Well it's about time...

Changes upon changes

2011-03-01T21:01:00.002-05:00

This has been a very interesting few weeks. I'm not really sure where to begin. Perhaps the best place to start is simple: Today has actually been a fantastic day!

To the outside observer, it might seem a bit curious for me to say that. I spoke with my father today. We haven't spoken in a little over a week. Truth be told, we haven't spoken since, well, he moved into an assisted care facility.

On Valentine's Day, Dad moved into the assisted care facility at Shell Point. We knew this day would come. We knew it would come pretty soon when Pam and I were down in FL for Christmas. He couldn't hide it anymore. It was very obvious. Very obvious. Pam and I were overwhelmed in just the few days there, so we can't imagine what things were like for Mom. So objectively speaking, this was a very good thing.

I was afraid. I was afraid that he was getting railroaded. I was afraid that he wasn't going to be happy. I was afraid that his quality of life was going to be, well, ruined. So we didn't talk since he moved in. I just couldn't face it. It's shameful. But today I called him. I waited until I had an unequivocally good day. My fitbit has already changed the way I interact with my fitness. So in addition to taking a crapload of steps today, I took a spinning class. I saw some friends there, then I went and had some soup at Rev Soup. Then I was ready. I called Dad's new home phone number. He answered, and we talked for an hour. It was great.

He's doing spectacularly well. It was amazing talking to him. He sounds so happy. He's found a community there, and he doesn't feel pressured to not be himself. And you now, the lack of pressure really makes things easier for him. He actually sounded a lot better than he has in at least a year. It's a change for Mom and Dad. A huge change. Obviously. But it sounds like a very positive change. Dad is happier than I've heard him in a long time. He's around people with similar skills and abilities. He's around people who can care for him 24/7. He's part of a community in which he feels he belongs. I can't really ask for more.

So yeah. It's actually been a really great day!

Mass Transit Woes

2009-09-14T11:21:00.000-04:00

As always, I'm on the T. This time, however, my T pass has been wiped clean. Completely gone. Good bye, monthly pass.

I'm not sure what's going on. I think my new Harvard ID might be somehow demagnetizing my Charlie Card. This is the second time this has happened in a month. Guess my ass is magnetic!

Back in the swing of things

2009-09-04T13:36:00.001-04:00

I'm back in Boston, and things are great! Tim and I are housesitting in Newton. It's a nice place, but it's kinda far from everything. I'm learning some new, complicated bus routes.

I'd been in a funk for a few weeks, with a very relaxing break from it in Europe with Tim. Being in Boston was strange in some undefinable way. Well, it all came to a head last week, and I decided that I needed to get back into volunteering and making myself a better person. And here I am! Today I signed up again for Samaritans! I'm starting in 3 weeks and I'm very excited. It should be the start of what I need.

University of Minnesota

2008-12-13T23:51:00.003-05:00

Hello!

I'm in snowy Minneapolis. I realized when I landed in the airport here that

I have never been to the MSP airport before! That's another one off my list.
I had never been to Minnesota before. Another thing to check off.

I'm not sure how many states that brings me to. I think I've been to more than half at this point. Well more than half. I might have even hit 2/3. I should make a list so I'll know where I can just avoid in the future.

Not much new on the job front. I have another tentative feeler from a school, but nothing firm. I kinda just want this whole thing to be taken care of. I'm not big on the whole "stress" thing. I know it's still a little early, but I really want to hear more and now.

So why am I in MN? To visit Tyler Lawson! Yup. He got an NSF which included support for collaborator visits, and this includes me for some insane reason. I figure that we will work like crazy people for a couple of days, then I will flit off to San Francisco where I will work like a crazy man for a few more days editing stuff for the Talbot conference proceedings for the tmf workshop. Just as exciting. All this will take up right up to the 23rd, then I arrive triumphant in Louisiana. I'll be there for a few days, and beyond that, I have no idea. Definitely Boston, but I have no plans yet.

I finally finished all my grading, etc. My friend Tai at UVA will drop my grades off for me tomorrow. Now I get to start collecting data for my courses to see how the computer assisted exams fared! It's a little scary. Even if it doesn't pan out, I'm not going to completely abandon the idea. It'll just give me an opportunity to refine the project and see exactly what worked and what didn't. I'm also really releaved that classes are done. Next semester I am teaching a graduate course on computations in algebraic topology. Not to toot my own horn, but this is something I'm really good at. It'll be fun to really play around with things and to get the grad students here up to speed with a lot of the tricks and techniques.

Not much else going on. I have learned some MySQL and PHP (all in the vain hope of making my computer project even better). I think I will use these to refine some of the online tools we used, maybe making them something that UVA can incorporate into their online package. Speaking of that, I had a hilarious run in with their "new" technology. UVA has spent a lot of time and energy rolling out this "Collab" project. It's built on Sakai and it is supposed to be fantastic. Well, it's not all that much better than the previous "Toolkit". In fact, it seems like they put some lipstick and a nice dress on that pig. This one is just "open source" and "scalable". Well, I finally figured out how to add a tool to my collab site to allow me to submit student grades online (and since collab is plugged right into the university systems, this should be easy). No no! The collab "tool" was actually a link to Toolkit's old tool, and after I finished (it was a laborious, multistep process), I had to print everything out and then submit the hard copies. Insane! Yay paperless workplace.

Santa Mikeya

2008-11-20T21:06:00.000-05:00

I found this photo when I updated Picasa. Turns out there is a lot of stuff on my hard drive that was basically hidden from me due to disuse. Who knew! It reminds me of a happier time when I was some sort of crazy woman to whom Bridget gave alms.

On a happier note, you shoul definitely watch the Shiba-Inu Puppy Cam!. If I ever get a dog, this is the kind I will get. They are just so cute!

An Experiment

2008-10-04T20:54:00.001-04:00

I'm in DC, and as always, I spent an obscene amount of money today. Can I afford it? Yes. I don't spend money that often in the end. It still made me think.

I'm planning an experiment: for one week, instead of buying things, I'll donate what I would have spent to charity. For another week, I'll send it to ING. Could be a fun reality check.

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Tim at the Aquarium

2008-09-30T07:48:00.003-04:00

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2008-09-30T07:48:00.001-04:00

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Boston Wedding Weekend

2008-09-28T14:44:00.001-04:00

I'm in Boston this weekend for the wedding of one of Tim's friends from home. The wedding was last night, and it was really beautiful. Very traditional. Very long! I left around 8, having spent 6 hours there. Tim planned to stay there with his HS friends at a hotel. I wanted to work, but I ended up just reading for pleasure. Definitely the right call, since I've been a little overwhelmed.

Around 11:15, Tim called me saying he wanted me to pick him up. That was fine, since I always like to have him around. I got dressed in track pants and a t-shirt and hopped in the car. A few blocks from the reception, a tire blew! I didn't have my wallet, so I got out of the car, in the rain, and changed the tire. I then picked up Tim and some friends, dropped the friends off, and came home. Super exciting!

Today we have a christening, and then we'll have dinner with Mike, Randi, and Rosie. Should be a lot of fun.

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Success!

2008-09-24T10:55:00.001-04:00

My trip to the DMV resulted in a newly reregistered car. Good-bye, Ticket!

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Back At The DMV

2008-09-24T09:51:00.001-04:00

I'm back at the DMV to get my car reregistered. This has been crazy-making. Unbeknownst to me, I had an unpaid property tax bill for the county that precluded this transaction when I was here on Monday. I paid that online, and now I am back. We'll see if this ends up being another wasted hour.

Of course, the DMV has its charms. The woman in front of me right now has a terrible speech problem and she is rambling on about doctors and her finances. It doesn't get better than this!

Today's the big day! I retooled my CV last night, and I worked on my cover letter. Today I will finish that up, make the requisite file of schools for Haynes, and start applying. Pretty scary. It's nice to be ahead of the game, though.

I also want to see how much of my argument with Mike I can write up today. It'd be nice to get that up on the ArXiv. Speaking of papers, I just got proofs to check for a paper. They look good, so I should be able to get those back to them ASAP. Then it'll be all done!

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Exam Time

2008-09-23T19:10:00.001-04:00

Today is the first midterm for Calc II. Not for my students, since they are doing the online thing, but for the other sections. I'm covering for one of my instructors, and she will administer the make-up exam at 7:20AM TOMORROW! I'm happy to fill in this evening.

Today was a lot better. I posted Quiz #2 for both of my classes, and the coders are cooking along. This will make things run a lot smoother! The next one goes up in 2 weeks, so my coders have a good bit of time. Class was fine. I tried some new things, and it went OK. I'll keep experimenting to see the right balance between lecture and seat-work. This hour and a half of quiet should help me make headway on my CV and cover letters. Yay!

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My Minicity

2008-09-23T15:20:00.003-04:00

I love this website. It's kinda like SimCity, but you gain population, etc, by having people follow various links. I only have two links so far:

Increase Population

and

Increase Industry

I highly recommend that you click at least one of these links every day!

Overly Busy Day

2008-09-22T19:39:00.001-04:00

Today has been wicked busy and wicked stressful. It's no single thing that's made it rough. I just had a ton of stuff to do and I got interrupted every 10 minutes. Some small examples:

My students are complaining that they don't have a new quiz. I hired 2 TAs and 2 more today to help me with coding, but none of them is done with the questions I assigned them. I wrote about 15 questions myself today, but I still need 20 more for tomorrow.

My job stuff is coming together, but not fast enough. I want to submit it by Wednesday, but I still need to write some good cover letters and revise my CV.

My project with Mike and Doug is going really well but I keep getting confused. It makes everything a lot less fun.

The other Calc sections have an exam tomorrow. I'm the course head, and it is almost impossible to get a couple of my instructors to do anything.

So ugh.

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Whale Shark's Are Amazing

2008-09-22T08:32:00.002-04:00

iPhone Fun

2008-09-21T20:04:00.001-04:00

I got an iPhone a few months back. It's amazingly fun. It costs a small fortune for the data etc, but it's been totally worth it. There are so many things that in the past would have required human interaction. No more worries on that front!

The big project of today was to get a blogging program. I actually take tons of photos, so it makes it much more exciting if I can immediately blog with them. The program I found isn't ideal, but it is free. One more thing to distract me from my job applications.

Speaking of that, my goal is to be completely done with it by WEDNESDAY. It's a bit of a terrifying thought. I've pretty much done all I can with my essays, though. So soon it'll be back to the grind. Woo.

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Atlanta Aquarium!

2008-09-21T15:55:00.001-04:00

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Atlanta!

2008-09-21T15:54:00.001-04:00

Hello from not-so-Hotlanta! T and I flew out here for Ellenor Honig's wedding. The wedding was really beautiful, and I'm so glad that we were able to come.

Of course, I foolishly choose to fly Delta. My flight to ATL was delayed due to mechanical problems for over 2 hours. Today, things were moving smoothly. I even snagged a seat on an earlier flight! Of course, that screwed up pretty quickly too. The flight was delayed until my original flight time, and then they said that it would be delayed further. I'm back on my original flight, $50 poorer.

Here are some photos, I hope from our trip today to the Atlanta Aquarium. It's super nice!

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Copenhagen

2008-06-22T11:24:00.002-04:00

It's been a long time since I posted. That isn't to say that nothing's happened. It's just to say that I fell out of the habit of posting. Of course, now that I am sitting in the lobby of a hotel in Denmark, I've little to do besides `blog.

Things have been for the most part good. My mini-job hunt was 100% unsuccessful, with no real nibbles. Good times! I'm dreading the prospect of applying this year, so I am becoming more and more anxious about it. Of course, Mom, God give her strength, has her own suggestions for what I should do and try. We'll just have to see how it all plays out.

I'm in Copenhagen for the birthday conference for Haynes Miller. The first week is a workshop in Denmark on random stuff, and the second week, which starts tomorrow bright and early, is in Bonn. I'd never been to Denmark (and apparently I wasn't missing much), and I've also never been to Bonn. It should be fun, but I'm very much looking forward to being back in Boston. That would be amazing!

Tim will be attending Law School this fall at Northeastern in Boston. Yay! It's a lot closer than Palo Alto, and since he'll be on an academic schedule, I imagine that I'll see more of him. This is a big plus. He's managed to procure this sweet house from a senior partner at his firm to live in for the year. I'll finally see it for real when he kindly collects me from the airport.

Many more stores, but I'm completely exhausted now. I'll try to post more soon!

How things are

2007-12-05T20:14:00.000-05:00

All told, things are going well. I'm able to keep things together and stay strong for my family, and I'm happy most of the time. Sometimes things just overwhelm me. I heard this story on the radio a few months ago, while drive to Baltimore to fly out, I guess to the MFO or something. Who knows. I started sobbing in the car. For some reason, I thought about it again today (I think I saw that there are podcasts from This American Life, so I had to look it up). When I found it, I just started crying again. And then I listened to it. And I started sobbing again. Mainly because this is the way things are going to be. Not for a few years, of course, but still...

Anyway, it's a beautiful story of a woman who's husband has something similar to what Dad has and how she and her son are dealing with things. It's haunting. It starts somewhere around 46:05 minutes.

Wow. What a downer! Here's a happier link. Dolly Parton has an amazing new video staring none other than Amy Sedaris (who at one point seems to channel Jerri Blank). Fantastic.

Nothing ventured

2007-09-28T14:26:00.000-04:00

It's been a long time since my last post. If people still read this back then, well, they've no doubt stopped by now. I'd imagine there was a small spike in traffic after Teena linked to my `blog, but that's probably tapered off too.

All the more reason to start anew.

Lots has happened. Some interesting stories (like this amazing beetle I found and of which I will post photos soon), some productive stories (I went back to the MFO, gave a talk, and did a good bit of work), and some sad stories (Pam has been having some troubles and Dad is slowly but surely getting worse). Tim is out in CA now with his job, and it's funny how that has affected me in subtle ways. It just makes the other stressors in life a little harder to deal with, and I only notice it because I've started having weird, intellectual nightmares. Not the "oh my gosh, this is scary" kind, but the "My dad's illness is really hard on my mom, and I'm worried she's not doing enough for herself". How nerdy!

None of this is why I'm posting. I'm doing this because I have decided to change my diet radically for the month of October.

I'm going to be a vegetarian.
I'm going to minimize processed food.
I'm going to try to eat locally.

I'm not going to be one of those "snooty" or "pushy" vegetarians. If I'm at someone's house and they have made a nice, meat-based meal, then I will eat it. I think it is rude otherwise. I'll just not get any for myself.

Some points in this will be tougher than others. It's actually, I think, relatively easy to eat locally here in c'ville, even in restaurants. Many of my favorites work very hard to buy from local farms, so that's nice. I'll be spending some time this coming month in CA and in Chi-town, though, and this will make things a little trickier. Luckily, I'll be staying with healthy people in both places, so meals at home will be easier. Easier, in fact, than at home, where I don't ever cook!

I hope this will also help me save a little money. I've had to pay out of pocket for some recent work related travel, etc, and that has made things a little tighter. It's also tougher with Tim out in CA. Tickets to the Left Coast ain't cheap!

A Day at the Beach

2007-07-07T16:21:00.000-04:00

Tim and I decided to finally take a mini-vacation and take the ferry down to P-town for the day. I've been a few times in the past, and each time was fun. I was really looking forward to going with him and hanging out on the beach there for a bit.

We took the 9 am ferry, which landed us in the heart of P-town at about 10:30. We rented bikes from, they claimed, the oldest rental place there, and then we biked across Route 6 to the Cape Cod National Seashore. For those of you who haven't been, it's a really wonderful place. There are bike trails that run all through the sand dunes, and it's very peaceful. It's sort of the polar opposite of the more urban part of P-town. We ended up riding pretty much all of the trails, including the little spur heading out to the airport.

After our somewhat lengthy bike ride, we stopped for lunch at a little place called the Post Office cafe. It was cute with pretty tasty food. Tim had a salad and I had a corned beef sandwich. Our waiter was a little brusk, but we were having such a good time that it didn't matter. We walked a little bit around the town proper, then we hopped back on our bikes and spent the rest of the day on the beach. We ended up have such a great time there that we were late returning the bikes! I hope they found where we left them.

We had a quick dinner at a place some people on the beach had recommended to me, and then we boarded the 8:30 ferry back to Boston. All told, it was a very fun day. I think we both really enjoyed getting away from our lives here in Boston for a bit and just relaxing. We're thinking of heading back next weekend, we had such a good time!

A very busy few weeks

2007-06-18T08:33:00.001-04:00

Well, I'm completely installed in Matt's apartment for the next few weeks. Already it has been a very busy time. In fact, the last few weeks have been a bit of an emotional roller coaster, but almost all for good reasons.

On the 4th, Tim and I celebrated 4 years together. We went to a little placed called Miel. The food was delicious, and we had a very good time. It's really amazing how different we both are than when we started dating. It's even more amazing that he's put up with me for 4 years!

That weekend, I had my 5th college reunion. I saw a ton of friends whom I haven't seen in at least 5 years, and it was very bittersweet to see many of them. In some ways, a lot of them represented paths not taken, and it's hard for me to think about how there are choices that I have made that closed other doors. On the other hand, it was also wonderful to catch up with old friends and to reconnect, especially with my roommates from freshman year.

After that, it's been work-work-work. I'm doing a project with Mike and one with Jacob. Both of them are very difficult, and both of my coauthors are so much better than I that it can be a little daunting. I've read hundreds and hundreds of pages of dense material not in my field to try to get a better understanding of what's going on and what we need to do. *whew*.

This past weekend, Tim and I drove up to Lake George to see my aunt and uncle's 25th / 45th wedding / first date anniversary. We had a really great time up there. It was relaxing. We went for a short walk and we played some tennis. Good times! It's always a little tough seeing my family, though, since my dad is getting worse and my mom is having a tougher and tougher time dealing with it. From this perspective, it wasn't the best time, but we were able to get past that and do things like play putt putt with my dad and sister. All told, this was also a great weekend!

Alright. Time to start the day in earnest. Doug Ravenel is in town to work with Mike and me on some projects. It'll be a crazy busy time!

Hate Crime!

2007-04-19T08:22:00.001-04:00

Last night, as I was walking from the gym to a student-faculty function, some in a car drove past me and screamed at me the word "dyke". I am stunned. I mean, how stupid must you be to get a slur wrong?

Sure, I should feel some sort of indignation about someone shouting a slur at me, but mostly I just find it funny how they got things so wrong...

It's actually a somewhat nice thing to happen in the past few days. As you've no doubt seen on CNN, there was a terrible even at VA Tech on Monday. The entire campus is a little shaken up by it. What a senseless act by a troubled young man.

A Leaner, Greener Me

2007-04-17T16:31:00.000-04:00

I've been thinking a lot of late about my ecological footprint. There are some really great `blogs that I read about reducing consumption and all that jazz. I must say that I really want to try these things, but I am so stuck in the American consumer mindset. I was elated this morning when Amazon told me that a book I had pre-ordered a while back has shipped. To be honest, I'm still kinda elated about that! So I guess this somewhat underscores the problem: I like to collect certain things: books [both real and comic], correspondences, things to which I have attached irrational meaning; and this conflicts with my desire to, well, dump most of my stuff and lead a simple life.

My parents are in the process of pairing things down, making everything a little easier. This has the big advantage of leaving them freer to just travel at will, something they are doing more and more. I'm just not sure where I stand with all of that. I completely support their actions; I just don't know if I could do it.

Many of you no doubt recall that this is a perpetual problem for me. Many will no doubt recall my ill-fated "worm composting" idea (thank you for your support), my ill-conceived miniature cow+dung+methane-plant-on-the-porch idea, and my desire for a composting toilet (still there). I'm just not sure at this point if I'll in the foreseeable future in a place where I can make big modifications to the structure, have a huge garden, raise bees and a cow and live like a gentleman farmathematician.

And to think, I used to tease my father about his obsession with being a farmer when I was younger...

Back from Boston

2007-03-08T16:06:00.001-05:00

I have just returned from Boston, where I spent a quite lovely few days. Ostensibly, I went up to drop off my kitty with her rightful [other] owner, since for the next month or so, I will be very often on the road. More honestly, I used that as a delightful excuse to see Tim again, before, well, my month or so on the road. Of course, I will see him again at Bridget's wedding, but without this trip, it was going to be a long haul.

My trip up was quite uneventful. I saw a few of my MIT friends (and attended a few seminars). Other than that, I pretty much wasted time and hung out with Tim. I did spend an evening catching up with my sister. That was really nice. I haven't had a chance to just sit and talk with her about Mom and Dad and how they are coping with Dad's illness. We are both pretty worried about Mom in particular, and it was good to voice our mutual concerns.

So now I'm back. I leave tomorrow, I think, for Baltimore. I'm going to a birthday conference for two esteemed members of my field, and everyone who's anyone will be there. This makes me super nervous, since I am slated to give a talk about one of my recent projects. Talk about nerve-wracking! I gave a practice talk while at MIT to Mark and Tyler, and they gave me some great feedback. I'm still a little unsettled about the prospect of talking in front of that audience in particular...

Two more things

2007-02-24T18:08:00.001-05:00

Two more small things of note. First off, I switched to Cingular. I honestly had no problem with Verizon (I'd used them for many, many years, with a brief break to use Sprint). The main reason I switched was that Verizon has no coverage around C-Ville. Not a good deal for a cell phone company. Cingular apparently has some deal with UVa, and I have a cute new phone, so both are good.

Second, I'm liking my new computer more and more. I found out today that it has a tiny slot for SD chips! These are the same chips that fit in my camera, my PDA, and in the little usb chip reader I have. At this point, everything that used to take up either USB or cardbus slots is not internal!

This being said, I'm less and less overwhelmed by Vista. Huge chunks were clearly just lifted from Linux. At one point today, I thought for a minute that I was in fact using the Linux box at my office, since the dialog boxes were EXACTLY those from Linux. This might explain why it took them so long to make this version of Windows: it takes a lot of trickery to seal away open source code and claim it for yourself...

So Many Changes

2007-02-23T22:48:00.000-05:00

A great deal has changed since my last post. I'll summarize:

I turned 27. It's probably my last prime to its power. I said that to Tim, and he said "yeah, you probably won't make 3,000". Guess I'm rubbing off onto him...
I got a new computer! My temporary fix of installing Linux worked pretty well, but it wasn't perfect. I found a way to remove the troublesome hardware, but then I would have been out a USB connection. This way I have a computer I really like (so shiny and new) and it cost less than my tax refund (since I put most of my UVA salary into my 403(b) to try to max things out for 2006).
I almost fell out of love with Jetblue. I was in NYC when they had a bit of a corporate melt-down, and they left me hanging. It's lucky they have such great service otherwise.

Ok. I guess not that much has happened. What a downer! I'm almost done with my project with V and Tyler. There is one tiny thing I have to do, then we can send it out. I feel bad that things are now delayed because of me, but I've been really tired this week. A certain four legged monster has been creeping out from under my bed and stealing the breath from my mouth while I sleep. Damn witches!

I'm somewhat underwhelmed by Vista. My new laptop runs it (though I will soon be dual booting with Ubuntu Linux). It seems a lot like XP, with more hidden in the things the system runs without me seeing anything. This is not quite the kind of thing I normally like... It's also funny how much the desktop et al now looks like KDE.

We are still waiting for law school news. It's a little scary for me to think how much I want him to get in here.

I'm giving a talk at a big birthday conference for some big names in my field. Talk about scary! I'm going to talk about the stuff with V and Tyler, but I'm not really sure what to even say. How odd! I've been thinking about this for months, but I'm not certain how to make a "sexy" talk out of it.

Dinner Party Time

2007-01-22T18:11:00.000-05:00

Last night, my friends from the UVA math department came to my apartment to make dinner. We made a pork loin (with some electronic help from Teena), polenta, and Brussels sprouts. I'm actually a big fan of all three of these (though I might cut back on pork, having seen a show on Discovery about industrial / "inorganic" pig farms), and it was really nice to just hang out and chat while cooking. It was one of the things I really missed from grad school. It was still different, but it was also really nice to do something social like that. An additional plus is that I spent a good bit of time cleaning the apartment. What a great change!

Continuing my theme of doing things I said I would, today I bit the bullet and filled out the application form to volunteer a local hospice. I've wanted to do this for a long time, and while sitting around this afternoon, doing little besides confuse myself royally work-wise, I filled out the two page form. Weirdly, though, they asked for my social security number. I just made one up, using the prefix for railroad workers (700-729). We'll see what they use it for.

In equally exciting news, I have almost all of this years tax forms! Because I put the VAST majority of my fall salary into my 403(b) (choosing to live off of savings et al instead), I should get a HUGE refund from the Fed this year. That'll be nice. Once my last W-2s arrive, I'll get that all squared away. Good times!

That's about it. I'm going to head to the gym (again, trying to get in better shape). I'm thinking about joining a yoga class. While at Stanford, I went with Chris to his yoga class. It was a fantastic work-out, and I realized that I kinda miss doing it. On a "huh" note, there was a guy there who, rather than wearing work-out clothing, just took off his jeans and practiced in his boxer briefs. How curious. I'm also thinking of maybe hiring a trainer for a few sessions. I know, crazy talk, since I acted as a personal trainer for so long at MIT (without payment OR gratitude, I might add). It'd be nice to have some more varied work-outs that I can pick and choose from. Plus I think I've plateaued. I'm definitely still getting stronger. I am just not gaining any definition / size / mass / weight. I can also talk with them about what I eat.

Stanford!

2007-01-13T14:21:00.000-05:00

I'm currently sitting in the computer lab on the third floor of the Stanford math department. I'm here both for a conference and to visit Chris Douglas, a friend from grad school. I've never actually been to California, so it's an interesting trip. I'm staying in a little apartment about 25 minutes (walking) from campus. It's cute and quiet and the second one I've been in since I arrived on Thursday night (the first had a gas leak). The conference is going pretty well, and I'm seeing lots of friends from all over.

Before coming here, I spent almost a week with my grandmother in Sanibel, FL. She didn't come see us for Christmas this year, so it was nice to get to see her down there during my break. Sadly, though, my computer decided that it was done with doing things like "working" and it's now on it's last legs. It takes 40 minutes to boot up! I think that there is some kind of hardware problem, but I haven't had the time to get it fixed. Of course it happens while I'm on vacation! Any suggestions for new computers? I think I'm suddenly in the market...

Anyway, that's about it. Tim is still in San Diego for a trial, and he'll be there through February [!!]. Mom and Dad are getting ready for their trip to Hawaii and then to Australia, and so far as I know, my sister is still working at Apple. Good times!

Last Full Day in Boston

2007-01-04T10:45:00.000-05:00

I'm sitting in the MIT computer lab on the second floor, enjoying my last full day in Boston. Tomorrow, both Tim and I leave for warmer climes: he to San Diego for a trial, I to Florida to visit my grandmother, then to Stanford for a conference. Good times! It's a little crazy, actually. He will be in San Diego for a month!

Today is gonna be kinda hectic. Teena has graciously agreed to kitty-sit for me. Tim and I really worried for a while about what to do with Issy, and then when Teena arrived at my new year's party, the answer became obvious since Issy instantly adored her! Normally she is kinda shy, but she ran straight to Teena. She must have a way with animals. I mean, look how she handles all of us?

It's funny how much more I wanted to do during my visit here. Time really slid away from me.

I got new glasses! My old ones were a little beat-up (from that time I got beat up), so it's nice to have ones that don't have small (and big) cracks. I can look a little less like a mathematician and more like the fashion plate you all want me to be.

New Year, New Resolutions

2007-01-01T19:20:00.000-05:00

I'm back!

I'm currently in Boston, having finished up the semester at UVA. Both of my classes went well, and I'm only teaching one in the spring (on Tuesday, Thursday, no less). My students were really great, and I met lots of nice people through teaching.

I made a new website. I downloaded Dreamweaver, but since I don't have the $200+ to spend on the student version, I just got a trial version for one month. I did learn some HTML tricks, though, by watching how Dreamweaver generated code to match what I wanted.

I also have some new resolutions for this year. You'll be happy to know that I didn't complete even a single resolution this past year. Go me! On a random sample: I actually lost weight (go me, gaining "10 pounds"), I didn't read a single book in French, I blogged "ever week", I didn't work as much as I wanted, I am still never on time, and I am still a terrible friend.

This year, I'm going to have some more realistic ones, I hope.

Work more. Ideally still every day, but we all know that won't happen. I'd be happier with most work days.
Do more social things with my friends at UVA. I run the risk always of being a home body. While at MIT, Teena kept that from happening by having lots of parties and stuff. It hasn't really happened there. I did, however, just e-mail my friends there, asking them if we could have weekly dinner parties there. We'll see!
Be healthier. I'd still like to gain 10 pounds (well, now 12, since I lost 2 pounds). I want to actually eat healthier, and perhaps be vegetarian for at least a month (probably not for life).
Be a better friend! What a perpetual resolution for me. One time it might stick...
Learn a new language. I'm leaning towards Arabic or perhaps ASL. I think I can take classes at UVA for free, so that's probably my best bet.
Piano.

That's it. If I remember to `blog more again, I will try to include updates about my resolutions. No promises!

Change

2006-09-05T13:52:00.000-04:00

So this past week has been a busy one. I taught and all the usual junk. That was mundane. Then on Friday, I flew up to Boston during the last gasps of a hurricane. Well, I was lucky to get off the ground, and admittedly, it was on a totally different flight than the one on which I was booked. Tim was flying in from NYC (he no longer works for the Senatrix, so calling him my Senate Contact is disingenuous. I considered calling him my Legal Counsel, but I might just stick with actual names from now on). He arrived at Logan shortly after I did, so we shared a cab to his place.

And what did I find walking to his apartment? My bike was stolen! Yes, my beloved bike, my 12th birthday present, the one I gave to Tim and locked up outside of his apartment was stolen within a week of my putting it there. The funny thing is that it has been left in Central Square for months before I moved it to the North End, and it was safe as could be there.

My trip had two goals: first, to see Tim before his trial down in Marshall, TX, and second, to collect Iseult and move her to her new home, my apartment. Both went smashingly well, though on Saturday, I did try a JD drink that left my mouth numb (add that to the list of booze I can't have). On Sunday morning, Tim flew back to NYC, and I met with Teena to serve lunch at Rosie's. It was super fun! She is as crazy as ever, as indicated by the fact that she and I wore the SAME OUTFIT. I was glad to see her.

The dual to my bike being stolen happened at the very end of the trip. While struggling with the kitty on the plane, I left my iPod in the seat pocket in front of me. I realized it not 10 minutes later, and I spoke with the people at the lost and found / baggage customer support. They sent someone to look at the plane, but it was already gone. Stolen just like that. It's my own fault, and I feel stupid for leaving it on the plane, but I also feel really bad, not only about losing it so foolishly but also about losing a gift from my parents.

So that's it. Other things are just incidental (like how I moved to Virginia) or amusing to me (like how I was hit on the head by a wasp fighting a cicada). Maybe I'll fill in more of those later.

Surrender

2006-05-14T16:40:00.000-04:00

That's it. I give up. I've lost my war on High Fructose Corn Syrup. It was bad when my favorite sweets had it. Soda was also a little tough. But to find out that not only most juices but also most yogurts and my favorite cookies? That was the last straw.

So I'm hopping off the wagon. There is no reason for me to give up something so clearly bad for me but also such a staple in the America diet. When I become a brittle diabetic like my great grandmother was, we'll all know why. It won't be my crappy diet. It'll be because of HFCS.

On a happier note, I found a worm on the street yesterday! I've been looking for a while, since I wanted some to put in my windowbox garden and maybe into my compost "heap" (bucket). It's currently safe in my large planter, and I hope it makes everything grow extra large. We'll see!

Not much else to report. I am sure I'm forgetting loads of exciting stories (like how there is no internet at my apartment any more, so I am stuck not surfing the web!), but that's just the way it goes. If I remember more, and I'm near a computer, I'll write again later.

Eye Blisters, Lazy Days, and Dad's Woes

2006-05-12T09:36:00.000-04:00

So I'm up super early today. It is becoming a depressing habit. Today I had to get up to get my lazy self to the eye doctor for an 8:30 AM appointment. What on EARTH was I thinking when I made that? I ended up there because I had what can only be described as a blister on my eyeball! I didn't know such a thing could happen, but it can and did. Long story short, it is completely harmless and it's going away on its own. The moral of the story is "don't rub your eyes!"

Last night I did a focus group. I'd never done one before, but you sit around and people ask you really boring questions that are pretty repetitive. There were about 8 of us, and after an hour and a half, they let us go, giving us checks for $75! I'm certainly going to keep going to these, whenever they'll take me. Money like that is pretty good!

My Erstwhile Senate Contact has a brand new job offer at a law firm. I'm excited that he's found something new so quickly, rebounding from the crazy skank he used to work for. It seems like a good position for him too, since he is thinking about starting law school next fall. The down side is that it is in Boston, which means that he won't be moving closer to where I'll be next year. We'll just have to see how things play out. Que sera, sera, right?

Things are not so good with my dad now. He's been having some trouble with his functional memory for a while now (ie he asked me every day when I was home about the March of the Penguins DVD, never remembering that he had even asked before). He finally got a battery for testing done, and the doctor told him that in no way was he capable to return to work. Long story short, my dad is now retired and has filed a claim for his disability insurance. I hope things work out OK for them, since I know that those claims can take a long time to process (since insurance companies are thieves). He saw a neurologist up here, and though the guy started out a bit skeptical, he really changed his tune and seems to accept that something is really wrong with my dad. He named two diseases: Early Onset Alzheimers and Frontal Temporal Dementia. Both are pretty bad (no real treatments, etc), and both are heritable. We'll see how that all plays out. He is taking everything pretty well, but Mom is a total wreck. I hope that they start getting some good news, or at least their disability comes through.

That's it! No pictures this time. I should have taken some of my eye, but of course, I completely forgot!

Defendu

2006-05-01T17:21:00.000-04:00

Real quick post today: I just successfully defended my thesis. I'm a free man now!

A "Wicked" Good Time

2006-04-15T23:39:00.000-04:00

Tonight I went with my dear Senate Contact and his friends from high school to see the musical "Wicked". I know, there is something delightfully appropriate about me seeing a musical, since I'd been singing them for years, but only to myself. It was a fantastic show! At times it was a little sad, but that's one of the things that made it a good show. I recommend it to anyone who has the gumption to go.

Today I also made a little money: I sold a TON of books today to Harvard Bookstore. I realized a few days ago that I will be moving from Cambridge in a few short months, and the more stuff I can get rid of, the easier that will be. I made almost $150, and I got rid of a bunch of things I just don't want anymore. Win-win! It made me a little sad, in truth, to realize that soon I won't be living in Cambridge anymore. I've been here since Fall of 1998. It's a terribly long time, but it really has begun to feel like home here. It scares me a little to think that pretty soon I'll be in a totally different environment. I hope it is as fun and as eventful as my time here has been.

Tomorrow is Easter.

I'll write tomorrow, I guess, about my trip to Sanibell. It was a very emotional experience, and while I was there, I actually composed an entire post one evening. Since there wasn't any internet, I didn't bother sending it. More importantly, the act of composing it, albeit in my head, was quite cathartic. But more on all that when I write it up. I've even got cute stories about baby raccoons!

My Trip to FL!

2006-03-29T20:04:00.000-05:00

So I decided to take a bit of a break from the bitter cold and not-so-spring weather of New England, and, taking advantage of MIT's generous spring break, I went down to Sanibel island to visit my grandmother. When she picked me up, we spent some time trying to remember when I had last visited. There was an awkward pause when we realized that I hadn't been there in over 11 years. But more on that later. First the fun stories.

My first night there, Grandma and I went to a wine tasting at the Captiva Yacht Club. There was some really delicious food, and the wines were spectacular. I was designated driver, so I only had a small amount. Luckily, I don't really drink much anyway, so I didn't feel like I had lost out on too much. What struck me most was the cost: $100 per person! Grandma doesn't mind such things, and since it was for charity, she minded even less. Ah, to live that life.

The next day, I spent most of my time just relaxing. In the evening, I took a very relaxing bike ride (almost 10 miles). I went to the Ding Darling Sanctuary, and biked around on their trails. While there, I actually stumbled upon a very cute scene, and this ties into the best story from the trip: my baby raccoon story!

I first saw the momma raccoon sniffing the ground on the side of the path. I didn't want to scare her, but I also wanted to see better (and eventually pass her). I slowly walked forward. She saw me, and tried to distract me by sauntering off into the brush. That's when I realized that she was leaning over a tiny baby raccoon. It was so small that it didn't really have the thick raccoon coat. It had only a soft downy coat! I guess she decided that I wasn't a real threat, since she soon came back. This time, she brought with her a young one! She had evidently decided that it was time for her to check on her littlest one. I started to get a little concerned myself, since the little one wasn't moving that much. I have a soft spot for raccoons, since they are just so cute with their little masks and tiny paws. You just don't get much more adorable. The mom and older sibling circled the little one for a while, making a really cute purring noise and chirping at each other. I'd never heard raccoons make any noises, so this came as a bit of a surprise to me. Eventually, Mom and the older one decided it was time to go into the bushes. This gave me the chance to get closer to the little one. Again, I worried it might be ill, and if it were, I would have gone back to alert the workers at the sanctuary. I'd assume they can do things to help them, besides "take them behind the shed". The baby looked at me a little bit, and then, miracle of miracles, it hopped up, stretched a little, and wandered into the bushes, chirping for its mom! I was pretty happy that the little guy was doing ok, and I hope that it continues to do well!

The next day, Grandma had some functions in the morning because of her patronage of the various charities on the island, so I was left to my own devices. I decided to take another bike ride, and this time, I went between 25 and 30 miles! It was outrageous. I rode for many hours, all over the island. It was really nice to just be outside in the warm sun for a good bit of time. I had lunch with Grandma when I returned, and then we went to the shell museum. There is a brick in their parking lot dedicated to Grandpa, and Grandma also dedicated an exhibit to him in the museum. It was nice to see it. The museum was really cute too. I'd never been before, and I'm glad I went. I'd always enjoyed shelling, and there were some really interesting specimens.

Wednesday was my last day on the island. In truth, it might be my last time there ever, which makes it all the more bitter-sweet. Grandma and I went to another preserve where we walked on some trails for much of the morning. After lunch, she drove me the long way back to the airport, and I headed home. It was a really nice trip, and if it is the last time I go to that island, it will be a sweet closing to a sizable portion of my young life.

So now I might as well close with why I'd not been there in so long. It's not the most exciting or positive story. My grandfather died of a brain tumor on March 1st of 1995. It was somewhat unexpected, but there were lots of signs. I'd known of some of them, but Grandma told me a lot more of what she'd seen when she and I talked about my previous trip to Sanibel. I wasn't there when he died (mainly because he had flown to Baton Rouge to be closer to my family during his treatment), but I had visited the Thanksgiving before. That's when I saw that he was having troubles. We'd gone out to dinner one night, perhaps Thanksgiving itself, and when we got back in the car, Grandpa started it, put it in gear, and then couldn't find the break. The car started to roll towards a small bay behind the restaurant, and finally Grandma screamed at him about it, and he managed to get his food on the break pedal. I knew that he'd had some neurological testing recently, and I spoke with my mom about him being unable to find the break. It struck me as a little odd. She called his neurologist that night, and his neurologist pulled my grandfather's driver's license.

While my grandmother is a very good driver and was a good driver at the time, Grandpa did all of the driving when we were all together. They were very angry when they found out that I had told Mom, who in turn told the neurologist, who in turn pulled the license, and there was a huge fight lasting for the rest of the trip. There was a lot of yelling (all one sided, since I didn't really have any retort), and I never went back.

Perhaps this is why this trip meant a very great deal to me. Grandma is selling the house on Sanibel, and she's moving to a retirement community off of the island. My trip back this last time was a way of saying good by to a place that had a very great many memories. Some of them were very good. Some of them were not. I think that by having a good time these few days, I helped harmonize those feelings inside me, and just remember pleasantly the good times I had.

Declaration of War

2006-03-21T22:09:00.000-05:00

Our corn and sweets industry has perpetuated food terrorism against the American people for far too long. I'm here to ask that you stand by my side and stand up to their horrible fat building machine. You all know me. I've sat next to you in many classes. I've rambled insanely next to you on various street corners. I've organized conferences you've attended, and I've injured myself skiing in front of you. After much thought, I've decided that the most important battle facing us is against Big Corn. That's right: it's time we go to war against HIGH FRUCTOSE CORN SYRUP.

This has been brewing for a while. Recent studies have shown that mice (honest to God MICE, people!) put on more fat when fed diets with calories coming from high fructose corn syrup rather than diets with calories coming from sugar, even if the mice ate fewer total calories! I'm normally not concerned with the outrageous media debacle that is "Obesity in America", but the lessons garnered from the sacrifices of these brave mice cannot be ignored.

So I ask that you join me in no longer consuming products sweetened with high fructose corn syrup. This is actually a little trickier than you might think. This rules out pretty much any soda made in the states (though European sodas are sweetened with sugar instead). It's also ruling out most forms of candy (which is why I might have to "grandfather" in certain candies like cadbury cream eggs, to which I have an addiction for which I am seeking treatment. One day at a time). Obviously, things like fresh fruit are still ok, but sadly, it costs a large bit more. This is the price the people must pay to spread thin freedom.

Join me, my friends. Join Operation Enduring Thinness. Fight the battle of the bulge by cutting out that horrible high fructose corn syrup.

Settling Back Down

2006-03-11T14:09:00.000-05:00

I apologize for my lack of posts of late. It's been a very hectic couple of weeks! A quick recap:

Three weeks ago, I went to Notre Dame to give a talk and talk with people there. I got some great ideas for future projects, and I got to spend a little time with my friend C.R. Now few people may recall, but this friendship was instrumental in the formation of the Talbot Conference. This made it all the nicer to see him, especially since two days after I returned to Boston, I headed to North Conway, NH to attend said conference. It lasted a week, during which time I gave a talk, attended a few, skied a bit, fell down, tubed a bit, and chilled in the hot tub. Quite an amusing time, all told. I returned home, a bit exhausted, on Saturday, and on Sunday, I hopped on a plane to go to Baltimore to give a talk at Johns Hopkins. Since I'd been on the road for so long, I only stayed a few days. I did, however, have a fantastic time there, meeting really nice people and talking with old colleagues. On Tuesday, I returned home, hopefully to stay for a bit.

Truth be told, I'm kinda traveled out. I should go down to FL to visit my grandmother, but I'm not exactly sure when I can schedule that. I'm just really beat! Plus, with each passing day, my thesis weighs a little more on me. What makes it all the harder is that I've got a number of projects just boiling away in the back of my mind, none of which I can work on until the thesis is done! With Cherry Bomb's help, though, I was able to put my various parts and papers into the required format for MIT. That seems to be a good bit of the work, since now I can focus on things like the introduction and polishing things. One of my goals for this weekend is to find all of the things that I must prove before I can turn it in. Ugh!

Speaking of weekend goals, I've already accomplished one: setting up my windowbox garden! I have two small planters that sit on my porch, and today I turned over the soil, ripped out all of the dead plants (burying them in the hopes that they become mini-compost), bought seeds, and planted them! I also filled an extra flower pot I had with the last of my potting soil (which has lasted me 3 years), making a bit of extra space. In the large box, I planted some small tomatoes, some sage, and some rosemary. In the small box, I planted thyme, and in the pot, I planted lavender. I think that the pot will mainly stay inside, so it seemed like a nice addition. I'm excited about this, since I really like gardening, and it's finally warm enough for me to get things started. I hope the weather holds out.

I'm a little behind on my reading. Since my last post, I've only read one book: Ptolemy's Gate. It's the last in the series of books I'd `blogged about earlier, and I think that it was in many ways better than the earlier ones. At times it dragged along, but like many of the books I most enjoy, it is essentially a big tale of redemption.

I'm sure there are huge things I am missing. I can only say that much of my brain has gone to mush in the last few weeks. I'm sleeping so deeply at this point that even my Senate Contact's kitty has trouble waking me up. When everything is back to normal in my life, then I should be more on my game!

Long, long week

2006-02-24T18:06:00.000-05:00

It's been a long week. This past weekend, I was down in NYC visiting A.R. She's got a really cute little apartment, and she was kind enough to let me stay. On Saturday, we just wandered around the city, even though it was freezing cold. On Sunday, we went to the Cloisters. I'd never been, and it was amazing. Historically, I've considered medieval art "busted". This proved just how wrong I had been, and how crappy the earlier samples I'd seen are. The art was really beautiful, and I was quite moved.

Monday I flew out to Chicago and took a train to Notre Dame. It was funny being in Chicago, since last time I was there, I was hoping to be there for good, and this time I knew I wouldn't be. Guess that's just life, and there's probably a big lesson here, but I'm not bright enough to see it. Anyway, I was staying with my friend C.R. at his condo. Really cute place! He and I have pretty much the same taste in a lot of things, so we get along like a house on fire. On Tuesday morning, I gave my talk there (the same one I'd given in the fall at various places), and then I spent the rest of the day making up things to talk with the faculty there about. It was a good time. Wednesday saw more of the same, and then Thursday I spent the ENTIRE DAY traveling back to Boston. Today has been a whirlwind tour to get last minute things organized for Talbot which starts on Sunday. Wow. So next week I will be out of town until Friday or Saturday. I should know this sort of thing, but, well, again, I'm not so on top of things. Then on Sunday, I'm flying to Johns Hopkins to give a talk on Monday. After that, I should be settled back at MIT, at least for a few days, though my grandmother wants me to visit her at the end of March, and I need to go down to UVA at some point to see the place.

Now I just need to find some time for my thesis.

I did read a book while on the road: The Darkness that Comes Before. It took me a while to get into it, and it's a bit of a long read, but I enjoyed it after a time. I can't recommend it as highly as, say, Memories of Ice, but it is a good read.

What a Long, Strange Week It's Been

2006-02-09T14:34:00.000-05:00

At the prompting of Miss Meena G., I am posting. It turns out that her comments come at the most appropriate time, since it's been a full week since my last posting! And what a week it has been.

Here are the good things:

T.G. returned from Cali! It's been great to have her back around the department, since it gets a little slow around here without her crazy antics!
My Senate Contact and I went "night skiing" last weekend. It was crazy fun! I mean, sure, it was rainy, but it wasn't very cold. I got to break in my new skis, and I didn't fall down at all! Of course, I was soaked to the bone by the time I got done, and I ended up changing clothes in the muddy parking lot of the ski place, but still, it was a really great time!
Following up on that, we are going on a minivacation tomorrow for my Birthday (observed and actual)! We are driving out to Vermont (not Maine, as I had previously thought), heading to a condo near Sugarbush. I've never been there, but it should be really great. On Saturday we will be skiing, and then on Sunday, we'll snowshoe and sled. Talk about fun!
I got a job offer from UVA! It is a really good school, with opportunities for both me and my Senate Contact. I'm really excited about it, and I have until Monday to let them know my decision. Looks good, though!

Now the not as good things:

I didn't get an NSF. What a downer that was. A real kick in the gut. But I'm over it now.
I didn't get an offer from Northwestern (yet?). I understood their reasons, and I appreciated how up front they have been with me. I'd just always imagined my next step would be the Chicago area.

So all told, the good things outweigh the bad, so it's been a good week!

Oh, forgot to add. I've read two more books, both of which are part of the same trilogy:

I found them quite amusing, so if you've nothing better to do for an afternoon, pick them up! It's like Harry Potter, but a little simpler and a good bit edgier.

Lest people complain, I am also reading a book in French. I'd never read Le Petit Prince before, and since it was on my shelf, and since I am slowly getting back into the whole "reading French" thing, it seemed like a logical choice. Very cute story, but at times, quite weird.

Happy Groundhog's Day!

2006-02-02T14:22:00.000-05:00

How exciting. Another tradition based around animals seeing things that aren't really there. Come to think of it, I guess most holidays fall into this category...

Not much on the news front. I did a shift at Samaritans this morning. That was nice. I haven't been on the phones since becoming a Homeleader, and it was interesting to get back into the swing of things. I think I'll try to do one shift a month or so.

Speaking of volunteering, here's a question for you, my two readers: should I start volunteering at a hospice? It seems to be important work, and though it can be difficult, I don't know how much worse it could be than some of the calls I've taken at Sams.

OH. Tax form update. My 1099s have all arrived! I've decided that ING is going to only send the one, and since it's incomplete, well, too bad for them. It'll just increase my chance of getting audited, which is, of course, fine. Thank god for impeccable records / crippling OCD. I also have 2 of my 3 W-2s. The one missing is from ... H&R Block. They are thieves, so I wouldn't be surprised if they weren't going to report my income and keep the $100 in taxes they skimmed from me. After that arrives, I'll be all set. My 1098-T came too, so that'll save me a bundle. It's unclear if I'll be getting a refund.

Speaking of all things financial, I still haven't heard from the NSF!

Today I get to pick up my skis! I'm driving to the State House to get my Senate Contact at 5pm, and we are going to drive down to Dedham to pick them up. I'm pretty excited. Since he has to stay in town this weekend for work reasons, we are thinking of going night skiing on Saturday. How delightful!

End of an Era

2006-01-29T22:01:00.000-05:00

Tonight I finished the last of the Farscape DVDs from the 4 seasons. I'd already seen the miniseries that wraps everything up, so as of now, I've seen all of the episodes. Man, I am super bummed that Sci-Fi channel decided not to have another season of Farscape way back when, choosing instead to show innumerable, crappy, made for TV D grade movies. At least I can now see what all the fuss was about when people complained. I also decided to bite the bullet and just rewatch the mini-series finale. It should arrive on Wednesday.

Now I am at a loss. I signed up for Netflix just so I could watch Farscape. Now sure, I've gotten probably 44 DVDs from them, and since I've paid much less than the $220 or so that would have cost me to get them at Blockbuster, it is a good deal. Now I'll just have to try and find other things of interest in their 50,000 DVD library. Suggestions?

I do have some fun news for today. My Senate Contact and I went to finally complete my ski purchase. I got boots, bindings, and poles! I was stunned by how expensive they are. It really surprised me. I did manage to get a pretty good deal, though. I got $400 boots for $100, and my bindings were around $80. This means that all told, I spent about $300 for over $1,000 worth of equipment. I'm pretty happy with it. I'm REALLY glad to be getting it now, too, since for my birthday, my Senate Contact and I are going to Maine to go skiing. I've actually never been to Maine (such a shameful confession, I know), and I've never been skiing with him (not as surprising, since I always used his skis). It's gonna be really fun, and I'm super excited. For those who've "forgotten", my birthday is the second Friday of February. This year that happens to be the 10th. So terribly soon.

On the topic of Birthdays, today is Good Uncle H's birthday. He postulated that "psychological time goes as 1/n". I have noticed that things pass much quicker now. I can only imagine what things will be like when I too am just a little older...

Rebate Mania

2006-01-25T14:04:00.000-05:00

Just a quick post today, since I am currently trying to get even more work done (one of my projects has become a nightmare of work, bringing the total number of those to two. ugh). I know, it's a little scary for me too, kids. But I did want to quick put out a plug for the website SlickDeals.net. I found this place during one of my many daily perusings of Money.com and money.msn.com, and it seems to be nice and legit. I write because today I decided to give it a whirl.

A while ago, I looked at Restaurants.com, a website that sells coupons for $25 or more of food at various local restaurants for around $10 each. This site has gotten really good reviews, so I figured I'd give it a try. Today, SlickDeals had a coupon for 60% off your order. This seemed too good to pass up, so I got $75 worth of coupons to restaurants which I've actually gone to before (and enjoyed, thankfully), for ... $12. This seems like a pretty good deal. Even better? Since I have a Citibank Dividends Reward Card, I get an additional 10% back from purchases at Restaurants.com. Score one for the "saving more money" team. Well, that is, assuming I use it.

Painted Potter & Pie!

2006-01-22T11:57:00.000-05:00

Yesterday I hung out with E.Q. and E.B. at the infamous 1369 Coffee House in Central Sq. This is a frequent haunt of the notorious J.N.K.F., and sure enough, he was there with his friend Cotton Gin. Now, I was elated to meet said appliance, since there was a bit of history between him and *name withheld to protect "innocence"*. He was quite nice, but I was there to see the E's, not him.

After sharing a bit of a cookie, we went to Bob Slate, my favorite store in Harvard Square. I've been trying to learn how to cook more things (cf my new year's resolutions), and I thought that it might be nice to have a little book of the recipies that I like best. I got a Clairefontaine quadrille notebook, since I really like the feel of them. E.Q. called me a nerd for getting this rather than an actual recipie book, but, well, I gotta get what I'll use.

Checking this errand off my mental list reminded me that I needed to pick up my pottery. I took the Number 1 bus to Naked Clay, the paint your own pottery studio mentioned before. I collected my tea pot and A.J.'s flower pot. They look quite nice, if I do say so myself!

Clearly, I got this all uploaded. I should also probably continue, explaining the title. My Senate Contact returned today from DC (he'd gone to visit some friends). One of the few things that I know how to cook is a chess pie, and since I know that he enjoys it, I made one for him yesterday. I don't think this one is as good, and I'm not entirely sure why (maybe the eggs were old?), but it still tasted really delicious. But then again, I am just tooting my own horn here.

On the tax front, I have not received a single W-2 form. I am quite disappointed. I'm also missing at least 2 1099-INT forms, 2 1099-B forms, and a 1098-T. Without these things, I can't complete my taxes! January is almost over, and I am adrift!!

Reading Rainbow

2006-01-19T13:25:00.000-05:00

So I've kept to at least one of my resolutions: reading more. The working every day is a close second, since I have been going in a bit. I was slightly derailed of late, simply because my mom came to visit the past few days! It was really great to have her here, and we just pretty much sat around and caught up. It was a nice time for both of us, I think.

Here is what I have read so far this year:

Memories of Ice
This is the third book in a very lengthy series of fantasy books. I very much enjoyed the first two, and this one was no exception.
The Wrong Side of Paris I was astounded by how this Balzac novel moved me. It is a very pretty tale that cuts right into my heart.
Looking for Jake I've loved this author's longer fiction, so I wanted to try his short stories. They were quite entertaining, but nothing compared to the first two.

I've also been thinking of reviving my long dormant / quondam bookclub. Any comments about whether this should be done?

Return to Blogtopia

2006-01-09T12:36:00.000-05:00

And so I'm back. From `blogging space...

I've gotten a number of comments from people about how my `blog has been void of posts for a while. Well, tough! Actually, I've decided to try and post at least once a week this year. Clearly, I'm off to a good start, but I'm going to hopefully pick up speed with this.

My friends A.J. and A.L. came to visit me. He came for a conference, so I saw much less of him, but she came pretty much to see people around here (including me!). We went to paint pottery, and they told me, "Call after Monday, and we'll be able to tell you when we'll be firing your stuff". What service. I was really excited about their visit, since it gets kinda lonely around here without any of my MIT friends.

I also made some New Year's Resolutions! They are all quite exciting, of course, and here goes:

Work Related

Work every work day.
Be on time.
Use my calendar.

Financial Stuff

Waste less food.
Save more $$ each month.
Donate more $$ and things.
Cook once per week or more.
Bring lunch more.

Personal Ones

Write more often to friends.
Try one new thing each week.
`Blog & journal once per week.
Read 1 book a week, and 1 foreign language book a month.
Keep apartment clean.
Take piano lessons.
Gain 10 pounds.

See? Not that much that I want to do. Just a few, little things that might make my life a little better. If all goes well, it'll make me a better person too!

Tax Free Weekend

2005-08-14T19:45:00.000-04:00

Wow. So this past weekend, the state of Massachusetts (well, really the Commonwealth) decided to have a sales tax holiday: any item under $2500 was tax free. Amazing! To ramp up sales a little more, pretty much every store I visited had additional sales. I didn't really end up spending too much. It was pretty much what I expected, give or take.

Here's what I got:

1. Skis! At REI I found a really nice pair of skis for $105. Since they were originally marked at $400, it seems like a pretty good deal. I still need to get bindings and boots, but that shouldn't be too hard. I can just use tape and sneakers!

2. Bike stuff. My bike tires have been flat for about 4 years, so I got them fixed. I also got a helmet and a new lock. My Senate Contact lives just up the street from me, and it is an easy bike ride.

3. An iPod Mini for my Senate Contact. His b-day is coming up.

My Senate Contact also bought a new mattress. He has a bed, but didn't have the mattress yet. We have to modify his bed slightly, but that should just be fun. It will be coming on Sunday.

So I did my part, helping spend money while keeping it from the state. Go America!

Call to Arms

2005-08-12T16:41:00.000-04:00

So I've decided to form a team for the Samaritans 5K walk this fall. I would love people to join up or make pledges. The walk is on October 1st. Let me know if you are interested in either walking or giving. I'm really excited about this!

Ice Cream, Movie, & Lake George

2005-08-12T11:11:00.000-04:00

Ice Cream:

I am a fan of ice cream. A huge fan of ice cream. I've been trying new flavors whenever I get a chance. When I was in Vietnam last August, I tried a few new flavors: green sticky rice & green beans. I had never had a vegetable flavored ice cream before (red bean and green tea don't count), and it was delicious. A few weeks ago, my Senate Contact and I stopped by J. P. Licks, and I had cucumber ice cream! It was delicious too. I recommend it. Then, about a week or so later, I brought to a Tuesday night dinner corn flavored ice cream. Talk about an interesting and subtle flavor. It had a very subtle flavor and texture. Go for it, if you have a chance. Christina's has another winner with it.

Movie:

Murderball. My friend A. R. dated the director of this amazing film for many years. The director is a great guy, and his movie is moving, gripping, and inspirational. The players have more moxie than anyone I've actually met. The game itself is amazing. I recommend to everyone to get out there and see this movie. Immediately and without delay.

Lake George:

This past weekend, my Senate Contact & I went up to Lake George to visit my family and to have a break from the Sturm-und-drang of life in Boston. It was fantastic. The water was delightfully warm, as indicated by the fact that I myself went swimming! Even better? My Senate Contact took a plunge off Calves' Pen, a rocky cliff over a deep hole. I haven't ever done it, so I was impressed. We then took a boatnic on Saturday, swimming and wandering around the rocks.

On Sunday, we took out the kayak, paddled around the island and the small bays on either side of the causeway.
We took the motorboat out to the club, and on the way home, my Senate Contact took the helm and we went South for a bit instead of North. After getting home, we helped set up Grandma's party, and then we took out the Sunfish. My Senate Contact had never been sailing, so Mom gave him a few pointer, then we took out in the boat. He did a great job! We had a good time sailing around for a while. He fell in once (caught unawares by the main sheet), but we never capsized. I thought he did really well for his first time.

All told, it was a really great weekend. I am glad we went, as we had some time to relax. Now I'm back in Boston, trying to get things all sorted out here. Life continues, even when we are away.

Where have all the postings gone...

2005-07-31T18:15:00.000-04:00

By Blogspots calculation, it's been a long time since I last posted. I can only apologize to the two people who actually read this. I'd promise to be better in the future, but I also try to minimize empty promises.

Lots and lots has happened since my last posting.
1. I saw Charlie and the Chocolate Factory.
2. I saw Puppetry of the Penis.
3. I saw March of the Penguins.
4. My Senate Contact's old roommate moved out.
5. His subletor (is this even a word?) reclaimed his belongings.
6. His new roommate moved in.
7. Cherry Bomb returned, and her boyfriend, Cap'n, came to visit.
8. Cherry Bomb and I renewed our lease.
9. I've pretty much finished my mentoring job.
10. My teaching job at Harvard is also starting to wrap up.
11. My mom visited.
12. I made plans with A. J. and A. L. to meet up at my grandmother's house.
13. I went out to the suburbs to go swimming at C. D.'s father's house.
14. I haven't done a lick of work on my project.
15. I saw a man with a snake wrapped around his neck in Central.
16. I got the new Grand Theft Auto game.
17. I made prints of some of my photos.
18. Issy (my Senate Contact's kitty) continues to be the cutest kitty ever.
19. I read Harry Potter VI after buying it at an appropriately decorated Harvard Bookstore.

That's the fast run down. I'm sure that I am forgetting most of the important things that have happened, but I'm just going to resign myself to that fact. If I get back into the habit of this, then I won't have to worry any more about that!

She is the best kitty ever!

2005-07-01T17:39:00.000-04:00

My Senate Contact's yet unnamed kitty is the best kitty I've ever met! I had forgotten how tiny she is. When I got to my SC's place, she was hiding under his bed. I'd imagined that she would stay there for most of the evening, but in fact she wandered out and climbed into my lap after a few hours hiding there. We played around with her for a while.

This morning, she crawled under the sheets and crawled around there the whole time! It was really cute.

Since my Senate Contact is spending the weekend with his family down on the cape, I'll be heading back over there this evening to make sure she continues to adjust well to her new life. If her constant purring is any indication, I'd say she's having a pretty good time!

New Addition

2005-06-30T18:30:00.000-04:00

Well. Lots has happened since my last post. I'll try to hit the important details. I realized that this `blog serves two purposes. First, it affords everyone who reads it a tiny bit of insight into my mind and life. Second, it serves as an electronic memory. Lots happens, but I remember in the end sadly little. I hope that I pick this back up again more regularly!

Most of my time at the MFO was spent attending lectures and talking to people. When I wasn't sitting in a classroom, I wandered around the Black Forest. This had some delightful consequences, especially when I started heading out on my own. I took my camera a few times, and I was richly rewarded with such finds as a baby deer, beautiful beetles, and loads of wild flowers. I tend to photograph mostly bugs and flowers. For one thing, they are easy to photograph. For another, they tend to be the things I notice first about a scene. Guess that speaks volumes about me.

After the conference finished up, I took a train with Little Red Corbett and E. M. to Mainz, a semi-industrial city on the Rhine river. We got to our hotel in the early evening, so we decided to check out the conference site. What a dump. The university at Mainz was built in this absurd 1960s blocky style. The oldest buildings are actually beautiful, harkening back to more classical styles (not a surprise, since many are original buildings in those styles), while the new ones were just terrible. Luckily, the conference was housed in some of the newer buildings. We returned to our hotel and just relaxed for a while. The next day was the conference proper, and it was, in truth, not one of the better ones I've seen. In fact, it was pretty poorly organized it seemed. We left early, and I used the time to wander around the city some. While doing so, I ran into pretty much everyone I knew there. I would leave one group of people to head off again only to run into a second group and then the first again. It was a bit of a surprise. The next day, I again wandered around the city to pass the time before my train back to Paris. I ended up going to this natural history museum where I made a complete fool of myself trying to hand money to the ticket woman in response to her saying to me in German, "Free". Hilarious.

Back in Paris, I had just about a single day to kill. I wandered around the city for a bit, and then I decided to see a movie, since it was quite hot. I went to see "Batman Begins", which I very much enjoyed, actually. It was pretty entertaining. I met up with my friend D. R. for dinner, and we went to an old staple: Cafe de l'industry. Apparently the owners have expanded a good bit, buying the space across the street from their old place, but we just stuck with what we knew and sat in what is rapidly becoming a regular spot. It was really nice to just kick back and shoot the shit for a while in French. I was psyched to see how quickly it returned to me, especially since I haven't spoken it in a long time.

Now I'm back at home. Things here have been really good. My Senate Contact and I spent a quite nice weekend down at the beach and then bumming around Boston. I managed somehow to avoid getting any color to my skin, even though we sat out in the sun for hours. Thank God for strong sunscreen! He did manage to get some sun in, and it seems that his burn is fading. Work is going fine, and in a few minutes I am due at a function where I will meet the high school students whom I am to mentor for the next month. Unspeakable joy.

Having run through all of the less exciting stories, I can get to the fun one: my Senate Contact now has a kitty! Last week, he and I went to a local animal shelter and found an adorable, tiny kitty. She is two years old, meaning that she is fully grown, but she is just slightly bigger than a kitten. I was instantly smitten with her, and as luck would have it, so was he. He talked with his landlord and squared away all of the details, and he picked her up today! After my meeting, I am going to head over there to see her in her new home. I am really excited. Kitties are my favorite.

Oberwolfach

2005-06-14T16:52:00.000-04:00

I am currently in the heart of the Black Forest in Germany, in a little town called Oberwolfach at a place called the MFO (www.mfo.de for those who are curious). It is beautiful. I'm attending a conference on "Geometric Topology with Applications to Physics". It has nothing to do with anything I actually work on, but I was invited and many of my friends and adviser are here. Plus there is little to do around here besides work. I've already worked out the details for something that had been troubling me for a while, and I plan to next work on my thesis project for a time. If what's happened so far is any indication, I'll get a good bit done. Wish me luck!

One of the really neat things about this place is that meals have assigned seating. I would have probably just sat with the other MIT kids and the Notre Dame kids. Instead, I've sat with different people each meal, meaning that I've met a lot of quite famous people in my field (none of whom anyone outside of it would know, but still, big names to me). Since it's lunch or dinner, we have the option of not talking math, so often we just end up talking about people's families or hobbies or whatnot. Quite a nice way to make things more personable.

My room is fantastic. The MFO is situated at a sort of high point in this valley, and it overlooks the rest of the valley. You can see for miles, and all around are little farms with cows or little churches. Surrounding everything is of course the Black Forest, so it's this really cute little oasis in the dense woods. Anyway, my room has a single bed, a large desk, and huge windows that open out onto a very large porch. I can also see two dairy farms from my window, so that's fun. I awoke this morning to the sound of cows!

This evening I went for a long hike with my friend from ND C. R. We walked up a trail behind the MFO, climbing the large mountain there. Well, this is a great little trip, and a great workout. We were sweating by the time we reached the top, and people who've see me after the gym know that this takes a good bit of effort. On the other hand, we left the MFO at 9 PM, so we reached the top of the mountain at about 10. It stays very light here until quite late, but by 10 PM it is getting quite dark. It is even darker in a forest, let alone the Black one, so we were almost unable to see the trail coming down!

Luckily, it wasn't so dark that I missed my new little friend: a tiny German toad! It was about 2 to 3 inches long and covered with the dry knobby skin that toads have (this is how I knew it wasn't a frog. Well, this and the fact that it was quite far from a water source). I picked it up to show C. R., but he wasn't as excited in it as I, so I just put him down. I managed to get it out of my hands (safely for it) before it peed on me (as they are want to do), so I considered it "win-win".

I've three more days here, then I am going to another conference in Mainz. I'll meet up with even more friends there, plus it'll give me a chance to show the stuff I've been working on to some people interested in it. All told, this has been a great time so far. I'll take pictures and put them up when I get home, since this place is really one people just have to see.

Another Day, Another Park

2005-06-10T11:40:00.000-04:00

So I've just returned to H. L.'s after wandering around the city for a while and seeing a lovely garden. While I am sure that I will go out again later, I'm not sure if I will get a chance to 'blog then, so it seemed best to put down now the things I remember about today and some from before.

First the old. I took the Silver line from South Station to the airport! For most people, this is mind-numbingly mundane, but for me, it was quite an experience. It was also quite an adventure for the little girl sitting behind me. She was probably two or three, and she was still so short that to get off of the Silver line, she had to sit on the step and hop off. It was really cute.

Now the new. My first order of business today was to get train tickets to Oberwolfach. H. L. had directed me to an SNCF (the French train people) office near where he lives, but it was jammed full of people when I got there. Since waiting is for losers, I hopped on the nearest Metro (after buying a day pass for 5.30€. So much less than in Boston) and went to Gare de L'Est. I managed to buy my tickets for the first two trains, but they told me that to get the last leg, I'll need to stop by a ticket window in Germany. Still, not too shabby.

Having finished my pressing business items, I grabbed some lunch in the Latin quarter and headed out to le Jardin des Serres d'Auteuil (the garden of the greenhouses of Auteuil). This is a beautiful little park which I found out about on the plane, reading this article about REM's favorite spots in Paris. Man, were they right! There were very few tourists, and the whole place is a collection of 19th / early 20th century greenhouses surrounded by beautiful gardens. Even better? Since I went in early June, everything was in bloom. I have some pictures of flowers which I've never seen before, as well as picures of more mundane things like buildings and trees. They also had some really neat plants, some of which have super complicated life cycles. For example, one plant reauires a bug called a heironymph (or something) to crawl into its fig and lay eggs. The bug's eggs hatch and the nymphs mature and breed in the fig. The males die off and the females crawl out of the fig, getting covered in pollen, and fly off to other figs to repeat the cycle. Kinda complicated. If this were Kansas, I'd be screaming "intelligent design!"

Tomorrow I'll probably see a park on the other side of Paris. There also seems to be a French version of the museum exhibit "Gross!" about the human body and fun, kinda nasty facts about it. I'd read about this on CNN, so it might be cute to visit. It's not quite the sqme as visiting NY for the Gates in Central Park, but close enough for the likes of me.

As a quick final comment, I got my hands on a copy of the EU's constitution. I was expecting something like that of the States. Nope. It's hundreds of pages of dense legalese and internal references. No wonder people rejected it. It's impossible to understand what's going on!

I'm in Paris!

2005-06-10T03:33:00.000-04:00

Quick note before I head out on the town. I'm back in Paris for a few days. I'm leaving here on Sunday for Germany, where I will spend a week at a conference at a place called Oberwolfach (it means something like "above the black forest"). It's nice to be back in Paris, since I haven't been here in months. Actually, I might not have been here in over a year. I'm staying with A. W.'s boyfriend, H. L. in an apartment which was occupied by another friend of mine before H. L. moved in. It's really cute, and he has done a lot with it.

Yesterday was my big travel day. I arrived in Paris a little after 7 AM, and I immediately went to change $ to €. The woman in line in front of me was taking for ever to exchange her 50€ note, and then I realized that the problem was that the teller didn't thing that it was a real note! She showed it to the other tellers, and then agreed, so she sent the woman on her way. I'd thought something a little fishy was going on, since the woman was "talking on her cellphone" but not making any noise...

I made it to H. L.'s apartment without inscident, and I took a brief nap after firing off a few e-mails to let people back home know I'd arrived safely. After sleeping for a bit, I went for a long walk around the western part of Paris with H. L., window shopping and visiting little parks. Today he has class, so I am going to wander around a good bit more, maybe seeing some other parks along the way.

Amazing

2005-05-28T10:01:00.000-04:00

I am still blown away by how great the U2 concert was. They performed for almost 2 and a half hours, playing all of the songs I hoped to hear plus a bunch of new stuff (Well, new to me). We had really great seats too. We were at the very front of the balcony at the Boston Garden, pretty much perfectly level with the front of the stage. This meant we could see everything! The music was loud enough that I could feel the bass rippling through me, and at times it felt like the whole balcony was shaking because of all of the people moving around and dancing on it. Talk about an amazing experience. I was super thrilled to be there!

Before the concert, we all stopped in a few bars along the way. I decided I wanted some candy, so I went to a 7-11 where I met this guy who said, "Want to see the boys?" I thought this was some kind of lewd comment, so I politely declined. Turns out, he was trying to buy tickets to U2. I guess a more reasonable person would have thought that first, but Central Sq has poisoned me. We talked for a while in line about how he drove out from Colorado to see them here and how he'd seen them in concert 40 times (!!). That's dedication.

Oddly enough, I'm back in NY at Grandma's. I'd planned on being up here this weekend anyway, so I saw no reason to change my plans just because I was here a week ago. As a nice surprise, my sister is up here too. I haven't seen her in a month or so, when she came up to stay with me for a day. It's nice to spend time with her, so that's fun too!

Busy Week

2005-05-26T11:39:00.000-04:00

It has been a wild ride this week. Monday morning, as everyone no doubt recalls, found me still at Grandma's, awaiting news of my little car. When they hadn't called by 10, I became unsettled, so I called them. Well, they didn't know why the body shop hadn't gotten my car back to them, but they would call immediately to check on it. 20 minutes later, they still didn't know, but shortly after that, they called me back and said that my car was ready. I told them I'd be down around 1, 1:30 to pick it up, and they promised to have it all clean and ready for me. What a laugh.

When I arrived at the dealership at 1:30, my car was not yet cleaned. They whisked it away to get it all washed and handed me the bill: $1877! I had expected a bill for $1477, since this is what the estimate given me by the insurance company was. I asked why there was this extra $400 in charges, but they seemed to have no idea. I then started comparing the estimate (which I just happened to bring) with the itemized bill, and found that pretty much everything was matching up. They made me wait until the manager arrived (about 30 minutes later), and he just too the extra $400 off my bill ("There is a different rate for body work"). Mind you, my car was still not cleaned at this point, so I had to wait for another 30 minutes for them to drive it up to where I could get it. All told, I was glad to get on the road, but the delay meant that I didn't get back home until 7 PM. Then at 7:45, I had to go to the airport to pick up Ms. T. G. What a day!

Tuesday was pretty uneventful, after that round of excitement. My Senate Contact and I made dinner plans for his break during the budget discussions, but the debating continued unabated over the time we were to meet. Since it wasn't going to be much longer, I just waited around the Statehouse for a bit. By "waited" of course I mean "wandered", so somehow I found myself climbing a tiny spiral staircase on the 5th floor that lead onto the roof. Now I can say I have been on the roof of another building. I'd worried that it would set off alarms or something, but since (a) there were no signs warning about not being on the roof and (b) the door was open, I wasn't really worried. We met up shortly thereafter and had dinner at P. F. Chang's, this fun little Chinese place near the Common. We hung out for a while, avoiding the rain, before I went to Cantab lounge to meet up with C. O'N. who stood me up. Darn her! It's ok, though, since I was exhausted.

Even more fun than being exhausted Tuesday night was getting up early on Wednesday morning. I had Samaritans at 7 A M! It was a really slow shift, though, so I wasn't really worried about not being totally on my game. I took a few calls. I talked to a few people. I read a few trashy magazines. All in a day's work. The rest of the day passed pretty mundanely until the evening. My Senate Contact had bought tickets to see the Tony Award winning play "Take Me Out", about a Major League baseball player who comes out of the closet. It was a really funny play, so I had a great time. Sitting next to us (well, really in our seats) was this group of older people whom we befriended. They were really fun to talk to, and very sweet. I wanted to get their digits after the play so that we could all go see other shows together! It was nice, though, to get out and meet fun people.

Today should be equally busy. I'm meeting Mr. Cli. D. for lunch, since it is his B-day (Happy Birthday, Cli!), then I will try to do a little work around MIT. This evening is going to really rock, since I am going to see U2 in concert! Once again, my Senate Contact came through with awesome ideas for things to do. I'll be sure to post how it goes tomorrow, probably between going to the gym (I've gained 2 pounds, for those keeping score) and driving back to Grandma's.

Weekend at Grandma's

2005-05-22T23:21:00.000-04:00

Well I'm back in beautiful upstate New York, visiting my grandmother for the second time in about as many weeks. I was assured by Nemer VW that my car would be ready "on Friday. Saturday at the latest". In truth, it was not quite finished when I called on Saturday, but they have sworn up and down that it will be ready for tomorrow morning. I certainly hope so, since I have a ton of stuff to do back at home, not the least of which is going to the gym. One of the best parts of being up here is that I eat constantly. For some reason, the fresh air makes me really hungry. If I get to the gym tomorrow, I should be able to convert some of this food to new muscle, rather than just wasting it (and no, I'm not worried it will become fat).

Actually, as far as trips here go, this one has been great. My Senate Contact was super sweet and drove me out here. I always like taking driving trips with him. It's fun to just kick back and watch things go by. Plus he is a really good travel companion. Some of you might not know this, but I can occasionally be very opinionated or difficult to get along with. Sometimes I've even been known to push a few buttons. This means that long trips in the car can sometimes be tricky. I never have any problems with him. We got to Lake George pretty late, as we stopped for dinner in North Adams where we saw the only gay boy in North Western Massachusetts. Poor thing! The next day we chilled with my grandmother for a while, took a boat ride up north on the lake, and had lunch before he had to head back to Boston. Since then, my grandmother has talked about him constantly, saying how nice and sweet and cute he is. Single ladies out there, listen up, my grandmother is wondering why he hasn't been snatched up. Of course, she's also wondering that about me.

One other nice thing about this trip is that I've been able to play around more with my digital camera. I've taken a ton of pictures since getting here, mostly of the abundant wild flowers. Most of my photos suck, but I am starting to get the hang of things. I also have one photo of Forget-Me-Nots that I really like. I'll either post it here or on my website (math.mit.edu/~mikehill).

Tonight we went to a charity auction for this little theater in Glens Falls (which really should be named Glen's Falls, but who's checking). I was one of two people not in high school and under the age of thirty, the other being a quite attractive woman with whom Ms. A. K. (grandma's dearest friend) offered to set me up. Not too much to do around there, so I took my trusty camera (which does fit into my pocket nicely) and set about exploring the place. Well, I found my way to a cavernous basement (if they didn't want people in it, they should have locked it up better), where I experimented with things like obscuring the flash to get better control of the light. Quite fun, I must say, until someone came down, found me, and asked "can I help you" in a quite suggestive way. She wasn't too happy, so I told her what I was doing and went on my way. I did get a few good shots out of it, I think. I also learned a few tricks, so that's good too.

That's about it. Tomorrow I should get my car back and get back to Boston. Please with me luck on this, since who knows if Nemer will make good on their promise. The real question is, should I say something?

Return to the Movie Theaters

2005-05-19T14:19:00.000-04:00

So I just came back from seeing the new Star Wars movie. I had been, like many people, burned by the previous two, so I was a little wary. I wondered how they could top the last movie in terms of crazy chases and such (not to mention the use of stereotypes). I have to say that I was pleasantly surprised. The story focuses mainly on Skywalker descending to Vader-hood. Parts of it are kind of touching. Parts of it didn't gel with me. Parts of it I really liked. Parts of it were really cute. All told, it is a fun movie to see, and I'd be willing to see it again. After the previous ones, this is pretty high praise!

Equally fun were some of the previews for new movies. The new Batman and Fantastic 4 movies look pretty good. Even better is "The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe". The preview was fantastic, and I'm really looking forward to seeing it. Any volunteers?

I also ran into an old friend at the movie, Mr. J. M. Many readers of my `blog might remember him from my freshman year. He's now just finished his first year of law school at NEastern. How fun!

Yesterday was spent in its entirety grading exams. On the plus side, it's now over. I've assigned grades to all my students, and I can put it all behind me until the next time I need to teach. Since I have a teaching credit all stored up, that won't be for a while! It was really exhausting. All I wanted to do was go to sleep afterwards. I talked politics for a while with my insider on the phone, then I pretty much zonked out. That's the best thing for me to do at times like that. I am always a little moody, and when I get sleepy, it's all the worse. It's usually best for me to just go to bed, rather than risk fighting with friends or offending people.

Now all that's left for this term is to finish evaluating a student teacher and turn it in. Then I'll work some more on fixing things up for my webpage and maybe writing up that computation that my adviser wants me to have down on paper. He's psyched about it, so that's good.

Slow Days

2005-05-17T17:59:00.000-04:00

Not too much going on of late. The big, exciting thing for me is that my digital camera arrived yesterday. I think I've taken all of 5 pictures, since I am terrified that I am going to wreck it. I'm also waiting for the right subjects. I guess I'm just a little picky. Is anyone surprised by that?

I spoke with the people fixing my car yesterday. They were kind enough to tell me that "it'll be about a week". I pointed out that it has already been over a week, and they tried to tell me that they had only gotten the go-ahead on Friday. I respectfully pointed out that I had personally called them on Wednesday to authorize the work, and then I changed tactics and let them know that it is difficult for me to get out there except for weekends and I really need my car back. They said they'd see what they can do. I'm going to call back tomorrow morning to see how things are going. This is crazy!

On Saturday, I went out with my Senate Contact and some of his friends to some bars on Newbury and Boylston St. We'd all hung out for a while beforehand, so it was a nice finish to a chill, fun evening. I was really had to have it all happen too, since I had been having a bit of a down day. I'm not really sure why; it just hits me sometimes. Guess I'm just "sensitive".

I'm currently working on fixing up my math department website. I have a tentative page up right now, but some of the links are conspicuously absent or contentless. Now that I have my camera, I can add photos, but the papers are going to take a little more work. I'm putting them up as I finish editing them. Still, it's taking a while. I should have them up pretty soon, though. For those curious: Mike Hill.

Tomorrow is my last teaching duty for quite a while. My kids have their final exam at 9 AM! I think that a lot of them are pretty nervous. I am too, in that after that, we have to all get together to grade all 700+ exams. The professor estimates that it'll take upwards of 5 hours. Wow. Then we get to do things like discuss grades and cut-offs for various letter grades. Talk about fun stuff!

I Love the Smell of Old Elevators

2005-05-13T22:36:00.000-04:00

There is one at MIT that has to be at least 40 years old. It has this really intricate metal work along the top, and the walls are that old fashioned brushed metal. I'm a big fan. I especially like the smell: that subtle mix of machined metal and a hit of oil, mixed with years of use. Not surprisingly, it reminds me of where I first smelled it: the drama building at LSU. When I was much younger, I was in the children's' chorus / was the children's' chorus for a few operas. The building that housed our rehearsals was the colossal old performance hall, filled with dusty old rooms and rickety stairs. And of course, an old elevator. Guess those days are gone.

Yesterday I saw a movie at the MFA in their Gay and Lesbian Film Series. The movie was "Dorian Blue," a very cute coming of age story for a young gay man with a difficult father. The best part was that I got to see it for free because I volunteered to help out before the show. I handed out "Will Call" tickets for a while. That was really interesting. By far the nicest person to me was one of the producers. Other people were nice enough to say "thank you" and to smile at me. Others just stood there, not even telling me their names! After handing out tickets, I got to help this older woman take tickets. They didn't have a good system for tearing tickets: where should the stubs go? We were given a small wicker basket for the both of us, but that's not efficient. I just dropped stubs on the floor after tearing them. By the time most of the people had entered the theater, this other volunteer came up to me and said, "I've been volunteering here for 12 years, and I've never seen someone do that". At the time, I took it as a compliment, though there is a real chance she was slyly commenting on my uncouthness. Who knows!

Yesterday after the movie, I wandered for a bit around Newbury, and I found an old T-station entrance! It may be one that just isn't used often, but I don't recall ever seeing it open. I think that things like this will be good fodder for pictures, once my digital camera arrives (Tuesday afternoon, selon FedEx).

I used to broadcast my current mental state by absolutely falling in love with a particular song and playing it over and over. The one getting the most play right now is "Bridge over Troubled Waters". Any thoughts?

My summertime goal is to gain 20 pounds. It'll take a lot of work, working out, and actually eating. Keep me motivated!

I read "the curious incident of the dog in the night-time" today. It was a fast read, so I spent the early afternoon just wandering around reading it. Funny how many traits I recognized in myself and my friends. Of course, I don't mind being touched, and I don't mind strangers, and I don't normally respond to situations by screaming or groaning. On the other hand, I know a lot of prime numbers, I play number games to calm myself, and I know tons of random facts. I guess the jury is still out, then.

Waterless Urinals Can Save 40,000 Gallons of Water a Year

2005-05-12T13:47:00.000-04:00

I recognize that all people will find this as amazing as I did. Well, that is, all people except a certain someone who is sitting right next to me and shall remain unnamed. I just like to pull her chain a little.

The most exciting news of the day is that my digital camera shipped today! I will check it obsessively until it arrives, but that is to be expected. I'm psyched because I've been seeing really crazy stuff (like a man in a gorilla costume chasing a man in a banana costume around). I'm also thinking about selling the last of my toys in boxes on e-Bay. I'll add this to my lengthy "to-do" list, so who knows when this will actually happen. I'm going to guess some time shortly after never.

I've also decided to do a mentoring job at MIT for the month of July. It pays $2,500, and it is a total of 40 hours. I did it once two years ago, and it was less exciting than I'd hoped, but the money is good, and it isn't a terrible amount of work. If people have suggestions for problems accessible to high school students, I'd be much obliged.

USAA has agreed to the charges for my car. That's a relief. I told the car people yesterday to go ahead and start working. I hope that it gets fixed up pretty soon. It's weird to go out onto my porch, check my garden, and then not see my car when I look over at my parking space. Yay for OCD.

My Senate Contact told me yesterday that after 9/11, our much beloved federal government changed how the funding they give to local law enforcement agencies can be allocated: training & equipment are fine, paying people is not. How absurd is this? You can train your cops to use the really high tech toys you buy for them, but you can't pay them for putting themselves on this line to save people's lives. I am not so cool with this.

A little chore for today is to see if my healthcare plan is a "high deductible health plan". If it is, then I am going to set up a Health Savings Account. This would give me a nice $1000 pretax deduction from my wages, and it is money that I'll end up spending anyway. Since I don't itemize deductions, this is pretty much the only way I can get some tax savings for healthcare. It might also help other people in my dept. We'll see how it goes.

Wine, Women, & Song

2005-05-07T22:14:00.000-04:00

Tonight I had dinner at my cousin I.B.'s house. Now, I.B. is a few years older than me. In fact, she has twins who are going on 13. It was really nice. She made dinner (Grilled chicken, broccoli [no wokilly involved], strawberry shortcake), and she was nice enough to both remember that for a time I was off sugar and to realize that this wouldn't last long at all. In fact, she was right on all counts. We had a few glasses of wine and just chatted for nearly 5 hours. It was great. We had fun conversations. We had emotional conversations. We had a really good time. 2 thumbs up in the opinion of this reviewer.

I figured out my travel home. I'm flying back to Boston on Monday, arriving at Logan at 2:25. This means that (a) I'll be able to frantically do my grading and (b) I'll be able to attend Mr. C.D.'s defense. I was quite worried about missing it. This adds another $215 to the cost of this little adventure (there goes my dreams of a digital camera), but that's ok. My grandmother has been really excited to have me here, so that makes up for it. Plus she might cover the plane ticket.

I got her internet stuff up and running today. It was quite a hassle in the end, since the wire connecting the cable to the upstairs cable jack was just bad. I had to run wires all around furniture and under doors to make a system that gets her blindingly fast connections. On the other hand, I also get this blindingly fast connection, so it makes internet use a lot easier.

We also planted all her little plants. My hands were covered in wet dirt, and it got all under my fingernails. On the plus side, I was standing out in the sun, slightly covered in dirt, in just jeans and a white undershirt. I dare say that I looked mighty cute! Definitely blue-color chic. I was glad to get another job taken care of.

Tomorrow we are all going out to dinner to celebrate Mother's Day. If I know your moms, please wish them a great day for me too.

Lake George Update

2005-05-07T10:30:00.000-04:00

This morning, my main task has been to set up Grandma's cable modem. Belive me, this is a chore I'm happy to handle. It has actually been trickier than I might like to admit. Many of the options for things like cables were bought in the 70s, when the house was wired. I'm not sure, in fact, if the cable connecting the cable input to the house to the upstairs can handle the increase of power needed for a cable modem. Guess we'll find out! Next we are going to work on replanting some spider plants. These are the parents of my little spider plant babies (one of whom is recovering from a nasty spill), so they should take off pretty quickly in their new homes.

One big highlight of yesterday was seeing Miss B. M. out at Williams. The drive was an adventure (both to Williams and from it), but I made it around safely and I had a great time seeing him. He gave me this magazine he had found in NYC that had some very interesting ads. Hilarious. I may have been able to extract a promise from him to visit more frequently. That'd be great!

I think that I am going to fly home on Monday. I've found some one-way flights which are somewhat reasonable. If I didn't have a ton of stuff to do back in Boston, I'd probably just stay for a few more days, but duty calls!

Every Time I Hop in my Car...

2005-05-06T22:16:00.000-04:00

something terrible happens. I was driving down I-87, on my way to spend a little quality time with my grandmother. Suddenly, a tire on the tractor-trailer in front of me lets go, and, well, I went right over it rather than veering into someone else's car. Tore out some of the undercarriage, including my radiator. There's a good bit of damage, and they were kind enough to tell me that it won't be fixed until at least Wednesday. Great. At least my insurance will cover most of it. I'll still be out $500 for my deductible AND they'll probably use this as an excuse for raising my rates. We'll see, I guess.

In the end, the important part is that I am uninjured. I'm a little bummed about my car (I mean, I've only got 14,000 miles on it), but that is definitely secondary to my well-being. Plus I made it up to see my grandmother, and she's pretty excited to have me here. She's even got a list of chores for me! It's nice to spend Mother's Day with family, too.

That's about it. I did make it to the gym today, even though I was super sore from not sleeping enough and playing tennis yesterday with V. Since I tend to carry stress in my neck, right between my shoulder blades, I'm gonna have a great time tomorrow!

It's be 10 hours and 4 whole days

2005-05-05T10:00:00.000-04:00

since I last updated my 'blog. I've been really busy with all kinda of other random stuff. But this isn't really an excuse. I'll try to spell out some of the better highlights.

Monday was An. H. 's defense. After all was said and done, we went to T.G.'s apartment to drown our sorrows about his leaving and his stress in a river of gin. Rumor has it that I had a few drinks too many, prompting a drunken text message to my Senate Contact at 1 in the morning. Delightful!
Tuesday I had someone practice teach for me, giving me extra time to metabolize away the remaining gin in my system and to prepare my JuviTop talk. The talk itself was so boring that I drove some people from the room, and we had to postpone for a week. At least I didn't shame myself too terribly.
Wednesday was a quite good day. I talked with some people about things that had been on my mind. I had lunch with my friend R.T.. I sold some stocks on which I took a loss because of Vanguard's accounting, but for which in my mind I took a gain, since if I begin counting from when I started trading, then my statement is correct. I found a paper online which contained a key result which I had conjectured and which I needed to prove my result. I met with my advisor (always a trip. He is outrageously funny). Then, best of all, I had a really nice dinner with my Senate Contact out in Dedham and hung out with him for the evening. Such a good time.

I'm going to Germany for a bit in June. That should be fun, since I'm going to see a lot of my math friends, including the awesome Notre Dame kids, there. The conference center is also apparently beautiful, so it should be a really good time all around. If anyone wants postcards or anything, please make sure to let me know. Even better? Maybe you should comment on my `blog...

Tomorrow I'm going out to upstate NY to spend the weekend with my Grandma. On the way, I'm going to have lunch with my friend B.M. (who's birthday is today. Happy Birthday, girl!). I'll be leaving Cambridge pretty damn early to make it out there in a timely manner, but that's ok. I'll survive! The really tough part will be getting up even earlier to make it to the gym tomorrow before heading out. I'm really getting back into the swing of things with that. I guess that means that I shouldn't get TOO insanely drunk tonight...

Wouldn't it be nice if all conversations were as easy as...

2005-04-30T23:59:00.000-04:00

"So, you thinking of renewing the lease?"
"Yeah, I was planning on it."
"Good, me too."

and then we moved on. So it looks like my roommate and I are gonna be in our sweet apartment for another year. It's a good place, and they are only raising the rent $10 (the thieves!), so it should continue to be a fun time.

I'm getting up early tomorrow, since I am going with T. G. to Rosie's Place to serve lunch to homeless women. I'm a little nervous about it. Most of my experience with the SDF is around Central Sq, and, well, I don't feel the same kind of concern for their terrible plight any more. I guess I've become a little more hard-hearted since moving here. I hope that tomorrow at least gives me a bit more experience. Plus it feels like a good thing to do.

After that, I'm meeting up with my dear contact in the senate, and we are going to watch "The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy". I've been looking forward to seeing it since I first saw the previews three weeks ago, so it should be a good time.

I went to a party tonight at a friend from MIT's place. It was nice. He actually didn't show up until I'd been there for almost an hour! In truth, I arrived a little early. I figured that he'd be there setting up, and I could say "hi", chill for a bit, then duck out early so as to be fresh and ready for Rosie's. Well, I ended up meeting all of his friends (to whom he had apparently talked extensively about me), only without him there. Kinda odd, but I had a good time nonetheless.

So I hear that more people are reading my `blog. I am, of course, elated. One thing is missing, though. Comments. Every day, I look to see if people have commented on things I've written, and every day, I am crushed to find that no one loves me enough to make their mark on my electronic wall.

As a random follow up to my T post, I hopped online today and went to the MBTA website. For some odd reason all of the links to any financial documents they "have" on their website are broken. I'll e-mail them and ask to be sent copies of things like the budget, etc, but I'm not going to hold my breath.

As a random comment, the spell check for this `blog service doesn't have a key word: `blog.

Amazing T Fact

2005-04-29T11:00:00.000-04:00

Yesterday on the bus, I heard the drive tell a passenger how much the new buses cost. The old ones (the diesel buses) cost $300,000 each. The new ones cost, according to the drive, almost $700,000!! Keep in mind that the T has probably close to a hundred of these buses. How can people possibly wonder why the T is in debt? 100 of these buses costs $70,000,000, which is only recouped after 77,777,777 rides. That's not even counting things like the wages of the drivers and things like gas. I can't imagine the T ever even breaking even. More on this when I get more data.

There's a Ghost in my House

2005-04-29T10:18:00.000-04:00

Yesterday marked the return of two new presences in my apartment: my prodigal roommate has returned, as has our ghost. The former I picked up at the airport (during my second trip out there in a single day), two hours after her scheduled arrival time. The latter made itself known around 2 AM last night, knocking things around in my closet. Of course, it might just be rats, but I'm inclined to assume the simplest of solutions: a spectral entity.

Comments on my `blog are now unconditionally non-negative. The one negative remark was a mistake; B.T. had gone to the wrong `blog! I feel a little better about that now.

I made guacamole last night, at the suggestion of my senate contact with whom I had lunch yesterday out at the statehouse. I made it the way I'd seen when I was down in DC with Miss A.J. and Mr. A.L. It was quite tasty! Of course, I made a total pig out of myself and ate the whole thing. That was a little much!

My senate contact was a wealth of good suggestions yesterday. He suggested that I make little models of the two cameras between which I am deciding and see which, if either, I'd actually carry around during the day! Brilliant, since now it's not just an academic exercise! When I got home, I noticed that the bars of Ivory soap in the bathroom were just a little bigger than the smaller one, so I carried one around in my pocket yesterday afternoon. Pretty convenient, I must say. I'll have to figure out how to model the other one, though it is pretty similar in size to B.T.'s camera.

Not all that much going on today. Feels like one of those days. We'll have to see how it turns out!

Nasty Beyond All Belief

2005-04-28T10:49:00.000-04:00

As I predicted, this morning I spent a good bit of time vacuuming. This wasn't as onerous a chore as I might have imagined. Normally Miss B.T. handles the nitty-gritty of running that miraculous space saving device over the floor while I attack it like some sort of terrifying monster. This time I was on my own, and I think I did a pretty good job. That is, until I decided to empty the dust bin...

So far as I can tell, this particularly unpleasant facet of the chore had not been done since, well, shortly after the Fall. There was nasty dust muck clogging the entire intake section and pouring out of nearly every part of the sucking mechanism. I decided, after really getting my hands dirty pulling this garbage out (in my underwear, no less), to go for gold and clean the filters. Vile doesn't begin to describe the crusty dust covering everything. I'll spare future details, but suffice to say that I just barely made it out of their with my life. It didn't kill me, so I guess it made me, and my allergies, stronger.

"Boring" Updates for today

2005-04-27T23:59:00.000-04:00

I've gotten mostly positive reviews of my new blog. Many people find it funny and profoundly insightful. Others find it "cute" and wish that they had stories as entertaining as mine. To these people, I give a shout-out, thanking you from the bottom of my heart.

But all is not well in Blogging land. A renegade "friend" claimed that my blog was "boring". I was obviously devastated, and I'm considering, but rejecting, the idea of leaving this so called friend at the airport tomorrow. I've also received another, neutral comment: "It sounds exactly like you". Normally, I would find this the height of praise, as it implies that I am able to "write the way I talk", something my high school English teacher wanted me to do. Given the earlier criticism, I guess I must conclude that I am, in fact, simply boring.

In that vein, here is my banal update for today. I went last night to BestBuy to check out digital cameras. The A510 has more features, but the SD family is just a lot smaller. This sounds stupid, but I think that the SD would actually get more use, in that I would just be able to slip it into a pocket. I'm not sure. The other thing I'm thinking about is how to pay for it. One of the things I'm actually considering is taking out a short term personal loan. I actually have the money to buy a camera now, but I read a few articles about credit scoring online (a guilty pleasure), and they indicated that both revolving credit and loan type accounts are important for establishing stellar credit. I have good credit, since I pay off my bills in full, etc, each month and I have for year. A short term, low interest loan would help flesh things out a little bit, I think. Who knows?

I also went to the mall today (I just couldn't get enough). I finally returned this terrible pillow that I had bought 2 months ago from Brookstone. They were very nice, and it was no hassle. The best part is that now I am about $100 richer. Fantastic!

I got an e-mail today from people in my department asking me to mentor another prospective teacher. I'm all for this, as it means that I have one fewer section to plan and teach. There's actually only two weeks left in the term, and since I have a teaching credit stored up from IAP, I won't have to teach again until probably the spring of next year. I may be able to work a similar deal and teach over IAP instead, freeing me up for all of next year. That would be nice. I also got offered a job to mentor some HS students this summer. I had done this two summers ago, and it was quite a pain. Still, it might be nice to have a few months during which I actually lived well within my means rather than check to check.

Went back to the gym this evening. I was a little sore from last time, but that went away very quickly. Another nice work-out, but now I'm gonna hit the hay so my body can recover. Then I'll be up early to put the finishing touches on my apartment / play video games for hours. Wish me luck!

Digital Camera Frenzy

2005-04-26T10:46:00.000-04:00

I decided last week that I need a digital camera. I tend to notice a lot of just neat, random stuff during the day (ants moving from one nest to another, cats wandering on roof tops, homeless women in Spiderman costumes, etc), and I think it might be fun to be able to punctuate my retellings of such things with actual images. I enlisted the aid of my dad, and he narrowed my search down to two possibilities:

Canon's PowerShot SD 100
Canon's PowerShot A510

The SD100 is actually the one towards which I am leaning now. It is part of the Elph family of cameras, and I've heard a lot of good things about them in the past. It is also very small and quite clean. The other also looks like a really good camera, so I don't really think I can go wrong. I would be interested to know if anyone has any experience with either type of camera and what they think.

Computer Success Story

2005-04-25T18:56:00.000-04:00

So today I was able to take care of something I've been wanting to do for a while: fix my Senate contact's laptop. I had determined a few weeks ago that the problem was that the hard drive had, well, died. Dell was unable to provide much support, since the computer was no longer under warranty. What to do? We, my contact & I, discussed it, and it was decided that I should simply replace the hard drive and see what else could be done about the old one later. Again, Dell was unable to provide much help. They sell replacement hard drives, but for about $180 for a 6 GB drive. Outrageous.

As in most instances, the Internet saved me. I found a really great site: shopperwiz.com and they had upgraded drives for a fraction of what Dell was charging. Additionally, their service was excellent. I ordered the new drive on Friday, and it arrived this morning! I was so impressed with how quickly and cheaply they handled things that I e-mailed them to let them know, and they responded with a very sweet reply. I'm now a huge fan of this company.

After the drive arrived, I took out the old one and started the lengthy process of installing Windows and about 400 updates required to make things run smoothly. This was the moment of truth, since there could have been problems on top of the hard drive failure, and I would have been up a creek. Luckily, everything went swimmingly. In fact, this entry is being written on that once dead computer! I am pretty excited, and I know someone else who is too...

Not too much else going on in my life right now. My quondam roommate returns on Thursday. I'm quite excited about this, since I will no longer be coming home to an empty apartment. I also finished a short, but hopefully illustrative, computation a day or so ago, and I'm trying at this point to figure out what it all means. Wish me luck!

A. H. is a FANTASTIC host

2005-04-24T23:06:00.000-04:00

I just came back from a party at Mr. A. H.'s apartment. It was quite a delightful shin-dig. In truth, the only time I'd been there before was to drop A. H. off after the wine tasting he and I attended with Ms. T. G. (whose birthday is today!). He has a really great place which is very well arranged. He also has a fantastic roof deck. Quite a nice place to hang out. Perhaps the most entertaining was his wide selection of scotches which followed his equally wide selection of mixed drinks.

For those who are curious, I did make it to the gym today. I died while playing my game, but it was at a point where I had promised myself that I should stop and move on to things like getting off my ass and doing something. I had a great work out! I felt a lot better than I had in a while, and I really felt the burn in the muscle groups I worked today. This was quite reassuring, as I've not been hitting the gym as faithfully in the past few months. I think that I will pick up yoga again as something to do on the days that I don't lift. It is a great work out in its own right, and it helps increase flexibility, something which each day gets a little worse for me. It might also help me get back into the routine of doing something physical every day. I tend to feel just a whole lot better when I am active like that, so I hope that I can keep it up.

Now for a secret confession: I've started praying before going to bed.

Going Public

2005-04-24T14:07:00.000-04:00

Last night at T.G.'s birthday party, I bit the bullet and announced the existence of this blog to my friends from the math department. I've gotten a warm reception so far, and that's certainly been nice. I guess part of that is not saying anything mean about people. Maybe I should remember that for other parts of my life.

The party was very nice. It was a black-tie affair, prompting me to go shirtless (it makes for a better effect). My outfit was surprisingly well received. I guess they are all used to my antics at this point. Finger food was set out before I arrived, and we nibbled on things all through the evening. After a short bit of socializing, we played a number of party games. This is by far the best reason to go to parties. I love games like Pictionary and Taboo, so I was delighted when we played both. T. G. and C.D. had arranged a little twist, though. Party favors were distributed to the guests based on who one the various games. To make it a little more exciting, if you picked after someone else and your liked their party favor better, you could exchange with them (against their will). I made out like a bandit with some great little gummy frogs and cars. Delicious.

I've been thinking a lot about getting a cheap digital camera. I see really wacky things on an almost daily basis (it's proof of God's love for me), and it might be nice to punctuate my fantastically droll retellings of said encounters with actual pictures. I can't quite find one that fits my two main criteria: cheap and high quality. Guess I'll see soon enough.

Today is gonna be a lazy day. I got up late, and I think I'll just play video games for a bit. If I feel sufficiently motivated, I might go to the gym or get my bike fixed. On the other hand, I might just keep sitting on the couch in my bathrobe.

Ease on Down

2005-04-23T10:00:00.000-04:00

I think I'm starting to really get into this "`blogging" thing. Here I am, posting again. I was telling my dear friend A. J. this morning that I wish I had started all of this when my roommate B.T. left for Europe. I could have forestalled stir-craziness for probably an extra week!

Speaking of Ms. B.T., she returns on Thursday. I'm quite excited about her impending return, but it also means that I really need to get cracking on cleaning this dump up. I've let things kind of go to shit the past few weeks, with intermittent spurts of cleaning types of things up. I know, OCD rears it's ugly head! It'll be nice to have things all straightened up, though. I really prefer things to be neat and orderly. I'm just too lazy at this point to actually, say, undress in my bedroom rather than the kitchen.

Last night I hung out with my friend E. Q. and we watched Amilie. I had forgotten how cute that movie is. It is also really aesthetically pleasing. The colors are amazing, as are the scenes. All I could think the whole time is how much I wanted to be back in Paris. I really am in love with that place. Kind of strange. I'd like to live there at some point, but I don't know how that would all work.

I had a breakthrough in the toy example I'm trying to solve for my problem last night after talking with A.H. in the computer lab. My adviser had suggested working out something and then described how it should work, based on stuff he had done il y a longtemps. I finally figured it all out, and I think I can also figure out the rest of what I needed to do. Hard to say, though. There may be some kinks that I've yet to work out.

As a final note, I've decided to emulate Herve Guibert in this online journal. Rather than name people, I'll just use initials or, better still, creative monikers...

Baby Tiger Safe Haven Law

2005-04-22T15:54:00.000-04:00

It has come to my attention, following a delightful lunch with my close contact in the Massachusetts state senate, that tigers lack a much needed legal protection: Baby Tiger Safe Haven Laws. For those unfamiliar with such legislation, Safe Haven Laws, named after a homeless shelter in Central Square which routinely collected babies and persecuted mothers, allow parents to drop off newborn infants at a police station, fire station, or other safe location without any legal hassles (unless there are signs of abuse). Recently, a frantic mother tiger faced the same situation encountered by numerous new moms: what should I do with this new mouth to feed? Her choice? To abandon her baby. In response to her plight, I propose the following legislation:

Baby Tiger Safe Haven

Whereas numerous baby tigers are born to momma tigers (henceforth "tigresses") who cannot provide for them,
Whereas abandoned baby tigers end up tossed in dumpsters at zoos, left in bathrooms at tiger proms, or thrown into the woods to be eaten by wolves or male tigers (including, but not limited to, "baby daddies"),
Whereas numerous locations staffed with trained personnel and equipped to care for and place a baby tiger already exist,
Be it resolved that tigresses who leave their baby tigers with trained staff at an appropriate locale not face any repercussions for their actions, provided the baby tiger be left within the first seven days of birth.

Can You Feel a Brand New Day!

2005-04-22T11:57:00.000-04:00

It's taken years for me to reach this point. I lead such a quiet and staid life, fraught with little more than the usual peril of boredom and the occasional close encounter of the homeless kind. I hope to eventually have things to say of some substance, but, well, we'll just have to see.

I had Samaritans this morning. It was really nice to be back on the phones again. I had my first shift in almost two months last week, but it was pretty quiet. Today the phone just rang off the hook. I was pretty excited to get to talk to all kinds of people. I was even more excited when I got my mail yesterday and what did I find in it but a card from the Samaritans congratulating me on being a volunteer for 2 years! Man, time sure flies when you're having fun talking with people about their suicidal feelings...

Last night I went to a drag show at MIT: Fierce Forever V. My friend Biana accompanied me, which was nice, since she and I don't really spend that much time together any more. Many of the performances were really good, especially some of the ones by students and faculty. The MIT people also did a few more non-traditional drag routines. One performed to hip-hop a few times (but not to a dance remix thereof). A professor performed to a beautiful aria from an opera which, were I more cultured, I'd immediately have recognized. While I love the outrageous dancing and hardcore dance music, it was quite refreshing to see people doing something new and outre.

That's about it for now. I've got to do some work today. My current project (deciding if the element v_p is an appropriate invariant in the homotopy of the spectrum E_{p(p-1)}) might actually be getting somewhere, but it still has a long way to go. Wish me luck!