3 years!

Happy Birthday Sammy!

Idol

Hey, did you guys see my boyfriend on American Idol last night??



What is it about physics boys and beards?

"Where do you see your self in 11 years time... in your wildest dreams"
...
"I'd probably have a simple house with nice floors, I want marble"

The Inauguration

I, like many others, watched the swearing in of our 44th president today. It was a pretty amazing event. A day to be remembered. I really hope this power transition is the start of something spectacular for our nation. I witnessed history today.

Watching the national coverage of todays events I was happy to see the number of families that braved the cold and the crowds and ventured out onto the mall. What will the children that attended todays events remember from it? what message did they take home? I have some strong yet fractured memories from an inauguration and the associated festivities that I attended in January of 1993, I was 10 and William Jefferson Clinton was being sworn in to the office. Somewhat sadly, my strongest memory of the celebration was the commemorative Metro passes. Printed specifically for the weeks event, the cards had Clinton and Gore’s signature on them. Although, the memory of the Metro cards seems somewhat trivial to me now, as a 10 year old I think I saw it as proof that it was a big deal, I was apart of something special and that these men were very important people. And indeed they were both important and influential figures in our nations history. President Obama and Vice President Biden arguably have the potential to be far more important and have broader reaching influences. I just hope the children watching today's event realize how important this is and that they are apart of history whether they take their proof from metro cards or from the tears of joy on adults faces or from some other detail unnoticed by adults....

Anyways, welcome to a new beginning. Happy Inauguration Day.

(So, with just minimal searching I actually able to find the aforementioned metro pass.... apparently I'm a little bit of a packrat)

Self-Assigned

I’m having computer issues, very frustrating ones. My Macbook is having trouble connecting to wireless networks, but not all networks and not all the time. Most of the time when my computer is able to connect, it somehow has trouble getting an IP address and just gives a ‘Self-Assigned IP’ (example 169.254.113.197). This IP address is completely worthless and it means I can’t get on the internet. Sometimes I can’t even connect to the networks at all, it gives me an error of ‘Connection Timeout’ when I try to submit the network password. I have been tracking my connection status through my System Preferences, however, my network preferences will crash and unexpectedly quit. This problem has become very testing and frustrating. One very frustrating aspect of the issue is that I haven’t been able to recreate my problems the two times I’ve been to the Apple store to consult a “Genius”. The last time I was there (Saturday) the Genius said that he thought the problem was most likely hardware related, not a bad guess, and that he would swap out the airport card and hopefully that would fix the issue. It didn’t work. Now I don’t know what to try, I’ve talked to a number of people and Mike and I have talked a lot and I think my four options include 1.) reinstalling OS X 2.) getting my internal antenna replaced 3.) cry 4.) reject all technology and live a duller simpler life.

Any ideas? I’ve decided to tell everyone who will listen about my issues just incase someone out there can help me.

Brrrrrr....

Don't let the sunshine fool you, the high today, according to my widget, was -5 degrees.

RIP Village North

It’s official the economic recession has weaseled its nasty little head into my world. My favorite bargain movie theatre has closed its doors. Only a half a block away from my apartment, with $6 student tickets and free popcorn on Wednesdays (BYOB, bring your own bag), this place will surely be missed.

As a grad student, I have not been been greatly affected by the economic crisis. My paycheck, although small, is stable. Nothing has really changed in my finical life but I’ve still felt the need to scale back just like much of the country’s population. However, I’ve been thinking lately, maybe it’s best if I don’t change my spending habits. My local restaurants, bars, shops and entertainment venues need my money more than ever. So I think it may be my new goal to patron a non-chain store/restaurant in my neighborhood at least once a week. I know my money wont make a big difference but it couldn’t hurt.

Buy local, think global.

Research Makes You Stupid

I’ve been thinking a lot about this article I read last week. The overall theme of the essay really resonated with me. Grad school has made me feel stupid. It feels both reassuring and bit demoralizing to find out that I am not alone in this feeling. I was first drawn to math and science because it’s not subjective. In high school and later on in college, I loved the certainty that the STEM classes gave me, whether or not my answer was right didn’t depend on the teachers opinion. However, now, as the science gets newer and newer and the research tries to be more novel, the answers become more and more subjective. And the less solid my answers become, the more nervous and self conscious I get.

Happy Birthday

And a Happy birthday to baby D.

Pillow!

So today despite the snow, I took Sewing 101 at The Needle Shop. Besides it taking me 30 minutes to find a parking spot I could get into, out of and not towed because of the snow and it taking me 30 minutes to find the cell phone that I apparently dropped into the snow once I got home, my day was great. Below is my finished pillow, zipper included. Now I just have to buy a sewing machine to finish up the other one.

Chicago on Film

So Mike is out of town. He is on a road trip of sorts driving to California with his old roommate. So long story short, I’m home alone. What does a girl do when her boyfriend is out of town and has the apartment all to herself? Well, eat popcorn and watch the most girlie movies I can get my hands on of course.

I am currently watching My Best Friend’s Wedding. Apparently it takes place in chicago, didn’t remember that. It is really amazing to me how many movies take place here and I get overly excited to see my city on film. I really do love Chicago. In addition, I take pride in being so “Chicago” and knowing my city well enough to get piss off when the exit they take in a movie does not match where they end up.

Other Great Chicago movies:
Ferris Bueller's Day Off
Adventures in Babysitting
While You Where Sleeping
The Blues Brothers
Girls Just Want to Have Fun
High Fidelity
Home Alone
Kissing a Fool (no one likes this movie but me)

Anyway, back to the movie.

I'm Not Working

So it's the Monday after the holidays and my first day back at the lab. Am I doing doing any work?? Judge for yourself.....



This is a video I put together with clips from our trip to visit the family in Maryland. I am absolutely enamored with my nephews. I know that I am totally biased but they are truly the most amazing kids. Sam has more personality than most adults I know and he also has negotiation skills that could rival any UN mediator. David is beautiful, his big brown eyes could melt anyone's soul, not to mention he holds his own pretty well against Sam (second born are always tougher and less documented).

Anyways, I hope you enjoy the video. Let me know if you have trouble watching it. You should expect more video posts in the future, the new little Flip my mom got me for Christmas is pretty fun.

Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year

Happy holidays

Sorry for the lack of posts the past couple of weeks but the holidays kept me pretty busy. I'll try to upload pictures/videos to share.