A Simple Way To Go Faster Than Light That Does Not Work

$PROF1 just wrote me back.

Hi. Thanks for your message, and your interest in our research group.

I could meet you  this Wednesday at 11:00am. Does that work for you?

Eek. I am now very excitable. This is sure to mess up my evening, when I'm supposed to be writing. This is definitely sure to mess up my LotR plans for 12:01 Wednesday morning in Belfast, Maine, too. Do I want to attend this crucial appointment on no sleep? I happen to know that I don't have much problem putting off sleep for a day if I have to, but... hrm.

Well, if I do go, I'll be able to sidestep the vaguely thorny issue of carpool politics with one fellow moviegoer, who lives on the route I'd be taking but insists that I should drop my car off at his house (in Kittery, on the ME/NH border) and then let him go the rest of the way, since he told me (on a mailing list) that I am the scariest driver he's ever encountered. Asked to defend his position, he said that I drove too slowly to be able to react to obstacles or other danger in time. I could talk about what I think of his driving, but I think that sentence says everything that needs to be said. I am happy that I now have an excuse not to humor him.

Last night I talked to two Lab expats at just as many parties that cthulhia and queue dragged me to (well, cthulhia acted as the primary dragging force, of course) and they basically just repeated what my sponsor told me. Actually, they said, "Oh, you've talked to [$SPONSOR] already? Then you know everything you need to know." This helps in its own way, I reckon.

One of the parties was also the first where LJ was brought up as a topic, after cthulhia introduced me to some people using our LJ usernames (half-jokingly, since I knew some of the people iRL anyway ("RL"?)). She actually misspoke mine (using my Unix username/real life nickname/domain name, which is not "prog") and I corrected her, which I guess dooms me all the more to admitting my LJ addiction. So it goes.

Or so it goes until the book is done, anyway.

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.