Back in the Heat:

OK, so right now there's freezing rain outside, but a day or two before I got back here to NY they apparently had a couple 65 degree days. Looks like some more seasonal weather is on the way though, with snow and highs in the 20's. I'm looking forward to it.

The rest of break was nice. In a quick summary since last post: Christmas was a nice, quiet family affair. I got a CD, cold weather running gear, a headlamp, and an REI gift card. All very useful. I also spent New Years with the family, down at some family friends' place south of Seattle. Nothing too exciting to report... just some fun jamming (on electric guitar for me.. making up for 6 months without one) and some fireworks at midnight. Later that week, I spent a couple days hanging out with the crew in Seattle (UW friends). I crashed at the Shop (guys house I lived in last year) and had an awesome time around Seattle just hanging out, watching a movie, playing guitars, etc. A bunch of us also went out to Port Orchard overnight (across the water from Seattle) to visit some graduated friends for more hanging out, games, etc. The only other thing to note is playing electric guitar at my parents church one week in a sort of special worship band. It was a lot of fun and received better by the older folk than I expected. Seattle's been getting crazy weather this winter: windstorms, snow, tons of rain, but I missed out on most of this--except all the rain.

But, the title of this post was referring to more than the weather around here. I caught an overnight series of flights back from Seattle Tuesday night to Wednesday afternoon. On top of a cold that further inhibited sleeping on a plane, it was none too pleasant. That evening, I checked email and found out that my big qualifying (Q) exam for the Ph.D program was scheduled in under a week. (I knew for sure it had been moved from May to this month only a week before that.) When I went to campus the next day (obviously before any kind of studying), I found out that the practice exam was in two hours. Talk about needing to get back up to speed quickly. Oh well, break was nice. For the exam, we are given a problem and 24 hours to prepare a solution in presentation form, then are grilled at a blackboard for up to an hour by professors asking questions. I'm not too worried... the pass rates are high, but I doubt it will be pleasant. I'm still studying quite a bit to bring all that knowledge up to where I can get it when under the gun at a blackboard.

Then after the Q, there's another fellowship application due, a big proposal for my research stuff going out a week after that, and I'm supposed to be writing a paper somewhere in here. Classes this semester? I might have time for one or two... At least they don't start for another two weeks, so I'll have time to figure that out after the Q.

It's a good thing I dislike being bored.