| World tour diary: New York state |
[Jul. 2nd, 2009|11:34 pm] |
After leaving Chicago, I had a week in New York state with ![[info]](http://l-stat.livejournal.com/img/userinfo.gif) fozziebear . Photos are being facebooked as I type.
Here's what I did.
Friday: Arrived in New York state, very tired after less than 3 hours of sleep. Basically collapsed on sofa, but was fed :-)
Saturday: Went to Times Square. Impressed by size, number and pointlessness of billboards. Then it rained. Unimpressed by rain.
Sunday: Nature Reserve day. Ice caves were quite cool - cold air gets into caves and then doesn't escape, so it stays very cold.
Monday: Grand tour of Walden, a small town in NY state. It took all of 2 hours. Then we went to the cinema?
Tuesday: Theme park day! :D
Wednesday: Touristy day. Rockerfeller Centre, Long Island, Statue of Liberty, Empire State Building. Rounded off by dinner at Wendy's right next to the ESB. Total 6 hours of train rides, and 2 wet socks from an ill-advised photo op too close to the shore at Fire Island beach.
Thursday: Last day. Went to fozziebear 's boyfriend's house to play Wii.
Thursday night: home!
Friday, Saturday: sleep off jet lag and turn 23. |
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| World tour diary: Chicago |
[Jul. 2nd, 2009|10:58 pm] |
It has been 3 weeks since I left Chicago, so about time I wrote up about it. I was there for a summer school, so 10 of the 11 days were spent (theoretically) working from 8.30 until 5.30.
The days went as follows:
7.30 "ish": Drag self out of bed. Do morning things (in communal shower room that smelled of feet)
8: Breakfast. One of the highlights of the day. Mountains of fresh fruit. Also, a PINT of tea.
8.30 - 12: Tutorial: a look into a machine learning topic, with basically no prerequisite knowledge. Usually very interesting, too.
12: Lunch. Day one was chicken and rice. Day two, chicken and rice. Well, you get the picture.
1-2, 2-3, 3.30-4.30, 4.30-5.30: More talks, that were a bit more intense. Some of them I knew a bit of the area already, some of them I didn't get past the first slide, so spent the other 58 minutes staring into space. In the middle there was a coffee (read: tea) break.
Evening: get a group together, hit a restaurant, save the receipt, hit a bar, stumble home
Did I learn anything? Well, I certainly made a lot of notes. |
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| I should be packing. I am not packing. |
[May. 30th, 2009|06:48 pm] |
| [ | mood |
| |  hot | ] |
My last update was a rather stressed one about a presentation. I worked until 9pm that night, then gave the presentation the following afternoon. It went OK!
I celebrated by going to Punt festival. I was going to write a long and detail about this, but I fail. I do have the list of bands and my thumb-direction rating of them all... (time in brackets is roughly when I/we watched them; PT = purple turtle, W = wheatsheaf, C = celler, TL = thirst lodge). We tried to see all the bands...
Pistol Kicks (PT, 7.50-8.15) - very poor. Thumb vertically down.
Phantom Theory (W, 8.16 - 8.30) - they were ok, I could have happily watched them for longer, but there were more exciting things in store... Thumb horizontal.
Hearts In Pencil (TL, 8.32 - 8.37) - ...this was not it. Thumb slightly down.
From Here We Run (PT, 8.40 - 9.00) - a good band! Not that I can remember why, but I gave them a thumb 45 degrees up!
We Aeronauts (C, 9.00 - 9.22) - stayed here longer than expected, they were that good. Thumb vertically up!
Beaver Fuel (PT, 9.22 - 9.26) - ill-advised trip to a 9.15-9.45 band right next to the cellar. They weren't very good. Thumb 45 degrees down.
Mary's Garden (W, 9.28) - after running from PT, I arrived to see them leaving the stage! *cry*
Dr Slagglebarry (TL, 9.32 - 9.45) - the strange masked lot that had about 30 seconds of good music. they just repeated it over and over. Thumb vertically down.
Response Collective (W, 9.48 - 10.00) - decent ambient electro type stuff. Another band I could have watched for longer. Thumb 45 degrees up.
From Light To Sound (C, 10.03 - 10.06) - poked my head round the door on the way to PT to see an Evenings/Keyboard Choir/Sunnyvale collective that I was not at all excited about. They were not at all exciting. Thumb almost all the way down.
Winchell Riots (PT, 10.08 - 10.30) - I was excited about this lot before going to see them, so they were a bit of a let-down. Thumb horizontal. Bumped into trevordubya during this set. There were a few moments where we were both giving each other sidelong glances, wondering whether we recognised each other. It had been a few years.
Desert Storm (TL, 10.32 - 10.38) - they were quite loud. even so, I wasn't too keen. Thumb 45 degrees down.
Black Hats (W, 10.41 - 11.00) - another band I was excited about (the jam meets the young knives), but they actually lived up to my expectation of them! Thumb vertically up, and probably the best band of the night.
Spiral 25 (C, 11.05 - 11.30) - hmm, they must have been alright, I guess. Thumb slightly down.
Dial F For Frankenstein (TL, 11.35 - 12.10) - this lot rocked pretty hard, so we rocked out pretty hard to them. The rest of the crowd weren't too fussed, so the singer dedicated their last song to the three of us (Jonathan, aloobyalordant and I). Fun times. Thumb vertically up!
Original Rabbit Foot Spasm Band (C, 12.15 - 12.30) - now i _wasn't_ expecting a jazz multitet here! they were also fun. Thumb 45 degrees up.
So, it was a fun night, and I remembered more than I thought.
Since then, my summer "world tour" had a warm-up gig of sorts, as I ran away to Dorset for the weekend for what has been described as a man-date with aloobyalordant - it involved pubs, a beach, and his dad's band playing their "last gig" (they were OK!)
But now, back to packing for the start of the world tour (which will take in Chicago, New York, Sicily and Zurich, as well as Truck and Reading festivals, and might yet have a few dates added to it. Yes, let's roll with this analogy). In 12 hours, I should be aboard the airline bus from Oxford to Heathrow, and thence to Chicago for an 11-day summer school. Should be fun...
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| Never ask questions. |
[May. 12th, 2009|02:16 pm] |
| [ | Current Location |
| | the office | ] |
| [ | mood |
| | stressed | ] |
| [ | music |
| | Feeder - Echo Park album | ] |
I am going to Sony towers tomorrow. I asked the department boss when I should plan to arrive/depart, and what we'd be doing.
His agenda includes half an hour of me talking to the group about my work and results so far.
Supervisor says "sounds fine to me!"
Shit.
----
Supplementary:
e-mail from me to supervisor: "there's no way I can conjure up half an hour's worth of material in 24 hours.
(abridged) reply from supervisor: "yes there is"
Fuck, fuck, fuck... |
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| because I don't tweet |
[Apr. 14th, 2009|05:54 pm] |
It's not often you grab a piece of paper with the intention of writing a shopping list, and end up dividing a number by three.
I'm only shopping/cooking for myself, by the way. |
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| Epic Fail followed by Epic Win |
[Mar. 31st, 2009|10:06 pm] |
| [ | mood |
| |  optimistic | ] |
| [ | music |
| | 'start of something' - stone gods | ] |
It was a week of two halves, split neatly at about the time the clocks went forward (well, about eight hours after that, since "hangover" is firmly on the side of Fail. Apologies in advance for the length of the post, and excessive use of the words "Fail" and "Win" throughout.
Epic Fail
The ex phoned on Thursday. Our conversation was long, but here's an extremely short summary:
ex: "I'm going out with someone else"
me: "........"
Possibly the most epic and undeserved fail of all time. Cue me phoning half of Oxford to find someone to get utterly drunk with. Since I was doing this at 9pm on a Thursday, FAIL. No hard feelings towards anyone whom I unsuccessfully badgered. I ended up talking to numerous people online, whilst getting drunk. The next morning, I was far too angry to consider driving (and far too unhappy to get up for a good few hours), so instead I killed things on GoldenEye all day. This technically can be considered "Win", but I was still feeling "Fail". A trip to see louisekdyson that evening helped me out a lot.
On Saturday, I was mostly occupied with preparing for Ira's birthday party, and psyching myself up to be as happy as possible throughout the evening. It worked for four hours, and then... epic, epic fail - punches were thrown at inanimate objects, mostly the floor where I was slumped. Inconsolable - but many thanks to all who tried, and whoever eventually persuaded me to sit up, by making me G&T.
It transpires that many wine + beer + G&T + beer = FAIL. Thanks to aloobyalordant , who looked after me throughout. It can't have been much fun. To complete the cycle of fail, I woke up at early o'clock, still a bit drunk, definitely a lot hung over.
The Fail/Win balance tips
Sunday was spent still at Ira's house. A walk in the park was fun, even if my stomach was still a bit too fragile to handle the roundabout on the kiddie playground. Then, eventually, home to watch the Grand Prix, which was awesome.
Epic Win
Things improved exponentially (aaaand </geek> ) since then. I went to a pub quiz last night, picked a team at random, and walked away with about £35, since the rest of the team were well-off employees of various oil companies, and insisted that I pocketed all the winnings. Whilst at the pub quiz, I was informed that I'll be going to Reading to on Radiohead-BlocParty-YeahYeahYeahs day. Woo!
Then this morning, I got to the office to be confronted with an e-mail, informing me that one my summer school applications was successful: I win an all-expenses paid one-week trip to Sicily in July! And a second e-mail, informing me that my travel application form has gone through, so I can book flights to Chicago for another summer school in June, followed by a visit to stay with fozziebear for a week. I'm pretty sure that also counts as Win.
Oh yeah, and it's the end of the quarter, so I have passed the "GO" of the PhD world, and collected three months' worth of studentship. Happy days. That hussy doesn't know what she's missing (unless she's just read this).
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| It begins... |
[Mar. 18th, 2009|09:05 pm] |
| [ | Tags | | | phd | ] |
| [ | mood |
| |  nervous | ] |
| [ | music |
| | "Edith" - The Hot Melts | ] |
Phone conversation between myself and my supervisor today:
Supervisor: "Do you remember that paper I sent you a few hours ago, that you have had time to read yet? Why don't you prepare to lead a reading group about it?"
Me: "Um..." |
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| Warwick Day |
[Mar. 9th, 2009|09:39 pm] |
| [ | music |
| | in the car on the way back: NOW 37, cassette 2 | ] |
Today, I was sent on a seminar day at the University of Warwick, which for some reason is in Coventry. I suspect that this is a subtle test - if you have an open day/interview there, and you go to Warwick city instead of Coventry, they'll know that you haven't done your research.
It was a little odd to go to lectures all day - a bit like being an undergrad again, except that you get a free lunch. Also, there were only about 20 people there. But it was interesting. Apparently it's possible to recognise someone by their ears. |
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| Life as a PhD Student, week one |
[Mar. 9th, 2009|09:28 pm] |
Last week, I was mostly arguing with cygwin and python.
Phil (my supervisor) told me to read a bunch of papers and then implement an algorithm from one of them. I found that said algorithm has a public implementation online. Result. However, I found this on Wednesday afternoon, and since then have been trying (and so far, failing) to get it to actually work. See, the code doesn't come bundled with a required source code package, and that source code package doesn't come bundled with a module that it says it comes with (and doesn't seem to be googlable).
So the week was mostly frustrating. However, I got to hone my darts skills (I am now pretty reliable at hitting the board), and in even more exciting news, I am GOING TO CHICAGO - FUNDED! There's a 10-day Machine Learning conference there in early June, that would cost about $900 to go to, not including flights. But I'm told there is money in the grant to cover for such things. I'm booking flights later this week. Awesome.
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| PhD excitement |
[Jan. 8th, 2009|06:35 pm] |
| [ | Tags | | | phd | ] |
| [ | Current Location |
| | oxford | ] |
| [ | mood |
| |  excited | ] |
Looks like I'll be starting in just under three weeks with, in true Oxford style despite being at Brookes, Week 0.
Then weeks 1-4 will be spent working for Sony in London, more or less to see what all the fuss is about (I'm paraphrasing my supervisor here). Resolution #9 just got easier.
In other news, I just got Smash Bros Brawl. I've played it once so far, for about an hour last night. I had practically no idea what was going on, but managed to beat a level 8 (of 9) bowser at one point, once I switched to my usual SSB64 choice, Kirby. Level 9 Kirby whupped me in the next round. Resolution #3 just got harder. |
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| New years resolutions |
[Jan. 2nd, 2009|07:40 pm] |
| [ | Current Location |
| | somerset | ] |
| [ | mood |
| |  determined | ] |
| [ | music |
| | assorted songs from my "best of 2008" folder | ] |
Completely stealing the idea of aloobyalordant , but I'm sure he won't mind. I almost certainly won't come up with so many, but let's see... and I know I'm a bit late, but I did think of some of these around midnight on New Years Eve/Day. Most of them are more targets than resolutions.
1. Eat more fruit, damnit! I used to be very good at this, but since moving house, the fridge/food cupboards have not been in the same room as me, so I've slacked off.
2. No more new plastic bags. At all. (2nd attempt. I did really well last year until, again, I moved house)
3. Do some leisure reading every day.
4. (Continuation from last year) Keep up with the bible reading. My copy of the new testament has a course that gives you a short passage to read every day, that gets you through the entire New Testament in two years. I'm half-way through! Although I have been going through cycles of getting really behind and catching up again.
5. Stop wasting quite so much time on the internet.
6. Post on livejournal more. Where "more" = at least once a month. You might think that this contradicts 5, but by time-wasting I mean things like re-reading xkcd comics and playing pointless internet games.
7a. Take more photos.
7b. Then actually upload the good ones.
8. Get an computer setup that I'm actually happy with. Currently this involves a new battery, and better dual-boot. I'm trying to phase out Windows.
9. Do touristy things in London. I have never seen Big Ben "properly", been to the Tower of London, or been on the London Eye.
I have a feeling there should be ten of these, so...
10. Go to a country I've never been to before. Current top candidates are Scotland and Italy.
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| News update! |
[Dec. 22nd, 2008|05:22 pm] |
Once again, I have neglected my livejournal for a few months, almost immediately after rediscovering it. So here's a brief summary of my life since the end of August!
Living
I moved house. No longer living with girlfriend (I have sad :-( ), instead I shacked up with a supply teacher, a construction worker (both male) and a Slovakian customer services manager (female). Within two weeks, the construction worker had gone, and less than a month later, so had the Slovakian. I'm assured that this had nothing to do with me. In place of the Slovakian, a half-Scottish guy moved in. He manages three Superdrug stores, often working 14-hour shifts. So I don't see him much. In fact, his mum stayed over for a week, and I saw her more than I saw him.
Working
I started my new job! It was great. Then after ten weeks or so, I was made redundant. That wasn't great; it was really shit. (can I swear on here? Let's see). So there was much writing of covering letters and attending of interviews. My mood shifted from despondent to hopeful and back again fairly regularly.
Then last Thursday, IT ALL CHANGED...
2pm. Phone rings. "Hi. Would you like to do a PhD?"
4.30pm. Phone rings. "Hi. Would you like your old job back?"
Long story short, I went with the PhD. In these times, job security beats higher pay. I can certainly get by on the stipend. More on what the PhD actually entails later; this post is getting pretty long. The PhD starts in mid-January.
Driving
In mid-October, I had my driving test. And I passed! Yay for me.
So for the past few weeks, I've been looking for a car, and today, I bought one. Driving on your own is... different. A little stressful at first because I wasn't used to some aspects of the car.
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| Every time I remember this exists, I forget my password... |
[Dec. 22nd, 2008|05:18 pm] |
| [ | Current Location |
| | sussex | ] |
| [ | mood |
| | intrigued | ] |
...and I keep having to reset it. This line in the "choose a new password" instructions amused me:
# Also note that we're going to reject your password if it's among the most commonly used passwords by thousands of people
So, the most common passwords are not allowed? This seems at best to be a dynamic arrangement (where common passwords slip off the common list when users change to a safer password), and at worst to be a contradiction in terms (livejournal: none of our users have the most common passwords! we rule.)
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| Location location location |
[Aug. 25th, 2008|11:44 pm] |
| [ | Current Location |
| | Sussex | ] |
| [ | mood |
| |  tired | ] |
Livejournal thinks I'm in Milwaukee. I don't even know where Milwaukee *is*... |
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| (no subject) |
[Aug. 24th, 2008|10:47 pm] |
| [ | Current Location |
| | Sussex | ] |
| [ | mood |
| | surprised | ] |
And now that I've rediscovered it, I don't know what to put... some people are moving away from Oxford to Live Their Lives In The Real World (TM), and facebook is an inefficient medium for bugging friends with your life story, so I guess livejournal can be useful for that.
I suppose this is the part where I bug you with my life story, or at least the headlines.
Well, I'm going back to sunny (hopefully) Oxford on Tuesday, moving house on Saturday, and starting a full-time job next Monday! It's going to be a bit weird not being a student any more. And waking up at 8ish instead of 10ish... it's been almost three months since I've *had* to get up and do some work, but I have had to get up early on a few occasions. Notably when going on holiday to Budapest last month, as I had to wake up at 5am on a Sunday. High Street was so peaceful...
I've actually been trying to wake up earlier this past week, with varying success. Usually I set my alarm for 8.30 or thereabouts, and was out of bed soon after. This morning it was 9.15, but I don't even remember hearing any alarm before 9.45! A bit disconcerting.
I might put a kind of timeline of the past three years up here, or something. What do YOU want to read? |
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| apricots |
[Nov. 25th, 2005|11:58 pm] |
| [ | mood |
| |  contemplative | ] |
| [ | music |
| | Garbage album just finished | ] |
I did a whole problem sheet today, which was nice... well, not really a whole problem sheet, but my tutor asked us to do the second half of one, and the first question of the next - I did that in a couple of hours, between trips to Sainsburys. I forgot to buy veg the first time, for a stir fry I did tonight. It went well, despite a bit of a lack of forward planning. Damn Sainsbury's Local for not having any loose carrots - I had to trek all the way to the Westgate to get some, and it was cold :(
It worries me that my packet of dried apricots contains only 90% dried apricots. Even more so, the second ingredient is... water. What's the point of drying them so much if you're going to add water? Also they go down so quickly...
So, to the weekend! Which of course means more maths (Laplace series and contour integration, mostly)... to the end of working term, then! Which, for me, is Wednesday. Narcs will be good.
Sleep will be better. Ah, sleep... |
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| i always said i wanted to get some recipes... |
[Nov. 15th, 2005|06:25 pm] |
| How to make a fragolata |
Ingredients:
3 parts intelligence
5 parts silliness
1 part joy |
Method:
Add to a cocktail shaker and mix vigorously. Serve with a slice of fitness and a pinch of salt. Yum! |
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| freedom! |
[Nov. 15th, 2005|06:04 pm] |
| [ | mood |
| |  relaxed | ] |
Aaaand the third tute in two days has been attended. I do still have a class tomorrow, but that's of the "sit down at the back and try not to get noticed" kind, so we'll ignore it. Next deadline: 21st November. Pleasingly distant.
The IMSoc party last night was fun. I still have the party-popper... waiting on suggestions on situations in which to set it off.
Oh, and Trev: they still sell six-packs of Squares in the Westgate Sainsbury's. Crisps are good. |
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| Hello world! |
[Nov. 6th, 2005|05:31 pm] |
| [ | mood |
| |  working | ] |
so this is livejournal...
Hi, I'm Glenn. I'll post something useful eventually, but for now I have to start an algebra problem sheet. |
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