New member

My title serves two purposes, once is to acknowledge that I am finally posting something on this blog, so I am a new member, but also (and perhaps more important) to let everybody who does still do not know that Cristina and Me are expecting a new member of our family. As you might guess we are very excited about Him/Her and we will keep you posted as events progress and we know more about our new member.

Some news from Rochester

Hey everyone,

I won the second prize in a local writing contest here in Rochester. The picture above is from the award ceremony and shows me posing with other winners; clearly, the first prize didn't go to the tallest person :) I've posted the details of the contest and my submission on my blog here. I thought I'd share this with all of you; needless to say, there's no pressure on anyone to read this :) But do scroll down the post, you'll see that our very own Yang Kuei Lin has left a comment :)

Defense Done!

Just wanted to put up a quick post to let everyone know that I successfully managed to pass my defense today. I was pretty nervous just before the talk, but once I got going, I calmed down and everything went well. I also felt lucky to have a lot of friendly faces there in the audience; Thong and Pam took the morning off work to come, several of my friends from undergrad came, and my parents were there too. :) The final verdict was pass with minor revisions, so I'll finish those up during the next several months and finish up in August. Anyway, just wanted to give the update and say thanks for all the well wishes; next up for defending is Baris, Detlef, or Menkes! :)