Tag Archives: General

New Look ‘n Feel

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Just got done switching around the website for the 38th time.  I think the feel now is a little more professional.  I am attempting to consolidate this site into a catch-all as a resume site, teaching site, and blog.  Hopefully this plan doesn’t blow up in my face for some reason (angry students spam posting or something).

I added a publications section and got it all updated and current with all the official and un-official publications and major presentations that I have done.  I might need to break it down between “NASA” and “Academic” since the whole jeckell/hyde career path has led to a disjointed listing.

Other than that, just cleaning up and getting ready for the semester.  I hope to do my qual this semester and achieve “ABD” status here in the next couple weeks.  Waiting to hear back on Liz’s grad school status for the fall and get some wedding planning out of the way as well.  Its not busy here… nope, not. at. all.

Visit-Move Tilt-a-Whirl

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Its been a busy 2 months here on the west coast.  Just had Will in town from DC and Turkey was here from Seattle last weekend.  Been spending a lot of time in The City and even more time driving around the Bay Area… or the hellacious suburb that passes for an urban area around here.

Everything is pretty much in place for the move back here in a couple weeks.  We got an apt. rented in Lexington, shipping container booked, car shipment booked, travel plans set etc.  Now I just need to get Liz to actually start packing up our meager world possessions and we can get on with this shit.

It feels like every other day I am excited about going home; the interweaving days I want to stay here.  There are a lot of good things that I am going to miss about the bay area… the weather, the food, the good parts of work.  Then there are things I am ready to get back too … the weather, the space, the good parts of being a student.

Its becoming more and more obvious to me that life is all about trade-offs.  “What can you stand now” sorts of things.  Most situations are not clear cut and wholesale better than others, they are matters of degrees.  The important thing, I guess, is to find the ones you can deal with and go for it.  For a while I thought coming to Cali was going to be wholesale better than being a student in KY, turns out I was wrong.  I think one of these days I will find some situation that makes me happier than any other one I could possibly imagine.  When I find it, I hope I have the ability to stick with it as long as possible.

Hopefully its not for a while though because the ride is fun as hell right now, no matter how much I complain.

A Promise

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I am going to promise, right here, to write more in this blog.  It may be the fever talking but there is no way that anyone can be sure of that shit!

I recently got the e-mails telling me that I had gotten offers from UT-Austin and UW-Madison to get my Ph.D.  Both offers are funded (meaning I will probably have to go back to being a TA for some period of time) but they could be worth it.  I am struggling to decide if I want to spend another 3-4 years in school just so people can call me Dr. Nick.

For anyone with a technical leaning here is what I am working on now:

NetFlix : Currently working on a submission for the Netflix prize.  Its a million dollars (hahaha!) if I can get some where.  I am pretty sure I am not versed enough at stats to be doing this correctly but its worth a shot.

Lobbying: Got a paper with some German guys about algorithms and formal models for lobbying.  Yes, you read that right, I have been making up mathematical models to describe how people get bribed.  Its been a lot of fun so far, hopefully I can get the paper out before the end of the month and not get yelled at by my advisor anymore.

Other than that, I am sick as a dog… trying to work from home never goes very well.  I usually end up sitting around, drinking too much coffee and smoking too many cigs.  Hope all is well and I am going to try to post here more often than I have been.