Sucks:
- My laptop broke. Its not a simple hardware issue — the computer won’t even boot to BIOS. I suspect its the motherboard. I dropped it off at Micro Center which is just about a mile away from where I live. The people there were friendly enough, but I don’t suspect they’ll be able to fix the problem cheaply (if at all). I’m slightly miffed that I had to pay $60 upfront just to wait 2-3 days for them to get back to me, but, if they can find a simple way to fix it, I’m all for that. Sadly, this means that my blogging and even my email checking have been crushed as I have had to scrounge up computer time in lab (where I’m typing this as a gel runs), in between classes (in the Science Center computer lab), and on Eric’s computer. It also means I am unable to use my beautiful beautiful LaTeX on my problem sets
. Oh woe is me! On the other hand, my attempts to fix the computer resulted in me discovering hard-drive enclosures (so that I can use my laptop’s hard drive as a 100 Gb external if things go to hell) and in me finding some pretty good deals on Lenovo Thinkpads offered through Harvard. - Related to #1, but to get to Micro Center, I had three options: beg Cori to take me (b/c she has a car), walk, or bike. The first was unavailable because Cori was busy. The second was not something I wanted to do because a one mile walk in the New England cold is not my idea of a fun way to spend ~30ish minutes. Thankfully, Jen lent me her bike, and while it was freezing and quite dangerous given that it was dark and windy, it was actually quite a bit of fun! So this is the only non-sucky item on the list.
- My thesis is not going well. My mentor Benjamin tenOever has been very patient and very supportive — but given how busy he’s been and given recruiting last semester and just little lab troubles — I’m not quite sure if I can write ANY coherent thesis at all. I’ve been working harder, but things just aren’t coming out right and I’m starting to lose hope…
- The weather — you know, I had to say, it was going well for most of winter. Very little snow, relatively warm weather — until yesterday. A massive amount of snow plopped down, and to make things worse, the day was warm enough such that most of it was in puddle form all day. This combined with the rain made it incredibly slippery (leading to my falling twice), made my feet incredibly wet and cold, and made treks outside very crappy. And its made today very cold.
- Classes – classes are going okay. I keep feeling like I’ve bit off more than I can chew, especially in statistical mechanics where every bit about quantum mechanics (which I did not take) goes completely over my head.