Welcome to 2005, may it bring more Democratic victories!
New York was a blast. Highlights included:
Rockefeller Center
Bluestockings (feminist bookstore)
the Museum of Sex
extremely close Madden2004 games on Jon's GameCube
Central Park and learning about schist
finishing all my PhD Grad School apps (Princeton, Michigan, Yale, MIT, Columbia, Duke)
beating Andy, Mara, and Anna in Scrabble
beating Seth in Scrabble (for only the second time in my life!)
the Newtonian exhibit at the New York Public library
interpreting the line to get into the MoMA as a piece of modern art itself
touring the entire Times Sq Toys R' Us store with Naomi
losing $35 in an all-night, no limit, Texas hold 'em poker game with Popper and her (poker-experienced) friends
The coolest part of the trip was Seth's New Year's Eve party. About 50 of us went up to his roof top from which you could see Times Sq and the reflection of The Ball. (The Reuters building obstructed our view of The Ball itself.) At 10pm the city, from our rooftop perspective, was eerily quiet given that we knew 200,000 people we standing just past our field of vision. At around 11:30 we could start to hear the throngs yelling. Some lackluster fireworks exploded to mark the passing of the year, and we continued to party until 3:30am--at which point I walked home through Times Sq (the cleanup crew was in full force while the confetti was still falling).
Not that you need to waste your time on this, but two things:
1) in which field (since you're qualified in several) are you gonna get your PhD?
2) have you checked out the Virtual Thesaurus yet? If not, do so. Fun stuff.
1) Political science. I think a master's in comp sci is plenty. Actually, I think the same about political science: I may end up at night school for public policy at GWU.
2) Just checked it out...it looks like a cool concept, but I'm not sure how practical it is.
I just got "t < word here >" to automatically go to thesaurus.com in Opera's address bar, so I think I'll be using that for a while.
1) Wicked. G'luck.
2) Yes, it is prettier than it is useful. Though were I a teacher of either high school English or the philosophy of language, I'd have to own a copy.