I am a Technical Woman

The footage for this video was gathered at the 2008 Grace Hopper Conference. Watch for me, I'm in it for almost half a second!

Busy

Oh my goodness! I was being such a good and consistent blogger. Unfortunately my summer days of leisure have passed, and I am now back in the craziness of school. I am enrolled in only two classes, because more than that would infringe on my ability to do research. These classes are on a level I have never seen before. Well, the assignments for Type Systems are at least. The first of our weekly assignments took me 15 hours to finish, and then another 14 hours to type up in the required format. My completed assignment was 7 pages of typed math. Oh my. But I would be lying if I said I didn't love it (except for the typing part, that was awful). It's a really amazing atmosphere here. Everyone loves what they're doing, and is excited to discuss it. I'm in for a huge challenge with the research and studies I will be doing.

No More Bugs

So, my air conditioner has been replaced, and I no longer have large bugs invading my room every evening. However, here are pictures from a couple who ventured to visit me one evening (no doubt coming from Schenley park down the street). I captured them in a tupperware container and released them on the back porch.

Felix

Everyone, I'd like you to meet Felix.

Felix is my wonderful new betta. I've been meaning to post pictures of him for a couple weeks, but taking pictures of a fish is surprisingly difficult. You might imagine that photographing a fish is hard because they dart around a lot, but that was not the case with Felix - he was so interested in my camera, that he is staring directly at me in almost every picture I took. My problem was the automatic focus, which would only focus on the glass in front of Felix, or the plant behind him.

Here is Felix's tank. Well, it's actually a vase I bought at TJ Maxx, but Felix doesn't seem to know the difference. I added some shells and a live plant to make it homey. I worry that he gets bored when I'm gone all day, so I also rotate other interesting items outside his tank for him to look at.

I brought back two glass companions for him from Venice. He basically ignores them, but he loves the shiny glass bobbles that they're attached to. He entertains himself by pushing them around with his nose.

I read that bettas (and other fish) can be taught a variety of tricks. I, of course, want Felix to be the smartest and most awesome betta in the world, so we are going to attempt to break the Guinness record of nine tricks learned by one fish! The first in his repertoire will be jumping to get a pellet of food stuck to my finger. We're working on it.

A Night at PNC Park - The Picture Book Version

We travelled by bus to the heart of the city, then crossed the Mighty Allegheny River on foot over the 6^th Street Bridge.

After taking our seats on the third base line, we admired the view that PNC park offered of downtown Pittsburgh.

The Pirates were losing to the Cardinals, 2-1, but we were not ashamed to support our team in our (free) Pirates hats!

The 10^th inning gave ample time for darkness to fall over the city, and give us an even more spectacular view.

And then, the main attraction and end of the evening: fireworks!

Life as a Grad Student

For the last two weeks I've been completely devoted to the Immigration Course (for all incoming PhD students in the Computer Science Department). Yesterday marked the end of the course, and the beginning of my life as a graduate student! Hooray!

The Immigration Course was basically a crash course in all the research that is being done at CMU. Every day from 9:45 to 4:00 we would listen to several professors give thirty minute snippets about their research. The point of this mentally exhausting task? FIND AN ADVISOR! From the thirty minute snippet we are supposed to decide if the prof is someone we want to do research with. If so, we schedule appointments with them and discuss. On September 30th, professors hand in their pick of students, and students hand in their pick of professors. They all get sorted and that's how you end up with an advisor. Then the real work can begin.

Along with organizing technical talks by professors, the Immigration Course exists to perform a sort of social hazing. Almost every night there is some activity (usually involving alcohol) to coax us timid first year students out of our shells. These have included: two potlucks, a boat cruise, kayaking on the Allegheny, Monongahela, and Ohio river, and several parties and bar nights. Tonight is our very last organized event. We are headed to a Pittsburgh Pirates baseball game at PNC park.

A couple pictures of activities during the last two weeks:

Kayaking at the Point. That's the Ohio river behind me.

We were kayaking right downtown, under all the bridges.

The boat cruise people made us split into groups and take awkward pictures as we boarded, no doubt hoping we would buy the photos from them later.

Reasons I love my new neighborhood

• Bought lemonade for a quarter from a kid's stand after a hot walk home from school.
• Cobble stone streets (that I don't have to drive on).
• The walk to school is almost entirely down hill.
• When I sit on my bed and look out my windows, all I can see are trees.
• Bus stop two blocks away.
• The owner of an ice cream truck lives and parks on my street.
• Lots and lots of big, old houses with interesting architecture.
• Nice neighbors.