Snow and Sky

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February 28, 2005

Snow Emergency

Snow emergencies are the worst thing ever. Now, you may be surprised because you associate me with loving snow - and I do - but a snow emergency is something completely different.

Why is it so awful? Well, when they call a snow emergency in the city of Boston, I literally have to stop whatever I'm doing, wherever I am, and hotfoot it to my car. Since my apartment building offers no parking, I park on the street - and most often I must park in 'Designated Snow Arteries'. In normal weather, the worst this gets me usually is just a dirty car... But in a snow emergency, this means potential ticketing and/or towing if my car remains parked on a snow artery after the emergency parking ban is in place.

I get an email and a phone call warning me about the snow emergency. Then, I have to make a quick judgement call - how long will it take me to get there? Can I afford to skip whatever I was doing or going to do? If I delay, my chances for finding a parking spot close by diminish rapidly. In fact, like tonight, sometimes my chances are already miniscule because of people returning from work.

So, I quickly jump on the train and make the 45 minute trip, then drive around frantically searching for that one safe spot, then take the train back for another 45 minutes. Tonight, I left MIT at 5:45 and I'll be lucky to return by 7:30.

This weekend's a whole lot worse because I have my recruit here... In fact, if he hadn't been here I would have been fine because I had to move my car from my last snow-emergency-safe parking spot in order to pick him up at the airport. Fortunately, I found a safe spot pretty close to my apartment... But if I hadn't, it would have meant an extra 30 minutes or more tomorrow as I would have had to trek to my car and drive back to pick him up to take him back to the airport.

Of course, if he doesn't go to the airport tomorrow because of delays, then my whole plan will be foiled because I parked in a metered spot which will become trouble after 7:30am or so. Then it's back to the beginning all over again as I rush around to find a safe parking spot.

What a pain. This must get fixed someday.

Sent from: Karl Gutwin

Posted by kgutwin at 07:15 PM | Comments (3) | TrackBack

Topics in Middle Eastern Politics

So for obvious reasons I have been paying much attention to what is going on in the Middle East... and around here, it's tough to get a good perspective on what people are really thinking. Here in America it's been a very long time since militias had any real effect, and what we learn in the history books is very far removed from what's actually going on today.

I stumbled across this article which does a fantastic job describing a lot of the history of what is going on in Lebanon. Maybe you 'old folks' remember a civil war in Lebanon, but I certainly don't, let alone understand why it happened. The article gives a lot of background and describes the formation of Hizbollah, a militia which has been getting a lot of publicity lately. The other interesting thing is that it gives a context for some of the public statements that have been made regarding the death of Hariri.

The article does end up becoming a sort of apologia about Hizbollah. The author is acknowledged as a Syrian political analyst; however, you do get a lot of insight into the facts of the situation. It shed a whole lot of light on something which has been portrayed here in American media as a black-or-white, terrorist-vs-freeman conflict.

Posted by kgutwin at 10:21 AM | TrackBack

February 27, 2005

Quick post

Yes, I missed again. Sorry. This weekend has been pretty crazy... today did not feel at all like a Sunday. When I get a breather I'll elaborate more... but for now I'll just mention that it's Open House for the MIT Biology graduate program and I'm hosting a prospective student, which means lots of free meals and touring around. It's a lot of fun but doesn't really mesh well with my attempt to follow a 9p-5a sleeping schedule... it's fine, I'll live, I just hope I can get all my homework done in time.

Ok - it's way past my bedtime. Hopefully tomorrow I'll fill you all in...

Sent from: Karl Gutwin

Posted by kgutwin at 10:20 PM | TrackBack

February 25, 2005

Network upgrades make me sad

Here at MIT, they seem to be doing some work on the network. I'm not sure exactly what they're doing, and why, but it seems to be important because they've had most network connectivity shut down since, oh, about 12:30. It's now about three, and I've just been sitting here twiddling my thumbs because the only work I have to do is to finish up this program that I wrote...

I'm sure I'll get it done in time - after all, they've got to get it working sometime today and it's not going to take me too long to finish my work. It is a little frustrating, though, to be here and just sit around. Fortunately the web browser on my phone has been working well enough to keep me entertained - otherwise I chat with the other grad students here who are in the same boat as me.

Sent from: Karl Gutwin

Posted by kgutwin at 03:05 PM | TrackBack

Revenge of the Blog People

Library Journal - Revenge of the Blog People!

I just thought this would be a funny thing to post to my blog... a bit ironic because the article really is a diatribe against blogs. Read it and think about it for some moments.

Personally I can't provide too much opinion on the matter. The only 'blog' I ever read regularly is Slashdot, and that doesn't really count. Well, maybe it does - after all, it presents news in a fashion tailored to the culture that created and supports it. It doesn't encourage me to go out and do my own research, to analyze much in depth, but rather I skim and consume, which is perfectly fine by me because most of the stuff that appears there has little effect on me in total. To me, it exists for 90% entertainment value and 10% actual important stuff.

Meanwhile, I know that my blog exists only to broadcast my life to my friends and family. There's no critical news analysis here, and no pretention either - I'm not trying to save the world by a groundbreaking announcement, I'm just saying silly stuff like what I ate for dinner last night. Someday I'll mention why I think it's important for me to do this stuff... not today, though, I have other things to do.

Posted by kgutwin at 07:33 AM | Comments (2) | TrackBack

February 24, 2005

Train accident!

Some of you may have heard me mention at one point that I live in a very convenient spot, public transit-wise. Cleveland circle, the area in which I live, not only has its own T stop but is also very close to stops on two other branches of the green line. This means I can take the D line into school in the morning, which tends to be faster, but I can take the C line back, so I can stop on the way home and pick up some groceries.

The other interesting fact about this is that there is a train yard and repair shop for the green line cars close by - in fact, I walk past it every day. There's little bits of track in the streets which connect the three branches together here, so that cars can get to and from the yard during the day.

Anyway, this morning I was rushing to school like usual and noticed quite a commotion at the spot where the trains turn to head into the yard... It turns out that one of the cars of a two-car train derailed while it was pulling into the yard! There was a whole bunch of people standing around and looking, flashing lights and warning cones all over the place. I noticed a few of the tensioners for the overhead wires had broken, and the pantograph was all funny. They had this crazy thing which was basically a long pole with a light on it - it rested against the overhead wire and clipped to the track and lit up, showing there was still power in the overhead wire. I had to rush by quick, because I didn't want to be late for school, but it was all pretty interesting.

This evening I came back the same way and noticed the train car was still there. I guess it's not too easy to fix this kind of stuff. It's sticking out into traffic so hopefully they'll fix it soon, but it might still be there when I go by tomorrow morning.....

Sent from: Karl Gutwin

Posted by kgutwin at 10:55 PM | TrackBack

February 23, 2005

Oops

Oh man, I forgot to post yesterday! The world must be coming to an end :) actually, I'm sure it'll be all right. I'll just start again today!

Let's see, what happened yesterday... Well, yesterday was a 'monday' because of Presidents' day on Monday, so I didn't have class and spent the day in lab instead. I worked on a little program that aligns coiled coil sequences in an antiparallel direction... Not too easy, but not too hard. Just some conceptual things made it tricky.

There was some dispute Monday night whether there would be chorus rehearsal... The last email I got monday said that there wouldn't be rehearsal, which is good for me because it means I can get home and actually make dinner rather than bringing dinner with me or starving... Then I got another email saying that they did want to have rehearsal but that anybody who made plans can choose to not come. Yeah, so my plans were to go grocery shopping, make dinner and do homework... So I did that instead. I know the music pretty well anyway.

This morning I got to chat with Becca for a while, off and on because of her crazy class schedule. I decided to skip going to lab this morning because of the pile of work that I have... Well, at least a percieved pile of work. I seem to always operate in one of two frames of mind: either it's all good, there's nothing to worry about, I don't have much to do; or it's crazy, I have too much work, I'll never finish it all. This morning I kept switching back and forth, which was weird :)

Now today it's class, lab, lab group meeting and back home to finish my last problem set. Sounds like fun!

Sent from: Karl Gutwin

Posted by kgutwin at 12:25 PM | TrackBack

February 21, 2005

Lots of snow!

Finally! Some real snow around here! Of course, there was that blizzard a while back... But I never felt like I could appreciate it because I was so concentrated on Becca arriving. Then, after it had all ended, it was just this massive mess, and having to walk in the street because the snow plow piled up a five foot berm at the crosswalk is just not nice.

Of course, I'm sure they won't clean up after this snowfall either, but maybe I will at least get to enjoy it. For now, though, I get to stay inside - it's presidents' day!

Sent from: Karl Gutwin

Posted by kgutwin at 08:40 AM | TrackBack

February 20, 2005

Candles

A long time ago, after getting my first block of yummy cheddar cheese dipped in wax, I decided I would try to save the wax in order to make it into candles. Hey, worth a shot, I thought... I've been collecting wax now for about a pound and a half worth of cheese, and today I decided to actually follow through with my plan before it started getting nasty :)

It was a simple matter to put the wax in a plastic dish and float it on top of some boiling water. It melted pretty quickly while I searched frantically for something to use as a mold. I found some parchment paper and tried to tape it into the shape of a cone, but the paper's advertised "non-stick" qualities also applied to tape. I quickly came up with an alternate plan, to fold the paper into the shape of a box and somehow fasten it together with the tape which stuck somewhat. I poured that candle, using a wick of some cotton thread I scavenged from school. I still had a lot of wax left, though, and decided to try dipping.

Dipping candles is a lot of fun but usually makes a lot of mess and takes a lot of time, neither of which I was particularly enthusiastic about. I started dipping but realized that the wax actually had to cool in between successive dips; I then rushed over and grabbed Matthew's fan which was in the living room to cool the candle down. With lukewarm wax, though, dipping goes really quickly, and I was very careful not to spill a drop. I dipped two candles that way before I decided there was just not enough wax left to dip any more.

I still had enough wax to make one last small candle, though, and searched frantically again before I found the right mold... a round piece of plastic covering a pack of toothpicks. It worked well but leaked all over the countertop - a piece of parchment paper underneath solved that problem. I cleaned up right away, threw out the plastic container now covered with wax and little bits of cheese, and managed to discover how to make wax marbling on paper towels...

It took a little while for the candles to cool, and besides I didn't want to waste my afternoon's efforts all at once. Tonight, though, I finally decided to unmold everything and try it out. The first thing I noticed is that the wax is a lot softer than normal candle wax... of course, because cheese wax is softer than candle wax. The second thing is that it doesn't seem to burn quite as vigorously as normal candle wax. I tried burning the smallest, round candle and while I might have cut the wick too short, it just doesn't seem to want to keep going. Bummer.

Maybe this whole cheese-candle-wax thing won't work out after all. Oh well, it was fun anyway. Maybe next time I'll use real candle wax and real wicks. Won't that be fun?

Update: Making the wick longer doesn't help. It still burns out pretty quick. Do you think they add stuff to this wax to keep it from burning? Nuts.

Posted by kgutwin at 08:54 PM | Comments (2) | TrackBack

Cool as a Cucumber

Recipe: Cucumber Couscous

Ingredients:
1 chicken sausage, cooked, teriyaki flavor
1/2 tomato, diced
1/4 cup white wine vinegar
1/4 cup cucumber, diced
1/4 cup cheddar cheese, diced
1 cup dry couscous
1 1/2 tbsp dill
1/2 tbsp basil
salt, pepper

Directions:
- Brown chicken sausage in a little bit of olive oil in a 1 quart saucepan.
- Add tomato, vinegar and 1/2 tsp salt plus pepper to taste. Cook until vaguely sauce-like.
- Add 1 cup water and bring to boil.
- Remove from heat, add couscous and stir until evenly mixed. Cover completely.
- After 4-5 minutes, fluff couscous with a fork, add cucumber, cheese, dill and basil. Stir and let sit until cheese has melted slightly.
- Serve and enjoy.

Many people see couscous as a side dish; over here, I see it as a main course. This is actually one of the better incarnations of a similar formula that I use occasionally for a one-pot meal. Just cook your meat in a saucepan, add veggies and/or season appropriately, then at the proper moment add the water and boil for a little bit before adding the couscous. Frozen veggies added to the water and boiled briefly will add some nice flavor, but obviously fresh vegetables as above will be the best.

By the way, whoever invented the phrase "cool as a cucumber" was spot-on. Cucumbers really are the coolest vegetable. And I'm not just talking temperature :)

Posted by kgutwin at 06:56 PM | Comments (1) | TrackBack

February 19, 2005

Success!

I have managed to finish the day not feeling like it was a waste! It took some pretty heavy duty restrictions, though. I knew I was going to be on the computer all day, working on a programming problem for my parallel computing class, and so I just did my very best to avoid goofing off on the web.

The web has got to be the biggest time waster ever invented. I can't imagine how productive I would be if I didn't spend hours looking at useless web sites. The problem is that it's just so interesting... and it's not like I can see something and then say, "no, I won't look into that now, I'll save it for later..." because I'm interested in it now! Instant gratification, instant time wastage. Sometimes I learn interesting stuff but the majority of the time I just look at random news that will never really be related to me.

For some people, the big time waster is AIM. I don't have that problem because I hardly ever chat with anyone online. It's just the way it goes, I guess... I'm not complaining though because if people did bug me online, I don't know how I would ever get anything done seeing as how I already waste time surfing the web.

Goodnight, folks, it's past my bedtime and maybe, just maybe, I'll chat with Becca tomorrow :)

Posted by kgutwin at 09:06 PM | Comments (1) | TrackBack

February 18, 2005

Postcards from Jordan

I got my postcard from Becca today! I guessed it would arrive yesterday, and was mildly disappointed to come home and see nothing yesterday... but it was in my mailbox today :) It's really fun... a picture of Amman and the Roman Theatre there (calling it 'ruins' just isn't fair - it's in really good shape, especially for thousands of years!) and a fun story about Arabic lessons and the city on the other side. The card is postmarked the 7th of February which means it only takes a week and a half for airmail to arrive - pretty neat :)

Not only that, but she's been on a trip this weekend, and she's been sending me little text messages as she goes along. They're like instant postcards, without the pictures of course, but so nice nonetheless. It's a little crazy knowing she's out there having fun and I have to stay back here and mope around... but it's my goal to have less moping and more working. After all, daydreaming won't get me through this semester in one piece.

Posted by kgutwin at 08:39 PM | TrackBack

February 17, 2005

Chorus!

Here's a photo taken from deep inside the secret rehearsal room... Actually I just snuck a shot before we started singing but the way this chorus is run, I wouldn't be surprised if nobody noticed if I just stood up in the middle of rehearsal and took a picture. The director seems never to notice all the talking and general distraction going on in the bass section... Maybe it happens elsewhere but I only notice it in the basses.

We've got some very interesting material. We're doing the Mozart Requiem, along with a piece by Beethoven, I think a chorus from a Bach Cantata and one other thing which I don't remember now. Concert date is way ahead in may so I'm not worried about it yet. The chorus is pretty good, although like I said the basses don't pay attention and on the whole, it's just run differently than what I'm used to, which will just take time.

There's at least one solo bass part in the Mozart that I will almost certainly audition for. I'm itching to get back into more selective singing; choral singing is fun except when you feel disconnected from the group. Since I'm new it'll just take me time to find my place in the group.

Sent from: Karl Gutwin

Posted by kgutwin at 10:10 PM | Comments (1) | TrackBack

February 16, 2005

Day after day

My only class today was moved to tomorrow so I had a day off - which means I stayed home for a while doing work (for that class, due tomorrow) and then went into lab at noon. Worked for a while... got a new project since the other one worked but not well enough.

These days feel like they're going by lightning-quick - which is a good thing I suppose because it means just a few days closer to when Becca gets back... unfortunately I still have a lot of work to do in the meantime. I have a page of writing due tomorrow, then over the weekend I have two problem sets and another page of writing, plus a whole bunch of reading. I just have to take it day after day... but I can't forget my deadlines!

Oh yeah - I got a postcard from Becca... my sister :) Very nice and unexpected, although unfortunately I never got her mailing address before she left so I'm not sure how I would go about returning the favor. My other Becca sent me a postcard a little while ago and I'm hoping it'll arrive soon...

Posted by kgutwin at 07:40 PM | Comments (1) | TrackBack

February 15, 2005

Rotation Progression

I just realized I don't talk much about what's been going on in my rotations - although folks ask me about it all the time and it really is the most interesting part of the semester...

I'm having a lot of fun in the Keating lab. For this rotation, my time is split between doing wet lab and dry lab work. The wet lab stuff is amazing, mostly because I've never really had this kind of experience before. Every other biology student I talk to is surprised that I've never spent much time in the wet lab... but the truth is that all the research work I've done has been computer work. It's not even like we're doing anything super exciting - working with DNA and plasmids, transforming strains of E. coli, expressing and purifying protein, and running gels. Standard biochemistry techniques - but nothing that I've really had hands-on experience doing, other than biology teaching lab which only encourages you to follow the recipe, not really remember why you're doing what you're doing. And so far, everything that I've done in the wet lab has worked, thank goodness, despite my nervousness at screwing things up. I'm working with the technician in the lab - he essentially just does basic things that need to get done in the lab, he doesn't have his own research project - and so far he's screwed up more than me ;) of course, when you do things a million times you get less careful so I understand completely. I appreciate how he lets me work alongside him... with me asking all the time how to do things.

With the dry lab stuff, I've got a fairly independent project on the computer. This stuff I understand a bit more, mostly because I'm already familiar with it. One of the questions the lab wants to address is protein interactions. A very important part of biology is how proteins interact, and many times they do so by sticking together. Also, an important part of many proteins is what's called a coiled coil - if you've ever seen a telephone cord get all twisted up, that's a coiled coil. What happens many times is that one half of the coiled coil will be one protein and the other half will be another. If you've ever tried to untwist a phone cord you know how tough it can be - imagine if the phone cord was cut in half but each half stuck to each other, how hard that would be to separate. But predicting these interactions isn't always easy, because not all coiled coil halves (we call them domains) stick to every other one. Furthermore, they could coil in either a parallel or antiparallel fashion, but they usually prefer one over the other. My project is to evaluate a particular method called "statistical potentials" to see whether we can predict which interactions are good (i.e. they happen in nature) and which aren't. Also, I'd like to see if I can predict whether a particular pair prefers parallel or antiparallel orientation. It isn't working well yet, so I've got to dig in a bit more, but it's been lots of fun :)

Well, gotta run and get my laundry, then more paper reading for another class... the work never stops.

Posted by kgutwin at 08:00 PM | Comments (1) | TrackBack

February 14, 2005

Valentine's Day

Oh man, I need to go to bed but I just remembered to make a Valentine's day post... better make this quick.

Obviously (for anyone who knows me) for me this Valentine's day is very different than any one before. I can't tell you how crazy it is - it's one of the most bittersweet things ever. I'm constantly torn between hearing from Becca and feeling so excited she's mine, and then seeing other couples around town who are going out, having fun, and I only have my memories and my aspirations.

I have to say that this isn't the first cheery Valentine's day for me. I don't remember whether it was last year or the year before, but I remember just being excited that God was preparing me for a relationship like this - even though it hadn't happened yet. I remember being at Real Life over at Harvard on the Friday before, and finding a valentine on the floor (which wasn't to me, of course.) You have to understand, normally that kind of stuff would at least annoy me, if not make me frustrated and depressed. But this time, I picked up the valentine and appreciated it. It's a simple construction paper heart, with the phrase "Love is Metaphysical Gravity" attributed to R. Buckminster Fuller printed on it. I remember showing it to a bunch of people that night... nobody really appreciated it as much as I did. I remember, though, feeling so free - not obsessing over some girl, like I had always done before, but just being able to show it to my friends.

You see, up until a few years ago Love for me was not only dangerous but very painful. It was something to be avoided, something which I ran from and yet was sucked into, only at the bottom to be chewed up and spit back out. Call it a product of my youth, immaturity or inexperience or impatience, whatever you will. As my college years passed, though, I began to realize that there was a specific purpose why I had never had a girlfriend before, and that I was being carefully prepared for the day when such a chance would be granted to me. For example, there was a girl at one point who I was attracted to, and who seemed to be interested in me... but fairly soon I knew that I wasn't supposed to pursue this, that it was actually practice for me to say No, something I had no experience in thinking before! Little events like this led me to be patient, to know that God really was taking care of this.

And then, it seemed like all of a sudden, everything came together. I actually got up the courage to ask Becca to watch a movie with me and she didn't turn me down. I asked her to come over for dinner and she didn't turn me down. I hung out with her and she never ran away... and I held her hand and looked in her eyes and knew that this was it, this was what I had been waiting my whole life for and why it had been so long, because it was so pure and sweet.

Nobody really knows what will happen, down the road. I know there are things that we take for ourselves, that we grip a hold of and yet somehow God still takes them away from us, only because He loves us... but then there are those gifts which He gives freely, which we're supposed to hold tight and treasure. Maybe Becca will be that gift for me. But even if not, she has been the bearer of a gift which no other could have borne - the gift to be able to love and to look forward to a day when all my hopes and dreams will come to pass. Up until that day when we said yes to each other, I had never been able to look forward to such a day; there had been no hope that it would ever happen.

Happy Valentine's Day, everybody. And thank you all for loving me, in your own way.

Posted by kgutwin at 09:23 PM | Comments (1) | TrackBack

By Popular Demand

Recipe: Bean Burritos

Serves 4 - Prep time: 15 minutes - Cook time: 30 minutes

Ingredients:
1 16 oz can kidney beans, drained
1 10 oz can enchilada sauce, mild or hot
1 cup water
1 16 oz can whole tomatoes, diced, liquid reserved
1 cup corn (fresh or frozen)
1/2 cup peas (fresh or frozen)
1 cup shredded carrot
1 1/2 cups cooked brown rice
10 to 12 flour tortillas
1 1/2 cups shredded Monterey Jack or Cheddar cheese
sour cream

Directions:
- In a large, deep skillet with a lid, combine the beans, enchilada sauce, water, tomatoes and vegetables. Mix well and bring to a boil over medium heat.
- Stir in the cooked rice. Cover and reduce heat.
- Simmer until the liquid is absorved, about 20 minutes, stirring occasionally.
- Warm the tortillas in the microwave or conventional oven.
- Place 1/2 cup of the mixture in the middle of each tortilla and top with cheese.
- Fold over and serve with sour cream.

For the vegetarians in the house, here you go. This is out of my cookbook that Dad got me for my birthday. This probably makes a lot, seeing as how it fills 10 to 12 tortillas... if you're a single cook you may choose to either reduce the recipe or make it all and save the extra for later. This one is great because it is a really balanced meal. I would suggest probably throwing in some more beans to get some more protein.

I think this one's a good all-around recipe, but sometimes it's hard to know what folks want... Here's an idea - suggest an ingredient, a single ingredient like spinach or tomatoes or beans, and I'll either find or make up a good recipe that includes that ingredient. It sounds like fun! Go ahead, make your suggestions :)

Posted by kgutwin at 09:10 PM | Comments (1) | TrackBack

February 13, 2005

Sunday Fun

Lots of work today... Well, as best as I could. I'm nearly done my bioinformatics problem set - I pretty much just have to read another paper, write two paragraphs and type up the rest... Oh, and finish writing a little script, but that's almost done. Apart from that, right now all I have is to read three papers for my biochem class which normally meets Wednesday but this week meets Thursday! Yay, an extra day to get my work done...

I just jumped out of Trader Joe's where I was picking up ingredients to make chili tonight. Maybe if you're lucky I'll post the recipe that I used... Of course, that in no way implies that I will be using a recipe ;) Hopefully I'll be done tonight at a reasonable hour. Last night I went to bed at eleven which is just way too late, especially for waking up at five.

Sent from: Karl Gutwin

Posted by kgutwin at 07:55 PM | Comments (1) | TrackBack

February 12, 2005

Some Good News, some Bad News

The Good news:
- I got to chat with Becca today! Pretty much unexpected... but she had escaped her house and managed to visit an internet cafe after taking a trip to the local mall. We chatted for just about two hours... probably the most that I've communicated with her since she left. Not much has happened with either of us, so it wasn't very substantial, but it is just so nice to know that she's there.

- I cleaned up my room today! My room tends to get messy. Pretty messy. That, plus the rug that I have does an exceptionally poor job of hiding any dirt... a good thing since it makes me vacuum more often. By the way, when I was vacuuming, apparently the folks living below me didn't appreciate it since they were banging on their ceiling. I say deal with it, there's nothing wrong with doing some vacuuming at 4:00 on a Saturday afternoon. If it was 3am it would be different, but unless they're willing to come over and vacuum at a time that is convenient for them, they'll just have to put up with it for a few minutes.

- I also replaced the power supply in my other computer... something that I've needed to do for a while but didn't actually do it until my dad sent me a PSU that was intended to replace my first dead one. It didn't fit, though, so I ordered a new one (like I mentioned) and put this one in my other computer. Straightforward... always a little frustrating when it doesn't start up the first time, but it usually gets fixed in the end.

The Bad news:
- surprise, surprise, I never got around to doing what I really needed to do today... my homework, mostly. I think I have the time now to pay my bills and update my financial program, if I get this post done quick. But, truth be told, I needed to clean up my room before I did anything else - it's just that I wasted a whole lot of time otherwise. This, plus the fact that my new sleeping schedule actually gives me less time during the week to get my work done, is just going to make this next week more difficult.

Here goes...

Posted by kgutwin at 08:20 PM | TrackBack

February 11, 2005

Citrus Hash

Recipe: Citrus Hash

Ingredients:
1/3 lb lean hamburger
1 potato, peeled and diced
1/4 red onion, diced
1/3 lb egg noodles, cooked
splash of wine (optional)
1 key lime
1 clementine
salt, pepper to taste

Directions:
- Brown hamburger, salt to taste. Drain if necessary.
- Add diced potato, salt slightly and brown.
- Add red onion and saute until cooked.
- Add juice of lime and clementine and wine if desired.
- Serve over egg noodles.

Whoever gave me a license to cook clearly did not understand the consequences of their actions - such as the potential for me to create something as bizarre as this. I have to admit that sometimes I have an excellent idea of what I will make, but other times I just start with a few ingredients that I think might work together and then grab whatever's hanging around to finish it off. This originally was going to be some kind of curry dish, but that went out the window as soon as I saw the bottle of wine in my room which had just a tiny bit remaining and begged to be cooked with. The wine turned out to be completely covered by the other flavors, however, mostly since I have no experience whatsoever with cooking with wine. Still, this was one blend of flavors I had never experienced before. The sweetness of the juices definitely contrasted with the saltiness of the potatoes.

Feel free to make suggestions for improvements!

Posted by kgutwin at 09:00 PM | Comments (2) | TrackBack

Back online!

My new power supply arrived yesterday, and this morning I finally had the chance to put it in. Not a very complicated procedure, I must admit. Mostly just making sure everything's plugged back in.

It was a tense moment as I finally had everything set and all the cables on the back of my computer were reconnected... Would it start up again once I pushed the power button? I had read horror stories online of power supplies dying and taking the motherboard, or other components with them... I pushed the power button and it turned on! But then, rather than hearing the short 'beep' that normally means a normal bootup, I heard one long, then two short beeps. Anytime you turn a computer on and it doesn't beep the way it normally does, that means there's something wrong... Shoot. So I go online and look up what those beeps mean -- they usually are a code to give you a hint as to what's really broken.

It seemed like it was the video card, from a few web pages. (You know, when searching for information like this, I usually find a bunch of pages that are essentially copies of each other... They're facts, so they're not copyrighted, but still - it's frustrating when you're looking for similar information to corroborate what you already suspect but all you can find are copies of what you've already seen...) The good thing, if it was the video card, was that to me, it's not a very crucial part, and I think I even have an extra one somewhere that would work. The bad thing would be replacing one part, and then maybe finding out that I needed to replace more... So I took the card out, didn't see anything obviously wrong, and put it back in, in a different slot just to see if maybe there was a problem with the slot.

And it worked! Yay! So now my computer's back up and running. I'll let it stay on while I'm at school and check up on it a few times just to make sure it's all right. But for now - I claim success.

Sent from: Karl Gutwin

Posted by kgutwin at 10:00 AM | TrackBack

Too many holidays?

Economist says Jordanians get too many holidays

Is there such thing as too many holidays? They make a good case for that idea in this article.

Of course, school kids only think of holidays as days to play and not worry about work (although when you get older, they make you work anyway during your days off...) But this article points out that in the business world, taking time off almost always results in less money. For successful businesses, maybe that isn't such a big deal. But for businesses who always ride the edge of profitability, having a few extra days off can make the difference between a profit and a loss. And when you live paycheck to paycheck, or even day to day in the case of a taxi driver, having a day off could be devastating. Even if your business doesn't take the day off - if there's a national holiday, customers tend to stay home and your profits fall.

Posted by kgutwin at 09:08 AM | TrackBack

February 10, 2005

What a grey day

Winter rains always make me feel a little depressed. Not only is it not snowing, but the rain washes away what little snow is left. Plus, around here, it makes things appear ten times dirtier than before.

I went over to check on my car this morning before I went to the subway stop. This car is still making me worry... Now, I worry about it just because I don't use it! I wish there was a place that I could leave it where I trusted it would be safe... Even if it was out of my way - I don't drive my car much any more, and if I was able to leave it somewhere safe so that I could come get it later, then it would be completely out of mind.

I'm on the train where the driver insists on everyone sliding their card through the reader. For heaven's sake, man, it's not that big of a deal.

Sent from: Karl Gutwin

Posted by kgutwin at 10:10 AM | TrackBack

February 09, 2005

So tired... must post...

In case you haven't noticed, I'm aiming for at least one post per day. Mostly because I know that if I start slacking off, I'll never get back to it. Also, though, it's not like a day ever goes by without anything at all interesting happening. There's always something to report.

Let's see... so what actually happened today... I got to chat with Becca this morning - not once, but twice! It was positively crazy - but so much fun... it's great to hear that she's doing well. A lot of what she told me is already on her blog, so you can go over there to read it.

What else... class was fun, I had a short writing assignment which I finished up this morning. I didn't actually spend much time in lab, mostly because I wanted to stay home this morning and relax and get my work done. I'm beginning to think that waking up at 5am is a little early, because I'm getting more and more tired. I think actually that I need more than eight hours of sleep per night! That's not too surprising since people's sleep needs vary quite a bit. We'll see what happens... but talking with Becca in the morning is just too valuable to give up :)

Um, had an idea about measuring aggregate power line fluctuations with a simple small 100:1 stepdown transformer plugged into a computer's sound card. Maybe I can scavenge one of those from my dead psu. Do continuous fft, save fft result and any frame which is significantly uncorrelated to the mean.

Ok, not much else to report... I just have to dash off an email to Becca and then it's bedtime for me. Goodnight!

Posted by kgutwin at 09:24 PM | Comments (1) | TrackBack

February 08, 2005

Just in case you didn't believe me

USATODAY.com - Snow, wind, rain sweep Middle East

Here's a report which confirms Becca's snow day story. Sounds like a lot of fun! Although maybe not for Becca because she hasn't really been too satisfied with her homestay experience... it'll get better, she's sure, but while communication is difficult it will be more of a chore than a party.

Posted by kgutwin at 07:08 PM | TrackBack

During a quick break

Just taking a break during my Bioinformatics class... Today has been lots of fun. I woke up bright and early, but for some reason I think I'm getting more tired as time goes on. I'm definitely following an 8hr/night sleep schedule, but maybe I need more than 8hrs of sleep per night. I'm sure that I'll manage... Maybe I'll make up the time this weekend.

We have a mouse in the house! After I took a shower, got dressed and was working on my reading, I heard funny noises coming from the direction of my closed door. When I looked over I saw a little brown shape skitting around my jacket which was hanging on the back of my door! It was pretty distracting as I was trying to get my work done this morning. He eventually left my room and headed to the kitchen... Obviously we didn't have a trap so we couldn't really do anything about it. I asked my mom to send down a trap; hopefully it will arrive before he eats all our food.

I woke up this morning to a text message from Becca saying that it was a snow day today in Amman! Can you believe it... A snow day in the middle of the desert :) of course, I'm sure that any snow in the desert would shut down that city. So I didn't get to chat with her this morning because she can only get internet access at her university. I really miss her but I'm so glad that I got her text message early so that I didn't spend hours waiting for her to get in touch with me. If she gets to go to school tomorrow I'll get to talk to her then...

For some reason it feels really hard to judge how much work I have. I haven't really gotten into the 'working' groove yet this semester, and despite a one-page review due Wednesday, I haven't been able to get my rear in gear very much. I'm sure it'll work out soon enough but this is a pretty standard worry that I have each semester. Onward...

Sent from: Karl Gutwin

Posted by kgutwin at 02:45 PM | TrackBack

February 07, 2005

Sleep schedule update

I just have a few things to say about my little experiment in sleep schedule adjustment:

* It seems to be working pretty well so far. The past two days I've woken up at 5 am and suffered no ill effects. It is pretty nice to get up and to be almost the only person awake. Plus, with so much time in the morning, I never have to worry about the shower being taken!

* When I tell people I'm trying this, they always look at me like I'm from Mars. Come on, people, it isn't that weird. Ok, so maybe it's not 'normal', but who wants to be normal anyway? Besides, I know that I'm getting a full night's rest, which is more than I can say when I don't keep my bedtime strict and go to bed at 2am and wake up at 8am. It's totally natural, too. I go to bed when it's dark, and I wake up... Ok, so it's dark when I wake up too. But my alarm clock turns my bedside light on in the morning so it's not like I wake up to a pitch black room. But this way I get to watch the sunrise every morning - how could you beat that?

* I got to chat with Becca this morning! How cool is that? For nearly 45 minutes, we talked about fun and random stuff. This, plus chatting with her briefly before church yesterday, and reading a nice email, this I could get used to... :)

Ok, and now for a tiny bit more work before time to make lunch and then head to lab. Life is so much fun :)

Sent from: Karl Gutwin

Posted by kgutwin at 08:30 AM | Comments (1) | TrackBack

February 06, 2005

From the whoops dept.

New Romance turns out to be old hat

Wow... I can't say much about this one... just wow... it's so funny, you've got to read it. It's funnier if you take it in a middle eastern context, though.

Posted by kgutwin at 04:33 PM | TrackBack

Gilbert and Sullivan?

Oh man, so I've just been offered a bit part in a Gilbert and Sullivan production of which I've forgotten the name. Apparently there's a club at MIT which exists solely for the purpose of putting on such productions, and they're looking for more guys to sing bass...

It is soooo tempting but I don't think I have the time. Drama can be lots of fun but judging by how worried I am already about having too much work - I don't think it's a good idea. It's really too bad, though, it sounds like such fun...

I wish there was more time in the world to spend on fun pursuits. Don't get me wrong - I really enjoy everything that I spend my time on already - but there's so many *more* fun things to do! Oh well. Maybe when I'm retired.

Sent from: Karl Gutwin

Posted by kgutwin at 03:00 PM | Comments (1) | TrackBack

February 05, 2005

The solution to Traffic Jams

Over in Jordan, they've got the right idea:

Letters to the Editor - The Jordan Times

Needles and jams

Where is the traffic police? Where are the people within the municipality who decided that the best place to have the "Cultural Street", resulting in single lane traffic, in Shmeisani? Have any of them seen the horrific traffic jams that have become a daily occurrence?

You would have to see it to believe it: cars backed up and honking, angry and frustrated drivers on every street in the Shemisani network. God help anyone who might have an emergency (or an appointment); the possibility of surviving the up to 30-minute wait to get out of the area is absolutely nil.

I have found my own solution to deal with the problem and I would advise the "powers to be" to advocate the same for other frustrated drivers in the area.

The answer is knitting! I take mine along with me and sometimes I am able to knit a whole scarf while waiting for the jam to unsnarl. If drivers are supplied with yarn and knitting needles they will knit instead of honk and those responsible for the mess can forget about correcting the problem. Simple isn't it?

Karen Asfour,
Amman

Posted by kgutwin at 05:59 PM | TrackBack

Sleep....

Last night, just before bed, pondering over many things, I had a crazy idea. I'm always thinking about how I miss Becca, how I wish I could talk with her, and how tricky it is because of the time difference. My waking schedule is normally 8am to 12midnight... that's pretty decent, I think, but that means I basically sleep from 7am to 3pm Jordan time. Now, I don't know her schedule, and it would probably be changing at some point anyway, but I thought something interesting -- what if I shift my sleeping schedule so I go to bed much earlier and wake up much earlier?

I know I couldn't shift it to line up perfectly with hers. For that, I would need to go to bed between 5 and 6pm and wake up around 2am. Not really a good idea. But I could go to bed around 9pm and wake up around 5am my time, which would mean I would wake up around noon her time.

Now, I admit the primary impetus for me trying this crazy experiment would be to see if I could chat with her online. But the added bonus is that I really do like mornings, and it's only those crazy nights which keep me up so late which make it hard to appreciate mornings. They're much more peaceful, and I do get a lot of work done when I'm well rested and having the rising sun at my face.

We'll see how it goes. I'm not guaranteeing anything. Now, though, shifting my schedule will be tricky...

Posted by kgutwin at 03:55 PM | TrackBack

February 04, 2005

Zap!

A few days ago, when I was looking into my chorus auditions, I happened to notice a somewhat obscure posting on an MIT music bulletin board. It was advertising a concert, to be held on Feb. 4th, and the title of the concert was Zap! Music for Robots and Van de Graaf generator, among many other instruments. I thought, "sounds like fun!"

It was held in the Theater of Electricity at the Museum of Science. And yes, they did use the giant Van de Graaf generator during the music. It was pretty neat. The place was packed! I was surprised at the number of people there. I had no idea whether it was publicized at all, and apparently it was, because there were people watching all the way up to the second balcony.

The music was pretty good. There was nothing particularly compelling about it, but you could tell that it had been composed with care and that it wasn't all about the sparks. Unfortunately sparks have a pretty limited expressive range, but for the material I was impressed. They had big sparks, smaller sparks, tiny buzzy sparks and the Tesla coil in certain spots which makes big loud buzzy sparks. They also used the Jacob's Ladder during some of the quiet parts (a small, quiet spark which slowly rises due to air convection).

All in all, a fun night. It was a little weird to be going out by myself... It was fun and all, but I kept feeling like there ought to be someone else there. There were a bunch of friends who sat near me and I thought about bringing my friends to something like this. Of course, though, they wouldn't really appreciate it and would probably get really bored really quick. It was hard enough to keep myself from getting bored, and this is the fun stuff for me...

Now, to go home and get some dinner. I haven't eaten since noon and I'm starving. What should I have?

Sent from: Karl Gutwin

Posted by kgutwin at 08:10 PM | TrackBack

February 03, 2005

Missing her

I haven't heard from her in, well, it's been over 30 hours now since I got her last text message, and even longer since I got her last email. I'm sure she's fine. It's actually a little sad because the first two days she was gone, she emailed me in the afternoon - her afternoon, which is my early morning - meaning I woke up and was late getting ready in the morning because I spent too much time thinking about her. The past two days, though, I've dutifully woken up early... to no avail as there has been no word from her waiting in my inbox. Humph.

Becoming busier has helped to partition my thought space so that she's not always on my mind 100%... but I still have those moments where I wish I could just hear from her, to appease my crazy mind.

This won't last, I promise you. If, in two months, you're still reading posts that say "I haven't heard from her in 3 hours, 29 minutes and 17 seconds" you have the right to chastise me. But just because I don't post it doesn't mean I'm not thinking about it. I can enforce rules on my blog but it never profits me to enforce rules on my heart.

Ok, now it's time for bed. Maybe I will wake up and find a message waiting from her. Hope is such a powerful thing.

Posted by kgutwin at 11:49 PM | Comments (13) | TrackBack

Choosing Classes

The biggest thing on my mind for the past day has been what classes to take this upcoming semester. I have to say, this semester potentially will be one of my most interesting semesters, and not just because of my classes. The stuff that I get to do in rotations seems to be very very cool, and I'm really looking forward to digging into it.

The problem, though, is that surprise surprise, I've overloaded on classes for this semester. A normal course load for the spring semester 1st year is three classes plus the rotation. I've registered for four. Plus, the classes offered spring semester tend to be lighter-weight reading courses -- but I've managed to register for three very involved courses (and one which isn't too bad, more on that later...) I originally chose four pretty much knowing that I'd drop one. However, starting the semester and attending them all I wished I could actually stick with them all. That doesn't seem feasible at this point. So now I need to decide which class to drop.

Here's a rundown of the classes I'm registered for:

6.001: Structure and Interpretation of Computer Programs
This class is nuts. It basically teaches you programming from the ground up, with emphasis on cleansing yourself of bad programming habits. It's all taught using an obscure programming language which is useful pretty much only for teaching purposes and for crufty old LISP hackers. It's a very impractical course, and yet surprisingly helpful, as it really does get you thinking in the right way about how to make good programs as opposed to programs which 'just work'. The big issue: It's a truckload and a half worth of work. At least five hours of class time per week (most other courses are 2-3) and weekly problem sets. Plus the class is gigantic, I can never find a seat in lecture.

7.91j: Introduction to Computational and Systems Biology
Lots of fun. It's team taught by three profs in the bio department, all of which are good at what they do and definitely know their stuff. For me it'll be extraordinarily useful as it'll basically teach me all that bioinformatics stuff that I've been neglecting over the years. Actually, Bioinformatics was taught at Brandeis while I was there, but I refused to take it because I had the professor for an earlier class and he was just intolerable. Anyway, the workload should be easy because it assumes a low level of programming and I think I can manage that.

18.337j: Applied Parallel Computing
This one's scary. Mostly because it's pretty heavy on the linear algebra, physics/engineering side of things which I think is cool but I'm pretty much a lightweight in. If I can keep my head above water, it'll be really useful, pretty much just to get a handle on the kinds of parallel algorithms out there and to get some supervised practice. If I can't keep my head above water, well, I suppose I can drop it... assuming I don't gamble that I can pull my grade up and then lose. I suppose failing a complete elective isn't too bad... I hope... The workload could be relatively high, depending on how easy the assignments are. There's a final project which lasts half the semester which, if I play my cards right, shouldn't be too crazy.

7.76: Topics in Protein Biochemistry
This is a literature course. It's the one I mentioned above which isn't too involved. Basically it meets once a week, we have little assignments for it just to keep us reading the papers. It'll take a lot of reading but it shouldn't be too stressful. The really cool thing I think about this class is that unlike all the others, this one actually trains you to read papers critically like a scientist would. Part of my problem, I recognize, is that when I read papers, I tend to accept uncritically what the author says, unless I'm sure that it's wrong. This is a bad idea! Many times the author is wrong and you're right. I just need to get more out of the habit of just trusting what the author says. Hopefully this class will help on that.

By the way, maybe you've noticed my focus on workload... that's because I want to keep in mind the unmentioned class - my rotations. It's pretty much a given that any time I'm not in class, but during normal daily hours, I'll be in lab. This is very important - because a high-pressure work environment is a lot closer to what I'll be seeing or what will be expected of me. The pressure's got to come from me, because my advisor won't be breathing down my neck. So I have to resist the temptation to run home and work on my homework, even if I've got so much of it that that's all I'm thinking about doing. I need to have definite times when I can work in lab, uninterrupted and productively.

So you're all still in suspense about what class I want to drop. Well, here goes... I think it's time to get rid of 6.001. It's kind of sad, really. The programmer in me had really wanted to take that class. But I realized that I really am training to be a scientist, and foremost on my mind should be that training. I really do pick up computer training naturally. I've taught myself many of the 'good' programming practices that they would teach me in that class anyway. What's far more important, and something which I have to work on, is the intellectual discipline necessary to be a good scientist. In order to do that, I can't be distracted too much by crazy unrelated programming problems.

I'm pretty sure that this decision makes the most sense. I think I'll skip my 6.001 section meeting tomorrow... they'd just be going over Scheme particulars anyway. If you all have suggestions, let me know. I appreciate what you think.

Posted by kgutwin at 11:19 PM | TrackBack

February 02, 2005

So tired... So early??

Here I thought I was being so good, going to bed so early the past few days because I didn't have much to do... And now that I actually do have stuff to do, like reading my rotation papers - it's getting 'late' and I'm getting tired! Humph.

I guess now I have to stay up late while I'm tired in order to shift my schedule back towards the nocturnal. Oh well. Maaaybee I'll just lie in bed while reading my papers... Thaaaat's a good idea... Not - I'll fall asleep! Mmmmm... Sleep.....

Sent from: Karl Gutwin

Posted by kgutwin at 11:40 PM | Comments (2) | TrackBack

Fun in Rotations

Today I got to meet with my first rotation professor. We spent a while talking about basic stuff about the lab, then went into the projects that I'll be doing. It sounds like a lot of fun, mostly because I get to do both aspects - the computer stuff as well as the wet lab stuff.

I have virtually no significant wet lab experience. This means that although I know pretty much all the same theory as any normal biochemist, I couldn't tell you a thing about how exactly to go about doing it. The extent to my experience is essentially that I know how to measure stuff, I know how to mix stuff, and I know what much of the basic lab equipment is and how it works. Beyond that -- how much stuff to mix, what exactly to mix, and why you're mixing it... I have no idea. So, for the wet lab component to my rotation, I'm basically going to be doing whatever the technician in the lab tells me to do. For most students, this would be a real pain, but for me it will be immensely useful because finally I get to learn something about protein expression, constructs, cloning vectors, PCR, all that good stuff. Plus it seems like I'll get to do some fun chemistry, too. Maybe if I get to learn some techniques in this rotation I can be a little more independent in the next one... but I'm not counting on it.

The computer stuff is going to be pretty much completely independent, though. It'll be a new area for me - statistical potentials, a more statistics-based approach to calculating interaction energies than straight physical models. There I get to play around with a bunch of code, maybe write some of my own, and hopefully make a useful contribution to some ongoing projects in the lab. We'll see how it goes... I'm going to need to read a few papers for that and this blogging is keeping me from doing that ;)

All in all, sounds like it should be a fun experience. The lab seems really friendly and already a few people there know me. It's small enough for me to feel comfortable but big enough to know that there's probably someone who can help you out if you get stuck. Plus the professor is ready to help fairly often and is always interested in what's going on.

Posted by kgutwin at 10:06 PM | Comments (1) | TrackBack

February 01, 2005

Special Report: Iraq Insurgents Moving to Take Toy Soldiers Hostage

CNN.com - So-called U.S. hostage appears to be toy - Feb 1, 2005

FALLUJAH, Iraq (AP) -- Reports are now surfacing that the organized insurgency operating in certain portions of Iraq have shifted from taking real soldiers hostage to taking toy soldiers hostage.

"I heard a lot of yelling, and what sounded like firecrackers," said Ahmed Billah, owner and manager of Toys R' Us in downtown Fallujah. "Then a bunch of guys wearing camoflage and black face masks burst in, and ran to the action figures section. They were waving what appeared to be guns, but I could still see the orange plugs in the muzzle meaning they were toy guns. They grabbed all of the Army action figures they could hold... GI Joe, Marine Mike, and Special Ops Cody. They were dropping boxes as they ran out. They set off the anti-shoplifting alarm but nobody moved. I guess they all thought they were crazy or something."

Sources close to the insurgency movement report that the price for taking real soldiers hostage is becoming too high, and the danger posed by real rifles as opposed to cap guns is enough to scare off most insurgents now. Additionally, some of the insurgents' mothers have been noticing bruises and lost limbs, leading to grounding of the the insurgents without telephone privileges.

Fallujah police responded immediately to the scene of the hostage taking, but were left without leads until an anonymous tip lead them to the website of the Al Mujahedeen Brigade, a notorious band with links to several RC-car bombing attacks, wedgie raids and toy-beheadings. There they found a picture of one Special Ops Cody doll named John Adams positioned against a black banner reading "God is great, there is no God but Allah," with Adams' own rifle pointed at his head.

US military personnel have refused comment so far, but AP military analyists report that while it appears Adams is in grave danger, it is unlikely that the response from US special forces will be significant.

"It's a doll, for crying out loud! Why would anyone do a raid on a twelve-year-old's house to rescue a doll?" said a prominent military analyist who refused to be named.

Posted by kgutwin at 09:11 PM | TrackBack

Soup City

Recipe: Bacon Soup

Ingredients:
4 cups chicken stock or boullion
2 potatoes, peeled, diced
2/3 lbs carrots, peeled, sliced
1/3 lb celery, sliced
1/2 red onion, diced
Bay leaves
3 slices bacon
salt, pepper to taste

Directions:
- Boil the chicken stock (or boullion if you must).
- Add potatoes, carrots, celery, and onion in this order, each as they are sliced. Turn heat to medium-high.
- Add bay leaves.
- Cook bacon (microwave is fine) until crispy; cut into pieces and add to soup. You may add some of the bacon grease if you wish.
- Salt and pepper to taste.
- By the time all is through, the soup should have been on for a while and the veggies should be nearly cooked. Let simmer a few more minutes as desired to let the bacon flavor cook through.
- Serve and enjoy!

Soup is one of the easiest things to make. You almost never really need a recipe to make a really tasty soup. Chicken boullion makes a decent base but canned stock is better and fresh boiled chicken is best. A starch like potatoes, noodles or rice works well to flesh out the soup. (Beware of rice, though! It can really soak up the liquid!) Any veggies you got, throw them in there and it'll taste delicious. I happened to have carrots and celery around from when Becca made me chicken soup while I was sick last week (she's soooo sweet :-D) Finally, a meat in there adds a little bit of oil-based flavoring. If you use the right ingredients, you won't need to really spice it at all. Bay leaves, though, are really the ticket to a good flavor. That's it! Experiment and enjoy!

Posted by kgutwin at 07:38 PM | Comments (4) | TrackBack

Thoughts about my Parallel Computing class

The prof lost his voice! I hope he doesn't sound that squeaky on a regular basis. He also seems very distracted in his speaking style, something which really irritated me during the class. I don't know exactly why I felt impatient... it's not like I've got a whole lot to do, but he kept saying the same things over and over - literally, he told us 5 or 6 times that the consent forms we were filling out for some study were optional, not mandatory, he would never know, it would never affect our grade, etc., etc., etc... I hope his next lectures are clearer.

The class seems very linear algebra heavy. I'm a little worried about that, because I've actually never taken linear algebra. I'd like to pick up what I need as I go along, but I may find that the learning curve is tooo steep. Well, we'll see how it goes. I don't need this class - it's purely an interest, just so that I can have some background on parallel computing for when these problems will become more important.

It's also handy because it meets directly after my Computational Bio class, in the exact same room. It's a one-seat class experience.

Posted by kgutwin at 04:27 PM | Comments (1) | TrackBack

Notes on 7.91

Sounds like a fun class! I'm sure it'll be helpful, because there's a lot of bioinformatics-type stuff that I'm not very familiar with.

Umm, but, I have an android for an instructor... His accent and manner of speaking, as well as his very odd jokes make him sound way too much like a robot :) fortunately he only teaches the coding part of the class which is being held in special optional sessions. I think I know enough about python to not have to attend...

Sent from: Karl Gutwin

Posted by kgutwin at 04:20 PM | Comments (4) | TrackBack

Oh boy, what an experience

A few thoughts from my first 6.001 class:

Oh, but first, some introduction. 6.001, also known as Structure and Interpretation of Computer Systems, is basically the intro computer science class here at MIT. I'm taking it mostly because although I understand some bits and pieces of programming, I often feel like it would help considerably to 'fill in the holes', so to speak. Plus, I'm looking for a class which will exercise my programming ability - so far, the programming that I've done has been pretty lightweight and I'd like to be a bit stronger.

Anyway, my thoughts... The class was dead. The prof tried to crack a few jokes but nobody laughed. When he spent the briefest few seconds going over binary, you could feel the room seething with resentment, as if everyone in the room felt it was below them and why should they put up with this, anyway. To me, it seems kinda sad... Here's the new generation of geeks rising, and they can't laugh at a little bit of computer history or appreciate any of the trivial stuff. Maybe all they want to do is start the next Microsoft. Too bad for them.

I keep going back and forth between thinking this will be a good class or a bad class for me. It'll be a lot of work, that much is obvious. Maybe I just won't need that much work, and I'll drop it. Or maybe it'll be cool and I'll keep it. Who knows.

Now, to call my sweetheart... :-D

Sent from: Karl Gutwin

Posted by kgutwin at 11:00 AM | Comments (2) | TrackBack