Amidst finding sign errors (and other bugs) and having to redo some calculations and numerical simulations in finishing up a paper, I was able to take a break from the academic doldrums and have coffee with an old friend of mine from high school who I hadn't seen for 10 years. She brought her "Swedish boy" (who she has given the acronym SB in e-mail conversation---and all this time I thought that stood for "Soul Brother") along, although he seemed to take it well when we discussed high school people we know. The conversation going there was (naturally) inevitable, although it didn't dominate things.
This particular friend belongs to the set of people I like to call "nerd groupies." (Another member of that set has shown up to game nights that I've hosted since my return.) I have to admit being impressed when she brought up MC Hawking. Also, I actually caught the reference from the words/intonation without the artist being mentioned. (It was a line from the song "All My Shootings Be Drive-Bys.") Lots of witty banter ensued and for a little while, 12 years went away. I forgot about this until just now, but I just remembered it was her who comandeered my video camera during calculus on my last day at Beverly High (and started filming instead of letting me be behind the camera, which is what I had intended). I don't remember any of her commentary during those "interviews" (which is unsurprising, given that I forgot about the incident), so I'm going to need to remember to watch that video the next time I'm at my parents place. At the time, I think I told myself I wouldn't watch the video for 20 years (or maybe it was 15?), but 12 seems reasonable enough because the real point was to let a lot of time pass and then watch it. (I considered going around to my friends with my camcorder on one of my last days at Tech, but I didn't end up doing it because I think I was able to find only a few of my friends when I did that at the end of high school. Right now, I am wishing I had done it so that I could look back on what people said, but making sure I stay in touch with people is more important. Ah, priorities...)
Then after we had some chocolate at my place, it was time to depart. (It better not be 10 years this time!)
I then went back to my research (and found a couple more bugs, that I should be able to finish fixing tomorrow---originally, I thought I'd finish tonight).
While I was out, one of my students e-mailed me with a very good idea. It warms my heart when my students come up with good ideas. I may be hopeless, but at least my students are able to accomplish things.
Anyway, this is to let you know that I occasionally do have my priorities in order.
That chocolate was yum! Glad I could distract, if briefly, from your debugging efforts.
ReplyDeleteNerd groupie? Harrumph! I prefer the term "nerd hag" as it accurately describes how irresistibly I'm drawn to nerds in any social context, and thereby get all the love and validation I need. (Cf. the ever-popular moniker "fag-hag" to describe women who are similarly attached to gay men.) Even when living in Italy, a land of cool macho dudes, I somehow ALWAYS managed to weed through the cool guys to find the nerds. Of course, never realized I was doing it at the time...
Now, do not pass go, do not collect $200 and go directly to MC Frontalot's website. There you will be richly rewarded.
And come to Noo Yawk!
I've never heard the term "fag-hag," but I bet it has something to do with rhyming. Schwarzblatt calls himself a nerd groupie, and I liked the term, so I adopted it.
ReplyDeleteYou did that in Italy? Wow, where have you been all my life?
One of my colleagues at GA Tech hails from Italy and he was always hitting on somebody. (I once caught him hitting on one of my undergraduate research advisees at a seminar. Of course, I think she could handle it---especially after having been able to deal with being followed around by a creepy German postdoc when I took her to a conference. I want conferences to be safe for my students, damnit!) Of course, as far as I can tell, "The Italian Stallion" believes in quantity over quality.
Noo Yawk is on the list. I'll be in touch about that. Maybe there's a time of the year when the flights are cheaper? I'm kind of poor. Or I can try to find a convenient conference there.
Next time you're here, you need to regale my Caltech friends with a certain operatic performance...