big green academia

2006-08-12T08:31:00.000-07:00

As much as has been going on lately, I just haven't been motivated to write about it, here or elsewhere. I think its safe to say that big green academia will be on hiatus.

girlfriend is good. house is good. research is going. My parents just moved for the first time since before I was born. We're having a bbq next week. I still need to do a lot to prep for it, but it should be ok.

I guess thats really the thing. I could write more right now, but I'm gonna go back to bed, where my girlfriend is.

PS

2006-07-12T22:33:00.000-07:00

I did my job last week. After hours of head-to-the-grindstone work, I had some ideas on the prof on the research problem we're working on.

The best-formed idea was another way to phrase the problem that the advisor hadn't seen. Unfortunately, this shows how far we have to go to solve the general problem, and in all likelihood, we won't be working on this one much longer -- it looks like its not going to go anywhere soon.

Its raining hard in the Upper Valley. I still love listening to the rain fall. Every day starts anew.

2006-07-12T22:26:00.000-07:00

I haven't written in my journal in forever, and I haven't posted here much either. It's strange that the desire to write and the things worth writing about often don't coincide. One of the big things writing-wise, I guess, is that my free-time is so limited.

I don't mean that work is super huge. Tomorrow will mark the fifth day in a row I've worked out in some way. Sunday, Tuesday, and Thursday are hockey. Today I played squash for an hour with Danny. (He discovered eight moons. seriously.) Monday I biked to and from school. Aside from work and working out, I split my time between my house and my girlfriend.

So yeah, things are going pretty well, all in all. If I had an underling that could write well, maybe this would all be written down.

I vote for the phloggable brody. good job.

research summer

2006-06-26T17:48:00.000-07:00

This summer marks my transition from class-taking student to research-conducting scholar. I didn't anticipate an easy transition, and so far, I've been correct. The advisor is cracking the whip, and despite my efforts, I'm not pulling the expected weight right now. Its frustrating -- the paper I'm digesting is a tough read. The answers aren't really jumping out.

Wednesday is another pseudo-deadline. I fell asleep reading the paper this afternoon -- I just couldn't slog it through. Tonight, I'll read another house or so, and tomorrow I start through again.

read wash rinse repeat.

2006-06-24T20:53:00.000-07:00

Blogging hasn't been a very high priority lately.
I returned from vacation. Anne's mom bought oceanfront property in Nova Scotia. Ridiculously gorgeous.

The house is going. I put up the bed today. The neighbors are giving me looks because the lawn hasn't been mowed in a month, but I can't get the lawn mower from Home Depot because it won't fit in the ar, and I don't have insurance to rent a truck. HD will deliver said mower, but it costs an extra sixty bucks. Hopefully tomorrow, Sean will come with his truck.

Research. This is the big transition.

2006-05-29T07:08:00.000-07:00

The house closes in two days!
I've got plenty of finals to work on and packing to do, so instead of a real post, I give you:

RIP Paul Gleason.

Black Friday

2006-05-18T18:47:00.000-07:00

Last Tuesday, the CS department held the annual Black Friday. Its where all the professors get together and talk about each PhD student one by one. Often, the result is a stern warning to students to shape up and get cracking on their theses. Potentially, the department can kick students out of the program after a Black Friday session. (yes, this year, Black Friday was on a Tuesday. The name's stuck, and anyway, Black Tuesday just doesn't sound as ominous.)

During our weekly meeting, my advisor and I discussed results, and it was about what I expected. I won't go too much into detail since this can be bloggable, but things are mostly good. I need to concentrate on research, but we knew that. He also suggested I take the RPE (read: qualifying exam) this coming fall. Students typically take it sometime in their third year, so I'd be a year early. There's no reason not to get it out of the way though, as long as I can pass it. So maybe.

Haviland score: still 3!

A&E were up, and we had a grand old time. Their Sunday drive took 18 hours. yikes! I had a round of beers waiting for them, just in case they wanted to wind down. They came with a cooler of Yuengling. Great minds think alike.

2006-05-14T11:14:00.000-07:00

Count my Haviland score back up to three, I think. I was a little reluctant to say so after last time's record nine day stay, but things seem really pretty good up here in Hanover. Yes, star, you were right.

Mala and I went furniture shopping yesterday. I grossly, grossly, underestimated how much even used furniture costs in New England. Yikes! it is expensive. Add that onto the other costs for a 4br house. I'm going to pretend its just part of the offering price and go from there.

I hope Mala is ok with the normal matress instead of the tempurpedic one she fell in love with. I just want this house to be perfect, and I want to do it up right. Its the first house, after all.

You all should come up and see it in July, after we've had a month to make it look good.

A&E arrive from Bloomington sometime tonight. Current ETA is midnight, which gives me plenty of time to do work. As long as I stop procrastinating.

pictures of my new house

2006-04-26T14:08:00.000-07:00

http://www.flickr.com/photos/14317449@N00/sets/72057594116356785/

2 news flashes

2006-04-17T14:10:00.000-07:00

(1) I went through the house inspection today. There were minor things that need fixing, but structurally the house is in good condition. In general, the owner has kept things pretty ship-shape. That happens when your grandfather built the house and you've lived in it your whole life.

I need to see the final report, but things seem ok. The things that need fixing are, like I said, minor, and every house has them, or so I've been told. Its a little scary to hear how expensive the minor things are, but it is a house. Nothing is going to cost twenty bucks to fix.

(2) My advisor emailed today and told me I have funding for the summer. woo hoo! This means a gravy train of funded research. In computer science, it seems, the only difference between getting research grants and teaching grants is that with the teaching grant, you have to teach. Either way, you still need to do research. So this summer, I'll be doing only research, which is what I really want to do right now. chalk one up for the home team!

grown up stuff

2006-04-10T08:31:00.000-07:00

Even as an adult, my parents (and my friends' parents etc.) always seemed so comparatively grown up. I always wondered how you get to the position where you're comfortable raising kids and handling a house and have this job you'll have "forever". Even in my later twenties, in many ways, I didn't feel grown up.

Last Thursday, I made an offer on a house, and it was accepted. I think this is one of those big changes that qualifies as "grown up". Pretty soon, I'll have a mortgage, and tenants and a yard to take care of. (The short skinny on the house: 4br, 2 bath, 2 kitchen, 2 fireplace. The backyard is adjacent to conservation land, so I get woods+trails for free)

Anyway, I played squash for the first time this morning. Right before Danny and I left for the gym, I had to call and postpone the meeting with the mortgage people until tomorrow. Danny said he thought he'd be forty before he talked with his mortgage broker right before playing squash. He brought up a good point.

Last thing: this week is all pretty much staked out already, timewise. Which is good and bad. As long as the research doesn't suffer for it, it'll be ok. I have 2 birthday dinners to go to, which didn't happen nearer to my birthday because there was no time. Grad school. I'm thankful that I have the friends for 2 birthday dinners.

2006-04-04T19:50:00.000-07:00

Tuesdays are going to be gruelling. I start class at 10AM and finish my lab hours at 10:30PM.
I should finish writing this paper tonight, but I'm >6 hours from that, so its probably just not going to get done today.

There's always tomorrow.

2006-04-03T19:42:00.000-07:00

Today is the first day that really felt like things were getting back to normal. Classes, study, work, running, back to work.

The prospective students seemed to have enjoyed the experience. So far from what I've heard, we've scored two acceptances, and one probable. I haven't heard about the others. It seems a little weird, but this is kind of a big step. Last year, I couldn't imagine being comfortable as a PhD student. Stressed maybe, just trying to stay above water, yes, but comfortable, no. Now, I really feel like I belong here. Hosting the prospects gave me an opportunity to reflect on that and realize how far I've come in the past 12 months.

Hal took me around to look at houses on Saturday. The first one is a definite no. The second was probably no as well. I could take either of the other two, but I really, really liked the third one. More news on this later.

2006-03-28T20:53:00.000-08:00

Today marks the first day of class in the spring term. I'm taking Programming Languages and Theory of Computation, which are both required. 2 old-timers are teaching PL. One was the project manager for the AT&T research group that crated UNIX. He invented UNIX pipes, and the first C program he invented was "echo". The other guy, well, he seems like he was a pretty good programmer back in the day too.

I'm cautiosly optimistic. The possible con with learning from people who have been in the business for fifty years is that, well, they're stuck in the past. These profs seem with it though. Here's to hoping it'll be a good class.

Work with the advisor went well today.

And I signed a buyer agreement with a real estate agent today. We look at houses Saturday, and hopefully I'll find my house by the end of the month.

This weekend is so full, and its not really with school. There's perspective students, taxes, ugh.

2006-03-27T21:12:00.000-08:00

I was about to go to bed cranky and stressed by day 1 of the new term, but as I checked email "one last time" I saw I received a note from the Gomez-Mira. I'll only go to bed a little cranky now.

2006-03-27T05:56:00.000-08:00

Springtime brings the sun early in Hanover.
Despite the shut blinds, I awoke wide awake at 6:30 to a bright sun-shiney day.
I planned on waking up at nine, so with the few extra hours, I stayed in bed and finished off the Hobbit and listened to the trucks go by.

When I was little, I would wake up early some Saturday mornings. With no school to go to, I had time to lie in bed and listen to the trucks drive along Rt. 100.

As an adult, there often isn't time to listen. Or maybe its just too easy to not make time.

Jason leaves today. The term starts in earnest tomorrow. Two and a half months of the grind again.

2006-03-22T08:58:00.000-08:00

I've had stuff to post about, but just plain no desire to post. The past month or so, I've had my crankypants on more than I'd like. Its tough getting out of Hanover sometimes. All the same, crankypants aren't doing me any good, so, with luck, I can chuck them by my birthday.

The Shamrock Biathalon was last week and a pretty good time. I ran 25:07 in my first 5K, which was much better than my 28:00 goal time. So I got that going for me, which is nice. I can totally see how people get addicted to racing. I try to run roughly 5K 3x a week already, so it wasn't a super huge physical challenge. Its fun to pit yourself against yourself and try to do as well as you can.

The second event was a 13 stop pub crawl throughout Hanover. Dennis and I were the only ones who finished the whole crawl -- Many people stopped everywhere, but we were the only two who got served at the Canoe Club. I guess one or two people we crawled with were pretty drunk by the end. All in all though, a pretty good time. We should do it next year, so if you're in the area (har har) stop by.

2006-03-09T12:59:00.000-08:00

Blog posting certainly seems to have died down. Maybe everyone is done with the idea of blogging? I too haven't been posting as much.

The winter term is almost over at Dartmouth, and all in all, it was easier than my first term here. I have and advisor, and things are generally going good. I am unfortunately back down to a Haviland score of 2, but it was nice two week visit to the land of three.

I'm not sure what else to write. I haven't left the Upper Valley in over a month, and I sure need it. My crankypants have been on for quite some time, and I think a change of scenery and a good time back home with friends would take the edge off. But people have day jobs and work weeks, and all my weekends are committed to Hanover activities. I'm not sure what I'm going to do.

end of term

2006-03-02T13:58:00.000-08:00

Blink and you miss it.
I woke up this morning and realized that there's a week of school left before the end of term. My last assignment for the IT class came through today; there's 1 or 2 more for OS, plus the final.

So yeah, this term's gone by pretty quickly. Chalk it up to settling in. In the past 3 months,
I got an advisor, a tight group of friends, and a handle on work/life here in Hanover. Graduate school at Dartmouth is really pretty good. There's a ton of cool people here (yes, even in the computer science department) and Hanover is beautiful. Sure there's not as much to do as there was in the East Village, but who has time anyway?

2 terms over. Its hard to believe. I'm still at the stage where day-by-day things time passes very
slowly here, but occasionally I look up and it hits me how much time has passed. It reminds me of six months into the Peace Corps service. It seems like forever, but it won't be so long before I'll finish my time here too.

Will any of you new yorkers be in town and ready for visitors in mid-march? I'm thinking of coming down, but it unfortunately must be during the week.

Joshua

2006-02-14T22:19:00.000-08:00

Its a little after 1AM, and I'm getting ready to leave Sudikoff for home.

Revelator is on. As much as I hear it, "I dream a Highway" makes me pensive every time.

Sometimes, grad school is two steps forward, one step back. Today is one of those days, but I know its forward more than backward.

2006-02-12T22:46:00.000-08:00

This post is more for me and my nyc friends. There are two things. One is that my Haviland score is now 3. Three! For the first time in like forever.

The second is the blizzard. All week long I've been waiting for this big storm that's a-coming, and here in wintery Hanover, we got < 2 inches. After such a buildup of how bad New Hampshire winters are, I feel almost ripped off that we missed all the snow.

I know in a few days, the snow in Manhattan will turn grey and slushy and yucky. But enjoy it while you can, and think of how beautiful it is now, and this morning when it was falling. Despite all the grime, I miss snowfalls in New York. and I miss all of you.

2006-02-12T14:29:00.000-08:00

I went to Rosie's to grade homework and sip coffee. As I sat, snow lazily fell, dusting the cobblestones outside. Boston and New York got hit pretty hard, but for Hanover, we got painted with a soft flurry.

If I had just a little bit less to do, I would spend every Sunday there. It was really just a perfect Sunday.

Tonight the hockey team plays its first playoff game. I expect us to lose, but want to win. I'm going to get there early to make sure my skates are laced on correctly and tightly, and that I'm ready to go, mentally and physically.

Have a good day. I am.

2006-02-09T09:50:00.000-08:00

My last post seems to be missing, and it was a seriously good post.
I had a my first Real Problem in grad school and asked for advice.

Today I'm not posting with a problem, just posting. I feel generally craptacular today, but not too crappy to not be at school doing work. I don't think its anything but exhaustion from working at school all the time. Grad School can kick your ass sometimes.

So instead of making big plans for going out this weekend, my Big Plans are to stay in and do almost nothing. Sure, my Fulbright application isn't writing itself, and next week's homework came out already. I'm not sure where that last sentence was going. Who am I kidding? I'll do work every day this weekend. Lets call Friday a half day and shoot for <= 8 hours of doing stuff on Saturday. Put those together, and it means two good nights of sleep PLUS doing laundry and cooking and other stuff normal people get to do.

I should be able to manage all this, plus hockey, plus somewhat of a social life. Time-wise though, there's not much room for error.

Oh! I almost forgot! This coming break (last 2 weeks in march) I'm organizing a biathalon! We start March 18th at noon with the Shamrock Shuffle in Lebanon, which will be my first 5k race ever. Everyone has to start somewhere. But Scout and I and others are going to kick it up a notch -- immediately after, were going back to Hanover for the Hanover Pub Crawl. There's 13 places to get served in Hanover. If you start at noon, thats one drink per hour. Of course, the Shamrock Biathalon will make it harder, but thats what challenges are about. right?

weekday snow

2006-01-23T18:38:00.000-08:00

The weekend saw my first visitor to Hanover. I expect the visiting situation in Hanover to be opposite to what it was in the Peace Corps. Then, I lived in a truck stop town. You could (comparatively) get everything in my village. Plus, there were tons of volunteers who had to go through my village to get from the capital city to/from their villages. Hanover is "off the beaten path" You really need to make an effort to get here, and here has to be the final destination.

I expect my true popularity lies somewhere between the Yako and Hanover situations. Nevertheless, I'll be happy whenever visitors come, and Dennis came up from Boston. I showed him around, but he was hungry, and there were communication issues so he got here a little late. He didn't see much of the Hanover nightlife and left the next afternoon, missing Scout's party.

Between Dennis, Scout's party, and finishing the keg from Scout's party, I drank 3 nights in a row for the first time at Dartmouth. I don't plan on repeating the streak. Drinking is nice and all, but it gets in the way of graduate school.

I find myself somewhat behind today, but made good progress, so hopefully, wednesday will be clear.

After a week of snow melting, snow fell again, in large snowflakes all day long. Snow brings coldness with it, but beauty too, and I'll take the good with the bad.

2006-01-22T12:20:00.000-08:00

The sun shines brightly on Hanover today. Really. I woke up to one of those super bright sun shiny days where time seems to stop and you just have to spend the afternoon doing nothing but sipping coffee and enjoying yourself. So I did.

Yesterday Scout had her birthday party which was fun as you'd expect. I talked with my office-mate for more than I ever talk to her at school, since she's never there. We cross paths exactly as I expect most grad students cross paths -- rarely and happily. Its good to see her, but otherwise we both enjoy doing our own things.

After a serious series of miscommunication between the two of us, Dennis "look at" Haraszko rented a car and drove up from Harvard to become Official Visitor #1. We scrambled for late night food, which is no mean feat in Hanover. We could find only food but no drinks or vice versa. Food won out, and drinks followed. Its good to have visitors. There wasn't much action in Hanover last Friday, and I hope that didn't convince him to make the visit a one time occurance.

I could/should be doing more work right now, but really. Its too good of an afternoon to do anything but relax.