Wednesday, July 27, 2005

grad school, eternal damnation...what's the difference?

today's PhD Comics was especially hilarious:



and the studying continues...

Tuesday, July 19, 2005

pics from last weekend

we went out for steve's birthday on friday, as I mentioned earlier. here are some pictures from our night out.



this was us at the big bang, where after a few drinks, steve was called on stage and did the ymca dance in front of the entire club. it was hilarious (I have a video, but it's too big to upload to my other site. sorry.) what is angel doing?



before the big bang, we were at the cue club and played a bit of pool. here are the guys discussing a crucial shot.

30 days, physics style

so Angel and I decided to start a new blog documenting our immense pain over the next 30 days while we're studying for our stupid written comps. you can read all about it here: http://30daysphysicsgradschool.blogspot.com
I will still be posting here, of course, but the other site should be good as well.

Sunday, July 17, 2005

harry potter and the half-blood prince

so I just finished the sixth book. and I am still stunned. so many things happened that I was not expecting (though, some of them were not surprising nonetheless). it is quite an emotional book, and much much darker than any of the previous ones. it is also probably my favorite of the six. I think this is due mainly to the way that all of the plot lines are interwoven so well so that the book flies by and keeps you interested all the way through. plus, there are so many revelations and explanations that bring together many of the things that have been questioned during the rest of the books. in that way, the ending is good because it answers a lot of questions. however, it also leaves you feeling very anxious and expectant because you can taste how close the last book is (even though you know it will be at least two years before we get it). the inevitable death that we all knew was coming was harder to take than expected, but this was mostly due to the person who did the killing. that part, more than anything, upset me and will keep me waiting to see what happens in the last book.
the romance in the book was highly amusing (and also with the pairings that I thought would happen) and that, along with the usual interesting little tidbits about the magical world that rowling throws in every now and then, make it a very enjoyable read. it had just the right mix of humor, mystery, adventure, and emotion to make it the best book of the series so far. just be sure to have a tissue on hand while reading the last few chapters.

Friday, July 15, 2005

5 weeks to go

the last week and a half has been particularly annoying. the studying for the comps has been kicked into high gear and it's slowly killing me. five weeks from yesterday is the first day of the test, so I'm starting to really freak out, and I'm hoping that it doesn't get much worse (but of course, it will). *sigh* anyway, I have lots and lots of studying to look forward to during the next five weeks and hopefully it won't entirely kill me. luckily tomorrow night the new harry potter book comes out (year six: harry potter and the half-blood prince) so that will help me have some enjoyable breaks from studying over the next week.

oh, and it's really freaking hot here. the high has been around 112-113 the last week and will probably continue that for the next two months or so. ugh. I had soccer practice tonight and it was still over 100 degrees when we finished up around 9pm. that is insane. insane!

Saturday, July 02, 2005

san diego!

so, earlier in the week I decided to go down to san diego this weekend for the fourth of july (and for a reprise from the 112 degree phoenix heat). friday afternoon I set off to drive down there. I was expecting a really long boring drive, but it actually wasn't too awful. I had lots of cds to listen to (and a in-dash 6 disc changer so I didn't have to do much) and it went much quicker than I was anticipating. first of all, excluding the stop I took in Yuma for some dinner and a bit of a break, it only took me five and a half hours. so that's fairly amazing. also, my car totally rocks as I was able to make the entire 400 miles on only one tank of gas! woo hoo! so yeah, it wasn't too bad. I got in late last night, and hung out with jeremy and a few other people that were over at his apartment.

today, I had lunch with carolyn down in the gaslamp (at this nice little pizza place) and walked around horton plaza a bit. then we decided to drive up to san clemente so that we could go to the rainbow sandal factory store. even though it took a while and there was a bunch of traffic on the way back, it was totally worth it. I needed new sandals sooo badly and kept meaning to order them online, but I'm so glad I didn't. not only did they have the entire selection there, but they were super cheap. I ended up getting two pairs instead of just the one pair to replace my worn-out ones and I paid only a little bit more than I would have if I had ordered them online and paid for shipping. so that was fantastic.

tomorrow, the plan is to go to the beach and see some more people probably.