First - I'm sorry it has taken me so long to update you on what has been going on. Seriously, I have NO time in grad school. Zero. I should be doing homework right now and will probably pay for slacking off, but the mind can only take so much information overload.
So much has happened in the last couple of weeks. Allen's brother Richard and his wife Mary welcomed their new baby girl, Caroline into the world earlier this month.
Mommy and Baby Caroline
She surprised everyone by coming earlier than expected - but she's doing really well; both momma and baby are happy and healthy. There are no words to properly express how pumped I am to be an aunt again - I cannot wait to meet little Caroline and tell her parents in person how excited and happy I am for them.
So I keep telling you how busy I am ... you think I'm kidding right? Well, this is what an average week has looked like for me since school started at the beginning of Sept
Allen and I share a calendar - and finally he stopped keeping my activities loaded on his calendar because he couldn't see his activity because mine were taking up all the space.
As if school alone weren't enough I went this weekend to
Data Without Borders first
datadive in New York City. Yes, to answer your unspoken question: I did get to spend a lot of quality time with Allen while I was back in Brooklyn - but Friday night and most of Saturday I was working with other data scientists to help three different non-profits work through their data issues. Here's a link to the
flickr photo stream of pictures that were taken at the event to give you a sense of what it was like.
(The photographer, Emanuel Rosario, got a couple good ones of me in there.)
I worked on a project with
UN Global Pulse, who is trying to conduct a proof of concept that they could collect current data through SMS surveys (amongst their other projects). Their mission is to try to harness available technologies to get more up-to-the-minute information about the world's most vulnerable populations. I can't talk about what we did because their data won't be released to the public until Ban Ki-Moon presents it to the UN General Assembly in early Nov. Hopefully I'll still be working with them and will be able to give you an update about how the work we crunched out at the datadive was received.
Besides giving me an excuse to see my husband, Data Without Border's datadive this weekend was an amazing experience. I learned so much (new software to use, which programming languages are better for certain tasks, and more general issues related to project management on a tight time-frame). I know they will be having another datadive in Chicago sometime soon and I hope I can make that one (and convince some of my other SI friends to join me).
Lastly, you may have seen
Allen's most recent post, which I think is a not so subtle nod to the fact that I don't seem to be doing so well as a single lady; I'm not getting enough sleep, I'm not eating very well, and I'm definitely not getting away from my computer often enough.
I was not in good shape when I Allen found me, so what did he do? What any amazing fabulous bestest husband in the whole wide world would do - he planned to send me home with a ton of left-overs so that his over-worked-stressed-out-wife wouldn't have to worry about cooking for a week.
No joke, here they are in all their glory.
He also finally got me outside - and I was finally able to properly say good-bye to Prospect Park.
As if all these wonderful inducements weren't enough to make me feel a sick at heart to be returning to Ann Arbor by myself, upon arriving back I pulled out my lower back, found my car battery had died at the Detroit Airport, and have been too sick (read: sorry for myself) to get back to work, of which I have too much to recount in this one blog post.
So this, if I haven't bored you to tears yet, is what I've been up to in the last couple of weeks. Maybe my update will induce our guest blogger Allen to write about what has been keeping him busy in Brooklyn **cough, cough, dissertation writing, cough cough**
