Today's entry is going to be a short post. I have a bunch of pictures from Frances of Em's graduation last friday, but haven't put them in order yet, that will likely be the next post.
At the moment I've been frustrated by/at work, one of the things I've been working on has been a lot more annoying than I expected: there are two different parameter files for the energy model which contain roughly the same data, but the format for each is fairly different, up to the point where the indexing is different (one is 0-indexed, the other is 1-indexed) and the ordering of base pairs is also different. This roughly translates to it being a royal pain in the neck to have a backend data structure that can be fed data for both types on demand. So it's gone slower than I expected, but I have a meeting tomorrow which I'll need to have some demonstrable progress for, not just the hundred lines of code I've put together which only appear to work.
Another frustration has been the temperature. It's been nice and warm out here, but inside it's still a lot cooler, usually because for some reason the existence of air conditioning means that it should be kept way too freezing inside, such that one cannot be comfortable both inside a building and outside it. It has been way too cold in lab lately, and I find myself freezing when trying to work on straightforward but not really mind-intensive work, so I get distracted a lot easier. The simple solution, I suppose, is to change the thermostat, but my office mate prefers it very cold. Thus this doesn't really get anywhere as one of us will be rendered ineffective. So I've been working more from home, but I'd rather be in lab where I have other people to bounce ideas off of.
Anyways... I also thought perhaps this post would be a good one for an open thread, so if there's something anyone reading wants to start a discussion about, go for it! Or just comment on working temperatures, or whatever else suits your fancy.
And yes, I just noticed this is not really that short a post. I really admire some short posts, but I can't seem to write posts like those. Here's an example of an excellent short post which I would aspire to: Neil Gaiman's blog. Look for the entry on June 19, titled "A hundred thousand tumpty tumpties". I really like how he chooses words such that a few short sentences compose a fairly detailed picture of a moment in his life.
3 comments:
So, I clicked on the link you posted to Gaiman's blog. The awesome thing I noticed was in the labels for the 6/20 post, which includes a reference to the song "Sleepy Maggie". I approve!
As for length of posts, that partly depends on whether or not I'm ranting but also on how much time I want to spend and so on. Sometimes I just want to pass along a quick snippet of info and major commentary by me really isn't necessary.
As for operating temperature, I like it really cold.
I find that my posts are generally pretty short and include a photograph most of the time. My writing style at the moment tends towards the boring, so I find myself happier posting photographs of recent experiences or everyday life.
Also, I too clicked on the link to Gaiman's blog and very much enjoyed the short post - so eloquently written :-)
I don't really have a book to post comment about at the moment as I am currently in book four of my Harry Potter re-read. Liz made a comment the other day though about said books. She likes them (is reading them for the first time), but is very frustrated with all of the re-capping that goes on throughout the series. I kind of agree - there doesn't need to be so much explaining going on all the time...
I write posts that are very long. Frances and a few other people want me to post a five page paper I just wrote on my blog because it is written like a blog post but it will be very long... Hmm...
About temperature control - I may live in a "luxury condo" but it is very badly designed. The "thermostat" is in MY ROOM so no one else can usually access it without tripping over my desk and chair. I put "thermostat" in quotes because you can actually only control the temperature by moving the switch closer to "warmer" or "cooler." The same spot on the "thing" can lead to very different temperatures depending on the day and in Chicago, it is a pain in the butt. Plus the heat was not very strong this winter so it would be -20 outside and freezing inside as well. Ergh! So I can relate to the temperature control issues although luckily Erica just deals with whatever temperature it happens to be since I can't really control it.
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