Dear Diary,
Wow! I never knew I could be that productive! I just successfully eradicated all traces of malfeasance in the group's Master.bib file by spending two hours straight parsing errors!
Master.bib is the Bibtex file that the group uses to enact it's evil plot to collect every reference that's ever been referenced! (Current unique references: 2344) Maybe I already explained this to you, diary, I can't remember because my head hurts...
Anyway, it appears that much more head hurting occurred in previous generations of Burke students. The file wouldn't compile for a myriad of reasons:
1) "%" signs must be listed as "\%" for Latex to work
2) Oh, Lucas! You can't press return in the middle of an abstract! Latex thinks it's a new line!
3) Curly parentheses are critical
4) The numbers 1998 and 24 are completely different. Even scarier: Latex knows the difference between a year and a TV show. I have to make sure I keep that straight and not lose track of the date! Oh no! It's daylight savings time apparently!
Anyway, it's done. Enjoy, everyone.
Showing posts with label Chores. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Chores. Show all posts
Monday, November 4, 2013
Friday, August 23, 2013
Butch Cassidy and Sundiary Kid
Dear Diary,
We're on the run! Estamos bandidos Yanquis. Lucas sent me a copy of his thesis for publication on the website, but the library won't let you publish theses on your own until they have fully processed it and put it on their website. Sorry, Lucas! You'll have to wait a few months...It is good work, though, and should be shared with the entire world.
WORLD: You'll have to wait too! In the meantime, diary, we'll have to be wary of crossing the library.
We're on the run! Estamos bandidos Yanquis. Lucas sent me a copy of his thesis for publication on the website, but the library won't let you publish theses on your own until they have fully processed it and put it on their website. Sorry, Lucas! You'll have to wait a few months...It is good work, though, and should be shared with the entire world.
WORLD: You'll have to wait too! In the meantime, diary, we'll have to be wary of crossing the library.
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, June 28, 2013
Burkely Quarterly
Yo, Diary.
What a week! I put you together, made a folder for new people, and wrote my weeklies. That is, pulling my daily notes ('dailies') into one weekly bundle!
I also submitted to the Burkely Quarterly (/pbe/gamma/elib/tex/proj/[initials]/1page)! I formatted everything down to one page, got some people to look over it, and even put some nice little frames on the figures. Hopefully the reviewers like it as much as I do!
Raphael wants me to give the group presentation next Tuesday. Yikes! I barely have anything done. Unfortunately, I can't use you again, Diary. I want to have something new each time I present so it looks like I'm making progress.
What a week! I put you together, made a folder for new people, and wrote my weeklies. That is, pulling my daily notes ('dailies') into one weekly bundle!
I also submitted to the Burkely Quarterly (/pbe/gamma/elib/tex/proj/[initials]/1page)! I formatted everything down to one page, got some people to look over it, and even put some nice little frames on the figures. Hopefully the reviewers like it as much as I do!
Raphael wants me to give the group presentation next Tuesday. Yikes! I barely have anything done. Unfortunately, I can't use you again, Diary. I want to have something new each time I present so it looks like I'm making progress.
Wednesday, June 26, 2013
I have 1,984 fingers
Diary,
Very exciting day. I made a calendar that will track all of my working hours, vacation time, and whereabouts. For classified reasons, Professor Burke would like to know where we are at all times.
I went on to my Google calendar through my UC Irvine email address and created a calendar with all my life's details.
First, I Logged in to Gmail
Then I went to `Calendar'
Clicked on `Settings' (upper right)
Clicked on `Calendar' (again) and `Edit Shared Settings'
Then I added the group emails to the email list
Any vacation time to countries that don't extradite to the US should be added to the calendar (Edward Snowden is in big trouble with his bosses for not doing so!). I also added my dentist appointment in a week. The standard nine to five working hours seemed to be a good start, but I want to work up to getting in around 7 and leaving at 6 (or later).
I'm going to go and get lunch right now, but I wrote on the calendar that I'll only take 40 minutes, so I better get going. Later diary!
Very exciting day. I made a calendar that will track all of my working hours, vacation time, and whereabouts. For classified reasons, Professor Burke would like to know where we are at all times.
I went on to my Google calendar through my UC Irvine email address and created a calendar with all my life's details.
First, I Logged in to Gmail
Then I went to `Calendar'
Clicked on `Settings' (upper right)
Clicked on `Calendar' (again) and `Edit Shared Settings'
Then I added the group emails to the email list
Any vacation time to countries that don't extradite to the US should be added to the calendar (Edward Snowden is in big trouble with his bosses for not doing so!). I also added my dentist appointment in a week. The standard nine to five working hours seemed to be a good start, but I want to work up to getting in around 7 and leaving at 6 (or later).
I'm going to go and get lunch right now, but I wrote on the calendar that I'll only take 40 minutes, so I better get going. Later diary!
Tuesday, June 11, 2013
Happy Birthday, Walter Kohn!
Dear Diary,
We've all been given an assignment to create a one page, journal style article on a tidbit from our research to submit to the Burkely Quarterly. I have decided to do this on a small project that Lucas has given me. I don't think it's anything new, but I enjoyed thinking about it. It will make a nice one page read for the in-group reviewer and a great exercise to practice submitting a paper to an established journal.
I put a template for the assignment in the new person folder on pbe.
Our group meeting today was full of useful information. Professor Burke got promoted and wants to take us to dinner. John isn't invited since he hasn't paid Kieron back for a breakfast yet. The new people must wait some time to prove themselves. Aurora isn't available since she leaves on Friday. Lucas is gone on Wednesday, and Raphael isn't back yet. Miles is also leaving soon for the Canadian perimeter. Despite all of this, Professor Burke will be eating dinner tonight.
Miles gave a really good final synopsis of the work that he and Lucas have done so far. There are a few snags in the code that wants to work out before leaving.
Professor Burke also told us all about Walter Kohn's 90th birthday celebration. There were a lot of famous physicists there and Professor Burke wants us to pull a big surprise for him and all his friends when he is 90.
Oh, and diary, you're going online.
Monday, May 27, 2013
My First Journal Club and Seniority Battles
Dear Diary,
At group meeting today, the chores were re-alloted. So were the desks. The selections were determined by seniority. For the record, the order was
Professor Burke
John
Lucas
Aurora
Raphael
Justin
Li
Me
I assume that undergraduate Kevin is somewhere in the middle, but he didn't come to the meeting.
Professor Burke decided to keep his office and Lucas took Stephano's desk. Everyone else passed on Lucas' old desk, so I now occupy a small corner desk with a lovely photo of a tropical beach on an American Lung Association calendar. Next month: The Grand Canyon! I also scored a sweet peg-board for important looking notes.
As soon as the new post-doc arrives, we will be shuffling the desks again. I'll have to find a way to make sure that he doesn't want my desk because clearly it's the best one and the envy of everyone in the group.
A second seniority draft was held for computing resources. People tend to get rid of their older, noisier computers for newer, quieter computers. Li wanted something running a Mac operating system and some shuffling occurred sending Justin's machine to Li, Raphael's to Justin, and Raphael getting a new computer.
Professor Burke reassigned chores. It looks like someone has to take John and Lucas's old jobs, so I'll be both the new group meeting note taker and web manager! Lucas' job will be hard to perform since he has the refined dry wit and humor of a cartoon in the New Yorker. I'm worried that they'll soon learn my humor of choice is physical comedy and that it won't translate onto the page. John has given me stern warnings to always be funny which I suppose includes continuing to post mathematically themed cat pictures on the website. I'll also have to learn how to program a website...
We then had a journal club where people brought in papers to share by giving a short presentation. Everyone should always have a backup, peer-reviewed paper handy, so I've decided to carry a printout in my back pocket and put a copy on the pbe server under /elib/tex just in case there's a sneak-Journal Club attack.
Professor Burke finished by telling us how rotten the academic job market is, how professors never have time for anything fun, and the likelihood that we'll all have to become dancers after the sequester takes away all our funding. The good news is he was able to clear out his unread email messages over the Memorial Day vacation. Hooray!
At group meeting today, the chores were re-alloted. So were the desks. The selections were determined by seniority. For the record, the order was
Professor Burke
John
Lucas
Aurora
Raphael
Justin
Li
Me
I assume that undergraduate Kevin is somewhere in the middle, but he didn't come to the meeting.
Professor Burke decided to keep his office and Lucas took Stephano's desk. Everyone else passed on Lucas' old desk, so I now occupy a small corner desk with a lovely photo of a tropical beach on an American Lung Association calendar. Next month: The Grand Canyon! I also scored a sweet peg-board for important looking notes.
As soon as the new post-doc arrives, we will be shuffling the desks again. I'll have to find a way to make sure that he doesn't want my desk because clearly it's the best one and the envy of everyone in the group.
A second seniority draft was held for computing resources. People tend to get rid of their older, noisier computers for newer, quieter computers. Li wanted something running a Mac operating system and some shuffling occurred sending Justin's machine to Li, Raphael's to Justin, and Raphael getting a new computer.
Professor Burke reassigned chores. It looks like someone has to take John and Lucas's old jobs, so I'll be both the new group meeting note taker and web manager! Lucas' job will be hard to perform since he has the refined dry wit and humor of a cartoon in the New Yorker. I'm worried that they'll soon learn my humor of choice is physical comedy and that it won't translate onto the page. John has given me stern warnings to always be funny which I suppose includes continuing to post mathematically themed cat pictures on the website. I'll also have to learn how to program a website...
We then had a journal club where people brought in papers to share by giving a short presentation. Everyone should always have a backup, peer-reviewed paper handy, so I've decided to carry a printout in my back pocket and put a copy on the pbe server under /elib/tex just in case there's a sneak-Journal Club attack.
Professor Burke finished by telling us how rotten the academic job market is, how professors never have time for anything fun, and the likelihood that we'll all have to become dancers after the sequester takes away all our funding. The good news is he was able to clear out his unread email messages over the Memorial Day vacation. Hooray!
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