past few days (long and rambling -- ignore!)

[alexr_rwx]

So the Rudnick said to himself, "my people are confused, directionless, lonely, bored... what can I do to entertain them and give them hope in this life?"

And lo: gossamer gobs of blog flowed forth from his fingertips, and there was a Posting. And it was marginally acceptable, at least.

-- alexr, 30 Dec 2003

"I often quote myself; it adds spice to my conversation."
-- George Bernard Shaw

There's been so much stuff going on. Since I last posted, I went from Atlanta to Tallahassee to St. Petersburg, and back to Tallahassee, and I'm about to head back to Atlanta...

The trip to St. Petersburg was primarily for my uncle Frank's wedding, which was cool in that he got married, and everybody's pleased about that, of course... but perhaps more interesting than the wedding itself was hanging out with my cousin Matt, who, it turns out, reads this fairly regularly. Matt, you should click here so that you can have one too; it'll be great :)

So we (Natalie and Matt and myself) were out into the wild St. Petersburg night, and we hung out and listened to a really good jazz band and chatted about stuff, eventually tracked down some of Matt's friends and tried to find an 18+ club (instead of 21+, for Natalie)... and ended up at a sort of loud, very party-ful tropical-themed bar where Matt's friends knew one of the security guys, so we all could get in. It's really interesting, talking with him these days ... he's gotten to a point in his life where he's trying really hard to make money and a name in the business world, and he's grown up in totally different circumstances, and his underlying assumptions about people and life in general are quite different, and...

Well, you know... this discussion basically falls under the "I understand neither people who aren't me nor people who are" category.

Other things:

Since I've been back, I've been doing very little aside from running in the woods (geekfitness) and hanging out with Tallahassee associates and eating. We've been tromping around in the woods late at night (that was endlessly lovely, and it was cool, and the wind was going, and the moon was full), talking about stuff, harassing old friends... and somehow or another, not managing to run into Brett zip4096, which is semi-upsetting, but it's more okay because I get to talk to him online at least. But I'd been hanging out with Alan and Derick and Sara and Lloyd and Garrett (although mostly not all at once), and this is quite pleasing, and it's good to see everybody.

And Lloyd and I are, in the next coupla hours, going to drive to Atlanta to go hiking on the Appalachian Trail (for Several Days!) with Will rw_conspiracy, which is pleasing :)

... and... and... I heard back from the JHU CLSP people on Monday, and they didn't say that they wouldn't take me for the summer program, but they didn't say that they would either. Apparently I was somewhere in the Top Ten on their list of applicants, but not in the Top Six, and they're scrounging for funding to see if they can handle me as well... they were super-nice about it, too. I sent them an email back that said "don't worry about paying me, so much! I just want to come play!" ... so they'll get back to me, as to whether they could get funding, on Friday.

I now have a lab coat. If you're going to be a scientist (and a computer scientist is certainly a scientist), you're going to need a lab coat. So I've got that covered.

Scott gtduck now's got an LJ! Yay for Scott! :)

And now I'll be off into the woods, and then off to Atlanta.

Comments

[samarin.livejournal.com]

Ack! Now if I follow through on my two-day-old plan to bring my lab coat down, I'll look like a poseur. Oh wait, I am a poseur. This is going to make the forthcoming non-conformist shoes look especially bad.

Curse you all, people of the world. You have never understood me and your "clothing" is ruining my life. Perhaps I and the 6.5 billion can take this outside. *lashes out with wild abandon*

[agonistes]

Dude. You're going to be vaguely near my house.

Make sure you check out Amicalola Falls before you start hiking Springer. Is v. worth it.

Although, of course, you probably won't get this since you've probably already left. Enh. It had to be said.

New livejournal

[monsignorsmith.livejournal.com]

I now have my very own livejournal and I couldn't be more excited. This is your cousin Matt, thanks for helping me out with this thing. I am now one step closer to taking over the world. ha ha haaaa!

[falun.livejournal.com]

i almost said that CS isn't a science... and then i thought about finate automata, and push-down automata, and turing machines, and graph search algorithms, and dynamic programming, and np-completeness widgets, and ... there were a few other things... oh yea, Big O!!! how could i forget Big O and runtime-analysis, and then that leads to randomized algorithms... and after all that i was like 'yea -- who's glad they took theory?' (oo-oo-oo pick me!)

and then i was like 'man, i wish i grok'd all that'

but all that aside, CS is an art -- you can't deny that, beauty is found in code after all (among other things, don't get me wrong)

[reality-calls.livejournal.com]

Can't wait to hear about your hiking trip! Wish I was there for it. Tell Lloyd to get himself a Livejournal account, or Else.

(Make sure the "Else" is capitalized, to ensure that he gets the message.)

      "Live from the People's Republic"

[oniugnip.livejournal.com]

"Too bad!" -- Lloyd

[reality-calls.livejournal.com]

"Else!" -- Richard

[zip4096.livejournal.com]

Have a fantastic time in the woods, Alex :) Sorry you didn't manage to run into me over break here, dang.

Ooo and where did you get a lab coat???

Re: Lab Coat

[reality-calls.livejournal.com]

I second that inquiry!

      "Live from the People's Republic"