running amok in the UK

Zizz here!  I estimate that my MATLAB simulation has roughly ~15 minutes to go, so let's see if I can do a quickie blog post in that time.

I'm at work.  It's nearing the end of the fifth week of work for me, and I'm in an eight-week program, so time is short and precious.  I haven't made as much progress in work as I hoped to this past week - I was running into stability issues that were driving me mad for several days in a row - but now I seem to have resolved the major issues and just have some nitpicky issues to tackle.  It's okay though; this project is great fun and low pressure - it's one of my advisor's side projects, and unlike previous projects, I'm not looking to this advisor to write me a recommendation letter ever, so it's chill.  In some ways I think that makes me more efficient.

I have three weekends left in the UK, and grand plans include Scotland this weekend (Saturday in Glasgow, Sunday and Monday in Edinburgh).  The following weekends I'll probably stick close to London - maybe a day trip to Brighton, but the awkward fact is that I haven't actually explored London all that much.  Usually after work I'm tired and just want to go home and eat ice cream.  So it might be good to retain a weekend solely for London.  Oh, and another grand plan is to see The Crucible in London with Lotta!


ope.  my simulation's done running, so I'd better go make the plots I need to send my supervisor.  I'll just add a few pictures + storybites then:

the world premiere of Gabriel Prokofiev's Violin Concerto, a BBC commission.  G. Prokofiev is Sergei's grandson.

My advisor has an encyclopedic knowledge of books.  It's something unlike I've ever seen in research before - I'll go to him and say I have these ugly equations to solve, and he'll be like "yo, check out this 1999 handbook of math for engineering and this other book on advanced engineering mathematics.  there's a formula on page 689 that will help you."  Also, he cites books in his papers.  I was reading one of his papers and needed to check an assumption for a structures equation he used, and ended up having to run to the library to grab this book which was published in NINETEEN SIXTY to find it.

oh how could I omit this one?  I escaped a Cyberman in Cardiff.  That's the creepy woman with Mr. Sweet in the background.

With love,
Zizz

PS. if any of you are interested, there are tons of pictures and much more rambly posts on the personal blog I started (http://polyplexed.tumblr.com/), which is what I'm using to try to keep in touch with a number of old friends. :)