(and my first 4-bagger!!! = 4 strikes in a row)
Wednesday, January 31, 2007
last night...
new personal all time highest bowling score!!!
(and my first 4-bagger!!! = 4 strikes in a row)
(and my first 4-bagger!!! = 4 strikes in a row)
Monday, January 29, 2007
say hey, it's a good day!
* i've run into several of my favorite students from past semesters this week who all wanted to chat with me about life, the universe, and everything. that makes me happy.
* i earned a nickel in my advisor's class today. that makes me laugh...
furthermore,...
in response to my post full of complaints from last week:
(1) the telemarketing for valpo deal is going well. 3/5 kids talked to. 2/5 houses never give me anything but answering machines... i'll try once more, then email the kids.
(2) after brainstorming with lots of people, i have a decent idea of what to do for an hour in the workshop i have to teach next month, and having an outline figured out, i feel much better about it.
(3) last but not least: i just met with my research advisor. i told him that i think i proved that the plan of attack we've been using to count restricted multiset permutations has been milked for all it's worth and i can prove that the remaining cases are impossible using our plan of attack. that made him a little sad.
then, i told him i've been working on a new plan of attack. he said that an improvement is good, so have at it. i explained what i'd done so far and when i finished... he got SUPER excited. he said it was more brilliant than he had hoped before i described it and he was really impressed with my creativity. we're really hopeful that it works well in other cases too besides my one example.... research really IS a rollercoaster... i guess i just need to really enjoy the highs when they come around. :)
summary: it's a happy day.
the end.
* i earned a nickel in my advisor's class today. that makes me laugh...
furthermore,...
in response to my post full of complaints from last week:
(1) the telemarketing for valpo deal is going well. 3/5 kids talked to. 2/5 houses never give me anything but answering machines... i'll try once more, then email the kids.
(2) after brainstorming with lots of people, i have a decent idea of what to do for an hour in the workshop i have to teach next month, and having an outline figured out, i feel much better about it.
(3) last but not least: i just met with my research advisor. i told him that i think i proved that the plan of attack we've been using to count restricted multiset permutations has been milked for all it's worth and i can prove that the remaining cases are impossible using our plan of attack. that made him a little sad.
then, i told him i've been working on a new plan of attack. he said that an improvement is good, so have at it. i explained what i'd done so far and when i finished... he got SUPER excited. he said it was more brilliant than he had hoped before i described it and he was really impressed with my creativity. we're really hopeful that it works well in other cases too besides my one example.... research really IS a rollercoaster... i guess i just need to really enjoy the highs when they come around. :)
summary: it's a happy day.
the end.
Wednesday, January 24, 2007
another laugh...
book quote:
" Do you like... films?" I ask at last.
"Some," replies Jess, frowning thoughtfully. "I like films that say something. That have some sort of message."
"Me too," I agree fervently. "Every film should definitely have a message."
Which is true. I mean... take the Lord of the Rings movies -- they've got loads of messages. Like "Don't lose your ring."
~ Shopaholic & Sister (by sophie kinsella)
" Do you like... films?" I ask at last.
"Some," replies Jess, frowning thoughtfully. "I like films that say something. That have some sort of message."
"Me too," I agree fervently. "Every film should definitely have a message."
Which is true. I mean... take the Lord of the Rings movies -- they've got loads of messages. Like "Don't lose your ring."
~ Shopaholic & Sister (by sophie kinsella)
Tuesday, January 23, 2007
they say every cloud has a silver lining...
...but sometimes i wonder if it's the other way around. lately it feels like things that seem on the whole to be very good have extra thorns that can be hard to get past.
(long brain dump follows, consider yourself forewarned)
random rundown of life lately:
* my past: memphis.... my old church in memphis got like the *perfect* pastor a year ago after being in an interim period for a year and a half. his skills and the congregation's needs were the PERFECT fit. unfortunately between the housing market in florida (where he comes from) and his family's desires, he moved up to memphis and they stayed put all year in florida citing various reasons. finally, after weighing things for a long time, a week ago he decided to resign and go back to florida to be with his family. his last sunday is next week. he loved the congregation and the congregation loved him. his personality helped motivate a lot of good and exciting things. but very quickly he's gone and they're in another interim period. in the end they'll grow and find a new pastor. he'll settle things with where his family needs to be, etc. but right now i'm a little sad for my old church.... it's a rough not-as-fun spot to be in for a bit.
good: my church grew a lot with a fantastic pastor for the past year... thorn: now they're in an interim period again
* my past: valpo... i've very proud of my undergraduate school and the things i got out of it. i was a science major and a member of the humanities honors college. back in september i was asked to help contact high school seniors who want to be science majors, and are qualified for the honors college, but haven't applied for it yet. this weekend the packet of what i should do came in. i was a telemarketer for the university for a year and a half while i was a student there, but i hate making phone calls and have gotten more and more hesitant to make them since. in the next 3 weeks it's my job to call 5 such students and try to get them excited about applying to the honors college. i planned to do it today, but basically fretted about it for 4 hours instead, without dialing a single number. my extreme dislike for making phone calls to strangers is a major thorn right now, but i'm sure, once i get going it'll be fine and i'll be happy to have done it.
good: i love my college and want other people to know about the cool things they have to offer... thorn: i hate initiating phone calls
* present: research... i'm all about getting paid to study things i enjoy... it's like the perfect job. especially since i'm on fellowship this semester. my life is like a giant to do list without much structure. after a productive time of catching up on fairly straightforward aspects of my research last week, i was feeling pretty good. but now i'm up to the next big roadblock and it's giving me a headache.
good: i love doing my math... thorn: when that's almost *ALL* that's on my schedule for a few days and i feel like my progress has hit a brick wall, it's a little frustrating
* present: teaching... i love teaching when i'm in the classroom. i also am not capable of doing something only half way, so i've made a lot of noise about improving teaching in the past couple semesters too. as a result i have an extra teaching fellowship from the university this year. for the most part the benefits of this are great. i get monthly lunch meetings with half a dozen other graduate fellows and a dozen faculty all of whom are very interested in discussing teaching issues, and i'm really excited about that. however, one of my duties is to present a teaching workshop in a month. i feel completely competant to talk to a room of math teaching assistants. but i get the sense that the math academic world operates a bit differently from other departments, so i'm a little hesitant about being deemed the "expert" in a room of TAs from different areas.
good: my time and effort for teaching are being honored... thorn: i'm a little nervous about seemingly being put in a place with a little more authority than i give myself...
* present: grants... i also have an extra grant this year from a fantastic organization that raises money for women in graduate school. as part of the grant i'm strongly encouraged to accept invitations of organization members to talk, attend various events, etc. i'm attending a philanthropy fair they're holding in late february as a representative recipient of their scholar award program. that's already kinda entertaining because i have no idea what to expect. the lady who invited me wrote me an email last night saying she'd like to meet me and take me out to lunch before the event. that's an innocent and pleasant invitation, and i gladly accepted the offer and suggested a few possible dates. she wrote me back that she'd like us to eat next week at a club she's a member of.
good: lunch at a fancy by-invitation-only club is exciting and an honor... thorn: i'm more of a jeans-and-sweatshirt-every-day-i-can-get-away-with-it kind of girl, so eating at a club is slightly stress inducing, as i'll periodically obsess about dress code and ettiquette for the next week and a half until i get there.
summary: life is pretty good, and i'm involved in lots of exciting things right now, but phone conversations, research roadblocks, and stepping out of my usual people-and-places circles of comfort make me nervous. in the end, i suppose "all of this too shall pass", and in the end, make me even stronger in dealing with the world (i do have a lot of paranoias to work on after all... ;) )
your job? keep my memphis church in prayer... and cross your fingers that i learn how to chill out in the near future instead of mentally working myself up into being really tense about interacting with the non-math graduate student world ;)
the end.
(long brain dump follows, consider yourself forewarned)
random rundown of life lately:
* my past: memphis.... my old church in memphis got like the *perfect* pastor a year ago after being in an interim period for a year and a half. his skills and the congregation's needs were the PERFECT fit. unfortunately between the housing market in florida (where he comes from) and his family's desires, he moved up to memphis and they stayed put all year in florida citing various reasons. finally, after weighing things for a long time, a week ago he decided to resign and go back to florida to be with his family. his last sunday is next week. he loved the congregation and the congregation loved him. his personality helped motivate a lot of good and exciting things. but very quickly he's gone and they're in another interim period. in the end they'll grow and find a new pastor. he'll settle things with where his family needs to be, etc. but right now i'm a little sad for my old church.... it's a rough not-as-fun spot to be in for a bit.
good: my church grew a lot with a fantastic pastor for the past year... thorn: now they're in an interim period again
* my past: valpo... i've very proud of my undergraduate school and the things i got out of it. i was a science major and a member of the humanities honors college. back in september i was asked to help contact high school seniors who want to be science majors, and are qualified for the honors college, but haven't applied for it yet. this weekend the packet of what i should do came in. i was a telemarketer for the university for a year and a half while i was a student there, but i hate making phone calls and have gotten more and more hesitant to make them since. in the next 3 weeks it's my job to call 5 such students and try to get them excited about applying to the honors college. i planned to do it today, but basically fretted about it for 4 hours instead, without dialing a single number. my extreme dislike for making phone calls to strangers is a major thorn right now, but i'm sure, once i get going it'll be fine and i'll be happy to have done it.
good: i love my college and want other people to know about the cool things they have to offer... thorn: i hate initiating phone calls
* present: research... i'm all about getting paid to study things i enjoy... it's like the perfect job. especially since i'm on fellowship this semester. my life is like a giant to do list without much structure. after a productive time of catching up on fairly straightforward aspects of my research last week, i was feeling pretty good. but now i'm up to the next big roadblock and it's giving me a headache.
good: i love doing my math... thorn: when that's almost *ALL* that's on my schedule for a few days and i feel like my progress has hit a brick wall, it's a little frustrating
* present: teaching... i love teaching when i'm in the classroom. i also am not capable of doing something only half way, so i've made a lot of noise about improving teaching in the past couple semesters too. as a result i have an extra teaching fellowship from the university this year. for the most part the benefits of this are great. i get monthly lunch meetings with half a dozen other graduate fellows and a dozen faculty all of whom are very interested in discussing teaching issues, and i'm really excited about that. however, one of my duties is to present a teaching workshop in a month. i feel completely competant to talk to a room of math teaching assistants. but i get the sense that the math academic world operates a bit differently from other departments, so i'm a little hesitant about being deemed the "expert" in a room of TAs from different areas.
good: my time and effort for teaching are being honored... thorn: i'm a little nervous about seemingly being put in a place with a little more authority than i give myself...
* present: grants... i also have an extra grant this year from a fantastic organization that raises money for women in graduate school. as part of the grant i'm strongly encouraged to accept invitations of organization members to talk, attend various events, etc. i'm attending a philanthropy fair they're holding in late february as a representative recipient of their scholar award program. that's already kinda entertaining because i have no idea what to expect. the lady who invited me wrote me an email last night saying she'd like to meet me and take me out to lunch before the event. that's an innocent and pleasant invitation, and i gladly accepted the offer and suggested a few possible dates. she wrote me back that she'd like us to eat next week at a club she's a member of.
good: lunch at a fancy by-invitation-only club is exciting and an honor... thorn: i'm more of a jeans-and-sweatshirt-every-day-i-can-get-away-with-it kind of girl, so eating at a club is slightly stress inducing, as i'll periodically obsess about dress code and ettiquette for the next week and a half until i get there.
summary: life is pretty good, and i'm involved in lots of exciting things right now, but phone conversations, research roadblocks, and stepping out of my usual people-and-places circles of comfort make me nervous. in the end, i suppose "all of this too shall pass", and in the end, make me even stronger in dealing with the world (i do have a lot of paranoias to work on after all... ;) )
your job? keep my memphis church in prayer... and cross your fingers that i learn how to chill out in the near future instead of mentally working myself up into being really tense about interacting with the non-math graduate student world ;)
the end.
Wednesday, January 17, 2007
Sunday, January 14, 2007
Wednesday, January 10, 2007
oh, new orleans...
dude, what a week.
friday through monday, eric and i were at the national joint mathematics meetings in new orleans. 10 hours a day of math talks and schmoozing for 4 straight days is a lot of work. driving all day for both days on either end takes time too.
on the way south, eric and i drove to mobile, AL first and toured the USS alabama, which was super cool, until i got a migraine later in the day and had him drive from AL to LA. driving into new orleans from the east is kinda surreal. there are whole neighborhoods with dark house, and lit up trailer in the front yard for as far as the eye can see...
once there, we were kind of sheltered. the sheraton and the marriot are across the street from each other and for 4 days 5000 mathematicians attended talks and exhibits back and forth between the two hotels. they're on the west end of the french quarter which survived the hurricanes really well, so especially for people who just flew in, everything they actually saw was basically fine. eric and i walked the 2 miles to the garden district monday afternoon and saw a little bit of a different story along the way... sad thing is, so much of the city still has a lot to do to rebuild, and the part that's fine isn't really my cup of tea, (at least at night when most things are open,... i mean seriously, picture me on bourbon street? it's fun, but it's not me)...
even if we were sheltered in our exposure to the city, we definitely weren't in who we ran into at the conference. i crossed paths with my REU advisor from 5 years ago in texas, several of my past rutgers REU students, many of my undergraduate professors, many rutgers people past and present, and many people i've met at smaller more subject-specific conferences in the past year. it's really cool to feel like a valued part of a much larger community. practically every time i turned around there was someone new i knew from somewhere in the past who was happy to see me, so that was cool.
i introduced gillman (my undergraduate research advisor) to dr. z. (my phd thesis advisor) one afternoon. z's response? "nice to meet you! thank you for making lara!" i laughed SO hard...
anyhow, a VERY math-filled week is done. i'm being lazy in memphis for 24 hours before being on the road again. memphis to pittsburgh tomorrow, and pittsburgh to NJ on friday. tons of exciting fun, right?
be parties one and all!
friday through monday, eric and i were at the national joint mathematics meetings in new orleans. 10 hours a day of math talks and schmoozing for 4 straight days is a lot of work. driving all day for both days on either end takes time too.
on the way south, eric and i drove to mobile, AL first and toured the USS alabama, which was super cool, until i got a migraine later in the day and had him drive from AL to LA. driving into new orleans from the east is kinda surreal. there are whole neighborhoods with dark house, and lit up trailer in the front yard for as far as the eye can see...
once there, we were kind of sheltered. the sheraton and the marriot are across the street from each other and for 4 days 5000 mathematicians attended talks and exhibits back and forth between the two hotels. they're on the west end of the french quarter which survived the hurricanes really well, so especially for people who just flew in, everything they actually saw was basically fine. eric and i walked the 2 miles to the garden district monday afternoon and saw a little bit of a different story along the way... sad thing is, so much of the city still has a lot to do to rebuild, and the part that's fine isn't really my cup of tea, (at least at night when most things are open,... i mean seriously, picture me on bourbon street? it's fun, but it's not me)...
even if we were sheltered in our exposure to the city, we definitely weren't in who we ran into at the conference. i crossed paths with my REU advisor from 5 years ago in texas, several of my past rutgers REU students, many of my undergraduate professors, many rutgers people past and present, and many people i've met at smaller more subject-specific conferences in the past year. it's really cool to feel like a valued part of a much larger community. practically every time i turned around there was someone new i knew from somewhere in the past who was happy to see me, so that was cool.
i introduced gillman (my undergraduate research advisor) to dr. z. (my phd thesis advisor) one afternoon. z's response? "nice to meet you! thank you for making lara!" i laughed SO hard...
anyhow, a VERY math-filled week is done. i'm being lazy in memphis for 24 hours before being on the road again. memphis to pittsburgh tomorrow, and pittsburgh to NJ on friday. tons of exciting fun, right?
be parties one and all!
Thursday, January 04, 2007
winter roadtrip, round 3 (of 4)
so i really don't ever stay put.
in the past 7 days i've slept in 4 different places... moving around is what i do best.
the northern leg of my roadtrip was fun.
* i enjoyed hanging out with grandma even if we live in totally different worlds. she makes me laugh and we generally have a good time.
* heather m's wedding was beautiful. she and chris are so perfect for each other and it was a beautiful thing to watch them so happy together as well as to catch up with good college friends. aubrey taught me how to waltz between the wedding and the reception which for me is huge. :P
* roommate and i had a fabulous time hanging out with tammy and marcus for new years. we went cosmic bowling in a middle-of-nowhere, indiana town and had a blast.
* driving a rooster for dad from indy to memphis wasn't quite as noisy as expected. i'm glad it's over with.
2 days in memphis, and now i'm off again. yesterday i hung out with mom, then later went bowling with brother and got my highest score ever -- a 167!!! i'm getting there. :) today was random errands, and eric flew into town this afternoon so i have math company the whole rest of my time until i'm back in jersey. the next several days look like this:
* leave memphis super early tomorrow and head for mobile, alabama just to be there and get a good view of the gulf coast... will probably visit the USS alabama. eric's never been in the south at all before, so we'll knock out TN, MS, AL, and LA all in one day. after mobile, we're off to new orleans for the night.
* friday-monday national joint math meetings in downtown new orleans. lots of socializing with lots of math people. it will be a party.
* tuesday, new orleans back to memphis, then one day of "downtime" before the final leg of my crazy winter break travels.
i can barely keep up with myself lately, how about you? :-P
in the past 7 days i've slept in 4 different places... moving around is what i do best.
the northern leg of my roadtrip was fun.
* i enjoyed hanging out with grandma even if we live in totally different worlds. she makes me laugh and we generally have a good time.
* heather m's wedding was beautiful. she and chris are so perfect for each other and it was a beautiful thing to watch them so happy together as well as to catch up with good college friends. aubrey taught me how to waltz between the wedding and the reception which for me is huge. :P
* roommate and i had a fabulous time hanging out with tammy and marcus for new years. we went cosmic bowling in a middle-of-nowhere, indiana town and had a blast.
* driving a rooster for dad from indy to memphis wasn't quite as noisy as expected. i'm glad it's over with.
2 days in memphis, and now i'm off again. yesterday i hung out with mom, then later went bowling with brother and got my highest score ever -- a 167!!! i'm getting there. :) today was random errands, and eric flew into town this afternoon so i have math company the whole rest of my time until i'm back in jersey. the next several days look like this:
* leave memphis super early tomorrow and head for mobile, alabama just to be there and get a good view of the gulf coast... will probably visit the USS alabama. eric's never been in the south at all before, so we'll knock out TN, MS, AL, and LA all in one day. after mobile, we're off to new orleans for the night.
* friday-monday national joint math meetings in downtown new orleans. lots of socializing with lots of math people. it will be a party.
* tuesday, new orleans back to memphis, then one day of "downtime" before the final leg of my crazy winter break travels.
i can barely keep up with myself lately, how about you? :-P
