Tuesday/Wednesday/Thursday – Days 218/219/220
March 10, 2013
Well, I wish I could’ve promised something a little more exciting, but here it is raw and ready, a firsthand (and brief) account of how I worked myself into the ground. I decided that given that I hadn’t heard from most of the other TAs I would continue working on the project until it was done. Unfortunately, as this was meant to be a large scale group effort, this meant that I toiled for hour on end, eventually getting stuck on coding up an efficient but simple algorithm for calculating ‘betweeness centrality’ in a social graph (ie; who is the most central of your friends). Wednesday I switched paths and worked a little on a few other projects but slept in late, nothing more to see here, just a working boy. Thursday the same, other than a movie that I thoroughly enjoyed “As Good As It Gets” about a misanthropic neighbour, turned soulful by a gay artist, a waitress and a dog. Though it may not have been the most complex film of all time, it tugged at the heartstrings and helped to provide at least a little stress relief. The film was enjoyed with Michal Elias-Bachrach, Amalya Lehman and Sarah Morrissey, a few girl who had stayed behind for the break.
Spring Break – Shabbat/Sunday/Monday – Day 215/216/217
March 7, 2013
To my dismay Spring Break hasn’t exactly worked out to be the party I thought it might be. I had grand plans, to travel to Florida or Canada or DC or at worst NYC and Boston, however reality sought to intervene. As manager of the final project for CIS-121 I had the responsibility to ensure a project, complete with specifications, documentation, sample code and tests was available and ready for activation by the first Monday following break. This meant that for the first few days of break, my mind was still completely focused on the work ahead. Shabbat was reading through algorithms textbooks and papers, looking for suitable material. The night was writing a plan. Sunday was mostly coding, sleep, eating and more coding and, unfortunately Monday was much the same.
However, one upside of all of this is I’m free to set my own schedule and additionally, I have been taking breaks for nice meals and catching up occasionally with friends for a few hours. I watched a film ‘Date Night’ with some of the guys from Glee, went to a wine and cheese evening with the same, and, also saved a little time for myself to play piano.
Thursday/Friday – Day 213/214
March 6, 2013
Thursday morning was a complete and utter disaster. Yet despite this I really really enjoyed my day. I woke up on three hours of sleep to go to physics, definitely a bad idea, and from there, straight to my demo and assessment for my networking group project. Needless to say, we didn’t go too well, failing a number of the more difficult tests. I was a bit cut up.
The afternoon however was awesome. First up was a PGC gig singing to the board of trustees, as one of their number was retiring. We were hailed with large smiles and for me, a wink and a smile from Dean Keytack of Rodin. After that I gave Melody Cooke a call and headed over to the music building to find her practising her singing. After a while with the piano, I walked with her while she polished off a few errands and then presented to her the piano in Sweeten Alumni House (a beautiful Boston grand) before running out to Lover’s and Madmen for a hot chocolate and her lunch.
After a few hours of chatting it was a quick dinner and then another gig for the larger dinner for trustees and donors. Though our performance number was short (SATB version of the Red and the Blue), the mixed company of males and females (provided by the girls of Quaker Notes) was somewhat revelatory. Following that we got changed and a few of us went to a sushi bar where some of the guys did ‘sake bombs’ (don’t even ask). After that it was back to my room for one of the longest night sleeps I’ve had since leaving home. Perfect.
Friday I woke up somewhere around midday, coded a little in the afternoon, chatted to friends, prepared dinner for the evening, read a little and then went straight back to sleep. The way I needed my holiday.