Helen just got back from Europe. She liked Zürich the best too. She even stayed in the same hotel. How odd. The thing I remember most about Zürich is the water. Looking down from a bridge into the river, you could see clear to the bottom. It was absolutely crystal clear. The only hint that there was, in fact, a river was that you could see all the fish swimming around.

Speaking of water, on the way back from breakfast Helen and I got stuck in the weirdest monsoon. Came out of nowhere; huge drops that soaked us instantly. Proper Boston weather. Weather.com was kind enough to warn me of "drizzle."

It seems very unlikely that there will be any posts to this for the next 25 days or so. I'll be back after my exam; and I'll either be astoundingly happy and amazed with myself or very depressed. Prepare yourself for some extreme emotional content one way or the other.

Oh, happy day. The mousercam lives.

Yes, I sucessfully moved back into Hyppolite (now V2.0) with the help of about 11 other people. It was a big pain in the ass, but went without a hitch. Everything in the new place is amazing! New floors, walls, ceilings, appliances, etc. The only downside is that they lowered my high ceiling and now my loft is a mere two feet from the ceiling.

things happening in my life:
1) i still can't move in to my apartment and have no place to live.
2) the obsession de jour is PIC-based digital circuits.
3) studying for my qualifying exams is moving along slowly but steadily; prognosis: i might pass if i'm lucky.

ok, major lag here in the old journal. sorry about that. the last ten days have been some of the wildest and most exciting of my life.

unfortunately for you, the reader, i'm not going to tell you what happened except perhaps a cursory overview.

i spent the July 27th - 31st in Vegas at DefCon 8, and then the 31st - August 4th in Minneapolis exploring with the local urban spelunkers.

I met some fascinating people for the first time, I saw some wild things I've never seen before, and I had a helluva good time. If you want to hear more about it, ask. There's simply too much to write about here.

In some ways, that's great. I love that the last 10 days have been so full of interesting events that the journal I kept on my laptop is just obscenely huge. On the other hand, the fact that I won't talk about some of my best days here in this journal sort of makes this journal pseudo-worthless.

So here's my rationalization: The events of the last 10 days were so extraordinary that I want to tell you in person because without the body language and voice inflection, I can't convey the story as it should be told. Words alone can't describe it.

Anyway, here's the current situation that I'm left in:

They said my apartment would be rennovated by Friday which is why I moved back then. But it was not done, and I can't move in. The interrum apartment that Evan and Tong are in doesn't have room for me. So, I'm spending my days wandering around and my nights crashing with friends.

And inbetween, I'm studying like mad for my exams. One month, two days remaining...