Arizona; Fame and Fortune

I haven't been updating this blog recently since I haven't been traveling, but I think I might pick it up so as to force myself to at least regurgitate some of the math I've been doing. Perhaps I'll even go look through notes I took for previous talks that I once thought I understood, like the talks from Alghero. They eventually sent out lecture notes so hopefully I won't have to work from memory or whatever remains of my notes.

Anyway, right now I'm in Tucson, a little bit too warm for my taste but overall a lot of fun, especially because I know a number of the people here from all the conferences I've been to over the last year, and it's been nice catching up.

A couple of people I ran into were at the conference in Sardinia, and apparently while looking around for notes from the conference they stumbled on to my blog! I can't tell whether to be flattered or humbled or alarmed or what.

Anyway, they made a few comments about professionalism, so I made a back edit or two so that people won't think I'm a total jackass when I'm applying for jobs years in the future.

For those of you who have ever seen this, thanks for your readership! All five of you or more!

Near the Pacific Ocean

I arrived in Seattle last night and hung out with Lucas, who I'm staying with. He has yet to awaken but we will have some hangouts before I leave for the airport since my flight to Oakland isn't until 7:15pm.

It's been fun to hang out and it's been GREAT to have non-ridiculous phone service. I got charged some ridiculous fees for having to use my data plan in Germany...

Anyway tomorrow night it looks like I'll be staying in San Francisco with Kendra Ryan and Josh, and then heading up to Santa Rosa to see my mom and get back to Arcata!

Yay for Norcal!

But to be entirely honest, it will be nice when I finally get back to Santa Cruz...

Heidelberg, nearing the end

So I'll be leaving Heidelberg tomorrow morning. I got an e-mail from the consulate only yesterday saying they had received my passport, and I could make an appointment to pick it up; predictably there were no appointment slots left but I was able to request an emergency appointment and the request was granted this afternoon, so I should be able to stop by quickly and pick it up no problem. Then I'll be straight back to the USA, which will be a big relief for me I think.

I'm looking forward to seeing everyone, and I'm looking forward to getting home and getting things back to normal. I'm tired of all this traveling around.

Heidelberg

So I managed to make it to Heidelberg at long last, on Wednesday evening. I attended a couple days of lectures and slept long nights, and only now have had the time to get on to the internet for some blogging.

The main reason I haven't been on is that there is no wireless at my hotel! It's terrible! There is internet at the conference and the university, but it's a 25 minute walk that I don't like making with my laptop in tow. But I figured it would be worth it to bring you guys an update so here ya go!

I had a bit of trouble following the lectures at the summer school, since it was building on a lot of material I'd missed in the first few days. Hopefully the talks at the conference will be better.

Heidelberg is really hot, almost like there are actually seasons in this part of the world and this one is the hot one. It's not so bad as Florence though, so I think I'll survive.

There's a big old castle in Heidelberg and I went there yesterday with Alex and Yun, a Belgian grad student we met at the summer school.

Overall it's been neat talking to people and hanging out, but I'm hoping to actually learn some real math next week, and I'm looking forward to getting home.

PAX

Penny Arcade Expo has been pretty fun! I've been competing in the PAX Pokemon League (I've beaten 9 gym leaders and 2 elite four members, and have a few challenges left for tomorrow), got a couple awesome T-shirts, had an impromptu hula hoop competition (which I lost), played Dragon Dice, an awesome game which I thought was lost to Time, and played some Four Calibur.... SOUL!

Overall it's been pretty fun. There's a lot going on, far too much to get to everything I'd like to. It's been keeping me busy and making it tough for me to take care of non-PAX things that I might like to be taking care of in the evenings. But overall it's been a great experience.

I'll be leaving for Germany Monday morning, pretty early, so I'm a little nervous about getting to the airport on time. I may just get a taxi so that I don't have to worry about it.

The Countdown

So I've been home in Santa Cruz hanging out for a while and that's been nice, but I'm about to get back on the road again on Wednesday, when I'll be driving up to Seattle for PAX. I'm excited to see my friends who are going, especially Eugene, Lucas, Lauren, Cambria, Gabe, and Puppo!

Today I made sure all my boxes were packed and moved them downstairs, as well as moving my bookshelves downstairs, and tonight I'll put my dresser downstairs and take apart my desk, because tomorrow morning I am moving all my stuff out into storage until I get back.

It's been a little bit frustrating having so much to do and not being able to do any of it because I don't have a car myself, but I'm glad that my friends are coming to help me out tomorrow and I'm confident we'll get it all done. And then it will be all fun times!

Back Home (mostly)

I'm back in the states, in San Francisco, waiting to say hi to some friends before I head down to Santa Cruz and settle back in (for all of ten days -_- ).

I'm pretty tired and ready to be at home for a while, where there is wireless all the time and plugs that fit my devices and a big bed and a substantially less public shower and a refrigerator and all that.

I'm a little weirded out by american money now, though. It's all... clothy? And dirty. And the denominations are weird. 2 euro coins are dreadfully convenient.