums). I think that they are my new favourite band. even though I really like weezer's new album, I do think I have outgrown them a little bit. and wilco is really amazing. they make me happy. (radiohead's probably number two now I think.)

in other news, I had a pretty good weekend. had a couple of really nice long conversations with friends (carolyn and tom), and went to a couple really good parties (at katie's and jody's) for the memorial day weekend. it was lots of fun. thanks everyone.

way to go George!

just got back from Star Wars Episode III: Revenge of the Sith and I must say, I am very pleased. Mr. George Lucas pulled it off and didn't make this last one suck. yes, there were some moments of cheesiness (he clearly cannot write a love story), but overall it was really good. the first part of the movie is awesome, then the middle drags a tiny bit, but it picks up in the end. R2D2 is seriously hilarious and yoda still kicks ass. the only other thing I can say is, four lightsabers?! now, I need to get some sleep. I am off to LA tomorrow evening for the weekend and hopefully will miss the 109 degree heat predicted for this weekend. phew.

Tarnation

so I haven't slept very much the last three nights. it's mostly because I'm stupid (and I have to be at work at a decent hour in the morning - I started on my research project this week). here's why: sunday night I had a couple cokes with the celebratory dinner after our soccer game. couldn't fall asleep (it was very reminiscent of my insomnia days from last semester. not fun).

monday night, Angel and I cooked dinner for Katie, Adam, and Oscar at Katie's house. we all watched 'Raising Arizona' and laughed at the Tempe "accents" (the movie is set where we live now). great movie. anyway, I didn't get home until like 2am or something. very stupid.

last night, I rented the movie 'Tarnation' and watched that. Jeremy had told me about it a few weeks ago and it looked really interesting. it's a documentary by this guy Jonathan Caouette about his life growing up with a dysfunctional family (including his schizophrenic mother). he started making the movie when he was about 11 years old and continued filming his life up until now (he's about 30). he had a budget of about $200 and edited the whole thing on apple's iMovie. considering all of this, it's really quite an amazing movie. it's not always easy to watch a documentary (especially if you're not used to watching a movie without a real plot), but this one was very different. there was a real emotional core to it that pulled you in and didn't let go. Jonathan's story is both amazing and heart-wrenching. and the way that he tells it is so unique and spellbinding that it's hard to look away. anyway, I really liked it. the love he has for his mother despite all of her problems (and the problems they have caused him) is really inspiring and beautiful.

tonight I won't be sleeping much either since I and a bunch of friends are going to a midnight showing of Star Wars Episode III: Revenge of the Sith. should be lots of fun (and hopefully - please Lucas don't let us down - a good movie too).

pics of the car!

so here are some pictures of my brand-spanking new car:





it was a pretty good weekend. saturday morning I bought a car (yay!). then that afternoon I drove katie and angel to the mall (even though I had no money left to spend). we got some chipotle and enjoyed the mass consumerism.

that evening, me, katie, angel, and adam went to this free reggae festival at the tempe town beach lake (or whatever it is called, since it's not really a lake or a beach). it was pretty fun, especially all the people-watching (old drunk people are really hilarious). as we were walking back after the concert on mill, some little kid came up to adam and said, "the world is flat". we were like, "what?!". it turns out that one of the astronomy professors and his family were right behind us and the professor paid his kid two bucks to say that to adam. it was pretty funny.

today, I did a bit of cleaning (after sleeping in) and then went to trader joe's with katie (she had never been there before, so that was fun). it was sooo hot! today was the first day it was over 100 degrees. it's all downhill from here. then I had my weekly soccer game at 6pm (it still pretty hot, but not too horrible). it was a pretty decent game, we won 8-1. the best part, though, is that I played forward for a little while and I scored one of the goals. woo hoo! I think they're not going to let me play only defense anymore. but that's cool. it was fun.

I am no longer car-less!

so, folks, it is official. I now have a car. I went in this morning at 9am to the toyota dealership and emerged only two hours later a proud new owner of a corolla (phantom gray le in case anyone really cares). yay for that. (thanks again mike for driving me over there.) everyone was really nice and helpful and made the whole thing really easy. they even gave us a free lunch afterwards. woo hoo.

so, yeah, I'm super excited. don't need other people dragging my sorry ass around anymore. first order of business: the mall with angel later this afternoon (although I don't have any money left to spend unfortunately). hehe. oh well. at least I have a car!

done! one year down, five (?) to go

well, the day I have been waiting for has finally arrived. I have finished my first year of grad school. somehow, I survived. whatever doesn't kill you, makes you stronger (and builds character, as calvin's dad always said) so I am filled with a new strength.

I stayed up most of last night working on my take-home advanced electromagnetism final. and it was tons of fun, let me tell you. I think I slept about four hours and woke up around 7am (like I have the past three days - which in and of itself is quite an accomplishment for me) to get it all finished. it's definitely not perfect, but it should get me a passing grade.

now I have the rest of the week to relax, re-organize my office to get ready to start my research on monday, and clean my apartment. (and possibly buy a car). sounds good.

pretty picture

the Astronomy Picture of the Day (APOD) today is really beautiful. check it out here: http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/astropix.html
here's a close up of it: http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/image/0505/saturnplane_cassini_big.jpg
it is a new picture of saturn taken from the cassini satellite. it's super cool because of the angle it is taken from. the rings are totally edge-on so you almost can't see them. also, there is a shadow on the planet from the rings that is really cool. hope you enjoy.

it is 8:30pm and I am still at school and probably will be here until at least 11pm. such is life. I can't wait for next wednesday when I will be done! today was interesting because we had the end-of-the-year physics department party-like thing. there was some free food (so the grad students would attend) and they gave out some awards to people we didn't know. the funniest thing was just watching the other people in the party. katie remarked it was like junior high all over again. everyone was standing on one side of the room, only talking to people they knew. the only difference from junior high was that the topics of conversation were physics-related. physicists are funny like that.

finals, music, and a paranoid android

I can't believe it's May. holy crap. that means I'm almost done with school. one week from tomorrow I will be all finished with my first year of grad school. that is a scary thought. this semester has gone by so fast (especially compared to the long hell last fall). I have one class tomorrow, lots of grading to do, and lots of homework to work on. wednesday is "reading day" (or as one of my students called it, "the day off of school to play video games"). I won't be doing that, but I will be studying and homeworking. more of the same on thursday. then on friday I have to turn in some quantum mechanics homework and take my statistical mechanics final. should be tons of fun. the weekend will be spent working on my electricity and magnetism take-home final (due tuesday) and studying for my quantum mechanics final (on monday). so, once I finish all that I'll be done! then I get the rest of next week off to sleep and do lots of useless stuff. I start working on my research project the following monday.

I saw the hitchhikers guide to the galaxy on friday night and it was really good. I was a bit worried because the movies have a bad habit of screwing up really good books, but it was actually really funny and carried along the spirit of the book really well. the stuff they added was cool (especially the yarn vomit) and the stuff in the book was done well. and I guarantee you will come out of the theatre singing the theme song, "so long and thanks for all the fish". it was great.

I also finally went to the music store on campus. hadn't been in like almost a month. I got the new stereophonics cd (which I really like), donnie darko on dvd, and pre-ordered the new weezer cd that comes out next week. I'm really hoping that it's good, but my expectations aren't too high. the green album was not so wonderful and I only really like about half the songs on maladroit, so we'll see what happens. I have to say that when I first heard "beverly hills" I was kind of disapointed (I'm not really sure why, it just wasn't what I was expecting), but after listening to it a bit more, it got stuck in my head, so that's a good sign. I'll let you know about the rest in a week. I also listened to the new ben folds cd in my friend's car over the weekend and I think I might pick that up too. it's pretty good.

oh, and the new soccer season started yesterday. and I already have a massive bruise on my knee. some guy who is twice my size totally ran into me and I fell on my knees in the dirt (our fields suck and there's very little grass). so I have these really beautiful bruises and future scabs forming on my knees. it's hot.