Virtual Visit of the 2012 Washington DC Cherry Blossoms

I've been keeping an eye on the Cherry Blossoms in DC and noticed that photographer David Coleman has a live blog of the trees with this year's blossoms. Check out his website: Have Camera Will Travel - Washington DC Cherry Blossoms

Flight Report: To Sweden for My Graduation

I officially graduated from KTH in October. The degree is in my hands and unless I end up coming back for a conference or some other reason, I have done everything that I need to do at KTH. My main interaction with my school from here on out will be to look up towards the campus when I switch to Roslagsbanan, the suburban train that serves Northeastern Stockholm. Before that, though, I have my graduation. In some ways, this is a bittersweet graduation. The policies at KTH are such that in order to attend the graduation ceremony in June, you have to have your degree issued by the end of April. For “normal” students, their defense would be in May and for those that defend in early summer, they are invited to the event in December.

The event itself is worth attending: It’s in the Blue Hall of Stockholm City Hall, which is a fantastic building and where the Nobel dinners are held every year. Despite its name, the hall itself is actually red from the bricks used. The story is that the architect originally planned to paint the hall with blue paint, but changed his mind on seeing the space. It is beautiful and it’s also open to the public, if you visit Stockholm. The Stockholm City Hall tour will take you through all the spaces and are offered in a variety of languages. That said, there is something disappointing about being asked to wait six months to celebrate an accomplishment and knowing that I wouldn’t be able to attend the celebration in the summer was part of the reason that I decided to expand my thesis and defend in September. No one celebrates something six months stale. It’s not even appropriate for a belated card. At that point, you might was well resign yourself to congratulating the person for their next accomplishment on time and feign ignorance. Basically, who has ever heard of a super bowl party in August? Or who has actually, seriously, celebrated Christmas in July?

After the break, three flight reports, some pictures of the in-flight meal, and some comments on suburban roads, plus pictures from the whole trip, including another shot of Mount Rainier.