A Red Letter Day

Spencer and I have officially started our rap careers. He's a man who is into large drinking containers and so has donned the name 'Big CUP', aka 'Big C-U-P' and I'm gonna be the straight up 44 oz copilot 'The Fly Emirate'. We already made a rap about sandwiches, who knows what we'll treat up next. Stay tuned?

I've been working a lot lately and that's a good thing because I have a lot of work! Research is a harsh mistress and I may not always treat her right, but I still love her (And that was Merle Haggard with his new hit "I Kiss My Baby With My Fist."). My physical intuition has been riled up lately and I've been making some good progress, and I am definitely reinterested in my project. That's one thing you learn in research projects that can last for years: you have to learn how to re-fall in love with the problem you're solving each time. It's not simple, but the honeymoon phase is always nice. I've also realized that if my ideas work and I run them to fruition, the good outcome is that I solve the HBT puzzle. That's sort of a long standing problem, and it would be nice to solve it while I'm a grad student. The bad outcome is I close off another case, and maybe gain some insight about how we really need to approach this problem. Teaching is good, and I'm glad I like it. Classes are so-so, but I always shine when tests come around.

I'm getting to know the Chinese grad students pretty well -- there sure are a lot of them -- and that's been fun so far. They have an odd idolation of American culture, and I am just too happy to indulge them. They have been encouraging me to learn Mandarin, and have been giving me mini-lessons. It's SVO so it's a lot like English really, and in the ways it isn't it's simpler. Efficient. My kind of language.

I haven't been able to order the trucks or wheels for my new skateboard yet, and that's a bit of a bummer. It'll happen soon though, and that's exciting. From just standing on the deck it feels a lot better than what I was skating on before, and that makes me feel more comfortable about protecting my neck -- watch ya step kid.

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