Wrapup

F.I.T.

This F.I.T. I was kind of surprised when I got on the scale, 7 down and 4 to go. I thought for sure that the Mushroom Port Lasagne and 4 glasses of wine would have prevented any weight loss from the prior week.

This F.I.T. was low key. Tara came over for an ad-lib meal salad and wine. The Mark joined us when he got home. Noeha had a date so she was MIA.


School

The second week is over so the drop date was Friday. I threw Artificial Intelligence under the bus; I didn't think the course was that well-organized plus I doubt the information is going to be valuable for my industry. (although it is very cool, conceptually)

Which leaves me with

Biostat

Immunobiology

Spanish

The Spanish course is cool, its mostly done over the internet. You watch some videos on the net, listen to some CDs that come with the book, do some homework in the workbook and Fax it to the prof. She calls 3 times during the semester for oral exams. I only have to go to Richland's campus 3 times to take written exams (and those times are left to the student). I wish all of my courses were like this!

Music


I downloaded 1200 songs in 2005 and never listened to or burned any of them until January. I know, bad Jim! But I'm half way through all of them and this one from Depeche Mode is my favorite. I love this CD! I can't believe how long DM has been around and this is seriously their best CD to date. Some of the tracks have an old school, high-energy DM sound like A Pain That I'm Used To and John, The Revelator. But the remainder of the CD shows that DM has mastered a new sound that lies somwhere between New Order and Portishead; funky and downtempo, sometimes just plain eery.

The CD art bothers me. What is that thing anyway? Its like some Blair Witch feather voodoo doll. Creepy.

Other good ones were Death Cab For Cutie: Transatlanticism, Afro Celt Sound System: Seed, Franz Ferdinand: You Could Have It So Much Better and The Strokes: First Impressions Of Earth.

Work

The DNA Knot project is off and running. I'm still coming up to speed on the science behind what I will be doing. Plus I am writing papers for my boss about the process of software engineering (since he is a novice in that area). Its good experience to try to explain information that is systemic (to me) to someone else who has no background. I'll try to explain the science here once I figure it out.

The Plate
New restaurant, The Catalina Room, to tell you about later. Oh, and a new home-grown dish too.

Boys

Right, I'm glad I delayed writing about this since now one of the 3, Roundup Guy, has self-destructed. Now there is just Home Depot Guy and 4 Years Ago Guy. More on these later, I have a pressing date with 4 chapters of statistics.