some simple things that make me happy

1. Putting together a homemade spaghetti sauce with lots of veggies and spices.
2. Throwing my Outback in low gear and powering up a hill (particularly if said hill leads to Williamstown).
3. The sound of a squash ball hitting the wall.
4. Watching a lathe on automatic feed turn down material.
5. Turning on a radio and instantly hearing a song I’ve been thinking about but haven’t listened to in a long time.
6. Writing useful functions that work properly and integrating them into my codes.
7. Watching a charcoal drawing take shape.

Things that make me nostalgic

• Legos
• Copperline
• Star Wars
• My drawings
• Problem sets from Prof. Bolton’s classes

stuff to bring any family/friends who visit me to

1. David Sedaris at the State Theater (1 April)
2. Deep-dish pizza at The Nines (sooooo good, probably the best pizza I’ve ever tasted)
3. Dessert at Madeline’s  (there just aren’t words)
4. Toughannock Falls (because they are big and impressive)
5. Rhodes Hall B50  (“Space Systems Design Studio”…robot arms and levitating magnets, dude)
6. The I. M. Pei-designed Cornell Art Museum (with intriguing exterior acoustic properties)

New Years’ Resolutions

Ha, ha! Here is an instance where my list format, which up to this point I’ve found fun and interesting even if it’s sometimes limiting, definitely works in my favor! (Although I suppose I could start writing commentaries, introductions, or conclusions…but that would be a major break from the Lists of Things tradition.) Without further ado, as the title suggests, I resolve to try to:

1. Set aside some time each week to bust out the ol’ papers, charcoals, chalk, graphite, and artists’ erasers.
2. Set aside some time each week to write. Fiction, that is.
3. Call my college friends on the phone more often (i.e., at all). Because other means of keeping in touch don’t seem terribly effective.
4. Join the Ithaca Composite Squadron, CAP.
5. Start playing squash again.

I would name some of my drawings

1. “Offering”
2. “Sunbleached”
3. “Paint can”
4. “Cascade”
5. “Metal in cloth”
6. “Out of the jungle”
7. “Curator’s Desk”

these are a few of my favorite things

• Walking across the Science Quad, behind the bleachers set up on the lawn
• Physics snacks
• Parker and the marshmallows
• Foliage and music on Mountain Day
• Sneaking a dump truck into Lisa’s room
• Walking across Mission to visit Dave
• Running barefoot in 12″ of snow
• Killing as an organized sport
• Braving -30°F wind chills to build an R/C glider
• Watching Erika in hockey games
• Spending time in Greylock
• Chatting sci-fi authorship with Joe
• What a Feeling
• Working wild quantum problems with Creston
• Losing every ultimate frisbee game but completing our explicit objective of having more fun than any other team
• Emsa the wild and crazy JA
• Poking Jonaya to make her giggle
• Lessons in Go
• Watching Alden fiddle
• Pajama parties
• Spectating at the final match of a pro squash tournament
• Woodbridge dance mixes
• Meditating on the form of a still-life
• Broomball games
• Professor Adams making bets
• Learning to give technical physics talks
• Applauding Prof. Bolton on the last day of class
• Wine and cheese and the Rite of Spring at Tanglewood
• Dave Brubeck
• Oh Hell and Hearts
• Occasionally swing dancing
• Laser safety goggles as sunglasses
• Running from Morgan to the squash courts
• Water-feuding with Lisetta
• Watching Alden take pool shots from atop the table
• Inventing our own Hall-Ball
• Listening to Ashleigh go on about chemistry
• Having a sister around
• Cranking out some of the most difficult, intellectually challenging writing I’ve ever done…for planetary geology class
• Playing boggle
• Combo Za does “The Rime of the Ancient Mariner”
• International dinners in Dodd
• Baxter Hall
• Purple mountains majesty
• Best mascot ever
• Security officers joining us to look for meteor showers on Cole Field
• Throwing and making the most nail-biting, zero-to-no-chance-of-success, long-shot hammer for a touchdown in the annual math-versus-physics frisbee game
• Spring peepers sounding on my way home
• Struggling with thesis research between problem sets and papers
• Hiding in the nest under Lisa’s bed
• Justin and the Nerf Wars in Bronfman
• Papa’s Delicate Condition
• Cinnamon buns an omeletes for brunch
• Carmina Burana
• Grilled honey buns at the Snack Bar
• Taking the long shift tutoring in the Resource Center and watching the kids succeed
• Running into students of all disciplines on the sidewalk
• Anti-caterpillar chalkings
• The pumpkin hunt
• Getting locked in Lisa’s closet
• Pulling music over the network
• Pet crayfish
• Rooming on the science quad
• Putting up “wanted” posters for Esa
• Watching SNL with almost the entire entry at lunch
• Playing against a French TA at the badminton club
• Linguistics
• Losing “betting units” to Dave
• Playing poker for pennies
• Make your own pizzas in Mission followed by pool above
• Curtis the custodian
• Telling everyone fifteen times about my upcoming Southwest vacation
• Sam igniting a napkin
• Cookouts on lawns and quads
• Concerts in Goodrich Hall
• Bouncing a tennis ball against Lisa’s wall
• Watching the mystery of What is Alden’s Door Combination get solved in spectacular fashion
• Just watching Ross
• Where’d You Get That?!
• The Eyes
• Hanging out with Sparky
• Professors who know exactly how to impart versatile problem-solving tools
• Getting seven out of eleven acceptance letters
• The Islamic Blanket and the Courtly Bow
• Analyzing a lunar eclipse
• Episodes of “The West Wing” with matzah in my room on lazy Sunday mornings
• Lying in the sun on my bed in Currier
• Tossing Frisbees on the Odd Quad
• Hearing Dean Roseman call my name at Ivy Exercises
• Getting the thesis to work out beyond my expectations when I was in the doldrums
• Climbing trees for no reason at all
• Building the world’s least cohesive snowman
• Dinners with Alden, Lisa, Teresa, Esa, Dave, and Erika in various combinations
• Greetings from Ducky on the way into Mission
• Working EM problems in Schow
• A capella groups outside making noise
• Baxter mailroom in mid-day
• “The Mountains, The Mountains!”

Too much else to remember.  Why should this all hit me at 2 am last night?

was they high boots, or low boots?

1. Carabiner LED flashlight
2. Cable box
3. Hammer
4. John Coltrane
5. The BBC World Service
6. Istanbul
7. Elwood Blues
8. Canvas cargo pants
9. Atlantis
10. Hardbacked spiral sketchpad

this one’s for the kid in the back

1. fourteen
2. eighty-seven
3. twenty-two
4. five hundred thirty nine
5. ‘Course it’s Pete–look at ‘im!
6. there goes the neighborhood

Belay that…due to WSO servergoingdownitude, everyone’s favorite ‘Lists of Things’ will make their permanent home here now

1. Bicycle
2. Endocrinology prescriptions
3. Irish music
4. Apartments for rent
5. NCRMS
6. Camelbak
7. UPF clothing
8. Big floppy sun hat
9. Cargo pants
10. Belated new insulin pump
11. Two sketchbooks, one large and one pocket-sized
12. Nostalgia, already
13. Crap I have to carry over all my categories