the inefficiency has to stop

looking back on today, i am not pleased by the amount of work (or serious lack there of) i accomplished. this has to stop immediately. there is too much work to be done before Christmas and before spring. i am EXTREMELY frustrated as a result of having some difficulties this afternoon, and i know i probably am being overly critical because of it. i could care less though. i should have gotten more work done today, been more focused, and everything else that i did wrong today....PERIOD. the time is trying to pass by before my eyes, but i must remain aware of this and not let 2 months go by without me knowing or having any work accomplished to show for it. that's the resolve. now, i just have to make it happen.

keeping the intensity

intensity
n. - exceptionally great concentration, power, or force.

the struggle begins to maintain the motivation and focus to get this work done. this morning when i woke up, i definitely had the familiar signs of sadness and mild depression of being back in england. the reason: i went to london this past weekend to a party and to the giants/dolphins game....and everything was just so mediocre. if it wasn't for friends...............i tell you. there's got to be more entertaining outlets SOMEWHERE. this is the worst of the worst.

p.s. - i'm glad genarlow wilson is FINALLY free.

the potential is there

my planning phase continues, but after today's conversations, i feel more confident that i am making the best use of my time and experiments will get underway soon. i must be honest though and say that i hope my foresight is complete, and i am not overlooking anything that could cause major hang-ups. after my experiments last year and my internship this past summer, i have more experience in setting up tests, and i feel much more confident that i know what to do and how to code it. with this confidence, i plan to make my life easier in that i know how to automate the experimental process. this should make things faster and much more efficient and error-free. this means less baby-sitting experiments and more multi-tasking to help make the progress that i need to this year.

p.s. - if this isn't katrina all over again, i don't know what is

trying to get my experiments underway

as eager as i am to begin new experiments, i must learn to be patient and plan properly to avoid repeating experiments due to incomplete testing scenarios. i am still in the planning stages now, and i feel like i am wasting time for some reason. as i type this, i am becoming more at ease with not just jumping in blindly, as i know, if i do things right the first time, it will save me a great deal of time in the end. and that is the main goal: do things right the first time!!! the last few days have been full of planning and thought as i prepare for the grunt of the work for my degree. i have set some pretty lofty, but attainable, goals for the next year and a half, and it all starts now. it's very motivating but still VERY intimidating at the same time. i am guessing the feeling of intimidation will subside once i begin to see results and me learning/doing/accomplishing things that i am unsure about at present. i hope everything works out. if not, you'll definitely know about it.

back to the grind

if friday was just a warm up, then today was the real deal. i naively came into the office today thinking i had made sure everything was in good working order on friday and over the weekend. haha.....what was i thinking? the problems picked up right where they left off back in june, but luckily i was able to fix everything. now, i can definitely say with a bit more confidence that i am ready to start more tests tomorrow and the next few weeks. i do need to run my ideas by a few people to make sure i have not overlooked anything. we'll see.

p.s. - comcast back in the news, and once again, it's negative press...but what else is new
interesting story about the motion picture association of america (MPAA)

back at cambridge

after a very successful and worthwhile internship with ibm this summer, i finally made it back to cambridge yesterday. i was torn between wanting to stay (in new york at ibm) and wanting to come back to school (the sooner i get back, the faster i finish, and motivation was at an all-time high following my internship). it was a really weird feeling to say the least. i probably could have used one more day to relax at home with my parents, but, i know next time. i am still getting my body clock back adjusted to the uk timezone. i hope to hit the ground running come monday. i had not planned to come in to the office today, but i am extremely glad that i did. it appears that my testing machine's hard drive failed on me today, and i had to get a new one and re-install linux. i am so glad i could finish this today as opposed to dealing with it on monday. i was able to complete a slew of other small things to make everything as smooth as possible for picking up where i left off. now that my computers and test equipment are ready to roll, i need to sit down and put the pen to paper and come up with a plan of action to maximize my time. there's a lot on the horizon. i am really excited.

p.s. - i had a similar (but obviously not as severe) complaint with comcast last summer