Fed interview

Good news everyone--the Fed interview went well Wednesday. I met with a couple of groups, and I think I have a shot at the Bank Supervision division, doing research and writing on IT operational risk, bank resiliency, etc. It really seems like a great opportunity. In any case, they've asked for a writing sample, which I take as a good sign. I think I'm supposed to hear back from them in a couple of weeks about a 2nd-round so I may be flying back there soon. We shall see.

Thanksgiving at 2 Bayard Road...

The Thanksgiving dinner I gave this year was a surprising success. For some reason, every dish came out well, one out of the two wines I picked was really tasty (a Talus cabernet) and it was pretty well-timed...by the time all my guests were here, it was ready to serve. My guests this year: Madhuri, Mina, Hyeyoun, Sohee, Neha. All of them are great company, and I personally had a great time. We followed up dinner with tasty desserts made by Hyeyoun and Mina, and a showing of "The Jerk". The evening reminded me how much I'm looking forward to the day I can start entertaining on a regular basis again...




Pics from top to bottom:
--turkey and stuffing
--plate full of food
--cleaning up in kitchen (thanks again, guys)
--Sohee and Hyeyoun
--Madhuri and Neha
--Neha, Mina and Hyeyoun

Birthday Party

A Couple of pics from Amina's birthday party. Amina and Lydie are shy about having their pics posted, so there are only a couple of pics here I'll show...




First pic: myself and Mike toasting Amina's birthday and good times in general...
Second pic, starting left going clockwise: Mike, Larry, Tim, and Laura.

Seasonal poetry for your enjoyment

Hello friends... Today's the first day I really felt it was autumn here. Up till now it's either been relatively temperate or rainy. Today it was cool, crisp, and the trees were simply beautiful--I'm still struck by it even though I've already seen one autumn here.

Anyway, I thought I'd share with you some topical poems I like. The first three are Japanese waka, the first two from the Hyakunin Isshu ("100 leaves") collection, and the third from the Kokinshu ("Collection of Ancients and Moderns").

Following this are two poems by two of Germany's greatest lyrical poets, Hebbel and Rilke. Not the greatest of translations, but what the hell...

Finally, I thought I'd throw in that great Shakespeare sonnet we all read in high school (73)....

Enjoy!

=====
Fujiwara no Masatsune

From Mount Yoshino
Blows a chill, autumnal wind.
In the deepening night
The ancient village shivers:
Sounds of beating cloth I hear.

Noin

By the wind storm's blast
From Mimuro's mountain slopes
Maples leaves are torn,
Which turn Tatsuta River
Into a rich brocade.

Anonymous

In the autumn fields
mingled with the pampas grass
flowers are blooming
should my love too, spring forth
or shall we never meet?

-----

Friedrich Hebbel: Autumn Scene

This is a fall day like I never saw!
The air is still, almost of breathing free,
but here and there are falling, without flaw,
the finest-looking fruits from every tree.

Do not disturb ripe nature's holy day!
This is a harvest that is all her own,
because, today, each fruit that breaks away
falls from a milder ray of sun alone.


Rainer Maria Rilke: Fall

The leaves are falling, falling as from far,
from wilting in the heavens' distant gardens:
They're falling to deny the summer's mirth.

And in the nights the heavy Earth
falls into solitude from star to star.

We all are falling. See my hand: it bends.
And look at others: It's in all their calling.

And yet there's One, who's holding all this falling
endlessly tender in His upturned hands...

-----

Sonnet 73

That time of year thou mayst in me behold
When yellow leaves, or none, or few, do hang
Upon those boughs which shake against the cold,
Bare ruin'd choirs, where late the sweet birds sang.
In me thou see'st the twilight of such day
As after sunset fadeth in the west,
Which by and by black night doth take away,
Death's second self, that seals up all in rest.
In me thou see'st the glowing of such fire
That on the ashes of his youth doth lie,
As the death-bed whereon it must expire,
Consum'd with that which it was nourish'd by.
This thou perceiv'st, which makes thy love more strong,
To love that well which thou must leave ere long.

last 4 weeks...sukiyaki...bad movies

I'm in the home stretch...4 weeks and I'm done. But what a hellish 4 weeks it's going to be.

I just bought an electric pan, and I'm dying to make some sukiyaki, but it's really no good making the dish for oneself. I need to have some time to go to the grocery, get the stuff, and invite people over. Also--need to start looking up some T'giving recipes on epicurious, if I'm actually going to invite people over for dinner that day. All this damn schoolwork is getting in the way of my gustatory self-indulgence. Sad.


In more practical matters--I believe my GAO interview went quite well. Don't want to jinx myself, but I think I should be getting a 2nd-round out of this. Also, there are some possibilities w/ the Fed; although I'm not entirely in, I have a contact there who is passing my resume around...finally some payback on this degree.

Most importantly, I just received in the mail the fruits of my Amazon shopping binge, which I probably shouldn't have done, but it made me feel good at the time, as burned out as I was. I now have 2 sweet classic 1970's kung-fu flicks - a collector's edition of "Master of the Flying Guillotine" and Jackie Chan's "Snake in the Eagle's Shadow". This should keep me in B-movie heaven for a while.

bad day

Felt discouraged and sad today, for no immediate reason. Maybe it's the weather, which has suddenly taken a turn to the cold and damp. Also feel unmotivated to work. I think I'll cheer myself up by listening to my new disco record...

torments of Tantalus

Every time I see her, it warms my heart. I haven't felt what I feel now in a long time...a delicious, slightly sick feeling in the pit of my stomach--a natural response to such a natural confluence of both inner and outer beauty. And the feeling is also suffering, that I might never let her know how much I am moved by her goodness. I am glad someone is making me feel this way, but of course I'm sad at the same time.

"Passion" is a marvelous word, because it grounds in etymology that love and suffering are but two sides of the same coin.

Going to sleep now, to dream...

setback

No interview w/ Fed. Disappointed...

The world is so huge, and each of us is alone

Melancholy. Thinking about all the friends I have who are having personal problems... depression and worse. My friend N feels as if she's wasted the last 10 years of her life. My friend E is harboring dark thoughts in what I know is desperate isolation. I myself despair of ever finding true love. And on, and on... It makes me realize that in the end we are all on our own, and that happiness--if there is such a thing--must needs be something we attain with neither the help nor hindrance of others.

I'm grateful that I don't feel the terror of life that I used to know daily, but sometimes I wonder whether I have been benumbed, and this peace is merely a transient slumber from which I will awake screaming years hence. I don't know.

Another hopeless early morning dream, before the grey of day leaks from behind my drawn shades...

Yanks clinch!!!

Figures, I get stuck doing work on the day the Yankee bats crush the Sox, and Big Unit finishes 5-0 against them. Wish I could've watched the game...oh well.

crossing my fingers

Today I attended an information session about FRB of NY. Perhaps my view of it is a bit rosy, but it sure feels like it's the ideal place for me to work. I hear whether I get an interview or not on October 11. Until then... I'll be wishing and hoping.

So far I'm applying to the following places:
GAO
SEC (Market Regulation)
FRB NY (Bank Supervision and Automated Services groups)
FRB SF (if they have anything)
FRB CH " " "
FR Board of Governors
Mitre Corp.
DISA(?)
OCC/OTS/FDIC/NCUA (so far I haven't seen any posts for these)

I've been disqualified from intelligence work due to close relatives who are non-US citizens, so NSA, CIA are non-starters. I admit that I'm not heartbroken over this.

---

Work and baseball are the only things keeping me from dwelling on my current sense of isolation. For some reason, I don't feel at liberty to share my sad feelings w/ my friends...it seems importunate to do so right now.

my dream

I usually don't like to interpret dreams, but it occurred to me that when I woke up from the one referred to in the last post, I had the same feeling as I do whenever I read these lines of Keats:

...
And when I feel, fair creature of an hour,
That I shall never look upon thee more,
Never have relish in the fairy power
Of unreflecting love;--then on the shore
Of the wide world I stand alone, and think
Till love and fame to nothingness do sink.


hm...

in sciatic-nerve hell

This has been a bad week, physically speaking. I've been laid up in bed all weekend with a back pains. Lying down doesn't even really help the pain, although it takes the stress off. I dread going to school on Tuesday, when I will have about 6 total hours of sitting time. Probably should take friends' advice and see a doctor soon. This time it's my sciatic nerve, so occasionally I feel pain in my legs as well.

One exciting thing happening is that the FRB of NY is coming to school. It's a big deal because this is pretty much my #1 choice for place to work next year, and in fact was one of the reasons I applied for grad school in the first place. Unfortunately it's a limited sign-up (only 12 people for some reason) but I'll try and see if I can get our career guys to give me a spot. This reminds me....got to get a haircut soon. Right now I look like a bit-part actor from a Starsky & Hutch or Brady Bunch episode. Maybe I'll be metrosexual and try out Pelusi this time.

Felt crappy earlier this week because of a bad dream I had. I was on a beach, in the darkness, and I could hear the waves slowly rolling in and out. I saw a boat on the sand, slipping slowly into the water. I knew I wanted to pull the boat out of the water, to stop it from drifting off to sea, but I just didn't have the power to get up and do it. After sitting there helplessly for a while, the boat was taken off by the tide, and I felt rage and frustration at my inability to bring it back. So I just lay there, until the boat was pulled into the sea. I started asking it to come back, as if my words would have an effect, but it kept drifting slowly away. Finally it disappeared in the offing and I started crying. I woke up at that point...it was about 4am. Not a great way to start a week...

Alright, it's late. Got to go to bed now...

this made my day

Between work and being sprawled unconscious in bed I've been unable to do any more extensive posting, but in the meantime enjoy the following, which apparently is a 1980's-era training video for Wendy's line cooks. Thank heaven for small pleasures...


Awesome Wendy's Video


.

Germany - Day 1: German TV is just as bad as ours

So because I was zoning in and out and lying in bed my first day there, I got a chance to check out the boob tube and discovered that other than a lot of rounded vowels, German TV is pretty much the same as we get in the states. The three pics I have here are pretty representative of the sort of daytime fare our friends across the pond get...

From top to bottom:


--One of many Geraldo-style daytime talk-shows.

--Seeing American cartoons in German is pretty damn funny--kind of like hearing French rap music. Anyhow, they do have Sponge Bob Squarepants, but with characteristic Teutonic efficiency they've done away with all that's superfluous and dub him what he really is--Schwammkopf ("sponge head").

--Recognize the troubled brow, the goofily dramatic overhead lights, and of course the lame question w/ answers A thru D? They don't have Regis, but everything else is identical. And again, the name gets straight to the point..."Das Quiz", not "Wer will ein Millionaire werden?"

So soon, real soon I'll actually have some pics of Germany posted!

Germany: Day 1 - Frankfurt

My first day in Frankfurt was essentially recovering in my hotel room, trying to adjust to the time difference. I basically spent all day in bed or in the bath--here's the only photo of myself from my trip, in hugh-hefner mode...

pic problems resolved

OK, I think I've got the pic-posting issue taken care of. Here's my test pic--a view of Heidelberg taken from the castle hill (Schlossberg) overlooking it. More interesting pics are forthcoming...

late night in the South Side

Neha, some random lush, and Stephanie at Smokin' Joes on South Side

Extremely tired, but for a good reason...went out a-drinking tonight w/ some ISPM folks-- Shaun, Barrett, Daniel, Stephanie, Tim, Jerem, Neha, Julia, Rick. Rick was in fine form this evening--but that's not any deviation from the norm. Had a real tasty Ommegang ale which made me nostalgic about California--I used to get them real cheap at TJ's...sigh. We hit Smokin' Joes and Dee's, and B showed me the original crime scene of his ill-fated hook-up (a scuzzy looking corner table next to the pool tables at Dee's). I love that place--just the right amount of dive-i-ness and lots of excellent body art. Cheap Yuenlings too..

I can't really keep on doing this nowadays....aside from my flagging stamina, there's the minor issue of keeping up w/ schoolwork.

I am reminded that I need to post my Germany pics up here soon...they are forthcoming, I promise!

Right about now I am going to zone out to some Samuel Barber songs for piano and voice...my absolute favorite is "Of That so Sweet Imprisonment", using lyrics by James Joyce. Although Cheryl Studer (the soprano on this piece) has been maligned as being too operatic w/ her work on this record, I find this a poignantly beautiful piece...

here are the lyrics:

Of that so sweet imprisonment
My soul, dearest, is fain --
Soft arms that woo me to relent
And woo me to detain.
Ah, could they ever hold me there
Gladly were I a prisoner!

Dearest, through interwoven arms
By love made tremulous,
That night allures me where alarms
Nowise may trouble us;
But sleep to dreamier sleep be wed
Where soul with soul lies prisoned.

back in the 'burgh

OK, I'm finally getting used to the idea of being back at school. I was resisting it for a while but I've come around. I think I had a little too much fun this summer having a regular work-day, getting home, fixing dinner and zoning out in front of a TV in a comfy couch with a zillion channels. It's going to be excellent being a working stiff again next year.

Current priority projects:
1. the extremely important and monumental work of copying the files out of my itunes folder onto CD.
2. finish listening to the rest of the Ring cycle (Die Walkuerie is next).
3. buy a tasty fish at Wholey's and do s'thing cool with it.
4. try to get to sleep before 2:00am some day.
5. watch that kung-fu DVD that's been on my shelf for half a year already.
6. figure out which overseas place I'm travelling to in December.
7. send hatemail to Lonely Planet for that bum steer they gave me (the so-called "internet cafe" in Frankfurt)
8. find out if Sharp Edge has Eisbock
9. see Frank Lloyd Wright exhibit at the Carnegie Museum

Lesser projects:
1. do telematics research for telecom class
2. do research of current regulatory regime for payment systems
3. re-read SSA docs for architecture analysis class
4. install vmware
5. send resume to SEC
6. re-edit IPv6 paper
7. back up stuff on thunderbolt
8. look up deadline dates for various federal job apps
9. tell Sumitha about my research project

OK, to paraphrase Foghorn Leghorn, right now I'm feeling " bout as sharp as a bowlin' ball"....got to get some zzz's...