Monday, February 28, 2005
Sunday, February 27, 2005
do dah
yesterday: homework all day and half the evening, movie at night.
things are kinda backwards with me: i joke all the time with colleen and leigh that they don't like me anymore and that's why there's always studying everywhere... truth is, i really like it when i have the house to myself all day; i just wish i had company at night... yesterday, for example, i purposely stayed in my room in bed (albeit awake) until everyone left the house around 12:30 (in the afternoon)... i was home alone doing laundry, homework, and other such fun until 9pm... then i headed over to eric's house to have some company
at some point in the past week, it came up that he'd never seen the movie "pleasantville"... it's just one of those movies i think is really good and by default assume everyone has seen even if i know that's not true... especially since i thought eric would love the philosophy of it, i even more just assumed he had seen it, but nope... so we played a game of pool (in which i succeeded in not hitting a single ball in), then watched the movie, then played another game of pool (in which i started out with two brilliant shots, and then got only one more in after that, but still a grand improvement from the first game ;-)), and then around 12:30 (at night), i went home, and returned to a house of colleen, leigh, erin, and kenny all wondering where i could have disappeared to... heh.
jared quote of the night: (he tried to help me out some on the first pool game and was chatting with us before the movie)
(as eric and i are setting up the TV, etc. to watch)
jared: it's too bright in here for a movie, shall i get the lights?
me: that would be great
jared: that's better (turns out half the lights in the basement)... shall i hit them all and make it all dark and romantic down here?
eric and me (just about in unison): how about dark and UN-romantic
jared: ok, ok, i'll just come back down here later in my underwear and eat fried sausages for your viewing pleasure... that's sure to kill anything that goes on down here
gotta get ready for church... later dudes :-P
things are kinda backwards with me: i joke all the time with colleen and leigh that they don't like me anymore and that's why there's always studying everywhere... truth is, i really like it when i have the house to myself all day; i just wish i had company at night... yesterday, for example, i purposely stayed in my room in bed (albeit awake) until everyone left the house around 12:30 (in the afternoon)... i was home alone doing laundry, homework, and other such fun until 9pm... then i headed over to eric's house to have some company
at some point in the past week, it came up that he'd never seen the movie "pleasantville"... it's just one of those movies i think is really good and by default assume everyone has seen even if i know that's not true... especially since i thought eric would love the philosophy of it, i even more just assumed he had seen it, but nope... so we played a game of pool (in which i succeeded in not hitting a single ball in), then watched the movie, then played another game of pool (in which i started out with two brilliant shots, and then got only one more in after that, but still a grand improvement from the first game ;-)), and then around 12:30 (at night), i went home, and returned to a house of colleen, leigh, erin, and kenny all wondering where i could have disappeared to... heh.
jared quote of the night: (he tried to help me out some on the first pool game and was chatting with us before the movie)
(as eric and i are setting up the TV, etc. to watch)
jared: it's too bright in here for a movie, shall i get the lights?
me: that would be great
jared: that's better (turns out half the lights in the basement)... shall i hit them all and make it all dark and romantic down here?
eric and me (just about in unison): how about dark and UN-romantic
jared: ok, ok, i'll just come back down here later in my underwear and eat fried sausages for your viewing pleasure... that's sure to kill anything that goes on down here
gotta get ready for church... later dudes :-P
Saturday, February 26, 2005
fun with google
saw this on a friend's blog:
Go to images.google.com. Type in your answers to the following questions and post the first postable image result for each. (Although this may depend on your definition of what is "postable.")
1. Place you grew up
2. Place you live now
3. Your name
4. Your grandmother's name
5. Favourite food
6. Favourite drink
7. Favourite song
8. Favourite smell
9. Favourite shoes
here's the results:
1. Place you grew up
seriously the first non-weather-radar picture that came up :-P
2. Place you live now
(there's a story to this one... i actually recognize the guy in the photo! he's a mathematician named neil sloane, and he runs the online encyclopedia of integer sequences... he was a guest speaker at the rutgers experiemental math seminar last fall, and i've been using the OEIS for math stuff since undergrad... this particular picture comes from here, the "online party" for celebrating the 100,000th sequence being submitted to the site... it's 5 pages of math people with wine glasses from around the world :-) kinda fun :-))
3. Your name
(story here too... with just "lara", scantily clad people i don't care to post on my blog come up... with first and last name, it's all me or images from my rutgers website... this pic is the first and only actually of me that comes up... my friend paul took it 3 years ago spring break after we ran up 9 flights of stairs to his apartment due to a broken elevator... hence me looking like crap :-P)
4. Your grandmother's name
i went with my grandmothers' nicknames rather than real names in hopes of getting non-scantily-clad-women pictures :-P
5. Favourite food
there's definitely a 2-way tie here
6. Favourite drink
this is seriously the first thing that came up...
...but this is more like it :-)
7. Favourite song
can you guess the song from the picture? if nothing else, it's a cool picture
8. Favourite smell
mmmmmmmmmmmmmm, vanilla :-)
9. Favourite shoes
enough said
the end :-P
Go to images.google.com. Type in your answers to the following questions and post the first postable image result for each. (Although this may depend on your definition of what is "postable.")
1. Place you grew up
2. Place you live now
3. Your name
4. Your grandmother's name
5. Favourite food
6. Favourite drink
7. Favourite song
8. Favourite smell
9. Favourite shoes
here's the results:
1. Place you grew up
seriously the first non-weather-radar picture that came up :-P
2. Place you live now
(there's a story to this one... i actually recognize the guy in the photo! he's a mathematician named neil sloane, and he runs the online encyclopedia of integer sequences... he was a guest speaker at the rutgers experiemental math seminar last fall, and i've been using the OEIS for math stuff since undergrad... this particular picture comes from here, the "online party" for celebrating the 100,000th sequence being submitted to the site... it's 5 pages of math people with wine glasses from around the world :-) kinda fun :-))
3. Your name
(story here too... with just "lara", scantily clad people i don't care to post on my blog come up... with first and last name, it's all me or images from my rutgers website... this pic is the first and only actually of me that comes up... my friend paul took it 3 years ago spring break after we ran up 9 flights of stairs to his apartment due to a broken elevator... hence me looking like crap :-P)
4. Your grandmother's name
i went with my grandmothers' nicknames rather than real names in hopes of getting non-scantily-clad-women pictures :-P
5. Favourite food
there's definitely a 2-way tie here
6. Favourite drink
this is seriously the first thing that came up...
...but this is more like it :-)
7. Favourite song
can you guess the song from the picture? if nothing else, it's a cool picture
8. Favourite smell
mmmmmmmmmmmmmm, vanilla :-)
9. Favourite shoes
enough said
the end :-P
Friday, February 25, 2005
an ode to being antisocial
i never would have called myself antisocial before... just not into big groups of people, but i think tonight seals it.
colleen's sister erin and erin's boyfriend kenny are here visiting colleen for the weekend. for some fun this evening, colleen invited about 10 people over for poker and whatever other board games happened to apprear... naturally, 10 people turned into more like 20-25...
eric had been kidding me all week that he expected i would just be staying in my room for the evening and not seeing anyone. i laughed and said if there was euchre, i'd be all about playing and whatever... but the closer it got to people coming over, the more set i was to just read in my room with the door cracked... ben came to say hi when he first came over, same with scott... eric and paul have each been in and out throughout the evening, while i read through a whole back issue of mental floss and have no idea who all is over here other than there's a LOT of people.
in fact, my entire contribution to the evening was this:
signs over our trash/recycling so i didn't have to sort it out later... oh, and i cleaned the bathroom and kitchen before colleen came home so she didn't have to do it... otherwise, completely minding my own business.
it's not like i don't like the people out there... 50% of them are ones i've hung out with and had a great time with in smaller groups... others are ones i perfectly well enjoy chatting with... it's just you put 20-30 people in a small confined space where they're not doing one set thing (like cards nights last year were just find because we were all playing cards and that's it) and kinda bouncing around between each other like electrons, and my mind can't take it.
i'm perfectly happy minding my own business; the only reason i get moderately bothered by not being in the group is when some people give me crap about it and tell me i'm purposely excluding myself, and that that's no good... but really... i have friends... they're all over here... i just choose to interact with them in smaller groups... oi.
i don't know when i got quite this extreme in my hermit-ness... it's always been there to an extent, but not like this... oh well.... i've had a perfectly good night of reading, so so be it.
later dudes :-P
colleen's sister erin and erin's boyfriend kenny are here visiting colleen for the weekend. for some fun this evening, colleen invited about 10 people over for poker and whatever other board games happened to apprear... naturally, 10 people turned into more like 20-25...
eric had been kidding me all week that he expected i would just be staying in my room for the evening and not seeing anyone. i laughed and said if there was euchre, i'd be all about playing and whatever... but the closer it got to people coming over, the more set i was to just read in my room with the door cracked... ben came to say hi when he first came over, same with scott... eric and paul have each been in and out throughout the evening, while i read through a whole back issue of mental floss and have no idea who all is over here other than there's a LOT of people.
in fact, my entire contribution to the evening was this:
signs over our trash/recycling so i didn't have to sort it out later... oh, and i cleaned the bathroom and kitchen before colleen came home so she didn't have to do it... otherwise, completely minding my own business.
it's not like i don't like the people out there... 50% of them are ones i've hung out with and had a great time with in smaller groups... others are ones i perfectly well enjoy chatting with... it's just you put 20-30 people in a small confined space where they're not doing one set thing (like cards nights last year were just find because we were all playing cards and that's it) and kinda bouncing around between each other like electrons, and my mind can't take it.
i'm perfectly happy minding my own business; the only reason i get moderately bothered by not being in the group is when some people give me crap about it and tell me i'm purposely excluding myself, and that that's no good... but really... i have friends... they're all over here... i just choose to interact with them in smaller groups... oi.
i don't know when i got quite this extreme in my hermit-ness... it's always been there to an extent, but not like this... oh well.... i've had a perfectly good night of reading, so so be it.
later dudes :-P
Thursday, February 24, 2005
apprentice, week whatever the heck we're on
tara, tara, tara... it was all you, all the time as long as it was a good idea, until you lose, and then it's not your fault at all. doht. the choice was clear this time, and i was glad for magna that they won... the portrait prize was pretty cool too... my favorite line of the evening was "and here's bren, looking like a stunt double for orville redenbacher..." heh :-P
my commentaries on that are getting shorter as the weeks go on...
in other news, lots of snow outside... i get to dig my car out bright and early in the morning too... woohoo... (we've gotten several inches in the past 6+ hours... it was coming down really hard earlier when eric and i went out to get pizza..... i meant to answer the door with "lara's pizza buddy finding service, how may i help you?", but instead "lara's pizza butter" followed by laughter came out instead, which cracked us both up for a bit... i'm so retarded sometimes :-P)
other thought on my mind right now is advisor-graduate student relationships. my advisor has 2 older graduate students getting close to finishing up: vince and mohamud. i'm learning what vince works on so that i can generate data with the computer for him while i learn, and eventually extend his work on my own once i have a better feel for the area. vince, however, is not someone i've been around much... sam and scott see him at the bar frequently, but my relationship with vince is one of saying hi in passing on occasion and that's about it. on the other hand, zeilberger picked vince, and he picked me and since i'm trying to learn what vince does, that suddenly means vince and i must work together at least a little too. other than having the same advisor, and the same topic, which he knows tons more about than me, we have not much in common, and yet now, this semester, he's my new contact.... funny how it all works.
that's about it... lots to do and little time this weekend as always. first, time for sleep :-P
night y'all.
my commentaries on that are getting shorter as the weeks go on...
in other news, lots of snow outside... i get to dig my car out bright and early in the morning too... woohoo... (we've gotten several inches in the past 6+ hours... it was coming down really hard earlier when eric and i went out to get pizza..... i meant to answer the door with "lara's pizza buddy finding service, how may i help you?", but instead "lara's pizza butter" followed by laughter came out instead, which cracked us both up for a bit... i'm so retarded sometimes :-P)
other thought on my mind right now is advisor-graduate student relationships. my advisor has 2 older graduate students getting close to finishing up: vince and mohamud. i'm learning what vince works on so that i can generate data with the computer for him while i learn, and eventually extend his work on my own once i have a better feel for the area. vince, however, is not someone i've been around much... sam and scott see him at the bar frequently, but my relationship with vince is one of saying hi in passing on occasion and that's about it. on the other hand, zeilberger picked vince, and he picked me and since i'm trying to learn what vince does, that suddenly means vince and i must work together at least a little too. other than having the same advisor, and the same topic, which he knows tons more about than me, we have not much in common, and yet now, this semester, he's my new contact.... funny how it all works.
that's about it... lots to do and little time this weekend as always. first, time for sleep :-P
night y'all.
Wednesday, February 23, 2005
fun with pics
here's a few from cleaning off my camera
this is what it looked like outside monday morning 5 minutes before i needed to be in the car headed to campus for class... my car's the one centered in the picture on the far side of the street.... oi for cleaning windows
colleen finally caved in and got her door decorated tonight... here are the results :-)
sunshine out my window... i just thought this was a cool shot :-)
this is what it looked like outside monday morning 5 minutes before i needed to be in the car headed to campus for class... my car's the one centered in the picture on the far side of the street.... oi for cleaning windows
colleen finally caved in and got her door decorated tonight... here are the results :-)
sunshine out my window... i just thought this was a cool shot :-)
1,2,3, laugh?
email forward i got today, enjoy :-P
An honest man was being tailgated by a stressed out woman on a busy boulevard. suddenly, the light turned yellow, just in front of him.
He did the right thing, stopping at the crosswalk, even though he couldhave beaten the red light by accelerating through the intersection.
The tailgating woman hit the roof, and the horn, screaming in frustration as she missed her chance to get through the intersection. As she was still in mid-rant, she heard a tap on her window and looked up into the face of a very serious police officer. The officer ordered her to exit her car with her hands up. He took her to the police station where she was searched, finger printed, photographed, and placed in a holding cell.
After a couple of hours, a policeman approached the cell and opened the door. She was escorted back to the booking desk where the arresting officer was waiting with her personal effects.
He said, "I'm very sorry for this mistake. You see, I pulled up behind your car while you were blowing your horn, flipping off the guy in front of you, and cussing a blue streak at him. "I noticed the 'Choose Life' license plate holder, the What Would Jesus Do' bumper sticker, the 'Follow Me to Sunday-School' bumper sticker, and the chrome-plated Christian fish emblem on the trunk.
Naturally, I assumed you had stolen the car."
An honest man was being tailgated by a stressed out woman on a busy boulevard. suddenly, the light turned yellow, just in front of him.
He did the right thing, stopping at the crosswalk, even though he couldhave beaten the red light by accelerating through the intersection.
The tailgating woman hit the roof, and the horn, screaming in frustration as she missed her chance to get through the intersection. As she was still in mid-rant, she heard a tap on her window and looked up into the face of a very serious police officer. The officer ordered her to exit her car with her hands up. He took her to the police station where she was searched, finger printed, photographed, and placed in a holding cell.
After a couple of hours, a policeman approached the cell and opened the door. She was escorted back to the booking desk where the arresting officer was waiting with her personal effects.
He said, "I'm very sorry for this mistake. You see, I pulled up behind your car while you were blowing your horn, flipping off the guy in front of you, and cussing a blue streak at him. "I noticed the 'Choose Life' license plate holder, the What Would Jesus Do' bumper sticker, the 'Follow Me to Sunday-School' bumper sticker, and the chrome-plated Christian fish emblem on the trunk.
Naturally, I assumed you had stolen the car."
the first-hand account
(via my aunt in pittsburgh) (because my grandma's surgery is oh so exciting for those of you who don't know me) (roy = my step-gpa) (to review, my grandma's left side has been paralyzed for over 4 years now and she had her left leg amputated yesterday (complications of diabetes/and not being able to move it for years))
Gma's surgery was a trip for her...
Due to history of heart problems and her diabetes, she had to remain awake (albeit drugged up sufficiently) during the surgery. That news kind of frightened her and we had to calm her down - this was about 5 minutes before they whisked her away... She seemed to enjoy scripture being read to her. Gma was groggy more so than they thought she should be so she was being closely monitored during the evening and should be moving to a normal room sometime today - I'll see her this evening.
She seemed relieved it was over, a bit confused, and is still convinced she can move her left side and just needs a little help to walk to the bathroom instead of having to use a bed pan... She got a little angry at me for not 'helping' her to go to the bathroom. She also had emotion swings, but that is to be expected after surgery, crying when she first saw us and saying she didn't want Roy to see her that way, and things like that.
Roy was somber most of the day, but really lightened up after she got out of recovery. He was 'singing' little made-up songs to her while she was getting situated in her room - this made her smile... It was quite cute...
That's about it now. Just HUGE relief that the operation is over - there is recovery to go through now.
Gma's surgery was a trip for her...
Due to history of heart problems and her diabetes, she had to remain awake (albeit drugged up sufficiently) during the surgery. That news kind of frightened her and we had to calm her down - this was about 5 minutes before they whisked her away... She seemed to enjoy scripture being read to her. Gma was groggy more so than they thought she should be so she was being closely monitored during the evening and should be moving to a normal room sometime today - I'll see her this evening.
She seemed relieved it was over, a bit confused, and is still convinced she can move her left side and just needs a little help to walk to the bathroom instead of having to use a bed pan... She got a little angry at me for not 'helping' her to go to the bathroom. She also had emotion swings, but that is to be expected after surgery, crying when she first saw us and saying she didn't want Roy to see her that way, and things like that.
Roy was somber most of the day, but really lightened up after she got out of recovery. He was 'singing' little made-up songs to her while she was getting situated in her room - this made her smile... It was quite cute...
That's about it now. Just HUGE relief that the operation is over - there is recovery to go through now.
where to find me online :-P
googled my name for fun (i'm curious from time to time what comes up)
i'm now on a french math/science website... see the references at the end of here
if you search for my name in quotes, you get 90 results -- how crazy is that?
i think one of the more entertaining links is here, where the reference is "music composed by eric rowland: My Cell Phone is Ringin' (0:11) for Lara's Motorola cellular phone. Written on October 9th, 2003. "MyTones" input for the ring is available."
i also like the fact that at the top of my advisor's favorite links page, he has "Added Oct. 18, 2004: I just discovered the very awsome website of my Math 611 student, Lara P..." :-)
done rambling about nothing
night y'all :-P
i'm now on a french math/science website... see the references at the end of here
if you search for my name in quotes, you get 90 results -- how crazy is that?
i think one of the more entertaining links is here, where the reference is "music composed by eric rowland: My Cell Phone is Ringin' (0:11) for Lara's Motorola cellular phone. Written on October 9th, 2003. "MyTones" input for the ring is available."
i also like the fact that at the top of my advisor's favorite links page, he has "Added Oct. 18, 2004: I just discovered the very awsome website of my Math 611 student, Lara P..." :-)
done rambling about nothing
night y'all :-P
Tuesday, February 22, 2005
ok, *this* is just weird
scott (comes in my house 15 minutes ago): hi lara!
me: hi scott! you had a good birthday? how do you like being twenty-old now?
scott: it's good... wait, dude, i just remembered something
me: what?
scott: you were totally in my dream last night
me: seriously? doing what?
scott: yeah, seriously... we were wrestling, like in a ring and everything... i don't know why, i don't think we were mad at each other or anything... and come to think of it, you were winning; i usually remember my dreams, even if it's hours later, and i think that one was definitely a first
(dude, that's just freakin weird :-P)
back to work for me :-P
later dudes
me: hi scott! you had a good birthday? how do you like being twenty-old now?
scott: it's good... wait, dude, i just remembered something
me: what?
scott: you were totally in my dream last night
me: seriously? doing what?
scott: yeah, seriously... we were wrestling, like in a ring and everything... i don't know why, i don't think we were mad at each other or anything... and come to think of it, you were winning; i usually remember my dreams, even if it's hours later, and i think that one was definitely a first
(dude, that's just freakin weird :-P)
back to work for me :-P
later dudes
grandma update
re: grandma's leg amputation today
below, priscilla = my aunt in pittsburgh, mom = my grandma, speaker = my mom via IM
k----------: priscilla called about 1:30 or so...said mom made it through surgery and was in recovery. They were "freaking" out because they only gave mom a spinal, not general anesthesia due to her heart condition. But they had her really "numbed", according to priscilla. So I don't know how aware of anything she was, what she could hear, etc.
having the possibility of being conscious while your leg is being surgically removed? yuck :-/
at least surgery is successfully done with, for whatever that's worth... oi.
off to dinner... i like subway night with eric. :-)
below, priscilla = my aunt in pittsburgh, mom = my grandma, speaker = my mom via IM
k----------: priscilla called about 1:30 or so...said mom made it through surgery and was in recovery. They were "freaking" out because they only gave mom a spinal, not general anesthesia due to her heart condition. But they had her really "numbed", according to priscilla. So I don't know how aware of anything she was, what she could hear, etc.
having the possibility of being conscious while your leg is being surgically removed? yuck :-/
at least surgery is successfully done with, for whatever that's worth... oi.
off to dinner... i like subway night with eric. :-)
what does this say?
Your Brain is 46.67% Female, 53.33% Male |
Your brain is a healthy mix of male and female You are both sensitive and savvy Rational and reasonable, you tend to keep level headed But you also tend to wear your heart on your sleeve |
Monday, February 21, 2005
random thoughts
my roommates never study at home anymore... i have the place to myself most of the time when i'm home in daylight, and most of the evening... the only time i have company is when i invite people over or when i go to sleep pretty much... it's a little weird :-P... e.g. i've been home alone all day minus about an hour in pieces, and silence other than me... now it's 12:30 at night and leigh comes home singing and making all kinds of noise... sooo backwards
eric and me dissected my laptop tonight while i was working on other stuff,... it doesn't turn on anymore, so we thought it would be fun to take enough apart to try to flip the actual switch inside rather than what you hit on the outside... still no luck... it does absolutely nothing, except the "battery charging/charged" light lights up when you plug it in... that's all... any thoughts any brilliant cs/ece/whatever people?... it's currently disassembled and in plastic bags on my dining room table :-P... there are a freakin lot of screws inside a laptop if you were wondering :-P
eric and me and all the 1st year students have to take this crazy teaching preparation course this semester... tomorrow there's a chance of being put up at the board and teaching a room full of graduate students the equation of a line... for some inexplicable reason i'm totally freaking out... eric reasoned with me for an hour saying he feels bad that my head freaks out at things like this and he wishes he knew how to convinced my head it's not a huge freakin deal... he also rescinds all comments from last year of "i don't envy the students in your future classes"... i've downloaded them all as valid criticism whereas he meant it mostly jokingly every time and we had a long chat about the pros and cons of half a dozen people in our incoming year's personalities with regards to teaching... eric thinks, contrary to joking criticism last year, that i'll be a highly entertaining and popular TA... i gotta live through this class (which is not meant to be a big deal, i'm just neurotic :-P) first though
#1 nice thing about having an advisor who does experimental math? when you're ready to sleep you can just write up batch files and have the math server work away while you sleep :-P
chance of 4-8 inches of snow/sleet tonight... and i am the first one with class in the morning... hopefully not too traumatic to get out of my parking spot in the morning... or if it is, hopefully a rare university snow day so that i can get out of going to 4 classes and have more time to work on reading class stuff :-P
heh... that was all random indeed
night y'all
eric and me dissected my laptop tonight while i was working on other stuff,... it doesn't turn on anymore, so we thought it would be fun to take enough apart to try to flip the actual switch inside rather than what you hit on the outside... still no luck... it does absolutely nothing, except the "battery charging/charged" light lights up when you plug it in... that's all... any thoughts any brilliant cs/ece/whatever people?... it's currently disassembled and in plastic bags on my dining room table :-P... there are a freakin lot of screws inside a laptop if you were wondering :-P
eric and me and all the 1st year students have to take this crazy teaching preparation course this semester... tomorrow there's a chance of being put up at the board and teaching a room full of graduate students the equation of a line... for some inexplicable reason i'm totally freaking out... eric reasoned with me for an hour saying he feels bad that my head freaks out at things like this and he wishes he knew how to convinced my head it's not a huge freakin deal... he also rescinds all comments from last year of "i don't envy the students in your future classes"... i've downloaded them all as valid criticism whereas he meant it mostly jokingly every time and we had a long chat about the pros and cons of half a dozen people in our incoming year's personalities with regards to teaching... eric thinks, contrary to joking criticism last year, that i'll be a highly entertaining and popular TA... i gotta live through this class (which is not meant to be a big deal, i'm just neurotic :-P) first though
#1 nice thing about having an advisor who does experimental math? when you're ready to sleep you can just write up batch files and have the math server work away while you sleep :-P
chance of 4-8 inches of snow/sleet tonight... and i am the first one with class in the morning... hopefully not too traumatic to get out of my parking spot in the morning... or if it is, hopefully a rare university snow day so that i can get out of going to 4 classes and have more time to work on reading class stuff :-P
heh... that was all random indeed
night y'all
Saturday, February 19, 2005
it's a small world... maybe?
oi... haven't even done that much today and it's already been busy.
woke up at 11, and slowly cleaned up my room (which i left moderately messy for me last night), and got to the car shop by 1pm for my oil change. while i waited for an hour and a half a grandfather age gentleman decided to talk to me and ask me lots of questions about the math corner of academia. his daughter got a phd in microbiology so he had at least some clue of the general framework of academia and research jobs more than some people who ask me questions and then think i'm crazy. he was really interested in my combinatorics of permutations book and the fact that i've lived in europe for a few months... it was really nice to chat with a grandparent age person that freely and have them be really interested in what i'm doing... i miss talking to my grandfathers, and i like when i find someone who's a bit older than me, but isn't against or totally confused by what i'm doing with my life to this point. i had had a similarly nice chat with eric's grandma in detroit on our road trip last summer... i guess i miss that interaction on a regular basis, so it's nice when it does happen :-P
went to the post office and the bank after that, and who of all people to see in the bank, but amanda, my roommate from last year... i seriously hadn't seen her since august when i moved out to live with colleen and leigh... our conversation was something along the lines of
amanda: oh my gosh!
me: oh hi... random seeing you here, huh?
amanda: oh yeah! how are you? how have classes been?
me: good, crazy busy... i have an advisor now
amanda: you didn't before, oh well, that's weird
me: no, not really... it's kinda an exciting big deal when you figure out who you're going to write your thesis with
amanda: oh, yeah, of course, well, i got a new boyfriend... and the new roommate's cool... we're never home at the same time, so it works well
me: i'm glad... yeah, my apartment's working out well too
amanda: yeah, well, ok, have a good semester, bye
go figure. :-P
i got two new books in the mail too :-)
John Craige's Mathematical Principles of Christian Theology -- this is something random i came across for cheap on amazon.com last week and thought i'd read it for fun. here's the back of the book:
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
"for Christ to come, 1454 years must first elapse." ~John Craige, 1699
thus began the 200-year controversy over mathematician john craige's theology --an impressive scholarly endeavor or, as one critic said, an "absurd abuse of mathematics"?
craige attempted to determine the earliest possible date of the acpocalypse by using the most current mathematical and philosophical reasoning, but he was more frequently ridiculed as an eccentric and crank than respected as a mathematician. craige's claim that Christ would not return at least until A.D. 3150 often elicited quite emotional responses from other mathematicians, philosophers, poets, and religious thinkers from across the theological spectrum: skptics, deists, Catholics, dissenters, and both low- and high-church Anglicans.
richard nash examines craige's work in light of the intellectual and social contexts of the time (craige's peers included newton and locke). instead of dismissing craige's theology as merely bizarre, however, nash sees the work as important in understanding the history of probability theory and fluxional calculus as well as the intellectual history of late seventeeth- and early eighteenth-century Europe. nash provides the most exhaustive biography of craige available, drawing on numerous personal letters and records, and for the first time, craige's text, attached as an appendix, is translated in its entirety.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
maybe i'm weird, but i think this is going to be a fun 89 page diversion from work :-P
my other new book is Journey Through Genius: The Great Theorems of Mathematics, which i also think will be good leisure reading :-) (i'm not a math student at all, am i :-P)
speaking of new books, the one that dr. z. bought me last week for class, ends its one page chapter 0 with the following line "i promise the rest of the book will be less straightforward" :-) i laughed heartily :-P
later dudes
woke up at 11, and slowly cleaned up my room (which i left moderately messy for me last night), and got to the car shop by 1pm for my oil change. while i waited for an hour and a half a grandfather age gentleman decided to talk to me and ask me lots of questions about the math corner of academia. his daughter got a phd in microbiology so he had at least some clue of the general framework of academia and research jobs more than some people who ask me questions and then think i'm crazy. he was really interested in my combinatorics of permutations book and the fact that i've lived in europe for a few months... it was really nice to chat with a grandparent age person that freely and have them be really interested in what i'm doing... i miss talking to my grandfathers, and i like when i find someone who's a bit older than me, but isn't against or totally confused by what i'm doing with my life to this point. i had had a similarly nice chat with eric's grandma in detroit on our road trip last summer... i guess i miss that interaction on a regular basis, so it's nice when it does happen :-P
went to the post office and the bank after that, and who of all people to see in the bank, but amanda, my roommate from last year... i seriously hadn't seen her since august when i moved out to live with colleen and leigh... our conversation was something along the lines of
amanda: oh my gosh!
me: oh hi... random seeing you here, huh?
amanda: oh yeah! how are you? how have classes been?
me: good, crazy busy... i have an advisor now
amanda: you didn't before, oh well, that's weird
me: no, not really... it's kinda an exciting big deal when you figure out who you're going to write your thesis with
amanda: oh, yeah, of course, well, i got a new boyfriend... and the new roommate's cool... we're never home at the same time, so it works well
me: i'm glad... yeah, my apartment's working out well too
amanda: yeah, well, ok, have a good semester, bye
go figure. :-P
i got two new books in the mail too :-)
John Craige's Mathematical Principles of Christian Theology -- this is something random i came across for cheap on amazon.com last week and thought i'd read it for fun. here's the back of the book:
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
"for Christ to come, 1454 years must first elapse." ~John Craige, 1699
thus began the 200-year controversy over mathematician john craige's theology --an impressive scholarly endeavor or, as one critic said, an "absurd abuse of mathematics"?
craige attempted to determine the earliest possible date of the acpocalypse by using the most current mathematical and philosophical reasoning, but he was more frequently ridiculed as an eccentric and crank than respected as a mathematician. craige's claim that Christ would not return at least until A.D. 3150 often elicited quite emotional responses from other mathematicians, philosophers, poets, and religious thinkers from across the theological spectrum: skptics, deists, Catholics, dissenters, and both low- and high-church Anglicans.
richard nash examines craige's work in light of the intellectual and social contexts of the time (craige's peers included newton and locke). instead of dismissing craige's theology as merely bizarre, however, nash sees the work as important in understanding the history of probability theory and fluxional calculus as well as the intellectual history of late seventeeth- and early eighteenth-century Europe. nash provides the most exhaustive biography of craige available, drawing on numerous personal letters and records, and for the first time, craige's text, attached as an appendix, is translated in its entirety.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
maybe i'm weird, but i think this is going to be a fun 89 page diversion from work :-P
my other new book is Journey Through Genius: The Great Theorems of Mathematics, which i also think will be good leisure reading :-) (i'm not a math student at all, am i :-P)
speaking of new books, the one that dr. z. bought me last week for class, ends its one page chapter 0 with the following line "i promise the rest of the book will be less straightforward" :-) i laughed heartily :-P
later dudes
oi
bryan pointed this out to me: 42nd Mersenne Prime (Probably) Discovered
that's the happy news, along with that leigh, ben, and i celebrated being done with a crappy week (for totally different reasons for each of us) by being vegetables and watching two silly movies: "the importance of being ernest" and "around the world in 80 days") it was quality time for all 3 of us, each of which have been too stressed lately to have any down time, and just needed some non-being-around-happy-people time for a bit too :-P
upon reflection, i have a few more categories to add to the list on the last entry, but i won't add that so that the whole world doesn't start wondering if i'm mad at them :-P (i'm not mad at most people, there's just a few getting to me lately :-P)
called mom to ask her impression on the grandma thing, and she commented "i really am hoping she goes before tuesday... i remember how hard it was for grandpa (dad's dad) to lose his leg, even knowing he'd get a prosthetic leg and be mobile after... grandma (mom's mom, subject of the last post) won't have that option, and i can't imagine the mental stress of it... then again your great grandma (dad's dad's mom, who died when i was 2) was scheduled for an amputation and died just days before so we'll see"
at first that bothered me, but then, upon reflection, i remembered that throughout the rollercoaster of g-ma's initial strokes sophomore and junior year of undergrad, mom would report what was up with a "i doubt she'll make it to (thanksigiving/christmas/spring break/whatever my next holiday was) -- be prepared for a trip to pitt any time", so i don't know how much her commentary holds water. what DOES bother me is priscilla's and roy's (roy is my step-gpa) reports of grandma's oblivion to the world.
i guess it's also weird because grandma's been behind a mental wall of sorts for the past going on 5 years... but besides that, she has been the grandparent of the 4 that i've gotten to know most as a friend, and who has been most supportive of what i'm doing with my life... both my grandfathers died when i was 15, so while i remember them well, and loved them dearly, i only knew them through my teenage years and not into my adult years... my other grandma and i have gotten to be much closer since i went to undergrad just over an hour from her house and i saw her multiple times a year on my drives home and back... but she doesn't understand why i need more education that my dad (who has an associates degree), or why i'm not married with 2-3 kids by now like she was at my age.... this grandma's first stroke wasn't until i was 19, and even since then, she's been interested in what i'm up to and hearing about my work, my travels, and my friends... before her strokes she was my best pen pal.... so like i said, the grandparent i've gotten to know most as a friend. while she's not nearly as able to communicate and interact as she was 5 years ago, still having her there in some form has been a kinda gradual letting go process instead of suddenly... and i'm not sure how prepared i am for the last bit, whenever it comes... i guess that's all i can do.. (i.e. take it as it comes)... oi...
switching tracks completely, tomorrow is the joyfilled fun of taking my car in for an oil change, and hoping it doesn't need any other work... we'll see; there are a few things i'm wondering about before i go roadtripping again for spring break.
on that note, i should be asleep
night y'all
that's the happy news, along with that leigh, ben, and i celebrated being done with a crappy week (for totally different reasons for each of us) by being vegetables and watching two silly movies: "the importance of being ernest" and "around the world in 80 days") it was quality time for all 3 of us, each of which have been too stressed lately to have any down time, and just needed some non-being-around-happy-people time for a bit too :-P
upon reflection, i have a few more categories to add to the list on the last entry, but i won't add that so that the whole world doesn't start wondering if i'm mad at them :-P (i'm not mad at most people, there's just a few getting to me lately :-P)
called mom to ask her impression on the grandma thing, and she commented "i really am hoping she goes before tuesday... i remember how hard it was for grandpa (dad's dad) to lose his leg, even knowing he'd get a prosthetic leg and be mobile after... grandma (mom's mom, subject of the last post) won't have that option, and i can't imagine the mental stress of it... then again your great grandma (dad's dad's mom, who died when i was 2) was scheduled for an amputation and died just days before so we'll see"
at first that bothered me, but then, upon reflection, i remembered that throughout the rollercoaster of g-ma's initial strokes sophomore and junior year of undergrad, mom would report what was up with a "i doubt she'll make it to (thanksigiving/christmas/spring break/whatever my next holiday was) -- be prepared for a trip to pitt any time", so i don't know how much her commentary holds water. what DOES bother me is priscilla's and roy's (roy is my step-gpa) reports of grandma's oblivion to the world.
i guess it's also weird because grandma's been behind a mental wall of sorts for the past going on 5 years... but besides that, she has been the grandparent of the 4 that i've gotten to know most as a friend, and who has been most supportive of what i'm doing with my life... both my grandfathers died when i was 15, so while i remember them well, and loved them dearly, i only knew them through my teenage years and not into my adult years... my other grandma and i have gotten to be much closer since i went to undergrad just over an hour from her house and i saw her multiple times a year on my drives home and back... but she doesn't understand why i need more education that my dad (who has an associates degree), or why i'm not married with 2-3 kids by now like she was at my age.... this grandma's first stroke wasn't until i was 19, and even since then, she's been interested in what i'm up to and hearing about my work, my travels, and my friends... before her strokes she was my best pen pal.... so like i said, the grandparent i've gotten to know most as a friend. while she's not nearly as able to communicate and interact as she was 5 years ago, still having her there in some form has been a kinda gradual letting go process instead of suddenly... and i'm not sure how prepared i am for the last bit, whenever it comes... i guess that's all i can do.. (i.e. take it as it comes)... oi...
switching tracks completely, tomorrow is the joyfilled fun of taking my car in for an oil change, and hoping it doesn't need any other work... we'll see; there are a few things i'm wondering about before i go roadtripping again for spring break.
on that note, i should be asleep
night y'all
Friday, February 18, 2005
:-/
got the following email today from my aunt in pittsburgh re: my grandma (who has been in a nursing home since she had a series of strokes in august of 2000)... in general she's been alert, and although her speech is slurred, can have short conversations, and is in tune with what's going on around her, although she does get flustered and tired from time to time... so this email makes me worry...
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Just so you know - mom is scheduled for surgery on Tuesday. Exact time will not be known until Monday evening. I will be at the hospital during surgery. They will be amputating her leg from below the knee, but there always is the chance that they may need to go further up to find good blood flow.
When I saw mom on Sunday, she was pretty much out-of-it. Roy says she's been such for a few weeks now, with an occasional smile, but mostly acting as if she is oblivious to us being there.
I'll let you know more when I know more.
Love to you all.
Pris
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
i also don't like long weeks and i don't like it when i don't feel like people are being totally straightfoward with me, and i don't like people who are arrogant.
i think that blankets everything on my mind for now.
later.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Just so you know - mom is scheduled for surgery on Tuesday. Exact time will not be known until Monday evening. I will be at the hospital during surgery. They will be amputating her leg from below the knee, but there always is the chance that they may need to go further up to find good blood flow.
When I saw mom on Sunday, she was pretty much out-of-it. Roy says she's been such for a few weeks now, with an occasional smile, but mostly acting as if she is oblivious to us being there.
I'll let you know more when I know more.
Love to you all.
Pris
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
i also don't like long weeks and i don't like it when i don't feel like people are being totally straightfoward with me, and i don't like people who are arrogant.
i think that blankets everything on my mind for now.
later.
apprentice, and other such fun
whatever week we're on it was time for michael to get fired... that's about all i have to say. bren, despite his very bad idea last week, and his loss this week, i have respect for his conflict management skills... he doesn't get all petty, or mean... he stays calm and firm and backs up what he says... that's good. this was so much of a better episode than last week... the graffiti project next week looks hilarious... that's about all i have to say
it's been a loooong week and it's soooo almost over.
things i'm glad for:
*an advisor who likes me... i felt like a slacker when i showed up with less than i planned to this week, and instead, he was excited at how nice the program i have written in the past week did work... he always tells me how much he likes my work... i'm hard enough on my self, it's a good thing i have an advisor who's affirming and really does see positive in my work
*friends... mike neiman made my day a million times better by sitting down with me for an hour today and helping me work out some of my issues with this week's combinatorics hw... i have 6/7 typed up and i'm just not bothering to look at the last one... i should at least do better than last assignment
*people who make me laugh... sam and i were the first two in the room for commutative algebra yesterday and he dared me to draw a frog on the board... when i told him i couldn't draw but would help him in his devious plan if he drew a funny picture, he drew a chicken (see my reproduction of it below:)
and dared me to write "compute the homology of THIS!" next to it.
when our professor got to the room, she was already a little spacey and saw the chicken and started laughing and then did compute the homology of the shape as a 1-dimensional drawing, and then after doing that started class with "ok, that was fun, any other questions?"
math humor... yeah...
that's about all i know... tomorrow's a 9:30am til 6pm day... that's a long day to have to be on campus for all of... oi
soooo almost the weekend, i can't wait for a change of pace! :-P
later dudes... happy friday :-)
it's been a loooong week and it's soooo almost over.
things i'm glad for:
*an advisor who likes me... i felt like a slacker when i showed up with less than i planned to this week, and instead, he was excited at how nice the program i have written in the past week did work... he always tells me how much he likes my work... i'm hard enough on my self, it's a good thing i have an advisor who's affirming and really does see positive in my work
*friends... mike neiman made my day a million times better by sitting down with me for an hour today and helping me work out some of my issues with this week's combinatorics hw... i have 6/7 typed up and i'm just not bothering to look at the last one... i should at least do better than last assignment
*people who make me laugh... sam and i were the first two in the room for commutative algebra yesterday and he dared me to draw a frog on the board... when i told him i couldn't draw but would help him in his devious plan if he drew a funny picture, he drew a chicken (see my reproduction of it below:)
and dared me to write "compute the homology of THIS!" next to it.
when our professor got to the room, she was already a little spacey and saw the chicken and started laughing and then did compute the homology of the shape as a 1-dimensional drawing, and then after doing that started class with "ok, that was fun, any other questions?"
math humor... yeah...
that's about all i know... tomorrow's a 9:30am til 6pm day... that's a long day to have to be on campus for all of... oi
soooo almost the weekend, i can't wait for a change of pace! :-P
later dudes... happy friday :-)
Thursday, February 17, 2005
:-/
ben took his oral qual this morning (something i have to do in a year), and did not pass... he does get one more chance, but for all his work i'm sad that that was the result this go around. i know how much it sucked to fail the written qual from personal experience, so i have a notion of how much it sucks to fail the next one in the chain too, and i'm sad for him :-/
i didn't finish as much as i wanted for my reading class last night, and i'm behind on the combo homework that's due tomorrow, and i'm behind on stuff for the REU that i should be doing, etc. i feel swamped and like i'm not making anyone happy.... ugh
i will be so happy come 6pm tomorrow... 6? yes... instead of going home at 2:30, i have obligations on campus from 10am til 6pm tomorrow... then saturday i get to spend quality time at the car repair place... i need an oil change, plus i'm thinking i need brakework... or something... the car's been a little strange lately, i'm dreading seeing how much it'll cost if they figure out what needs to be tweaked.
sad for ben, overwhelmed for me... and in need of a hug... this semester is crazy.
in happier news, mine and alliswan's tickets for stomp came in the mail yesterday,.... *that* will be a fun week. :-)
later dudes
i didn't finish as much as i wanted for my reading class last night, and i'm behind on the combo homework that's due tomorrow, and i'm behind on stuff for the REU that i should be doing, etc. i feel swamped and like i'm not making anyone happy.... ugh
i will be so happy come 6pm tomorrow... 6? yes... instead of going home at 2:30, i have obligations on campus from 10am til 6pm tomorrow... then saturday i get to spend quality time at the car repair place... i need an oil change, plus i'm thinking i need brakework... or something... the car's been a little strange lately, i'm dreading seeing how much it'll cost if they figure out what needs to be tweaked.
sad for ben, overwhelmed for me... and in need of a hug... this semester is crazy.
in happier news, mine and alliswan's tickets for stomp came in the mail yesterday,.... *that* will be a fun week. :-)
later dudes
oi
i've been in such a weird mood today.
still a million and one things to do... combo hw due friday that's only halfway done, but no time to look at it today... reading class tomorrow and i wish i had had time to do a ton more for it than i actually did... although the last 5 hours of working produced
this
and this
next week i won't have combo due, so hopefully i'll have a much more impressive lot of stuff to show for myself... the first link is maple code i've been revising/adding to for the past few weeks, and the 2nd is a maple worksheet of some of my output... i wish i could come up with a way to make it run faster too... oi...
~~~~~~~~~~~~
so that's the homework scoop... other than my one class today, eric and i went to subway and grocery shopping... and ended up having an hour debate on just what about large groups gets to me... i am perfectly happy minding my own business and hiding out and missing large group parties if people will just let me be and hang out with me in small groups at other times... but eric thinks that avoiding large group house parties is something i need to make myself grow out of... neither of us completely understands the other's point of view, and it's a debate we have every few weeks or so... tonight's rehashing of it was probably the longest we've gone back and forth about it ever... i went home a little tense just because we had been "arguing" for so long, but it was a decent night
after talking to roommate for an hour, i finally got started on my hw... during which i got a funny email:
~~~~~~~~~~~~~
To Whom it May Concern:
I'm quite disappointed that the following (very witty) quote was not
included in this biweek's email and hope that you will consider it for
publication at a future date.
"It will be great when everyone on your email list finally realizes that
'Eric' is just your imaginary friend."
Sincerely,
Eric Rowland
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
my inbox is an entertaining place :-P
this is such a disjointed entry... here's your final thought of the night. i got a new CD in the mail today (it's really nearly 10 years old, bought it very cheap on amazon.com this weekend) here are lyrics to the first verse of the last song on it (i don't think they appear online anywhere, so no cheating)... can you guess the songwriter? (i'm betting you can't unless you already know the song :-P)
never mind your circumstance
you might be rich, you might be poor
still your heart cries out for love
once you've tasted of it, you hunger for more
i am no different, seems i'm hungry all of the time
do you have enough to share with me?
i'll share with you some of mine
night y'all
still a million and one things to do... combo hw due friday that's only halfway done, but no time to look at it today... reading class tomorrow and i wish i had had time to do a ton more for it than i actually did... although the last 5 hours of working produced
this
and this
next week i won't have combo due, so hopefully i'll have a much more impressive lot of stuff to show for myself... the first link is maple code i've been revising/adding to for the past few weeks, and the 2nd is a maple worksheet of some of my output... i wish i could come up with a way to make it run faster too... oi...
~~~~~~~~~~~~
so that's the homework scoop... other than my one class today, eric and i went to subway and grocery shopping... and ended up having an hour debate on just what about large groups gets to me... i am perfectly happy minding my own business and hiding out and missing large group parties if people will just let me be and hang out with me in small groups at other times... but eric thinks that avoiding large group house parties is something i need to make myself grow out of... neither of us completely understands the other's point of view, and it's a debate we have every few weeks or so... tonight's rehashing of it was probably the longest we've gone back and forth about it ever... i went home a little tense just because we had been "arguing" for so long, but it was a decent night
after talking to roommate for an hour, i finally got started on my hw... during which i got a funny email:
~~~~~~~~~~~~~
To Whom it May Concern:
I'm quite disappointed that the following (very witty) quote was not
included in this biweek's email and hope that you will consider it for
publication at a future date.
"It will be great when everyone on your email list finally realizes that
'Eric' is just your imaginary friend."
Sincerely,
Eric Rowland
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
my inbox is an entertaining place :-P
this is such a disjointed entry... here's your final thought of the night. i got a new CD in the mail today (it's really nearly 10 years old, bought it very cheap on amazon.com this weekend) here are lyrics to the first verse of the last song on it (i don't think they appear online anywhere, so no cheating)... can you guess the songwriter? (i'm betting you can't unless you already know the song :-P)
never mind your circumstance
you might be rich, you might be poor
still your heart cries out for love
once you've tasted of it, you hunger for more
i am no different, seems i'm hungry all of the time
do you have enough to share with me?
i'll share with you some of mine
night y'all
Wednesday, February 16, 2005
dude, what a night
homework, scrubs, more homework was the plan,... but that kinda got changed up on the fly...
instead the plot was homework, scrubs, and then just as i was starting to get into homework again, chat with someone who i really needed to have a serious chat with, but who hadn't responded to me for over 2 weeks (if you're smart, you know exactly who and what i was talking to them about; if not, don't worry about it)
i wasn't expecting them to chat with me tonight, so the whole conversation caught me a bit off guard... so did my response... i didn't expect to just start crying a few sentences in, but cry i did for 45 minutes... i called scott partway through the chat, in tears, and told him he should come visit, so he showed up, buying ice cream on the way over, and as i finished my 2 hour chat, brought me a huge bowl of half strawberry half chocolate chip cookie dough ice cream with lots of fudge and about 6 cherries on top... then, i thought he got us each a glass of water, but quickly discovered he had served up some of my vanilla vodka... we drank, and read books (once in a lifetime variation on go dog go changing dog to something else appropriate to the evening), and then we walked to the park at the end of my block around 1am and went swinging for the better part of an hour, until we walked back to my house and i just now got home and scott just drove off...
in summary, it was a good chat to have behind me, and i hope things get better between me and the person involved, but fixing issues takes time, and it's hard to instantly switch gears... they're sincerely sorry and want to make things right though, so that's a good sign... we'll see how it goes from here... it's just hard because some of my friends see it as a black and white situation where they're mad at the other person, whereas for me it's much more gray...
enough talking vaguely... i'm glad for friends like scott. :-)
and now i'm going to sleep
night y'all
instead the plot was homework, scrubs, and then just as i was starting to get into homework again, chat with someone who i really needed to have a serious chat with, but who hadn't responded to me for over 2 weeks (if you're smart, you know exactly who and what i was talking to them about; if not, don't worry about it)
i wasn't expecting them to chat with me tonight, so the whole conversation caught me a bit off guard... so did my response... i didn't expect to just start crying a few sentences in, but cry i did for 45 minutes... i called scott partway through the chat, in tears, and told him he should come visit, so he showed up, buying ice cream on the way over, and as i finished my 2 hour chat, brought me a huge bowl of half strawberry half chocolate chip cookie dough ice cream with lots of fudge and about 6 cherries on top... then, i thought he got us each a glass of water, but quickly discovered he had served up some of my vanilla vodka... we drank, and read books (once in a lifetime variation on go dog go changing dog to something else appropriate to the evening), and then we walked to the park at the end of my block around 1am and went swinging for the better part of an hour, until we walked back to my house and i just now got home and scott just drove off...
in summary, it was a good chat to have behind me, and i hope things get better between me and the person involved, but fixing issues takes time, and it's hard to instantly switch gears... they're sincerely sorry and want to make things right though, so that's a good sign... we'll see how it goes from here... it's just hard because some of my friends see it as a black and white situation where they're mad at the other person, whereas for me it's much more gray...
enough talking vaguely... i'm glad for friends like scott. :-)
and now i'm going to sleep
night y'all
Tuesday, February 15, 2005
yay for little things
i drove home today with my sunroof open for the first time in months :-)
we shall not speak of homework though... it's still mean... yay for sunroofs though :-)
we shall not speak of homework though... it's still mean... yay for sunroofs though :-)
multi-media fun
randomness:
this was inside the box of mac and cheese i made for dinner earlier... for some reason, i found it ridiculously funny and was moved to make it my newest door decoration -- how much fun is that?
in other news, frustrated with such a long day, and not really getting anywhere on homework, eric and i tried again to get my voicemails off my phone and recorded in mp3 format, and finally succeeded... i mean, how can you not want to save your voicemails, when you have such original tunes as
the linear transformation song (an impromptu performance by ben bunting at ihop last fall)
or
a set of measure zero -- a song written for me by ben while studying for the qual last semester
you can't just let such tunes disappear when your voicemail box has the only recorded copy ever, can you? (for the record of 21 messages those were the only 2 of ben... it's a pretty random distribution of stuff :-P)
back to work for a bit, and then sleep.
later dudes, enjoy the math songs ;-)
this was inside the box of mac and cheese i made for dinner earlier... for some reason, i found it ridiculously funny and was moved to make it my newest door decoration -- how much fun is that?
in other news, frustrated with such a long day, and not really getting anywhere on homework, eric and i tried again to get my voicemails off my phone and recorded in mp3 format, and finally succeeded... i mean, how can you not want to save your voicemails, when you have such original tunes as
the linear transformation song (an impromptu performance by ben bunting at ihop last fall)
or
a set of measure zero -- a song written for me by ben while studying for the qual last semester
you can't just let such tunes disappear when your voicemail box has the only recorded copy ever, can you? (for the record of 21 messages those were the only 2 of ben... it's a pretty random distribution of stuff :-P)
back to work for a bit, and then sleep.
later dudes, enjoy the math songs ;-)
Monday, February 14, 2005
the longest day ever
at least of grad school. i was in class straight from 9:50am til 5:30pm... that's nearly 8 hours straight of sitting still and listening to 5 different people talk about all kinds of crazy stuff.
but lara, you say, you're a math grad student, listening to people talk about math and doing homework is like... your job.
true, but sitting still listening to math for 8 hours is extremely excessive, even for a math person. 2 classes in one day is plenty, not to mention... FIVE
our washing maching is finally fixed... it was broken for 2 months.... i can now wash my clothes (a) without the use of a sink and lots of time scrubbing and wringing by hand and (b) without going over to the boys' house and paying by giving sam or scott a ride somewhere in return (not that option b was bad, it's just nice to be able to wash clothes at home)
i am exhausted and brain dead and have sooo much to do this week. i think mike felt bad for me when i was detailing my week while he was copying my notes earlier today,... we're working together on homework tomorrow... i halfway wonder if it's partly because the prof handed my homework to him on accident this morning to... out of 8 problems on the last assignment, i got 0 credit on 5 of them... mike claims he didn't see my score, but i'm not sure if he's being honest or being nice.... nonetheless, when i say i feel dumb, i'm not exaggerating... i really DO feel dumb, and just "oh you're the smartest math person *i* know" getting said a lot doesn't make it all better :-P
i think that's true of most people here (feeling behind, overwhelmed, and un-smart a lot of the time), but still... company in feeling dumb doesn't make us feel less dumb either :-P
i got a credit card offer today that came with the deal that "the enclosed check is your money to keep never to pay back... investigate the check... $3.25... ooooh, i'm rich now... whatver... i need better incentive than that :-P
oh, and p.s.... if someone tells you that they're frustrated with you, dropping off the face of the earth (or only talking to their friends and not to them about it) for over two weeks is NOT a good solution.
i think my rant is done.
dinner time.
but lara, you say, you're a math grad student, listening to people talk about math and doing homework is like... your job.
true, but sitting still listening to math for 8 hours is extremely excessive, even for a math person. 2 classes in one day is plenty, not to mention... FIVE
our washing maching is finally fixed... it was broken for 2 months.... i can now wash my clothes (a) without the use of a sink and lots of time scrubbing and wringing by hand and (b) without going over to the boys' house and paying by giving sam or scott a ride somewhere in return (not that option b was bad, it's just nice to be able to wash clothes at home)
i am exhausted and brain dead and have sooo much to do this week. i think mike felt bad for me when i was detailing my week while he was copying my notes earlier today,... we're working together on homework tomorrow... i halfway wonder if it's partly because the prof handed my homework to him on accident this morning to... out of 8 problems on the last assignment, i got 0 credit on 5 of them... mike claims he didn't see my score, but i'm not sure if he's being honest or being nice.... nonetheless, when i say i feel dumb, i'm not exaggerating... i really DO feel dumb, and just "oh you're the smartest math person *i* know" getting said a lot doesn't make it all better :-P
i think that's true of most people here (feeling behind, overwhelmed, and un-smart a lot of the time), but still... company in feeling dumb doesn't make us feel less dumb either :-P
i got a credit card offer today that came with the deal that "the enclosed check is your money to keep never to pay back... investigate the check... $3.25... ooooh, i'm rich now... whatver... i need better incentive than that :-P
oh, and p.s.... if someone tells you that they're frustrated with you, dropping off the face of the earth (or only talking to their friends and not to them about it) for over two weeks is NOT a good solution.
i think my rant is done.
dinner time.
eh
if you have homework you can sit down and work on and make progress on, i'm jealous of you. you may read and complain you don't remember everything you read... you may write and claim it's a crappy paper... whatever you have to do, if you have the ability to sit down for a set period of time and come back with at least something to show for it (whether it's as quality or as much as you wanted), i'm insanely jealous. math does not work that way.
i worked pretty much all afternoon and evening yesterday, as well as all day today (minus an hour to see the heffalump movie with leigh... the heffalump was waaaay too cute in all the previews not to see it on opening weekend!) up til now (1am), and let me detail my progress on all the things i hoped to work on this weekend
combinatorics (due friday, haven't started)
reading class (stuff due thursday, haven't started)
algorithms class (stuff to read for tomorrow, haven't touched it)
commutative algebra (12 problems, after working for (counts...) something on the order of 20 hours on it, i've done all the problems in "routine calculations" and "gaps from class", and while my goal was to solve 3/5 "broader questions", i have ideas of how to do 2 of them, but have not completed any... these don't have a due date, but i've been putting them behind other stuff long enough, i decided i should get started before the next set comes (tomorrow))
in summary... i worked my butt off this weekend and am even further behind than i was on friday! this is not good.
at least the heffalump was cute.
night.
i worked pretty much all afternoon and evening yesterday, as well as all day today (minus an hour to see the heffalump movie with leigh... the heffalump was waaaay too cute in all the previews not to see it on opening weekend!) up til now (1am), and let me detail my progress on all the things i hoped to work on this weekend
combinatorics (due friday, haven't started)
reading class (stuff due thursday, haven't started)
algorithms class (stuff to read for tomorrow, haven't touched it)
commutative algebra (12 problems, after working for (counts...) something on the order of 20 hours on it, i've done all the problems in "routine calculations" and "gaps from class", and while my goal was to solve 3/5 "broader questions", i have ideas of how to do 2 of them, but have not completed any... these don't have a due date, but i've been putting them behind other stuff long enough, i decided i should get started before the next set comes (tomorrow))
in summary... i worked my butt off this weekend and am even further behind than i was on friday! this is not good.
at least the heffalump was cute.
night.
Saturday, February 12, 2005
reason #1246 why my advisor is cool
i check my email this afternoon just before i started lunch at 3:30, and see this:
Date: Sat, 12 Feb 2005 15:16:54 -0500 (EST)
From: Doron Zeilberger
Subject: Problem Set 1
Dear Class,
It is about time that you have a real problem set!
It is due Monday, but it only has one problem.
No extensions will be granted. Please complete it
promptly.
Best wishes
Dr. Z.
MathIsFun
------------------------------------------------
Problem Set 1 (Due Feb. 14, No Extensions!)
1) Using Maple, find the unique Polynomial P(x,y) that
satisfies the conditions
P(x,0)=x^4-x^2 ;
P(0,y)=y^4+2y^3 ;
diff(diff(P(x,y),x),y)=8*x*y+4*x ;
2)Using the implicitplot command in the package plots
(call it by typing:
with(plots);
),
plot the curve P(x,y)=0 for the frame -2<=x<=2, -2<=y<=2,
with the option axes=none .
3) Print it out. Using scissors, cut the shape out.
Hand it in to me in class.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
at first i sit down with my lunch and go, "well that was weird of him to make an assignment saturday afternoon with such a harsh deadline, he's usually so easy going... hrmmm...",... then it dawns on me... i suddenlyknew exactly what the shape was going to be without even looking at the equations... do you?
scroll on down and see the resulting maple worksheet from following his instructions...
in other words for our discrete algorithms class, it's mandatory to give the professor a valentine during class on valentines day... dude :-P
that was easy.
back to work, later y'all.
Date: Sat, 12 Feb 2005 15:16:54 -0500 (EST)
From: Doron Zeilberger
Subject: Problem Set 1
Dear Class,
It is about time that you have a real problem set!
It is due Monday, but it only has one problem.
No extensions will be granted. Please complete it
promptly.
Best wishes
Dr. Z.
MathIsFun
------------------------------------------------
Problem Set 1 (Due Feb. 14, No Extensions!)
1) Using Maple, find the unique Polynomial P(x,y) that
satisfies the conditions
P(x,0)=x^4-x^2 ;
P(0,y)=y^4+2y^3 ;
diff(diff(P(x,y),x),y)=8*x*y+4*x ;
2)Using the implicitplot command in the package plots
(call it by typing:
with(plots);
),
plot the curve P(x,y)=0 for the frame -2<=x<=2, -2<=y<=2,
with the option axes=none .
3) Print it out. Using scissors, cut the shape out.
Hand it in to me in class.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
at first i sit down with my lunch and go, "well that was weird of him to make an assignment saturday afternoon with such a harsh deadline, he's usually so easy going... hrmmm...",... then it dawns on me... i suddenlyknew exactly what the shape was going to be without even looking at the equations... do you?
scroll on down and see the resulting maple worksheet from following his instructions...
in other words for our discrete algorithms class, it's mandatory to give the professor a valentine during class on valentines day... dude :-P
that was easy.
back to work, later y'all.
welcome to my life
so here's the deal lately
yesterday was decent... was running around non-stop until eric came over to help me clean out the fridge for dinner :-P... then we had tickets to see carmen at the local theater. for not having seen it before and for not having a clue about the plotline to start, i was incredibly impressed with how much of the music i was familiar with!
after that, eric had promised me we'd stop by starbucks, so we did and chatted for a bit... then to my house where i convinced him to play checkers and after beating him twice, convinced him there was actually some strategy to the game (which he adamently denied before we started playing)... finally around 1am eric headed home (after we tried to order a pizza and the pizza place was closing)
instead of going to sleep as i should have, i stayed up and continued working on my scrapbook from my cross country roadtrip that i took with eric last july... last fall i had put the first 3 days together, and then the stack of other pictures and the photoalbum sat in the corner of my room for 6 months... i made it all the way to detroit (it's in two volumes now) before i ran out of pages at 4am (after i finish doing random things around my room, i'll go buy more picture pages and finish it out before i do homework)... here's the other unfortunate thing though... after sitting in the corner for so long, the last dozen or so pictures stuck together and rip apart, ripping the backs off of other pictures no matter how gently you try to separate them... for 15 rolls of film from the trip, i kept all the pictures whole when i put them in the album... for the last roll i'm gonna have to do some creative trimming so they don't look quite so shabby... oi... that's one extra project i've been meaning to do for awhile at least :-P
so yeah, happy saturday... a little fun, then lots of work for me... hopefully a good weekend to all of you :-)
yesterday was decent... was running around non-stop until eric came over to help me clean out the fridge for dinner :-P... then we had tickets to see carmen at the local theater. for not having seen it before and for not having a clue about the plotline to start, i was incredibly impressed with how much of the music i was familiar with!
after that, eric had promised me we'd stop by starbucks, so we did and chatted for a bit... then to my house where i convinced him to play checkers and after beating him twice, convinced him there was actually some strategy to the game (which he adamently denied before we started playing)... finally around 1am eric headed home (after we tried to order a pizza and the pizza place was closing)
instead of going to sleep as i should have, i stayed up and continued working on my scrapbook from my cross country roadtrip that i took with eric last july... last fall i had put the first 3 days together, and then the stack of other pictures and the photoalbum sat in the corner of my room for 6 months... i made it all the way to detroit (it's in two volumes now) before i ran out of pages at 4am (after i finish doing random things around my room, i'll go buy more picture pages and finish it out before i do homework)... here's the other unfortunate thing though... after sitting in the corner for so long, the last dozen or so pictures stuck together and rip apart, ripping the backs off of other pictures no matter how gently you try to separate them... for 15 rolls of film from the trip, i kept all the pictures whole when i put them in the album... for the last roll i'm gonna have to do some creative trimming so they don't look quite so shabby... oi... that's one extra project i've been meaning to do for awhile at least :-P
so yeah, happy saturday... a little fun, then lots of work for me... hopefully a good weekend to all of you :-)
yay me?
this came in my campus mailbox within the last week and a half (because i didn't know it already.... the timing just highly amused me)
Friday, February 11, 2005
einstein quote of the day
in case you haven't gathered, it's an einstein sort of year... it's the 100th anniversary of when his relativity papers came out, and the 50th anniversary of the year of his death... as such, calendars and stuff like this calendar are plentiful this year :-P
all good, i have tons and tons of respect for einstein and his work, so i'm a sucker for the above such products if they're well done, and actually own the calendar in the link.
calendar quote of the day "falling is love is not at all the most stupid thing that people do -- but gravitation cannot be held responsible for it. ~albert einstein
i laughed soooo hard when i read that... einstein is sooo way up there on my hero list :-)
happy friday?
all good, i have tons and tons of respect for einstein and his work, so i'm a sucker for the above such products if they're well done, and actually own the calendar in the link.
calendar quote of the day "falling is love is not at all the most stupid thing that people do -- but gravitation cannot be held responsible for it. ~albert einstein
i laughed soooo hard when i read that... einstein is sooo way up there on my hero list :-)
happy friday?
Thursday, February 10, 2005
apprentice, week 4
oi... both teams declared losers and sent to the boardroom? that's new... then again, i've not been as impressed with this season's teams.... (there are good individuals, but as teams, neither is my favorite)...
i was so sure bren was out when they decided to do his commercial... maybe for a college joke project, but for a real life commercial for deutsch? come on, you can't shoot a semi-porn commercial for dove body wash... ridiculous... at least they worked together even if it was a bad idea... and to bren's credit, he still stepped up to the plate with good people management, etc. during the task, even after his bad idea...
kristen was so pompous even after she was fired... part of being truly spectacular is being able to take criticism, and not just defend that you're always right all the time. i'm kinda glad she screwed up... if she had gone with john's idea more like it was intended, then they would have maybe had a chance... for bren's sake, i'm kinda glad she screwed herself over with the job she did... maybe he screwed up with an idea, but i think he's a stronger contender than kristen was anyhow (and not just b/c he's from memphis :-P)
anyhow, yeah, the most disappointing episode of ALL THREE seasons... i don't watch to see them bicker and fight, i watch to see them problem solve and then see who's a good debater after all is said and done with the task... there was no brilliance in this episode, though... there were two extremely poorly done commercials, and one really self-inflated person who couldn't listen in the boardroom, along with 5 people who had some merit to stay. i just hope next week is better.
in other news, today was another long day... not bad, just long. yesterday was long, and homework took longer than planned last night, so i was dragging from the moment i woke up... i happened to be looking back across the last page of notes mid-class this morning just trying to take in what was going on when the prof randomly called on me, and i answered wrong twice before i got it... oi... and it wasn't a hard question, i was just really out of it.
the dimacs reu project advisors had a meeting while i was in class to go through our sorted and rated applications and rank their favorite candidates for their projects... now to resolve any conflicts (of the "two or three mentors really want the same student" variety), and see if the students accept, before round two commences... fun, right? i'll be less involved in this phase, but informed, partly just because i have classes on mondays and fridays more than other days, so i'm not around immediately to help... it's nice to have the reading lots and lots of letters part done though :-P
had a really good meeting with my advisor today... vince, an older grad student, who's really brilliant at the stuff i'm just starting to learn about and work on, joined us and explained how some computer packages that he's written work, so that i can start to use them on my own... after vince left, zeilberger and i were talking about stuff i can be reading to learn more about the data i'm generating and studying... there's a book i've been eyeing on amazon for a bit... the combinatorics of permutations, that zeilberger recommended i read some of... when we discovered it's new new to be in the math department library yet (it came out july 2004), zeilberger decided to buy it for me on his "buying academic books with math department money account)... that's an $80+ book i've been wanting, and my advisor bought it for me :-) yay. :-)
otherwise, i'm just tired, and going to sleep soon... i made a point of not working on math tonight because i'm just plain exhausted... TONS to get done this weekend, but tomorrow will be decent... after plenty of sleep ;-), there's just one class, and then pizza seminar between me and the weekend... sikimeti's doing the seminar tomorrow and starting out talking about plato's correspondence of the elements to the platonic solids (which i've referenced at least once or twice on here, albeit months ago, because it's a random idea but kinda fun to think about)... here's siki's abstract, plenty of people are excited about it:
" Plato, back in 350 BC, knew a fair bit about regular polyhedra. He knew that there were only so many, and that made them special. What he didn't know, he made up. And so it was that he "discovered" a mysterious bijection with the Fundamental Elements of the Universe: tetrahedron = fire, icosahedron = water, octahedron = air, and dodecahedron = whatever was in the stars/heavens.
The McKay Correspondence is another mysterious bijection, only marginally less aesthetic than Plato's.
In the classification of finite subgroups of SU(2), the following types pop up: cyclic (order n), binary dihedral (order 4n), binary tetrahedral, binary octahedral and binary icosahedral.
In the classification of simple Lie Algebras, graphs called Dynkin diagrams pop up: types A_n, D_n, E_6, E_7 and E_8.
And yes, you guessed it: there's a bijection between the two."
yeah, it'll be a good afternoon...
and, after that, eric and i have tickets to see carmen at the local theater tomorrow night... it'll be good.
but first.... before any of that... SLEEP TIME!
night y'all
i was so sure bren was out when they decided to do his commercial... maybe for a college joke project, but for a real life commercial for deutsch? come on, you can't shoot a semi-porn commercial for dove body wash... ridiculous... at least they worked together even if it was a bad idea... and to bren's credit, he still stepped up to the plate with good people management, etc. during the task, even after his bad idea...
kristen was so pompous even after she was fired... part of being truly spectacular is being able to take criticism, and not just defend that you're always right all the time. i'm kinda glad she screwed up... if she had gone with john's idea more like it was intended, then they would have maybe had a chance... for bren's sake, i'm kinda glad she screwed herself over with the job she did... maybe he screwed up with an idea, but i think he's a stronger contender than kristen was anyhow (and not just b/c he's from memphis :-P)
anyhow, yeah, the most disappointing episode of ALL THREE seasons... i don't watch to see them bicker and fight, i watch to see them problem solve and then see who's a good debater after all is said and done with the task... there was no brilliance in this episode, though... there were two extremely poorly done commercials, and one really self-inflated person who couldn't listen in the boardroom, along with 5 people who had some merit to stay. i just hope next week is better.
in other news, today was another long day... not bad, just long. yesterday was long, and homework took longer than planned last night, so i was dragging from the moment i woke up... i happened to be looking back across the last page of notes mid-class this morning just trying to take in what was going on when the prof randomly called on me, and i answered wrong twice before i got it... oi... and it wasn't a hard question, i was just really out of it.
the dimacs reu project advisors had a meeting while i was in class to go through our sorted and rated applications and rank their favorite candidates for their projects... now to resolve any conflicts (of the "two or three mentors really want the same student" variety), and see if the students accept, before round two commences... fun, right? i'll be less involved in this phase, but informed, partly just because i have classes on mondays and fridays more than other days, so i'm not around immediately to help... it's nice to have the reading lots and lots of letters part done though :-P
had a really good meeting with my advisor today... vince, an older grad student, who's really brilliant at the stuff i'm just starting to learn about and work on, joined us and explained how some computer packages that he's written work, so that i can start to use them on my own... after vince left, zeilberger and i were talking about stuff i can be reading to learn more about the data i'm generating and studying... there's a book i've been eyeing on amazon for a bit... the combinatorics of permutations, that zeilberger recommended i read some of... when we discovered it's new new to be in the math department library yet (it came out july 2004), zeilberger decided to buy it for me on his "buying academic books with math department money account)... that's an $80+ book i've been wanting, and my advisor bought it for me :-) yay. :-)
otherwise, i'm just tired, and going to sleep soon... i made a point of not working on math tonight because i'm just plain exhausted... TONS to get done this weekend, but tomorrow will be decent... after plenty of sleep ;-), there's just one class, and then pizza seminar between me and the weekend... sikimeti's doing the seminar tomorrow and starting out talking about plato's correspondence of the elements to the platonic solids (which i've referenced at least once or twice on here, albeit months ago, because it's a random idea but kinda fun to think about)... here's siki's abstract, plenty of people are excited about it:
" Plato, back in 350 BC, knew a fair bit about regular polyhedra. He knew that there were only so many, and that made them special. What he didn't know, he made up. And so it was that he "discovered" a mysterious bijection with the Fundamental Elements of the Universe: tetrahedron = fire, icosahedron = water, octahedron = air, and dodecahedron = whatever was in the stars/heavens.
The McKay Correspondence is another mysterious bijection, only marginally less aesthetic than Plato's.
In the classification of finite subgroups of SU(2), the following types pop up: cyclic (order n), binary dihedral (order 4n), binary tetrahedral, binary octahedral and binary icosahedral.
In the classification of simple Lie Algebras, graphs called Dynkin diagrams pop up: types A_n, D_n, E_6, E_7 and E_8.
And yes, you guessed it: there's a bijection between the two."
yeah, it'll be a good afternoon...
and, after that, eric and i have tickets to see carmen at the local theater tomorrow night... it'll be good.
but first.... before any of that... SLEEP TIME!
night y'all
sooooooo..... freakin........ tired
been running for 18 hours straight now...
after classes, dinner, with some research while i ate at the desk, to church and back, and then straight on to working on homework... thing was, once i got going on homework, part of it was sit back and wait for maple to crunch numbers for me, so i chatted while i waited on it to work... with dave beagley, scott, a little with adam hughes, basically whoever happened to IM me... these excerpts from my chat with dave (with chat with scott embedded) basically sum up the night
me: bet you can't guess what leigh is giving up for lent
dave: talking to you?
me: =-O
me: that's what *you* want to give up
me: not my leigh
me: ;-P
dave: ok. then what does leigh want to give up for lent?
me: leigh IS giving up her bed
me: she disassembled it and it's against the wall
dave: wow
me: then she almost burned out the motor on my hair dryer trying to fill her air mattress before i smelled the thing getting too hot and ran and stopped her and made her use my mattress pump
dave: that's interesting
me: yeah, it's leigh :-)
dave: lol
dave: interesting
me: leigh says "do you really think that would be a sacrifice?" [giving up talking to me for lent]
dave: sacrifice? yeah. a sacrifice with a point? nope
me: you confused leigh
me: when she heard with a point, she asked "how can it have a sharp pointy edge?"
me: she was being serious
dave: lol
dave: great
me: dude, tomorrow's alreaduy thursday isn't it
dave: yup
me: oi... must write pizza order
me: this week has been crayz
dave: or today is already thursday, in your timezone. ;-)
dave: sounds like it
me: yeah whatever
me: i haven't gone to sleep yet, so it's wednesday
dave: ok
dave: whatever you say
me: you;'re calling the lara a liar :-(
dave: no I'm not
dave: I'm saying that contrary to the objective reality that I observe, you have declared that where you are, it is still wednesday. therefore, it is so
me: because i'm the lara and i can do that
me: ask the math boys, they'll tell you
dave: I'm sure they would
me: they're smart you know, you should believe them
me: dude
me: me: can i decalre it to still be wednesday if i want?
me: (debating with dave beagley)
scott: hm......i don't think so
me: scott :-/
me: why not?
me: if you can't properly describe anything, then maybe we don't really know what wednesday is, and for now i can say it's what's going on right now :-P
me: (i'm tired, and i just want to win)
scott: unfortunately i don't think you have control over the days of the week
me: are you sure
me: i *am* the lara
scott: but tonight, i'll grant you an exception :-D
me: oh, yay :-)
me: any special occasion?
scott: i'm feeling generous.......and i've been having an affair lately with the goddess of time, so i've got some pull
scott: (damn she's sexy)
me: dude
dave: lol
dave: great
me: see, so i have good connections
dave: you do
and that's a wrap... night y'all
after classes, dinner, with some research while i ate at the desk, to church and back, and then straight on to working on homework... thing was, once i got going on homework, part of it was sit back and wait for maple to crunch numbers for me, so i chatted while i waited on it to work... with dave beagley, scott, a little with adam hughes, basically whoever happened to IM me... these excerpts from my chat with dave (with chat with scott embedded) basically sum up the night
me: bet you can't guess what leigh is giving up for lent
dave: talking to you?
me: =-O
me: that's what *you* want to give up
me: not my leigh
me: ;-P
dave: ok. then what does leigh want to give up for lent?
me: leigh IS giving up her bed
me: she disassembled it and it's against the wall
dave: wow
me: then she almost burned out the motor on my hair dryer trying to fill her air mattress before i smelled the thing getting too hot and ran and stopped her and made her use my mattress pump
dave: that's interesting
me: yeah, it's leigh :-)
dave: lol
dave: interesting
me: leigh says "do you really think that would be a sacrifice?" [giving up talking to me for lent]
dave: sacrifice? yeah. a sacrifice with a point? nope
me: you confused leigh
me: when she heard with a point, she asked "how can it have a sharp pointy edge?"
me: she was being serious
dave: lol
dave: great
me: dude, tomorrow's alreaduy thursday isn't it
dave: yup
me: oi... must write pizza order
me: this week has been crayz
dave: or today is already thursday, in your timezone. ;-)
dave: sounds like it
me: yeah whatever
me: i haven't gone to sleep yet, so it's wednesday
dave: ok
dave: whatever you say
me: you;'re calling the lara a liar :-(
dave: no I'm not
dave: I'm saying that contrary to the objective reality that I observe, you have declared that where you are, it is still wednesday. therefore, it is so
me: because i'm the lara and i can do that
me: ask the math boys, they'll tell you
dave: I'm sure they would
me: they're smart you know, you should believe them
me: dude
me: me: can i decalre it to still be wednesday if i want?
me: (debating with dave beagley)
scott: hm......i don't think so
me: scott :-/
me: why not?
me: if you can't properly describe anything, then maybe we don't really know what wednesday is, and for now i can say it's what's going on right now :-P
me: (i'm tired, and i just want to win)
scott: unfortunately i don't think you have control over the days of the week
me: are you sure
me: i *am* the lara
scott: but tonight, i'll grant you an exception :-D
me: oh, yay :-)
me: any special occasion?
scott: i'm feeling generous.......and i've been having an affair lately with the goddess of time, so i've got some pull
scott: (damn she's sexy)
me: dude
dave: lol
dave: great
me: see, so i have good connections
dave: you do
and that's a wrap... night y'all
Wednesday, February 09, 2005
what a day...
happy(?) ash wednesday...
i've been up since 7, so i could be on campus by 9 reading away at applications... best quote today?
"my earliest memory is sitting on the toilet counting things"... i was like "dude, where you were at is an unnecessary detail", but so it goes... we get a variety of applicants :-P i finally got to the end of the stack around lunchtime, around when scott showed up to the office ready to go back to his own house for a bit... so yay for making it through over 100 REU applications in less than a day and a half!
anyhow, scott around, and me done with work a little sooner than expected, we went to his house to play pool... he won 3 games, i won one (he hit the 8 ball in too soon), but it was fun... said hi to eric and sam who had just woken up (it was freakin afternoon already!), and then scott offered to treat me to IHOP, so we went...
now back on campus, and what is lara up to? researching campus columbariums... yeah, that sounds strange but background:
my friend nicole died in september 2003 in a car wreck. her family came up with the idea of intering her ashes in a columbarium built on the valparaiso university campus. they tentatively had a verbal go-ahead and no objections were raised. when the chair of the theology department died from cancer this fall it was said he would be placed in the same columbarium the board of directors were taken aback as they apparently hadn't taken the idea seriously before, whereas nicole's family was ready to inter her ashes at the start of january 2005. yuck.
so instead of her burial, as expected, her parents went to valpo to bring her urn home to florida (it had been in the head chaplain's office at the campus chapel for the past year+) last month, and a committee has been formed to investigate the pros and cons of putting up a columbarium on the university's campus. there was an email sent out last night that the committee must submit their report by march 15, so they'll take input up til february 15... i forwarded the email to all valpo friends i have who knew nicole, and am brainstorming on what i'd like to say... i figure facts about what other universities have done with the issue (who do have campus burial plots... and there are at least half a dozen such places in the country) and why doesn't hurt the case. so yeah, i'm researching columbariums until my next class... don't i lead an exciting life?
class, then ash wednesday church... it's a long day.
later dudes.
i've been up since 7, so i could be on campus by 9 reading away at applications... best quote today?
"my earliest memory is sitting on the toilet counting things"... i was like "dude, where you were at is an unnecessary detail", but so it goes... we get a variety of applicants :-P i finally got to the end of the stack around lunchtime, around when scott showed up to the office ready to go back to his own house for a bit... so yay for making it through over 100 REU applications in less than a day and a half!
anyhow, scott around, and me done with work a little sooner than expected, we went to his house to play pool... he won 3 games, i won one (he hit the 8 ball in too soon), but it was fun... said hi to eric and sam who had just woken up (it was freakin afternoon already!), and then scott offered to treat me to IHOP, so we went...
now back on campus, and what is lara up to? researching campus columbariums... yeah, that sounds strange but background:
my friend nicole died in september 2003 in a car wreck. her family came up with the idea of intering her ashes in a columbarium built on the valparaiso university campus. they tentatively had a verbal go-ahead and no objections were raised. when the chair of the theology department died from cancer this fall it was said he would be placed in the same columbarium the board of directors were taken aback as they apparently hadn't taken the idea seriously before, whereas nicole's family was ready to inter her ashes at the start of january 2005. yuck.
so instead of her burial, as expected, her parents went to valpo to bring her urn home to florida (it had been in the head chaplain's office at the campus chapel for the past year+) last month, and a committee has been formed to investigate the pros and cons of putting up a columbarium on the university's campus. there was an email sent out last night that the committee must submit their report by march 15, so they'll take input up til february 15... i forwarded the email to all valpo friends i have who knew nicole, and am brainstorming on what i'd like to say... i figure facts about what other universities have done with the issue (who do have campus burial plots... and there are at least half a dozen such places in the country) and why doesn't hurt the case. so yeah, i'm researching columbariums until my next class... don't i lead an exciting life?
class, then ash wednesday church... it's a long day.
later dudes.
Tuesday, February 08, 2005
highlights of the evening
of course scrubs... no big comments, i just like that show :-P
otherwise, more application reading...
how weird is it to read a reference letter written by your own REU advisor -- craziness... i never thought i'd be on the reviewing end of one of his letters so soon, but such craziness is the stuff of life.
other personal statement highlights
"if you were going to die tomorrow, what would you do today?" a question like this can always encourage and inspire a person to think about how to live a meaningful life. if i were going to die tomorrow, i would do some math in the morning: maybe jot down some bold ideas, or maybe finish a proof in algebra, or maybe play with a matrix or some graphs, or maybe write a c++ program to solve some partial differenetial equations numerically, or maybe apply some math skill to a particular problem in finance or maybe just contemplate on the equation 1+1=2.
friends and even professors often joke that there are three ways to do things in the world: the right way, the wrong way, and "(insert name)'s way". this coined term refers to my distinctive approach to solving problems and understanding information. for a final exam, we were allowed to bring notes written on a single side of a sheet of paper. instead of following the standard method, i cut a sheet of paper to form a mobius strip, which only has a single continuous side, thereby increasing my surface area for writing notes by two-fold. impressed by the innovative idea, the professor allowed it on the exam.
it's interesting to watch how much (or not much) the applicants can make themselves come alive through writing... it'll be even more interesting to match the students with their essays when the accepted ones come this summer... it's an impressive group of students.
here's the other interesting thing this evening... after reading literally dozens of reference letters today, of varying quality and detail, i decided to write my two key professors at valpo who wrote countless references for me throughout undergrad, (both of whom i'm still regularly in touch with) to tell them thanks yet again belatedly for the excellent job they both always did for me, and that i have an even better appreciation of what their recs look like in the general pool.... anyhow, both are incredible mentors to me, and one responded with "Lara, Thanks for your note; it came at the end of a difficult day and made all the difference. (skip a few paragraphs to get to the main point) Before you hear from someone other than me, let me tell you that I have decided to retire from VU after this academic year. I enjoy what I do, but I'm finding that this job is taking more energy than I can develop to bring to it. And esp since I was not expected to live here on earth after 1975, I think that I should show my gratitude for the gift of living here by being prudent about how I receive and use the gift. In lots of ways, it would be less scary to just keep whistling and doing what I'm doing, but that's not even living mindfully, much less as someone who believes in God's continuing love and care and wants to respond with gratitude and with love."... wow... i mean, this is a well thought out decision by the professor in question (i'm not sure how public of knowledge this is, but if you know which professors i'm in touch with and which would write the above paragraph pretty sure you can deduce exactly who), and i respect the decision,... it's just a *wow... craziness*, kind of thought that someone who's been a MAJOR mentor to me for the past 5-6 years is leaving the only place i know them from. we'll still be regularly in touch, and i hope and pray the transition resulting from this decision (this professor will move across the state over the summer) goes smoothly... just not what i expected to read in my email this afternoon.
anywho, that's the deal with me... tomorrow's another long fun day of application reading... woohoo! :-P
otherwise, more application reading...
how weird is it to read a reference letter written by your own REU advisor -- craziness... i never thought i'd be on the reviewing end of one of his letters so soon, but such craziness is the stuff of life.
other personal statement highlights
"if you were going to die tomorrow, what would you do today?" a question like this can always encourage and inspire a person to think about how to live a meaningful life. if i were going to die tomorrow, i would do some math in the morning: maybe jot down some bold ideas, or maybe finish a proof in algebra, or maybe play with a matrix or some graphs, or maybe write a c++ program to solve some partial differenetial equations numerically, or maybe apply some math skill to a particular problem in finance or maybe just contemplate on the equation 1+1=2.
friends and even professors often joke that there are three ways to do things in the world: the right way, the wrong way, and "(insert name)'s way". this coined term refers to my distinctive approach to solving problems and understanding information. for a final exam, we were allowed to bring notes written on a single side of a sheet of paper. instead of following the standard method, i cut a sheet of paper to form a mobius strip, which only has a single continuous side, thereby increasing my surface area for writing notes by two-fold. impressed by the innovative idea, the professor allowed it on the exam.
it's interesting to watch how much (or not much) the applicants can make themselves come alive through writing... it'll be even more interesting to match the students with their essays when the accepted ones come this summer... it's an impressive group of students.
here's the other interesting thing this evening... after reading literally dozens of reference letters today, of varying quality and detail, i decided to write my two key professors at valpo who wrote countless references for me throughout undergrad, (both of whom i'm still regularly in touch with) to tell them thanks yet again belatedly for the excellent job they both always did for me, and that i have an even better appreciation of what their recs look like in the general pool.... anyhow, both are incredible mentors to me, and one responded with "Lara, Thanks for your note; it came at the end of a difficult day and made all the difference. (skip a few paragraphs to get to the main point) Before you hear from someone other than me, let me tell you that I have decided to retire from VU after this academic year. I enjoy what I do, but I'm finding that this job is taking more energy than I can develop to bring to it. And esp since I was not expected to live here on earth after 1975, I think that I should show my gratitude for the gift of living here by being prudent about how I receive and use the gift. In lots of ways, it would be less scary to just keep whistling and doing what I'm doing, but that's not even living mindfully, much less as someone who believes in God's continuing love and care and wants to respond with gratitude and with love."... wow... i mean, this is a well thought out decision by the professor in question (i'm not sure how public of knowledge this is, but if you know which professors i'm in touch with and which would write the above paragraph pretty sure you can deduce exactly who), and i respect the decision,... it's just a *wow... craziness*, kind of thought that someone who's been a MAJOR mentor to me for the past 5-6 years is leaving the only place i know them from. we'll still be regularly in touch, and i hope and pray the transition resulting from this decision (this professor will move across the state over the summer) goes smoothly... just not what i expected to read in my email this afternoon.
anywho, that's the deal with me... tomorrow's another long fun day of application reading... woohoo! :-P
ode to application reading
oh joy oh joy... tuesday is my day with no classes whatsoever; however, i was up just as early as my roommates and in the office reading applications for the past 5 hours straight...
remember how a month ago i got the job of DIMACS REU graduate coordinator? here's where the responsibilities start. there's a meeting of all the project mentors this thursday, and before then, i and two other people have to read each and every application commenting if they're average, above, or below, and which of the 14 dimacs and 5 math projects they'd be ideal for... it's a lot of reading...
and interesting to be on this side of the application process... i mean i've applied for REUs and for grad school and helped edit friends' applications, but never before have i been privy to seeing people's transcripts and reading their recommendations letters, or reading the personal statements of people i don't know...
there are kids who apply to this REU who have done more by their junior year of undergrad than i believe i'll have done by the time i'm outta grad school... it's an impressively competative application pool (then again it is one of the strongest and most unique REU programs in the country)
here are two *interesting* personal statement paraphrases for ya:
"i've heard it said that the prime of mathematical work is done in your twenties, and from your thirties on your work is less momentous... you should let me in the DIMACS REU to allow me the opporunity to research while i'm still in my prime period of efficacy"
"the wonderful thing about REUs is that they're based on the buddhist principle that...."
you can't say i'm not getting variety ;-) (quotes here remain nameless, and whether they're here or not have no bearing on the overall application... if for some weird reason you're a DIMACS REU applicant and somehow came across this page, two other people's commentary go into the application review process, plus the project mentors reviewing what we write, so contacting me is not a good idea :-P, if accepted you'll meet me this summer... if you're not such a person and wondering why i wrote such a disclaimer, this page gets more hits than you'd think :-P)
stretch break, then back to reading... woohoo! :-P
remember how a month ago i got the job of DIMACS REU graduate coordinator? here's where the responsibilities start. there's a meeting of all the project mentors this thursday, and before then, i and two other people have to read each and every application commenting if they're average, above, or below, and which of the 14 dimacs and 5 math projects they'd be ideal for... it's a lot of reading...
and interesting to be on this side of the application process... i mean i've applied for REUs and for grad school and helped edit friends' applications, but never before have i been privy to seeing people's transcripts and reading their recommendations letters, or reading the personal statements of people i don't know...
there are kids who apply to this REU who have done more by their junior year of undergrad than i believe i'll have done by the time i'm outta grad school... it's an impressively competative application pool (then again it is one of the strongest and most unique REU programs in the country)
here are two *interesting* personal statement paraphrases for ya:
"i've heard it said that the prime of mathematical work is done in your twenties, and from your thirties on your work is less momentous... you should let me in the DIMACS REU to allow me the opporunity to research while i'm still in my prime period of efficacy"
"the wonderful thing about REUs is that they're based on the buddhist principle that...."
you can't say i'm not getting variety ;-) (quotes here remain nameless, and whether they're here or not have no bearing on the overall application... if for some weird reason you're a DIMACS REU applicant and somehow came across this page, two other people's commentary go into the application review process, plus the project mentors reviewing what we write, so contacting me is not a good idea :-P, if accepted you'll meet me this summer... if you're not such a person and wondering why i wrote such a disclaimer, this page gets more hits than you'd think :-P)
stretch break, then back to reading... woohoo! :-P
Monday, February 07, 2005
yay!
alliswan is coming for sure for her spring break now, AND we have 6th row tickets to see stomp in NY while she's here... party waiting to happen indeed :-)
one more quiz
|
You Are From the Moon |
 You can vibe with the steady rhythms of the Moon. You're in touch with your emotions and intuition. You possess a great, unmatched imagination - and an infinite memory. Ultra-sensitive, you feel at home anywhere (or with anyone). A total healer, you light the way in the dark for many. |
not perfectly, but as close as a quiz can get
|
You Are a Liberal Republican |
 When you tell people that you're Republican, they rarely believe you. That's because you're socially liberal - likely pro-choice and pro-gay rights. You're also not so afraid of big goverment, as long as it benefits people and not politicians. You are the most likely of any Republican type to swing over to the Democrat side sometimes. |
dude, what?
headline on msn earlier today:
4-year-old takes mom's car for a midnight spin
Michigan boy drives to video store and home again
read here
it's short, and funny
4-year-old takes mom's car for a midnight spin
Michigan boy drives to video store and home again
read here
it's short, and funny
Sunday, February 06, 2005
oi
super bowl night.
such a difference from last year... last year i was at an applebees closer to philly than to here with steve and kassandra (friends from church)... this year, minding my own business home alone.
i was just rooing anti-patriots since they beat pittsburgh in the playoffs, but philly put up a really good fight... it was much more of a game than i expected... still, it ended contrary to my hopes.
here's the good news though, while watching the game, i played with my laptop (which i hadn't touched since august when it stopped booting windows during the moving process... 6 months later i sit down with it while watching the game... it took me until the 4th quarter to get to that point, but i finally have it so it'll start up... now, i'm uploading all the files in "my documents" there to the rutgers server so i can download them to this machine and then maybe reformat the laptop so it has a better chance of being functional again... it's a very not happy computer right now... oi... but at least it turns on... maybe by the end of the night i'll have a computer and a half instead of just one :-P heh...
tomorrow is going to be painfully long... i should crash soon.
night y'all
such a difference from last year... last year i was at an applebees closer to philly than to here with steve and kassandra (friends from church)... this year, minding my own business home alone.
i was just rooing anti-patriots since they beat pittsburgh in the playoffs, but philly put up a really good fight... it was much more of a game than i expected... still, it ended contrary to my hopes.
here's the good news though, while watching the game, i played with my laptop (which i hadn't touched since august when it stopped booting windows during the moving process... 6 months later i sit down with it while watching the game... it took me until the 4th quarter to get to that point, but i finally have it so it'll start up... now, i'm uploading all the files in "my documents" there to the rutgers server so i can download them to this machine and then maybe reformat the laptop so it has a better chance of being functional again... it's a very not happy computer right now... oi... but at least it turns on... maybe by the end of the night i'll have a computer and a half instead of just one :-P heh...
tomorrow is going to be painfully long... i should crash soon.
night y'all
some fun
so last night, scott and i decided we were long overdue for a margarita night (we hadn't had one yet this semester), so tonight, we had one.. as usual this just entails going to chiles for some good food and each getting a presidente margarita with dinner and chatting about life -- it was a quality time...
then, sam had scott's car, so since i was driving scott to his house anyhow, we read books... only we were in a crazy mood so in go dog go for example, all the nouns got changed...
instead of "two dogs on a boat in the water", we had "two staples in a paperclip on sam's head" or instead of "a green dog on a yellow tree that looks like a banana", it was "a green turtleneck on a yellow tree (that looks like a banana.....the tree, not the turtleneck....it you had a turtleneck that looked like a banana, you'd better start wondering what shape your head is)"... the best had to be though...
if you're familiar with the book every few pages there's a girl dog and a boy dog who have the following interchance
girl dog: hello!
boy dog: hello!
girl dog: do you like my hat?
boy dog: i do not like it... goodbye!
girl dog: good bye
instead, we read it as follows
me: HEL--lo
scott: dude, that was a crazy voice, um, i mean hello
me: i bet you hate my freakin hat
scott: you're sure right i do, good bye then
me: yeah, whatever, 10 pinkies to you
we laughed for about 5 minutes straight on that one,... maybe you had to be there to hear it...
anyhow, pool with scott (i won 2 out of three games when scott scratched on the 8 ball, but i played horribly :-P)
then sam got the 4 of us that were there (scott, sam, eric, me) to watch an episode of aquateens (a very weird cartoon that's very sam-ish)... hangout time for all in eric's newly decorated room (he thumbtacked old AOL cds shiny side up all over his wall and ceiling), and then pool with eric (i lost both games even though i had several stellar shots on the 2nd one, and when breaking on the one game eric totally hit the ball way too low and the cueball jumped the table and went flying into the fireplace across the room!),.... finally, 5 hours after i originally went out to dinner with scott, i headed back home...
yay for the math boys. :-)
it was a quality evening.
then, sam had scott's car, so since i was driving scott to his house anyhow, we read books... only we were in a crazy mood so in go dog go for example, all the nouns got changed...
instead of "two dogs on a boat in the water", we had "two staples in a paperclip on sam's head" or instead of "a green dog on a yellow tree that looks like a banana", it was "a green turtleneck on a yellow tree (that looks like a banana.....the tree, not the turtleneck....it you had a turtleneck that looked like a banana, you'd better start wondering what shape your head is)"... the best had to be though...
if you're familiar with the book every few pages there's a girl dog and a boy dog who have the following interchance
girl dog: hello!
boy dog: hello!
girl dog: do you like my hat?
boy dog: i do not like it... goodbye!
girl dog: good bye
instead, we read it as follows
me: HEL--lo
scott: dude, that was a crazy voice, um, i mean hello
me: i bet you hate my freakin hat
scott: you're sure right i do, good bye then
me: yeah, whatever, 10 pinkies to you
we laughed for about 5 minutes straight on that one,... maybe you had to be there to hear it...
anyhow, pool with scott (i won 2 out of three games when scott scratched on the 8 ball, but i played horribly :-P)
then sam got the 4 of us that were there (scott, sam, eric, me) to watch an episode of aquateens (a very weird cartoon that's very sam-ish)... hangout time for all in eric's newly decorated room (he thumbtacked old AOL cds shiny side up all over his wall and ceiling), and then pool with eric (i lost both games even though i had several stellar shots on the 2nd one, and when breaking on the one game eric totally hit the ball way too low and the cueball jumped the table and went flying into the fireplace across the room!),.... finally, 5 hours after i originally went out to dinner with scott, i headed back home...
yay for the math boys. :-)
it was a quality evening.
Saturday, February 05, 2005
where do you belong?
|
You Belong in 1980 |
|
1980 If you scored... 1950 - 1959: You're fun loving, romantic, and more than a little innocent. See you at the drive in! 1960 - 1969: You are a free spirit with a huge heart. Love, peace, and happiness rule - oh, and drugs too. 1970 - 1979: Bold and brash, you take life by the horns. Whether you're partying or protesting, you give it your all! 1980 - 1989: Wild, over the top, and just a little bit cheesy. You're colorful at night - and successful during the day. 1990 - 1999: With you anything goes! You're grunge one day, ghetto fabulous the next. It's all good! |
Friday, February 04, 2005
apprentice, week 3
dude, i like this set of contestants less each week.
i had guessed from the ads that verna would be the one to quit -- she walked off the job in last week's episode, and still seemed a little restless during her team's reward.
danny meant well by trying to be all supportive and "it's ok if you don't have the energy to help us on this task", but in some ways i think he's too much in "make sure everybody feels good and the results don't so much matter land" sometimes... erin was right to bring up objections, and verna was right to withdraw if she wasn't feeling up to it. but seriously -- we've seen 2 seasons of this show, verna's survived a decent amount of school etc., they should have some idea that the projects aren't all fun and games and people are working all hours of the night and day to pull things off.
this street smarts versus book smarts is interesting, but i don't think conclusive. if anything, i think it illustrates that both experience and education are necessary, but for different reasons. the people who have spent more of their time earning degrees necessarily don't have as much field experience, and they think more abstractly... both times i've seen danny working on advertising, he's waiting for his big brilliant thesis idea, and when it doesn't come he half-asses the job... the ipod idea was a good idea, but when that was their only selling point, and they emphasized "hey, free stuff!" and by the way, here's some coffee, that really didn't work -- networth on the other hand, the cold coffee vs. hot coffee debate was very fun :-)
michael was a complete jerk this episode, i hope he's gone soon, but danny was still too much in college dorm mode to really listen to criticisms of himself, and probably needed to go this time... i was amused that he just sang to the camera on the taxi ride away from trump tower, but then again it wasn't unexpected.
random: what is this "be martha stewart's apprentice" deal they were advertising this week... is she not still in prison? oi...
anyhow: hoping michael leaves soon... really interested to be following chris, kendra, and stephanie in future episodes.
i had guessed from the ads that verna would be the one to quit -- she walked off the job in last week's episode, and still seemed a little restless during her team's reward.
danny meant well by trying to be all supportive and "it's ok if you don't have the energy to help us on this task", but in some ways i think he's too much in "make sure everybody feels good and the results don't so much matter land" sometimes... erin was right to bring up objections, and verna was right to withdraw if she wasn't feeling up to it. but seriously -- we've seen 2 seasons of this show, verna's survived a decent amount of school etc., they should have some idea that the projects aren't all fun and games and people are working all hours of the night and day to pull things off.
this street smarts versus book smarts is interesting, but i don't think conclusive. if anything, i think it illustrates that both experience and education are necessary, but for different reasons. the people who have spent more of their time earning degrees necessarily don't have as much field experience, and they think more abstractly... both times i've seen danny working on advertising, he's waiting for his big brilliant thesis idea, and when it doesn't come he half-asses the job... the ipod idea was a good idea, but when that was their only selling point, and they emphasized "hey, free stuff!" and by the way, here's some coffee, that really didn't work -- networth on the other hand, the cold coffee vs. hot coffee debate was very fun :-)
michael was a complete jerk this episode, i hope he's gone soon, but danny was still too much in college dorm mode to really listen to criticisms of himself, and probably needed to go this time... i was amused that he just sang to the camera on the taxi ride away from trump tower, but then again it wasn't unexpected.
random: what is this "be martha stewart's apprentice" deal they were advertising this week... is she not still in prison? oi...
anyhow: hoping michael leaves soon... really interested to be following chris, kendra, and stephanie in future episodes.
oi
i feel incompetant today.
(1) i thought something was broken on a maple package that my advisor wrote, and pointed it out to him in our meeting yesterday (he had told me the week before to explicitly look for bugs... this morning i realized he had two functions with the same name -- one in capitals, and one not... and i came across the wrong one first and didn't think to check if there were two functions with the same name... oi... so i had to write an apology and reproduce the orginal package again... doht
(2) for my summer job i'm supposed to help sort applications this next week... i wrote asking when people would start working on it, etc. just to get more info, and the response was somewhat of "we don't need to 'meet' per se to do it, just pick things up"... i tend to overanalyze email tone though, so it should be just fine.... but oi again...
in summary, i like it better when i feel like my tone was taken as i meant it and i can actually accurately assess the tone of the people writing to me... and i like it better when i don't have to apologize and clean up after mistakes (i mean that's the optimal response to recognizing a mistake, but it's better to not make big mistakes to start :-P)
... was up doing homework until 2am, and woke up at 8... i'm beat.
on the other hand,...
the gospel choir last night was phenomenal... they did traditional gospel songs from around south africa, and then more modern gospel songs (btw, did you know that "in the jungle, the lion sleeps tonight" is originally a south african chant? they sang it in a few languages)... after intermission they had a whole dancing segment followed by south african "culture songs" like wedding songs, etc.... finally, after some more church songs, they sang their national anthem and the program was technically done...
however, when the one choir member was introducing the last few songs and said "our time with you is almost at an end", someone from the audience hollered "no!" and the choir member commented "well for you i bet we can do some encores"... they seriously did like a whole extra half hour of music, bowing and going off stage, just to come back and sing another song... the theater couldn't get enough of them!
we were in the 5th row from the stage in the orchestra section and had a great view, but were too crowded (our section was full) to really get up and move around, however some people in the balcony and further back were totally dancing along the whole time... gospel music party in the state theater :-)
to say the least, it was a highly quality evening.
now, to make it through pizza seminar, watch last night's TV, and maybe get a nap... people are going to see a campus production of "La Traviata" (an opera, i don't know much about it)... i'll probably go, but then i'll be more than happy to get home and crash and not think about campus or working for a bit... oi.
later dudes
(1) i thought something was broken on a maple package that my advisor wrote, and pointed it out to him in our meeting yesterday (he had told me the week before to explicitly look for bugs... this morning i realized he had two functions with the same name -- one in capitals, and one not... and i came across the wrong one first and didn't think to check if there were two functions with the same name... oi... so i had to write an apology and reproduce the orginal package again... doht
(2) for my summer job i'm supposed to help sort applications this next week... i wrote asking when people would start working on it, etc. just to get more info, and the response was somewhat of "we don't need to 'meet' per se to do it, just pick things up"... i tend to overanalyze email tone though, so it should be just fine.... but oi again...
in summary, i like it better when i feel like my tone was taken as i meant it and i can actually accurately assess the tone of the people writing to me... and i like it better when i don't have to apologize and clean up after mistakes (i mean that's the optimal response to recognizing a mistake, but it's better to not make big mistakes to start :-P)
... was up doing homework until 2am, and woke up at 8... i'm beat.
on the other hand,...
the gospel choir last night was phenomenal... they did traditional gospel songs from around south africa, and then more modern gospel songs (btw, did you know that "in the jungle, the lion sleeps tonight" is originally a south african chant? they sang it in a few languages)... after intermission they had a whole dancing segment followed by south african "culture songs" like wedding songs, etc.... finally, after some more church songs, they sang their national anthem and the program was technically done...
however, when the one choir member was introducing the last few songs and said "our time with you is almost at an end", someone from the audience hollered "no!" and the choir member commented "well for you i bet we can do some encores"... they seriously did like a whole extra half hour of music, bowing and going off stage, just to come back and sing another song... the theater couldn't get enough of them!
we were in the 5th row from the stage in the orchestra section and had a great view, but were too crowded (our section was full) to really get up and move around, however some people in the balcony and further back were totally dancing along the whole time... gospel music party in the state theater :-)
to say the least, it was a highly quality evening.
now, to make it through pizza seminar, watch last night's TV, and maybe get a nap... people are going to see a campus production of "La Traviata" (an opera, i don't know much about it)... i'll probably go, but then i'll be more than happy to get home and crash and not think about campus or working for a bit... oi.
later dudes
Thursday, February 03, 2005
why my advisor is cool
here it is 1:30am and i wish i were asleep, but whatever :-P... for starting on my homework for my reading class after dinner this evening, i'm pleased it works (i had to write a maple program to compute something i didn't totally understand when i started... now it works, and i'm just letting the computer generate data to show tomorrow... the easy part of the job :-P)
anyhow, to start on my project, i downloaded one of my advisor's journal articles from his website. read the first paragraph of this paper and just *try* to tell me he's not cool to have published this in a major math journal :-P
(it's perfectly understandable even if you're not a math person... and for the record shalosh (his computer he references in the paper) has copublished journal articles with him and "written books" that are on dr. z's website, (ekhad's web-books closer to the bottom).
if naming his computer and copublishing with it, and having it write stories online aren't enough, true fact... zeilberger once published a result under his dog's name instead of his own because he didn't want to be associated with it.
more fun? if you actually look at his website there's plenty of other randomly funny stuff to read... and lots to learn... his quotes are pretty funny too... all math related of course, but here's a sampling:
as if quoting humans isn't enough, good old shalosh (his computer) got a few on the quotes page too --
and here's the quote of all quotes
just try to tell me i don't have a super cool advisor... you can't do it, can you? now, to just keep him impressed with me for long enough to write a good thesis under him. :-P
ok, seriously, i should get some sleep... happy... thursday?
anyhow, to start on my project, i downloaded one of my advisor's journal articles from his website. read the first paragraph of this paper and just *try* to tell me he's not cool to have published this in a major math journal :-P
(it's perfectly understandable even if you're not a math person... and for the record shalosh (his computer he references in the paper) has copublished journal articles with him and "written books" that are on dr. z's website, (ekhad's web-books closer to the bottom).
if naming his computer and copublishing with it, and having it write stories online aren't enough, true fact... zeilberger once published a result under his dog's name instead of his own because he didn't want to be associated with it.
more fun? if you actually look at his website there's plenty of other randomly funny stuff to read... and lots to learn... his quotes are pretty funny too... all math related of course, but here's a sampling:
- ``Perhaps we should go back to Pythagoras's time and make math forbidden knowledge'' ---Brian Hayes (2002 AMS meeting, San Diego, Panel discussion, Jan. 6, 2002)
- "If you think you're a really good programmer... read [Knuth's] Art of Computer Programming...You should definitely send me a resume if you can read the whole thing.'' --Bill Gates [ quoted on the jacket of `ACP I', third ed.]
- ``Algebra With Personality=Combinatorics'' -- Dave Bayer (Lecture MSRI, 10/14/98)
- ``Combinatorics without Algebra and Topology is like Sex without Love'' -- Anthony Joseph
- Omar Foda's corollary of Joseph's maxim: ``Algebra without Combinatorics is like Love without Sex''.
- ``There is something inhuman and vaguely pornographic about statistics.... Pornography, on the other hand, with its loosely bound sequences of storyless sexual couplings (or triplings) often has the feel of a statistical survery.'' '' -- John Allen Paulos (Once Upon A Number, Fall 1998)
- ``A lot of mathematicians are a little bit strange in one way or another. It goes with creativity''. -- Peter L. Duren (NYT,5/26/96 , p.23)
- "Mathematics is a collection of cheap tricks and dirty jokes." --Lipman Bers (quoted by Boris Datskovsky).
- ``My occupation is an open question. I was once an assistant professor of mathematics. Since then, I have spent time living in the woods of Montana.'' --Theodore J. Kaczynski, New York Times Jan. 23, 1998, p. A18
as if quoting humans isn't enough, good old shalosh (his computer) got a few on the quotes page too --
- `THE COMPUTER IS JUST AN INSTRUMENT for doing faster what we already know how to do slower. All pretensions to computer intelligence and paradise-tomorrow promises should be toned down before the public turns away in disgust. And if that should happen, our civilization might not survive. --Gian Carlo Rota, Discrete Thoughts, p. 263
Response: `THE HUMAN IS JUST A CREATURE for doing slower (and unreliably) (a small part of) what we already know (or soon will know) to do faster. All pretensions of human superiority should be withdrawn if humans want to survive in the future. --Shalosh - `If after two weeks of computing, I quit the program with an error message: `System Error-ran out of memory' it does not mean that you are on the wrong track, all it means is that you need a bigger and/or faster computer.' -- Shalosh
and here's the quote of all quotes
- Why is Zeilberger so willing to give up absolute truth? The most reasonable answer is that he is pursuing deeper truths. -- J. Borwein, P. Borwein, R. Girgensohn and S. Parnes, Math. Intell. 18(4)(Fall 1996) p.15.
just try to tell me i don't have a super cool advisor... you can't do it, can you? now, to just keep him impressed with me for long enough to write a good thesis under him. :-P
ok, seriously, i should get some sleep... happy... thursday?
Wednesday, February 02, 2005
ode to gospel music
tomorrow, the Soweto Gospel Choir comes to new brunswick... ben, leigh, and i have 5th row tickets... apparently this south african choir is topping gospel charts in europe, africa, and australia, and i was majorly excited at the chance to go to a gospel choir concert here in jersey (i mean seriously, at least *southern gospel* is much easier to come across in memphis than it is on the east coast)
anywho, all excited about the concert, i decided to buy their CD, which came in the mail from amazon.com today. there's something about the rhythm/harmony of quality gospel songs that you can't just sit still when you're listening to it... it begs for you to move to the beat at the very least, or probably dance along too :-P... thus, it's greatly impeding my working on homework ability right now... heh
at least it's for a good reason, right? (listening to new happy music :-) )... after it's been once through, i'll stick in my other new disc (the scrubs soundtrack) for some sitting still and actually working music :-)
yay for new tunes :-)
later dudes!
anywho, all excited about the concert, i decided to buy their CD, which came in the mail from amazon.com today. there's something about the rhythm/harmony of quality gospel songs that you can't just sit still when you're listening to it... it begs for you to move to the beat at the very least, or probably dance along too :-P... thus, it's greatly impeding my working on homework ability right now... heh
at least it's for a good reason, right? (listening to new happy music :-) )... after it's been once through, i'll stick in my other new disc (the scrubs soundtrack) for some sitting still and actually working music :-)
yay for new tunes :-)
later dudes!
Tuesday, February 01, 2005
book review
last night, i finished reading the case for christ... it's an... interesting read. strobel asks tough questions and seeks answers from people who have spent their entire lives studying what he wants to know about. his lack of fear in tackling the questions he does is to be commended. however, the book is not without fault.
when you spend a day interviewing someone about tough issues, and then summarize the interview into a 10 page chapter (which is what the whole book is composed of), you necessarily lose some of the finer points of the argument, and get a big overview instead. further, often times, the objections and arguments strobel presents from leading athiest writers, while interesting are not necessarily the objections to the Christian faith that i hear from my friends who are rather skeptical about why i believe what i do.
these greater issues recognized, it was an interesting read. strobel brought up points in his discussion i've not necessarily heard or thought of hard before, so it was good food for thought too.
in summary...
* if you are a Christian, and haven't read much in the way of apologetics, strobel presents an interesting collection of interviews with well-credentialled scholars to fuel evidence for why Jesus is who he says he is. if that sounds like interesting leisure time reading, you'll probably enjoy this book.
* if you are a Christian and HAVE read a lot of scholarly new testament material, it depends on your attitude towards the book going in. if you're looking for something deep and scholarly, this is probably too cursory and overviewish, and written for a different audience than you... if you're willing to take it at face value, a book that presents some food for thought for people with the questions he tries to address, and accept in advance that it isn't written in a way to be scholarly gospel truth, then you may enjoy it too.
* finally, if you're not a Christian, you probably will be skeptical to hear that every "authoritative scholar" that strobel interviews is a Christian. then again, when this objection was brought up to me by an agnostic friend i was telling about the book, the answer that first came to me was... you know your arguments against Christ being God... it would seem interesting then to see if any of these scholars, from the other side of the coin address any of the issues you personally have. don't dive in to it expecting it's going to provide a step by step failproof scientific case for what it addresses, because it doesn't, it's a survey type book... however, it can provide food for thought to be the other half of your ongoing debate about the things that Christianity adopts as truth. it would seem that if you're sincere in your wanting to debate the fundamental issues, you really do need a two-sided debate and not just bolstering your arguments for the against side. if you fall into this category, i would encourage you to pick it up as a "food for thought" type book (as i'm encouraging the friend referenced above to do, so that we have some new points to discuss :-P), without the idea that it should or shouldn't convert you to or from anything... books are just supposed to make you think.
dude, that was long...
anyhow, next on the list (besides still reading all the mental floss magazine back issues) is strobel's the case for faith, which seems to have gotten even more controversial reviews on amazon, etc. then the case for christ... we'll see what i have to say about that one when i'm done.
back to homework.
later dudes.
when you spend a day interviewing someone about tough issues, and then summarize the interview into a 10 page chapter (which is what the whole book is composed of), you necessarily lose some of the finer points of the argument, and get a big overview instead. further, often times, the objections and arguments strobel presents from leading athiest writers, while interesting are not necessarily the objections to the Christian faith that i hear from my friends who are rather skeptical about why i believe what i do.
these greater issues recognized, it was an interesting read. strobel brought up points in his discussion i've not necessarily heard or thought of hard before, so it was good food for thought too.
in summary...
* if you are a Christian, and haven't read much in the way of apologetics, strobel presents an interesting collection of interviews with well-credentialled scholars to fuel evidence for why Jesus is who he says he is. if that sounds like interesting leisure time reading, you'll probably enjoy this book.
* if you are a Christian and HAVE read a lot of scholarly new testament material, it depends on your attitude towards the book going in. if you're looking for something deep and scholarly, this is probably too cursory and overviewish, and written for a different audience than you... if you're willing to take it at face value, a book that presents some food for thought for people with the questions he tries to address, and accept in advance that it isn't written in a way to be scholarly gospel truth, then you may enjoy it too.
* finally, if you're not a Christian, you probably will be skeptical to hear that every "authoritative scholar" that strobel interviews is a Christian. then again, when this objection was brought up to me by an agnostic friend i was telling about the book, the answer that first came to me was... you know your arguments against Christ being God... it would seem interesting then to see if any of these scholars, from the other side of the coin address any of the issues you personally have. don't dive in to it expecting it's going to provide a step by step failproof scientific case for what it addresses, because it doesn't, it's a survey type book... however, it can provide food for thought to be the other half of your ongoing debate about the things that Christianity adopts as truth. it would seem that if you're sincere in your wanting to debate the fundamental issues, you really do need a two-sided debate and not just bolstering your arguments for the against side. if you fall into this category, i would encourage you to pick it up as a "food for thought" type book (as i'm encouraging the friend referenced above to do, so that we have some new points to discuss :-P), without the idea that it should or shouldn't convert you to or from anything... books are just supposed to make you think.
dude, that was long...
anyhow, next on the list (besides still reading all the mental floss magazine back issues) is strobel's the case for faith, which seems to have gotten even more controversial reviews on amazon, etc. then the case for christ... we'll see what i have to say about that one when i'm done.
back to homework.
later dudes.
