Shrutarshi Basu 

Recently I've been able to work 8 to 10 hour days, only really stopping for meals. Even a little while ago that felt impossible. This is good.

As I've been working on my website, I've noticed there are a whole bunch of non-obvious constraints for what makes valid HTML. This of course makes me think about formalizing the HTML spec in Lean (or something).

Someone please tell me this is a terrible, horrible, no-good idea.

Version 4 of my website, built with Lume, is now live. Right now there isn't much besides some journal entries ported from the previous version and some shorter stream posts from my old Tumblr. I'll add things like RSS feeds over the weekend.

Even in an increasingly interconnected world, there is much to be said in favor of isolation and solitude. For those of a creative bent of mind, much of our work is done behind closed doors, to be revealed only when ready. Our work is our testament to the ages and all that will remain when we are gone. It is not who we are, but what we do that defines us. And though the company of friends can be comforting and relaxing it can also all too often become distracting and demotivating. Only with solitude, isolation and total immersion in the task at hand does one enter a State of Flow, becoming one with the problem and ultimately finding the solution. The ultimate challenge for the creative mind is to find the balance between the peaks of genius in solitude and the nourishing stream of ideas that only comes with connection with other minds. It is a quest that can be tiring, draining, futile and possibly even rewarding.

Grad students are too poor to be stupid. I just spent the better part of the last 15 minutes standing outside because of a false positive in the fire alarm system. Technology. It never works. But as a result of this, I got some rather interesting insights into grad school life. Apparently grad students can get cheaper insurance because they do less stupid stuff. That makes total sense to me and the rest of the conversation revolved around how grad students are in general too poor to get their hands on alcohol or hallucinogenics. While the conversation was light hearted, there was some amount of truth to it all. The rest of the discussion was about typical grad student stuff: meetings, advisors, deadlines, the usual. As I move closer to starting my own graduate experience, all these stories give me some serious food for thought. I would love the cheap insurance and the freedom, but I’m still not 100% sure if I could do it for 5 years.

American public transport is rather inadequate, especially when it comes to mid-range intercity transport. And I think it’s worse if you’re not near a large city. I’m currently stuck trying to get a ride back from Philadelphia Airport to Easton, PA. The last Greyhound bus leaves at 4pm and my flight doesn’t get in until about 5:10. I suppose I could take a cab or something, but that would be expensive. A friend of mine who usually gives me rides is unavailable so now I’m not sure how I’m going to get back. Why is there no bus service for later in the evening?

Left my umbrella behind. Again. At some point over the weekend I realized that I’d left my umbrella at the office. I thought it wouldn’t be a big deal because the weekend was bright and sunny, a bit on the hot side actually. Today morning turned out to be dreary and wet. I didn’t realize it was actually raining till I was out of the elevator with just 5 minutes left before the hourly bus left. I managed to run upstairs, grab my jacket, get out of the building on the wrong side, go back through the building to the right side and then run through the rain to grab the bus. Not a very fun start to the day, but at least I made it to the office without being too wet and not too late.