Monday, May 3, 2010
Sunday, March 21, 2010
Life Comes at You Fast...
Edited to add: I am going south, but actually more southwest. I accepted a fellowship/assistantship offer from Texas A&M University on Tuesday, and I'll be moving to College Station in early August. From what I understand, A&M rivals OSU for its tradition and student pride, so I think I'll fit right in in Aggie-Land!
I'm going to be working on research in crisis communication for livestock producers, which sounds really weird but is actually something I'm interested in, as well as TAing a class Fall Semester and instructing on my own during Spring. James and I think y'all should visit the Lone Star State since we'll both be down there come this summer (hint, hint).
Like James, I feel like it's been a long time since I've updated y'all on my goings-on. And no, my use of that southern-fried rhetorical staple is not random.
I'm moving south.
Or, at least, it's very likely.
I applied to Ph.D. programs at the University of Florida and Texas A&M. I got a tentative notice of acceptance from Aggie-Land a few weeks ago - about the same time I decided I didn't really want to pursue a doctorate right now.
How quickly things change.
I finally heard from UF on Thursday: I was accepted into Florida's Agricultural Education & Communication doctoral program. The big news came yesterday, when I received an email from the chair of the AEC department informing me that Florida was offering me a four-year graduate fellowship.
!!!!!
Needless to say, chances are good that I'll be moving to Gainesville in August (unless A&M counters with a big-money offer. Ha), which means I expect lots of visits when it's cold and snowy in Ohio, Vermont, Maine, Illinois, and wherever else you crazy kids will be in the next year. I'm really excited and kind of freaking out. I'm not sure how I feel about moving to such hostile territory, and I sure as hell won't be buying any "God Loves Tim Tebow" merchandise, but I will probably be sporting some orange and blue. Chomp, chomp.
We have a big cow show coming up this week (and a fabulous heifer to take out - maybe I'll post some pics when she wins! *crosses fingers*), and I can't wait for Linking Weekend and our plaque dedication. So, yeah, lots of good stuff going on. :-)
Anyhoo, I must get out to the barn - yes, I'm at home on Spring Break. (Milking cows = lame.) I hope everyone is enjoying March Madness, and Sloopy better beat the living crap out of Rocky Top come next week!
Much 101 love,
Annie
I'm going to be working on research in crisis communication for livestock producers, which sounds really weird but is actually something I'm interested in, as well as TAing a class Fall Semester and instructing on my own during Spring. James and I think y'all should visit the Lone Star State since we'll both be down there come this summer (hint, hint).
Like James, I feel like it's been a long time since I've updated y'all on my goings-on. And no, my use of that southern-fried rhetorical staple is not random.
I'm moving south.
Or, at least, it's very likely.
I applied to Ph.D. programs at the University of Florida and Texas A&M. I got a tentative notice of acceptance from Aggie-Land a few weeks ago - about the same time I decided I didn't really want to pursue a doctorate right now.
How quickly things change.
I finally heard from UF on Thursday: I was accepted into Florida's Agricultural Education & Communication doctoral program. The big news came yesterday, when I received an email from the chair of the AEC department informing me that Florida was offering me a four-year graduate fellowship.
!!!!!
Needless to say, chances are good that I'll be moving to Gainesville in August (unless A&M counters with a big-money offer. Ha), which means I expect lots of visits when it's cold and snowy in Ohio, Vermont, Maine, Illinois, and wherever else you crazy kids will be in the next year. I'm really excited and kind of freaking out. I'm not sure how I feel about moving to such hostile territory, and I sure as hell won't be buying any "God Loves Tim Tebow" merchandise, but I will probably be sporting some orange and blue. Chomp, chomp.
We have a big cow show coming up this week (and a fabulous heifer to take out - maybe I'll post some pics when she wins! *crosses fingers*), and I can't wait for Linking Weekend and our plaque dedication. So, yeah, lots of good stuff going on. :-)
Anyhoo, I must get out to the barn - yes, I'm at home on Spring Break. (Milking cows = lame.) I hope everyone is enjoying March Madness, and Sloopy better beat the living crap out of Rocky Top come next week!
Much 101 love,
Annie
Sunday, February 14, 2010
Batteries and Beerlympics
Hi friends,
I hope all is well in your respective lives. I haven't written in here for a while, so I figured I should.
The best way to start things off is with an embarrassing story about myself. I haven't been drinking a ton lately which depresses me somewhat. My roommate can't really go out much because he is on crutches from ankle surgery. He doesn't really want to get drunk on crutches because he thinks he'll fall over. I think that would be hilarious. Anyways, I went out with some people from my department: one first year girl who could be described as a dumb bitch by Krajny and her old roomies, a Michigan grad and some of his buddies. After midnight or so, me and the Michigan guy decided we were drunk enough to actually go try and dance with some ladies. I noticed a cute girl dancing by herself a few feet away so I go up and attempt to chat. Here is how it goes:
Me: A pretty girl like you shouldn't be dancing by yourself......what are you drinking there?
Me internally: wtf kind of opening line is that? I suck at this.
Girl: a gin and tonic
Me: oh cool I have a vodka tonic.........do you want some?
Me internally: that is easily the creepiest response you could have had. now she thinks you want to roofy her.
Girl: uhh why would I want some of yours when I have a drink right here?
Me: good point
I think we danced for like 30 seconds and then she walked away. Epic fail.
Second, here is a fantastic youtube clip from Axe. I have no idea how they got Jaime Pressley to do this. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bevJr3Ra84Q
Third, life udpate. So I'm in the middle of my semester down here, and it's a little bit busier than I expected. I'm taking 2 classes, one of which is a little difficult. I am also TA'ing an undergrad class, which has been interesting. As an undergrad I always assumed the grad students knew and understood everything. I now know that is not true, at least in my case. The class is called trasnport phenomenon, which basically means modeling heat, mass, and momentum transport. If you want to know more, I can tell you all about it some other time. I have office hours for 2 hours and run a 2 hour recitation, where I call on students to come down and put their homework solutions on the projector to explain to the class. Other than that, I just have to proctor and grade the midterms. I've gotten some good feedback so far, but that may just be because the kids like me better than the other TA, Ming Pan, because I can speak clear English. The other aspect of the job is to try to avoid being creepy towards the attractive sophomore girls in the class. My roommate and I joked that it was going to happen and then bam, first person in my office hours is a smoking red head-fml.
Over Christmas break, I finally got my research adviser situation figured out. I'll be working for a professor in the mechanical engineering department (but still getting a chemical engineering degree) to try to make advanced materials for cathodes in batteries. The goal is to give the batteries better storage capacity and lifetime performance to improve the economic viability of alternative energy sources. The batteries would hold power generated from sources like wind and solar to be used when the sun doesn't shine or the wind doesn't blow. I haven't really gotten started yet in the lab yet. I just follow people around and try to learn what they are doing. I will be working with an undergrad and a postdoc on the project. The research group webpage is here: http://www.me.utexas.edu/~manthiram/ If you look at the people section, you can see that the group is very international, with domestic students being in the minority, so that'll be something to get used to.
I've got some fun weekends coming up, which I'm excited about. At the end of February, we have our recruitment weekend for the students admitted this year. Basically we pitch the department to them and then get them really drunk at night. It's a vicious/wonderful cycle. The week after that Dreami is coming to visit. My dad is not coming, just Dreami. I have no idea how I'm going to entertain here for multiple days, but frankly I'm afraid. On a Dreami-related sidenote, she got a Facebook account. I know she's going to ask to be my friend, which means I'll have to censor pictures now-many of them are probably Sphinx related. The week after that, Jon Avery and Justin Burger are coming down, so hopefully they'll be some drunken shenanigans to share after that. It's also the start of South by Southwest that weekend, so we'll have to scope out the free things to do during that. Then a couple of weeks after that another former Stater is going to San Antonio with her parents, so they're going to come up here for an afternoon I think.
Finally, the student involvement beerlympics are taking place again this year. The date is Friday, April 16th, and I assume it'll be at Donatos again. I'm excited because I'm pretty sure I'm going to be back in town that weekend, so I plan on going to enjoy some of the festivities. If you guys are in town feel free to join.
I think that's it for me. Sorry f0r the long post. I like to ramble. Keep on posting guys so we can stay in touch. Adios all.
-James
I hope all is well in your respective lives. I haven't written in here for a while, so I figured I should.
The best way to start things off is with an embarrassing story about myself. I haven't been drinking a ton lately which depresses me somewhat. My roommate can't really go out much because he is on crutches from ankle surgery. He doesn't really want to get drunk on crutches because he thinks he'll fall over. I think that would be hilarious. Anyways, I went out with some people from my department: one first year girl who could be described as a dumb bitch by Krajny and her old roomies, a Michigan grad and some of his buddies. After midnight or so, me and the Michigan guy decided we were drunk enough to actually go try and dance with some ladies. I noticed a cute girl dancing by herself a few feet away so I go up and attempt to chat. Here is how it goes:
Me: A pretty girl like you shouldn't be dancing by yourself......what are you drinking there?
Me internally: wtf kind of opening line is that? I suck at this.
Girl: a gin and tonic
Me: oh cool I have a vodka tonic.........do you want some?
Me internally: that is easily the creepiest response you could have had. now she thinks you want to roofy her.
Girl: uhh why would I want some of yours when I have a drink right here?
Me: good point
I think we danced for like 30 seconds and then she walked away. Epic fail.
Second, here is a fantastic youtube clip from Axe. I have no idea how they got Jaime Pressley to do this. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bevJr3Ra84Q
Third, life udpate. So I'm in the middle of my semester down here, and it's a little bit busier than I expected. I'm taking 2 classes, one of which is a little difficult. I am also TA'ing an undergrad class, which has been interesting. As an undergrad I always assumed the grad students knew and understood everything. I now know that is not true, at least in my case. The class is called trasnport phenomenon, which basically means modeling heat, mass, and momentum transport. If you want to know more, I can tell you all about it some other time. I have office hours for 2 hours and run a 2 hour recitation, where I call on students to come down and put their homework solutions on the projector to explain to the class. Other than that, I just have to proctor and grade the midterms. I've gotten some good feedback so far, but that may just be because the kids like me better than the other TA, Ming Pan, because I can speak clear English. The other aspect of the job is to try to avoid being creepy towards the attractive sophomore girls in the class. My roommate and I joked that it was going to happen and then bam, first person in my office hours is a smoking red head-fml.
Over Christmas break, I finally got my research adviser situation figured out. I'll be working for a professor in the mechanical engineering department (but still getting a chemical engineering degree) to try to make advanced materials for cathodes in batteries. The goal is to give the batteries better storage capacity and lifetime performance to improve the economic viability of alternative energy sources. The batteries would hold power generated from sources like wind and solar to be used when the sun doesn't shine or the wind doesn't blow. I haven't really gotten started yet in the lab yet. I just follow people around and try to learn what they are doing. I will be working with an undergrad and a postdoc on the project. The research group webpage is here: http://www.me.utexas.edu/~manthiram/ If you look at the people section, you can see that the group is very international, with domestic students being in the minority, so that'll be something to get used to.
I've got some fun weekends coming up, which I'm excited about. At the end of February, we have our recruitment weekend for the students admitted this year. Basically we pitch the department to them and then get them really drunk at night. It's a vicious/wonderful cycle. The week after that Dreami is coming to visit. My dad is not coming, just Dreami. I have no idea how I'm going to entertain here for multiple days, but frankly I'm afraid. On a Dreami-related sidenote, she got a Facebook account. I know she's going to ask to be my friend, which means I'll have to censor pictures now-many of them are probably Sphinx related. The week after that, Jon Avery and Justin Burger are coming down, so hopefully they'll be some drunken shenanigans to share after that. It's also the start of South by Southwest that weekend, so we'll have to scope out the free things to do during that. Then a couple of weeks after that another former Stater is going to San Antonio with her parents, so they're going to come up here for an afternoon I think.
Finally, the student involvement beerlympics are taking place again this year. The date is Friday, April 16th, and I assume it'll be at Donatos again. I'm excited because I'm pretty sure I'm going to be back in town that weekend, so I plan on going to enjoy some of the festivities. If you guys are in town feel free to join.
I think that's it for me. Sorry f0r the long post. I like to ramble. Keep on posting guys so we can stay in touch. Adios all.
-James
Tuesday, February 9, 2010
Sunday, November 22, 2009
New Year's
Hi all,
Like Kraj, I don't think I can afford to head out to California for the Rose Bowl, even though it would be amazing. As for New Year's, if Nat Cat is still offering up his house in Columbus, that's my vote. I bet the most people would be able to go if we kept it in Columbus because it's centrally located. Thoughts?
-James
Like Kraj, I don't think I can afford to head out to California for the Rose Bowl, even though it would be amazing. As for New Year's, if Nat Cat is still offering up his house in Columbus, that's my vote. I bet the most people would be able to go if we kept it in Columbus because it's centrally located. Thoughts?
-James
Thursday, November 19, 2009
Thoughts on New Years
Hello friends!
As much as I would love to go to the Rose Bowl and see Brittany and Luis, I'm not sure if I can afford to go to Cali for New Year's. At the beginning of my Winter Break, Robbie and I are meeting in Paris and traveling around there for a week then going to Dublin, and that's about all my poor grad student budget can handle. I'm up for going anywhere closer though, as long as Robbie can come... although it's fine for him to wait outside too. =)
Is Chicago still an option?
Related to Beat Michigan Week, I wanted to inform all of you that I will be at Mirror Lake tonight.. on duty representing Student Life. My "primary function" out there is "to monitor the Lake and the surrounding areas for any situations that may be dangerous to the students, watch for anyone who may need assistance and report to the proper agency." Things have changed a lot since undergrad...
I thought you might be interested in this article: Don't Be Happy, Be Worried: Sports Fans Need Dose Of Negative. You can view it at, http://researchnews.osu.edu/archive/osumich.htm
Finally, this post was made at about 10:20am... and Michigan still sucks.
101 Love!
As much as I would love to go to the Rose Bowl and see Brittany and Luis, I'm not sure if I can afford to go to Cali for New Year's. At the beginning of my Winter Break, Robbie and I are meeting in Paris and traveling around there for a week then going to Dublin, and that's about all my poor grad student budget can handle. I'm up for going anywhere closer though, as long as Robbie can come... although it's fine for him to wait outside too. =)
Is Chicago still an option?
Related to Beat Michigan Week, I wanted to inform all of you that I will be at Mirror Lake tonight.. on duty representing Student Life. My "primary function" out there is "to monitor the Lake and the surrounding areas for any situations that may be dangerous to the students, watch for anyone who may need assistance and report to the proper agency." Things have changed a lot since undergrad...
I thought you might be interested in this article: Don't Be Happy, Be Worried: Sports Fans Need Dose Of Negative. You can view it at, http://researchnews.osu.edu/archive/osumich.htm
Finally, this post was made at about 10:20am... and Michigan still sucks.
101 Love!
Monday, November 16, 2009
Beat Michigan Week!
Hello fellow Sphinx-ters,
Greetings, and Happy Beat Michigan Week! It is the greatest time of year, and I hope that wherever you are, and whoever you will be watching the game with, may Buckeye Spirit find you alive and well. Our beloved Buckeyes have had a great season thus far, and hopefully a victory over those scaliwags from up north lies in the near future. Sportsmanship indeed.
Now as you all know, last weekend, a thrilling victory sent our lads to the Granddaddy of them All: the Rose Bowl Game, to be held this coming New Years Day, 2010. While we do not yet know our foe, many of our Buckeye brethren are already investigating travel options to Southern California for the holidays. Ms. Brittany Yurchkyaskdck recently sent out an email offering her apartment as a possible location for those who wish to make the voyage west.
And so, we have some options before us. And I am hoping to start a conversation so that we can explore said options. An Advance has been called, and Advance we shall. Thus far, the plans have called for us to spend New Year's at Mr. Nat Sheppard's residence, provided we do not pop bottles on the ceiling (cough cough). This option would also include a dining experience at the estate of the link formerly known as Ms. Abbie Brown, who was recently wed, and whose new last name I can't remember at this point. The point is, she's married, and would like for us to dine with her, provided we do not party in her new house after our meal is complete. Obviously, that fifth year of college imparted a great deal of wisdom upon our dear Abbie.
The new option that has materialized in recent days would be a trip to sunny SoCal. Regardless of whether we attend the game or not, the experience of tailgating at the bowl game would be quite pleasant, especially since we were in the 5th grade the last time the Buckeyes played in the Rose Bowl.
I am not advocating for one option over the other. Rather, I am just starting the conversation so that we can explore our options. May the great debate begin!
Finally, Mr. Michael Repasky has requested that I suggest a Thanksgiving weekend gathering for those who are in Ohio for the holiday. Kindly reply if you will be in the region and your schedule permits your attendance.
I am, forever your humble servant,
-Matthew J. Van Jura
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