Hello, Faithful Followers!

I would have posted last weekend, but I was delirious with fun from moving. We managed to do most of the work in one day, though, and I’m pretty settled in at this point. I like the fact that I can just pick up and move my entire life in a day, give or take a little bit of prep time. I’m not always going to have this freedom, and the move last weekend made me appreciate it.

And this weekend, I participated in one of the more epic events in Boston’s history: the 2nd Annual Revolutionary Water Gun Battle! After having a blast at the Bandito Misteriosos Pillow Fight in March, Julia and I joined the King’s Army and headed to the Esplanade in our red military regalia, where we meet our fellow soldiers. After loading our weapons and marching towards the hatch shell to the sounds of snare drums and fifes, there appeared on the horizon… the Colonials! Dressed in blue, armed to the teeth with weapons of minimal destruction, and sick of taxation without representation, they were itching for a fight. We tried to negotiate with them and make them see the error of their ways, but it was no use… a squirt gun battle was the only way to settle our differences.  Long Live The King!

Before the showdown, though, these last couple of weeks are a hectic blur. I got out of the habit of jotting down blog-worthy thoughts, something I need to get better about doing. However, I have scattered memorable occurrences during the last two weeks:

- Biogen Extension. I’ve officially been hired to continue working at Biogen Idec until at least January 1, 2010, with the possibility of staying longer as the 2010 Q1 budget becomes approved! This is great news. I like Biogen Idec.

- Grad School. I’m getting ready to apply for Ph.D. programs already! I spent some time every day last week researching various doctorate programs, and I have a list of 7 schools I’ll most likely be applying to: Stanford, Berkeley, U Washington at Seattle, U Michigan at Ann Arbor, Harvard, Duke, and UNC Chapel Hill. I’ve decided that I don’t want to live anywhere colder than Boston, which ruled out Cornell, Chicago, Wisconsin, Nebraska, and Iowa. (Didn’t want to head back to Florida either.) I ordered a Math GRE Prep book, since the subject test is required at Stanford and UNC Chapel Hill and recommended elsewhere, so that fun beings soon.

- Reading Material. I’ve added a couple of new blogs to the line-up in the last couple of weeks: Zen Habits and Tim Ferriss‘s blog. Both seem to be right up my alley. I’ve also read a number of good books this summer and don’t think I’ve mentioned any of them: The Devil in the White City, The Life and Times of the Thunderbolt Kid, The Unbearable Lightness of Being, The Perks of Being a Wallflower, and The Good Earth. I’d recommend all of these books, and I’ll point out that all of these were personally recommended to me. I’m constantly impressed by the caliber of book people I know suggest for me, so if you have a book recommendation, drop me a line!

- I had a great customer service experience at Cambridge Bicycles, where my kind, thoughtful parents bought me the best graduation present I’ve ever received. The Ninjamobile was getting less responsive as I broke it in, so I took it into the shop for some air and to schedule a tune-up. Long story short, an employee did a tune-up on the spot, noticed a problem with my old toe clips because of the stock pedals, and gave me a new pair of pedals with toe clips free of charge. All in about 20 minutes. It was seriously awesome.

And there you have it. Tune in next weekend, when I promise to be better about posting

posted by Hoxie at 7:59 am & filed under Life, Math, Work | 3 Comments »