Fade In-Out

I am back in Michigan after too-short of a holiday break. The end of the 2005 was a pretty hectic time for me. Christmas was spent eating and watching wedding and vacation videos. I spent two days house-sitting for Ida at her place down in the boonies of south San Jose. The highlight of which was having to take care of her dog, Brudy, who must have been on speed (or the dog equivalent of speed) because he had way too much energy. Another highlight was Vishnu and all coming over and cleaning out Ida's fridge of beer. Also while I was down there, I went to Nick's party which included some hot Russian girls but unfortunately, even more sketchy Russian guys who happened to all work at grocery stores for some reason. New Year's is also Jinah's birthday so Drew arranged a surprise party. A bunch of their friends and me went to San Francisco and had dinner and drinks at this sketchy place in North Beach called Impala SF. AFter which, we played poker sans poker chips so we were forced to use breath mints, jelly beans, and scraps of paper. I also had to drive and we got verbally accosted by a bunch of rednecks in a white hummer limo who told us to "go back to Japan." We then hurled insults at their cracker racist asses. The next few days were spent in San Pablo, eating some good food, and taking a trip to the city to hang with Jen. Unfortunately I didn't get to go back to the south bay so I missed out on hanging out with a few people. Hopefully, I can meet up with them next time I am in town.

Well I have officially started my last semester of grad school. Similiar to senior year in high school, it is time to fade out gracefully. As I previously remarked in my old Diaryland blog about my last semester of undergrad, it is the last hurrah for me. Grad school for me has been about experiencing new things but since it is my last semester, there will probably be no more "new" things for me to experience. Meeting new people doesn't make a terrible amount of sense since most likely I will be leaving them at the end of semester. It is just sad to think that many things will be the last time. I think it is the for the best this way. I am a big believer in knowing when to depart. There is a definitely a right time to go out on top rather than dragging out the inevitable. Take a look at Ricky Henderson. He had a great career (he holds the MLB record for most stolen bases). But he insists on still playing, way past his prime in crappy minor league teams and thereby soiling the great accomplishments in his prime. I much to prefer to be Cal Ripken who realized he couldn't perform at a high level anymore and walked away. Just look at Eric Clapton. Arguely the greatest guitar player or one of the greatest guitar players ever but all his recent albums have been crappier than crap. Or look at ER, the once great TV drama that hasn't come close to being as good as it was once was. It is just sad to see these once great things sputter along becasue they don't realize that the time to go was a while back. I think I am doing a good job of fading out gracefully. My term of SISA treasurer is over, which no longer means 9 AM meetings. I am taking a cutback courseload since I don't need to take a full load to graduate. So I am slowly yet surely wrapping my time up here at SI, even though I bet there are plenty of people who wished I left about two semesters ago (mostly people I bitched out on this blog btw).

With all that said, that doesn't mean I don't have a few last hurrahs in me. For one, I am going to start as a SI Career Services/PEP Assistant, which involves helping students get internships and jobs. The position seems like a natural fit with my opinionated and judgemental nature. Plus I get paid to point out flaws in others. Plus I ranted about job searching so much on my blog, I might as well get paid to do it. BTW, I suggested we start a SI Career Services blog to cut down on the email deludge and so I can find yet another place to rant at. Stay tuned to what happens with that. I also signed up for IM broomball again. Plus I plan on returning to a regular exercise routine and of course hanging out with my fellow classmates so it is not like I am going to be bored or anything. So it is the beginning of the end of grad school. Let's enjoy the ride. Until next time, peace.