I do love ranting. . .

You know, in case you guys forgot.

Anyway, MIT has really been pissing me off recently, which we'll call excuse #1 why I haven't been posting on the blog. I was supposed to take the last part of my qualifying exam this semester, so I've spent most of the semester wasting time and telling myself I should start studying. They were supposed to assign me a testing committee with whom I would schedule my exam. Well it's been two months or so and I still don't have a committee, which means I still don't have an exam day. It's damn near impossible to schedule anything in December, and professors are so busy they can't be scheduled less than a month in advance, let alone three of them for the same time. All this together adds up to about half a semester wasted waiting for a committee assignment and no exam until next semester. BLAH. Also I apparently had a class I need for graduation listed as P/F instead of a grade for credit. After 6 months of hounding various administrative offices here I finally got them to switch it but god damn it was a lot of work. OK I'm done ranting for now.
The silver lining in this exam being pushed back is I have more time to do actual research, which is actually going pretty well. I'm working on a paper right now that I'm hoping to get submitted some time this year. I still have a bunch of analysis to do, but it's some cool stuff. I'll be presenting some measurements on a new material we just reported earlier this year, as well as using those measurements to shed light on an interesting material that is as of yet not well understood. I'll have more on this as it progresses.
The other thing that's been absorbing my time is that I'm TAing this semester for MIT's freshman physics class. It's a lot of work, and grading is a bitch, but overall I'm enjoying it. I get to interact with students in class because the class is taught in this quasi-lecture quasi-group activity format. It's pretty cool. Also, the guy I work for has told me he wants me to give a lecture later in the semester, which I think will be some good experience, so I'm pretty excited about that. I'm also running a seminar for a small group of freshmen, most of whom are in my physics class. Most weeks I just line up professors to talk about their research (it's all cool futuristic engineering stuff), but some weeks I get to give little talks and do fun physics/chemistry demos. For example, a few weeks ago we did Mentos+Diet Coke, and I'm also going to show them how to light up a pickle, and why toast is more likely to fall butter side down. They're mostly pretty bright kids, so they're a lot of fun to work with.

Other than that, I still find some time for mountain biking on the weekends and some ultimate frisbee here and there. Add a smattering of TV and video games and some beer and that's my life. Kinda boring I guess.

Here's my TV breakdown:
Digging:
Dexter- This season has way less of Captain Dick Solomon's ass, which I think is a good call. Also machete-beheading plus Stockholm syndrome ftw.
The Event- This show is incredibly predictable, but it's still a good time and I like the whole aliens/future humans with magic powers thing.
Hell's Kitchen- Who doesn't love Gordon Ramsay screaming at people?
Modern Family- Hilarious every week.

Mildly Entertaining:
House, Chuck- Not as good as they used to be, but I'm still watching.
Oultaw- I'm a sucker for criminal procedure dramas, and I love me some Jimmy Smits, but honestly I'm surprised it hasn't been canceled already.
HIMYM, The Office, Community, and The Big Bang Theory- I think these are all on the way out, but they're still good for a few laughs.
Glee- Really I hate the ridiculous high school drama crap, but they have some interesting covers. I especially enjoyed "Losing my Religion"

Tumbs down:
Agreed on Outsourced and 30 Rock, although I did enjoy the 30 Rock live episode.


No Californication until January? BOOOOO!
I haven't watched any of the new South Park or Futurama, but I don't have comedy central and they're kind of bastards about putting stuff on the internets so whatever.
I've heard good things about Mad Men, but I haven't watched any of it yet.
I'm also interested in Treme, since The Wire was so good. Nick and Alan have you guys still not watched it?

So that's NUT(my life)SHELL. Hope you're all doing well.

P.S. Joseph get your lazy (or more accurately: overworked) butt up to Boston.

Excuses

Joe makes a good point. This blog has been quiet for far too long. I am as guilty as everyone else. It only took me ... two weeks to respond to this post! Maybe we should all take 5 minutes and share a little mini-rant about why we have been blog-less for so long. Basically what is going on in everyone's life right now?

I am finally finding time to relax, which is strangely stressful in its own way. After spending my summer in San Francisco working for an intellectual property law firm I had a few weeks of vacation and traveling before jumping back in to the glory that is law school. Somehow I decided it was a good idea to take two of my four classes in a concentrated format (which means they only meet for 7 or 8 weeks, instead of 15). As a result, I had a very busy first month of school. On top of the busy schedule I found out during that month that my previous employer was not interested in hiring me for a full time position afte school, so I had to start my job search. This job search included applying for judicial clerkships, which Nick can attest to as a huge pain in the ass waste of time. Two weeks ago I started studying for the final exams in my concentrated classes, and last week I finished. Now I have one class a day, four days a week, and a resaerch project to work on, so yay free time!

In response to Joe's TV breakdown, I am behind the curve and slowly catching up, but:

Digging:
Modern Family -- this show is just great, period.
Chuck -- I am a sucker for Yvonne Strahovski and the show is generally witty and fun
Venture Bros -- This show is random as always, but it has its charms

Mildly Entertaining:
HIMYM -- The gimmicks are old, but the cast is still great; how can you say not to Barney?
Family Guy -- The first episode this season was pretty great, even though the show in general is hit-or-miss
South Park -- I anticipate great things as always, but from what I saw of the first episode I wasn't blown away (I was really hoping for a Ground-Zero Mosque episode)
Glee -- Nicolle likes it...and so do many others I have talked to. I've only seen a few minutes of it, but it seems alright.
Entourage -- This show is on a downswing, but I still get a kick out of it.

Thumbs Down:
Gossip Girl -- Nicolle's roommate watchese this, and I don't understand. I really really don't.

Eagerly Awaiting (haven't watched yet) --
Dexter
Californication
Weeds ? -- I heard that this season is really strange, but Mary Louis Parker...so hot

Thoughts?