The Year in Review
Dec. 24th, 2009 07:38 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
michiexileAs with every year, I see ![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
silmaril do one of these, and follow up with one of my own.
I've faded in actual postings lately - replacing them with an increased twitter coverage, piped through to my livejournal. We'll see whether this change is visible.
First sentence of the first entry of each month in 2009, unless more is necessary for context.
January I arrived yesterday late afternoon in Washington DC, and got picked up, almost immediately, bysilmaril, Breno and Adrian - who booked a table at the Cheesecake Factory by Friendship Heights.
FebruaryMy paper Blackbox computation of A∞-algebras has been accepted for publication. [This was the entire text of the entry]
MarchI recently got a free give-away first intro adventure, with all the relevant rules for that particular adventure embedded, for Changeling: the Lost.
Aprilculfinriel, you did the right thing yesterday.
MayHomemade Crème Brûlée.
JuneA companion character to Daina. [Skipped a meme post]
JulyI'm listening to a clip from Rachel Maddow's show, interviewing Pat Buchanan about the Sotomayor brouhaha. [Skipped two meme posts]
AugustAnd a bunch of conga rat lines for my dear sisterthette!
SeptemberI'm back in the Bay.
October Alternative title: "What I did in mathcamp this summer!" - the paper is the result of the one 2-week workshop I took for the fun of it.
Alternatively, non-twitter: Because, y'know, the top news for 'bar code' is that Google has it as its new logo.
NovemberGot a good reference to introduce algebraists to quandles?
Alternatively, non-twitter: There's apparently a new research institute looking to hire academics all across the board - the mathjobs.org RSS feed has ads up for everything from early postdocs to full professors.
DecemberMy MSc thesis advisor, Jörgen Backelin, once picked up on my using the Swedish conjunctive in an exam answer...
Alternatively, non-twitter: Baby it's cold outside... ...and inside too, for this? This is California, where the weather is always nice, and thus the housebuilders don't hold with things like insulation, multiple glass panes, or heating.
In some ways a fair sampling from the year. March was about my getting back into World of Darkness - and indeed, I took up MUSHing in the summer again to get into it. The June post was a first stab at building a character, that later got abandoned in favor for a different idea - one that I still play now.
April was about going dancing while I was visiting the Durham/Raleigh-area, and about a West Coast Swing Club that disappointed.
From November onwards, my twitter feed got hooked into my Livejournal feed. I've given both twitter-first and non-twitter-first for those months.
Thinking back over the year, over the things this sampling missed...
This was the year I got started with my postdoc. I had spent the first fall at Stanford flailing a bit to keep up with my coauthor, and to find my footing, fighting off at least one depression caused by the sudden onset of research in a field different enough that my old footing didn't hold. During late 2008, this lack of footing had me fighting insufficiency feelings - and those got actually conquered during 2009.
It's also the most travel-intense and conference-intense year EVER. I spent most of the time late March - late September traveling more or less constantly, meeting people constantly, going to conferences, visiting universities, and being a traveling scholar. Intense. VERY intense. But also very fruitful. Out of this grew a research agenda of my own, with a slew of more or less intensely pursued projects; projects other people care about, projects that can hold lifetimes between the short term (finished before I leave Stanford) to the very long term (things I can keep milking until I retire or grow too bored with them).
I started doing things far outside the comfort zone of what my funding agency tells me to do this year. There is a reference in the quotes above to the 'What I did last summer'-paper. This paper had ALL of its research performed during an idyllic 2 weeks in Luminy outside Marseilles. I met the authors of an earlier paper, sat down, and banged out an implementation of their system in Haskell. This since has materialized into a published and done paper - recently accepted with only minor changes requested.
During the fall, things congealed for me. I took up teaching. I started mentoring a senior thesis. I formulated a Grand Vision For The Future - which may or may not prove too outlandish to work. And I got things rolling on several projects. Right now, as the year goes to an end, I'm a peer review referee. I've a growing publication list, and projects in a clear pipeline. The projects I was giving up on have been revived by students taking them on, and the projects I'm enthusiastic about have been picked up on by my PI as being really worth-while working on.
In other words, as good as it gets in academia.
I've taken up dancing. Swing, to be specific. This happened before 2009, but it got to a habit, and it started infecting others during this year.
My parents have taken up Swing after visiting me in Galway and joining a class with Galway Swing during their visit.
I've taken up going to the 9:20 Special, and Lindy in the Park in San Francisco. And I've bought swing dancing shoes. With Susanne, I went to a Big Bad Voodoo Daddy concert. Swing is part of my life now.
Speaking of concerts - I moved to San Francisco proper after my Summer Of Travels. And I love it. One of the things living in The City brings me is that all of a sudden, the life of the city is within reach. I went to concerts by Infected Mushroom, Leonard Cohen and Covenant this fall - and I (just barely) kept myself from going to Röyksopp too.
More things that happen when living in the City? Soooo many I won't be able to list them all. But I've gotten more interesting things out of hanging out with the Hacker/Maker-space Noisebridge than before - and I've been pulled in for more than a few gloriously weird events along the way. Street parties, parades, street games, guerilla swings in the subway ... life is wondrously weird in The City.
As I mentioned above, I moved house during the year. Instead of living out in East Palo Alto, dependent on both buses and trains to move about, I now live in downtown San Francisco.
I'm still dependent on both buses and trains to move about, but they run more often, later at night, and the whole City is within reach, instead of 'just' East Palo Alto, barely campus.
With family, things are going along much the same they used to. My wife came to visit in Galway during the summer, and in San Francisco during the fall. We both went to Chicago. And I keep going to see her regularly. My parents came to Galway while I was there.
Living apart is taxing. But doable.
And we've faced grief and sorrow in the extended family. My wife's aunt passed away - prematurely. Leaving husband and two children, as well as the rest of the family, dealing with the loss.
All in all, a glorious year, filled with happiness more than sorrow, and with the fulfillment of dreams and hopes.
silmaril do one of these, and follow up with one of my own.I've faded in actual postings lately - replacing them with an increased twitter coverage, piped through to my livejournal. We'll see whether this change is visible.
First sentence of the first entry of each month in 2009, unless more is necessary for context.
January I arrived yesterday late afternoon in Washington DC, and got picked up, almost immediately, by
silmaril, Breno and Adrian - who booked a table at the Cheesecake Factory by Friendship Heights.FebruaryMy paper Blackbox computation of A∞-algebras has been accepted for publication. [This was the entire text of the entry]
MarchI recently got a free give-away first intro adventure, with all the relevant rules for that particular adventure embedded, for Changeling: the Lost.
April
culfinriel, you did the right thing yesterday.MayHomemade Crème Brûlée.
JuneA companion character to Daina. [Skipped a meme post]
JulyI'm listening to a clip from Rachel Maddow's show, interviewing Pat Buchanan about the Sotomayor brouhaha. [Skipped two meme posts]
AugustAnd a bunch of conga rat lines for my dear sister
thette!SeptemberI'm back in the Bay.
October Alternative title: "What I did in mathcamp this summer!" - the paper is the result of the one 2-week workshop I took for the fun of it.
Alternatively, non-twitter: Because, y'know, the top news for 'bar code' is that Google has it as its new logo.
NovemberGot a good reference to introduce algebraists to quandles?
Alternatively, non-twitter: There's apparently a new research institute looking to hire academics all across the board - the mathjobs.org RSS feed has ads up for everything from early postdocs to full professors.
DecemberMy MSc thesis advisor, Jörgen Backelin, once picked up on my using the Swedish conjunctive in an exam answer...
Alternatively, non-twitter: Baby it's cold outside... ...and inside too, for this? This is California, where the weather is always nice, and thus the housebuilders don't hold with things like insulation, multiple glass panes, or heating.
In some ways a fair sampling from the year. March was about my getting back into World of Darkness - and indeed, I took up MUSHing in the summer again to get into it. The June post was a first stab at building a character, that later got abandoned in favor for a different idea - one that I still play now.
April was about going dancing while I was visiting the Durham/Raleigh-area, and about a West Coast Swing Club that disappointed.
From November onwards, my twitter feed got hooked into my Livejournal feed. I've given both twitter-first and non-twitter-first for those months.
Thinking back over the year, over the things this sampling missed...
Workwise
This was the year I got started with my postdoc. I had spent the first fall at Stanford flailing a bit to keep up with my coauthor, and to find my footing, fighting off at least one depression caused by the sudden onset of research in a field different enough that my old footing didn't hold. During late 2008, this lack of footing had me fighting insufficiency feelings - and those got actually conquered during 2009.
It's also the most travel-intense and conference-intense year EVER. I spent most of the time late March - late September traveling more or less constantly, meeting people constantly, going to conferences, visiting universities, and being a traveling scholar. Intense. VERY intense. But also very fruitful. Out of this grew a research agenda of my own, with a slew of more or less intensely pursued projects; projects other people care about, projects that can hold lifetimes between the short term (finished before I leave Stanford) to the very long term (things I can keep milking until I retire or grow too bored with them).
I started doing things far outside the comfort zone of what my funding agency tells me to do this year. There is a reference in the quotes above to the 'What I did last summer'-paper. This paper had ALL of its research performed during an idyllic 2 weeks in Luminy outside Marseilles. I met the authors of an earlier paper, sat down, and banged out an implementation of their system in Haskell. This since has materialized into a published and done paper - recently accepted with only minor changes requested.
During the fall, things congealed for me. I took up teaching. I started mentoring a senior thesis. I formulated a Grand Vision For The Future - which may or may not prove too outlandish to work. And I got things rolling on several projects. Right now, as the year goes to an end, I'm a peer review referee. I've a growing publication list, and projects in a clear pipeline. The projects I was giving up on have been revived by students taking them on, and the projects I'm enthusiastic about have been picked up on by my PI as being really worth-while working on.
In other words, as good as it gets in academia.
Hobbies
I've taken up dancing. Swing, to be specific. This happened before 2009, but it got to a habit, and it started infecting others during this year.
My parents have taken up Swing after visiting me in Galway and joining a class with Galway Swing during their visit.
I've taken up going to the 9:20 Special, and Lindy in the Park in San Francisco. And I've bought swing dancing shoes. With Susanne, I went to a Big Bad Voodoo Daddy concert. Swing is part of my life now.
Speaking of concerts - I moved to San Francisco proper after my Summer Of Travels. And I love it. One of the things living in The City brings me is that all of a sudden, the life of the city is within reach. I went to concerts by Infected Mushroom, Leonard Cohen and Covenant this fall - and I (just barely) kept myself from going to Röyksopp too.
More things that happen when living in the City? Soooo many I won't be able to list them all. But I've gotten more interesting things out of hanging out with the Hacker/Maker-space Noisebridge than before - and I've been pulled in for more than a few gloriously weird events along the way. Street parties, parades, street games, guerilla swings in the subway ... life is wondrously weird in The City.
Life and Family
As I mentioned above, I moved house during the year. Instead of living out in East Palo Alto, dependent on both buses and trains to move about, I now live in downtown San Francisco.
I'm still dependent on both buses and trains to move about, but they run more often, later at night, and the whole City is within reach, instead of 'just' East Palo Alto, barely campus.
With family, things are going along much the same they used to. My wife came to visit in Galway during the summer, and in San Francisco during the fall. We both went to Chicago. And I keep going to see her regularly. My parents came to Galway while I was there.
Living apart is taxing. But doable.
And we've faced grief and sorrow in the extended family. My wife's aunt passed away - prematurely. Leaving husband and two children, as well as the rest of the family, dealing with the loss.
All in all, a glorious year, filled with happiness more than sorrow, and with the fulfillment of dreams and hopes.
![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png){kind=small}
no subject
Date: 2009-12-24 09:11 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2009-12-24 09:16 pm (UTC)It's a bit of an experiment really - if I really DON'T reach anyone who cares and who isn't already reading it this way, I might as well shut it off again....