In Which I Surprise A CEO
September 30, 2014
I woke up at 9AM for the judging and to put the final touches on my app ‘Plagiarite’, designed to both circumvent censorship and also to provide a proof of concept as to the issues in automated plagiarism detection tools. While I didn’t win, my app entertained a good number of people who came by and was enjoyed by nearly everyone who visited.
There was a Hillel graduate student BBQ after the judging so I raced off to that but realized I was far too asleep to really stay and so went back to my room for a nap. After some sleep and some work I attended dance rehearsal with PD, and then retired after a super busy weekend.
The next week started off in high stress mode with many assignments due and me in a state of panic due to the amount of time I had spent on PennApps that weekend, getting very little done. I only barely scraped through in submitting my homework on time. In the middle of the week, a very exhausted me had lunch with Melody Cooke, a friend who I had yet to catch up with since returning to the USA. We had a lovely time catching up but it seemed she had changed far more than I in the interregnum, and in a way that made her happy too. I had also changed and had more adventures and so it was quite a refreshing break from the never ending stream of work.
Thursday nearly killed me. I was up at 6.45AM in order to arrive at a gig for an international funeral home convention. My voice was hoarse, my eyes bloodshot, but I still managed to sing the heck out of “The Star Spangled Banner” and “O Canada” before racing back to bed. I skipped my physics lecture, as I would’ve fallen asleep in it regardless, and returned later to the PhD “dungeon” (the basement lab) to finish off a group project in machine learning that I had been struggling with.
In the early evening after successfully finishing the homework, a somewhat refreshed me raced off for yet another Glee Club gig. This one was for the World Presidents’ Organization, a high profile performance for Philadelphia local CEOs. We arrived at the venue and relaxed in the green room for a little before bursting through the doors and surprising all the executives with a flash-mob performance of ‘Footloose’. The event itself was Philadelphia themed and as a result all the CEOs were dressed down in tshirts with Philly themes. After the performance we were requested to get on the dance floor and encourage the audience to join us which, after a little prompting they did. The rest of the evening was spent chatting to high profile figures and for some, munching on Philly themed food. I met a number of interesting and friendly people, among them an Aussie CEO who told me to keep in touch.
After our best gig for the year so far, I got home and went to sleep, free of the burden of looming deadlines and ready for an easier Friday.
Sunday/Monday – 166/167
January 15, 2013
Sunday was another day of attempted recovery. Thankfully I was slowly getting better. I wrote a bit of a lesson plan for my lab the next day. Tried getting some more work done but I was sadly very unsuccessful. The afternoon brought dance rehearsal and unfortunately I was excluded from the vast majority of it due to my small role in the show. Sat on the sidelines most of the time. For dinner I got sushi by myself which, was most relaxing and something I appreciate doing as it gives me a little time out! Afterwards I baked cookies for my lab the next day and invited Charlie to come try them out. Success!
Monday (finally back up to date), I was consistently happy. I’m not 100% sure why the day was quite so incredible, but I was happy throughout. My lab went really well, classes were fine (though I almost well asleep in one) and dinner and glee rehearsal suited my tastes. I sung the first movement of the Brahms requiem (beautiful as expected) and got a hot chocolate with Steph Li. All in all a wonderful day.