I had to have them repair my heat just before Thanksgiving. I don't think it's working very well. It's been awhile since I've written on here, so I'll try to give a quick (and likely unhelpful) recap of what I've been up to:
1) School has been bleeding me. I've applied to a Masters of Education program in Educational Technology to focus on some new material that will be more exciting to me and have more to do with the applications of computer science than the foundations. My courses in artificial intelligence and systems architecture this semester have been hell -- that's partially because they're graduate level and require fifteen to twenty out of class hours a week, but that's made worse by the fact that I don't have a passion for either of them. My third class, which is a special interest group for new graduate students, works mostly to prove that there are a large number of people in my department I don't identify with and that the department is even more focused on its PhD students than I realized. This is not very helpful for me and it's made
nearly 100% of my classwork unrewarding. Needless to say I've become disenchanted with my pursuit of my MS in computer science.
2) Hall Directing has been going well. It ranges from fun and engaging to very stressful most weeks. We're into a very busy and overwhelming time at the end of the semester -- there's a good deal of work to do and no time to do it, with everyone's classes coming to the final stretch and motivation for everything waning. My staff of RAs continues to be an inspiration and I'm thankful I've been given the opportunity to work with six incredible people.
3) Thanksgiving was a pretty wonderful break, this year. It was great to reconnect with a lot of friends from home and the family event on Thursday was very nice. It was a smaller and more subdued thing, but it was nice. Funny to think that in a few short years it's likely the traditions are going to have to break as my generation perhaps starts hosting Thanksgivings of our own. Well... I don't think that'll be too soon, but we'll see. I got to go to a Flyers' game with my dad, which was excellent. The Flyers ended up losing, but it's more about getting to spend time with Dad than it is watching a hockey game. We had a nice trip and it was definitely fun. Mom and I roughed up Molly a good number of times, and it was rejuvenating to be home for a good stretch. I'm hoping I can make my winter break as relaxing.
So there you are. A three-point round-up of recent things. The only other major news recently revolves around my getting a TiVo.... if you're reading this, you've probably heard me blab about this enough (I can go on long diatribes about it, that's for sure). I enjoy it a lot.
I saw the new Harry Potter flick with Drew and Justin the Thursday night it came out (11:59p showing!) and I must say... it's easily the best Potter movie, yet. I haven't read "Goblet of Fire" in awhile, so I was a little off on details that may or may not have been missing from the film, but it's a terrific adaptation. All of the other Potterphiles I've talked to seem to agree. It was hilarious and fun to see Drew and Justin, too. We created yet another ridiculous sport on Drew's apartment stairs and times were good. I miss those two a great deal. Hopefully we'll find a good amount of time to spend between each other's apartments.
Kasey and I started working a bit more dilligently on music the last couple days and we might have two songs partially complete by winter break. I'm hoping spring gives us a lot more time to work on it and hang out. I miss Ray Street a fair amount. It's crappy to not spend as much time with Quentin, Kaes, and others. I miss being able to just give a knock on Diesner's door, as well. It's my understanding all are doing well. Diesner's baby drops on the world in a couple of months!
I saw Pete, Liz, Leslie, and Tony last night, too. We all gathered and went out ice skating with Jackie, Kerri, and Carolyn and hung out at Dunkin Donuts and also watching the Soup on TV. That show's hilarious. I wish we had more time to really spend. Perhaps in the remaining time before Christmas we'll do something else big. I've been missing these people since the end of summer 2004 before I kind of went into hiding without realizing it.
So that's the story, mostly. Trying to keep my head above water until I know what's going on with the new masters' program, continuing as per the plan with hall directing, and trying to be better about seeing my friends.
