Ok, so I don't know if any of you have seen this awesome show called Life, but I totally love it. It's basically about this cop who gets accused of murder and sent to prison. After 12 years, DNA evidence comes to light exonerating him, and he gets out with a huge settlement and his old job back on the force. While he was in prison, he went all zen and now he's kind of crazy (the whole prison thing will do that to you), and I'm kind of in love with him and his red hair and pasty-ness. Anyway, the show's got a week to week procedural thing going for it, but the overarching storyline is that he's looking for the people who set him up and trying to piece his life back together. So it's awesome, and you guys should all go watch it on nbc.com.

I was also getting in to Dexter season 3, but then I got side tracked by Life so I still have 4 episodes before I finish that. I'm kind of excited for him to marry Rita, and I think Miguel is bad news.

On a separate note though, have any of you seen The Curious Case of Benjamin Button? Cause my Mom and Dad wanted me to go see it with them and I pretty much flat out refused. I have a feeling I would cry through the entire movie and then leave depressed, but not having actually seen it, I don't really know. Any thoughts, feelings, opinions? Keep in mind I have previously cried in movies such as Braveheart, Gladiator, and (oddly enough) the live action version of Peter Pan (I just thought it was really sad that everyone else went off and lived together and he stayed in Neverland all alone).

Anyway, the moral of this story is you should all watch Life, I should watch more Dexter, and I cry in movies. Hope you guys had a good Christmas.

Sidenote- my friend clock should read Eastern Time, not Central.

Christmas Joy

So...my parents think that I work too hard, and that I need more distractions in my life...so they bought me a Wii for Christmas, which was an incredible surprise-because frankly, I haven't played video games by myself since sophomore year (although I did hook it up and play bowling for half an hour today only to wish that I was drinking copious amounts of SoCo Black Label as I did so).

So...yeah. I need to buy some games. Looking for suggestions that aren't Zelda/Guitar Hero.

Merry Christmas Everyone!

I hope you all are doing well and enjoying your holidays. I'm back home in Raleigh for a bit, and am enjoying seeing old friends and family. It's been quite warm here, which is a nice change from Boston. Take care guys.

Indeed...

I concur...except replace football with a bunch of people in an unheated garage with a single table, some plastic cups, and ping pong balls. The beer in a can is a must...

Ah...football

I'm watching football for the first time since the middle of October. Of course, the Rams aren't playing because the game is Blacked-Out on TV based on the fact that nobody in town gives a flying fuck about them based on, you know, the suckiness. Besides that, though, I forgot how much I love this game. I woke up at 11. I made waffles. I'm still wearing my sweatpants. Life is good.

A few things:

1. I wish that I had NFL Sunday Ticket, b/c the highlights of the New England/Arizona game at Foxboro in the SNOW! makes it look freaking awesome.

2. Low in St. Louis tonight: 5. 5 degrees. Farenheit. I had to, against all of my pride, turn on the heat in my apartment for the first time (mostly because the lady told me I had to). And I fully plan on doing nothing all night but sit inside, drink beer out of cans with my equally over-motivated high school friends, watch football, and laugh at anyone who is cold at the Meadowlands.

Life is Good. Yay not-law-school

Who is this Ponzi guy anyway?

I am sure we all have different tolerance levels for national news (I know I can't watch news on TV for more than a few minutes without losing my mind) but some of the over-told stories out there do in fact have interesting backstories (shoes!). This whole Madoff (Modaff in disguise?) Ponzi-scheme business is pretty unbelievable. The crazy thing is how all of these financial woes seem to come one after another in waves, but as Warren Buffet said, "you only find out who is swimming naked when the tide goes out." Well it certainly sounds like Mr. Modaff (Madoff) was going commando.

When it comes to financial meltdowns and general investor-related mayhem people always wonder why they didn't see it coming. Well the answer is usually that someone did, but noone wanted to listen (see Noriel Roubini about our current financial woes). Turns out that was true of this Ponzi character as well. This is a report submitted to the SEC 3 years ago, and honestly I think it is pretty funny shit (even though it is full of stock market mumbo-jumbo). For an explaination of split-strike conversion listen to the Planet Money podcast here (if you haven't heard of it you should check it out b/c it makes you feel a little less lost in the mayhem).

Every day I become more like my father . . .

My friends and I went out for dinner the other night, and the waitress recommended a number of specials and items on the regular menu by telling us that each item was "really good." I found myself quite annoyed by this and tempted to point out to her that if she was going to apply the same adjective to everything, then it really didn't mean anything. Alan, I was of course reminded of all that "nice" and "light" wine we had in California. What stuck in my mind most, though, was that this is exactly the kind of thing my dad always complains about at restaurants. Though I am glad that I am still able to keep my mouth shut (at least until I get online and tell you all about it), I see myself in danger of becoming even more like my father.

I Love You Nick....

...not only because you had a Nick Birthday but also because your way of recreating the event is most Nick like in its literary/comedic technique.

Alan what is this Campusfood student soup kitchen nonesense I keep seeing. And why does facebook keep telling me about it?

Pretty soon there is going to be a Casino application that will track and publish your gambling record.

I have made $30 on campus cash food frenzy today

that is all...

Because everyone loves them...

So...yesterday was the last day of my finals...and my birthday. So at Noon, I started drinking (after my 4 hour CivPro final-which I'm pretty sure I was the only person in my section who studied for based on the fact that everyone pretty much let out a big ol "whatever" during the thing and got done a half-hour before the time was up. No big deal.

So...law school peeps bought me shots...and I got to rambling and bumming cigarettes off of people, and before I knew it, it was 5 pm...and I'd been drinking for 5 hours...and it was dark outside. So I wandered my ass to the Grand metro station (P.S...you know that whole "most dangerous city in America thing" that we all ignored at WUSTL b/c we lived in a bubble? Yeah...SLU doesn't have that. The Grand metro is under the highway, and I think if It hadn't been 20 degrees outside and all the muggers were inside being lazy somebody totally would've relieved my drunk ass of my laptop/wallet/iPod.) where I had a nice conversation with my parents while drunk. I'm pretty sure it went something like this:

DRUNK NICK: HIMOMANDDADITSMYBIRTHDAYANDIMDONEWITHFINALSWOOO

Nick's Midwestern Parents: Hi Honey! We're glad you're...alive. Are you going home now? Are you driving?

DRUNK NICK: IMGOINGHOMEWEWENTOUTITWASFUNNOIMTAKINGTHETRAINIDONTLIKEFINALS

NMP: Oh...good for you honey. Well, be safe.

DN: OKBYELOVEYOU

Note: this is the first time in my life that I'm ABSOLUTELY POSITIVE my parents knew I was drunk when talking to them on the phone. Ironically, It's also the only time that I've ever thought they'd be okay with it. Because, let's be honest, if it was your son's birthday and he'd been locking himself in a room with a book every day for the past 3 weeks--you'd want him to go get a little silly too, I don't care where you're from.

Anyways...I definitely sent my friends a facebook message telling them we should go out later that night. I soon thereafter passed out. I woke up an hour before I told them to meet me in the CWE, made a pizza...sent out another message saying I was tired and was staying in...and passed out at 9:45.

I woke up at 10:30 this morning.

Best. Birthday. Ever.

Pirates!!!

Just so everyone knows I spend most of my time raving about pirates after reading the news these days. I am of course talking about the Somali flavor. I have some very strong opinions on how to deal with the problem and none of them involve pillow fights and tickling. I think it is my mind's way of deflecting from the red minus sign next to the big number in the stock column.

Also with the shoe thing. I must say I am not impressed by the Secret Service response time if you watch the video. I think they have senioritis. I mean shouldn't the guy in the back be looking for suspicious behavior like people taking shoes off. And shouldn't they be on top of the guy before he can let loss the second one. All I can say is if that had been a more serious projectile like a pie, Bush would have been licking whip cream off his face before anyone would have stopped the clown.

Not keeping up with the blog

Ok. I need to start checking this thing...and writing. To hit an old topic here is my viewing: HIMYM: awesome, Heroes: not great, 30 rock: mediocre as always, Dexter: not watching, The
Office: has been better, House: no better no worst, CSI: same ole same ole, Colbert and Stewart: still like both, Family guy: not good, and Doogie Howser cause I missed it the first time round. I watched Arrested Development (all of them) to figure out what the fuss was about and I still don't see it. Really not very funny. I am excited for more Burn Notice but recognize it may not have much life left in it and am indifferent about LOST. BTW I just saw an interview with Hiro talking about his first audition and realized Claire is dumb as sin in real life. Like pants on head stupid.

Well I start grad school on Jan 13 so I will then be able to join in complaining about work and exams.

Ohmigod....shoes

1. What everyone doesn't realize is that those shoes were supposed to be a gift. And the angry yelling wasn't screaming--it was a poor middle-eastern translation of "Sweet Child O' Mine" (the sound guy was asleep at the wheel. Obviously, this fellow was just so enamored with our still-president that he felt he should give him a gift for...you know...fucking up his country.

Can we just have our bike?

2. I've instituted a new "no sitting by jappy girls at the library" policy. This morning, three of them literallly talked to each other in for five minutes despite my angry glares. And then one of them picked up her phone and started chatting...right there.

MEMO TO STUPID PEOPLE: Just because you talk in a breathy voice does not mean you are whispering. I can hear you. You are loud. My mother would be disappointed in you for forgetting the 6 inch voice lesson.

On a happier note...can we all sit back and remember how a year ago tomorrow, Alan got drunker than me on my birthday and "Fuck you...you stop drinking" was born?

Good times.

Shoes?

So I just thought I would let you all know that CBS thought it was necessary to interrupt my football viewing to tell me that some Iraqi journalist threw his shoes at the president. What?

p.p.s. I just figured out the inline comment thing (I know, I'm completely technologically challenged). You guys make me laugh, and I heart you.

So while all you guys are working, going to the library, and generally being productive members of society- I am doing nothing. In fact, I really can't even be bothered to keep up with good tv. The only show I even watch on a regular basis is Heroes (and let's be honest- that is not good tv) and that's really only because of Robin. So thank you Robin, for forcing me to do something on a regular basis at least once a week.

Actually, I've been spending an inordinate amount of time re-reading the Wheel of Time books as of late. Dan can attest to the fact that they are both long and numerous. But other than that, I go to work every day from about 9:30 to 4. During this time, I would say I average about 1 hour of real work (although on some days it's alot closer to 1o minutes) and I spend the remainder of my time in the lab reading, sleeping, going to lunch for at least 1.5 hours, and talking about nothing with my co-workers. Our topics of conversation include: girly drinks, paintball, superheroes, communication between males and females, how to kill someone and dispose of their body (surprise- I brought that one up), and how I'm a dork for liking elves. So the moral of this story is that I do nothing with my life, and it's really kind of nice, if a little boring. I got into UT med school so I'm pretty excited about that. I figure I should bask in my laziness now because it won't be lasting for too much longer. Anyway, that's pretty much it, and if anyone wants to suggest some good books to me, I would be happy to read them while I am getting paid to work.

p.s. Nick we can be friends because you like elves too, but I think I'm going to refrain from making bad decisions. Even if I had been drunk, I'm pretty sure I would have laughed in that guy's face. I really can't even describe to you just how much of a tool he was.

I can't believe Alan Butler works harder than I do

Hey hey. I too live in a place that is unreasonably cold (27 degrees right now with a high of 31). However, in staunch defiance of New England weather, I have been outside playing frisbee for the last 2 hours. I find it extremely amusing that while we both have exams next week, I spent today slacking off and Alan Butler spent it in the library. Something is wrong.

As for how my life is going: I'm enjoying myself here at MIT, though not nearly as much as I enjoyed myself last year when all we did was sit around watching tv and playing baggo. I started doing research almost immediately after I got here, and have managed to make some progress on my project. Not nearly as much as I'd like, mind you, but I've been told that I've actually mangaed to get more done than they expected me to, so that's something. Also, I have the next 5 1/2 years or so to work on it. The research really has been the highlight of my semester, which I guess is a good thing since it's why I'm here in the first place. My Quantum class is over, thankfully. I feel like that class was such an incredible waste of my time and brainpower. All I have left now is my Stat Mech exam. This class has been ok. The lectures aren't very good, but the problem sets are reasonable and worthwhile. My classes this semester have really made me appreciate the quality of instruction I had at WashU.

So I guess that wasn't so much a snapshot of my day as much as it was my depressing life in 30 seconds.

60 Degrees... I Kinda Hate you

Yes, it's 38 degrees here, and that's up from a high of 19 yesterday.  I'm also at school studying, but what else is new.  I feel like I would die of shock if I saw AJB in a library though.

So I definitely got pimped this morning.  For those of you not hip with medicial slang, PIMPing is Put In My Place(ing), residents regularly get pimped by attendings, med students by residents and attendings, and first years get pimped by everyone.  It involves getting asked rapid-fire questions to which you usually don't know the answer.  I was shadowing my physician mentor, who is awesome, but his fellow attending pounced and totally owned me on my history-taking skills.  Ouch.  It's almost like frat hazing, I feel like people do it because it was done to them, rite of passage nonsense and such.

Also, is imbibification a word?  I have my doubts.

I just got made fun of for wearing the same fleece three days in a row.

First, Alan, when you Blog you sound like a game show host in this weird "What will you win? You'll win a BRAND NEW CAR! Isn't that spectacular!" kind of way. I dunno how I feel about that. It gives me a vibe.

I'm in the library...staring at people wandering about lindell boulevard with their "joy" and their "free time" as I write tiny little notes in my copy of the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure. My last test is on monday...and I will take it regardless of how bad the pending ice storm is (which, as per usual, not only happens to occur on my birthday BUT ALSO the same day that MODOT decided they wanted to shut down the second section of 64/40) or how bad traffic is going the three miles from my apartment to school. I don't care if I'm the only person in a cold room and I have frostbite...I'm done with this shit at noon.

P.S...Rissa--you need to make more bad decisions with strange southern men that invite you to their bed. It may not seem like a good decision now, but just sit back and think about how many terrible decisions have led to stories that you have heard me repeat endlessly after moderate imbibification of alcohol. Don't you want to be like Nicholas P? No? Not even a little? I read Tolkien once...lets be friends.

Silly Saturday

So...in an effort to randomly socialize and distract myself from work that I could be doing on this fine December Saturday I will identify a bit of news/media/pop culture that is currently on my mind, and I will give a brief snapshot of my life as it exists today. I suggest you all do the same (it could be fun and/or cathartic!).

It is too depressing to talk about the state of the economy right now, so I'll just lead with: down-low. Besides frequent casual uses has anyone ever heard this phrase used in a stereotypical racist or homophobic way? Because I certainly never had before about a month ago when my friend mentioned it, and now they're even talking about it on the Daily Show. Look it up...

As for my day...it is sunny (sometimes cloudy) and 60+ degrees outside (which, sickeningly enough is 'chilly') and I am about to head to my current base of operations...the library! (yes I do go to the library now). I have a torts exam on Monday and I will stop at nothing to procrastinate when possible, so please follow up/ridicule/answer/make random posts on our group wall.

More on posting...

Also you don't need to make a new blogger account to post...your gmail/igoogle account works fine (so if you're logged in to gmail it should just let you post).

Quick comments

I don't know if this will be useful, but if you select something posted on the page (less than 100 characters) and click the 'inline comment' link on the right side you can make a quick comment on it without going through the whole 'new post' process.

Pictures

If anyone wants to make (or has already made) a FLIKr or other kind of web photo album with some old Wash U pictures then post a link and I'll set up the slide show.

Also movie premiers look way more exciting when paparazzi take pictures of them

I live right down the street from the Westwood Fox Theater, which is one of those places in L.A. where they roll out the red carpet a few times a month and people gather around to spot the occasional star walking in to see the latest buddy dog/pig/cat-cop flick. After my first exam I was walking home and the crowds were huge because Benjamin Button was premiering. But rather than exciting it was mostly inconvenient because Brad Pitt was nowhere to be seen and there were tons of people standing on the sidewalk doing nothing or taking pictures of people taking pictures of other people who they probably mistook for someone who was famous.

We all know you do more than just watch TV when you're in bed...

I haven't been keeping up on the Dexter lately, but that itself is evidence that the show is not what it used to be. I don't know what to do with Heroes either...cuz I obviously keep watching it for some reason. Does it make more sense now that it makes less sense? Or do I just love the ridiculousness of it all? Maybe I just watch because Claire is hot and there are lots of flashy powers (Petrelli father was a good addition though)

I agree with HIMYM=gold as well as 30 Rock

I do wonder what my life has come to when I only find time for a few TV shows a week (separation anxiety)...and seriously why can't I have another season of Journeyman? At least they kept Chuck...

All I do is study and watch TV before I go to bed.

Seriously...

But, as a result--my views on the current TV season thus far.

Heroes- Sucks. Bad. Like...embarrassingly bad. Not only because it doesn't make any sense (Sylar's good...then he's bad...then he wants cake.) but because it's just plain ridiculous.
I would like the following characters to die: Mohinder, Daphne, Matt, 10 y/o Hiro, and Nathan.
I would also like Peter to get his powers back...and Claire to stop whining and be more hot.

Dexter- Started crappy. Turned really good. But I fear it's drifting into formula
PREDICTION: Deb finds out.

HIMYM: Gold.

30 Rock: Gold

Office: (which none of you liked anyway) Terrible.

House: Meh. Still entertaining. They need to put some security in at that damn hospital though, sheesh.

New Show to watch: The Mentalist...really. Just because my mom likes it doesn't mean you can't too.

Empty wall

Hopefully after some relatively short amount of time this thing will start to take shape and make sense. Until then move/tweak/add/alter it to your satisfaction. Also Californication>Dexter...discuss!