Well, I did manage to get out yesterday and take some photos, you can check them out on Flickr. That's about all I've done though... Oh, I did lose a fun game of Cranium last night too. I'm in the process of trying out a new browser, so there may be more to tell later...

Fall break is here! I've enjoyed doing very little today besides TV and playing with my computer, but still, I wish I could think of something excting to do. Perhaps if it's nice again tomorrow I'll go downtown with my camera and see what I can find. I just keep remembering how great last fall break was and worrying that I won't even remember this one! Oh well. One of the highlights for today was finding out about widgets :), they're little applications sort of blend into your desktop and do all kinds of nifty things (display photos, scroll headlines, give weather updates and all sorts of other stuff). Way too much fun, right now I've got about 10 of them :P. I'll probably scale back in the future, but for now, it's widget madness! (you can find out more here: http://www.konfabulator.com/).

Hooray! I survived my the last of this round of exams, and I think it went well. The prof. told us to study our homework, and he wasn't kidding -the first two problems were word for word from our homework, I'm glad I listened to him! After the test, I ate a bleak lunch, we won't dwell on that, and then headed downtown. My cell phone hinge cracked and was starting to threaten to fall off, so I had to go to Radio Shack and turn it over to be sent in for repairs. So, I'm going to have to go back to living phone-less for a bit, guess it'll be good for me... After that stopped by the art museum. Today I went for old Chinese and Japanese art. My favorite piece of the day was a jade carving of a cicada. Apparently they were symbols of rejuvination, and carvings of them were made to put in the mouths of the dead in their tombs - pretty interesting, huh? Reminiscent of Egyptian scarabs, not to mention Silence of the Lambs.

Well, it's been a while. I blame this almost entirely on my professors, they seem to think that there are several more hours per day than I am aware of having. I'm almost through my first round of exams though, and overall they didn't go too badly. I'm really rather sad about rushing though this so fast though, as a graduate student you're supposed to have time to really dig in and understand things, and I don't. I think that if I was taking the usual two years for this, I'd be able to do a much better job. On the bright side though, I am more and more convinced that I really like engineering, and might really be able to enjoy doing it for a living! What a relief!

In other news:
I just got back from a weekend at home. Robbie bought me plane tickets home for my cousin Nils's wedding this past Friday for my birthday. It was a nice wedding, but I still can't quite believe that they're married! It seems so strange... I'm happy for them though, and looking forward to getting used to having a new cousin, and eventually little people :). It was great being home and getting to see everybody, both at the wedding and then today at church. Also got plenty of good home cooked food... yummy.
Only thing of critical importance to do this week: test in Photonics on Tuesday morning - and we've got Thursday and Friday off for Fall Break - no 2.5 hour lectures this week, hooray!!
Robbie is back in the Azores :(. I'm happy for him, because I think he finds it much more interesting being there, but it makes it that much harder for us to talk on the phone (costs money, and there's a time difference to worry about), but he now has internet access in his house, so we can chat and I can leave him messages whenever, which is great :).
Finally, I really like my job at the ARC. It's a great place, the people are great, and I really have fun figuring out how to explain things to the students who come in, it's such a challange to present things in a clear way that helps them to really grasp what's going on. Plus, it's great practice for me, I'm much better at even simple circuit analysis than I was at the beginning of the semester, and I don't think I ever understood op-amps or diodes as well as I do now. Now, if I could only figure out how those differential amplifiers worked again... (actually I think I'm even starting to remember that thanks to 425).

New US map

New US map
Originally uploaded by jacqueline-w.

hehehe

President Bush on last night's debates:

My opponent last night said our troops deserve better. They certainly deserve better than they got from Senator Kerry when he voted to send them to war, and then voted against funding our troops in combat. . . .


"You may remember his famous quote about the supplemental funding that I sent up to Congress. He said: I actually did vote for the $87 billion, right before I voted against it. . . . Last night, he said he made a mistake in how he talked about that vote. But the mistake wasn't what Senator Kerry said. The mistake was what Senator Kerry did. . . .


"He said he was proud of his vote. And, finally, he said the whole thing was a complicated matter. Then he had a new wrinkle, a new explanation. During an interview this week, he described it as a protest vote.


"When we put American troops in harm's way, they certainly deserve better than to have a candidate for President use them as a protest.


"Last night, Senator Kerry only continued his pattern of confusing contradictions. After voting for the war, after saying my decision to remove Saddam Hussein from power was the right decision -- (applause) -- he now says it was all a mistake.


"But asked a logical question, does that mean our troops are dying for a mistake? [AUDIENCE: No!]


"That's what he said, no. You can't have it both ways. You can't say it's a mistake and not a mistake. You can't be for getting rid of Saddam Hussein when things look good, and against it when times are hard. You can't claim terrorists are pouring across the border into Iraq, yet at the same time try to claim that Iraq is somehow a diversion for war against terrorism. The President cannot keep changing his mind. The President must speak clearly. And the President must mean what he says. . . .


"The cornerstone of Senator Kerry's plan for Iraq is that he would convene a summit.


"I've been to a lot of summits. I've never seen a meeting that would depose a tyrant, or bring a terrorist to justice. . . .


"One other point I want to make about the debate last night. Senator Kerry last night said that America has to pass some sort of global test before we can use American troops to defend ourselves. He wants our national security decisions subject to the approval of a foreign government.


"Listen, I'll continue to work with our allies and the international community -- but I will never submit America's national security to an international test. The use of troops to defend America must never be subject to a veto by countries like France. The President's job is not to take an international poll -- the President's job is to defend America."