keninabu!

The lab at night

It's really nice and peaceful at night, here in the lab.

For one thing, I don't have to deal with crazy roommates like the one living opposite me, who is a voluble Greek-American bubbling with exclamations and damnations ("Fucking shit!" he'll sometimes say. Or his favourite roar: "BALLSS!!!").

For another thing, I don't have to fall asleep on my face just because my stupid desklamp blew out on me, because it is bright as daylight here. The labs are always well-lit, to accomodate crazy grad students who come in anytime to do their work (and having run into Felicia here at 11pm at night, that is definitely true!)

The lab is here, and it is well-lit, and I know it well. Everything I need is available: power, wireless internet, lots of light. Heck, even the chairs here are much more comfy than what I have in my room; my room chair always gives me a backache.

The only downside tonight is that I wasted two hours finishing reading a totally irrelevant book: "Seabiscuit". Given the proximity of the end of the book, I couldn't put it down after finishing my dinner. The book makes for really fascinating reading, though. It's a romance, in the classical sense. A hyped-up version of the grimy reality, with a hyped-up version of the grime: no matter how the book tries to convey the brutality of the races, or of the dirt of the poor living in those times, or the stench, it just doesn't compare with the real thing, as I discovered when I went to India and got hit in the nose by the stench.

The book is brillant, though. It successfully conveys the spirit of the horse and the team, but in particular, I identify with Seabiscuit himself: he liked to eat, and sleep, and was extremely antisocial until he found a best friend to settle with. Yet when push came to shove, he was able to bear down on his opponents and wear them down: I'm not quite that brutal yet, I think.... so maybe that's where the resemblance ends.

I finished my presentation, though I think it wiser to keep it for now, and to send it off to Dr. Johnson only tomorrow.

So now I have to "enjoy" the lab, and finish up the Kinetics homework and Quantum exam, neither of which I have even touched.... hopefully I now have some of Seabiscuit's grit through having read the book, and will survive the long night ahead...

posted by keninabu @ 9:47 PM