My Cat Is Cuter Than Yours

I'd rather sit here and listen to Christmas music and hold my warm kitty than study for exams any day.
Moka is such a procrastination enabler.

Supposed Fail = Epic Win

Sometimes things that happen in movies do work in real life.

!

I feel a big fail comin' on...

Updates later on The Murder Mystery Dinner!

Jack Johnson & Physics

I am sitting listening to Jack Johnson and reading my book 'The Flying Circus of Physics'. It's a really interesting little book about the physics behind day-to-day phenomenon (such as mirages, tides, and why wintergreen lifesavers spark when bitten). I had a long and very stimulating conversation tonight with a good friend about physics, astronomy, the point behind both, why astronomy is a worthwhile science, life in general and green flashes, amongst other (non)related things. Astronomy is an endlessly fascinating subject (to me, of course).

Last weekend I took a practice physics GRE, which is a notoriously challenging and frustrating exam. I scored absolutely dreadfully, but to be honest, I'm not that upset. I had never seen quite a lot of the material, simply because I haven't taken the classes yet, or reached the material in current classes. And the majority of the material was based on previous classes I haven't thought about in... well, too long I guess. All in all, I'm not happy with my score, but I'm not unhappy either. Also, it was just a practice exam! The physics GRE is unlike any other exam a physics student has ever taken or will ever take again. This seems Just Plain Dumb to me, but just yesterday one of the astro profs explained her reasoning why the GRE is actually indicative of grad student success. It made a lot of sense at the time, especially for physics grad studnets, but much less for astronomy, and unfortunately there is no astronomy GRE... But yes, I scored pretty low- a 500 out of 999, which isn't toooo bad for this test, but the GRE is very odd in the sense that it is (essentially) scored on a comparison scale of how others did on that particular exam. On this certain one I took (from '91...), others scored fairly high, so I was only in the 13th percentile, which means I scored higher than only 13% of the test-takers for this particular test... Yeahhhhh. Not the best %, but my raw score wasn't horrendous. I've had to have this process of scoring explained to me a few times before I fully grasped it, so don't really worry about the details... Long story short- the physics GRE sucks.

This weekend is going to be crazy, but I will have a lot to say at the end. Until then, enjoy some photos from my recent(ish) life. 

Jenny and I at the Rent show!

Moka bein' cute

One of the most legit meals I've ever made: Pan-fried tofu and veggies with thai noodles (after I ate some of it...)

Some Things

My beautiful Autumn decorations, skillfully cut and wound by Jenny and Lauren

Last Friday Dinner was in the spirit of Autumn and Fall-themed. As a double-header, we also celebrated Halloween by wearing costumes (those of us that were cool enough to dress up). On the Autumn Menu:

-Barley with peppers from Steven's garden
-Homemade bread
-Green beans
-Sweet potato
-Soup
-Pumpkin bread
-Pumpkin pie
-Steven's homemade rhubarb sorbet
-A nice white wine
-Hot cider to top it all off

Such a happy family we make! From left: me, Alec, Jenny, (Steven taking picture), and Lauren. Eric, as always, is late.

 Let the apple bobbing begin! I can remember bobbing for apples once ever in my life and it was very long ago. I went into it thinking it would be a piece of cake. YEAH RIGHT.

Superman's first attempt. Not as easy as it looks.

Eric and I try to tag-team it by using teamwork. Another fail.

 After much eating and talking, we played piano and sang a myriad of songs late into the night. Inevitably things ended with Steven and I going through the score of Joseph & The Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat. All in all, a great night.

Oh, I suppose that I forgot to mention who came in costume. Jenny was Superman, Alec a cowboy, Eric dressed as Con, a professor in the astro department.
I of course portrayed Gravity, dressing up as a tree. When people asked what I was, I would drop an apple (that I carried with me all day, waiting with palpable excitement for someone to ask what I supposed to be) and say '9.8 m/s/s'.
All in a day's work for this uber-nerd.

Finally I just cheat and push the apple to the bottom, sinking my whole face in. BUT I GOT THAT APPLE. (Look at that guilty face...)