A very good talk, "You and Your Research".

“In summary, I claim that some of the reasons why so many people who have greatness within their grasp don't succeed are: they don't work on important problems, they don't become emotionally involved, they don't try and change what is difficult to some other situation which is easily done but is still important, and they keep giving themselves alibis why they don't. They keep saying that it is a matter of luck. I've told you how easy it is; furthermore I've told you how to reform. Therefore, go forth and become great scientists!”

http://www.cs.virginia.edu/~robins/YouAndYourResearch.html

新学期开学之前和老婆去cape cod露营两天。9.2早上老婆到Boston，下午就坐shuttle前往预约的camping ground.  Camping ground 位于Easthem town，离national sea shore大约2mile. 本以为cape cod的感觉和Martha's Vineyard差不多，实际上发现这里实在是地广人稀，除了high way就是树林，房屋零零散散地点缀在其中，公共交通很不方便。在Easthem town hall下车后我和老婆只好扛着露营装备靠着高速路步行至露营地。抵达时已经傍晚8点。支帐篷，充气垫充气约摸1小时，set up完毕天刚好完全黑。第二天租了单车顺着biking trail游转了national sea shore和 salt pond. 白色的海滩长而窄，有些地段紧挨峭壁，这算是cape cod的一大特色了吧。海滩旁边的salt pond景色比较秀丽，没膝高的草丛环抱着水塘，涨潮时一条小河蜿蜒其中，让我想起新疆草原中孔雀河的感觉。但是这里的野草排列得很整齐，一片绿色过渡到一片枯黄色，加上清澈宁静深蓝色的水塘，就像是一幅水彩画，画得非常干净。
只可惜时间太短，交通不便，没能去cape cod顶端的Province town。总结一下，基本上是两天花在了来回的路上，只有一天时间游玩。所以要来cape cod还是得自己开车再拖着单车才能尽兴。另外camping gear包括帐篷，充气垫，睡袋，压缩包，背包，防潮垫，帐篷灯，手电。睡袋买得比较失败，又沉又大，压缩起来很费劲而且占地方，一个压缩好的睡袋就占背包2/3的体积。

这学期开始就加入了Tomas的实验室，组内成员目前有两个中国学生，一个韩国人，一个stanford刚毕业的本科生，一个瑞士来的读硕士的学生和一个postdoc。配了新的3人一屋的办公室和新电脑，这才感觉到group的气氛。上周5第一次组会后就去了一个埃塞俄比亚饭馆腐败了一把 :P . 这学期还不能进clean room, 所以这学期主要任务是学习fabrication和一些background reading. 选了两门课，旁听加实验一门，还是会很忙。

今天早上送走老婆，下回见面要到thanks giving。 努力学习 ：）