web + log

[trochee]

(broken into two posts -- this one's more my activities):

School:

• Met with my fellow vice-president-draftee to plan colloquia for the upcoming year. We come from very different branches of linguistics, so it's a sort of bipartisan committee; luckily we both feel that last year's colloquia were too overloaded with theoretical syntax (her area) and computational linguistics (mine), so we'll be looking to do other things next year; we're both interested in trying to get more First Nations talks, among others.
• Had lunch with a classmate who's abandoning her MA idea and needs a new one -- I think our undirected brainstorming over fish and chips on Lake Union helped; we came up with something pretty good
• met with an advisor about my MA; he tells me (how flattering!) that my strength in writing this MA is that I'm "eclectic", which I dare say is true.
• regarding that MA -- I'm running short on time. Not one, not two, but all three of my MA committee members are on sabbatical or on leave in the fall. Yoicks.

Work:

• Ran more than a year's worth of 21st century computer time, parsing
• Sent off email indicating my interest in coming to Palo Alto this summer
• Went to a full-day's talks, by (among others) the first authors of the white book and the black book, who (in a very ego-stroking moment) waved "hi" to me when I came in late to hear their talks

Comments

[xaosenkosmos.livejournal.com]

Please to be defining "a year's worth of 21st century computer time," it seems odd. Is that just 52+ machines churning away for a week straight?

In much the same vein, i have just wasted the sum total of all computer time previous to 1800 or so, all on this comment alone =)

[trochee.livejournal.com]

actually, it's 100+ computers for a week straight.

1800 or so? I guess if you count abaci etcetera, you're probably right. And yeah, it's a fatuous comparison, but it makes me sound like I'm doing real work.

leave me my illusions!

[elwe.livejournal.com]

"Went to a full-day's talks, by (among others) the first authors of the white book and the black book, who (in a very ego-stroking moment) waved "hi" to me when I came in late to hear their talks"

:: is envious :: :-)

[ex-caracola454.livejournal.com]

Having been the one who planned last year's colloquia, let me be the first to thank the two of you in advance, because it's a thankless job. Or I just did a sucky job at it. People had more complaints about the subject matter than anything (as you echo above), though no one offered suggestions when I asked in the beginning of the year...

Anyway, I have a binder with stuff to give you.

[trochee.livejournal.com]

oh, it wasn't a criticism of your work, so much as the effect of the faculty searches last year, combined with the MS colloquia. I liked the talks that we had, and I was glad you'd arranged them.

This year we're just trying something new, and the faculty are participating more.

[ex-caracola454.livejournal.com]

I probably sounded defensive in my response. I think it's great the faculty will be more involved -- I like the new idea. You guys are gonna rock the colloquia, and it will be better to have 2 people, I think. In a sense, this is your secondish term as VP, what with all the colloquia covering you did for me last year ;-)