Striving for a bit of production from all this thought.
I just got hit by a car as I was biking home from campus. An SUV. Luckily, they weren’t going at full speed, and I was back up almost before they were out of the car.
Um, there was little damage to me (some nasty bruises). Their car has damage on the hood where I bounced off. My bike tires are both shot.
I’m not quite coherent yet, so I’mma go lie down and scream for a minute until this all passes.
…Don’t ask. Really. Thorn night was wild, and I think my News Editor is certifiably insane.
It feels like it’s been a minute since I spouted anything here. First, a bit of linkage. From Eros Blog are two Andrea Dworkin-esque pieces of writing that I found thought-provoking: “The Power of Thought” (the Beaver is against fantasies) and “Expectation, another tip of the sword” (on why women fake orgasms).
Yeah, so there’s that.
I’ve been listening to Dublab quite a bit recently due to its calming and refocusing effect on me, and one of the DJ’s sets (Take’s current “Latest Dish Mix”) is completely rocking my world. I even went geek and emailed to ask for a set list, because there’s this Motown-feeling song that’s played about 30 minutes in that I very much want, as well as another one of my favorites that tends to appear on a lot of Dublab sets. Ooh, and one song I know was either sampled in an LL Cool J song, or was yanked from the LL song.
Yum, good music.
WO and I hit the five-month mark yesterday. *grin*
I almost had a bona fide asthma attack this morning after biking in, thanks to the suddenly cold weather and the lack of any kind of a warm up before biking. Jesus fuck, that was scary. I didn’t think I was going to make it to lab, and in fact thought I might have to go seek medical attention.
School is going passably well. A-chem remains a blast, and I managed to get two of my professor’s hilarious quotes in the newspaper this week, including one with the tagline of “Prof [M], who charge-coupled your mom”. *squee!* I can’t wait until class on Monday.
O-chem is getting better. My comprehension and grades are not improving yet, but I have a plan for making them do so. My CSSE classes are… the same. Except that I almost want another programming assignment in AI. I should just make up something and play with it, honestly. I have another project I need to tie up first, though.
I’ve gotten my feet back into research this week with some light, recreational reading on regression analysis, optimization methods, and numerical analysis. This is good, although Dr. M is going to want practical results sooner than I am prepared to give them, so I’ll have to handle that.
I’m thinking about whether I wish to do a project or a thesis paper my senior year. I want to do a thesis, but I’m having difficulty coming up with a topic. I don’t think I’ll be able to come up with something that spans CS and chemistry (but would still fall under a CS heading) by looking at algorithms–I don’t have the experience in algorithms analysis yet to even be able to propose a topic (and won’t until spring or sometime next year), and I doubt I could top the optimization methods that currently exist.
So I need to get creative. I need to take my involvement in chemistry research, examine its value to the field of CS, and exploit that like mad. I need to sell myself and my department (the CS one) on the worth of my research to that half of my academic career. Then I need to look at graduate schools and talk to people about making what I do a viable grad school option. I am not merely a computer scientist who gets hot at the idea of spectroscopy and chromatography, and I am not merely a chemistry researcher that can program. I want to make something new or expand/redefine the field as it is now.
Hmm. Dublab-style music is perfect for my creative, industrious moods where I want to stay up late reading and programming on personal projects.
Guess what I did Tuesday night?
I bought plane tickets to Phoenix, Arizona for Thanksgiving.
WO’s family lives in Phoenix.
…*meep*.
When I went out to Steak n Shake with the Amine Club folks last night (There! I finally publicly admitted that I’m in the Anime Club!), Guy picked up the tab for all 12 of us.
Okay, so I swallow a few of the conclusions I’d reached about Guy, but then comes the part where the rest of us need to chip in for tip. A few people toss cash and change on the table, then everybody just sort of leaves amid chatter and the occasional mention of only using plastic… The next thing I know, WO and I are the only ones of the group left behind, compiling the scattered money into a decent pile and trying to scramble together enough cash and change to make the tip appreciable, which it wasn’t before I dumped out all the quarters I was carrying. It was doubly unfortunate because the service had been relatively amazing this time.
It was one of those moments that made me think about Michael and Jenny (although I do that a lot lately anyway) and becoming the “parents” of a group. Weird moment.
So remember that Ace of Base song, “All That She Wants“? The chorus goes:
She’s gone tomorrow boy
Okay, this song came out in 1993. Why is it that it’s not until 12 years later that I understand that the song is about a booty call instead some weird woman’s quick desire for a child?
*blush* I am so dumb.