OMG advisor

So after a year, one whole year, of being terrified that I wasn't good enough to be in grad school I found myself an advisor just like everybody else. Whew.

I don't think this is the last we'll see of impostor syndrome, but I think I can be less stressed about the future, at the very least.

Also I am extra thrilled, because it's rare to find a PhD advisor with a sense of fashion better than yours.

It seems like a lot, but it's what I want

Things to do before I die:

1. Write a book that lots of people read and like.
2. Win some sort award for doing/inventing something that advanced a field in some way.
3. Have two children
4. Create something and have people use it
5. Learn about art
6. Live in Europe for some time
7. Learn German, French, Italian (or all three)
8. Make every dessert I’ve ever heard of
9. Create a foundation to advance something I care about
10. Become an expert on a country, a culture, a language, a phenomenon, a field… something useful and exciting.
11. See every enormous open space in the world.

it's real!

Tumbleweed! It's real! We saw it!Just rolling across the mojave desert, everywhere, all over the place!

I don't know why I'm so excited about this, perhaps it's because I couldn't think of a more perfect symbol of large, deserted spaces if I tried, and then I find out it's actually real, and not just in the Simpsons.

Oh, what a shocking lack of knowledge of American flora. Sorry, I didn't grow up here, and when was the last time anyone saw tumbleweed in California or in Massachusetts anyway?

Awfulsome!

A longish time ago, when I was very small, I ruined the #19 tooth in the back of my mouth by not brushing it or something (I don't remember, I was very small).

I had to have a root canal, which is pretty awful in itself, but the story doesn't end there. Turns out, this tooth keeps getting infected. Don't know why, but when I'm stressed it gets worse, and when I'm happy, it subsides. Lately, I've been pretty busy. As a result, this:
That great big dark spot you see there was +infection -bone. The bacteria actually ate up the bone. Those were some hardcore bacteria. Oh well.

Everything is ok now, and I'm getting it fixed and re-filled and everything, but for a while there I was carrying around bone-eating bacteria in a hole in my jaw. I still can't decide whether that's awful or awesome.

I ate'n't dead

Yeah ok ok, it's been a while. I been busy with, among other things, the flu, having water all over my old laptop, and a root canal gone horribly wrong. There has also been the overarching busyness of living on a grown-up schedule.

Once you get used to it though, getting up at 6:30... ok, let's be honest 7:00 AM is not so bad, and there is nothing impossible or horrifying about liking mornings while being a CS person. It can be done. It HAS been done.

I still haven't thought of a name for my new laptop, which is identical to my old laptop except that it feels emotionally colder. I don't even know how or why, it just does. The last one was called silver. I miss her, she never sneered at me, and she had a spunky attitude. Suggestions appreciated?

Arizona. Tumbleweed! Really long drives. Being tricked into hiking to the bottom of the grand canyon. So many stories.

You know that move Amelie? I think I know it by heart.

blue rocks and purple rocks and green rocks and orange rocks!

The dust has settled and everything is said and done. Happy new year! 

Death Valley was ridiculously awesome, although you can see why showers were invented. Being dirty for four days is disgusting. Craters, rocks, salt, and mountains are awesome though, especially when they're all in the same place.