One liner updates

I have accepted Princeton's offer. In September, I will be a graduate student at the Computer Science Department at Princeton University.

The weather has been beautiful recently.

Work is going well. I work at a rate of one todo list page per day. There, I have observed quite a bit about ruby on rails, and I think I'll have to post about that soon.

My mother is coming to visit soon.

Although I had a minor in math, I still think that taxes are confusing. The astute reader will note that math is not arithmetic.

I just went through a week of infirmity... Something gastrointestinal. I'm happy to report that has passed.

I've been playing with my lathe a lot. I built a crank puller, as I said I would. Now I just need to convince myself to stop making minor changes to it, and to move on to a new project.

My apartment has a mouse. I'm trying really hard to kill it, but it is apparently smart enough to take the cheese off of the traps without dying. Bastard!

It's been too long

My appologies for taking a week or so off from the blog. I assure you there is more to come. Here are some of my excuses for slacking on the blog:

I have started a new job, where I work as a Java developer, though so far our work has mostly been assembling Ikea furniture. The office is awesome--on vibrant Franklin Ave in Crown Heights, Brooklyn. I like how every five minutes or so someone stops by to ask "so, what is this place?" Apparently, the office was an abandoned/condemned building for many years, and though people are glad it's no longer rat infested, the neighborhood really wants another restaurant, lounge, or other public space. The job has been keeping me busy, but in a good way.

I've heard from a few Graduate schools. What? I forgot to mention that I applied to a few PhD in CS programs? Yeah, I did.

So far, Princeton has made me a good offer, and CMU and UPenn have rejected me. More schools are pending. At the moment, it looks like I'll be moving to small town Jersey unless Columbia wants me. On a related note: does anyone out there live in Princeton? What do you think of it? Of particular interest to me are cultural events, bike-friendliness, a leftish-leaning populace, and urbanity (ha!).

I purchased this lathe today, and am looking forward to its arrival. As far as metal lathes are concerned, this one is dirt cheap (though still an expensive tool). I plan to fit this into the cheaphack mission by working with scrap materials. I anticipate my first project will be a crank puller, followed by fancy brass crank bolts and top bolts, working my way into Stirling engines. Don't worry, you will be posted.

I have two projects on the way: a stylish lamp made from recycled materials, and a bicycle generator built with an old air conditioner. Stay tuned for more absolutely cheap diy technology.