Yesterday was girlfriend day and it was as I had never left. I had lunch with a girlfriend, I went to dinner with another one and ended up drinking espresso martinis 'til 1.30 am girl-talking until we turned blue in the face (from all the indoor smoke!). Of course the occasional geek talk came up and I spent a significant part of the evening catching up on the European cell phone situation: which new models were out, what services were new and how far we are in the 3G race; I realized that on Monday I have to go and get a GPRS subscription, so I don't have to spend 5 minutes waiting for it to connect when I check my email or movie times (GPRS was automatically build into my GSM subscription in California). We talked about graduate education and how your skills are not always transparent; you can possess certain abilities but the real strength in most areas is the skill to acquire new skills. You can know the Java API inside out, but if you don't know the principles of creating well structured programs (variables, loops and conditions) you will never be able to learn to use new languages. Likewise, when you read a paper that is not in your area but still consist of interesting research, you learn how to critique and value research in general and can use this to improve you own research (this is why, I tell myself, that I don't mind reviewing these three articles that are more information systems than ubiquitous computing and really not my cup of tea... ).
My girlfriends are the sweetest and after a day like yesterday, Denmark is not that bad. They always listen to my complains, and although I am not good in following their advise (to the extent that I miss flights, date the wrong guys, get my heart torn in two and end up buying the wrong color shoes), they are invaluable. So being in Denmark is not that bad, I thought, while biking (I got a bike now, that definitely improved my mood too!) home though the crowded Friday night with no headlights, hoping that I wouldn't get pulled over by the police.
Posted by Louise at April 3, 2004 01:31 PMIn the consciousness of the truth he has perceived, man now sees everywhere only the awfulness or the absurdity of existence... and loathing seizes him.
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