monkeys!!!

so I've had a busy last couple of weeks. I've been meaning to post, but just keep forgetting or running of out time. anywho, here goes nothing.

last weekend was pretty fun. friday night we had a surprise birthday party for one of my office mates, Jen. we surprised her at the phoenix zoo and then went to Jody's house for a bbq. the zoo pales in comparison to the wonderfulness that is the san diego zoo, but it did have two redeeming qualities: first, it was super cheap; on friday evenings you can get in for only $2. second, they had this exhibit that you can go in and all these crazy squirrel monkeys are running around, literally inches away from you. they were super cute and hilarious (as all monkeys are). I took some video on my digital camera. one of the videos is posted here for your viewing enjoyment: click here

last sunday we had a really good soccer game; we beat the first place team. it was great. yesterday we played them again for the championship, but unfortunately lost. they were playing a very physical game which our team is not as used to. oh well. second place is still pretty good. our team has improved so much since last fall.

last week was pretty crazy at work. there was lots of stuff to do and seemingly not enough to get it all done. I did get a bunch of studying done, so I feel pretty good about that.

thursday night we all went out because it was Katie's last night here for two weeks. it was lots of fun and definitely hilarious. saturday, steve, brian, and todd had a party at their house, so that was cool as well. there weren't as many people as some of their past parties but I think everyone had a really good time.

in other news, there is less than three weeks left until the new harry potter book comes out, so I have begun to re-read book five so I will be all up to date when the half blood prince arrives. it sucks because I don't know anyone else here who reads the books so I don't have anyone to talk about it. plus, they all think I'm crazy. whatever. they are missing out.

so Jeremy thinks that he is really funny:
http://www.xanga.com/item.aspx?user=JeremyPaulGallagher&tab=weblogs&uid=288233913

but I know better.

RENT!

http://www.apple.com/trailers/sony_pictures/rent/

I am sooo excited. cannot wait until november. I think the most exciting thing is that they got so much of the original broadway cast in the movie (mark, roger, collins, benny, angel, and maureen). six out of eight ain't bad. check on the cast here.

30 days

so, there's this new show on fx called "30 days". morgan spurlock, the guy who only ate mcdonald's for one month in "super size me", has a new experiment. during each episode, he explores how it would be to live as someone else for 30 days. in this first episode, he and his fiancee moved to columbus, ohio and tried to live on minimum wage. it was a quite interesting and eye-opening exercise. the worst part came when both of them got sick on the same day and each had to make a trip to the emergency room. of course, they didn't have insurance, so the bills were enormous and completely ridiculous (I think they charged him $40 for an ace bandage). anyway, try to see it if you can. it's on wednesday nights at 10pm.

in other news, we won our soccer game on sunday (and I scored a goal!) so if we win the game this sunday, then we will play for the championship the following weekend. we will have to play really hard for that to happen, so hopefully our whole team will show up and give it their all.

my research is going well. I got a whole lot of new stuff to work on today, so that's good. being busy and productive is nice. studying is going slowly. I think we are making some progress, but I just don't know if we're making it fast enough. august 17th is creeping closer and closer.

"bank error in your favor, collect $200"

ok, so it wasn't a bank error, but basically I felt like I had picked up the best community chest card in monopoly when I got my mail a week or so ago. there was a sizable check and I had no idea what it was for (it was from ASU). the mystery persisted for about a week, and finally last friday I got the answer I was hoping for, namely that the check was not a mistake and that I could deposit the money without any guilt (some friends were trying to persuade me to just cash it and not say anything). it turns out that I received a fellowship when I first got here and no one told me about it (or the other person who got it). we were supposed to be getting a check each semester, but somehow they not only forgot to tell us about it, but forgot to give us the money. and so, a couple weeks ago they realized what happened and just sent us all the money now. so it's super exciting. I get to pay off all of my credit cards and have a bit of money left over. so that's the best news in a long time. yay for that.

in other news, the studying for my physics comps test is going alright. I think I am making some progress. Angel and I have scheduled about two hours of studying every day for this month. next month, we'll move it up to probably four hours a day, plus one day of just studying. should be fun.

tonight I'm going to a Bright Eyes show with Katie. should be cool.