Hello Spring

Hey all,

Hope everyone is good, been a few weeks since I posted. Going to keep it short. I went up north the 11-15 and had a great trip with Stacy. We did a lot of things and it went by really quick, but it was fun. Im driving up there a week from today, so I'm really looking forward to that. We are going to stay at my sisters for a night and then in Napa for a night, so it will be a nice little getaway for us. Then, my friend Jon is flying into SF on the 31st and he will be out here until the 6th, so for about a week and a half I will have some good company.

On St. Pattys', I went to the Indian Wells tennis tourney for the day. I had a lot of fun, got to see some great matches, and had breakfast with Nonnie (my grandma) that morning. Hmmmm, what else... Turned in my last paper in class last thursday and I have my final this upcoming thursday. Oh yeah got a letter from UCLA... denied. I have heard back from everywhere except Oxford and UCR, UCR still needs my transcripts but Im not going to send them in so blah. Reading a couple different books and been watching March Madness of course. I picked Syracuse to win the whole thing and their chances are looking quite good at this point. Also, Im trying out fantasy baseball this year and had my draft yesterday: I got some pretty solid players so hopefully I have a good first year. I finished Long Way Round, the motorcycle documentary on Ewan McGregor and Charley Boorman riding around the world, and started Long Way Down, where they ride from Scotland to South Africa. It really makes me want to get a bike and go for a ride.

Played tennis yesterday, played really well too considering I havent played in 2 weeks. I'm revamping my serve, so it will take a while until I get back to serving well but once I get there my serve should be a lot better than it was. Hit the ball with a lot of spin yesterday too which is important. My older sister, Shannon, drove down last night too for a few days so that will be fun. What else... Stacy's bday was March 19, Happy birthday babe, and mine is March 26; so I'm turning the big 24 here soon haha.

Anyways, thats about it; things are good. Hope everyone else is well.

Living the ups-and-downs of trying to finish grad school

Welllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllll it was not my favorite week of the year thats for sure. Basically, I got an email from my grad coordinator saying he couldnt sign off on my thesis due to some issues he had with it. He suggested I take it to a political science professor affiliated with the program and see if he would be willing to sign off on it. I've done this, but given the late notice of this and his apparent anger at the whole situation, it is doubtful that he will agree to pass it through. More than likely, Im going to have to do a substantial rewrite of it that will take me into next quarter. It wont change my graduation plans (June) but it will cost me close to $1000 dollars that I dont want to spend. Oh well, what are you going to do right? Such is life.

I finished Friedman's Hot, Flat, and Crowded. Overall, its a really good book, a bit repetitive, but carries a strong message. There is substantial economic incentive to pursuing energy efficiency in the US, and it could help bolster our economy during the 21st century. But as he points out, we are currently not ready to make the hard decisions necessary to move into this direction. If we do move this way, it could be seen as an influential piece that helped trend the country in that direction. I learned a lot, however some parts were a bit dry due to Friedman's detailed explanations on certain energy things, but I liked it.

Didn't have to go to class at all: had a furlough on tuesday and skipped thursdays class. Ill get my essay back in next tuesdays class. Got some bloodwork done and got the results, everything came back great so im as healthy as an ox for now. The next nice thing to do would be to visit a dentist since I haven't seen one in about 5 years, but without insurance thats a no go for now. I began reading Supercapitalism, a book for my econ class, its a pretty easy read and somewhat interesting which helps. Oh, I also bought my tickets for the Indian Wells tennis tournment. Im only going one day this year, March 17, but its the quarterfinals so there should be a lot of great matches that day.

Flying up north on thursday, definitely looking forward to getting away. Have a lot of things planned with Stacy, so it should be a lot of fun. Hmm... I think thats about it for now. See ya later.