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Austin 2: Convention centers
I liked the Austin convention center more than the Boston or Long Beach ones, primarily because it's closer to more non-chain food options. However, the air conditioning was terrible. It's incredibly wasteful to be shivering in a sweater in Texas in August. And it's ironic to be doing so at a conference full of control engineers. Many of you know ( Read more... ) -
Austin part 1
I took a trip to Austin this week for NI Week, the conference/trade show put on by National Instruments, which makes the software and some of the hardware I use to run my experiment. I have several thoughts about the trip, which I'll share over the next couple of days. First, all of the fun Austin things I did ( Read more... ) -
(Untitled)
Today was not a focused, productive day. I spent too much time making travel plans for an upcoming trip, and not enough time working on the presentation I'll give there. There comes a point in preparing every presentation (or writing anything, or programming) where I start to think it really sucks, and half of me wants to throw it out and start ( Read more... ) -
Middle-of-Grad-School Slump, II
I wrote before about some of the reasons that I think grad school gets difficult in the middle. Now I'd like to document some of the tactics I've been trying to keep my momentum up ( Read more... ) -
Middle-of-Grad-School Slump, I
I noted before that I was feeling the middle of graduate school slump, and I'd like to write a bit about some of the reasons for this slump, and some of the ways I'm trying to pull out of it, which I think worked pretty well this last week ( Read more... ) -
Public service announcement
I just went through my friends list and cut some people who don't seem to use LJ anymore. If you haven't updated your journal for a few years, I may have unfriended you. If you actually do read my journal, let me know and I will re-friend you. -
Best vacation ever.
We're home from a 2-week trip to Germany, Switzerland, and Italy. This was the vacation that we have been needing and putting off for a while. It was a really amazing time, and I still can't believe we packed so much into only two weeks. I'm still a bit disoriented, and am trying to sort through all sorts of electronic communication that happened ( Read more... ) -
Update
Some things I've been up to since the last time I posted ( Read more... ) -
Textbook love
Reasons why I love Mary Boas's Mathematical Methods in the Physical Sciences1. As an insecure 18-year-old who had yet to actually talk to a real, live female physics professor, the name "Mary" on the book was infinitely heartening ( Read more... ) -
And my awesome three-day weekend!
Which was a ski trip. B. and I got a hotel room for the three-day weekend. My dad and a friend skied with us on Friday, then it was just us on Saturday and Sunday. The skiing was great: powder on Friday, bumps on Saturday, and spring slush today. We found two new secret powder stashes ( Read more... )