from roommate's blog:
"Tomorrow morning my Dad and I and a friend of his are leaving to go to a conference in Lancaster, PA. Ok, more accuratly my Dad and Bruce are going to the conference, I'm going to the resort where this conference is being held. I'm looking foward to a week of being able to relax, read, work on essays in peace - all while avoiding packing. I am making a short stop in Pittsburg along the way to stop at my best friend's grandmother's funeral. While that may sound convoluted, it really isn't. I think of my best friend as my sister and since her Mom is the only member of her immeadiate family able to go and I know her Mom somewhat well, I am going to stop and support her and be able to talk to my best friend about it. All in all, I am honored to be able to support her especially as much as she has supported me since my Mom died last year."
Sunday, July 31, 2005
ICP
this morning, sam came with me to international church of prague.. it was truly a blessing to be there.
the international church here is run by missionaries in kind of an evangelical free / baptist style... similar to international church of budapest. so it was basically as expected... there were a lot of guests since it's summer travel season so we met a lot of cool visitors besides the regular church people.
most of all, i just find it refreshing to find other Christians and worship with them no matter where I am. and in international churches there's a universal kind of personality to make sure to greet all the guests and get to know them rather than just have them be sitting in your pews and leave again. similar to how i felt my first week at budapest, when the worship time started, i felt at home and it almost made me cry for how happy it made me to be around other Christians. :)
the sermon was out of john 17 on Jesus' prayers for Christians in that chapter... wrapping up his life of talking to us about God, to note the kinds of things He prayed to God about us, and noting what it says about God's personality and what eternal life is. as with any sermon from a church that comes from that vein of the worship spectrum, it's a very different style than the typical Lutheran sermon ;), but also very quality. :)
anyhow, finding the Christians makes anywhere you go in the world feel like home. at least that's my philosophy. :)
later dudes.
the international church here is run by missionaries in kind of an evangelical free / baptist style... similar to international church of budapest. so it was basically as expected... there were a lot of guests since it's summer travel season so we met a lot of cool visitors besides the regular church people.
most of all, i just find it refreshing to find other Christians and worship with them no matter where I am. and in international churches there's a universal kind of personality to make sure to greet all the guests and get to know them rather than just have them be sitting in your pews and leave again. similar to how i felt my first week at budapest, when the worship time started, i felt at home and it almost made me cry for how happy it made me to be around other Christians. :)
the sermon was out of john 17 on Jesus' prayers for Christians in that chapter... wrapping up his life of talking to us about God, to note the kinds of things He prayed to God about us, and noting what it says about God's personality and what eternal life is. as with any sermon from a church that comes from that vein of the worship spectrum, it's a very different style than the typical Lutheran sermon ;), but also very quality. :)
anyhow, finding the Christians makes anywhere you go in the world feel like home. at least that's my philosophy. :)
later dudes.
Saturday, July 30, 2005
i am tired
this morning, talks began at 9:30, registration at 9 since today and tomorrow are a whole different conference than we've attended all week even though it's in the exact same place.
after the first two talks (the second one was by my BSM conjecture and proof prof.), jan and josef took me, sam, sarah, and melissa to see Karlstejn -- the palace of Czech King Charles IV, father of King Wenceslas, and basically the founder of just about everything in Prague, including Charles University, where I am right now. It was mighty impressed. Huge hill to climb to get there, but we got an hour long english tour too and learned a lot.
having returned to the city, sarah and melissa found a church with mass in english and went... i had been debating and decided i'd skip out since there are no talks tomorrow and i can attend international church of prague instead. sam commented he'd be interested in joining me and craig would probably come too. for a group of math students, this is a VERY non-standard religious demographic... out of 5 you should probably get 1 christian, 2 jews who don't actually attend synagogue, and 2 agnostic/athiests.... instead we have 4 of 5 are christian (2 catholic, 2 protestant), and arjun is...?
anyhow, while the girls were in mass sam started debating with me. he grew up elca but is leaning more baptist lately and takes an ULTRA literal interpretation of everything. "jesus was baptized in a river at age 30 so if we're supposed to model our lives on him, we should all be baptized by immersion as adults... i have a major problem with infant baptism and confirmation because i think that they're unBiblical" he tried to tell me "lutherans believe this" and "lutherans believe that" on several things that i said "um, no, not all of them" to and he tried to find stuff on the elca and lcms websites to support himself, but again it was in part due to his ultraliteral hardline on EVERYTHING. even though he fiercely questioned me on a lot of things, he was also willing to (equally adamantly) state that as long as you believe Jesus died for your sins you will be saved and that a lot of the other things we were debating will not decide whether we're saved or not, they're extra matters of tradition... where i argued that some things he gets upset about aren't "one's more Biblical than the other", he argued that in a lot of things that churches do, there's the "right, taking the Bible literally on how to practice" way and the "wrong, making our own constructions to replace the Bible" way. it was an odd debate, but really interesting to discuss religion for an hour with an REU student.
anyhow, dinner and making some calls, and then to sleep. it'll be refreshing to visit a church tomorrow since i was in airports most of last sunday.
later dudes
after the first two talks (the second one was by my BSM conjecture and proof prof.), jan and josef took me, sam, sarah, and melissa to see Karlstejn -- the palace of Czech King Charles IV, father of King Wenceslas, and basically the founder of just about everything in Prague, including Charles University, where I am right now. It was mighty impressed. Huge hill to climb to get there, but we got an hour long english tour too and learned a lot.
having returned to the city, sarah and melissa found a church with mass in english and went... i had been debating and decided i'd skip out since there are no talks tomorrow and i can attend international church of prague instead. sam commented he'd be interested in joining me and craig would probably come too. for a group of math students, this is a VERY non-standard religious demographic... out of 5 you should probably get 1 christian, 2 jews who don't actually attend synagogue, and 2 agnostic/athiests.... instead we have 4 of 5 are christian (2 catholic, 2 protestant), and arjun is...?
anyhow, while the girls were in mass sam started debating with me. he grew up elca but is leaning more baptist lately and takes an ULTRA literal interpretation of everything. "jesus was baptized in a river at age 30 so if we're supposed to model our lives on him, we should all be baptized by immersion as adults... i have a major problem with infant baptism and confirmation because i think that they're unBiblical" he tried to tell me "lutherans believe this" and "lutherans believe that" on several things that i said "um, no, not all of them" to and he tried to find stuff on the elca and lcms websites to support himself, but again it was in part due to his ultraliteral hardline on EVERYTHING. even though he fiercely questioned me on a lot of things, he was also willing to (equally adamantly) state that as long as you believe Jesus died for your sins you will be saved and that a lot of the other things we were debating will not decide whether we're saved or not, they're extra matters of tradition... where i argued that some things he gets upset about aren't "one's more Biblical than the other", he argued that in a lot of things that churches do, there's the "right, taking the Bible literally on how to practice" way and the "wrong, making our own constructions to replace the Bible" way. it was an odd debate, but really interesting to discuss religion for an hour with an REU student.
anyhow, dinner and making some calls, and then to sleep. it'll be refreshing to visit a church tomorrow since i was in airports most of last sunday.
later dudes
priscilla anne keup schumann fischer
my grandma's obituary came out in the pittsburgh paper today. you can find it here.
my family is awesome. between everything else, my aunt got permission to video and audio record the service for me and for my aunt debbee who can't come... i will visit prscilla in pittsburgh when i get back from europe and watch the tape and visit g-ma's grave and have some quiet time to deal with it all there, which will be good.
and here's evidence of how amazing my best friend is. she was travelling somewhere in PA with her dad for a conference this next week. the two of them rerouted and rescheduled their trip too even though they're travelling with someone else... so sunday evening they'll stay in pittsburgh (instead of gettysburg, some 2-3 hours east as originally planned) so roommate can go to my grandma's wake on sunday night and to the funeral on monday morning. even though i can't be there, she had offered to show up and give my mom a hug for me and tell me about it. and the fact that even her dad agrees it's important enough for her to do for them to reschedule their trip, and someone else's life to make it work, i think is amazing of them. this just going as one case amongst many -- i have amazing friends.
more math, and possibly a castle today.... later dudes.
my family is awesome. between everything else, my aunt got permission to video and audio record the service for me and for my aunt debbee who can't come... i will visit prscilla in pittsburgh when i get back from europe and watch the tape and visit g-ma's grave and have some quiet time to deal with it all there, which will be good.
and here's evidence of how amazing my best friend is. she was travelling somewhere in PA with her dad for a conference this next week. the two of them rerouted and rescheduled their trip too even though they're travelling with someone else... so sunday evening they'll stay in pittsburgh (instead of gettysburg, some 2-3 hours east as originally planned) so roommate can go to my grandma's wake on sunday night and to the funeral on monday morning. even though i can't be there, she had offered to show up and give my mom a hug for me and tell me about it. and the fact that even her dad agrees it's important enough for her to do for them to reschedule their trip, and someone else's life to make it work, i think is amazing of them. this just going as one case amongst many -- i have amazing friends.
more math, and possibly a castle today.... later dudes.
Friday, July 29, 2005
eating like a european...
i pointed out to the REU students at lunch on monday that you can tell if someone is european or american by how they hold their knife and fork... the students were amazed that it was true... then some of the czech students overheard and were amazed it was true too!
americans generally eat with our fork in our right hand. (as do europeans). however, when we need to use a knife, we put our fork in our left, cut with our knives in our right hands, then put the knife on the plate and put the fork back in the right hand. europeans, when they need to use knives, keep the knife in the right hand, fork in the left and eat lefthandedly while still holding their knives. amusing, but true... at least in eastern europe.
it's entertaining to see how many things we, as americans, do that make us stick out as different even when we try to be calm and non-sticking-out. here's another one..
the other night jan told me he had read all my online mass emails from my semester in budapest... and thought it was funny that i had written then that i had to teach myself not to smile at strangers since no one else did it. he commented, that that is a true observation and the further north you go in europe the more personal space people give one another and the less likely they are to say hi even to their friends. sarah asked him then, "so when you see a stranger smiling at you in the street, what do you think?"... jan started laughing and then replied "ah well, i guess i think 'well, surely that is an american!'"... go figure.
after talks all morning, jan and josef took melissa, sarah, arjun, sam, and me to the prague jewish quarter. when i was here in 2002 the group of us hired an english tour guide of the area so i learned a lot more that time, BUT there was horrible flooding this year, so of note, i got to see the pinkas synagogue not full of water and looking beautiful this time... our trip was short though... we visited the highlights then hurried off again... yesterday prague had a high of 93 degrees... when their usual average high temperature is 73 degrees this week of the year, they're not so much equipped with central air 90% of places you go... or fans... so you just swelter... jan thinks that yesterday's high was a record high in all time in prague for the past century. i'd believe it. even though it's around where it was in jersey all summer weather wise, without a/c or fans, it makes a big difference.
on the way back from the synagogues, jan pointed out a garden to us... here you are wandering the crooked old cobblestone streets of prague, when if you know the right door to go through, there are often whole blocks that are empty in the middle and filled with ornate gardens... the gardens sarah and i visited yesterday were of that variety too... you just have to know where to look. very european and very cool.
as far as g-ma stuff, i talked to my mom last night and got some more details. my mom had been in pittsburgh all last week and said grandma was quiet, but pleasant and responsive and generally happy to be around and smile and listen, but that she somehow just looked radiant. on wednesday, she was apparently completely unresponsive for the last 11 hours she was in the hospital instead of her nursing home... at some point wednesday afternoon her iv fell out and wouldn't go back in so they went to take her to get a triport put in, and on the way to that procedure she apparently took a long and sighing breath and just didn't breathe anymore... so she went very calmly and peacefully. i spent 2 hours just thinking and writing down memories last night until it was late enough to try to call people in the states... that was good for me.
now, the first conference we were here for finished today. there is another one tomorrow and sunday that more rutgers people should arrive for today (including two grad students: bill and mike, who i know reasonably well)... across the cafeteria at lunch today i saw deszo miklos and zoltan furedi... miklos is the hungarian director of bsm, and furedi was one of my professors in bsm 3 years ago; he's a really famous research mathematician. there will be many more of the hungarian mathematicians around this weekend, but the one i'm most looking forward to hearing is vera sos... she is a hungarian woman mathematician who has published and been best of friends with some of the very best other hungarian mathematicians of all time (laszlo lovasz, paul erdos, etc.)... for a field that's extremely skewed to men, though not as much as it once was, she's an extremely big name in combinatorics and has been for a long time. i'm excited that i get to hear her.
jan wants to take us out of prague to see a castle tomorrow... however our plans will quickly be adjusted depending on when sos speaks... we shall see...
dinner then back to the dorm to hopefully figure out a way to not be sweaty... it's sooo digustingly hot around here today.
done rambling.
i like europe :)
americans generally eat with our fork in our right hand. (as do europeans). however, when we need to use a knife, we put our fork in our left, cut with our knives in our right hands, then put the knife on the plate and put the fork back in the right hand. europeans, when they need to use knives, keep the knife in the right hand, fork in the left and eat lefthandedly while still holding their knives. amusing, but true... at least in eastern europe.
it's entertaining to see how many things we, as americans, do that make us stick out as different even when we try to be calm and non-sticking-out. here's another one..
the other night jan told me he had read all my online mass emails from my semester in budapest... and thought it was funny that i had written then that i had to teach myself not to smile at strangers since no one else did it. he commented, that that is a true observation and the further north you go in europe the more personal space people give one another and the less likely they are to say hi even to their friends. sarah asked him then, "so when you see a stranger smiling at you in the street, what do you think?"... jan started laughing and then replied "ah well, i guess i think 'well, surely that is an american!'"... go figure.
after talks all morning, jan and josef took melissa, sarah, arjun, sam, and me to the prague jewish quarter. when i was here in 2002 the group of us hired an english tour guide of the area so i learned a lot more that time, BUT there was horrible flooding this year, so of note, i got to see the pinkas synagogue not full of water and looking beautiful this time... our trip was short though... we visited the highlights then hurried off again... yesterday prague had a high of 93 degrees... when their usual average high temperature is 73 degrees this week of the year, they're not so much equipped with central air 90% of places you go... or fans... so you just swelter... jan thinks that yesterday's high was a record high in all time in prague for the past century. i'd believe it. even though it's around where it was in jersey all summer weather wise, without a/c or fans, it makes a big difference.
on the way back from the synagogues, jan pointed out a garden to us... here you are wandering the crooked old cobblestone streets of prague, when if you know the right door to go through, there are often whole blocks that are empty in the middle and filled with ornate gardens... the gardens sarah and i visited yesterday were of that variety too... you just have to know where to look. very european and very cool.
as far as g-ma stuff, i talked to my mom last night and got some more details. my mom had been in pittsburgh all last week and said grandma was quiet, but pleasant and responsive and generally happy to be around and smile and listen, but that she somehow just looked radiant. on wednesday, she was apparently completely unresponsive for the last 11 hours she was in the hospital instead of her nursing home... at some point wednesday afternoon her iv fell out and wouldn't go back in so they went to take her to get a triport put in, and on the way to that procedure she apparently took a long and sighing breath and just didn't breathe anymore... so she went very calmly and peacefully. i spent 2 hours just thinking and writing down memories last night until it was late enough to try to call people in the states... that was good for me.
now, the first conference we were here for finished today. there is another one tomorrow and sunday that more rutgers people should arrive for today (including two grad students: bill and mike, who i know reasonably well)... across the cafeteria at lunch today i saw deszo miklos and zoltan furedi... miklos is the hungarian director of bsm, and furedi was one of my professors in bsm 3 years ago; he's a really famous research mathematician. there will be many more of the hungarian mathematicians around this weekend, but the one i'm most looking forward to hearing is vera sos... she is a hungarian woman mathematician who has published and been best of friends with some of the very best other hungarian mathematicians of all time (laszlo lovasz, paul erdos, etc.)... for a field that's extremely skewed to men, though not as much as it once was, she's an extremely big name in combinatorics and has been for a long time. i'm excited that i get to hear her.
jan wants to take us out of prague to see a castle tomorrow... however our plans will quickly be adjusted depending on when sos speaks... we shall see...
dinner then back to the dorm to hopefully figure out a way to not be sweaty... it's sooo digustingly hot around here today.
done rambling.
i like europe :)
Thursday, July 28, 2005
what a day....
i decided that i'm best off, even if the students here know that my grandma died yesterday, to distract myself from feeling things until i get back to the dorm, and so other than occasionally not being able to keep from tearing up, i've managed to do just that.
after conference stuff this afternoon, sarah and i made our way to the train station to buy tickets for our next stops after prague (we both leave august 10... so does everyone else but they already have plane tickets)... my one way ticket to budapest cost me all of 1168 Czech Krowns, which is between $47 and $48... you totally can't beat that!
after that, we wandered through the stores at Wenceslas Square, stopped for ice cream, visited some hidden Franciscan gardens, and now came back to school to meet up with Melissa for dinner.
after dinner, i think i'm back to the dorm for a good old fashioned cry and a few phone calls... apaprently the 5 minute call i made to my parents on sunday cost me $42 though, so oi... apparently i can't talk too long if i want to not get myself in major debt.
for the email i wrote earlier, i've gotten many wonderfully nice responses... it's frustrating to not be immediately close to friends right now, but the first response i got was:
"3 hugs from Zsófi******** ;o)) in advance;-P" (one of my friends in budapest :) )... that made me smile.
my aunt priscilla and uncle bob have a video camera and since neither me or my aunt debbee can make it to pittsburgh, my aunt was already making plans this morning to make sure the pastor is ok with them videotaping the service to send to me and debbee... that may sound strange, but in 6th grade, we tape recorded my great uncle dan's funeral for some family members who couldn't make it either. like they say... funerals are for the living not for the dead... and even though it's going to be rough to not be there in person, i'll at least have that to help bring around some closure too when i get a chance to watch it next month.
it's odd because my mom and her living 3 siblings and me are kind of the closest family who visit g-ma frequently... being the oldest grandchild i'm one of only two grandkids who remembers g-ma enough before the strokes to have not been afraid to continue talking with her and writing her for the past 5 years, so i've kinda graduated to being included in my mom's generation when things happen with grandma instead of with the other grandkids...
anyhow, if i had to pick one person ever to say is my hero, THIS grandma for certain would be it... i hope by the time i'm done with my own life to be able to say i was even half the person she was... and i already miss her a lot (then again i've missed her a lot ever since her strokes started eating away at her outward capacity 5 years ago...)...
anyhow, i'm making people wait for dinner... i should run... a very small handful of you (who have been forewarned) will get phonecalls in a bit.
later.
after conference stuff this afternoon, sarah and i made our way to the train station to buy tickets for our next stops after prague (we both leave august 10... so does everyone else but they already have plane tickets)... my one way ticket to budapest cost me all of 1168 Czech Krowns, which is between $47 and $48... you totally can't beat that!
after that, we wandered through the stores at Wenceslas Square, stopped for ice cream, visited some hidden Franciscan gardens, and now came back to school to meet up with Melissa for dinner.
after dinner, i think i'm back to the dorm for a good old fashioned cry and a few phone calls... apaprently the 5 minute call i made to my parents on sunday cost me $42 though, so oi... apparently i can't talk too long if i want to not get myself in major debt.
for the email i wrote earlier, i've gotten many wonderfully nice responses... it's frustrating to not be immediately close to friends right now, but the first response i got was:
"3 hugs from Zsófi******** ;o)) in advance;-P" (one of my friends in budapest :) )... that made me smile.
my aunt priscilla and uncle bob have a video camera and since neither me or my aunt debbee can make it to pittsburgh, my aunt was already making plans this morning to make sure the pastor is ok with them videotaping the service to send to me and debbee... that may sound strange, but in 6th grade, we tape recorded my great uncle dan's funeral for some family members who couldn't make it either. like they say... funerals are for the living not for the dead... and even though it's going to be rough to not be there in person, i'll at least have that to help bring around some closure too when i get a chance to watch it next month.
it's odd because my mom and her living 3 siblings and me are kind of the closest family who visit g-ma frequently... being the oldest grandchild i'm one of only two grandkids who remembers g-ma enough before the strokes to have not been afraid to continue talking with her and writing her for the past 5 years, so i've kinda graduated to being included in my mom's generation when things happen with grandma instead of with the other grandkids...
anyhow, if i had to pick one person ever to say is my hero, THIS grandma for certain would be it... i hope by the time i'm done with my own life to be able to say i was even half the person she was... and i already miss her a lot (then again i've missed her a lot ever since her strokes started eating away at her outward capacity 5 years ago...)...
anyhow, i'm making people wait for dinner... i should run... a very small handful of you (who have been forewarned) will get phonecalls in a bit.
later.
life update
for those of you who read this but didn't get an email this morning, about 150 people woke up to reading this from me.... enjoy?
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
greetings all from prague,
as far as my time here, prague is great... in the
mornings we attend a combinatorics conference, and we
have the afternoons for exploring. at the conference
dinner last night, i remember thinking to myself (even
if it sounds a little prosaic or something): a
european restaurant full of people discussing math and
culture in 3 languages (czech, hungarian, english)
over beers and steaks, crepes, and tea... this is what
life should always be like. :)
needless to say, i enjoy europe. :)
on another note, i got the following emails from my
mom yesterday:
~~~~~~~~~~~~
Just got a call from Priscilla this morning (Wed/6:38
a.m.) that grandma is back in the hospital running 104
fever and trying to throw up. She is totally unaware
that she is at the hospital and that Cil is there.
Cil said it's the worst she's seen her...though she
also said grandma would probably be fine once they
treated her. Wanted you to know...to pray for
grandma.
I'll email you again later when I know what's going
on. If you get this and want to telephone - or give
me a phone number and time when I can reach you ,
please do...I should certainly know something by your
tomorrow afternoon.
I love you and hope you are having a wonderful time
seeing and learning new things and meeting new people.
Mom
~~~~~~~~~~~~
Since I wrote earlier, Priscilla called back to say
that the nurse thinks the end may be near, unless she
responds to the antibiotic. She said that each time
the infection flares up, it takes a greater toll on
the body for someone in grandma's condition. Grandma
is having more frequent episodes of stopping breathing
- and then starting to breath again...that - in
addition to the fact that grandma has been totally
nonresponsive with anyone - is why the nurse said what
she did to Priscilla.
Talk to you later..why not wait until tomorrow to
call...or until I know more.
Love
~~~~~~~~~~~~
...and finally i read this one this morning (europe
time):
~~~~~~~~~~~~
Lara,
Priscilla called about an hour ago (1 p.m.
CDT)...Grandma is in heaven! I'll be leaving here in
a couple hours, spend the night in Bowling Green and
continue on to Pgh.
Roy is in the hospital again too ... having trouble
with his pacemaker. He did get to see Grandma this
morning before they took her to the hospital...and she
did spend a couple hours in his room at Concordia on
Saturday when he got back from the hospital after last
week's surgery.
Love you!
Mom
~~~~~~~~~~~~
(roy is my step grandpa)
i feel weird that this is like the first month ever
since her first strokes in 2000 that i can't make it
back to pittsburgh on short notice for the funeral,
but so goes life... right?
prayers for...
* thanks for my grandma's amazing life and the witness
she's been throughout it, and that she's no longer in
pain, suffering, or trapped in a body severely limited
by strokes and diabetes
* safe travel for the family members currently
travelling to pittsburgh for the funeral
* patience and peace for those of us who can't make
the journey (i think one of my other cousins is in
europe, my brother's working in alabama or indiana or
something like that right now, and my mom's sister in
texas had surgery earlier this summer and is still in
recovery).. at least for me, being away from the
tighter knit support system of immediate family and
friends makes it hard to figure out how exactly to
react when i'm not in my own room at the dorm... i'll
be thankful to be around good friends who give hugs
when i get to budapest in a week and a half.
thanks
lara
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
greetings all from prague,
as far as my time here, prague is great... in the
mornings we attend a combinatorics conference, and we
have the afternoons for exploring. at the conference
dinner last night, i remember thinking to myself (even
if it sounds a little prosaic or something): a
european restaurant full of people discussing math and
culture in 3 languages (czech, hungarian, english)
over beers and steaks, crepes, and tea... this is what
life should always be like. :)
needless to say, i enjoy europe. :)
on another note, i got the following emails from my
mom yesterday:
~~~~~~~~~~~~
Just got a call from Priscilla this morning (Wed/6:38
a.m.) that grandma is back in the hospital running 104
fever and trying to throw up. She is totally unaware
that she is at the hospital and that Cil is there.
Cil said it's the worst she's seen her...though she
also said grandma would probably be fine once they
treated her. Wanted you to know...to pray for
grandma.
I'll email you again later when I know what's going
on. If you get this and want to telephone - or give
me a phone number and time when I can reach you ,
please do...I should certainly know something by your
tomorrow afternoon.
I love you and hope you are having a wonderful time
seeing and learning new things and meeting new people.
Mom
~~~~~~~~~~~~
Since I wrote earlier, Priscilla called back to say
that the nurse thinks the end may be near, unless she
responds to the antibiotic. She said that each time
the infection flares up, it takes a greater toll on
the body for someone in grandma's condition. Grandma
is having more frequent episodes of stopping breathing
- and then starting to breath again...that - in
addition to the fact that grandma has been totally
nonresponsive with anyone - is why the nurse said what
she did to Priscilla.
Talk to you later..why not wait until tomorrow to
call...or until I know more.
Love
~~~~~~~~~~~~
...and finally i read this one this morning (europe
time):
~~~~~~~~~~~~
Lara,
Priscilla called about an hour ago (1 p.m.
CDT)...Grandma is in heaven! I'll be leaving here in
a couple hours, spend the night in Bowling Green and
continue on to Pgh.
Roy is in the hospital again too ... having trouble
with his pacemaker. He did get to see Grandma this
morning before they took her to the hospital...and she
did spend a couple hours in his room at Concordia on
Saturday when he got back from the hospital after last
week's surgery.
Love you!
Mom
~~~~~~~~~~~~
(roy is my step grandpa)
i feel weird that this is like the first month ever
since her first strokes in 2000 that i can't make it
back to pittsburgh on short notice for the funeral,
but so goes life... right?
prayers for...
* thanks for my grandma's amazing life and the witness
she's been throughout it, and that she's no longer in
pain, suffering, or trapped in a body severely limited
by strokes and diabetes
* safe travel for the family members currently
travelling to pittsburgh for the funeral
* patience and peace for those of us who can't make
the journey (i think one of my other cousins is in
europe, my brother's working in alabama or indiana or
something like that right now, and my mom's sister in
texas had surgery earlier this summer and is still in
recovery).. at least for me, being away from the
tighter knit support system of immediate family and
friends makes it hard to figure out how exactly to
react when i'm not in my own room at the dorm... i'll
be thankful to be around good friends who give hugs
when i get to budapest in a week and a half.
thanks
lara
Wednesday, July 27, 2005
g-ma update, etc.
it's been a busy afternoon.
prague's university dates back to 1348, and we got to tour the original university building (which does in fact date back to the 14th century)... after that martin, jan, and josef (3 of the czech students who were in the states with us all summer) took us to the top of the hill that has a amusement park of sorts... there's a tower that resembles the eiffel tower, which you can climb and get an awesome view of prague... there's also a house of mirrors and very nice rose gardens... after that and the mile steep downhill hike, we're chilling at the math building until the conference dinner tonight,..
to note, while i was out, doing all of the above, mom sent the following email:
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Since I wrote earlier, Priscilla called back to say that the nurse thinks the end may be near, unless she responds to the antibiotic. She said that each time the infection flares up, it takes a greater toll on the body for someone in grandma's condition. Grandma is having more frequent episodes of stopping breathing - and then starting to breath again...that - in addition to the fact that grandma has been totally nonresponsive with anyone - is why the nurse said what she did to Priscilla.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
extremely weird to think that for all the worrying we've been doing about grandma for the past 5-6 years now, and how much i've made myself ready to fly or drive out to pittsburgh at a moment's notice, it could happen that she finally goes home to be with Jesus while i'm in europe on a dimacs ticket and don't have money to come home until my prepaid ticket says i can (august 22). i would *like* to be able to make it to pittsburgh when it is time to grandma to die, and for that (alebit selfish) reason, i hope she hangs on at least another few weeks and the antibiotics help for now. just extremely bizarre that i'm half a world away and at a complete loss as to how to react to that news at a distance. we'll see what happens. please keep her in your prayers.
later.
prague's university dates back to 1348, and we got to tour the original university building (which does in fact date back to the 14th century)... after that martin, jan, and josef (3 of the czech students who were in the states with us all summer) took us to the top of the hill that has a amusement park of sorts... there's a tower that resembles the eiffel tower, which you can climb and get an awesome view of prague... there's also a house of mirrors and very nice rose gardens... after that and the mile steep downhill hike, we're chilling at the math building until the conference dinner tonight,..
to note, while i was out, doing all of the above, mom sent the following email:
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Since I wrote earlier, Priscilla called back to say that the nurse thinks the end may be near, unless she responds to the antibiotic. She said that each time the infection flares up, it takes a greater toll on the body for someone in grandma's condition. Grandma is having more frequent episodes of stopping breathing - and then starting to breath again...that - in addition to the fact that grandma has been totally nonresponsive with anyone - is why the nurse said what she did to Priscilla.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
extremely weird to think that for all the worrying we've been doing about grandma for the past 5-6 years now, and how much i've made myself ready to fly or drive out to pittsburgh at a moment's notice, it could happen that she finally goes home to be with Jesus while i'm in europe on a dimacs ticket and don't have money to come home until my prepaid ticket says i can (august 22). i would *like* to be able to make it to pittsburgh when it is time to grandma to die, and for that (alebit selfish) reason, i hope she hangs on at least another few weeks and the antibiotics help for now. just extremely bizarre that i'm half a world away and at a complete loss as to how to react to that news at a distance. we'll see what happens. please keep her in your prayers.
later.
& etc.
just to have not left things on as weird a note as last post, here's some more fun.
so there are me and 5 american undergrads here for the REU... craig has decided to study on his own most of the time and avoid being a tourist. arjun and sam are roommates for the duration of our stay and do most everything together, but the two of them walk quite a bit faster than me and the other two students so the two of them do their own thing too... that leaves me, sarah, and melissa to hang out as a group too.
on monday, after the conference, all of us except craig walked up to prasky hrad (prague's castle) and explored the amazing cathedral there... i'd been there 3 years ago, but it was still absolutely amazing... by then, the guys had separated to do their own thing, so it was just me, sarah, and melissa... we managed to find the royal gardens (which i had NOT) seen before, and wandered awhile after that too. since our means of getting food while here is to "spend the money we were given on monday at restaurants" (we don't have access to a kitchen, just a fridge per apartment), sarah, melissa, and i decided that our strategy on picking restaurants is:
(1) when we get hungry, find a tram stop
(2) get on the first tram that stops and take it to (nearly) the end of the line
(3) find the first restaurant available after we get off the train
yesterday, this strategy got us dinner in a sports bar in a bus depot... our waiter was very excited to serve americans as he's been learning english for 9 months from a man living in prague from CA... last night this got us dinner at a random restaurant with only a menu in czech, but the waiter offered to "translate" for us... he listed kinds of meat, we picked, he listed ways of cooking it, we picked, etc., etc... it was an adventure to be sure.
like i referenced before, i spent yesterday in bed all day... today's a little more active... after 4 hours of math talks, we just had lunch with all the conference people. sarah, melissa, and i ended up by two exceedingly friendly hungarian mathematicians who were excited to hear i had been in BSM for a semester... the great thing about being from memphis is that most europeans may not have heard of it, and non-mathematician hungarians may not have heard of it, but hungarian mathematicians definitely have as many FAMOUS hungarian math people use university of memphis as their american home university. this makes me smile.
this afternoon, we get a tour of charles university (where we're at), and the conference dinner is tonight at some fancy restaurant too. should be entertaining.
anyhow, should be off... by the way, this just in from my mom:
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Just got a call from Priscilla this morning (Wed/6:38 a.m.) that grandma is back in the hospital running 104 fever and trying to throw up. She is totally unaware that she is at the hospital and that Cil is there. Cil said it's the worst she's seen her...though she also said grandma would probably be fine once they treated her. Wanted you to know...to pray for grandma.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
so keep my g-ma in your prayers.
now, really, later...
later dudes.
so there are me and 5 american undergrads here for the REU... craig has decided to study on his own most of the time and avoid being a tourist. arjun and sam are roommates for the duration of our stay and do most everything together, but the two of them walk quite a bit faster than me and the other two students so the two of them do their own thing too... that leaves me, sarah, and melissa to hang out as a group too.
on monday, after the conference, all of us except craig walked up to prasky hrad (prague's castle) and explored the amazing cathedral there... i'd been there 3 years ago, but it was still absolutely amazing... by then, the guys had separated to do their own thing, so it was just me, sarah, and melissa... we managed to find the royal gardens (which i had NOT) seen before, and wandered awhile after that too. since our means of getting food while here is to "spend the money we were given on monday at restaurants" (we don't have access to a kitchen, just a fridge per apartment), sarah, melissa, and i decided that our strategy on picking restaurants is:
(1) when we get hungry, find a tram stop
(2) get on the first tram that stops and take it to (nearly) the end of the line
(3) find the first restaurant available after we get off the train
yesterday, this strategy got us dinner in a sports bar in a bus depot... our waiter was very excited to serve americans as he's been learning english for 9 months from a man living in prague from CA... last night this got us dinner at a random restaurant with only a menu in czech, but the waiter offered to "translate" for us... he listed kinds of meat, we picked, he listed ways of cooking it, we picked, etc., etc... it was an adventure to be sure.
like i referenced before, i spent yesterday in bed all day... today's a little more active... after 4 hours of math talks, we just had lunch with all the conference people. sarah, melissa, and i ended up by two exceedingly friendly hungarian mathematicians who were excited to hear i had been in BSM for a semester... the great thing about being from memphis is that most europeans may not have heard of it, and non-mathematician hungarians may not have heard of it, but hungarian mathematicians definitely have as many FAMOUS hungarian math people use university of memphis as their american home university. this makes me smile.
this afternoon, we get a tour of charles university (where we're at), and the conference dinner is tonight at some fancy restaurant too. should be entertaining.
anyhow, should be off... by the way, this just in from my mom:
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Just got a call from Priscilla this morning (Wed/6:38 a.m.) that grandma is back in the hospital running 104 fever and trying to throw up. She is totally unaware that she is at the hospital and that Cil is there. Cil said it's the worst she's seen her...though she also said grandma would probably be fine once they treated her. Wanted you to know...to pray for grandma.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
so keep my g-ma in your prayers.
now, really, later...
later dudes.
announcing my new rare talent...
for passing out in european showers.
before yesterday, i had fainted once ever in my life... in my shower in budapest 2.5 years ago.
yesterday, i fainted for the 2nd time in my life... in the shower here in prague... how weird is that?
on account of such a rough start to the morning, i spent the day in bed (luckily no stitches needed like in budapest), but am much better today, and ready to hit the math conference again.
my body is sooo weird.
later dudes.
before yesterday, i had fainted once ever in my life... in my shower in budapest 2.5 years ago.
yesterday, i fainted for the 2nd time in my life... in the shower here in prague... how weird is that?
on account of such a rough start to the morning, i spent the day in bed (luckily no stitches needed like in budapest), but am much better today, and ready to hit the math conference again.
my body is sooo weird.
later dudes.
Monday, July 25, 2005
more from prague...
so i mentioned the wall-less elevators earlier... here's something else that's entertaining here... ground floors are labelled as floor 0, and basement is labelled as -1... it IS more logical, right?
the conference was cool this morning... we heard 4 speakers talk about their current work... including Robin Thomas and Martin Klazar (two really famous combinatorialists)... there will be more famous people throughout the week.
this week our schedule is: wake up, grab free breakfast at the dorm we're staying in, come and hear math talks from 9am to 1pm, free lunch with the math conference, do whatever we want for the afternoon. next week, the conferenec will be over, and "conference and lunch" will be replaced by "ONE lecture by a famous Czech faculty person and buy your own lunch".
the building we are in is really cool. it used to be a huge famous Czech church... the front half still is; however, they ran a wall halfway through it and the back half is math/computer science/physics offices and labs... no interior access between the academic rooms and the part that still is the church, but the classrooms and offices defintely, from their windows and vaulted ceilings, are tell-tale of what the building used to be... the main lecture hall that the conference is in used to be a religious chapel in the back of the big cathedral building... and is now set up as a tiered math lecture room... go figure.
kinda overcast and yucky today, but i think with the rest of the afternoon we're walking up to the castle. some of my students have been looking up concerts, etc. to check out while we're here (in addition to the $300+ each they gave us for food, if we do anything social and bring back a receipt, DIMATIA will reimburse us for it... how cool is that?)
looks like when i heard "prague portion of the REU goes through august 10" i took it as "stuff going on through the 10th; free to go on the 11th", when it really means "stuff going on through the 9th; free to go on the 10th"... which means i've arranged to go to budapest on the 10th now and have an extra day there.
prague is beautiful and i'm incredibly excited to be here... people have joked in the past (i've read and heard it many times) that prague and budapest are sisters... it just depends on if you like your ancient buildings in good and well-preserved condition, or with bullet and cannon holes from the past... prague is the former, budapest the latter.... while that's true to an extent, there's an intangible personality difference between the two also, that i can't quite explain, but i fell in love with budapest first :P, and CAN'T WAIT to go back :)... either way eastern/central europe is definitely superior to western european culture in my mind :P
by the way, if i haven't mentioned it, while in budapest i get to rent an ENTIRE apartment for $23/night from the friend of a friend... that'll be nice too :)... otherwise i'd be paying $15/night for sharing a dorm-style room with lots of strangers in a hostel, which, while fine for a weekend trip, for a week and a half i prefer paying the $8 extra per night to have my own kitchen and shower too. :P no complaints here for having good connections :)
i should stop writing a novel and get on with enjoying europe... the afternoon's already half gone, and it would be good to do some non-math today too. :)
happy monday to all y'all!
:-)
the conference was cool this morning... we heard 4 speakers talk about their current work... including Robin Thomas and Martin Klazar (two really famous combinatorialists)... there will be more famous people throughout the week.
this week our schedule is: wake up, grab free breakfast at the dorm we're staying in, come and hear math talks from 9am to 1pm, free lunch with the math conference, do whatever we want for the afternoon. next week, the conferenec will be over, and "conference and lunch" will be replaced by "ONE lecture by a famous Czech faculty person and buy your own lunch".
the building we are in is really cool. it used to be a huge famous Czech church... the front half still is; however, they ran a wall halfway through it and the back half is math/computer science/physics offices and labs... no interior access between the academic rooms and the part that still is the church, but the classrooms and offices defintely, from their windows and vaulted ceilings, are tell-tale of what the building used to be... the main lecture hall that the conference is in used to be a religious chapel in the back of the big cathedral building... and is now set up as a tiered math lecture room... go figure.
kinda overcast and yucky today, but i think with the rest of the afternoon we're walking up to the castle. some of my students have been looking up concerts, etc. to check out while we're here (in addition to the $300+ each they gave us for food, if we do anything social and bring back a receipt, DIMATIA will reimburse us for it... how cool is that?)
looks like when i heard "prague portion of the REU goes through august 10" i took it as "stuff going on through the 10th; free to go on the 11th", when it really means "stuff going on through the 9th; free to go on the 10th"... which means i've arranged to go to budapest on the 10th now and have an extra day there.
prague is beautiful and i'm incredibly excited to be here... people have joked in the past (i've read and heard it many times) that prague and budapest are sisters... it just depends on if you like your ancient buildings in good and well-preserved condition, or with bullet and cannon holes from the past... prague is the former, budapest the latter.... while that's true to an extent, there's an intangible personality difference between the two also, that i can't quite explain, but i fell in love with budapest first :P, and CAN'T WAIT to go back :)... either way eastern/central europe is definitely superior to western european culture in my mind :P
by the way, if i haven't mentioned it, while in budapest i get to rent an ENTIRE apartment for $23/night from the friend of a friend... that'll be nice too :)... otherwise i'd be paying $15/night for sharing a dorm-style room with lots of strangers in a hostel, which, while fine for a weekend trip, for a week and a half i prefer paying the $8 extra per night to have my own kitchen and shower too. :P no complaints here for having good connections :)
i should stop writing a novel and get on with enjoying europe... the afternoon's already half gone, and it would be good to do some non-math today too. :)
happy monday to all y'all!
:-)
greetings from prague
hello world from prague!
just a brief note to let those of you who read this and haven't gotten a call from me (i.e. not my family) that we arrived just fine... after a horribly long delay in amsterdam but whatever.
yesterday i showed the reu students around what i remembered from my last stay here -- charles bridge and the really cool astronomical clock in the old town square... very cool indeed...
and then we crashed at like 8pm.
we're living on the 11th story of a 15 story dorm for medical students... the elevator is like a closet and has no front wall, so you see the floors and doors go past (and rub against them if you get too close) -- i *love* eastern europe :-P,... food that would cost like $15 in the states is like a $3 meal here... it's fantastic... and they just gave us each like $350 a piece in czech krowns for our stay too.... only breakfast is covered at the dorm, and lunch is covered by the conference, so they gave us more than enough cash a piece.
math conference begins in 10 minutes...
by the way, while i'm in europe... to know what time it is for me, take the timestamp on my european posts (which is in eastern time = greenwich mean time +5 hours, and add 6 hours... central european time is greenwich mean time -1 hour)... e.g. for those of you in jersey, it's 3:45 right now... here, 9:45... and i'm actually already functioning on europe time... it's great!
czech words i can handle so far: thank you, good day, yes, no, fat (we bought milk yesterday and tried to get someone who only spoke czech to explain how the different kinds were different), castle, bridge... that all gets me a long way, eh?
now, to go hear lots of math :P
just a brief note to let those of you who read this and haven't gotten a call from me (i.e. not my family) that we arrived just fine... after a horribly long delay in amsterdam but whatever.
yesterday i showed the reu students around what i remembered from my last stay here -- charles bridge and the really cool astronomical clock in the old town square... very cool indeed...
and then we crashed at like 8pm.
we're living on the 11th story of a 15 story dorm for medical students... the elevator is like a closet and has no front wall, so you see the floors and doors go past (and rub against them if you get too close) -- i *love* eastern europe :-P,... food that would cost like $15 in the states is like a $3 meal here... it's fantastic... and they just gave us each like $350 a piece in czech krowns for our stay too.... only breakfast is covered at the dorm, and lunch is covered by the conference, so they gave us more than enough cash a piece.
math conference begins in 10 minutes...
by the way, while i'm in europe... to know what time it is for me, take the timestamp on my european posts (which is in eastern time = greenwich mean time +5 hours, and add 6 hours... central european time is greenwich mean time -1 hour)... e.g. for those of you in jersey, it's 3:45 right now... here, 9:45... and i'm actually already functioning on europe time... it's great!
czech words i can handle so far: thank you, good day, yes, no, fat (we bought milk yesterday and tried to get someone who only spoke czech to explain how the different kinds were different), castle, bridge... that all gets me a long way, eh?
now, to go hear lots of math :P
Saturday, July 23, 2005
here goes nothing :P
in the next hour?
drive to campus, park by the math building so sam can find my car tomorrow (he gets it for the next month), drag my 60 pound suitcase and 15 pound carry-on clear to the other end of campus to meet up with the airport van that will take me and my students to newark... from there, to prague, via amsterdam.
if you're still up around 3am eastern time you can think of me going through customs in prague... it'll be 9am their time.
if i can read the airline website correctly, it looks like i get to see "hitch" again on the first flight... that's exciting, right?
next post from europe!
later dudes :)
drive to campus, park by the math building so sam can find my car tomorrow (he gets it for the next month), drag my 60 pound suitcase and 15 pound carry-on clear to the other end of campus to meet up with the airport van that will take me and my students to newark... from there, to prague, via amsterdam.
if you're still up around 3am eastern time you can think of me going through customs in prague... it'll be 9am their time.
if i can read the airline website correctly, it looks like i get to see "hitch" again on the first flight... that's exciting, right?
next post from europe!
later dudes :)
errrrrrrrrgh
you know how some soap bottles that have the pump at the top also are supposed to be able to screw shut so that they don't leak when you travel?
like how this lid is here
my body wash has a lid like that, but for the life of me, i can't get it to shut... and i wasted a lot of soap in the process of trying to screw it shut...
annoyed and going to riteaid just to buy soap without that kind of lid in defiance of the stupid bottle.
3 hours til i meet my students on campus to catch an airport taxi... woohoo! :P
like how this lid is here
my body wash has a lid like that, but for the life of me, i can't get it to shut... and i wasted a lot of soap in the process of trying to screw it shut...
annoyed and going to riteaid just to buy soap without that kind of lid in defiance of the stupid bottle.
3 hours til i meet my students on campus to catch an airport taxi... woohoo! :P
victory at last!
not bad for 2 hours... i went from having a mountain of stuff on my bed, to having it mostly crunched into a reasonably small suitcase and a small carryon... yay lara!
to note: i'm notoriously bad at packing as i usually just roadtrip everywhere and figure i have plenty of room in the car. however, as i was the one who met the czech students when they first arrived from the airport and saw that they each managed to fit 2 months worth of belongings into a small backpack each, considering using my biggest suitcase seemed a poor idea -- it would make me feel i've overpacked for a month in europe, even though i could probably justify it.
eric's comment was, "but dude, they're european... they have no issue with wearing the same shirt 2 or 5 days in a row", which some weeks is the case... and i guess it bothers me a little more to do that just out of habit of conscientiously trying not to wear the same outfit too close together. who knows...
anyhow, it's a matter of compromise between (a) wanting to tote a smaller suitcase, and (b) not wanting to bust the seams of the currently mostly packed one... doht.
at least inside the current one, i have packed my bookbag, which is currently empty, so i can expand for the trip home if i so desire...
packing... i'm never any good at this game when it comes to airplane trips... doht :P
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
besides the "i'm mostly packed" victory, there's also the "dude, i made my goal of walking 200 miles between memorial day and leaving for europe!!!"... after a walk 2-3 hours ago, i'm now up to 201 miles :) so yay for that!
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
not victories to list, but here's some cool things to look at:
isn't this an awesome picture?
earth.google.com is an extremely cool and even more extremely addictive download... seriously, you have NO idea... one of the czech students claims he might not get around to packing to go home in time for the flight tomorrow b/c he's so hooked on playing with it. (hopefully i'll stop with it soon and crash too!... Ha)
i think that's it.... one more post stateside before i cross the ocean tomorrow :P
night y'all!
to note: i'm notoriously bad at packing as i usually just roadtrip everywhere and figure i have plenty of room in the car. however, as i was the one who met the czech students when they first arrived from the airport and saw that they each managed to fit 2 months worth of belongings into a small backpack each, considering using my biggest suitcase seemed a poor idea -- it would make me feel i've overpacked for a month in europe, even though i could probably justify it.
eric's comment was, "but dude, they're european... they have no issue with wearing the same shirt 2 or 5 days in a row", which some weeks is the case... and i guess it bothers me a little more to do that just out of habit of conscientiously trying not to wear the same outfit too close together. who knows...
anyhow, it's a matter of compromise between (a) wanting to tote a smaller suitcase, and (b) not wanting to bust the seams of the currently mostly packed one... doht.
at least inside the current one, i have packed my bookbag, which is currently empty, so i can expand for the trip home if i so desire...
packing... i'm never any good at this game when it comes to airplane trips... doht :P
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
besides the "i'm mostly packed" victory, there's also the "dude, i made my goal of walking 200 miles between memorial day and leaving for europe!!!"... after a walk 2-3 hours ago, i'm now up to 201 miles :) so yay for that!
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
not victories to list, but here's some cool things to look at:
isn't this an awesome picture?
earth.google.com is an extremely cool and even more extremely addictive download... seriously, you have NO idea... one of the czech students claims he might not get around to packing to go home in time for the flight tomorrow b/c he's so hooked on playing with it. (hopefully i'll stop with it soon and crash too!... Ha)
i think that's it.... one more post stateside before i cross the ocean tomorrow :P
night y'all!
Friday, July 22, 2005
oi
it's been a busy day... i'd hoped i'd be packed by 5pm tonight when i've still barely started... oops...
turned out instead of packing, i spent an afternoon of running around filling out rutgers forms for fall semester that will be due while i'm abroad and that just came out today... doht.
played volleyball with some of the REUers around 5pm, and then after going home for dinner and a shower, stopped by their party at the dorms...
#1 thing i learned today: if you lose 1/8 of your body weight, you probably can't handle as much alcohol as you could at your original weight.... people had been in awe for awhile of how much vodka i could down with seemingly no result... tonight i had a glass (given, it was a decently large glass and drunk in a pretty short time) of wine, came home and when i got out of the car, proceeded to trip over the curb and land sprawled on the ground laughing hysterically not once, but twice in a row... eric was waiting on me to meet me at my house and witnessed the whole deal.
not like i'm toasted or anything in the least... but what before would have not affected me really at all tonight proved me make me slightly off-kilter...
so long to my bragging rights to being able to out drink scott in vodka. i had thought of plenty of pros to losing a decent amount of weight... this is the first major con i can see. doht.
probably going out for a walk (my goal was to walk 200 miles before i go to europe... i've currently walked 198 since memorial day), and then up for awhile packing... aren't you jealous?
later dudes
turned out instead of packing, i spent an afternoon of running around filling out rutgers forms for fall semester that will be due while i'm abroad and that just came out today... doht.
played volleyball with some of the REUers around 5pm, and then after going home for dinner and a shower, stopped by their party at the dorms...
#1 thing i learned today: if you lose 1/8 of your body weight, you probably can't handle as much alcohol as you could at your original weight.... people had been in awe for awhile of how much vodka i could down with seemingly no result... tonight i had a glass (given, it was a decently large glass and drunk in a pretty short time) of wine, came home and when i got out of the car, proceeded to trip over the curb and land sprawled on the ground laughing hysterically not once, but twice in a row... eric was waiting on me to meet me at my house and witnessed the whole deal.
not like i'm toasted or anything in the least... but what before would have not affected me really at all tonight proved me make me slightly off-kilter...
so long to my bragging rights to being able to out drink scott in vodka. i had thought of plenty of pros to losing a decent amount of weight... this is the first major con i can see. doht.
probably going out for a walk (my goal was to walk 200 miles before i go to europe... i've currently walked 198 since memorial day), and then up for awhile packing... aren't you jealous?
later dudes
Thursday, July 21, 2005
oi...
what a day
9:30-5:30 on campus, most of that hearing undergraduate math talks... another REU visited today and we first heard their research talks (since they work in groups of 3 or 4 their 3 talks fit into about an hour)... they chatted with me and the math grad director about grad school... then they were supposed to hear half of my students present... only my 27 students work in groups of 1 or 2, so our presentations, although similar in length, fill up two full afternoons instead of an hour because there's more of them... the other REU made it through about 2/3 of our afternoon before deciding to go home... my students finished up and have another afternoon full of presentations tomorrow before our farewell dinner... woohoo :-P
after i got home and walked my 5 miles (i've now gone 193 since memorial day, and i just may make my goal of 200 before prague :-) ), i met up with eric, mason, and andrew... mason and andrew are budapest semester friends who stop by at random periodically... mason, for the past two years, takes temp jobs for a few months then travels cross country in his car and then repeats... andrew is on the extended undergrad plan for school... he's rotated between harvard, rutgers, and some community college never quite finishing up... he's originally from jersey, but is moving down to SC to share mason's apartment this fall when mason starts grad school at Univ. of S. Carolina... andrew will find a job hopefully down there... they're both crazy and make life entertaining when they're around... particularly when they're around at the same time.
anywyho 4 person BSM mini-reunion at fuddruckers, and then went to sam's new apartment down the street from me for the boys to drink and smoke and whatever... then scott eventually drove me home and read me a book... and now i'm supposedly going to crash.
here's to study abroad reunions? :-P
(picture taken in the tiled mirror in eric's kitchen)
the end.
9:30-5:30 on campus, most of that hearing undergraduate math talks... another REU visited today and we first heard their research talks (since they work in groups of 3 or 4 their 3 talks fit into about an hour)... they chatted with me and the math grad director about grad school... then they were supposed to hear half of my students present... only my 27 students work in groups of 1 or 2, so our presentations, although similar in length, fill up two full afternoons instead of an hour because there's more of them... the other REU made it through about 2/3 of our afternoon before deciding to go home... my students finished up and have another afternoon full of presentations tomorrow before our farewell dinner... woohoo :-P
after i got home and walked my 5 miles (i've now gone 193 since memorial day, and i just may make my goal of 200 before prague :-) ), i met up with eric, mason, and andrew... mason and andrew are budapest semester friends who stop by at random periodically... mason, for the past two years, takes temp jobs for a few months then travels cross country in his car and then repeats... andrew is on the extended undergrad plan for school... he's rotated between harvard, rutgers, and some community college never quite finishing up... he's originally from jersey, but is moving down to SC to share mason's apartment this fall when mason starts grad school at Univ. of S. Carolina... andrew will find a job hopefully down there... they're both crazy and make life entertaining when they're around... particularly when they're around at the same time.
anywyho 4 person BSM mini-reunion at fuddruckers, and then went to sam's new apartment down the street from me for the boys to drink and smoke and whatever... then scott eventually drove me home and read me a book... and now i'm supposedly going to crash.
here's to study abroad reunions? :-P
(picture taken in the tiled mirror in eric's kitchen)
the end.
Wednesday, July 20, 2005
Tuesday, July 19, 2005
Monday, July 18, 2005
dude
i just spent the past 3 hours going through a box of scrap papers... (i have half a dozen such boxes in my dining room waiting to be sorted into trash, must-be-shredded, must-be-saved, recyclable paper, re-usable scrap paper, etc.... in april i made it through one box... today i made it through one other)
turns out the box i had today had all my scrap paper (or at least a LOT of it) from my first year here at rutgers. not notes... just scrap paper i had worked on parts of hw problems on. i collect funny quotes though, and i could never remember the goofy things people say if i didn't write them down... so, while sorting scrap paper into "only has writing on one side... keep to use again", "is covered in writing... take to campus recycling tomorrow", and "has sensitive material written on it... should be burned" (to note: only one sheet out of a GIANT box full falls into that final category), i came across some quotes from my first year that i had neglected to save in mass emails, etc....
so here's first year of math grad school quotes from the archives (well that will get input into the archives but were lost in the meantime):
ocone: nothing in math is named after the person who did it
jared: obviously that's to avoid calling everything "gauss's lemma"
sam: so you're saying almost every rational number is purple?
vasconcelos: evil is out there... but we still have to finish class
vasconcelos: i assure you i am a very peaceful person... i've just seen too many bad movies
goodman: analysis is about convergence and beautiful formulas
goodman: take your favorite compact hausdorff space
scott: (whispers) what's your favorite compact hausdorff space?
me: don't got one
(pause)
me and scott: (simultaneously) a pizza!
jared: (overhearing us, and whispering too): the surface of a pizza... including crust
goodman: this isn't in folland... of course i'm not trying to say he doesn't know it though
woodward: when do you want to turn in your homework? i'm a mathematician, so i'm flexible... what you think takes a week takes a year... what you think takes a year takes the rest of your life
.... and the best quote of all....
i found a sheet of paper that ONLY says the following on it:
roses are red and
violets are blue; rings are mean
and i like haikus
i'm such a nerd.
later dudes
turns out the box i had today had all my scrap paper (or at least a LOT of it) from my first year here at rutgers. not notes... just scrap paper i had worked on parts of hw problems on. i collect funny quotes though, and i could never remember the goofy things people say if i didn't write them down... so, while sorting scrap paper into "only has writing on one side... keep to use again", "is covered in writing... take to campus recycling tomorrow", and "has sensitive material written on it... should be burned" (to note: only one sheet out of a GIANT box full falls into that final category), i came across some quotes from my first year that i had neglected to save in mass emails, etc....
so here's first year of math grad school quotes from the archives (well that will get input into the archives but were lost in the meantime):
ocone: nothing in math is named after the person who did it
jared: obviously that's to avoid calling everything "gauss's lemma"
sam: so you're saying almost every rational number is purple?
vasconcelos: evil is out there... but we still have to finish class
vasconcelos: i assure you i am a very peaceful person... i've just seen too many bad movies
goodman: analysis is about convergence and beautiful formulas
goodman: take your favorite compact hausdorff space
scott: (whispers) what's your favorite compact hausdorff space?
me: don't got one
(pause)
me and scott: (simultaneously) a pizza!
jared: (overhearing us, and whispering too): the surface of a pizza... including crust
goodman: this isn't in folland... of course i'm not trying to say he doesn't know it though
woodward: when do you want to turn in your homework? i'm a mathematician, so i'm flexible... what you think takes a week takes a year... what you think takes a year takes the rest of your life
.... and the best quote of all....
i found a sheet of paper that ONLY says the following on it:
roses are red and
violets are blue; rings are mean
and i like haikus
i'm such a nerd.
later dudes
things that annoy me
* snotty help desk employees... if they don't want to be helpful, why the heck are they working at a *HELP* desk?
* people who wait until after deadlines to cause trouble.... i sent an email to all REU project mentors a week ago asking them to email me with scheduling conflicts BEFORE i made up the final REU presentation schedule this weekend... sure enough, even though i waited for responses before i finally posted the schedule yesterday AND emailed everyone about it, one mentor wrote me today getting on my case for scheduling her student at a time she couldn't come... this mentor did the same thing last time around. i rearranged it to "be nice", but nothing irritates me more than me giving her a week to respond and then her getting frustrated with the schedule when she said nothing ahead of time... oi...
* sorting through insurance papers
isn't my life fun? :P
* people who wait until after deadlines to cause trouble.... i sent an email to all REU project mentors a week ago asking them to email me with scheduling conflicts BEFORE i made up the final REU presentation schedule this weekend... sure enough, even though i waited for responses before i finally posted the schedule yesterday AND emailed everyone about it, one mentor wrote me today getting on my case for scheduling her student at a time she couldn't come... this mentor did the same thing last time around. i rearranged it to "be nice", but nothing irritates me more than me giving her a week to respond and then her getting frustrated with the schedule when she said nothing ahead of time... oi...
* sorting through insurance papers
isn't my life fun? :P
HR fun
so the training session wasn't quite as boring at one might anticipate.
even though i've been at rutgers for 2 years, i've been a grad student employed by fellowship $$, and since, when i start teaching in the fall, i'll be an official state employee instead, this is when i had to go through training.
the first hour was kinda campy, yay rutgers, etc., but pointed out some useful things... apparently as a state employee i can get 15% of my verizon cellphone bill... etc.... who knew?
the second hour was a lot of going over health benefits plans... i need to rehash with the mother before i officially mark down what options i want and don't, but it was useful and not too nitty gritty to pay attention
the third hour is for pension/retirement plans, so i, as a teaching assistant, was excused (and hence am home to eat lunch before going into the office for the afternoon)
even funnier than me having to attend a "new employee orientation" was that i was sitting by mike, a student who's just now finishing his ph.d. thesis after 6 years of work and was kinda a mentor to people my year when we came in... he's been a fixture in the math dept. for years, and yet he was there because he's finishing his thesis within the next month or so and being hired on to the department as an instructor... even though he's been a TA in the past, since he was fellowship this year, he had to re- go through orientation so he could hear any changes they had for him. he didn't get to skip out on the hour on pension plans though :-P
now to eat, and then to campus... later dudes :P
even though i've been at rutgers for 2 years, i've been a grad student employed by fellowship $$, and since, when i start teaching in the fall, i'll be an official state employee instead, this is when i had to go through training.
the first hour was kinda campy, yay rutgers, etc., but pointed out some useful things... apparently as a state employee i can get 15% of my verizon cellphone bill... etc.... who knew?
the second hour was a lot of going over health benefits plans... i need to rehash with the mother before i officially mark down what options i want and don't, but it was useful and not too nitty gritty to pay attention
the third hour is for pension/retirement plans, so i, as a teaching assistant, was excused (and hence am home to eat lunch before going into the office for the afternoon)
even funnier than me having to attend a "new employee orientation" was that i was sitting by mike, a student who's just now finishing his ph.d. thesis after 6 years of work and was kinda a mentor to people my year when we came in... he's been a fixture in the math dept. for years, and yet he was there because he's finishing his thesis within the next month or so and being hired on to the department as an instructor... even though he's been a TA in the past, since he was fellowship this year, he had to re- go through orientation so he could hear any changes they had for him. he didn't get to skip out on the hour on pension plans though :-P
now to eat, and then to campus... later dudes :P
Sunday, July 17, 2005
dude
tonight is a landmark event ;-)... i have finally finished all back issues of mental_floss magazine... i discovered the quirky thing last summer and got myself a subscription right off (seriously, you've never seen anything funnier)... i proceeded to order every single back issue (with the exception of the first 3 issues ever, which have been out of print since before i discovered the magazine)... tonight i finally finished may/june 2005... leaving me having read every issue cover to cover with the exception of the current one, which will be excellent travel reading on the way to europe this weekend :-P
at any rate... woohoo for that :-P
oh, and by the way, here's a really cool site that's been advertised in the last few issues of good old mental floss: LiveScience.com -- enjoy! :-P
later dudes
at any rate... woohoo for that :-P
oh, and by the way, here's a really cool site that's been advertised in the last few issues of good old mental floss: LiveScience.com -- enjoy! :-P
later dudes
oi...
tonight *was* supposed to be fun... board games and snacks with the newly developing singles group at my church... but i got there and was the only one there... considering all northbound lanes of the major state highway i take to get between church and my house were flooded and closed, that should have been a hint to just stay put, but oh well. (church is south of home so it wasn't too bad to get there, i just needed an alternate route back)
so instead of having fun with other people at church, i looked at an empty parking lot for 15 minutes and then got back on the road... only i called eric on the way and convinced him that pizza at his house was a good idea... crashed there briefly, and now i'm finally back to my house, tired and moderately wet.
tomorrow's fun? a "new employee" seminar from the rutgers HR dept. as if i haven't been around for 2 years already... since i'll be a TA in the fall instead of just on fellowship i get to go listen to someone read to me about my health benefits and other such fun for 3 hours... i can't wait... (note the heavy sarcasm)
oh well... so it goes.
to read, to make a couple phone calls, and to crash... later dudes
so instead of having fun with other people at church, i looked at an empty parking lot for 15 minutes and then got back on the road... only i called eric on the way and convinced him that pizza at his house was a good idea... crashed there briefly, and now i'm finally back to my house, tired and moderately wet.
tomorrow's fun? a "new employee" seminar from the rutgers HR dept. as if i haven't been around for 2 years already... since i'll be a TA in the fall instead of just on fellowship i get to go listen to someone read to me about my health benefits and other such fun for 3 hours... i can't wait... (note the heavy sarcasm)
oh well... so it goes.
to read, to make a couple phone calls, and to crash... later dudes
how bizarre...
i just dreamed majorly in detail about my first day of teaching... i was nervous, but ended up pleased with how the first section went... then i went home, and realized 3 minutes before the 2nd section was supposed to start that i had forgotten to stick around for more than one class period... um, oops.
at least it was just a dream, right? :-P
at least it was just a dream, right? :-P
Saturday, July 16, 2005
another day, another movie
or so it seems
eric, colleen, and i saw Charlie and the Chocolate Factory today... last weekend we rented the 1971 version so that it was fresh in our minds to compare...
it was bizarre... not bad, but bizarre. there were parts that weren't in the old version that were pretty funny... and parts that were redone and ended up just plain strange... then again tim burton, danny elfman, and johnny depp all having their hands in on the same film, that was to be expected :-P
anyhow, if you liked the first one, by all means see this one and let me know what *you* think too :-P
eric, colleen, and i saw Charlie and the Chocolate Factory today... last weekend we rented the 1971 version so that it was fresh in our minds to compare...
it was bizarre... not bad, but bizarre. there were parts that weren't in the old version that were pretty funny... and parts that were redone and ended up just plain strange... then again tim burton, danny elfman, and johnny depp all having their hands in on the same film, that was to be expected :-P
anyhow, if you liked the first one, by all means see this one and let me know what *you* think too :-P
dude, what a day
i seriously ran around for over 12 hours straight today... after the usual morning routine, it was
* to campus, to chat briefly with one of the REU staff people about some stuff for next week
* to scott's house... even though he lives just a couple miles down the road and is totally in NJ this summer we hadn't crossed paths in a month... so today we had lunch together to remedy that... after we got back to his house again, he read me a book, and before i left, he wrote himself the following note:
the "stupid boy" part, written from scott, to scott is what cracked me up :-P
* from scott's house to goodyear... i was due for an oilchange as i've gone 4000 miles in the past 3 months and i wouldn't get another chance for it until late august... there was a really bad 3 car wreck on the way there that slowed me down, but i made it reasonably on time... now i'm good for another 3 months...
* knowing i wouldn't have time to go my whole usual 5 mile route during daylight hours, i took the one hour of "free time" i did have, and walked 3 miles... got home and had to clean up good (2nd shower of the day) for the next two stops
* to campus again... to meet the caterer and let them in for the REU pizza party tonight... i had planned a pizza/boardgame night a month and a half ago, before i had any clue about anything else going on... since i found out about my next stop 2 weeks ago, i convinced eric he wanted to come for the night too and hang out with the students while i was out... once things we're rolling on swimmingly there, it was off to...
* pick up paul and go to church... tonight was the "worship service for the call"... it was an intriguing hybrid of church service and congregational meeting, but it was definitinely enough of the first to not be called just a meeting... the pastor who is the circuit counselor for the local circuit that includes my church presided and led the prayers, etc., and gave a good homily on what it means to be chosen, emphasizing that even though there's this whole "process" and lots of rules an bylaws to follow, it's our belief and our prayer that our actions are not just our own selfish ones but ruled by God, and that He's the one doing the calling, not our actions and desires... the congregation president explained a lot of things too, reviewing the call process and how we've gotten to where we are... then, we voted by paper ballot and while the call committee went out to count them we sang hymns :-P... when they came back, it turned out to be a unanimous vote, and the congregation president left the service at the end, beelined for the office to call the pastor we've decided to call and let him know that the call papers will be in the mail tomorrow. he still is supposed to prayerfully consider them and can decide yes or no, but the general vibe everyone who's been in contact with him has had is that there's a lot of excitement on both sides of the deal and that it is looking favorable for him to come here. :-) anyhow, it was an exciting night at my church :-) after that...
* back to campus, surprised that game night was still going, i showed up to discover eric and 7 of the students playing a crazy czech card game... eric had mostly cleaned up and he and 4 of the other students left, but 3 stayed around to talk math and i listened for awhile, on rare occasion adding something to the dialogue... another student came back, and i was there for an hour and a half before i left them talking amongst themselves still...
humourous quote..
khanh is explaining the "monty hall problem" to marek... there are three doors and behind one is a car and behind two are goats...
marek, didn't understand the word goat at first, and made a motion for guillotine, and looked surprised.
jan (another of the czech students) laughed and picked the right czech word, commenting "marek really likes goats, maybe you really should tell him there's a guillotine behind the other doors instead".
* after listening to them, and getting phone calls from 5 different people intermitently throughout the math chat, i finally excused myself to go... who knows how late they all stayed!... anyhow, i went home, and having only walked 3 miles earlier in the day, i put my walking shoes back on and went out for 3 more miles at 11:30pm...
* got back in around 12:15, showered (for the 3rd time today :P), and now am sitting here typing away..... that's 13 hours of running around straight today!
can't believe that in exactly a week from now, i'll be in a plane over the atlantic ocean... it's been so long since europe, i can't wait to be back
at any rate, cheers for long but quality days?
later dudes...
* to campus, to chat briefly with one of the REU staff people about some stuff for next week
* to scott's house... even though he lives just a couple miles down the road and is totally in NJ this summer we hadn't crossed paths in a month... so today we had lunch together to remedy that... after we got back to his house again, he read me a book, and before i left, he wrote himself the following note:
the "stupid boy" part, written from scott, to scott is what cracked me up :-P
* from scott's house to goodyear... i was due for an oilchange as i've gone 4000 miles in the past 3 months and i wouldn't get another chance for it until late august... there was a really bad 3 car wreck on the way there that slowed me down, but i made it reasonably on time... now i'm good for another 3 months...
* knowing i wouldn't have time to go my whole usual 5 mile route during daylight hours, i took the one hour of "free time" i did have, and walked 3 miles... got home and had to clean up good (2nd shower of the day) for the next two stops
* to campus again... to meet the caterer and let them in for the REU pizza party tonight... i had planned a pizza/boardgame night a month and a half ago, before i had any clue about anything else going on... since i found out about my next stop 2 weeks ago, i convinced eric he wanted to come for the night too and hang out with the students while i was out... once things we're rolling on swimmingly there, it was off to...
* pick up paul and go to church... tonight was the "worship service for the call"... it was an intriguing hybrid of church service and congregational meeting, but it was definitinely enough of the first to not be called just a meeting... the pastor who is the circuit counselor for the local circuit that includes my church presided and led the prayers, etc., and gave a good homily on what it means to be chosen, emphasizing that even though there's this whole "process" and lots of rules an bylaws to follow, it's our belief and our prayer that our actions are not just our own selfish ones but ruled by God, and that He's the one doing the calling, not our actions and desires... the congregation president explained a lot of things too, reviewing the call process and how we've gotten to where we are... then, we voted by paper ballot and while the call committee went out to count them we sang hymns :-P... when they came back, it turned out to be a unanimous vote, and the congregation president left the service at the end, beelined for the office to call the pastor we've decided to call and let him know that the call papers will be in the mail tomorrow. he still is supposed to prayerfully consider them and can decide yes or no, but the general vibe everyone who's been in contact with him has had is that there's a lot of excitement on both sides of the deal and that it is looking favorable for him to come here. :-) anyhow, it was an exciting night at my church :-) after that...
* back to campus, surprised that game night was still going, i showed up to discover eric and 7 of the students playing a crazy czech card game... eric had mostly cleaned up and he and 4 of the other students left, but 3 stayed around to talk math and i listened for awhile, on rare occasion adding something to the dialogue... another student came back, and i was there for an hour and a half before i left them talking amongst themselves still...
humourous quote..
khanh is explaining the "monty hall problem" to marek... there are three doors and behind one is a car and behind two are goats...
marek, didn't understand the word goat at first, and made a motion for guillotine, and looked surprised.
jan (another of the czech students) laughed and picked the right czech word, commenting "marek really likes goats, maybe you really should tell him there's a guillotine behind the other doors instead".
* after listening to them, and getting phone calls from 5 different people intermitently throughout the math chat, i finally excused myself to go... who knows how late they all stayed!... anyhow, i went home, and having only walked 3 miles earlier in the day, i put my walking shoes back on and went out for 3 more miles at 11:30pm...
* got back in around 12:15, showered (for the 3rd time today :P), and now am sitting here typing away..... that's 13 hours of running around straight today!
can't believe that in exactly a week from now, i'll be in a plane over the atlantic ocean... it's been so long since europe, i can't wait to be back
at any rate, cheers for long but quality days?
later dudes...
Friday, July 15, 2005
Thursday, July 14, 2005
prague (the novel)
i *finally* finished prague by arthur phillips about an hour ago.
i commented randomly on it from time to time while i was reading, but i still don't have any definitive reaction to it... a lot of ambivilance.
the setting it what initially got me interested -- a bunch of american expats in budapest 15 years ago... not exactly the same budapest i grew to love 3 years ago, but enough the same that in a way it was like reading other people's stories of a place i too came to love.
on the other hand, to go deeper than surface level experiences, i think i need to let it gel a bit before i know if i really truly agree with the points that phillips is making.
often, when i read a book i enjoy, i have a deep feeling of satisfaction as i finish the last bit. i finished this book, and kind of just said to myself "hmmm".. i'm not quite sure yet if it was a hmmm of dissatisfaction or of needing to read it again before i decide.
to be sure, it's an interesting and intriguing read, and phillips does a fantastic job of weaving many different people and places and events together... i especially enjoyed part 2 of the book... parts 1,3,and 4 occur in budapest in 1990. part 2 introduces a new character that is in parts 3 and 4 by telling the story of 6 generations of his family, and thereby telling hungarian history of the past century and a half from an interesting perspective... *that* i majorly enjoyed.
anyhow, not for everybody, but if it sounds interesting, definitely give it a shot. you should find yourself entranced by phillips's writing style and the stories he tells... i'm just curious if everyone has the same feeling of "hmmmm" when they get to the end as i did :-P
the end.
i commented randomly on it from time to time while i was reading, but i still don't have any definitive reaction to it... a lot of ambivilance.
the setting it what initially got me interested -- a bunch of american expats in budapest 15 years ago... not exactly the same budapest i grew to love 3 years ago, but enough the same that in a way it was like reading other people's stories of a place i too came to love.
on the other hand, to go deeper than surface level experiences, i think i need to let it gel a bit before i know if i really truly agree with the points that phillips is making.
often, when i read a book i enjoy, i have a deep feeling of satisfaction as i finish the last bit. i finished this book, and kind of just said to myself "hmmm".. i'm not quite sure yet if it was a hmmm of dissatisfaction or of needing to read it again before i decide.
to be sure, it's an interesting and intriguing read, and phillips does a fantastic job of weaving many different people and places and events together... i especially enjoyed part 2 of the book... parts 1,3,and 4 occur in budapest in 1990. part 2 introduces a new character that is in parts 3 and 4 by telling the story of 6 generations of his family, and thereby telling hungarian history of the past century and a half from an interesting perspective... *that* i majorly enjoyed.
anyhow, not for everybody, but if it sounds interesting, definitely give it a shot. you should find yourself entranced by phillips's writing style and the stories he tells... i'm just curious if everyone has the same feeling of "hmmmm" when they get to the end as i did :-P
the end.
ouch :-/
somehow, in my sleep, i managed to pull the same muscle in my back that i'd pulled about a month ago... so everytime i moved in my sleep i woke up with shooting pain around my right shoulder blade... this does not make me happy
to top it off, when i woke up for good, (quite possibly as a result of the other pain), i was oh so delighted to be also experiencing a mini-migraine (which i sure hope doesn't get worse as i need to be on campus in 2 hours... oi)
today will be the first day the REUers see me wearing glasses -- i can't handle putting in and taking out the contacts when it feels like a screwdriver has been stabbed into my left temple.
i haven't had bad headaches all summer.... (but they usually come in spurts)... this sucks...
to top it off, when i woke up for good, (quite possibly as a result of the other pain), i was oh so delighted to be also experiencing a mini-migraine (which i sure hope doesn't get worse as i need to be on campus in 2 hours... oi)
today will be the first day the REUers see me wearing glasses -- i can't handle putting in and taking out the contacts when it feels like a screwdriver has been stabbed into my left temple.
i haven't had bad headaches all summer.... (but they usually come in spurts)... this sucks...
Wednesday, July 13, 2005
yet another movie...
so last night ben thought it would be a good idea to go see a movie... when i checked out what was playing that i hadn't seen yet, i agreed that i'd see either "herbie" or "batman begins", but anything else would be a repeat or i didn't really want to see it.
not a surprise that ben picked batman... colleen wanted to come too.
it's a good thing it wasn't just me and colleen though... ben turned out to be very useful, since the movie complete freaked me out!
i know it has amazing reviews, and i'll completely give you that it's a good plot and well done all around.
just you would think that i'd get more brave about what i watch the older i get, when the reverse seems to be the case.... i was enough freaked out that i convinced ben he should come visit our house instead of going straight home and watch "something warm and fuzzy" with me so that i wouldn't have nightmares... so batman was quickly followed by "sister act"
i'm such a wimp :-P
the end.
not a surprise that ben picked batman... colleen wanted to come too.
it's a good thing it wasn't just me and colleen though... ben turned out to be very useful, since the movie complete freaked me out!
i know it has amazing reviews, and i'll completely give you that it's a good plot and well done all around.
just you would think that i'd get more brave about what i watch the older i get, when the reverse seems to be the case.... i was enough freaked out that i convinced ben he should come visit our house instead of going straight home and watch "something warm and fuzzy" with me so that i wouldn't have nightmares... so batman was quickly followed by "sister act"
i'm such a wimp :-P
the end.
Monday, July 11, 2005
what a day....
oi... what a day.
today was the day for REU field trip #2 -- to IBM
telcordia did a really nice job last month, but it was a much more academic trip; IBM gave us a much more hands-on technology day today.
my away message earlier was:
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
today i...
*got to see the world's fastest super computer
*got to play with the most enhanced gps system ever (it plays 'name that tune' with you if you're on long monotonous stretches of road :-P)
* got to find out first hand what happens when your bus trip driver tries to put an 11'5" bus under a 10' 3" bridge
... and many other exciting things
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
now, to explain... :-P
first off, we had to get there... all but two students (who slept through the day instead) were ready to go on time, as was the bus driver... since reu field trips (esp. the ones to IBM) have in the past involved bus drivers picking up students late, and getting lost, this was a really promising start to the day... even better, we arrived at the industry solutions lab at 9:45am, even though we weren't expected until 10. (better a little early and sitting in the lobby for 10 minutes than late and missing out!)
the industry solutions lab is where IBM showcases their newest technologies to clients.
our stops in the lab included
* store of the future -- using a computer and projector, and a motorized mirror, they showed us the many capabilities they've set up... you can project an image to a window, floor, whatever (and they've adjusted it to show up in focus on any surface) for advertising... you can also make "interactive" projections, where a consumer can "touch" different parts of the projected image and have different things pop up with more info... they aimed the whole rig at a couple shelves full of clothes which, when you remove an item, it pulls up a menu of related products on the wall for you, and it senses if you (a) place items on the wrong shelf and (b) keeps tracks of how many items are on each shelf... finally, the projector can be set to "entertain small annoying children while parents shop" mode... they have a game called "catch the frog" where it projects a frog and when you touch it, it moves elsewhere in the room... all very entertaining
* veggie vision -- while the grocery cashier at your local store might not always recognize your purchases, IBM has made software that does... using a webcam, veggie vision inputs your product and identifies it based on hue, saturation, shape etc... not only can this correctly identify produce no matter how you set it down, it can tell how brown it is, so stores could potentially sell based on how old a product is too... it was impressive
* wearable/portable technology -- as far as wearable, we got to try out an eyepiece that you can see your computer screen overlayed over what you're doing, and a biometric watch... apparently they're working on a cellphone where the speakers are in a pair of earrings and the mouthpiece is in a pendant necklace too -- crazy!... they're also working on a system where you have a computer unit not much bigger than the size of my hand that plugs into laptops, desktops, and a variety of smaller units so that regardless the interface and attachments you're working with, you can bring all your licensed software and files with you between machines... there were several other cool things at this station too, those are just some highlights
* telematics -- using technology with cars... the main application that they showed us was named sally (after "mustang sally") it included a microphone and set of speakers in your car... the computing unit sensed where the car was and gave directions... it recognized the user's voice and held a conversation with him on the "drive"... when he said he was going to the airport, sally checked for the flight status and the best route, updating the user as to changing traffic conditions/flight times as they changed... she found radio stations, and on monotonous stretches of imaginary road kept the driver occupied with "name that tune" amongst other things... lots of fun... they also displayed other tracking technologies that can be used by drivers or by someone who manages lots of vehicles... very cool
* they showed us their best new monitor -- large screen LCD which, when you hold a magnifying glass up to it, you don't see pixels, you see finer print!
* security demonstration -- they showed us one of their new computers where instead of logging in by typing, you log in by swiping your finger print... the demonstrator also showed us new "signiature recognition technology" that computes the percent chance that the person who wrote your name really was you... it said it was 98% sure that the speaker had written his own name, but when a student literally TRACED his signiature, it claimed that there was only a 0.0006% chance it was authentic, even though we couldn't tell the difference in person between the two signiatures!
* finally, we saw a display on grid computing and a few demos of how quickly networking servers together in that way speeds things up
all in all, a fascinating two hours
here comes the adventure part though...
the first site, like i said, was full of demos for visitors and potential clients... for lunch and the rest of the day, we had to head to another ibm site 10 miles north. this was not expected to be a problem in the least.
i questioned the driver when he got off at route 133 instead of route 134, but he had alternate directions that said that that should work... boy were we wrong.
the 10 minute trip turned out to be 10 minutes east rather than north and when route 133 ended with no sign of route 134, we got on a parkway we had been on earlier... turns out there are signs with "passenger cars only" at the parkway entrance for a reason...
when we stopped just shy of a bridge labelled 10'3", and the driver muttered "oh shit", and my "so i'm guessing we're a bit bigger than that" got an answer of "11'5"" and him hopping off the bus to chat with a police officer who had pulled up behind us, i knew we were in for quite more of a wait than even planned on.
a $75 ticket and meandering through really tiny local roads really hilly and dense with trees later, we finally made it (i'm glad i have absolutely no responsibility for the ticket)
the second IBM site was more top secret think tank-ish... it was an impressive building of research offices... since we were an hour late, we missed out on a speaker we would have had... the abbreviated afternoon schedule was something along the lines of:
* pizza (this is always very important)
* a talk on the genographic project, which is a joint venture of national geographic and IBM for the next 5 years... you can volunteer and purchase a participant kit and have your DNA tested to see where you fall in the general scheme of things. they only test the y chromosome in males (always inherited from your father) and the mitochondrial DNA in females (in both males and females this is always inherited only from your mother) and place you in a general people group with the same y-chromosome or mtDNA... using this data they can better study how different people groups have spread out and intermixed over time. it won't tell you your geneology, but it will put you in a general eons ago people group... it was a fascinating talk
* after that, we got a tour of Blue Gene -- the world's fastest supercomputer! there's a whole series of blue gene computers, and the link above there is from the original press release 4 years ago about them... the particular unit we saw is the worlds #1 fastest super computer, and the 2nd largest in the world in terms of memory... they told us a bit about it and then brought us in the large room where it lives to show us the hardware... it was hard to hear in that room because the a/c system to keep the hardware at a reasonable working temperature is sooooo loud!... the students got a kick out of the fact that for such an amazing record-setting machine, the monitor and keyboard attached to it in one corner of the room looked very early-90s, and were such a contrast to the rest of the machine... there's pictures here of the unit in CA (at the other american IBM site) of another blue gene machine (the only machine in the world more powerful than the one we saw)... the unit we saw looks just about identical to what you see here and filles a room probably twice the size of my bedroom here in jersey.
* finally, we heard a talk about IBM's summer research program and about the general kind of work that researchers do there with ample time for my REU students to ask the IBM HR people questions and advice.
it was a fantatsic day.
even if i'm just the organizational person, i get a lot out of the REU stuff too :-) after all, how many of YOU have met one of the world's top 2 most powerful supercomputers, or gotten to play with wearable computers that aren't on the market yet? it was a party and a half... and the bus adventure just adds to the storytelling value of the day :-P
but now, i'm exhuasted (and you're probably tired of reading anyhow), so that's a wrap
oh, p.s.
is this not a super cool earring?
jessica and i found these when i was in philly in june... we both got pairs then, but today was the first day i could wear them since my ears got pierced in may :-P
that was a random tangent.
night y'all :-P
today was the day for REU field trip #2 -- to IBM
telcordia did a really nice job last month, but it was a much more academic trip; IBM gave us a much more hands-on technology day today.
my away message earlier was:
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
today i...
*got to see the world's fastest super computer
*got to play with the most enhanced gps system ever (it plays 'name that tune' with you if you're on long monotonous stretches of road :-P)
* got to find out first hand what happens when your bus trip driver tries to put an 11'5" bus under a 10' 3" bridge
... and many other exciting things
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
now, to explain... :-P
first off, we had to get there... all but two students (who slept through the day instead) were ready to go on time, as was the bus driver... since reu field trips (esp. the ones to IBM) have in the past involved bus drivers picking up students late, and getting lost, this was a really promising start to the day... even better, we arrived at the industry solutions lab at 9:45am, even though we weren't expected until 10. (better a little early and sitting in the lobby for 10 minutes than late and missing out!)
the industry solutions lab is where IBM showcases their newest technologies to clients.
our stops in the lab included
* store of the future -- using a computer and projector, and a motorized mirror, they showed us the many capabilities they've set up... you can project an image to a window, floor, whatever (and they've adjusted it to show up in focus on any surface) for advertising... you can also make "interactive" projections, where a consumer can "touch" different parts of the projected image and have different things pop up with more info... they aimed the whole rig at a couple shelves full of clothes which, when you remove an item, it pulls up a menu of related products on the wall for you, and it senses if you (a) place items on the wrong shelf and (b) keeps tracks of how many items are on each shelf... finally, the projector can be set to "entertain small annoying children while parents shop" mode... they have a game called "catch the frog" where it projects a frog and when you touch it, it moves elsewhere in the room... all very entertaining
* veggie vision -- while the grocery cashier at your local store might not always recognize your purchases, IBM has made software that does... using a webcam, veggie vision inputs your product and identifies it based on hue, saturation, shape etc... not only can this correctly identify produce no matter how you set it down, it can tell how brown it is, so stores could potentially sell based on how old a product is too... it was impressive
* wearable/portable technology -- as far as wearable, we got to try out an eyepiece that you can see your computer screen overlayed over what you're doing, and a biometric watch... apparently they're working on a cellphone where the speakers are in a pair of earrings and the mouthpiece is in a pendant necklace too -- crazy!... they're also working on a system where you have a computer unit not much bigger than the size of my hand that plugs into laptops, desktops, and a variety of smaller units so that regardless the interface and attachments you're working with, you can bring all your licensed software and files with you between machines... there were several other cool things at this station too, those are just some highlights
* telematics -- using technology with cars... the main application that they showed us was named sally (after "mustang sally") it included a microphone and set of speakers in your car... the computing unit sensed where the car was and gave directions... it recognized the user's voice and held a conversation with him on the "drive"... when he said he was going to the airport, sally checked for the flight status and the best route, updating the user as to changing traffic conditions/flight times as they changed... she found radio stations, and on monotonous stretches of imaginary road kept the driver occupied with "name that tune" amongst other things... lots of fun... they also displayed other tracking technologies that can be used by drivers or by someone who manages lots of vehicles... very cool
* they showed us their best new monitor -- large screen LCD which, when you hold a magnifying glass up to it, you don't see pixels, you see finer print!
* security demonstration -- they showed us one of their new computers where instead of logging in by typing, you log in by swiping your finger print... the demonstrator also showed us new "signiature recognition technology" that computes the percent chance that the person who wrote your name really was you... it said it was 98% sure that the speaker had written his own name, but when a student literally TRACED his signiature, it claimed that there was only a 0.0006% chance it was authentic, even though we couldn't tell the difference in person between the two signiatures!
* finally, we saw a display on grid computing and a few demos of how quickly networking servers together in that way speeds things up
all in all, a fascinating two hours
here comes the adventure part though...
the first site, like i said, was full of demos for visitors and potential clients... for lunch and the rest of the day, we had to head to another ibm site 10 miles north. this was not expected to be a problem in the least.
i questioned the driver when he got off at route 133 instead of route 134, but he had alternate directions that said that that should work... boy were we wrong.
the 10 minute trip turned out to be 10 minutes east rather than north and when route 133 ended with no sign of route 134, we got on a parkway we had been on earlier... turns out there are signs with "passenger cars only" at the parkway entrance for a reason...
when we stopped just shy of a bridge labelled 10'3", and the driver muttered "oh shit", and my "so i'm guessing we're a bit bigger than that" got an answer of "11'5"" and him hopping off the bus to chat with a police officer who had pulled up behind us, i knew we were in for quite more of a wait than even planned on.
a $75 ticket and meandering through really tiny local roads really hilly and dense with trees later, we finally made it (i'm glad i have absolutely no responsibility for the ticket)
the second IBM site was more top secret think tank-ish... it was an impressive building of research offices... since we were an hour late, we missed out on a speaker we would have had... the abbreviated afternoon schedule was something along the lines of:
* pizza (this is always very important)
* a talk on the genographic project, which is a joint venture of national geographic and IBM for the next 5 years... you can volunteer and purchase a participant kit and have your DNA tested to see where you fall in the general scheme of things. they only test the y chromosome in males (always inherited from your father) and the mitochondrial DNA in females (in both males and females this is always inherited only from your mother) and place you in a general people group with the same y-chromosome or mtDNA... using this data they can better study how different people groups have spread out and intermixed over time. it won't tell you your geneology, but it will put you in a general eons ago people group... it was a fascinating talk
* after that, we got a tour of Blue Gene -- the world's fastest supercomputer! there's a whole series of blue gene computers, and the link above there is from the original press release 4 years ago about them... the particular unit we saw is the worlds #1 fastest super computer, and the 2nd largest in the world in terms of memory... they told us a bit about it and then brought us in the large room where it lives to show us the hardware... it was hard to hear in that room because the a/c system to keep the hardware at a reasonable working temperature is sooooo loud!... the students got a kick out of the fact that for such an amazing record-setting machine, the monitor and keyboard attached to it in one corner of the room looked very early-90s, and were such a contrast to the rest of the machine... there's pictures here of the unit in CA (at the other american IBM site) of another blue gene machine (the only machine in the world more powerful than the one we saw)... the unit we saw looks just about identical to what you see here and filles a room probably twice the size of my bedroom here in jersey.
* finally, we heard a talk about IBM's summer research program and about the general kind of work that researchers do there with ample time for my REU students to ask the IBM HR people questions and advice.
it was a fantatsic day.
even if i'm just the organizational person, i get a lot out of the REU stuff too :-) after all, how many of YOU have met one of the world's top 2 most powerful supercomputers, or gotten to play with wearable computers that aren't on the market yet? it was a party and a half... and the bus adventure just adds to the storytelling value of the day :-P
but now, i'm exhuasted (and you're probably tired of reading anyhow), so that's a wrap
oh, p.s.
is this not a super cool earring?
jessica and i found these when i was in philly in june... we both got pairs then, but today was the first day i could wear them since my ears got pierced in may :-P
that was a random tangent.
night y'all :-P
Sunday, July 10, 2005
fun(?) with pictures
just cleared off my digital camera, so here's some random fun from the past month....
sunset on june 20th (scott and i watched from the park down the street from his house before my birthday cake)
exact same sunset, 10 minutes later
scott, playing pool, having chalked the cue AND his nose
random picture that eric stole my camera and took yesterday... it's retarded but i thought it was funny
eric being retarded
and here's the most fun.... let's play two fun games of before and after
ok, the first one is a little less fun... remember how i alluded to my recent discovery of sun-in? i've never changed my hair color EVER before this summer... people recently have been telling me it looks awesome but i guess i'm not quite used to it yet... left hand side is me a month ago... right hand side is me yesterday (in person it doesn't look quite as weird as it does in this picture... see picture after these too)
here's a more fun game though... it's called "watch lara shrink!"... i like this game :-) left hand side is me last july... right hand side is me today, and 30 pounds less :-)
*that*'s at least is something to cheer about :-)
field trip to IBM tomorrow :-)... that should be fun... more after that
later dudes :-P
sunset on june 20th (scott and i watched from the park down the street from his house before my birthday cake)
exact same sunset, 10 minutes later
scott, playing pool, having chalked the cue AND his nose
random picture that eric stole my camera and took yesterday... it's retarded but i thought it was funny
eric being retarded
and here's the most fun.... let's play two fun games of before and after
ok, the first one is a little less fun... remember how i alluded to my recent discovery of sun-in? i've never changed my hair color EVER before this summer... people recently have been telling me it looks awesome but i guess i'm not quite used to it yet... left hand side is me a month ago... right hand side is me yesterday (in person it doesn't look quite as weird as it does in this picture... see picture after these too)
here's a more fun game though... it's called "watch lara shrink!"... i like this game :-) left hand side is me last july... right hand side is me today, and 30 pounds less :-)
*that*'s at least is something to cheer about :-)
field trip to IBM tomorrow :-)... that should be fun... more after that
later dudes :-P
Saturday, July 09, 2005
how great is this?
i just came across a quiz online called Mathematicians are People 2... heh.
i got a two way tie between
(1) Blaise Pascal
and
(2) Gottfried Wilhelm von Leibniz
go figure :-P
i got a two way tie between
(1) Blaise Pascal
and
(2) Gottfried Wilhelm von Leibniz
go figure :-P
eric's back!
in case you don't recall... eric left 3 weeks ago to hang out with his uncle in alaska... the night he was packing to leave was the night that jared and scott made me a birthday cake at their house... i was kinda irritated with eric's lack of talking for even 2 minutes (fully understanding he was busy), and since i felt put off, i figured i'd let him worry about being friendly when he got back when he got around to it.
today, i get a call around 7pm... it's eric, calling from chicago o'hare on his layover to say hi and catch up on news... we had some good laughs and then i agreed to pick him up from the train station when he finally got back to jersey if he'd go for a walk with me (it's been raining all freakin day long and it finally cleared out around 11/midnight)
picked eric up at 11:30, said hi to jared and jared's girlfriend jessica at the guys' house, then eric and i went out for a walk for an hour to catch up even more.
when we returned... man jessica makes fantastic brownies! (of course i only had a little one :-P)
the whole time eric and i were walking it was hugely cloudly and overcast... then as i go to leave after the brownies, i step out to a perfectly crystal clear sky... it was AMAZING!
go figure.
anyhow, eric's back and life is good, and without even knowing i was irritated with him before, he made the first step of hanging out and being nice again,.... so all this is fantastic :-)
tomorrow's adventure? colleen, eric and i go to see Varekai tomorrow... it should be fantastic.
in the meantime... i go to sleep ;-P
later dudes :-P
today, i get a call around 7pm... it's eric, calling from chicago o'hare on his layover to say hi and catch up on news... we had some good laughs and then i agreed to pick him up from the train station when he finally got back to jersey if he'd go for a walk with me (it's been raining all freakin day long and it finally cleared out around 11/midnight)
picked eric up at 11:30, said hi to jared and jared's girlfriend jessica at the guys' house, then eric and i went out for a walk for an hour to catch up even more.
when we returned... man jessica makes fantastic brownies! (of course i only had a little one :-P)
the whole time eric and i were walking it was hugely cloudly and overcast... then as i go to leave after the brownies, i step out to a perfectly crystal clear sky... it was AMAZING!
go figure.
anyhow, eric's back and life is good, and without even knowing i was irritated with him before, he made the first step of hanging out and being nice again,.... so all this is fantastic :-)
tomorrow's adventure? colleen, eric and i go to see Varekai tomorrow... it should be fantastic.
in the meantime... i go to sleep ;-P
later dudes :-P
Friday, July 08, 2005
brief review :-P
last night, ben and me went out for dinner and a movie... *finally* saw cinderella man... it was incredible. i have no idea why it isn't getting more people into the theater (only theory is that people are detered by 2.5 hour movies?, but really it didn't feel that long at all; it moves along well). anyhow -- it's fantastic... it's a biography so there's not much to give away about plot, but all the actors did amazing jobs. if you haven't yet... see it!
if i didn't mention it, ben and i also saw bewitched on tuesday; it was also very cute... not a MUST see, but highly enjoyable. nicole kidman had a fun role. :-)
that's that... on with my friday... later dudes :-P
if i didn't mention it, ben and i also saw bewitched on tuesday; it was also very cute... not a MUST see, but highly enjoyable. nicole kidman had a fun role. :-)
that's that... on with my friday... later dudes :-P
Thursday, July 07, 2005
oi...
so i just got my teaching assignment for the fall. i have 3 wednesday morning recitation sections. here's the description of the course:
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
This is the first semester of a two-semester sequence in calculus (Math 135-136). It is intended for students who are unlikely to take any math after this sequence. It is suitable for students who plan to major in biology (but not biochemistry!), pharmacy, or business, or who just want to take a little more math and investigate one of the major intellectual achievements of humanity.
Students who think they might major in mathematics, physics, biochemistry, chemistry, engineering, or those who think they might want to take almost any mathematics course at the 200 level or higher should take Math 151 rather than Math 135.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
so in other words, math for people who want nothing to do with math ;-)... we'll see how it goes :-P
later dudes.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
This is the first semester of a two-semester sequence in calculus (Math 135-136). It is intended for students who are unlikely to take any math after this sequence. It is suitable for students who plan to major in biology (but not biochemistry!), pharmacy, or business, or who just want to take a little more math and investigate one of the major intellectual achievements of humanity.
Students who think they might major in mathematics, physics, biochemistry, chemistry, engineering, or those who think they might want to take almost any mathematics course at the 200 level or higher should take Math 151 rather than Math 135.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
so in other words, math for people who want nothing to do with math ;-)... we'll see how it goes :-P
later dudes.
Monday, July 04, 2005
happy 4th?
what a day.
i guess it's officially a tradition now ;-) two years ago jessica and i (and 2 more of our HS friends) saw fireworks together in memphis. last year, jessica and i (and a handful of my jersey friends) saw fireworks in highland park... this year highland park fireworks were cancelled, so jessica and i went on our own to east brunswick.
it was a very laid back day -- we got lunch at a diner, then watched "meet the fockers", then slowly packed up a picnic and went over to the county fairgrounds in east brunswick and staked out a spot. we played some silly no-skill-required-whatsoever card games, and chatted a bit and waited for it to get dark. chuck (our math grad director) spotted me and chatted for a bit, then sent biao, a chinese student my year to come over and say hi too...
once the fireworks started, we realized that we, and half the other people at the fairgrounds, had our view blocked by a line of big trees and had to scoot over several dozen feet to see... still not perfect, but good enough -- it was a good show :-) i enjoy hearing little kids go "oooh" and "aaah" at all of them too :-)
after the fireworks was a headache and a half. they ended around 9:45. we got in our car, expecting to wait for a little bit.... around 10:20, we were in one of about 8 lanes of cars facing towards where we had entered the grass lot... all the sudden, people got out of the cars to check it out and came back to report that we can't get out that way, and half the cars in the lot that had been waiting for over half an hour needed to turn around. that's fine... stupid, but fine. what really annoyed me was that, in the process of turning my car around, some guy (not a policeman, or anyone in charge at all) starting waving wildly at me through my car window and hollering at me that i couldn't go out the way everyone was facing... when i said "i know, why do you think i'm turning around?" and he kept hollering, i was about ready to roll down my window and slap him, but thankfully he backed off :-P... anyhow, 40 more minutes later, we finally made it out (and we were parked within 3 rows of the street... parking went MUCH farther back!)... it was the most ridiculously disorganized traffic jam i've ever seen.
thankfully we made it home just fine, and the farther we got away from the fairgrounds, the better the traffic was. jessica always says she doesn't like driving because people are so rude and only look out for themselves when you give them all big machines... normally it doesn't get to me, but today i agree, and am glad not to be in the car anymore!
anyhow, ranting about the horrible hour and a half bit to get home is done.
minus that, it was a quality day. it was FANTASTIC to visit with jessica, and to have a laid back sort of afternoon. :-)
i have to be at work in 12 hours, maybe i'll go to sleep soon :-P
night y'all.
i guess it's officially a tradition now ;-) two years ago jessica and i (and 2 more of our HS friends) saw fireworks together in memphis. last year, jessica and i (and a handful of my jersey friends) saw fireworks in highland park... this year highland park fireworks were cancelled, so jessica and i went on our own to east brunswick.
it was a very laid back day -- we got lunch at a diner, then watched "meet the fockers", then slowly packed up a picnic and went over to the county fairgrounds in east brunswick and staked out a spot. we played some silly no-skill-required-whatsoever card games, and chatted a bit and waited for it to get dark. chuck (our math grad director) spotted me and chatted for a bit, then sent biao, a chinese student my year to come over and say hi too...
once the fireworks started, we realized that we, and half the other people at the fairgrounds, had our view blocked by a line of big trees and had to scoot over several dozen feet to see... still not perfect, but good enough -- it was a good show :-) i enjoy hearing little kids go "oooh" and "aaah" at all of them too :-)
after the fireworks was a headache and a half. they ended around 9:45. we got in our car, expecting to wait for a little bit.... around 10:20, we were in one of about 8 lanes of cars facing towards where we had entered the grass lot... all the sudden, people got out of the cars to check it out and came back to report that we can't get out that way, and half the cars in the lot that had been waiting for over half an hour needed to turn around. that's fine... stupid, but fine. what really annoyed me was that, in the process of turning my car around, some guy (not a policeman, or anyone in charge at all) starting waving wildly at me through my car window and hollering at me that i couldn't go out the way everyone was facing... when i said "i know, why do you think i'm turning around?" and he kept hollering, i was about ready to roll down my window and slap him, but thankfully he backed off :-P... anyhow, 40 more minutes later, we finally made it out (and we were parked within 3 rows of the street... parking went MUCH farther back!)... it was the most ridiculously disorganized traffic jam i've ever seen.
thankfully we made it home just fine, and the farther we got away from the fairgrounds, the better the traffic was. jessica always says she doesn't like driving because people are so rude and only look out for themselves when you give them all big machines... normally it doesn't get to me, but today i agree, and am glad not to be in the car anymore!
anyhow, ranting about the horrible hour and a half bit to get home is done.
minus that, it was a quality day. it was FANTASTIC to visit with jessica, and to have a laid back sort of afternoon. :-)
i have to be at work in 12 hours, maybe i'll go to sleep soon :-P
night y'all.
Sunday, July 03, 2005
PTL
getting this letter yesterday totally made my day (click on it for a more reasonable, readable size)
so in the lutheran church, the process churches go through to get a new pastor is called a call process. my church had 12 pastors on their call list, and initially narrowed it down to 7 (the other 5 initially said they'd all prefer not to move/be considered for one reason or another)... of that they split it into a top 4 and bottom 3, and interviewed the top half on the phone and in person. biographies of the top 7 were available to the whole church since like may, and one person stuck out above all to me, and just based on his answers to some essay questions about his view of the church and his role, etc., etc., ever since i read the bios, i was hoping an praying he was the person the call committee would recommend... then there's this letter from friday that i got in the mail yesterday -- he's exactly who the call committee UNANIMOUSLY is recommending... how great is that?!?!?!
given there's a few more steps here -- (1) the congregation as a whole has to vote to approve the committee's recommendation (2) we have to officially send this pastor a "call" and (3) he has to accept it and then move here -- but yeah, it's very exciting to see things progressing like this, and to read the JOY in the letter above too. :-)
i love my jersey church :-)
so in the lutheran church, the process churches go through to get a new pastor is called a call process. my church had 12 pastors on their call list, and initially narrowed it down to 7 (the other 5 initially said they'd all prefer not to move/be considered for one reason or another)... of that they split it into a top 4 and bottom 3, and interviewed the top half on the phone and in person. biographies of the top 7 were available to the whole church since like may, and one person stuck out above all to me, and just based on his answers to some essay questions about his view of the church and his role, etc., etc., ever since i read the bios, i was hoping an praying he was the person the call committee would recommend... then there's this letter from friday that i got in the mail yesterday -- he's exactly who the call committee UNANIMOUSLY is recommending... how great is that?!?!?!
given there's a few more steps here -- (1) the congregation as a whole has to vote to approve the committee's recommendation (2) we have to officially send this pastor a "call" and (3) he has to accept it and then move here -- but yeah, it's very exciting to see things progressing like this, and to read the JOY in the letter above too. :-)
i love my jersey church :-)
