This is how all academic advisors should respond to their students' despair.

Me: "So I got rejected from the University of Chicago."
Dr. Chen: (dismissive hand-waving gesture) "That's ok."

I've recently fallen hopelessly in love with Ignacy Jan Paderewski's Piano Concerto in A minor. The second movement, especially. It is *gorgeous.* I can't even count how many times I've listened to the majestic grandioso section of the 2nd movement. Sometimes I wonder what Piers Lane looked like as he played that part. Probably like a king.

Well, it's been fun, University of Chicago :-(

No dice for me. The first letter I got back being a rejection letter does sting a bit. Oh well. Four more chances!

Thomas Paine was the greatest American writer in history.

He has no equal. Not even close. I'm writing a paper about him for my Western Civilization class, and the most difficult part about writing about Thomas Paine is that I can't decide which parts *NOT* to quote. Virtually every sentence from every book he ever published is rich with vigor and purpose and force, and I'm afraid if I don't just flip a coin for every sentence of his that I read, it will become a 500 page paper.

More thesis-ing

I'm on page 53 of my honors thesis. It's funny - I wrote about 40 pages of it last summer because last summer I thought, "This crap is really complicated. If I don't spell it all out right now while I'm actually doing it, I'm going to forget it completely." That was one of the best decisions I've ever made. So now I'm putting the finishing touches on it (13 pages of finishing touches, apparently), and then I'm done with this sucker. And not a moment too soon! I started writing it last July, which makes this Month #8. I sent a chapter of it to Dr. Chen, who said it was "okay." I was thrilled. That's the highest praise I think I've ever gotten from him about anything!

I want to be Polish.

A list of great Poles:

Artur Rubinstein
Fryderyk Chopin
Moritz Moszkowski
Ignacy Jan Paderewski

Yup. I'm moving to Poland. And I'm going to get a tattoo on my back that says "nie dam sie," which is Polish for "never give up." It was also Mr. Rubinstein's motto.

I'm still waiting to hear back from graduate schools. I try to look as nonchalant as humanly possible as I anxiously check my mail three times a day, but I don't know how successful my efforts are. Yesterday my physics professor asked me, in his awesomely Chinese way, "Ok, I throw you big rock. What if you get into Chicago and Florida? Where will you go?" Heck if I know.