paradox and diplomacy.

the paradox of age:
when i get older, i would be happy to still appear young.
for now, i am young and would rather look older.

at least, i wouldn't mind not looking like a student.

perhaps it's my clothes; if i wore a three-piece suit, then at least i would be known as "that overdressed peacock of a postdo¢" and not be confused with being a student ..

.. not that it's a horrible thing, being a student. i enjoyed those years as long as they lasted. all i want to say is that with age confusion comes minor problems.

for example,

1. while visiting colleagues this weekend, i stopped by the main office and asked where the coffee pot was. the secretary told me that it's meant only for professors.
   
   diplomatically, i asked if it is also meant for visitors. to identify myself, i pointed to an abstract of the talk .. only to remember that i was wholly unidentifiable in it.
   
   despite that, she apologized and showed me where the coffee pot was.
   
   
   
2. on the second leg of my return flight, i was sitting next to a bearded man, and the magazine he was reading had the symbols IEEE on the upper-left corner of the cover.
   
   aha, i thought, a fellow techie! it would be safe to do math in front of him. jotting down a few ideas, some minutes later he looked over and asked,
   
   "say, what class is that from? it looks familiar."
   the thing is, i was using my own notation.
   huh. so he thinks i'm a student.
   
   "oh, it's not from a course," i said diplomatically, "but the notation is from a measure and integration course. it's not unlike probability and statistics."
   
   he nodded silently.
   
   "are you a scholar?" i asked him.
   "oh, no," he replied, "i'm an engineer."
   
   he then returned to his iPod.