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.

2006-01-17T20:44:00.000-08:00

I just finished OS homework #1. I spent soooooo much time on it that Anne and Scout were both worried about me burning out already. OS is outsize my area of expertise, so the class is going to be challenging.

Maybe I could've asked for help. Yes, it took yours truly more time than probably most of the class. And maybe I'll burn out on OS.

The point isn't that I didn't take help. Its that I had friends that were good enough to notice the stress and be concerned.

be careful what you wish for

2006-01-15T10:28:00.000-08:00

Yesterday started with a hard rain. The hockey game was good, but the women of Dartmouth only ended up tying UConn 1-1. They've been to the Frozen Four for the past three years, so this year's 3-5-2 start is disappointing. Still, when you send five players to the Olympics, your collegiate hockey team will suffer.

The rain pretty much stopped by the time we exited, to be replaced by an eerie mist. It was like Hanover was a painting, and someone had spilled a bucket of grey over it. (no one said I had good metaphors). I like the rain though, so it was nice to take in. I went to the Co-op for some food and saw sandra. We walked home together and talked about the weather and about art. Not to bad for a Saturday afternoon.

Saturday night the kids came over after studying, and we watched arrested development on dvds. When you don't have enough time to drink or options for carousing, this passes as an ok saturday night. I've said it before, but its good to be really tight with some new friends.

The rain turned to snow and a howling wind by the time I got to bed. I woke up to a freshly whitened ground and a bitter cold. The January Thaw seems over. This is the coldness I've heard about.

After not hearing from my office-mate, I moved some furniture around. She's gathered 5 years of PhD student stuff in the office, and I imagine she's going to be none to happy that its all back on her half of the office, but whatever. Hopefully this will not become some petty battle where we never see eachother, but still do little things to annoy. I really like her actually, except for the personal space stuff.

On the Haviland scale, I remain at 2 out of 3, which is really the best you can hope for. until you have all three.

Listening:
I sit at my table
and wage war on myself
It seems like its all,
its all for nothing.

2006-01-13T08:52:00.000-08:00

What a grey, dreary, craptacular morning.

I woke up to grey skies and the January thaw.
Scout says it happens every year, just in time for the bees to survive -- otherwise, its too cold for them to awaken from hibernation enough to clear out the hive, and they'd suffocate in the long winter. Whatever the reason, its destroying any romantic notion I had of New England winters and snow piled on the ground until March. The snow is melting, and we're left with only the dirty grey sludge that makes everyone in New York hate winter so.

The grind of school started this week, and I woke up to nothing much to look forward to this weekend, which makes me cranky Or maybe, I'm just plain cranky for no particular reason. Things will change, and I'll get through this mood. It surprised me and came all of a sudden.

My keyboard is choosing to only accept 70% of the keys I type. You'd think that would make me type 30% slower, but it's more like 80%. Time to get a new keyboard.

You should call me this weekend. That would make me happy.

sundays

2006-01-08T11:25:00.000-08:00

I'm in the Security Lab studying on a Sunday afternoon. It seems ok. The real pressure hasn't started yet, but every time I feel like the pressure is off, I stress a week later because I don't end up working hard enough. The beginning of this term is all about getting myself into productive academic shape.

2 of my good friends started dating after the Bling Kong show last month. Its been awkward because I knew but they didn't say anything and didn't seem to want anyone to know. Now that its out in the open, well, hopefully things will change. The awkwardness I mean. Hopefully other things won't change. They always do though, to some degree, when your friends start dating.

Sharon

2006-01-04T20:53:00.000-08:00

Ariel Sharon suffered another stroke today. As opposed to last month's minor stroke, this one is serious. Sharon is fighting for his life as we speak.

This is just really, really bad. After the Gaza pullout, and his pullout of Likud, it looked like a strong centrist party would win the upcoming election and continue making (possibly unilateral) steps toward peace. Now, everything is in doubt. Who will step in and lead Kadima? Will Netenyahu lead Likud back to victory? If Sharon dies, everything will be so unstable. I doubt any big moves towards a lasting peace can be made in this case.

I really, really wish it wasn't true, but Israel unfortunately has no partner for peace. The recent violence at the Egyptian border illustrates this. I hope Abbas wins enough support to control the violence, and I hope Israel is (more) tolerant of missteps, but the Palestinian people themselves must promote peace, law, and order if they ever want to become a true nation.

New Year's and resolutions

2006-01-03T21:29:00.000-08:00

New Year's was ok. All in all, I spent most of my break reunioning with New York, Renfaire, and Peace Corps types. It was all good, really good, but I find myself stressed a little and tired a little and ready to start the term again today.

The professor I work for this year scheduled our first meeting for 10AM the day before classes start. Tornados in Chicago delayed my second flight and made me miss the last bus to Hanover yesterday, so I arrived just in time to be 20 minutes late. The professor was not pleased. I hate making a bad first impression, but he could've scheduled our first meeting when school actually started.

Onto the resolutions. This isn't the first year I've made them, but its close. I feel pretty comfortable with mine this year. The key is that I know I'm not going to make all of them completely, but this year, I'm just not going to worry about it.

1) run 10 miles a week
2) 20 situps every morning
3) get up early and get to bed early
4) stay in touch better
5) cook more/eat better

running and staying in shape is the priority. I didn't run 10 miles a week every week last term, but by the end, 3.5 miles wasn't hard, so 3x a week is all I need. If I miss a week though, its no big deal. These resolutions are for me.

2005-12-29T13:45:00.000-08:00

Nothing much new to report. I arrived in Bloomington, IN yesterday. The drive took all day and included an immediate stop at the tire place for air and a new valve, an out-of-commission bridge on I-70, and dinner at The Forum, a Greek-themed restaurant somewhere in Ohio that also featured gaudy dirty carpets and "Cheeseburger Soup." Now you know how much I like soup and how I'll eat anything, so I took one for the team and ordered it. If you're ever at The Forum somewhere in Ohio, and the soup of the day is Cheeseburger Soup, I suggest taking a pass. It probably tastes exactly like you'd expect it too.

The rest of the Peace Corps types arrive tonight, a day early. I expect we'll drink beer and play cards for the next three days. It should be a good time, but part of me is already ready to go home. I've got a lot of work to do, and a lot of work I want to do. I'm ready for the next term.

Have a happy New Year's.

2005-12-27T14:33:00.000-08:00

I've been back home for a couple of days. Lancaster County was like it always was, in a very good way. Christmas and Channukah with the family was good -- blood gets more thicker than water every year. onlybrody and thom and jeremy and I went on a Christmas night search for an open bar and ended up stuck in a ditch. really. and none of this involves heavy drinking.

The end all message of this trip is that time passes on. Between the nyc trip when the term ended and this trip, I packed a lot of seein' people into my time off and didn't see everyone. It won't get any easier in the coming years either. I find it strange how different this year feels than in years past in this respect.

Any moment now, Andy and Elin arrive. We'll see the high school haunts-- the Bowling Palace, Victory Brewing (yes it wasn't there in high school, but there will inevitably be high school people there) and the intersection where Denny's used to be. Then its off to Bloomington for New Year's.

Happy Holidays everyone.

You can't get there from here

2005-12-21T07:43:00.000-08:00

I started researching ways to get home yesterday.
The earliest train that isn't already sold out leaves on Christmas day.
The bus company office in Hanover appears to be closed for the break.
I'd wait at the Hanover Inn for a bus, but the greyhound line comes from Montreal and should be packed to the gills already.

time to panic?

I think maybe I'll leave tomorrow to give myself an extra day to get back to Marchwood. Are any of you in Philadelphia and/or New York this week and want a Dartmouth student to visit? Can I stay overnight if I get stranded? I'll buy the first round...

Specialization

2005-12-19T14:49:00.000-08:00

At Dartmouth, some people come knowing who their advisor is and/or what area they will concentrate on. More often than not though, people come in undecided, with broad areas of interest and vague ideas of who they want to work with. I am of one of those people.

Last term, I took my two classes and TA's a third. In addition, I met with the prof once a week and signed on for ten hours a week for the pt project, which is information extraction/NLP for GM. This all adds up to another example for me signing on for more than I can manage. I got through last semester, but didn't really spend enough time on pt or the prof to be productive/learn a lot.

So, I just quit the pt project. 5 things was just too crazy. Hopefully, I can devote most of my time to the prof -- I signed up for one of his courses and will continue with the weekly meetings.

How do you decide what to specialize in? With all the time I spend on his area of expertise next term, it should give me a good idea if I love it so much I want to spent the rest of my life (for the next 4 years) on it. If not, well, I'd have one more term before the end of the year, when I really, really should have an advisor. Its such a big decision. I hope I don't fuck it up.

In unrelated notes, I finished Christmas shopping today. Yes, I know I'm Jewish, but Mom is Christian, and we celebrate Christmas in the most American, secular of ways. Plus, its just sounds more natural to say "Christmas shopping" than "Chanukah shopping" or "holiday shopping". Anyway, I spotted these pajama pants that I was going to get for my father. They said "Dartmouth" and were green and had mooses on it. It was hideous in the way pajama pants should be. You're not going on a date wearing pajama pants -- you're lounging around the house in them. In the end, I picked them off the rack, looked at them more closely, and decided he would never, ever, ever wear them, even if it was laundry day, so I got him something else.

What makes it ok for dad presents to be hideous? You don't ever think "thats ugly, it would be a good idea to get it for mom." But for dads, there are ugly ties for father's day, and moose pajama pants, and "Carnegie Mellon Dad" sweatshirts in big flowery print. The moose pants might just be me, but ugly ties for Father's Day is a tradition. Why is ugly clothes a male-centric idea?

generational gaps.

2005-12-17T17:44:00.000-08:00

Watching assloads of TV as I have been the past couple of days, I've noticed a lot of the new commercials about drugs and kids getting into trouble, etc. Most of them show parents talking with their kids, kids getting embarassed/upset, and parents holding their ground.

These commercials are clearly directed at parents. I can imagine my Ron and Suzy watching these and learning that they can care about their kids whether or not their children like it.

Maybe these commercials are good. I dunno. They're certainly not directed towards my generation. I wonder how the kids these days regard the commercials. Will they find them funny, like the "You Dad! I learned it by watching you!" commercial?

Are these commercials new? I heard there were some "If you smoke pot, you support Bin Ladin" commercials after 9-11, but not having a TV for a long time, I wouldn't know.

2005-12-17T13:02:00.000-08:00

Nothing much has been going on the past couple of days. I should finish up the CRF coding, but instead I've been sick the past couple of days. In a good way, the term is done, so I officially don't _have_ to be doing work, but in reality, this still sucks. I haven't left the house in a couple of days, and if I had any real kinds of deadlines, I'd be screwed.

I received a letter in the mail today from Vanguard about my NY State exempt fund. The trouble is, I don't have one, so either its a mistake, or someone is trying to steal my identity. super.

2005-12-15T07:28:00.000-08:00

back in Hanover, and back to work.
The train took a little over seven hours, and I was productive for part of that.
I slept well last night.

The pt project is on the top of my list now. Like working for a company after you've given your two weeks notice, I am unmotivated. On the other hand, I want to pull through and get something worthwhile done.

Another student got my name from pt and has been sending demanding emails on how I should help him. He carried the authority of a professor, but he's not, which makes him either ignorant or an ass. Either way, I will make him go away soon.

grades! I passed Artificial Intelligence and got a high pass on my teaching assistantship. Architecture gave me an AD, which means nothing -- I think he just hasn't handed in grades.

back to work,
nq

2005-12-13T15:11:00.000-08:00

Tuesday night, and my nyc stay nears its end. My Rangers tickets scorer didn't score tickets, so I find myself newly free-of-plans, which is fine-by-me. NYC has been great, but I was unsettled last night/today in a way that is best described as homesick, but isn't exactly. What it is is that I'm ready to go home.

I compensated the unsettleness and a sleepless night with a day full of TiVo and mediocre movies.

There's a lot of mini-stories and events and general goings-on to write about, but perhaps not here. Thank you star for housing me and putting up with me for a couple of days.

Tomorrow, I leave with star and nd for the city and penn station by 11:30. If the tracks to White River Junction are devoid of big blocks of ice, I will arrive at 6:30.

I still love alt.coffee.

Currently, there is a group of homeless people in the back discussing shelters and drop-ins. There is a list this <---> long for kids, which helps out the 22-year old but not the older folks. Its good to have this information passed down, one way or another.

nyc

2005-12-10T15:32:00.000-08:00

The final got done somehow. whatever. With luck, my grades will be ok, and my first term as a PhD student will be over. So much work went into the last couple of months; I'm really proud actually.

So. where I've dropped the kids off: We all went out to the Canoe Club to celebrate on Wednesday. Thursday I drank even more, and got sick for the sixth time. I thought getting sick drunk wasn't supposed to happen in your thirties. ok, I know its not supposed to happen. At least this time I was grown up about it and cleaned it all up right away.

On account of the above, I did _not_ rage yesterday. bling kong was good though, and there were tons of friends there. I was happy to see sarah niersbach and toby. and chris and anne came down from dartmouth and brought their people too. bk opened for Mr. Brownstone, the famous Guns 'n' Roses cover band. The review said they were "tighter than a 13 year old virgin" they were pretty good. The other main band was Heather, which rocked as only hard rockin' bands from 30 years ago rock. Strange and out of place, but they were really good too.

I had a jdate with m this afternoon. m is a fashion designer and (more than) a little loopy. she's really cute too, and for the life of me, I can't figure out why she picked me out among all the guys in jdateland. fashion designers dont tend to go for us cs types. but there we were at yaffa, and then the cupcake place in the LES with a short detour into the candy shop. We talked for a long time.

I'd go for another date, but more see us as friends. I'm still trying to figure out why she wanted to go on a date with me. Maybe I should just shut the fuck up and pretend Im cool.

The hot chocolate from alt.coffee is predictably good. There is a chill in the air, and jeremy and jason and kim f. should come into the city soon. these things await.

2005-12-07T00:17:00.000-08:00

Its a little after 3, and my architecture take home final is due in <7 hours. I seem to be missing a fundamental concept, and instead of getting done what I could today, I sorta iced myself over fixating on what I didn't understand.

Scout says the first year of grad school is all about passing. high passes are good, but sleep is better. All of that is better than low passes, which can get you thrown to the curb.

2005-12-01T12:04:00.000-08:00

The department announced an opening for a teaching gig this summer. Its for the first CS-for-non-majors course, and while they wanted faculty or upper level grad students, I hit up the chair for it yesterday.

I consider my chances slim. The chair mentioned something about a problem in years past, and if they let a 1st year student teach, that would be an excuse if something goes wrong this year.

It would be good to get it, both personally and professionally. Either way, it looks like I might TA this course in the winter.

I thought it couldn't hurt to ask for the position, but if I end up not teaching it, but having to be a TA for it, that would be annoying. The class isn't super interesting, but I speak English well (70% of students here are foreigners) so I might just get it. I'd rather TA discrete math for the prof.

some random thoughts

2005-11-21T08:53:00.000-08:00

A lot of general news popped up recently:

- In Israel, Ariel Sharon is quitting the Likud Party to form his own centrist party. Historically, Israel has a pretty weak democratic system -- it is very easy to force re-elections. Also, there's a bunch of parties. However, as long as I've been alive, the main power struggle has been between the Likud and Labor parties. Sharon spent most of his life as a right-wing hardliner. Now, he faces opposition from within Likud on account of the settlement pull-outs. I'm all for this change -- settlement construction and expansion has been a force against the peace process, and if a new government comes out with more support for this, then its a good thing. Here's to hoping the new party situation won't just destabilize the government.

- Camden scored highest on the "Most Dangerous Cities" list for the second year in a row. I worked in Camden for 18 months before going to Africa. I know its an American kind of poverty, but really. The city is desperately poor. Despite recent revitalization efforts, there is little in the way of "good" neighborhoods -- poverty, crime, drugs are evenly distributed throughout the city. I'm not sure how the city can be improved. The main thrust right now is tourism revitalizations along the riverfront. This might bring in extra dollars, but if it doesn't give a lot of jobs to Camden's residents, its not going to help the people that live there.

- My friend Renee currently lives in Zambia. A PCV trainee died there yesterday, a day before his classmates swore in as official Peace Corps Volunteers. man. Our group was so tight, and the training process is so intense. the volunteers must be going through such a rough time right now. I'm glad that Renee and her beau are there for them right now. She's good at listening and , well, just being there.

- Architecture is finishing up. I handed in the final homework today and did the presentation. It went ok. The first weekend back in nyc should be non-stop -- I've got so much pent-up energy. Not too many shopping days until Christmas. All that remains is the final project for AI and the final for architecture. Follow through and get it done.

- the prof gave me a theory question to work on a couple of days ago. The thing about theory -- sometimes, its all about problem solving. If you don't get the problem, there's no middle ground for progress. You don't have code, or anything written. No painting is half-done. All I have is a blank sheet of paper, a sleepless night from Saturday, and this problem which still just sits there. There's nothing much I can do except leave for a bit, come back, and look again.

- Things really are ok here. I work like a dog, but for the most part liked whats going on. This is what PhD school is supposed to be.

- Happy 30th birthday to mt. For me too, turning 30 wasn't a big deal until the week before. The biggest difference I've noticed so far is that in your 30's, you don't have to pretend to be cool or try to impress anybody. I worry about what other people think much, much less.

the weekend

2005-11-14T05:38:00.000-08:00

Weekends in Hanover in grad school tend to be a lot like weeks, except without the classes.

Friday was the big night out, ou bien was supposed to be. I cancelled plans to see the hockey game to go to this North Park Party, but my friend/coworker never called about it, and I didn't know the host.

Well, people who know me know I can stew. Saturday I worked all day AND got into a good bit of stewing about it. Said coworker and I were supposed to meet Sat. and Sunday to finish off our final project, but he never made either. By Saturday night, I was good and mad about it. Nothing's better then the gym when you're good and mad about something, so I ran for 40 minutes before heading home. wash rinse repeat on sunday.

I sure was ticked about this guy. In terms of friday, yeah. he's off the list of people I try to hang out with. But he missed the saturday meeting I am sure cause he was drunk and/or doing non-work stuff. And this is not the first time I had to cover for him. If I get screwed on a project, I want it to be because _I_ was to hammered, not because someone else was too hammered.

ech. this guy is young and immature. maybe he'll grow up, but maybe not. I sure know I'm not working with him again. please be an adult next time?

when did I become grandpa?

oh! one thing I forgot. bolt and I went to the hop on sunday to see "History of Violence" starring viggo mortensen and Norristown's own Maria Bello. Man was this a funny movie. Too bad it wasn't supposed to be. You all should almost see it, just for its badness.

Here's the plot tagline: Tom Small runs a diner in podunk Iowa. People come in to stick up the diner, and Tom kills them. The thing is, how did Tom get so good at killing people?

Its not the worst film I've seen in the theater. There are worse ones.

grad school can sure make you boring

2005-11-11T11:56:00.000-08:00

A conversation I had this morning with a fellow grad student:

N: Hey Josh, what's new?
YT: nothing much. you?
N: just work.
YT:
N:
YT: So, what have you been up to?
N: pretty much school work. How's it been going with you?
YT: workin'
N:
YT:
N:

we had to repeat the greeting part of the conversation 3 or 4 times, because there wasn't anything else to talk about. Is it a product of living in the Upper Valley? I think its more on account of the 60 hour work weeks. Hopefully, this part of grad school (the not having anything interesting to say) is temporary.

2005-11-07T09:24:00.000-08:00

The grind part of the term continues. Ron and Suzy came up Thursday/Friday and stayed for dinner, breakfast, lunch. It was very nice seeing them, but I couldn't continue with them onto Maine and my Aunt's on account of the workload.

Somehow, I think I forgot my mom's birthday, which makes me a Bad Son. The worst part is that I can't remember if I forgot or no. Its only been 3 weeks -- I should remember if/what I got her. I conclude I didn't get her anything.

I have this whiteboard, and on it is a huge list of Things to do work-wise. It didn't get much smaller/more checked-off over the weekend. Its not that I wasn't trying, just that I wasn't productive. These things happen sometimes. Graduate School seems very much like a time-management game. If you slip up a little, its just this much harder next week. Luckily, I didn't do any raging over the weekend.

One good thing: I got my hockey gear. Susie drove Mala and I over to Rutland yesterday to get used ice hockey equipment. I got skates, a stick, shin guards, elbow pads, fat pants, a good helmet, and a big ol' bag to put everything in, and it was all under $150. not too shabby! Everything's cheaper when its not purchased in New York. I can't imagine how expensive this would've been if I bought it all new at Paragon Sports.

Of course, you don't get to see movie stars in Rutland.

I've been fairly productive this morning, but its all been the stuff I should've done yesterday, so it doesn't exactly count. Also, spending all day by myself doing work makes for lonely moments. I'll get out and talk this afternoon.

2005-10-29T19:27:00.000-07:00

Saturday night. There's 2 big Halloween things going in Hanover; I'm going to neither. Instead, at 10:30, I'm in my office doing work. This term is beginning to be such a grind. My whiteboard has a whole list of things I "need" to get done this weeked. So far, I've checked off three, but one doesn't count, 'cause it turns out I don't need to do it.

Halloween is too easy to take off of when there's a ton of work pressure -- I have neither the time for the party nor the time to make a good costume.

I did manage to go to the gym today and get coffee with a friend(ster) The conversation was good and platonic and might be worth repeating. Running was also good -- 2.7 miles, and it wasn't hard. At the beginning of the semester, 1.7 miles was a challenge. So I got that going for me (which is nice) Really, I am relieved to know that I can slack off running for a bit, and won't have to start all over on the mileage.

Three paragraphs, and I've consulted dictionary.com twice. Thanks Downingtown High School!

so, who's going to be in New York or Philadelphia for Thanksgiving? Ron and Suzy are going to L.A. to see my brother and future niece/nephew, and it would be nice to not have to stay in Hanover.

2005-10-25T10:02:00.000-07:00

Its snowing in Hanover.

I don't really have time to write much else. I expect the snow to be beautiful, and I'll certainly have the time to watch it, since I'll be at work. all. day. long.

I've put myself on academic probation until I get ontop of the required schoolwork. This means not going to any Haloween stuff.

and no more writing on blogger for a bit.

2005-10-17T21:18:00.000-07:00

I spent hours and hours on this talk I gave for Artificial Intelligence class today. It went well. It would be nice to think that this means everything academic and everything I work on will work out ok, but it doesnt mean I dont have to work at it.

Deadlines seem small and far away for now, excepting the Architecture midterm. This means my schedule will only be full, as opposed to crazy full.

I want to make sure I balance the school stuff with hanging out. Honestly, the people in North Park, most of them aren't tribe. There aren't that many people here, but going out is important. I'm not sure how to find that balance, except to spend time and effort.

2005-10-10T17:12:00.000-07:00

I might start to really not write so much for the rest of the term. Things are going, but man, there's so much work to do.

I spent the weekend doing fun stuff, in the Hanover sense of fun. Friday drinks at the dept turned into Friday dinner at the Japanese place in West Lebanon. Saturday I went with Anne and Nic to the fashion show, which was put on by the owner of a vintage clothing place and was for the benefit of a soon-to-be coffee shop run by high school kids. Sunday I went hiking with Mala before studying.

I'm going to Boston this weekend for the day. 'probably shouldn't, but I will.

and next year, I'm going to be in a wedding. The only non-family people in the wedding are me and my ex-girlfriend. Time should make it not awkward. or at least less awkward.

That is all.

2005-10-09T20:08:00.000-07:00

I should be in bed now, but I'm staying up late to watch Mariano finish off those Angels.

This week is going to be super tight, timewise. By this week, I mean this month. yikes.

ok. Mariano is done. and so am I.

nice things about graduate school

2005-10-03T10:32:00.000-07:00

Some nice things about living in Hanover/going to grad school:

Dartmouth gives out free papers M-F. You can get the NYTimes, USAToday, and the Boston Globe. all for free.

I just got $300 in free software for my laptop. I need MSOffice for a class, and Dartmouth has the CD and licenses.

Dartmouth gave me my first paycheck on Friday. Getting paid to go to school -- it doesn't suck.

2005-10-02T20:17:00.000-07:00

I'm tired of feeling sick.

politeness

2005-10-01T19:48:00.000-07:00

I've been sick the past couple of days, and have spent most of today self-medicating with sleep and college football.

Last night's poker session and this girl's post has me pondering politeness.

Vibhor made the quorom of four for poker night, but ended up just not showing. It wasn't a big deal at all. The game still happened, and it was fun etc. etc. The only thing was, if you're not going to show up, just call, right?

So, yeah, grits' post got me to thinking about things that are polite. Is the change-of-plans call just being polite, or is that more than you should expect from people? Maybe its both. What do you think, readers?

2005-09-29T17:45:00.000-07:00

This day kinda blew. The suckiness was all about a bad school day and the architecture class not being what I deserve. I'll have some of these, in the next five years.

good things:

I ran 3 miles outside today
the yankees are rolling
the red sox are not.
poker night tomorrow.

you take the good, you take the bad...

From the journal

2005-09-28T19:00:00.000-07:00

School started week 2, and already its kicking my ass. There's so much reading to do.

Artificial Intelligence is the real asskicker. whoo-boy. Despite being a core class, the format is survey as opposed to lectures. This means all the basic concepts are assumed, and it means Papers. lots of papers. Each student takes turns presenting a paper, powerpoint slides and all. Unfortunately, there are only two students, so the rotation is quick. Michael presented today on TWEAK, a conjunctive goal planner. There's a lot of rigorous proof going on. Friday, we return to the proofs. Monday is a paper on Bayesian Networks, and I present a paper on Hidden Markov Models on Wednesday. So, yeah, three papers to read and keep up on right now. (of course, if I don't know the material, cause, you know, its new, there's more reading...)

Socially, things are going. I've organized a poker night on Friday. Everyone claims not to know how to play, which may or may not be true. Either way, I'll play the teacher an aim for a fun night as opposed to a competitive one. I have no plans for Saturday, but with hiking on Sunday, I forsee a work/rest day. Mala is definitely coming hiking too, but I have my doubts.

Addendum: Have you seen the commercial for the Burger King breakfast Sandwich? There's a lumberjack cutting down a tree, and then this guy with a big mardi gras style king helmet/mask comes and gives him a "meatnormous" sandwich. Its got 2 sausage patties, 2 slices of bacon, and ham on top. All on top of cheese and eggs of course. I can't imagine how many calories it is. but the comercial is pretty funny.

go see War of the Worlds

2005-09-24T11:40:00.000-07:00

If you haven't yet, you should go see Tom Cruise's "War of the Worlds." I sorta recommend it.
I am so glad I waited until everyone told me it was craptacular. For a bad hollywood film, its funy. My favorite part is when you learn that the alien ships are full of orange gatorade.

I went with Scout and Anne (2 two 2! female computer scientists!) and Anne's boyfriend Pete. We saw it at the Hop(kins Center) which holds 2 film series. The first is an art/foreign film series. The second is a series of Hollywood classics, and not-so-classics. "War of the Worlds" was part of the latter. Anyway, since its a film series, they hold it in this huge auditorium, so we had rediculously nice seats for this film.

Afterwards, the four of us went to the Canoe Club, which is the high class drinking establishment in Hanover. Pete's advisor came over and drank with us. Drinking with your advisor still makes me laugh a little. Then this guy Randy came in. Randy is also an MCB student, and he has crazy hair that reminds me of Cuneo. Randy decided to smuggle beer in, so he borrowed a glass from the bar and pulled out his Red Stripe. Why anyone would smuggle a beer into a place that has $3 imports is beyond me, but thats Randy, I guess. He got kicked out of course. It was funny to see him spend the rest of the evening trying to get back in.

but yeah, go see "War of the Worlds." They could've done much
worse with it.

This is what passes for entertainment on a Friday night in Hanover.

2005-09-20T07:16:00.000-07:00

So, in this rambling dream I had last night, I:

(a) stopped talking to my mother
(b) became part owner of a chain of car stores in Atlanta
(c) starting running for President. as a Republican.

This all seemed perfectly fine during the dream. The campaign was even going ok, after a slow start. But waking up, yikes, all of the above seem so frightening.

Brought to you by yours truly during an hour break in the day. I have meetings and orientations until 7PM when I can finally start reading in earnest today. I have half a mind to hold myself a pity party. The other half is excited about graduate school.

grad school has officially begun...

2005-09-19T20:32:00.000-07:00

...its 11:30 and I just finished work for today.
except for the readings, which are general and have to get done at some point.

Tomorrow's schedule is full until 7PM. I'll try to get some good reading done after then.

uncle ninequince

2005-09-18T21:07:00.000-07:00

Come May, I'll be an uncle.
Mom will be so proud, I am sure.

celebrate the small victories.

2005-09-15T17:58:00.000-07:00

So, this professor asked me to come over to his office to chat today.
When I got there, he gave me an hour long dump of what he does research-wise. His main thing is information theoretic techniques for proving lower bounds. It sounds obtuse, but he explains things clearly, and it was actually pretty cool. Towards the end, he suggested a couple of books and a paper he wrote for further reading.

Right now, the most intimidating/stressful thing about being a first year PhD student is not knowing how to get from here to having a professor/knowing what to do research-wise. I didn't even have to ask him for time or kiss up to anyone, and it seems like if I follow through, well, I'd be at least at step two.

As long as I put a bunch of work into it (on top of all the other stuff) and it makes sense to me, things look good, right?

Some small things are worth celebrating.

I might go to the Vanderslice show by myself, which should be interesting. Heather recommends it, and its free, so I'm going. If I cant find some other grad students to go though, it'll be me and a bunch of undergrads...

joshua

2005-09-14T14:23:00.000-07:00

This weekend, there's John Vanderslice on Friday night, Dartmouth vs. Colgate on Saturday, and the North Park wine and cheese thing Saturday evening (and night...) woo hoo!

This passes for a full schedule of activities here in Hanover. Seriously though, school is starting up tomorrow. They assigned me a TA-ship, and I meet with the professor and other TA's tomorrow to start meetin' and workin'.

I've been assigned CS5, which is the first CS course for most Dartmouthers. The Powers That Be usually give these TAships to americans on account of the English. Most freshman won't know what you're talking about anyway, so at least they'll have a chance at understanding with my crack English skills.

Algorithms was my top choice, but despite my buttering-up of various professors, I am here. Maybe its for the best. The experience will be good for me, and having all sorts of different courses under my belt will make my CV look that much better when I'm lookin' for a job later on.

After all, there's only so much academia you can go through before they send you out into the real world.

espn kisses up

2005-09-13T19:59:00.000-07:00

(this post is mostly just for kmpandora and onlybrody)
I got this email from espn today:

___________
Dear Joshua,

I want to let you know that everyone at ESPN.com shares your frustration with the early season technical problems with our Fantasy Football application. I appreciate very much that you have chosen to play Fantasy Football with us and we value our relationship with you - fan to fan.

I want to apologize to you for the problems we've had and assure you that we are doing everything in our power to solve them and provide an experience that the best, most passionate sports fans on the Web deserve.

Our aim is to have our Fantasy Football application operating normally for this Sunday's games. We will be updating you on our progress and resolution.

Joshua, again we appreciate that you are playing Fantasy Football with us and we will do everything possible to make this a terrific experience for you this season.

Sincerely,

John Kosner
Senior Vice President and General Manager
---------------------------------------

Mr. Kosner,

nice try.

why would I ever want to play with espn again?

ugh. They're on the list.

ain't science something

2005-09-13T05:51:00.000-07:00

ok, sometimes technology comes along that completely dorks me out. Yesterday was one of them.
I bought some ethernet cable yesterday to hook up this rumored dartv. Dartmouth just created a pilot program where it pumps cable tv into your computer through the local network. awesome. I now have 40 cable channels for free, on my laptop. How cool is that?

There are also rumors that creating "channels" is so easy and cheap that each class will be able to have one. So, for instance, if you miss a lecture, you can get it on TV in your room. crazy.

2005-09-11T17:01:00.000-07:00

We drank up both Friday and Saturday this weekend. Its good because there's finally enough people here to do stuff with. Sometimes though it feels like high school -- we're all hanging out with people we may or may not become friends with because thats the only option.

I took a bunch of people hiking on the AT yesterday. We found out where to pick up the path ok, but promptly got lost in the woods. Right before finding the trail again, hevil ran into a bunch of yellow jackets. We weren't sure if he was allergic, so that ended the trip. Next time will be better.

A bunch of us from apartment 10 went to molly's for sunday dinner. I can see hanging out with these people more. Next Sunday, we're cooking at home. Yours Truly is the main chef. Hopefully, I won't suck too much.

thats it for today.

2005-09-09T17:37:00.000-07:00

My office finally exists in a way thats productive for me. I spent the day getting a computer and getting everything set up. LeeAnn is my new officemate. She's entering her fifth year of the PhD program and spent quite a bit of time accumulating stuff in the office. Thankfully, it is now mostly on her side. I like to think I'm easy-going, but when it comes to my space, I prefer we nip the encroachment problems in the bud right off.

Aside from general untidiness, which is really calling the kettle black, she seems nice.

Last night the people downstairs held a party. It was pretty good by North Park standards. I think you need to temper your expectations for parties when its all grad students. I met a bunch of people and promptly forgot their names, which is a shame, since I had an in at tonights poker game on account of me having the fancy chips that onlybrody gave me.

Nihal, Sean, and I went to the Brick and Brew, which has pizza, beer, and a lot of high school kids. (and I thought this was a college town)

It was too full of giggling high schoolers, so we split after dinner back to North Park. Now I'm kinda waiting for something to happen. The ship for the poker game (off-campus) has almost assuredly left by now, so it might be a netflix night.

In Hanover, no one can hear you scream.

2005-09-06T19:39:00.000-07:00

Another day, another day of waiting for school to start. Today was mostly spent doing things I make up for myself to do. I just read through the verious information packets/handouts Dartmouth has given me so far, and really, its all only relevant starting the 16th.

Either I'm going back to nyc this weekend, or I'm getting camping gear and hiking. This waiting around stuff isn't working for me.

I did spend an hour talking to Professor Tom Cormen, who wrote this book For non computer scientists, this book is pretty much definitive for the subject matter, so he's a pretty famous guy. Despite that, he was nice enough to spend a lot of time chatting and giving basic advice for a first year PhD student. And, he said I should put him on my list of possible advisors. The day wasn't totally useless.

This evening sucked though. Both the Yankees AND the Phillies coughed up runs in ninth inning tie-games. This isn't the way to win wild cards, people.

2005-09-04T08:15:00.000-07:00

Waking up at 8 on a Sunday morning is much easier when there's nothing to do on a Saturday night. It turns out that most of the graduate students aren't here yet, and won't be until at least after the holiday weekend. The whole campus shut down, so there's really, really not much to do here. If I had known, I would've gone somewhere. Hiking is out of the question, since the Dartmouth Outing Club (where I'd rent my gear) is all used up for freshmen. grrrr.

The first radio station I found in Hanover is the local VPR station, which is Vermont's NPR network. I turned it on this morning to hear of the death of William Rehnquist. He sure has been on the court a long time. Bush gave a bland speech describing his accomplishments and family, etc. I half expected him to list the clubs he was in in high school.

As much as I disagree with some of his opinions, I respect the service he's given the court, and I sure hope this doesn't get used to make the issue more partisan. Many justices have changed their viewpoints over their time on the courts, and part of that comes from the freedom and independence they have from the day-to-day political partisanship. Hopefully, the new nominees will be thouroughly investigated, but won't be rejected for specific viewpoints.

Dartmouth will be taking in Tulane students, tuition free, on the condition they continue paying Tulane's tuition. Its amazing to see how far-reaching this disaster has become. With the move, I haven't really heard much news. I'm glad jen is ok, and that the waters are finally receding. The lawlessness, whew. Its unbelievable.

the ubiquitous first posting

2005-09-03T14:18:00.000-07:00

so, yeah. The new blog.

Its my second day as a PhD student up here in Hanover, NH. It sure is quiet up here.

I hope this blog will be 1/2 an update of my current activities, and 1/2 a discussion of current events and of general grad-student issues. My previous blog was a lot more personal; this one won't be.