An Epic Ballade of Texas

My my, spring has sprung, and what a wonderful thing it is! Coming from a land where the climate is beautiful year-round, it is particularly surprising, and enjoyable, to watch spring unfold. It is nice to finally have green grass instead of brown; leaves and flowers instead of bare branches; the activity of birds, rabbits and squirrels instead of the hibernation of both man and beast; and most importantly, the ability to wear sandals and a t-shirt instead of boots and four layers of clothing. It is nice to be able to drive places and not be afraid of a potential snowstorm making the road impassable. It is nice to be free of the salt and sand (used for snow control) that would get all over your car and get stuck inside your shoe. It is also nice to be able to walk around outside without being afraid that your fingers may suddenly go numb, then freeze solid, and then fall off without you even noticing. It is also nice that the fountains here on campus are finally back in acti...

This is a special, four-day-early edition of the Ballade, consisting of A Special Message. Now it is ironic that I planned on posting about the Lawrence music scene this weekend, because that regularly-scheduled post is being postponed by an update on my own personal music interests: On The Radio One of my all-time goals has been to have a song of mine played on FM radio, and just last week I accomplished this goal at the ripe young age of 23 (although it was sort of cheating). I have been listening to the radio program called ‘Whadyaknow?’, distributed by NPR, and a month ago they started their own version of American Idol. It is a fairly oddball kind of radio show, so I submitted a fairly oddball song of mine. Then about a week later, I was informed by someone at church that my song had been played on the show! Score! Now the reason that this post is early is because you all have a small window of opportunity to listen to my song, vote for it via email, and who knows,...

Today is an appropriate day to post about my graduate school classes, as I am just about to start my third and final lab rotation. My current lab, in which I deal with microscopic worms, has made such an impression on me that the worms have made appearances in my dreams, wriggling around on their Petri dishes. However, this post is not about my lab, but about my classes. Overall, my classes have been very good. The subjects are interesting, the material is demanding, and the teachers (with one or two exceptions) are solid. The first semester I took three classes plus a seminar, and this semester I have two classes plus seminar. Our seminar is basically a weekly meeting where all the students and faculty consume free cookies and coffee while listening to a guest lecture. The above picture is Haworth Hall, where all of my classes are held. The building is fairly unspectacular architecturally speaking, but one nice feature that you can see on the left is a glass walkway tha...