These days, work has been a lot more focused and I have a lot less time to spend goofing about the office (although I'm NOT giving up my afternoon siesta).  It certainly helps that for once Dr. Meixner (from here on I refer to her as Margaret as I usually do) is actually around the office rather than being away on conference or holiday as she has been for most of the past few weeks. Every time I get stuck in a rut I can now go ask her questions rather than stew in my own juices.

Today, when I was sitting at Margaret's office discussing work with her, I mentioned my observation that from the paper's I've read, the sort of work discussed doesn't seem to a very precise science. She replied: "Well, welcome to astronomy!". Seriously though, I think part of my problem is that I'm not here long enough to learn things in as much detail as I would like, so my work is often very hand-waving (to use a favorite phrase of Prof. Miller's), and sometimes I'm not entirely certain as to what I'm doing. Still, from Margaret's responses to my work, it appears that I'm bumbling along reasonably well.

I bought a bunch of CDs while at Towson Centre the other day, and I've been slowly listening to them (since I blew a hefty sum on them, I'm not going to buy any new music for some time). The first CD I popped into my Diskman was a recording of a few of Beethoven's piano sonatas. It's my first album of Beethoven's piano works...I've heard some of them in concerts before, but it's difficult to gain a good appreciation of a piece of music from first hearing. There was a time when my impression of Beethoven was that his music was very dark and impenetrable, with (it seemed to me) few of the joyful melodies of Mozart or the overt romanticism of the late Romantics like Dvorak or Grieg, for example. I'm glad to say that I'm beginning to gain an ever deeper appreciation for Beethoven, and I'm beginning to see sides to his music which I've somehow never noticed before. Apart from my own personal prejudices, there definitely is a distinctiveness of his piano sonatas from his orchestral works.

As for my own playing, the visit to Todd at Annapolis had a greater effect on me than I thought. From his advice and tips to me regarding scales, I was astonished yesterday that I can finally burn scales at around 190bpm! And from the encouragement given to me by the other Guitar Forumites where I posted my recordings, I feel as if I've just awakened from a long dark sleep, running from the shadows of my own perceived weaknesses and lack of talent. I've been enjoying playing my guitar with the same enthusiasm that I used to have when I first started out. At night, I've been sitting on my bed with my guitar, with the lights out, playing softly to avoid awakening my flatmates....

  After the weekend at Annapolis with Todd, it was as if my love for music surged back into me, so I've been spending most of my evenings with my guitar rather than maintaining this blog.  On Saturday, we went to a large shopping mall in Towson, about 30 minutes bus ride away, to watch Spiderman 2. I took the chance to pop into Barnes & Noble to buy a couple of books and CDs beforehand.
 
  The movie itself was vaguely interesting but pretty much forgettable, and after it ended Tom was going on and ON about the physics of Dr. Octopus' fusion reactor! Yes, I know it's ridiculous and laughable, but it's a comic book movie for goodness' sake!
 
  Sunday night, we had a potluck party at Bonnie's place, where we were supposed to bring food from our own countries. I couldn't find fresh chilli and spices at the local supermarket to make curry, so I had to settle for chicken wings instead. After the stuffing ourselves as much as we could, Bonnie, Mel, and the Hispanics settled down to the task of getting drunk at the dinner table, while the rest of us sat around the living room chatting (although we did try our best to make Tom drunk, even though he was innocently sitting with us).
 
  Our conversation centered mostly on Bess' dilemma. She's a girl from Hong Kong going into her last year in Electrical Engineering in Cornell. However, she is interested in cosmology, and she is currently grappling with the question of whether to go into research or to get a job immediately after graduating.  She feels obligated to her parents to get into a secure, safe job in which she will not be satisfied, yet she says she feels 'guilty' going into.
 
   We had an interesting time sharing experiences and thoughts...it seems that a lot of her doubts has to do with a lack of confidence in her own ability to get a secure job in scientific research. Our reaction was: YOU WILL BE GRADUATING WITH A DEGREE FROM CORNELL! She may or may not get into the university she wants, but as far as we're concerned someone of her calibre will definitely get into a graduate program somewhere.
 
  It was an interesting evening, and we didn't leave Bonnie's place until 1am.  The talk we had helped me clarify some of things I have in my mind as well. There were times when my motivations were perhaps misplaced or not in the right place, and it was important to hear the same things from the other people in the same stage of life as I am, and sharing the same passions and ambitions.