03 June 2015

Downtime

First post of the year is at a downtime period: one which I actually expected at the start, and then again during the previous semester, which was surprisingly heavier than the first semester, but also surprisingly more fulfilling and harmonious.  Either way, I have two months of downtime, which actually had a lead of half-a-month prior.

The plan for the interim, which I'm writing here as much to remind myself, is
  1. Read up on homotopy type theory and univalent foundations, which comes from reading this article with a somewhat wag-the-doggish headline.  It's at the intersection of mathematics, formal logic and computer science, and I actually feel advantaged to not have formal knowledge on the main mathematics.
  2. Submit something for the Asian Scientist Writing Prize, due at the end of the month.  I was planning to have a first draft by now, but have nothing yet.  This will likely be on one of my curriculum advocacies, familiar to those I've talked to at Pisay over the last decade or so.
  3. Brush up on C++ bits that I haven't picked up yet, such as multithreading and socket programming, since I haven't done so.  I also have some Udemy courses on Python and Ruby I picked up on sale from StackSocial and Slashdot Deals, which in turn tempt me with some Android and Arduino courses, which I may pick up on deep sales.  These also remind me to learn more HTML5, CSS, etc., since neither the Flash programming I learned for my Master's presentation nor the Dash programming I abruptly started and stalled on have panned out.
  4. Cast larger nets more frequently in job-hunting.  'Tis the fate of all non-tenure doctorates to be forever searching for jobs - or at least until tenure or otherwise job security, which any of the above points are helpful for.
That's not to say that I can lean back and just learn on my own pace - a number of other things are vying for my attention, but these will be my priorities through July.