My personal quest of gathering as much information as possible on the requirements to enroll into a PhD program at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill continued last Friday. I was up and early for my appointments at the Department of Computer Science considering I went to sleep really late the previous night. It was my sister’s birthday so I took her out to the movies and a late dinner.

Arrived here in North Carolina last night at the Raleigh-Durham airport. My younger sister was waiting for me and as soon as we picked up my luggage we headed to her apartment in Chapel Hill. Woke up early today and went to my first (and only) meeting with the chair of the School of Information and Library Science at UNC. My sister had set up the meeting for me and I must admit I wasn’t too sure if I wanted to spend the time to talk to someone from a department that had the word “library” in it.

The day I fly to North Carolina has finally arrived. I’m extremelly excited about this trip for it could be the kick in ass I need to get back on track with my goals. I’ll be staying at my younger sister’s apartment which I believe is near the UNC's Chapel Hill campus. She's already scheduled 4 interviews with the chairs of 4 different departments and I have just emailed her to try to get me 2 more.

This Wednesday I embark on what may be the most important trip of my life: I’ll be visiting and interviewing with the chairs of several different departments at the North Carolina Univertsity with the objective of gathering information for my possible come back to the academic world. It’s been almost 8 years since I graduated from Pace University and my plans of earning a PhD/MD diploma have taken a major detour.

My daughter’s daycare was closed today due to the weather. Eventhough there’s less than 2 inches of snow on the ground they decided that it was safer not to open today. I think they just used a very lame excuse to have a day off and since they get paid no matter what, it doesn’t hurt them in the pocket. So today I brought my daughter to work with me for the first time.

Matt Frondorf has just completed his journey from NYC to San Francisco, taking a picture of the surroundings at every single mile along the way!!! What a great way of sampling the vast differences of our great nation! The web site is pretty cool as well.

Every Wednesday night has been “Enemy Territory Night” for Vinny and I for quite some time now. I’m a confessed E.T. addict and have been known for taking just any free second I can squeeze out of my tight daily agenda just so I can play a little bit. Tonight is the only time during the week when I can forego my house chores so I can solely concentrate on the game.

Today was my first day back to work since last Wednesday when I flew to Boston to attend Linux World Expo. It started out just like any other day: woke up early, drove daughter to daycare, crawled through traffic on the FDR Drive, parked across the street and coughed up the $11 daily rate, signed in at 8:25am, walked into my cubicle, said hello to my co-worker… Only there was no reply… there was nobody sitting there… in fact, the space previously taken by my Russian friend was empty!

Because through out history, men have worn un-bifurcated garments. Because if women had an appendage hanging between their legs we guarantee you they wouldn’t be wearing pants. Freedom, and increased mobility. You only go around once, so why shouldn’t you be as comfortable as possible. All men deserve air conditioning in the summer. You will chafe no more. No more adjust, right side, left side! Say goodbye to wedgies. A word about the pockets: Unlike pants, the Utilikilt’s pockets are only sewn down on top, so that they move with the garment but not with your leg.

This last Friday was the second day of my trip to Boston. The agenda was very simple and yet had all the ingredients to an unforgetable day. Having swapped a few emails with Miguel De Icaza where I convinced him to meet me and give me a tour of Ximian’s office in Cambridge, we had finally settled I’d meet him during his lunch break. My friend Vinny and I left his house around 11am figuring it would take us about 30-40 minutes to get there but we were not counting on getting lost on the way.