First, the real estate news. I decided that complex amenities were more important to me, made an offer and had it accepted. We're doing the inspection on Tuesday. In this case, the seller is relocating, so has more incentive to make things work out.
My biggest accomplishment of the week was today, when I donated my old and decaying bicycle to Bikes for the World. The frame was fine but a lot of the other parts were rusted and I decided it was just too much work for me to overhaul it. Let someone else do the work and make use of it in the developing world. Not that it took up a huge amount of room, but decluttering is always a good thing, particularly with the upcoming nightmare of moving.
The rest of the week (except Saturday, which was Yom Kippur) was busy with work and non-work both. Catching up on a couple of weeks out of the office is never fun and I still haven't gotten through all my email, as I had a major task to complete by the end of the week. I did get it finished. The major unfinished chore is an administrative one, which I aim to finish tomorrow.
Monday evening's non-work was actually sort of work related, as I went to the MIT Enterprise Forum. Most of the topics they have are of little interest to me, but this one was about "Start-ups in Space" and featured a keynote speech by NASA administrator, Mike Griffin. It was fairly interesting, but I can't say there were any great revelations either from him or from the three panelists who followed him. I'd like to see entrepreneurs giving some thought to working at the second tier, building smajor subsystems (e.g. sensors or propulsion systems or on-board computers) rather than complete satellites or launch vehicles.
Wednesday's non-work was not at all work-related, except that maybe it was if you consider that some of what I saw at the fashion show I went to involved clothes intended for work. This was an event at Macy's hosted by Clinton Kelley (of "What Not to Wear," a show I think of as a guilty pleasure when at hotels with cable TV). Most of his commentary was surprisingly practical. And he was very entertaining, though I admit I am uncomfortable with a man referring to women's breasts as "the girls." I came away with the conclusion that I dress better than I sometimes think I do, with the possible exception of my refusal to wear uncomfortable shoes. My major trick for looking professional is the third layer, i.e. a jacket or vest or, even a scarf. And, of course, even though I don't do pointy-toed high-heeled girl shoes, I don't go around in flip flops either. When I was walking around the mall afterwards, a woman stopped me to ask where I'd gotten the shoes I was wearing (Beautifeel round toe pumps with a double strap), so I must be doing something right.
On a final sort of fashion note, the MIT Museum Shop used to sell jewelry made out of circuit boards and, if I recall correctly, at least some of it had flashing lights. I suppose it now needs to come with a warning not to wear it at the airport? I haven't seen a photo of what Star Simpson, the MIT student arrested for having a "hoax bomb" at Logan Airport was actually wearing, but I'm not sure that a circuit board itself really qualifies. (I should mention that in my undergrad days I was working on iodine clocks, which provide an interesting model for nonlinear thermodynamics. My professor was going somewhere and wanted to do a demo, so I mixed up the three solutions for him, along with a card reading something like "combine solutions A and B; add solution C to start reaction." It did not occur to either of us that this might have been misinterpreted at airport security until after he returned.)
Copyright 2007 Miriam H. Nadel