Old PhD Student

Did the Internet Kill Privacy? - CBS News.

We need to safeguard our rights.  The younger generation seems to have no idea how valuable privacy is.  I am sick of seeing kids on the internet doing illegal things, wearing poor fashion choices (they all look like they have no one who loves them), and being sexually explicit.  They don’t seem to get that things posted on the internet never go away.

The harder I try to protect my privacy on sites like Facebook, the more they make changes where I have to manually update my privacy settings.  Why make it tricky for us? They can’t make money on all the ads and games that rely on social connections if they had a master privacy button on an easily accessible page.  I am tired of companies purchasing us.  I have a website and I will migrate over since I control all content and settings.

Census: Hispanics fuel US white population growth - Yahoo! News.

Another reason to explore the concept of race as being “stupid” although it really is not that simple.

Sony thinks they can get away with this: Sony Sneaks Class Action Clause into Mandatory PS3 Update. They should be ashamed of themselves and maybe (?) they are.

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I’m in the last month of editing my dissertation. My brain needs more stimulation from different activities, so I plan to write more blog posts during this time. Check back for some new (random) pictures…

:[ Cynicism is sanity. ]:

:[ Put your oxygen mask on before you help others. Get yourself together spiritually, emotionally, professionally, and financially before you help others. It is stupid to give someone the shirt off your back when you don't have another shirt. Plus, if you put the mask on the child first you could end up dead first and there'd be no one left to help them. (When others depend on you, you owe it to them to be a little bit selfish about your resources.) If you aren't in a position to help people in a sustainable way, you really don't help them and you hurt yourself. ]:

:[ Figure out what you want and learn how to ask for it. Nothing comes to you if you just wait around for it. You even have to work at making things go bad for yourself. Put in the work you need to, ask for help from the people who are in a position to help you (don't ask the electrician how to do plumbing), and then work even harder to get what you want. You are the one who wants it and no one owes it to you to get it done for you. ]:

Does this have anything to do with the real news going on around the world?Abortions are legal. I have never heard of a doctor asking why the patient wanted one; isn’t it because she just doesn’t want a baby? This is a back-door way to make fighting the abortion law easier and simply to harass and intimidate physicians into not performing abortions.

Arizona enacts ban on abortions based on gender, race

Arizona Governor Jan Brewer on Tuesday signed into law a controversial bill that makes the state the first in the nation to outlaw abortions performed on the basis of the race or gender of the fetus.

I am finishing my dissertation edits. I have a very tight deadline, but I am going to start posting small things here and there. I always find little news blurbs that I think are interesting and I will post them, even if I don’t have time to comment much right away. I’d appreciate your thoughts and input and I will always respond to that.

I know my blog has been dormant for some time and my readership is low (and generally don’t respond that much anyway), but this is for me, now, anyway. I am thinking of cancelling my Facebook account and I really don’t need it since I have a real, live blog and website.

Happy Birthday to me! My new years resolutions went into effect until March 22, 2012.

Dear all:

I am leaving New York City this month. I am headed to Alabama to finish some dissertation revisions in peace and tranquility. I intend to work on my blogs during my down time. You may know that I have two websites: this one (originally devoted to cuisine and travel) and my professional site.

Since I will not be an “OldPhdStudent” after next semester, I will migrate posts between the two sites. This one will become the more professional site and my other, currently a professional site, will become my personal site.

In addition to transferring posts between the sites, I will (1) recover older posts that are backed up on redundant hard drives, (2) update appearances, and (3) create a portal for webpages/groups on the whole website (so the music player won’t be attached to the blog). Please bear with me and check back often. Thanks for visiting!

~ me ~

I cannot believe we’re at the end of 2010. My life has been nothing short of hectic and I did not get the peace I’d thought I’d have at this time. I defended my dissertation in September and I have edits, so I won’t get my degree before 2011. I have not spent a lot of time searching for a post-doctoral fellowship (”post-doc”) or a job and I think I will move on to Alabama to do my edits and get some rest.

I am really happy to get out of Manhattan and out of my lab. We had a really great lab until some additions and the environment there is miserable. There are people that are truly hateful, jealous, spiteful, and out to get everyone in their path. The Ph.D.s don’t seem to respect the non-Ph.D.s and want to make sure everyone knows they’re better then everyone else while the technicians spend all their time trying to prove they are just as good as the Ph.D.s, if not better. What happened to just respecting everyone for their work and acknowledging all scientific contributions? Why lie, cheat, and steal to get ahead? I am glad that I am an engineer, because I’ve never met people like this in my school; it must be a science-thing.

I am moving on to bigger and better and I’ll continue to post on this site until the Ph.D. is awarded. Any suggestions on what to call my new site?