One day down, how many more to go?

The first day of classes was yesterday. It was a VERY long day. Three classes in a row in the morning. I was sitting in lecture from 8:30-1:00. Then I had a two hour break before the last class. It was definitely lunch time. One class to go today and then I need to start thinking hard about whether I would rather take quantum mechanics through the physics or chemistry department. EM is going to suck, especially since it meets at 8:30 AM, but that’s life. I’m excited about my astronomy classes. Galactic dynamics should be interesting and is homework only – no exams, no projects. That will be nice.  I’ve been looking forward to radio astronomy – definitely something I need.  I’ll need to write a telescope proposal and do a project researching a telescope/type of radio astronomy for the class which will be good for me, but lots of work.  I’m already thinking about the project in the back of my mind.  I’d like to know more about CCAT – it’s going to be a good initiative and I don’t know enough about submm and what science is available there at all.

I do have to say that orientation was basically a complete waste of time.  I could have totally stayed in Bloomington an extra couple of days.  Oh well, it was probably for the best that I came back here early and had a couple of days to be completely and totally lazy during.  At least, that’s what I’m trying to tell myself.

Choices, Wine and Code

So I was offered the option of a real office on the fifth floor, but decided to turn it down. Instead I’ll end up in one of the mass offices on the first floor with the other first years. I figured it would be better to be amongst my classmates so that I could get to know them. And, perhaps more importantly, be able to work on homework with them. I’m sure there are times I’ll wish for the peace and quiet of a smaller office, but I’ll still have a place on the fifth floor in the Cave.

I went wine tasting with my roommate and her friend who was visiting for the weekend. It was good times, even if I was driving and skipped some of the tastings.  I bought several bottles of wine though.  We went to the winery, Thirsty Owl, that I had gone to with my parents.  I had tasted the Dry Riesling and bought a bottle when I was there before, but it had been pulled from the tasting because it was just awarded the Governor’s Cup.  I was laughing to myself because the bottle was (and still is) open in my fridge.  I did actually buy another bottle of it because I had really liked it.  I’ve found a lot of whites that I like but I haven’t had much luck with the local reds.

I’ve been coding a lot recently trying to get some procedures together that will find matches to ALFALFA sources from other surveys and compute magnitude corrections.  I was really happy with myself Friday because I had figured out how to read files into IDL independent of the number of entries.    I was really proud of how I managed to make the code relatively robust.  There’s still a few little things to fix, and I need to rewrite some older code, but I’ll get there soon.

The kitten is cute and all,

But needs to learn that my toes and fingers aren’t toys for attacking and biting. And that keyboards are not for walking on. And definitely not for chewing on. That one’s not going to be allowed. Although kittens are definitely not as obnoxious as puppies.

I watched Tom Yum Goong, the second Tony Jaa movie again tonight. This was my first time watching the version originally released in Thailand before it came to the States. I was surprised by how different it was. I had been warned, but I hadn’t fully appreciated. Still full of awesome action sequences though.

Just working…

Flagging data from ALFALFA – mindless reductions but it’s a good way to avoid writing the IDL procedures I’m supposed to be coming up with. There’s nothing like having vast amounts of data to work with and match to other catalogs. I have to say that I like the documentation and interface for 2MASS more than SDSS – it’s too easy to get lost in the various data releases of SDSS.

There’s a new kitten, Nino, in the house, and he’s adorable and loves attention. Amelie’s not convinced that she likes him yet but she’s tolerating him well and hasn’t taken a swipe at him recently.  Stephanie borrowed my camera the day he came back from the shelter and took lots of cute kitten pictures, so I’ll have to post some of those up soon.