So spring break is over. It was far too short and I feel that I am definitely not as rested as should be before the beginning of a new quarter. The previous quarter was very busy indeed, and in the last weeks of the quarter I was working too hard - around 12 hours a day, 7 days a week. The students seemed to like my work, especially the students in my new class. I did try to give them a full academic curriculum as well as a nice time in class, using clips and figures. It seemed to be working and I am glad that they felt good with that. One of them has even left a comment that he hopes the department will keep me in the next years. After the comments in the fall quarter I am glad to have this kind of a feedback.
Meanwhile, it seems that we need to pass a driving test in order to obtain a drivers license from the matrix-controlled state we're living in. As newcomers to the US we are required to prove that our driver's license is real. This is of course absolutely preposterous: in order to take the driving test we will drive our own car to the exam center, and should we fail we will simply get back into the car and drive it back home. That's because our driver's license from Israel is apparently good enough for driving as tourists, but is not good enough for driving as Ohioans. As part of this ridiculous process we took a written driving test (aka "theoretic" test) and passed it (naturally). I was expecting to get the license right away and got very upset when I was told that I need to schedule a driving test. D received the news with much more acceptance than me, which is funny because it's usually the other way around.
Back to the quarter ahead of us: again, I teach two classes, only this time both of them are classes I have already taught, so there is much less work preparing for them (checking assignments and exams is still a hard work). I also take 6 credits of "research", which means that I am free to do whatever I want, as long as the adviser agrees with me. D is going to be very busy with a full curriculum and her part time work. The worst part is that I teach (as always) on Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays starting at 8 in the morning, while she starts her day in the afternoon. Tuesdays and Thursdays are the opposite: she goes to work early in the morning, while I am not teaching, and intend to spend the time at home. Thus, we will rarely see each other at the university, and I will not have a partner for lunch.
Sunday, March 29, 2009
Thursday, March 26, 2009
Chicago
Spring break is almost over, and I haven't updated on our trip to Chicago. Chicago is located almost 300 miles north-west of Cincinnati. According to Google maps, that's almost 5 hours of driving. Naturally, we didn't think that driving for 5 hours straight is a good idea, so we made a few stops for food, coffee and basic i/o functions. The drive up there took us about 7 hours, and after this trip I can add two new states to the list of states in which I have been: Indiana and Illinois. (The others being: California, Connecticut, Florida, Idaho, Kentucky, Louisiana, Maryland, Massachusetts, Montana, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New York, Ohio, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, Vermont, Virginia, Washington, West Virginia and Wyoming). But, that was just the road trip.
Chicago itself is everything we were promised. I was worried that people promised us too much, but the city lived to the expectations I had. We found a hotel in the financial district downtown (aka 'the loop'). The hotel itself was very good and was worth the money we paid for it, but the area itself becomes very dull at nights and during weekends. Next time we'll take the Near-North area, which is right to the north of the loop. The Near North area reminds me of Vancouver, and that's a very high reference in my standards. It is not as beautiful, or full of parks/forests as Vancouver is, but it has all the vibrant life of a city center with people living in it. For those of you who are not accustomed to North America, city centers are usually zoned for finances and business, and become desolate and sometimes scary places at night. Near North, on the other hand, is quite the contrary, with posh residence towers, lots of shops, and great restaurants. The best part is that Chicago's public transportation is efficient and safe, which is excellent for people not wanting to move their car in the city. This, too, is different than most North American cities, where owning a vehicle is a must. In short, this is an excellent city which combines all the good things from NYC (vibrancy, variety, public transportation) with the good things of a smaller city (safety in the areas where we have been).
It's hard to summarize a city into words. D took quite a few photographs of the city and here they are:
This is the Chicago Cloud-Gate. A beautiful metal bean that was recently added to Chicago, and have become a major tourist attraction - and for a good reason. It cannot be described in words, just watch the photo and go visit!
This is the view from the John Hancock Center towards downtown. John Hancock Center is the fourth tallest building in Chicago (the Sears Tower being the first, and you can see it in the right half of the photo, with the two antennae), but the view from it is better than the view from the Sears Tower, because it's not too close to the other sky-scrapers.
This is the old water tower, one of the only remaining buildings from the Chicago great fire. Once, it was the highest building in Chicago, but as you can see from this photo, the John Hancock Center simply dwarfs it now.
From the John Hancock Center, if you look to the north, you can see the shoreline of Chicago and Lake Michigan to the right. The lake (I guess in Hebrew we would call that a sea) is large enough to have actual harbors and ships. Chicago has prevented people the shore from being used by entrepreneurs, making it a beautiful shoreline. The beaches that you see to the left of the lake are not really sand beaches, as they appear from above. Rather, they are concrete shores covered by a small layer of sand. To the left of the beaches the big road is called Lakeshore Drive, and the buildings on it are considered the most expensive real estate in Chicago. Well - something to aspire for.
The John Hancock Center as seen from the beach I described earlier.
The Chicago Cloud-Gate again, this time - if you look really carefully - you can spot D and me!
This photo, taken from Millennium Park, shows you how the city is layered up with towers and sky scrapers. I love this one.
However, Chicago is not just beauty and no brains. When we were there we were amazed at the number of academic institutes in the city. Six universities in or immediately adjoining the city, Northwestern University, the University of Chicago, DePaul University, University of Illinois Chicago, Loyola University Chicago, and the Illinois Institute of Technology, are among the top echelon of doctorate-granting research universities. We saw the University of Chicago as part of our tour of the Hyde Park area and D was impressed by the school of business. In addition, during that tour we saw this building (photo taken from Wikipedia):
This building is right across from the Booth School of Business. It is a beautiful house designed by the famous architect Frank Lloyd Wright, and it undergoes major reconstruction. It will be ready towards its 100 anniversary next year. It will be interesting to visit there in a year from now. In general, I think that Chicago is worth a few more visits.
Chicago itself is everything we were promised. I was worried that people promised us too much, but the city lived to the expectations I had. We found a hotel in the financial district downtown (aka 'the loop'). The hotel itself was very good and was worth the money we paid for it, but the area itself becomes very dull at nights and during weekends. Next time we'll take the Near-North area, which is right to the north of the loop. The Near North area reminds me of Vancouver, and that's a very high reference in my standards. It is not as beautiful, or full of parks/forests as Vancouver is, but it has all the vibrant life of a city center with people living in it. For those of you who are not accustomed to North America, city centers are usually zoned for finances and business, and become desolate and sometimes scary places at night. Near North, on the other hand, is quite the contrary, with posh residence towers, lots of shops, and great restaurants. The best part is that Chicago's public transportation is efficient and safe, which is excellent for people not wanting to move their car in the city. This, too, is different than most North American cities, where owning a vehicle is a must. In short, this is an excellent city which combines all the good things from NYC (vibrancy, variety, public transportation) with the good things of a smaller city (safety in the areas where we have been).
It's hard to summarize a city into words. D took quite a few photographs of the city and here they are:
This is the Chicago Cloud-Gate. A beautiful metal bean that was recently added to Chicago, and have become a major tourist attraction - and for a good reason. It cannot be described in words, just watch the photo and go visit!
This is the view from the John Hancock Center towards downtown. John Hancock Center is the fourth tallest building in Chicago (the Sears Tower being the first, and you can see it in the right half of the photo, with the two antennae), but the view from it is better than the view from the Sears Tower, because it's not too close to the other sky-scrapers.
This is the old water tower, one of the only remaining buildings from the Chicago great fire. Once, it was the highest building in Chicago, but as you can see from this photo, the John Hancock Center simply dwarfs it now.
From the John Hancock Center, if you look to the north, you can see the shoreline of Chicago and Lake Michigan to the right. The lake (I guess in Hebrew we would call that a sea) is large enough to have actual harbors and ships. Chicago has prevented people the shore from being used by entrepreneurs, making it a beautiful shoreline. The beaches that you see to the left of the lake are not really sand beaches, as they appear from above. Rather, they are concrete shores covered by a small layer of sand. To the left of the beaches the big road is called Lakeshore Drive, and the buildings on it are considered the most expensive real estate in Chicago. Well - something to aspire for.
The John Hancock Center as seen from the beach I described earlier.
The Chicago Cloud-Gate again, this time - if you look really carefully - you can spot D and me!
This photo, taken from Millennium Park, shows you how the city is layered up with towers and sky scrapers. I love this one.
However, Chicago is not just beauty and no brains. When we were there we were amazed at the number of academic institutes in the city. Six universities in or immediately adjoining the city, Northwestern University, the University of Chicago, DePaul University, University of Illinois Chicago, Loyola University Chicago, and the Illinois Institute of Technology, are among the top echelon of doctorate-granting research universities. We saw the University of Chicago as part of our tour of the Hyde Park area and D was impressed by the school of business. In addition, during that tour we saw this building (photo taken from Wikipedia):
This building is right across from the Booth School of Business. It is a beautiful house designed by the famous architect Frank Lloyd Wright, and it undergoes major reconstruction. It will be ready towards its 100 anniversary next year. It will be interesting to visit there in a year from now. In general, I think that Chicago is worth a few more visits.
Wednesday, March 18, 2009
Ohio is not a real place
Recently I have noticed that too many weird stories are related to the state of Ohio. While this is a large state, it is by far not the largest or most populated in the United States of America, and since California is both the most populated state and the weirdest one (i.e. creatures like Michael Jackson have a residence there) it should be California that gets all the weird media attention. However, this is not the case. Just in the last 2-3 months I read in Ynet the following stories:
An actress fell to her death after hanging from a rope during a show in the church. (Dec 19, 2008)
A 4 year-old shot his babysitter! (Jan 6,2009)
A father was sentenced to 16 years in jail after electro-shocking his children.(Jan 31, 2009)
A family objects to execution of a son who murdered his mother. (Feb 7, 2009)
An autistic 18 years old is accused of killing his mother. (Feb 25, 2009)
A transgendered woman forced her husband to train until his death. (Feb 15, 2009)
A university dean sprayed on a sign of another university. (Feb 25, 2009)
A woman breast-fed her baby while talking on her cellphone and driving! (Mar 1, 2009)
A letter finally reaches its destination in Ohio after 47 years. (Mar 14)
And, finally, Samuel Joseph Wurzelbacher, aka Joe the Plumber, is an Ohioan (timeless). Need I say more?
So, after all the aforementioned evidence, I can only come to the conclusion that Ohio is not a real place. It's a matrix-oid state, where the rules of the universe do not apply, and reality is controlled by a giant sentient computer. It is probably all a secret project of the Feds. Oh, I hear someone knocking on my door. I knew Google shares information with them! I knew it!
(Tomorrow's headlines on Ynet: Israeli arrested in Ohio for raving unintelligible nonsense on Ohio Matrixoids.).
An actress fell to her death after hanging from a rope during a show in the church. (Dec 19, 2008)
A 4 year-old shot his babysitter! (Jan 6,2009)
A father was sentenced to 16 years in jail after electro-shocking his children.(Jan 31, 2009)
A family objects to execution of a son who murdered his mother. (Feb 7, 2009)
An autistic 18 years old is accused of killing his mother. (Feb 25, 2009)
A transgendered woman forced her husband to train until his death. (Feb 15, 2009)
A university dean sprayed on a sign of another university. (Feb 25, 2009)
A woman breast-fed her baby while talking on her cellphone and driving! (Mar 1, 2009)
A letter finally reaches its destination in Ohio after 47 years. (Mar 14)
And, finally, Samuel Joseph Wurzelbacher, aka Joe the Plumber, is an Ohioan (timeless). Need I say more?
So, after all the aforementioned evidence, I can only come to the conclusion that Ohio is not a real place. It's a matrix-oid state, where the rules of the universe do not apply, and reality is controlled by a giant sentient computer. It is probably all a secret project of the Feds. Oh, I hear someone knocking on my door. I knew Google shares information with them! I knew it!
(Tomorrow's headlines on Ynet: Israeli arrested in Ohio for raving unintelligible nonsense on Ohio Matrixoids.).
Sunday, March 8, 2009
Weekly summary: signs of spring
The last week was very busy. On Tuesday I had a presentation at the Dayton-Cincinnati section of the AIAA (that's the aerospace counterpart of the more famous IEEE). It felt like attending the Israeli aerospace conference: you drive an hour north, the conference has many small rooms with little attendance, and everyone tries to be polite. It was a new experience for me, being my first conference ever, and I'm not sure if I liked it.
On Wednesday I had my birthday. As always, this is a good time for reflections on the previous year. I received a lot of emails and posts on my wall in Facebook with birthday wishes, and thanks for everyone. D and I didn't have time to celebrate, as both of us are extremely busy at the moment with end of the quarter tasks. D wished me a happy birthday, bought me two books, and we promised that when the quarter will finally be over we will have more time to celebrate.
A positive development is the vast improvement in the temperatures. The last few days have been warm, above 20 degrees (Celsius of course), and yesterday's weather was very nice. I wish I had not been so busy with work and laundry yesterday so that I could have enjoyed it, like some of my neighbors did. On my way to the laundry room and back I saw a few of them hanging outside in the parking lot, playing music and getting some rare rays of sunshine. Today is a different story. It is still warm, but we have already had two sirens warning us from the risk of a severe thunderstorm, which could develop into a tornado. And since the buildings here are basically built as boxes of cardboard and wood, a tornado can simply lift everything up and crash it down. We can hear the wooden beams attached to the roof stretch when the wind blows. The trees have not started blooming again.
Others signs of spring follow also: the infamous spring break (that's when all the young American students fly to resorts in Mexico, get drunk, naked, and wild) is just around the corner. Today started the daylight saving time ("summer clock" as it is referred to in Israel) in the US. So now, not only that we are 800 Km west of where the Eastern clock is (meaning that the sun rises and sets late relative to the East coast), now it will happen even an hour earlier. So, again, we will wake up before the sun.
On Wednesday I had my birthday. As always, this is a good time for reflections on the previous year. I received a lot of emails and posts on my wall in Facebook with birthday wishes, and thanks for everyone. D and I didn't have time to celebrate, as both of us are extremely busy at the moment with end of the quarter tasks. D wished me a happy birthday, bought me two books, and we promised that when the quarter will finally be over we will have more time to celebrate.
A positive development is the vast improvement in the temperatures. The last few days have been warm, above 20 degrees (Celsius of course), and yesterday's weather was very nice. I wish I had not been so busy with work and laundry yesterday so that I could have enjoyed it, like some of my neighbors did. On my way to the laundry room and back I saw a few of them hanging outside in the parking lot, playing music and getting some rare rays of sunshine. Today is a different story. It is still warm, but we have already had two sirens warning us from the risk of a severe thunderstorm, which could develop into a tornado. And since the buildings here are basically built as boxes of cardboard and wood, a tornado can simply lift everything up and crash it down. We can hear the wooden beams attached to the roof stretch when the wind blows. The trees have not started blooming again.
Others signs of spring follow also: the infamous spring break (that's when all the young American students fly to resorts in Mexico, get drunk, naked, and wild) is just around the corner. Today started the daylight saving time ("summer clock" as it is referred to in Israel) in the US. So now, not only that we are 800 Km west of where the Eastern clock is (meaning that the sun rises and sets late relative to the East coast), now it will happen even an hour earlier. So, again, we will wake up before the sun.
Thursday, March 5, 2009
Yearly summary: 35
It was my birthday yesterday. I am 35 years old now, and it's a good time, as any birthday, to think about the previous year and analyze it in terms of successes and failures. As always, my categories are: family, love, friends, work, academics, and life in general.
Before progressing to the analysis itself, two things overshadowed any other thing this year: the death of my mother and the relocation to Cincinnati. These two play a major part in any of the categories that follow, but more importantly they have an enormous impact on my daily life in general.
Family: undoubtedly, the death of my mother this year was the most significant event that changed my family life. The obvious thing, of course, is her being missing. She was the most significant member in my family to me, and I don't mean that I loved her more than the others, but simply that she was the closest one to me. My relations with my father and sister have always known ups and downs, each for its own reasons, that this is not the right time or place to divulge. However, my mother was always a person to whom I could talk and tell much of my life. Naturally, it was the case when I was younger and still lived with my parents, but even after I moved out permanently we still had a good relationship. Seeing her losing the shape of a human being - physically and mentally - was very hard for me. At some point, towards the last days of her life, when she could not control her body anymore due to the tumors in her brain, I was even hoping that the suffering would end for her. It's not easy, and it's not something to be proud of, but that's how I felt at the time.
After her death something has changed in the relations I have with my father and sister. This is also accompanied by the fact that I am away, but I think that now we are a bit closer (in the emotional sense) than we have ever been. I don't know how long this will last, and whether it will withstand the distance of me being here, or when I get back. Only time can resolve this question, but as of now I think that my family relationships have improved, and some of it is due to this tragedy.
In all, I'd say that the family aspect of the last year was very bad, but hopefully some good will come out of this.
Love: I consider the past year to be the best year for my relationship with D. It started with her moving to my place, continued with her being by me in the worst days after my mother died, and then we moved here. The only reason I could survive all these changes is her. I found in her strengths that I hadn't seen before. Less important, but worth to mention, is that my sister finally came to appreciate what D is, and came to respect her for being my true "significant" other. Not in the way the term is used by P.C. minded people, but by the essence of that term: she is part of my life that I cannot live without. Any other words that I can write will only diminish this message.
Friends: it takes bad times to realize who your best friends are and how much they are important to you. Last year had enough of those times and I can say that one of the hardest things now is the lack of my friends. I didn't even realize how many friends I have and how close I feel to them until we relocated. At first I wondered how long will I continue to write my weekly updates, but I felt that I had to do it, because I wanted my friends to be part of my life even though I'm far away. It became an important part of my life, and though it is a "half-duplex" - I only transmit and rarely receive answers, the importance is there. I think that I will try to make it more interactive in the future, with more personalized mails, especially if time permits. However, no technological means can be a substitute for face-to-face, same-room, interaction. Nothing. It's better than it was before, now that we have Skype, and messengers, and emails. Yet, it's not the same. It takes more efforts to maintain relationships like that, and, very understandably, it is far more important to the one away (me) than it is to the ones left behind. The other side of the equation is that I (or we) haven't made any friends here. Will I feel differently if we do make some friends here? I think not.
Work/academics: these two have become one now, and therefore should be discussed together. It was important to me to continue my studies, after a long and logical analysis of how my career is about to come to a dead-end. I think that this has not changed, but I doubt if we have made the right choices. Some of our doubts were expressed in previous posts. I think that this is a new experience for us, and it certainly the first time that I have an opportunity to see how academic life look from the inside. I have not developed any inclination towards academic life or professional life yet, and I am not sure that the University of Cincinnati should be the model upon which I make such decisions. I miss being around people that constantly challenge me. I had that at Ness. I think I can have that at other universities, but I don't feel that here. From the economic point of view, our situation has deteriorated relative to the one we had before moving here. It was expected, and I think that we are doing much better than I thought we would, and certainly our situation is better than most of the rest of the world right now. So, the right decision has been made and implemented, although the situation has not improved. However, right decisions should be judged by the view of a longer time period than a few months. Next year we will be a good time to make such decisions, and follow them through.
Life in general: last year was a year of great changes and not for the best. I think that I am less satisfied with my life now than I was a year ago. However, I have some optimism, because some things improved, and these improvements have the potential of staying for life. Unfortunately, some things have deteriorated, and they will also stay for good.
Before progressing to the analysis itself, two things overshadowed any other thing this year: the death of my mother and the relocation to Cincinnati. These two play a major part in any of the categories that follow, but more importantly they have an enormous impact on my daily life in general.
Family: undoubtedly, the death of my mother this year was the most significant event that changed my family life. The obvious thing, of course, is her being missing. She was the most significant member in my family to me, and I don't mean that I loved her more than the others, but simply that she was the closest one to me. My relations with my father and sister have always known ups and downs, each for its own reasons, that this is not the right time or place to divulge. However, my mother was always a person to whom I could talk and tell much of my life. Naturally, it was the case when I was younger and still lived with my parents, but even after I moved out permanently we still had a good relationship. Seeing her losing the shape of a human being - physically and mentally - was very hard for me. At some point, towards the last days of her life, when she could not control her body anymore due to the tumors in her brain, I was even hoping that the suffering would end for her. It's not easy, and it's not something to be proud of, but that's how I felt at the time.
After her death something has changed in the relations I have with my father and sister. This is also accompanied by the fact that I am away, but I think that now we are a bit closer (in the emotional sense) than we have ever been. I don't know how long this will last, and whether it will withstand the distance of me being here, or when I get back. Only time can resolve this question, but as of now I think that my family relationships have improved, and some of it is due to this tragedy.
In all, I'd say that the family aspect of the last year was very bad, but hopefully some good will come out of this.
Love: I consider the past year to be the best year for my relationship with D. It started with her moving to my place, continued with her being by me in the worst days after my mother died, and then we moved here. The only reason I could survive all these changes is her. I found in her strengths that I hadn't seen before. Less important, but worth to mention, is that my sister finally came to appreciate what D is, and came to respect her for being my true "significant" other. Not in the way the term is used by P.C. minded people, but by the essence of that term: she is part of my life that I cannot live without. Any other words that I can write will only diminish this message.
Friends: it takes bad times to realize who your best friends are and how much they are important to you. Last year had enough of those times and I can say that one of the hardest things now is the lack of my friends. I didn't even realize how many friends I have and how close I feel to them until we relocated. At first I wondered how long will I continue to write my weekly updates, but I felt that I had to do it, because I wanted my friends to be part of my life even though I'm far away. It became an important part of my life, and though it is a "half-duplex" - I only transmit and rarely receive answers, the importance is there. I think that I will try to make it more interactive in the future, with more personalized mails, especially if time permits. However, no technological means can be a substitute for face-to-face, same-room, interaction. Nothing. It's better than it was before, now that we have Skype, and messengers, and emails. Yet, it's not the same. It takes more efforts to maintain relationships like that, and, very understandably, it is far more important to the one away (me) than it is to the ones left behind. The other side of the equation is that I (or we) haven't made any friends here. Will I feel differently if we do make some friends here? I think not.
Work/academics: these two have become one now, and therefore should be discussed together. It was important to me to continue my studies, after a long and logical analysis of how my career is about to come to a dead-end. I think that this has not changed, but I doubt if we have made the right choices. Some of our doubts were expressed in previous posts. I think that this is a new experience for us, and it certainly the first time that I have an opportunity to see how academic life look from the inside. I have not developed any inclination towards academic life or professional life yet, and I am not sure that the University of Cincinnati should be the model upon which I make such decisions. I miss being around people that constantly challenge me. I had that at Ness. I think I can have that at other universities, but I don't feel that here. From the economic point of view, our situation has deteriorated relative to the one we had before moving here. It was expected, and I think that we are doing much better than I thought we would, and certainly our situation is better than most of the rest of the world right now. So, the right decision has been made and implemented, although the situation has not improved. However, right decisions should be judged by the view of a longer time period than a few months. Next year we will be a good time to make such decisions, and follow them through.
Life in general: last year was a year of great changes and not for the best. I think that I am less satisfied with my life now than I was a year ago. However, I have some optimism, because some things improved, and these improvements have the potential of staying for life. Unfortunately, some things have deteriorated, and they will also stay for good.
Sunday, March 1, 2009
Weekly update: Back to the Future?
After feeling bad last week, many wrote responses and suggestions that were nice to read. Thank you all for that.
This week was a bit better than the previous one. The amount of work was not reduced, of course, but now we have something to look forward to: Chicago! We booked a room for the weekend after the final exams week, and we are looking forward to having the best weekend possible. By the way, if any of you happened to be in Chicago and you are willing to share some ideas and suggestions, feel free to send them our way. There are two weeks of lessons and then another of finals, but it lifted our spirits to know that we have something to look forward to. I hope we won't be disappointed.
Another thing that lifted our spirits was that we decided to take some time off for walks. We're still very much out of shape, but at least we're moving again and are not just couch/desk potatoes. Today we even visited the gym in our apartment complex for the first time since we got here. It makes us feel better with ourselves, and I even feel that walking together allows us some quality time together, which we rarely share otherwise due to our other obligations. Hopefully the weather will continue to improve and we will keep doing it; it can only do us good both physically and mentally.
On Tuesday I will give my first conference presentation. It is a small conference in Dayton, Ohio, about an hour drive from here. The presentation is about the little research I was doing in the previous quarter. To prepare myself for this presentation I did some research and found out that I accidentally re-discovered a well known algorithm for solving mazes. Moreover, I expanded this algorithm to the multi-agent case. This suddenly sheds a whole new light on this four days gig.
Finally, a farewell wish to the only person (besides D) that I was talking with on a regular friendly basis: B, another graduate student (or should I say former graduate student). He left on Friday to his new job in a company in New England, and I hope he will have a great time there. He has finished his Ph.D. and awaits the defense of his dissertation in a month. I wish him the best of luck with the new job and the defense.
This week was a bit better than the previous one. The amount of work was not reduced, of course, but now we have something to look forward to: Chicago! We booked a room for the weekend after the final exams week, and we are looking forward to having the best weekend possible. By the way, if any of you happened to be in Chicago and you are willing to share some ideas and suggestions, feel free to send them our way. There are two weeks of lessons and then another of finals, but it lifted our spirits to know that we have something to look forward to. I hope we won't be disappointed.
Another thing that lifted our spirits was that we decided to take some time off for walks. We're still very much out of shape, but at least we're moving again and are not just couch/desk potatoes. Today we even visited the gym in our apartment complex for the first time since we got here. It makes us feel better with ourselves, and I even feel that walking together allows us some quality time together, which we rarely share otherwise due to our other obligations. Hopefully the weather will continue to improve and we will keep doing it; it can only do us good both physically and mentally.
On Tuesday I will give my first conference presentation. It is a small conference in Dayton, Ohio, about an hour drive from here. The presentation is about the little research I was doing in the previous quarter. To prepare myself for this presentation I did some research and found out that I accidentally re-discovered a well known algorithm for solving mazes. Moreover, I expanded this algorithm to the multi-agent case. This suddenly sheds a whole new light on this four days gig.
Finally, a farewell wish to the only person (besides D) that I was talking with on a regular friendly basis: B, another graduate student (or should I say former graduate student). He left on Friday to his new job in a company in New England, and I hope he will have a great time there. He has finished his Ph.D. and awaits the defense of his dissertation in a month. I wish him the best of luck with the new job and the defense.
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