Buying some fun and selling my soul

I think I did a terrible thing on Sunday. I bought an XBox 360. I got it for 20% off, which was ridiculously sweet, but now I'm not quite sure what to do with it besides write about not knowing what to do with it. I mean, I was going to buy it eventually, and I figured I should probably avoid the holiday rush. I'm terrible when it comes to putting things off until the last minute, but for some reason that wasn't such a problem when it came buying a 360.

The first-year med students just finished a hellish week of exams last week, and we have one more test this Thursday. I view this purchase as an early Christmas present for myself and as a reward for surviving last week intact. I definitely did worse than on the first round of exams, but nothing worth crying over. The torment did warrant buying a new toy, however. Luckily, Microsoft recently decided to be generous and package a couple of games with the system, and I can still play my old XBox games, but I still need Halo3 for my life to be complete. I put the unopened box in the back of my closet to keep myself from breaking it out before my exam this Thursday. If I make it through this test of self-control with my sanity intact, I'll be a real man, for sure. I purposefully didn't get Halo3 because having both the XBox and Halo3 in my closet would surely spell the end of my med school education. It's all about timing. Maybe over Thankgiving break or winter break might be a safe time to get it all out of my system. It's kind of like taking a leak when you've had several beers (not that I'm even physically capable of doing that). The point is, once you break the seal, it's all over.

Hardly Working

Attempting to write more around exam time was probably a bad idea. Let's just say med school is as hard or as easy as you want it to be. If it weren't for the dang fact that I'm considering some sort of surgical specialty down the road, I don't know if I would be working as hard as I am now. I've also been considering pediatrics, which is a lot less competitive, and recently, I've found emergency medicine somewhat attractive as well. More on these later. Right now, the only field I should be considering is biochem. I love 8 am exams!

Blink of an Eye

I love it when I take a nap expecting it to still be light outside when I wake up... and then it's not. I guess this is why it's so dangerous for me to take naps in my room. I get too comfortable and a nap turns into a coma. When I sleep in public places, like the study lounge or the library or in class, a part of my body eventually goes numb. Actually, I can sleep through the numbness, but the instinctive shifting of my body weight nudges me with a minutia of consciousness. Sometimes I'm conscious enough to feel guilt, which might drive me to actually wake up when I'm sleeping in the second row in lecture. So anyway, the point is I wish I were as good at studying as I am at napping.

It's raining outside right now. I wish I had time to enjoy it. Too bad it's 2:30 am. Time to hit the books.

"It's just one point."

The point of coming to the Daly center was to be more productive. Too bad I have my computer in front of me. Well, at least I can kind of be productive and work towards my goal of writing more. I've hit a temporary roadblock in my studying at the moment, so I won't try to hurt myself by powering through it. That's kind of my goal in med school now... to just try not to hurt myself.

We finished up the second half of our Concepts of Health and Disease (CHD) exam today. It's a team-based learning course, so we did our exam in groups of seven. It's nice to only have to do 1/7 of the total thinking because I don't think I can muster much more out of my brain at this point. Yeah, I know, 1/8 through med school and going strong. At this rate, I'll be using 1/56 of my original brainpower by the time I graduate.

The nice thing about our CHD class is that it's pass/fail, and the questions on our exam all had point values assigned. Our team motto became "It's just one point." I mean, we could answer all the questions, but they also demanded complete rationales. You get to a certain point where you're all rationaled out, and that one point doesn't seem so important in the grand scheme of things. Don't worry, though, we answered all the questions completely, only because we're med students and don't know when to quit.

I've got 2 quizzes on Thursday and 4 exams the next couple of weeks. This is going to be awesome. I feel more on top of the material than I did before our first round of exams, but at the same time, I also feel like I'm a lot farther behind than before. I'm not quite sure how to summarize what I'm feeling right now. Maybe... impending doom?

Long Haul

9:30 am to 2:30 am - 17 hours on campus studying, with intermitent food breaks and light socializing. This is by far the longest I've ever studied in one day in my entire life. Time flies when you're having fun. I imagine there will be more days like this down the road. Thankfully most of the study rooms in Daly have windows. I can't feel the sun on my skin, but at least I get to see that it still exists.

Relatively Speaking

A couple of my younger cousins from Maryland/Virginia came to visit for a couple of weeks. Combined with the cousins I have here in Indiana, it's like a freaking circus. Even one of my youngest cousins asked, when he saw me on Saturday, "Why do I have so many cousins?" They all came over to my house last night because my mom thought it'd be fun to have as spur-of-the-moment barbeque. In Chinese, we say, literally, "grill meat." But the thing about barbeques at my house is that there's very little grilling involved. For example, this time, my mom and grandma made a bunch of food, none of which remotely utilized the grill. Then my mom had me throw a few steaks on the grill, which was a meager amount compared to everything else. And so, voila, we had ourselves a barbeque. Whatever works, I guess.

Anyway, when it comes to my cousins, I always feel like I'm seeing their lives unfold like a montage. One day they're fetuses and the next thing I know they're doing algebra. I also think of it as a crudely put-together flip book. I catch glimpses in sequence, but a lot of the details are missing. And when I catch those glimpses of their social readjustments, their pimpled faces, their scholastic oppression, I think, My god, that used to be me... so glad that's over. And when I catch glimpses of their relentless energy, their unmarred youth, their relative lack of responsibility, I think, My god, that used to be me... so sad that's over.

We played some DDR, which I'm sure significantly decreased the structural integrity of our house from all those kids jumping around. I don't think our house can take much more punishment until we get a bunch of blasted items fixed around here. After most everyone left, a few of us went to play racquetball and swim at a local clubhouse. It must have been around 10:20 pm when we started playing, and we stopped around 11:45. We went around to the pool to find it locked at every door we tried. We might have trespassed a little, but we finally found one gate that was unlocked, which also happened to be our last untried option. My cousins taught me how to swim a bit. Yeah, it's true. I can barely swim. I'm surprised I didn't drown in my own amniotic fluid in the womb. I enjoy being in the water though, so swimming is something I'll just have to keep working on. I'm looking forward to taking advantage of that pool behind my new apartment. My goal is to drink less and less water every time I swim. By next year, I hope to be down to a few teaspoons.

Well, it was so late at the pool that all the lights eventually went out, and we saw some kids who looked like they were also trying to get into the pool. One kid climbed the fence but then climbed back out. We called after him to try to say that a gate was opened, but he probably thought we were shouting at him to get out or something. After I had drunk my fair share of pool water through my nose, we finally got out around 1:10 am. My younger cousin there admitted that she was hesitant about trespassing but was glad that we did. I agreed. This was one of those priceless montage moments. I swear I usually try to be a good role model, but I don't think today was one of those times.

Camera Action

After an entire summer, I finally bought a new camera. My old camera just couldn't take my abuse anymore. I mean, it couldn't even handle a few drops onto pavement. Sheesh. Well, after borrowing my brother's Canon SD550 during my European escapade, I figured it was a pretty sweet camera. So in the spirit of one-upping him, I decided to get the Canon SD800, which is similar in form and function. Unfortunately, he recently got himself a Canon Rebel digital SLR, which eats point-and-shoots for breakfast. I want to see him try to put that SLR in his pocket, though.

Since I'm going to try to take much better care of this new camera, I'm getting a silicone skin cover for it. It fits snugly over the entire camera to protect it from scratches and such. I found a seller on ebay selling these for $12.98, which isn't bad. But then I searched for skins for the Ixus 850 (which is what the Canon SD800 is called outside of the US), and the same vendor was selling those for $11.24. It's the exact same product! And then I noticed that there were also some listings in British pounds, and those converted into about US $12. Sneaky, huh?

So... after blowing thousands of dollars this summer, I figured saving $1.74 should about make up for my spending.

Jumping Out of Planes and Other Short Stories

I went skydiving yesterday. I'm sure it ranks up there as one of the wildest things I've ever done, alongside cliffdiving and cutting my own hair. Skydiving is one of those things that seems to be on everyone's to-do-before-I-die list. I've never made such a list myself, but if I were to make such a list now, skydiving would be on there because I like making lists just so I can cross things off. It's also one of those things where when I'm 40 and have a job and family, I might not be so prone to say, okay, let's jump out of a plane. So I might as well do it now when I'm young and before my future catches up with me. Or before I catch up with my future, I guess.

I went with a couple of Timmy folks and their friends. I mean, we Timmies have been to Quito, Ecuador, which is at an altitude of about 9000 ft, so what's another couple thousand feet up, eh? Seven of us planned to jump, with one additional person for moral support. We went to a drop zone in Greensburg, IN, which is sort of a rustic area, one might say. Even though we had reservations, there was still quite a wait because the weather was a little shady that morning, which backed up the schedule. After watching an educational video and signing our lives and money away, the guys visited a bowling alley nearby to scope out food while the girls... I don't know what girls do to pass the time... talk? Anyway, this bowling alley was pretty much a bastion of 1970s America. The decor made me glad I overshot that decade by several years.

Back at the drop zone waiting area (which pretty much looked like a converted hangar), we watched in awe as the skydiving instructors came back from a jump, changed parachutes, and ran back out for another jump. The parachute packers were neat to watch, too. I don't know if I could ever pack parachutes for a living, but it'd be a good workout. It seemed like all of the instructors we talked to had thousands of jumps under their belt. One guy said he'd been doing it full time for 14 years, average about 1200 jumps per year. That's at least 16,800 jumps. And they only work 6 months a year.

Since we were all first-timers and didn't want to die, we did tandem jumps where a professional is strapped to your back. They provided optional skydiving suits, so of course I had to wear one for the full experience. Doug, the guy who would be strapped on my back, said his parents jumped recreationally, and he had been doing this professionally for about 6 years. I can't even imagine having parents who skydive recreationally. The most extreme thing my parents do recreationally is read newspapers. I asked Doug about the job itself, and he explained that you have to do 500 jumps to be certified, but once you are, pretty much any drop zone will hire you as an instructor. So if you want a guaranteed job, jump out of a plane 500 times. Piece of cake.

My plane consisted of 5 jumpers, 5 guys-strapped-to-our-backs, a couple cameramen, and one wacky old bearded man who was jumping solo. I wasn't really nervous about the jump, but when the plane started moving it did kind of hit me that, oh yeah, I'm really doing this. When the plane climbed to about 5000 feet, the old bearded man put on a crazy grin, waved, and jumped out. It happened so fast it looked as if he had just been sucked out of the plane.

Of course, when we boarded the plane, the guys-strapped-to-our-backs weren't actually strapped to our backs yet. As we neared our drop altitude, my instructor said to sit on his lap. *Awkward*. But that's how they can get the attachment points secured. And then then they pull the harnesses so tight that it's hard to breathe. When it's jump time, you scoot on your knees to the open door and kind of hang yourself outside the plane while the instructor holds on. So at this point, you're like, hey, clouds, and the only thing keeping you from plummeting are four hooks anchored to some random guy behind you. The part that gets you is you don't know when your instructor is going to let go. A split second later you're tumbling through the heavens at a rate of 9.8 meters per second per second, disregarding air resistance. It was a little disorienting, to say the least. When my instructor brought us into a prone position, the freefall was simply incredible. It's a little hard to describe, but imagine looking out a window of an airplane in flight. And then imagine that the airplane disappears and you're falling! Yeah, it's kind of like that. Or if you've ever played GTA: San Andreas or any other game where you can skydive, it's just like that, except your face is flapping in the wind.

The parachute came out at about 5000 feet. The resistance wasn't nearly as bad as I imagined. I've heard of people getting bruised on their thighs from the pressure of the harness. Then my back-dude released a couple of clips to give us more room to move. He let me steer a little and then took over and threw us into some nonstop 360s that put about 1000 lbs of force on my crotch harness and made me a bit loony. The landing was fairly smooth. I saw one girl who got her knees skinned coming down. The whole experience kind of put rollercoasters to shame. The only bad part was the I got a bit of an altitude headache, which I've had before going to Quito. All the turns coming down made me a little woozy, too. I have a lot of respect for skydivers now. I mean, not that I didn't before, but it definitely takes some mad guts and coordination to do that regularly.

Luckily, my headache didn't last long thanks to painkillers. Food helped, too. We somehow got our server at Chili's to think that one of us was turning 18. Well, it really was this girl's birthday, but she's a postdoc, so... she's a little beyond 18 years old. Good times, though.

We drove back to Indy and I got in a decent nap. Before heading our separate ways, we realized that Incubus was in town and still on stage, so we headed over to White River State Park, and Jared drove around some barricades with his minivan. Classy. We listened outside the fence, and looking for a way to actually see the stage, we wandered around the perimeter and found ourselves by the White River but behind the stage. We couldn't see squat, but at least the acoustics weren't bad. I wish I could have seen the band, but I figured I'd seen them in concert before, and I wasn't about to pay however much for the remaining half hour. I think I'm going to like living by the canal if it means close proximity to concerts. Sitting outside the fence for free isn't too bad, either.

It was getting pretty late by the time we all departed, but I decided to check out my new apartment for next year since I was right there anyway. I also met my roommmate for the first time. From what I've seen so far, it's a really nice setup. My room is massive compared to all the places I've lived in the past four years. I don't really know how to fill all that space. Maybe I'll throw in a couple of couches and a slip-'n'-slide. With my med school loan money, I can start living a doctor's lifestyle! There really is a pool in my backyard. It even looks well-maintained. The only down side to these apartments I've seen first hand is the terrible parking situation. I didn't have a problem finding a spot, but I noticed that some people were parked in spots that weren't really spots, which means at some point during the day parking was really bad. I should invest in one of those tiny Euro cars. I could park one of those under the stairs outside my door.

I got home around 1:30 am. All in all, a pretty awesome day.

Summer: That annoying break between school

I should have gotten to my Europe updates earlier, but I'll just look at it from the standpoint of having more time to reflect on my experiences. Yeah, I love good excuses. Actually, it's probably a good thing because I just decided that I should illustrate my trip with the loads of pictures I took. I don't know why it took me so long to realize that this would be a good idea. Anyway, this message will stay up here while my new retroactive posts appear below. They might be a little more detailed and drawn out compared to my "normal" writing, since a lot happened on the trip that I may or may not want to read about years down the road. In case you're curious, here are some recent developments since my return from Europe:

I saw my diploma for the first time several days ago. I had it all along, but it was covered up by a simple piece of paper stating my major, which I thought was my diploma. "Not quite as fancy as I imagined," I thought. Well, it's actually pretty nice.

While digging through my stuff, I found the first mixed CD I ever made, circa 1997. It had Weird Al and Will Smith on it. Back when mp3s and CD-Rs were still emerging, I had a business in making mixed CDs for friends. The problem was that all my friends listened to rap, and I didn't. So I had to go and familiarize myself with all sorts of rap music. Up until then, I thought Will Smith was rap. Even Weird Al raps harder than he does.

I found a roommate for next year who has an apartment along the canal in downtown Indy. From what I've heard, I think there is a pool in my "backyard." Maybe I can finally learn how to swim. Either that or I'll just end up studying all the time.

I brought back a couple bottles of wine from Europe. On June 12, about a week after my return, I was drinking milk while checking out the wine labels. Next thing I knew, I was swirling my milk and holding it under my nose to sniff it. That's when I knew I had had too much wine in Europe.

And then I found ten euros.

80: Europe Day 1: England and Toulouse

The trip up to Chicago was uneventful. I only knew a couple other people in the class from our group presentations, so the bus ride was admittedly a little awkward. At the O'Hare airport, some guy tried to cut our group in the check-in line. I'm not sure what nationality he was, but he looked African and had an accent. He insisted to the ticketing/check-in baggage guy that we had cut him and that he had been there long before us, but the check-in guy wasn't that dumb. He knew we had been waiting there a long time. The cutter started raising his voice and--I was afraid this was coming--he said, "You're treating me like this because I'm black!" This guy was ridiculous! The ticketing guy replied, "Have a nice day, sir," and then under his breath muttered, "Go to hell." It was quite the exchange. The cutter finally settled down and got behind us in line. It's funny because the ticketing guy isn't someone you want to piss off, considering he could probably do anything he wants with your flight assignment. Not even in Europe yet and the excitement already started.

After the professors started checking us in, I was called over regarding my passport. I have a Taiwanese passport, so I had to get a Schengen visa to travel in France and Italy. However, we would be transiting in England on our way to France, and Britain isn't a part of the Schengen states. The attendant asked me, "Do you have a British visa?" I replied that I didn't need one since we'd be in England for less than 24 hours. He said that since I was leaving the airport and actually setting foot on British soil to take a bus between airports, I did in fact need a visa. He said there wasn't anything I could do about it at that point. Oh sh*t!!! A few minutes later, he said, "Oh sorry, I'm looking at another page now, and it looks like you're okay." It was a pretty harrowing few minutes, but at least now I'll be able to appreciate going on this trip so much more.

When we finally boarded our plane, our passports were checked by some attendants, as usual. I handed my passport to an attendant who said, "Hello, sir" with an English accent, and it sounded like he had a gay lisp as well (not that I have anything against people with different orientations). I had just never heard such an accent before. As he checked my passport picture, he said, "Oh, very nice... Very handsome." I said, "Thanks." I mean, what else could I say?

The plane ride was a little quicker than expected, but I mean, it was trans-Atlantic, so it wasn't exactly the shortest ride either. I got to watch Pan's Labyrinth and ate one of the best airplane meals I've ever had. It consisted of roast beef, mashed potatoes, a salad, roll, and an amazing fudge brownie. Totally unexpected. I wonder if I can have airplane food delivered to my door. I slept through most of the plane ride and woke up to breakfast being served. I love it when that happens. It was a 6+ hour flight, and I somehow managed to not have to pee despite drinking quite a bit. That was a personal victory for me.

England wasn't too exciting. We landed in Heathrow and took a bus to Gatwick. We didn't get to see much of the country at all since we just followed a highway the whole time. The local roads were a little loopy, though, and riding on the wrong side of the road was a first for me. When we arrived at the Gatwick airport, our driver got off the bus and asked me, "Do you need a trolley?" I was confused for a moment. Weren't we just on a bus? And didn't we just arrive at our destination? No thanks, I don't need a trolley. Turns out a trolley is a cart, as in, "In the interest of safety, children are not permitted to ride in the baggage trolleys," as heard over the intercom. Those English are no fun.

79: Europe Day 0: West Lafayette

Posted: 6-25-07

I guess we'll start with day zero to set up the background a bit for this trip. In fact, I wrote most of this entry in Europe, but I had to edit it quite a bit afterwards because the keyboards in France were all funny.

Okay, so I'm going to France and Italy for three weeks as part of a Maymester class. It's through Purdue's agriculture department, so that pretty much means I'm hanging out with a bunch of farm dorks. Okay, just kidding. They're all right. Agriculture is actually much more than farms and stuff. Nowadays it's fairly integrated with science and engineering, and there are a lot of new technologies and innovations being implemented. It's really quite complex when you start peeling apart the layers. Our class is focused on comparing methods of conventional and organic agriculture. It's a rapidly growing field, and organics are a much bigger thing in Europe than in the United States.

Over the course of the spring semester, we had a few class sessions to cover the classroom instruction requirements and to leave more time for exploration in Europe. We took a test over the technical aspects of organic agriculture the day before we left for Europe. I think I did all right for being a biochem major. I missed a question about cows since didn't know much about them besides the fact they are tasty and can be cooked in many ways.

I cleaned up my room and finally finished packing that night. I guess most travellers tend to overpack, but I'm kind of the opposite. Clothes confuse me sometimes. Sometimes I think we should just do without them. When I went to Ecuador over spring break, I actually underpacked. I borrowed Axe spray from a friend to get by. At least now I know what my lower limit is in terms of clothing. This time I did pack a few extra items for Europe just in case, and I brought nicer clothes as well. I know that Europeans tend to dress a little more nicely than most Americans, and most Americans tend to dress a little more nicely than me.

This trip will be my first foray into European society. Ever since high school, I've wanted to study abroad in France. I took 3.5 years of French in high school (I used that remaining 0.5 year to take AP biology instead). I took French at Purdue only during my freshman year, so my French has gotten très rusty these past few years. I wish I had remembered to bring a French dictionary up to Purdue to brush up, but I'm pretty sure a couple people are bringing phrase books. At least I still remember how to say "Where is the restroom?" and I vaguely recall a few lines of La Marseillaise, the French national anthem. It was written during the French Revolution and subsequently banned a few times. Here are some juicy bits from it, translated to English:

Let's go, the children of the fatherland.
The day of glory is here.
Against us is tyrrany.
The bloody flag is raised.
The bloody flag is raised.

Let's go! Let's go!
May impure blood
water our fields.

Pretty catchy, huh? Speaking of which, I do believe blood counts as organic fertilizer, as long as it's handled properly. I think those revolutionaries were on to something.

78: Congraduations

It's a strange feeling to be officially done. Four years later, and most of what I have to show for it is intangible. At least I have a diploma. That counts for something, I guess. It was exhilarating to deliver my commencement address. I love that this speech was the first thing I did as a college graduate. I spent a few minutes doing breathing exercises before my speech because I felt like my heart was about to explode. I like being on stage, but it's the anticipation that always kills me. I've never practiced so much for a speech, though. One thing I discovered in the process is that a small room is an ideal place for practicing because the echo really helps with my enunciation and pacing. I didn't discover this until last night when I was rehearsing my speech while taking a shower.

Over 6000 people were in attendance for the Science/Liberal Arts commencement, and it was also streamed live online and broadcasted on a local channel. I won't let it get to my head, but it's a wonderful feeling when strangers come up to you afterwards to congratulate you on a job well done and to wish you well. I wanted to do standup comedy in Elliott Hall for BGR last summer, but my request was denied. At least I got to end up on that stage one more time before leaving Purdue, and I got to tell jokes, too, so that makes up for BGR. I even got to use a teleprompter. The lady who ran that also does it for the U.S. President and other bigwigs like that. It was so cool.

Well, I'm officially a college graduate, and I have another degree under my belt. It's been a good run, but it's nice to be retired from college and its responsibilities. Well, I do have some stuff to take care of before I leave for good, but hey, I'm done for the most part. Now if only I could motivate myself to clean my room. I think would be my greatest accomplishment.

It's sad to know that my Purdue class is going to be all broken up next year. There are so many people whom I wish I had gotten to know earlier. Purdue has four graduations, and mine was the third. I attended the last half of the first one (I kind of snuck in, since I didn't have a ticket), and I watched part of the second one online. I guess I'm more interested in my fellow responders rather than the graduation itself, but it is nice to see your friends walking across the stage. I'll either sneak into the final one tomorrow or stream that one online. I really love knowing such amazing people. So much has changed in 4 years that it's really intriguing to think how we might all turn out 20 years later. Scary.

77: Last Night Out

Last night I went out for the last time as an undergrad. The piano man at the Cactus played some senior farewell songs, and I got to dance with an engineering advisor who was maybe in her 50s. Please don't take that last statement the wrong way. My only hope is that I will be able to rock like that when I'm that old. I closed down the bars for the first time in my college career, not that I go to the bars that often anyway. But I hung around Harry's until after 3am, but not before R.C. bought some of us a round of rumblemintz. That freaking burned for a good 10 minutes. Then I grabbed a chili cheese dog from a foodcart afterwards with some friends. They walked me home, W.D. passed out on my futon for about an hour, and J.B. and I talked for a while and rocked out on the guitar. I went to bed at 6am. All in all, a good near conclusion to senior week.

I woke up at 10 today. I don't know why. I practiced my speech a bit and then headed out to A.P.'s graduation party. Man, that food was so good. She made it all herself, apparently. The pulled pork sandwiches were amazing. And it was nice to catch up with some friends, too. I know I've said this before, but I love just being able to chill out and hang back with friends without a care in the world. Afterwards, I tutored L.H. for a couple of hours. We're about halfway done with her 25 tutoring hours. Considering I'm leaving next Tuesday, I kind of doubt that I'll be able to devote another 12 hours to tutoring before I leave. We burned through 6.7 hours in the past three days. I can't get enough of that MCAT. It's actually quite enjoyable. Sometimes I wonder how well I would do on the MCAT if I were to take it now after teaching so many classes. But I think my critical reading ability has decreased a bit recently.

Well, I'm graduating tomorrow. Thankfully it's an afternoon convocation and not a morning one. I could totally see myself sleeping through my own graduation if it were in the morning.

Freaking WebCT

I just deleted WebCT from my favorite links. Good riddance!

76: More Sleep, Less Speech

I think this is the closest I've come to pulling an all-nighter during my senior year. Was working on my speech. Going to bed now though. I hope I don't read that speech in the morning and have to wonder what the hell I just submitted. I guess it sounds coherent enough.

75: Last Humpday of Undergrad Ever

Not that there's anything special about humpday. It's just fun to say. Humpday.

I had lunch today with Sandy (Asst. VP for Student Services), Bob Kubat (the university registrar), Sandy's assistant, and the other commencement responders. It wasn't until then I realized just how cool it was that the four responders were all on Mortar Board, and we were having a casual lunch with Sandy and Bob, two really influential people at Purdue. I just looked online for the definition of "registrar." I probably should have known Bob's job description beforehand, but hey, I do now. I had some stuffed roasted chicken with risotto. Man, good stuff. I love free meals.

Some of my graduating peers are still extra busy with research and stuff. I feel bad for them. It shouldn't be like that. I still have some business to finish with my extracurricular activities, but I'm taking it easy for the most part. I finally found time yesterday to go to the corec. I practiced some racquetball shots and lifted. I tried jogging back from the corec to my apartment, but I gave up after a couple blocks. Yeah, sad, right? I was so physically drained because I hadn't worked out for so long. I took a small detour on the way back to do a fountain run. Well, more like five fountain runs. It was hot as hell out. It was the first time I had done a fountain run in a year or two, and it was the first time I had done one by myself. I wish someone had been there to see me besides that random guy reading in the grass. I bet my glistening gut was pretty sexy. Me + water = chick magnet.

Oh yeah, grades came out today. Finishing strong! My overall GPA went up .02 points. Score! It's a great feeling when you can look back and say, "I worked just hard enough for that A." Right on. I wouldn't want to overexert myself.

74: No Yolk

Just minutes ago, I successfully air-flipped an egg without breaking the yolk for the first time in my life. Granted, some of the egg white jumped out of the pan and exploded into flames upon contact with the stove, but it's the final product that matters. This is one of the little victorious moments I will remember for the rest of my life. I couldn't figure out what to eat for dinner tonight, so I thought to myself, hey, breakfast sounds good. But it was more than good! It was egg-cellent.