Probably the most popular blog on the web, in terms of readers, if not comments.

Things today:
1. Bought a 1000 page book by Roger Penrose that attempts to explain most of mathematics intuitively. It was recommended.
2. Left a large diagram on the whiteboard in work for the team meeting on Monday. We will see how that goes.
3. Went for a long walk at lunchtime to try and get a grasp on all of the various interest rate modelling, life expectancy modelling, and system design that I have been doing lately.
4. Looked fucking good doing it. Felt kinda under the weather.
5. Went to get some stuff to make sushi rolls for my girlfriend. I was pretty odd because I have been programming all day and it takes a few hours for my human skills to kick in again. Does anybody else get that?
6. Read every news website on the planet. It was a bit of a waste of ten minutes today.
7. Organised my thesis binding, although dropping off and picking up the stuff is going to cost me some early mornings this week.

Now I am offline for the weekend. Asta luego, nobody.

Politaiocht

So, I had dinner yesterday in the house of parliament. My friend got an invite by a senator and dragged me along. It was interesting. Politicians are a funny breed. By funny, I mean grasping and shifty.

Anyway, I got the distinct impression the senator hated me. My friend's lesbian flatmate postulated that it may have been because he prided himself on being well dressed, tall, articulate and gentlemanly. I am taking the compliment.

Incidentally, lesbians are an odd breed.

PhD

From wikipedia:
The term doctorate comes from the Latin docere, meaning "to teach", shortened from the full Latin title licentia docendi, meaning "license to teach." This was translated from the equivalent Arabic term ijazat attadris, which was a distinction granted to certain Islamic scholars, thus qualifying them to teach.

I am confused

I remembered that R(t) = f(t)/F(t), obviously, therefore f(t) = R(t)F(t), and F(t) is the integral of R(t), so I all I have to do is divide the mort. tables by 1000 and discretise. Obvious... I should have worked it out, rather than remembered. I am really tired though.

That is not what I am confused about. I want to know where I am going. I need goals. Without goals, I get kinda fritzy.

Really funny link - I don't know how to embed without trying at all.

My poor wee hid

My noggin is utterly swimming with probabilities and snippets of vb code, and I seem to be sucking ass at it all. Am I not supposed to be good at this? Why must I be so darn mediocre?

Ph.D.

Six Years.

Two years just being examined and doing corrections, during which I learned nothing. The external examiner decided to wield his power with will. He waited until two weeks after I had been fired because I did not have a Ph.D. to grant me it.

It leaves a bitter taste.

I finally got the report today.

Three lines long.

The guy could not help getting a dig in.

Oh, and, mate, if you are out there, I live in your city now. You took two years of my life. One good turn deserves another.

Fuck Academia.

Live together

I mentioned to my conservative flatmate that the thought has crossed my mind of going, in the future, to the next step with my girlfriend. He said convention was that you live together first, before even getting engaged. (I am not planning on asking in the next six months - don't worry!)

Apparently, modern conservatism suggests you live together first. His argument was that sudden changes are not good.

My argument was the old 'in for a penny, in for a pound' argument. I do not want to live with her to 'test' her to see if we get on well enough. If we live together, sometimes we will fight. Sometimes we will not be so good together. I already know that.

Why would we take a step that is so hard to back out of, unless we were already committed enough to accept that we are not intending to back out?

Anyway, she is in the opposite of hurry, so don't buy your dresses for the occasion. I just like to imagine ahead.

Priorities

I play music. I don't fuck about.

I met some musicians tonight. I can tell they lack a bit of knowledge, but I need some if I am going to play music. I took a number and arranged to meet later in the week to see about playing some music and getting some gigs.

I deleted the number. Chicks like musicians, but they do not want to be seriously involved with a musician. I am not prepared to sacrifice what I have. If I have to cut the tips of my fingers off, and never play a note again, I will, in order to keep what I have. I have learned what makes me happy in life, and what makes me feel good about myself.


I have not written this well. There are no language quirks to emphasise my point, but please take this literally, and see how important this is to me.

Do people really do this?

For the fiftieth time this week, that everybody else in the entire world does it does not stop it from being a bloody stupid idea!!!

Your parents love you. Actually, they might not.

You should work hard at a day job. Actually, sometimes it does not do you much good. Maybe you should quit and change career, or just plain live on less money and have more fun.

You should respect your elders. Actually, sometimes they are quite wrong, and if you can get away with it you should treat them as they deserve.

You should live together before you get married. Actually, this is a fucking stupid idea - a real one foot in and one foot out approach. If you are going to do it, do it. Otherwise, do not do it.

Working

Okay, I have been working in a suit for 3 1/2 weeks now. I like it. It is like a breath of fresh air after working in academia. I am still really pissed off that they kicked me out, because some twat has spent nearly two years neither failing nor passing my phd, but I am glad I am in a different place now.

Also, our office has huge windows, which means there is daylight. People in industry really do a lot more doing and a lot less talking.

Anyway, now that I have some free time, because in industry when you clock off, you stop thinking about work, I can work on some projects of my own. My friend is getting me a copy of .net, because I want to develop some software to simulate random faces - I think it could work for the entertainment industry, and I have the tech from my academic research. It is a rather daunting task, so I am leaving myself a long, long timeline.

Aw, can you blame me?

This was taken on holiday, recently. Can you blame me?