softball season opener

Well, I'm not playing softball, due to my non-existent hand-eye coordination, but I'm cheering on the Princeton Plasma Physics Laboratory (PPPL) team. Every summer, the university has an inter-departmental softball league. This year, Luc spear-headed the efforts to bring a team back for PPPL. They are the PPPL TOKAЪАТС (TOKAЪАТС = tokabats in Russian, which is a play on tokamak, which has something to do with plasma physics ... and when I say it is in Russian, they just took the word "bats" and sounded it out in Cyrillic).

Mart, Travis, Tom and I went to their first game to cheer them on ... they lost 23 to 5 ... or something like that. I lost count when the other team scored 18 runs. It's a "building year", as Luc says. They have a number of people on the team who have never even seen baseball/softball being played, let alone play it themselves. That's what happens when you recruit Chinese, Korean, and Lebanese players. They are all having fun though. I took some photos, as I am wont to do, and you can find them in the "May" album. Stay tuned, there may even be a movie montage at the end of the season.

new background

I decided it was time for a change. Enjoy the new colors.

apple mac music video

Totally awesome music video. Macs are awesome.

done and done

It's official. I have finished the final exam for my last class in my 2nd year in grad school. 2nd year of grad school is considered the hardest year of grad school because its when people typically take generals. Well, my year was typical and I took generals, and I passed them. I am now ready to enter my third year in grad school, the easiest year. It is considered the easiest year because one has passed generals, but writing of the thesis is still too far away to contemplate. It is like a breath of fresh air to know that I don't have any more milestones or hurtles for at least 1 year.

spring at last

It is here at last. And in full force. As my mother can attest, the pollen here in central New Jersey is crazy. I, who have never had allergies my entire life while living in wonderful Rhode Island, can suddenly not step outside without my allergy meds for fear of my eyes stinging like someone has rubbed an onion in them. That is seriously how it feels. Despite that, it is certainly nice to be able to enjoy the outside again. To celebrate, Luc and I went on a picnic supper tonight. It was quite nice. Although, once the sun went behind the trees, it got quite cold. Luckily, I packed sweatshirts.

I finally uploaded pictures I took at "Communiversity": a big street fair in town that was a few weekends ago. That was the weekend my mom came to visit. It was so much fun! I hope she had as much fun as I did and I can't wait for her to come visit me again. The pictures can be found in the "April 2008" album. I meant to write a whole bunch about how much fun I had when my mom came to visit, but then I got busy because it's the end of the semester and now I am lazy. Just take my word for it, it was fun.