It’s such a crazy time. Everyone I talk to today had some story of a major event they were planning on attending been canceled. Or some trip or other being delayed because of the world health crisis. It’s definitely scary… But it’s also kind of exciting… In the way that knowing a big snow storm is coming your way and that schools will be closed the next day is. You’re forced to hang out at home… You’re forced to give up your plans. It’s entropy taking over and erasing all your well honed plans.… I’m sure for many It’s incredibly aggravating… But for me… It’s just a reinforcement that we really are not in control of anything. We just think we are sometimes.
That’s what My old friend Jinfang and I talked about this morning at breakfast. As she offered me some hand sanitizer..

It will be the Most valuable currency in the New World order
They say people who live in glass houses shouldn’t throw stones. What are they say about people who work in glass offices?… My friend Liisa was out of town so I chose to use her office the last couple of days while in Cambridge. Generally I don’t have a fixed office. In fact I haven’t had an office of my own since 2013 Since I’ve been something of a nomad.… To be honest I now have an office at UVM which is kind of cool.… But I digress.
I was thinking about what it’s like to sit in a fixed place where people can always find you. What’s interesting is that over the last two days people have been finding me. Quite a few of them actually. It’s been really fun because I’ve managed to have longer calmer conversations with more people in the last few days because I’m sitting somewhere visible. That’s so good thing is I don’t know how anyone gets anything done in a situation like that. Oh well… I think I’d rather talk to people then do anything anyway
Speaking of which… Had a very good early dinner with Hendrik and Johann tonight. Two nights in a row of sushi.
Had a super busy day down here on super Tuesday. I was very sad to miss town meeting in Richmond. It’s something I really enjoy doing and haven’t missed in quite some time.… Instead today I was on a panel at a open cloud Sumit. The idea is to be able to make accelerated computing… Like Satori.. Available to more universities and other institutions.… It was a fun conference… And I learned a lot. The one thing I couldn’t help notice was everyone’s reaction to the coronavirus. Instead of shaking hands people bumped elbows. It was fun and kind of touching. In some ways it was actually a nice moment… Instead of doing something absentmindedly like shaking hands… They very consciously Bumped elbows. In doing that they shared a laugh and then a moment of concern. It was very touching… I also heard that Europeans had come up with something that instead of doing the two cheek kiss they tapped each other’s feet. With their own feet… I didn’t see it actually happened… So I’d like to know if anyone has seen that
My friend Chris and I took advantage of the warm and sunny weather to walk back to MIT from BU.… That took us by the Citgo sign which I used to be able to see from my dorm window
It also took us bye Chris his first home in Boston where he and his wife Helen lived before they started having kids
It was fun seeing the beautiful skyline as we walked across the Harvard bridge.… I noticed how close our new building is to campus
I’m watching the super Tuesday results on CNN… Very interesting to watch
Today I met one of my Dr brothers.No… I don’t mean my brother Dr. ( billy).  I mean someone who had the same PhD advisor as I did The eminent… And always fun Prof. Rob Rutenbar… I use the term “Dr.which I made it up. Because At least in German your PhD advisor is your “doctor father” (Doktorvater)… Or your “Dr. mother” (Doktormutter)

It’s a growing club.I think around 35 people… But today I met a new one… Glen K Is currently a postdoc at Harvard. We met up for a couple of beers just to get to know one another and talk about Rob… It was Really fun talking to him. I think we even found an interesting area to collaborate on
