of stuff and things
The good news: it's an easy bike ride to the university.
The bad news: it's an easy bike ride to the university.
Meaning that I'll almost never be tempted to not-bike for superfluous reasons, thus saving gas and whatnot, but I'm going to need a second source of exercise. Beh.
This area is very flat. Baltimore, overall, was fairly flat, but there were these little hills everywhere. The 1.3 mile bikeride to work definitely required some exertion. But I biked to the university three times today, or over 12 miles, and I barely felt it. Maybe a tiny bit at the end there. Must get cracking on utilizing university gym. Today I've been feeling really swank, in my pinstripe pants and "peepin ain't easy" shirt, but pudgy. :) Not in a horribly self-conscious way, just in a personal "I'd like to work on this" way.
I've been checking around and there seems to be a pretty good cornsnake market here. Now I really regret selling off my cream stripes and giving away the eggs :/ Ah well, it *is* one less thing to worry about. Speaking of which, drove down to St. Louis area the other day to pass off another seven snakes to some boarders (Kali and Spike, my pair that throws butters, Diablo and Ifrit, my pair that throws cream stripes, plus Calix, Andromeda, and Mr. Eff). They're pretty much happy to board my snakes in exchange for some of their babies and the cost of some food, so that's cool. Also Derrick's best friend, Chris, decided he'd like some snakes and I was happy to give him Udon and Pi, my nonbreeding blizzard and creamsicle girls. It's nice to know they went to a good home/someone I'll probably see again, and, by proxy, be able to see them again. I also bought a nice new 40 gal "critter keeper" to house Lady Bub and Nark with. I've gotten a bit tired of finagling ghetto cages... decided just to spend more on simple and attractive cages designed for the purpose. :)
While running around pricing tanks I went through a really nice aquatic store... man I want fish. But I will not get fish. And, fortunately, I do not want fish so much that I will probably get fish anyway even thought it's a Bad Idea. Someday though. I want some weirdo, kind of "ugly" fish, like an african knife fish. They had those! Along with a neat "silver fish killer" and some very cool glass catfish (kind of like knifefish in structure, just smaller and transparent! I could see all their organs and stuff!).
Motoring around the area a bit, trying to take in the local scene. Lots of neat coffee shops :D I've determined that going to the nearest neat* coffee shop and picking up the local newspaper is a good way to get a handle on stuff that's going on. Apparently there was an awesome horror convention in Chicago this summer, where they convert things into an old-style drive in and play horror movies. And at one point you could pay $30 to be straped down in a Hostle-style chair, covered with fake blood, and someone pretend to torture you (and get a photo taken, of course)! And and and and ANNNDDD! Next year, Robert England (aka Freddy Krueger) will be there! Ieee, bliss!
Stopped by a comic-book shop that's on the way to the University. Poked around and was kind of sad at the Marvel Xmen comics. Other interesting stuff there (nightmare on elm street comic!) BUT am not spending money and definitely not aquiring more Stuff right now. However, I inquired if they sell local/indy stuff there and they do! I showed him a copy of Anthem and told him I got them for $6 each, sold them at cons for $10 and online for $15 (or plan to at some point, at any rate). He thought they'd sell well for $10 but the store wants 50% off and I won't go below what I pay for the things, so he'll sell for $12 and buy them for $6. No profit for me as of yet, but I can work on that, and at least I'm getting them out there :) I think that works... $10 from me personally at a con (which is a rare thing), $12 from second-parties (comic book shops and my comic-buds at cons), $15 online (includes shipping, and a signature or something). Ya? Ya. Anyway, the comic book store guy bought the one, and said he'll buy more once he sees how that sells. Spiffiness!
Looks like I lied about my schedule; I'm not taking M1! What happened was the med school was just sending me all their stuff, and the grad school just sent me stuff with and you'll get your schedule Aug 16 burried inside it. Turns out I take M1 throughout my PhD, then do M2-M4 as a normal med student does. (or I can do more than M1, but my PhD must be doen before I do any clinic). First semester they don't want us taking any med courses, rather, we take two grad school classes (biochem and genetics, score!!!) and spend most of our time in Lab Rotations, which we use to pick our thesis lab/advisor. Schedule-wise they call this a mere 12 credit-hours, although it seems one is expected to spend 10-hrs a day minimum in the labs so... yeah :D Actually I can't wait, I'm itching to start!
*something not part of a huge chain
The bad news: it's an easy bike ride to the university.
Meaning that I'll almost never be tempted to not-bike for superfluous reasons, thus saving gas and whatnot, but I'm going to need a second source of exercise. Beh.
This area is very flat. Baltimore, overall, was fairly flat, but there were these little hills everywhere. The 1.3 mile bikeride to work definitely required some exertion. But I biked to the university three times today, or over 12 miles, and I barely felt it. Maybe a tiny bit at the end there. Must get cracking on utilizing university gym. Today I've been feeling really swank, in my pinstripe pants and "peepin ain't easy" shirt, but pudgy. :) Not in a horribly self-conscious way, just in a personal "I'd like to work on this" way.
I've been checking around and there seems to be a pretty good cornsnake market here. Now I really regret selling off my cream stripes and giving away the eggs :/ Ah well, it *is* one less thing to worry about. Speaking of which, drove down to St. Louis area the other day to pass off another seven snakes to some boarders (Kali and Spike, my pair that throws butters, Diablo and Ifrit, my pair that throws cream stripes, plus Calix, Andromeda, and Mr. Eff). They're pretty much happy to board my snakes in exchange for some of their babies and the cost of some food, so that's cool. Also Derrick's best friend, Chris, decided he'd like some snakes and I was happy to give him Udon and Pi, my nonbreeding blizzard and creamsicle girls. It's nice to know they went to a good home/someone I'll probably see again, and, by proxy, be able to see them again. I also bought a nice new 40 gal "critter keeper" to house Lady Bub and Nark with. I've gotten a bit tired of finagling ghetto cages... decided just to spend more on simple and attractive cages designed for the purpose. :)
While running around pricing tanks I went through a really nice aquatic store... man I want fish. But I will not get fish. And, fortunately, I do not want fish so much that I will probably get fish anyway even thought it's a Bad Idea. Someday though. I want some weirdo, kind of "ugly" fish, like an african knife fish. They had those! Along with a neat "silver fish killer" and some very cool glass catfish (kind of like knifefish in structure, just smaller and transparent! I could see all their organs and stuff!).
Motoring around the area a bit, trying to take in the local scene. Lots of neat coffee shops :D I've determined that going to the nearest neat* coffee shop and picking up the local newspaper is a good way to get a handle on stuff that's going on. Apparently there was an awesome horror convention in Chicago this summer, where they convert things into an old-style drive in and play horror movies. And at one point you could pay $30 to be straped down in a Hostle-style chair, covered with fake blood, and someone pretend to torture you (and get a photo taken, of course)! And and and and ANNNDDD! Next year, Robert England (aka Freddy Krueger) will be there! Ieee, bliss!
Stopped by a comic-book shop that's on the way to the University. Poked around and was kind of sad at the Marvel Xmen comics. Other interesting stuff there (nightmare on elm street comic!) BUT am not spending money and definitely not aquiring more Stuff right now. However, I inquired if they sell local/indy stuff there and they do! I showed him a copy of Anthem and told him I got them for $6 each, sold them at cons for $10 and online for $15 (or plan to at some point, at any rate). He thought they'd sell well for $10 but the store wants 50% off and I won't go below what I pay for the things, so he'll sell for $12 and buy them for $6. No profit for me as of yet, but I can work on that, and at least I'm getting them out there :) I think that works... $10 from me personally at a con (which is a rare thing), $12 from second-parties (comic book shops and my comic-buds at cons), $15 online (includes shipping, and a signature or something). Ya? Ya. Anyway, the comic book store guy bought the one, and said he'll buy more once he sees how that sells. Spiffiness!
Looks like I lied about my schedule; I'm not taking M1! What happened was the med school was just sending me all their stuff, and the grad school just sent me stuff with and you'll get your schedule Aug 16 burried inside it. Turns out I take M1 throughout my PhD, then do M2-M4 as a normal med student does. (or I can do more than M1, but my PhD must be doen before I do any clinic). First semester they don't want us taking any med courses, rather, we take two grad school classes (biochem and genetics, score!!!) and spend most of our time in Lab Rotations, which we use to pick our thesis lab/advisor. Schedule-wise they call this a mere 12 credit-hours, although it seems one is expected to spend 10-hrs a day minimum in the labs so... yeah :D Actually I can't wait, I'm itching to start!
*something not part of a huge chain