I just have to say - life does work out in the end. And really - my motto really is just "ask - what could it hurt?" That's when I want something that's not particularly easy/convenient/expected from others. I do fight for what I want even if it's not always appropriate. I've heard that I do this from tons of people - even Kung Fu instructors, classroom teachers, friends, etc. And yes, I can get in people's faces. But I still think it can be a good characteristic.
For example:
I was going crazy up here with research goals. Because basically I have a paper deadline for a project I've been doing at school for the last couple of months - the deadline is August 7th. Besides Erica, if you are thinking of visiting - don't suggest any dates before that :-). So yeah, I was going to work on that on the side (at night) besides an ambitious project with IBM during the day for my internship. Oh yeah, and still exercise, spend time with Naveen while we live in the same city, and actually try to experience this wonderful city while I live in it. So, I know, I'm insane. I do too much, I make myself crazy. All true. But, since I was pulled so tight, well, what do I do? I simply ask if someone will let me make it easier on myself. In this case, Naveen has been helping me at home a ton, I'm limiting some of my exposure to New York (although if a play I want to see is only playing in July, I still will go see it). And since I get to work ass-early because of my carpool, I've been trying to use the extra time to exercise. But the coup de e'tat came when I talked to my advisor, and she thought it was reasonable for me to work on my school project at IBM - sorta make it my internship project for this month. Given IBM had initially told me I could bring in my own project. And what we are working on in the school project is related to the work we eventually want to do for my internship. And we are waiting for infrastructure stuff to be ready for the IBM work - which is the job of people besides me and could take a couple of weeks anyway. So... I was really nervous, but I asked. And today, I got permission to do my school project basically as my internship until the deadline! The guys were totally reasonable - they said they'd rather see good research done and rather see me get an ASPLOS paper than waste my time. And they are willing to talk the work over with me and give me some suggestions, but don't necessarily need to be added to the author list of the paper unless they really contribute a lot. So they are awesome! I'm so excited - that makes my life a lot less stressful than it could've been. And hopefully it'll be great for all of us and my PhD in the long run. And I think this project is worthwhile - now I feel I have added incentive to really work hard on it because I want to prove myself not only to me and Kathryn (my advisor), but also to these really well-known researchers that I admire here at IBM. They are always the ambitious guys who get really good research into top publications. And I want to be worthy - to some extent (while keeping my sanity). But I cannot entirely judge myself based on them, because I could just never be good enough. That'll just lead to me feeling bad all the time. But I'll try - I'll try my hardest. I might be a researcher yet! (A researcher with a life on the side) A researcher who still wants to work with people - who wants to make connections with people. As much as I feel I can be a researcher - I think it'll make me happier to work with people in the long run. But the PhD will open doors and get me to be able to teach anywhere I think. Who knows what the future holds, but I gotta try. I gotta really give some good effort to this computer science PhD. It's important; it's important to me. And yes, I'm still figuring out the whole balance between relationship-research-exercise-life (and sleep I guess). I really didn't believe that you should have to sacrifice all (n-1) of these for the nth thing. I don't think that's healthy. And while it really isn't healthy, people do it - people sorta expect it. So, "shit or get off the pot". I'll try... But of course I'll do it sorta in my own way. You can't deny the streak of stubbornness in my family - come on! :-)
Ok enough rambling - more work. Happy weekend!
Friday, July 13, 2007
Thursday, July 12, 2007
14-10 in the 8th - nuff said
Sorry - haven't blogged a lot this week. It's been an up and down week. Did some Riverside running Monday evening which was really nice - the breeze from the water helped cut the humid hot weather (yay heat waves). Then N and I went to the super-healthy pizza place on the way home.
Tuesday was very exciting - the title really says it all :-).
So I played softball again, and I have to say I love this game! Missed you again Christine. So I was under the impression our team (the Bytecodes) sucked. Really. There's only 4 teams in the league and I heard it's very rare for us to win. So I'm just out there for fun anyway. I play 2nd base. It was a beautiful evening, even if a bit humid. We had a great team - another woman besides me so we didn't have any penalties! (If you have only 1 woman for example you start with 1 out every other inning). We had great team spirit. Mike Hind - my now 2nd line boss was there - backing me up at short-stop. So we started off at bat - I think at the end of the first it was 1-2. Nice that we score a lot more than pro baseball :-). Then by the end of the 4th we were up 8-6! I felt really good - we weren't making errors, I was pretty good at bat - got walked the first time, then got mostly base hits. Once I hit it at the pitcher's head and unfortunately got out. Another time I did a line drive at the 3rd baseman, and my whole team thought I'd make it, but the 3rd guy bee-lined it to the 1st base guy and just beat me - bummer. But overall I did well. Mike was awesome at short - catching tons of fly balls - one inning he got all 3 outs back to back with 3 pop up catches. So yeah - just exciting game. And the other team had some great players and hitters (I think one guy got at least 2 home runs). These games are only supposed to go 7 innings. So we had shut each other down 3 innings and we were still up 8-6 at the bottom of the 7th and they were up to bat . We just had to hold them off - go Bytecodes! Unfortunately 2 people got through before we shut them down, so it was tied at the end of the 7th 8-8. Although we usually don't play more innings, we went to the 8th! So exciting. My adrenaline was just pumping - we had a chance to win! So top of the 8th - we are up to bat. 3 guys bat before me and all get on base. I bat - accidentally bunt and get on base too. So we score with no outs, and have bases loaded! It's looking good. For some reason they keep making errors or we keep hitting well, because we just sailed through our roster and started over - scoring 6 runs that inning before they finally got 3 outs! We were so pumped - we did awesome :-). Such teamwork. I was excited to be the 3rd base coach and wave people in. Wow. So ok - we go to the field - just gotta stop them from overly scoring themselves. And we did! We let a couple of peopel score - the really good hitter, then the fast runner. But we caught some fly balls and struck a girl out and we suddenly won in the 8th 14-10!! I was so happy and flushed and felt like it was such a great game. I scored 2 of our runs overall and definitely got at least 1 out. Really energized me - working together, and really being into the spirit of the game, playing well. Go team! I loved it. :-).
So life was really good at the end of Tuesday - got a lot of exercise; got a ride home from a really weird guy who told me his life story within 15 minute of meeting me (and lots of personal, "what's really going on" stuff) - but he was really nice and a Manhattanite that'll tell me when he hears of things going on in the city; got home and Naveen had put together my bike for me and had dinner waiting - yum Chinese. Very good stuff.
Wednesday we were supposed to go to a free concert in Central Park of the NY Philharmonic in the evening - with fireworks to follow! I was excited, but unfortunately it got canceled because of rain. Bummer. So we went out to Indian food instead - yum. Oh yeah - and I went out to Dim Sum for lunch with my group - also tasty. Although I didn't know what I was doing, it seemed they either didn't come around very often, or the guy who was ordered for us cut it short because it didn't seem like a lot of food to me. But tasty :-).
That's most of my week. Tonight we are going to clean and get ready for our first visitor - Erica - who flies in tomorrow. I'm really excited! And I'll blog soon about all the other stuff going on with me - figuring out how to balance everything, figuring out my research goals, and figuring out time management. Life is always crazy, but I think I'm doing better - I have plans that might make life more sane (notice I'm doing fewer things during the week). So yeah - I think I'll make it. And it's almost a weekend so I can soon catch up on sleep! Have a good one...
Tuesday was very exciting - the title really says it all :-).
So I played softball again, and I have to say I love this game! Missed you again Christine. So I was under the impression our team (the Bytecodes) sucked. Really. There's only 4 teams in the league and I heard it's very rare for us to win. So I'm just out there for fun anyway. I play 2nd base. It was a beautiful evening, even if a bit humid. We had a great team - another woman besides me so we didn't have any penalties! (If you have only 1 woman for example you start with 1 out every other inning). We had great team spirit. Mike Hind - my now 2nd line boss was there - backing me up at short-stop. So we started off at bat - I think at the end of the first it was 1-2. Nice that we score a lot more than pro baseball :-). Then by the end of the 4th we were up 8-6! I felt really good - we weren't making errors, I was pretty good at bat - got walked the first time, then got mostly base hits. Once I hit it at the pitcher's head and unfortunately got out. Another time I did a line drive at the 3rd baseman, and my whole team thought I'd make it, but the 3rd guy bee-lined it to the 1st base guy and just beat me - bummer. But overall I did well. Mike was awesome at short - catching tons of fly balls - one inning he got all 3 outs back to back with 3 pop up catches. So yeah - just exciting game. And the other team had some great players and hitters (I think one guy got at least 2 home runs). These games are only supposed to go 7 innings. So we had shut each other down 3 innings and we were still up 8-6 at the bottom of the 7th and they were up to bat . We just had to hold them off - go Bytecodes! Unfortunately 2 people got through before we shut them down, so it was tied at the end of the 7th 8-8. Although we usually don't play more innings, we went to the 8th! So exciting. My adrenaline was just pumping - we had a chance to win! So top of the 8th - we are up to bat. 3 guys bat before me and all get on base. I bat - accidentally bunt and get on base too. So we score with no outs, and have bases loaded! It's looking good. For some reason they keep making errors or we keep hitting well, because we just sailed through our roster and started over - scoring 6 runs that inning before they finally got 3 outs! We were so pumped - we did awesome :-). Such teamwork. I was excited to be the 3rd base coach and wave people in. Wow. So ok - we go to the field - just gotta stop them from overly scoring themselves. And we did! We let a couple of peopel score - the really good hitter, then the fast runner. But we caught some fly balls and struck a girl out and we suddenly won in the 8th 14-10!! I was so happy and flushed and felt like it was such a great game. I scored 2 of our runs overall and definitely got at least 1 out. Really energized me - working together, and really being into the spirit of the game, playing well. Go team! I loved it. :-).
So life was really good at the end of Tuesday - got a lot of exercise; got a ride home from a really weird guy who told me his life story within 15 minute of meeting me (and lots of personal, "what's really going on" stuff) - but he was really nice and a Manhattanite that'll tell me when he hears of things going on in the city; got home and Naveen had put together my bike for me and had dinner waiting - yum Chinese. Very good stuff.
Wednesday we were supposed to go to a free concert in Central Park of the NY Philharmonic in the evening - with fireworks to follow! I was excited, but unfortunately it got canceled because of rain. Bummer. So we went out to Indian food instead - yum. Oh yeah - and I went out to Dim Sum for lunch with my group - also tasty. Although I didn't know what I was doing, it seemed they either didn't come around very often, or the guy who was ordered for us cut it short because it didn't seem like a lot of food to me. But tasty :-).
That's most of my week. Tonight we are going to clean and get ready for our first visitor - Erica - who flies in tomorrow. I'm really excited! And I'll blog soon about all the other stuff going on with me - figuring out how to balance everything, figuring out my research goals, and figuring out time management. Life is always crazy, but I think I'm doing better - I have plans that might make life more sane (notice I'm doing fewer things during the week). So yeah - I think I'll make it. And it's almost a weekend so I can soon catch up on sleep! Have a good one...
Sunday, July 8, 2007
Sailin' around Manhattan
Hi all - I guess it's the end of another fabulous weekend. Had a fabulous time!
Friday Naveen and I picked up Cuban take-out on the way to a free Central Park show. We sat and ate our tasty dishes - shrimp marinated in a red sauce with onions and peppers and Naveen's rice with spicy sausage - and watched some Afro-American dance with some ballet and hip hop influences and some awesome African music and drum work! They had colorful costumes with tons of loose fabric tied around their body and they moved very freely and lithely. It was great fun. We got the feeling they were telling stories with the dance, we just didn't know what stories they were telling. Then we walked home during the pleasant night, and called it a night.
Saturday was great, too - we met up with friends for brunch at 1:30 or 2. Yay afternoon brunch! We went to this hole-in-the-wall place called Freeman's in the East Village. I swear you couldn't find this place even if you knew it - it's down an alley that doesn't show up on maps, and the restaurantdoesn't display it's name anywhere. It's just a door... But it was very nice - we got mimosas, and I got a baked omelet with spinach, gruyere cheese, and bacon - yum. And the company was wonderful - so my lab-mate at IBM is Emina who is originally from Bosnia. Her boyfriend came in from Boston for the weekend - he's from England. Then we met up with her MIT friend who lives in the city - he's from India. He brought a friend who was studying in the city just for the summer - she's from St. Petersburg. Holy Cow! Varied people. So the Indian was an interesting guy - his name is Rishie (something like that). He did engineering/computer stuff in school, decided he didn't like that environment and got a job in finance - high-profile trading. That totally wiped him out in 4 years even though he made a good living, so he just recently switched into the field of real estate. He has something to say about everything, and he's a very personable, intelligent guy. So we quizzed him on his careers, living in NY, living the American dream, etc. We learned a lot and it was very enjoyable. First - in careers we came to the conclusion that it's all about connectors - the people who can connect specialist doing X with specialist doing Y, or take ideas solved in 1 field and apply them to a problem in another. Maybe I can be a connector somehow! He did say you need both the skills and the drive in your career, and you should switch it up if you don't have both. I'm thinking I am not sure I have drive in CS - maybe I should switch a bit so I can still use my skills but work with people more? Also - the way to make Manhattan manageable, friendly and knowable is to find your neighborhood, then cultivate it - get to know the people who work in the restaurants you like, know the people in your neighborhood, friends, then everything there is familiar and nice - you can make it your own.
Anyway, we had some good brunch - these guys liked dessert, so we got bananas foster and a chocolate dessert. Then we took off and went up to the Met - Metropolitan Museum of Art. We saw an exhibit that Emina wanted to see - about a fashion dress maker that was revolutionary in the 1910s. Then we wandered a bit - seeing horse armor, musical instruments, a bit of the "Venice and Islam" exhibit, and seeing paintings and sculptures in between. It's just too big there - you really have to just want to see a particular part and go there and leave - it's exhausting otherwise! So we left, and walked aimlessly around the east side and talked. Then for a "snack" ( at 7pm) we took a cab down to Rishie's neighborhood and went to a little french restaurant he knows. We ordered beers and appetizers - very fun. Got mussels and crab cake, a potato and blue cheese gallette (layered thing), and calimari and fries. And of course dessert - Naveen and I got creme brulee. Fun times - and the people really made it a great day - so many interesting stories. I want to be that inspirational and adventurous - all these people that madke wonderful things of themselves by moving to another country which has to be so hard! After this we went our separate ways, and I took Naveen down to Union Square area because I like it, and we walked around. We checked out a brewery/restaurant and sampled several beers that were tasty - I really liked my summer apricot ale and my red ale as well! Nice that the city is so accessible and everyone is out and about...
Today was a day of sailing - it was wonderful! David Bacon - a colleague of mine at IBM - loves sailing. He sails every weekend at belongs to a club in lower Manhattan, so he invited us to go with him! So we did get dramamine, and headed off with him - getting down there around noon. It was so much fun to sail! Setting up the boat was really satisfying and tactile - Naveen and I surmised I should've studied civil engineering because I like that so much. We tied ropes all around this tiny boat - around 30 feet long and could only have 5 people aboard. It was fun to be put to work and learn to tack and winch and switch sails and all. And it was a HOT day - 95 in the city supposedly. So it was nice to be on the water and feel the breeze and the water, although the sun does zap your energy. We took snacks and just hung out. David did most of the sailing, and a friend of his came too. We tacked back and forth (switching the sail from 1 side to another) up wind - we went a far ways - past the Statue of Liberty south. We got beautiful views of Manhattan, Brooklyn, New Jersey, Ellis Island, Staten Island, Coney Island, and the statue herself! Very fun! We went down to the Verrazano-Narrows Bridge which is pretty far. Then coming back down wind we could go a lot faster. We brought out this awesome huge sail - I can't remember the name of it right now (spinicker?) that really made sailing exciting (besides before when one side of the boat hit the water and you were semi-standing up). Beautiful. There's a lot of good hard work involved in sailing, and you do get zapped, but I can see the appeal. You really can get into the rhythm of it and forget your life. Relaxing :-). So we had fun with David hanging out afterward - just got drinks after coming back. Then he dropped us near home, and we were hungry so we stopped at Haitian food nearby on the way home. It was pretty good - we really liked their soup with meat and potatoes and vegies - hearty, but their pork dish seemed over cooked... Naveen's meatballs were tasty... But after the long day of sailing, we came home and passed out - tiring! Another Monday to look forward to tomorrow...
Friday Naveen and I picked up Cuban take-out on the way to a free Central Park show. We sat and ate our tasty dishes - shrimp marinated in a red sauce with onions and peppers and Naveen's rice with spicy sausage - and watched some Afro-American dance with some ballet and hip hop influences and some awesome African music and drum work! They had colorful costumes with tons of loose fabric tied around their body and they moved very freely and lithely. It was great fun. We got the feeling they were telling stories with the dance, we just didn't know what stories they were telling. Then we walked home during the pleasant night, and called it a night.
Saturday was great, too - we met up with friends for brunch at 1:30 or 2. Yay afternoon brunch! We went to this hole-in-the-wall place called Freeman's in the East Village. I swear you couldn't find this place even if you knew it - it's down an alley that doesn't show up on maps, and the restaurantdoesn't display it's name anywhere. It's just a door... But it was very nice - we got mimosas, and I got a baked omelet with spinach, gruyere cheese, and bacon - yum. And the company was wonderful - so my lab-mate at IBM is Emina who is originally from Bosnia. Her boyfriend came in from Boston for the weekend - he's from England. Then we met up with her MIT friend who lives in the city - he's from India. He brought a friend who was studying in the city just for the summer - she's from St. Petersburg. Holy Cow! Varied people. So the Indian was an interesting guy - his name is Rishie (something like that). He did engineering/computer stuff in school, decided he didn't like that environment and got a job in finance - high-profile trading. That totally wiped him out in 4 years even though he made a good living, so he just recently switched into the field of real estate. He has something to say about everything, and he's a very personable, intelligent guy. So we quizzed him on his careers, living in NY, living the American dream, etc. We learned a lot and it was very enjoyable. First - in careers we came to the conclusion that it's all about connectors - the people who can connect specialist doing X with specialist doing Y, or take ideas solved in 1 field and apply them to a problem in another. Maybe I can be a connector somehow! He did say you need both the skills and the drive in your career, and you should switch it up if you don't have both. I'm thinking I am not sure I have drive in CS - maybe I should switch a bit so I can still use my skills but work with people more? Also - the way to make Manhattan manageable, friendly and knowable is to find your neighborhood, then cultivate it - get to know the people who work in the restaurants you like, know the people in your neighborhood, friends, then everything there is familiar and nice - you can make it your own.
Anyway, we had some good brunch - these guys liked dessert, so we got bananas foster and a chocolate dessert. Then we took off and went up to the Met - Metropolitan Museum of Art. We saw an exhibit that Emina wanted to see - about a fashion dress maker that was revolutionary in the 1910s. Then we wandered a bit - seeing horse armor, musical instruments, a bit of the "Venice and Islam" exhibit, and seeing paintings and sculptures in between. It's just too big there - you really have to just want to see a particular part and go there and leave - it's exhausting otherwise! So we left, and walked aimlessly around the east side and talked. Then for a "snack" ( at 7pm) we took a cab down to Rishie's neighborhood and went to a little french restaurant he knows. We ordered beers and appetizers - very fun. Got mussels and crab cake, a potato and blue cheese gallette (layered thing), and calimari and fries. And of course dessert - Naveen and I got creme brulee. Fun times - and the people really made it a great day - so many interesting stories. I want to be that inspirational and adventurous - all these people that madke wonderful things of themselves by moving to another country which has to be so hard! After this we went our separate ways, and I took Naveen down to Union Square area because I like it, and we walked around. We checked out a brewery/restaurant and sampled several beers that were tasty - I really liked my summer apricot ale and my red ale as well! Nice that the city is so accessible and everyone is out and about...
Today was a day of sailing - it was wonderful! David Bacon - a colleague of mine at IBM - loves sailing. He sails every weekend at belongs to a club in lower Manhattan, so he invited us to go with him! So we did get dramamine, and headed off with him - getting down there around noon. It was so much fun to sail! Setting up the boat was really satisfying and tactile - Naveen and I surmised I should've studied civil engineering because I like that so much. We tied ropes all around this tiny boat - around 30 feet long and could only have 5 people aboard. It was fun to be put to work and learn to tack and winch and switch sails and all. And it was a HOT day - 95 in the city supposedly. So it was nice to be on the water and feel the breeze and the water, although the sun does zap your energy. We took snacks and just hung out. David did most of the sailing, and a friend of his came too. We tacked back and forth (switching the sail from 1 side to another) up wind - we went a far ways - past the Statue of Liberty south. We got beautiful views of Manhattan, Brooklyn, New Jersey, Ellis Island, Staten Island, Coney Island, and the statue herself! Very fun! We went down to the Verrazano-Narrows Bridge which is pretty far. Then coming back down wind we could go a lot faster. We brought out this awesome huge sail - I can't remember the name of it right now (spinicker?) that really made sailing exciting (besides before when one side of the boat hit the water and you were semi-standing up). Beautiful. There's a lot of good hard work involved in sailing, and you do get zapped, but I can see the appeal. You really can get into the rhythm of it and forget your life. Relaxing :-). So we had fun with David hanging out afterward - just got drinks after coming back. Then he dropped us near home, and we were hungry so we stopped at Haitian food nearby on the way home. It was pretty good - we really liked their soup with meat and potatoes and vegies - hearty, but their pork dish seemed over cooked... Naveen's meatballs were tasty... But after the long day of sailing, we came home and passed out - tiring! Another Monday to look forward to tomorrow...
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)