Learning Curves

Recent Past, Near Future

2009-07-12T12:40:00.013-04:00

Thought that I was going to get caught up on my sleep/rest and work on research. Wandered all over Boston and Cambridge on foot, tiring myself out. Didn't work on any research. Ended up getting in a fight last night about something really stupid. Went to bed in a foul mood. Was woken up at 9am this morning. Have not slept that late in about a year.

Bought a gift for The Topologist. I really want to open it and use it myself instead of saving it for when I next seem him (in a little over three weeks). Ironically, I have a complete spirograph set at home (well, all the gears and plastic parts -- the pens died and/or disappeared roughly 25 years ago) that I never use.

Did more crap for the budget at work. Need to submit the lastest revision and request for money on Monday.

Started to make a list of things that I should be doing for my real job. I should re-read the book that I've assigned for my seminar (Sync. As it doesn't come in a Kindle edition, I can justify delaying a Kindle. Since I have no time to read, I can also justify buying the book. I suspect that a desk copy will await me upon my return.). I need to revise my calculus slides. I need to figure out how to harness the power of databases to enforce prerequisites.

Got in another fight with my mother about stupid things. She can not see my point of view at all, so she insists that I do certain things to "relax" that I do not find relaxing. My job here finishes up on August 3, and my regular job resumes on August 17. She is insisting that I should go on vacation in the gap between jobs. Because nothing is more relaxing than having work pile up in my absence so that I will start the semester already behind? Similarly, she is suggesting that I should eat more junk food. Eating junk food does not make me feel better.

Also suggested by Mom yesterday: Since I have so much time off at Christmas, I should spend it in New Mexico. My parents will be heading to New Mexico to visit my brother and his wife and their baby. I have no interest in meeting the baby. Let me know when it turns into a person, and we'll consider it. Better yet, let's just wait until it knows calculus.

Pardis Sabeti was so awesome on Friday that I am tempted to start studying genomics.

Tomorrow is a tour of Akamai and then dinner with Tom Leighton followed by his talk. We'll see how that goes.

Minor Superpowers

2009-07-10T14:33:00.002-04:00

I decided to do some work for my real job today. I harnessed the power of databases to find three students who were enrolled in the wrong courses. One of them I sent an email suggesting that she get re-advised. She's taking eight credit-hours worth of math classes that don't count towards any requirements and that are normally taken in a sequence instead of all at once. The other two I just dropped.

Things That I Realized Today

2009-07-10T13:35:00.002-04:00

I forgot to reserve a room in the Student Center for the dinner with Pardis Sabeti tonight. I suppose this means that I will have to assign some minions to push tables together near the Dunkin' Donuts or maybe it will be nice enough out to eat outside. One of my minions will be upset with me.

Option-F1 (and -F2) will open the displays control panel. Option-F3 (and -F4) will open the expose/spaces control panel. Option-F11 (and -F12) will open the sound control panel.

One of my difficult-to-find minions who has been slacking at his job with me has another full-time job.

Some grad students have no sense of what's in their best interests. One of the grad students who I'll be supervising in the fall has included on his draft syllabus for the lowest level math class that counts towards fulfilling the math requirement a 4500-word paper.

My time in Cambridge is nearly half over. Still have not ventured out for dim sum.

Today I Didn't Do Any of My Jobs All Afternoon

2009-07-09T22:04:00.002-04:00

I think that this morning is when the last guest left. Since my job is week-round, I have trouble keeping track of what day it is. Also when I nap during the day, it gets harder to measure the passing of time based on sleep. I think that I dealt with checking the guest out and turning in the key.

This morning me and a coworker went to MGH to spring the guy who'd been in the hospital since Tuesday night. Since he started out in the ER, he didn't officially check in to the hospital until Wednesday morning. All of the tests for alarming things turned out negative.

And then my co-conspirator woke up. And we spent the rest of the day trekking all over Boston and eating food and exploring. We had lunch at Mary's and dinner at Steve's. Ended up taking the red to the orange to the blue to see how to lead a group to the harbor. Walked back to MIT via the Longfellow bridge. Pretty much spent the whole day eating and trekking.

On the Bright Side

2009-07-08T22:04:00.001-04:00

Best news I heard today: It isn't malaria.

The joys of working with an international group.

Blogging Lost Things Renders Them Found

2009-07-06T17:09:00.003-04:00

The Topologist came off the Appalachian Trail somewhere in NYS with his brother and then called me in response to the flurry of text messages that I had sent. Of course since I have AT&T and was on the MIT campus (Stata) and was at a lunch meeting, I couldn't talk to him.

All the meetings so far today have been horribly awkward. But I suppose that this is what happens when you send someone from overseas to spend two days learning about things that could just as well be handled over email and with a quick afternoon visit.

The Topologist is Missing

2009-07-06T11:46:00.003-04:00

He hasn't responded to my text messages. His phone goes straight to voicemail.

Thinking of asking a neighbor to check to see if his car is in the driveway.

Odds are that a combination of hiking and absentmindedness has his cell phone lost, unavailable, or out of batteries. I hope.

Things Get Busy and Complicated

2009-07-05T15:19:00.004-04:00

Today I helped someone deal with her I-515A form. Yet another thing that I am learning at this job: various things about immigration and visas. Soon I will be able to talk about DS-2019 and SEVIS and J-1 with the best of them. I'm unsure what is going to happen when she leaves the US on August 1, as she had to mail in her I-94 card together with her DS-2019 and the I-515A. Fortunately, I suspect that they'll let her leave without much trouble. When it becomes a problem is if she ever wants to come back.

Today I decided that it was summery enough that I could finally treat myself to some ice cream, so I walked over to Toscaninis and agonized over a flavor choice, eventually settled on salted caramel, and then second-guessed my decision, wondering if instead I should have had buttermilk or strawberry-basil or hazlenut (probably not, as I am allergic to hazelnuts even though I eat them anyway) or earl grey.

And then I regretted every bit of inferior ice cream that I've had in the past few months.

We're chock full of guests this week, so I'm bracing to be way more social than I'm used to.

Today someone arrived from India. I think he is going to do my job next summer. Except in India. Where they have never done this before. He is staying until Wednesday or Thursday, I think. But I'm not really sure because no one tells me anything. I've typed up a very official-looking schedule in 10-point font. Part of this schedule involves one of my minions taking him on a tour of campus. I think that they'll take the long way everywhere and tell stories about each room. As the guest from India is probably tired after his journey, I'm hiding from him so that he can have a chance to settle in.

Monday evening is dinner (and a talk) by Noam Elkies. The visitor from India will come along.

On Monday evening a second guest arrives. She will be doing the non-summer part of my job, taking over from the person who used to do this job year round. She has never been here before and may not be entirely clear on what it is that we do and why. Confusingly, she and I both have the same title. Also of note, I am paid through a 1099 and she is an employee. The person who used to do both the part that I do and the part that she does was an employee. If I have the same job title as an employee and do the same work that used to be done by an employee and have no real autonomy in getting my work done, doesn't that mean that I should be an employee? Of course if I were an employee and if the other people who work here were employees, then we might have to stop making all the inappropriate comments that would be uncalled for in a workplace. Which this isn't. Because we're all independent contractors with specified tasks that need to get done in specified places at specified times in specified ways.

Tuesday during the day will be spent trying to get the two guests to entertain each other. I'll probably have to show up, but I'm hoping that if I just sit there quietly they will talk to each other. Tuesday we have dinner (and a talk) with Wolfgang Ketterle. Everyone would much rather talk to a Nobel Laureate than to me, so dinner should not be too bad.

One of the guests might be leaving on Wednesday. Or might not be. So there's really nothing planned. Hoping that if the guest is leaving later in the day that the guest will want to visit Boston. Maybe the guest wants to go off on his own to see Tufts? Olin? Western MA?

Wednesday night we're brining in a panel of 12 people for dinner and a talk.

Thursday all the guests leave. At that point I may need to appeal to the bottle of bourbon that has been sitting around my room in case of emergency.

And then Friday we have Pardis Sabeti (dinner and talk).

The plan is to spend Saturday hiding out, alone, and recovering from the week.

The Sun Came Out!

2009-07-03T20:12:00.004-04:00

Around the middle of the day today, I saw a glowing orb in the sky! Light shined down on Cambridge, MA! I went for a walk and did not get rained on!

Still didn't get very much work done for my regular job (nor did I make much progress with research).

Held a staff meeting in which we discussed the upcoming visits of scary strangers, and I promised that everyone would need to take a turn with the scary strangers. Also discussed problems that have no solution.

And then 40 people decided that it would be a good idea for them to decend, locust-like, upon the same restaurant for dinner -- including getting all of the out-of-town folks to figure out how to take the 1 bus to Harvard. As I hate large groups (and was in fear of several international folks needing change for a $100 to have $1.50 for the bus), I stayed here and had a peanut butter sandwich.

Not sure what I'm going to do tonight. I have the rest of the leftover bourbon that was left with me last week but no one to drink any of it with. Possibly I'll go to bed early and catch up on my sleep. And tomorrow I will have the place to myself in peace and quiet, as everyone else is going to head out to the Esplanade at stupid-early in the morning and will stay there (guarding the space) through the fireworks. In the past few years I've come around to the way of thinking of one of my friends from grad school. He said that he was opposed to all holidays, and now I agree with him.

If it rains again tomorrow, I'll know that I've made the right choice by staying here.

The Rain has Destroyed my Ambition

2009-07-02T17:58:00.002-04:00

Today I had a full day pretty much clear to work on research. I did a bit of my summer work this morning -- reserved a few rooms, scheduled a few talks, wrote back to a few emails. Did a load of laundry. Redyed my hair where it was fading near the roots. Now it's much purpler.

Spent the rest of the day hanging out, gossiping, and listening obsessively to Chopin's Prelude #15. May head over to the student center with my sheet music to continue to obsess about it. I may have to have The Topologist mail me my whole book of all the Preludes and Etudes.

Really, really, really should do some research instead, though, as I will have no time next week, as we are entertaining guests from Sunday through Thursday. As soon as the weather turns nice enough for me to have energy to actually do things, I will have no time. Too bad there isn't a good way to delegate any of these tasks.

Bad Ideas

2009-07-02T16:14:00.003-04:00

I've delegated to my chief minion the task of finding a cheap and fun outing for 70+ people from out of town (many from other countries).

Right now we're considering wholesome things like the duck tour or visiting the islands around Boston.

Yet we have been known to derail the conversation by reminding each other that the Chinatown bus goes to NYC for $15.

Unbloggable Chaos

2009-07-01T15:21:00.002-04:00

Recently I've been dealing with all sorts of crap that I probably shouldn't say too much about. Some bad things happened to some people who I know, and I've dealt with that. Someone else I know seems to be up to no good, so I'm keeping an eye on that. Had a meeting with one of my minions today that went way better than I was hoping for.

I'd like to apologize in advance to East Campus for the havoc that we may be bringing over on Friday night. Don't blame Tammi. It's all our fault.

Guests are descending upon us at the beginning of next week. They are getting on my nerves already, and I haven't even met them yet. I think that at least one will be surprised that the accomodations that we have arranged are in the same dimly lit, mouse-infested building that we're in. Could be worse. Until six years ago or so we were in EC, where the vermin are not cute and furry.

And the stupid rain and cold weather that we've been having has kept me from going out on long head-clearing walks.

Red Plumes

2009-06-29T16:53:00.000-04:00

More of My Life in Cambridge

2009-06-29T14:12:00.003-04:00

Really I have no idea what becomes of my time. I spend an awful lot of time doing bureaucratic things, like the budget spreadsheet.

Spent a while over the weekend practicing piano. Haven't played in a long time (years), so at the beginning it was like sight reading when I was trying to play some of my favorite songs. (Yay for free pdf classical sheet music.) It's been so long that I couldn't identify the notes by name if I thought about them, but if I tried not to think, I knew where the note was. Also, I could only do the key signature right if I didn't think about it.

Went to a talk the other day and had my vision altered by the McCollough Effect.

Having dinner with another Nobel Laureate tonight (physiology or medicine). Next week is another Laureate (physics). Then I'll be done with Nobel Laureates for the summer.

Trying to arrange stealth dinners with other cool people.

Was at an event with these folks. It involved the national anthems of Saudi Arabia and Lebanon. Also had people from Bahrain, Turkey, Bulgaria, Sweden, China, Rwanda, Israel, Australia, Spain, and Greece.

Considering the foreign nationals that I'm spending time with and that all the money for reimbursements is shuttled though a bank account in my name (and handled entirely in cash), I wouldn't be surprised if I ended up on some sort of watch list.

Just learned moments ago that next week I will be hosting two visitors and shuttling them around to meetings.

Still too rainy. This afternoon it looks like the sun is coming out.

Friday Optimism

2009-06-26T08:22:00.002-04:00

Most of the crises that seem to have come up last night should be under control. I hope. Someone I work with is young and doesn't come across in the best way over email, so as long as the recipient of the email understands that, everything should be OK. Just about every other problem has been solved by someone saying, "I'll put one of my grad students on that."

And I believe that my faux MIT card now will open the piano practice rooms on the fourth floor of the student center. And lucky for me, much of the music that I like to play was written so long ago that it is now in the public domain and I can download it as pdfs off the internet. I wonder how hard it is to turn pages on a Kindle DX, as that might be a neat way to keep a large score under control.

Off to do the budget, for the week, put in the order for more TechCash, and get breakfast. If I can remember the cluster combo, I may have to print some sheet music in W20-575. (Yes, I know I can log onto the QuickStation in the lobby and use tellme combo.)

Arrivals and Departures (and Paperwork)

2009-06-25T07:30:00.004-04:00

Wednesday, arrived in the mail: Neat Receipts for Mac. A FedEx package from China. A DHL package from Bulgaria. Over $1000 worth of T-passes for July.

This morning, looking in the mirror: The purple from my hair has faded badly. It hasn't even been two weeks yet! Must find time to walk over to Newberry Street and buy some dye. Planned ahead and packed tint brush.

Yesterday had dinner with Dudley Herschbach.

Today must go and walk paperwork around campus. Apparently I am having an Event. In MIT's technical jargon, all Events need copious amounts of paperwork. Ironically, the only reason I am having an Event is because I want to be sure that there are enough tables and chairs in part of a public building.

Tonight I get to mingle with the important people who I've been begging for favors (or possibly their minions). Even though this is being catered, it is not an Event.

Today

2009-06-23T22:17:00.003-04:00

Listened to a fire saftey talk by the same people who have a lot of furniture in the hallway, impeding my egress.

Spent $80 of MIT's money on renting a room at MIT. It's amazing how easy it is to get things done when you have a cost object number. If I were more officially connected to MIT, my life would be even easier.

Escorted a group to a meeting for internationals on J-1 visas. The forms that needing filling out were so complicated that I would have had trouble with them. Left the meeting feeling anxious, even though I am a U.S. citizen.

Meant to be sleeping by now, but I am too stupid to sleep.

Dealt with awkward professional situation. Weeks ago asked someone to do something that really needed to be all set up by the other day. Heard nothing. Asked someone else who agreed. First person finally wrote back today. Had to explain situation.

Still stupid cold. Still hating the food in the student center. Have $900 left on my TechCASH card.

I Thought Summer in Cambridge was Warm

2009-06-22T17:00:00.002-04:00

We are all freezing. It it dark and cold and rainy and wet. It's been compared to Seattle in March.

We've had 67 of the 70 people we were expecting show up. Two had visa issues (one is on his way and the other is still in limbo), and one has influenza A and has been instructed not to travel. Tomorrow I get to meet with the international office to straighten out visa issues for a few dozen people with J-1s.

I am already sick of the food here. Perhaps with the terrible food, having to walk everywhere, and the general busy anxiety I may be able to fit back into my favorite pants by the end of the summer. There's a bright side to everything.

But everyone here is smart and wonderful. And one of my coworkers shared some of his 25-year-old scotch, so all is well. If crazy-busy.

Things Fall Into Place

2009-06-19T15:20:00.003-04:00

I think I have finished everything that absolutely has to get done during business hours.

Here is a gratuitous photograph of my nephew.

Only a small amount of paperwork (that needs to be filled out in China and sent back DHL) separates me from being truly on top of things. Unfortunately, I don't have the blank form to send to China.

My Summer Job is Kicking My Ass

2009-06-18T22:06:00.002-04:00

Um. Let's see. There was Tuesday when I spent the whole day packing and freaking out about my hair and packing some more and then mailing things to myself because I was afraid of $50 charges per overweight bag. And no I couldn't weigh the bags because that step where you weigh yourself and weigh yourself with the bag and then subtract would have been WAY too stressful because I haven't weighed myself in a while. I still can not decide whether I packed brilliantly or stupidly.

Wednesday I flew, dealt with the usual airline hijinks (fucking security found my bag suspicious as it contained an envelope stuffed with $500 in cash, all singles and fives, two cell phones, a bag of quarters, and a whole lot of chargers, adapters, transformers, and whatnot) including a minor baggage drama.

Today the nice people at the MIT card office gave me 107 proximity cards to get in the building without asking me to show ID. Sadly, the cards did not OPEN ANY FUCKING DOORS. So that took a while to fix.

Oh, and there's still an elephant in the room, metaphorically speaking.

The room I'm living in has perpetual twilight. Too dark when you want it light, too light when you want it dark. The building has mice. I saw a dead one in the hallway this morning.

Did not get to go to Salvation Army to buy any of the things I need (like a fucking lamp). Need crazy shit that probably can not be bought easily within walking distance of MIT. Do not know anyone competent enough to send on wild goose chase errands for crazy shit.

If you need me, I'll be talking incoherently to myself outside the Central Square T station. Oh, and my lead minion says hi.

Preparing to Leave on Wednesday

2009-06-15T20:56:00.002-04:00

Stuffing my wallet full of new and different cards. CharlieCard. ATM card for the bank I use in Cambridge. Card that has been known to open the gate of a parking lot at MIT (even though I'm not driving).

Got my hair dyed today in preparation for being out of town for seven weeks. Might be too purple. Looks too purple in sunlight. Seems about right in artificial light. It's not that much more purple than usual, but the purple patches have migrated closer to the top/front, so it's more visibly purple. In retrospect perhaps not the best choice if I'm going to be having dinner with three Nobel Laureates this summer. Or maybe Nobel Laureates won't care that I have purple hair. Also have dinner scheduled with a big-deal Cambridge-based internet entrepreneur.

Spent yesterday doing infinity laundry. I'm sure you didn't want to read laundry-blogging. Considered taking a photograph of my overstuffed closet. I own way too many clothes. Learned that when all my clothes are clean they do not all fit in my closet.

Have not yet started ironing in preparation for packing. Or trying things on to see if they still fit from last summer. Have made a staging ground with an alarming volume of non-clothing items that need to be brought with me.

My real job at the university has started sending me data that I need. No time to deal with it before I leave. It's in password-protected .xlsx files, so I need my office computer to read them. Probably could do it remotely, but it would be slow.

Staff email me to ask questions about things that I wouldn't know about, so I send them to the people who would know. Staff do not email me about things that I do know about and then spend too much money on things they could have got a much better deal on.

Friday's Walk

2009-06-13T08:24:00.004-04:00

Leftover signs from where they moved the roads around when they were working on the freeway.

Noticed a house number embedded in the curb.

But it's no longer a house. It's a church parking lot. And according to the county web page, the property has been renumbered to 837.

But the county web page says that it was a house when the church bought it for $9000 in the 1980s.

In the 1920s people probably complained about my neighborhood being one of those new suburbs outside of town with rows of identical houses.

Did not take a picture of the hooker who I saw on the corner of 4th and Central, as I suspect that neither she nor her "manager" (reading the newspaper in a car parked nearby) would have been amused.

Business Expenses

2009-06-12T18:41:00.002-04:00

My summer job has me so stressed out that I'm wondering if I should call the massage therapist's cell phone and see if she can fit me in on Monday or Tuesday.

Someone who has to file Schedule C can plausibly claim that one of these is a business expense, right? Because I think I'm getting one.

What about an iPhone 3G S? Business expense?

New Advances in Graduate Education

2009-06-11T07:17:00.004-04:00

One of my friends (who comes from a quantitative-scientific background) is taking a graduate course at my university this summer. She is taking "Statistical Methods in [Social Science Discipline]" taught by a social scientist whose research involves the use of statistical techniques, as carried out by software. She has started taking careful notes to share with her mathematically-inclined friends. (A mutual friend of ours is considering showing up one day just to sit in.)

She reports the following:

Instructor has defined the mean as "half the values are above, half the values are below."
Instructor gives the following example of median. "Let's say you could have scores of 1, 2, 3, 4, or 5 on an exam. The median score would be 3 because that's the one in the middle."
Instructor explains the statement "The sum of the deviations is zero," with the following example. "Let's say you have 1, 2, and 3. The mean is 2. The deviations are 2-1 = 1 and 3-2 = 1. When you add those together you get 2. When you subtract that from the mean, you get 0."

When you go to grad school, you learn new things.

New Adventures in Cheating

2009-06-11T07:11:00.002-04:00

Yesterday I dealt with part of the appeals process for an academic integrity case (not my class). I talked to the insructor and looked at the exams in question.

The two exam papers had many identical wrong answers, many to word problems that required the answer to be given in a full sentence. The students in question were roommates.

What made this case special was that the instructor had a clear reason to suspect that one student was allowing hir roommate to copy. The "source" paper was written in characters nearly 1" tall.