Dec. 13th, 2001

Plan B

Dec. 13th, 2001 12:26 pm
prog: (Default)
Change of plan:

Before I rewrite that essay, I've got to talk to some people. Jon suggested, as part of his critique, that I have some conversations with Lab denizens, which will not only give me a more clear picture of the Lab, but also give me some some essential people-pointers I can weave into the next draft.

I said "I'm doomed," and he replied, "No, not at all; just write $PROF1 (and maybe $PROF2 and $PROF3) and tell them that you're thinking about becoming a grad student, and would like to meet some people in their groups. They'd be happy to show you around."

I repreated this to my housemates, both of whom have experience in grad school and MIT, and they matter-of-factly "well, yeah"ed at me.

This still seems like such a strange concept, but clearly I've got to change my stance from passive formality to aggressive curiousity. It demands me to be social, to initiate dialogues, and this is very very difficult for me. But: I wrote $PROF1 an email last night (three small paragraphs that took as many hours to compose), and will write the others after taking a nice long brainsoak in their respective websites. More difficult is an event going on tomorrow at the Lab that Jon forwarded me an email about, with the implication that I quietly attend. If I do go, I'll probably have the opportunity to try cornering $PROF1 there. But, ohh, I hate doing that to people, no matter how friendly they are (and this fellow has a reputation of being among the friendliest). This is part of the reason why I dropped out of journalism (even after getting a Bachelor's degree in it); I just don't like imposing on people, even in the slightest.

OTOH, I really do want to set things in motion. And once I get over the hard part of starting a dialogue, I can really start to shine. So.

Meanwhile, best buddy Cthulhia, who is also The Devil, has taken the liberty to ping three Lab folk who intersect with Cthulhia-level social circles, letting them know of my aspirations. Hmm!

The three point five weeks between now and the application deadline. We'll see what happens.

Heh

Dec. 13th, 2001 03:29 pm
prog: (Default)
A couple of hours passed before I realized that the conclusion I reached about changing my stance in my previous entry applied to the group mail that Cthulia sent to me and the three Lab people. I just got done composing a self-introductory group-reply to it.

Furrfu

SVG

Dec. 13th, 2001 06:57 pm
prog: (Default)
Argh... I want to play with SVG right now, coz it's going to factor into Chapter 8, but none of Adobe's servers are responding... and a Google search tantalizingly reveals that a Mac OS X-compatible version of Adobe's SVG Viewer plugin exists! Argh argh argh!!!


I spent this afternoon turning my bedroom into someplace I don't mind living and working. Built the wireframe bureau I bought last week, put away all the clothespiles, emptied, flattened, and closeted all the boxes, shelved the books, vacuumed the rug, hung up the pictures, and kludged the curtains (until I can get some real curtain rings). All it really needs now is a whiteboard and a comfy chair. I suppose I could swipe the computer desk's chair, actually, since that is technically mine, but then you have the aesthetic incongruency of a nice chair up against a card table. Well, that aside, I feel very very at peace, sitting here. 's nice.


Why doesn't LiveJournal timestamp entries based on when it receives them? The only input I should give it is the timezone I currently reside in; it should figure out the local time based on that, not by trusting my local machine's clock.

August 2022

S M T W T F S
 123456
78910111213
14151617181920
21222324252627
28 293031   

Most Popular Tags

Page Summary

Style Credit

Expand Cut Tags

No cut tags
Page generated Aug. 1st, 2025 08:05 am
Powered by Dreamwidth Studios