Meddle · Muddle · Middle

• Ramping up on various school things.
  
• Research directions are starting to solidify.
  
• Probably publishing a tiny tiny article on the bioinformatics tool I have been working on all summer.
  
• Applying for an NSF Fellowship. They are competitive and prestigious, but it doesn't hurt to try.
  
• Finally hired a gardener. They will do outdoorsy things that need doing.
  
• Still haven't hired a cleaning lady. Our house is starting to get unbearably dusty.
  
• Kitties are great. They are getting close to a year old now. (!)
  
• Still working full time. The drive is difficult.
  
• K has started working on his PhD, though not officially. He seems to like it so far.
  
• I bought a violin. I desperately need a tuner thingy. I still sound pretty terrible. Considering lessons, but who has the time?
  

Update
I was just reading through some of the older entries and realized that I've left you all dangling on a number of important issues.

• We moved! Not to the Hatch house, which turned out to be a huge clusterfuck, but to a different house in Okemos. There are photos on one or the other of our Flickrs. Definitely the right move, and very happy here.
  
• Burning man was fun! My Flickr also has photos. I still have a ton of film on my Lomo that I need to develop. I also went to the Michigan Decomp and volunteered to be Greeter lead. Lots of fun, and definitely looking forward to Lakes of Fire in the Spring.
  
• The Griddler grill I bought a few months ago is still going like a champ. Love it! Recommend it to anyone!
  

I arrive in SEA at 11:40pm, then I get to run run run to the shuttle to the new light rail line, heroically catching the last train north. If all goes well, I get to avoid a $50 cab ride. Crashing at Snack Palace for the night, and then up at seven to catch a ride down to the playa with the folks from "Free Movement Zone". Woo!

Things to do yet:

First Hammock, originally uploaded by Void_Ptr.

On April 18, I flew to PR for 5 days of beach, family, and relaxation.

I took my new camera with me. Here are the photos.

Mmm Sleepy Time, originally uploaded by Void_Ptr.

That

Was hard to type. <3

For Mami, originally uploaded by Void_Ptr.

Cat on lap

More photographic evidence that we actually went.

Since my last update, I've been to MSU again for more visiting. Again, great time. Got more ideas for stuff to research. I think that coming up with and then narrowing down my choices is going to be the hardest part.

Trips! I went to the UK with my friends and it was fun! Yay! I took some photos, but I am lazy, so I haven't uploaded them yet. Soon. I'll also be heading to Puerto Rico next weekend for a few days, and then DEMF in May, and then Westward HO in July, and then Burning Man in September. Unfortunately, I'll miss the first week of class, so I'll have to work that out with my professor ahead of time so I don't have to be doing catch-up.

If you'll recall, I mentioned in a previous entry that I was experimenting with periodic fasting as a diet method. So far, the results are quite positive! The fasting hunger levels have diminished, and I've lost almost 5 pounds since I started at the end of February. In practice, I fast on/off 2-3 days per week (if I'm being good), and if life intrudes with tasty dinner dates or vacations or whatever, I just pick it up where I left off with no adverse weight gain effects. It's pretty easy, low stress, and with low will-power requirements. Also, I have continued to lift weights on the off days, and don't feel weak and tired. Win!

Kitties are fine. Helfer has pretty much stopped growing, and has developed an adorable little fat roll at the bottom of her belly. Hewlett kept growing a bit longer than Helfer, but has since slowed down as well, and is beginning to develop a little roll of his own, so I felt it was time to start limiting their food supply rather than letting them snack endlessly with no limit. I've been feeding them EVO cat and kitten dry food, but as soon as this batch of food is used up, I'll switch to one of the EVO adult formulas, which should limit the impending fattening. In the mean time, I'm also starting to mix in some of the canned food with the dry to get them used to it.

Also, after weeks of inching it along, we've finally succeeded in moving the second litterbox from the living room into the bathroom. They are stacked up one on top of the other, making a kind of litterbox condo. They're actually using the upper box too, which is wild. As far as litter issues are concerned, they've been absolutely perfect since we got them. YAY!

In terms of future plans, we're definitely going to be moving to Lansing before the Fall, and I'll be working from home the couple days a week that I have class. We have a lead on a house we might rent, but we still have to go check it out and see if it is suitable to our needs.

Oh no, originally uploaded by Void_Ptr.

I've got cats on me. What else is there to do but pet them.

This weekend was the MSU Prospective Grad Student Visitation Weekend. The purpose of the weekend was to convince prospective students to come to MSU, and to give them an opportunity to visit the campus, meet the faculty, and get an idea of what life would be like as a graduate student. It was definitely fun, but mostly it was incredibly useful. I met quite a few professors and graduate students in the College of Engineering, and had meetings with several in Computer Science. Several of the research labs are doing really interesting work, and they weren't all the ones that I initially thought I would be interested in. Most useful though, is the sense that this is the right path for me to follow.

The short of it is that I will be starting at MSU in the fall, pursuing an M.S. to start with, and then probably go on to a PhD. K and I will move to Lansing sometime in the summer, and I'll continue to work full time, and take advantage of the tuition reimbursement program. I don't *need* to do that, since it is now clear to me that I could pretty easily get support in the form of a TA, RA, or fellowship, but it's easier for me to support us at the lifestyle to which I am accustomed while K is in Law School if I keep the income up. Anyway, I'm not ready to be done here.

I also have a couple of leads for advisors who want to work with me, and research projects to participate in.

I'm really really really really excited.

I finally retired it over the weekend, and bought a new Cuisinart Griddler, with interchangeable flat and panini plates (which I'll never use). I successfully made a sandwich with it yesterday, though I may need to set it hotter in the future.

Fractal, originally uploaded by Void_Ptr.

Visiting

Several amusing band names have stood out, including The Crispin Glover and Unexplained Bacon. Bands starting with "The" are a treasure trove of unintended (and intended) funny.

My initial answer was: "Not much", because street people in Ahmedabad wouldn't have access to that kind of technology. But on further reflection, I'm not so sure that is the case. Consider rural Africa, where telephony technology has leapfrogged beyond land-lines in preference of cellphones. In areas where there are no banks, cellphones have become tools of economic empowerment, where people are able to perform rudimentary banking tasks with cellphone minutes as currency. Who knows what other unforeseen applications may arise out of technological availability, third world necessity and native ingenuity. There is no rule that says that third world development must exactly follow the path taken by the first world.