the apprentice, math, and theology

disclaimer: those three have nothing to do with each other other than that they're in the same post

re: apprentice -- not a bad episode... previews had soooo played it up to be chris exploding, but really both teams did a decent job... kendra and tana were a bit smarter than networth and it paid off, stephanie was stupid to go to brooklyn for an hour and a half and then be like the baby sitter who reported to the parents on what the kids said happened when she wasn't looking -- good bye stephanie!

re: math -- dr. z. was so pleased with my work today and thinks the proof i brought in to show him today, while an old result, is a new proof -- this makes me happy :-) went to experimental math seminar and dinner with the speaker after... had a good chat with profs and with vince, who had some good thoughts on my oral quals (to be taken next fall)... we'll see how this goes... at any rate, it was a good math day

re: theology. quote from a friend half an hour ago: "here's why i'm not religious... if i were to adopt a religion, it would need to give me a hardcore philosophical reason for what the universe is, and maybe it would need to tell me about what my purpose is in that universe... but as far as i see just about every religion out there tries to answer those questions and does a half-ass job and wants people to accept a lot of "paradox" without proof instead of giving satisfactory answers.... if you were inventing a new religion what would it need to answer for you and why do you think Christianity is doing that for you?" -- this is a discussion i don't want to drop, but i don't want to give half-assed answers for why i think what i think tomorrow either... need to think for a bit tonight about how to *clearly* explain why i think what i do... hopefully it will be a good chat all around :-)

that sums up my day.

night y'all!