Time Stand Still

3 exams down, 1 to go! I studied my butt off this weekend and did awesome on 2 of the exams, and just okay on the third one, but I expected as much given it's a 400 physics course. It's hard to understand physics exams if you've never taken one, but getting a 50% is considered a great score in more cases than I'd prefer... I'll never understand their grading system. Moral of the story: I'm satisfied with The Mother of Exam Days.

Tomorrow's should be easy in a sense- simple memorization. Now all I have to do is memorize a lot of things... 1:15 am and here I go!

Homogeneity

I have 3 exams tomorrow and 1 Tuesday, but yet here I sit in the AURA (Astronomy Undergrad Research Area), aka, The Lab, updating my blog.

My life has been OH SO busy recently. I have only myself to blame, to be honest. Turns out trying to be VP of physics club, be in astro club, do intramural flag football, have a job, be on a newsletter committee, and take upper-level physics classes isn't as easy as it sounds. Sheesh. If I just sit around and chug out problem sets and study physics and math, though, I go a little crazy. Speaking of all these things, I have a lot of things I'd love to say, but it would be the longest post in history. So, a brief recounting of my life recently:

A couple weeks ago I went and saw California Guitar Trio at the Bishop, a bar/music place. I'd never heard of this band, but had been told they were really great. I went with two friends and it turned out to be REALLY great. It was 3 guys playing guitar (as you could have guessed, although none of them are from CA...). They were really talented, and it was a great show. Somehow after the show, myself and the 2 others ended up talking with the band for a while, helped them take the guitars/equipment to their cars, and then took them out for drinks and dinner (don't worry Mom, I didn't didn't partake in the drinks part). I have NO idea how it happened, but somehow I became a roadie for an awesome band I hadn't heard of until a few hours just before. It was really great, and the guys in the band were really cool.

Even further back than this, though, I hosted the first Friday Dinner at my apartment! The theme was based off the rainbow, and everyone brought food of a different color of the rainbow. It was pretty spectacular, and unfortunately I didn't take any photos... sorry. If I remember correctly, the foods were:

Red- red wine & red jello...

Orange- butternut squash

Yellow- lemon and chicken pasta

Green- amazing salad

Blue- blueberry muffins

Violet- eggplant and blackberry cobbler

Brown- chocolate cake

White- rice

Jumping forward in time, my first official task as physics club VP was to make liquid nitrogen ice cream for the callout meeting. I had never actually made it myself, but it was a ton of fun. Plus it was really dramatic. And delicious. My next task as VP was to organize a group to build a boat for IU's annual Cardboard Boat Regatta. The physics club has repeatedly gotten owned at this event, so this year was the time to get first place. After 'borrowing' a lot of cardboard from a recycling dumpster (hey, I'm recycling it in a way) and buying a lot of duct tape, myself and a small group of wannabe engineers put together Schroedinger's Boat, a masterful design in buoyancy. This past Friday was the day of the big race, and with our Physicists at C, we set sail against other student organizations, my coworkers, and even my bosses. Our boat performed admirably, floating much better than everyone else's (if I do say so myself), but unfortunately, physicists are not experienced rowers... After failing to row together and straight we made it across the pool far behind... Oh well! It was fun anyway! NEXT YEAR!

The day before the regatta was the astro club's first flag football game, against Chemology. Our team, the Galactic Cannibals, lost, but it was still a ton of fun. I now have war wounds from a so-called NON-contact sport... Psh, yeah, non-contact...

Oh! Last thing- after the regatta, I went to dinner with some friends, then we went to the opera to see Il Barbiere di Siviglia. I'd never seen this opera, but it was funny and entertaining. I really enjoyed it, and it actually ended happily! I generally leave operas depressed, but for once nobody committed suicide or lost their true love.

Woo. I like that all these things are out of order. Lots of things. And homework. Lather, rinse, repeat. I like to be busy, though.
And when your life is filled with stupid boys, or rather, one really stupid boy, busy-ness is nice.

Subject Not Specified...

My wishlist for life at the moment:

-GET MY HOMEWORK DONE. Going to concerts and hanging out with friends is fun, but it makes for some rough long nights... You're only young once I suppose!
-Napoleon Dynamite soundtrack
-DT cover of Pink Floyd (don't even worry about this one)
-Blender
-A cat
-World peace
-8 hours of sleep... ha! This is college, after all.
-My two front teeth
-A hovercraft

Okay, I'm going to bed. I'll have to update sometime with a real post that involves a colorful dinner, the nation's longest covered bridge, inadvertently becoming a band groupie, and sidewalk astronomy (these did not occur at the same time).

It has been a looooong day, and I am just now sitting down and taking a break after running around campus all day. Woo. Goodnight!

Things

I am officially back in Bloomington!

The most exciting news in my life recently has been the fact that this year I am the proud tenant of my first apartment. I began the move two weeks ago but finished last week and then spent some time getting everything unpacked and set up. The (preliminary) finished product:

My bedroom!

'Hallway' view from the living room.

Bathroom (obviously)

Kitchen

Living room

I really like the new place. The landlords are really nice and helpful. I've only met a few of the other tenants but they are friendly and nice. It's a pretty good location, and is even next to an adult bookstore (which I visited the other day with some friends... a very interesting place). It was recently renovated so has new carpet, drywall, etc... It's really exciting to finally have a place of my own!

This week started classes. It was sort of weird for school to be back in session, but things are going well. My classes this semester are:
-Electricity & Magnetism 1 (yuck)
-Analytical Mechanics
-Linear Algebra
-Italian 3
-Intro to Buddhism (fulfills TWO of my general requirements... score!)

My classes all seem pretty good so far, but I have a feeling E&M and Mechanics are gonna be tough. Fortunately I know a lot of people in both classes so have some study buddies. I still have my job as a FASE mentor, and am also doing research with an astro prof. Never a dull moment. Some of the more exciting aspects of the past week have been:
-Went sailing with my friend Steven, for which we had perfect weather and wind
-Had the first Friday Dinner then watched Sabrina at Bryan Park
-Had friends over for a housewarming party
-Bike broke and I had to carry it for .5 mile... Managed to mostly fix it though
-Bathtub drain broke but my nice neighbor helped me fix it
-I'm really diggin' bullet points today it seems

I already have a ton of homework, which makes me sad, but such is life. I'm glad to see all my friends again, and hopefully this year will prove to be just as fun and exciting as the previous ones.

Living in the Limelight

My sister had a baby on the 22nd! :) She had a home birth to a healthy little boy. He's such a cutie too! Hearing her talk about the experience of childbirth pretty much cements my suspicions that it may be one of the most intense experiences in life (and isn't for me).

Last weekend myself and some friends attended what will forever be one of the most epic concerts (so far). I fear this post will be similar to the Dream Theater/Iron Maiden one, so if you don't want to hear about Rush, read no further.

Sunday I went with 4 other friends to St. Louis to see Rush. Since all of us were coming from different parts of the state, we all met near the airport, and from there carpooled to St. Louis. We ended up leaving ~3 which was right on time. Since there's a time change to Missouri, we ended up getting to St. Louis pretty early, which gave us time to eat dinner and then head over to the venue.

We had pretty crappy seats, but that was because all 5 of us bought tickets together. We were in the last row of the pavilion, but it was still rockin'. They played an awesome set, including... ALL of Moving Pictures!!! That was incredibly cool. What songs I can remember (probably not in order):

-Spirit of Radio
-Some song off of Presto (which I don't own)
-Time Stand Still
-Leave That Thing Alone
-Workin Them Angels
-BU2B (off their upcoming album Clockwork Angels)
-Freewill
-Marathon
-Subdivisions

Intermission

MOVING PICTURES! Which includes:
-Tom Sawyer
-Red Barchetta
-YYZ
-Limelight
-The Camera Eye
-Witch Hunt
-Vital Signs
-Neil Peart DRUM SOLO!!!!
-Caravan (Clockwork Angels)
-2112 (Overture & Temples of Syrinx)
-Closer To The Heart
-Far Cry

Encore:
-Villa Strangiato (WOOHOO!)
-Working Man (Reggae intro...!)

They played phenomenally. I can't believe these guys have been making music since the early 70's. Who knew 3 Canadian dudes could be so cool? It's amazing how much great music only 3 people can make. I was superbly impressed with all the pieces they played. Everything sounded great and Geddy Lee actually got all the high notes. I'd never seen Rush live so was unprepared for the raw power of the combined forces of Geddy, Neil, and Alex (yeah, we're on a first-name basis). Neil played a crazy drum solo, which as far as I know, is staple to Rush's concerts. Alex Lifeson busted out some rockin' guitar skills, and Geddy was all over that bass guitar. In short, an awesome concert.

After leaving the venue at about 12:30, accidentally driving past the Arch 3 times, and stopping for gas stations 3 times, we were on the road back home. We made it to Indy at about 5am after the time change... Yikes! From there everybody headed their separate ways home. Completely worth the traveling though.

It was a completely epic trip that will definitely go down in the books!

The only salvageable photo from the concert.
Workin Them Angels