Its been awhile blog, hopefully the last long absence for awhile. I’ve been super busy (haha yeah right) wrapping up the first few chapters of my thesis and working. Its been prettyh awesome with work so far, super flexible. Also, instead of shooting all the way to the north side everyday, we are moving to south central, which will be way better and more efficient for me.

Picked up a Blackberry Playbook a few weeks ago for an awesome price and its complimented my 9900 very well. Its unfortunate that it hasn’t been as adopted as hoped, because its been perfect for my morning commute. To make it even better, I picked up the Apple wireless keyboard to make the office suite on the tablet way more useful. I managed to crank out my abstract last Friday out on it. Super light and full sized, its perfect for mobility. I just need the case for it. The university campus computer store special ordered the Incase origami workstation for me, for almost half the asking price at the Apple store. I couldn’t even find it cheaper on eBay. Win! The case protects the keyboard and also unfolds to hold a tablet in an angled position for typing. Its a good combo with the leather journal OEM case for the Playbook. I didn’t like the convertible stand because it felt cheap, and I wanted a case that kept the Playbook in at all times, so even though the journal case doesn’t convert to a stand, the origami workstation will work well. So far I’m really liking the tablet and find it a genuinely useful tool in my everyday use.

I can’t say the same about the iPad 2. W has the black 64 GB 3G version(balling!) and although its super fun for games (the disparity between the Apple App Store and Blackberry App World is really terrible), I find it far too large to handle in my everyday use. I usually find myself putting it on a table to use the stand because holding it becomes really tedious. I also find that the iPad is too big to use on my commute, as it feels quite attention grabbing with its size. This is particularly concerning with my work going across downtown and the northside, so I’d rather be less conspicuous with my gadgets on the go. I do like the iPad, but its just not for me.

Its been really good so far with school, I’ve enjoyed my work on my research and its tied in well with the work I do at the hospital right now. I’m largely concerned with program evaluation in both work and school, so I feel quite privileged to be able to spend time making side cash in an area that will tie in with my CV well. I guess part of me is kind of choked that I didn’t apply for the doctoral program for this year, as it does kind of feel that I’m an outsider now to the cohort that I have identified with so much the past two years. Fortunately I’m keeping busy with this work, so its not so bad. When I start my application next week I think I will be a little more relieved. I think this is the last major thing I wanted to achieve from school and I’m really hoping to make it in this year.

I’ve been hitting the gym really hard lately and have largely moved away from the running phase I had in the summer. With fat to burn and progress to make, its been exciting again to push weights, compared to the plateau I was ate for the last two years. So kind of a silver lining in my fat gain over the past year. I have also cut out sugar and cream in my coffee and just use skim milk. It tastes awful, but I’m getting used to it and I can see the fat being shaved off.

I’m also picking up a car in a few weeks! I’m really excited about this. Hopefully it will go smooth and I will be having a new set of wheels real soon. I’ve never been this excited about a product before that wasn’t an electronic device. Woo!