So, I think I had a very productive break. I took multiple measures to try to curtail my "buttitis," a condition that I got from Cross Country over a year and a half ago where my upper butt, along my piriformis muscle, has a constant burning pain that occasionally flares up. I had an MRI on my pelvis and then a fluoroscopy where I received four steroid injections into my piriformis muscle. Unfortunately, I'm still pretty sore and my physical therapy doctor thinks that I may have inflammation in the sacro-iliac joint, which may be triggering the piriformis muscle right next door. This ordeal will never end ...
I watched many movies over the break, as I'm sure you can tell with this sudden influx of write-ups on my blog. Some of them were watched on my brother's new PS3, which is actually a pretty nice machine. It runs quietly, keeps relatively cool, and responds quickly. Its catalogue of games is probably its weakest point: The XBox has most of the games on the PS3 in addition to its awesome exclusive games while some of the early PS3 games like Call of Duty only output at 720p instead of 1080i for some reason.
Still, the games were a blast and looked and sounded very nice. I like how the machine has a built-in blu-ray player and I have to say that blu-ray discs look very nice, though I wouldn't say it's an enormous step up over DVD. The blacks look deeper and more detailed, the colors more true, there's more detail, and there are hardly any annoying compression artifacts as seen on DVD. Unfortunately, our 42-inch plasma is kind of small to allow us to really appreciate the bump in quality; the display's resolution of 1024 x 768, which is arguably not truly HD and requires scaling, probably contributes to this lack of "awe." But it's definitely a nice addition to our home.
Speaking of home ... one thing that I never appreciated until I stayed in the dorms was how silent it is. We live in a suburb tract home that borders a canyon and it's literally dead silent at night. Except for the rats that were incessantly pattering underneath my room last night as I desperately tried to fall asleep. I had a 6:50 AM flight, as per frequent flier miles, and the incessant noises certainly didn't help. It wasn't until 2:00 before I finally said "fuck it" and moved into a sleeping bag in our living room. I think I got 3 hours of sleep - which is why I'm going to bed immediately after I finish typing this!
Berkeley is an eerie place without its students. The streets are empty, the once bustling businesses now largely vacant, the libraries and dining commons completely shut down, and the reliably noisy dorm courtyard as silent as my family's house. Unfortunately, I don't really have much to do here until monday when classes start. My few friends who are here are busy this week. The libraries aren't open so I can't start my research project. The mail room doesn't open until monday and, according to my roomate who stayed in the dorms over spring break, our building hasn't had any hot water since tuesday. Wonderful.
I have new goals, my "new years' resolution" so to speak, for the rest of the semester that I'll try to briefly outline before I fall asleep at the keyboard. One, I want to go to the gym three times a week. Two, I should really talk to professors and GSI's during their office hours. Three, I really want to start taking pictures every day and find a good method of organizing, processing, and distributing my pictures.
That about rounds it off. Off to bed I go!
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