Rush to the finish

In the final eleven days of my DC habitation for 2006, I have three finals, a problem set, and a paper due (Thurs, Mon, Wed, today, Wed respectively). I necessarily will be spending a lot of time hugging my computer and eating crappy microwaveable meals. Unfortunately, all this means that I also have no exciting photos to share. Even more unfortunately, in my mind, is that I am probably going to be a bit late in getting to my annual update letter. I really like putting those things together, but it's going to have to wait for the 21st when I arrive back in CA!!!

I'm really growing to love my apartment. It's a basement unit - so it gets pretty dang cold when the temp drops, but I don't really mind that. Once I get a few strategic rugs, it will be perfect. I'm shooting for end of january for a housewarming party. I'm still digging through boxes and hanging paintings, but most of that work is going to have to wait out my finals. The place is awesome though - I can't wait to get some visitors!! In the meantime, all of the tables, lamps, and chairs are configured warroom-style: the study configuration, so it's not ready for dinner parties just yet. In the meantime, in between study breaks, I'm dreaming of 2 weeks in Santa Barbara, some beach time, and a lot of fresh, delicious food!

many faces of will

So.. I finally uploaded the photos. Here they are, in no particular order.

Witness the evolution from professorial bearded fisherman....


to motorcycle riding arthouse cappucino-drinker....




to mustachiod slightly-disturbing goofball!!
more photos coming.
next time... I moved apts!

cleanshaven

Well, my fall experimentation with facial hair is now officially over. The progression from beard to bigger beard to motorcycle man with lambchops and handlebar, to regular mustache... is now, sadly, finished. I did bring my mustache to thanksgiving dinner, however, and got some great reviews. I think that I looked very distinguished. The stache will be back. mark my words!!

In other news, I am moving apartments tomorrow, hopefully with the help of my brother and some friends. I've played the guilt card, so we'll see who responds. Thus, I will keep this entry short and sweet. By monday, I should be moved into a new place (cross your fingers), have a replacement roommated, and be settled in for the long haul.

While I have many cool photos of mustachery, they are loaded onto my work computer, so that will have to wait for next week to upload. In the meantime, I found some photos from the 'forbidden party' that we threw before Eric and I moved out last summer (I'm the one in pink.)

The crowd gathered to watch the limbo contest
I went as a cheerleader.
limboing in action! Eric went as a uberrunner, or something.

veteran beagle cheesesteaks

Philadelphia was the order of the weekend for me, and I can now report that, 4 months into married life, Dave is more boring. Well, that is maybe more of a result of him doing thrice-daily dog walks and preparing for medical school residency interviews than undergoing a personality transformation or estrogen beat-down from his lovely wife. In fact, the newlyweds (how long can they use that title, I wonder) seem the very picture of domestic happiness, with their cute and well-behaved beagle, Lucy, joining them on their journey together.

The weather in Philly was slightly rainy Sunday, but beautiful on Saturday, and we took the opportunity to walk around the city, visiting various bookstores and historic sights. Sadly, such is the level of involvement of my two friends with their medical residency planning, they have essentially ignored wholesale their mastery of the types of interesting facts and historical anecdotes that a visitor to the former US capitol and home of Ben Franklin demands and expects to learn. Upon observing and repeately decrying this deficiency, I promptly took it upon myself to buy them a guide book to their adopted home city, at least depriving them of that excuse. I sensed that it was a futile effort, but piece of mind and willful wishful thinking are potent justifications for these things.

Sunday, we drove out to Valley Forge, and did a short walking tour of some of the replica soldier huts (12 people per hut!) and browsed the lovely gift center. Chief among the incredible selection of George Washington and VF kitsch, and the item that surely every child will want to find under the tree, ....the Park Ranger action hero!!! Yes! He includes binoculars! Forest green pants! A canteen! A dorky hat! Bureaucratic redtape and ticket book sold separately! (see photo). I came super close to pulling the trigger and taking myself home one of these dandies - the only problem was an annoyingly accurate knowledge of my meagre grad student income, and, more importantly, an inability to determine who would be worthy of this incredible prize. The trip to the Forge, as I like to call it, was beautiful, despite the rainy cold weather. I would definitely like to go back when the opportunity allows.

I returned home Sunday night, rested but tired (does that make sense?), having tasted a glimpse of domesticated marriedom, and summarily rejected any notion of me joining the dog-owning, kid-having, wagon-driving lifestyle any time soon (sorry, mom). Apologies to my gracious hosts for the weekend. It looks good on you though.

Veteran's day ceremonies in Washington Square park.
The team, ready for action near Indepedance hall. (I know what you're thinking - I had a big lunch, okay? Besides, the beard makes my butt look fat).
The happy couple in their blissful home. Lucy (the dog) attentive, as ever.

I made Tara and Dave take this picture on a stranger's doorstep near some Ginkgo trees. I was pretty happy with how it came out, and expect some attribution on their holiday cards!
Dave and I took a shot roughin' it with the period actors in the replica soldier hut. That's raindrops, not whizzing musketballs, seen in the photo.
Another lonely hut in beautiful Valley Forge.

And, finally... ACTION RANGER!!

calendar excitement, redux

Here is a photo of Carl with 'his boys' from a few weekends ago. A great visit, and we were well fed!

So, the calendar drama continues. No, the word is 'there is a naked girl calender' somewhere in the office. People are so ridiculous! I have a tasteful 'girls of Hawaii' calender on the wall of my cubicle, and some people have made it their mission to (repeatedly) state how offensive this is and how it demeans and objectifies women, and how their impression of me is irreparably harmed! I say, get over yourself people! If this calender gets you so worked up, then either you have a serious axe to grind, or you don't get out enough to interact with real women. Nevermind the fact that you actually have to be seated at my desk to see this thing - even if you are there, it's just girls in bikinis! You see them at the beach all the time! And they're good looking! No reason to feel threatened, just some nice scenery for me as a reminder of one of the nicer aspects of living on the West Coast.... anyway, off my soapbox, I thought I'd let you decide on whether I am out of line. Look at the photos below which mimic a walk into the office.

Into the office we go. There's Will's desk. I see an apple.
Normally, I would see Will studying. Very hard. Like this.
If I walk over to his desk, what do I see? A jacket, some books, a calendar.
Hello October.

election night party

Just returned from a classmate's election night party, which was a good experience... sort of homogeneous crowd, politically speaking, which made it less interesting in that sense. A dark chocolate fondue fountain provided the sustenance, along with ample adult beverages. One thing that struck me was how difficult it was to carry on intelligent conversation while trying to digest election results on the TV. Another observation - foreign nationals outnumbered US citizens by 10-5. This was unexpected, because my classmate and her boyfriend are both from the states, but it is a testament to how international a town DC is (and how savy Europeans are about American politics!). They seemed to all be nice folks, except the girl who started badmouthing California (it turns that she went to Stanford, so character flaws are expected anyway!)

I checked out a few apartments this morning, but they were both bland and overpriced. It made me skeptical about living in a large apartment building - it seems that you either sacrifice price (ie you end up paying out your nose), or you sacrifice quality of life, or both. So... the search for my future home continues.

upgrade

I am writing from my bedroom!! Yes, that's right, aside from picturing me in my superhero pajamas, you are supposed to realize that this means I finally have a working computer at home, and that I will be able to describe even more of my exciting life and times! Can't wait!

just a taste

So... I finally have got a photo that gives an indication of the look that I'm rockin' these days. You like?


This was for a classmates (Laoura, in green) birthday. The girls across from me I had just met, and then at the end of the table are other classmates (CW from behind Lauora: Adan (el Tiburon), Seth (el Lobo), Amparo (una flaminga), George and Magdalena (una flaminga et ela esposa). Apologies for the rotten espanol.
Anyways, the beard is growing in nicely. I should have some more photos to put up once I get the laptop up and running (thanks again pops!). Also, it may be hard to tell in this photo, but el Lobo is rocking a handlebar mustache. Real nice. In fact, he got complements from a couple of gay guys at a bar a few hours after dinner. Pretty funny.

For comparison's sake, here are a couple of photos that I just received from 3weeks ago in California.

Jimmy and I

Jeff, Sid, Alex, Dino and I

11hrs of sleep!

Yes, I have been somewhat sleep deprived. I slept 11 hours last night, awakened once or twice to a doorbell and a 'trick or treat' coming from downstairs. It was a sound sleep though. Speaking of noisy households, I am starting to look for a new (less noisy) one. More specifically, I am being encouraged by my wise father to move into a place of my own. I am starting to look for studios online, but these things take time.

This past weekend, the pops visited his boys, and we had a lot of fun. Friday we basically hit the stores: costco, trader joes, and K&G (men's clothing). That was followed by a nice dinner (Ruth's Chris) and movie (the departed). Saturday we ran a few errands, mostly dropping food off at my various stashes - school and work (I don't have refrigerator space at home) and showing my offices to the fam - then we went back into town for a White house tour. Well, actually, I studied, but the others got a West Wing tour. Following that, we looked for an evening plan... Cirque de Soleil was sold out, as were the various plays that we tried to check out, so we settled for Louis Hayes and the Cannonball Adderly legacy band at the Kennedy Center. It was a great time. The music was really good and relaxing, and it capped off a nice night. We called it quits after that, and headed on home. Chief left in the (sunday) morning, and I studied for the remainder of the day: well fed and well-rested. Oh, I almost forgot: he brought about 20 avocados out for Eric and I to share!!! Thanks dad! You're the best!

night music

Small apartments are great... save money, organize and simplify your stuff, and live all cozy. These advantages pale in comparison with sleep deprivation due to an overzealous roommate and her sleep-over boyfriend, I find. You'd be amazed at how much your mental acuity suffers after repeated nights of interrupted, 5hr sleep! As I don't typically see my roommates, there is not really a mechanism for civilized discussion of these topics.
After repeated humorously-composed, pointedly sarcastic letters, which I shared around the grad student office while I entertained suggestions for resolving the situation, I shot off a gently-worded email this morning. Still awaiting a reply. Watch this space!

fall beards

Just finished two brutal midterm exams, boy were they special. Actually I got worked over on the micro exam, but it could have been worse. The optimization exam this morning, in contrast, was surprisingly straightforward. I finished going through it and was concerned because I still had 20 mins left. Then I started second guessing myself and probably did more harm than good. Oh well.Enough of that.

More important is that today holds a rendezvous with the gun game. Lobo and I have been postponing our mission for over a week now, and we're ready to go. At 5pm EST, we will embark on an effort to save the president on air force one, rescue hostages from the jungle, and storm the bad guys mountain compound! I know, a lot to handle, but I think we're ready. (read on if you're interested: http://www.segaarcade.com/video/ghostsquad.aspx )

Also exciting is the growth of our new econ student gang, 'Las Barbas de Otono' (fall beards). The only membership requirement is an (often pathetic) attempt to grow a beard. As of this morning, 5 of us, the majority of the male class members, are in. After observing the 'las barbas de otono' sounds really cool, we also realized that the initials, B.O., were also particularly appealing and applicable. So we've really (well, some of us more than others) gotten excited about 'Las Barbas', and find every possible opportunity to show solidarity with other members, and to express that support as vocally as possible. 'Las Barbas' has been heard throughout Symons hall many times this week.

What this also means is that I am fully bearded for the first time in my life. I can tell you, it is very exciting. I am almost past the second annoying stage, and then there is nothing keeping me from full-blown beardom. Chuck Norris would be proud. El Lobo wants to show up to our finals in matching under armor (skin-tight gym muscle tops) and mustaches, but I think that might be a little over the top. Unless there's money involved.

So that's it for this round of midterms. Another one waiting a week from Monday. Me and my beard will be ready. I'll try to capture some of las barbas in action and post some photos soon.

voyage of discovery

I made a striking discovery last night... my brother is a cool guy. Now, one might say, 'shouldn't you have known that already?' Well, the answer is yes, of course, but it is always nice to be reminded. Besides, now that we no longer live together or see each other very often, I've gained the perspective that I lacked when we were sharing a bathroom.
Last night I convinced Eric to ditch Kristin last night and hang out with me, so we grabbed a few drinks, walked around, and talked for a couple hours. Our discussion ranged from our respective plans for the future, to politics, to logistics for family visitors. I finally feel that I understand what his plans for law school are, so I can answer that question when people ask me. Also, although I like to paint him as a hard-core O'reilly parroting ideologue, he really isn't. In fact, I think we have more common ground than not politically. So, it was nice to spend the few hours hanging out and talking with my only bro, especially since he picked up the tab (thanks buddy).
In other news.. fall has arrived in force. It was in the 30s last night, and the scarfs and overcoats are in full effect. It's not too cold, though, just chilly. Perfect coffeehouse weather. Also great for cooping yourself up inside a building on the Maryland campus and studying all day. Speaking of...

Caliscious

Last weekend took the opportunity to go home for a Cal football game and to see a bunch of friends, and, most importantly, to not do work. (I had the best intention of doing homework on the plan, but I ended up sitting next to a statistics professor and we talked for a few hours - I figure that was almost like studying!!)

I arrived late Friday night and Sid picked me up at the airport and whisked me to his house in the Mission where he had a Zachary's pizza waiting for me!!! (http://www.zacharys.com/) talk about thoughtful!! Man, I crave that stuff - it was soooo good. Sid is now held in the highest esteem! Actually, it was a positive sign towards a weekend of good food for Will. Sid and I went out for a few drinks, then headed back to his place and slept for the big day Saturday.

I got up early and headed across the bay to meet Heidi and Jay (semi-new boyfriend) at a French restaurant called La Note. Breakfast was tasty, it was great to see my sis and Jay, and we followed breakfast with a march digestive to Amoeba to by CDs and by the Berkeley Women's Club to check out the Julia Morgan architecture:

Following H+J's departure to go camping, I wandered over to the Bart station, where I met Sid and Alex (who had flown up Sat morning) just as they departed their train. We explored the campus, went up the campanile:


and generally just chilled out for an hour before lunch. We met everybody at Jupiter's and lunch in their back patio. Jeff announced he's getting married in June!!! Yeah Jeff! L-R:Sid, Jeff, Andrew, Teddy, Chris, Derek, me, Alex

After lunch, we made a quick stop at the Bear's lair for some more adult beverages, then headed up to the International House, which is located directly in front of the stadium and tends to be a good place to people watch. Upon casing the joint when we arrived, I noticed that a private function was being held in one of the rooms. Closer inspection revealed that a full buffet lunch and an open bar were included with this function. The room was also mostly empty, and the serving staff looked bored, so Derek and I decided to do our party to make the party look a bit more lively,... and by that I mean, to help ourselves to food and drink, take it outside to the patio, then proceed to tell all of our friends about the great scheme we had going as they arrived and noticed our generous helpings of food and delicious beverages. All in all, 11 of us were nourished by this stroke of good luck, and the food was even more tasty because it was complementary. (The sun shines on Will and Andrew):
Derek also happy:

Alas, as all good things must come to an end, they posted a security table by the door, and Derek was denied when he tried to go for 2nds. But we soon left for the football game, where Cal was victorious and a good time was had by all (who weren't Oregon fans).
We then departed and celebrated late into the evening.

I left early the next morning and returned to school feeling de-stressed (but desperately missing California!)

tough guys

Another student in our class, Seth (also known as 'El Lobo') and I ('El Oso') have taken to breaking up the coursework monotony by playing shoot'emup video games in the campus arcade after lunch ~2x per week. It is somewhat cathartic to slay large numbers of bad guys after struggling through frustrating and confusing lectures. Happily, a new and better gun game was recently installed in the campus arcade called Ghost Force or something like that. For the sum of $1, a player gets a large, futuristic weapon, unlimited ammo, and ~10 minutes of sheer testosterone-fueled pleasure. We got some random passerby to take our photo while trying to look as tough as possible.


We also had our first student drop out! It was an inevitability, and in some ways, rather relieving. After they left, Lobo and I started humming 'another one bites the dust', yet we were secretly envious of the liberation. Tim, Denny and I ran into a professor from the department on the way out of the building last week and got to talking. In a telling moment, he likened the first year of the program to us being jihadist warriors, with 40 virgins waiting at the end of the year. I asked him if we were martyrs in this scenario, and he replied 'not quite - both the sacrifice and the reward are slightly downgraded'. I certainly look forward to what awaits at the end of the year (assuming I live to see it!)

We took a few photos last week. First, the girls ('Las Flamingas') L:R Amparo, Magdalena, Fanqing, Charlotte, Laoura.

Next, with me, Seth, and Adan in the mix.

could've been worse

that was the concensus of the econometrics midterm this morning. Remember, econometrics is the workload course where the professor talks a mile a minute. Yes, well, the 2hour midterm was manageable. 4 problems total, each with various subparts. I wasn't really pressed for time, but still managed to make a few bonehead mistakes. One of the problems was a disaster, two I am pretty confident about, and one was an x-factor. So... we'll see in a few days. We still haven't received back the midterm from last week that we took. That one probably didn't go too well either... oh well. On a positive note, the weekend in NYC was fun, when I got to see Laura (a friend from childhood) get married to a very nice guy, Peter.

The wedding was held at a mansion overlooking the hudson ~20 miles north of manhattan. It was very picturesque (unfortunately, I forgot my camera!). Apparently, the property was originally purchased by Mark Twain for his daughter. It had a Hearst Castle feeling to it (although not nearly as big or fancy as that). The ceremony was brief (28 mins - which bested my 45 min bet) and there was crying (although not during the portion of the ceremony that I had bet on). The bridal party, at 4 a piece, came in at one over my 3 each prediction. The bar was complimentary, however, so I won that bet. It was a good time. Eric and Kristen and Kevin (friend from high school) and I drove up on Sat morning and came back Sunday night. Sat night Kevin and I went out with Katie (friend from Berkeley) for dinner and drinks on the lower east side. We ate a place called Spice which looked vaguely like a scene from the Jetsons, but they served thai food instead of pills. We met up with E+K after dinner, and did a bit of walking around and enjoying the fall evening. As Katie lives in Washington Heights, by the time we took the train back uptown at the end of the night, we were ready for some sleep. Still, it was a short, but enjoyable visit. I promised to head back up at the end of January (23?) for K's birthday party.

Next weekend is the big Cal Homecoming game, which I am super excited for. At last count, there will be 8 of us crashing at Sid's house and partying it up for the football game. I expect a lot of fun and not much sleep. I'll remember my camera this time!

6-4

...was the score of the soccer game tonight, with the AREC team victorious. We even had our team jerseys, which we bought from a company called 'one less car' which promotes alternative ways of transportation. This was the 3rd and final game of the regular season, and we had lost the previous two games, and gone scoreless in the process, so it was big news to win this game and score six goals. The other team wasn't that bad, we just got on early and didn't let up. I was pretty happy with the game because I scored 5 of the goals and came close on a few others. It was a nice juxtaposition to the struggles of the coursework to succeed on the soccer field, or football pitch for those non-amer'cans.

Last night I had dinner with Amanda, a family friend who was in town for a conference. It was really great to see her, to catch up her doings, and to just generally hang out. She bought me dinner to boot! Now I am going to spend two intensive hours studying microeconomics, then I am going home. That's the plan, anyway. So 10-99, over and out. (As an aside, el Lobo and I have begun trying to incorporate radio codes into our everyday lexicon. This is mostly just a juvenile, not-so-subtle way to boost our own self-esteem in light of our many multi-lingual classmates, but it is fun nevertheless, and much less time-consuming than learning esperanto. Give this a gander if you want to learn more: http://www.roity.com/rc/cbradio/cbcodes.html)

good music, good saturday

The Virgin music festival was awesome. A very long day, to be sure, especially considering that we were standing for most of it (12 hrs!). Finally got home at 1am, and slept long and hard. There were all different types of music and all different types of fans, from hard rockers to families with small children, which made it fun. The largest demographic seemed to be college students (no surprise), and although I am included in that demographic, most of them were much younger than I. My friend Anita and I tried to maximize our concert going, so we moved from stage to stage to catch some of all of the bands. Our schedule was Kasabian, new pornographers, Raconteurs, Brazilian Girls, Killers, John Digweed, Thievery Corporation, The Who, the Scissor Sisters, Red Hot Chilly Peppers, and the Flaming Lips. The Who and the Chili Peppers were a bit of a disappointment. They played on the main stage, which took up half of the infield (the concert was staged at Pimlico race course), and was too crowded to be personal at all. Plus they just didn't sound that good. Ditto the Killers. The 'clubhouse' stage had most of the bands I wanted to see anyways, and the Brazilian girls put on a really good act, as did the New Pornographers, whom I hadn't heard before. I'm a fan now though. All in all, it was a fun way to spend a Saturday, and music was great.

Back in school, I studied all day yesterday for a midterm which I took this morning. It was not as difficult as it could have been, but I am not expected an outstanding score... definitely room for improvement. I went for a swim after the test and it was very symbolically appropriate, if ya know what I mean. Tonight I meet a friend for dinner, then hit the books. Tomorrow I go to work in the afternoon (tues/thurs) to pay the bills, then I have a soccer game at 6pm. We're 0-2, so hopefully we can win tomorrow.

Office update: The espresso machine... El Lobo and I are trying to get it operational. We currently lack a manual, but we did take it out of the box and make a half-hearted attempt to figure it out. This will make a good project. In other notes... I'll try to get some exciting 'in-action' office shots to post up here. Believe me, they will be thrilling.
Eric update: while he continues to be elusive, I did secure a verbal agreement with him to meet up this coming weekend. Looking forward to that.

friday night on the way out

Just finished a few hours of studying econometrics, the bane of my existence. This is the class with the 3prob sets per week.... where the prof seems to be in a perpetual race against time. The students are becoming increasingly brazen in their questions during class -anything to slow this guy down. We ask him to do homework problems for us, sometimes twice if we don't understand. Yet he still seems to gallop through the lectures. I am tempted to ask more smart-a$$ type questions when he begins class with 'So... any questions?' like - 'is it supposed to rain today?' or 'What type of moisturizer do you use to prevent your hands from drying out with the chalk?'. I don't know how well those would be appreciated (by folks other than myself).

Anyway, at one point tonight I was studying at a few pages... on multivariate normal distributions to be exact... and I didn't make any progress. I then looked at the problem set for this topic. then back at the material... read, reread. back to the problem. For an hour and a half this went on. I finally moved on. Totally sucky feeling. Just thought I would share that. This frustration was compounded by the fact that half of the students were coming/going to the grad student happy hour tonight, and it was very hard to fight the temptation to get sucked out the door AND to concentrate on studies. Despite that, I managed some progress.

Now I will go home and tomorrow the concert and then Sunday back to business. Actually, back to fun. I have begun to call school 'fun', at least to myself, in order to fool my subconscious into actually believing it. So, I can't hang out on Sunday, I have a lot of fun to do before my midterm monday, and so on...

In yet other news, we've begun the nicknaming in the office. My office, consisting of Seth, Amparo, Fanqing, Adan, Magdelana, Edu, and Charlotte is the biggest office. Seth is somewhat the ringleader, and he has a tattoo of a wolf on his shoulder, so we dubbed him 'el Lobo'. I am now 'El Oso'. Adan - 'El Toro'. The girls are collectively 'Las Flamingas'. Don't have a name for Edu yet. Anyhow, it passes the time.

long time no see

wow, it's been over a week since I signed in! part of that is because the evil firewall at the campus lab computers has heretofore not allowed me to access this page, but maybe that will change (it works today!) Also, the laptop which I inherited from mom is not functioning, and I haven't made it to a Mac store to figure out what the problem is....so my access to the internet has been limited. I want you all to know that I just turned down an opportunity to go to a free bbq lunch to do this entry! (A few guys in my program make it their mission to know when and where every free food opportunity on campus is, and today is the bbq at the engineering department.... oh yes, grad school!)

Anyhow, school has been ramping up. I have a midterm Monday, followed by one the next week. I am spending long hours at school and still falling behind. Sigh. I am going to the Virgin music festival tomorrow all day, which means one less day studying, but the tickets were expensive and I don't want to miss it. Besides, I'm not sure how much help one more study day would be. In other positive news, I found an espresso machine in the basement of my house, and brought it into our office - hopefully it works and I can get a little extra pickmeup. I am finding that I am slow starter in the mornings... while this wasn't a problem when all I did for the first hour of work was check my email and read the news, it poses some different challenges now when I have to be productive. So, I am still sorting out what habits and hobbies work best to keep me on the right track. Hopefully I get there soon!

Chao for now.

stamina concerns

taking a break from studying... at 9:30pm. I was thinking about making my way over to the gym tonight, but that's pretty much out the window based upon the little progress that I've made so far tonight. I am taking 3 classes: optimization, econometrics, and microeconomics. econometrics is by far the bear of the group. The professors starts off all his classes with 'does anybody have any questions?' At first, we all laughed, like how could we have questions on a lecture that had yet to take place... but we soon learned - asking questions is the only way to slow the lecture.

Once he starts, he keeps a steady clip for an hour and a half straight. No breaks, no pauses, just marching through the (dense) course notes. Word is that he created a course reader because people couldn't keep up with the lectures when trying to write the notes themselves. Well, it's hard even to keep up with the notes already in front of your face!! At the conclusion of each class, he assigns ~12-15 problems to do. These take anywhere from 20 mins to 1+hours each. He assigns homework every lecture. The other classes are not as intense, but certainly take time to understand the material, and to complete the requisite problem sets. The microeconomics problem set are pretty hard because they are very conceptual. I've spent 3 hrs on a problem set tonight and have yet to get a problem!!

And, did I mention that us students are supposed to be working 20hrs a week in addition to classwork also? The reality, mercifully, is more like 10-15hrs, depending on which professor or group you're working for (most students in the department have research assistantships which pay their tuition and a stipend in exchange for this work). I am working for an organization called JGCRI (see link), which is not AREC dept affiliated, but is located close to campus. I am putting about 15-20hrs in per week. The funny/sad part of this schedule is, after 12-14 days at school and about 10 hours last weekend, I am very behind at the moment. This is some intense stuff! So, everybody is probably feeling neglected because I don't return too many phone calls or emails promptly... but maybe this description provides some solace. Now, back to fun (my own ploy to trick my subconscious)..

dinner and ... that's about it.

Last night I met up with Eric for the start of our (hopefully) weekly event - Sat night dinners together. We ended up going out to a restaurant for a friend's bday, but nevermind about that. Eric's new place is cool - a basement one bedroom with an attached office. I really liked it, except for the fact that the ceiling was about 5'9" in some places - good for Eric, but not for me!
I also went to Home depot today for some shelving supplies, and my room is starting to come together. It sucks to live in a state of transition for too long, and that's what is starting to happen with me! I feel like such a nomad with my crap all scattered at the house. Hopefully, I'll have some time to organize things tonight so I can start the week off right. That's the plan, anyway.
back to finishing my problem set for tomorrow! Oh yeah, a description of my courses is overdue - that will be forthcoming.

Assorted pics from Labor day

Fly away home... parting shot from airplaneCeleb sighting at the Fogerty concert... I'm with the paparazzi
Beautiful morning in Goleta... or is that redundant?
Look at the big grin on this one... she's gonna be mischievous just like her favorite uncle!
Deepak and I with the bride, Gabby
Deepak and Ashley chilling outside the reception
Deepak on I at his house - all systems go!
I think that she gets that hair from me. What a cute kid, eh?

Back to reality

Just returned from a whirlwind, wonderful trip to Goleta. Got in late Friday night, spent Saturday morning golfing with dad and mom, then hanging out with big sis and little niece, then I was off to a wedding at 2pm. Gabby, whom I've known since elementary school, finally got married, and the ceremony and reception were quite a bit of fun. Saw some old friends and did a bit of reminiscing. Sunday was relaxing - went to the beach for a morning walk with Lis, Heid, Rhods, Jay, Rhiannon, Bentley, and Carl, then I went to Deepu's (friend from high school) house for a celebration lunch of the harvest festival of Kerala. I got to eat with my hands off a banana leaf! The food was delicious, and I thoroughly enjoyed myself. Sunday night the fam attended a John Fogerty concert, which was weird and wonderful - imagine being in an amphitheatre surrounded by thousands of middle-class, WASPy boomers listening to CCR songs - it was almost surreal, but it was pretty fun.

This was also a weekend of babies- I got to spend some time with the niece Rhiannon, who still likes me and smiles when she sees me (of course, she knows how to spot her favorite uncle!). She's such a well-behaved baby, it's really a joy to be around her. On Monday morning, prior to breakfasting at Phil's place, I stopped by Isabelle's house (friend from high school), who just had her 2nd a few days ago. Finally, on the plane ride from LA to DC, I sat next to a woman and her 10 month old. We talked for a few hours, and the kid was really cute. I actually held him for her while she went to the bathroom at the airport. It was a great experience.

Got in late last night, and was greeted by a torrential downpour and a bus that never arrived this morning on the way to work. But, I'm in one piece and relaxed, so I'm ready for the week. Hope your alls' weekend was as good as mine! Bye bye summer!

Softball finale and moving photos

So I've now moved apartments, moved jobs, and moved lifestyles! School has started, and I am no longer a 'young professional' but now an 'oldish graduate student' It's been a bit of a crazy couple of weeks. Here are a few photos....
From the engineering building (old office hallway)
The new bedroom prior to moving in...



And the softball team post game. Even though we lost the championship game, it was a great season. I am going to miss playing.