A visit to that "other" place

Andy and Faimon in CS Lewis and J.R.R. Tolkien's haunt, The Eagle and Child Pub

Oxford, England

Well, I waited til the end of the year to finally do it. But I did it! I visited that "other" place just down the road.

Oxford.

Funny, it seems like everyone that I talk to back home asks how "Oxford" is. You'd think that I'd have an inferiority complex by now. I don't go to Oxford. I go to Cambridge. But I don't. And even with Faimon's chiding -- Cambridge was founded by Oxford guys -- I managed a great time over in that lovely little city (notice the distinction: Cambridge is my lovely little village).

Oxford is great. It has all that I expected -- the scenic colleges, quaint little streets, and smart kids from all over the world. It is quite a bit bigger than Cam. I stayed the night with Faimon and his wife Krista. They have a nice university apartment -- much better than my little box here in Cambridge. We had a good tour of the university and two great meals. One was at the Trout just outside of Oxford, which supposedly was some of the inspiration to Tolkien for the inn in LOTR. The other great meal was at Faimon's favorite breakfast joint. No, not Louie's. We hit up Queen's Lane Coffee Shop on High Street, which Faimon attends religiously on Fridays. Evidently, students flock by this restaurant on the way to take exams. The significance of that? Oxford kids still have to wear white tie attire to take their exams. Ha...not at my 800 year old university!

Here are a few pics from the weekend (including a few from my last Rotary visit and Ben and Julie's visit). I'm going to London tomorrow to see a few museums and finally get to watch Les Miserables!

Unbelievable

Cambridge, England

You're not going to believe this. Seriously, you're not. You might want to sit down. (Yes, I realize you're already seated. Just be careful with the mouse after you read this.)

Today was my last day of college.

And maybe forever.

Now granted, I'm already looking at some courses that I could take in DC (wine tasting anyone?) and perhaps will return to school in the future, but this was my last day of university after seven years. Seven years! That's a bloody long time.

It's been a nice journey. I'm not altogether finished, as my dissertation is due next week and I'm actually working on a short paper that is due for tomorrow. But things are definitely wrapping up in England. I'm going to London tomorrow to meet up with Ben Kennedy, and then on Saturday and Sunday I'll be visiting that "other university" over in Oxford to see Faimon Roberts and a few Rotary scholars. I just finished up a great weekend in Swaffham doing a Rotary visit (i.e., giving a talk to a Rotary Club full of retired men) and that was a lot of fun. I'll put some pics up soon and tell a few stories on that.

Oh yes...I almost forgot to mention. Yesterday my mom's pen pal came for a visit with her husband (Marion and Simon). I showed them around my lovely little village and they really did seem to love it. And who wouldn't? I really do believe that this is one of the best places to visit in Europe (out of the places that I've seen). It is so beautiful, especially right now in the spring time. I got some pictures from my department that I'll put up that will knock your sox off...

Peace out y'all.

Auburn commencement speech

I thought that my Auburn Tiger friends might want to read the commencement speech that Vice President Cheney gave at graduation. Read it here. Thanks to Parker for passing that on.

Yes, you read it here first: Andy campaigning for a Republican.

End of an Era

Austin, Texas

Say it ain't so.

It is.

The LBJ School is leaving the famed house on Lafayette Avenue. It was a good run...from jersey night to poker night to fantasy football drafts to the annual Halloween bash to Philipa the crazy neighbor.

And of course: the spectacular blowout end of the year graduation parties. Alex and the rest of the krewe are leading the house out in style. See the invitation below in case you happen to be in Austin. In memory, I've put together some of my favorite pics from over the years. See it here. I wish I could be there one last time to celebrate guys!

By the way, I'm already planning an LBJ reunion at 2800 at some point in the future. We might have to rent the house for a weekend from the owners, but we'll do it. And you'd better believe there will be beer pong and an ice luge.
**

There are only 3 things you need to remember about the 2800 graduation party this Friday at 8.30 at 2800 Lafayette Avenue.

1) It’s going to be the last party at 2800 Lafayette ever. The end of an LBJ Tradition. Please come out and help send the house out in style.

2) Everyone’s invited. 1^st years, 2^nd years, family, friends and people you meet on the street, they’re all welcome and the more the merrier.

3) There’s going to be an ICE LUGE! If that doesn’t make you want to come I don’t know what will. But if that does make you want to come, and I hope it does, bring a bottle of your favorite booze to take off the luge.

Look forward to seeing you all there. Email me or give me a call if you have any questions.

Alex Kurgansky

The Sound of Silence

Cambridge, England

Leave it to a guy from MIT to help me fix the keyboard that kept going left. Hallelujah! I remapped the left arrow to a null value and now I have nice, normal typing. To think, I've been struggling with this for a month and it only took a few minutes to fix. For those that want to remap one of your keys -- e.g., maybe you want to change the right-ctrl key to mute? -- then check out this free program called KeyTweak. Magnificent. Thanks for the recommendation, Josh. (By the way, a little bird told me that Josh knew to remap the keyboard because he remapped his keyboard to be DVORAK instead of QWERTY. Ha.)

And now a nice little article for your reading pleasure. Those that know me well will get a kick out of this. Ahhh...the sound of silence. I have to say, I totally agree with the author's analysis.

That kid can dance...

Cambridge, England

Super annoying. Super super annoying. My laptop has been acting up for the past month. When I type, the cursor will randomly start moving to the left (the flashing cursor, not the mouse cursor). So if I just type away, then the sentence will end up jumbled. So I am constantly having to stop, and then press the right arrow (the only thing that makes it stop going to the left). And then correct the sentence. It is so frustrating.

For example, here is a sentence:

Nxtmonth I am going to Morocco for a lastrp ueforcoaton Rouge fora few mon.Tvinashting tn.CD oW tomIam eh tsh Bmhome n ti ok rwoebak e I b reoEin i tOka

I am about to lose my mind. I'll type more later but just can't handle taking a minute to type one stinking sentence. If you know how to fix this then let me know. I think I need a new keyboard for this thing, but I'm sure that would cost more than the laptop is worth (a three-year old Dell). (Btw, I would just go to the computer lab at school. I do that during the day, but they close at 10 pm. What kind of university is this?)

Oh, the reason for the post: check out this dancing cadet.

And here is my research in the newspaper.

One more thing: end of era this weekend. The guys are moving out at 2800 Lafayette. Sad. Super sad. More on this later. I need to meditate on it. And cry a little.

Funny story

Cambridge, England

I've been really busy working on my dissertation as of late. To my LBJ friends: Remember that PR? I'm living it all over again.

But I'm enjoying my research and it's actually going to be used today in a senate committee. In any event, not much to report besides that it was in the 30s this weekend.

In keeping with the UHS theme of a few days ago, here is a funny article about a UHS grad entering the NBA draft. Click here.

Have a good one.

Go Cubs!

For all those UHS alums out there...

I just read that U-High (University Laboratory School) was rated the top school in Louisiana and #203 nationally by Newsweek. Click here.

Mexican dinner in Cambridge

Cambridge, England

What's going on here? Last night when I returned home from seeing my first movie in Cambridge (Kingdom of Heaven), it was 41 degrees outside...and with the wind it felt 37!

It's May. In fact, we're nearing mid May. What happened to April showers bring May flowers? What happen to warm spring days with sun bathers and short skirts?

We're on a little hiatus here in Cambridge. But to be honest, I don't really mind. Last week when it was warm and muggy (70s), it was killer to fall asleep at night. Remember: no AC.

But things are going great here. I am hammering away on my dissertation, which I am sure excites everyone. Adam has already requested an autographed copy of my final report, so let me know if any other video game fans out there want one too. Okay, so my research is quite narrow and not of interest to many folks...but that's grad school right? (or academia in general?)

We made it to and from Brussels earlier this week for our class trip to the EU. It was neat to see the buildings -- very modern and unimpressive. But the most interesting aspect was talking (or listening) to all of the MEPs and other EU folks about the upcoming constitutional referendum in France (May 29). These guys are stoked to pass the EU constitution. It needs to pass in 20 out of 25 EU countries, but without France and Germany the EU officials say that it's finished. Interesting, because I haven't really met any Europeans that are stoked about the EU, let alone the constitution. I imagine that there are people -- especially the further east you go. But here in the UK, people are especially apathetic. As one MEP pointed out, the Brits typically view it as an economic issue. In part, they are right to view it this way: the UK provides the most financial support to the EU. But one of the main reasons to support the EU, according to this same MEP (from Hungary), is to ensure safety in Europe -- and not war like the 20th century saw. Good point, and perhaps reason enough to join (or pass the constitution, rather). Guess we'll see. One thing is sure after the visit: even though the UK is one of the big 3 in the EU, the constitution will still push on if France/Germany pass it and the UK doesn't. Very interesting to view the politics of all this on a firsthand basis.

Check out my pictures from Brussels here.

On Friday night I dined at Corpus Christi College for an authentic Mexican meal. Ha. Ha ha! Look at that picture at the top of this post. No, actually click on that picture so you can get a close up view. You folks from Texas (and even Louisiana) will be saying "ha" too. That burrito looks more like a hot pocket. In reality, I think that it was one of those microwavable burritos that you can get from HEB ten for $1. Yum. And no margaritas! I teased Paul that margaritas don't exist in this country. But supposedly they do.

We did get a sombrero though. Now that's fun. I plan to wear it back to the US on my flight back. That'll get a few looks from the British Air flight attendants.

Oh, and I almost forgot. We had the British election on May 5. Seems to have been a pretty forgetable election, as there wasn't much excitement. The papers and my friends here said that the drama was down this year because Blair had it locked. Still, it was interesting to see how worked up everyone got here for the US election, and then how calm it was for the UK election.

Radio edit

Cambridge, England

I'm back from Brussels and will discuss that tomorrow. For now I've got to get to work for a few hours because tonight I'm watching the returns from the UK election. More on that later too.

I was on a local NPR radio show a few weeks ago talking about my dissertation research. You can listen here (you'll need a player that plays ogg files and can get one here.).

I gotta pack!

Frank and Andy with Alcatraz in the background, San Francisco

Cambridge, England

In less than five hours...I've gotta leave on a bus for Brussels.

It's a class field trip to the EU and should be a great experience. I'm very much looking forward to it. Unfortunately, I've been totally swamped the past few days working on this dissertation (and fantasy baseball). It's fun, but time consuming. Right now I am working on a survey to send out (in a few moments) to my contacts in the video game industry. The goal of the survey is to see what factors people in the industry view as important when making location decisions (e.g., quality of life, salary, etc.). I've got a lot of qualitative research on that question, but need some quant backing. Fun.

FYI, in case you ever need to do a survey -- even an informal one for an office poll or something -- check out www.zoomerang.com.

I've really gotta run...there's the whole packing thing plus I need to send this survey out. But I did promise stories from Austin and San Francisco.

You'll notice the pic of me and Frank above in San Fran. Got a chance to see LBJ classmates Frank and Isabel while I was out there. We spent some good times in Berkeley, which really is a rad little college town. I could go to school there. Heck, there aren't many places that I couldn't go to school. (Still can't believe that I won't be in school for the first time ever...in a month!)

Good story from SF: I was visiting folks for my dissertation research, and ended up at IGN, which is *the* Web site for serious gamers. I was talking to my friend Brennan Ieyoub, who is a Web editor and is also a fellow '98 graduate of UHS, at his office. And what an office! Picture an office full of kids that love video games. Okay...there you've got it. There were video game figures and life-sized characteristics scattered throughout, and dazzling framed poster displays of all the big video game hits. Rooms for multiplayer gaming and a really tight room for presenting games that included leather couches, surround sound, and a huge plasma screen. But the best part was the breakroom. Wow. Arcade games lined the wall! Brennan whipped up on me in golf. I'll get him next time.

Okay, I'm really out of time. I want to tell an Austin story or two. But Sarah said that she never reads my blog, so I'm going to boycott Austin stories for a bit. Why? It's just like that Seinfeld episode...for spite. Sarah was in Austin, so all the stories would involve her. Guess she'll be my most avid reader after this revenge! (Okay, admittedly...maybe not. But really, I just flat out need to stop typing, send out the survey, and go to bed.)

But one more thing: I did see George Rivas. Man, that guy has a big head.

Oh, and Tex Mex never tasted so good .