winter snapshots

It finally really snowed here. Well, not that great of a snowfall, but the best we've had (better than flurries that don't accumulate). Princeton is painted in 1 inch of pure white icing (how long will that last ...) and I woke up the next morning and rushed to my window to stare in wide-eyed wonder at the new world. Really. That's what happened. Anyway, since I had an autumnal progression album to photographically document the changing of the leaves, I decided to put up a winter album, except instead of a progression, this album is called "winter snapshots" because no one wants to see pictures of a grey tree branch that doesn't change all throughout winter unless it has some fluffy snow on it. So look at the new album ... just a few pictures of the snow on that first morning.

free adventures

Last night I went on a last minute adventure for free. I headed up to New York City for a showing of Blue Man Group. It was fantastic. How was it free, you may ask? Well, Luc's best friend, Malissa, lives and works in New York. Specifically she has this totally sweet job where she works for Blue Man Group in NYC. She told Luc that occasionally she gets emails saying that they have extra tickets for the next night's show ... that last minute. Luc told her to call him if that ever happens, because he'd go. So, Tuesday night at dinner, Luc got a phone call. Malissa said the tickets were being offered, he asked me if I wanted to go, I didn't hesitate with my "yes" and about 30 minutes later we had a confirmation email from Malissa saying that we got the tickets. Sweet.

Oh, and the NJ Transit trains are free this week to students, so our ride to New York was free too. I win.

ddr tournament = awesome

Since bringing Martha's Dance Dance Revolution (DDR) equipment with me to Princeton, many have been asking me when we were going to have a big DDR party or tournament. It was decided to hold one in the New Grad College TV Room (big wide screen TV) on the evening after we all finished our Thermo final. That was last night.

So I put together a double elimination tournament bracket including everyone in the class (minus Baley since she had to study for an exam for the next morning) plus Luc and Peter (our math TA) and we even got Laura (Plasma Physicist) in there.

Being the dork that I am, I used a random number generator to put together the initial match-ups. Let me tell you, there were some good match-ups. The main event was, by far, Ashwin vs. Varun, our two Indian classmates. They had never played before, yet Ashwin tore up the dance floor, losing in the 2nd round of matches in the winner's bracket. In an unforeseen upset, Luc beat me in the 2nd round of matches in the winner's bracket. That sent me to the loser's bracket, which brought heckling from Bob. His heckling was short lived, however, when he lost to Samantha in the 3rd round of matches in the winner's bracket. Beth, never having played before, did fairly well in her match-ups and just barely lost to Justin in the loser's bracket. Yoosik went on to the 2nd round in the winner's bracket (defeating Santiago) but then forfeited because he had to leave the tournament. In his place, we managed to convince Laura to play Ashwin (no small feat). After her first loss, however, she refused to play anymore, giving Justin a "bye" in the 3rd round in the loser's bracket. For all his talk, I beat Bob in the loser's bracket then went on to match up with Luc once more to determine the winner of the loser's bracket. This time, he upped his play level to standard (from light ... since he's good now). I beat him. Easily. It was no contest. Then I went on to play Samantha and after a tight match, I came out ahead. It was a good game though. Good tournament. I hope everyone had fun. I know I did.

Pictures from the event are in the princeton album, so check them out. Main event pictures are there, Tom going crazy, even a shot of Laura.

dinner in nyc

I love how I can just go to New York for dinner. That's just so ... cool. I had an awesome dinner Friday night as I met up with some of Luc's Vassar friends (Malissa, Joe and Lee) in the city. We went to a Japanese Steak house (my first time going to a place like that) and had BBQ. The best part, we grilled it ourselves on our table. That's just the coolest atmosphere ever.

There is something about eating meat off of a hot grill with chopsticks that just makes it, in one word, delicious.

poetry

This is the text message I received from Luc at 12:46PM. 46 minutes after completing his prelims:

Done at triumph beer is hope test is bad maybe passed drunk

If that isn't poetry, I don't know what is.

it's official

Just wanted to let everyone know that Dr. Chris Floudas is officially my thesis advisor and for the next five years I will be working on In Silico Methods and Tools for Structural Proteomics in Toxicology. That's a mouthful, isn't it. Let me break it down:

• in silico = computer simulation


• proteomics = large scale study of proteins


• toxicology = adverse effects of chemicals on living organisms

So basically I'll be doing computer simulations to come up with new proteins that could potentially act as vaccines for diseases (think of the HIV-virus). Yes. I'm going to cure AIDS. I'm such an idealist.

snew should be the past tense of snow

Ah yes. The first snowfall in NJ. Or something. Ok, so this morning there appeared blizzard-like conditions which prompted Luc and I to hurriedly finish our breakfast and run amok outside for 20 minutes, at which point the snow abruptly stopped and the sun came out. It started to accumulate. It would have been awesome if it lasted all day. Alas, it did not. However, I did document our frolicking with some pictures. They've been added to the princeton album. View them at your leisure. Oh, and when we were done with the coldness, we celebrated by building a fire in the common room. Isn't life grand?

have my new year's eves turned around?

So I've been called out on not posting a story. For this I apologize. I have just been so busy since I've been back at school that I've hardly had the time. I've been swamped with watching anime, reading novels, staying in my pj's until 6:14 on a Friday evening ... life is good, I must say.

I find that when I look back on my history of New Year's Eve celebrations, many have left much to be desired. I mean, if you think about it, it's a pretty crap holiday in general, and not really worth that much celebration. So the calendar that we arbitrarily invented has looped around yet again. Hooray. However, in my quest to be celebratory, I fear I have often set myself up for disappointment.

I found that I am not the only one to suffer from this malady. While surprising a certain friend (Mrs. Laura Coleman Bacon) for her birthday in Maryland this past September, we got into a discussion on New Year's Eve celebrations and how ours have been pretty dismal and we decided to celebrate it for real this time around. We originally planned on going to NYC because, well, on TV that always looks like a lot of fun, and I figured I'd like to try it at least once before I die. Unfortunately, we were not initially aware of how bad of an idea that would be. How does this sound for fun: get there by 1PM, be locked in a cage, with no alcohol and not even the ability to go to the bathroom. So what, we just sit there like a bunch of cattle and scream like crazy when the camera men cue us? Not really my idea of a good time. Luckily, Laura discovered this early on and came up with an alternate idea: Ocean City, Maryland.

Now, Ocean City, MD is a city just south of the Delaware border on the Atlantic coast of Maryland. It is apparently a pretty cool summer resort place. We decided to book a couple of hotel rooms (very cheaply, I might add, since winter at a summer resort city is not their high season) and enjoy each other's company. It was going to be Laura and Charlie (the happily married couple), Katie and Aaron (the recently engaged couple, and friends of Laura and Charlie's), and me. Since I did not feel like being a 5th wheel among all this marital bliss, I coerced Luc to come along by not telling him where we were going. See, Luc likes adventures, so if I framed this outing as an adventure, he'd be sure to come. As predicted, he ditched studying for prelims and accompanied me on the 3.5 hour drive to northern Maryland.

There was some debate as to what to do once we had all assembled at the luxurious Comfort Inn, equipped with scenic views of the air conditioning system of the neighboring Denny's. After greetings and introductions and some hanging out, we had dinner at the Greene Turtle, a fairly good restaurant around the corner. It was going to be tough getting a table, since that evening there was a Baltimore Raven's game and the restaurant was showing the game so it was mobbed with Raven's fans. Lucky for us, though, a table opened up after only a few minutes wait. We immediately ordered about 30 boneless buffalo bites (termed "turtle bites") and devoured them. They were soooo good. Dinner was good. The fries were amazing, and being a french fry connoisseur, you know they must of been good. After that, we headed back to the hotel and decided that Laura and Charlie had stocked up their mini-fridge with enough alcohol to get us through the evening ... and much cheaper than paying for covers at the bars along the strip. Before getting back to the hotel, however, we had to stop at the grocery store because we wanted to buy a deck of cards for the usual card game that would ensue. While there Laura bought Katie a crab hat for her birthday (Katie's birthday is January 1st). What is a crab hat, you may ask? Well, it was a red foam visor in the shape of a crab. It was a big hit.

Upon returning to the hotel, we simply celebrated together and enjoyed one an other's company. Nothing like being in the company of good friends. We played some cards. Drank some chocolatinis. Around 9PM we all headed down to the pool because what else does one do at a hotel? That was quite fun. We had a series of chicken fights. Me and Luc versus Laura and Charlie. Me and Luc won every time. We're unstoppable. I dare anyone to challenge us. Midnight came and we drank champagne and toasted to one another. Quite convivial. Shortly after that, Laura and I decided it would be a good idea to run into the ocean for the first time that year. Good idea? Great idea? So we dragged Charlie and Luc across the street and to the beach and they watched as we hiked up our jeans and ran holding hands into the frigid surf. That'll wake one up, for sure. We proceeded to do it about 5 times, laughing and giggling the whole time like we were 7 and 8 years old again.

So what did I realize about this New Year's Eve celebration? I needn't find the most extravagant party to attend, or do something crazy and unusual. I simply need to get together with my closest friends and ring in the new year with them. That's all the celebration is about. Just another excuse to get together with the people you love.