One quick comment about the new Star Trek, which I finally saw this weekend. (Minor, unimportant spoiler ahead.)
Early in the movie, the young James T. Kirk steals a car and drives it off a cliff… … …in IOWA.
Just sayin’. This didn’t bother me until I thought about it after the movie, though, and the movie was quite entertaining in the intended way.
Yesterday morning I defended my dissertation proposal. It went pretty well. I passed, which is really the main thing. Several members of my committee, and several other members of the audience, told me the presentation was good, which was a bit of a surprise–I thought it went fine, but didn’t feel like it was great. I guess I’d lowered expectations by giving a series of really, really bad practice talks. I didn’t finish revising the slides until 8:30pm the night before, and my first practice after that (to an empty room) was terrible, so I practiced a second time the night before, and it wasn’t until that last practice that I felt like it might go okay.
Anyway, my committee was all pretty positive. Their primary feedback was that they wanted me to focus my scientific energy on one of the two aspects of my proposal (Motivation) and less so on the other (Maturation). I fully expected and welcomed a conversation with my committee about how to pare down what I readily acknowledged was an ambitious proposal, and I’d felt as though I was stretching the Maturation material to give it equal weight with the Motivation material, so that feedback doesn’t really bother me at all.
Anyway, the two episodes I found amusing occurred as I was picking up refreshments for the presentation. The Dunkin’ Donuts cashier who helped me carry the two boxes of coffee and more-bagels-than-god out to my car asked me if it was for an event, and I explain that I was giving my dissertation proposal defense. She asked what in and I told her, and then she told me that she’d worked with another group in my department some six years ago. I appreciated the friendliness and all, but…now you’re working at Dunkin’ Donuts. Not exactly encouraging. (I didn’t say that, of course, and it’s quite possible–probable, even–that she wasn’t a student, but rather a tutoring-systems test subject, but still…)
Then I went to the world’s most gimmicky grocery store (Big Y) for some juice. I put my two bottles of fruit juice and four apples on the belt, and the cashier asked me how I was. “A little nervous, I have a big presentation this morning”, I answered. Then she asked me, “Would you like any grilling spices with that?” WTF? They had a display at the checkout, and I’m sure she had to ask everybody, but I had two bottles of juice and four apples. I answered, “No thanks, the only thing likely to be grilled this morning is me.”
If you were watching the Rachel Maddow show on Friday night, you might have seen a ridiculous segment at the end of a couple brothers who remixed the news using AutoTune. In case you had something better to do on Friday night, here it is:
Visit msnbc.com for Breaking News, World News, and News about the Economy
So, I went to college with Evan and Andrew Gregory. I didn’t know either of them well, but it was a small school, and they were hams, so everybody knew them. And I’m totally unsurprised that they’re now famous for doing something musical and silly. Go Swatties.
First the Aibo, now the Pleo–Ugobe’s filed for bankruptcy.
(I’m not surprised that there’s no market for entertainment robotics, especially in this shitty economy, but I’m still disappointed, as I see that as one of the most plausible “practical” applications of my research.)
There was another shooting rampage yesterday: some depressed guy walked into the Binghamton American Civic Association and shot 13 people, then himself. I’ve made my views on this pretty clear in the past. Aside from the obvious–my sympathy for all those who lost their lives or loved ones–I have just two comments to make:
Follow-up: Here is a nice piece in Politico by Roger Simon about this issue.
I am going to go way out on a limb here and make a prediction: Over the next several months, more people will be killed in this country by the easy availability of guns than by North Korean missiles.
Follow-up 2: Support for stricter gun control in the US is at an all-time low (or was as of last fall, at least). I don’t understand this country.
Quote of the evening: after she initially issued a distressing-but-adorable “no thank you” to the lasagna, her parents insisted that she try some and explained what it was. Geneva (age 4) took a big bite and shouted out enthusiastically, “Noodles and cheese and tomato! Yum, yum, YUM!”
I almost feel bad for continuing to pick on the guy after all the shit he got after his terrible response to Obama’s address to Congress, only, no, I don’t, because that’s what you get if you’re a prominent elected official, national-political-party-leader-hopeful, and an idiot on national television.
About a month after Bobby Jindal mocked volcano monitoring, a volcano erupted in Alaska, raining ash on Anchorage and disrupting air traffic. Last time it erupted, in 1990, it nearly caused an airliner crash. Volcano eruptions are natural disasters, Gov. Jindal. You know, like hurricanes. It’s good to know they’re coming.
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(Sorry I’ve been so quiet recently…I’ve been working really hard on The Thesis Proposal and other work. It’ll probably continue for another month or so, but I’ll try to get back here if I have anything interesting to say.)
Ever have a dream like this?
He (and a bunch of other ass-hat conservative/western Democrats) wants semi-automatic weapons in Washington, D.C.
I generally think of Russ Feingold as a model liberal Senator, though…I’d be interested to hear his explanation of this vote. Constitutional, maybe? Or just maverick?
Yeah, I know we’ve totally lost on this issue, both in the Supreme Court and the court of public opinion. I still think it’s crazy to allow semi-automatic guns anywhere, and especially in cities.