Taking a page out of John Lennon's book with respect to current politics

The passed couple weeks have been noteworthy. I finally got a haircut after a good year or so of following John Lennon's advice, "Stay in bed, and grow your hair." Though I haven't been staying in bed so much as I've been growing my hair. Anyway, the weather is getting a little nicer, and surf is calling my name. The water is still about 38F, but I'm counting on global warming to help out a bit.

The daily grind has been going well. Of course, I'm learning a lot at work every day. I finally got my first paycheck last week, so that was exciting as well. Every day I read the paper on the way into Cambridge. Of all the changes going on in my life, I feel like this has had the greatest affect on me. Never in my life have I taken any interest in politics. Now I'm on the edge of my seat every morning, dying to find out about what bullshit legislation our president is trying to get passed, or whether any more British soldiers have been caught dressed up as Iraqis trying to provoke conflict in Basra.

To be sure, the "war" in Iraq is a horrible circus. Every dollar we spend there is a dollar wasted by this country. In the past two days I've read over 10 articles regarding current state of our economy. I read these things and I feel like they're more than just a foreshadowing of events to come. Like the war in Iraq, I've been feeling like the credit crisis we're facing is deliberate, and falsely motivated. And what do I read in the paper this morning?! Bush (via Henry Paulson) is proposing the biggest regulatory overhaul to country’s financial system since the great depression. This will take even more power from the state and financial institutions and put it in the hands of the government. My take on this is that the administration is antsy to squeeze this bill through before Bush is punted from office, otherwise they would have waited until the economy hit rock bottom to put further pressure on the opposition. While it looks very unlikely that anything will come of this bill (at least before Bush is out of office), it's just another unnerving attempt to strip the rights away from the American people.

What is patriotism without the foundation this country was founded on?

Oh, by the way, apparently Bush bribed JP Morgan/Chase with $30 Billion from The Federal Reserve... read more and sign the PETITION TO IMPEACH here: http://financialpetition.org/

Today I contacted 10 "impeach bush" groups on Facebook with the hopes of getting this information out to their base of over 18,000 members.

Hey! You've got to hide your love away.

They say it gets old, but I'm still enjoying the working life in the city. I feel completely immersed in this new culture. There are moments , especially in the quiet of the morning, when I suddenly feel like I'm in a foreign country. The train pulls in, and suddenly hundreds of people swarm out of the doors like a river of black coats and iPod headphones. I am a drop in that river, and yet, for an instant, I am a floating body.

This morning at Park Street there was a man playing Beatles songs on the acoustic guitar. Thousands of people, and nothing but the muted sound of conversations, footsteps and trains coming and going, and then this...

"Here I stand head in hand
Turn my face to the wall
If she's gone I can't go on
Feelin' two-foot small

Everywhere people stare
Each and every day
I can see them laugh at me
And I hear them say

Hey! You've got to hide your love away.
Hey! You've got to hide your love away."

It gave me chills. It was so emotional in contrast with the cold apathy of everything else I felt like I could cry. I love knowing this feeling. I stayed and listened to two songs before my train came.

Marching for Babies, and Coding at Broad

This passed weekend, Tim, Rae Beth, Jackie, Ashley and I all made custom "Team Fiends" shirts for the March of Dimes March for Babies. All the credit, of course, goes to Ashley, who bought the shirts and puff paint, and got us all involved in the first place. She and I went to the March for Babies kickoff at the EMC clubhouse at Fenway a couple days ago. It was phenomenal to see Fenway from the inside for the first time. We're both dying to catch a game this summer. Nick and I both have thrown our hats in for the MIT Red Sox Raffle, which gives us at least a slim chance of getting super cheap tickets to one of 11 games this coming season. I'm crossing my fingers.

The MathWorks and Novartis both got back to me on my job applications this passed week. Pfft.

Work this week has been good. I'm still learning about the software (SO much code), and it looks like I'll be getting a new desk by a window before long. We're about to gain another office, and they were good enough to ask everyone their preferences. Excellent! Hopefully I'll be able to get a big ol' whiteboard wall installed as well. I want to write on EVERYTHING!!! As it stands, I have about 20 post-it's stuck all over the wall next to my current desk.

Anyway, I arranged for Ray, Anne and I to meet with my friend Curran today to talk about the visualization platform he built called JyVis, and consider it as a base for our new version of CellProfiler Analyst. The meeting went really well I think! It looks like there's a good chance that we'll be rewriting the whole thing in Python while using the JyVis as a model for our architecture. This is exciting news for me, not to mention Curran and Ray (who has been dying to get away from Java). It also makes me feel good to know that my connections to UML are still strong, and have potential for mutual benefit. Speaking of which, I'm meeting with Christine, Howie, and Hongli, all of whom I used to work with at the IVPR, next Tuesday for lunch.

After the meeting with Anne and Ray tonight, Curran and I headed out together and ended up bumping into a couple kids who talked to us for about 10 minutes about Greenpeace. I learned about how Kleenex is deforesting north western Canada, and how George Bush is stalling at putting polar bears on the endangered species list because we're drilling for oil. Neato. A few minutes later, Curran's friend Justin met us at Kendall. We walked down to the Cambridge Brewing Company (CBC) where Justin's girlfriend met up with us for food and drinks. We got a pitcher of Om, a 9.4% "venture into the world of beer and mystical experience", and a second pitcher of Saison Noire, which tasted like a magical garden filled with lilacs. Both were really good! We ended up staying there and talking for nearly 2 and a half hours. It was a great time.

Friday is coding day at Broad, something I'm looking forward to. It's the one day a month that the whole group locks ourselves in the Matterhorn conference room and work on bugs and enhancements all day long. Granted, this is what I do every day in my office, but coding day means I get company... and free pizza. I'm excited.

Gaining Momentum

Well, I'm midway through my first week at the Broad. As expected, I'm going a mile a minute to just get acclimated to working in this new environment. Going to orientations, getting all the credentials, and setting up on all the systems are just the tip of the iceberg. I already have a massive todo list comprised of many things that I don't exactly know how to do just yet.

Still, I like the people I work with, and where we work. The energy of being in the city. The energy of being on the MIT campus... The energy of working with people whose intense curiosity is matched only by their drive to discover and create something new. I'm making friends as quickly as I'm falling in love with the city.

I also never expected to know so many people in the Cambridge area. Yesterday, I bumped into Curran on my way to the green line. Five minutes later I bumped into Jackie as we were getting off the same train car. I joined her for breakfast at Starbucks, then again for lunch at Au Bon Pain. That night, Nick and I hit Boston Beerworks for dinner and caught the Bruins game at the Garden (courtesy of Lincoln Labs). We had excellent seats, and even managed to catch Bruins shirts being thrown out to the audience by the Ice Girls. Today, Tim joined me at ABP for lunch, and tomorrow I'm meeting Curran for an early breakfast. Jamal is also in the area, so I'm hoping to sync up with him soon. Then there's Kat at BU, who I'll have to visit on campus and get some Jamba Juice while I'm there. Love it!