cozier

Fall is here for sure. Every morning the sun is bright on my face and the air is cool (sometimes downright cold) and crisp. This is my favorite season for sure. For some reason, on autumn mornings, I really feel that the day is full of promise. Of course, the days are no more promising than any other day, but it feels different. The noticeable darkness in the evening is quite cozy at first. I know I will tire of it come mid-November, but for now, it is nice. Makes me want to go home, light my candles, and snuggle up with a book. Too bad I am too busy with school work.

Ah yes, school work. Do you want an update? Well, here it is: 91 pages and I am done! Woot. First Prop is officially written! I still have to bind it and pass it in, so I will hold the celebration off a bit longer, but as of this morning, I finished my abstract and printed it out. Only to discover that the color printer in the lab is terrible and the figures looked like garbage. What to do? Do I fork over $120 to get it printed at Staples or Kinkos (3 copies of a 91 page paper = a lot of money)? No no no. I call dad, who else? Having your dad work for a paper company with printing capabilities has its perks. I emailed him the report around 12:30 pm this afternoon, and circa 3 pm it was being given to a UPS guy to be mailed to me in NJ. 3 copies all printed out. Thanks dad! Now, when I receive them, I just have to bind them and pass them in. A good feeling for sure.

In other news, on Sunday I leave for Utah. Why Utah? Well, that is where the annual American Institute of Chemical Engineers (AIChE) is holding their conference. I'll be there from Sunday to Friday. I go through bouts of nervousness and excitement. Excitement because I've never been to Utah and it looks pretty with the mountains and such, and I'm staying in a super swank hotel, and super swank hotels are fun. Nervousness because I am giving a talk on research I did before I came to Princeton (yes, while I was at URI). I am sure I will be fine, but that does not quite quiet the nerves.

I will be quite a happy camper when I get back from Utah, because the presentation will be over, First Prop will have been handed in, Thanksgiving will be around the corner, and my trip to Spain will be even closer. The only thing I'll have to worry about after that is the oral portion of my First Prop, but that isn't until January!

Until then, I will be content with warming up in my apartment on these blustery fall days. Tonight, I shall drink some cider. Huzzah!

P.S. I uploaded photos from the Halloween parties I went to last week. Have to find some time to have fun!

homecoming weekend

Hooray for Homecoming! I guess you don't realize how much you're going to enjoy it until you move away and miss family/friends/home. I am so glad that everyone was able to come home for the weekend. The whole crew from Germany was there (Ben, Brian, Mikey, Chris, Sareh, Ana, Tom, Nate, Doug, Rob ...). Sorry to those of you I didn't see. It was a very busy weekend for myself.

I had a wonderful time at Sareh's, where she made us Iranian food for dinner. Delicious! Then on Saturday I got up early and practiced with the URI Marching Band ... because I was in the Alumni Band! It was fun. We marched about with the band and marched in the halftime show too. I played the piccolo, which I hadn't played in years, but I did fairly well. Saw lots of people from band too. The best part about the whole game was when my Dad surprised me and showed up at the game. He came and sat next to me and it was just like the good old days. After that, I checked out Brian and Chris's awesome cool old apartment. Well, I suppose it is a new apartment to them, but it is in a really old house, so the floors are sloped and there are fireplaces in every room. It was so cozy! I hope to go there again over Thanksgiving. Was noch, ah yes, then I went home and had some dinner and spent the evening with my Mom. Then bed. In the morning I stopped by Travis' house and saw him. He leaves for Iraq at the end of the month, so it was good to see him before he left. Then I visited with Nannie and also saw Aunt Ginny and Uncle Everett while I was down in Touissette. All in all, a very solid weekend. Can't wait to come home again! As always, there are pictures posted (October 2007 album)!

done and done

Bierabend* couldn't have gone better. That being said, I am sure glad it is all said and done. It was a lot of work, but I am very proud of how it came out. So many professors and grad students came up to us afterwards and said it was the best one they've ever seen. That sure warms the heart. I took, um, 2 pictures during the entire event, and they are in the new "October" album that can be found on my "photos" site. What can I say, I was a little preoccupied with actually running the show, than taking pictures for posterity. I did get one of Justin giving Bob a haircut after he had glued on the "old man hair", a.k.a. Halloween spider webs. It worked well. In the future (probably more distant than near) I will upload some of the skits that we made for Bierabend. I will, of course, let you know when that time comes.

*Bierabend is an evening in which the 2nd year class in my department "roast" the faculty and the department in general, to introduce the department to the new 1st year class, and for everyone's general enjoyment.

phd comics

For those of you who don't know, PhD Comics are hysterical comics about graduate life. The author of the comics, Jorge Cham, spoke at Princeton a few days ago, and I bought the first volume of comics and got it signed by him. So, in the spirit of this being on my mind, I discovered I can post the comics to my own website! Therefore, there is now a new feature. Towards the right, bottom of the page are the latest comics, and this gets updated automatically, and more frequently than I update this page (so it seems), so you can enjoy a nice comic strip while awaiting my posts.

I'll probably have a good post this weekend telling about how things have been, and upload pictures I've taken over the weeks, but just haven't had time to. Until then, enjoy the comics.

so school has started

Wow. I did not realize that my last post was about a month ago. The reason for the delay in posting? School started ... and I hit the ground running. Despite only taking one class, I have been extremely busy. The other two items on my plate? First Prop and Bierabend skits. Now, those two things are rather obscure to those who don't know what I am talking about, so let me explain.

First Prop (short for First Proposition): So as part of my time here at Princeton, I have to leap over many hurtles. The first hurtle was getting a B- or higher in each of the 5 core courses (Fluids, Heat and Mass Transfer, Thermodynamics, Math, and Reaction Engineering). That I did ... last year. The next hurtle is referred to as First Prop. It consists of a written report (typically 60 - 120 pages, or something) due in November (this year, Nov 9), followed by an oral defense of the paper in January. The paper consists of background information about one's thesis, as well as any results that have been obtained since starting last January, and the future direction of the thesis. I currently have ~30 pages (but that includes pages like references, table of contents, list of figures, etc.).

Bierabend (German for Beer Evening): This is an annual tradition in the department of Chemical Engineering at Princeton, whereby the 2nd year class (so my class) organizes an event for the new first year class to get to know the department better. We have a dinner with the first years, with beer, and then the whole department shows up and we (the 2nd years) proceed to make fun of the professors/department through a variety of visuals (live skits, filmed skits, games, etc.). Of course, being the only one in my class who has seriously made/edited films before, I volunteered to be in charge of that. Well, that was a bit more than I wished to handle, but, I do see the light at the end of the tunnel. I have only one more bit to edit and then I am DONE! Stay tuned for possibly postings of skits on YouTube. They are good.