Re: Rants

Read Amy's post about jobs and started writing this as a comment, but it got long enough to be it's own full post:

Yeah, I've been thinking about this a little bit too. My major problem in the past was just wondering what the heck I would do with a physics degree. I eventually decided my dream job was probably to work at a big government research lab like my mom does. And I guess that would be cool, since the pay is good and there is much better job stability than in some other positions. But I don't really know if I'd like always doing someone else's ideas. I kind of want to be able to do my own thing and think creatively.

Sadly though there isn't a lot of room for that in physics, seeing as most of the major things like gravity have already been explained. I thought my only avenue would be particle or quantum physics, something like working at the LHC. I would also love to work there at some point, but I kind of feel like quantum might not really be up my alley. . . although I'll find out later if it really is after Physics III.

Then I sort of realized that astronomy still has a lot of room for exploration. Add that to the fact that I've been exposed to that my entire life from my dad being an amateur astronomer and actually enjoy it, and it seems pretty good. Although I'd be afraid of ending up just working at a science museum observatory or something and not getting to do any real research. Also astronomy doesn't really seem that lucrative.

The other option would to just be a professor. Which before I thought I would absolutely hate, but after tutoring this girl a bit for her math final, I found out maybe I would actually like it. I found tutoring to sometimes be exhausting, but at other times be so blissfully rewarding I went around the rest of my day happy enough that my parents thought I must be high.

Professorship doesn't really pay well at first, but if you stick around long enough for tenure it's pretty damn good. And in addition to teaching you get to do your own research, and with the resources of a good university you can do some pretty amazing things. Tenure also gives you wayyy more job stability than basically anything else. And there are universities all over the country so the option of moving around due to the job of a spouse or whatever other reason is also available.

It also seems that universities do a lot of the leading research in any field, and professors are often the ones who get mentioned in new articles for discovering this or that. And also get interviewed in various things. Another dream of mine is to some day explain some really neat physics thing on NPR.

Yeah. So I guess the conclusion of my rant is that I've finally found a direction to go in, while poor Amy has just gone afloat. So after having been there for quite a long time myself, my advice to you is just to think about it. Also definitely talk to people. It doesn't matter if they are professors or even someone in your major (though this probably would help in your particular situation. . . but I've actually never talked to profs about this. . . goal for next year?) It just matters that they have a different point of view. Something they say, even if it's something really small and in passing, could just trigger whatever it is you need to think of something new.

Yeah that was kind of preachy I guess, but I didn't really mean it that way.

-sigh- We all have a long road to go down and are only just beginning. Also I'm guessing that after next semester all of what I said here will be completely reevaluated. Hooray! DX

Shrinky Dinks

http://www.shrinkydinks.com/

Anyone remember these? I really want to get some sheets and draw on them now. . .

Cornell Adventures Part IV

Last day!

We explored the library, which had a super fancy room donated by a previous university president










Afterwards we went to visit the agricultural building. . .


Tee hee.


And found the apple vending machine!


Triumph!

Cornell Adventures Part III

We went down to the commons which is a shopping area down a steep steep hill.

First stop was a thrift store, tried on some scandalous dresses and figured out exactly why someone had chosen to sell them . . .



At the same thrift store found buckets of toys. Guess what I bought? XP

Afterwards we visited a bookstore with comics! And also another secondhand/vintage store that was much ritzier and had funky things from WWII.



I am jealous of their elevators. . .




Retreated again to cowcliffs to stack cards. Guess who won?



Hint: Not me.



Someone baked a portal cake to celebrate it being free on steam. Since we were playing portal at the time, of course we had to have some. ;)


That night was the last night of the dining hall being open, and as per tradition, all residents dress up to go eat.



INSERT COMMENT ABOUT OBLIGATORY SEMI-EMO MYSPACE STYLE MIRROR PIC.

Cornell Adventures Part II

Long overdue. . .



Drawing in the living room, which for some reason is called cowcliffs?





Caterpillars!





Another night, another room. . .

Italian Food & Cake

So I got to make dinner again for my family, more italian food.



Bread I made from scratch. It turned out to be absolutely delicious and well worth the 2 days I spent making it. It wasn't really that hard, just a lot of waiting. Recipe from here.



The main part of dinner was chicken parmesan. Something that I've never made before, but something that you all know well that I love. This wasn't too hard either, and it also turned out really good.


So a new bakery called Cake opened up in town so I went down there with a few friends to check it out.



I got a box of mini cupcakes, one of each kind, to try them out and share with my family. Half of them had been eaten already by the time I took this photo. . . XD



And of course I got a big cupcake for myself. Mmmm, mocha. . .

Homelessness

I remember being told in school that there were some homeless people in our town, but until today I never really believed that.

My town in general is really well off, and you never see any bums lying around on street corners and whatnot. But I've been in the center of town everyday to go to the library for tutoring and I noticed that I always seem to see this one old man looking in trash cans. If I hadn't seen him taking bottles out of the trash for the recycling money, I wouldn't have thought he was homeless at all. He seemed fairly well dressed and not in the least bit scruffy. But all the same I realized that he must be homeless because he was wandering around and checking every trash can for bottles. When he found one, he'd put it away in a big old shopping bag that was stuffed to the brim with them.

Even in lexi-land there are touches of the real world.

Wisdom teeth

So I got my wisdom teeth out yesterday, how exciting!

It really wasn't that bad. Just a lot of swelling makes it painful to eat/swallow/talk. Also I can't eat anything really delicious. :(

Cooking! Cooking!

PIZZA!



My mom has been buying crazy organic awesome good stuff so uncured pepperoni and fresh mozzarella awww yeahhhh.






EGG SALAD!




SOUS VIDE EGGS!