Dear Diary,
It has struck me recently that I am no longer an undergraduate. I earn money for work. But what is the money for?
I suppose I could go blow it on the slots, but the odds are not in my favor there...and if I start winning then I haven't solved my problems at all. Now, let's pretend that I have a car (or any recreational activity...I don't) and could get out of here on the weekends to go camping and recharge my batteries. I suppose money would go to that, but surely there'd be some left over (?). Right now, the extras are placed securely inside my mattress (SHH! Tell no one!), but what should I do?
Well, the folks on the internet tell me there are a few options that I'll discuss here. Principally, one can invest money now for use later. A novel concept! There seem to be mutual funds where stocks and bonds are bundled together. Two types of companies can handle these for you: one is speculative and the other is indexed. In the former, the company alleges that it can consistently find stocks that beat the average. The latter actually consistently outperforms the former by just matching the stock market day in and day out (there's also less hidden fees in this second option).
So, I went with the second option. I put some money away in a Roth IRA which allows me to pay taxes on it now while I'm earning basically nothing.* The other type of IRA makes you pay taxes when you withdraw (but you'll be earning more). I also put a little into a regular mutual fund (why not?).
Oh, and I'm going to start looking for a leisure hobby.
*-An oxymoron considering the subject of the post.
Friday, January 31, 2014
Wednesday, January 29, 2014
Connextions
Dear diary,
Most of us in the group were born while Pluto was in the house of Scorpio meaning that we will have to find ways to rebuild fundamental human connections. This makes a lot of sense considering so many people play video games and can't interact except via texting.
Kieron has decided that we will try to put our heads together and collaborate on projects, so we're all supposed to catalog what we're doing and see if it can be combined with something else. I emailed a template around and had the Computer Whiz make a soft linked folder on the group server so everyone had one place to put their stuff. Bonus points if someone can link more than two projects together!
We'll see how this goes! Especially considering Pluto is now entering Capricorn which means a time of much upheaval!
Most of us in the group were born while Pluto was in the house of Scorpio meaning that we will have to find ways to rebuild fundamental human connections. This makes a lot of sense considering so many people play video games and can't interact except via texting.
Kieron has decided that we will try to put our heads together and collaborate on projects, so we're all supposed to catalog what we're doing and see if it can be combined with something else. I emailed a template around and had the Computer Whiz make a soft linked folder on the group server so everyone had one place to put their stuff. Bonus points if someone can link more than two projects together!
We'll see how this goes! Especially considering Pluto is now entering Capricorn which means a time of much upheaval!
Monday, January 27, 2014
Email Signatures
Dear Diary,
Now that I'm finally communicating with people outside of the university, I feel the has come to add an email signature to my school emails. I still have to introduce myself in emails, but it could be useful if someone wants to know more information.
I guess I could go with this one I get from a frequent collaborator:
##########################
Dalek Sek
Ph.D. wanna-be
Group of Davros
Holder of the Seventh Key to the Breeze-Bore Dimension
Ate Spaghetti Somehow for the First Time Last Night (It was Good)
What Department
Skaro University
Skaro, S&T 007
Tel: (123) 456-7890
Fax: (123) 456-7890
Email: GETTHEDOCTOR9000@mainframe.internal.edu
Web: DalekFans.com
##########################
But that's a bit long for what I have...Maybe with the website around I'll pick something short:
And build it up through time (and relative dimension in space?!).
Now that I'm finally communicating with people outside of the university, I feel the has come to add an email signature to my school emails. I still have to introduce myself in emails, but it could be useful if someone wants to know more information.
I guess I could go with this one I get from a frequent collaborator:
##########################
Dalek Sek
Ph.D. wanna-be
Group of Davros
Holder of the Seventh Key to the Breeze-Bore Dimension
Ate Spaghetti Somehow for the First Time Last Night (It was Good)
What Department
Skaro University
Skaro, S&T 007
Tel: (123) 456-7890
Fax: (123) 456-7890
Email: GETTHEDOCTOR9000@mainframe.internal.edu
Web: DalekFans.com
##########################
But that's a bit long for what I have...Maybe with the website around I'll pick something short:
________________________
The Doctor
Department of the Who, GallifreyThe Doctor
Saturday, January 25, 2014
You shall not covet (PRLs)
Dear Diary,
Physical Review Letters is upping the difficulty to get in once again. The premiere physics journal previously set the bar higher and is now doing so again to make itself more prestigious.
That's bad news for all of us in the group. Kieron has declared that we should shoot for more papers in this journal before we graduate. You know what they say, Diary: When the submission criteria get tougher, the graduate students stay longer. Kieron's really good at these things (look at the track record!), but I can't help but be tremulous.
Especially so since I just got rejected from the journal for my old research, and I'm due for another rejection on a second paper, shortly. The reviews have seemed really...well, I thought I'd said very clearly we were in the opposite limit from what they wanted to compare...and sometimes they come right out and say mean things. I'll try to stay positive, though, and remember the reviewers are just trying to do their job. PRLs are supposed to be hard to get. Maybe I can pick up a few tips on a thick skin from Kieron.
Anyway, I guess there's no point in doing bad work to get into a worse journal (one must graduate!). But even if you do good work, it has to sell...I guess...It could be that some papers with good work just can't be shortened into three pages. Maybe we'll be able to bust out a better paper in some other journal with all the free space for every detail we want...
...well...I'll get back to it...I guess...Maybe I can make progress on that calculation Kieron wanted me to do.
Physical Review Letters is upping the difficulty to get in once again. The premiere physics journal previously set the bar higher and is now doing so again to make itself more prestigious.
That's bad news for all of us in the group. Kieron has declared that we should shoot for more papers in this journal before we graduate. You know what they say, Diary: When the submission criteria get tougher, the graduate students stay longer. Kieron's really good at these things (look at the track record!), but I can't help but be tremulous.
Especially so since I just got rejected from the journal for my old research, and I'm due for another rejection on a second paper, shortly. The reviews have seemed really...well, I thought I'd said very clearly we were in the opposite limit from what they wanted to compare...and sometimes they come right out and say mean things. I'll try to stay positive, though, and remember the reviewers are just trying to do their job. PRLs are supposed to be hard to get. Maybe I can pick up a few tips on a thick skin from Kieron.
Anyway, I guess there's no point in doing bad work to get into a worse journal (one must graduate!). But even if you do good work, it has to sell...I guess...It could be that some papers with good work just can't be shortened into three pages. Maybe we'll be able to bust out a better paper in some other journal with all the free space for every detail we want...
...well...I'll get back to it...I guess...Maybe I can make progress on that calculation Kieron wanted me to do.
Friday, January 24, 2014
Friday Magic
Dear Diary,
It's Friday. That means the Friday magic will occur at either 5:30 or 8:30 pm local time. I suppose I could stay and get perhaps these MKL Libraries to work...Hmm, I just realized that I was fixing MKL libraries on MLK day! Yay!
Raphael just told me he had his most productive hour or so this week. He seems to have caught the magic wind. I informed him that it's only good until Monday when the delirium for working so long wears off, you realize everything was wrong, and you fix it Tuesday night for good.
I think I'm heading home for crackers, cheese, and reading that paper that Kieron gave me.
It's Friday. That means the Friday magic will occur at either 5:30 or 8:30 pm local time. I suppose I could stay and get perhaps these MKL Libraries to work...Hmm, I just realized that I was fixing MKL libraries on MLK day! Yay!
Raphael just told me he had his most productive hour or so this week. He seems to have caught the magic wind. I informed him that it's only good until Monday when the delirium for working so long wears off, you realize everything was wrong, and you fix it Tuesday night for good.
I think I'm heading home for crackers, cheese, and reading that paper that Kieron gave me.
Tuesday, January 21, 2014
At long last
Diary!
I told you! Working late on Tuesdays somehow fixes whatever breakthrough made you happy while working late on Fridays! Today was just such a day: a Tuesday!
I FIT MILES' DATA!
I stayed late and started to redo some calculations that I'd done earlier since I'd run into a brick wall. The work-around paper that Kieron gave me was going to take a bit to digest, so why not double check some things first? I went back, took Miles' data, and fit it. I got his numbers spot on! It's more amazing that Miles did this all by hand and was as accurate as a computer!
This is such a relief. I had resorted to methods (even being non-sensical in front of Kieron!) to solve this problem that I would even agree were completely stupid. It's the sort of crazy that makes you wonder if you're actually sitting in a padded room somewhere babbling incoherently; a feeling I frequently have while doing physics!
But, the battle isn't over. I'll probably still do Kieron's suggested calculation, and I suspect that these numbers only work in the low density limit. The points we trained on were only quasi-uniform in the low density limit and we haven't really tested the fit on anything higher, but I have a sneaking suspicion that our numbers work best on only low densities. I'd be happy to be wrong, though, since it means I don't have to rerun all the plots Lucas and Miles made!
One could ask why I couldn't get the numbers earlier. I told Kieron that I was out of all my Luke-scuses at the end of last quarter, but I seem to remember that Lucas and I decided to put Miles' training sets into ours. I also think we were weighting the data sets which would take us farther from the numbers. Keep in mind, Diary, if I would have confirmed Miles' numbers at the beginning, we would not have serendipitously found the right answer in all the wrong ways. If I'm wrong-wrong and have wasted all our time...well, then we're double sure!
I suppose I should look forward to some ribbing for dragging this out so. Really, this has taken me too much time to see if Miles' numbers could be found from my fancy pants program. Ok, sure, there was a fellowship, a test, a vacation, and lots of administrative things in the way, but I'd like to move this along. I might even have something for the March Meeting!
I told you! Working late on Tuesdays somehow fixes whatever breakthrough made you happy while working late on Fridays! Today was just such a day: a Tuesday!
I FIT MILES' DATA!
I stayed late and started to redo some calculations that I'd done earlier since I'd run into a brick wall. The work-around paper that Kieron gave me was going to take a bit to digest, so why not double check some things first? I went back, took Miles' data, and fit it. I got his numbers spot on! It's more amazing that Miles did this all by hand and was as accurate as a computer!
This is such a relief. I had resorted to methods (even being non-sensical in front of Kieron!) to solve this problem that I would even agree were completely stupid. It's the sort of crazy that makes you wonder if you're actually sitting in a padded room somewhere babbling incoherently; a feeling I frequently have while doing physics!
But, the battle isn't over. I'll probably still do Kieron's suggested calculation, and I suspect that these numbers only work in the low density limit. The points we trained on were only quasi-uniform in the low density limit and we haven't really tested the fit on anything higher, but I have a sneaking suspicion that our numbers work best on only low densities. I'd be happy to be wrong, though, since it means I don't have to rerun all the plots Lucas and Miles made!
One could ask why I couldn't get the numbers earlier. I told Kieron that I was out of all my Luke-scuses at the end of last quarter, but I seem to remember that Lucas and I decided to put Miles' training sets into ours. I also think we were weighting the data sets which would take us farther from the numbers. Keep in mind, Diary, if I would have confirmed Miles' numbers at the beginning, we would not have serendipitously found the right answer in all the wrong ways. If I'm wrong-wrong and have wasted all our time...well, then we're double sure!
I suppose I should look forward to some ribbing for dragging this out so. Really, this has taken me too much time to see if Miles' numbers could be found from my fancy pants program. Ok, sure, there was a fellowship, a test, a vacation, and lots of administrative things in the way, but I'd like to move this along. I might even have something for the March Meeting!
Monday, January 20, 2014
Mucho Macho Pruebas!
Dear Diary,
The cluster has been humming with my calculations recently. I'm preparing lots of data for Li. I've spent a lot of time debugging how I was making all 2000 points for him and found one key error: the number of spaces between four fingers is three (not four). Basically, I set up my code to automatically generate the program files somewhat strangely.
Anyway, now I'm pumping out the correct data and will send it to Li as it comes out. The cluster really makes it slick to calculate large data like this and I can't even imagine doing it on my personal machine. I can basically run things overnight!
I have noticed that copying the scripts to set up all of the programs is really quick with Unix to boot. So, giving them more data shouldn't be a problem if it comes to that.
Now, Kieron asked us to run a "macho test" and I haven't quite looked into that yet. Hopefully, I can see if something is located in previous papers, so I'll go take a peak now.
The cluster has been humming with my calculations recently. I'm preparing lots of data for Li. I've spent a lot of time debugging how I was making all 2000 points for him and found one key error: the number of spaces between four fingers is three (not four). Basically, I set up my code to automatically generate the program files somewhat strangely.
Anyway, now I'm pumping out the correct data and will send it to Li as it comes out. The cluster really makes it slick to calculate large data like this and I can't even imagine doing it on my personal machine. I can basically run things overnight!
I have noticed that copying the scripts to set up all of the programs is really quick with Unix to boot. So, giving them more data shouldn't be a problem if it comes to that.
Now, Kieron asked us to run a "macho test" and I haven't quite looked into that yet. Hopefully, I can see if something is located in previous papers, so I'll go take a peak now.
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