It was particularly tough and stressing, I need to control my stress levels in such a way that I wont sabotage my friends weekends. Living in Spain is already easing my social stress but I need to keep on working more on this.

Nanouk got scratched by Masu, she was very scared and I am fearing for her. I think this year will stop being social and I will focus more on taking care of her.

very tired

I realized that I don’t enjoy drinking anymore, neither smoking.
1 beer is alright for me and smoking is for whenever I get stressed or bored, so is not a good sign. 3 years ago

Maya Deren documentary on her life, I want to be like her so much, not sure if I’d like to end up like her. !!! how come she was a speed addict without even knowing what it was.

from my friend Tere, even when you love what you do there is a high chance you end up burned out by your daily job. Mmm, dunno at least she has a fixed job AND more importan, she is not illegal!

Mr. F. Arrabal, he will do or say anything to leave an impression on people’s mind. Clearly he did with me! I’m a Dreamer as Supertramp would have said. 4 years ago

Went to the dentist this morning, and then decided to get something to eat while my lip was still numb… only realized that I had chewed up my lip in the process after the numbness subsided (no kidding, it’s ugly). Hmmm…. pain-killers, good or evil? _{mental sedation too… tv? music? meditation? Where is the border between cure, treatment, or a mere cover-up?}4 years ago

Gave yet another lab tour to yet another potential recruit.

Made some progress on the poster #1.

Attended a seminar.

Made some progress on the slides.

Meeting on future collaboration with the hybrid group.

Meeting about the future of the industry collaboration.

Played with the poster a little, until I felt (for no good reason) the deadline was not close enough, so ended up adding and editing Wikipedia pages.

Optimized the lab setup (“optimized” as in stole pieces from other labs to improve my own setup). No data acquired yet… _{Delaying it probably out of the fear of not getting reasonable results.}

Struggled for an hour to decide whether I was too tired and hungry to go for a run or not, but ran anyway… and I felt well enough to crazy-run the last leg. _{How justified is a one hour self-debate about a 30-minute run? That was the winning argument, by the way. :)}4 years ago

Started preparing one of the posters… played around a bit with it, no significant progress yet.

Went to a friend’s dissertation defense.

Gave a potential recruit a tour of our labs.

Wasted quite a bit of time trying to “invent” a potential application for a phenomenon… for the stupid report to the funding agency. _{And managed to skip lunch in the process.}

Alternated playing with the slides with working on the posters, but got nowhere because I was starving!

Hunted out the pieces and put the setup together, but didn’t start the actual measurement because I was starving!

_{30 minutes saved, half a day ruined… eh, the decisions we make!}4 years ago

Prepared an initial draft of the presentation.

Wrote the introduction of the paper… the rest of it should go smoothly. :)

Proofread half of E’s paper (the other half I hope I can do before going to bed).

Took a few SEM pictures… structures are not perfect, but should be functional (just need to find the fiber cutter to do the measurement).

3-hour meeting to get the slides in order (still have to make a few drawings and modifications).

Revised the abstract for the submitted paper… satisfied now they should be.

Printed out my CV, in case needed during the trip.

• Have to pack tonight for the trip tomorrow… not the perfect time, but anyway… Texas, here I come! :) 4 years ago

Finalized the revisions for paper1 and submitted it.

Paper2, revised and submitted (their editorial staff’s capability to locate errors is amazing! I had reviewed it over and over myself, but still had missed the things they found in a quick review!).

Application email sent.

Peer-review comments submitted.

Quick nap at my desk… too bored or too tired, what’s the difference.

Ran with A… planned on 3 miles, but ran ~7 miles… a good friend and good weather, heck, why not?

Updated the chart R had suggested, to initiate a monthly seminar series.

• Still would like some time to catch up on my reading
• Ah, and reminder: have to prepare three posters (2 weeks) 4 years ago

8 out of 12 off the list for the day… and admittedly, the 8 easy ones.

Revising, proofreading, reviewing, revising, 3 hours of back to back meetings, writing a short code for E (and then playing some with the results), sending P to cleanroom, and then some more proofreading. _{I know it had to be done, for me and for others, but a bit more diversity would’ve been nice :)}

• I seriously need to take some time off during the day to read-to-learn.
• Oh, and have to do that experiment… preferably within a week. 4 years ago

8 out of 11 done from the to-do list… 9 if I can peer-review this paper before going to sleep.

Submitted the revised version of a submitted paper, submitted the summary to the conference, and the grant proposal is finally through… closure is good.

Funny lunch… something E had cooked, but with a modified recipe according to some linguistic interpretation!

3 hours of “organizational” meeting in the afternoon… have to push harder to enforce more formal task management structure (it’ll be a bit of additional burden, but probably beneficial in the long run).

The smell of ‘real’ apple.

Finally did some way-overdue numerical simulations.

Forced myself to run… felt like a difficult schoolboy (knot in stomach, glitchy knee, yawn) on the way to the gym, but then after the first mile, owned the track! Debated to run 3 or 5 miles and decided on 4… middle road is the one to choose.

Four closely packed ant piles on a single crack in the cement.

Wanted to watch a movie tonight, but probably won’t get the chance… might have to commit the unforgivable: returning the movies without watching them! 4 years ago

Had to rush to school because there was a glitch with our grant submission, no shower, no shaving, no brushing teeth, ... I used to not care, and I still can! :)

Got almost half of the to-do list done, in all fairness, it was overloaded. M takes a break from his thesis writing and comes to my office (it has been the repeating pattern these days)... we do some web search of people’s work, but end up laughing about endowed chair titles (“Ted and Ginger” Professor of Information Science? :)) and how we should find a way to include “heralded” in our future papers, just because the word is too cool! :)

A reminded me that it was M’s birthday! I had tried to set up something during the weekend, but had forgotten all about it afterward. Small gathering at A’s place… decided.

“Late at night, cake, and ice-cream? Did you forget her birthday?” The guy behind me in the grocery store asks with a chuckle. Smiling and mumbling, my share of the conversation.

Geek-talk until M’s wife was too bored, but then we all watched behind-the-scenes of some movie… our attempt at apologizing, somehow.

_{I’m thinking this s too detailed for me to carry on daily… but I’m not going back to delete things!}4 years ago

Had to write a 3-page summary for a conference. Three hours of work, but it took me all day… when interleaved with tv-watching and naps.

Skipped the scheduled 10-mile run… maybe I’ll do it tomorrow. _{Heh, “tomorrow” that’s when always things get done… supposedly.}4 years ago

are shady, like they never happened, as if they were part of a dream (well, for today, not a nightmare).

It would’ve been alright if it was just a routine day, but it wasn’t. I gave a lab tour in the morning, revised a paper, reviewed a grant proposal, poured a bottle of water on a friend, mopped the hallway of the office, updated my resume, looked for some potential groups to apply to, took SEM pictures of Q’s devices… and then it still feels like none of it has happened.

Eh, at least I can scratch a few things off my to-do list… _{unless I’ve actually day-dreamed the whole thing.}4 years ago