Weekly Summary 11: Thanksgiving

Americans celebrate this strange holiday called Thanksgiving, which is related to some heroic story on the first settlers that came with the Mayflower more than 4 centuries ago. Nowadays all that is left from this holiday are the long weekend, the shopping after Thanksgiving day, and the large feasts during which flocks of turkeys are being consumed. We did them all during the last few days, so we have truly lived the spirit of this holiday.
The weekend was long, starting on Wednesday afternoon and finishing tomorrow morning, and we got to rest a bit, although, as always, there was a huge list of tasks to complete. I'm glad to say that I'm almost there, the term is almost over, and I can see the end coming. Tomorrow starts the last week of studies, with one class taking their last midterm (no final) on Wednesday and the other taking one midterm the same day and the final on next Monday. So, until the end of the term I still have to check two midterms, one final exam, one final project, and one last assignment. That's about 5 days of work. Still four lectures to go, two already prepared for tomorrow and other two on Friday and that's it! I'll be the veteran of one term. D has her final exams week after that and then, on December 12, we will be over, at last, thank God! See, I bet they celebrate Thanksgiving for that.

The day after Thanksgiving is called Black Friday for some reason. Officially it's the start of the holidays shopping season and as you know the economy is not doing that well this season. As we had been doing in the last few months, we again tried to boost the failing economy by going to another shopping spree, that started on Thursday's shopping at Jungle Jim's, the local store for food from all over the world (mainly for us: Jacobs coffee imported by Elite Ramat Gan). On Friday we bought me a new pair of trousers (that's pants in proper English) and three buttoned shirts at the Gap, and on Saturday we went to Target for another "fill in the house blanks" shopping. All in all I think we are about $500 poorer now. I think that since we came here we have boosted the American economy by a sum of $15,000-$20,000 including the car we bought. No wonder, then, that NYSE gained on Friday after hearing how well Black Friday sales were. And by the way, the stores have already started playing awful Christmas tunes and songs. It takes a few visits and then you become immuned to the sounds, and can barely hear them, like a white noise in the background.

And we ate. On Friday one of D's classmates invited the entire class (some 40 people) and faculty to enjoy after-Thanksgiving traditional dinner with his family at his Mother's house. It was amazing. Not the food, that was great, but more the friendliness and all the time and effort they put to make us feel at home. I also got to meet the rest of D's classmates, who are mainly Indians (not Native Americans, real Indians). All of them were in shock after the terrorist attacks on Mumbai this week. It seems that Indians hold a belief that we, Israelis, can deal with terror and conquer it, and especially the Mossad, which they claim to be the best intelligence organization in the world. We had a few chats on this issue, and mainly on other issues which relate to the place of India in the future world, as super-power. They say that some in India have been talking about this for a few decades now, but India is still too divided between the rich and the poor that it will take a long time until India can become a super-power. They were also impressed by the fact that I was in Bangalor last year. So, Dvora, this is for you. They also said that we should consider ourselves settled for a long trip in India after D graduates, as she will have "a friend in each city" in India.

We also spent a very nice evening with Kelly and his family today. His wife and he invited us over and it was nice to see how they live and meet their family. I am very grateful for that, and it was nice to be out tonight, although now we have to pay with less hours to sleep to make up for the lost time.

So, the weekend ends, and a new week begins shortly with still a lot of work to do. Have a good one.

Short summary for those who asked for:

• Thanksgiving food
• Thanksgiving / Black Friday shopping
• Not enough rest in 5 days weekend
• Still more food

Weekly update #10: work, work, work

The current weekly update has been delayed until now because of the excessive work I had during the last week. I think I put in around 80 or so hours last week, and at the current salary I'm paid, if I continue this way, I will be paid around $10 an hour. I can't understand how this happens; I teach only 6 hours a week, and prepare my lessons for them, after I decided that I want better presentations/lessons to use in class. Let's assume that I'm spending 5 hours in excess of each hour I teach, so that's 36 hours a week. The problem is that I still prepare the answers for the homework I give, check the homework, check the exams, and so on. This almost doubles the time I'm spending.
Next week is Thanksgiving, which means we have a long weekend. I guess I'll use that time to rest a little. However, I have so many tasks ahead of me that I don't think I'll get too much rest. We also have plans as we are invited to dinner at someone from D's class and at Kelly's (us! plans! to see other people! confused? so are we!). It's crazy. This 10 weeks quarter term, instead of the 14 weeks semester we had in the Technion, is so condensed. In each class I teach this quarter they have 3 midterms, and 6-7 home assignments and I have to grade them all because I don't have a Teaching Assistant (TA). I've become the corrupt academic type that complains when his research is effected by the lack of TAs and the necessity to lecture in classes. How sad...

Anyway, not much to tell after the views of the snow I posted earlier this week. The weather has improved and became warmer - it's now around zero. I told my dad that yesterday and he laughed and said that I sounded differently than before I had left. There are 22 days left until we fly to Israel, 23 days until we land. I started counting the days now. I don't know if or when we will be able to fly home again after that visit. Firstly, we don't have enough money. Secondly, we don't have time, because spring break is only a week or so. Thirdly, D is supposed to start her internship in the summer, so summer will be busy as well. She has started interviewing for the internship, and as expected, she is doing very well. She is way over the level of the other students looking for internship both in experience and academic background, that the only thing that might prevent her from landing the internship she wants is her being OVER-qualified. She also had an interesting interview with the Forces-of-Darkness from the NW (that's Microsoft, and I'm only joking). The funny thing is that they interviewed her over the phone; if she does well (which she has) and proceed to the next step (no doubt), she will be interviewed there for an entire day. They will probably fly her over for that. Too bad they don't fly the domestic partner :-). I would love to see the Microsoft campus, especially after reading Microserfs a few weeks ago. And Seattle is probably warmer than here at this time of the year.

The maze thing is coming very well. I have improved the communications between the agents to include only necessary communications, which means that the problem now scales to ANY size of the maze and each the only limit is the number of agents in the group. That's vast improvement.
I presented it to another researcher here and he was impressed, I think. He asked me to show this work in a meeting we have next week - so more work. Yay!

Well, see you in three and a half weeks!

Signs of winter

This week started off with the signs of winter. We had the first snow, which lasted for a few hours on the ground from late afternoon on Monday till the early morning hours of Tuesday. In Tuesday morning we woke up to see a deer, probably the same young fawn we had seen a few weeks ago. We tried to take pictures of it while it was grazing across from our porch, but it disguised itself. Later on Tuesday he was grazing just across from our house on the street. The photos here are of the fawn and the first signs of snow.

Weekly update #9: progress and recession

This week was focused on the progress we have been making since we came here, and on the uneasy feeling of my friends back home about the financial situation. There is still a lot to do on both sides of the ocean, and hopefully things will improve soon.

In chats with some of my friends from the previous work place. It seems that the management has decided to make some cutbacks, which are defined as a "more humane" way to deal with the financial crisis rather than fire people. I hope that hi-tech companies in Israel don't generate a fake crisis just to be able to "push down" on the salaries and benefits that workers had been given before. Anyway, in order to cheer you up, my friends, perhaps this will help.

In the mean time we, unfortunately without help from the rest of America, tried to get the American economy on the move again. On Friday we returned to IKEA for another shopping spree that ended up with a sofa, two stools, a desk, a drawer cabinet to support the desk, two small cabinets, and an office chair. The total is almost $800, plus 4 hours at IKEA and a day and a half assembling everything. This came after a very successful week, some of which you can see here, which included the official approval of us being domestic partners so that D won't have to pay tuition, and of me solving the multi-agent maze problem within 4 days, which made Kelly very impressed. I don't see this maze things as being too hard or a challenge, but it seems that others do, and everyone suggests that I write a paper for a conference and a journal. If I end up doing so, it will probably be the paper which took people the shortest period of time to work on. I will certainly have to add literature survey, and a few improvements, but the main core is already there.

Another thing that has changed recently is my approach to the students. I feel that I have developed a hard skin so that their grades on a test do not bother me anymore. Today I graded the tests of one of my classes, and the average was 60, compared to the 69 in the previous test they had, and this time I feel less bad about it than in the previous test. This time I know that all the mistakes they were making are their own, because I know for sure that I taught them and told them to be cautious not to make those mistakes. If the students are not listening, that's their problem, and it ceases to be my problem. On the other hand, there are (a few) students that do try, and when they don't succeed, or not as well as I think they should, it is still a disappointment.

Today was my (almost) first time I saw snow falling. It was cold enough for something on the verge between snow and rain, but the temperature was still above zero, and the precipitation too weak for a real snow. D keeps laughing at me for not having seen snow falling, but that's what happens when you live in the desert (Jerusalem doesn't count). She also reminds me all the time that we will have enough chances to have snow, that soon enough we will wish it wasn't snowing. Perhaps she's right, but until then, a good snow fall is in order!

This also summarizes our two months of being here. A lot have changed since we came here: the economy collapsed, a new president was elected, we found a house, a car, registered ourselves to all the medical/dental/life insurance benefits, got domestic partnership approved, etc. Still, this place doesn't feel like my home. We're meeting the plan of this project, and D has even started to think about success criteria. I still don't have friends here, certainly not like the ones I have in Israel, I still miss my family, being in Tel Aviv, my flat there, and the rest of my life there. I don't know if this will change soon. There is so much that needs to develop here before I will consider this place as my home, and maybe it will never be. In the mean time I still feel a bit like a tourist here, and I know that I will feel like a tourist in my coming visit to Tel Aviv. I find myself looking forwards to this feeling. I have never been a tourist in Tel Aviv, and always considered it my home, even when I grew up in Holon, or lived a few years in Haifa. It will be a change to wake up in the morning and go for a stroll in Tel Aviv.

You may be happy to know that in the past month my view of Americans hasn't improved by one bit. They are still a lazy and stupid group of people, who will not budge an inch out of their way to help you. They are entangled in their own bureaucracy without being able to do anything different than the thing they were told to do. If you want something done, you have to do it exactly at the same way they know, and adjust to the pace they are used to doing things. I have a small hope that this is only in the university, because I talked with a secretary that joined the department a month ago, and she was amazed by the sluggishness of the university as much as I was. She said that it's probably because people at the university usually have tenure, and no one gets fired, so no one needs to work hard to justify his or her job. I think she's right, as I've seen similar things in other places, like IAI.

Perhaps Barack Obama will change things. In his acceptance speech he told the cheering crowd that they will need to work hard to change America. His speech sounded to me like the speech Churchill gave when he encouraged the British people to keep fighting the Nazis. Neither of them promised it will be easy, and in both cases the crowd was fearing the present but hoping for a better future. It worked one time, let's hope it will work again, for the sake of America, and for the sake of the entire world.

Good mood and good news

Today I'm in a very good mood. First of all, the human resources has approved the application and now D and I are officially Domestic Partners. This means that we can get tuition remission for her and enroll her to all the medical benefits, just as if we were married. This means that our financial condition has improved greatly.
Another thing is that I have solved the multi-agent maze problem. It took me only 4 days to solve it from the Saturday until now. It works brilliantly. Kelly is really impressed with that and he thinks I should write a paper for a conference and a journal.
With all these great things that happened to me today I also found a funny site with comic strips that deal with Ph.D. and grad students life. All images are from http://www.phdcomics.com/comics.php and they depict so nicely the life of a grad student in the US. I really recommend that you take a look at it. Here are some appetizers from there:

Weekly update 8: Change

I chose Obama's slogan as the title of this update in honor of his victory in the presidential elections. I don't believe he will bring change to America, at least not in the magnitude required here, nor in the amount he promised he would, but what the hell...

Now that politics are put aside, I can update that we are coming for a vacation in Tel Aviv in December. We will be in Israel for a period of two weeks (starting December 17) and I hope to be able to meet everyone during this visit. We still haven't decided where we are going to stay, and whether it will be with my father all the time or partially at D's parents. The reason to stay with my father is also the reason why not to be with him all the time: he needs our company to relieve him from his sudden solitude after my mother's death; however, I don't want him to have another shock when we leave back.

And on another topic: I started doing a nice research/game dealing with a group of agents (in real life: robots) that travel through a maze. So far I have worked only since yesterday and already I have a maze downloaded from the web and running, simple logic for a single agent to complete the maze, and scalability for a group of agents. I still need to implement a better logic for the single agent and a complex logic for the group, i.e. agents learning from the other. Nonetheless, I enjoy this game and it gives me something to do other than prepare for classes or check students work, which is boring.

Unfortunately, our lives has really become dull other than what I have written here. This week we stayed at the university long hours (13 and 14 hours on Wednesday and Thursday), so I really don't have anything else - and certainly anything funny - to tell. So, I bid you a good week and see you soon!

Weekly summary #7: photos

First, I'll start with two administration notices:

1. Some of you have repeatedly asked for photos. Here are some. Since the only drives we have are from the home to the university and back, and since our house is still a mess, the photos are only of the university. Maybe I'll add more later.
2. I decided that the Verizon phone is so unusable that I left Verizon for T-mobile and now I use my Sony-Ericsson from home. On the other hand, I decided that it's not a good idea to put my phone on the net, so if you need it, just ask for my new phone. In any case, don't use the Verizon phone number.
3. As always, you're encouraged to follow the links in this update.

The reason this update is late is the Obama rally we attended yesterday at the University of Cincinnati (video). We're not into politics that much, and in the previous post I mentioned that there's not enough interest in the coming elections, especially comparing to their importance to America and to the world. Apparently one the candidates has decided to spark things up and yesterday Senator Obama made an appearance in Nyppert Stadium at the University of Cincinnati. We decided to go, as this is probably the closest we'll ever get to the president of the United States, according to the polls. On the other hand, Shimon Peres has been elected several times in the polls so nothing is decided yet. Or, in other way, you can see this Simpsons clip to understand why McCain will be elected at the end, and pay special attention to the sentence in which Homer says: "... this does not happen in America...".

Before talking about the rally itself, I just want to give you another example on how this country and the people in this city are ready for a totalitarian regime. The doors of the stadium opened at 6, and we left my office at the university at 5 so that we'll have a good chance of getting in. Already there was a huge line. Everyone was standing in an organized fashion and we simply walked to the end of the line and joined it. People were standing on the road at that time, and then came a police officer and politely said: "folks, I need you to be on the pavement". In less than 5 seconds a group of more than 20 people moved to stand on the pavement, with no questions or arguments. Total adherence to the law-enforcement representative.

Anyway, I have some observations regarding Barack Obama as a candidate and possibly the next president of the United States (I guess you knew I would make some comments about him, right?).
Firstly, this is something we saw yesterday, and I don't know if it is not the same in the case of McCain, but the candidacy of Obama has made him a merchandise. We saw people selling everything with his face and name on: T-shirts, bumper stickers, car magnets, and even play cards (that had Bush and McCain as the jokers). Anything you want for a price that ranges from $1 to $25. He has become a rock star rather than a candidate. Again, this might be the case for John McCain as well (I know that Sarah Palin has become an icon as well, as I mentioned in the previous update). Just notice this link: www.barackobama.com in the picture I took yesterday.
Secondly, if the way Obama manages his time can give us any clue on the way he will run the next administration, then he will not do a good job. Yesterday we waited for him for 40 minutes before he appeared on stage, and that's after the other small-time politicians finished their speeches. The crowd around us, comprised mainly by supporters and fans of the Democratic party (unlike us, who were just there for the experience), was getting frustrated with his delay. Some said: "hey, we need to be at work tomorrow, those of us who still have work".
Thirdly, I genuinely think that there is no good candidate in the coming elections. Both Obama and McCain are ill-suited for this job. Obama is too young and inexperienced, although very charismatic judging by the female crowd around me yesterday even sexy, to comprehend and manage the current turmoil in the financial markets and the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. McCain on the other hand is too old, and too attached to his Republican party, and to the legacy of the Bush administration. If there is something evident in the current situation, it is that this administration is probably the worst ever in the history of the United States. I think that what people seek is change, and Obama is change for them (his slogans are: "change" and "hope"), but in my view: to say "change" is not enough. In the terms of a systems engineer, you need to define the requirements in an unambiguous manner, and just saying "change" is not enough. You need a plan, preferably a feasible one, and I can't say I've heard one coming from the Obama campaign managers. For example, I think that his plans will leave a HUGE hole in the American budget, which will only drive this economy to a worse situation than it already is.
Last observation I have of Obama is that he started to feel too confident in his success. Yesterday, I heard him use the term "regime" for the current Bush government. I don't know how many of you are aware of the different terms the English language has for a government. Usually, the neutral term is "government", while a positive way to say it is "administration" (that's usually how Americans call their own government), and "regime" is the negative wording for such. Usually the word regime refers to the Irani government, or Saddam Hussein's government. When used in the context of the Bush government it has significant consequences on the way Barack Obama thinks.

Can an African American become the president of the United States with all the prejudices and bigotry here? A few months ago I was doubted that very much; now, in light of the economic crisis, I think that people are so aching for change that some of them are willing to overlook questions of race and color. According to the polls here, he will be elected. If he doesn't it will be the surprise of the century, but it will also show that underneath the surface there is still a dark current of hatred between the whites and blacks in America.

Moving on to other issues, we have started to think about our upcoming home visit. One thing that came up pretty quickly, not surprising given our bent towards good food and coffee, and the lack of such here, is our need for such. I don't know if we can afford too many of those, but we certainly would like to go to some of our favorite places in Tel Aviv, and until now the food wish-list includes:

• Joya
• Tamara
• Vanillia
• Arcaffe
• A cafe near my home
• A good Humus/lafa place (with emphasis on good!) for me
• D wants to add Barbari or Yevulim

So, if something here sounds good to you as well, we will be happy to schedule a lunch or a dinner there. Also, if something good has opened since we left, that's fine by us.

Quick updates from the previous week:

1. I finally got my first paycheck. Hurray! Only a month and a half without a salary.
   
2. Still no updates on our other administrative issues with the university (i.e. domestic partnership).
3. We went to a Halloween party organized by the graduate students at the College of Business. I think that it was the first time that I saw American women allow themselves to dress in "revealing" clothing. I think that more revealing clothing is considered "slutty" here (at least in Cincinnati). We were supposed to wear costumes, so D and I bought hats. She got a large hat and I got a fedora hat. I tried for the "great depression era unemployed". Unfortunately, they didn't have the fedora in red. Which brings me to the last update:
   
4. Windows on my old laptop has finally crashed. I had to install the entire system with the KDE version of Ubuntu (version 8.10). That's the first time in my life that I use a computer with no Microsoft operating system installed on it. So far, apart from a few glitches, it behaves itself. We intend it to serve as our media center at home, and it takes some tweaking before you can do that in Linux (basically because of the proprietary media formats used everywhere). Ynet is still a mess with all the non-standard video streams they use, but nothing that a good Greasemonkey script and a good media player can't handle.

For those of you who got this far: mood-o-meter - high for me, low for D. Did you notice that we are at 180 degrees phase from each other?