Last week of classes!?!

Wow, that really snuck up fast! I only have 3 more days of class in the semester, which means... finals. ugh. Well, I'm sure I'll get through just fine given enough long hours of studying and doing linear systems assignments. (If I spend 3 hours a day on linear systems for the next two weeks, I'll probably have most of the assignments done by the final)

Nothing earth-shattering to report, just a lot of little things:

-Thanksgiving break went fine. I got quite a bit done over the 4 days, mostly because I had an absolute minimum of distractions.
-We've had highs in the 50's and 60's for the past few days now (and no rain). I'm starting to think people just make up stories about the cold winters here to keep people away. I mean, even the northwest got a good 6 inches of snow yesterday, and the best we've gotten here is a dusting.
-My computer parts for work haven't showed up yet. (Any day now...) When they do, I should have a fun time putting that together
-But, my work desk showed up today (with "some assembly required"). Our lab just got a brand new, nice, larger space, so the new desk has a worthy home. Its a nice wrap-around one. Just needs some, oh, 19" LCD monitors on top of it.
-Cornell routinely brings in high profile speakers, but yesterday Shimon Perez, a high ranking figure in the Israeli government was speaking on campus. Apparently he was to visit the engineering area of campus at some point, because there were large men in suits with earpieces all through the building all day.
-My department is doing an open mic as part of the monthly dinner/happy hour grad student/faculty get together on Thursday. I got "volunteered" (willingly) to play a couple guitar pieces as part of that. The carbon fiber guitar gets its first gig...
-Second "gig" for the week is a joint advent service on Friday with all three GCF bible studies and the international grad student bible study. It'll be a full dinner/advent/worship time, so I was asked to help out on guitar. Not a problem...
-This is actually probably the most exciting thing, so I'm not sure why I left it buried at the bottom. I've pretty much figured out where I'll be living next academic year. Its a house of christian guys just off west campus, kind of led up by a slightly older guy named Louie who happens to be on staff with Young life in the region. There's six there right now, and its certain there'll be a room for me next year. I met one of the guys (Nate) at the Bible study retreat several weeks ago, and things kind of went from there. So I'm excited at the prospect of having that kind of community again.

The eye of the hurricane?

Perhaps I am over dramatizing this linear systems course, but it really is (unfortunately) a major portion of my life right now. I've got the second take-home midterm tomorrow and this entire last week has been consumed catching up on all the homework that came fast and furious over the last few weeks. Like every night from 7-12, and 10 hours on Saturday working with others on it. And I simply cannot let myself set it aside and accept a grade less than I'm capable of, so the hours get poured in...

Anyhow, its Sunday night and I finally finished up most of the problems, so its time for a good night's sleep before devoting another significant chunk of hours to the take home midterm tomorrow. And its frustrating because these are hours that could have a much more tangible, productive result if they were applied to research. The research is going well, and the potential funding source for my research was impressed with the talk my advisor (Hod Lipson) gave last week in DC, and they want the full 10pg proposal in two weeks. Since I am the one heading up this project, I am of course putting together the info/visuals for these presentations/proposals. It's a lot of work.

You might have read about our research group this week if you follow scientific news in any capacity. We made national news for some work that just got published in Science (prestigious scientific journal). You can read a news release here. Its some pretty cool stuff... although it was all done before I got here (so I didn't contribute).

I ordered the parts for my work computer last week. The lab has enough resources to work with, so I was able to put together quite the serious CAD devouring, dual-core PC that should take anything I can throw at it. So that's been another "distraction" this week: reading up on all the latest computer technology and spec-ing out a nice system. The parts should get here in the next few days.

...And that's literally been pretty much my life the last few days, aside from eating and sleeping. I've got no plans for Thanksgiving weekend, so it should be a pretty quiet (hopefully productive) time. Its the same deal as fall break... everyone I know here is taking off to spend the long weekend w/ relatives several hours away. Of course I've been invited along when it came up that I wasn't going anywhere, but they're all headed off for the entire 4-5 days, and that's well past my limits of imposing on families I don't know. Oh well. I'll be headed back to Seattle for Christmas in less than a month...

Never mind that winter thing

So after I posted that "winter has pretty much set in" last time, the weather just has to go and prove me wrong. Today was sunny (!!) and 65 degrees (!!!) . Nobody around here can really explain it, but I'm not complaining about eating lunch outside in short sleeves. However, the workload has been ridiculous and I've been working 13-16 hours a day on campus all week, so my enjoyment of the weather has been limited to lunch.

However, a couple big research-related deadlines were today, so I had time to get a gasp of air before tomorrow when I start catching up on the equally ridiculous amount of coursework that needs to get done. That "gasp of air" meant I had time to go running tonight at 10:00 (its warm(ish) and clear so I ran the full 6mi rec way under a rising moon) and buy plane tickets to head back to Seattle for Christmas (Dec 19th-Jan 9th if you're wondering).

Still alive...
Yes, its been a while since I posted. I am still alive, just a bit overworked. Classes are going fine... I passed prelims alright. Now, life is just the neverending cycle of homework, labs, and research stuff. I'm right in the thick of it this weekend, with 5 homework assignments in progress, a lab writeup, a big fellowship application (essays!) due next week, a 1 hour research presentation tomorrow, a discussion group to lead tomorrow on a paper written by the faculty who oversees the discussion group, and a bunch of work to do with research to finish convincing DARPA to fund this whole digital manufacturing thing by next week. I am finding the limits of how productive the human brain can be over long periods of time.

Not to paint a dismal picture... most of the work is of the more pleasant variety, there's just a ton of it! In other news, winter really feels like it has set in this weekend. High winds on Friday stripped the trees of most of their remaining leaves and we have been getting scattered snow flurries (no accumulation yet though). Well, this needs to be brief. I have a presentation to start and a paper to read...