Life Updates of a Larger Magnitude

I just finished up a nice three-mile jaunt through the South End and it was fabulous. It's sunny and 63 degrees, and it's Friday. What more could you ask for? As you can guess, I've started running on my lunch break. This is only possible because I really don't sweat much, so I know it's not for everyone. But if you can get away with it, I highly recommend it. First, it breaks up the day, and after you finish, you reward yourself with tasty food. Second, by 2 p.m. I've usually forgotten that I ran already, and when I remember I am SO PSYCHED that I don't have to make time in the evening to do it. But the best reason why I love running at lunch is because it affords me the opportunity to explore Boston a little piece at a time. So far I've made my way through Beacon Hill , the Boston World Trade Center , the North End , Fanueil Hall, China Town, and now the South End . And all of these places could use more exploration. It's wonderful. Unli...

I dyed my hair :) (and no, my job doesn't care that much) So, I'm going to warn you right now that this blog is going to be as random as my hair. First, after much deliberation, I finally settled on an MP3 player. First I bought the Toshiba Gigabeat (30GB), but then found it didn't have a microphone. If you don't have need for a microphone, I highly highly highly recommend it. I paid about $180 and it was a sweet little package. Unfortunately I sent it back and instead purchased a Zen Vision M (30GB) in lime green. I love it and it's got the microphone (for my fiddle lessons). It's bigger and heavier than the Gigiddy beat - but smaller and lighter than both the Zune and iPod. AND it doesn't force you to use Microsoft Media Player to sync (I hate that program), plus it lets you delete songs right off the player when you don't like them. All in all a good purchase so far. ($225 with a $50 rebate) After filling my Zentastic with 10GB of songs, I still wasn...

i thought i would pull together a couple themes from previous posts here and talk about the one reason that i DO love myspace. music. music music music. first, i love that every band that i can possibly think of has a page where i can sample their music, and then claim a little piece of that music by putting it on my page, effectively snapshotting my current state of mind with a catchy little ditty. second, i thoroughly enjoy going to a friend's page and being audibly forced to broaden my music spectrum. and finally, i enjoy the glimpse it provides into their current mental stability or lack thereof. to sum it up, groove is in the heart.

So, I am (like many people of this generation) a music whore. My new favorite thing is to go to MTV.com and watch hours of videos. I am IN LOVE with Nelly Furtado, Shakira, Mika (check out "Grace Kelly"), Gym Class Heroes, OK GO, KT Tunstall... and the list goes on. I'm slightly afraid that I'm being brain-washed by the music "man" by only watching what MTV puts in front of me, but you know what? It's way better than listening to the same old stagnant selections. And if you haven't seen it yet, you absolutely MUST check out the Shakira and Beyonce video "Beautiful Liar". So hot.

So, i'm taking a course on HVAC systems through MIT's " Open Courseware " system (which is a fabulous idea). However, as I'm reading through topics that I have learned before and am trying to brush up on, I'm struck by the fact that this textbook was written by an imbecile. No, that's not the right word. Was written by someone with no communication skills. At All. (Not surprising in the engineering world, I know) Heat transfer does not need to be a difficult concept. "From the second law considerations it can be demonstrated that there is always a net positive energy transfer from the body at a high temperature to a second body at a lower temperature." What they mean is: Heat energy moves from higher temps to lower temps, through 3 possible ways: convection, conduction, and radiation. What I just told you in 2 lines, this book can't seem to get through in 3 pages. It's frustrating to me. After rereading each section it finally cli...

myspace is a pretty interesting phenomenon... i'm assuming that what i do is what most people do, and if that's the case... every once in a while i'll go through my "friends" and read all their comments. this is, i feel, an amazing social thing that's happening. for some reason, people who could just as easily shoot an email, would rather instead post a comment for the an entire community to see. usually these comments are little glimpses into other conversations, or tidbits of stories of wild nights out, but what i want to know is - why do we do this? does it make it somehow more real if we give the whole world a peek? does it validate that yes, indeed, we are really friends? is this a spin-off on the cool-kid syndrome - a way to give other people a glimpse into what they are missing out on, our other exciting friendships? the comments i really enjoy receiving are ones from people that i rarely talk to. a little touching-base with an old friend/acquai...

i like the idea of a grassroots political movement, but what if i'm a different type of grass than everybody else? that's not really my fear. i would be pretty happy to see the people being heard, regardless of whether i agree with what they're saying or not. i believe that many of my feelings are echoed by the masses, and would be content with that. i sometimes feel that a lot of the groups that seem to be getting attention are minorities. (i think because they yell the loudest) the special interest groups are organized, and passionate, and therefore they get a response. but what worries me are the everyday things that everyone has issues with, and that we just can't seem to fix. health care, education... the rest of us grumbling on the side figure our lives are "good enough" and don't put much effort into making it great. but i wonder if something that's irksome-but-livable to me isn't perhaps life-challenging to someone less fortunate. and if i ...

By the time I woke up on Saturday breakfast was fully underway. That, you would think, is a good thing... Team "Big Guns" had quite the tasty menu planned. Potatoes and eggs and sausage OH MY! Except... the sausage didn't exactly make it to the house. And after about an hour of us sitting around drooling, the potatoes were still massive blobs in the microwave. But the eggs- the eggs were just fine. :) Following breakfast, Shakes and Matt and I finally headed to the mountain to get our snow on. (See, I couldn't say board specifically, because Shakes is one of "THEM". But I still love him.) We took one look at the gondola line and thought "That little three person lift over there doesn't look so bad." HA! Let's just say, I wanted to cry, but I was afraid the tears would freeze my eyeballs. The initial run, though a little chilly, was the kick off of a fabulous day on the slopes. We realized after lunch (and picking up Sarah the Hot...