Expertise:School: how to pretend you know what you're doing.
Boys: why they're stupid and how to punish them for it.
Stress: how to worry even when there's no good reason for it.
Food: how to keep your tapeworm well fed and happy.
The fall goes by so fast. When I flew out of Pittsburgh last Tuesday, it was a beautiful clear day and the landscape was in full hi-def color. It looked fake - like someone had splashed drops of red, orange, and yellow paint over a picture of Pittsburgh.
When I flew back the following Saturday. It was raining, the leaves were brown and the raindrops had stripped most of them off the branches anyway. *sigh*
My flight last week was for my first site interview, but more on that later.
The G-20 seems to have gone off without any real major crises, compared to London's G-20 summit last April. Although perhaps I would be less casual about it if I had experienced the tear gassing. In any case yay for friends with cameras - the full G-20 flickr set is here.
They look threatening, but I'm told that the general atmosphere wasn't tense - people were walking around taking pictures and girls were discussing which officer was cutest. They were blocking the road on University of Pittsburgh campus, which is about a mile down the road of my campus, but is much larger in terms of student population.
This is presumably to prevent the horses from being affected by any tear gas?
Armored police SUVs now come with additional feature of sonic cannon! (<~ The article notes that this is the first time the sonic cannon has been used in public, and also links to a CNN news clip capturing the use of tear gas on protesters.)
"Maek Bagles Not War"?
It's funny, but the thing that I hear mentioned most often by Pittsburghers is bewilderment that the protesters broke the window at Pamela's diner - local diner that is home of our beloved Pittsburgh pancakes. There's nothing that will lose you sympathy faster than messing with our pancakes. (Really, it's a required breakfast stop anytime Allen comes here. They're incredible! Come visit me and you'll see. Pittsburgh is usually much nicer when world leaders aren't congregated here.)
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My dependency on Wikipedia increases (linearly?) over time. But dang it if they don't have the most concise and clear-cut explanation of the effects of globalization that I could find through 5 minutes of Googling.
Why is the G-20 being Held in Pittsburgh? "When White House press secretary Robert Gibbs announced in May that the Obama Administration had chosen to hold the Group of 20 summit in Pittsburgh, Pa., the press corps broke out laughing. It's tough to blame them."
It's been a busy week work-wise, so I actually haven't seen much of what the G-20 is doing to the city. There were a bunch of kids dressed in costume on campus yesterday, but it wasn't obvious what or if that had anything to do with the G-20. I also walked by a frat house today that had two signs out front: "The G-20 is Sweet" and "Protesting the Protesters." Silly college boys.
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Some days my introvertedness can barely handle the labmates I have, and now it must also deal with the influx of new grad students? Thanks for making me feel old, new grad students, with your optimism and naivete!
Ah, the blogging makes me exaggerate. I don't really feel that jaded towards them. But it's a lot of pressure, you know, when they come to you asking for advice on picking a project, as if you have the golden road to success all figured out already. Hello? If I'd had that figured out already, I'd have graduated by now. Besides, I'm an engineer. I prefer questions that have clear cut right and wrong answers. Come back when you have questions like those, yeah?
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On a more serious note, the arrogance of my chosen profession has been getting to me lately. The thing I envy most about Allen is that he never worries about what other people think of him. I think the thing that confuses him most about me is why I can never quite stop worrying about what other people think of me. I realized this week that at some point, I stopped doing my work because I liked it. At this point, I'm only doing it to prove to everyone else that I can. And some days that makes me feel incredibly inadequate. I wonder if this aspect of my work-life will be easier after I graduate.
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I had a meeting with my advisor today. His advice for thesis writing: Don't do it with a freezer full of ice cream and a whole pan of brownies. "Believe me, I know," he said. Oh really? Do tell!
