Bring it, Winter!

With the weather taking a turn for the ugly, I am pleased to announce that my first truly winter-proof clothing has arrived!

Frosted Walkway Stones

The northern side of the Olin Library at Cornell has an outdoor second story stone walkway with a lovely view of the Arts Quad. Though there is ample seating on many well positioned benches, this terrace isn't a popular gathering place in the winter months because the main portion of the building casts a continual shadow on the entire area. 



Above is satellite imagery showing the area in the morning light of early spring. In the Winter, when the sun remains lower to the horizon, the shadows of the library and the adjacent building extend well past the walkway, leaving it in continual shadow.  View Larger Map


The other day I was on campus biding some time, so I ascended to this walkway in hope of using it's vantage point to find a sunnier spot to sit. In an effort to spice-up the bland monotony of grey slate slabs, the walkway is salted with smooth white stones. I quickly noticed, by nearly falling on my face, that some of these white stones were covered in a well-disguised layer of frost. With complete disregard to my the odd looks of the few people sitting around on nearby benches, I proceeded to skate back and forth on my impromptu ice rink.

Rally to Restore Sanity Wrap-Up

To say that fans of Jon Stewart and the Rev. Sir Dr. Stephen T. Colbert, D.F.A. had big expectations... would be over-simplifying the varied yearnings of an equally diverse crowd. And that, is precisely the point. On October 30th, an estimated 200,000 people came to the National Mall, in Washington D.C. to show their support for rational political discourse. The result was the largest gathering of kind reasonable people since the last U2 concert.

I knew those neighbors were sketchy...

OctoBrrr Part 2

40° and hailing... [teeth chattering noises]

Foliage Update #5

As always, the originals and as-of-yet-unblogged pictures can be found in my Picasa Fall Foliage album.

Weekly Update #8

The headlines: Jenni's family's visit, Ultimate update, books, and it's cold!

As I mentioned last weekend, Jenni's dad, sister, and grandmother came to visit. We went out to dinner to the literally world-famous Moosewood vegetarian restaurant. The wait was a ridiculous hour and a half and the food wasn't really all that great, but I can now at least say I've been there.

Some members of the "Breakfast Club"
on a similar weekend outing.

The next day we brought them along to our weekly weekend breakfast with various other grad-students and friends. The venue was our fall-back: Waffle Frolic, a local waffle-oriented restaurant opened by some Ithaca College grads. I ventured to try the chili-cornbread waffle; the risk paid-off wonderfully.

We then went up to give a tour of the Cornell campus, mostly by car due to Grandma Jean's immobility. We did get out to see Jenni's lab and a few of the bridges crossing the larger gorge that runs through campus. I've never seen someone so impressed with waterfalls. Jean was litterally jumping around and smiling. The falls were truly impressive do to recent rains.

As the trees show, this is a picture of
Beebe Dam above Fall Creek in summer

Jenni's family left that afternoon. That evening I played in the weekly Ultimate game. The temperature was in the upper 30's, so when we weren't on the field, we we literally jogging in place to keep warm. Our team won handedly, most of our veteran players returning after their fall break absence.

As you may be able to tell, I'm scraping the bottom of the barrel trying to find things for this week's update; it was a slow week. There was much reading, studying, and cups of tea. I finally finished War & Peace nine months after starting it and then blew through Harry Potter 7 over the following 3 days (in preparation for Part I of the film incarnation which comes out in November.

The studying to which I referred is in regard to the MCAT which I have decided to retake both due to a need for more recent results by some schools and for a chance to improve my chances at applying this time around. After swallowing my pride, I am looking into taking one of those terribly overpriced but annoyingly effective Kaplan courses in preparation (donations are very welcome).