There's Nothing New To Say About the Vendors, So I Wrote a List Post

1. We still have Sixteen Gpus Inoperable and Not Very Interested in Drivers Implemented Acceptably. Also a Generally Pokey File System. As there is nothing good that starts with X, I can't mock the file system that was even slower.


2. Have not heard back yet from new-PI about what he wants to do with the budget on his grant. I don't really care that much, as the success of this grant has pretty close to zero benefit to me.


3. My current understanding of this grant is that it proposes to spend nearly HALF A MILLION DOLLARS to improve the teaching of twenty teachers. I have a new idea on how to spend millions of dollars to improve education. Instead of merit pay for teachers -- since teachers hate merit pay -- I think we should pay the students directly. All the students who score above grade level should get a cash bonus. Take all this money that's being doled out for possibly-inefficient projects like this one and split it evenly among the students who score well on the exams. My ideas are no worse than things that are actually happening.


4. I have been starving hungry for the past week or so. No matter how much I eat, I am still hungry. Not sure what my optimal strategy is here.


5. Today I started Round 1 of my new fight about the coldness in my office. I wrote letters on letterhead paper to various managers at facilities services. My goal is to start a pattern of complaining now, in early March, about my office being freezing cold due to the a/c department's refusal to act on a work order filed in August 2010 to replace a defective valve. This means that by the time that June rolls around and the valve still hasn't been replaced that I will be in an excellent position to escalate this to the embarrassment of the people with the power to make things happen. A cold office in the winter can be rationalized as part of our over-zealous efforts to save energy. When my office remains in the low 60s even when it is in the 80s outside, they will no longer be able to cite energy-saving as a justification for the cold. When my office is still in the 60s in June after I've complained in writing for months about an unresolved work order from the previous August, this will reflect badly on them. Don't worry: I have a back-up plan. I'm going to ask the maintenance lady for the part number for the valve. If it's less than $200, I'll just buy it myself. You can buy anything on the internet, right? Either way, I will not freeze again this summer.


6. I need to find someone to go to the gym with me.


7. I've started complementing my weight training with yoga. Yoga kicks my ass way more than weight training does. Also, yoga class is very demoralizing, as most of the people there are women who look like they are there for a casting call for a Hollywood movie about hard-core ballet. They make me, a moderately slender and fit person, look like the stereotype of bbq-eating southern sloth. The rest of the people are guys who cluster along the mirrored wall of the yoga studio (no matter which way class is facing, they can alway see their classmates).


8. Biology class paid off. Today the prof mentioned something in passing that is really important for what I do at work.


9. Despite my claim that I hate spring clothes and can not do any shopping until the back-to-school season brings fall clothes back into the stores, apparently I have found some spring clothes worth buying. Over the past two weeks I have dropped hundreds of dollars at The Gap and Old Navy. Roughly an even mix of "entirely reasonable clothes" (a pair of jeans, some tank tops, solid color t-shirts, etc.), gym clothes, and bad judgement/age inappropriate clothes.


10. The problem with having two offices is that my swarm of sticky notes are stuck to the other monitor. I suppose that this means that I should pick one project for tomorrow and work on it all day so that it is finished. Instead of dealing with a swarm of sticky notes.