I went three-for-three on grad school acceptances. Now I've got about ten days to decide between University at Buffalo, University of New Hampshire, and Drew University.

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UPS sees no reason not to leave a box full of $300 of Amazon.com books right on my doorstep. The Amazon box with a $6.50 combination square, though, that requires a signature.

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Today was interesting. It was cloudy but warm when I got up this morning, so I hopped on the bike to ride to school. Half-way there, I saw a rapidly-approaching storm front. I made it under cover just before hail arrived. Roughly 1cm hailstones, so it wouldn't have injured me, but it surely would have been uncomfortable and made for slippery riding.

I came to a realization when turning some books back in at the library. Tuesday night I'd turned in a paper about Ten Nights in a Bar-Room, a temperance novel. Twelve hours later, I discovered that I'd misspelled the name of the novel's author at every internal citation in my paper, which must have been at least twenty or thirty. Whoops. It's a decent-sized class, so perhaps by the time the instructor reads my paper he'll be so tired he doesn't notice.

I wasted half of my twenty-minute lunch break signing the Class of 2010 buffalo. [Er, the Class of 2010 Buffalo? I wonder if "Buffalo" is part of its proper name.] It's a life-size statue of a bison, painted in the school colors, that every senior can sign with a black marker. The signing started at noon, so only a dozen people did it before me. I laid claim to an excellent bit of fiberglass buffalo hide, a white patch on the right side of the head. I wonder if later signers will simply cover my name? I hope not, I might have to hunt some people down, since their names will be right there…

In my evening seminar we got our second paper back, worth 30% of the grade. Mine was eight pages on The Warwolf, a novel by Hermann Löns, and how this historical novel related to the construction of cultural memory about the Thirty Years War. Eight pages of text, two of references, and the only thing that the professor wrote on it was "Quirky but excellent. A" which I shall gratefully accept, even though I'd've appreciated more detailed feedback.

That seminar lets out at 7 PM, and it was still raining. I faced a choice: wait for the rain to let up, or bike when there was still daylight. I chose daylight. I hit all the green lights going off campus, which is a downhill run, so I had a good head of steam. I came up on the corner of Rensch Road and Sweethome, slowed down for my turn, and abruptly remembered that bicycle caliper brakes have reduced functionality when things are wet. Luckily no one hit me as I failed to maintain my line within the bike lane and wandered far into the vehicle lane. Sorry, drivers! I will accept the finger emblems as tribute to the clearly-evident fact that I am number 1!

Now home, damp but intact, it is time to study for a German test on Friday, and to write a paper due the same day. The happy life of a college student!

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This is the best ad I've seen in quite a while. It's obvious that the new Burger King "breakfast muffin sandwich" is a total rip-off McDonald's Egg McMuffin. Rather than disguise that inconvenient fact, BK makes a joke of it. Well done!

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Like a lot of amateur photographers, I'm always wishing I had better equipment. The really good photographers point out that better gear does not create better photos, only (perhaps) better focused ones. The skill is in the artist, not the equipment. Maybe I should bold that, because I occasionally need reminded: The skill is in the artist, not the equipment.

Following is the musical example of that principle.

Found on Boing-Boing.

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I recently bought some expensive mind-altering botanicals, sold loose by weight. I'm kind of annoyed, because I wanted leaves, but I've discovered it contains a substantial contamination with stems, which are no good at all.

I refer, of course, to loose tea.

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I finally got around to uploading my holiday photos to flickr.

To be clear, I'm referring to Christmas of 2008. One shouldn't rush these things.

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I got a good tip on writing history papers from a prof today. The key is, he says, pretend that you're in a bar, and have been asked "Will the Yankees win the World Series this year?"

First up, you have to decide a position. Sure, you could say "Gee, I'm not sure," but then everyone will ignore you and you'll be excluded from further conversation. You must start with a thesis that takes a stand.

Second, for a typical paper, your audience is assumed to be your professor and fellow students in the class. They possess substantial background knowledge on the subject at hand– assume that they paid attention in lecture and did all the readings. With the baseball example, you wouldn't include in your statement anything about how baseball was invented, or why it was important, or even who the Yankees are or what the World Series is. The people that care to read your paper, already know that stuff.

What you do include is facts that your readers don't know, and facts that they know but you think are especially important to your argument. Sure, they know that "The Yankees have the best-paid players in the game," but you mention it if you believe that money motivates superior performance. Then you might mention "They've got a really hot prospect in their AAA farm team, ready to move up if needed," to include information that your readers didn't know.

Going back to the first point, only once you've established your argument should you include the best points contradicting your thesis. But you do need to address those points, as otherwise people will think you're unaware of, say, the Red Socks' great off-season trades, and you'll look like you don't know what's really going on.

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I got a nice thick packet in the mail today. Drew University's graduate program has accepted me. Hooray! I've not RSVP'd yet, though, as I want to see what the other schools to which I've applied will decide.

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In Okinawa, the weather is warm, it rains for weeks on ends, and everything is swept by salty sea winds. Rusty Toyotas were everywhere.

On Top Gear, the British presenters get a Toyota Hilux with 190k miles on it, and see how tough it really is. In three parts:

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