OK, this is bull....

[Gen. Volkov]

Well... anything else new in our lives?

[Freenhult]

Almost done for the year. Exams start on Wednesday I think. So getting read for that junk. :x

[The Beatles]

Well... anything else new in our lives?

Give it time, give it time.

How about you?

[Shadow I]

Am finished second year of physics degree!

[Gen. Volkov]

Still working at Wal-Mart, but I have a lead on a job as a lab tech that's nearby. Heard about it from my sister in law, and she also put in a good word for me. Hope to be able to quit Wal-Mart soon. Have started to develop a severe pain in my knee from working there.

[Devari]

Not much happening on my end; been keeping busy and I'm mostly okay on all fronts. Finally starting school again on the 10th of May, which I'm rather looking forward to.

[Freenhult]

...You are starting soon? Yiikes. I do NOT want school in the summer. :x

[windhound]

Oh I donno, I did summer school one semester
It was kinda nice. Campus was basically deserted, low crowds. Got a dorm room to myself
Courses weren't bad either

Anyways, I started my job at Duke, official title is Data Tech. People have asked me if I like it, I smile and say its a job. Not terribly exciting, but the pay is good and I'm indoors at a computer

And I've started an odd hobby, gathering various lawn mowers. The engine designs vary widely across manufacturers and they're /cheap/ if you keep an eye on craigslist. Like $20 for something that was 300-500 new. Parts are cheap and repairs tend to be easy, I can't believe the local Snapper shop gets like $65/hr to work on them.
I've currently got seven push mowers, but plan to thin down a bit. Really shouldn't be keeping more than 4, and I dont -need- that many.
Currently got a Snapper Hi-Vac w/ 5hp briggs, Snapper Hi-Vac w/ 3.5hp briggs non-running (gonna take some work), Toro SuperRecycler w/ 6hp toro/briggs, Craftsman 5.5hp high-wheel, Lawn-Boy Silver Series w/ 4.5hp Tec., a 1978 Lawn-Boy and an early '80's Lawn Boy, the last two I just picked up today and havn't had time to mess with. They've got twocycle engines, cast aluminum decks, an odd under-deck muffler, and one's self propelled. Neither run atm, but after some cleanup they'll prolly be fine. The running Snapper, the Toro, Lawn-Boy SilverSeries and early 80's Lawn-Boy are also self-propelled; its funny how many different designs there are to move a mower forward. (first 3 link'd pics are mine, the rest google'd)
I've also got a 1985ish Rally Roper riding mower, 11hp briggs and stratton.
But yeah, the engines are fun to work on and if I screw something up its not that big a deal... I'm learning mostly via trial and error and google searches. I <3 simple mechanics and these little mowers are a moderately practical and easy way to play. Plus they can, you know, cut grass.

[Freenhult]

Or hands off. Just saying.

[The Beatles]

I moved about a mile (well, 4) south to a place called Menlo Park. The previous place was part of some big corp to whom I was just a cash machine. This place is much nicer, well, it's always nicer to be treated like a human. Also there's an outdoors swimming pool, not that I use it much. I'd love to move to a place with an indoor heated pool. I'd use it every day.

I'm fast running out of space to put actual bookshelves (as windy will attest). At this point, I probably have to throw out a futon to fit more bookshelves in. We'll see. In the meanwhile books just pile up on the floor.

Last year my grandfather died in June. Thankfully I was able to be with him in Hungary. He lived to be 94, and he lived that without pain, independently, in a place we rented for him, managing his own money. But he didn't have an easy life of it. He was captured in '45 by the Russians and taken to a gulag for 3 years. In the first year, only 42 men of his unit of 300 survived, I don't know about the full 3 years. He had taught German and Latin before the war, and he picked up Russian on the fly, so he was able to interpret between the Russians and the Germans. After the war, he couldn't teach either German or Latin; they were both banned as bourgeois subjects and not taught at schools or universities, so he taught Russian as a day job and German and Latin privately -- mostly German, obviously. By the time communism fell, he had retired. So he never got to teach his chosen subjects during most of his working life.

Last year I went to London for a weekend, after giving a talk at a conference there on Friday. Friday was all work and the weekend was all pleasure, I made sure to have them buy the last possible flight out of the city. I hardly slept, lived exclusively on hotel-provided English breakfasts, walked around dozens of miles, and went to a concert at the Albert Hall, and a show at the Criterion Theatre on Piccadilly Circus. So that was fun, like a one-week vacation packed into two days. Then I also went to Portugal for a week for work. I didn't see so much as a mouse-eaten sight, because it was all work or crash in the hotel. Luckily the hotel provided free booze, which we all took strict advantage of. On the way back I spent a day in London. Again only breakfast, and again a whole lot of walking, but this time visited the National Gallery. Bear in mind I hardly ever get to travel, so 2010 was a bumper year for that.

So that's it for me. What's been happening to you guys?

[Gen. Volkov]

I still haven't been able to get a job as a lab tech. So I am still a Wal-Mart employee. However, I am no longer a cashier. I moved to the Deli, which is much better than Cashier, and it involved a substantial pay raise. I recently decided though, that I'm going to start applying to grad schools. I've dallied long enough trying to get lab experience. Maybe I won't get into as good a school as I would have with more lab experience, but any school is better than more Wal-Mart. My goal is to be a professor of biology, and what I'm doing now is not helping that in any way.