La Entropista

Cut and pasted from email to friend:

update on my big stressful thing: my pr presentation went well, the head professor came up to me afterwards and said she was so pleased to see how far the project had come since before Berlin and was really excited about my research and that she thought it was a very interesting approach to urban planning that hasn’t been explored (she’s only seen one other project like that from a PhD a few years ago who did something similar in a much longer amount of time and that she’s forward on her disseration to me, yay), and that I couldn’t have fielded questions from the other professors any better; i.e. it looked like I knew what I was talking about. What a huge relief!

His response:

Congratulations on the positive feedback.  I’m always surprised that YOU’RE surprised when you get kudos.

My thoughts:

Considering that I developed the framework for the US component the NIGHT BEFORE the presentation, and finished the powerpoint about 10 minutes before presenting it, I am DAMN WELL surprised at her response. I guess it pays to set the bar low from the beginning…now, in the words of same professor, the structure and data are there, all I have to do is WRITE IT DOWN. Yeah, that’s all.

To celebrate, I double-fisted dirty martinis and champagne in between fistfulls of nutella s’mores. Surprised I made it back relatively unscathed (despite the Del Taco/Pall Mall diversion).

In other news:

If a girl is interested in works on the emergence of a post-suburban condition in the Netherlands, here is a place to look for references. Of course, much of it is in de Nederlandse taal.

Loopcity conceptual map

If the same girl is interested in paricipating in a research project on ideas related to the city a la carte model of urbanization, she should check out the Loopcity project. The questionnaire is kind of funky because I think it is translated from Japanese, but definitely interesting (although not very well developed), and now that we have nothing better to do, might as well skew his results by overloading his data set with too many data points from Southern California.

Also:

Found some spelt bread right here at the Irvine farmers market (you didn’t think they would allow such a chaos here, did you, with rampant, unregulated vegetables everywhere). Apparently it is very difficult to find this kind of very good stuff in the US, so if you are a fan, you should probably get your butt down here to partake before it gets gobbled up by folks who don’t appreciate it quite as much as you might. Hmm, might be good with garlic quark. And no, not that kind.

 

The reason none of us are blogging is because we have evil presentations on our PRs tomorrow. The PR presentation is like dissertation defense except less meaningful and more retarded. Please don’t come to it. Expect me to be face-down-on-the-bathroom-floor drunk within two hours of finishing. If you were smart you would get your ass down here to hold back my hair as I address the toilet bowl. Love you, bye.

I know I’m not supposed to write about Berlin because I don’t live there anymore, but I have to mention just one more thing: Michelle over at Master of the Obvious blogged about her meal at Lorenz Adlon and I have to comment on it. This was one of the first restaurant meals I had in Berlin, and one of the best meals I have ever had IN MY LIFE, and not just because of the endless succession of courses and the perfect wine pairings, but because of HELLO, the CHEESE CART.

it didn’t look like this

I have had some pretty damn fine meals in the past, most notably with the dude who took me to Lorenz (and subsequently gave my sorry ass the boot days later) cause how’s a cheap and broke grad student supposed to get her foodsnobby groove on but with brilliant and too-good-looking-for me people who share similar intrinsic values (minus religion, politics and sex) but with deeper and hard earned pocketbooks, but this one just has not been beaten. I now understand what it means to have something handed to you on a silver platter. And if that silver platter has AS MUCH UNPASTEURIZED CHEESE AS YOU WANT on it, god, well, I’m getting all teary-eyed just thinking about it.

These days, though, I would be quite content, dizzily happy really, if  I could share a meal with someone here. Room service wouldn’t be so bad either.

I just realized that the editor over at Radio Free Mike has demoted me from Berlin blogger to friend. Crushing. Not even a short layover in Los Angeles, and bound for at random any moment now, I’m sure. What does it take to get reinstated, I ask? Need I post more pictures of the telespargel? Rant about falling on the U-Bahn again? Arrgh. I shake my fist at the injustice of it all!

.

fine!

Germany, you haven’t seen the last of me.

The Desyl says, speaking of the Mormons, Orange you glad you don’t live in the OC?:

I’m in the computer lab all night again and I KNOW that there is a geek party in the complex but I can’t go cause I have to crawl through half a gigabyte of city documents to do this dumb ass shite but it might be important cause if stuff is good enough it might turn into a journal article that I could possibly work on over the summer and then get some kind of authorship like second or third or something and that way my academic life could be justified in black and white for all who read EDRA or whatever, or maybe impress other people who care about things like that instead of having a job that actually pays money instead of you paying it (grad school) but my stomach is crazy hurting so I’m distracted by that and the fact that I’m now sending dirty messages to people who tell me that I have a knackiger Arsch which I hope is a good thing but who the hell knows it could be totally mean but I read it and am like, aww he’s so sweet so here’s what I would do to you if you were here so I can make you distracted too fair is fair. HAHA.

I got my bike back today, all lubed up and pumped up and ready to skid me into some embankment or off some granite face and into a pile of rubble somewhere. Ouch.

Enjoyed riding in the nature in a past life, but I think I”ll stick to the bike lane for now.

Millerton Lake trail, Sierra Foothills: bug central but nice single track

Someday I’ll take it here:

just kidding

Excited to be on two wheels again! Thanks Dyer!

I’m finally coming to terms with the gradumatating. I don’t think my name is going to show up on the commencement paper thingy, and I won’t actually be done, but who the fuck cares. As long as my parents can see me walk across the stage and shake hands with evil and take pictures with their academically accomplished daughter, they’ll be satisfied. Apparently we have to wear a hood:

Yeah, I thought it was the other kind, too.

Happy Birthday, schatzi, mit großer Liebe.

 

I’ve been falling a lot lately. I’ve got the scraped up knees of a nine year old. And while I’m really enjoying picking scabs and poking bruises, I’m getting a little worried about the whole thing. I used to chalk it up to the slippery icy streets of northern europe, then to overconsumption of the sake beverages, then to tippy heels and bubble-headed distraction, but I think it could be something more. I’m not going to get freaked out until after work is done so for now I’ll chalk it up to bad eyeglasses and poor restaurant maintenance instead of some physical manifestation of psychological pathology or even worse, BAD KARMA. Probably a little more sensitive right now (impending decisions about my future, unfinished work, not enough sleep, exasperation at my own laziness and lack of discipline, crazy uncomfortable pre- and post-ms) but these long drawn out late night evaluations of my current relationship and how I’ve fucked up my past ones and what that means about me are taking their toll, and not just on me. I’ve got office hours right now and I just want to close the door, put my head on the table and sleep and cry. Sad and tired and lonely and missing him and angry about it all.

Love spending ALL DAY in the computer lab (okay, half the day, but it’s Saturday and its BEAUTIFUL outside) working on post-occupancy evaluation of Santa Ana neighborhood. It’s 10 pm and I’m absolutely batty.

PS I was told that I would love the way the new google maps satellite feature scrolls between locations and I do, I really do. With all my heart it appeals to the inner techie geek in me.

Might be TAing for this dude over the summer. Yikes! Must be good. And professional. Absolutely NO TOUCHING.

Signs you might be having friend break up: you come home and find all loaned books returned. All of them. The gnostic gospels, twenty love poems and a song of despair, podkayne of mars, the nine bilion names of god. But oh! He gave me one of his own: the secularization of the euuropean mind in the 19th century. No prob. I’ll just get on that right away. Nothing better to do, really.

I love her. Beyond words.

Bored yet?

I want:

 

oh, and a JOB: