Canto IV

So it's been a busy week. First off, let me just say: SNOW! The blizzard on sunday was a lot of fun. The snow was great to play in, nice and soft. Stephanie and I went walking around and saw all the people sledding and snowboarding. Although the snowboarding was stretching it a bit. Good times were had by all, then we came home and had some hot chocolate. Not too shabby.

But then the week started. Of course, the T broke down on monday. So it was cold, and we had to walk in to Kenmore from somewhere around BU. Steph left earlier than I did, thinking the snow was going to make the T late. But this wasn't the snow, apparently the brakes weren't working on one of the trains or something. So despite me leaving 15 minutes after she did, we ended up meeting at Kenmore station, each hating the green line in our own way. Stupid green line. I had aggreed a few weeks ago to give a talk on friday, and hadn't really started it yet. Suddenly I found myself a few days away from giving a talk in front of the whole CTP and nothing to say. Fortunately, it was on experimental particle physics, so I figured I could wing it decently. Classes are now in full swing and homework is being assigned. In fact I'm avoiding doing my QFT homework to write this. I'm really trying to schedule my time better this term. I did last term fairly well. I'm just getting started and I already feel like there's too much going on. But I think this last week was atypical due to the talk.

Stephanie and I avoided the whole Valentine's Day thing. We just decided that tuesday night isn't good for anybody to do anything, so we went out friday night. And despite my best efforts to remember to get her flowers, I totally forgot on friday. But she made up for it in spades. I came home to a bunch of flowers already waiting for me. I appreciate the effort, although my affection for flowers is pretty muted. We went out for japanese, the food was good, but I would give the atmosphere a C.

Anyway, the week's been busy with classes, TA stuff (I don't think anyone is going to use the tutoring hours I have set up - it's just a colossal waste of my time), some good talks, and getting ready for my talk. The colloquium on thursday was on how stalactites (the ones that hang down) get their shape. It was a really interesting talk. One of the better talks I've been to, especially given it was mostly geophysics and geochemistry.

Anyway, by wednesday I had an outline in my mind for how I wanted to give my talk. But nothing written. That night I was talking to Steph about it, and I had a different idea, and decided to completely redo it (although I hadn't written anything down, I did know roughly what I was going to say). I decided to give a historical perspective on how particle detection works. So thursday I went in and looked up all the original papers on some famous physics experiments. It was a lot of fun to read them. That night, once the Daily Show was over, I started writing it all out. Like I said, though, I usually know what I'm going to say about all these different things, I just need the little details correct. I was only up until 1 (1 1/2 hours to write a 1 hour talk - plus all that research and thinking). The next morning I went over it again and looked up some other stuff to add on. I had a morning class from 10-11 and I was talking to the professor as we were walking over and he was surprised that I was going to class because he knew I was giving a talk. Long story short (made long by all this build up), the talk went pretty well. And I ended right on time, which I consider to be the most important thing. Although there were no questions. That can only mean: 1) no one cared in the least, 2) everyone was asleep from eating (it's a lunch talk) 3) it all went right over everyone's head, 4) I was going too fast and didn't let them get a word in edge-wise, or 5) it was so great and perfectly explained that there was no need for questions. My thinking is some mixture of 1, 2 and 4. But everyone afterwards was positive, but what can they say? That sucked and you're never allowed to give a talk again?

The best thing that came out of this was the fact that one of the professors I've been trying to meet (our paths never quite crossed in the last three weeks), came up afterwards and we met for a little while to discuss research. He's working on string theory in black holes, which I think in pretty cool and something I'm definitely interested in. There are a few more profs I want to talk to, but this is promising. So now I'm back at work, not working. We did all the shopping for the week today, and even did some grocery shopping, so I'm considering today to be a success, independent of any homework completion. Hopefully next week is a little bit calmer, it's only 4 days long after all.