Can once in a lifetime happen twice?

There are times in life, however few and far between, when the planets align and good fortune rains down from the heavens. Tonight we stumbled into such an event with about as much forethought as the recent invasion of Iraq. Maybe slightly more forethought than newly appointed Tony Snow's "tar baby" transgression.

As an alternative to Top Shelf Tuesday, the Greenlawn Workout Crew, after thoroughly embarrassing the other patrons of Gold's Gym on the elyptical, graced the Whole Foods on 6th with their exquisit taste and witty banter. Champagne, King Ranch Chicken, Salads, Turtle Cheese Cake and Lattes were had. "What a delightful evening," you might say. Then I would say, "Quite."

"Plenty of hot boys!" Kendra remarked before she admitted she would be coming by everyday from here on out. The patio was a buzz with Austin slackers. Some were on dates. Others were enjoying the rare sub eighty degree weather. Still others were scaring the diners by riding around on a bicycle inspecting all the trash cans with a flash light. "I know it's dark out here dude, but I'm pretty sure it's just trash in there." Luckily we avoided direct confrontation with flash light bycicle man because the trash cans right next to us were burried in the small rock bench and it wasn't readily apparent what they were.

We soon realized the purpose of the recepticles and began disposing of our refuse. I, being the closest, was commanded by Kate, "Throw away my salad!" I'm afraid of Kate so I obliged her. Suddenly without anyone comprehending what was about to happen, the planets aligned. Lisa turned to me, handed me the half eaten boxed caeser and audibly stumbled, "Can you toss.. my salad?" It was pure serendipity, except without the pair of gloves, or a ten dollar bill or Jeremy Piven. God, I really need to start watching Entourage.

Keep your friends close and your friends who write recommendation letters closer

I'm prepping all my stuff to apply for grad school and it feels like I'm about to head west on the Oregon Trail. I'm getting ready to get all manifest destiny on academia but I need some supplies if I'm going to survive the journey.

• Good Grades which are the Bullets of Grad School Applications
• Compelling Research Proposal which is the Spare Axle of Grad School Applications
• Flattering Recommendation Letters which are the Oxen of Grad School Applications
  

Bullets are kind of a given. How would you kill food if you didn't have bullets? And anyone worth a lick could whittle out an axle in a pinch. Oxen however must be chosen with care. You don't want get saddled with a runt that slows you down and eats your food. You need big strong oxen with the stamina to tug your wagon day in day out and still pull you through 5 ft deep rivers at the end of the day when Timmy has pneumonia and Betsy can't stop getting bit by snakes.

Well I don't know about you, but I am through with that analogy. Thanks for sticking with me here. The important thing to gain from all this is make connections with important people who can write you recommendation letters. When I was in college I didn't do anything that qualifies as research or extracericular activities outside of normal classwork. So I have to scramble to get a professor to remember me and convince him or her that I'm worthy of their recommendation.

Ideally, I'm told, you'll want to have at least 3 references from Professors on a tenure track. The professors and people that I know well I emailed and asked them directly. I tried to express why I thought a recommendation letter from them would be a good reflection of my ability. I'm hoping this will help them decide to write a letter for me and also make it a favorable letter.

To write the letter they usually want a resume/cv and any other research related work that you have done. It's also good to let them know what you're planning to do in grad school so they can taylor the letter appropriately.

So, before you leave your undergraduate school behind make sure you do some extra work that counts as research, and make friends with some professors that will remember you in a year or two.

Blog to your Mother!

What's up children? It's the Menace here. Giving it to you straight. I'll tell you what though. It's a tough world out there. I mean look at me. I know I don't have a lot to complain about, but looks aren't everything and money can't buy you friends.

That's right I'm talking about the future. I got to thinking about my future and here's what I came up with.
I'm going to die.
It's morbid but true, and the sooner you get used to the idea the more realistic you can be about your future. Since death is the last thing I'm going to do in this life, I decide to make a list of things to do before I die. I know this is blowing your mind right now because you've never heard this kind of defeatist attitude before. This is not a list I write once and never edit. It is going to grow with time and maturity just like a flower. It will eventually die because I won't pay enough attention to it just like a flower. But in the mean time it should prove to be a rather useful tool to get my butt in gear.

So without further ado, the first thing I want to do before I die is go back to school and get at least a Masters in Computer Science. I'm applying to some schools in New Zealand (I'll try to explain why later). New Zealand doesn't require the GRE like they do in the states so I'm applying there first but I'm also gonna prep for the GRE to apply to some schools in the states later. I'll be documenting my GRE prep journey on this blog. So stay tuned and get out some number 2 pencils and maybe you'll learn something.