HoosierTarheel?

It's with great pleasure that I can finally post on this board. After graduating with a 2.8 GPA (rounded up) and an economics degree from the University of North Carolina - Chapel Hill, I will be starting the Ph.D program in economics at Indiana University Bloomington. Let me be clear about one thing: determination pays off. I started my undergraduate career as a total misfit on a misguided path towards a medical career. After beating my head against my course work for the first two semesters, I somehow managed to pull out a 2.1 GPA (again, rounded up). Sometime after, I got my act together and managed to pull everything together over the next three years including taking summer school courses at the London School of Economics. My professors were blunt with me and let me know that I wasn't making it through the advanced economics courses on intellect like my compatriots but by guts and sheer determination. After graduating UNC, I went to the Barcelona Graduate School of Economics (which I cannot recommend to anyone in good faith) for a masters in public policy and economics. I have a decent resume including a few working papers and over 2 years of work experience (supervisory job, irrelevant to my field, but still), a mid-range GRE, but would not and will not take no for an answer. The point of this monologue? Perseverance pays dividends. There is a lot more to this story, though I imagine no one really wants to hear it. My goal is to use my own story and the next 5+ years of my life at IU as a living illustration of what determination and hard work can do for you. If I can go from a 2.1 GPA in 2010 to having a masters degree and being accepted into a U.S. Ph.D program in 2015, anyone can do it.

Does anyone have advice on building a desktop? I'm seeing a lot of good advice about using the laptop+desktop combination but what websites or resources are useful for desktop parts etc.? Also, has anyone thought about getting the "Intel Stick" computer thing? I don't know much about it but it's a small computer that works when you plug it into any hdmi input. Could be useful...

My fiancee and I both accepted graduate offers for IUB starting this fall (Ph.D econ, woohoo!) and we are looking for more information about bloomington in general. We are also looking for good housing options for grad students/small families and have been looking hard at Washington terrace and Allen court. Does anyone know anything about these properties? Also, anyone want to gey together and play sink the biz before programs kick off in august?