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