Thursday December 23rd

An Amazing Trip back, Real Analysis and Rebar

I finally made it

I was super nervous because of all document things Covid, catching Covid, testing Covid things, etc.
But it worked out, and completely better than I expected.
Also, yes; I packed the Real Analysis book. By the end of this week, I would have:
- rested (I do that for a few days when I get home)
- worked on a presentation
- gotten through the first 2 chapters of the Real Analysis book
- written some emails to some people I know / needs to be done
- Solved many Maths puzzles (for fun) such as MathNets and Quads. My family likes doing them, and apparently my mom is bored with Soduku (she’s solved too many) and is doing more crosswords these days, and my dad is doing Soduku.

Rebar

I have been getting into T. Ley’s videos on concrete. As it turns out, he worked on that for his PhD. I generally find videos on building, physics and chemistry to be interesting. I love that he is a scientific, analytic thinker. Something about it brings me great joy, and I like listening to his videos. Years ago, I was a NASA Aerospace scholar, and we spent a week or so talking about epoxies and ductility, resonance and tensile strength for building for space. Since Physics was one of my favourite subjects in school, I enjoy learning about that stuff. I also trend towards liking to work at companies where they either build things, or that sort of knowledge about the world (physical things, materials, industry) is useful. And that makes sense because I grew up in a country that has several natural resources like oil and natural gas, and inherently know some things about those industries. I’ve also worked on shows both in theatre and film in which we worked “load in and strike”, which meant I had to work out of a lift or use tools like a hammer or adjustable wrench for taking down lights and pulling apart sets with the crew. We even figured out one time how to make a pulley system to hoist pizza slices up and down the lift!
These days, I’ve been reading a lot about real estate in general, in terms of pricing based on location and construction / materials as a hobby, and in particular, housing used as a form of liquid capital (i.e. not a primary residence, but as a pied-a-terre). That industry is fascinating (particularly, the regulatory and taxation aspects). I just enjoy it, I guess.

Pretty pictures: A story

I should explain it before posting. I had a day in-between my landing in Miami and my going home, and well, apparently the hotel I booked (EB) bumped me up to a full suite. It was amazing, as you can see from the photos. In fact, the people in Miami treated me really well; I felt like a celebrity. I almost forgot what it was like to not be kicked around and treated like I didn’t matter (lol).
And when I landed, I ate the most amazing conch roti. I love all things curry and roti (I’m a quarter of East Indian descent and live in a predominantly East Indian descent neighbourhood in my home country, but in my home country I’m considered “Dougla” (pronounced “doe-glah”)).
Oh, also, I found out I was an NCWIT finalist, got asked to speak at a conference next year, booked housing for next summer and am generally just having a great time.
So Happy Holidays to you!