Pink Fuzzy Bunny

GUYS this is the first time in the past two hours that I've been able to sit down. I got into Cornell! With a nice fellowship... looks like I'll be pulling in 32k+ a year (+ tuition and health insurance). I couldn't be more thrilled. Ithaca, NY is my kind of town, I've always hated urban places and when I visited I loved it. The story is hilarious though. Since it's officially February I kept checking my email, and my professor was making a joke about it every time I'd check ("oh, it's been 30 seconds, better check!"). Then he got up for a second, I checked, and BAM!

Here's my baby! Unfortunately she's been living with my parents for the past few years while I live away at college, and she's grown attached to their cat so I'm not going to tear her away.

I hate you guys so much. My apartment building doesn't allow pets (as in, if they find a cat, they let it loose into the forest). So that's one of the biggest things I want to do when I'm in grad school, since I'm 1000000% a cat person. I just don't know that I'll be able to afford it, and I for sure know that a cat wouldn't like a teeny-tiny studio apartment

I'm so, so jealous.

Nerds, all of ya!

Hey fellow Americans, don't forget that this Wednesday is National Carrot Cake Day. My department chair commissioned me to make a cake (I always bring cookies in) so I got the ingredients today and man is it going to be beautiful. Double-layered with a buttercream glaze between the layers, and frosted with a cream cheese - buttercream frosting, with coconut drizzled throughout (though I'm allergic to coconut, so no taste-testing). I'm pumped!

That is genius!! I think I'm going to do that in the coming weeks... thank you!

I got my acceptance to Boulder as I was sitting in the TA office about 5 minutes before I had to head to class. The other TAs were talking about something nerdy as usual and I shrieked and ran out of the room to into my prof's office to let him know. Like you said... I wish I could bottle that feeling.

I think that interviews in physics are uncommon in general, with two exceptions: 1) international students from a non-English speaking country 2) really exceptional students who they want to give a fellowship to

What the heck does that even mean??!

I might be stopping by during the visiting weekend in late March, if your offer for a tour is still there

Well, guys... tomorrow begins the month of February. Just think, for most of us, it will all be decided in a month. Just that thought alone makes me want to vomit.

Dude, grandmas are the best. And always right, too.

I'm in the same position as some of my friends (literally - we applied to the same 12 schools [+ some more for him]) and I've gotten into 7 and he hasn't heard back. I keep having to set my Facebook statuses to be viewed only by certain people, and can never speak too loudly about where I got in... which was rough, since I was sitting next to him when I got into my top choice (Boulder). I think you really just have to put yourself in their shoes; I mean, if you are really good friends, you know that they'd be happy for you that you heard back from somewhere. On a side note, I found out that if I moved into one of the cheapest apartments available in Boulder, rent would be 80% of my take-home pay. Can you say ouch?

I'm sorry piglet Hopefully some good news comes soon to cheer you up!

Hahaha! Surely they'd be happy for you though!

You are so much calmer than I... even if I knew it was a rejection, I wouldn't be able to handle letting an email sit in my inbox for that long!

What?! Why?? A whole weekend of celebration/tears, instead of having 5 minutes of emotions before having to run off to class.

Yeah it was that way this year for physics too! All of the programs I've heard back from sent out decisions much earlier than they have in previous years... hopefully that will continue to be the trend

I've kind of wondered about that, hal. Two of my notifications came between 12-1 AM (both same time zones as me). I've never understood that!

I have never heard of a kiffle either. But I did just find a recipe, and they look easy to make! Darn you guys, ruining my dieting!

Congrats @haltheincandescent!!!!

It is a well-known drinking game in our department: everyone drinks when someone finds an answer which is obviously wrong. For instance, one report that I came across a few semesters ago said that the mass of a bowling ball is about 10^50 kilograms. For reference... this, times 100, is the mass of the observable universe as estimated by NASA. It is also the mass of 1,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000 textbooks.

Somehow I hope that the stars align and some of us are paired together as roommates for some visiting weekend or something. How great would that be

Yikes! I'm also grading. I have 50 students in this section, and the professor's name (Zich) has been misspelled 9 different times so far. NINE!