Telephone Interview and Dinner

The telephone interview went well with Kent State University. It was weird speaking to five people at once on the telephone, but I quickly got used to it. Before the interview started, I kept telling myself not to say anything ‘funny’ since it’s harder to tell jokes on the phone. Well, the interview began by everyone introducing themselves, with one person mentioning she wasn’t from the math department. After she said this, I immediately replied “Oh don’t worry, I won’t hold that against you.” Thank God everyone laughed. It would have been down-hill from there if there was some awkward silence.

Every time I mentioned to someone in the department that I was interviewing Kent State, they always said “Wasn’t there a shooting there in the 70’s?.” Apparently, one of Kent State’s claim to fame was as an incident involving the National Guard shooting a few students during a protest (see article). It caused a big, nationwide uproar among campuses in the US. Naomi and Lubkin got into an argument about how big the incident was. I left the math lounge with Naomi saying that every university’s final exam schedule was affected, and Lubkin disagreeing by saying he didn’t reschedule his final exam at that time.

I spent a week organizing a departmental dinner which happened yesterday. I felt that the graduate students, in particular the newer ones, should occasionally meet and talk with the professors in an informal setting. On Monday night, the Indian restaurant Thali of India has a great dinner buffet. I invited all the grad students and professors to join me for the buffet. The gathering was very successful with about 25 people showing up. More would have come but the timing was not entirely optimal. Many thought it was a great idea, and a lot of people said the had fun afterwards. Maybe at the end of the semester, I’ll plan another departmental dinner where more people could make it.

Wake Forest

So I heard back from Wake Forest, and I’m sad to say I didn’t make their top six.

Food Blog

For those of you who know me, I am a foodie. So, I’ve started a food blog which can be found here (the link can also be found in the “Blogroll”). I plan to post my attempts at cooking various things.

New Laptop and Phone Interview

So, I’m liking my new laptop (which means I no longer have a good excuse for not posting). It came with Windows XP, so I was able to install all the programs I use without any problems. I installed Kubuntu (a Linux OS) using Wubi, but after working with it for a couple of days, I messed the display settings and now I have to re-install it. Kubuntu has a lot of nice features and programs (Kile is the best Latex editor), so I’m going to trying to learn how to use it.

During my class last Thursday, my phone started to vibrate loudly. Later, after I checked my voice-mail, I found out it was someone from Kent State University who wanted to set up a telephone interview. My interview is set for the coming Thursday, and I’m not sure what to expect. I never had a telephone interview before and it seems so impersonal as to be of any use. I wonder how you can an get accurate impression of someone like this.

My friend Neha came back from India, and she had only one thing to do for me: bring back some pens. Not just any type of pen, but the “Cello Maxriter,” a really nice pen that you can’t buy in the US. A while back, I found one of these pens lying around, and I really liked how it felt in my hand and how easy it was for me to write with. Last semester, the ink ran out when I was writing up my talk for the number theory seminar, and in a mild panic, I thought this meant I would never finish the talk (this pen actually made me feel smarter). I looked everywhere for another one online, but only Nepal had an online store (unfortunately, they don’t deliver internationally). I even bought pens that looked similar but I wasn’t satisfied. Then I mentioned to Neha that I was looking for these pens and, to my surprise, she told me that they were also her favorite and are somewhat popular in India. Now I have 10 of them and I am quite happy (I feel smarter already).

Laptop and Interviews

One of the reasons I haven’t posted in a while – besides my nature to procrastinate when doing anything – is that my laptop died just after Christmas. I kept putting off getting a new one because the old one was doing what I needed, even though it was oftentimes slow and cranky. Well, fate intervened and literally killed my laptop. Even after that, I still waited about a week or so to buy new one. Hopefully by Tuesday, I’ll receive a new Lenovo Thinkpad T400.

My four interviews at the joint meetings in DC, listed in order, were with Catholic University, Wake Forest University, Johnson C. Smith University, and University of Dayton. All my interviews went well, but I particularly enjoyed my interview with Wake Forest. First off, I’m surprised they even asked me for an interview, since I was one of 25 finalist they selected to speak with at the joint meetings. Out of hundreds of applications, they thought mine was in the top 25! This made me feel that some people are indeed reading my application materials and thinking there is someone interesting behind them. My interview was supposed to be 10-15 minutes long, but it lasted more than half hour. For now, this appears to be a good sign, but I’ll have to wait and see if I get an on-campus interview.

My interview with Catholic University also seems promising. They are located in DC and I certainly won’t mind living there. With the University of Dayton, the interview was just to give me as much information about the job as possible (they even told me what my salary would be). I got the feeling that they were not that interested in me. It was near the end of the joint meetings, so maybe they saw all the candidates they were hoping for. The odd-ball interview was with Johnson C. Smith University. This is mostly a small teaching school in Charlotte, North Carolina, and as far as I can tell, they don’t have an independent math department (they have a science department which includes a math section). They seem to be on the verge of expanding their overall school program, and maybe in the future, they will have a math department. I was interviewed by one of their chemists who basically read questions from a sheet and wrote my answers next to them. At one point, I often got feeling I was being interrogated, but near the end of the interview when he began describing the school and the town, things became a bit more relaxed.

Chinatown Bus and DC

So I’m currently in Washington, DC for the Joint Mathematics Meetings, mainly to get some job interviews from their employment center. So far, I have three interviews at Catholic University (located in DC), University of Dayton (in Ohio), and Johnson C. Smith University (in Charlotte, NC). Hopefully, I can get some more.

I came to DC with the Chinatown bus. Here’s what people told me about it before; the bus is cheap, it always smells like Chinese food, and it gets where it’s going pretty quickly. That’s exactly how it was. The trip cost me $17.50. A lot of people came on the bus and brought dinner with them (I brought a couple of roast pork buns), and so it smelled like Chinese food the entire time. We also arrive pretty quickly – under 4.5 hours. It was a much better experience than greyhound. The only complaint I have is that things might seem a little chaotic for someone using the bus service for the first time. There are not marking on the bus to indicate where it’s going, so you need to ask people. However, everyone is friendly and always willing to help.

Happy New Year, etc.

This is a little late, but I would like to wish everyone a happy, better, new year. This might seem a little wishful since the economy is now very unpredictable. It good to remember, though, that there is more to a happy new year than having a lot of money.

Two days ago, I went to see the “The Curious Case of Benjamin Button” with my mom and I really liked the movie. The life of a man who ages backwards is an interesting premise for a story. Because it deals primarily with his love life, some might consider it a “chick flick” – and it mostly is in my opinion – but I still recommend you see it. I won’t say anything about the plot, but there is enough for anyone not to feel bored or realize that it is a pretty long movie.

Paradise Lost

Below is a old unpublished post that’s been setting in my draft folder for some time now. I am making it available to give you something to read.

A while ago, I started reading Milton’s “Paradise Lost” and after having gone about half-way through the poem, I got side-tracked and didn’t finish it. Now if I am to finish it, I have to start all over again because it’s been a while since I’ve read any of it. The main driving force of the story, presented in beautiful and terrifying imageries, is Satan’s will to seduce man into disobeying God to gain vengeance for being thrown out into hell. The story of man’s fall from grace – my favorite form the bible – has evolved into a many layered tale, and Milton mainly tells it from Satan’s vengeful perspective. From Adam and Eve’s point of view ,however, it is a beautiful love story. Adam is faced with a choice: Follow Eve in disobedience and doom all of mankind, or stay in paradise without her. In some versions of the story, an angel shows Adam all that will happen if he disobeys. Even after all this, Adam eats the forbidden fruit and follows Eve out of the eternal garden. Why does he do this? Why does he choose a mortal life of pain and misery that will result in all our sufferings. It’s simple; paradise is not his paradise without Eve. He rather live mortal life of suffering with her than the eternally empty life without her. He has also given humanity her greatest lesson: Love created us, love damned us, and love will redeem us.

Merry Christmas!

Merry Chirstmas everyone!  And happy Chanukka, Kwanzaa, and happy (insert Christmas-like holiday here).

Job Search, etc.

Okay, so I’m not posting regularly, but it’s only because I am busy applying for jobs.  It took a while to prepare all the necessary documents (CV, teaching statement, research statement, cover letter).  Thanks to everyone who helped proof read my teaching statement.  Your comments were helpful and I think it’s much better now.  The final copies of all the documents are on my website.  I have applied for close to 120 jobs now.  This number may seem impressive but applying for most of these jobs was done centrally through mathjobs.org.  I only actually mailed out about 12 job applications.

I applied for both tenure-track and temporary assistant professor position, but no industry position.  For now, I am just going to focus on being a professor.  If I have to reapply next year, then I’ll apply for everything and start much earlier.  My adviser believes that this year won’t be so great for jobs, and hopefully things might be better next year.  I guess we’ll see.

Next semester, I will be busier than I originally thought.  I will be teaching math 143 (calculus III), doing some research with one of adviser’s coauthors, doing my own research and preparing a draft of my thesis, going to the gym and rowing regularly, etc.