we'll start with marek. he's the student i helped make an appointment, etc. for next week. he wrote me another email just now with:
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Date: Fri, 01 Jul 2005 01:30:14 +0200 (CEST)
Subject: Re: are you coming?
Hi Lara,
just to announce, I'm alive: have antibiotics and next appointment was planned to Tuesday.
So I hope nobody will tempt me to drink on Monday.
marek
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
the czech boys are funny :-)... i didn't see marek today, but i did see josef, jan, and martin... jan gave a little more detail than marek with "yes, it was a strange skin disease, the doctor didn't quite know what it was either, but hopefully the antibiotics will help!" -- that is much better than appendicitis, and goes to show just how off going from direct translation can be :-P
anyhow, marek getting non-serious news from the doctor is good news #1
in other news, i've spent 5 hours today just exercising in some form or another... my usual 45 minute workout in the morning...
that was followed by walking over 5 miles this afternoon so that i could hit that "i walked over 100 miles in the month of june" benchmark... 100 miles -- that's good news #2 :-)
good news #3 was the following email that one of my students sent out yesterday:
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Subject: volleyball on Thursday
Hey guys and girls. This is an invitation to play volleyball on Thursday,
2005-06-30 at about 6:00pm or so, weather permitting. A few of us will be
playing then at the sand courts near the Sonny ... Center. Come join us if
you would like -- no experience or skill required. If you have any
questions, e-mail me or call me at xxx-xxx-xxxx. yep - Andrew
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
i played volleyball on a team for 6 years of grade school and junior high... i used to have the most perfect underhand serve that i could pick the square foot of court i wanted to hit and nail it 99% of the time... i remember drills at team practice, where for example, we'd get in a line and serve and if we hit the net or out of bounds we had to run a lap and come back... the coaches would purposely stop the line sometimes and make me serve repeatedly UNTIL i goofed. i was never good at slamming it over the net, but bumping it around, diving (esp. if in sand), and serving have always been my friends, and i was consistently good through the end of HS even if i didn't play on a team anymore.
anyhow, at my REU in san antonio 4 years ago we made teams of 3 and duked it out at the sand courts on campus there pretty regularly... i was the only girl who would play so it was usually 3 on 3 with me and 5 guys and it was a blast... my regular team of 3 was undefeated the whole summer.
imagine my joy last year at seeing that rutgers has sand courts too! only last summer i never found people to play with... they're all about basketball and aerobie... and i'm not...
anyhow, when i got andrew's email, i was excited and showed up today... my aim is not what it used to be, but 85% of the time i can still throw a decent serve, and i definitely am not the least inhibited about diving for the thing. anyhow, just like 4 summers ago, it was 6 of us playing 3 on 3 and i was the only girl. for most of the time, it was me, martin (the czech grad student), and andrew (the student who shares an office with me and martin), against 3 of the REU guys... for part of the time it was two americans with one czech student, and then another czech student showed up and traded out with one of the americans.
we seriously played for over 2.5 hours in the heat. playing 3 on 3 instead of bigger teams means a LOT of running around, and the guys are all in better shape than me, so i'm very happy to sit still for the night now, but it was a FANTASTIC time while it lasted :-) i'll have lost 30 pounds since january in the very near future... and my goal was just to get down to that before prague... with 3 more weeks to go, there's a chance i could be down 35 before i go... this is a party too :-)
yay for fun times.
*now* to be lazy :-P
Thursday, June 30, 2005
Wednesday, June 29, 2005
how about this?
so i woke up this morning... worked out for 45 minutes, had a lazy breakfast, and was getting ready to go on a 5 mile walk before it rained (i've walked 96 miles since memorial day... when i hit 100 ben is taking me out for dinner and a movie... i had hoped that would be today... due to weather, perhaps not til tomorrow... doht)
checking my email just before i headed out, i got the following email from one of my czech students:
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Date: Wed, 29 Jun 2005 11:09:24 -0400
Subject: are you coming?
Hi Lara,
are you coming today?
I just would like to ask you if you gave me a lift to a medical centre.
I tried your Hill office, but nobody was there.
Marek
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
immediate change of plans for lara... instead of going for a walk and then having a lazy afternoon of studying until i'm on a grad school panel for the RISE REU at 4:30 tonight, i booked it to get ready quickly and get to campus to help marek out.
because really, if you've never been sick in a foreign country (even if you know the language), you have no idea how scary it can be.
when i was in budapest i passed out and cut my head just centimeters from my eye, and had to go to the hospital to get stitches. getting papers in order and getting the hungarian grad students working with us to help me figure out what doctors i was allowed to see with my american student insurance was crazy, and then having a doctor put stitches in my head within centimeters of my eyeball (you can still feel the scar below the skin, it's kinda cool ;-) ) who only spoke in hungarian was intimidating. i learned then and there that fluency in crazy medical words for different kinds of pain and illness is difficult even if you've gained a decent day-to-day knowledge of the language.
anyhow, not knowing what was wrong with marek, and glad he trusts me to seek out my help, i headed to campus ASAP to be helpful.
i found him in his office and asked "hi, so what's the problem?"
he replied "i have an increasing ganglia in my side... and feel cold and flu like all over"
i asked "ganglia? i've heard that word but i don't know what it means"
he replied "like when you hurt here (and touched his lymph nodes), only it's down here (and touched his abdomen"
(i looked up ganglia online and it loosely means cystic tumor... somehow i don't think it translates quite the same)
his next best guess typing in words to an online czech to english translating program was "scarlet fever", but i'm pretty sure it's not that either.
i called the student health center before i came to campus and they told me "if you're not an actual rutgers student we don't take you"... i passed that info on to christine, who made calls and straightened them out while i took marek to walgreens.
once there, he was overwhelmed by the selection and asked if we could talk to someone... the pharmacist on duty's best suggestion was tylenol and see a doctor, so we got tylenol and i explained it to him so that hopefully that would deal with the pain. then, after talking to christine and finding out which person is the magic person in the health center and what are the magic words to make her admit REU students, i got marek an appointment for 10am tomorrow.
i really hope it's not appendicitis.. that would suck... to have your appendix out while on summer travels in a country you've never been in before. he made it seem like "yes it hurts and i need to get it fixed, but i could go another day or two just fine i think"... i hope that that's accurate.
anyhow, conclusion -- it's hard to be sick when you're not in your own country and i feel bad for him -- hopefully it's not appendicitis, and hopefully they'll be able to phrase things to marek and vice versa so that they can figure out exactly what needs to be done.
we shall see.
checking my email just before i headed out, i got the following email from one of my czech students:
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Date: Wed, 29 Jun 2005 11:09:24 -0400
Subject: are you coming?
Hi Lara,
are you coming today?
I just would like to ask you if you gave me a lift to a medical centre.
I tried your Hill office, but nobody was there.
Marek
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
immediate change of plans for lara... instead of going for a walk and then having a lazy afternoon of studying until i'm on a grad school panel for the RISE REU at 4:30 tonight, i booked it to get ready quickly and get to campus to help marek out.
because really, if you've never been sick in a foreign country (even if you know the language), you have no idea how scary it can be.
when i was in budapest i passed out and cut my head just centimeters from my eye, and had to go to the hospital to get stitches. getting papers in order and getting the hungarian grad students working with us to help me figure out what doctors i was allowed to see with my american student insurance was crazy, and then having a doctor put stitches in my head within centimeters of my eyeball (you can still feel the scar below the skin, it's kinda cool ;-) ) who only spoke in hungarian was intimidating. i learned then and there that fluency in crazy medical words for different kinds of pain and illness is difficult even if you've gained a decent day-to-day knowledge of the language.
anyhow, not knowing what was wrong with marek, and glad he trusts me to seek out my help, i headed to campus ASAP to be helpful.
i found him in his office and asked "hi, so what's the problem?"
he replied "i have an increasing ganglia in my side... and feel cold and flu like all over"
i asked "ganglia? i've heard that word but i don't know what it means"
he replied "like when you hurt here (and touched his lymph nodes), only it's down here (and touched his abdomen"
(i looked up ganglia online and it loosely means cystic tumor... somehow i don't think it translates quite the same)
his next best guess typing in words to an online czech to english translating program was "scarlet fever", but i'm pretty sure it's not that either.
i called the student health center before i came to campus and they told me "if you're not an actual rutgers student we don't take you"... i passed that info on to christine, who made calls and straightened them out while i took marek to walgreens.
once there, he was overwhelmed by the selection and asked if we could talk to someone... the pharmacist on duty's best suggestion was tylenol and see a doctor, so we got tylenol and i explained it to him so that hopefully that would deal with the pain. then, after talking to christine and finding out which person is the magic person in the health center and what are the magic words to make her admit REU students, i got marek an appointment for 10am tomorrow.
i really hope it's not appendicitis.. that would suck... to have your appendix out while on summer travels in a country you've never been in before. he made it seem like "yes it hurts and i need to get it fixed, but i could go another day or two just fine i think"... i hope that that's accurate.
anyhow, conclusion -- it's hard to be sick when you're not in your own country and i feel bad for him -- hopefully it's not appendicitis, and hopefully they'll be able to phrase things to marek and vice versa so that they can figure out exactly what needs to be done.
we shall see.
Tuesday, June 28, 2005
long a, short a, a, a, a
so i just totally made martin and jan's day.
three weeks ago at the orientation dinner to the REU, i asked the czech grad student coordinator (martin) to pronounce his last name for me (it's balek) so that i could introduce him... i copied him and he said "no, it's a short a" and repeated it, emphasizing the ba... it sounded the same to me, but i tried to copy again, and he, jan, josef, and marek (all 4 czech students in the REU this summer) laughed "or long a if you prefer". i apologized and commented that i would learn to say it right by the end of the summer.
fast forward 3 weeks to last night... ben and i were at barnes and noble and i found a czech pronunciation and phrase book which i figured would not be a bad thing for me to learn well in the next month (i go to prague for 2.5 weeks on july 23)... for long a in czech, the book has the a sound from "father"... for short a in czech, it suggests "halfway between the a in cat and the u in cup"... oi...
so this afternoon, after the REU seminar, i said to martin "so when you have time, i have a question about czech", he said by all means ask, so i gave him this paragraph:
"when i asked your name 3 weeks ago, you said to use a short a... when an american says 'short a', we mean the a sound in 'cat' or in 'apple'.... when we say 'long a' we mean the 'a' sound in 'name' or 'ate'... i'm guessing your 'long a' and your 'short a' are neither of those, and this is why i got confused. can you help explain the difference to me?". martin couldn't think of a good example for a czech 'short a' on the spot, and i told him that if he thought of one, i really would like to learn.
so, while we're both in our office 20 minutes later he goes to the board and says "ok lara, so i have it... long a, like in 'car', short a is like in 'cup'... almost..." as we were practicing the sounds and trying to decide how closely i pronounce 'cup' and 'car' to martin's intended pronunciations, jan, one of the czech undergrads walked in... martin explained in czech what was going on, and together they made the following pronunciation guide for me, but with testing my english pronunciation for each word before they left it on the chart:
a like in cup
á like in car
u like in put
ů or ú like in bloom
i,y like in slip
í,ý like in sleep
e like in met
é like in mare
o like in stop (only they pronounced it more like how a hungarian would say stop than how an american would)
ó like in more
ou like in oh!
au like in out
š like in sheep (equivalent to hungarian s)
č like in czech
ž like in measure (equivalent to hungarian zs)
ě (makes the preceeding consonant soft... as best i can tell, i should pretend that there's a y attached to the previous letter when i see this form of 'e')
ř (the phrase book i got last night says "a sound unique to czech like r+ž (zh) pronounced in quick succession"... jan's comment when he tried to approximate it was "this letter is in the guiness book as hardest letter in all languages ever to pronounce. unless you're czech there's little hope")
after much discussion, they gave me some vocab words to practice with (jan got very excited about coming up with more and more for me to say and martin seemed pleased i had asked about how to say czech words as well), and they promised to answer questions no matter how bad my pronunciation is. :-) on my way out of the building i heard martin and jan talking to marek and josef in josef, jan, and marek's office (next door to mine), excitedly in czech... the words i pulled out were the czech word for american and for czech langauge, so i think i amused them all.
now that i got an hour long lesson in czech pronunciation from czech students, i need to make good on having them available to teach me for free, and study!
later dudes :-P
three weeks ago at the orientation dinner to the REU, i asked the czech grad student coordinator (martin) to pronounce his last name for me (it's balek) so that i could introduce him... i copied him and he said "no, it's a short a" and repeated it, emphasizing the ba... it sounded the same to me, but i tried to copy again, and he, jan, josef, and marek (all 4 czech students in the REU this summer) laughed "or long a if you prefer". i apologized and commented that i would learn to say it right by the end of the summer.
fast forward 3 weeks to last night... ben and i were at barnes and noble and i found a czech pronunciation and phrase book which i figured would not be a bad thing for me to learn well in the next month (i go to prague for 2.5 weeks on july 23)... for long a in czech, the book has the a sound from "father"... for short a in czech, it suggests "halfway between the a in cat and the u in cup"... oi...
so this afternoon, after the REU seminar, i said to martin "so when you have time, i have a question about czech", he said by all means ask, so i gave him this paragraph:
"when i asked your name 3 weeks ago, you said to use a short a... when an american says 'short a', we mean the a sound in 'cat' or in 'apple'.... when we say 'long a' we mean the 'a' sound in 'name' or 'ate'... i'm guessing your 'long a' and your 'short a' are neither of those, and this is why i got confused. can you help explain the difference to me?". martin couldn't think of a good example for a czech 'short a' on the spot, and i told him that if he thought of one, i really would like to learn.
so, while we're both in our office 20 minutes later he goes to the board and says "ok lara, so i have it... long a, like in 'car', short a is like in 'cup'... almost..." as we were practicing the sounds and trying to decide how closely i pronounce 'cup' and 'car' to martin's intended pronunciations, jan, one of the czech undergrads walked in... martin explained in czech what was going on, and together they made the following pronunciation guide for me, but with testing my english pronunciation for each word before they left it on the chart:
a like in cup
á like in car
u like in put
ů or ú like in bloom
i,y like in slip
í,ý like in sleep
e like in met
é like in mare
o like in stop (only they pronounced it more like how a hungarian would say stop than how an american would)
ó like in more
ou like in oh!
au like in out
š like in sheep (equivalent to hungarian s)
č like in czech
ž like in measure (equivalent to hungarian zs)
ě (makes the preceeding consonant soft... as best i can tell, i should pretend that there's a y attached to the previous letter when i see this form of 'e')
ř (the phrase book i got last night says "a sound unique to czech like r+ž (zh) pronounced in quick succession"... jan's comment when he tried to approximate it was "this letter is in the guiness book as hardest letter in all languages ever to pronounce. unless you're czech there's little hope")
after much discussion, they gave me some vocab words to practice with (jan got very excited about coming up with more and more for me to say and martin seemed pleased i had asked about how to say czech words as well), and they promised to answer questions no matter how bad my pronunciation is. :-) on my way out of the building i heard martin and jan talking to marek and josef in josef, jan, and marek's office (next door to mine), excitedly in czech... the words i pulled out were the czech word for american and for czech langauge, so i think i amused them all.
now that i got an hour long lesson in czech pronunciation from czech students, i need to make good on having them available to teach me for free, and study!
later dudes :-P
Monday, June 27, 2005
another month, another death?
at least that's how it seems sometimes.
ben and i went out for dinner (his treat) and a movie (each paid for our own) tonight... the movie of choice was "mr. and mrs. smith" which i fairly well enjoyed... not that you couldn't have written out the basic plot from start to finish from the previews, but i enjoyed it nonetheless :-P
anyhow, i got a voicemail during the movie... it was my mom calling to tell me that great aunt marie had died. uncle art (who died 3 weeks ago) was grandma p.'s little brother. aunt marie was g-ma s.'s little sister. so here's g-ma, trapped in a nursing home, and her sister, 10 years younger than her had a several years battle with cancer but died peacefully and basically still completely herself at home.
the thing that gets to me is, i knew uncle art reasonably well and had good stories to tell about him, etc., and the news of his death hit me like a punch to the stomach but i didn't cry. i've never once met aunt marie in all my life, just regular letters from her at all the holidays, special life events, etc. (like the card she wrote me for valpo graduation was incredibly sweet about how proud she was of me and how much my great-grandma (hers and g-ma s.'s mom) would have been of me... lots of detail on those thoughts)... just very calm, peaceful, kind people, only they were almost always just staying put in wisconsin, and grandma's branch of the family (us) was all everywhere else, having our big get-togethers in pittsburgh, so other than mail we never crossed paths much. anyhow, the point being, i know this woman solely through letters, and have a great respect for her, but while i couldn't cry for uncle art, here i've been on the brink of tears or crying for the past couple hours for a great aunt i've never met... i soooo don't understand emotions.
here's to kind and faithful people, whose reach and whose witness to their values and their faith is farther reaching than they'll ever know.... i'm glad to have known aunt marie, even if it was only in the snail mail world, and i know she went peacefully and is now joyfully cancer-free in heaven.
the end. (obituary to be added if/when i find one online later this week)
ben and i went out for dinner (his treat) and a movie (each paid for our own) tonight... the movie of choice was "mr. and mrs. smith" which i fairly well enjoyed... not that you couldn't have written out the basic plot from start to finish from the previews, but i enjoyed it nonetheless :-P
anyhow, i got a voicemail during the movie... it was my mom calling to tell me that great aunt marie had died. uncle art (who died 3 weeks ago) was grandma p.'s little brother. aunt marie was g-ma s.'s little sister. so here's g-ma, trapped in a nursing home, and her sister, 10 years younger than her had a several years battle with cancer but died peacefully and basically still completely herself at home.
the thing that gets to me is, i knew uncle art reasonably well and had good stories to tell about him, etc., and the news of his death hit me like a punch to the stomach but i didn't cry. i've never once met aunt marie in all my life, just regular letters from her at all the holidays, special life events, etc. (like the card she wrote me for valpo graduation was incredibly sweet about how proud she was of me and how much my great-grandma (hers and g-ma s.'s mom) would have been of me... lots of detail on those thoughts)... just very calm, peaceful, kind people, only they were almost always just staying put in wisconsin, and grandma's branch of the family (us) was all everywhere else, having our big get-togethers in pittsburgh, so other than mail we never crossed paths much. anyhow, the point being, i know this woman solely through letters, and have a great respect for her, but while i couldn't cry for uncle art, here i've been on the brink of tears or crying for the past couple hours for a great aunt i've never met... i soooo don't understand emotions.
here's to kind and faithful people, whose reach and whose witness to their values and their faith is farther reaching than they'll ever know.... i'm glad to have known aunt marie, even if it was only in the snail mail world, and i know she went peacefully and is now joyfully cancer-free in heaven.
the end. (obituary to be added if/when i find one online later this week)
headline(?) news
so i was catching up on all my friends' blogs when the following two stories both got my attention:
* Giant Popsicle Melts, Floods NYC Park (taken from Laura's blog)
* Deer attacks at SIUC hospitalize 4 (taken from Dave's blog)
after reading them, i decided to go on my own weird news search, as i haven't in a bit... here's some other bits from around the world that you might find interesting :-)
* City may end speed limits in high crime areas
* Boys' Baseball Team Benched for Being Good
*Hawaiian Pets Gain Right of Inheritance
*Man Swallows Key, Locksmith Uses X-Ray
what a fun world, eh?
later dudes.
* Giant Popsicle Melts, Floods NYC Park (taken from Laura's blog)
* Deer attacks at SIUC hospitalize 4 (taken from Dave's blog)
after reading them, i decided to go on my own weird news search, as i haven't in a bit... here's some other bits from around the world that you might find interesting :-)
* City may end speed limits in high crime areas
* Boys' Baseball Team Benched for Being Good
*Hawaiian Pets Gain Right of Inheritance
*Man Swallows Key, Locksmith Uses X-Ray
what a fun world, eh?
later dudes.
Sunday, June 26, 2005
reviews ;-)
despite it being a busy week, i've managed to fit in a bit of fun movies/books too.
when i went to investigate movie options at blockbuster earlier this week for the movie night friday for the REUers, i saw several films i'd been meaning to see when they were out in theaters but that i hadn't had a chance to watch.
wednesday night, i watched be cool (john travolta, etc., earlier this year). it wasn't exactly how i expected it to be, but it kept my attention. not brilliant, but funny in spurts. if the previews didn't impress you, don't bother... if they did, you might enjoy it a little too... definitely not "best of all time" material though.
the night after that i watched miss congeniality 2... i wanted to see this in the theater but the dismal reviews it got made everyone i asked say no... so i had to wait for the dvd... definitely not as innovative as the first, and in some ways just copied the first script and put it in a new setting, but whatever... if you enjoyed the first one, it's a cute continuation.
friday night, the movie for movie night was man on the moon... the czech REU students suggested it since the director is czech. i'd never seen it before (even though it's 6 years old), and didn't know much about andy kaufman (the comedian that it's about), but i thought on the whole it was fabulous.
tonight, finally, i watched p.s.. i was interested in this after seeing an ad for it online, but even watching for it, i never noticed it come out in theaters last year... seeing it on dvd i figured i'd check it out. this had a very different flavor than i expected, but it kept me interested the whole time too. all the characters are a bit quirky (aren't we all? :-P) and the plot isn't horribly fast moving, but it's still a respectably quality film.
as far as books, leigh's birthday present to me was to read me a dr. suess book over the phone (she's working in ohio this summer). she called me on wednesday to say "hey lara, happy birthday a day late... i didn't forget, i just went to the library and they told me i wasn't allowed to check out more books until i turn some back in, so i'll read to you on saturday if you can wait that long!"... so wait i did, and we spent an hour and a half on the phone last night so that she could read me the lorax and i can read with my eyes shut -- both were highly amusing.... and leigh did a *fantastic* job with dramatic inflection and with describing the pictures as she went... it was a fun and unique treat :-)
as far as other books go, i'm currently about 1/4 of the way done with Prague (by Arthur Phillips). it's intriguing to me as it's set in Budapest (Prague is the "grass is always greener on the other side" mystical place were all the characters are sure they'd have it better if they weren't in budapest... figuring that the expats in prague probably think the same of budapest). it's set in 1990 (just after communism fell and hungary opened up to the west), and is the story of 5 american expats figuring out their way around. as the story of foreigners exploring real live places i've seen and been, i can relate to a certain chord of it... on the other hand, they're in an era 12 years removed from when i was there and for different reasons than i was there too, so it's not quite the same. nonetheless, it's a fascinating read even if i'll probably have more and different criticisms of it at the end. you'll find a variety of reviews for a variety of reasons if you look through the link to amazon (click on the title at the start of the paragraph) and i'll probably be somewhere in the middle of all of them by the time i'm done :-P
other reviews? yesterday i got a box in the mail from circuit city... at first i was a little confused because i haven't ordered anything from them, and then on my way upstairs into the apartment from the mailbox, it dawned on me that it was my birthday present from jessica (who works at a circuit city in PA)... she sent me a deana carter CD (the story of my life). i wasn't familiar with any of the songs on it when i put it in, but i had it going non-stop all yesterday afternoon, and enjoyed it immensely... favorite tracks off the bat are "one day at a time", "ordinary", and "katie", but honestly there's not a single bad one on it. :-)
random miscellaneous commentary that doesn't involve reviewing various books/movies/songs ;-):
* i think my maple program for dr. z. finally works -- this is fantastic since he gave it to me to do 2 weeks ago and i started it on friday... it took me most of the weekend to finally get it figured out, but i think it's good to go now... i meet with him tomorrow.
* my fingernails and toenails are purple this week :-P... i commented to roommate last night "shoot, i'm turning into a girl... i don't know if i like this or not" her reply? "um, i know that you're a lara, and i like you just fine however you are"... i laughed :-P
* i've recently discovered sun-in -- not like i wasn't aware of it before, but i've never put anything in my hair before that changes the color... we'll see how badly i screw it up this summer :-P it is fun to play with though :-P
* yay for new email buddies. some random person came across my old website that i mostly made in HS and haven't updated since and wrote me based on the "God page" and the "pi" page, pointing out the corresponding pages on his own website. he was shocked when i wrote back with my name signed as "lara", sheepishly commenting that although he has lots of math people in his family who are women, he had assumed from my writing style and interests that i must be a guy (um, ok, whatever). this dude is 52 years old and lives in the greater LA area, but is the first person i've come across in a long time who is able to intelligently discuss both math and christianity in great detail. usually i have my non-religious math friends who i can discuss math/science with, and i have my christian friends who, when i try to talk math more than very surface level, it's beyond them. finding someone who's well-versed in both is a fantastic thing for me. we've been debating a little about lcms doctrine (the kind of lutheran i am currently; this guy grew up lcms in chicago, and isn't lcms anymore for various reasons), and we've talked a bit about computer stuff and about the permutation stuff i'm researching. mostly i'm just enjoying a new correspondence with someone who can talk about lots of things i'm interested in intelligently.
* mom IMed me while i was watching the movie before... my church in memphis had a meeting today and is calling a pastor from a NJ church (but not in the NJ district, in the SELC district, which spans lots of states instead of a geographical area... it's a little convoluted to explain)... from about an hour south of here.... hopefully my church here in jersey will send out a call by the end of july too... we shall see. (in the lutheran church, congregations "call" pastors... it's not just hiring someone who fits the bill... it's considered to be a divine calling and prayerfully considered both from the church and the pastor point of view, there's a whole gigantic process to go all through and stuff.) anyhow, that was interesting news at least.
and i *think* that's all the interesting news around here for a bit.
i would have gone on my nightly 4-5 mile walk 2.5 hours ago if i weren't waiting on ben (he's supposed to be around here by 9pm)... my new 5 mile route goes past a harley-davidson store :-)... that way i can admire all the pretty bikes every day too :-)
now, i really *am* done rambling... later dudes :-P
when i went to investigate movie options at blockbuster earlier this week for the movie night friday for the REUers, i saw several films i'd been meaning to see when they were out in theaters but that i hadn't had a chance to watch.
wednesday night, i watched be cool (john travolta, etc., earlier this year). it wasn't exactly how i expected it to be, but it kept my attention. not brilliant, but funny in spurts. if the previews didn't impress you, don't bother... if they did, you might enjoy it a little too... definitely not "best of all time" material though.
the night after that i watched miss congeniality 2... i wanted to see this in the theater but the dismal reviews it got made everyone i asked say no... so i had to wait for the dvd... definitely not as innovative as the first, and in some ways just copied the first script and put it in a new setting, but whatever... if you enjoyed the first one, it's a cute continuation.
friday night, the movie for movie night was man on the moon... the czech REU students suggested it since the director is czech. i'd never seen it before (even though it's 6 years old), and didn't know much about andy kaufman (the comedian that it's about), but i thought on the whole it was fabulous.
tonight, finally, i watched p.s.. i was interested in this after seeing an ad for it online, but even watching for it, i never noticed it come out in theaters last year... seeing it on dvd i figured i'd check it out. this had a very different flavor than i expected, but it kept me interested the whole time too. all the characters are a bit quirky (aren't we all? :-P) and the plot isn't horribly fast moving, but it's still a respectably quality film.
as far as books, leigh's birthday present to me was to read me a dr. suess book over the phone (she's working in ohio this summer). she called me on wednesday to say "hey lara, happy birthday a day late... i didn't forget, i just went to the library and they told me i wasn't allowed to check out more books until i turn some back in, so i'll read to you on saturday if you can wait that long!"... so wait i did, and we spent an hour and a half on the phone last night so that she could read me the lorax and i can read with my eyes shut -- both were highly amusing.... and leigh did a *fantastic* job with dramatic inflection and with describing the pictures as she went... it was a fun and unique treat :-)
as far as other books go, i'm currently about 1/4 of the way done with Prague (by Arthur Phillips). it's intriguing to me as it's set in Budapest (Prague is the "grass is always greener on the other side" mystical place were all the characters are sure they'd have it better if they weren't in budapest... figuring that the expats in prague probably think the same of budapest). it's set in 1990 (just after communism fell and hungary opened up to the west), and is the story of 5 american expats figuring out their way around. as the story of foreigners exploring real live places i've seen and been, i can relate to a certain chord of it... on the other hand, they're in an era 12 years removed from when i was there and for different reasons than i was there too, so it's not quite the same. nonetheless, it's a fascinating read even if i'll probably have more and different criticisms of it at the end. you'll find a variety of reviews for a variety of reasons if you look through the link to amazon (click on the title at the start of the paragraph) and i'll probably be somewhere in the middle of all of them by the time i'm done :-P
other reviews? yesterday i got a box in the mail from circuit city... at first i was a little confused because i haven't ordered anything from them, and then on my way upstairs into the apartment from the mailbox, it dawned on me that it was my birthday present from jessica (who works at a circuit city in PA)... she sent me a deana carter CD (the story of my life). i wasn't familiar with any of the songs on it when i put it in, but i had it going non-stop all yesterday afternoon, and enjoyed it immensely... favorite tracks off the bat are "one day at a time", "ordinary", and "katie", but honestly there's not a single bad one on it. :-)
random miscellaneous commentary that doesn't involve reviewing various books/movies/songs ;-):
* i think my maple program for dr. z. finally works -- this is fantastic since he gave it to me to do 2 weeks ago and i started it on friday... it took me most of the weekend to finally get it figured out, but i think it's good to go now... i meet with him tomorrow.
* my fingernails and toenails are purple this week :-P... i commented to roommate last night "shoot, i'm turning into a girl... i don't know if i like this or not" her reply? "um, i know that you're a lara, and i like you just fine however you are"... i laughed :-P
* i've recently discovered sun-in -- not like i wasn't aware of it before, but i've never put anything in my hair before that changes the color... we'll see how badly i screw it up this summer :-P it is fun to play with though :-P
* yay for new email buddies. some random person came across my old website that i mostly made in HS and haven't updated since and wrote me based on the "God page" and the "pi" page, pointing out the corresponding pages on his own website. he was shocked when i wrote back with my name signed as "lara", sheepishly commenting that although he has lots of math people in his family who are women, he had assumed from my writing style and interests that i must be a guy (um, ok, whatever). this dude is 52 years old and lives in the greater LA area, but is the first person i've come across in a long time who is able to intelligently discuss both math and christianity in great detail. usually i have my non-religious math friends who i can discuss math/science with, and i have my christian friends who, when i try to talk math more than very surface level, it's beyond them. finding someone who's well-versed in both is a fantastic thing for me. we've been debating a little about lcms doctrine (the kind of lutheran i am currently; this guy grew up lcms in chicago, and isn't lcms anymore for various reasons), and we've talked a bit about computer stuff and about the permutation stuff i'm researching. mostly i'm just enjoying a new correspondence with someone who can talk about lots of things i'm interested in intelligently.
* mom IMed me while i was watching the movie before... my church in memphis had a meeting today and is calling a pastor from a NJ church (but not in the NJ district, in the SELC district, which spans lots of states instead of a geographical area... it's a little convoluted to explain)... from about an hour south of here.... hopefully my church here in jersey will send out a call by the end of july too... we shall see. (in the lutheran church, congregations "call" pastors... it's not just hiring someone who fits the bill... it's considered to be a divine calling and prayerfully considered both from the church and the pastor point of view, there's a whole gigantic process to go all through and stuff.) anyhow, that was interesting news at least.
and i *think* that's all the interesting news around here for a bit.
i would have gone on my nightly 4-5 mile walk 2.5 hours ago if i weren't waiting on ben (he's supposed to be around here by 9pm)... my new 5 mile route goes past a harley-davidson store :-)... that way i can admire all the pretty bikes every day too :-)
now, i really *am* done rambling... later dudes :-P
Friday, June 24, 2005
happy friday?
halfway done ;-)
ben passed this time around :-) i was the first person he called when he finished, even before his parents :-P... i'm way happy for him :-)
my REU students are done with presentations. it's hard to gauge how long students will take when told to talk for 15 minutes. the first several presentations went majorly overtime today, but the next few were shorter than expected, so it averaged out to being done early again.
nonetheless, those hurdles are jumped through.
the professor who was stressing me out a little at the start i genuinely think likes me now... not just the comments i've made earlier in the week, but he also stopped me in the hall today to tell me that of all the REU graduate coordinators he's worked with, he thinks that i've found the best balance of firmness and sweetness... he liked how i handled the students earlier in the week who had been oversleeping, but that before and after that i've been genuinely nice and friendly to them, and he commented that he wished more of the grad coordinators would be able to accomplish that :-P that made my day :-)
movie night for the students in an hour... we'll see how many come... hopefully several more than the few i've had verbal confirmation from so far... there's also several girls who are going out of town for the weekend and WON'T be there... i hope i didn't buy $45 worth of snacks for nothing!
oi.
more later.
ben passed this time around :-) i was the first person he called when he finished, even before his parents :-P... i'm way happy for him :-)
my REU students are done with presentations. it's hard to gauge how long students will take when told to talk for 15 minutes. the first several presentations went majorly overtime today, but the next few were shorter than expected, so it averaged out to being done early again.
nonetheless, those hurdles are jumped through.
the professor who was stressing me out a little at the start i genuinely think likes me now... not just the comments i've made earlier in the week, but he also stopped me in the hall today to tell me that of all the REU graduate coordinators he's worked with, he thinks that i've found the best balance of firmness and sweetness... he liked how i handled the students earlier in the week who had been oversleeping, but that before and after that i've been genuinely nice and friendly to them, and he commented that he wished more of the grad coordinators would be able to accomplish that :-P that made my day :-)
movie night for the students in an hour... we'll see how many come... hopefully several more than the few i've had verbal confirmation from so far... there's also several girls who are going out of town for the weekend and WON'T be there... i hope i didn't buy $45 worth of snacks for nothing!
oi.
more later.
hmmmm
as i type, ben should be finishing his oral quals within the half-hour. you get two shots and he failed in february, so this is run #2, and after it, those 4 profs decide whether or not he continues at rutgers.
i txt-ed him "go ben go!" at 9:45 (he started at 10), expecting his phone to be off, but he immediately returned my call and sounded in *excellent* spirits... so i'm pulling for him, and the verdict will be in soon... more later!
i txt-ed him "go ben go!" at 9:45 (he started at 10), expecting his phone to be off, but he immediately returned my call and sounded in *excellent* spirits... so i'm pulling for him, and the verdict will be in soon... more later!
Thursday, June 23, 2005
yay :-)
i had a freakin fantastic day :-)
from yesterday, being all moderately irritated with the world, being irritated with the grad student i ranted about last night, being concerned about a student who wrote me sounding frustrated with his project, his mentor, etc., being frustrated that no matter how i schedule the REU presentations, i seem to make some mentor or another mad... all in all feeling tense... but i tried to pull ends together the best i could.
re: the grad student i was frustrated with --
he was much better in person today, and i confronted him about his comment... not yelled at him, but pointed out that i felt like it undermined my position even if that wasn't his intention, which i doubted it was. he apologized and admitted that he doesn't think much about how he comes across before he says things, but he understands my point and will be more respectful in the future. in some ways he can be just a really big kid and doesn't really think much of trying to be an authority figure or anything more than buddies to other people... anyhow i felt good about saying something to him, and about his response.
re: the project mentors --
i'm still smoothing things with some of them, but me realizing there's no way to make everyone happy, and me responding honestly to them seems to work out alright
re: the student who was really frustrated yesterday --
today i got an email from him, that included the following: "As far as your email, I thank you for being so thorough and open as you were in it. Your dedication to being helpful is evident and appreciated. I definitely plan to be here for all of the remaining talks and events, especially since there is only one a week usually. You put a lot of effort into scheduling them and as a result they seem interesting, so I can easily do that much. Thanks." -- that made me feel good :-)
re: the world at large being irritating --
when i introduced the first student giving her presentation this afternoon, she started with "lara, this isn't my project, but before you sit down, word on the street is we all missed your birthday, so to make up for it, this is for you,... i won't be offended if you open it during my talk!" and gave me a belated birthday card signed by all the DIMACS staff and most of the REU students. that made my day :-)
so all in all, sometimes i let the world get to me a little too much. anytime you're trying to make 50 people happy it's hard to completely succeed, and i concern myself a lot with trying to make as many of them as possible happy. it takes a lot of energy, but when i see people happy with how their projects are going (re: students) or happy with how i've made their day a little smoother (re: fellow staff), that's totally my payoff. 99% of the time, i'm fairly sure working with undergrads is THE job for me. they're fantastic people and i LOVE when i can be useful and encouraging to them. :-)
day 2 of presentations tomorrow... tonight it's a 5 mile walk night, to be followed by dinner and a movie :-)
later y'all
from yesterday, being all moderately irritated with the world, being irritated with the grad student i ranted about last night, being concerned about a student who wrote me sounding frustrated with his project, his mentor, etc., being frustrated that no matter how i schedule the REU presentations, i seem to make some mentor or another mad... all in all feeling tense... but i tried to pull ends together the best i could.
re: the grad student i was frustrated with --
he was much better in person today, and i confronted him about his comment... not yelled at him, but pointed out that i felt like it undermined my position even if that wasn't his intention, which i doubted it was. he apologized and admitted that he doesn't think much about how he comes across before he says things, but he understands my point and will be more respectful in the future. in some ways he can be just a really big kid and doesn't really think much of trying to be an authority figure or anything more than buddies to other people... anyhow i felt good about saying something to him, and about his response.
re: the project mentors --
i'm still smoothing things with some of them, but me realizing there's no way to make everyone happy, and me responding honestly to them seems to work out alright
re: the student who was really frustrated yesterday --
today i got an email from him, that included the following: "As far as your email, I thank you for being so thorough and open as you were in it. Your dedication to being helpful is evident and appreciated. I definitely plan to be here for all of the remaining talks and events, especially since there is only one a week usually. You put a lot of effort into scheduling them and as a result they seem interesting, so I can easily do that much. Thanks." -- that made me feel good :-)
re: the world at large being irritating --
when i introduced the first student giving her presentation this afternoon, she started with "lara, this isn't my project, but before you sit down, word on the street is we all missed your birthday, so to make up for it, this is for you,... i won't be offended if you open it during my talk!" and gave me a belated birthday card signed by all the DIMACS staff and most of the REU students. that made my day :-)
so all in all, sometimes i let the world get to me a little too much. anytime you're trying to make 50 people happy it's hard to completely succeed, and i concern myself a lot with trying to make as many of them as possible happy. it takes a lot of energy, but when i see people happy with how their projects are going (re: students) or happy with how i've made their day a little smoother (re: fellow staff), that's totally my payoff. 99% of the time, i'm fairly sure working with undergrads is THE job for me. they're fantastic people and i LOVE when i can be useful and encouraging to them. :-)
day 2 of presentations tomorrow... tonight it's a 5 mile walk night, to be followed by dinner and a movie :-)
later y'all
Wednesday, June 22, 2005
mean people still suck
mostly it was a good day.... seriously. i managed to just do stuff at home all morning and then worked in the office for the afternoon... both leigh and memphis jenny called me to wish me happy birthday a day late and i had nice long chats with each.
why the title then?
i was chatting with another grad student this afternoon. he's working with one of the REU project mentors. only the professor is out of town for june and this grad student (who will remain nameless) is serving as project mentor until the prof gets back. i've chatted with this grad student many a time, and he's really good friends with one of my really good friends so i try to give him the benefit of the doubt and be nice even when he occasionally gets to me. whatever.
while we were chatting his two students came up, they are two of the four who skipped on monday... i commented to my grad student friend, "so i've already taken care of it but if you hear them talking about skipping things, encourage them to attend, ok?"
he basically admitted that after chaperoning for the at&t field trip last year he had told the two students that the trip was worthless and they should work on their project instead, but that he would encourage them to attend stuff in the future... then he looked at me funny for a minute, and then commented "but i feel like you're trying to make me be the adult here when that's your job and i'm supposed to be their friend"...
i replied that i had already been the enforcer, and i just figured since he had more 1 on 1 contact with these students than me, that maybe he could be encouraging.
whatever.
30 minutes later i overhear him talking with one of the students. (his office is down the hall from mine and doors were open), saying "yeah, so frankly i don't give a crap if you do any of the group stuff or not, but i don't want a girl giving me crap all summer so just do it ok?"
there's a difference between not being the enforcer and not undermining my position too. i *thought* said grad student and i were having a friendly chat and i could trust him.
i misjudged.
and now i'm annoyed.
oi.
later dudes.
why the title then?
i was chatting with another grad student this afternoon. he's working with one of the REU project mentors. only the professor is out of town for june and this grad student (who will remain nameless) is serving as project mentor until the prof gets back. i've chatted with this grad student many a time, and he's really good friends with one of my really good friends so i try to give him the benefit of the doubt and be nice even when he occasionally gets to me. whatever.
while we were chatting his two students came up, they are two of the four who skipped on monday... i commented to my grad student friend, "so i've already taken care of it but if you hear them talking about skipping things, encourage them to attend, ok?"
he basically admitted that after chaperoning for the at&t field trip last year he had told the two students that the trip was worthless and they should work on their project instead, but that he would encourage them to attend stuff in the future... then he looked at me funny for a minute, and then commented "but i feel like you're trying to make me be the adult here when that's your job and i'm supposed to be their friend"...
i replied that i had already been the enforcer, and i just figured since he had more 1 on 1 contact with these students than me, that maybe he could be encouraging.
whatever.
30 minutes later i overhear him talking with one of the students. (his office is down the hall from mine and doors were open), saying "yeah, so frankly i don't give a crap if you do any of the group stuff or not, but i don't want a girl giving me crap all summer so just do it ok?"
there's a difference between not being the enforcer and not undermining my position too. i *thought* said grad student and i were having a friendly chat and i could trust him.
i misjudged.
and now i'm annoyed.
oi.
later dudes.
Tuesday, June 21, 2005
on the upside :-)
for as much as two words from a stranger can blow the afternoon for a bit, quality time with friends also does wonders for mood too :-)
colleen and i did end up at the hungarian restaurant for dinner... this time an older hungarian lady waited on us... i had chicken paprikash this go around... very quality :-)
after that, but before the movie we had 15 minutes to kill at home... my dad had left a message on my house phone and on my cell so i called him back for a chat... when he was younger, he had always thought that 23 would be the perfect age to be... legal for a couple years, so no reason to do downright stupid stuff anymore, but still with most of your life ahead of you, God-willing... since that was the age he looked to as the peak of his life all along, it completely worries and confuses him that he now has a kid who is older than that.
mom called simultaneously to dad and left a voicemail too.... we didn't chat until after i got back from the movie (she's at a conference in chattanooga, dad's at home)
sisterhood of the travelling pants was good. it was 2 hours long and followed some very different storylines, each of while had a really poignant climactic point, but it was woven together respectable well... both colleen and i enjoyed it.
after getting back, my grandma had left me voicemails too... so she remembered me as well :-)..... my brother on the other hand, not so much... doht. (correction: brother didn't forget, he just waited until 11:30pm to remember to call me)
i got some funny e-cards throughout the day too... two from lutheransonline.com, which i'd never seen before... they were pretty funny.
anyhow, calls from family... IMs and emails from friends... dinner and a movie with colleen... all is respectably well with the world again.
now for some leftover jared-made cake :-)
here's to being 24... hopefully an improvement on the stresses of years in recent memory ;-) we shall see...
colleen and i did end up at the hungarian restaurant for dinner... this time an older hungarian lady waited on us... i had chicken paprikash this go around... very quality :-)
after that, but before the movie we had 15 minutes to kill at home... my dad had left a message on my house phone and on my cell so i called him back for a chat... when he was younger, he had always thought that 23 would be the perfect age to be... legal for a couple years, so no reason to do downright stupid stuff anymore, but still with most of your life ahead of you, God-willing... since that was the age he looked to as the peak of his life all along, it completely worries and confuses him that he now has a kid who is older than that.
mom called simultaneously to dad and left a voicemail too.... we didn't chat until after i got back from the movie (she's at a conference in chattanooga, dad's at home)
sisterhood of the travelling pants was good. it was 2 hours long and followed some very different storylines, each of while had a really poignant climactic point, but it was woven together respectable well... both colleen and i enjoyed it.
after getting back, my grandma had left me voicemails too... so she remembered me as well :-)..... my brother on the other hand, not so much... doht. (correction: brother didn't forget, he just waited until 11:30pm to remember to call me)
i got some funny e-cards throughout the day too... two from lutheransonline.com, which i'd never seen before... they were pretty funny.
anyhow, calls from family... IMs and emails from friends... dinner and a movie with colleen... all is respectably well with the world again.
now for some leftover jared-made cake :-)
here's to being 24... hopefully an improvement on the stresses of years in recent memory ;-) we shall see...
mean people suck
today was going to be mostly a decent day.
sure i had to be in at work for a couple hours, but whatever... that wasn't until like noon.
i got plenty of sleep... had time to work out, have breakfast, and take my time getting ready this morning... woke up with half a dozen happy birthday e-cards waiting for me in my inbox to make me smile... even roommate, who is working at camp, managed to find a cell signal and 15 minutes to call this morning and wish me a happy day...
work was fine... the 4 students i wrote yesterday about attendance showed up on time today and fairly nicely dressed and paid good attention, so i was glad to see that that warning worked.
the professor who had me running around in circles at the start of the program sat with me during the seminar today, and chatted with me like we were decent friends, which made me smile (instead of me feeling like he was looking for things i was doing wrong)
finally, i made it home mid-afternoon and went on my now daily 4 mile trek around town... it started off fantastic... for the first time ever, i made it up the steep hill on 5th ave and the steep hill on 6th ave back to back (usually i make it up the one on 5th and then go over to 8th to go around the one on 6th)... major personal victory for myself :-)
then, over around 11th ave. is a grade school... a couple blocks down from that there were half a dozen teenagers lounging around in the grass... as i walked/jogged past, one or two hollered "hello!" at me, and (still walking) i halfway waved at them without saying a word... 3 steps later, a couple more hollered at me "YOU'RE FAT!!!" and they all laughed until well after i was out of earshot.
immediately responses that popped into my head were "at least i'm not just sitting on my butt and doing nothing about it", or even better "at least my momma taught me better manners than to insult strangers to make myself feel good" (oh wait, that would be a little contradictory...)... probably for my own good, and theirs, i managed to just make a face at them like "whatever", and go on my way without saying a word.
nonetheless, no one has bothered to do that to me since like junior high/high school. sure if you're too tall/too short/to skinny/too fat, from like age 8 til age 16 kids in your class will pick on you, and i survived those years alright... it had been nice that for several years now, i've interacted mostly with people who are mature enough not to insult your shortcomings for fun, but to interact with you like you're a normal and worthwhile human being.
it never ceases to amaze me how two little words can deflate an otherwise perfectly good day. ben offered (on the phone after i got back) to go walking next week with me after his qual is done, and to beat up said mean kids for me then :-)... not that that will happen in reality, but whatever.
40 minutes to get un-sticky from my walk, and then colleen promised me dinner (i'm thinking the hungarian restaurant i was at saturday again, it was really quality :-) )... to be followed by finally seeing Sisterhood of the Travelling Pants, which i've been looking forward to for a bit.
at least, now that i have the above incident mostly out of my system, i have some time for fun and for hanging out with non-mean people :-P
later dudes.
sure i had to be in at work for a couple hours, but whatever... that wasn't until like noon.
i got plenty of sleep... had time to work out, have breakfast, and take my time getting ready this morning... woke up with half a dozen happy birthday e-cards waiting for me in my inbox to make me smile... even roommate, who is working at camp, managed to find a cell signal and 15 minutes to call this morning and wish me a happy day...
work was fine... the 4 students i wrote yesterday about attendance showed up on time today and fairly nicely dressed and paid good attention, so i was glad to see that that warning worked.
the professor who had me running around in circles at the start of the program sat with me during the seminar today, and chatted with me like we were decent friends, which made me smile (instead of me feeling like he was looking for things i was doing wrong)
finally, i made it home mid-afternoon and went on my now daily 4 mile trek around town... it started off fantastic... for the first time ever, i made it up the steep hill on 5th ave and the steep hill on 6th ave back to back (usually i make it up the one on 5th and then go over to 8th to go around the one on 6th)... major personal victory for myself :-)
then, over around 11th ave. is a grade school... a couple blocks down from that there were half a dozen teenagers lounging around in the grass... as i walked/jogged past, one or two hollered "hello!" at me, and (still walking) i halfway waved at them without saying a word... 3 steps later, a couple more hollered at me "YOU'RE FAT!!!" and they all laughed until well after i was out of earshot.
immediately responses that popped into my head were "at least i'm not just sitting on my butt and doing nothing about it", or even better "at least my momma taught me better manners than to insult strangers to make myself feel good" (oh wait, that would be a little contradictory...)... probably for my own good, and theirs, i managed to just make a face at them like "whatever", and go on my way without saying a word.
nonetheless, no one has bothered to do that to me since like junior high/high school. sure if you're too tall/too short/to skinny/too fat, from like age 8 til age 16 kids in your class will pick on you, and i survived those years alright... it had been nice that for several years now, i've interacted mostly with people who are mature enough not to insult your shortcomings for fun, but to interact with you like you're a normal and worthwhile human being.
it never ceases to amaze me how two little words can deflate an otherwise perfectly good day. ben offered (on the phone after i got back) to go walking next week with me after his qual is done, and to beat up said mean kids for me then :-)... not that that will happen in reality, but whatever.
40 minutes to get un-sticky from my walk, and then colleen promised me dinner (i'm thinking the hungarian restaurant i was at saturday again, it was really quality :-) )... to be followed by finally seeing Sisterhood of the Travelling Pants, which i've been looking forward to for a bit.
at least, now that i have the above incident mostly out of my system, i have some time for fun and for hanging out with non-mean people :-P
later dudes.
1981 and counting :-P
i was soooooooooo procrastinating this weekend to come up with this instead of doing math, but i enjoyed putting it together, and hopefully you'll enjoy looking through it :-)
ta da:
Shall We Count?
ta da:
Shall We Count?
happy birthday eve...
happy birthday to me... 24... woohoo :-P
tonight was decent... jared offered to make me birthday cake... yellow cake with homemade chocolate frosting and vanilla bean ice cream... scott hung out with me and entertained me until the cake was ready at like 10:30 tonight, and eric was home packing for alaska (he leaves for 3 weeks tomorrow morning), and colleen came by as well.
i was incredibly thankful for scott -- jared was doing his baking/cleaning the kitchen deal... eric was too busy with packing to be any fun... in fact the couple times i stopped by his room he more or less was like "dude, why are you here?" until i went away (oi... probably a 3 week break from each other is good right now)
colleen promised dinner and a movie tomorrow night (since as of 11 minutes ago it's just now actually my birthday :-P)
anyhow, friends like scott who actually manage to find me and cheer me up when i'm feeling lost in a non-crowd as small as 5 people (me included) are fantastic... we went for a walk and watched the sun set... and then he played pool with me some and read me the most bizarre version of "go dog go" ever :-P (e.g. the "... and now do you like my party hat?" "i do! i do like that hat! what a hat! i like that party hat!" "goodbye" "goodbye!" turned into "dude, whatever" "splits" "FINE" "BE THAT WAY" and then we completely cracked up for a bit :-P)... he's a good friend and he makes me smile.
so yeah, that's the scoop... i got tired of eric packing and talking to everyone but me and i'm tired (i have been up since 5:45 this morning) so i finally just excused myself to go home... hopefully i have a little time to mind my own business before i have company since i'm not really ready to crash yet, but that was my excuse :-P... i'm sooooooooo antisocial.
btw, jared makes FANTASTIC chocolate icing... and watermelon smirnoff and lime juice is basically alcoholic skittles in a cup :-)... in case you were wondering.
the end.
tonight was decent... jared offered to make me birthday cake... yellow cake with homemade chocolate frosting and vanilla bean ice cream... scott hung out with me and entertained me until the cake was ready at like 10:30 tonight, and eric was home packing for alaska (he leaves for 3 weeks tomorrow morning), and colleen came by as well.
i was incredibly thankful for scott -- jared was doing his baking/cleaning the kitchen deal... eric was too busy with packing to be any fun... in fact the couple times i stopped by his room he more or less was like "dude, why are you here?" until i went away (oi... probably a 3 week break from each other is good right now)
colleen promised dinner and a movie tomorrow night (since as of 11 minutes ago it's just now actually my birthday :-P)
anyhow, friends like scott who actually manage to find me and cheer me up when i'm feeling lost in a non-crowd as small as 5 people (me included) are fantastic... we went for a walk and watched the sun set... and then he played pool with me some and read me the most bizarre version of "go dog go" ever :-P (e.g. the "... and now do you like my party hat?" "i do! i do like that hat! what a hat! i like that party hat!" "goodbye" "goodbye!" turned into "dude, whatever" "splits" "FINE" "BE THAT WAY" and then we completely cracked up for a bit :-P)... he's a good friend and he makes me smile.
so yeah, that's the scoop... i got tired of eric packing and talking to everyone but me and i'm tired (i have been up since 5:45 this morning) so i finally just excused myself to go home... hopefully i have a little time to mind my own business before i have company since i'm not really ready to crash yet, but that was my excuse :-P... i'm sooooooooo antisocial.
btw, jared makes FANTASTIC chocolate icing... and watermelon smirnoff and lime juice is basically alcoholic skittles in a cup :-)... in case you were wondering.
the end.
Monday, June 20, 2005
yay for fantastic days
i was up sooooooooo freakin early this morning, but all in all it went well.
the REU students were supposed to meet at 8am this morning for a field trip, and all but an apartment of 4 of them showed up on time. (those 4 got an email of "dude, you're required to attended scheduled events, you need to email me if you're not going to be there")
for those of us who went, our field trip to telcordia was pretty cool.
once we arrived, they fed us breakfast... then we listened to one of the VPs outline what telcordia is... basically if you've ever used a phone, they're behind what you're doing. they lay out the software that allows the different phone networks to connect... the software that allows caller ID on your cell phone... the software that puts GPS in cellphones... the software that allows you to hookup a new phoneline in less than a day instead of in a week or two... they make everyone play nice together and do a lot of cool research in the process :-)
after the VP was done, 3 different researchers told us about what they do... the first talked about the structure of the different applied research groups at telcordia, the 2nd about the importance of working out kinks with detailed digital simiulation (b/c cost of changing a product after it's implemented goes sky high, whereas it's easy to change things in the planning phase) and gave several computerized examples... the last guy talked about different networking models and current research on which ones work best for what information distribution systems.
after that, we got an hour long demo of some new software telcordia is working on called "sharenow". your TV can manage caller ID, as can your computer... and they showed the technology to forward calls from your office phone to your home and vice versa, notifying other phones, your IM, your computer, and other things at will in the process. the "sharenow" software allows you to have an "enhanced phone call", where say you want to ask someone for directions while you're at your computer... then when you connect through "sharenow", the person you're on the phone with can pull up a map on your screen and highlight as they talk... or they can click around on your computer and help you install things too. their TV caller ID even uses gps-like units in cellphones to tell you where someone is located and how fast they're moving... it was pretty cool (of course you set permissions for who can locate you since you obviously don't want anyone in the world to be able to track you like that).
after the demo, they gave us lunch, and then we headed our merry way back to campus where i was flooded with lots of exciting questions. 3 hours later, i'm happily at home, getting ready to go on a walk (i can't believe it's 4pm and only 72 degrees outside!)... scott, jared, and eric promised to entertain me and feed me cake tonight since tomorrow eric flies to alaska for 3 weeks and scott will be in NYC for something else... this works just fine by me :-)
last full day of being 23... ta da :-P
later dudes
the REU students were supposed to meet at 8am this morning for a field trip, and all but an apartment of 4 of them showed up on time. (those 4 got an email of "dude, you're required to attended scheduled events, you need to email me if you're not going to be there")
for those of us who went, our field trip to telcordia was pretty cool.
once we arrived, they fed us breakfast... then we listened to one of the VPs outline what telcordia is... basically if you've ever used a phone, they're behind what you're doing. they lay out the software that allows the different phone networks to connect... the software that allows caller ID on your cell phone... the software that puts GPS in cellphones... the software that allows you to hookup a new phoneline in less than a day instead of in a week or two... they make everyone play nice together and do a lot of cool research in the process :-)
after the VP was done, 3 different researchers told us about what they do... the first talked about the structure of the different applied research groups at telcordia, the 2nd about the importance of working out kinks with detailed digital simiulation (b/c cost of changing a product after it's implemented goes sky high, whereas it's easy to change things in the planning phase) and gave several computerized examples... the last guy talked about different networking models and current research on which ones work best for what information distribution systems.
after that, we got an hour long demo of some new software telcordia is working on called "sharenow". your TV can manage caller ID, as can your computer... and they showed the technology to forward calls from your office phone to your home and vice versa, notifying other phones, your IM, your computer, and other things at will in the process. the "sharenow" software allows you to have an "enhanced phone call", where say you want to ask someone for directions while you're at your computer... then when you connect through "sharenow", the person you're on the phone with can pull up a map on your screen and highlight as they talk... or they can click around on your computer and help you install things too. their TV caller ID even uses gps-like units in cellphones to tell you where someone is located and how fast they're moving... it was pretty cool (of course you set permissions for who can locate you since you obviously don't want anyone in the world to be able to track you like that).
after the demo, they gave us lunch, and then we headed our merry way back to campus where i was flooded with lots of exciting questions. 3 hours later, i'm happily at home, getting ready to go on a walk (i can't believe it's 4pm and only 72 degrees outside!)... scott, jared, and eric promised to entertain me and feed me cake tonight since tomorrow eric flies to alaska for 3 weeks and scott will be in NYC for something else... this works just fine by me :-)
last full day of being 23... ta da :-P
later dudes
Sunday, June 19, 2005
a funny
so in church this morning, as usual, we prayed for the people with birthdays this week, which includes me :-P
after the service, dennis, the man who is usually by himself in the row behind me (but this week was in the row in front of me) turned around and said "so you're celebrating your 24th this year?"
me: "yep"
dennis: "i'm celebrating a 24th too!"
me: (laughing a little, dennis has to be around my parents' age) "really? how's that?"
dennis: "yep, 24th anniversary tomorrow"
we were *both* amused.
the end. :-P
after the service, dennis, the man who is usually by himself in the row behind me (but this week was in the row in front of me) turned around and said "so you're celebrating your 24th this year?"
me: "yep"
dennis: "i'm celebrating a 24th too!"
me: (laughing a little, dennis has to be around my parents' age) "really? how's that?"
dennis: "yep, 24th anniversary tomorrow"
we were *both* amused.
the end. :-P
Saturday, June 18, 2005
gotta love friends :-)
it's been a good evening
after my nightly walk, ben showed up... he took me out for dinner to a cute little hungarian restaurant a block from his new house (he moved out of the campus graduate dorms this week)... it was called csardas... it was extremely authentic of what they did have -- i was impressed... right on down to the dumplings (gnochi) with sour cream :-) i had töltöttkáposzta (stuffed cabbage) and ben had transylvanian goulash.... it was fantastic :-)
after that, we decided to walk around and explore ben's new part of the world... (last night was his first night in his new place)... we walked for awhile and then heard an ice cream truck, so then we went to chase it down, and then found a bridge over a nasty jersey creek to sit on and enjoy our treats (the creek of its own accord was nice... there was just lots of trash varying from bottles to a bike to a bench from the back of a van in it too :-P)...
we walked until ben's road ended at a cemetary and then he was quite surprised at my comment of "dude, i actually really like walking around cemetaries"... we wandered through it... there were a lot of really ornate headstones from the mid 1800s written in hungarian, which was fascinating to read...
finally, we headed the mile back up to ben's house... he now lives with alex (another math grad student, even older than ben), and 3 undergrads who are gone for the summer... ben's the only one home this week while he finishes moving in
highlights at ben's house?
(1) ben has a dart board and i've never played before with real darts so we had a lot of fun with me trying to learn how to play -- i also severely amazed ben with my ability to get darts stuck into weird places around the room when actually aiming for the bullseye... that was a fun game for quite some time
(2) ben gave me X&Y (coldplay's latest CD) as an early birthday present (not a surprise when i commented a week ago that i wanted it after hearing the soundclips on amazon, and he replied with "well that solves that problem, i was wondering what to get for your birthday and was thinking earrings until you got yourself like 5 pair since getting your ears pierced! i'll get that for you and you don't have to, plus i know you'll be pleased with the choice!")
(3) we discovered how exactly to play the non-poker game in ben's new kitchen table... the table that comes with the house is something like this... when left alone, a perfectly good round table, but the top comes off and flips over to be a poker table (ben is MAJORLY into making lots of money playing poker)... and if you just remove the top you have bumper pool... after looking around for rules of the game, we finally got around to playing... ben won once, i won the 2nd game, and we were close on the 3rd, but ben just barely beat me again
it was a quality evening :-)
i get home then to a voicemail from roommate... she's working at a different summer camp every summer in the ELCA's "two by two" program and is between camps tonight and actually has a phone signal, so we spent 45 minutes chatting just now, mostly of her telling me about her adventures of the week and me telling what's actually worth telling of my own :-P it was a good catch-up chat.
now, though, i should be asleep... all this is to say... (1) yay for authentic hungarian dinner :-) (2) MAJOR yay for good chats with good friends and (3) MAJOR yay for quality evenings just hanging out with good buddies :-)
i love my friends :-)
night y'all. :-P
after my nightly walk, ben showed up... he took me out for dinner to a cute little hungarian restaurant a block from his new house (he moved out of the campus graduate dorms this week)... it was called csardas... it was extremely authentic of what they did have -- i was impressed... right on down to the dumplings (gnochi) with sour cream :-) i had töltöttkáposzta (stuffed cabbage) and ben had transylvanian goulash.... it was fantastic :-)
after that, we decided to walk around and explore ben's new part of the world... (last night was his first night in his new place)... we walked for awhile and then heard an ice cream truck, so then we went to chase it down, and then found a bridge over a nasty jersey creek to sit on and enjoy our treats (the creek of its own accord was nice... there was just lots of trash varying from bottles to a bike to a bench from the back of a van in it too :-P)...
we walked until ben's road ended at a cemetary and then he was quite surprised at my comment of "dude, i actually really like walking around cemetaries"... we wandered through it... there were a lot of really ornate headstones from the mid 1800s written in hungarian, which was fascinating to read...
finally, we headed the mile back up to ben's house... he now lives with alex (another math grad student, even older than ben), and 3 undergrads who are gone for the summer... ben's the only one home this week while he finishes moving in
highlights at ben's house?
(1) ben has a dart board and i've never played before with real darts so we had a lot of fun with me trying to learn how to play -- i also severely amazed ben with my ability to get darts stuck into weird places around the room when actually aiming for the bullseye... that was a fun game for quite some time
(2) ben gave me X&Y (coldplay's latest CD) as an early birthday present (not a surprise when i commented a week ago that i wanted it after hearing the soundclips on amazon, and he replied with "well that solves that problem, i was wondering what to get for your birthday and was thinking earrings until you got yourself like 5 pair since getting your ears pierced! i'll get that for you and you don't have to, plus i know you'll be pleased with the choice!")
(3) we discovered how exactly to play the non-poker game in ben's new kitchen table... the table that comes with the house is something like this... when left alone, a perfectly good round table, but the top comes off and flips over to be a poker table (ben is MAJORLY into making lots of money playing poker)... and if you just remove the top you have bumper pool... after looking around for rules of the game, we finally got around to playing... ben won once, i won the 2nd game, and we were close on the 3rd, but ben just barely beat me again
it was a quality evening :-)
i get home then to a voicemail from roommate... she's working at a different summer camp every summer in the ELCA's "two by two" program and is between camps tonight and actually has a phone signal, so we spent 45 minutes chatting just now, mostly of her telling me about her adventures of the week and me telling what's actually worth telling of my own :-P it was a good catch-up chat.
now, though, i should be asleep... all this is to say... (1) yay for authentic hungarian dinner :-) (2) MAJOR yay for good chats with good friends and (3) MAJOR yay for quality evenings just hanging out with good buddies :-)
i love my friends :-)
night y'all. :-P
oi
after going to sleep at 4, waking up at 9:55 to a phone call is not my idea of fun... i have to leave my cell on overnight this summer since i'm the after-hours emergency contact for the REUers on campus... it wasn't one of them that called though... it was an overly cheery worker from university conference services calling to let me know that their daytime housing emergency number has changed... this could have easily waited until after noon :-/
on the other hand, now that i'm up, i've checked all my email, and decided to look over the REU participants page again... here, at the end of week 2, i can match names and faces of all 28 students (well 27 plus a grad coordinator from prague) -- yay lara!
*yawn*
on the other hand, now that i'm up, i've checked all my email, and decided to look over the REU participants page again... here, at the end of week 2, i can match names and faces of all 28 students (well 27 plus a grad coordinator from prague) -- yay lara!
*yawn*
my evening
i've been in a nostalgic, looking through old pictures, mood all afternoon... ben came over around 8 then it was...
*to panera bread for dinner, done there around 9
*randomly saw a carnival just off of US1 on the way back, so ben decided it was a good idea to stop and get cotton candy -- his treat, so we walked around there until we finished off the bag :-P
*got home around 10, and ben and i took off walking around my neighborhood... quote of the night
ben: so yeah, i've been moving stuff all day, i definitely was making animal noises then
me: did you moo?
ben: *gives me the strangest look ever, then imitates a large ape moving boxes and angrily mooing* do you always think farm animals?
we seriously laughed our guts out for the next 2 miles
*got back to my house and decided to keep going to the park at the end of the street... laid down in the grass and watched stars until about midnight
*went back to my house to watch "in america"
*2am i drove ben back to his new house (like 1.5 miles from mine now, much closer than he was before), and i have no idea how i've managed to keep myself entertaining for 2 extra hours when i should have been sleeping... oops!
to summarize, it was a quality evening :-) now... to sleep!
*to panera bread for dinner, done there around 9
*randomly saw a carnival just off of US1 on the way back, so ben decided it was a good idea to stop and get cotton candy -- his treat, so we walked around there until we finished off the bag :-P
*got home around 10, and ben and i took off walking around my neighborhood... quote of the night
ben: so yeah, i've been moving stuff all day, i definitely was making animal noises then
me: did you moo?
ben: *gives me the strangest look ever, then imitates a large ape moving boxes and angrily mooing* do you always think farm animals?
we seriously laughed our guts out for the next 2 miles
*got back to my house and decided to keep going to the park at the end of the street... laid down in the grass and watched stars until about midnight
*went back to my house to watch "in america"
*2am i drove ben back to his new house (like 1.5 miles from mine now, much closer than he was before), and i have no idea how i've managed to keep myself entertaining for 2 extra hours when i should have been sleeping... oops!
to summarize, it was a quality evening :-) now... to sleep!
Friday, June 17, 2005
ode to being little
the this the new picture i posted of myself on facebook this week:
i was such a cute little kid when i was 3... what happened since then?
victory of the day? i got eric to go eat subway with me at the park, and THEN got him to lie in the grass and look for shapes in the clouds with me for an hour... that was fantastic
humorous event of last night: scott went on my 4 mile evening walk with me for the first time... as i was pointing out greenfield's house, greenfield pulled up into his driveway... scott immediately started jumping up and down in the street and yelled "YO STEVIE J!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!" (a name that grad students call him in conversation for fun, but never to his face!)... it was hilarious to watch his reaction and then chat for 10 minutes in the street before scott and i went on our way again... amongst other things, greenfield confessed that he loves the movie "the princess bride" and commented that he thinks scott and ben are more "normal looking" than i am... 1 mile back to my house later, scott and i still had no clue what he meant by that... go figure...
it's been an entertaining 24 hours. :-P
later dudes.
i was such a cute little kid when i was 3... what happened since then?
victory of the day? i got eric to go eat subway with me at the park, and THEN got him to lie in the grass and look for shapes in the clouds with me for an hour... that was fantastic
humorous event of last night: scott went on my 4 mile evening walk with me for the first time... as i was pointing out greenfield's house, greenfield pulled up into his driveway... scott immediately started jumping up and down in the street and yelled "YO STEVIE J!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!" (a name that grad students call him in conversation for fun, but never to his face!)... it was hilarious to watch his reaction and then chat for 10 minutes in the street before scott and i went on our way again... amongst other things, greenfield confessed that he loves the movie "the princess bride" and commented that he thinks scott and ben are more "normal looking" than i am... 1 mile back to my house later, scott and i still had no clue what he meant by that... go figure...
it's been an entertaining 24 hours. :-P
later dudes.
Thursday, June 16, 2005
How to answer 'Why aren't you married?'
this is one of those articles in the sidebar when you open hotmail today... (actual link is here, but i've copied and pasted it verbatim below)... especially point 7 cracked me up... hopefully you'll laugh too ;-)
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
If you're single, chances are you've been asked the following three questions:
Why aren't you married?
Why aren't you married?
and the very, very popular:
Why aren't you married?
... give or take another 999,999,997 more such questions.
Unfortunately, I can’t fix you up with any cute guys or girls to help you avoid these questions in the future. However, I can fix you up with some good snappy comebacks to fling at anyone who dares to question your single status.
So, next time somebody dares to ask you that “Why aren't you married?” question, pause, smile sagaciously (I love that word; it means “wisely”), and offer up one of the following. Or, just review them for your own personal satisfaction.
1. In the beginning, there were no elliptical trainers or low-fat/high-fiber muffins, and so people lived to only about 40-something. Maximum. Meaning, the pressure was on to get married before age 25. However, today, thanks to medical advances, we can all hope to live to 80. Easy. Meaning? Even if we marry at age 40, that's still 35, 45, even 55 years to be with a mate. Plenty of time to be married. What's the hurry?
2. Married people are not necessarily better catches simply because they were caught. I mean, have you taken a look at some of the married people out there? Seriously. Even Frankenstein got married. Obviously married people are not superior people.
3. Meanwhile, look at some of our cool single role models:
* Catwoman: Single.
* Buddha: Single.
* The Lone Ranger: Single.
Actually, virtually all superhero types are single: Superman, Wonder Woman, Dudley Do-Right. And then there’s The Ultimate Superhero: God—also single.
4. Plus, when you think about it, there’s no such thing as a Stepford Single Woman.
5. Why limit myself to being dissatisfied by one relationship when I can be dissatisfied by an infinite variety?
6. It’s interesting how our culture has the expression “happily married,” but no expression “happily single.” And those words are 100% certified by the US Census Bureau. Statistics show that although married men are reported to be happier than single men (surprise, surprise!)—single women are reported to be happier than married women (also a big surprise, surprise!). Meaning? This only furthers the irony that single women are branded as "unhappy” and “lonely” and “loser-esque"—when single women are just boldly holding out for the right situation, rather than getting married just to get married.
7. It's easy to become married. Millions of people do it every year. If you want to pressure me to become something, hey, why not pick something a little more challenging—like an astrophysicist.
8. True love is rare. That's why it's called "love" and not "really like" or "settling." And why we don't say: "I’m settling for you, honey" over candlelit dinners. True love is worth waiting for…and that’s what I’m doing.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
3 cheers for funny writers on MSN :-)
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
If you're single, chances are you've been asked the following three questions:
Why aren't you married?
Why aren't you married?
and the very, very popular:
Why aren't you married?
... give or take another 999,999,997 more such questions.
Unfortunately, I can’t fix you up with any cute guys or girls to help you avoid these questions in the future. However, I can fix you up with some good snappy comebacks to fling at anyone who dares to question your single status.
So, next time somebody dares to ask you that “Why aren't you married?” question, pause, smile sagaciously (I love that word; it means “wisely”), and offer up one of the following. Or, just review them for your own personal satisfaction.
1. In the beginning, there were no elliptical trainers or low-fat/high-fiber muffins, and so people lived to only about 40-something. Maximum. Meaning, the pressure was on to get married before age 25. However, today, thanks to medical advances, we can all hope to live to 80. Easy. Meaning? Even if we marry at age 40, that's still 35, 45, even 55 years to be with a mate. Plenty of time to be married. What's the hurry?
2. Married people are not necessarily better catches simply because they were caught. I mean, have you taken a look at some of the married people out there? Seriously. Even Frankenstein got married. Obviously married people are not superior people.
3. Meanwhile, look at some of our cool single role models:
* Catwoman: Single.
* Buddha: Single.
* The Lone Ranger: Single.
Actually, virtually all superhero types are single: Superman, Wonder Woman, Dudley Do-Right. And then there’s The Ultimate Superhero: God—also single.
4. Plus, when you think about it, there’s no such thing as a Stepford Single Woman.
5. Why limit myself to being dissatisfied by one relationship when I can be dissatisfied by an infinite variety?
6. It’s interesting how our culture has the expression “happily married,” but no expression “happily single.” And those words are 100% certified by the US Census Bureau. Statistics show that although married men are reported to be happier than single men (surprise, surprise!)—single women are reported to be happier than married women (also a big surprise, surprise!). Meaning? This only furthers the irony that single women are branded as "unhappy” and “lonely” and “loser-esque"—when single women are just boldly holding out for the right situation, rather than getting married just to get married.
7. It's easy to become married. Millions of people do it every year. If you want to pressure me to become something, hey, why not pick something a little more challenging—like an astrophysicist.
8. True love is rare. That's why it's called "love" and not "really like" or "settling." And why we don't say: "I’m settling for you, honey" over candlelit dinners. True love is worth waiting for…and that’s what I’m doing.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
3 cheers for funny writers on MSN :-)
ode to my life
being a girl in a field that doesn't have very many girls (c'mon, here at rutgers, out of well over 100 mathematics faculty, you can count the women on one hand), you get into some entertaining social situations to be sure.
dr. z. (my advisor) had arranged a special talk this afternoon at 3pm... unfortunately, that's exactly when scott and my presentation started. since i had a good excuse, i was still invited for free dinner at 5:30 anyhow.
dinner attendees?
me
aek (one of dr. z.'s other current students, a year ahead of me... from thailand)
teddy (one of dr. z.'s former students... from ethiopia)
melkamu (one of dr. z.'s former students... also from ethiopia)
simone (the speaker, whose talk i missed... italian guy)
dr. z. (israeli)
i was not only the only female in the group... i was the only american as well. it was a FABULOUS hour of chatting, and i thoroughly enjoyed it. as i looked around the table though, i was just amused at the social setting i fall naturally into just by being dr. z.'s student for example.
end of thought.
dr. z. (my advisor) had arranged a special talk this afternoon at 3pm... unfortunately, that's exactly when scott and my presentation started. since i had a good excuse, i was still invited for free dinner at 5:30 anyhow.
dinner attendees?
me
aek (one of dr. z.'s other current students, a year ahead of me... from thailand)
teddy (one of dr. z.'s former students... from ethiopia)
melkamu (one of dr. z.'s former students... also from ethiopia)
simone (the speaker, whose talk i missed... italian guy)
dr. z. (israeli)
i was not only the only female in the group... i was the only american as well. it was a FABULOUS hour of chatting, and i thoroughly enjoyed it. as i looked around the table though, i was just amused at the social setting i fall naturally into just by being dr. z.'s student for example.
end of thought.
hooray for thursday!
today is what i would call a success :-)
this afternoon, around lunchtime, dominique foata, a very famous combinatorialist who is visiting my advisor from france, was nice enough to give a talk just to the REUers... it went overall just fine, and i was glad he could be there.
after that i took time to eat my lunch and prepare -- scott and i ran a seminar from 3-4pm. it was actually a lot of fun. the title was "how to give a presentation"... some of them caught on though when i said "oh we'll start as soon as the other speaker gets here", and scott came in 5 minutes late... while waiting, one student commented "so is arriving fashionably late one of the habits we're supposed to be cultivating?"
partway through, it was pretty obvious that scott's talk was a farce... he did a real math presentation on some linear algebra stuff... but he started in the middle... he spent awhile talking softly facing the board and writing tiny... in the middle, i called his cell (and hung up as soon as he answered, but he talked like someone was there)... he did one proof by writing in complex notation on the board, not saying a word, but working it out slowly as he went... he did a proof "by triviality"... his phone went off again (not me)... he sat on the table up front for awhile and read them his notes like it was a poetry reading or something... his randomly called on people he knew didn't know what he was talking about... he ran out of time, and his conclusion was saying a bunch of upper level graduate class lingo to try to confuse them all
other than the students and me, chuck (our math grad director, and also an algebraist) came in and watched the talk, and when i let them ask questions, chuck and several others actually tried to stump him for fun... it was entertaining.
after 25 minutes of that, i got up front and asked "so how'd he do?... anyone want to start?"... when no one did, i had them rate scott on a scale from 1 to 5, 5 being "best talk ever", 1 being "worst talk ever"... scott gave himself a 4 for fun, one guy gave him a 3, the rest gave him 2s and 1s... going from that, i had the students make a list of "good speaking habits" and "bad speaking habits" on the board with me as scribe... then talked a little about the structure of a good talk "tell them what you're going to tell them, tell it to them, tell them what you told them"... finally, i wrapped up with some guidelines for what they should do in their talks next week, and that was that.
my job now? make the talk schedule!
anyhow, i was glad it went so well... one particularly entertaining prof (greenfield, who got the like 'best prof in the state of NJ award' this past year) commented that he's tried to do that kind of presentation before and utterly failed, and he'd be amazed if we could do so badly so as to make the students tell us so. well, HA.
now, in 10 minutes i should be walking down the street... there was a talk going on simultaneously to mine that my advisor sponsored and he invited me to dinner with the speaker... being as the restaurant is just 5 blocks from my house, i'm walking it, but should give myself a little bit of lead time to get there!
after that, scott plans to go walking with me tonight... i only went 3 miles last night on account of rain; i'm hoping tonight holds out better :-P
anyhow, my next responsibility is going on a field trip monday morning... so 3 day weekend to do my own research instead of REU stuff -- woohoo :-)
later dudes
this afternoon, around lunchtime, dominique foata, a very famous combinatorialist who is visiting my advisor from france, was nice enough to give a talk just to the REUers... it went overall just fine, and i was glad he could be there.
after that i took time to eat my lunch and prepare -- scott and i ran a seminar from 3-4pm. it was actually a lot of fun. the title was "how to give a presentation"... some of them caught on though when i said "oh we'll start as soon as the other speaker gets here", and scott came in 5 minutes late... while waiting, one student commented "so is arriving fashionably late one of the habits we're supposed to be cultivating?"
partway through, it was pretty obvious that scott's talk was a farce... he did a real math presentation on some linear algebra stuff... but he started in the middle... he spent awhile talking softly facing the board and writing tiny... in the middle, i called his cell (and hung up as soon as he answered, but he talked like someone was there)... he did one proof by writing in complex notation on the board, not saying a word, but working it out slowly as he went... he did a proof "by triviality"... his phone went off again (not me)... he sat on the table up front for awhile and read them his notes like it was a poetry reading or something... his randomly called on people he knew didn't know what he was talking about... he ran out of time, and his conclusion was saying a bunch of upper level graduate class lingo to try to confuse them all
other than the students and me, chuck (our math grad director, and also an algebraist) came in and watched the talk, and when i let them ask questions, chuck and several others actually tried to stump him for fun... it was entertaining.
after 25 minutes of that, i got up front and asked "so how'd he do?... anyone want to start?"... when no one did, i had them rate scott on a scale from 1 to 5, 5 being "best talk ever", 1 being "worst talk ever"... scott gave himself a 4 for fun, one guy gave him a 3, the rest gave him 2s and 1s... going from that, i had the students make a list of "good speaking habits" and "bad speaking habits" on the board with me as scribe... then talked a little about the structure of a good talk "tell them what you're going to tell them, tell it to them, tell them what you told them"... finally, i wrapped up with some guidelines for what they should do in their talks next week, and that was that.
my job now? make the talk schedule!
anyhow, i was glad it went so well... one particularly entertaining prof (greenfield, who got the like 'best prof in the state of NJ award' this past year) commented that he's tried to do that kind of presentation before and utterly failed, and he'd be amazed if we could do so badly so as to make the students tell us so. well, HA.
now, in 10 minutes i should be walking down the street... there was a talk going on simultaneously to mine that my advisor sponsored and he invited me to dinner with the speaker... being as the restaurant is just 5 blocks from my house, i'm walking it, but should give myself a little bit of lead time to get there!
after that, scott plans to go walking with me tonight... i only went 3 miles last night on account of rain; i'm hoping tonight holds out better :-P
anyhow, my next responsibility is going on a field trip monday morning... so 3 day weekend to do my own research instead of REU stuff -- woohoo :-)
later dudes
Wednesday, June 15, 2005
p.s.
this amused me
if you're not familiar with academic journals... the general system is (1) people write papers about new things they've done and submit them (2) the journal sends the paper to another mathematician who is from loosely the same area of math and has that person edit (i.e. referee) the paper, and write up a report of suggestions or corrections (3) the writers recieve the report and make the corrections to have the article finally published... unless the referee strongly recommends that the paper is trash and shouldn't be published (i've never seen that happen first hand, but i know it does).
back in march, one of dr. z.'s friends wrote a paper that dr. z. was assigned to referee, only he gave it to me to ref instead... i've never done that before... anyhow i wrote up my report and send it to dr. z. on monday, and he sent it on to the journal ref with:
------------------------------------------
Date: Tue, 14 Jun 2005 16:06:28 -0400 (EDT)
Dear (name of editor),
I delegated the refereeing of the (insert authors) paper to my brilliant and dedicated student Lara P------. She did a much beter job than I would have done.
You can download the report from:
(insert 2 links)
Best wishes
------------------------------------------
later, i get the following reply:
------------------------------------------
Date: Tue, 14 Jun 2005 14:32:06 -0700 (PDT)
Subject: Re:
Dear Lara,
thanks for your expert opinion!
(name of editor, who is well known in this area of math, who i own several books by :-P)
------------------------------------------
mostly this was my advisor giving me work he didn't want to get around to, and that was profitable for me to do (it's a paper that's useful for me to have read for my own research, but i was amused... dr. z. is very good at advertising his students' work and very quick to praise us (which is fantastic!)... i just didn't expect a "thanks for your expert opinion" from someone whose work i admire.
really, me writing a half page .pdf isn't a big deal at all, i just love the way dr. z. phrases things and spreads names around :-)
now, really, on with my day :-P
if you're not familiar with academic journals... the general system is (1) people write papers about new things they've done and submit them (2) the journal sends the paper to another mathematician who is from loosely the same area of math and has that person edit (i.e. referee) the paper, and write up a report of suggestions or corrections (3) the writers recieve the report and make the corrections to have the article finally published... unless the referee strongly recommends that the paper is trash and shouldn't be published (i've never seen that happen first hand, but i know it does).
back in march, one of dr. z.'s friends wrote a paper that dr. z. was assigned to referee, only he gave it to me to ref instead... i've never done that before... anyhow i wrote up my report and send it to dr. z. on monday, and he sent it on to the journal ref with:
------------------------------------------
Date: Tue, 14 Jun 2005 16:06:28 -0400 (EDT)
Dear (name of editor),
I delegated the refereeing of the (insert authors) paper to my brilliant and dedicated student Lara P------. She did a much beter job than I would have done.
You can download the report from:
(insert 2 links)
Best wishes
------------------------------------------
later, i get the following reply:
------------------------------------------
Date: Tue, 14 Jun 2005 14:32:06 -0700 (PDT)
Subject: Re:
Dear Lara,
thanks for your expert opinion!
(name of editor, who is well known in this area of math, who i own several books by :-P)
------------------------------------------
mostly this was my advisor giving me work he didn't want to get around to, and that was profitable for me to do (it's a paper that's useful for me to have read for my own research, but i was amused... dr. z. is very good at advertising his students' work and very quick to praise us (which is fantastic!)... i just didn't expect a "thanks for your expert opinion" from someone whose work i admire.
really, me writing a half page .pdf isn't a big deal at all, i just love the way dr. z. phrases things and spreads names around :-)
now, really, on with my day :-P
ode to my life
it's been a pretty good week so far
* yesterday, at work, Christine, the staff person I work most closely with, was out sick, but we made it through just fine anyhow... the seminar of the day was given my my combinatorial communtative algebra prof from this past semester... she related the card game set to affine geometry problems and that to coding theory -- it was extremely well done!
* today i'm tying up lose ends about field trips, and have to meet some students in 2 hours to help them set up a website... a lara's job is never done ;-)
* i've spent quite a bit of time making my handout for the workshop scott and i are presenting tomorrow afternoon... more on that after it happens, it should be good :-)
* i've now walked 46 miles since memorial day... i've also been working out to an exercise video every morning since january too... in early may i tried to order the level two video from amazon, only they sent me the "level 2 modified for senior citizens" video instead, so for 5 months i've been doing the level 1 video, which, in the meantime, has become old hat for me, and i can do all the exercises with less and less effort. after getting the wrong video and doing level 1 for so long, i guess somewhere in my head, i had decided the real level 2 video would be a variety of things to do, but not that much of a challenge... i was SOOOOOOOOOOO wrong... this morning was the first time i tried out level 2 (the real thing came in the mail 3 days ago), and man was it a good workout... i bought level 3 at the same time to save on shipping but i have no reason to drag that out for awhile... between the walking (and i'm getting faster and faster at my 4 miles per night bit), and this new video, dude... i'm putting myself up to a LOT each day... and it feels good :-)
now to move on with my day... happy wednesday y'all :-)
* yesterday, at work, Christine, the staff person I work most closely with, was out sick, but we made it through just fine anyhow... the seminar of the day was given my my combinatorial communtative algebra prof from this past semester... she related the card game set to affine geometry problems and that to coding theory -- it was extremely well done!
* today i'm tying up lose ends about field trips, and have to meet some students in 2 hours to help them set up a website... a lara's job is never done ;-)
* i've spent quite a bit of time making my handout for the workshop scott and i are presenting tomorrow afternoon... more on that after it happens, it should be good :-)
* i've now walked 46 miles since memorial day... i've also been working out to an exercise video every morning since january too... in early may i tried to order the level two video from amazon, only they sent me the "level 2 modified for senior citizens" video instead, so for 5 months i've been doing the level 1 video, which, in the meantime, has become old hat for me, and i can do all the exercises with less and less effort. after getting the wrong video and doing level 1 for so long, i guess somewhere in my head, i had decided the real level 2 video would be a variety of things to do, but not that much of a challenge... i was SOOOOOOOOOOO wrong... this morning was the first time i tried out level 2 (the real thing came in the mail 3 days ago), and man was it a good workout... i bought level 3 at the same time to save on shipping but i have no reason to drag that out for awhile... between the walking (and i'm getting faster and faster at my 4 miles per night bit), and this new video, dude... i'm putting myself up to a LOT each day... and it feels good :-)
now to move on with my day... happy wednesday y'all :-)
Tuesday, June 14, 2005
hmmm
bizarre dream last night.
i was at dinner with my great uncle art (the one who died a week and a half ago) and my great aunt shirley (strange that we refered to her as aunt minnie the whole time)... this is also strange because uncle art is my g-ma's little brother... aunt shirley is my g-pa's brother's wife, so the two of them have no connection to be together at all unless they're around my g-ma.
anyhow, just the three of us at dinner chatting away like nothing's different at all. (except that the only time i see these two people is in the context of larger extended family gatherings...)
then partway through dinner it dawns on me "wait, it's june 13 and art's obituary was published on the 5th... someone goofed, or they made it through the wake and funeral without him actually being gone yet" (that makes NO sense whatsoever)
anyhow, after a bit, aunt shirley disappeared and it was just me talking to uncle art and we were suddenly in the middle of a larger gathering and he started not feeling well, but as long as you massaged his hands he was ok and hanging in there. i thought to myself "shoot, his obit lied, but it looks like *this* might be the time for him to go"... i struggled for awhile with wanting one last picture of him, but thinking that was rude if he wasn't feeling well and technically died over a week ago (this is all illogical)
anyhow, getting past the bizarre things to wonder and worry about, then i dreamed of just sitting there, me with great uncle art and telling him my favorite memories of him for the longest time.
i woke up in the middle of telling him memories when a poster fell off my wall and woke me up, so i have no idea how this would have ended... completely a bizarre setting/set of thoughts to go with it, but in some way, the last bit was an interesting and good way of my head kinda looking for closure about him being gone and me being so far removed distance/closeness-wise right now. i never would have had a chance to just talk to him one-on-one in real life (always seeing people in the context of larger family gatherings and all), so even if it was a bizarre dream, in some ways it was an incredibly good mental release on my part.
anyhow, that's the scoop with my head. now to get moving with my day. :-P
i was at dinner with my great uncle art (the one who died a week and a half ago) and my great aunt shirley (strange that we refered to her as aunt minnie the whole time)... this is also strange because uncle art is my g-ma's little brother... aunt shirley is my g-pa's brother's wife, so the two of them have no connection to be together at all unless they're around my g-ma.
anyhow, just the three of us at dinner chatting away like nothing's different at all. (except that the only time i see these two people is in the context of larger extended family gatherings...)
then partway through dinner it dawns on me "wait, it's june 13 and art's obituary was published on the 5th... someone goofed, or they made it through the wake and funeral without him actually being gone yet" (that makes NO sense whatsoever)
anyhow, after a bit, aunt shirley disappeared and it was just me talking to uncle art and we were suddenly in the middle of a larger gathering and he started not feeling well, but as long as you massaged his hands he was ok and hanging in there. i thought to myself "shoot, his obit lied, but it looks like *this* might be the time for him to go"... i struggled for awhile with wanting one last picture of him, but thinking that was rude if he wasn't feeling well and technically died over a week ago (this is all illogical)
anyhow, getting past the bizarre things to wonder and worry about, then i dreamed of just sitting there, me with great uncle art and telling him my favorite memories of him for the longest time.
i woke up in the middle of telling him memories when a poster fell off my wall and woke me up, so i have no idea how this would have ended... completely a bizarre setting/set of thoughts to go with it, but in some way, the last bit was an interesting and good way of my head kinda looking for closure about him being gone and me being so far removed distance/closeness-wise right now. i never would have had a chance to just talk to him one-on-one in real life (always seeing people in the context of larger family gatherings and all), so even if it was a bizarre dream, in some ways it was an incredibly good mental release on my part.
anyhow, that's the scoop with my head. now to get moving with my day. :-P
Monday, June 13, 2005
random professor quotes of the day
it's been a moderately productive day... met with dr. z. about my research, met with scott about the presentation he's helping me give to the REUers on thursday, did my own work inbetween, went to a guest lecture this afternoon and then to dinner with the speaker after... there was my advisor, his postdoc, four of us who are his students past and present, the speaker, and my first semester algebra professor (who is very russian)...
random quotes of the day:
math 300 is "introduction to mathematical reasoning" for people who are never going to be able to reason to save their lives. ~anonymous rutgers professor
(from my first semester algebra prof, who grew up in russia) so i had a very rough geography professor when i was young.... once he asked me what the capital of california was, and being young, i guessed san francisco... his response was 'young man! how are you going to defend this country when you don't know the enemy? what good is that?'... so i set myself to learning the capitals of all 50 states... then, i figured that the only way that i was ever going to put that hard work to use was if i came to america, so here i am.... now when my students tell me that calculus is hard, i challenge them in a game of state capitals... half the time they can't even do that and it's their country!
my one analysis professor also stopped me in the hallway this afternoon with
"so i saw you and eric striding away down my street the other day and you didn't even say hello... you're hard to miss when one of you takes the sidewalk and the other is in the middle of the street"
(me): "well, it's been nice weather for walking... and yeah, eric has something against sidewalks... i thought it was you, but we debated for a bit, next time we'll say hi"
(prof): "that's fine... enjoy my flowers!" (prof walks away into his office, ending the conversation) :-P
conclusion? i work in a humorous department
later dudes
random quotes of the day:
math 300 is "introduction to mathematical reasoning" for people who are never going to be able to reason to save their lives. ~anonymous rutgers professor
(from my first semester algebra prof, who grew up in russia) so i had a very rough geography professor when i was young.... once he asked me what the capital of california was, and being young, i guessed san francisco... his response was 'young man! how are you going to defend this country when you don't know the enemy? what good is that?'... so i set myself to learning the capitals of all 50 states... then, i figured that the only way that i was ever going to put that hard work to use was if i came to america, so here i am.... now when my students tell me that calculus is hard, i challenge them in a game of state capitals... half the time they can't even do that and it's their country!
my one analysis professor also stopped me in the hallway this afternoon with
"so i saw you and eric striding away down my street the other day and you didn't even say hello... you're hard to miss when one of you takes the sidewalk and the other is in the middle of the street"
(me): "well, it's been nice weather for walking... and yeah, eric has something against sidewalks... i thought it was you, but we debated for a bit, next time we'll say hi"
(prof): "that's fine... enjoy my flowers!" (prof walks away into his office, ending the conversation) :-P
conclusion? i work in a humorous department
later dudes
i know nothing
it's been well over a month since i've met with my advisor.
i had grand plans of getting lots done in the meantime, but not so much. he knows i was out of town for 3 weeks, and then have been running around doing REU stuff... unfortunately, the only thing i've accomplished is finally reading completely through a paper i was supposed to referee a couple months ago.
at least that's more than nothing... i just found my notes from our may 2nd meeting though, and i've done NONE of it. oops.
let's just say it's a good thing i have a nice advisor but i need to get on track again QUICK!
i had grand plans of getting lots done in the meantime, but not so much. he knows i was out of town for 3 weeks, and then have been running around doing REU stuff... unfortunately, the only thing i've accomplished is finally reading completely through a paper i was supposed to referee a couple months ago.
at least that's more than nothing... i just found my notes from our may 2nd meeting though, and i've done NONE of it. oops.
let's just say it's a good thing i have a nice advisor but i need to get on track again QUICK!
Sunday, June 12, 2005
lots of laras :-P
cleaning off my camera this morning, here's 3 shots i especially liked
btw, the cookout for the REU went fantastic yesterday... eric and ben manned the grill... about 2/3 of the students showed up... a handful played with the frisbees i brought, over half started a 45 minute long card game with the deck of cards i brought, and a handful sat down and chatted with me after the cooking part died down. extra food? they took EVERYTHING, including the box of paper plates and cups and plastic silverware that had accumulated from pizza seminar all year... i was left with the extra watermelon and that's it... i'm glad it worked out well :-)
today... i *should* be doing math... meeting w/ dr. z. in the morning, and right now have nothing exciting to show whatsoever... oops.
later dudes.
btw, the cookout for the REU went fantastic yesterday... eric and ben manned the grill... about 2/3 of the students showed up... a handful played with the frisbees i brought, over half started a 45 minute long card game with the deck of cards i brought, and a handful sat down and chatted with me after the cooking part died down. extra food? they took EVERYTHING, including the box of paper plates and cups and plastic silverware that had accumulated from pizza seminar all year... i was left with the extra watermelon and that's it... i'm glad it worked out well :-)
today... i *should* be doing math... meeting w/ dr. z. in the morning, and right now have nothing exciting to show whatsoever... oops.
later dudes.
Saturday, June 11, 2005
farewells
just a remark... within the past month or two, two of my favorite blogs to check up on have said their farewells. one friend deleted hers at least a month ago citing various very good reasons. it was one that i checked most frequently though and i miss her random anecdotes and thoughts to read on a regular basis (not that i can't write her and talk to her in person anyhow). this morning, another friend deleted her blog, for also very well-thought-out and respectable reasons, but i'll also miss being able to keep tabs on her stories as well, no matter the mood they were written in.
i don't plan on my blog going anywhere for a long time (i like typing too much no matter who actually reads it ;-)), but all this is to say that the corners of the internet i frequent feel a little more empty without some of these sites to check up on. (i respect the reasons of both friends for doing what they did, just to say i did read frequently and enjoy it... you both know who you are :-P)
this is a random post. while i'm at it though, here's a comment for ALL of you: thanks for reading; although i nearly never get comments, the counter seems to think people hit on this blog like crazy (average of 20+ hits per day). whoever you all are, it makes me happy that you find my braindumps and ramblings worthwhile to check out from time to time, so thanks :-)
later dudes :-P
i don't plan on my blog going anywhere for a long time (i like typing too much no matter who actually reads it ;-)), but all this is to say that the corners of the internet i frequent feel a little more empty without some of these sites to check up on. (i respect the reasons of both friends for doing what they did, just to say i did read frequently and enjoy it... you both know who you are :-P)
this is a random post. while i'm at it though, here's a comment for ALL of you: thanks for reading; although i nearly never get comments, the counter seems to think people hit on this blog like crazy (average of 20+ hits per day). whoever you all are, it makes me happy that you find my braindumps and ramblings worthwhile to check out from time to time, so thanks :-)
later dudes :-P
ode to walking (again)
rejoice, i'm finally making progress again!
(what in the world am i talking about?)
for years i've been notably heavier than i should be. i know it, everyone knows it. sproadically i've tried to lose weight, but not seeing results quick enough give up after a month or so and don't try again for awhile... in the meantime, whenever life gets stressful, i tend to pack on even more pounds.
after my written qualifying exam in january, i made a goal though, and here it is june, and i'm *still* sticking to it -- this is amazing for me! without naming numbers, in january i weighed 90 pounds more than i did at the start of high school. for as tall as i am, and for as broad and german of a build as i have, probably just 10 pounds less than what i weighed then would be a healthy weight for me. so, in january, my mission became: lose 100 pounds, in a safe and reasonable way, doing stuff i intend to keep doing no matter what (none of this yo-yo dieting, and whatever... no killing myself with working so hard that after a couple weeks i want/need to give it up).
and you know what? from january through the start of may, it worked for once! i cut out caffeine from my diet by switching from frequent starbucks runs to tea and from tea to caffeine free tea and from caffeine free tea to water 95% of the time (i still need my cup of chamomile mint tea once a month or so ;-) )... i started exercising every morning before i get myself ready, and have kept it up... between my written qual in january and the end of the semester in may, i lost 20 freakin pounds (i've never been able to pull that off before!)
while that's just 1/5 of the goal, it's still fantastic to see progress. i mean not that it's tons noticable yet, but like look at these two pictures of me and my g-ma, the left is may 2004, and right is may 2005... i'm practically wearing the same outfit in both:
for the first time, i don't have my dad in the way more than once every six months to make random snide remarks about my weight (he thinks he's encouraging me, and i think he means well, but he's NOT helpful in the least)... now that i'm in jersey, i'm solely responsible for what i eat -- not my family, not the university meal plan... me. finally, i have friends who have gradually taken notice and are turning into some of my biggest cheerleaders to keep me going... all this together makes now the perfect time to keep going at it.
all that's fantastic, until for the whole month of may i maintained the same weight. that's not a bad thing... it's not like it was going up instead... i realize that when you're trying to lose weight that you plateau from time to time and need to adjust your food/exercise/something habits to jumpstart your body into losing instead of flatlining.
when i came back after memorial day i had the revelation that i live in the perfect neighborhood for walking and since then i've made good use of it. 30 miles intentionally walked around my neighborhood in the past less than 2 weeks... eric's come with me twice... ben's come with me a bunch more times.
and finally, today i got my payoff... down 3 more pounds in the past week... 23 down, 77 to go. it may take a couple years, but darn certain i'm going to make myself pull this off this time... i've made it too far to give up. :-P
so in conclusion, yay for walking :-)
the end.
(what in the world am i talking about?)
for years i've been notably heavier than i should be. i know it, everyone knows it. sproadically i've tried to lose weight, but not seeing results quick enough give up after a month or so and don't try again for awhile... in the meantime, whenever life gets stressful, i tend to pack on even more pounds.
after my written qualifying exam in january, i made a goal though, and here it is june, and i'm *still* sticking to it -- this is amazing for me! without naming numbers, in january i weighed 90 pounds more than i did at the start of high school. for as tall as i am, and for as broad and german of a build as i have, probably just 10 pounds less than what i weighed then would be a healthy weight for me. so, in january, my mission became: lose 100 pounds, in a safe and reasonable way, doing stuff i intend to keep doing no matter what (none of this yo-yo dieting, and whatever... no killing myself with working so hard that after a couple weeks i want/need to give it up).
and you know what? from january through the start of may, it worked for once! i cut out caffeine from my diet by switching from frequent starbucks runs to tea and from tea to caffeine free tea and from caffeine free tea to water 95% of the time (i still need my cup of chamomile mint tea once a month or so ;-) )... i started exercising every morning before i get myself ready, and have kept it up... between my written qual in january and the end of the semester in may, i lost 20 freakin pounds (i've never been able to pull that off before!)
while that's just 1/5 of the goal, it's still fantastic to see progress. i mean not that it's tons noticable yet, but like look at these two pictures of me and my g-ma, the left is may 2004, and right is may 2005... i'm practically wearing the same outfit in both:
for the first time, i don't have my dad in the way more than once every six months to make random snide remarks about my weight (he thinks he's encouraging me, and i think he means well, but he's NOT helpful in the least)... now that i'm in jersey, i'm solely responsible for what i eat -- not my family, not the university meal plan... me. finally, i have friends who have gradually taken notice and are turning into some of my biggest cheerleaders to keep me going... all this together makes now the perfect time to keep going at it.
all that's fantastic, until for the whole month of may i maintained the same weight. that's not a bad thing... it's not like it was going up instead... i realize that when you're trying to lose weight that you plateau from time to time and need to adjust your food/exercise/something habits to jumpstart your body into losing instead of flatlining.
when i came back after memorial day i had the revelation that i live in the perfect neighborhood for walking and since then i've made good use of it. 30 miles intentionally walked around my neighborhood in the past less than 2 weeks... eric's come with me twice... ben's come with me a bunch more times.
and finally, today i got my payoff... down 3 more pounds in the past week... 23 down, 77 to go. it may take a couple years, but darn certain i'm going to make myself pull this off this time... i've made it too far to give up. :-P
so in conclusion, yay for walking :-)
the end.
fun in NYC this winter?
got the following email this morning from a friend in memphis:
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Hey, you might want to check out the website of one of your former White Station classmates,
Jonathan Ross! He's doing his one man show, Walking in Memphis, in NYC beginning around Thanksgiving.
Even tho I don't personally know Jonathan, his dad, David Ross, has been my insurance agent for
the past 20+ years and he's a super guy. I guess you heard that his mom, Jane Ross (who owned and
managed her own tutoring service in Memphis), died of a stroke about 18 months ago.
Anyhoo............thought you might want to check it out, since you are so close to NYC!
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
intrigued, i googled jon's name, and the best bio i found it near the bottom of this page... while not someone i knew well in high school or someone i've kept in touch with since, jon was in my homeroom and various other classes throughout high school... he was already a talented actor in HS, and it looks like he's made a fantastic name for himself since (not that anyone who interacted with him in the last 5-10 years wouldn't expect it)... anyhow, i'll have to track the show down when it comes back to NY (i found nothing but amazing reviews of it while searching just now), and i'll have to convince a few people to come along. :-)
cheers for past acquaintances doing really cool things with their lives?
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Hey, you might want to check out the website of one of your former White Station classmates,
Jonathan Ross! He's doing his one man show, Walking in Memphis, in NYC beginning around Thanksgiving.
Even tho I don't personally know Jonathan, his dad, David Ross, has been my insurance agent for
the past 20+ years and he's a super guy. I guess you heard that his mom, Jane Ross (who owned and
managed her own tutoring service in Memphis), died of a stroke about 18 months ago.
Anyhoo............thought you might want to check it out, since you are so close to NYC!
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
intrigued, i googled jon's name, and the best bio i found it near the bottom of this page... while not someone i knew well in high school or someone i've kept in touch with since, jon was in my homeroom and various other classes throughout high school... he was already a talented actor in HS, and it looks like he's made a fantastic name for himself since (not that anyone who interacted with him in the last 5-10 years wouldn't expect it)... anyhow, i'll have to track the show down when it comes back to NY (i found nothing but amazing reviews of it while searching just now), and i'll have to convince a few people to come along. :-)
cheers for past acquaintances doing really cool things with their lives?
someone can't count
watching msnbc's movie hot list show just now, they showed their poll on what viewers thought of "cinderella man" (which i really want to see!, anyone want to come with me?)... 10% liked it, 85% loved it, 6% hated it.
in case you can't add, that's 101% of people in all. if you didn't catch it, that's ok... the brilliant folks on TV didn't either.
later dudes
in case you can't add, that's 101% of people in all. if you didn't catch it, that's ok... the brilliant folks on TV didn't either.
later dudes
pray for not-rain
here's to hoping the weather holds out -- i've advertised a cookout for the REUers on campus at 6pm today, and the forecast is for isolated t-storms all afternoon, chance of rain 30%... i have $120 of food in my dining room though, and i sure don't want to have it still sitting here in 8 hours. we'll see how it goes.
Thursday, June 09, 2005
say hey, it's a good day!
i'm feeling increasingly comfortable with my summer job -- that doesn't mean i'm feeling lazy about it in the least, just i'm feeling more settled about it.
i just scrolled through the list of students on the REU website. I think I can identify all about about 3 or 4 now if i had to, and those i should be able to get by process of elimination. for them all arriving 3 days ago, that's pretty good, eh? ;-)
the thing about being the graduate coordinator for the summer is that i'm kinda having to step back to who i was about 3 years ago to do my job. when things got stressful between quals and between my best friend's mom getting sick and then dying at the end of last summer, i've been kinda in hiding and doing my own thing since about august. i hang out with friends in 1s 2s and 3s, but no more than that at once, and freak out about even dinner with a large group where i know everybody. even going back to the start of grad school, i was friendly, but that was a different friendly... that was "hmmmm, none of us know anyone around here, lets make friends friendly"... this time around, i'm the one who knows what's going on, and so it's going back to being (a) friendly, but (b) helpful and proactive about being helpful to these 27 students who are here for the summer. really, it's a little bit of a mental stretch for me to get back in that mind frame and be more outgoing than i've been in a bit, but it's good for me, and the longer i'm at it, the more i enjoy it. the more i find my way around the DIMACS building and get to know the other staff there, the better too :-)
one student just stopped by yesterday to chat for 10 minutes about random stuff. another couple have stopped and asked me for computer questions and then ended up chatting for awhile more. still another came up and started talking to me for a bit after today's seminar; she just got back from a semester in budapest and last summer she worked in ohio with leigh at miami's REU so we had a bit in common. another student was a sophomore in my graduate combinatorics class last fall and i chatted with him for 10 minutes this morning before today's panel, and hadn't really chatted with him at all before... it's fun to get to know these students and try to make myself available to help them. i'm planning a cookout for them on saturday, and actually getting excited about it! would i ever plan a major social event for the grad students anymore? probably not, since i've been so hiding away from the world for so long, but having a fresh start and making friends with these kids is fantastic!
i was slightly concerned about the panel i had organized for today. i had invited the graduate directors from our computer science, math, statistics, and operations research departments for a panel on grad school in math and related areas. the format was basically that they would answer student questions.... but in my concern for detail of "what if there's just stunning silences", and my inability to rewind 3 years to how i felt in their spot (so much has happened in the mean time!), i searched online for awhile last night for question ideas and came up with half a dozen to keep the ball rolling. we went for over an hour, and i only asked 2 of my questions, so it was mostly the students getting info that they actually wanted. several of them actually thanked me afterwards for setting it up... i was pretty pleased with how it went... even after, each of the profs on the panel were cornered by a student or two for advice :-) so yay for the first week nearly being done, and for it being done well.
now, tomorrow is mega shopping day for saturday's cookout... and i need to get some math done before monday -- i meet with dr. z. about stuff i'm working on then!
oi.
yay for good days and for feeling fantastic about what i'm doing :-)
happy almost-the-weekend! :-)
i just scrolled through the list of students on the REU website. I think I can identify all about about 3 or 4 now if i had to, and those i should be able to get by process of elimination. for them all arriving 3 days ago, that's pretty good, eh? ;-)
the thing about being the graduate coordinator for the summer is that i'm kinda having to step back to who i was about 3 years ago to do my job. when things got stressful between quals and between my best friend's mom getting sick and then dying at the end of last summer, i've been kinda in hiding and doing my own thing since about august. i hang out with friends in 1s 2s and 3s, but no more than that at once, and freak out about even dinner with a large group where i know everybody. even going back to the start of grad school, i was friendly, but that was a different friendly... that was "hmmmm, none of us know anyone around here, lets make friends friendly"... this time around, i'm the one who knows what's going on, and so it's going back to being (a) friendly, but (b) helpful and proactive about being helpful to these 27 students who are here for the summer. really, it's a little bit of a mental stretch for me to get back in that mind frame and be more outgoing than i've been in a bit, but it's good for me, and the longer i'm at it, the more i enjoy it. the more i find my way around the DIMACS building and get to know the other staff there, the better too :-)
one student just stopped by yesterday to chat for 10 minutes about random stuff. another couple have stopped and asked me for computer questions and then ended up chatting for awhile more. still another came up and started talking to me for a bit after today's seminar; she just got back from a semester in budapest and last summer she worked in ohio with leigh at miami's REU so we had a bit in common. another student was a sophomore in my graduate combinatorics class last fall and i chatted with him for 10 minutes this morning before today's panel, and hadn't really chatted with him at all before... it's fun to get to know these students and try to make myself available to help them. i'm planning a cookout for them on saturday, and actually getting excited about it! would i ever plan a major social event for the grad students anymore? probably not, since i've been so hiding away from the world for so long, but having a fresh start and making friends with these kids is fantastic!
i was slightly concerned about the panel i had organized for today. i had invited the graduate directors from our computer science, math, statistics, and operations research departments for a panel on grad school in math and related areas. the format was basically that they would answer student questions.... but in my concern for detail of "what if there's just stunning silences", and my inability to rewind 3 years to how i felt in their spot (so much has happened in the mean time!), i searched online for awhile last night for question ideas and came up with half a dozen to keep the ball rolling. we went for over an hour, and i only asked 2 of my questions, so it was mostly the students getting info that they actually wanted. several of them actually thanked me afterwards for setting it up... i was pretty pleased with how it went... even after, each of the profs on the panel were cornered by a student or two for advice :-) so yay for the first week nearly being done, and for it being done well.
now, tomorrow is mega shopping day for saturday's cookout... and i need to get some math done before monday -- i meet with dr. z. about stuff i'm working on then!
oi.
yay for good days and for feeling fantastic about what i'm doing :-)
happy almost-the-weekend! :-)
Wednesday, June 08, 2005
onward and upward
yesterday i was moderately irritated with the world by the end of the day. mostly just exhausted. i came home with the intention of reading and instead discovered that it was a brilliant idea to just lie still in the dark and not move for awhile :-)
housing orientation went great... 10 minutes of me dispensing common sense information about living in dorms, 5 more of general questions, then a bunch of the guys took over the pool table in the community room i had reserved for the reading, a bunch of the girls came and chatted with me about "dude, what's it like to be a grad student?", "what in the world is (fill in the blank with something on the REU schedule) about?", etc., etc. after the girls left, i chatted with the students who came in from prague earlier in the week. when i asked if they'd had any luck getting to the store yet, they started laughing and one of them told me that he had volunteered on behalf of the group to go to the store and figured it could be that far... after walking for 2 hours in 90+ degree heat, he realized it was longer than he thought (via the most direct route the store in question is over 4 miles away, jan admitted to getting turned around on his way there and taking even longer)... luckily, as he was checking out, he saw some students in math shirts and figured they HAD to be rutgers students and got himself a ride back. i told them in the future, they definitely should get someone to take them or call me, but i was impressed that jan was that determined to get there :-P
anyhow, when i'm not around people who have been part of the REU before, i feel totally at ease and enjoy getting to know the students. i can probably match names to faces for 17 out of 27 of them so far, and for the first 2 days, i'm pretty proud of that :-) in the hour i was around their apartments last night, i enjoyed myself and enjoyed being up in front of them. at the orientation dinner i was more self-conscious since many people have been involved in this much longer than me!... sometimes i feel like they know how things have been done before, and without telling anyone expect things will happen exactly the same again, and are surprised when bringing in a new person changes the order of events up a little.
anywho, that's that, and for the most part i'm pretty happy with my lot in life this summer :-P for 3 years at valpo i helped arrange a program for junior high kids each year... and i was always part of an undergraduate research team, and especially my junior and senior years, i enjoyed helping out people who were where i was a few years ago and being friendly. eric joked that it's a superiority complex and i like feeling smarter than people; i think he's completely wrong... i just enjoy helping pull this kind of event together and then seeing people have a positive experience getting stuff out of what i've worked hard to do. :-P
i think i've even managed to rearrange the REU calendar to the satisfaction of the one professor who had criticisms of it last night... we shall see. i'm just trying to make everyone happy... even though by now i know that never works :-P
later dudes
housing orientation went great... 10 minutes of me dispensing common sense information about living in dorms, 5 more of general questions, then a bunch of the guys took over the pool table in the community room i had reserved for the reading, a bunch of the girls came and chatted with me about "dude, what's it like to be a grad student?", "what in the world is (fill in the blank with something on the REU schedule) about?", etc., etc. after the girls left, i chatted with the students who came in from prague earlier in the week. when i asked if they'd had any luck getting to the store yet, they started laughing and one of them told me that he had volunteered on behalf of the group to go to the store and figured it could be that far... after walking for 2 hours in 90+ degree heat, he realized it was longer than he thought (via the most direct route the store in question is over 4 miles away, jan admitted to getting turned around on his way there and taking even longer)... luckily, as he was checking out, he saw some students in math shirts and figured they HAD to be rutgers students and got himself a ride back. i told them in the future, they definitely should get someone to take them or call me, but i was impressed that jan was that determined to get there :-P
anyhow, when i'm not around people who have been part of the REU before, i feel totally at ease and enjoy getting to know the students. i can probably match names to faces for 17 out of 27 of them so far, and for the first 2 days, i'm pretty proud of that :-) in the hour i was around their apartments last night, i enjoyed myself and enjoyed being up in front of them. at the orientation dinner i was more self-conscious since many people have been involved in this much longer than me!... sometimes i feel like they know how things have been done before, and without telling anyone expect things will happen exactly the same again, and are surprised when bringing in a new person changes the order of events up a little.
anywho, that's that, and for the most part i'm pretty happy with my lot in life this summer :-P for 3 years at valpo i helped arrange a program for junior high kids each year... and i was always part of an undergraduate research team, and especially my junior and senior years, i enjoyed helping out people who were where i was a few years ago and being friendly. eric joked that it's a superiority complex and i like feeling smarter than people; i think he's completely wrong... i just enjoy helping pull this kind of event together and then seeing people have a positive experience getting stuff out of what i've worked hard to do. :-P
i think i've even managed to rearrange the REU calendar to the satisfaction of the one professor who had criticisms of it last night... we shall see. i'm just trying to make everyone happy... even though by now i know that never works :-P
later dudes
Tuesday, June 07, 2005
halfway there...
what a day.
i think my schedule for the day is easy (something at 5pm, something at 8pm) and it turns out not so much....
several of my grad student friends thought 3pm was early for me to show up to the office for the day, but i had emails at 12:30 asking where i was anyhow...
so many little things to do. in CoRE (where the dimacs students have offices), we had made name plates for their office doors like they were staff... in Hill (where the math reu students have offices), the building does nothing, you have to post your own... but to make people happy, i designed and printed up name plates for the math dept. doors today.
emceed the orientation dinner and don't think i made anyone mad, i think in general it went well. note to self: must learn how to pronounce czech names... i asked the czech graduate coordinator how to pronounce his last name and imitated the best i could but he corrected me (i couldn't precisely tell a difference) and i still got it wrong, to the amusement of the group of them who flew in from prague yesterday... i promised i'll get it right by the end of the summer :-P
although i copied the previous year's schedule to plan presentations, seminars, and the like, some professors want me to change things around even though rooms have been reserved since january, so tomorrow, even though i technically don't have anything planned or any reason to come in, i need to come and discuss reworking the schedule... oi...
for a part-time "easy" job, it's turning out to be not quite as slow as some people might think.
go figure.
i get to run housing orientation in an hour... go lara?
i think my schedule for the day is easy (something at 5pm, something at 8pm) and it turns out not so much....
several of my grad student friends thought 3pm was early for me to show up to the office for the day, but i had emails at 12:30 asking where i was anyhow...
so many little things to do. in CoRE (where the dimacs students have offices), we had made name plates for their office doors like they were staff... in Hill (where the math reu students have offices), the building does nothing, you have to post your own... but to make people happy, i designed and printed up name plates for the math dept. doors today.
emceed the orientation dinner and don't think i made anyone mad, i think in general it went well. note to self: must learn how to pronounce czech names... i asked the czech graduate coordinator how to pronounce his last name and imitated the best i could but he corrected me (i couldn't precisely tell a difference) and i still got it wrong, to the amusement of the group of them who flew in from prague yesterday... i promised i'll get it right by the end of the summer :-P
although i copied the previous year's schedule to plan presentations, seminars, and the like, some professors want me to change things around even though rooms have been reserved since january, so tomorrow, even though i technically don't have anything planned or any reason to come in, i need to come and discuss reworking the schedule... oi...
for a part-time "easy" job, it's turning out to be not quite as slow as some people might think.
go figure.
i get to run housing orientation in an hour... go lara?
happy tuesday?
REU orientation dinner in 20 minutes... why am i nervous?!?!?!!? i have to emcee, but it shouldn't be a huge deal... just lots of people giving me conflicting ideas of what to do... i'm planning to do as the DIMACS director tells me to, but i don't want to step on any toes either! anywho, i'll be glad when that's done... then on to housing orientation later... woohoo?
i need to get over this being nervous bit... otherwise it's gonna be a loooooooooong summer.
oi.
i need to get over this being nervous bit... otherwise it's gonna be a loooooooooong summer.
oi.
Monday, June 06, 2005
heh...
should i be scared of the REUer who responded to "...and this is lara, our graduate coordinator, you'll see her around a bit this summer" with "oh, i already know all about you, i've read all your website" when i haven't had any contact at all with the students before today?
interesting...
major thunderstorms for the past hour... it screwed up my plans to go on a walk... doht
done rambling... later dudes :-P
interesting...
major thunderstorms for the past hour... it screwed up my plans to go on a walk... doht
done rambling... later dudes :-P
so far so good
3 hours of hanging out around campus... oi... it is soooooooooooo hot today... (currently 87 with a heat index of 90)... which compared to memphis summer heat (which is currently 71 amazingly, but later in the summer hits triple digits) is not that bad, but still. i'm dressed for being in an air conditioned office so when i go outside, i'm immediately drenched... esp. when i'm 10 times stronger than some of the REUers and have to carry more of their stuff than them to help them get moved in... oi. :-P they should be glad they hired an REU coordinator who's part stubborn ox :-p
there's not much to do today other than give people keys and say hi to them, but i'm hanging out just to be sure and to be available. so many small details to wonder about this week, i'll be glad once i know people and things get going... i just want it all to be off and running at a good start :-P
the good year blimp is flyng around campus today... i've seen it pass my office windows 3 times... :-P
now, for lunch
later dudes
there's not much to do today other than give people keys and say hi to them, but i'm hanging out just to be sure and to be available. so many small details to wonder about this week, i'll be glad once i know people and things get going... i just want it all to be off and running at a good start :-P
the good year blimp is flyng around campus today... i've seen it pass my office windows 3 times... :-P
now, for lunch
later dudes
Sunday, June 05, 2005
:-/
mom called an hour ago.
my great-uncle art died early this morning.
his wife decided not to call and tell my grandma (uncle art's sister) until after g-ma's birthday dinner tonight. now, my parents are with her until tomorrow listening to her freak out about things. the wake is tuesday... funeral, etc. later in the week.
two best memories of uncle art:
when i was in 8th grade i read a book that referenced adolf eichmann (one of the chief nazi leaders under hitler), and recognized that that was g-ma's maiden name... when i decided to write a report on him for social studies class, and uncle art was the only relative who actually wrote me back with something besides "why are you asking these questions? forget about it."
uncle art's birthday was june 19 (mine is june 21). we were all over to his house with extended family for his 65th birthday. as soon as he blew out the candles (the number ones... one with a 6, one with a 5), he called me into the room and relit them, telling me that we *had* to sing for my 11th birthday too, and 6+5=11 so he'd even share his candles. i always thought that that was a funny joke.
anyhow... farewell uncle art. he was cool. and there's much family much closer related to him than me who are missing him now too...
what a world.
night y'all.
my great-uncle art died early this morning.
his wife decided not to call and tell my grandma (uncle art's sister) until after g-ma's birthday dinner tonight. now, my parents are with her until tomorrow listening to her freak out about things. the wake is tuesday... funeral, etc. later in the week.
two best memories of uncle art:
when i was in 8th grade i read a book that referenced adolf eichmann (one of the chief nazi leaders under hitler), and recognized that that was g-ma's maiden name... when i decided to write a report on him for social studies class, and uncle art was the only relative who actually wrote me back with something besides "why are you asking these questions? forget about it."
uncle art's birthday was june 19 (mine is june 21). we were all over to his house with extended family for his 65th birthday. as soon as he blew out the candles (the number ones... one with a 6, one with a 5), he called me into the room and relit them, telling me that we *had* to sing for my 11th birthday too, and 6+5=11 so he'd even share his candles. i always thought that that was a funny joke.
anyhow... farewell uncle art. he was cool. and there's much family much closer related to him than me who are missing him now too...
what a world.
night y'all.
yay
check this out:
now there are 2 rutgers math grad students who are members of lutheran church of the good shepherd :-) paul's been attending with me since easter weekend of 2004 (so for well over a year). he totally lucked out -- pastor j. was back this morning to preach for confirmation sunday in the later service, and pastor j. remembered when paul started visiting with me, so he insisted that he would do the whole "welcome the new member"/pray for paul bit during the service instead of the congregation president.
(random news: so paul and his girlfriend libby got engaged last month -- yay for them!)
it's always good to have pastor j. back, whether he's visiting or preaching (this was the first he's preached since he retired 6.5 months ago)... his sermon today was how our church has been on a journey, as has he since he retired and moved to virginia, but even though some of the dynamics have changed (we're going through the call process and almost ready to call a new pastor, he's been working as an on-call hospital chaplain in virginia and enjoying being part of the congregation instead of the shepherd where he's at), we're still all part of the great fellowship of Christians who have a faith of grace (instead of a faith of works), and no matter where we're at, we're still called each and every day to live that grace throughout our days, weeks, lives.... reaffirming our dedication of our lives to the message of God's grace isn't just for confirmands... it's for every Christian, every day... as usual, the whole shebang was illustrated with peanuts cartoons :-)... yay for pastor j!
on the calling a pastor note. there are 7 potential candidates on our call list... 4 will be interviewed this week and then the call committee will present their recommendation of a couple of names (based on interviews) to the congregation in a few weeks for us to vote who to extend a call to. the biographies of all 7 potential pastors were in the church library to read after the service and i sat around and read the 4 who are being interviewed... one especially stood out to me and i hope his interview goes well tomorrow, because i think he'd be really cool. he's worked in like 4 different districts of varying location/level of conservativeness, and i think that that puts him at an advantage (instead of one or two of the men who have primarily worked in the midwest and seem a bit more conservative than my congregation generally is)... he commented that he's committed to being conservative in doctrine but evangelical and open in practice, which is generally how i phrase what i love about good shepherd. i think this church does a clear job of teaching what we believe and not compromising on doctrine while being open to different worship styles and incorporating every member and their gifts in the church service. this pastor whose profile i liked best also commented that his current church has women deacons, elders, etc. just like good shepherd (which doesn't happen so often in lcms churchs not in a coast district), so that there wouldn't be conflict between the pastor's views and the way we, as a congregation, have chosen to act on different things. anyhow, it's really exciting to have actual names of people under consideration and see the ball moving further along as far as getting a new pastor. :-)
i think i'm done rambling about church stuff. it's a beautiful day... i need to go enjoy it ;-)
later dudes!
:-)
now there are 2 rutgers math grad students who are members of lutheran church of the good shepherd :-) paul's been attending with me since easter weekend of 2004 (so for well over a year). he totally lucked out -- pastor j. was back this morning to preach for confirmation sunday in the later service, and pastor j. remembered when paul started visiting with me, so he insisted that he would do the whole "welcome the new member"/pray for paul bit during the service instead of the congregation president.
(random news: so paul and his girlfriend libby got engaged last month -- yay for them!)
it's always good to have pastor j. back, whether he's visiting or preaching (this was the first he's preached since he retired 6.5 months ago)... his sermon today was how our church has been on a journey, as has he since he retired and moved to virginia, but even though some of the dynamics have changed (we're going through the call process and almost ready to call a new pastor, he's been working as an on-call hospital chaplain in virginia and enjoying being part of the congregation instead of the shepherd where he's at), we're still all part of the great fellowship of Christians who have a faith of grace (instead of a faith of works), and no matter where we're at, we're still called each and every day to live that grace throughout our days, weeks, lives.... reaffirming our dedication of our lives to the message of God's grace isn't just for confirmands... it's for every Christian, every day... as usual, the whole shebang was illustrated with peanuts cartoons :-)... yay for pastor j!
on the calling a pastor note. there are 7 potential candidates on our call list... 4 will be interviewed this week and then the call committee will present their recommendation of a couple of names (based on interviews) to the congregation in a few weeks for us to vote who to extend a call to. the biographies of all 7 potential pastors were in the church library to read after the service and i sat around and read the 4 who are being interviewed... one especially stood out to me and i hope his interview goes well tomorrow, because i think he'd be really cool. he's worked in like 4 different districts of varying location/level of conservativeness, and i think that that puts him at an advantage (instead of one or two of the men who have primarily worked in the midwest and seem a bit more conservative than my congregation generally is)... he commented that he's committed to being conservative in doctrine but evangelical and open in practice, which is generally how i phrase what i love about good shepherd. i think this church does a clear job of teaching what we believe and not compromising on doctrine while being open to different worship styles and incorporating every member and their gifts in the church service. this pastor whose profile i liked best also commented that his current church has women deacons, elders, etc. just like good shepherd (which doesn't happen so often in lcms churchs not in a coast district), so that there wouldn't be conflict between the pastor's views and the way we, as a congregation, have chosen to act on different things. anyhow, it's really exciting to have actual names of people under consideration and see the ball moving further along as far as getting a new pastor. :-)
i think i'm done rambling about church stuff. it's a beautiful day... i need to go enjoy it ;-)
later dudes!
:-)
Saturday, June 04, 2005
dude i'm weird
*6:15 this morning, leigh's been up for 15 minutes, so i go knock on her door
leigh: yeeees???
me: peek-a-BOO!
leigh: um, good morning, what are you doing up?
me: i never went to sleep yet, and i'm wide awake, so i wanted to offer my services... need help packing your car to go?
leigh: *looks at me like i have 3 heads* you what?
me: i can help you pack your car if you want... do you want help, or should i go away?
leigh: of course i'd love help... why didn't you go to sleep?
me: have you never had a night where you wanted to sleep and you lay real still and closed your eyes but no matter what your brain wouldn't stop thinking so next thing you know you're still awake only it's light outside and there's birds outside the window chirping?
leigh: um, no, that doesn't happen to me
me: oh, well it does to me, and it did last night... anyhow, like i said, i'm awake and happy to help, just tell me what to carry
*helped leigh pack and she headed out for ohio around 7... i headed out of the house to walk for half an hour then, and here i am now back in my room -- to pretend to go to sleep again or to just get on with my day now that it's nearly 8? hmmmmm...
like i said... i'm weird.
later dudes :-P
*12:15pm additiong: thankfully, quickly after writing the rest of this post, i realized that even if there was lots on my mind keeping me up last night, and felt like i had endless energy, if i went all night and all day without sleeping, my energy would disappear... here i am now on 4 hours of sleep, which is much better than 0 hours of sleep, right? ;-)
leigh: yeeees???
me: peek-a-BOO!
leigh: um, good morning, what are you doing up?
me: i never went to sleep yet, and i'm wide awake, so i wanted to offer my services... need help packing your car to go?
leigh: *looks at me like i have 3 heads* you what?
me: i can help you pack your car if you want... do you want help, or should i go away?
leigh: of course i'd love help... why didn't you go to sleep?
me: have you never had a night where you wanted to sleep and you lay real still and closed your eyes but no matter what your brain wouldn't stop thinking so next thing you know you're still awake only it's light outside and there's birds outside the window chirping?
leigh: um, no, that doesn't happen to me
me: oh, well it does to me, and it did last night... anyhow, like i said, i'm awake and happy to help, just tell me what to carry
*helped leigh pack and she headed out for ohio around 7... i headed out of the house to walk for half an hour then, and here i am now back in my room -- to pretend to go to sleep again or to just get on with my day now that it's nearly 8? hmmmmm...
like i said... i'm weird.
later dudes :-P
*12:15pm additiong: thankfully, quickly after writing the rest of this post, i realized that even if there was lots on my mind keeping me up last night, and felt like i had endless energy, if i went all night and all day without sleeping, my energy would disappear... here i am now on 4 hours of sleep, which is much better than 0 hours of sleep, right? ;-)
:-)
a good chat last night, and a very good chat tonight... i think i've made a new friend :-) (wonder away, details indefinitely (i.e. days, weeks, something considerably more than hours) later)
happy friday?
oi... last night i got a million and one (well more like a dozen) emails for the REU... the two people i work with most closely are out of town, one for the weekend, one for the week, so it's up to me to answer last minute questions. when i came to my email at 11pm though to discover so many, i was a bit overwhelmed... it's mostly sorted through now.... with the exception of a woman from another rutgers summer research program who wants to discuss the schedule of a student who is part of both programs simultaneously... as if i have any clue what to say... she'll probably call me tomorrow... we'll see how it goes.
today was a decent day. i was lazy for a bit of it... then i went and got a haircut.... i think i'm finding a new haircut place.
from august through march the same lady (linda) cut my hair, and she was fantastic... i went towards the end of april and didn't see her, but figured i hit an off day, so i let someone else cut... this afternoon i called
hair-dresser: hi, this is supercuts, how may i help you?
me: yeah, how late are you open today?
hair-dresses: 9pm
me: is linda working today?
hair-dresser: you mean leena?
me: no, linda... she last cut my hair like 2 months ago... is she working today?
hair-dresser: she doesn't work here anymore... i could have leena cut your hair
me: um, whoever's available,... are you busy this afternoon?
hair-dresser: we don't take walk ins anymore, can i get you an appointment? how about within the hour?
me: sure, half an hour from now? 4pm?
hair-dresser: we're busy then, how about 4:30?
me: fine, see you then.
ok from my point of view, that's a reasonable conversation -- i wanted to know hours and if i could request the hair-dresser i liked best in my experience there, but i didn't so much like the tone of the girl talking to me... whatever, i've been going there for 2 years, i can deal.
anyhow, i show up at 4:30 as do two more people -- WALK-INS... so the girl on the phone had LIED to me... not that that's a huge deal... just an observation that in person there was no problem with it... on the phone she acted like it was ridiculous.
the girl at the station closest to the phone really got on my nerves too. while i was waiting (i got there 5 minutes early), she was being loud, and obnoxious, and very much flirting with the man whose hair she was cutting even though he was talking about his girlfriend, and her boyfriend came through a couple minutes later to fix the stereo system in the back of the store... when i came in she was going on and on about how annoying "brainiac/smart" people are... strike 1
luckily, someone else ended up cutting my hair who was much more pleasant... while i was getting mine done though, the same other girl started complaining to another customer how she hates phone calls of "so how late are you open?", commenting "it's not like we're an office here"... no, you're not, and people know that, but you're a business, and if customers want to show up (a) when you're open and (b) when you have time to fit them in rather than driving 30 minutes in the rain for a long wait or a closed store, they pretty well have the right to call in and ask without being laughed at... strike 2.
finally, no one there is as good as linda. she was a little loud, but didn't say abrasive things (this other girl didn't realize she was getting on my nerves, although if she was smart (since she scheduled my 4:30 "appointment" and saw me come in about that time) SHOULD have known better about that comment regarding phone calls was out of place). the main thing was... you didn't just tell her "oh i just want a trim, and i still want to keep my hair in layers all around, she'd ask details on how long you wanted your layers to be where, and just was much more detailed, making sure she was doing exactly what YOU wanted, rather than doing some cookie-cutter style that everyone gets regardless. i appreciated that she paid attention to what she did. not that i got a bad haircut today, or that the girl who cut it did a bad job... it's just not the same or quite as well done.
at any rate, i was extremely irritated with the one employee by the time i had left, my hair's fine, but not as much as i used to like it, and i was irked that they had lied to me on the phone too. i've been going there for 2 years, and like that, they lose business. i have no need to continue driving 20 minutes to a haircut chain that's close to where i used to live if they don't show reciprocal respect for their customers... next month, i'm exploring to find a new place :-P
done with that rant... when i had finished there around 5, i called ben, who had just woken up at 3, and was hungry... with NJ rush hour traffic, we made it to "the cheesecake diner" a little before 6 and had a fantastic chat over dinner, then back to my house to watch a movie while we both worked on other things.
ben's home now, it's still raining, and i just finished reading Journey Through Genius by William Dunham... it is one of the best written popular math books i've ever seen. it's a series of 12 famous math proofs and sets them in their historical context anywhere from the squaring of the lune cerca 440 BC to cantor's proof of the existence of infinitely many transfinite numbers just over 100 years ago. to understand the proofs just requires a high school knowledge of math, but not much more, and the historical parts are written very entertainingly. if you're not a math person, the proofs of the theorems probabl y aren't your cup of tea, but the historical parts are excellent for anyone. i'd recommend it to anyone with a decent understanding of HS math who wants to know more... i was very impressed with its presentation. :-)
final random topic: leigh leaves tomorrow, and then it's just me and colleen for the summer... that's exciting, right? leigh's serving as a project advisor at an REU in ohio, same as she did last summer. she gets back the day i leave for prague, so i won't see her for the better part of 3 months now. all three of us get along well, but we each get along differently... leigh tolerates my silliness in a different way than colleen does, so her long-term absence will change the dynamic here at the house for a bit... then again i'll have the REU and colleen's teaching this summer and studies a lot elsewhere anyhow, so maybe it won't be *that* different. anyhow, i'll miss having leigh around in person to be silly with for the rest of the summer.
at any rate, i should get some sleep. dessert potluck at church tomorrow night should be lots of fun... however, i need to wake up early enough to make a dessert to bring and let it cool off before i need to go to the get-together... we'll see how well that works :-P
i'm done ranting and rambling... night y'all!
today was a decent day. i was lazy for a bit of it... then i went and got a haircut.... i think i'm finding a new haircut place.
from august through march the same lady (linda) cut my hair, and she was fantastic... i went towards the end of april and didn't see her, but figured i hit an off day, so i let someone else cut... this afternoon i called
hair-dresser: hi, this is supercuts, how may i help you?
me: yeah, how late are you open today?
hair-dresses: 9pm
me: is linda working today?
hair-dresser: you mean leena?
me: no, linda... she last cut my hair like 2 months ago... is she working today?
hair-dresser: she doesn't work here anymore... i could have leena cut your hair
me: um, whoever's available,... are you busy this afternoon?
hair-dresser: we don't take walk ins anymore, can i get you an appointment? how about within the hour?
me: sure, half an hour from now? 4pm?
hair-dresser: we're busy then, how about 4:30?
me: fine, see you then.
ok from my point of view, that's a reasonable conversation -- i wanted to know hours and if i could request the hair-dresser i liked best in my experience there, but i didn't so much like the tone of the girl talking to me... whatever, i've been going there for 2 years, i can deal.
anyhow, i show up at 4:30 as do two more people -- WALK-INS... so the girl on the phone had LIED to me... not that that's a huge deal... just an observation that in person there was no problem with it... on the phone she acted like it was ridiculous.
the girl at the station closest to the phone really got on my nerves too. while i was waiting (i got there 5 minutes early), she was being loud, and obnoxious, and very much flirting with the man whose hair she was cutting even though he was talking about his girlfriend, and her boyfriend came through a couple minutes later to fix the stereo system in the back of the store... when i came in she was going on and on about how annoying "brainiac/smart" people are... strike 1
luckily, someone else ended up cutting my hair who was much more pleasant... while i was getting mine done though, the same other girl started complaining to another customer how she hates phone calls of "so how late are you open?", commenting "it's not like we're an office here"... no, you're not, and people know that, but you're a business, and if customers want to show up (a) when you're open and (b) when you have time to fit them in rather than driving 30 minutes in the rain for a long wait or a closed store, they pretty well have the right to call in and ask without being laughed at... strike 2.
finally, no one there is as good as linda. she was a little loud, but didn't say abrasive things (this other girl didn't realize she was getting on my nerves, although if she was smart (since she scheduled my 4:30 "appointment" and saw me come in about that time) SHOULD have known better about that comment regarding phone calls was out of place). the main thing was... you didn't just tell her "oh i just want a trim, and i still want to keep my hair in layers all around, she'd ask details on how long you wanted your layers to be where, and just was much more detailed, making sure she was doing exactly what YOU wanted, rather than doing some cookie-cutter style that everyone gets regardless. i appreciated that she paid attention to what she did. not that i got a bad haircut today, or that the girl who cut it did a bad job... it's just not the same or quite as well done.
at any rate, i was extremely irritated with the one employee by the time i had left, my hair's fine, but not as much as i used to like it, and i was irked that they had lied to me on the phone too. i've been going there for 2 years, and like that, they lose business. i have no need to continue driving 20 minutes to a haircut chain that's close to where i used to live if they don't show reciprocal respect for their customers... next month, i'm exploring to find a new place :-P
done with that rant... when i had finished there around 5, i called ben, who had just woken up at 3, and was hungry... with NJ rush hour traffic, we made it to "the cheesecake diner" a little before 6 and had a fantastic chat over dinner, then back to my house to watch a movie while we both worked on other things.
ben's home now, it's still raining, and i just finished reading Journey Through Genius by William Dunham... it is one of the best written popular math books i've ever seen. it's a series of 12 famous math proofs and sets them in their historical context anywhere from the squaring of the lune cerca 440 BC to cantor's proof of the existence of infinitely many transfinite numbers just over 100 years ago. to understand the proofs just requires a high school knowledge of math, but not much more, and the historical parts are written very entertainingly. if you're not a math person, the proofs of the theorems probabl y aren't your cup of tea, but the historical parts are excellent for anyone. i'd recommend it to anyone with a decent understanding of HS math who wants to know more... i was very impressed with its presentation. :-)
final random topic: leigh leaves tomorrow, and then it's just me and colleen for the summer... that's exciting, right? leigh's serving as a project advisor at an REU in ohio, same as she did last summer. she gets back the day i leave for prague, so i won't see her for the better part of 3 months now. all three of us get along well, but we each get along differently... leigh tolerates my silliness in a different way than colleen does, so her long-term absence will change the dynamic here at the house for a bit... then again i'll have the REU and colleen's teaching this summer and studies a lot elsewhere anyhow, so maybe it won't be *that* different. anyhow, i'll miss having leigh around in person to be silly with for the rest of the summer.
at any rate, i should get some sleep. dessert potluck at church tomorrow night should be lots of fun... however, i need to wake up early enough to make a dessert to bring and let it cool off before i need to go to the get-together... we'll see how well that works :-P
i'm done ranting and rambling... night y'all!
