Friday, August 31, 2007

Move-in

Well, that went relatively painlessly. It was really fun to help Mark into his room, and we met someone across the hall already (who speaks German! ahhh!) and he says he's meeting more and more exponentially. Always a good thing yay.

None of the three mattress pads I brought fit the bed... granted, I thought I was only bringing one, so I did in fact grab the wrong bag. Doesn't make it any less annoying, though. So after walking all over campus I had to go back down to the Bed Bath & Beyond behind South and snag a mattress pad (and a foamy thing which feels soooo good!).

Monday, August 20, 2007

Don't forget!

I need to make a list of things not to forget to bring, since I can't pack them yet because they are still in use. I hate making lists in Notepad - although it's the easiest, it's... ugly. And Word takes up too much memory and is too complicated and the page is too big blah blah blah. Anyway.

  • Water boiler
  • Toaster
  • Wastebasket
  • Printer
I'm being depended on for the first two, so I have to remember to bring them.

Edit: Just found this article in The New York Times, "Lobes of Steel"

"In the late 1990s, one group of mice at the Salk Institute for Biological Studies, near San Diego, blew away the others in the Morris maze. The difference between the smart mice and those that floundered? Exercise. The brainy mice had running wheels in their cages, and the others didn’t.

Scientists have suspected for decades that exercise, particularly regular aerobic exercise, can affect the brain. But they could only speculate as to how. Now an expanding body of research shows that exercise can improve the performance of the brain by boosting memory and cognitive processing speed. Exercise can, in fact, create a stronger, faster brain."

Read the full article


Well, that's good news! Let's hit the gym more often, shall we?

Saturday, August 18, 2007

O mitwa...

I saw Lagaan in the library yesterday and just had to take it out. I have songs from it that I can sing along to but hadn't seen it until today. It was pretty good, although the main guy, Amir Khan (right?), needed a haircut bad. I really liked the whole suspense during the cricket game, which I learned a LOT about - going from knowledge 0 to at least a semi-understanding of how things worked.
And oh, was Mitwa that much better when I knew the context and saw all the people singing it... :)

Thursday, August 16, 2007

List of Essentials

Things to bring back to school. I am really bad at only packing things I will need/actually use, so I am going to write everything down here and try to par it back a little bit.

Clothing:
2 pairs of jeans (they're the best ones, and the only ones I actually wear, so why bother bringing the others)
3 pairs of dress pants/khakis (will be needed for career fairs and interviews)
button-down shirts (see above, and add in lab presentations)
shirts that I will ACTUALLY wear (no more of this bs "but what if I want to wear it someday" crap)
shoes (blue sneakers, white sneakers, brown leather, a few heels, flip flops and that's it)

Electronics
laptop
speakers
external harddrive
wireless mouse
camera
phone & charger

Miscellaneous
desk lamp
clock radio
pens/pencils/highlighters (all just one pack of each)
textbooks I've already bought
desk chair

Basically, just trying to cut back on a bunch of things I always bring and just seem to never use. I can cut most out of my clothes and shoes, which weigh a lot, although there is a bunch of random junk I always bring, too. My strategy is to go through everything at least 3 times and keep cutting stuff out.

Reasons for this? Parents (Dad, really) always complain that I bring waaayyy too much stuff, and even though I definitely help with the moving in bit, there still is a lot for them (him) to lift and transport. Also, an even more important reason: this year's move-in comes complete with the transportation of little brother Mark, who is living in the same dorm that I was assigned to as a freshman. (Sooooo exciiiiiteeeddd!!!) We are renting a box truck (haha) that will fit all of our junk into one place.

Up to Boston on August 30th, hopefully get a bunch moved in that day, and finish up on the 31st. That's pretty damn early, considering classes start on the 4th of September... I remember not wanting to get there early because it's always so awkward when you don't know anyone - and it's in classes that you meet your friends, for the most part.

Wednesday, August 15, 2007

Summer's Gone

Well, not quite yet, but almost. Yesterday was the last day of scheduled work, still two more warranty jobs for next week but they will only take one day each, so it's no big deal. I just bought a laptop! Dell Vostro 1400... specs:
Intel Core 2 Duo T5470
14.1" WXGA w/ TrueLife
2GB Shared Dual Channel DDR2 SDRAM
128MB NVIDIA GeForce 8400M GS
80G SATA Harddrive
Vista Business
6 Cell Battery
etc. etc.
All for a grand total of $791, which is pretty good considering the deal was "get $339 off purchase of Vostro 1400." So it would've been over a thousand dollars (eek), meaning I saved a bunch. Now I'm casually browsing new cameras, since mine, although working quite well, is still about 6 years old and as big as a brick. We'll see about that...

Monday, August 6, 2007

A little bit of support

My mom thinks it's a better idea to try and get a job and experience real life first before graduate school, which I can always do (and hopefully even have my company pay for). Although she did semi-threaten me about living with someone before being engaged.... hmm...

Sunday, August 5, 2007

Kind of shocked...

I visited Adam in the city this weekend (he's working for Morgan Stanley, has an awesome apartment on the Lower East Side with his friends) and he was talking about his friend who lives in an apartment with his girlfriend - and said something to the effect of us doing that at some point, too. I was pretty shocked that that thought had even crossed his mind, since he's quite skittish at the mention of anything close to marriage (not that this is, but it's a big step towards it).

Friday, August 3, 2007

Starting to get pretty confused about what to do after school... graduate school right away seems like a waste of money, although I will probably end up doing it at some point. Get a job, have them pay for it if I need it? That seems like a more prudent decision, although it's a little frightening to jump right into a career. I guess that's what everyone says - graduate school is for those who are afraid to face real life (no offense Larissa, Steve, Monica, Aram... everyone else I have ever known... who are grad students... ahhh!)


History will be kind to me, for I intend to write it.
Sir Winston Churchill