Category: by Barbie-dull

Posts originally in Dullicious, where I blogged as Barbie-dull between 2005 and 2008.

Visiting scholar

Because of:

  • “starbucks coffee caramel macchiato”
  • “the ping-pong table at the Stata”
  • “Ralph’s pretzel jar”
  • “clam chowder”

I am moving to Boston. Mmm… caramel macchiato, pretzels 🙂

I’ll visit for 3 months and I’m leaving tomorrow evening. I’ll be a visiting scholar at the MIT Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Laboratory. In effect, nothing will change but my physical location.

This will be so much fun! I’m really looking forward to it.

dulliciously smug

[This post originally appeared in Dullicious, where I blogged as Barbie-dull for several years.]

schol·ar n.

  1. A learned person.
  2. A specialist in a given branch of knowledge: a classical scholar.
  3. One who attends school or studies with a teacher; a student.
  4. A student who holds or has held a particular scholarship.

I’ll be that. Yeah-huh! Isn’t it awesome?!

One day I’ll start a sentence with “oh, when i was at MIT as a visiting scholar…”

I’m *so* thrilled! Not really by the fact that MIT will host me as a “Visiting Scholar”, but by the wonderful opportunity! I’ll be closer to Amy (yay!), I’ll change venue, do new stuff (although workwise I’ll do exactly the same things), freeze in the Massachusetts winter, have truck food for lunch, I’ll have as many Starbucks Coffee caramel macchiato as I want (and I’ll want a *lot*), etcetera, etcetera 🙂

Visited 19 countries (8%)

[This post originally appeared in Dullicious, where I blogged as Barbie-dull for several years.]

map of countries, the one I visited coloured in red

2 more! so I updated my own map: + Estonia, + Finland.

19 countries visited, 8%.

Last time I wrote about travel, back in July, I had no idea I’d have the opportunity to spend a week in Estonia and Finland.

And just a week ago another opportunity arose! So I’ll travel to Boston in a few days now and I’ll stay there for 3 months. Lucky me for being able to work from anywhere.

I’m sooper psyched!

Less than impressed

I have been trying to close my accounts in a given bank since September 2005. I really thought that it was taken care of. Nope.

Mid-July I received a letter from them including the last letter I wrote them at the end of April. I had been advised at the local bank branch to enclose my credit card (that I had cut in halves, cutting right through the chip) and the blank checks too. So this letter is back. Just my letter, and theirs! Their letter says they could not close my account given that a life insurance account was still linked to it. They instructed that I meet with the local bank branch person. Again?!.

This life insurance account is closed of course. It took me months to close it and numerous phone calls and visits at the local branch of the bank.

I’m already bored writing this post! Let’s wrap it quickly. After sending my last letter, I followed the advice of my new bank and emptied the bank account I’m trying to close (after all the others linked accounts were eventually closed). Given that they just charged me the trimester fee for service (that I have stopped using back in September), my balance is now negative.

I wonder how long it will be till I’m definitely done with them. Also, it would be nice to get a refund of the service fees, all of them for the past 11 months.