Just to clarify Julie's post:

-We bought a tree that is 7.5 feet tall. It turns out that the ceiling of our apartment is also 7.5 feet tall, as it touches the ceiling, even after being scrunched down to accomodate a star.
-We also have 6 strands of lights on the windows.
-And illuminated garland.
-And a dancing mouse.
-And other cool stuff.

I love Christmas!

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Presidential_%241_Coin_Act_of_2005

Argh! I have to wait until 2010 for Millard?

Soriano!

What American accent do you have? Your Result: The Inland North You may think you speak "Standard English straight out of the dictionary" but when you step away from the Great Lakes you get asked annoying questions like "Are you from Wisconsin?" or "Are you from Chicago?" Chances are you call carbonated drinks "pop."
The Midland
The Northeast
Philadelphia
The South
The West
Boston
North Central
What American accent do you have? Take More Quizzes

Hahaha...nothing else was even close. Plus, I have converted Julie to the correct way of speaking, apparently - except for her recently derived Canadian accent

"I guess what I learned is, don't sit in trees anymore."

-Keith Richards

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ovqwojezt4I

"Roughly how many building blocks of life have you discovered?"

An excerpt from that catchy new ditty by Jay-Z and Beyonce:

"I used to run base like Juan Pierre
Now I run the bass hi hat and the snare"

Pierre just tripled.

Date:	2006-08-15 13:49
Subject:	Road Trip
Security:	Public
Mood:	jubilant
Music:	"Summer Days" Bob Dylan

As mentioned previously, I made it to New Jersey right away on the 2nd. Julie and I spent the next couple of days visiting with her grandparents, figuring out some wedding stuff, and shopping for things for our apartment in Boston (thus insuring that the bobbleheads have ample space to reside and such). We also saw Clerks 2 (not so great) and went to a minor league baseball game for our five year anniversary (Julie felt the combination of baseball, a team named the ducks, and pre- and post-game entertainment provided by a Beatles cover band suited the occasion pretty well!). The Beatles cover band was actually pretty good - they played almost exclusively early stuff, but everything sounded pretty good and in almost direct emulation of the Beatles style.

Last Tuesday we went to Hershey, PA. It was a pretty nifty place, and definitely one of the happier places on earth. I guess lots of singing and dancing chocolate will do that. We saw a 3D show that prominently featured dancing and singing chocolate, and also allusions to Indiana Jones. We also went to a cute little zoo, the factory tour ride (twice), and other fun stuff like that. Lots of free samples also added to the ambiance of it all.

On Thursday we took the train into New York City. In the same philosophy of my recent explorations of certain major European cities, we walked a ton - and the weather was nice enough to cooperate! We wandered all over Central Park (Strawberry Fields was very ornately decorated this time) for most of the afternoon before heading off in the direction of Rockefeller Center to appease the trend of going to the top of tall buildings in major cities (ok, so maybe this is a little different than climbing the steps of Notre Dame, ect.). However, on the way, we accidentally ran into the Museum of Modern Art, and stopped in for a bit (also allowing a torrential downpour to pass). We saw "Starry Night" and some of the other highlights, then largely ignored the several floors of art that consisted of only blank canvases, lines, and random household object "statues". In the gift shop, Julie made the excellent purchase of a wooden tape measure that looks like Pinocchio with - you guessed it - the nose as the expanding tape-measuring part. Pretty awesome! Then we made it to the top of Rockefeller Center and had a look around. We stopped for dinner near the theatres and I had one of the single greatest sandwiches of my life. It was a buffalo chicken finger sandwich, but instead of the typical 2 or 3 buffalo chicken strips that usually grace such a sandwich, this one contained no fewer than 7 or 8 buffalo chicken fingers! As you might imagine, the geometry of the sandwich made it difficult to pick up at first (much less fit in my mouth), but I diligently worked at it until I finished the whole thing. Yum.

On Friday we met up with Seth and Hanna who happened to be in the area before Hanna flew out to Colorado. We drove to the boardwalk, which was an interesting experience at night. Being from an area where there aren't any waters upon which to build a boardwalk per say, I found it a little bit difficult to understand the allure of hanging out at an expensive place like that all of the time. But then I discovered the abundance of good greasy food (example: some bacon cheese fries that I consumed), and everything became very clear to me. Julie also claims that she was forced to ride on a roller coaster; however, I contend that she chose to do so. Regardless, she was very brave, and managed to survive it.

I had a great time in New Jersey, and I know that we did a lot of other cool stuff, but I think that this serves as a sufficient summary.

The trip home was (by design mostly) quite an adventure as well.

I left New Jersey early Sunday morning and drove to Columbus, Ohio (after passing literally through 4 Appalachian Mountains and 18 minutes of the state of West Virginia) for a Bob Dylan show that evening. I arrived with time to spare before the gates opened, and got a pretty good space in line (which was important because everything was general admission). I parked myself in the second/third row of standing bodies directly in front on the center of the stage, and didn't give an inch for the next 4.5 hours. The first two opening acts were pretty good, though a bit too heavily on the country side to completely suit my tastes. Then Jimmie Vaughn came on and played some bluesy stuff for a little while before announcing that he had an unannounced surprise on this particular evening, as a good friend of his happened to be in town visiting his relatives (his wife's family lives in Columbus).

I looked over to stage right expecting to see somebody I've never heard of before in my life, when out strolls Eric Clapton! Uhhmmm...woh...the pace literally exploded. He proceeds to play with Jimmie Vaughn on the next 4 songs, and I look on from my vantage point a mere 20 feet or so directly in front of where Mr. Clapton is playing and singing along.

Needless to say, when Bob Dylan came on about 30 minutes later, he had to work a little bit harder than usual to amaze the crowd (which one can only assume isn't something that has often been said to him in the last 40-ish years or so). He rose to the occasion. After a bit of a slow start with his re-arranged renditions of "Maggie's Farm", "I'll Be Your Baby Tonight", and "Stuck Inside of Mobile With the Memphis Blues Again", he really hit his stride, and by the time he got to the second half of his opening set he was really nailing each and every song. Without a doubt, the two highlights of the main set were "Shelter From the Storm" and "Highway 61 Revisited" (with "Masters of War" straying not too far behind): both songs were very well sung and the entire band really clicked and drove them home...especially with "Highway 61 Revisited". He played "Like a Rolling Stone" and "All Along the Watchtower" for an encore, and both really came out well, though for different reasons. On "Like a Rolling Stone", the band was good enough and Bob delivered the vocals in a very strong and passionate manner. Then, on "All Along the Watchtower", Bob's vocals were good enough, and the band just leveled everyone - chaos. All in all, a very good performance. I was very happy that I knew every song in the setlist, and also that it was a pretty good balance between all phases of his career. Kind of an unbelievable experience.

Then yesterday I drove from Columbus to Cleveland to check out the special exhibit on Dylan in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. It was well worth the extra travel - many interesting pieces (my favorites included a couple of newspaper columns from the middle of the 60s that confidently declared that Dylan would have had no influence on rock music when historians looked back in 50 years). Then I drove back to Wheaton from Cleveland.

Hahaha...that's about it, really. Well, until I move to Boston next week and begin the next entire phase of my life and all...

Door to door, Wheaton to New Jersey: 12 hours 40 minutes
Stops: 3 (Gas)
Food: Bag of pretzels and 1 Pepsi
Goal of making it in one day: Attained

Hehehehehe...apparently I am one of the front-page options on cornell.edu until the end of today (?):

www.cornell.edu

Hehehe...what a good day.

Cubs win! Very dramatic too.

Julie, Hanna, Karan, and I will be going to a Blue Jays game in May. I just bought the tickets, and we will be sitting in row #1 (!) in right-center field.

Date:	2006-04-09 18:20
Subject:
Security:	Public
Mood:	jubilant

MLB.TV blows my mind. Best $14.95 I ever spent...

1) I just finished sealing my last admission offer decision envelope. Now everything is official.

2) I will be seeing Pearl Jam on 5/13 in Albany.

3) Spring Break was lots of fun.
-The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame is pretty cool
-Coldplay is pretty good live
-It was nice to spend time with my mom, grandparents, Julie, and her family
-The dinosaurs are back, and better than ever

It was a tough choice between Harvard and MIT, but I have made a decision:

I'm going to MIT.

"I am pleased to inform you that the graduate committee has decided to offer you admission to the graduate program in the Department of Molecular Biology at Princeton University."


So, that means that I have now heard back (positively!) from all of the schools to which I have applied.

Coming soon: Grad School Update XI, in which Scott makes a very tough decision....

Date:	2006-02-17 18:19
Subject:	Grad School Update IX
Security:	Public
Mood:	ecstatic

"Congratulations! We are pleased to offer you admission to the Graduate Program of
the Department of Biology at MIT."

MIT was amazing.

Voice mail from Wash U:

I'm in!

Date:	2006-01-31 23:31
Subject:
Security:	Public
Mood:	calm
Music:	Jim Hendrix "Little Wing"

I like this semester.

I think I have acquainted myself with the attitude necessary to deal with the still a student, yet gone from Ithaca half of the time dilemma that I wasn't looking forward to.

It has left me feeling rather grown up, but not in the isolated sense I initially imagined. I definitely feel as though my time, strictly speaking, as an undergrad is now over, but I like the phase that has now developed.

Academically, I am taking classes simply to learn, not to prove anything. In the lab, my mentoring role has grown to be equally (if not more) important as my actual benchwork, and Danny has asked me to organize and coordinate lab meeting for all of the undergraduates in addition to all of my normal responsibilities. Having more time to spend in the lab is one of the best aspects of this semester. Socially, I have even started to figure out how to be a plain old brother of PSP again, and not having to plan/worry about every event is nice.

I am enjoying every moment of this semester, but I would be a liar if I said that my mind didn't often wander to the future...

Wash U was pretty nice last weekend. Scientifically, they are slightly superior to U Penn. They had a nice recruiting effort, and I got the impression that most of the grad students are pretty happy there, though perhaps not to the same extent as at U Penn. Overall, U Penn and Wash U are almost exactly equal in my mind.

"Dear Scott -

I am very pleased to let you know that you have been accepted from graduate studies in the Cell and Molecular Biology Graduate Group at the University of Pennsylvania."