I am not dead...

In spite of what my lack of activity on this site may have let you to believe, I am not, in fact, dead. I am, however, the next-best thing: trying to graduate. I think part of the process of graduate school is realizing that it is not at all what you thought it would be like when you decided to postpone outside life for another few years. I know that I had imagined it similar to undergrad, except that you get to pick a neat topic and do a really big project on it.

For those of you who are like me and occasionally need a kick in the butt - otherwise known as a "deadline" - you will understand how annoying it is to realize that you've wasted the better part of a year doing work that, under different circumstances, should have taken you a month. The key here is money. If you have an adviser that pays you, then he / she has a vested interest in getting you to do your work on time. This is usually because there is someone above him / her who is ultimately paying the bills.

If you are like me, and get no money from your adviser, then you tend to be left free to float, for as long as you like, in self-imposed research limbo. This, combined with work that pays the bills, and consequently has a more valid claim on my time, means that I'll be graduating just a little later than I had hoped. The good news is that I now have my motivation in the form of a job! I have accepted an offer to work in sunny Melbourne, Florida, starting at the end of June, so if I don't get everything done and in by then I'm screwed.

Alright, that's the update for now. It's 3:47am, and time for the sleeping.

G'night.

What Winter SHOULD Be

Update: We're having 5-7 inches of snow here today, so I ran out and took some more pictures. Too many to post here, so just check out the album.


For all you people down in sunny South Carolina, I just wanted to put up some pictures of what winter is supposed to look like ;). And not just for a day, either. This is what winter is supposed to look like until about March, at which point everything will be slushy until mid-April.


So most of this break has been doing Christmas and family stuff. My parent's waited to get a tree and do most of the decorating until I got back, so it's been busy. Plus, we went into Chicago for a night and attended the live recording of "Wait, wait...don't tell me", which is a quiz show in NPR. Very funny, so if you're ever in Chicago on a Thursday night and looking for a cheap date, give it a try.

I was happy when I flew in because there was plenty of snow on the ground. However, since then it's rained, then snowed, then rained again, and so right now there's slightly less snow on the ground than in these pictures, but I'm hoping it will snow again before I have to head back south. From the picture on the right, you can see that we had a few days of ice fog which made driving extra fun, but did allow my nephew, Matt, to run around the tree farm pretending he was in "The Mist".

Now that Robbie's up in Rockford things should be more fun. We've already tried, unsuccessfully so far, so build a replacement Wii sensor bar, since he left his in Peoria, but I think I've tracked down the problem. Once that's fixed there will be plenty of Wii fun to be had.

With that, I will leave everyone to their Christmas-y fun. I hope everyone had a great break and I'll see you all in 2008!

Finally

After many months, I've finally managed to get a short story up on Robbie's blog, Wordy Me. I've been trying to write a long story for a while but, failing at that, a short story will have to do. This one was inspired by some interesting piano/violin music I heard on Echoes (with John Diliberto). For anyone interested, the artist is Ludovico Einaudi and the CD is called Divenire. Anyway, I hope you enjoy the story, and be sure to read Robbie's stuff while you're over there. If there's one thing that I will never be good at it's poetry, and he's got some good stuff over there. So enjoy and have a good holiday!

The Latest

So yeah, it's been a long time since I've written here, so I feel somewhat compelled to give those who do occasionally look at this site something new to read. Actually, read is about all I've been doing lately...aside from the usual cycle of research and procrastination that is the spice of graduate student life.

The first book I breezed through was Rich Dad/Poor Dad, by Robert T. Kiyosaki. This book continues the line of non-fiction that I have been reading lately. Although the subject of this book is investing and wealth-creation, Mr. Kiyosaky goes about getting his points across in a different way. Rather than give the reader a how-to in each chapter, he relates his experiences as a child growing up with "two" fathers - one rich and one poor - and what he learned from them regarding money. Mostly, this focuses on the rich dad (actually his best friend's father) and how he taught a young Robert how to think about money properly. This narrative takes up a good part of the beginning of the book, with the last half consisting of Mr. Kiyosaki's discussion of how he currently operates and things about investing and wealth-management, as well as a few hints/tips for people interested in getting started or who are trying to teach these skills to their children.
Overall, this is an excellent motivational book. After reading it, I really wanted to start doing everything the book said. Mr. Kiyosaki focuses his attention on the real-estate market, but that is because that's what he knows. The thought processes in the book could be applied to a vast array of markets. However, this is not a book for the motivated person who is now looking for a how-to guide. But, as consolation, the author provides a list of recommended reading in the back of the book to cover this. All in all, a great read for anyone out there interested in developing wealth-building skills who just needs some motivation.

The second series that I've gotten into is the "His Dark Materials" series - a trilogy by Philip Pullman. The new movie, "The Golden Compass", is adapted from the first book in the series, and the trailer for that movie was what convinced me to pick up the book.
For those unfamiliar with the story, it follows the adventures of 11-year-old Lyra and her daemon, Pantalaimon (in her world, which is a parallel of ours, everyone has a daemon...essentially a part of their soul in animal form that travels with them at all times). Her earth is identical to ours in most respects, but they are at a 19th century/steampunk level of technology, and there are far more strange creatures and people than we have in reality. It is an adventure/quest story, not unlike the Lord of the Rings (although quite a bit shorter and you don't have to hear about Sam and Frodo for half a book), and although it was obviously written for children and teenagers, it's still a good, quick, exciting read.

Well, that pretty much sums it up - at least as far as reading material. Time to head to bed and dream of the end of the semester!

Mmmmmm....cake

For anyone who hasn't played the new Valve game "Portals", you should play it. It's short (approx. 4 hours) but awesome. The best part, other than some awesome portal-jumping action, is the computer and her dry, dark sense of humor. The computer also sings you a song at the end, which has been stuck in my head since I finished the game two days ago. So go, play it, or at least listen to the song, and delight in the glow of Portals! And remember, keep trying till you run out of cake.
~TheStoph

Yearning to Breath Free

So someone recently sent me an article from CNN.com about a Guatemalan man who has worked illegally in the US for the last 11 years. He saved his money over all those years so that he could take it back to buy land and a home for his family in Guatemala. Unaware of US customs regulations, he attempted to go through airport security with his savings in a suitcase - all $59,000 of it in cash. For anyone who is familiar with US customs, you cannot leave or enter the country with more than $10,000 in cash without declaring it to customs so that it can be taxed. So, in the end the entire sum of this man's savings was confiscated and he is in the process of being deported. He has filed suit against the US, but the likelihood of getting his money back is slim.

This story demonstrates some of the issues that arise with immigration. By all rights, since the man was here illegally, the government is entirely in the right when taking his money and kicking him out of the country. Of course, most people, including myself, believe that this punishment far outweighs the crime. After all, this man did not gain any money through illicit means. He provided a valuable service as a dishwasher for 11 years, and was financially prudent enough to save $59,000 over those 11 years - a feat that most Americans working at the same job would be unable to match. However, because he failed to jump through the hoops we have set up to keep non-Americans out of the workforce he has no right to his earnings. This is the law as it stands.

On the other hand, I do believe that there is a need for boarder and port protection. Not to control immigration, or protect the American workforce, but to keep out possible security threats. As much as I would like to support completely free human movement across international boarders, there are simply too many people who wish us harm currently to safely allow that. Of course, I believe that a change of our foreign policy could change that, but that's another debate.

At any rate, I'd like to get people's opinions about this story and immigration in general. Post your replies and see what people think! I will post a link to the story referenced above if I can find it.

G'night,
TheStoph


I found the story: http://www.cnn.com/2007/US/09/27/immigrant.money/index.html?iref=mpstoryview

Free Market Cure

Here is an answer to all the people who tell me Canadians are happy with their health care system and that ours should be just like it: freemarketcure.com

I haven't read through the whole site yet, just watched the videos, but they're very enlightening. Enjoy.