First off: a nifty picture taken from the rooftop of a friend’s apartment building. This is actually an HDR image, though certainly not the best example of actual HDR. I really liked the effect it gave the clouds – they were moving away from me while I was bracketing the exposure, so you can see the edges are staggered in the composite image. I like it in contrast to the sharpness of the skyline. Head over to my flickr account to view it in higher-res.

Secondly: I’ve finally cemented my summer plans! Last month I got turned down for a PM internship at Google, which was rather surprising and a little devastating at the time. I’d really been counting on that internship, so when they rejected me I had no idea what I was going to do. Luckily, a conveniently timed conversation with a friend reminded me of a program MIT is involved in called MEET: Middle East Education through Technology. I sent in my application at the last possible minute, interviewed a few days later, got my offer this morning, and emailed in my acceptance just a few minutes ago.  MEET is a month(ish)-long program that brings together talented Israeli and Palestinian high schoolers to teach them programming. It’s going to be incredibly rewarding, and I’m actually pretty happy that Google turned me down. I never would have considered this program if that hadn’t happened, and I think I prefer a day of lectures, teamwork, presentations and discussions to 8 hours in front of a computer monitor. But, long story short:

I’m going to Israel this summer! Ahhhhhhhhhhhhh!!!!!! :D:D:D:D:D:D:D:D:D

So I was going to gush about how gorgeous Express’s Christmas window display is, but then I realized it’s November.

November, and Starbucks has already replaced my favorite latte, Pumpkin Spice, with my 2nd favorite, Eggnog. November, and even in Boston there’s no snow or ice to be seen, yet fake snowflakes are hanging from ceilings. I’ve carried around my sweater for the past 4 days and rarely needed it, but visions of sugar plums are starting to dance in my head. In other words, it’s time again for Christmas Creep.

Christmas has always been the most profitable time of the year for retailers, but about 10 years ago things got really crazy. In 2000, Lowe’s made it company policy to have its Christmas merchandise on the shelves by October 1st, and as we all know, as soon as one big company makes oodles of money off a stupid idea, every other company will follow suit. (Except, for some reason, Nordstrom’s.)

Many many people get all humbug-y about Christmas Creep; Christmas isn’t just about money, extending the season dilutes it, Jesus wasn’t born over a period of 3 months, yadda yadda yadda.

Me? I like it! Christmas is my absolute favorite time of the year, and as I am a poor college student with artistic inclinations, I tend to hand make the few presents I give out. I totally understand the arguments of others, people who go shopping waaaay more often than me, and have to listen to “Oh Holy Night” on repeat for a couple hours, but that isn’t my position, so I tend to enjoy it. The longer I get to stop and smell the pine trees, the better. The aesthetics are so wonderful – people actually care about making things look pretty and, dare I say, “festive,” which is NOT such a priority the rest of the year. As much as it has become about presents, that “Joy to the World” aspect is definitely still there. Being in Boston for Christmas also definitely helps – down in Texas, where Santa rides a Harley, fake snowflakes baking in the “winter” weather don’t have quite the same effect. As capitalist as the reasoning behind it may be, the prolonging of the shopping/decorating season only builds my anticipation for the true time of Christmas.

Companies aren’t going to stop with their Creeping anytime soon, but at least some of them are getting jolly about it. I hear tell this is an actual Hallmark card:

As you might have noticed, I’m coming out of a period in which I updated very little. In that time I was in fact doing things and taking pictures, including the following.

Still working on the road trip update (there are some quite exciting stories to be told!) but there are a few things on my mind lately besides that:

- I have FINALLY been officially readmitted to the Institvte. I can now life free of the fear that I will not once again get my ass totally kicked by academia.

- The quality of raw fish may be better in Boston, but NO ONE here knows how to make a decent spicy roll. They make my mouth tingle about as much as a stick of peppermint gum. Sad. On the other hand, they still excel at pizza and lobster rolls. Mmmmm.

- Stairs suck, but it’s nice to be getting a workout again after sitting on my ass all summer. It’s also nice to be somewhere that I can go running without collapsing from heat stroke after 2 minutes outside.

Well, I’m finally back in Boston, and I am utterly exhausted. We arrived 2 days ago and have been running wildly around, my usual hectic move-in process being compounded by only having a few days left to show Mike everything awesome in Boston. Things in my room are shaping up nicely, though – my paint job is still intact, thank god, and the summer boarders left behind a full mini fridge and a stylish coat rack. I’m running into the same issue I did last year though, namely – privacy. I need to put something up to shield at least part of my room from the “hallway” area, but the curtain idea I executed last time didn’t work particularly well and has been removed in my absence. All the room dividers and bed nets I can find are prohibitively expensive, so perhaps I’ll have to craft one myself. Watch this space. :)

I promise I’ll tell you all about the roadtrip, as it is a long and exciting story, but it will be a little while before I have time to tell it.

I was planning on blogging every day on this trip, similar to my stint in Europe, but due to various reasons this hasn’t happened. We’ve been awfully busy so far, hanging out with friends, meeting strangers, seeing the sights, oh, and driving.

We’re in Detroit this morning – my original plan was to be in Boston 2 days ago, but I decided to stop by Fayetteville to see some old friends, and then we decided to go up through Chicago and drive along the border. We ended up skipping Chicago, but we’re headed to Canada today! Our plan is to get into Toronto early and go see Niagra Falls tonight. :D:D:D Hopefully I will have pictures for you later.

ETA in Boston is maybe 2, maybe 3 days. Our original plan was to go to New York for a while but I’ve got my readmission interview (finally!) on the 12th, so we mustn’t dally too long. A trip out of the states, though, is always worth it. Canada!

Today I embark on what will hopefully be a fast-paced, fun-filled, week-long thrill-ride. Mike and I are setting out up through the dusty plains of Texas then nicking the corner of Oklahoma and through into the beautiful, beautiful mountains of Arkansas. From there we will recuperate ourselves and treck on through St. Louis, Indianapolis, Columbus, and then a long stretch through Pennsylvania, avoiding all major cities. (We’ll be close to Pittsburgh though, so if any of you’ll be there let me know and we can stop by!) We’re gonna stay in NYC for a couple of days where I will promptly run around with my camera like a half-breed chicken/Japanese schoolgirl with its head cut off and Mike will sleep and watch TV because he lived there for many years and his soul is already dead.

Then to Boston! I must say as much as I’m looking forward to being back and as excited as I am about my classes (no, really) I’ve had a wonderful year here in Austin and I do not want to leave. Except for the heat, this is a fantastic city with great culture, tasty food, beautiful scenery, and some of the best people in the world. I consider myself quite lucky as to where I ended up this year and taking time away from school was one of the best decisions I have ever made.

From around 10:AM (CT) January 28th.