Saturday, November 26, 2005
Exhaustive Update
This week Jie and I have been back in Texas for Thanksgiving. We booked our flights early this time and so we got a good deal on them, and then it turns out I have a 2nd round interview on Tuesday and so my flight will be reimbursed as well. Woo hoo! Every time we are in Texas we do the Houston-San Antonio-Austin triangle in some order, which makes for a lot of driving while we’re back. Luckily, my step-dad is always nice enough to loan us his car so we don’t have to pay for a rental. The complications occur over Christmas when we are back for over two weeks, it’s tough to borrow someone’s car for that long…
Yesterday was a major scare on the college football front. I was about to go in some sort of catatonic shock with the way my Longhorns were playing against the Aggies. Luckily, we pulled out the win anyway, and this will definitely be motivation for next week against either the Cyclones or the Buffaloes. In fact, given that we won the game, this was probably the best thing that could have happened. It takes the Heisman pressure off Vince, gives us motivation for next week, and it was a moral victory for the Aggies, who were in desperate need of one.
One exciting development this week has been the planning of a trip to Chattanooga, Tennessee with my brother and Dad to see the Division I-AA National Championship game on December 16th. I was able to change a previously made AirTran reservation (they bend over backwards to deliver customer service some times, and other times are incredibly obstinate and difficult to work with), and will meet my Dad and brother in Atlanta where we’ll rent a car to drive to Chattanooga. It should be a fun trip, and it means that I should get to attend the Division I-A and Division I-AA National Championship games in the same season. Many pictures and contrasting impressions will be forthcoming… (First point, ticket for the Rose Bowl: $175, ticket for Davenport Field in Chattanooga: $20.) The trip is actually my graduation present to my brother, he’s excited about it because his Texas State Bobcats are in the I-AA postseason for the first time, and they have an excellent shot at reaching the National Championship.
The big story in my life right now outside of the job decision process is the short fuse I have on my papers for my two paper classes. I am getting dreadfully behind on both of them, and need to really focus over the next few weeks to get things taken care of. Complicating things has been the fact that my laptop battery has basically died, it lasts only about 45 minutes now, making it impossible to get work done on the various plane rides I’ll be taking over the next few weeks (I’ll be in Boston for only 10 of the 19 days between now and Christmas Break). I finally caved and bought a new battery from IBM, shelling out $160 for an extended life battery. I’ll try to limit the use of the new one to travel so I don’t end up ruining it in a year like I did this one.
Yesterday was a major scare on the college football front. I was about to go in some sort of catatonic shock with the way my Longhorns were playing against the Aggies. Luckily, we pulled out the win anyway, and this will definitely be motivation for next week against either the Cyclones or the Buffaloes. In fact, given that we won the game, this was probably the best thing that could have happened. It takes the Heisman pressure off Vince, gives us motivation for next week, and it was a moral victory for the Aggies, who were in desperate need of one.
One exciting development this week has been the planning of a trip to Chattanooga, Tennessee with my brother and Dad to see the Division I-AA National Championship game on December 16th. I was able to change a previously made AirTran reservation (they bend over backwards to deliver customer service some times, and other times are incredibly obstinate and difficult to work with), and will meet my Dad and brother in Atlanta where we’ll rent a car to drive to Chattanooga. It should be a fun trip, and it means that I should get to attend the Division I-A and Division I-AA National Championship games in the same season. Many pictures and contrasting impressions will be forthcoming… (First point, ticket for the Rose Bowl: $175, ticket for Davenport Field in Chattanooga: $20.) The trip is actually my graduation present to my brother, he’s excited about it because his Texas State Bobcats are in the I-AA postseason for the first time, and they have an excellent shot at reaching the National Championship.
The big story in my life right now outside of the job decision process is the short fuse I have on my papers for my two paper classes. I am getting dreadfully behind on both of them, and need to really focus over the next few weeks to get things taken care of. Complicating things has been the fact that my laptop battery has basically died, it lasts only about 45 minutes now, making it impossible to get work done on the various plane rides I’ll be taking over the next few weeks (I’ll be in Boston for only 10 of the 19 days between now and Christmas Break). I finally caved and bought a new battery from IBM, shelling out $160 for an extended life battery. I’ll try to limit the use of the new one to travel so I don’t end up ruining it in a year like I did this one.
