During today’s intern research seminar about “academia to industry”, one student asked what is the end game of a career as an industry researcher with respect to the end game of being a full professor in the academia.
To me, there is no end game for a career or a life. It is a journey, not a destination. And nobody can predict what will happen in the future. Just keep getting better, learning new things, interacting with people, and enjoying every moment.
As most people do, I tried to avoid visiting DMVs as much as possible. But I had to today after my last visit more than two decades ago (when getting my driver’s license).
Even though I still spent more than an hour for the whole process, the experience turned out to be more positive than I anticipated. The receptionist was very pleasant and smiling all the time, and the agent who handled my case was very efficient.
A DMV reflects America quite well: diverse, chaotic, and somehow still mostly functional.
I believe (or at least hope) that my experience would apply to anyone who has followed the online preparation process before their physical visit.
And while waiting, I managed to draw a few sketches from my observations of folks around me (and there would be no shortage of all kinds of people inside a DMV as you can imagine).
It was quite pleasant to feel the sprinkler and see the rainbow it induced during a heat wave. From the captured photo I tried to convey the heat and color at the moment with a generative video.
https://www.behance.net/gallery/202894093/SprinklerInducedRainbow
By “bad” reviews, I meant those that are short or unclear/uninformative, which is different/orthogonal from “negative” reviews which criticize or reject the work.
If a review is bad because it is too short, it wouldn’t bother me at all. I can write a correspondingly short portion of my rebuttal addressing that review, or even ignore it altogether.
If a review is bad because it is unclear, I can ask for clarification in the rebuttal, and make a few educated guesses about the exact questions or criticisms followed by my answers.
The last thing I would do is to complain about the bad reviews in the rebuttal, or (worse) contact the paper chairs/committee. These are like complaining about bad calls during a game. What would you expect the paper chairs/committee to do? Ask for an additional review or the bad reviewer to submit a better review? That would take time, and even if you receive an updated review, it might be too late for you to address it before the end of the rebuttal period.
Adobe has week-long (or longer) shutdowns around early July and late December every year, which are often good opportunities for traveling (e.g., vacations, family visits, or conferences).
To me these are also often golden opportunities for focused work, such as reading papers, thinking about research problems, and conducting exploratory experiments, which are often hard to come by during the regular work days with frequent distractions (often fulfilling coworkers’ requests).
I have found such focus time incredibly productive and satisfying, and wonder if I could continue the effect outside shutdowns by trying to reduce distractions, at least those self-induced.
Saw this nice combination of coastal pig-face and African flag plants a few weeks earlier and finally managed to draw my impression with vector brushes.
https://www.behance.net/gallery/202188405/CoastalPigfaceAfricanFlag
Spotted this dead cellar spider which folded itself in an intricate geometric shape.
https://www.behance.net/gallery/201661059/PholcidaeGeometry
Spotted this cherry twig on the sidewalk and decided to draw it.
https://youtube.com/shorts/BGhm8HLAP-k
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