Hello, friends! Hello, blog! Been a while, eh? In the long history of this blog (existing in various forms since January 2004!) there have often been dry spells. Droughts, if you will. But then something drives me back to the blog to at least make an appearance.
I sort of feel like it’s time for a blogging renaissance. It seems like somewhat of a stodgy old medium when compared to Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and the like. But maybe I’m a little bit stodgy at heart. I like thinking, I like writing, I like sharing—just not always in bite-sized snippets. So here I am blogging.
Time for a little life update: yes, I’m technically still in grad school. No, I’m not getting a PhD. Yes, I’ve been in school for aaaaaaaaaaaaaages. Yes, my thesis advisor is supposed to be reading my thesis this week. No, I haven’t heard from him yet. Yes, that could be a good thing. And yes, that could also be a bad thing.
Wow, those sentences felt oddly like a bit vector.
In the time while I’ve been waiting for feedback on my thesis, I’ve remembered once again just how much school stresses me out. Without the sense of having to do work on my thesis every day hanging over my head, I have found myself feeling happier, more connected to people, etc.
I’m working for Adobe as a “research scientist”, which is sort of big talk for someone who’s still finishing his master’s thesis. I get to work on some cool problems, play with huge amounts of data, learn about all kinds of new stuff like Hadoop and cloud computing, and solidify my understanding of Bayesian stats / machine learning.
The trouble is that I have to work in a highly distracting and noisy office environment that leaves me irritated and unable to focus. “Attention restoration theory” has something to say about this. The environment I work in during the week is vastly more hostile to sustained focus than the environment I’m in right now. At work, there are noisy air conditioning fans, noisy people, low walls and no privacy (it’s supposed to encourage collaboration), people walking by, people conversing, etc. Here at home, I hear a gentle rumble of distant cars outside, and there are no visual distractions or other noise inside. At work I’m expected to sit in an office chair and work at a desk. Here at home I’m sitting on my bed. At work if I get sleepy I just have to “power through it”, doing crappy work due to fatigue, because there is no provision made for naps. Here at home I can just take a nap when I need one.
But employment is great, otherwise!
Okay, that’s all for now.
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