In academic news: I took my PhD qualifying exams, and "almost" passed. Meaning, I did very well on 2 out of the 3 subjects (combinatorics and algorithms, not optimization), and the ACO committee just wants me to re-take the optimization portion of the test this semester. So, it's not completely behind me, but it's a HUGE load off my back to study for one subject instead of three.
In other news, well, it's best to go through things in pictures.
In October, Heather came to visit me in Atlanta for the first time since February! Here we are enjoying ice cream at a cute little eatery called Jake's.
We also were able to watch a bit of the famous Little 5 Points Halloween Parade!
For Thanksgiving, we had a big get-together in Poughkeepsie: both Tim's fiancee Sara, and Heather, were able to come! On Vassar campus:
Ready for one of our many delicious meals
We took a short hike in the country…
…to see a waterfall in a cathedral-like cave.
We chillaxed by the Housatonic River in some strange potholes.
Heather and I headed back to NYC (where we were to fly out) a day early to do some sightseeing. Our Mudd friend Doug Reich gave us a great night-time tour, including this view from the Brooklyn Bridge. But perhaps the highlight of our visit to the city was running across Central Park together (starting at the north end) in cold/drizzly weather to catch the morning scene at Times Square and Rockefeller Plaza!
Of course, we saw the Statue of Liberty.
We also took a trip to Paris.
And saw the Egyptian pyramids…wait a minute…
Yeah, so after my semester ended, I flew out to LA, and the next morning Heather and I headed to Las Vegas! We met up with a bunch of friends (from Mudd) and just had a good time experiencing the place. We stayed at the Mandalay Bay hotel, saw the live lions in the MGM Grand, ate an all-you-can-eat buffet at Excalibur, saw the fountain display at the Bellagio (see below), went to an ultra-fancy club on a VIP pass (thanks to one of our friends getting approached earlier in the day by a promoter) where we just basically got several free drinks (well, the ladies did…and gave them to the men).
Oh, and though the friends we were with were not into the gambling, Heather and I decided to do a little just to experience the thrill of losing money. We went to a craps table (Heather had borrowed a book about craps from a friend, and we had read up on betting strategy—turns out it can be a pretty small-negative-expectation game if you don't bet stupidly) that had a minimum bet of $10. I decided to commit $20 seed money, so after we lost immediately on our first bet, I thought we were about finished. But no, we started winning, and ended up leaving the table with $62! So, tripling our money, not bad. Then, since Heather really wanted to try out one of the slot machines with huge handles, we paid $1 for this opportunity, only for Heather to win $5 back on her first try! So, no thrill of losing money for us that night. We ended up with $45 net profit on the night, from $20 seed money.
Anyway, we only stayed in Vegas for a night before heading back to LA so Heather could go to work on Monday. I stayed in LA for another week, and although Heather was very busy with work, we were able to fit in some good cooking and eating, some tango dancing, a bike ride with a group that Heather has been riding with recently, and a really nice hike at Will Rogers State Park, where we had great views and a spectacular sunset!
Looking east: San Gabriel Mountains, San Bernadinos in distance, Westwood and Century City, downtown LA, Santa Rosa mountains
Looking south: Will Rogers polo field in foreground, Santa Monica & Pacific Palisades in mid range, Palos Verdes peninsula and Catalina Island on horizon
Looking west towards the ocean and the sunset!
From LA, I said goodbye to Heather and flew to New York to spend Xmas and New Year's in Poughkeepsie. I got a new camera for Xmas, a digital SLR…and it is amazing! The most major improvements are that (1) I can take awesome pictures in even quite low light, whereas my old point-and-shoot would crap out at even moderate light; (2) I can create a hard/soft focus effect! (3) Almost every picture is crisp and clear, especially at a minute level—I actually stepped down in resolution (my PAS was 8 megapixels, my dSLR is 6 megapixels) but the new photos, while having smaller file sizes, uniformly look SO much better. (4) EVERYTHING JUST LOOKS BETTER! Colors, details, sharpness, lack of visual defects. The only negative of my new camera is its size and weight—things I can live with, and are totally worth it.
I had so much fun taking pictures with the new camera… you may groan, but with my new camera I feel like I have 4 times as many blog-worthy photos than before. So, without further ado, let's get through these.
Low light situation!
Wide-angle lens and focus!
Quality, true-to-life colors in our ready-for-Xmas living room
Family around the beautiful tree
Christmas morning after emptying stocking. A few weeks before at Oberlin, Claire had broken her ankle in a bike/ice-related incident, so after having surgery in NY, she was in a cast and on crutches the whole time I was there. Of course, we were required to treat her like a queen. Here I am trying to gain some sympathy myself.
Sitting down to pre-Xmas-dinner salad
The main course: not a Christmas goose, but seafood and mushrooms in a cream sauce, asparagus, rice, and dad's famous crescent rolls. WAY better than a Christmas goose, in fact, one of the best meals I've had in my life.
Vassar's Main Hall, where Dad works
Boy, does my family know how to cook. Here is a meal of dolmas (stuffed grape leaves), köfte (means meatballs, but ours were vegetarian and were lentil-based), and bread, coordinated by our Turkish expert, Claire "usta".
Because of Claire's state (by the way, also, Dad had to have surgery on his torn rotator cuff, as well as an emergency-room visit to glue up his forehead after he slipped on some ice and fell while running) we didn't do many active things together, but we did take a few walks (with Claire in a wheelchair), such as this one to the Vanderbilt mansion on the Hudson.
A stream emptying into the Hudson river
Looking upriver from the estate
So yeah, as you can imagine, there were actually two queens in the house.
You know, it takes the capabilities of a dSLR camera to do Maple justice.
The Vassar library after a snow
A building at Vassar
Cool tree stump
Snowy branches by a lake
22 Deans Lane at sundown after a day of snow
Maple in her fortress of doom. She spent about half her time sitting in this box.
Tim left for Canada (and Sara's family) before New Year's. On New Year's Day, the rest of us hosted a "puzzle party" in an attempt to mimic the epic Vetter puzzle party in Grinnell. It went very well, partly thanks to a wondrous spread of edibles home-prepared by the hosts.
Claire's boyfriend Jake, not one to pass up free food, came up for the party and stayed for a couple days. Here, the impromptu late-evening Mac party.
They told me that Claire got some sort of pins and metal placed in her. Here she is displaying her bionic woman powers.
Anyway, now I'm back in Atlanta, finishing up my first week of classes. It looks to be an excellent semester, and an even better year. Stay tuned, and I'll try harder to keep this thing updated!
Sunset over Atlanta from Clemont Drive.
2 comments:
Cool blog, Nathan! We loved it---especially the pictures of the queen of hairballs, the lovely sunsets, and the incredibly ravishing food! Wow that was some trip across the country/Atlantic you took. LV is the perfect way to see the world without ever leaving the desert.
Claire and Dad are killing me in the word games every night. I need another family member to come back and reset the balance of literary power!
Love, WOWIE
Wait--do you like your camera?
Great pictures, Nate.
Tim
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