The other day someone, who won’t quite qualify as a friend, is something way more than an acquaintance, and someone who helped me greatly through 2003, sent me an invitation for a Friendster like network (yes I know at this point of time using the term social network would be more acceptable), and then I don’t think I ever got around to complete the form I would need to so as to sign up for this thing. Now I would like to say that IMO the form was bad, was too long, and scared me by asking for my phone number multiple times, but it got me thinking about things. I used to complain about how people I know just drift away, still do, I lose touch with more people everyday, and yet am I not responsible for some part of it. From the mail I received somedays ago, which I planned on answering but couldn’t due to a “lack” of time, to the many invitations I have received, I have begun ignoring stuff, mostly because I am swamped by work, but yup I think I used to complain about ignoring stuff and am doing it myself now, sort of weird, or more like what was expected, hmm…
I am done with my architecture exam, and that was draining, still have lunch, CS class, Physics lab, dinner, and the darn math exam to contend with. Why would someone want an exam at 7 in the evening, what in the world is wrong with people, 7 PM is when you sit in your room thinking about the world, 9 PM is when thinking about sleep/entertainment begins, but sadly today neither of those shall happen. Once back from my math exam, I will have to do… more math, what else, but more math, work on my Linear Algebra midterm, which fortunately I have finished solving, but which still needs to be entered into the computer, argh…
I can go to Utah (not to visit the mormons), and do math, for a part of the summer, a small part but whatever. That is the first thing I have gotten into for the summer, and it has both positive and negative things about it. Positive: It is sponsored by the Institute of Advanced Studies, and the Clay Mathematical Institute, both heavy weights in what they do, and it sounds like fun. I get to be in a non-snowy ski resort, and I get to meet people outside of Brown. While I love Brown, being outside of Brown for a while couldn’t be bad, it would be a break of sorts. And umm outside of this, I don’t think there is much opportunity for me to meet anyone from the IAS for the next few years or so, and I want to meet some of the people from there, if only to see what people from Einstein’s institute are like. Also TFB says it is a good place to be, says most people have nothing but good things to say about it, and seeing as usually only juniors and such get to go, I am pretty lucky to get it. I don’t get a stipend as such, I get money for travel, a condo, and money for eating, but no money otherwise, which would mean Negative: It is in Utah, mormon land, and at least some of the people I have talked to have expressed concerns about that. It involves finding something to do, for two month long periods before and after it, and while I have ideas (visiting people 
), it would be useful to have something which lasts longer. It is mathematical biology, and initially I almost did not apply because of the biology part of it. A friend might stay in Providence, and there is a distinct chance that I might get a fellowship to work here, which would also be fun, and would mean I am staying for all of summer, with a friend, though I doubt much of the money I get would go beyond the summer, living is expensive. Hmm I don’t know, I kind of am divided about this, I wish this were the one on Low Dimensional Topology, so that I wouldn’t be this divided, like I am pretty sure I would drop a lot of things to end up at a thing on Low Dim Topology, or a thing on Topology as such… Hmm the promise of a “multi-level intense research environment” sounds nice, but seems at least a little bit of a stretch, but well I will take what I get, argh this is so hard… (Having it in Princeton may have helped)
There was a time, when I was petrified of exams. Ok correction, I have always been petrified of exams, and the general thought of an exam makes me tense up and become overly anxious. Sadly I am also one of those people who work so much better without thoughts of screwing up, and such, and when I am more calm. Hmm so things changed when I got to Brown, I honestly was so much more relaxed walking into exams, things just didn’t matter as much, and I knew most things, and I didn’t have to worry. So that worked until yesterday, and we came to today when I had not one but two exams to take, and a take-home midterm I was (am) supposed to complete, and things. I walked into the first exam fairly calm, makes sense, it was my S/NC course, I knew enough that I might come in on the weird side of the S, but I will get an S, and that helped. Also the fact that I was walking with a friend, and that it was bright and sunny helped. Then I had a midterm at night, and I am sorry to say, but I freaked out, this was the first time I have freaked out for an exam this much since leaving home. It was weird, Thayer was deserted, and I remember I saw this guy who was wearing a suit talk about black and white photographs to his son, and walking by, and it was like I was disconnected. I have not been so anxious since being at Brown about an exam, and even though I became a lot more relaxed like 5 minutes before the exam (yay iPod), I am still a lil concerned by this.
There have to be reasons why I like the math department, OK I admit I haven’t hung out with the physics department, and some of the people in the CS department are pretty cool too, especially the TStaff, but ya the math department is funny, or parts of it are. Earlier today I ended up attending a faculty lunch, which is this thing the Math DUG organizes at Kabob and Curry, this Indian restaurant on Thayer (yes I am aware Kabob should probably be spelt in a different way, but this is how they spell it), which has crappy Indian food (says me), but is a welcome change, and is umm kind of nice, the food is not Indian, but then it’s not American either. So ya, the math department ended up their, and I went because I was told I should attend one of those someday, they are nice, and the conversation is good, and ya it’s nice. So I went there, and I was petrified before leaving (why, hmm I don’t know, have attended enough lunches/dinners with professors who talk weird things, but ya most of them were people who were my parent’s acquaintances rather than my professors I guess), about how I would fit in and stuff, but it was surprisingly entertaining. I sat at this one spot where neither the man from the land of the kangaroos, nor TFB could talk to me, not out of my own choice, but because of when I arrived, I however ended up sitting next to this friendly person who was my MA35 TA, and is from Germany, and this professor who is a German citizen, was in the US as a student, has a green card now, and knows about the funny ways of things here. So we were discussing flying into Frankfurt, debating BA vs Lufthansa, talking about Russian and American embassies, immigration at airports, summer plans, why summer plans don’t work sometimes and things like that. I discovered the TA, who I think is really really good at math, had also been rejected by William’s, something about them having funding for only on international, and generally preferring students from Williams, heard hilarious stories about how people got into the US, and such things. I also heard funny stories about Russian embassy officials in Germany, which reminded me of how Indian offices work, it was so similar, I am waiting for the day when I get to hear stories about the Indian visa sections. The German professor I was sitting next to is also the first person I have ever run into, who does not have finger prints, because she’s a rock climber, and they got shaved off, and she was telling us about how the fingerprint scanners never manage to take her prints, confusing people, and things. It was really fun, and while the table did get around to one stupid mathematical problem (we wouldn’t have had math except for this one bright spark who wanted to prove he was good) that I remember having seen from back home, it was interesting, and I really felt as if I would like to work, or do more things with a lot of the people who were there, and while I have run into math professors I would rather avoid, they weren’t present at the DUG lunch, and I guess that made it look so much better. I should attend more of these. it’s just that for the past two semesters I have a scheduling conflict with this particular time, oh well soon I shall… Oh and the German professor found the thing about mathematical biology hilarious, something about people making tons of money doing it, and when asked what it was, she said she did not know, and well if she did, she would do that and get rich, funny.
It’s the ending bit of St. Patrick’s Day, the first time I have ever been through one of these. I find it strange that all religions should have something which promotes drinking in this period, St. Patrick’s Day, Purim which is next Friday, Holi which should be somewhere before or after, and other such things. What is with this period of time and drinking, it’s kind of strange. Oh well I saw someone sneak alcohol into the V-Dub, and that was funny.
It is that time of the semester again, the time when I chose my next weird/semi weird research project. It is interesting how in the last two semesters I have always managed to pick humanities courses which involve research papers, despite there being many which require normal papers, not research papers (yes there are differences), hmm interesting. So yes I need to do something for 19th century architecture, and I was dazed by what to do, many ideas came, and I discovered a lot of things I associate with the 19th century were actually creations of the early 20th century, and would hence not do. So when all else failed, I tried looking for Russian architecture, hmm which has issues, seeing as they didn’t do much in the 19th century, and whatever they did do, is chronicled in Russian, rather than in English. So it is the Danes I have turned towards (darn turning towards the Dutch and their windmills may have been fun, however I am pretty sure windmills were not a 19th century creation), and umm ya gone on to discover the British managed to destroy parts of Copenhagen in an attempt to get the Danes to join them in the Napoleonic war. There have to be more counter-productive ways of gaining allies, I am sure there have to be a few, but wow destroying someone’s capital city, so that they can be your allies, rates highly.
This has been one of those things which has been lying for too long, it gets posted now, even though I have written little in the last 3 days.
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