The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time

Finished another book today. Finishing books makes me proud of myself even though I'm not sure if reading fiction has any more value than watching a movie. At the very least it helps me read faster, and stimulates some thought.

Anyway, the book is called The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time by Mark Haddon. It's written from the perspective of an autistic savant named Christopher. One night he finds his neighbor's standard poodle dead on the lawn with a pitch fork stuck in it. Christopher reasons that someone probably murdered the dog, and decides to write a murder mystery novel about it. Like Sherlock Holmes, he would play the part of a veracious detective to discover the dog's killer. His curiosity gets him more answers than he bargained for, and Christopher finds himself in the middle of his own dizzying suspense adventure.

The book has received much acclaim, but I think this review says it best...

"Heart-in-the-mouth stuff, terrifying and moving. Haddon is to be congratulated for imagining a new kind of hero."
-The Daily Telegraph

...because this book is told from the perspective of a different kind of person. Haddon's empathy is astonishing in his writing. What at first seems dispassionately funny will leave you with a smile and a tear in your eye.

New England Snow and Ancient Empires

It is beautiful outside. I drove to work from Salem this morning and everything was caked in pure white from the storm yesterday. Every branch of every tree was laden with snow. Dark wet tree bark, cold shadows, and jet black pavement brought the contrast to a threshold as though the scene were drawn on paper in India ink. Even the signs on the highway were difficult to read through the frosting.

As for other climates, tickets are officially purchased for both Mexico, and Peru! I'll be snorkeling and exploring Mayan ruins in Cancun with Ashley and her parents from April 19th to the 26th. And from May 8th to the 20th, Tim and I will be hiking the Andes from Cuzco to the Inca ruins of Machu Picchu.

My excitement is immeasurable!

Virginia Mae Leva

What a week this has been. Jon's grandmother passed away on Sunday. Ginny's wake and funeral was held yesterday at HL Farmer & Sons Funeral Home in Haverhill. The place was beautiful, and there were so many people there. Jon gave the most beautiful eulogy I ever expect to hear. I laughed at the funny memories, and, oh man, did I cry. There wasn't a dry eye in the house. In Ginny's life, she affected so many others through her love and hospitality, and she was loved in return. I'll miss her, but I will remember her.

A Little Less Conversation, A Little More Action

The job hunt continues, but I'm glad to say everything else is moving along really well. Today I spoke with a rep. named Mike at Bank of America in Bedford, and finally got my finances squared away. I had $160 in overdraft fees removed, a new checking account set up, and got approved for a new credit card to link to my checking for overdraft protection. The guy reminded me of Jon a lot, and anyway, he completely made my day. Now it's just a matter of working a lot and saving every penny to pay for rent, my ski pass, and plane tickets to Cancun and Lima! Yikes!

Tonight I got talking to Nick who's also fishing for work. He has a second interview with MIT coming up, which is very cool. It would be amazing if we both ended up working in Cambridge together, but right now things are still completely open for me. It's anyone's guess where I'll end up. At any rate, we talked about how a lot of the jobs he's been applying for like to see experience in C++, and some of the jobs I've looked at like experience in Matlab. The timing couldn't be better to teach each other these things. Thursday we're meeting in Lowell to get started. I'll be teaching Nick C and C++, while he teaches me Matlab! I couldn't be more excited. I keep thinking about the order of the topics I'll teach and the problems I'll give him to solve... the same things I've learned time and again in so many languages...

1. i/o
2. variables and arrays
   
3. conditionals
4. loop structures
   
5. file i/o
   
6. basic math and math.h
7. functions
8. recursive functions
   
9. pointers
   
10. structs
    
11. linked lists, stacks, trees, and graphs
12. classes and object orientated programming

Time to dig up the old ANSI C book!

Life of Pi

Last night I finished Life of Pi.

Piscine Molitor Patel, known to all as Pi, grows up on a zoo. Whether out of curiosity or sheer boredom, he studies and learns to embrace the religions of Christianity, Islam, and Hinduism. The political situation in India becomes such that Pi's father decides that they must sell the zoo and leave the country. The cargo ship the family is on tragically sinks in the middle of the Pacific ocean and Pi finds himself stranded in a lifeboat with a Hyena, a Zebra, an Orangutan, and a Bengal Tiger named Richard Parker. Before long, it's just Pi, Richard Parker and the Pacific. Pi, armed with years of applied education in zoology, knows he has no chance in killing the 450 lb beast with the few tools he has available. Instead, Pi finds his life and Richard Parker's locked in a delicate equilibrium. As much as the tiger depends on Pi's ability to provide food and water, Pi would die of loneliness and despair without his companion.

This book was fantastic, it makes profound connections between religion and story telling, between science and nature, and between life and love. My brain is still spinning.

I Was Never One for Fishing

Job hunting is HARD. When considering my options between a doctorate and working in industry, the easier of the two seemed obvious. I suppose I expected the fish to just jump in the boat as they have in the past.

The problem with being a UI designer swimming in the biotech ocean is that the only sea life that is interested in you is back in the old design pond. Fish are not jumping in my boat. Frogs, crabs, clams, boots, and sopping wet ham sandwiches are jumping in my boat. No fish. The kicker is what the frogs, crabs et al. are willing to pay. The fish, on the other hand, are only interested if you have a PhD and 5-10 years of experience.

Today I caught myself reconsidering the doctorate. It would mean taking ONE qualifying exam in algorithms, then smooth sailing with visualization research in bioinformatics. Oomph! The more I think about it, the more idealistic it sounds... except, of course, for the part where I don't have any money.

Short term goals:

1. Apply for Associate Computational Biologist position at Broad Institute, MIT.
2. Keep birthday-calling Tim and telling him how flabby and old he is.
3. Beat Meng in another game of chess.
4. Print photos.
5. Pick up Check
6. Mail thank-yous
   
7. Birthday present for Tim.
8. Build a lamp (purchase base, cut bamboo, wrap twine, etc)
9. Radiator fluid for car
   
10. Buy ski pass
11. Fill out deferment form

Long term goals:

1. Finish Cebula contract
2. Finish Brontes contract
   
3. Get a job.
4. Save money.
5. Paint more.
6. Frame photography.
7. Cancun in April
   
8. Machu Picchu in May
   

Gain Weight in '08!

Is everything moving in slow motion right now, or is it just me? I'm stuck with a familiar feeling of being trapped in mud... I've written about this feeling before, I know I have.

Today I woke up in Salem and made it to the Brontesaurus by 8:30. As usual, I ate a triple-decker egg, ham, and cheese sandwich for breakfast. I finished a few UI glyphs, sat through a presentation, ate a ham and swiss sub for lunch, and sent Greg a graphic for the training manual. I also caught up with Alex, and he agreed to let me use him as a reference in my search for a employment. He even surprised me with a Starbucks gift card for Christmas. His wife just gave birth to their first son before the holidays, this at the same time as they were moving into their new home. I can only imagine the excitement and exhaustion.

As for me, it's "Blank Slate in '08." I need to format my life and defragment my brain.

I'm also partial to the slogan: "Gain Weight in '08."

Anyway, I've gotten distracted, I was stuck in mud... I suppose I accomplished a few things today. My to-do list may not be diminishing, but at least I'm crossing things off as fast as I'm writing new ones down. Besides, I'm making some money, which right now is of paramount importance considering I'm on the verge of selling snowballs to the kids on Mount. Pleasant.

After work, I put myself through a good workout at the gym that left me feeling refreshed and stinky. When I got home however, I was unfortunate to find that we're having a problem with our water heater. I couldn't withstand the cold shower for more than 15 seconds.

The rest of my night I spent reading Life of Pi. It's safe to say it... I'm addicted to this book. I highly recommend it to anyone with a curious mind and a strong imagination. I love it. Half the reading I did at home, the other half at Eggroll where I also caught up with Mike, Meng, Tina, and Sengly. I gave them 3 games for the cafe for Christmas (Candy Land, Battleship, and Chess). Hopefully they'll get many miles of use out of them. Seriously, who doesn't love Battleship?! 2B or not 2B?

2B.