Computer, where art thou?

So, I return to this blog in the middle of Spring Break, and after four-month hiatus. This time, there is a reason -- my computer, good old Elizabeth, has been out of commission since mid-February! Thankfully, I should be getting her back next week.



The past few months have been a whirlwind of activity. Sara lived with us through January [and, I must admit, was a rather good housemate!], and is currently doing her semester abroad in Costa Rica. Shortly before Valentines day, Marya and I broke up, though we are still friends, I must admit we don't talk as often as I'd like, and probably not as much as Sara and I still do -- despite the handicap of being in different countries! Shortly afterwards, everything went crazy.



Well, I did end up landing the research position I wanted, and I'm currently working on finding a good way to compare predicted and real contrasts across the solar surface; however, time-lag between photographs, rotation of the sun, and normalizing intensities from two very different measurements is being a bit tricky. I think I'm close, though. However, Astro has proved to be interesting -- a class that is 75% homework, which thus robs much homework time from my General Relativity class, which is due 24 hours after Astro but a small fraction of the percentage of my grade. I'm not sure how this will end up reflecting on my GPA! Paleo has proved to be a wonderful class, and I'm reminded why I love the IB department so much. I'm considering looking into taking another class in that department next semester, just because ... I like the material. This semester, however, is taking its toll on me -- I feel habitually tired and my work has been slipping. This creates an excess of work which leads to more slipping, and, on the whole, it is a runaway effect. The result of this is my using this break as a catch-up period, the bulk of which has been devoted to my paper on Sauropods -- which I'll consider posting when its done. Otherwise, after this break (my immediate concerns for the future) are a German test, Paleo midterm, GR midterm, then the GRE subject test the week after that. Whoo.



If this trend continues, I expect the next update to be at the end of the semester. I expect things to be looking up. I'll be taking classes in Berkeley over the summer, and Sara will be staying with us. There is the slight dilemma of finding a new roommate, but I am not overly concerned. Here's to hoping the next post is a rather positive one!