Dear Diary,
It's another office shuffle!
Aurora and Justin moved up to closer to Kieron for motivation and coffee. The rest of us are left down here enjoying the wide open office atmosphere.
The moves tend to go like this: The person at the top of the seniority picks a new desk. Then the next person moves, etc. I had to wait until the end to get the desk by the window that Aurora had. Aurora even mentioned that a bird enjoys pecking at the glass if the blinds are open. So cute!
Better yet, a trap desk is now set for the careless of seat. Once a new member takes my old seat, and sits in my old desk, they'll be me at the bottom of the seniority! I'll get to gently deliver the line, "It's a trap!"
Now if I a could get a couch placed where that desk used to be, then all the visitors will have cushy supports for their weary legs. And I'd have an auxiliary chair when I read things...but no naps, diary! I don't live that far away and need to get some things done. Or risk that Kieron would catch me napping!
Oh no! House rules say no couches in small offices! Instead, a bunch of old computers were placed where I used to be. Maybe it's a signal to work harder or end up like those computers...at my old desk!
PS The Webmaster updated everyone's contact information. Yay!
Showing posts with label House Rules. Show all posts
Showing posts with label House Rules. Show all posts
Wednesday, April 23, 2014
Thursday, September 19, 2013
My little secret
Dear Diary,
I've been keeping a secret from you. I failed my first qualification exam but SHH! Don't tell anyone!
Here, they don't give you your score, so it's really not possible to tell how I did on it, but they do tell you if you either passed, failed, or should get out of graduate school. This second time, I passed after studying the previous exams and problems from the courses for several weeks. It was such a relief that I missed this morning's seminar on the imposter syndrome!
But there's lots of work to be done...now I have to see what classes I'm taking...and work with physicists...and not earn nearly as much money as everyone else I know who has a job...and work with professor Burke for however many years he sees fit...and write this blog...
Oh God. I've made a huge mistake passing the exam--it's too late!
I've been keeping a secret from you. I failed my first qualification exam but SHH! Don't tell anyone!
Here, they don't give you your score, so it's really not possible to tell how I did on it, but they do tell you if you either passed, failed, or should get out of graduate school. This second time, I passed after studying the previous exams and problems from the courses for several weeks. It was such a relief that I missed this morning's seminar on the imposter syndrome!
But there's lots of work to be done...now I have to see what classes I'm taking...and work with physicists...and not earn nearly as much money as everyone else I know who has a job...and work with professor Burke for however many years he sees fit...and write this blog...
Oh God. I've made a huge mistake passing the exam--it's too late!
Sunday, August 11, 2013
Ralph Waldo Emerson
Diary,
Professor Burke asked me to put together the rule book for the group in a Latex document about how to manage your material on the group server. I'll have more on that later.
While doing so, he dropped this: "A foolish consistency is the hobgoblin of tiny minds" which is a dynamite quote by Ralph Waldo Emerson. After reading the entire essay, Self-Reliance, I now see that a lot of Professor Burke's insistence on being independent in your research has an intellectual brother in Emerson's writing.
Because I know you're a hipster, Diary, and wouldn't like me quoting the well known stuff, I'll give you my three favorite snippets:
"If I am the Devil's child, I will live then from the Devil"
"Your goodness must have some edge to it, —else it is none."
"As soon as he has once acted or spoken with eclat, he is a committed person, watched by the sympathy or the hatred of hundreds"
Man, I feel like that last one everyday. The worst part about this essay as that no matter how much I am attracted to it, I can never pick it up as my personal creed. The whole point of it is to not blindly believe in anything...that means I can't even believe the people who are not blindly believing in anything! So meta!
What I must do is all that concerns me, not what the people think. This rule, equally arduous in actual and in intellectual life, may serve for the whole distinction between greatness and meanness. It is the harder because you will always find those who think they know what is your duty better than you know it. It is easy in the world to live after the world's opinion; it is easy in solitude to live after our own; but the great man is he who in the midst of the crowd keeps with perfect sweetness the independence of solitude.
Man is timid and apologetic; he is no longer upright; he dares not say `I think,' `I am,' but quotes some saint or sage. He is ashamed before the blade of grass or the blowing rose. These roses under my window make no reference to former roses or to better ones; they are for what they are; they exist with God to-day. There is no time to them. There is simply the rose; it is perfect in every moment of its existence. Before a leaf-bud has burst, its whole life acts; in the full-blown flower there is no more; in the leafless root there is no less. Its nature is satisfied, and it satisfies nature, in all moments alike. But man postpones or remembers; he does not live in the present, but with reverted eye laments the past, or, heedless of the riches that surround him, stands on tiptoe to foresee the future. He cannot be happy and strong until he too lives with nature in the present, above time.
I suppose no man can violate his nature. All the sallies of his will are rounded in by the law of his being, as the inequalities of Andes and Himmaleh are insignificant in the curve of the sphere.
Real subversive stuff! Till next time, Diary!
Professor Burke asked me to put together the rule book for the group in a Latex document about how to manage your material on the group server. I'll have more on that later.
While doing so, he dropped this: "A foolish consistency is the hobgoblin of tiny minds" which is a dynamite quote by Ralph Waldo Emerson. After reading the entire essay, Self-Reliance, I now see that a lot of Professor Burke's insistence on being independent in your research has an intellectual brother in Emerson's writing.
Because I know you're a hipster, Diary, and wouldn't like me quoting the well known stuff, I'll give you my three favorite snippets:
"If I am the Devil's child, I will live then from the Devil"
"Your goodness must have some edge to it, —else it is none."
"As soon as he has once acted or spoken with eclat, he is a committed person, watched by the sympathy or the hatred of hundreds"
Man, I feel like that last one everyday. The worst part about this essay as that no matter how much I am attracted to it, I can never pick it up as my personal creed. The whole point of it is to not blindly believe in anything...that means I can't even believe the people who are not blindly believing in anything! So meta!
What I must do is all that concerns me, not what the people think. This rule, equally arduous in actual and in intellectual life, may serve for the whole distinction between greatness and meanness. It is the harder because you will always find those who think they know what is your duty better than you know it. It is easy in the world to live after the world's opinion; it is easy in solitude to live after our own; but the great man is he who in the midst of the crowd keeps with perfect sweetness the independence of solitude.
Man is timid and apologetic; he is no longer upright; he dares not say `I think,' `I am,' but quotes some saint or sage. He is ashamed before the blade of grass or the blowing rose. These roses under my window make no reference to former roses or to better ones; they are for what they are; they exist with God to-day. There is no time to them. There is simply the rose; it is perfect in every moment of its existence. Before a leaf-bud has burst, its whole life acts; in the full-blown flower there is no more; in the leafless root there is no less. Its nature is satisfied, and it satisfies nature, in all moments alike. But man postpones or remembers; he does not live in the present, but with reverted eye laments the past, or, heedless of the riches that surround him, stands on tiptoe to foresee the future. He cannot be happy and strong until he too lives with nature in the present, above time.
I suppose no man can violate his nature. All the sallies of his will are rounded in by the law of his being, as the inequalities of Andes and Himmaleh are insignificant in the curve of the sphere.
Real subversive stuff! Till next time, Diary!
Friday, July 26, 2013
Conferencing People is Easy
Dear Diary,
This week was busy (again). I've encountered some hang ups on the research. Namely, it isn't finished yet. Lucas and I are mulling over how to a fit an energy correlation functional properly. Until we figure it out, I'm keeping my little computer humming with other calculations and my notes tidy.
One scary prospect that was revealed at this week's meeting was that you have to talk to at least three people when you go to conferences (!) as a house rule. Professor Burke, Lucas, Raphael, and Justin all presented conference notes and insights from recent conferences they've attended (another house rule). I'll have to be thoroughly paying attention and try not to lose focus during talks, diary!
I have notoriously bad luck with asking questions at conferences. I once saw a talk that referenced 'flux trapping' and I was curious for more information. The presenter, afterward, waived me off when I asked him if he could explain a bit more, but I was persistent and smiley and wanted a reference so he walked away saying only 'Blamire.' Victory! The other presenter I queried was working on things that I maybe could have used, but her talk was so popular that, even though I was the first one in line for a question, a deluge of post-docs and professors kept interrupting until I got too hungry and left politely for dinner.
Getting straight answers to three questions is going to require a lot of guile, diary. Lucas and Justin seemed to ask their questions by staying smiley and polite-like. I suppose one way to do this is to speak with the graduate students and work your way up to the professors. In the meantime, I'll have to look up unknown words as I see them so I can understand presenters at the next conference. Maybe I can keep a friendly attitude and get lucky at the next conference!
[Editor's note: a student attending a conference must speak with 3 professors]
This week was busy (again). I've encountered some hang ups on the research. Namely, it isn't finished yet. Lucas and I are mulling over how to a fit an energy correlation functional properly. Until we figure it out, I'm keeping my little computer humming with other calculations and my notes tidy.
One scary prospect that was revealed at this week's meeting was that you have to talk to at least three people when you go to conferences (!) as a house rule. Professor Burke, Lucas, Raphael, and Justin all presented conference notes and insights from recent conferences they've attended (another house rule). I'll have to be thoroughly paying attention and try not to lose focus during talks, diary!
I have notoriously bad luck with asking questions at conferences. I once saw a talk that referenced 'flux trapping' and I was curious for more information. The presenter, afterward, waived me off when I asked him if he could explain a bit more, but I was persistent and smiley and wanted a reference so he walked away saying only 'Blamire.' Victory! The other presenter I queried was working on things that I maybe could have used, but her talk was so popular that, even though I was the first one in line for a question, a deluge of post-docs and professors kept interrupting until I got too hungry and left politely for dinner.
Getting straight answers to three questions is going to require a lot of guile, diary. Lucas and Justin seemed to ask their questions by staying smiley and polite-like. I suppose one way to do this is to speak with the graduate students and work your way up to the professors. In the meantime, I'll have to look up unknown words as I see them so I can understand presenters at the next conference. Maybe I can keep a friendly attitude and get lucky at the next conference!
[Editor's note: a student attending a conference must speak with 3 professors]
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