tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-124401572024-10-07T01:20:56.918-04:00The random commentary of a student attending Columbia University in the City of New York.Christinehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05156773290094105932noreply@blogger.comBlogger85125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12440157.post-91941593588223796082007-07-24T22:56:00.000-04:002007-07-24T23:06:24.078-04:00

Since I'm no longer at Columbia, I've changed my blog too. You can now get all the semi-intelligent rambling you want (and more!) at Notes From a Flatter Time ZoneCheers,Management

Christinehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05156773290094105932noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12440157.post-46732719722263860562007-05-04T15:02:00.000-04:002007-05-04T15:54:42.390-04:00

So, poor innocent me. I assumed that the last thing I had to do to graduate was take the swim test. This morning I went and dealt with that (and only inhaled a small amount of water in the process...). I was feeling sort of ambivalent about the fact that I will now definitely be leaving in two weeks, but I needn't have worried. No sooner had I finished washing the chlorine out of my hair than

Christinehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05156773290094105932noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12440157.post-37779846335038047272007-04-25T14:15:00.000-04:002007-04-25T14:28:40.488-04:00

In the last senior seminar, which was yesterday, we had a vote. It may or may not have been for best talks, because the criteria were not specified - but everyone got to vote for a talk (for whatever reason they wanted to vote for it). I ended up part of a three-way tie for second, so I won a piece of scintillating fiber. It's pretty cool... when light hits it the ends glow green and if you

Christinehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05156773290094105932noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12440157.post-41026204304068727042007-04-22T09:39:00.000-04:002007-04-22T09:55:14.479-04:00

It's amazing what the combination of enough credits to graduate, a plan for the next few years, a recently completed APS talk, and the end of an airplane-aggravated head cold will do for one's motivation. I'm vaguely aware that I should be doing stuff. Example: I have a comp sci assignment, the due date of which was postponed from last week to this week, that I keep meaning to start but then

Christinehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05156773290094105932noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12440157.post-75399260225272824362007-04-18T20:53:00.000-04:002007-04-18T21:34:51.358-04:00

So, I haven't posted in a while. There are several things I could, in principle, post about now. But I'm distracted by my head-cold. So I'm only going to write about that.Basically, I got some sort of head/sinus illness while in Florida for the weekend. I should have been able to see it coming from the fact that every fluid in the vicinity of the horribly dry, over-air conditioned hotel was $

Christinehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05156773290094105932noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12440157.post-31315319550090129872007-03-08T21:46:00.000-05:002007-03-08T22:00:47.848-05:00

by the fact that my school is constantly getting bad publicity. Freshman year there was the racist cartoon, since sophomore year there has been the Manhattanville expansion and while I don't remember anything particularly damning from last year, something will probably come to me if I think long enough. This year, we've managed to a) invite a complete asshole to speak and then b) had a riot

Christinehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05156773290094105932noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12440157.post-21206464672855338472007-02-24T12:50:00.000-05:002007-02-24T13:13:03.047-05:00

Someone needs to remind me why I'm studying physics and not exploiting my fellow human beings for fun and profit:While doing laundry this morning I had a brilliant idea. Take a bunch of dryers that don't really work and convince people that this is intentional - they're energy efficient. Then, hopefully, you can save money for your company by not fixing them *and* instead of getting bad

Christinehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05156773290094105932noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12440157.post-33670775241318849462007-02-13T22:01:00.000-05:002007-02-13T23:24:12.685-05:00

So, I seem to be getting increasingly lazy about writing blog entries. Here are some random observations about recent events.1) WorkI've been working as often as I can lately, in an effort to offset my grad school application and bartending class expenses. So I've seen a bunch of very good shows. Basically - if you ever get to hear the Fireworks Ensemble play Frank Zappa music, you should.

Christinehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05156773290094105932noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12440157.post-91245632959390078422007-01-28T19:05:00.000-05:002007-01-28T19:27:06.599-05:00

So I was thinking that after I finished my grad school apps I would have so much free time that I wouldn't know what to do with myself. So I brought my brother's xbox and all three of the GTA games and was planning on playing through all of them this semester. But, I think I'm going to have my hands full of actual work-type things.Right now, for example, I have a bunch of German homework I

Christinehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05156773290094105932noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12440157.post-989962204450576822006-12-27T14:57:00.000-05:002006-12-27T15:12:52.697-05:00

Not that I'm at all annoyed. Apparently, my first and last names were switched on my physics GREs, so the score reports that were sent to be on time for the 12/12 and 12/15 application deadlines had the wrong name and/or didn't have my general scores. I found this out today. Great! Fortunately, after explaining the problem, faxing several copies of my license (at $2 each at the UPS store),

Christinehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05156773290094105932noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12440157.post-57904951277574840312006-12-19T23:48:00.000-05:002006-12-20T00:12:04.509-05:00

Don't I feel old. I took my last finals of the semester today and realized that they were the last undergrad physics finals I will ever take. I'm not entirely sure how I feel about this, but I don't think "unhappy" is the correct word. The first question on my thermo final was something like "Sketch the tomb of Boltzmann, including the historically significant inscription." It was certainly

Christinehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05156773290094105932noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12440157.post-19916632707775921642006-12-05T16:41:00.000-05:002006-12-05T17:12:21.868-05:00

... and writes her statement of purpose.Technically, I'm on the fourth (or probably, fifth) statement of purpose I've written. The first bunch were all six sentences long and ended when I realized that I didn't have anything to say. I still don't have anything to say - but I managed to expand not saying it into almost a page. And, more impressive, I made a point. Alas, I should have been an

Christinehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05156773290094105932noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12440157.post-43034791707075013342006-11-26T22:04:00.000-05:002006-11-26T22:33:40.094-05:00

I'm staring down the last humanities paper I'm likely to have to write in my life. But, senioritis has hit in a major way, and I can't make myself focus on writing a decent finale. I don't really care about how the life and works of Sor Juana (17th century Mexican nun) are relevant for us in the year 2006. Fortunately, there exist websites which, in sufficiently large doses provide inspiration

Christinehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05156773290094105932noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12440157.post-56073880297474765262006-11-19T10:08:00.000-05:002006-11-19T10:39:44.981-05:00

The fire alarm has been trying to catch me in the shower all semester. When it came within half a second of succeeding a few weeks ago I figured that was probably the worst that would happen. But no. This morning I was enjoying the return of the hot water (there was none when I showered yesterday morning) when what should I hear... I love my life.

Christinehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05156773290094105932noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12440157.post-8171370967304550662006-11-12T10:15:00.000-05:002006-11-12T13:38:05.890-05:00

My dining room table is mostly covered with a very large gingerbread/graham cracker version of CU. It was constructed last night by me, my suitemates, and many of our friends. We're not entirely sure what to do with it now... but it causes me to laugh in disbelief everytime I go upstairs. I've put a bunch of pictures on Flickr and hope to add more later, but here are a few of my better ones.

Christinehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05156773290094105932noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12440157.post-1163316578909672292006-11-12T02:23:00.000-05:002006-11-12T10:09:41.823-05:00

What am I currently doing with my optics textbook?a) Preventing other books on shelf from falling overb) Supporting large gingerbread Low Libraryc) StudyingBy way of an answer, I sincerely hope my prof doesn't give us homework for a few days. Hopefully I'll get some camera batteries and post pictures tomorrow. :-D

Christinehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05156773290094105932noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12440157.post-1163125666815861222006-11-09T21:27:00.000-05:002006-11-12T10:09:41.449-05:00

requires writing an essay, or Statement of Purpose. Unlike a college app essay, this doesn't need to be perfectly written and brilliant. But, like a college app essay, it does need to get done. And it needs to explain, among other things, why one wants to go to the grad school to which one is applying. I'm going to write a first draft of mine this weekend. In preperation, I'm trying to make

Christinehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05156773290094105932noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12440157.post-1162687884268714022006-11-04T19:21:00.000-05:002006-11-12T10:09:41.198-05:00

Woohoo!!! The (hopefully) last standardized test I will ever take is now over. I remember when I finished my SATs in high school that I was sad at the thought that my standardized testing career was over because I usually did pretty well on them and without stressing out much... However, after studying for and taking the Physics GRE I'm prefectly ok with the thought that now I'm actually done.

Christinehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05156773290094105932noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12440157.post-1160775352454383682006-10-13T16:42:00.000-04:002006-11-12T10:09:40.823-05:00

Yikes. You'd think that in 3+ years I'd have developed a better strategy for dealing with midterms than spending the week before and the week of in a state of complete panic, as this tends to leave me burned out and completely indifferent for the rest of the semester. But no, apparently I haven't. So this weekend I have enough time to breathe, until I stop and think about it. Then I realize

Christinehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05156773290094105932noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12440157.post-1159671665456813412006-09-30T22:49:00.000-04:002006-11-12T10:09:40.348-05:00

Wow! Tonight was the best show I have worked in my 3 year career at the theater, and one of possibly four where I have left in a better mood than I arrived in. I have absolutely nothing to complain about (except, of course, for the lack of things to complain about). The patrons almost *all* smiled and said thank you upon my giving them programs/directions to their seats. Several of them also

Christinehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05156773290094105932noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12440157.post-1159299294173743962006-09-26T15:20:00.000-04:002006-11-12T10:09:39.934-05:00

September credit card bill sets record by roughly a factor of two. Not cool. The largest chunk of it is books, followed by GREs (both unavoidable) and eventually, I'm supposed to get a few hundred back. But still, yikes.

Christinehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05156773290094105932noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12440157.post-1158878389840583912006-09-21T18:35:00.000-04:002006-11-12T10:09:39.594-05:00

Sorry for the delay in posting the end of this monstrosity. Since I was running a day behind and the third day was Sunday, I was in class on the day I would have posted. And then, I think I blocked the memory of the entire weekend, because many of the details have become fuzzy.8:30 am - I wake up. I have not gotten any voicemail from security while I was asleep. But I will check in person

Christinehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05156773290094105932noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12440157.post-1158521461027665682006-09-17T13:26:00.000-04:002006-11-12T10:09:38.960-05:00

Herein you will find the details of my second day of dealing with my non-trip to Chicago.8:00 am - I wake up feeling slightly better[1]. A check of United's baggage tracking website reveals that my bag has been located and is scheduled to fly back to LGA on Flight 670. Realizing that I gave the agent at LGA my mailing address instead of a building address I call to find out whether this can/

Christinehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05156773290094105932noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12440157.post-1158421503935687042006-09-16T09:12:00.000-04:002006-11-12T10:09:38.634-05:00

I must have done something really awful in a past life; I cannot think of a better explanation for the eighty kinds of pain United Airlines and/or LGA air traffic control decided to inflict on me yesterday[1]. I was trying to get to Chicago to go to a meeting at Fermilab in which I would observe depressing politics and take notes for a professor. This is not what happened.12:00 noon - A final

Christinehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05156773290094105932noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12440157.post-1157223548450179302006-09-02T14:04:00.000-04:002006-11-12T10:09:38.269-05:00

Damn! I saw the suite last year when we were looking at housing, but I didn't remember it as being this nice. It's pretty cool. :-D We have views of both rivers, the downtown skyline, and the GWB all from the suite. I'll take more pictures when the weather clears up. For now here's a picture of the kitchen and the view from my window (part of it... I can also see the GWB if I look north but

Christinehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05156773290094105932noreply@blogger.com0