overt.org

i’ve arrived in seattle.

There is something very different about arriving in a place you’re just visiting and arriving in a place you think you might be living for 5 years or so. Everything gets judged, filed, every impression is stronger, and the things you know will be close to become so important. Do I really like this apartment? Where is the nearest grocery store? Is this really a nice campus? Will I be able to handle the rain? The clouds? Why is it sunny today? How much longer will it be sunny?

It’s thoughts like these that have made this first day sort of a mental and emotional marathon for me. Here’s basically what my day has involved so far:

1. Arrive at apartment building at 10am to sign lease that begins tomorrow. Have no quarters to feed the meter. Jog over to coffee shop to beg for change. Experience excruciating pain in thighs because you thought it would be a good idea to run a couple of miles two days ago after not exercising for two weeks. Feed meter. Limp into apartment building and fill out paperwork. Visit apartment to find it is still trashed–the lease doesn’t start until tomorrow, so they have until midnight to clean things up. Be suprised at size of apartment, but remind yourself that (in spite of strong personal inclinations) you’re living alone. Discover that waterbeds are not allowed. Sigh, and go to move your car before the meter runs out.

2. Park car in a free spot 15 blocks from campus that is tow-away from 4-6pm. Plan a 2pm meeting with advisor. Eat lunch at student union.

3. Meet advisor at 2pm. Many exciting projects are offered. Try to pick one to start work on by tomorrow at 11am. Try to arrange for building key, employment papers, budgeting forms, computer accounts. Realize that it’s 3:55pm.

4. Run/walk/limp 15 blocks to your car, reaching it at 4:05 unticked and untowed. Drive aimlessly looking for overnight parking, give up and buy a parking pass 4 blocks from apartment.

5. Limp some more to some random building and plug in your laptop. Post new pictures of UW on gallery and try to determine direction of your life for duration of Ph.D. program.

So this is the point that I’m at now. Maybe it was the 13-hour drive from the Bay yesterday, or the fact that I’ve been effectively on vacation since the beginning of June, or the stress of moving to a new city, but in any case I’m utterly exhausted. And the best part is that I can’t go to my apartment until around midnight, so no sleep until then unless I get a hotel again (and I’m just too cheap for that).

So hopefully I’ll have some pictures of the apartment up tomorrow sometime. Whee.

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Comments

amy — 2003-08-08 11:48:22

hey! just wanted to let you know that i am reading and keeping up, even though i’m not commenting a lot. :) congrats on making it to seattle and i hope you actually did get into your apartment–old renters waiting til the last minute to clean stuff out sounds kind of sketchy. but when you get a chance, we do want pics!

Ali — 2003-08-08 12:44:50

Glad you got their safely. Speaking of messy apartments, I get to clean mine today, but there is no furniture so how hard could it possibly be.

What project are you working on?

bryan — 2003-08-08 18:09:33

well, wow. i was under the impression that no one at all was reading it :) i’ll try to get pics up soon. there are a few of seattle up on gallery now

bryan — 2003-08-08 18:10:31

no project yet, that is in the works. but i do at least have a key to the building and what should be my lab.

well, this morning i’m driving from palo alto to seattle. it should take about 14 hours, so i want to get an early start, though i’m not sure it will help prevent this from being a really long day. hopefully the next post will be from my new apartment with pictures.

the last time i drove through oregon in the summer it was absolutely beautiful, covered in yellow flowers. i wonder if it will be now. i’ll try to snap a shot or two on the way if i can.

I’ve finally gotten around to posting some pictures from SIGGRAPH on gallery. It seems like there would be a lot to document at the world’s biggest graphics conference, but its really more papers and equations and talking. The really cool stuff (like the animated movies) can’t be photographed anyway because they attack you if they see a camera in your hand when you’re near it.

The strangest thing I’ve seen so far is the motor-powered surfboard. Still can figure out how that ended up here.

Two more days of conferencing remain, then it’s off to Seattle with a joyous stop in LA on the way.

Well, as my first official act as a grad student in graphics, I’m at SIGGRAPH in San Diego. One of the nice benefits of the conference is the free wireless everwhere, so as I type this I’m sitting in the keynote presentation. It’s being given by an astrophysicist who is talking about visualizing the form of the universe or some such thing. Very heady stuff.

Despite the ultra technical stuff (new Isotropic surface techniques with NURBS, anyone?), they also have a little theater set up where you can just sit and watch cartoons if you get burned out. I’ve already logged some time there. I’ll try to get some pictures taken, but they have this big problem with taking pictures of pretty things that other people made and want to sell, so I may not have much luck.

Well, it turns out in the end that we skipped right over Joshua Tree and headed straight to the great western metropolis. I’m a softie, what can I say? So these last couple days have been idle bliss here, as long as you ignore the traffic.

Yesterday, while Leslie taught, my brother and I went down to Venice beach. It was everything I’d hoped for, freaks and musclemen, cheap t-shirts and sunglasses, and lots of rollerblades. We then had lunch at “Hurry Curry,” and wasted the rest of the afternoon in the periodicals room in the big library at USC. A trip to Santa Monica rounded out the day.

Today, we’ve been lazy to the extreme, though we did make it to the Getty Center to look at art and old things. It really is a beautiful place; make sure you get there in the morning before the crowds get too silly.

Tomorrow morning, we’re leaving for SIGGRAPH. I’ll probably make another album in gallery for the pictures I take there. SIGGRAPH is more than just an orgy of pretty things, its also a major academic conference in this field that I’m supposed to be joining in the next couple of weeks, and subsequently devoting five years of my life to in pursuit of the brass ring, the doctor of philosophy. After that, there’ll be nowhere to hide. So, besides ogling the CG and collecting schwag, I’m also going to be trying to determine what I’m going to do for the next five years, and also trying to work out with a professor a way I can pay my rent for the next two months.