Big News
So... Marie and I got engaged last night!
Don't expect any concrete wedding news in the near future, but it's safe to say that if you're reading this you're probably invited. So... yeah. Spring break!
= February 2007 = Main = April 2007 =
So... Marie and I got engaged last night!
Don't expect any concrete wedding news in the near future, but it's safe to say that if you're reading this you're probably invited. So... yeah. Spring break!
We went out a few nights ago for Marie and Megan's conjoined birthday extravaganza. Good times. And now for my little, "isn't that weird?" story:
Our group was sitting around the outdoor patio of a bar in Emeryville. I watched intently as a young man sat down at a nearby table with a beer and a pint glass of ice water. He then reached into the glass and took out all of the ice cubes by hand, one by one and set them on the table. The whole thing took about fifteen minutes. When the glass was finally iceless, he stood up with an air of accomplishment and walked away. It was... hypnotic.
Yesterday was pretty frustrating, as days go. Things were not coming up Jeff.
My late-night experiments a catostrophic failure, so when I got home I decided that watching last wednesday's Lost would be a fitting distraction. I couldn't find a decent torrent for whatever reason, and feeling an ever-so-slight sense of creeping guilt at my continued television theft, I decide "what the heck - I'll just *buy* it on iTunes".
So I did. And how was this act of unbridled philanthropy rewarded, you ask? With 500 megabytes of choppiness that wouldn't play for a damn. Turns out, my laptop from 2002 doesn't even meet the system requirements for playing videos on iTunes. Wtf is that? This only grants more ammo for the new computer movement. And I've got a birthday coming up..........
I finally reclaimed some beer-making equipment from Paul recently, so we decided to kick spring off right with a trip out to Beer, Beer and More Beer. Joe and I eventually decided to push the envelope a bit, and bought supplies for making a Hefeweizen. It's not, I keep reminding myself, an inherently inferior beerform, it's just that a lot of it is really, really bad. But not ours, I say! We added some Bam in the form of cloves and ginger... a little spice for a sunny spring afternoon. Morale was high.
But then the weather took a turn. Things went from nice to really, really nice. I know I shouldn't complain, but my somewhat temperature-controlled closet spiked from mid-sixties to the mid-seventies... and I'm a little concerned about the little yeasties. They don't seem to be bubbling like they should be.
Well... it's cooled off since then, but bottling is next week. I guess we'll see how it goes.
Hey team. I again feel lousy about the extended silences, but I've fallen deep into a computer-related malaise. My laptop is slowly dying, my computer at work has the processing power of an abacus, and my wireless router has apparently given up on life - despite Tommy putting it in the freezer for a half-hour, (I'm still not clear on that one). But in contrast to my declining computing ability, work has required a dramatic increase in time spent at a computer, crunching numbers and working on figures for a paper, etc. etc.
The unfortunate result is that my clicking finger has been bothering me, so I've been trying to reduce my recreational internet time. Both the reading and writing of blogs have suffered dearly.
I know, I know - it's horrifying. But I think it's only temporary. Experiments are a drain, but we're not far off from the thesis-writing stage of my graduate career, which means unfettered time spent at a computer, not doing things I should be doing. I expect this to mean a sharp uptick in my attention to this here website.
In light of this upcoming paradigm shift, I'm coming dangerously close to buying myself a new laptop. So if you have any advice about what to do and not do, I'd love to hear it. Recent cosmic alignments seem keen on convincing me into buying a Mac, but I'm still a frightened of change...
The "wtf?" news story of the day arrived in my inbox not from my standard news sources, but from the daily LBL newsletter. Apparently, someone has stolen Ernest Lawrence's Nobel Prize from a locked display case in the Lawrence Hall of Science. Here's the story from the San Jose Mercury News.
So... wtf?! Who would do this? Is it a prank by the kids at Argonne? Do we go TP their photon source now? I just hope the prize somehow returns safely. Maybe this will be the first chapter in some ridiculous scientific anecdote. Like when Niels Bohr dissolved his Nobel in aqua regia to hide it from the nazis. (Scroll to the bottom).
In other news, visitors abound this spring. Elizabeth and Marie's cousin were here last week, and Tommy and Emily are currently in town. So that's been fun. (Am I legally obligated to hyperlink to their blogs when I mention them on my own blog? I'm not going to do it this time. If this turns out to be my final post, you'll know the blog police got to me.)
Surveying the crowd at Bottom of the Hill at my token Noise Pop show two nights ago, I wondered: do hipsters still dress this ridiculously? Are they really still working the ironic white belt and clashing leopard-print everything? For real?
The answer, I suppose, is a qualified "yes". I eventually realized that these are the joys of "All Ages" shows. All these laughably-dressed concert goers were, very likely, in high school. Hence, not having beers in their hands. And thus the fashion scene all came into focus.
Also, Matt and Kim are my new favorite sunny-day happy band. Rock.