mánudagur, desember 29, 2003
Jæja, þá eru jólin búin.
Rosalega er nú fínt að vera kominn heim....EN...(there's always a but)...margt sem gengur í gegnum hausinn á manni á svona tímum. Það sem er (kannski mjög eðlilega) fremst í huganum er hversu auðveldlega maður pirrast á fjölskyldunni. ;aður er náttúrulega búinn að venjast því að búa einn og kannski alveg skiljanlegt að maður pirrist aðeins þegar allir eru að tala í einu og fólk verður æst. En það skiptir ekki öllu...maður dílar.
Það sem er aðallega að velkjast um í hausnum á mér er tilfinningin....þegar ég var úti þá var ég með stanslausan hnút í maganum, svona spenningur (á slæman máta) eins og eitthvað væri alveg að fara að gerast. Rosalega óþægileg og lýjandi tilfinning. Ég hélt mér aðallega gangandi á því að hlakka til að komast heim um jólin. Sá fyrir mér að þá myndi allt leysast, að þessi tilfinning væri bara fjarlægð vina og vandamanna. Nú er ég kominn heim og þessi tilfinning er enn til staðar. Það er greinilegt að það er eitthvað annað á seyði á mínu bæ. Það er eins og það vanti eitthvað í líf mitt, og ég hef grun um að ég viti alveg nákvæmlega hvað það er, þótt ég vilji kannski ekki viðurkenna það. Það væri þá ekki í fyrsta sinn sem stoltið yrði manni að falli.
En þvílíkur kjáni getur maður verið að hugsa svona mikið. Ég hef sagt það áður, og segi það aftur, ef ég ætti eina ósk þá myndi ég óska mér að ég ætti svona "heimsku" takka, sem ég gæti bara ýtt á þegar ég hugsa of mikið. Ignorance is bliss.
En fyrir góða lýsingu á kjánaskap (sem á líka mjög vel við mína aðstöðu) skuluð þið tékka á bloggið hennar tótlu.
Rosalega er nú fínt að vera kominn heim....EN...(there's always a but)...margt sem gengur í gegnum hausinn á manni á svona tímum. Það sem er (kannski mjög eðlilega) fremst í huganum er hversu auðveldlega maður pirrast á fjölskyldunni. ;aður er náttúrulega búinn að venjast því að búa einn og kannski alveg skiljanlegt að maður pirrist aðeins þegar allir eru að tala í einu og fólk verður æst. En það skiptir ekki öllu...maður dílar.
Það sem er aðallega að velkjast um í hausnum á mér er tilfinningin....þegar ég var úti þá var ég með stanslausan hnút í maganum, svona spenningur (á slæman máta) eins og eitthvað væri alveg að fara að gerast. Rosalega óþægileg og lýjandi tilfinning. Ég hélt mér aðallega gangandi á því að hlakka til að komast heim um jólin. Sá fyrir mér að þá myndi allt leysast, að þessi tilfinning væri bara fjarlægð vina og vandamanna. Nú er ég kominn heim og þessi tilfinning er enn til staðar. Það er greinilegt að það er eitthvað annað á seyði á mínu bæ. Það er eins og það vanti eitthvað í líf mitt, og ég hef grun um að ég viti alveg nákvæmlega hvað það er, þótt ég vilji kannski ekki viðurkenna það. Það væri þá ekki í fyrsta sinn sem stoltið yrði manni að falli.
En þvílíkur kjáni getur maður verið að hugsa svona mikið. Ég hef sagt það áður, og segi það aftur, ef ég ætti eina ósk þá myndi ég óska mér að ég ætti svona "heimsku" takka, sem ég gæti bara ýtt á þegar ég hugsa of mikið. Ignorance is bliss.
En fyrir góða lýsingu á kjánaskap (sem á líka mjög vel við mína aðstöðu) skuluð þið tékka á bloggið hennar tótlu.
miðvikudagur, desember 24, 2003
sunnudagur, desember 21, 2003
Úff hvað þetta eru búnir að vera skrýtnir en jafnframt merkilegir dagar.
Byrjaði strax í flugvélinni, bara sjokkið við að sjá aftur fallegar íslenskar stelpur (flugfreyjurnar) startaði þessu öllu. Sat við hliðina á einhverjum stuck-up kana með ansalegan hatt sem hann ætlaði að geyma uppí hólfin, en vildi samt ekki að hatturinn krumpaðist, og því var vesen á honum alla ferðina. Tala nú ekki um þar sem konan fyrir framan hann varð full frekar fljótt og byrjaði að troða drasli upp og skemma hattinn hans.
Ég hafði ekki sofið neitt kvöldið fyrir flugið, ætlaði að vera vel þreyttur og sofa í flugvélinni. En nei, ég sofnaði næstum á flugvellinum og barðist við að halda mér vakandi til þess að missa sko ekki af vélinni...en um leið og ég kom upp í flugvél þá bara glaðvaknaði ég (þótt ég væri geeeðveikt líkamslega þreyttur). Þannig að ég neyddist til að hlusta á rifrildið um hattinn, og hlusta á fullu konuna tala við hjónin við hliðina á sér. Skellti bara á mér heyrnartólin, hlustaði á smá klassík, og las moggann.´
Ekki lítið sem ég var hneykslaður á mogganum!
Ég ætlaði að njóta þess að detta aftur inní rútínuna mína við að lesa moggann, lesa forsíðuna, lesa aftan síðuna, flétti síðan afturábak og skoða bíó og slúðrið, enda síðan á myndasögurnar, snúpí, pínötts og ferdinand og garfíld....EN NEI! Þá er búið að skipta því öllu út fyrir þvílíku og öðru eins sorpi!! Ég varð bara reiður, og ákvað að nota moggann til að styðja við mjóbakið fyrst það gat ekki fært mér gleði og hlátur.
Gat engan veginn sofnað, horfði í staðinn á stórkostlega lélega mynd sem heitir Princess of Thieves og fjallar um dóttur Robin Hood. Hmmm... Kiera Knightly leikur hana, og svo er Malcolm McDowell sheriffinn.....hmmmmm....
Skemmti mér ágætlega við að fylgjast með fólki og giska hverjir væru kanar og hverjir íslendingar. Var nú bara helvítí góður í því líka. Og þau skipti sem ég hugsaði að þeir væru hvorugt, þá voru þetta yfirleitt aðrir skandinavíubúar... Ótrulega gaman líka að hlusta á útlendingana (sérstaklega kanana) tala um ísland og fara rangt með staðreyndir (meðalhiti, lífsmáta og svo framvegis). Ein hjón voru að fylgjast rosalega mikið með einum hópi af fólki, og konan segir við manninn "look at those people, I'm sure they are Icelandic. Look at their noses!" Þá fór ég að þreifa á mínu nefi og horfa á nefið á öllum öðrum...
Þegar við lentum var rosa snjóhríð í gangi og aldimt, og frekar flott að horfa út, því ég sat hjá vængnum og í hvert skiptið sem ljósin blikkuðu þá lýstust upp snjókornin í kring. Allir kanarnir ú-uðu af hrifningi og héldu varla vatni yfir því hversu mikið það væri að snjóa. Ég sá alveg fyrir mér að allir þeir sem voru bara að millilenda hér færu nú heim og segðu öllum að hér snjóar allann ársins hring og það er alltaf dimmt og ömurlegt. Svona verða þessar sögur til. Þetta sama fólk kvartaði og kveinaði þegar kom að flugstöðinni sjálfri, alltaf "Well well, no place to get some food, tsk tsk" eða "This is the most ridiculous baggage claim I have ever seen". Ég hristi bara hausinn og hélt áfram. Eitt sem mér fannst mjög skemmtilegt, ég fékk stimpil í vegabréfið mitt :) Ég kom inn sko á USA vegabréfi og þótt að ég talaði íslensku við gaurinn, þá náttúrulega verður hann að stimpla. Ég hef bara ekki fengið stimpil í einhver 10 ár.
Þegar hér far að komnu máli þá var mér farið að líða eins og að ég væri að lifa lífi annars manns. Mér fannst þetta allt svo súrrealískt, að ég skyldi vera kominn heim, og að allir skulu tala íslensku í kringum mig og ég bara hélt áfram að labba með undrunarsvip á mér, bara að bíða eftir að sjá hvað gerðist næst. M&p komu að sækja mig með einhvern langan og mjóan dreng sem kváðist heita Darri. Ég þvertók fyrir því að þetta væri litli bróðir minn, enda síðast þegar ég viss þá var hann lítill og svolítil bolla. En jú, við nánari athugun þá reyndist þetta vera hann, og um leið og hann byrjaði að tala þá þekkti ég hann á persónuleikanum.
En núna er ég bara heima, búinn að hitta helminginn af vinunum, búinn að fara út á djammið einum og hálft sinnum, og er bara að taka því rólega og hugsa um lífið og tilveruna. Hvað gerist núna, hvert fer ég í framtíðinni, hef ég verið of harður við ákveðna áðila, ætti ég að gera þetta eða hitt, eða ætti ég að hætta að hugsa, borða ógissla mikinn mat og drekka bjór?
Sjáum til...
En allavega, fyrir ykkur sem ekki vitið það þá er ég með gamla gemsann minn (695-2476), ef ég hef ekki nú þegar reynt að hafa samband, endilega bjalliði bara í mig.
Byrjaði strax í flugvélinni, bara sjokkið við að sjá aftur fallegar íslenskar stelpur (flugfreyjurnar) startaði þessu öllu. Sat við hliðina á einhverjum stuck-up kana með ansalegan hatt sem hann ætlaði að geyma uppí hólfin, en vildi samt ekki að hatturinn krumpaðist, og því var vesen á honum alla ferðina. Tala nú ekki um þar sem konan fyrir framan hann varð full frekar fljótt og byrjaði að troða drasli upp og skemma hattinn hans.
Ég hafði ekki sofið neitt kvöldið fyrir flugið, ætlaði að vera vel þreyttur og sofa í flugvélinni. En nei, ég sofnaði næstum á flugvellinum og barðist við að halda mér vakandi til þess að missa sko ekki af vélinni...en um leið og ég kom upp í flugvél þá bara glaðvaknaði ég (þótt ég væri geeeðveikt líkamslega þreyttur). Þannig að ég neyddist til að hlusta á rifrildið um hattinn, og hlusta á fullu konuna tala við hjónin við hliðina á sér. Skellti bara á mér heyrnartólin, hlustaði á smá klassík, og las moggann.´
Ekki lítið sem ég var hneykslaður á mogganum!
Ég ætlaði að njóta þess að detta aftur inní rútínuna mína við að lesa moggann, lesa forsíðuna, lesa aftan síðuna, flétti síðan afturábak og skoða bíó og slúðrið, enda síðan á myndasögurnar, snúpí, pínötts og ferdinand og garfíld....EN NEI! Þá er búið að skipta því öllu út fyrir þvílíku og öðru eins sorpi!! Ég varð bara reiður, og ákvað að nota moggann til að styðja við mjóbakið fyrst það gat ekki fært mér gleði og hlátur.
Gat engan veginn sofnað, horfði í staðinn á stórkostlega lélega mynd sem heitir Princess of Thieves og fjallar um dóttur Robin Hood. Hmmm... Kiera Knightly leikur hana, og svo er Malcolm McDowell sheriffinn.....hmmmmm....
Skemmti mér ágætlega við að fylgjast með fólki og giska hverjir væru kanar og hverjir íslendingar. Var nú bara helvítí góður í því líka. Og þau skipti sem ég hugsaði að þeir væru hvorugt, þá voru þetta yfirleitt aðrir skandinavíubúar... Ótrulega gaman líka að hlusta á útlendingana (sérstaklega kanana) tala um ísland og fara rangt með staðreyndir (meðalhiti, lífsmáta og svo framvegis). Ein hjón voru að fylgjast rosalega mikið með einum hópi af fólki, og konan segir við manninn "look at those people, I'm sure they are Icelandic. Look at their noses!" Þá fór ég að þreifa á mínu nefi og horfa á nefið á öllum öðrum...
Þegar við lentum var rosa snjóhríð í gangi og aldimt, og frekar flott að horfa út, því ég sat hjá vængnum og í hvert skiptið sem ljósin blikkuðu þá lýstust upp snjókornin í kring. Allir kanarnir ú-uðu af hrifningi og héldu varla vatni yfir því hversu mikið það væri að snjóa. Ég sá alveg fyrir mér að allir þeir sem voru bara að millilenda hér færu nú heim og segðu öllum að hér snjóar allann ársins hring og það er alltaf dimmt og ömurlegt. Svona verða þessar sögur til. Þetta sama fólk kvartaði og kveinaði þegar kom að flugstöðinni sjálfri, alltaf "Well well, no place to get some food, tsk tsk" eða "This is the most ridiculous baggage claim I have ever seen". Ég hristi bara hausinn og hélt áfram. Eitt sem mér fannst mjög skemmtilegt, ég fékk stimpil í vegabréfið mitt :) Ég kom inn sko á USA vegabréfi og þótt að ég talaði íslensku við gaurinn, þá náttúrulega verður hann að stimpla. Ég hef bara ekki fengið stimpil í einhver 10 ár.
Þegar hér far að komnu máli þá var mér farið að líða eins og að ég væri að lifa lífi annars manns. Mér fannst þetta allt svo súrrealískt, að ég skyldi vera kominn heim, og að allir skulu tala íslensku í kringum mig og ég bara hélt áfram að labba með undrunarsvip á mér, bara að bíða eftir að sjá hvað gerðist næst. M&p komu að sækja mig með einhvern langan og mjóan dreng sem kváðist heita Darri. Ég þvertók fyrir því að þetta væri litli bróðir minn, enda síðast þegar ég viss þá var hann lítill og svolítil bolla. En jú, við nánari athugun þá reyndist þetta vera hann, og um leið og hann byrjaði að tala þá þekkti ég hann á persónuleikanum.
En núna er ég bara heima, búinn að hitta helminginn af vinunum, búinn að fara út á djammið einum og hálft sinnum, og er bara að taka því rólega og hugsa um lífið og tilveruna. Hvað gerist núna, hvert fer ég í framtíðinni, hef ég verið of harður við ákveðna áðila, ætti ég að gera þetta eða hitt, eða ætti ég að hætta að hugsa, borða ógissla mikinn mat og drekka bjór?
Sjáum til...
En allavega, fyrir ykkur sem ekki vitið það þá er ég með gamla gemsann minn (695-2476), ef ég hef ekki nú þegar reynt að hafa samband, endilega bjalliði bara í mig.
fimmtudagur, desember 18, 2003
Ekkert margt að segja frá í dag, nema það að ég er á leiðinni upp í flugvél eftir næstum nákvæmlega 8 tíma. Víííiíííí!!
Legg reyndar af stað um 4 leytið, og Þóra systir mömmu ætlar að koma að sækja mig. Thank you Þóra mín.
Freyja systir númer 2 ætlar líka að hjálpa með því að geyma tölvuna mína og trompet, því lásinn á herberginu mínu virkar ekki.
Allavega, verð kominn til landsins eftir sirka 13 tíma. Og svo hvíla sig og svo beint út á djammið, hlýt að geta fundið einhverja sem vilja djúsa með mér.
Sjáumst heima!
Legg reyndar af stað um 4 leytið, og Þóra systir mömmu ætlar að koma að sækja mig. Thank you Þóra mín.
Freyja systir númer 2 ætlar líka að hjálpa með því að geyma tölvuna mína og trompet, því lásinn á herberginu mínu virkar ekki.
Allavega, verð kominn til landsins eftir sirka 13 tíma. Og svo hvíla sig og svo beint út á djammið, hlýt að geta fundið einhverja sem vilja djúsa með mér.
Sjáumst heima!
þriðjudagur, desember 16, 2003
So their test is over.
We graded about half of the questions tonight, and they seem to have generally done well (of course my sections seemed to do a little better ;)) The students themselves also seemed to feel good after the exam, one of them even started whistling during the exam. A couple of guys from my section came up to me afterwards and shook my hand, thanking me for the semester, and I got a couple of sweet smiles from the girls :) One guy asked me for my email, and he sent me a letter just now, thanking me for the semester and stuff. I don't know why, but I'm just blown away by all this. They seem to have really liked me as a teacher. I sort of thought it would just be like "fine he's our TA" or something....can't quite explain it. I have this feeling...I guess it would best be called pride, in my students...I really wanted them to do well. I guess maybe they just felt that and responded.
Bunny (the lead instructor) had sent me the final this weekend and I took it myself this morning to make sure that there were no errors or ambiguities. Found a couple and had them fixed. She keeps on saying that she really means the students well, but the students really don't like her...I think they get some vibe from her. She says this, but at the same time she says things like "this guy doesn't belong here" or "you should really reconsider your major". And she says this in spite of the fact that she makes a bunch of mistakes herself. There are a handful of things taught in this course that are blatantly incorrect, and yet, when I pointed them out she first denied it, and then when I proved it she accepted it, but because it had already been taught incorectly to them, we were "not going to confuse them more". So I basically taught them the REAL stuff, while also teaching them the things they should answer on the quiz to appease Bunny. (it wasn't a lot, but enough to merit mentioning). The last straw (for my part) was when Bunny was talking about things she would have them do next semester. So she was talking about having them program a game and use AI for the agents in the game. So I immediately asked "are you going to use A*?" (pronounced A star. This is like THE search algorithm used in AI) She said "A what?" She had no idea what it was. So I explained it and she said "well, send me stuff about it." Yeah, like hell I will. That's exactly what the students need, for their instructor to learn A* wrong and then teach it to them....wrong.
Anyway, in spite of all that I felt a little sorry for her today. Right before the exam began, she tried to boost their spirits a little and said "good luck on the exam, and good luck with the rest of your academic career."
They booed her.
They obviously took this as a sarcastic remark, like so much else she has said, and when viewed in such a light, it can be construed as a unusually nasty remark. One guy even yelled back "good luck with your teaching career."
So now I'm just waiting on my evaluations (from students and from Bunny and JJ), waiting to tie up all the loose ends at school, and waiting to get home. It's funny, I don't feel like I've been away for 4 months, more like a couple of weeks, like a vacation. But I guess that's the way it always is...time keeps on slippin' (slippin', slippin') into the future. (Kudos to pabbi for the last tune, but can you get this one? :))
We graded about half of the questions tonight, and they seem to have generally done well (of course my sections seemed to do a little better ;)) The students themselves also seemed to feel good after the exam, one of them even started whistling during the exam. A couple of guys from my section came up to me afterwards and shook my hand, thanking me for the semester, and I got a couple of sweet smiles from the girls :) One guy asked me for my email, and he sent me a letter just now, thanking me for the semester and stuff. I don't know why, but I'm just blown away by all this. They seem to have really liked me as a teacher. I sort of thought it would just be like "fine he's our TA" or something....can't quite explain it. I have this feeling...I guess it would best be called pride, in my students...I really wanted them to do well. I guess maybe they just felt that and responded.
Bunny (the lead instructor) had sent me the final this weekend and I took it myself this morning to make sure that there were no errors or ambiguities. Found a couple and had them fixed. She keeps on saying that she really means the students well, but the students really don't like her...I think they get some vibe from her. She says this, but at the same time she says things like "this guy doesn't belong here" or "you should really reconsider your major". And she says this in spite of the fact that she makes a bunch of mistakes herself. There are a handful of things taught in this course that are blatantly incorrect, and yet, when I pointed them out she first denied it, and then when I proved it she accepted it, but because it had already been taught incorectly to them, we were "not going to confuse them more". So I basically taught them the REAL stuff, while also teaching them the things they should answer on the quiz to appease Bunny. (it wasn't a lot, but enough to merit mentioning). The last straw (for my part) was when Bunny was talking about things she would have them do next semester. So she was talking about having them program a game and use AI for the agents in the game. So I immediately asked "are you going to use A*?" (pronounced A star. This is like THE search algorithm used in AI) She said "A what?" She had no idea what it was. So I explained it and she said "well, send me stuff about it." Yeah, like hell I will. That's exactly what the students need, for their instructor to learn A* wrong and then teach it to them....wrong.
Anyway, in spite of all that I felt a little sorry for her today. Right before the exam began, she tried to boost their spirits a little and said "good luck on the exam, and good luck with the rest of your academic career."
They booed her.
They obviously took this as a sarcastic remark, like so much else she has said, and when viewed in such a light, it can be construed as a unusually nasty remark. One guy even yelled back "good luck with your teaching career."
So now I'm just waiting on my evaluations (from students and from Bunny and JJ), waiting to tie up all the loose ends at school, and waiting to get home. It's funny, I don't feel like I've been away for 4 months, more like a couple of weeks, like a vacation. But I guess that's the way it always is...time keeps on slippin' (slippin', slippin') into the future. (Kudos to pabbi for the last tune, but can you get this one? :))
mánudagur, desember 15, 2003
Yeah baby!
Took my test this morning and did pretty good...considering I didn't study at all for it. There was actually one question which I couldn't answer because I had never learned it, so I just picked up the book (it was an open-book exam) and learned it :)
Went over the final my students will be taking in 2 hours. It took me half an hour to do all but the last question. It then took me half an hour to do the last one. I guess the idea is that the last question will show the difference between people getting an A and an A+. It was actually quite difficult, and although I did manage to answer it correctly, I didn't find the most optimal solution (although I might have if I had spent a whole nother hour thinking about it). Anyway, I did find a couple of points in the exam that were ambiguous and I spoke to the instructors and got them fixed, so hopefully there shouldn't be any problems in the exam.
So almost everything is finished for me here. I just have to proctor the exam, and then spend all evening grading it. Tomorrow I have a meeting with Reggia, Basili and Salasin about the story research, and then I have to write one 5 page writeup with the guys in my AI group and then I'm finished! From then on til thursday I'll just be cleaning up here and packing. And then a whole month back home, oh yeah! doooo ow ow, dundundundundun chick...chickichikaaahh (bonus points for anybody who can guess that tune ;))
Not that the holidays will be restful...nope, I'm gonna be working on a paper with my former advisor Björn Þór Jónsson, and I'll be reading up on the background material for the research next semester.
Took my test this morning and did pretty good...considering I didn't study at all for it. There was actually one question which I couldn't answer because I had never learned it, so I just picked up the book (it was an open-book exam) and learned it :)
Went over the final my students will be taking in 2 hours. It took me half an hour to do all but the last question. It then took me half an hour to do the last one. I guess the idea is that the last question will show the difference between people getting an A and an A+. It was actually quite difficult, and although I did manage to answer it correctly, I didn't find the most optimal solution (although I might have if I had spent a whole nother hour thinking about it). Anyway, I did find a couple of points in the exam that were ambiguous and I spoke to the instructors and got them fixed, so hopefully there shouldn't be any problems in the exam.
So almost everything is finished for me here. I just have to proctor the exam, and then spend all evening grading it. Tomorrow I have a meeting with Reggia, Basili and Salasin about the story research, and then I have to write one 5 page writeup with the guys in my AI group and then I'm finished! From then on til thursday I'll just be cleaning up here and packing. And then a whole month back home, oh yeah! doooo ow ow, dundundundundun chick...chickichikaaahh (bonus points for anybody who can guess that tune ;))
Not that the holidays will be restful...nope, I'm gonna be working on a paper with my former advisor Björn Þór Jónsson, and I'll be reading up on the background material for the research next semester.
laugardagur, desember 13, 2003
Had my last lab on wednesday.
I asked my students whether they would like to have an extra review session before the exams and got very enthusiastic replies. They all said they would take advantage of that if I were to offer. So I set out to schedule that (on my free time, I remember how much I appreciated one of my teachers in HR doing it for us, so I figured, why not continue that habit. And I'm also a nice guy.). I set aside 6 hours today for them to come in and ask me questions (I told them to be prepared, I was not going to lecture, just answer specific questions.), and I set aside 6 hours to allow them some slack on when to come.
5 people showed up.
Count them! 5!! Out of almost 40 students I teach, and anothr 120 that aren't in my sections. That's pretty bad. Oh well, if they do bad on their exam, they're not getting any sympathy from me. So I basically just sat there and studied for my own final, answering a handful of questions from those 5 people. The actually just stayed there for most of the time, just studying quietly and asking me questions when they needed. It was nice. One girl actually brought me a pack of cookies :) I thought that was really nice.
Right now, I'm finding any excuse I can not to sudy. I've trimmed my beard twice, I went and bought some writable cd's and am writing a whole bunch of stuff, I talked to a friend of mine about relationships and how people are stupid, and I've invented a new way of picking my nose (involving a pair of headphones, a magic marker and a can of coke).
Oh yeah, and I'm exercising my self-restraint, trying to see how long I can refrain from popping a pimple.
Got some potentially bad news on friday. The weather prediction is bad for monday, and the school might be closed. My final is on monday. If the school is closed that means that the final is postponed. And it will be postponed to friday. After I leave. So I mentioned this to the teacher and she said that they should be able to figure something out in that case....For now, I just have my fingers crossed.
The RAship is pretty much in the bag, they've been sending me bunches and bunches of stuff to read, they're just still waiting for that letter telling them that the money is here and then they can officially accept me as an RA. Jim Reggia did tell me that if the money does not come in time, he would still accept me as an RA for one semester, but then I would have to do other things, because his grants cover other stuff. Hope for the money...
All sorts of stuff coming in the mail, people using me as their camel to Iceland :) So I'll actually be coming home with almost full suitcases. My family has ordered some american junk food so I'll be bringing some of that home also, at least the type that can survive a plane flight, like twinkies and hohos (actually I think they could survive a nuclear blast).
Let's see...what else....
Oh well...looking forward to seeing you guys! :)
I asked my students whether they would like to have an extra review session before the exams and got very enthusiastic replies. They all said they would take advantage of that if I were to offer. So I set out to schedule that (on my free time, I remember how much I appreciated one of my teachers in HR doing it for us, so I figured, why not continue that habit. And I'm also a nice guy.). I set aside 6 hours today for them to come in and ask me questions (I told them to be prepared, I was not going to lecture, just answer specific questions.), and I set aside 6 hours to allow them some slack on when to come.
5 people showed up.
Count them! 5!! Out of almost 40 students I teach, and anothr 120 that aren't in my sections. That's pretty bad. Oh well, if they do bad on their exam, they're not getting any sympathy from me. So I basically just sat there and studied for my own final, answering a handful of questions from those 5 people. The actually just stayed there for most of the time, just studying quietly and asking me questions when they needed. It was nice. One girl actually brought me a pack of cookies :) I thought that was really nice.
Right now, I'm finding any excuse I can not to sudy. I've trimmed my beard twice, I went and bought some writable cd's and am writing a whole bunch of stuff, I talked to a friend of mine about relationships and how people are stupid, and I've invented a new way of picking my nose (involving a pair of headphones, a magic marker and a can of coke).
Oh yeah, and I'm exercising my self-restraint, trying to see how long I can refrain from popping a pimple.
Got some potentially bad news on friday. The weather prediction is bad for monday, and the school might be closed. My final is on monday. If the school is closed that means that the final is postponed. And it will be postponed to friday. After I leave. So I mentioned this to the teacher and she said that they should be able to figure something out in that case....For now, I just have my fingers crossed.
The RAship is pretty much in the bag, they've been sending me bunches and bunches of stuff to read, they're just still waiting for that letter telling them that the money is here and then they can officially accept me as an RA. Jim Reggia did tell me that if the money does not come in time, he would still accept me as an RA for one semester, but then I would have to do other things, because his grants cover other stuff. Hope for the money...
All sorts of stuff coming in the mail, people using me as their camel to Iceland :) So I'll actually be coming home with almost full suitcases. My family has ordered some american junk food so I'll be bringing some of that home also, at least the type that can survive a plane flight, like twinkies and hohos (actually I think they could survive a nuclear blast).
Let's see...what else....
Oh well...looking forward to seeing you guys! :)
miðvikudagur, desember 10, 2003
I have a final exam next monday which I really have to study for.
But I can't.
I'm just bouncing around like a little kid, I'm so excited about going home. Every time I try to concentrate on something I just completely lose focus about 5 minutes later. It's not like me at all. Usually I'm able to choose something and then focus on it intently until it's finished. That's the way I've worked on projects in the past. (I'd sometimes disappear at school for days at a time) But now....I can't even concentrate enough to write this blog in one go...it's taken me 3 sessions so far....
Time for another episode in the cleaning disputes in this house. I have mopped the kitchen floor twice since the new floor came, and cleaned the counters once. I also cleaned the whole kitchen once before we got the new one. Dan has vaccumed the living room twice and he calls that cleaning it up. Binh doesn't do anything even though we ask him to and he says "yah, yah". Then, now I pressed him about cleaning the bathroom, and he points out that I didn't clean the whole kitchen this time. The stove is still dirty. I then pointed out to him that he was the only one that used the stove, but if he cleans the bathroom I'll clean the stove. Then he says "shat ap, fack you, a've had it wit you guys"
What the hell?
And now Dan is going bonkers in the living room because the Terps (maryland team) just won Florida in basketball. According to Dan, Florida is the number one team. Good for them. I just can't get into the sports fervor that seems to be inbred into Americans.
Is it any wonder that I just wanna come home?
But I can't.
I'm just bouncing around like a little kid, I'm so excited about going home. Every time I try to concentrate on something I just completely lose focus about 5 minutes later. It's not like me at all. Usually I'm able to choose something and then focus on it intently until it's finished. That's the way I've worked on projects in the past. (I'd sometimes disappear at school for days at a time) But now....I can't even concentrate enough to write this blog in one go...it's taken me 3 sessions so far....
Time for another episode in the cleaning disputes in this house. I have mopped the kitchen floor twice since the new floor came, and cleaned the counters once. I also cleaned the whole kitchen once before we got the new one. Dan has vaccumed the living room twice and he calls that cleaning it up. Binh doesn't do anything even though we ask him to and he says "yah, yah". Then, now I pressed him about cleaning the bathroom, and he points out that I didn't clean the whole kitchen this time. The stove is still dirty. I then pointed out to him that he was the only one that used the stove, but if he cleans the bathroom I'll clean the stove. Then he says "shat ap, fack you, a've had it wit you guys"
What the hell?
And now Dan is going bonkers in the living room because the Terps (maryland team) just won Florida in basketball. According to Dan, Florida is the number one team. Good for them. I just can't get into the sports fervor that seems to be inbred into Americans.
Is it any wonder that I just wanna come home?
föstudagur, desember 05, 2003
So I probably have an RAship next semester.
For those of you who don't know what that is, it means that a professor wants me to work with him doing research and I get paid for doing it. In this case, the "professor" is actually a bunch of people.
This guy, John Salasar (sp?) has been working as a project manager at DARPA for like, 20 years, and I gather he became fed up with some stuff and asked for a 2-3 year sabbatical, which he is taking at UMD. So he has this idea of doing some kind of story inferencing, where you describe a scenario in abstract terms (so as to avoid the black hole known as Natural Language Processing), and in some way, you make an inference as to what should happen, or should be done, next, based on some knowledge base. Or so I think....:S So he spoke to Jim Reggia (a professor in AI who is also a neurologist) and Vic Basili (a professor in software engineering) and they decided to work together. This way, they have 3 possible domains to map into stories, medical, software engineering, and military. And so they need a grad student to be their bitch, and that's where I come in.
I went to Jim Reggia a couple of months ago and pitched him my idea (which was to be able to generate a convincing story and characters on the fly, and respond to input from humans, sort of like pen-and-paper roleplaying, but truly mapped to a computer, where the computer is the storyteller), and he immediately thought of this project. After a few emails and questions, and one meeting with all of them, it seems likely that they'll offer this to me.
A couple of things came up in our meeting that started me thinking. One book I read a while ago, (which, incidentally, my blogsite is named after) talked about how our brains are hardwired as children by our first language, that this hardwiring in reality dictates a certain fundamental way of thinking. This then could explain why one has difficulty understanding other cultures, our brains are just not wired to understand them. I then began to think, and connected this to another idea that has been floating around in my head, namely that all natural language processing should use Esperanto, and that all spoken interaction with computers should be in Esperanto, because the language is designed to be free of contradicion and ambiguity. Anyway, the idea that I ended speculating about was, what would a person act like if he were raised learning only Esperanto? All of our other cultures are based on languages that have been evolving over who knows how long. How would a man made, "artificial" language affect the development of a human brain? And further, what would a society based on Esperanto be like?
In fact, as I write this, a ton of ideas are popping into my head. If it were established that language determined one's way of thinking to a certain extent, and then possibly, one's path in life....could one condition one's child to be something specific, based on the language you teach it? Could one possibly engineer a language specifically designed to create homocidal maniacs, or devout patriots (is there even a difference?)? Oh wow, I have to start to write this stuff down...wait a sec, I am. I'm writing that I'm writing that I'm writing that I'm writing that...........
Whoops, got a little recursive there, hyuck hyuck.
Oh well, my mind's all over the place, too many things to think about, too little time. Maybe I'll do like Da Vinci, and sleep 15 minutes every 4 hours. Maybe not.
Anyway, only 13 days until I go home! ooohyeah! Be seeing you guys soon ;)
For those of you who don't know what that is, it means that a professor wants me to work with him doing research and I get paid for doing it. In this case, the "professor" is actually a bunch of people.
This guy, John Salasar (sp?) has been working as a project manager at DARPA for like, 20 years, and I gather he became fed up with some stuff and asked for a 2-3 year sabbatical, which he is taking at UMD. So he has this idea of doing some kind of story inferencing, where you describe a scenario in abstract terms (so as to avoid the black hole known as Natural Language Processing), and in some way, you make an inference as to what should happen, or should be done, next, based on some knowledge base. Or so I think....:S So he spoke to Jim Reggia (a professor in AI who is also a neurologist) and Vic Basili (a professor in software engineering) and they decided to work together. This way, they have 3 possible domains to map into stories, medical, software engineering, and military. And so they need a grad student to be their bitch, and that's where I come in.
I went to Jim Reggia a couple of months ago and pitched him my idea (which was to be able to generate a convincing story and characters on the fly, and respond to input from humans, sort of like pen-and-paper roleplaying, but truly mapped to a computer, where the computer is the storyteller), and he immediately thought of this project. After a few emails and questions, and one meeting with all of them, it seems likely that they'll offer this to me.
A couple of things came up in our meeting that started me thinking. One book I read a while ago, (which, incidentally, my blogsite is named after) talked about how our brains are hardwired as children by our first language, that this hardwiring in reality dictates a certain fundamental way of thinking. This then could explain why one has difficulty understanding other cultures, our brains are just not wired to understand them. I then began to think, and connected this to another idea that has been floating around in my head, namely that all natural language processing should use Esperanto, and that all spoken interaction with computers should be in Esperanto, because the language is designed to be free of contradicion and ambiguity. Anyway, the idea that I ended speculating about was, what would a person act like if he were raised learning only Esperanto? All of our other cultures are based on languages that have been evolving over who knows how long. How would a man made, "artificial" language affect the development of a human brain? And further, what would a society based on Esperanto be like?
In fact, as I write this, a ton of ideas are popping into my head. If it were established that language determined one's way of thinking to a certain extent, and then possibly, one's path in life....could one condition one's child to be something specific, based on the language you teach it? Could one possibly engineer a language specifically designed to create homocidal maniacs, or devout patriots (is there even a difference?)? Oh wow, I have to start to write this stuff down...wait a sec, I am. I'm writing that I'm writing that I'm writing that I'm writing that...........
Whoops, got a little recursive there, hyuck hyuck.
Oh well, my mind's all over the place, too many things to think about, too little time. Maybe I'll do like Da Vinci, and sleep 15 minutes every 4 hours. Maybe not.
Anyway, only 13 days until I go home! ooohyeah! Be seeing you guys soon ;)
fimmtudagur, desember 04, 2003
Jibbí! Got some pictures up on my site. Check them out on the link here to the left called stuff. It's only 6 pictures for now, but I finally managed to get the online album to work (takk Gunni) so adding pictures in the future is not nearly as much work.
Stupid people never cease to amaze me.
I was watching this show called The 5th Wheel, where they get two guys and three girls together and they fight for each other's affection. So in between they interview the people to get their own perspective on what's happening and then the show goes on to make fun of them all. So one guy describes the relationship he has with one of the girls, after having given her a lap dance and recieved one from her as a reward.
"I think she's the type that will give me what she's got after I give her what I've got. You know, we have a regurgitative relationship."
So she gives you a lap dance and you throw up on her? Nice. He was obviously going to go for one of the "big" words and say they had a reciprocative relationship.
Then I changed the channel and there's a guy on Ripley's believe it or not opening twist cap bottles with his bellybutton. He opened 8 in one minute! Wow, good for him!
Nothing like american tv to boost one's self-confidence.
So anyway, things are sort of getting into that hectic "oh-shit-I-have-to-finish-this-in-one-week" phase of the semester. I'll probably be pretty busy up until the last minute, but luckily I'm working the projects in groups, so I don't have to shoulder it all alone. Actually the group I'm working with for the High performance computing project is rather strange. These two guys are both second year grad students. And even though I haven't been putting myself very much into the domain of the project we're working, I realize that these guys really have no idea as to how to do research or write a paper. It's just staggering. Here I am, coming from Iceland, thinking that people out here are gonna be for the most part better than me at this kinda stuff, and it turns out most people here are all talk...full of hot air, or vindbelgir, in Icelandic. This one guy, who was the instigator of the project, really knows a lot about the domain, because he's doing research with a professor on it outside of the HPC class. But then we sat down yesterday to discuss the format of the paper. So I instinctively start to think about the papers I've written and the research I've done and I start to ask myself, and them, questions, like "what was our goal in doing this research?" I can't quite explain why they seemed so out of it, without explaining the whole project, but suffice it to say that almost everything I mentioned made them go "ahh, good idea, hadn't thought of that" and a lot of the stuff they mentioned I just had to shoot down because they were absurd. For instance...we have spent a lot of time doing simulations. It turns out now that one of the guys used a different value for one variable (this in itself was a bad mistake to make, because he was the one that showed us how to do the sims and what values to use). Now this guy that did the mistake wants to just ignore it, while the other guy wants to add simulations using the new value. Adding simulations would mean we would have to add about 64 sims, each taking 6 hours to run. Not possible at this point in time. And strangely, I had to argue with him about that. Ignoring the mistake is basically fudging results, which is academically dishonest and I want no part in that. Also, since this is a precursory study to a larger study this guy is doing, you'd think he'd want the results to be accurate. But no. At this point I've almost reached the fuck-it point, but we'll see what happens. During that one hour meeting I basically took over the project, which is exactly what I didn't want to do. I just saw that if I didn't, this would be absolute crap.
And I did that all with a migraine headache. Maybe that's why I did it, because I was annoyed at the blathering going on and wanted to get this over with.
I just read this over and realized that it totally sounds like me being egotistical. But that's ok, it's my own blogsite, I can be as egotistical as I want :)
I was watching this show called The 5th Wheel, where they get two guys and three girls together and they fight for each other's affection. So in between they interview the people to get their own perspective on what's happening and then the show goes on to make fun of them all. So one guy describes the relationship he has with one of the girls, after having given her a lap dance and recieved one from her as a reward.
"I think she's the type that will give me what she's got after I give her what I've got. You know, we have a regurgitative relationship."
So she gives you a lap dance and you throw up on her? Nice. He was obviously going to go for one of the "big" words and say they had a reciprocative relationship.
Then I changed the channel and there's a guy on Ripley's believe it or not opening twist cap bottles with his bellybutton. He opened 8 in one minute! Wow, good for him!
Nothing like american tv to boost one's self-confidence.
So anyway, things are sort of getting into that hectic "oh-shit-I-have-to-finish-this-in-one-week" phase of the semester. I'll probably be pretty busy up until the last minute, but luckily I'm working the projects in groups, so I don't have to shoulder it all alone. Actually the group I'm working with for the High performance computing project is rather strange. These two guys are both second year grad students. And even though I haven't been putting myself very much into the domain of the project we're working, I realize that these guys really have no idea as to how to do research or write a paper. It's just staggering. Here I am, coming from Iceland, thinking that people out here are gonna be for the most part better than me at this kinda stuff, and it turns out most people here are all talk...full of hot air, or vindbelgir, in Icelandic. This one guy, who was the instigator of the project, really knows a lot about the domain, because he's doing research with a professor on it outside of the HPC class. But then we sat down yesterday to discuss the format of the paper. So I instinctively start to think about the papers I've written and the research I've done and I start to ask myself, and them, questions, like "what was our goal in doing this research?" I can't quite explain why they seemed so out of it, without explaining the whole project, but suffice it to say that almost everything I mentioned made them go "ahh, good idea, hadn't thought of that" and a lot of the stuff they mentioned I just had to shoot down because they were absurd. For instance...we have spent a lot of time doing simulations. It turns out now that one of the guys used a different value for one variable (this in itself was a bad mistake to make, because he was the one that showed us how to do the sims and what values to use). Now this guy that did the mistake wants to just ignore it, while the other guy wants to add simulations using the new value. Adding simulations would mean we would have to add about 64 sims, each taking 6 hours to run. Not possible at this point in time. And strangely, I had to argue with him about that. Ignoring the mistake is basically fudging results, which is academically dishonest and I want no part in that. Also, since this is a precursory study to a larger study this guy is doing, you'd think he'd want the results to be accurate. But no. At this point I've almost reached the fuck-it point, but we'll see what happens. During that one hour meeting I basically took over the project, which is exactly what I didn't want to do. I just saw that if I didn't, this would be absolute crap.
And I did that all with a migraine headache. Maybe that's why I did it, because I was annoyed at the blathering going on and wanted to get this over with.
I just read this over and realized that it totally sounds like me being egotistical. But that's ok, it's my own blogsite, I can be as egotistical as I want :)
þriðjudagur, desember 02, 2003
