Summer Internship?

Well I'm getting started really late but I decided recently to try to get an internship for the summer. Why? Basically I want some work experience for the resume and for my own "real-world" education. The project I've been "working" on here hasn't got off the ground yet, so I feel like I haven't been doing any actual research.

So I've applied a couple of places, and so this summer I may either be here in Atlanta, back in DC, or up in Boston. Staying here would be preferable because it would be a huge hassle to move and try to find a subletter. And the one in DC isn't even really in my field, so I don't really know why I even applied to that one... just got job application-happy one night. Ok back to "work".

Spring Break Collage #1: The crew chillin on the Ft. Lauderdale beach. Ryan with a slapped handprint on his back and Spencer, the guy who gave it to him. Pic of Miami just off the beach (nice palm trees). Sid enjoying the view on the topless South Beach.

Savannah Collage #2: Some day shots of the city. Savannah is a real nice little town. The funny thing about the bottom left picture is that the non-painted on guy in the bottom left corner of that picture looks like he should be part of the mural and just walked out of it or something.

Savannah Collage #1: All of us in our hotel before we went out. Me with a leashed squirrel on my shoulder (the guy who owned it was crazy, go figure). All of us plus the 3 others we met up with (my hand on the left is all that got in of me). A shot of River Street at night.

Spring Break 2k5

I haven't updated in a bit but I have a good reason... it was spring break. I had thought all plans had fallen through but thankfully Spencer made a last ditch effort and revived spring break in the days leading up to it.

It began with a trip to Savannah, GA for St. Patricks Day celebrations. Usually a quant little town, Savannah basically becomes like mardi gras on st paddys day. It's River Street (along the Savannah River) was the center of the action, although much tamer than mardi gras, it was a great time. There was like 7 of us there and we just walked along the street with our beads and drank. I only saw one girl actually flash and it wasnt pretty.. like I said, tamer than mardi gras. So we basically just did that for Friday and Saturday night. It's a beautiful town during the day too, kind of reminded me of Charleston, SC.

After a two day break from spring break (got a little work done in the office), we headed back out of the road Wednesday at 4 AM, this time South to Florida. We stayed in Ft. Lauderdale, which was more southern than I thought (only 30 min north of Miami). I had a blast there chillin on the beach with the other spring breakers, drinking coronas and margaritas and tossin the football around. They also had this great bar/club area on the Riverfront that was crazy at night and went till 4AM. Our crew then spent a day in Miami at South Beach (a topless beach). Miami is interesting because there are extremely rich people and extremely poor people. You'll see a porsche parked next to a P.O.S. and bums sleeping outside expensive clubs. The weather was perfect the whole extended weekend, sunny and mid 80's. I avoided any major sunburns while managing a slight tan, which was crucial.

So in conclusion, I managed to get in about 8 days of partying and 2 days of work out of spring break. Oh and plus I bought one of those cheesy spring break shirts that looks like the Corona logo only it says Spring Break instead. Man they are clever!

I'll post some pics. See ya later devoted blog fans.

Dr. Ben?

Coming into Graduate School, I was 90% sure I was only grabbin a Masters here at GA Tech. Now I may be down to 75% sure, still pretty strongly not getting a PhD, but it's been knocked down a bit. So that would mean at least 3 more years here (graduate around 2009, whoa), but the student life is not that bad. Maybe I'll reconsider next year when I'm broke.

So basically, I have no plan whatsoever for the future. But I'm going to go with the "everything will work out in the end" theory, cause that requires the least thought and planning. haha. So I met this NASA guy today I guess I will be working with maybe. Maybe I'll get to go to Mars and play in the red dirt.

Sore from dodgeball?!?

Whoa, I'm mad sore from playing dodgeball on sunday. Sounds pathetic, right? I thought softball on saturday was going to make my arm hurt, but it didn't. Apparently dodgeball is the much more muscle intensive sport. This is good though, gettin the conditioning in before the season starts...still can't believe it's a real intramural sport. I'm still waiting for the uniforms to arrive... hehe.

It was beautiful and sunny out saturday for softball, and the field was right next to a small airport, so every once in a while a jet would fly by pretty low. That was cool. Dodgeball was a hoot on sunday... 9 or us ended up playing in a raquetball court, in full view of the people on the bikes, treadmills, and ellipticals. It was hilarious and a GREAT time. Jack supplied the balls, and they were fairly pansy, with pictures of the little mermaid on some and superman and stuff, but that made it even more funny. I'm looking forward to the real deal next week.

But for now, I got another test tomorrow at 3, so I guess I'll stop procrastinating and get back to studying. Later yall.

Testage

Just handled two tests today... they weren't too bad. The studying FOR them was much worse, consuming my entire Wednesday and Thursday, which was not cool. I was forced to miss Lost and Tilt, two tv shows I keep up with. Anyways, just got back from Rocky Mountain Pizza where we all had some beers and food to unwind after the tests. Good times. Don't know what I'm up to tonight, either party at Jack's, or just relaxing here/catching up on sleep. Got softball tomorrow, then dodgeball sunday. nice. Have a good one people.

Rest in Peace Ben. We miss you.

Bartender Ben on New Years Eve '02

The freshman year crew (mostly). I love this picture.

Spring 2001: Petty and I playing pong in my freshman year dorm room. We were quite the formidable team and remained undefeated for over 25 straight games. It looks like I'm playing air guitar.

Our genius idea to thaw a frozen beer so we could play some pong... brilliant!

Ocean City, Summer 2002: He just popped in from New Jersey and ended up staying for 3 days. He didn't know any of my friends when he first arrived but by the end they all liked him better than me!

He was an avid beer ponger. Fittingly, he shared his initials with the game.

2nd Annual Bill Young Memorial Beer Pong Tournament... Fall 2002

New Years Eve '02: "Celebrate we will, cause life is short but sweet for certain..."

Benjamin Andrew Petty: 03/22/1982 - 03/02/2003

My new softball glove.

Softball glove

Exciting aspect of today was buying a softball glove at the Sports Authority. I didn't even realize there were special gloves for softball, but now I know. Softball gloves are basically just bigger baseball gloves, some are even the same size as baseball outfielder's gloves. So because they are sorta big, they feel and look goofy to me. But I had to resist the urge to just get a smaller baseball glove because then catching a softball would be more difficulty, and really, when am I ever going to play a game of baseball ever again? For most of us baseball is over after little league.

So anyway, I like the glove, it is very comfortable for a brand new glove and already feels halfway worn in. Plus it was a $60 glove and I got it for $40. And then I bought two pair of mesh reversible shorts, so that's like 4 pairs of shorts for the price of 2! Ching! I'm gonna be breakin in the glove this weekend, weather permitting. And we got a dodgeball practice on sunday... hehe... Dodgeball practice is an oxymoron. I plan on throwing wrenches at the team to get them in dodge-shape (If you can dodge a wrench, you can dodge a ball!).