Canto XXXVIII

Emergency blog post! Today, sometime between 8:10am and 6:45pm Kermit was removed from our neighbor's porch. When I was walking home this evening, she was cleaning up the front a little bit and Kermit was no where to be seen. He's really gone. I'll see him next winter.

Canto XXXVII

And another 2 weeks have gone by! Well, not much has been up, unless you want to hear about me struggling with homework. Joseph was in town, so you should ask him how it went. Surely he will tell you what good hosts Steph and I are. We hit some pubs, saw some sights and soaked in some Boston/Cambridge. Nice. And Steph's sister and husband were in town the following weekend for an Anime Con. Sadly, I missed out on this fun. Wait, sarcasm doesn't come through in writing all that well. I don't like anime, so I wasn't not unhappy to miss out on this weekend-consuming event. But again, good food was had by all (they've visited enough that they don't need the city tour). Not much other news. I've got 2 weeks left in my Harvard String Theory class, and after that it should considerably ease up my work schedule, as one of my two TA assignments also ends that week. If I can just make it through the next 2 weeks, I promise some kind of awesome post. Super awesome. Just you wait.

Canto XXXVI

Ugh, it's been more than 2 weeks. Well, some of it was busy, some of it wasn't. And I saw the flurry of activity on other's blogs, which just made me feel the worse for not keeping up with the Jones'. Of course we can't expect to keep up with Syd. Not promising to be a better blogger or anything, but I like to hear what's going on with other people, so I hold on to some delusion that others like to hear about me every once in a while.

My big news is that I was accepted to go to TASI this summer, which is a physics summer school. It should be a lot of fun. The topic is "Sting Universe", and seeing how I want to work on stings in our universe, this should fit in nicely. Also, this is a good opportunity to meet other graduate students and professors in the field. It's for four weeks from May 28th-June 22nd, and it's in Boulder, CO. For those trying to figure it out, yes I'll be out of state for our anniversary. But that's why she's coming out to visit! And I'll be back in time for her birthday, so it should be all good. I'm really looking forward to this.

There's only a few weeks left of my last semester as a real student. After this I'll be happily sliding into the role of surly graduate student alternating between extemes of laziness while mocking those still taking classes/exams and business trying to publish/write thesis. I really don't care about my classes anymore. The only thing pushing me along is that I want to finish on a high note.

Other interesting things. Kermit is still hanging. If you look on YouTube, you can find a video for Kermit covering Hurt by Johnny Cash covering NIN. I think my biggest guilty pleasure song may be "Fooling Yourself (Angry Young Man)" by Styx. I'm re-reading the Harry Potter books right now, getting ready for the movie and final book coming out this July. I want them to be fresh in my mind, but not so fresh that I'm sitting in the movie critisizing every little piece. There's going to a great talk this wednesday on MiniBooNE, which I am going miss due to my stupid string theory class. But I'm very excited for the results, and will hear all about them later today. I ran labs for all my little 8.022 students. Actually wasn't too bad, got in a rythem and soon it was like my mind was somewhere else while my body performed the monotonous tasks around me. And tonight I'm running a review session for these same students for their mid-term tomorrow. It's on Ampere's Law, circuits and some other EM crap. So I'm opening with 100,000 Fireflies by the Magnetic Fields. I feel it's appropriate. Joseph is going to be in town this weekend, looking forward to hearing all the stories from the Left Coast. I miss the Pacific... Our frisbee team won the first game of the year, 12-9 (it ended due to the Gathering Darkness). Huzzah! Hmmm, what else. Nope, that's all!

Canto XXXV

I've just noticed that I've now made it out of Hell and into Purgatory. Only 66 more to go before I can finally start giving clever names to these posts! And my bracket is looking a little healthier. If the favorites continue their run tonight I'll be in great shape.

What a week. Been staying up late to finish up stuff, then sleeping in late and falling asleep in class. It's like I'm an undergrad again. But now Spring break is here! Yes, finally some time to work ahead! Maybe even do some "real" physics. There's plenty of stuff to do around the house, I don't think we've cleaned in 3 or 4 weeks and it's starting to show... Spring literally showed up this week, though. Both the usual Vernal Equinox, and we seem to be in a good thaw after last week's snow and everything just seems sunnier. It's up in the 50's and overcast. Spring is here, might as well get some spring cleaning done before the bugs start crawling in. The first spiders showed up earlier this week.

I plan on taking an easy weekend of cleaning and doing some errands on saturday, saturday night we're going to a concert, then being very lazy on sunday playing some video games and watching basketball. Time to kick back for a couple days. Next week should be fun for a change, just working on some stuff that I actually want to do.

Canto XXXIV

Well my bracket is in shambles. Not that I know much about college baskteball, but I should be doing better than people who pick based on mascots. Not good. My big sleeper bid was Louisville to the Final Four. With them in the second round, I think it's just about over for me. Oregon is getting pretty lucky this year in the tourneys, they seem to constantly be facing upsets and not the higher seeds. Hopefully they make the Elite Eight and shock the world by upsetting Florida. That would be awesome. So long as their 3 pointers keep falling, that's about all they need.

It's been crazy busy this last week and weekend. On friday I watched the Ducks game, but over the weekend I watched a total of 6 minutes of basketball. Saturday night returning late from the Institute, I watched the final 2 minutes of UCLA over Indiana, and Sunday watched the final few minutes of the blowouts of Kansas over Kentucky and USC over Texas. But next week is Spring Break, so I should be able to catch all of the Sweet-16 action. That's when it gets really good, right? No big Cinderellas this year, but the Ducks are still in it to win it.

Last week we had a bunch of prospective graduate students visit to see how cool it is to be at MIT. But we seem to be a pretty cool lot around here. The problem is that they visited as things are starting to get really busy. I've just got to make it through this week and everything will be alright. Spring break here I come!

Canto XXXIII

I just had to write about my movie-watching weekend. On saturday, went out with a bunch of guys to see 300. It was about what I expected. If you want to see a movie with lots of impalings, beheadings and limb-chopping, then this is your film. There was also a crab-man. I'm not sure where he fits in. The element of the fantastical and over-blown in this film I felt detracted from the "story". I love this story, in fact I re-read my Herodotus earlier in the week (no complaints about him being the 'father of lies' - still a valuable source for that era) about the Battle of Thermopylae. I won't go into a blow-by-blow (no matter how appropriate) into the various innacuracies. And the many different movies which were ripped off in different scenes. The weirdest was the E.T. one - if you see the movie, you'll know which scene. My last gripe is that they seriously undercut the Athenian contribution to the Persian Wars. I mean, this was an important battle, as was Plataea, but as far as I know every historian agrees (both ancient and modern) the deciding battle was Salamis. Does this even get a mention? And when the Spartans first show up at the pass, the Persian fleet is wrecked by storm. This is partly true (a significant fraction of the Persian fleet was lost due to a storm), but in actuality the fleet was held up by a much smaller Athenian contingent at the Straits of Artemisium, in a very similar fashion to that seen in Thermopylae only on the sea. We saw it in the new digital projection, and I must say the picture quality was amazing. You could really see every ab and pec in it's full glory, as the Spartans would have wanted.

And on sunday night Steph and I went to see The Good Shepherd. About the only thing everyone can say about this movie is that it was long. Not that bad, but not that good either. I guess I was just expecting more. Next weekend we're seeing The Illusionist, which I heard was quite good.

Last night Steph was talking dirty to me. I'm finishing up my dinner and thinking about doing some work when she says 'You want to watch Babylon 5?'. Very Nice.

Canto XXXII

Another 2 weeks. Well, school has come around but I keep trying to stay on top of things. Sadly no humorous anecdots to relay to everyone. Well, maybe one...

There was a google-stalking which took place recently that I was in the room for. This was not me, mind you, my stalking days are over. They ended up hitting a google-silver mine. Revealing (but not nude) photos and some other stuff. This led me to start thinking about what would be the different levels of victory for google-stalking.
Gold: Nude photos/pornography. Clearly if you find this about some random person you just met, this takes the cake.
Silver: Revealing photos/other (possibly) embarrassing material. Not as good as before, but certainly something that's both interesting and eye-brow-raising.
Bronze: A broad range of biographical stuff, but nothing too embarrassing. Stuff that a stalker might find interesting.
Note that finding a blog or other stuff the person put up him/her self doesn't count towards this prize - they put it out there for everyone else, including the google-stalkers of the world.

Still need to go through some old photos of our and get them up. Remember the bench in The Cube? And the stairs right in the middle of the entry way? And when the sparrows nest was in the dryer's heat exhaust and nothing was drying until they cleaned it out? The college years really are the best.

Kermit update: still hangin'. That's right, 3+ months of a Muppet being strung up next door.

Canto XXXI

Wow, it's been two weeks. Well, as I mentioned in the previous post, school is back in session. And that has certainly put a bit of a crimp on my time. I haven't played FFXII in 2 weeks, and I think it's safe to say that will continue until spring break. But here's a quick recap of what's happening and some other fun bits 'n pieces.

Over the three day weekend Steph & I used our first Zipcar (in Portland they're Flexcars). Not bad. We did a whole bunch of shopping and errands around the town. I miss a car sometimes. It's certainly much easier not having one, but when you really want to bounce around doing a bunch of stuff, one comes in handy. Zipcar will hopefully take care of that need. We also did a lovely dinner at the local Peruvian place and had a good meal. Steph's been missing the South cuisine, and by South I mean South America.

Steph is always worried about how much we'll define the gender roles in front of our future children. She grew up in a more traditional household with Mother cooking & cleaning while Father would dispense wisdom from Mount Olympus. My family not so much, but we also had our traditional settings as well. I dispute the fact that we'll end up like her family (with Steph doing all the house work while I drink beer in my underpants) because I willingly help out with the stuff around the house, and even enjoy it. Then there are times like last weekend where I organized our books, did the dishes and folded laundry while Steph played World Of Warcraft for 4 hours. I think if anything, our kids will just be confused about the traditional gender arrangements.

This came up a little bit ago. It has to do with Alanis Morrisette's You Oughta Know. During the chorus, I heard the line (keep in mind I never look up lyrics until confronted with some situation like this one) "It's not fair to deny me or the cross-eyed bear that you gave to me." Now, this song is about a slightly crazy ex-girlfriend, and that's fine. I just thought that this little bit was highlighting how crazy she was, like she was holding onto some little stuffed animal that her now-ex had won for her at a carnival or something and then promised to love her forever. You know, something stupid and sappy, which she took a little too seriously. Now the real lyrics are "It's not fair to deny me of the cross I bear that you gave to me." First off, this must be a fairly mis-heard quote. Am I the only one who heard this wrong in this particular permutation? Well, Steph thinks now I'm crazy for thinking this. She can't believe I mis-heard it in this way, calling it completely ridiculous. She also thinks the narrator for the song isn't crazy. Just pissed-ff, but not crazy pissed-off. I retorted that if it's not crazy, then will she go down on me in a theater? I think Steph wanted to slap me. Is the singer-woman crazy? Am I crazy for mis-hearing? Maybe in general?

One of our chores from the three day weekend was to do a bunch of spring cleaning and bring old stuff (clothes and some junk) over to Goodwill (using the car!). This naturally led to a treasure trove of old things I haven't seen since we moved out here because they've been buried in various boxes. Pez with a Star Wars Stormtrooper dispenser! Lots of pictures of drunken parties in The Cube! And high school pictures, too! Well, those were all good times, but there was nothing like clearing out my T-shirt drawer. Now, just to make clear right now, I did not give away my old T-shirts. Steph is collecting them and wants to make some kind of quilt out of our used T's in another 10-20 years (roughly the time scale for her projects). Here's a quick list and maybe you can try and picture the shirt and bring back some good memories.
Healy's, Kokopalie, Living Known Animal Species, White Bread 5 for $2.70, Morning Dew, Ireland (black), Celtic Dragons, DeadHead, Carpe Diem, Know Your Insects, Smithsonian (purple), Star Wars TIE Fighter, Jerry Garcia, Athenes 2004, Why I? Why B? Why Me?, Colorado, Guiness, Ireland (off-white), Rabbits, Wassail, Blues Brothers, Lincoln High Seniors, Moon Jerry Garcia (purple long-sleeved)
So many memories...

Back to school, though. I "get" to teach 3 lab sections during the term, 2 nights per lab, roughly 3 hours per night from 6:30-9:30 pm. It really sucks. It's fun to explain how it works the first few times, then you have to do it 50 times to all the different groups and it's really draining. What's so hard about electrostatics? Well, that plus grading and my own homeworks to work on doesn't leave me much time to do anything fun, like research or games. But that little segway gets me to my research point of the day. Starting in January I got a new little thing to work on with the Advisor. It has to do with a conjectured bound on the viscosity of a fluid divided by the entropy density. The conjecture is that this is always greater than or equal to 1 over 4 pi. (Too bad Blogger doesn't support LaTex, I could make this look much nicer.) This was shown to be true for a large class of theories in the AdS/CFT correspondence, and conjectured to be true more generally about 3 years ago. I was reading about how to calculated these things in a general field theory framework (rather than through AdS/CFT) and working out some basic calculations the last few weeks. Then last week someone published a counter-example. So the last week was like the 5 stages of loss. You know, denial, anger, bargaining and so on. At first we didn't believe it, then we were pissed off that such a simple counter-example could be worked out. Now we've grown to accept it and I need to find something else to occupy what little free time I have. So that sucks. Science really blows sometimes. But I learned something that may be useful someday. And now I get to start that all over again.

Well, that's all the news that's fit to print! Peace!

Canto XXX

So now I'm back in school again. Actually, I think my classes will be alright. I've got some other stuff I'm trying to work on, as well. And now I'm even trying to get back into the gym a few times a week. Too much? Maybe. But I'd rather be too busy than sucked into FFXII and not get my PhD. Curse you, Squeenix! Are there anymore Final Fantasies coming out in the next two years? Oh God - what if one comes out Christmas time 2008, just 6 months before I'm suppose to graduate?

Thanks to Tim & Joseph for their music suggestions. I'll have to get around to doing that. Last year I heard the Fiery Furnaces, and they're wierd but kinda fun as well. It sort of depends on the mood I'm in. It always depends on the mood I'm in, actually. But that's just true for music.

Oh, but today is the Pushpinder friday meal! It's going to be a great day! Pushpinder is the Sikh who delivers delicious Indian food to MIT (mainly to other Indian students here, but thanks to my Indian officemate, I'm on the list). His friday meals are the best. If you ever visit, I get Pushp for lunch one of the days. And if you're here for fridays, you get the best lunch of all. I'm already hungry and I just had breakfast.

I'm also TA-ing advanced intro to E&M (8.022 for those familiar with MIT's course numberings). I did this last year and I'm hoping the work I did then will help make sure this year will be less (approaching minimal) work. Today is my first office hours. It's nice, because no one ever comes to these and I can just sit there and listen to music and work on some field theory. I never mind if people come by, though. It gets lonely in that tiny little room.

Canto XXIX

I think this is going to be the post of a lot of short points.

First off, some big news from the CTP bathroom front. They've switchted to 2-ply! This happened last week. This now makes MIT way better than Harvard, which is still using scratchy 1-ply (I had to go after String Theory earlier today). 2-ply, baby! MIT is so cool.

I was originally going to post about this January 25th, and then Febuary 1st, but I kept forgetting. For those wondering, Kermit is still dangling from our neighbors' porch. Still.

It's really cold. Ever since KH showed up, we've had maybe 3 days above freezing. My breath freezes to my beard. In some ways this is really cool to me, but I really just want the snow, but it's been incredibly dry. Just ask Steph how many bottles of moisturizer she's gone through.

I think people may have mis-interpreted my last post. I'm not really that concerned about whether or not I "make it" in physics. I love my life right now, and I'm very happy about what I'm doing. I hope I do become a physics professor, but that's not the whole reason I went into grad school.

The first comment from XXVIII says "You're a good husband", and no one came in with a WTF, so I'm a little disappointed in you guys for not making that observation. Well, this was in relation to the original post in which I aired a grievance about a tiff Steph & I had a little while ago. I wanted Steph to respond, but she said she would not do so in a such a forum (I think because she knows she was wrong, but that's just me goading her), and so I deleted that part of the entry about an hour after the original went up. But it's good to know that some random person was on my side after just an hour. Eric-2, Steph-1.

Super Bowl! An OK game, but nothing too special. Basically everything went the way everyone thought it would. The Bears are who we thought they were! The Colts are who we thought they were! I was rooting for Indy, though not for much particular affection for that team. (Although I did want to see people who kept saying Peyton couldn't win the big game eat their words - there are 22 starters + special teams & backups on a football team, it's not entirely a QBs fault when they lose, nor is it all his doing when they win. Yes the QB position is the most important, but it's not the whole story.) I just didn't feel that the NFC deserved to win a championship this year. That would be like an NL team with 85 wins taking the World Series last year... Oh wait.

I'm totally addicted to FFXII. They're really made having enough gil very hard. And usually the best stuff (especially early on) is on sale, not to be found in a dungeon. Very annoying. I'm constantly poor in the game. I feel a little dirty, but I'm playing with a guide book. I used to play through once, then play through a second time with hints & guides. But the games have gotten just too damn big and my time suddenly seems too precious. Or I'm just not 14 anymore. I've already cleared 40 hours, and I probably have 80+ to go before I consider the game to be 'complete'.

And a quick side note that Joe & Syd brought up a little while ago over at Syd's Thoughts. I really need to get more into the music scene. I know there's some decent stuff out there that I would enjoy and would have a chance to see them in their prime live, but I just don't have the will to do it. I feel some shame about this, but I first heard The White Stipes (bad example since they've made it and are no longer indie, but you'll get the idea) on SNL several years ago when they were doing the White Blood Cells tour. And I kinda liked it. So later I downloaded (illegally) some of their songs. And I kept liking it, so I bought the album. And then I bought the previous albums because I liked them so much. Now they're my favorite band making music and I've even gone to see them live. Really this is a success story for music sharing. But it all started because of some cheesy pop-culture cliche of being the music guest on SNL. I know there are more nifty bands out there I would like, but unless I'm directly exposed it won't do much good (Ben was kind enough to do this for me with Sleater-Kinney). I don't listen to the radio, watch music videos or read much in the way of pitchfork.com and so on. So I rely on you guys to make sure my music world stays open.

Take 'er easy for all us sinners out there! Peace!

Canto XXVIII

Hi Everybody! Not much of a post, but if you don't care about the doings a-transpiring in my life, then why are you here?

So it's been another fun week here in the 'Bridge as I like to call it. Well, actually I haven't even spent most of my time here. Last week the CTP had a retreat to New Hampshire for a series of talks & hot tub sessions. What happens in New Hampshire, stays in New Hampshire. Has there ever been a better motto than adultery doesn't count in Las Vegas? The talks were pretty good, and I got one of my quantum field theory textbooks signed by Michael Peskin. Those in the field (theoretical high energy physics) know how exciting this is. I joked with him before he signed it that the reason I went into physics was to "live like a rock star". He didn't get it, and I told him that it must be fun having adoring students come up to him asking to sign their copy of his book. He just laughed and told me he hated writing this book. Why else do we do what we do? It's all about the ladies & the benjamins. Also, the Inn we were staying at (The Common Man Inn, for those looking for a nice getaway to The Granite State) had an awesome hot tub. During the afternoon free time, everyone went off to eat their lunch, but I decided a nice swim would put me in a good mood to eat, so I put on my trunks and headed downstairs. Well, I turned on the jets and hopped in. It took a second, but they started to roll - and then - the waterfall started up. Yes, the hot tub had twin waterfalls cascading about 4 feet into the middle of the tub. I just hunched under them for about... Well, I don't know how long because you kinda lose track of time under there, but it was amazing. And then I got a massage. Sadly, the CTP didn't pay for that, but it was worth it. I got a lot of tension, you know. Well, I think I learned some physics, too. But it was a good time.

The Advisor gave me the speech that I've been expecting for a while. He told me how hard it is to get a position in theoretical high energy physics and such. And he's right. I don't think my prospects are high for a faculty position somewhere. But that's a bridge I'll cross in a few more years. But this is what I've always wanted to do, and maybe this physics gig only lasts a few more years, but that doesn't mean not do it at all, it just means to enjoy what time there is here. That's why I go to sleep at night reading a Thermal Field Theory book rather than Harry Potter. It's not about the future prospects, it's about loving physics and doing it right now.

Canto XXVII

Okay, so I said the Colts were in the process of choking when Peyton threw that INT for TD. But of course football games are 60 minutes long, not 25. That was a great game. If only more football games were that good. Of course, nothing can compare to the Fiesta Bowl this year (maybe the 2002 Fiesta Bowl). Sigh... Just one more game left until next fall. I'm going to miss football. What else am I going to do for my free time? Oh yeah. I've already logged in 20 hours in FFXII. Damn you Squeenix!

Canto XXVI

Well, suffice to say it's been a while. I can't say that it's been terribly exciting around here. Well, stuff's been happening, some of it exciting. I guess it's been 2 weeks, so there's always something to say.

First up, like I mentioned last post, there was my string test. Wow did that suck. I didn't even finish it. It turned out way longer and harder than I thought. And on top of that I had to ask my Advisor for help. There's nothing like going up and asking for help from someone you're trying to impress. I feel so stupid because I really have no clue how easy or hard some of these things are. I mean, they're all hard to me right now, but how much of this, in a year or two, will be completely trivial? And because I'm asking Advisor about it, and he already thinks it's trivial, I just feel like he's thinking I'm "a retarded kitten". Arg. A very stressful week.

Then there was a nice 3 day weekend. Actually, a very productive weekend. I did some reading for my actual research. Played some FFXII. Lots of stuff done around the house and cleaned everything up. Sadly, due to being out helping Steph run a bunch of errands, I didn't get to watch much playoff action. I'm trying to make up for it this weekend. Watched the Bears destroy the Saints. Well, destroy might be a little strong. But they sure took over in the 4th quarter. And now I'm watching the Colts choke against the Patriots. I'm not sure I can stand another Patriots Superbowl. I must say, there are some things that I just hate about living in Boston. And listening to Boston sports fans is one of them.

Then there was the shortened week. Tuesday morning I got some work done, but then KH was in town. We spent the next few days wandering around Boston & Cambridge. It was very cold. The three of us went out to a couple nice restaurants here, including a nice Italian place in the North End. Lots of gossip I won't bother passing on. I had a good time, although I didn't exactly get much (any) work done. I'll let KH tell you what wonderful hosts Steph & I are. And then friday rolls around and I'm just not ready to do much of anything. I did do some reading, but I've got to say, I think I need some sort of motivation. Like doughnuts. And the possibility of more doughnts to come.

Canto XXV

Hi everybody! So it's been another week. And of course the last post was post-dated so even longer than that when you think about it. But my break is over. I got to see a lot of people while we were back, but still missed quite a few as well. If you were among the group that I didn't get to see, well that just means you need to come see lovely Boston.

I'm not sure there were a bunch of events to write about over the break. I think I spent most of the time trying to catch up with people and sleeping in late. There were the usual Christmas parties and the like to go to. Went to the Pancake House with Ben & his SO. Steph was still in Eugene, so I was third wheeling it, but I think when the two of us get together, anyone else is really the third wheel. Not too much else to report. Played lots of Wii, which I must say is awesome. But I just got Final Fantasy XII, so that will be taking up my video game time for most of the forseeable future. We couldn't find Zelda for the Gamecube, which makes me hate Nintendo slightly. I know you want us to buy the Wii and Zelda to go with it, but at this point you can't get one without paying way too much for it, and there are lots of us out there with just the Cube who want to get the hookshot and boomerang! Our flight back was uneventful, and no luggage was lost. I felt I should point that out after all the stories from certain other travellers this holiday season.

So we're back to work now. Steph is just trying to make it to the weekend to sleep in another 12 hours. I've never really had bad jetlag while travelling in the US (going to Europe on the other hand was a totally different story), but I usually force myself onto the local schedule. For some reason, I didn't do this when we got back to Massachusetts. Slept in over 12 hours until 1pm the first night back. This has really screwed both Steph and my own sleep schedule. Going to work has forced us into a routine we so happily tried to forget the last 2 weeks. I think I fell asleep a half a dozen times yesterday at my desk. I managed to finish all of 1 problem for my take-home final in String Theory all day. My brain was NOT ready for this. I think today will be better, but I will have to actually start working before finding that out. I'll be meeting with The Advisor later today to talk about all the things that I didn't read or work on over vacation. That should be fun. Maybe I'll be so fantastically productive over this weekend, that by monday I'll be ready to talk to him about anything and everything. Oh wait... NFL playoffs are this weekend, and the BCS championship is monday. Not good.

Speaking of football. (How's that for a segway?) The J-E-T-S JETS-JETS-JETS made the playoffs! Of course they're going to get waxed in Foxboro this sunday, but 10-6 is a lot better than 4-12 from last year. They may have made it on an easy schedule, but that means they're better than a lot of those teams on that easy schedule. I don't know if they were really a top-6 team in the AFC, but it's actually plausible that they were (seeding puts them 5th), and that's a huge step forward. The Offensive line really solidified and will hopefully continue to play well next season. If Chad Pennington can stay healthy all off season and build up some more arm strength, the offense will go places (although I still think they need a good running back - Washington, Houston & Barlow aren't exactly a feared 1-2-3, although they did go 395 carries for 1394 yards and 15 touchdowns). Next up is building up a mediocre run defense.

And if you didn't watch the Boise State-Oklahoma Fiesta Bowl, well, you missed out. Big time. One of the best games I've ever seen. I'm still in shock about it. Look for the replay on ESPN Classic or something, it's totally worth it. Go Broncos!

Canto XXIV

This was written a week ago... But I haven't had a chance to post it until now. Enjoy?

So I think my last post was on Kermit. It's been a little while, but I've got some stuff to say for once, so strap yourselves in for a long post. Well, maybe nothing too profound, but that's what you get when this comes at you from 36,000 feet. I'm actually typing this in the sky, and when I get home and have some internet access I'll post it up. I've got plans baby. Big plans for this flight.

My Dad was in town to see how his eldest lives. And see his whole family. The Fitz family Christmas Party was nice. I'm not really sure how well Steph and I fit into these things. The problem is that my parents, my brother and I grew up 2500 miles away from the closest Fitz relation. So I've only met everyone a few times in my entire life. All the cousins seem to know each other fairly well, and I'm still struggling to learn all their names. The net result is that Steph and I are fairly quiet at these things. I talk to everyone, tell them school is going fine and that Steph's happy with her job. But these people, other than looking like me, don't feel like family. It's hard to explain. Steph always wondered why I looked forward to seeing my friends more than my family when we visit people. But now she seems to realize that my friends are closer to me than my family (parents and brother excepted, obviously). For her, she grew up with family and cousins her age all around her, so she's much closer to her family. I think she's knows my cousin's names better than I do. Another reason I'm a little self-consious at these events is that I can't make any dirty jokes. My uncles are cool and all, but there's only so many penis and 'your mom' jokes you can do around them before some social taboo is crossed. And I love the penis jokes. I mean, penises are funny.

Our in flight movie was Little Miss Sunshine. That was pretty funny. Every movie is made better by some Rick James.

And this week Stormy came to visit. Apparently I'm one of the last holdovers to call him Stormy. What's with you people, that has to be among the greatest nicknames/epitets of all time and you're letting it slip away. Some of my favorites:
1) Rosy-fingered Dawn
2) Africanus (or really just being named after a region you conquered)
3)
4) Stormy
5) the Great (whenever this gets added to your first name, you know you're doing alright)

But with him in town, not a whole lot got done around the office or house. They'll be plenty of work to do this January. But we did walk the Freedom Trail, saw some famous dead people's graves, Bunker/Breeds Hill and the USS Constitution. Of course, it being the middle of December, there wasn't much open, but had a good time anyway. And we discovered that we didn't remember as much American History and we thought. Could only name a few battles of the Revolutionary War. Well, it was a good refresher to walk around and try and remember all that stuff...

I saw Monica Lewinsky graduated from the London School of Economics. Good to see that my brother is getting a degree from such a prestigious place.

We flew the day Denver was shut down. Actually we didn't get it too bad. Logan-O'Hare-PDX. We were only delayed by about 5 hours in Chicago and that was about it. Otherwise smooth. Of course, it's always stressful when you're flying standby and there are hundreds of other people stuck in the same situation. But we got through with what I would describe as a minimal amount of fuss. And our luggage made it as well.




It's funny, I've always had rather good flying experiences. I've never lost my luggage, and the longest I've ever been stranded in an airport is about 6 or 7 hours. So nothing too bad. Steph on the other hand has had terrible experiences, in fact her whole family has had to deal with lost luggage, missed flights and day-plus waits. All my worst flight experiences have been with my little lady by my side. So my good flight karma somehow balances her bad karma and we only get a little screwed up. But it always works out, no worries.

But once we arrived we had tickets for the Nutcracker with my parents. Landed at 5:45, made it to the show downtown by 7:15. I've got to say I was a little disappointed. The little girl, Clara I think, was actually played by a little girl, which means for most of the second half with the Sugarplum Fairy and King and such she didn't dance. I mean, ballet is always impressive, and something I could never do. Maybe I just demand perfection from the arts. But this wasn't an issue of execution, it was the directing, casting and choreography. Well, I won't bother with a point-by-point analysis of what I didn't like, but it was only OK.

And lastly, the Ducks game... Well, that really deserves it's own post. I think everyone is a little disappointed with the team right now. It's an issue of consistency. This is now twice in 4 years where the team has ended on a rather lengthy losing streak, bowl game included. In fact, were it not for last year's very special season, I might even think about calling for some changes at the head coaching position. But I don't think it's Bellotti, I think it's who he's surrounding himself with. I never liked the Crowton hire, and I still think Aliotti's only an average defensive coordinator. The quarterbacks haven't really progressed this season. Everyone knows the talent in there, but it's making sure the right players are there and in position to make good plays is all about coaching, and that wasn't true in the second half of the season. Even in the first half of the season there were a lot of mistakes being made, but talent and homefield managed to overcome those issues. But the chickens came home to the proverbial roost. Well, there's always next year.

Canto XXIII

A much less crazy week this time around. Finished up the last of the grading I need to do this term, so now my laptop is all my own. I've got one more assignment to finish up, and then I'm free until January! Of course, now I need to start actually doing some kind of research, so I'm not so much free and much as moving from one kind of indentured serviture to another. But while all of this may be exciting, our neighbors have decided to put up their "christmas decorations". I can only put that in quotes because does this:

look festive to you? I keep thinking about pinning a note to him in the middle of the night that says "Piggy drove me to it" or "No funeral". It's very creepy. They lynched Kermit the Frog! Or the world's greatest frog had problems that never seemed to surface during his show. The other day as I walked into work, he was slowly twisting in the wind and followed me with his lifeless eyes as I walked past. Why, Kermit, why?!? And now I feel the need to listen to the Rainbow Connection... Elliot Smith, he is not.

In other news my dad is in town for the family Christmas party. All the brothers and sisters together again. I'm sure Grandma will be very happy. But for me, it's back to my homework. So close to freedom. Don't the rest of you miss school?

Canto XXII

So it's been a busy week, so sorry for the lack of posting. But it was all worth it because...

I passed! Hooray! That's the last of my qualification exams at MIT! Yes! There were 3 of us, and two passed. So overall good, but not a triumphal day for the CTP grad students. There was one weird thing. Just as my exam ended (and I mean just, I had walked out of the room for maybe 10 seconds) the power went out. The exam committee poked their heads out for two seconds just to see if I had played a joke on them or something, then went back in and began deliberating again. There were still emergency lights for the building, but everyone was out in the halls joking and having a good time of it. After a few minutes, the committee came out and shook my hand and all was good with the world. I don't think it hurt that I brought in some coffee cake for them. Dave decried it as the most suck-up thing he had ever seen, couldn't believe I would stoop to such levels, and as he was saying this, they (the committee) came back by my office to pick up seconds. Then he said he was going to do it next term when he's taking the exam.

There was a big fire in the building two buildings over from us, and one of the transformers blew. A big one. It took out a few city blocks of power. Everyone stuck around for the pizza normally served with a talk at noon, then went home to get some work done. It's amazing how little you can get done without lights, computers or the internet. If we had had power, I would have posted immediately, but now you'll understand.

But that wasn't the only thing this week. On wednesday night there was a physics graduate student event at the Harpoon Brewery. And by event I mean unlimited beer sampling for an hour and a half. So that was fun. And intoxicating. Who says you can't have a little fun in the middle of the week just 2 days before one of the most important exams of your graduate student life? For a little bonus, I slept in 11 hours on thursday to rest up. Steph got her haircut on thursday, and it looks very cute. It's shorter than her shoulders. If you remember her hair back in freshman and sophomore year, it's roughly that length. It looks great and the next time you see her give her a compliment. And yesterday was spent on the orgy of consumer capitalism that is Christmas shopping. I'm about 2/3 done, I'm not sure where Steph is. I'm not sure if a Christmans letter is going to get done this year. I would have to mail it next weekend, and I don't know between everything at school finishing up and my dad visting on thursday if it's going to get done. We'll see. Consider this blog the letter unless you get a real one in the mail. Oh yeah, my dad is visiting this weekend to see the family for the Christmas party. Should be good.

So that's at least part of the news from our end this week. I don't know how much I'll be able to post this week as well, but I'll try and get one in somewhere. I'm sure something funny will happen to me this week.

Canto XXI

Wow. Just watched UCLA upset USC. What a great game. I can't believe USC was held to a single touchdown. And kudos to UCLA's defense. Last year their offense was the big surprise, this year the defense has really come alive. Maybe they'll get their whole act together one of these years. And now don't the look stupid for agreeing to go to the Emerald Valley Bowl? They're #4 in the Pac-10, they should be where the Ducks are (despite the head-to-head loss). I told you that slotting the bowls before the last game was a bad idea...

Otherwise just hanging around the house, wathcing some football, having a white russian, and cleaning up. I think these are my favorite saturdays. No pressure or nothing. Of course, my oral exam is less than a week away. Gulp (literally and figuratively).

Canto XX

I just wanted to get this in right now. So the Ducks are off to the Las Vegas Bowl. Disappointing year for the Ducks I feel, but can only be summed up in one word: turnovers. Hopefully a month of hands drills will ensure a bowl win over BYU. Note the key subplot for this is Gary Crowton taking on his old school. We're all intrigued. I also love that the Pac-10 has set up all it's bowls, including UCLA. They have basically already conceded that they will lose this weekend's matchup with USC. How can the athletic director do that? Who made that decision?

Canto XIX

So if I wasn't trying to get to 100 (C) for my titles, I think the title for this one would be "The Great Equalizer". Which, in this case, is the bathroom at work. It's a decent bathroom, although only 1 soap dispenser works (out of 3). But it's great because I can pee standing next to Nobel Prize winners. Also, otherwise intimidating faculty member will come in and start to raise holy hell in one of the stalls. I mean, it was like one of those comedic scenes with gratuitous farting sounds and lots of splashing. He does drink a lot of coffee, so maybe this is par for the course for him, but after that incident, I've had a hard time not thinking about this whenever I see him. The reason why I'm writing this now, though, is that yesterday a certain faculty member was urinating hands free! I don't think I've gone hands free since second grade. There's always a concern that there could be some kind of backlash and suddenly you can't control where the flow is going. I respect and admire this man, but now suddenly everything is thrown into question. He does wash his hands, which is more than I can say for some people around here, but this is really screwing with me. Are there any other hands-free people in this world?