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May 25, 2004
Update in Edinburgh
From 05/23:
Things that have popped into my mind since I have arrived in Scotland:
1. People who need to use the restroom 6 times in 6 hrs need to get an aisle seat.
2. All babies should be drugged and comatose before boarding a plane
3. People who don't realize how large whatever they are carrying annoy the shit out of me. ESPECIALLY if the bag they are carrying is NOT on their back but rather their front. Don't they realize they are smacking people all the damn time?
4. Whoever said all Europeans were skinny obviously has not been to Edinburgh. There are JUST as many fat people here, and they like to show it all off just like Americans do.
So here I am sitting at my B&B feeling a little bit loser like. I went to the ICSE registration but everybody was already in their little cliques (or maybe they had just come together) that I felt a little stupid and out of place. It's always hard to go up to a group of people and start talking to them, I think. So I went back to my B&B instead and decided that tomorrow would have to be the day that I start socializing.
Which brings me to my next point. I think that DEBS is SO poorly planned out I'm not even sure what to think anymore. So I went through the Proceedings and what did I see but that 1/10th of the fonts in my paper were MISSING. They were just blanks. It worked when I sent the pdf version of it to the PC
chair, but apparently the fonts/words have disappeared since I last saw them. Hadn't the stupid chair even BOTHERED to make sure that not half of the fonts were friggin' missing? I know it's not only mine as others apparently were missing fonts too. But better yet, at registration, there was no schedule. Apparently we were supposed to all print out a copy and BRING IT TO THE WORKSHOP, since nobody (and I don't blame the ICSE people) at the registration desk knew anything. No one even really knew when the workshops started since they were dependent per workshop. It's totally ridiculous. This whole workshop feels like a joke. Plus, I found out there is another paper in the workshop that is basically the same as my work. THEY got the 30 minute presentation. I am so annoyed.
I don't even want to go anymore. The best part is that I don't even remember when I present, as I hadn't thought it was necessary to print out a copy of the schedule, but apparently it is.
Side note after 10 minutes: I love IE and its usage of caching. LOVE LOVE LOVE.
However, still feeling blue. Can't wait until this workshop is over. Annoyed and mad. I need a huge HUGE hug right now. :(
From today:
Sitting here in the middle of the workshop, slightly bored. Guy presenting right now is droning ON AND ON about scopes in pub/sub which doesn't really make any sense. Feel like I am about to die of boredom. Apparently Europeans do NOT adhere to their time limits. And since our PC is too nice (ie chicken) to cut them off, this guy has been talking for about 45 minutes or something. Man, I spent most of my time trimming my presentation down to the appropriate time. However, everybody else didn't feel inclined as much. The girl before me who was supposed to have a 5 minute presentation went on for 45 minutes! Then I felt really stupid for trying so hard to make it short. I think people were actually surprised at how short my presentation went. So stupid.
But the workshop is almost over. I guess this is good. Met some prof that I thought was really cool at first, but then he started presenting and he became an uber dick. How does it happen that the presenter attacks EVERY person who asks a question?
Posted by szujin at 11:00 AM | Comments (0)
May 22, 2004
JFK Airport
Ok, I am a total internet connection whore. As I have to shorten my presentation and thus have not finished editing it (and emailing it to person that I was supposed to, doh), here I am sitting at the JFK airport, paying to use their wireless internet. For some reason, I feel slightly panicking for doing so. It's not that expensive ($6.95/24hrs), since I think Starbucks/T-mobile charge an asspile (which was what I was looking for first), but for some reason I feel fidgety and nervous. I just have to say that I am sort of impressed that JFK airport even has wireless. Laptop, mouse, power cord, and wireless connection make a 4 hr layover not seem quite as bad as should've been.
Anyway, I had another adventure going to the airport again. I swear airports and me are just having a bad streak. Actually, I think airports and SCOTT are having a bad streak, and somehow I get pulled into it when I am either a) getting a ride from him or b) am on the same flight with him (since my last trip to airport that did not include Scott turned out ok). So anyway, I decided to check in online this time for some reason (I think just to see what the hype was all about), and THANK GOD I did. As we were driving to the airport, we ran into some MAJOR traffic. Apparently last week, 279 N was closed (read entry about picking up my parents), this week 279 S was closed. Hence shitpiles of traffic and stop and go traffic for about 30 minutes. I got to the airport with 28 minutes before the flight was to depart. If I hadn't checked in online, I wouldn't have made it (I have to thank Avi for having argument with Scott about checking in online which reminded me to try it out). Anyway, I was supposed to check in my luggage, but as I didn't have enough time, I just took it to the gate anyway (crossing fingers that the security and gate attendents wouldn't be like "are you stupid to try to get this as a carry on?" -- Already had a ditzy act ready in head, "Oh my! You mean this isn't small enough? I thought any size would fit in the overhead compartment!!
" may be with some toss of hair and batting of eyelashes. Or maybe that would just scare the shit out of them, not sure which). But, it turned out ok. Got on plane like with minute before they closed it. Always a ridiculous adventure for gin apparently.
Other than that, met some girl also riding shuttle between LGA and JFK while waiting for the shuttle. Interestingly enough, she was from Pittsburgh too. We talked for the whole hour wait/ride. It was kind of cool. She was an international diplomacy major, and she was telling me about all the stuff she was studying. I thought it sounded so interesting. The whole time I was thinking, "man, I will NEVER get to do that type of stuff" (ie travel round the world writing columns or something of that sort) and then was sad for a moment. Here is where I am supposed to say, "but then I thought about
Posted by szujin at 05:28 PM | Comments (0)
May 19, 2004
Day at a time . . .
Some days are better than others.
The bad days really suck. The good days are only mediocre.
Somehow, there seems to be so limited a number of good days.
Why does it always seem like a constant struggle to be happy?
Bad days when all you can say is "I have no idea why I am down" are the worst. There is nothing you can do to make it better, the only hope that the next day somehow will be better.
Gah. Feeling down. Boo.
Posted by szujin at 01:25 PM | Comments (0)
May 16, 2004
Graduation
My parents came in town yesterday. Was pretty cool, we went to Bangkok Balcony and Penn Brewery. Parents liked my kitties, brought me lots of junk food and DVDs. Still trying to convince them to buy me a mini-ipod...too bad it is on backorder or this girlie would already have one. BUT alas, no such luck.
Today was graduation; we only went to the diploma distribution ceremony for the ECE department. I have to say, CMU's diplomas are hella lot nicer than GaTech's. At Tech, we didn't even get the real diploma, and it was like a rolled up sheet of paper with Tech Tower on it. Super lame. Here, they gave us the real diploma plus like, a leather thing to cover it and stuff. Plus, all the students got this UBER nice glass clock as a "graduation gift" from the department. Plus, they had a nice ass reception afterwards. Even though I feel like my degree is bogus (as my advisor told me as such, but another story), I guess it was sorta nice b/c got to get all the stuff AND my parents came to visit me. I like my parents. :)
Lastly, we went out to eat at Monterey Bay up on Mount Washington for dinner. That was really nice. Although we didn't get to have a table RIGHT next to the window, we stayed there long enough to see the city with sunlight and with the city lights. Super nice. Plus, they have some of the best crab cakes I've ever had. YUM. :P
Tomorrow is the gym.
Posted by szujin at 10:46 PM | Comments (0)
May 14, 2004
Conference & More
So I'm back from the Security and Privacy Conference in Berkeley, CA. It was pretty good, I guess, although I did miss a uh...large portion of it (much to my advisor's annoyance -> although I will say that a lot of the time I was WITH her, so I dunno why she is that mad, but that's another story...). Other than the conference, I also got a facial done at the Claremont (where the conference was held at), and had my face destroyed (ok, I'm exaggerating but that's besides the point) . I was a little annoyed, especially since it was so expensive. I was just going to eat it and be pissed, but Scott and Chris told me to complain, and I got half of my money back. Getting half money back is better than nothing, but now I see the huge red scab on my nose and I am thinking I should've just got all my money back. Sheesh, even without the special tools to 'extract" the zits from my nose, I do a better job then what happened. :( Blah.
Other than that, I had a 'wonderful' run in with the treadmill at the Claremont. Ok, so you know how when you are running, there are times when you are really tired? So, on the elliptical machine, you can close your eyes and just concentrate on the music? Ok, so I figured (yeah, I'm dumb) that I could do the same thing with the treadmill. Of course, as everyone knows but me, you cannot. Within two seconds of closing my eyes, I had fallen off the treadmill. Oh, but the best part of me is that I had the retarded "gotta get back on, I have 10 more calories to burn" mentality going on, and I JUMPED RIGHT BACK ON while the treadmill was still going. Needless to say, I fell AGAIN, eliciting an (as Cynthia says) extraordinarily large squeak as I skinned my knee and basically fell into the mirror behind me. So, uh, I promptly removed myself from the treadmill and went over to the STATIONARY bike. Just call me Trippy (as Dave has decided is an appropriate moniker).
Lastly, my trip back from CA was somewhat of a disaster. So, Scott and I went into SanFran for the day (as we were flying the redeye later that night). But since we didn't want to take all of our luggage with us, we left it at the Claremont. On the way to the BART, Scott met up with one of the other conference goers from UVA who said he was taking a taxi to the airport around the same time as us. Since there were only two people in their taxi, we figured we'd join them. We made plans to leave at 9:00 from the hotel. So, 8:45 rolls around and we get a call from this person, "uh, we're lost at the BART and can't get back to the hotel. Can you get our luggage from the hotel and take the taxi to pick us up?" So, not thinking that was THAT big of a deal, we do. EXCEPT, since we didn't have their claim tickets, and they didn't really know where they were, it took us 45 minutes. This was not looking good for us, since our flight was 10:45 pm, and it takes about 45 minutes to get to the SanFran airport. So, after we pick them up, we're driving along for about 10 minutes when Nate's like, "hey, we're almost there, you'll be ok." I turn to Scott and am like, "aren't we supposed to cross this huge bridge?" and Nate's advisor returns with, "oh no, we're on THIS side of oakland..." which makes me ask him which airport he is flying out of. . . ."Oakland". I think I about shit a brick. So, not only were we really late, we were also, umm...oh, 40 minutes away from our airport. I almost killed Scott at the moment. But, we drove there hell fast anyway, and DIDN'T make it. So, they put us on the next flight available, which was a redeye to Charlotte and then to Pittsburgh. We'd get into Pittsburgh about 3 1/2 hrs later than scheduled. This was ok, and that would've been the end. EXCEPT security check decided to mess with us too, and ended up taking another 20 minutes as they went through every piece of luggage we had. When we finally got on the plane, I passed out the ENTIRE flight back. And Scott didn't. Muhahaha. That's what he gets for making us miss the damn flight in the first place. :)
Posted by szujin at 04:19 PM | Comments (1)
May 04, 2004
Argh
Freaking out b/c the reader for my thesis just told me that there was NO way he would be able to read my thesis before the deadline.
I'm giving him five days to read it (ok, so yeah, that's not THAT long, but still...)!!
Argh. Dunno what I'm going to do. If I don't graduate b/c of this, I will be uber super duper pissed. :(
Posted by szujin at 12:06 AM | Comments (0)