task chairs

I went for the job interview. It was for The Umstead Hotel and Spa. The directions on the website instructed job applicants to go round the left, to the back of the building, and enter there. I went and parked by the loading dock. I was the only car in the lot. I figured I was parked in the wrong place, but suppressed the realization.

I walked in. The place was packed. I knew I had parked in the wrong place. They gave me a job application. I filled it. The interview went well. We went around the place, it was very nice. I felt like I was looking into a new life, one in a line waiting to be lived.

I also went to an all day seminar last Friday at the University of North Carolina Chapel Hill. It was for non-coding RNA. Graduate students gave poster presentations there. Out of the 20 or so posters there, at least 18 presenters were engaged in conversation. I went to one of the vacant ones, half out of sympathy, and half out of social convenience. The title on the poster was impossibly specific, something like: The effect of non-coding RNA on l-beta binding sites during non-time-differentiated binding. The girl started talking immediately. I did the only rational thing which was to nod and smile. I also tried to read the poster and come to grips with what was being said to me. What I was really reaching for was a safe question, something that said I had an inkling of what was going on.

"Why are you studying this?" I asked. "Dr. X and Dr. Y were looking into it and I took the project" she answered. It seemed kind of odd to me, but the gist of the answer is: for the sake of science. At first, this bothered me, but I thought about it and it occurred to me that not everything need be technology driven.

I got some books from the library on the cell, and am writing a history of cell theory for my HealthAliciousNess website.

I am also keeping some blogs as daily challenges. One is to create a drawing each day, and thus learn to draw. Another is a journey back over the content and concepts of mathematics.