More Odds and Ends

Some months ago my university's cluster went from a 32-bit OS to a 64-bit OS forcing an end to my numerical experiments until I recompiled. Compiling software for our cluster -- perhaps all clusters, as ours is the only one I've used -- is a big hassle compared to compiling on a laptop. There are a variety of architectures, and a variety of libraries. Getting everything right involves a certain amount of trial an error. Eventually, I went to someone in the cluster support team and asked for help. Everything works now and is running once again. This brings back that familiar itch where I feel a nearly constant need to check the cluster's job queue and see the status of my jobs. Are they running? Are they producing good data? Did anything bad happen while I was away from a computer? 

I'm writing a paper with my advisor. (purely theory, nothing to do with the numerical experiments)(I hope the numerical experiments turn into a paper as well.) I would like to have it accepted for publication before I start looking for jobs, but I'm not sure if that's going to happen. The first part of the process -- getting the mathematics correct -- is done. The second part of the process -- getting the exposition down -- is taking a lot more time than I expected. Our mode of operating is that we'll sit down together and discuss how to best to present the ideas and state the theorems. This is a slow process because, when my advisor really focuses, he produces exposition far superior to mine. My role in this process is to remind him of how exactly the mathematics goes. This is one of the few times in grad school where I can't simply put my head down and work at a problem on my own.