soul (sole?) education

Got back into running today. Was a pretty pansy run, but one has to start somewhere. A very cheerful FedEx lady delivered my running shoes this morning, and I decided it would be a travesty if I didn't take them for an inaugural run today.

Excuse overcome today: "it's too late in the day". Sure, it was 6pm and more or less dark outside, but half of the park near my apartment is lit--so instead of loops around the pond, I just ran "c"s. Plus, the weather was remarkably summer-like, with a breeze and everything...this is such a strange land.

Anyway, now, I'm going to try and get something done for work before I go to bed. sigh.

ode to a pair of running shoes

I used to have an awesome pair of running shoes when living in Burlington. Awesome does not even begin to do justice...I mean, these were the sort of magical running shoes that could inspire epic poetry and paeans of timeless caliber. (My knees have never been so happy in a pair of shoes--ever.) I ran these shoes until they wore out, and then they eventually died a fantastic mud puddle death. (I mean, why not go for a mud puddle run when your shoes are done for anyway? Might as well go out in a blaze of fun.)

Well I set myself to the semi-indulgent task of buying a new pair of running shoes this afternoon. I did some searching online...wanted to see what there might be out there by this same company that made my once-upon-a-time dream shoes. Turns out--they still have some of the same model of shoe, and they're trying to get rid of them, as they're now discontinuing the line!!



Guess who's getting a sweet new pair of these puppies delivered to her doorstep this week...

maybe tuesday will be my good news day

So. A few thousand fellow dorks and I across this country (and, the world) are currently sitting on the edges of our seats, repeatedly refreshing our email inboxes. It's decision time.

The Grad Cafe has a database of user-submitted decision stats. You can sort the data by program, school, date, etc. It shows what decision a person received, and how they received it (email, postal, phone), as well as whether they're American or from abroad. There is a place to write comments, too, so you can say something like, "accepted but w/o funding". (No funding is basically a rejection...and, as it turns out, NYU mathematics is notorious for doing this...and yes, I applied there, well before I found out about this site. Damn it.)

The other cool thing is that you can look at the years previous (they've had this database up for three or four "seasons" now), and see when the schools you've applied to usually start sending out their decisions. For UMCP, the school I think I have the best shot at, it looks like they usually send out their first round offers any day now. So, this will be a weekend of anticipation for me, I imagine.

Anyway, usually these boards are alternately filled with woeful rejection and joyful victory. But sometimes you get people with their heads up their own asses writing plain stupid stuff. But also sometimes, they get put in their place.



In other news, it looks like Cornell sent out their decisions today; as they pretty much dominated the math board today. Not a whole lot of activity yet from any of the schools I applied to; a couple early Columbia (physics) and NYU (math) admits. (Although as I mentioned earlier, NYU doesn't really offer funding for many people other than their first picks, so they may be a moot point for me by now...who knows.) I just need one "yes" and I'm good to go...

banks gone wild

This is a surprisingly clear (and hilarious) explanation of the financial crisis, in so far as it was caused by bad mortgages. I really liked the explanation of "leverage":

"i'll pay you back tomorrow"
"ok"

(you'll see what I mean)

I think with the economy imploding as it is and all...we'd all do well to improve our understanding of the financial system a bit. I took an intro to macroeconomics course my senior year in college, and then really wished I had done it sooner, so I could've spent more time in some intermediate courses. (I think every college student should be required to take a macroecon course, and possibly a microecon course as well...and yes, this is in addition to my infamous "every college student should have to take two semesters of calculus" rant.) So, in that spirit, I am bookmarking this blog on my list of daily-ish reads.

Anyhow, without further ado...


The Crisis of Credit Visualized from Jonathan Jarvis on Vimeo.

As you can see, I'm not much for my own thoughts this past week or so...instead just posting various internet clippings. I've got a lot of projects going on right now, but things will be calming down soon enough. Until then, I hope you are enjoying my little findings from the interwebs...

update (9:52 pm): just found out this video was picked up by BoingBoing as well...see, told you it was cool.

low-tech hackery

I think my favorite part is the one about using your head as an antenna:

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/02/19/technology/personaltech/19basics.html

e-time capsule

There are only two relationships in my life so far that I've haven't deleted all the "love emails" from. And before the year is out, that might be truncated down to one.

I was digging around the depths of my UVM email inbox tonight, looking for a class-related email from fall 07. In the process, I stumbled upon one of the aforementioned emails...and sort of stared it down for a minute, while it dared me to read it.

So I opened it. (I can be a bit of a masochist sometimes.) Turns out, it contained exactly the words I needed to hear right now. Besides reminding me I'm lovable, besides reminding me to take care of myself, it told me this:

Keep your chin up sweety. Everything's gonna work out. I know what it's like to feel overwhelmed when you got a lot of stuff going on. It happens to me on a regular basis. But things always end up working out in the end.

When I finally perform the electronic exorcism of this relationship past, this email will definitely be spared.

(It has been a rough past week. I needed to be reminded that I always land on my feet. And it doesn't hurt to read it written with such warmth.)

ah, the refreshing awkwardness of laundry day

You know in college when a buddy would show up to class in a really nice pair of dress pants or something, and you'd ask, "hey, what's the occasion?" And your buddy would reply: "oh, no occasion--laundry day."

Yeah, so today I'm wearing my skinny jeans to work. The jeans I wear when going out to a bar, or even if I just feel like feeling cute on the weekend when I go to the grocery store. But today I'm wearing them to a place where I usually try to dress on the androgynous side. I had two pairs of jeans in the dryer that I was waiting for this morning, but they didn't dry in time...and I wasn't about to wear dress pants, so...the skinnies it was.

<seque style = "questionable">
But if Sens. Collins and Snowe can get it done at work while wearing skirts, I can certainly make it in a similarly male-dominated workplace in skinny jeans.
</segue>

Ok, so I have one more news story to share (that refers to Mainers as "pragmatic and independent people")...but I promise I'll stop gloating after this last link on how awesome Maine's senators are:

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/02/11/us/politics/11cong.html