"rescue me..."

well it's 4am and i'm back on track with the 'normal' schedule time of updating the blog. it's been a while and a lot has happened to say the very least; so much, in fact, that i doubt i'll be able to really bring this beast fully up to speed. therefore, i will do my best to cover some stuff from the past week or so (of complete blog inactivity) and still stay up to date with the present...both of which i am sure you faithful readers were oh so concerned with.

i will take this opportunity to share an interesting comment i got from gwen referring to the lapse in entries as of late, at least i found it humorous:

"i kind of wonder what you guys did over the last couple days, but the 5 sentence blog update for the last 9 days really didn't give me much to work with... just thought I'd throw that out there..."

i don't know exactly why, but i found that humorous. we'll also eventually get to "club gwendoline" and why it's "the hypest spot on the internet"...

all that being said, it has been quite a while since a normal update, so here goes...with bullets:

- the season premiere of "Rescue Me" was tonight...this is a great show (dramedy about fire fighters in new york, starring Dennis Leary) and those of you who have not seen it should definitely rent the first two seasons on dvd and get up to speed on the 3rd...which just started today. the theme song, "C'mon C'mon" by the Von Bondies is also the ringtone for a couple of you...great song either way. download it.

anyway, its interesting what sorts of things create checkpoints or landmarks in memory and personal timelines. upon watching the opening titles of tonight's episode and listening to the music, i was immediately flashed back to this past summer, around july, when hal had told me about the show and highly recommended it. i was skeptical, but soon found myself renting all of the first season and watching them almost back-to-back. i also eventually got damon and james sucked into it as well. it was a very different time for me, and The Tank in general. it seems so long ago, but was only 11 months ago. it was even before the first tank party, and i was still in the process of moving and sorting a lot of random stuff out. either way, i had "Rescue Me" to get me through all the crap and insanity, and it was a welcome distraction to say the least. anyone else get flashed back like that at the sight or sound of a mere TV show or song? i figure it's a pretty common phenomenon.

hal, anandhi, and me at dominick's

watching the show today made me think about things similarly for the present...things have been somewhat crazy as of late, and the future is relatively uncertain...but at least i have Tommy Gavin and the cast of Rescue Me on Tuesdays to help move things along.

- well if the virus is defined as the loss of Ralphie (one month ago), the moving away & moving on of many close friends, and the nebulous future, Norton is definitely the antivirus...or at least a major portion of it. as stated in the previous entry, the new Australian lungfish (same species as Ralphie) arrived at the end of last week...not so much to elaborate fanfare, but to a big sigh of relief. he had actually been lost in the mail for nearly two days...note to ANYONE...do NOT send valuable fishes via United States Postal Service (aka toilet mail). either way, his arrival was much anticipated by all of us at The Tank, and many frequent guests of the aquatic apartment. a lot of people have come to visit, and if you haven't done so yet, you're definitely welcome to do so!

we all know (and i know this very well too) that a fish is not a dog, and attachment to such things is somewhat different, but i would be lying if i said the atmosphere here at The Tank and amongst the fish crew wasn't happier since his arrival. i think he easily reclaims the position of most popular fish at The Tank for the Australian lungfish...some of damon's saltwater fishes were getting a lot of attention as of late, but we all know that those fishes are a bunch of dysfunctional pansies (for the most part).

unfortunately, pamela and tommy had to vacate The Tank (their new home is with double D) to make room for Norton.

either way, we're training norton to get much more used to people...he's prominently placed and in a highly trafficked area of The Tank, so he'll get plenty of human interaction (as well as interaction with those of us who live here). i'll also be taking him out of his tank to watch various shows of my choosing, such as Seinfeld, The Family Guy, and maybe even the extremely latenite marathons of "Parental Control" on MTV (seriously, that show is on for HOURS into the night...i know a lot of you out there know this to be true).

i should also at least mention how Norton got his name as there is some relevance to this, as well as a fish history & classic tv connection. ralphie was named after ralph wiggum's son on the simpsons, as well as what they call 'dumb' things in Australia...so it was fitting. i'm not going to lie, these fish look like they couldn't survive in a protective water-filled bubble...they seem hopelessly helpless but also remind one of a puppy. crazy that a fish elicits this sort of response from most people. anyway, other names in the running were dopey, ralphie II, and frank. in the end, norton seemed most fitting (thanks seema), and as i later found out (thanks to double D), norton was the name of one of the two whale sharks at the georgia aquarium...what was the name of the other one? ralphie. therefore it was perfectly appropriate here. double D also pointed out that these names were significant and actually were reference to characters from the old TV show "The Honeymooners"...for me, it was good enough that the name fit and was connected to other fishes, but knowing a bit of TV history is interesting too. especially if i ever find myself watching "nick at night" back at home with my sisters like we did during the summers about a decade ago. good times.

and that's more or less the story of Norton. right now he resides in a tank with "tiggy" the tigrinus catfish (james came up with that name) and "gary" the shortnose gar (also james' name). if fishes had a real world sitcom, this would be it. well, perhaps not, they basically just eat a lot and then sit in a cave for most of the day. they are up late at night though, so they're on my schedule, which is cool (seeing as no humans are).

ok just a few other comments since i know this is already epic-length:

- we determined this weekend that sarah's car, the spearmint civic, is in fact actually made of gum.

- gwen really isn't any more indian than me...of course it took sarah being present to help establish this. seriously, we're back on the same level. we can all continue the debate at IHOP.

- for AJ: it's "soquid" not "fliquid." what's next? a "knork?" a "fnife?"

- apparently running/biking/swimming on a regular basis does not guarantee health...damon has done all these things pretty consistently over the past year, yet has been sick about 20 times this year compared to my zero...yeah, and i went running maybe 10 times this year. i plan on doing more, but we'll see. hopefully he's still alive when i decide to do a triathlon with him some day.

- from this point on the state of new hampshire shall be referred to only as "the shire," don't ask questions, that's just the way it is. although perhaps all new england states could be lumped together as one...the US map on our refrigerator seems to think this is a good idea.

- i have decided to read some books this summer...i started with the latest X-men comics...ok that's a lie, i actually only started by seeing X-men 3 in theaters, but that still counts doesn't it? poisonwood bible here i come...well, it's either that or the rest of the 1st season of robot chicken on double D's xbox.

- contrary to Andrea's recent comment: "solomon, we all know you don't REALLY like baseball" damon and i will be going to see the Tigers play the Red Sox this friday (i will be cheering for the Tigers...). i figure i should be able to handle this, that and we all know it's usually an adventure when damon and i head out in public. which reminds me, i have actually been considering picking up "Fever Pitch" on dvd. yes, i'm a sucker when it comes to movies (also reference the first bullet "flashbacks" earlier in this entry...that is, if you are still with me at this point).
- on top of the books and baseball, this summer i plan on learning how to cook some various items. i started this morning by preparing a bowl of cereal (those new yogurt cheerios, which are actually quite good), and later a plate of 6 idlis and some sambar that my mom made (quite possibly the best food on the planet, and definitely my favorite). i will be sure to keep you all updated on my progress.

well it's now 5:30am...time for bed. good night and good luck <:><

music:

"The Adventure" - Angels and Airwaves

"Miles Apart" - Yellowcard

Norton antivirus...

the new kid at The Tank has finally arrived...


i realize it has been ages since i have updated, but the past week or so has been very very busy, hectic, testing, and bittersweet...plenty of pics and updates coming soon! <:><

Neoceratodus forsteri...

soon, very soon...the new kid at The Tank will be arriving...needless to say, i'm very excited. as early as wednesday or thursday quite possibly the final addition (at least to my portion) of The Tank will arrive, and you can rest assured there will be much (or at least amongst fish nerds and close friends) celebration.

it's been a really good past week or so; surprisingly research meetings have gone really well, trips home have been enjoyable as usual, and spending time with friends has been a lot of fun even if my usual OCD/AR-planning hasn't always been as big of a factor. perhaps i'll comment further in future entries. for now, brief bullets:

- congrats to janine on her first day at her real actual job! good to see that some people have made the jump from grad school to the real world and are able to get some $$ out of it as well! i'm just impressed you can make that commute!

- we had a lot of people over for the pistons game (also referred -appropriately- as THE game tonight) and the grey's anatomy season finale. good times for sure, except the pistons played like crap at the end, and the last hour with the hospital prom was coated in an extra thick layer of CHEESE. nevertheless, next season should prove interesting. ...and an overwhelming number of people were hoping meredith would throw herself off the balcony at the end of the show.

me and a wood turtle that we found during field work on the Muskegon River back in 2004, we considered it good luck for the work-week whenever we found a good old
Clemmys insculpta.

- i taped 24 tonight and james and i were watching it after everyone took off, BUT something was apparently on earlier in the evening that caused a delay with the show's start time...therefore we missed the last 13 minutes!!!! if i didn't have some tostitos 'hint of lime' chips nearby i would have been MUCH more upset about this. i guess i'll just have to download this episode off iTunes tomorrow so we can watch the end. UGH. stupid Fox network.

- the woodwork found in aquarium setups (at least those which are more oriented towards the 'natural look') is called 'driftwood' and not 'sticks'!!! this is a fact. i'm going to start liberally handing out -2 skill-level rankings to anyone who disagrees with me.

- speaking of aquariums, one of my major sources of funding for this summer will apparently be coming from writing articles for a fish magazine. luckily i enjoy doing this, and i should be able to work on my research at the same time. also lucky this is the largest and most highly-circulated fish magazine in the world...AND i'm a big fish nerd. :)

blast from the past...jeremy and i working in my room on my first sump-filtration system setup back at the old apartment (pre-The Tank days) in Spicetree. needless to say, we flooded the bottom of the tank 2-3 times...

- i was home this past weekend and (ironically) continued the 'education' of my family on somewhat current indian movies. my sisters enjoyed 'american desi' and my parents (and sarah) liked 'bollywood/hollywood'. it sill baffles me that i'm the one apparently reintroducing my family to aspects of the culture, but oh well. oh, and apparently my grandma is willing (and has been for quite some time) to fund my trip to india sometime in the near future. sweet.

- on the same note, it was great to be home for a little while and get together with the family. always entertaining to hang out with the sibs and have some good conversation with the rents. i also gave my mom a CD of some popular bollywood songs so she could listen to them on the commute to work...i think she'll be singing them by the time i go back for rachel's graduation in june. oh, and jeevan didn't attack me as much this time; that was a plus.

- gwen brought me a take 5 chocolate cookie candy bar tonight...i'm torn between eating it up to test it against the original, or to save it for a movie or something like that. i'll get back to you all with these much anticipated results. on another note, double D was fascinated to see my room for the first time tonight (i was showing him the Halo 3 trailer). later upon seeing all of our rooms, he realized he needs more fish stuff. no, WE are not crazy with fish stuff at The Tank...

ok i need to get to sleep. i hope you all had a great weekend, and i promise to keep up with more interesting and pointless entries in the near future. good night! <:><

music:

"Believe" - Yellowcard
"Dressed to Kill" - New Found Glory

random pics:

just a little over two years ago these little guys (after a lot of work) finally arrived. there will be similar fanfare soon...

in the red...

well it's crunch time folks, i have a meeting with my advisor at 9am and it's looking like its going to be a LONG night of finishing up some results/analyses for discussion...and when I say it will be a long night...well you know what i mean.

so the obviously logical thing to do at this point is update the blog.

***

ok to further enhance my procrastination break i just got off the phone with my sister (author of the infamous 'random ramblings') for about 40 min. nice...this leaves me with about 8.5 hours before my meeting!

i digress. wait, crunch time...that was it, ok back on track. why do us david's have to push everything to the limit with deadlines, etc? i don't work well in the clear, only when it's down to the wire and sleep is no longer an option. perhaps someday that will change, or perhaps i'll find a profession better suited for that sort of behavior...although now that i think of it, and everything i have learned from the PhD comic strip, i'm just about on track. at least i'll be more understanding of my students in the future when i'm teaching as a professor. hopefully my sisters are still around at that point to give me fashion advice, because i am NOT going to become one of those profs you see around campus with the bow-ties and weird suits. never. ok maybe once.

so i'm starting my third can of red bull (note: i drank 4.5 on the drive back up from atlanta...so i could almost drive back out to the georgia aquarium at this point), as i picked up this latest can from the fridge, james said it looks like i'm 'cruisin for a bruisin'...i guess we'll see, but i fully intead to sleep off my red bull-induced zombie state tomorrow afternoon. did anyone else see the office season finale tonight? it was hilarious, but ended with quite the drama...should be interesting next season.

so today i managed to apply a comparable amount of enthusiasm to the red sox/yankees game
(comparable amount to college football). i don't know if i should be keeping that up as i tend to really get into games, or (gasp!) any sort of competition which i feel even loosely connected to. i made enough noise to the point where james was asking what was going on downstairs (he was upstairs on the phone). either way it was actually a very entertaining game (plus the break for my name is earl/the office didnt set me back any with what was going on) and i think (with some help) i'm actually learning a decent amount. although i can't believe the indians are below .500 now...UGH.

ok there is probably plenty more i could talk about at this point, but i should really get back to work. hope you all have/had a good night! <:><

music:

"We Will Become Silhouettes" - The Postal Service
"Zolt" - American Desi soundtrack

random pic:

sarah just sent me this pic of her current (and only) best friend in North Lawrence:

the fish (or jedi) council...

well it's 2:15am and i probably should be asleep instead of being allowed to type on a computer and into a public blog...but oh well, all the more entertaining for you folks at home. i know it's been quite a dry spell on 'the fish guy' blog, but as of earlier this afternoon, hopefully you got all caught up...and if you could make it through that epic entry, then this one should be relatively fast-moving for you.

so every now and then, or technically every month, the 'fish crew' meets for either a formal speaker, presentation, planning, or informal discussion...tonight was a double presentation by both double D and ricky on arowanas and bichirs respectively. both presentations were definitely first rate and provided information that is rarely investigated by other fish research...and as a boost to my own ego i was referenced several times in both (thanks guys...given my fish-keeping prowess as of late, this definitely helped :)).

silver arowana (Osteoglossum bicirrhosum), former pet of mine that i eventually sold off; she's about 20" long now.

after the meeting the core group (including some of us executive members) decided that we were starving, and would continue some of our discussion at the ever-popular, and highly endorsed venue of 'pancheros' as suggested by myself. this was the second trip of the day to this establishment by me, but this time i was there in full force with a bunch of fellow fish fanatics. after we determined that there was no wireless access for double D's laptop (and seriously cramming down some extra large burritos - a by-product of showing up to this place with me...so if you ever want a big burrito, let me know and we'll coordinate a visit) we moved on to the UGLI (undergraduate library) on a quest for some internet access and the ability to send some urgent information. it started off as somewhat of a heist, we parked illegally (after driving on the 'sidewalk' for a bit...which gave me waking nightmares, given my run-in with the ann arbor police on the same issue a year and 5 months ago...but that is another story -- rest assured that it's a misdemeanor, and it's NOT fun to go to court!!!!!!! i hate ann arbor police. right, so anyway -

we accomplish our goal somewhat anti-climactically, and head off to leopold brothers to meet up with some friends. this is where the council comes into play...
...you see, every now and then i'm able to get together with a trusted group of friends so we can discuss the intricacies of fish, school, movies, and life in general. needless to say, i seriously appreciate and enjoy these meetings, and tonight was no exception. i mean, when else can you cover philosophical concepts, student life, and play foosball at the same time??? i would also like to add that my foosball team WON, and this was after a nearly 10-year hiatus from the game for me. sweet.

anyway, this is where i say thanks to the fish/jedi council...i seriously appreciate being able to hang out with you guys, not matter how big of nerds we actually end up being. note here, the 'long islands' that leopold brothers serves are actually country time lemonade...at least that is my theory. not that this made the evening any less entertaining. oh yeah, we also determined that although i am younger than double D, i know far more than he does about Airwolf, and that alex and i truly believe the facebook network is the way of the future (jeremy bought into this as well).

now i will take the opportunity to talk about sports:

- given my recent foray into the world of baseball, i will say that the Boston Red Sox seriously killed today...in spite of the Seinfeld history, i (by somewhat relative transitive property) don't like the Yankees, and the BoSox deserve kudos for seriously kicking their butts today.

- on a similar (again baseball) note, detroit and cleveland need to get their respective acts together...come on guys, seriously. i know there are like 162 games, but let's keep things on a positive note here!

- speaking of cleveland and detroit...in terms of the NBA...cleveland...nice try, but you're no match or the pistons. you may have lebron, but we have the collective force of chauncey, prince, wallace, wallace, and hamilton...you (most likely) have two games left in your season. good effort.

- michigan football is only about 3.5 months away. i seriously can't wait...all these substitute sports just don't cut it!!! GO BLUE!!!

and now for a brief cameo blog excerpt from janine's blog which i found entertaining:
====
Tonight I met up with some friends to go to Vinology for the first time. While I can't verify the accuracy of Solomon's Mojito recommendation, all of the wines we sampled were excellent and the atmosphere made for a nice grown-up evening out. AND they gave us all chocolate covered grapes in lieu of after-dinner mints or candies. Excellent.

Tomorrow night will be more hangin' out with friends and some long overdue trivia.

====

rest assured those mojitos are QUITE good, and i'll be sure you try one sometime in the near future :) although i am somewhat bitter that we did not get chocolate covered grapes...then again, i think we stayed about 30 min past close, so maybe they were upset with us.
as for the last comment, you are right, the trivia is long overdue, and i think it will make for an interesting evening tomorrow!

checkpoints:

- apparently the halo 3 trailer is online on the bungie site, thanks for the info andy. [brief addendum after viewing the trailer...its AMAZING...i can't believe we have to wait until 2007!!! at least i should be on my way to finishing up by then...]
-the casino royale (newest james bond flick) trailer is also online from sony pictures...looks sweet!
-Rescue Me (tv show on FX) starts its 3rd season may 30th...you can buy the soundtrack as of today
-i have a meeting with my advisor on friday morning, therefore the daytime hours of the rest of this week will be devoted to work. yes, this is seriously going to happen.

on that note, it's time to turn in. i hope you all had a good evening; and if you're a member of team capyba, i hope you're ready for disappointment tomorrow!!! good night and good luck <:><

music:

"Sona Sona Roop Hai" - Bollywood/Hollywood soundtrack
"My Style" - Black Eyed Peas

random pic:

Airwolf...hands down the coolest helicopter (and one of the best old-school TV shows) of all time. i would give up most material possessions to own airwolf...and yeah, it's cooler than KIT from Knight Rider.

circadian rhythms & cultural immersion...

well it's not the usual 2-3am update for the blog, but actually quite the opposite...4pm in the afternoon. i've relocated to the university at the dana building comp lab (which is currently inhabited by 3 other humans) to get some more work done...since i have been unsuccessful at The Tank thus far. guess what? yeah, not so successful here either, but i'll take things one step at a time, at least until the night before my advisor's meeting this friday.

all that being said, i have of course fallen behind with updating the time-wasting monster, so i am taking time out of my normally "busy" schedule do a rare daytime update. on to the bullets, maybe after a few entries i'll actually be caught up:

- first off, congrats to the BioRhythms people (Rashmi, Sonya, Shveta) on what was an amazing performance on sunday! i had never been to one of these shows, but had heard of them before. the relatively large and quite diverse group consisted primarily of medical school students and dental school students performing a variety of pieces, including cabaret, rock, dance, hip-hop, and bollywood. i must say i was very impressed with everything, and will definitely be planning on attending in the future (everyone else was impressed too, and the pendleton room of the union was packed to the point where it was standing-room only for those who showed up late)! favorites were of course the indian dance to the song "Deedar De" from the movie "Dus", the med school rock band performing "No Rain" by Blind Melon & "Last Dance with Mary Jane" by Tom Petty, and the hip-hop numbers. again, well done everyone...i'll be sure to arrange a group to go to the next performance!

- my schedule has been way off as of late, but i think i finally got around to resetting it today (by getting up at an "early" 10:00am. i recently got a new mattress and have found out what it's like to sleep on a normal bed as opposed to what i now call 'the petrified forest' (aka my old mattress which was unearthed around the Cretaceous Period). oh yeah, have fun with that mattress next year sarah, i don't know if a mattress pad will make it bearable...perhaps the box spring alone is more comfortable.
anyway, given the new sleep medium, i've had a much harder time getting out of bed, and since i've averaged a bedtime of between 3-6am over the past several days, i don't mind. so i guess one could write off some of this blog laziness to the fact that i've been sleeping a lot more. oh well, i'm not complaining at all.

julia, me, and parul pretending to be serious at Live

- bollywood. several of you probably have realized by now that i've been renting and watching quite a few hindi movies as of late...it's a trend that started around Christmas break with the initial conversation between rakhi and myself about how Bride & Prejudice is not a 'real' Indian movie. the result? i was lent several popular hindi movies and was instantly hooked (i now own the original three that i saw).
well recently rakhi took me to the indian store (Foods of India, in Ann Arbor, for those of you keeping track) the week she left for nashville. i ended up renting several indian movies; "Dus" which ended up being the main event for our recent hindi movie party (which was a great success and proved to be entertaining for everyone who attended...not to mention raised a lot of questions about indian movie plot complexity, risque dance interludes, and just how many consecutive shots can be fired from a rocket launcher).
i've also become addicted to bollywood music...i was always a soundtrack fiend, but it's even moreso with these movies where the music is actually a huge part of what makes the movie successful or enjoyable. heck, i'm listening to a bollywood mix as i write this. my goal is to SOMEDAY understand what they are saying, since i currently only know a few hindi words and phrases. which leads me to an entirely different line of thought on the same subject...

- me and my sisters are Indian only by the fact that we LOOK indian and eat indian food. this is the conclusion i have reached, and have had somewhat in-depth discussion about it with rachel and sarah recently. here i thought a lot of other indian people who were born in the US were in a similar situation or state of ignorance, but i was wrong. i seriously think my parents had us living in small towns all our lives so we would have no interaction with other indians (this is obviously not really the case, but a humorous coincidence). little did they know sarah and i would end up in the state of michigan, which is of course known for its immense diversity....riiiight.
anyway, even damon figured out that main hoon na means "i'm here now"...which was just a little slower than how long it took me to figure that out (yes we had subtitles, but thats not the point). there are the FOB's (fresh off the boat indians), ABCD's (American-Born Confused Desi's), and i propose some sort of third group for people like me and my sisters...who are even more "confused" than the ABCD's. i'm sure through some brainstorming sessions i'll have a new acronym to report soon.
with all that in mind, i'm hoping that there is still a chance to undo all of this somewhat-blissful yet scary ignorance; i just don't know if i have time to do so amidst feeding all these fishes and doing my research. we'll see.

last 'biofish crew' outing to Casey's before Rakhi had to take off; L-R: Priya, Sherie, Hans, James (pretending to scratch his brain), damon (incapable of acting normal in most pics), me, rakhi, christine, carrie

- oh, and i'll add one more thing before getting off the indian subject, i went to panchero's today (surprise, i know, shutupleavemealone) and another one of the workers asked where i was from. i told him my parents were from india and he smiled in recognition and then said "namaste" in greeting. i found this amusing and yet impressive, especially since he barely spoke any english and had in fact been teaching me some spanish phrases. this was also somewhat scary, because it really meant that he already knew one of the only 5 hindi words that i knew! i have some serious learning to do. maybe i SHOULD go to india this summer as my grandma wants me to...but that's also another story for another time.

james showing how excited he gets while working on the smolt trap on the Muskegon

- go to vinology, try the mojitos...they are very good and very sweet. no, they don't taste like crest :P

- although i had virtually sworn them off about a week ago (that story another time), there is a good chance that by the end of next week i will have a new fish at The Tank. i am very happy about this, my roommates are very happy about this, happiness will have returned to The Tank...ok maybe a bit too melodramatic, but you get the point. there will be some sort of celebration, so stay tuned.

- icelandic snow owls!!!! i had been trying to figure out what the owl was that lloyd christmas killed in the movie dumb & dumber and it just hit me. i'll answer any zoological trivia, bring it on!!!

- anyone up for some Halo 2? my sister lost our copy of Mortal Kombat 4 (that's your summer project sarah) so i'm down to just a couple options. i'm afraid double D will not provide much of a challenge to me...sigh.

ok this has obviously derailed to complete randomness, i need to get some work done or go to dominick's...i don't really care. oh, and come to the fish meeting to hear double D and ricky give talks on primitive fishes...i've prepared some challenging questions for them...because i'm evil. have a good evening <:><

music:

"Salaam Namaste" - Salaam Namaste soundtrack (yes, i have yet another soundtrack to a movie i have not yet seen. it's a sickness).
"The Disney Song" - American Desi soundtrack

pics (from Julia's bday outing this past friday) :

the gang at Improv Inferno on Main Street (definitely an entertaining time) L-R: Carrie, AJ, Hal, Julia, Chris, Me, Ly, Vidya, Damon

change of venue to Vinology, L-R: Julia, Seema, Ly, Vidya, Me, Chris

coming soon...

...no, i'm not dead, but this blog has fallen seriously behind! thanks to sarah, jane, and others who have reminded me that i need to keep up with providing useless time-wasting material for the faithful readers. i promise to update with more soon, the school year has ended, but work of course continues for a lot of us. things have already gotten pretty crazy with this summer, and with upcoming conferences, road trips, and the usual social outings, i'll have plenty to report in the new (summer) season of 'the fish guy'. for now, it's off to bed, as i have not gone to sleep before 6am in the past couple days...of course, with my new mattress, i have been perfectly content to sleep in until 2-3pm to make up for my crazy (even for me) schedule. good night and good luck <:><

ps-- if you're looking for some serious updating, i invite you to check out sarah's blog in the meantime...in a combination of being bored to death at home AND catching up with me, she's been updating up to 3x a day!!! come to think of it, there are a lot of you out there who have been falling behind on updates just like me...let's get back on track people!

music:

"Kajra Re" - Bunty aur Babli soundtrack ('kajra re' translates to 'night eyes')

"No Rain" - Blind Melon

"all good things..."

to say there was a lot going on this past week would be a monumental understatement. it was the end of the semester, end of the school year, graduation, and the last time (at least for a long time) that a lot of our friends would be getting together. bittersweet to say the least. there are a lot of pictures and events to cover, hopefully that will all get taken care of at various points this week. for now, congratulations to all the graduates!!! best of luck in all you do in the future, know that you will all truly be missed...and be sure to visit those of us back here in Ann Arbor!!! <:><

music:

"We're Going to be Friends" - Jack Johnson
"Narcolepsy" - Third Eye Blind

random pic:

a group of us went to see the Detroit Tigers play today (vs. the Twins), it was a great game...especially for someone like me (but we'll cover my thoughts on baseball at another time as well).

(L-R) Kara, Drew, Julia, Robert, Anandhi, Hal, Gwen, Double D, Erin, Me, Ledger